24 National Life 



North America. We sometimes forget the 

 light that chapter of history throws on more 

 recent experiences. Some 250 years ago 

 there was a man who fought in our country 

 against taxation without representation, and 

 another man who did not mind going to 

 prison for the sake of his religious opinions. 

 As Englishmen we are proud of them both, 

 but we sometimes forget that they were both 

 considerable capitalists for their age, and 

 started chartered companies in another con- 

 tinent. Well, a good deal went on in the 

 plantations they founded, if not with their 

 knowledge, with that at least of their servants 

 and of their successors, which would shock us 

 all at the present day. But I venture to say 

 that no man calmly judging will wish either 

 that the whites had never gone to America, 

 or would desire that whites and Red Indians 

 were to-day living alongside each other as 

 negro and white in the Southern States, as 

 Kaffir and European in South Africa, still 

 less that they had mixed their blood as 

 Spaniard and Indian in South America. The 

 civilization of the white man is a civilization 

 dependent upon free white labour, and when 



