On the 29th the special service battalion attended divine service, the Catholics at the Cathedral, the Roman Catholics at the Basilica. The sermon given at the Cathedral was a notable one, and served to mark the historical nature of the occasion. Among other things, the Rev. J. G. Scott expressed himself of sentiments that all might do well to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest. He said: "What is the Empire of which we are a part? It is not a mere collection of subservient peoples adding to the revenue and importance of a small island to the north-west of Europe. No; it is much more than that. It is a vast federation of peoples of all nations, tongues, languages, and creeds joined together in 'liberty, equality, and fraternity,' by common laws and a common love to their real or their adopted mother. England and England's flag must remain the symbol of our common patriotism. But the British Empire, the Empire of the future, the Empire rising with the sun of a new century, is founded in deeper principles than mere sentimental devotion to the land of our fathers. The principle underlying it is the liberty and brotherhood and welfare of man. We conquer and advance. Wild lands come under our sway. Savage races are subjugated or turn to us for protection. But all with what result? With the result that the waste lands are cultivated, the hidden mines of the earth yield up their treasures, continents are spanned by vast railways and the bed of ocean by electric cables, with the result that the savage is brought under the yoke of civilisation, and religion, education, and commerce raise him almost to the level of a European. But this progress has not been, nor can it be, unaccompanied by difficulties. At the present time our race in its general advance is brought face to face with forces that retard, not merely the growth of the British Empire, but the principles of freedom and humanity which underlie it. The nineteenth century is confronted in South Africa with a remnant of the seventeenth. Our brethren, oppressed by an intolerable tyranny, cry to us for help, and we, a republic under a monarchical form, go to crush a despotism under the form of a republic."