7. Much, however, of Britain's success in the management of her colonies is the result of experience, and the outcome of repeated failure, which is always ready to yield lessons of wisdom to those who are willing to learn. We did not learn all at once to set a true value on colonies. Their worth was measured, at first, by the amount of gold or silver that could be got out of them. It took some time for the truth to be clearly seen that _the richest land is that which can feed most people_. 8. If we wish now-a-days to ascertain the value of any colony to the motherland, we ask ourselves one or two such questions as these: Is it a country where our surplus population may make new permanent homes and bring up healthy families? Is it a country that offers a good field of commerce for our merchants? We usually find that "trade follows the flag." Where the Union Jack flies, there, as a rule, the people trade mostly with the home-country. In New Zealand, for instance, seven-tenths of the total trade is done with the United Kingdom. 9. We have thus learned to value our colonies chiefly as places for the reception of our surplus products and population. And our success in keeping them attached to the motherland and loyal to the old flag, that has "braved a thousand years the battle and the breeze," arises from the fact, that we leave them as free as possible to manage their own affairs and to spend their own money in their own way. And this is only right, for a colony has a great deal to do for itself which has been done for us in the old country by our forefathers. A young colony, like a young householder, has to furnish and set its house in order. It has, for example, to provide roads and bridges, railways, and telegraphs; it has to bank the rivers, drain the marshes, and clear the forests. It is, therefore, only right that no attempt should be made to tax our colonies or to restrict their trade for the benefit of the mother-country. (2) ENGLAND'S FIRST COLONY. 1. Sir Walter Raleigh made strenuous efforts, in the reign of Elizabeth, to found a colony in Virginia, but the men who first consented to go as emigrants, were not true colonists, but mere adventurers on the hunt for gold. Failing in their search for gold, they returned to England, taking with them a sample of the strange herb they had learnt from the Indians to smoke. Two further attempts made by Raleigh to colonize Virginia ended in failure and disaster.