cH,xiv. DESIEABILITY OF FRENCH ANNEXATION. 351 



ency to tribal decomposition, weld them into a nation, and 

 set them on the path of progress. History affords ex- 

 amples of some such transformation among vigorous bar- 

 barians or semi-savages. But with an efifete race, corrupted 

 by luxury, who have lost the spirit, but preserved many of 

 the traditions, of a decayed civilisation, no such miracle 

 is to be worked. Men of great powers, such as one cannot 

 expect to see on the throne of Marocco, have ere now 

 failed in the attempt, or the little they have effected has 

 died with them. 



No rational believer in progress can cling to the belief 

 that this is the spontaneous tendency of all branches of 

 the human race, the ultimate condition to which, with 

 whatever delay, all must conform. Far from this, all 

 history shows that the task of leading mankind on the 

 onward road has always been the privilege of a few races 

 only. The larger part of the earth is even now inhabited 

 by people either in a stationary or a retrograde condition, 

 and of the latter state Marocco affords one of the most 

 striking examples. 



The one reasonable prospect of improvement in the 

 condition of Marocco is to be sought in its passing under 

 the control of a civilised State, strong enough to overcome 

 speedily the inevitable resistance of the Moorish ruling 

 class, and advanced enough to consult the welfare of the 

 people it undertakes to govern. If we ask what European 

 State is by character and circumstances best fitted for such 

 an undertaking the answer must be — France. Having 

 already achieved with tolerable success a similar task in 

 the adjoining region of Northern Africa, the PYench have 

 every motive to add to their possessions a territory offer- 

 ing far greater natural advantages ; and it is probable 

 that they would have already effected the conquest, but 

 for the inevitable jealousy of other European Powers. The 

 French are not successful colonists ; nor have the economic 

 results of their annexation of Algeria been as brilliant as 

 might have been expected. But in Marocco colonisation 



