"Is it again allowable to ask whether you have succeeded?"
"I have not succeeded."
"If you had been a bricklayer or a navvy in England you might tell a different tale."
"It is not unlikely."
"A gentleman stands but little chance here," observed Mr. Majoribanks. "We are treated in the colonies to a complete reversal of the proper order of things. I suppose in the course of time Australia will cut itself away from the old country and become republic."
"It is certainly on the cards, but it will be a long time before that occurs; there are so many different interests, you see."
"A jumble of odd elements," said Mr. Majoribanks.
"When there is a real Australian population," said Basil, "men and women born and living here, with no reminiscences of what is now called 'home,' then the movement of absolute self-government will take serious form."
"Ah, well, I don't believe in the self-made man. I stick to the old order."
"Individual opinion will not change the current of natural changes. It is not to be expected that this vast continent will be for ever satisfied to remain a dependency of a kingdom so many thousands of miles away. The talk about federation may satisfy for a time, but it is merely a sop in the pan. By-and-by will come the larger question of a nation with an autonomous constitution like the United States. Children cut themselves from their mother's apron strings: so it will be with these colonies."