CONFLICT CANNOT BE SUPPRESSED 375 



rivals. Mr. Kidd quotes, not without hesitation, Lecky's tribute 

 to the crusade against slavery undertaken by the British race ; 

 and he still, apparently, endeavours to believe that the British 

 race are more " humanitarian " in their dealings with inferior 

 races than are the French, the Germans, the Eussians, or any 

 other nation. But Mr. Kidd has to admit that this humani- 

 tarianism, which is duly extolled both in and out of season as a 

 concession to the Nonconforrhist conscience, has not prevented 

 the British race from taking more than its due share in the 

 extirpation of inferior races with which it has come into conflict 

 or contact. The truth is that — notwithstanding the humani- 

 tarian hypocrisy peculiar to the Nonconformist conscience and 

 the Aborigines Protection Society — the British race, by the sheer 

 force of its expansive power, by reason of its genius for expan- 

 sion, must necessarily eliminate the inferior races which stand 

 in its way. Every superior race in history has done the same, 

 and was obliged to do it. Nothing can be more unscientific, 

 nothing shows a deeper ignorance of the elementary laws of 

 social evolution, than these absurd agitations, peculiar to the 

 British race, against the elimiaation of inferior races. Germany 

 and France have been compelled to seize different parts of the 

 African continent, and likewise to eliminate the previous in- 

 habitants. Fortunately for these countries, neither are blessed 

 with a Nonconformist conscience, or with an Aborigines Protec- 

 tion Society, and their work of colonisation and expansion can 

 thus proceed without hindrance. 



Just as expansion is a fundamental law of life, so is insati- 

 ability its corollary. And this seems to us the reason why, 

 irrespective of rational or irrational sanction, it is impossible to 

 alter those essential conditions on which the evolution of the 

 race depends. The individual cannot do away with the con- 

 ditions which govern the development of the race ; for in doing 

 so he would do away with himself. It may be rephed that the 

 labourers of to-day have no interest in working three hours a 



