XXX] BOSTON TO WASHINGTON 121 



endeavours to perpetuate the subjection of people who are 

 in every respect as good as themselves. 



But to my mind, the question of good or bad, fit or not 

 fit for self-government, is not to the point. It is a question 

 of fundamental justice, and the just is always the expedient, 

 as well as the right. It is a crime against humanity for 

 one nation to govern another against its will. The master 

 always says his slaves are not fit for freedom ; the tyrant, 

 that subjects are not fit to govern themselves. The fitness 

 for self-government is inherent in human nature. Many 

 savage tribes, many barbarian peoples, are really better 

 governed to-day than the majority of the self-styled civilized 

 nations. America deserves the gratitude of all upholders 

 of liberty by founding her own freedom on the principle of 

 immutable r^^//2f to self-government — that Governments derive 

 their just powers only from the consent of the governed. 

 To-day, however, America has taken leave of this high 

 ideal, and has become, like ourselves, a tyrant, ruling the 

 Philippinos against their will as we have so long ruled the 

 Irish. 



Among the visitors to Washington was the Rev. J. A. 

 Allen, of Kingston, Canada (the father of our Grant Allen), 

 who, with his wife and two daughters, was living in apart- 

 ments nearly opposite my hotel. I soon became intimate 

 with this amiable and very intellectual family, and spent 

 many pleasant evenings with them ; while Mr. Allen some- 

 times went for walks with me and took me over the Patent 

 Museum, where there is a most wonderful exhibition of 

 models of all the successful and unsuccessful inventions that 

 have been patented in the States. From him I first learnt 

 that his son was a poet, and he gave me a copy of his 

 marvellous poem entitled " In Magdalen Tower," written 

 when he was an undergraduate, describing with wonderful 

 ingenuity and picturesqueness the appearance of the city 

 on a moonlight October night, but going on to discuss 

 the deepest problems of philosophy and their attempted 

 solutions. Take as a sample these two verses on law in the 

 universe — 



