MORAL EVOLUTION 303 



side of their oppressors. No one can say that the possession of 

 the Netherlands added strength to the Spanish empire. Nor 

 has England gained by her ill-treatment of Ireland. She has 

 discovered, though the discovery has long been delayed, that 

 justice in some form or other is the only means of soothing the 

 discontent that makes dominant nations vulnerable. No doubt, 

 an unprovoked incursion into the territory of a free people may 

 be for the time successful. It is beyond doubt that the people 

 of the United States if they were unanimously so disposed could 

 raise an army that could march through Canada and overpower 

 all resistance. But Canada, though thus defeated, would be im- 

 possible to hold as a conquered province. I am quite aware 

 that things were different in the earliest stages of human de- 

 velopment. A victorious tribe would literally annihilate the 

 conquered. The Khalifa and his Baggaras have recently given 

 us examples of this primitive method. But the sympathy and 

 fellowship that bound members of a primitive tribe together have 

 in civilised lands extended into a limited goodwill to all human 

 beings. So that the ancient method of extermination which 

 made the triumph of absolute injustice possible has passed out 

 of use, except in some regions as yet unpenetrated by civilisa- 

 tion. It would be possible for England to exterminate the 

 Boers. But it would be nothing short of ruinous to do so. In 

 fact, ever since man's humanity has been so far developed as to 

 revolt at wholesale slaughter, the conquest of a vigorous people 

 has been fraught with evil for the conquerors, except where, 

 as in Canada, it has been followed by the establishment of an 

 equitable system of government. 



When the conquered submit with patience to a foreign sway, 

 as the people of many of her provinces submitted to imperial 

 Rome, then though the invasion of the territory of a free people 

 may have been unjustifiable yet we may look upon the offence as 

 having been expiated by good government. On this principle 

 we may say that though we had no right to take India yet we 

 have a right to stay since we have proved that the people 

 benefit by our presence there. Indeed the possibility of our 

 holding India justifies our holding it. For what are some 



