IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I 1^ U^ ^ 12.2 Hi IS IM 2.0 18 1-25 III 1.4 1.6 1111== == ■• 6" ► m '-^i '/ Photographic Sciences Cbrporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 \ iV •^ A \ fv 4^ O^ ,^ CiHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHIVI/ICIVIH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historlques Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Notes techniques et bibliographiques The Institute has attempted to obtain the best original copy available for filming. Features of this copy which may be bibliographically unique, which may alter any of the images in the reproduction, or which may significantly change the usual method of filming, are checked below. D n D D D D D D Coloured covers/ Couverture de couleur I I Covers damaged/ Couverture endommagde Covers restored and/or laminated/ Couverture restaurde et/ou pelliculie Cover title missing/ Le titre de couverture manque I I Coloured maps/ Cartes gdographiques en couleur Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/ Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur Bound with other material/ Relid avec d'autres documents Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion along interior margin/ La re liure serr6e peut causer de I'ombre ou de la distortion le long de la marge intirieure Blank leaves added during restoration may appear within the text. Whenever possible, these have been omitted from filming/ II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajout^es lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte, mais, lorsque cela 6tait possible, ces pages n'ont pas 6t6 filmdes. Additional comments:/ Commentaires suppldmentaires; L'Institut a microfilm6 le meilleur exemplaire qu'il lui a 6t6 possible de se procurer. Les ddtails de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-Atre uniques du point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger une modification dans la methods normale de filmage sont indiqu^s ci-dessous. I I Coloured pages/ D D X D X D This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ Ce document est filmd au taux de reduction indiq (meaning "CON- TINUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "END"), whichever applies. Les images sufvantes ont 6t6 reproduites avec le plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et de la nettet6 de l'exemplaire film6, et en conformity avec les conditions du contrat de filmage. Les exemplaires originaux dent la couverture en papier est imprimte sont film6s en commenpant par le premier plat et en terminant soit par la dernidre page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration, soit par le second plat, selon le cas. Tous les autres exemplaires originaux sont filmfo en commengant par la premiere page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par la derniire page qui comporte une telle empreinte. Un des symboles suivants apparaftra sur la dernidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbole — ► signifie "A SUIVRE ", le symbols V signifie "FIN". Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre film^s d des taux de reduction diff6rents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clich6, ii est fiimd & partir de I'angle supdrieur gauche, de gauche & droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. 1 2 3 ■ t 8 9 : ' 4 • • V V "CSWA \Vvt. \ c»V>^\^'^ "^ cv ervce_ ^^^\V\^ - ^. ^>^ iev*\«.t\T v^^'is a& ■ ^ ■ I Althou that tiopi considered be explain , intense an lanimal lifi such aa b prepondcr is probabl /which we discovcrec ics throu; concealmi velopod t( where tht season th and even fatal. E permanei Ottoman doomed fense, ai em poss sponsor jects, w virtual f internal deadly i •./f;-l THE POLICY OF AOORANDIZEMENT. 541 '■ \ [ilic " Descent of Man," and consider the whole theory from the point of view here laid down. The explanation of almost all the ornament and colors of birds and insects as having been pro- duced by the perceptions and choice of the fe- males has, I believe, staggered many evolution- ists, but has been provisionally accepted because i* was the only theory that even attempted to ex- [ plain the facts. It may perhaps be a relief to some of them, as it has been to myself, to find that the phenomtnr can be shown to depend on the general laws of development, and on the ac- * tion of " natural selection," which theory will, I venture to think, be relieved from an abnormal excrescence, and gain additional vitality by the adoption of my view of the subject. Although we have arrived at the conclusion that tropical light and heat can in no sense be considered the cause of color, there remains to be explained the undoubted fact that all the more Jntense and gorgeous tints arc manifested by the f.animal life of the tropics, while in some groups, such as butterflies and birds, there is a marked preponderance of highly-colored species. This is probably due to a variety of causes, some of which we can indicate, while others remain to be discovered. The luxuriant vegetation of the trop- ics throughout the entire year affords so much concealment, that color may there be safely de- veloped to a much greater extent than in climates where the trees are bare in winter, during which season the struggle for existence is most severe, and even the slightest disadvantage may prove fatal. Equally important, probably, has been the permanence of favorable conditions in the tropics. allowing certain groups to continue dominant foi long periods, and thus to carry out in one un- broken line whatever developments of plumage or color may once have acquired an ascendency. Changes of climatal conditions, and preeminently the Glacial epoch, probably led to the extinction of a host of highly-developed and finely-colored insects and birds in temperate zones, just as we know that it led to the extinction of the larger and more powerful mammalia which formerly characterized the temperate zone in both herai- spheres. This view is supported by the fact that it is among those groups only which are now ex- clusively tropical that all the more extraordinary developments of ornament and color are found. The local causes of color will also have acted best in regions where the climatal conditions re- mained constant, and where migration was un- nece.'