THE COUNTRY 345 
So much every fair-minded man must admit that Eng- 
land has done, and is trying to do in the Protectorate. 
But aims and results are far from being the same. Actually 
the moral condition of many of the tribes has altered 
seriously for the worse since her arrival. 
One of the fruitful causes of evil has arisen from the 
incapacity of the white man to understand quickly the 
black. The missionary, the soldier, the foreigner, generally 
insist on treating him as though he were a man; he is not 
a man, as I have before said, but a child, and a child whose 
childish development has in some mysterious way been 
retarded. 
The philanthropists of the last century cried aloud, 
*“Let us free him, and he will stand on his feet.”’ Free 
him, yes, by all means, but from whom? From his task- 
master, you will say, of course. Yes, granted, but the 
very worst master he can have is himself. Abstract freedom 
was a fetich to good men in London and Massachusetts, 
men who had not had an opportunity to study the half- 
developed creature they would hurriedly and at all costs, 
make free. Ah! we are inevitably learning that manhood 
is a plant of slow and painful growth. 
I have heard a story told of Lincoln, which,if I am 
not mistaken, does not appear in any life of the great 
President. Before Antietam he was waited on by an 
influential deputation of Boston Liberationists. They 
urged on Mr. Lincoln the immediate need of proclaim- 
ing a general emancipation. ‘The President listened quietly 
to their arguments and when they had finished he said: 
“Gentlemen, do not be offended if I give you a simple 
question, and ask for a plain answer. How many legs 
has a calf?’’ The spokesman was indignant and he said 
so; said the President’s question was lacking in respect 
to the Committee. ‘“‘I intend no disrespect, sir,’”’ said he, 
** please answer my question.”” ‘‘ Why, four, Mr. President.” 
