Under the above heading the Sydney Daily Telegraph of the 18th ultimo bassa long account with spirited illustrations of the departure for the seat of war of the second Australian contingent. The spirit that animates our great southern colonies ix shown in the following opening paragraphs of the article Amid a demonstration without. parallel on this continent, the second contribution of New South Wiles to the troops Sighting the battle of the Empire away in South Africa left Sydney yesterday.
It was " glorious day for the event, a day which enabled the strength of the popular enthusiasm to be aroused, and manifested in its earnest, its heartiest, its most patriotic form. There never has been such x multitude in the public strocts. One exw look back through all the great public demonstrations for years and find no equal to this, for the muss of people who witnessed it, for the magnificent order that was anaintained, for the perfection of the procession arrangements, f0# the depth and sincerity and spontaneity of the popular fervour.
For, indeed, there has been no exactly similar occasion. The dispatch of the Soudan contingent was merely a display of the Imperialism of thy time; the dispatch of the first contingent in this campaign was the natural anxiety to show sympathy with the Empire in its difficulties. But the dispatch of the contingent yesterday was the outward proof that Australia is prepared, and is able, to take her share in the responsibilities of the Empire—that on the one side the assistance is needed, that on the other side assistance can be given.
Even sines the war broke out, events have changed. It was not realised then that the war was a war for racial supremacy in a country in which the Empire's interests were challenged and threatened with destruction. But that all the subsidiary quostions have been overshadowed by a renlisation that the conflict. is one in which every man who acknowledges allegiance to the British Government, and enjoys the freedom of British institutions, has a direct personal interest. 'The is against him us Britisher. And whether he is an Australian or an Englishman, or a Canadian, whether he comes from Jamaica in the' west, or Hongkong in the east, he isan object of the same racial yy the same blind un-snd detestation, at the foreigner takes ina British reverse—and whether it is defeat at the Cape or the successful bombardment of Sydney is only a difference of locslity—is that it is " reverse not to England, but to the British people. And the demonstration in the streets yesterday was the inging response of million and a quarter
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.