^sary ; while whatever direct effect may be produced by light or heat will necessarily have acted more powerfully within the tropics. And, lastly, all these causes have been in action over an actually greater area in tropical than in temper- ate zones, while estimated potentially, in propor- tion to its life-sustaining power, the lands which enjoy a practically tropical climate (extending as they do considerably beyond the geographical tropics) are very much larger than the temper- ate regions of the earth. Combining the effects of all these various causes we are quite able to understand the superiority of the tropical parts of the globe, not only in the abundance and variety of their forms of life, but also as re- gards the ornamental appendages and vivid col- oration which these forms present. — Macmillan^s Magazine. ;r k' THE POLICY OF AGGEANDIZEMENT. By Professor GOLDWIN SMITH. WHATEVER may be the result of the pres- ent campaign or of the present war, the Ottoman Empire is doomed. It was already doomed when England took up arms in its de- fense, and, in the supposed interest of her East- ern possessions, became its quasi-protectress, the sponsor for the engagements to its Christian sub- jects, which it has shamelessly violated, and the virtual surety for its now repudiated loans. The internal causes of its decay arc more certain and deadly in their operation than the attacks of ene- M^Y^'t mies from without, which, in fact, evoke and re- vive the only element of strength left in its com- position — the native valor of the Ottoman. It is one of those military empires which have never become industrial, and which, the rush of con- quest being over, anc the conquerors having set- tled down as the dominant race, subsisting on the labor of the conquered, have been hurried by corruption and sensuality to the grave. It has never shown the slightest sign of civilization — political, intellectual, or commercial. If there \'4 '^ ^ ^ <^ ^i ^V^ o/- 542 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTULY.— SUPPLEMENT. r has been any :rade in the empire, it has been among the subject races, especially those whose yoke has been loosened, not among the Turks. Political organization has never got beyond the coarse and barbarous form of military satrapies, whose rule is cruelty, and whose taxation is rap- 'ne. Even for military science the Turk has recourse to the foreigner. There being no se- curity for the fruits of labor, production has failed, and the blight of barrenness has spread over some of the fairest regions of the earth. The provinces are heterogeneous, and under such a system of government no progress toward as- similation could be made. A fatalist religion has repressed effort, even the effort necessary to save life from tlie plague. The same religion, by its political intolerance, has precluded the fusion of the conqueror with the concjuered, and kept hos- tile races facing each other in every part of the empire. The numbers of the dominant race have been always dwindling under the effects of vice and of the military conscription, which, as the slaves cannot be trusted with arms, falls on the masters alone. By the institution of the Jani- zaries, which constantly infused new blood into the miUtary system, the period of conquest was artificially prolonged, and, in measuring the ra- pidity of Turkish decay, it should be borne in mind that less than two centuries ago the Turks were still conquerors. But, in the absence of external intervention, a century would probably have sufficed to complete the process of dissolu- tion ; the ill-cemented provinces of the empire would have fallen apart, and the satraps would have defied the bow-string, and set up for them- selves. The revolt of Egypt was an example which, had things been left to their natural course, other pashas would have followed. Di- plomacy intervened, and held together the crum- bling mass. When the resources of fiscal rob- bery were exhausted, and the sheep of the rayah had been sheared in winter to pay his taxes, Eng- lish coffers, opened by the confident assurances of English ministers, supplied money, of which the greater part was squandered in barbarous and bestial luxury, while the rest provided a standing army, which, by rendering internal in- surrection against the tyranny hopeless, com- pellei- the oppressed to stretch their hands for aid to a foreign liberator, and thus embroiled Europe ; just as our ancestors under James II., who had a standing army, were compelled to call in a foreign deliverer ; whereas, under Charles I., who had no standing army, they were able to re- dress their wrongs with their own hands. The present Turkish army may be victorious, but it will be the last, unless, by a miracle, confidenc«i can be planted again in the bosoms of capitalists! who have been swindled. Russia would, perhaps, have acted more wisely had she paused awhile, and allowed bankruptcy and repudiation to do their work. The question is one, not of senti-i ment or religion, but of political science; and it'; is a thing to be noted that a man so sagacious in'; a certain sphere as Palmerston, so adroit a man- ager of party, so clever a diplomat?st, with all possible means of information at his command, should have persuaded himself that the Ottoman Empire was in course of rapid regeneration, only needing loans to complete the process, and shouldi ; have induced his countrymen to lay down their I money on the strength of that belief. It shows. 