A day or two afterwards, in the Mafeking demonstration, I was looking at the crowds near the Piccadilly Circus, when I heard a man say to another, "Is not that Colonel Denison?" I knew I had seen him before, and I said, "Yes, it is; do you come from Toronto?" "No," he replied, "I am from Chelmsford, and heard you speak there last week," and he introduced me to three friends from Chelmsford. One was the Mayor, another the editor of the _Essex County Chronicle_. They at once asked me if I was going down to Chelmsford again, and whether Major Rasch had seen me, and they urged me to go, telling me that the people were very anxious that I should speak there again, and that they were busily discussing the various points which I had raised. I naturally watched for the return of the election in the following October, for I was very anxious that my friend Sir Carne Rasch should be elected. The return for Chelmsford was Major Rasch, 4,978, H. C. S. Henry, Lib., 1,849, a majority of 3,129. I felt then that my speech had not hurt him, or that if it had it did not matter. This incident had an important influence upon the subsequent work of our League in Canada for several years. CHAPTER XXV WORK IN CANADA IN 1901 I reported to the Executive Committee the details of my work in England, and in the Annual Report for 1901 the Executive Committee strongly supported the suggestion, which I had made at the banquet, that an Imperial Conference should be held during 1901, to consider many important matters affecting the safety and welfare of the Empire. The Report went on to say: The time was never so opportune. The public mind is full of these Imperial questions. Australia is now in a position to act as a unit. Canada has long been ready. The people of England have at last awakened to the vastness, the importance, and future possibilities of their great outside Empire, and posterity would never forgive the statesmen of to-day if so favourable a chance to carry out a great work was lost. Your Committee consider that an Imperial Consultative Council should be established, and that immediate steps should be taken to thoroughly organise and combine the military and naval power of the Empire.