One of the most striking features of the "Diamond Jubilee" celebration
(S607) was the prominence given to the Colonial Prime Ministers.
There was a time, indeed, when the men who governed England regarded
Canada and Australia as "a source of weakness," and the Colonial
Office in London knew so little of the latter country that it made
ridiculous blunders in attempting to address official despatches to
Melbourne, Australia.[2] Even as late as the middle of the last
century Disraeli, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, wrote to Lord
Malmesbury in regard to the Newfoundland fisheries, "These wretched
colonies will all be independent, too, in a few years, and are a
millstone around our necks."
[2] See Traill's "Social England," VI, 684.
Twenty years afterwards Disraeli, later Lord Beaconsfield, declared
that one of the great objects he and his party had in view was to
uphold the British Empire and to do everything to maintain its unity.
That feeling has steadily gained in power and was never stronger than
it is to-day. Canada, Australia, and the other governing colonies
(S625) have since responded by actions as well as words, and "Imperial
Federation" has become something more than a high-sounding phrase
(SS625, 626).