1 that in such questions the wisdom which styles . I itself practical, because it excludes general views I and considerations, may lead to conclusions the ! reverse of wise. An ancient philosopher is sai(? to have convinced his sneering countrymen of th utiHty of his science by a successful speculatio in olives. We should be surprised to find thf any one versed in the philosophy of history ha been seduced into investing in Turkish bonds. Fall the Ottoman Empire will, by corruptic ' if not by the sword; and its fall will apparent -j bring on a crisis in the destinies of England, who will be called on to decide whether, out of the wreck, she will take Egypt. If she does, she will be committed far more deeply than ever to the policy of aggrandizement ; foreign dominion sustained by arras will assume a greatly-increased importance with her relatively to domestic ob- jects ; and the spirit of her people will undergo a corresponding change. Egypt obviously means Eastern Africa, probably, indeed almost certainly, I Syria, from which the fatal canal is commanded i almost as much as from Egypt ; possibly Crete, or some other convenient island. But it means a *i good deal more than this. It means that England is to undertake to secure against any possible attack the whole of the overland route to India ; for, of course, there is no use in holding the gate when the avenue to it is in other hands, and, if Port Said is the gate, the avenue to it is the Medi- terranean. To India by the Cape >ve had, as it were, a private way, not leading by many hostile doors, nor obliging you to appear as dominant under the noses of rival nations ; but the over- land route runs by the coasts of a whole line of maritime powers, to which will be added Ger- many, if she ever acquires Trieste, and Russia (exasperated by our demonstrations of enmity), '-m- V* ^ r M ! 11 r^M V .V. - THE luLTCY OF AOGEAXDIZEMEXT. 543 '•# ^ » I I? ! 1/ if she ever acquires Constantinople ; it ia liable to attack I'rom every port between Cherbourg and Port Said ; its wardership will oblige us to flaunt the flag of our domination in the faces of all the dwellers on the Mediterranean. The present helplessness of France, no doubt, is our oppor- tunity; but we are credibly assured that her jealousy will bo at once aroused, and that her hostility awaits us in the end. It is probable that in the present mood of the nation aggrandizement will carry the day. We say mood, and it does not seem that there has been any definite change of conviction such as new arguments produce since the time when more moderate views prevailed. But the nation is now flushed with wealth, and with the sense of power which wcaltii begets; it is infected with the military spirit which (ills armed Europe ; it has built a great fleet of iron-clads, and feels in- clined to show its power. The aristocratic party is in the ascendant, and British aristocracy, as well as Russian despotism, is willing to divert the mind of the people from progress at home to aggrandizement abroad. The knowledge that the Government is favorable to them stimulates to activity all enterprising spirits, and at the de- cisive moment they throw into the scale, by en- thusiastic and combined effort, a weight out of proportion to their mere numberp. In such a state of excitement are spirits of tliis sort at pres- ent, and so great has been the development of their ambition, that we read projects for making England mistress of all the water communications of the globe. What she would do with that magnificent possession we have not been in- formed. We need not to be informed what the other nations would do if they found all the water communications of the globe seized into the hands of one domineering power. There are politicians avIio, if they had their way, would make the battle of Dorking a reality in spite of Nature and of Fate. Those who counsel England to seize on all the water communications of the globe seem to forget that, though still far the first of maritime powers, she is not, as she was at the close of the war with Napoleon, sole mistress of the seas. Other countries now have their navies, which, though singly not a match for hers, united must be a good deal more than a match, and which, moreover, would be free to strike with their full force, while she would have to disperse her force for the purpose of shielding unguarded depend- encies in all parts of the world. Nor is it in this respect only that her position is changed. Iler naval and military power depends partly upon her superiority in wealth ; her superiority in wealth depends in great measure on her su- premacy in manufactures, and this also has been greatly reduced by the development of manufact- ures in other countries since the Napoleonic wars. The commercial progress of other coun- tries, especially of France, where the military spirit seems to be gradually giving way to the commercial, threatens British interests, even Brit- ish interests in the East, more seriously than the approach ol Russia to Herat. That there are certain classes, administrative, military, and commercial, which have a special interest in a policy of aggrandizement, no one needs to be told ; our ears ring with the vocifer- ous demonstrations of the fact. What it seems particularly desirable to elicit, before the irrevo- cable step of occupying Egypt is taken, is the proof that foreign dominion is equally beneficial to the whole people. Beneficial, we mean, either in the way of material well-being or in the way of real moral and intellectual elevation. The mere pride of dominion we confess does not seem to us a sufficient object. Besides being radi- cally antagonistic to the tendencies of modern civilization, its enjoyment is confined to the few who play the game; it is not shared by the ; .any who pay and bleed, scarcely conscious all the time of the existence of an empire. To all who have not entirely abandoned them- selves to the prevailing impulse it must be clear that aggrandizement is a question to which there are two sides. That there are two sides to it in a moral point of view, we all imply as often as we denounce on moral grounds the territorial ambition of Russia. But let us