Excerpt from Imperial Federation We may be told that America appoints its ambassadors on some such system. We reply that, in the first place, we do not want Colonial agents-general to be ambassadors while the American Ministers in London have not so much to do that their isolation is a matter of high importance. Secondly, that the Minister is at least guaranteed four years' tenure of office. If political societies constituted on the English model are preparing to adopt the American maxim of the spoils to the victors, they will have to go a stage further, and adopt the American Constitution, which secures to the victors the enjoyment of their position for a fixed period of time. But we Britons have found a more excellent way, which consists in withdrawing from the sphere of party politics everything that can possibly be kept independent of them. We. Have been looking forward to seeing the agents-general assume a more prominent position - one more in conformity with their real importance. It would be a bitter disappointment to us if they were to sink into being merely local agents for one or another political party. It would not be long probably before a further stage would be reached, and the Agent would find that the Home Government received him graciously or the reverse, accord ing as the politics of his Government were supposed to be of the same or Opposite complexion to their own. And then we might bid farewell to all our fair hopes of Imperial Unity. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.