“For the time being,” continued Lord Launceston, “I do not see either the feasibility or the merits of federation in the common sense. Our conditions are not the conditions on which the ordinary federation is constructed. But,” he added cheerfully, “there is no reason why we should not develop a type of our own to meet our special requirements. There is no need to cumber ourselves with the irrelevant precedents of other empires. Let us make the most of the elements of consolidation we possess. Our primary merit is our elasticity. Our ideal is that of Virgil:—
‘Non ego, nec Teucris Italos parere jubebo,
Nec mihi regna peto: paribus se legibus ambae
Invictae gentes aeterna in foedera mittant.’*
*AEneid, xii. 1S9-191. “I will not bid Italian serve Teucrian nor for myself seek I kingdoms.
