The agitation against the Chinese in particular, however, is no new thing. So far back as 1854 the second Governor of Victoria reported to the Home Government that he thought the introduction of the Chinese into Australia undesirable. "Australia for the Australian" has for a long time been the prevailing cry; and to that may be added, "Canada for the Canadian." Colonial labour, whether in Canada or Australasia, desires to limit competition. The Chinaman is a most dangerous competitor. He is an excellent workman, but at a very low standard of comfort. The colonial artisan, on the other hand, has a much higher standard of comfort than the ordinary European labourer. His pay is high, and his hours are short. He is educated, and he is independent. He has plenty of leisure for amusement, and he regards all his privileges as rights, and he fully intends to keep them. We cannot blame him either; and it cannot be said that he takes a purely selfish view of the case, since in the Dockers' Strike the Australian workmen sent large sums to England where no return was possible. After all, the Chinese are only a small population in our white colonies; but this is because of the difficulties which have been thrown in the way of their coming in. Were it not for this, they would be numerous indeed. The Blue-book of July 1888, as we have seen, shows how determined the Colonies are to forbid Chinese immigration at all hazards. Their action in this matter has been in many respects contrary to the letter of the law; but as Sir Henry Parkes, the Premier of New South Wales, said, when charged by the Assembly for having broken the law, "I care nothing about your cobweb of technical law; I am obeying a law far superior to any law which issued these permits, namely, the law for the preservation of society in New South Wales." The Australian Intercolonial Conference had declared the Chinese to be "an alien race, incapable of assimilation in the body politic"; and acting upon these conclusions, Sir Henry Parkes declared--"Neither for her Majesty's ships of war, nor for her Majesty's representative on the spot, nor for her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies, do we intend to turn aside from our purpose." Lord Knutsford telegraphed to know by what law New South Wales shut out the Chinese; and the reply which he received, in effect was, that both laws and treaties must give way to the strength of colonial feeling. After that, the Imperial Government did well to be silent, for to have enforced the law, or to have enforced the treaties, would have been to have risked an open rupture between the Colonies and the mother country. This anti-Chinese feeling is often spoken of as another phase of protection; but it is worthy of note that Sir Henry Parkes, whose vigorous utterances I have quoted above, is a free-trader.