CHAPTER III 
THE RESTORATION ERA 
In his speech of 1855, which has already been men- 
tioned,* Mr. Gladstone referred to the seventeenth 
and part of the eighteenth century as the golden age of 
English colonisation, when, he said, the colonial con- 
nexion was conceived in the true spirit of British 
freedom. In particular he commended the early part 
of the reign of Charles II, maintaining that the true 
principle of colonial government was never better 
understood in this country than at that time, and giving 
as an illustration the liberal charter granted to the 
colony of Rhode Island. To Mr. Gladstone’s mind 
Greek colonisation in classical times strongly appealed, 
as embodying perfect freedom and petfect self-govern- 
ment. Perfect freedomand petfect self-government he 
desired to be associated with British colonisation; not 
the acquisition of dependencies, but the founding of 
peoples on the English pattern, themultiplying of happy 
Englandsbeyond the seas, such washis interpretation— 
a very noble one—of what ought to be the outlook 
upon the British overseas Empire. He was careful to 
=xplain that, in his eulogy of the latter part of the 
L See above, p. 7.