HOW TO CIVILIZE SAVAGES 111 



also went several times to Westminster Abbey to hear 

 noted preachers, and he was surprised at the toleration of 

 the white man — in London. Here we have the skin-deep 

 Christianity that preaches brotherhood and equality, but 

 acts the very opposite ; while the colonial dislike of the 

 idea of a native church is evidently due to another form 

 of that love ot place and power which, notwithstanding 

 fine promises and theories, still refuses all self-government 

 or political rights to the countless millions in British 

 India, as well as to these educated Kaffirs who are still 

 subjected to the most irritating and degrading subjection 

 to petty officialdom, as strikingly illustrated by cases 

 which Mr. Green gives us. 



Yet these people are quite as intelligent and as capable 

 of benefiting by a good education as are average Europeans. 

 This is well shown by a letter to the Queenstoivn Free Press, 

 from a Basuto named Pelem, which is given in Mr. Green's 

 article. This letter is not only very good sense, but is 

 written in clearer and better English than are the average 

 letters that appear in our own local newspapers, showing 

 to what a marvellous extent education has spread among 

 these people, and how high are their natural capacities. 



But we are told to look at the results of missions. We 

 are told that the converted savages are wiser, better, and 

 happier than they were before — that they have improved 

 in morality and advanced in civilization — and that such 

 results can only be shown where missionaries have been 

 at work. No doubt, a great deal of this is true ; but cer- 

 tain laymen and philosophers believe that a considerable 

 portion of this effect is due to the example and precept 

 of civilized and educated men — the example of decency, 

 cleanliness, and comfort set by them — their teaching of 

 the arts and customs of civilization, and the natural in- 

 fluence of the superiority of race. And it may fairly be 

 doubted whether most of these advantages might not be 

 given to savages without the accompanying inculcation 

 of particular religious tenets. True, the experiment has not 

 been fairly tried, and the missionaries have almost all the 

 facts to appeal to on their own side ; for it is undoubtedly 

 the case that the wide sympathy and self-denying charity 



