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The Review of Reviews. 



intervention and abstention from all European rom- 

 pliiations. I protested against this doctrine because 1 

 believed it to be an abdication of the responsibility 

 which we owed to those for whose good government we 

 had made ourselves responsible by the Treaty of Paris 

 and the Treaty of Ik-rlin ; and whenever the chronic 

 mi.sgovernment of Turkey became acute in massacres 

 and atrocities I never ceased to urge upon England 

 and upon the other Powers to use the overwhelming 

 strength which they possessed for the purpose of com- 

 pelling the Turks to carry out their treaty obligations. 



THE POWERS AND THE GR^CO-TURKISH WAR. 



I applied the same principle impartially to all dis- 

 turbers of the Peace in the East. 1 protested against the 

 attitude taken bv the Powers at the outbreak of the 

 (Jrseco-Turkish war, and maintained that it was their 

 duty to have restrained Greece by force of arms, if 

 need be, from precipitating war which terminated so 

 disastrously, and I rejoiced exceedingly when, a little 

 later, an international fleet and an international army 

 were employed for the purpose of wresting Crete 

 from the grasp of the Sultan. Always and everywhere 

 I asserted that it was the imperative duty of the Powers 

 who had undertaken the settlement of the Eastern 

 Question to make their will effective by all the means 

 at their disposal. 



THE IMPERIALISM OF RESPONSIBILITY. 



The same order of ideas led me to be for several years 

 one of the foremost, if not the foremost, ad\'ocate of 

 what I may call the Imperialism of Responsibility, as 

 opposed to the Jingoism, which is the imperialism of 

 pride and avarice, on the one hand, and to Littlc- 

 Englandism, which seemed to me to be almost as 

 selfish and unworthy a policy, on the other. When in 

 my teens I shrank from any extension of English 

 authority over the dark-skinned races of the world, 

 but the experience of Fiji convinced me that it would 

 be an abdication of duty for England to refuse to use 

 her imperial power for maintaining peace, and putting 

 down piracy and the .sla^■c-lradc among the weaker 

 dark-skinned races of the world. It seemed to me that 

 the European nations have no right to breed fili- 

 busters and adventurers, to permit them freely to 

 go to Africa and Asia, armed with the weapons and 

 the poisons of modern civilisation, and to leave them 

 free to prey upon the native races. In Fiji the policy 

 of abstention was carried to its extreme logical limit. 

 The natives implored England to send them a Governor 

 in order to protect them from the white men who were 

 kidnapping them into slavery. Mr. Gladstone refused; 

 but a year or two later the horrible results which fol- 



lowed from this refusal of the plea of the natives 

 compelled him rcluctantl)- to undertake the responsi- 

 bility of governing the islands. 



FOLLOW THE FILIBUSTER BY THE POLICEMAN. 



It was then I summed up my conclusion in 

 the phrase, " It is necessary to follow up the 

 filibuster by the policeman." I became enamoured 

 of the idea that the Briti-sh Imperial power was 

 the instrument for maintaining peace among races 

 vyhich would otherwise have been cursed by internecine 

 warfare, and of putting down the horrors of slaverv 

 and of other barbarous works in vast regions. The 

 maintenatice of the Roman peace throughout the 

 300 millions of India by an army which was much 

 fewer in numbers than the force maintained in a small 

 European country seemed to me an end for which it 

 was worth while to make many sacrifices. From the 

 Himalayas to Ceylon, among one-fifth of the popula- 

 tion of this planet, no cannon could be fired except by 

 permission of the supreme Government. Brigandage 

 was suppressed ; civil war disappeared, and we main- 

 tained absolute peace in that vast country by what 

 was little better than an armed police force. I became 

 an impassioned Imperialist, but my Imperialism W'as 

 always an Imperialism of Responsibility, or, as I 

 phrased it nearly thirty years ago, an Imperialism plus 

 common sense and the Ten Commandments. 



UNCEASING WAR AGAINST JINGOISM. 



Against Jingoism in every shape and form I alwa\-s 

 waged unceasing war. Empire was to me not a source 

 of pride, excepting so far as it was the emblem of duty 

 done, of burdens borne for the benefit of humanity. 



I applied the same principle with absolute impar- 

 tiality to other countries. I claimed nothing for 

 I'.ngland that I did not claim with equal vehemence 

 for Russia, whose progress through Central Asia seemed 

 to me a great gain for civilisation and a benefit for 

 humanity. The suppression of the slave-trade in the 

 Khanates of Turkestan, and the establishment of law 

 and order in the midst of marauding tribes, seemed to 

 me a desirable end in the interest of peace ; and 

 although I deplored the incidental bloodshed of a brief 

 campaign, I regarded that as a small price to pay for 

 the great advantages which could not otherwise ha\e 

 been obtained. 



THE CIVILISING SOVEREIGNTY OF A GRE.\T POWER. 



It is obvious that this conception of the civilising 

 sovereignty of a great Power, as well as my conception 

 of the importance of strengthening the authority of 

 the European Concert, brought me into constant oppo- 

 sition with those who.se ideal was that of the disuse of 



