National Life and Character 299 



tory whether Belisarius did or did not succeed in 

 overthrowing the Ostrogoth merely to make room 

 for the Lombard, or whether the Vandal did or 

 did not succumb to the Roman instead of succumb- 

 ing to the Saracen a couple of centuries later ; while 

 it was of the most vital consequence to the whole 

 future of the world that the English should supplant 

 the Welsh as masters of Britain. 



Again, in our own day, the histories written of 

 Great Britain during the last century teem with her 

 dealings with India, while Australia plays a very 

 insignificant part indeed; yet, from the standpoint 

 of the ages, peopling of the great island-continent 

 with men of the English stock is a thousand-fold 

 more important than the holding Hindoostan for a 

 few centuries. 



Mr. Pearson understands and brings out clearly 

 that in the long run a conquest must fail when it 

 means merely the erection of an insignificant gov- 

 erning caste. He shows clearly that the men of our 

 stock do not prosper in tropical countries. In the 

 New World they leave a thin strain of their blood 

 among and impose their laws, language, and forms 

 of government on the aboriginal races, which then 

 develop on new and dimly drawn lines. In the Old 

 World they fail to do even this. In Asia they may 

 leave a few tens of thousands, or possibly hundreds 

 of thousands, of Eurasians to form an additional 

 caste in a caste-ridden community. In tropical 

 Africa they may leave here and there a mulatto 

 tribe like the Griquas. But it certainly has not yet 



