248 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



COLONIES AND THE MOTHER COUNTRY. (II.) 



By JAMES COLLIER. 



THE growth of the relations between a colony and the mother coun- 

 try closely follows the development of the relationship between 

 an organism and its offspring, or (in higher species) between parents 

 and children. When an infnsorian subdivides into two cells, the new 

 cell produced swims away and henceforth leads an independent life. 

 Most of the Phoenician and most of the earlier Greek colonies were 

 social infusoria which parted from the parent organism by segmenta- 

 tion and had no further relations with it. As we rise in the animal 

 scale ,i new relationship, that between mother and young, and a new 

 instinct, the maternal, come into existence. These begin as low down 

 as the mollusks, and expand and heighten, though not without strange 

 lapses, in both insects and birds as species develope; but we need not 

 trace the evolution here. Let it suffice to note that there are successive 

 degrees of specialization; a site is chosen suitable for depositing and 

 hatching eggs; means are found for making them secure; a shelter 

 is built for them; they are deposited near substances adapted to nourish 

 the young; special food is prepared for them; they are reared through 

 food disgorged or brought to them. The accession of the male to the 

 family marks the dawn of the paternal instinct; it appears earliest 

 among fishes. This evolution is repeated in the history of colonies, 

 where, however, the maternal and paternal offices melt into one another 

 insensibly. 



The mother country founds and nurtures colonies. Most of the 

 earliest colonies are the work of adventurous bands or navigating 

 merchants or fishermen, who seek their own habitats, carry with 

 them their own equipment and fight their own battles. Then the 

 metropolis settles its surplus or discontented citizens in territories 

 previously chosen, provides them with all that is necessary for 

 their start, and often nourishes them during the infancy of the 

 colony. Hispaniola was a state colony manned with miners and 

 artisans who were provided with tools, and this at the cost of 

 a loan and a draught from the confiscated property of the Jews. 

 Nor was it until gold began to be found in large quantities that the 

 receipts equalled the expenditure on the young colony. Louisiana was 

 founded and fostered with a royal munificence that conferred on it 

 "more than was contributed by all the English monarchs together for 

 the twelve English colonies on the Atlantic." Georgia was a one-man 



