THE POLICY OF AGGRANDIZEMENT. 



549 



reservation now bring scenes enacted in a distant 

 dependency completely home to the minds of the 

 people in the imperial country, so as closely to 

 identify them with all that they do not repudiate 

 and condemn. And when did the people of an 

 imperial country heartily repudiate and effectual- 

 ly condemn acts necessary, or plausibly alleged 

 to be necessary, to the maintenance of their own 

 dominion ? 



In the Jamaica case we had a taste of the 

 spirit which familiarity with slaughter in the case 

 of the Indian rebels had evoked. All remember 

 how Chief-Justice Cockburn charged in favor of 

 outraged justice and humanity ; how unavailing 

 were his words ; what homage was offered, and 

 by what lips, to terrorism and murder ; what sin- 

 ister principles were propounded, and what omin- 

 ous sentiments were expressed, not with reference 

 to dependencies alone. 



Less serious, but still worthy of notice, is the 

 corrupting effect of the pageantry, the servility, 

 the sultanism, of which dependencies are the li- 

 censed sphere. Through the newspaper accounts 

 of the Prince of Wales's visit to India breathed 

 something very like the spirit of a Byzantine 

 court. Wise men laugh ; but the crowd are im- 

 pressed, and they do not say to themselves, 

 " This is only for Hindostan or Egypt." If ever 

 an attempt is made to revive anything like "a 

 real throne" in this country (and the idea is per- 

 haps not so remote from possibility as would be 

 generally imagined), it will derive any chance of 

 success it may have in some measure from the 

 influence of the Indian Empire. 



Therefore, before enthusiastic friends of Eng- 

 land — and surely great enthusiasm may be predi- 

 cated of those who can dwell with complacency 

 on the idea of handing over not only the East 

 but all Europe to the reactionary aristocracy of 

 this country — before enthusiastic friends of Eng- 

 laud, we say, determine to give her Egypt, on 

 the ground that she is the best representative of 

 the principles of constitutional liberty, they ought 

 to consider whether she is likely to continue the 

 best representative of those principles when she 

 has been charged with the functions of unconsti- 

 tutional government in all parts of the globe. No 

 political character could be stronger or more 

 confirmed than that of the Roman, yet by empire 

 it was radically changed. 



The spirit of enterprise, no doubt, is displayed 

 and fostered by conquest. Far be it from us to 

 depreciate its value or to disparage the pride 

 which its achievements excite in the nation. But 

 it may be directed to more objects than one. 



Cook, Franklin, and Livingstone, showed enter- 

 prise as well as the conquerors of the Indian 

 Empire. 



It is the fashion to accuse the Americans of 

 unlimited voracity, but they seem really to be 

 about the only people that look at a thing before 

 they swallow it. St. Domingo, from its natural 

 wealth and capabilities, was a most tempting 

 morsel, and it was almost forced down the throat 

 of the nation by President Grant, who was then 

 in an ambitious mood. But it was steadfastly re- 

 jected on the ground that, though commercially 

 rich, it was politically unwholesome, and would 

 import a bad element into the Legislature of the 

 United States. 



We have spoken, so far, of the interest of the 

 conqueror, or the dominant race. But modern 

 sentiment demands that the interest of the con- 

 quered, or the subject race, shall also be consid- 

 ered, and we may say with truth that no imperial 

 country has ever acknowledged this obligation so 

 fully as England. 



To India, English rule has given peace, saving 

 our own wars and mutinies ; a regular and equi- 

 table though costly administration ; greatly in- 

 creased security for life and property ; railroads ; 

 the abolition of dark and cruel superstitions, such 

 as Suttee and Thuggee. On the other hand, 

 there are consequences which attend even the 

 most humane of conquests, and, when one nation 

 undertakes to provide happiness for another by 

 overruling the natural course of things, measures 

 conceived in the most beneficial spirit are apt to 

 work out in unexpected ways, and to lead to 

 mixed results. 



Conquest must always extinguish the military 

 spirit of the conquered and their power of self- 

 defense. Roman conquest did this systemati- 

 cally, and, when the legions withdrew, bands of 

 undisciplined though hardy barbarians stalked 

 unresisted through the helpless provinces of the 

 empire. British conquest has done the same 

 thing, though' not «on system, and populations 

 which we found warlike are now sheep, and would 

 be the prey of the first wolf that descended 

 on them, if British protection were withdrawn. 

 But conquest must also kill all native germs 

 of political life and all power of political self- 

 organization. It is, of course, difficult to say 

 what Nature would have produced, had India 

 been left politically to itself, or rather had it 

 been acted on by European influence only as 

 Japan has been, not in the way of foreign domin- 

 ion. Regarded from the Indian point of view, 

 Akbar was probably not less beneficent than a 



