308 National Life and Character 



menaced, always will protect himself, by protective 

 tariffs and stringent immigration laws. 



Mr. Pearson fears that when once the tropic races 

 are independent, the white peoples will be humiliated 

 and will lose heart ; but this does not seem inevitable, 

 and indeed seems very improbable. If the English- 

 man should lose his control over South Africa and 

 India, it might indeed be a serious blow to the En- 

 glishman of Britain ; though it may be well to re- 

 member that the generation of Englishmen which 

 grew up immediately after England had lost Amer- 

 ica, accomplished feats in arms, letters, and science 

 such as, on the whole, no other English generation 

 ever accomplished. Even granting that Britain were 

 to suffer as Mr. Pearson thinks she would, the enor- 

 mous majority of the English-speaking peoples, those 

 whose homes are in America and Australia, would 

 be absolutely unaffected; and Continental Europe 

 would be little more affected than it was when the 

 Portuguese and Dutch successively saw their African 

 and Indian empires diminish. France has not been 

 affected by the expulsion of the French from Hayti ; 

 nor have the freed negroes of Hayti been capable of 

 the smallest aggressive movement. No American 

 or Australian cares in the least that the tan-colored 

 peoples of Brazil and Ecuador now live under gov- 

 ernments of their own instead of being ruled by 

 viceroys from Portugal and Spain ; and it is difficult 

 to see why they should be materially affected by a 

 similar change happening in regard to the people 

 along the Ganges or the upper Nile. Even if China 



