1. It cannot be said that such is the unity of the British Empire that go where you will in it, you will find the same amount of liberty as at home, and exercise as large a share in the making of the laws. That can only be said if you go to one of the self-governing colonies, like Canada and Australia. But wherever you go within the limits of the empire, you may be pretty sure of being governed by law and not by caprice, and if wronged, of getting justice in a court of law. The empire stands for law and justice. These are two strands of the cord that unites the whole empire, independently of race and colour. 2. But the colonies which are peopled mainly by our own kinsmen enjoy with us the advantage of liberty in its fullest sense. It is worth while considering what is included in that word _liberty_. It means the right to form our own opinion on all subjects, and to express the same freely, without injury to others, in speaking or writing. It means the right for employers and workmen, like buyers and sellers, to settle their own terms without interference. It means the right to worship God according to conscience without having to suffer penalties or disabilities on account of our religion. It means the right to be governed according to law, and to be judged without fear or favour; and above all, the right to take part in levying taxes and making new laws by means of our representatives in Parliament. 3. So far as a people enjoys the right last named, it may in a real sense be said to govern itself. And it is this self-government which constitutes the crown of liberty. Only it must be remembered that it is not every nation, nor all in any nation, that are fit to govern themselves. Some nations are like children, not wise enough to know what is for their own good. Every nation, indeed, passes through the stages of childhood and youth before it reaches an age when it becomes capable of managing its own affairs with discretion. 4. In the colonies where men of our own race have chiefly settled, the period of childhood and youth has soon passed away, because I suppose their ancestors had spent a long period in these stages in the old country. It is astonishing on looking back a hundred years to see how much remained to be done in the cause of freedom even in England, which is now able to boast of being free and the mother of free nations. The mention of a few of the evils then existing will show how far we have travelled on the path of freedom since the centenarian of to-day was born.