CONQUESTS TO SECURE TRADE 283 



for the world, countries have been conquered 

 in the interests, not of colonization, but of 

 trade. In these cases there has been little 

 interference with the activities of the subject 

 inhabitants ; indeed, they may be infinitely more 

 prosperous than they would have been under a 

 government of their own. So it is in the Asiatic 

 dependencies of Britain, France, and Holland. 

 It may be urged that under alien rule the native 

 peoples lose heart for self -improvement. It does 

 not follow, however, that they would have ad- 

 vanced more briskly under native rulers. The 

 peoples of India are decidedly more progressive 

 than those of Turkey, Persia, or China. Culture 

 has spread by imitation, and in the past civiliza- 

 tion has owed much to the lead of foreign con- 

 querors. But it is true that in these days self-con- 

 scious pride may hold men back from adopting 

 alien fashions. 



Domestic slavery has given place to the rela- 

 tions of master and servant : predial slavery to 

 the relations of employer and employed. In 

 modern society these are, beyond all comparison, 

 the most important of the social links that are 

 formed, not by the social, but by the selfish 

 impulses of men. Servants and employees so far 

 resemble slaves in that they are obliged to work. 

 But they may choose their employers ; they may 

 combine, and may gradually compel the pay- 

 ment of higher wages. But large numbers of 

 them live in abject poverty, lacking even the 

 security of a slave's subsistence ; and it would 

 be idle to pretend that their indigence does 

 not prove that our social organization has its 

 signal failures. Their misery is in great measure 

 the result of their freedom : there are two exits 

 from the Temple of Liberty, one leading upwards, 

 the other down. 



