286 



SIR CHARLES BRUCE^ G.C.M.G.^ ON 



C atholic Church and accommodated himself to an interpretation 

 of the title confirmed by Act of Parliament as Defender of 

 Protestantism against the Catholic faith. The repeal of the 

 Corporation and Test Acts and the passing of the Act enabling 

 Jewb to sit in Parliament in the very year of the Proclamation 

 had made the retention of the title practically inconsistent with 

 any other interpretation than Defender of the equal liberties of 

 every Faith. In any case, the words inserted by the Queen 

 herself in the Proclamation make her Majesty's interpretation 

 clear to all time : " Firmly relying ourselves on the truth of 

 Christianity, and acknowledging with gratitude the solace of 

 religion, we disclaim alike the right and desire to imjDose our 

 convictions on any of our subjects." The terms of the 

 Proclamation proceeded : " We declare it to be our royal will 

 and pleasure that none be in any wise favoured, none molested 

 or disquieted, by reason of their religious faith or observances, 

 but that all shall alike enjoy the equal and impartial protection 

 of the law ; and we do strictly charge and enjoin all those who 

 may be in authority inider us that they abstain from all inter- 

 ference with the religious belief or worship of any of our 

 subjects on pain of our highest displeasure. 



" And it is our further will that, so far as may be, our sub- 

 jects, of whatever race or creed, be freely and impartially admitted 

 to offices in our service the duties of which they may be 

 qualified by their education, ability, and integrity duly to 

 discharge." 



" Arising out of this," as the dispatch of 1833 argued, the 

 policy of the Government has been to associate with a religious 

 system based on the principle of toleration, an educational 

 system designed to serve at once as an instrument of equality 

 in the areas of physical and intellectual capacity. 



Lord Beaconsfield summed up the imperial importance of 

 physical health in the phrase, " Sanitas sanitatum, omnia sanitas" 

 hut it was left to Mr. Chamberlain to realise the extent to 

 which the agencies of beneficial occupation in the tropics — 

 industry, commerce, good government and defence — are depen- 

 dent on the preservation of health against tropical diseases. 

 The exigencies of space make it impossible for me to trace even 

 in outline the varied direction of his eneroies in the work it was 

 given him to do. The measures by which he sought to secure, 

 and to a large extent succeeded, in securing health, strength 

 and efficiency in our tropical possessions may be classed as — 

 scientific research and investigation of the causes of tropical 

 diseases ; education in tropical pathology for all medical officers 



