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." 