put the question of morality aside. In truth, it does not present itself in a very serious form so far as the occu- pation of Egypt is concerned. The general con- currence of the powers, at all events, if it could be obtained, might relieve us from any misgivings on that score. The khedive is, to the mass of his unhappy subjects, not a national sovereign, but an alien oppressor, whose dominion has no foundation but brute force, and whose power is exercised without the slightest regard for the welfare of the people. Anybody who can is morally at liberty to overturn him and relieve the victims of his oppression. There can be no doubt that English government, however it might affect the destinies of the country in the end, would at present be an enormous change for the better. Nor is it easy to see who could cast a stone at us. Certainly not France, with Algeria 1 544 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTULY.— SUPPLEMENT. in her hands. Bismarck is wise enough, he is sufficiently conscious of the conditions of real strength, und sufficiently in accord with the spirit of his age himself, to abstain from distant acquisitions ; but we need fear no moral protests on his part. And so with regard to the Empire of India, which is the ihing mainly in question all the time, an(J for the sake of which, principally, these further acquisitions are proposed. Once acquired it must be kept ; mere anarchy would be the consequence of our withdrawal from it ; and its acquisition commenced in a period which, though not so very remote, was yet anterior, if not to international morality, certainly to the in- clusion within the pale of international morality of those who were net within the pale of Christen- dom. No government in Europe at that time would have shrunk from taking the territory of the pagans of Hlndostan any more than they shrank from enslaving the pagans of Africa. France, since our censor, was at that time our corapptitor, and she herself took Algeria at a later day, when the light of a higher morality had at least dawned upon the civilized world. With the question of morality, we repeat, wo have here nothing to do ; but to the question of expediency als- -oust be admitted that there are two sides. iec ,y of empires is the theme of history. Th( .jcay because they are sustained not by the moral forces which sustain national happiness, and the nature of which is to increase in strength, but by physical force, the nature of which is to decline, if not positively yet (what comes to the same thing) relatively to the forces around it. There is no reason why British vir- tue, energy, and industry, should not continue as they are, or increase with the lapse of time ; and, therefore, there is no reason why the Ncw-Zea- lander should ever moralize over tiie ruins of the British nation ; but the man of the future, who- ever he may be, is pretty sure one day to moral- ize over the ruins of the British Empire. We ourselves moralize over the ruined empire of Spain, and see clearly enough that the vast and scattered dependencies which were her pride, and which she imagined to be the sources of her strength, were really draining away her life-blood. We moralize over the effects of the error com- mitted by Venice in leaving the true path, the path of commercial enterprise, to indulge a terri- torial ambition which led to the corruption of her government and, by the umbrage it gave to ether powers, brought on her the League of Cam- bray. Yet we may be sure that every Spaniard and every Venetian, in the days of Spanish and Venetian empire, would have felt himself bound by loyalty and patriotism to uphold aggrandize- ment and to denounce counsels of moderation as a betrayal of the honor und grea ncss of the country. Palmer.'ston's Civis liomanun is one of many indications that the image of the Koman Empire still vaguely hovers before our minds. The Roman Empire belonged to an age before Hu- manity, to an age in which morality was in the germ, to an age in which force was the only law and the only principle of organization. Coming when it did, it formed a sort of matrix for modern civilization, and thus served a purpose which conquest can never serve again. By unit- ing all the nations round the Mediterranean under a common yoke it repressed war, the great primeval obstacle to the progress of humanity, and rendered possible the diffusion of ideas, be- sides breaking down generally the barriers ot tribal isolation. An attempt to reproduce it, or anything like it, in these days would be an anach- ronism of the most flagrant kind. It sstability depended upon the absence of any rival power, when once the conquest of the Mediterranean na- tions had been accomplished ; and, in this respect also, an imitation of it in a world divided among a number of great powers would be not so much unseasonable as insane. It is worthy of remark, too, that the more advanced civilization even of Rome herself was less prone, if not actually opposed, to conquest. In the golden age of the empire, which com- menced with the accession of Nerva, though there were frontier wars, and some extensions of terri- tory, as a consequence of those wars, the spirit of improvement decidedly predominated over that of aggrandizement, and the Antonines, if they were alive now, would probably be " pseudo- philanthropists " and " patriots of every country but their own." The idea of Roman conquest in the nineteenth century is equal in irrationality as well as cog- nate to that extreme theory of hero-worship which, totally ignoring historic progress, proposes to regenerate modern society by pounding it with the primeval sledge-hammer of Thor. The world changes, and the methods proposed by the worshipers of force for organizing what they imagine, in spite of their daily experience, to be an anarchy, would be the most brutal of all anarchies themselves. At all events, there can be no harm in asking the advocates of a policy of aggrandizement clear- V.,.- THE POL rev OF AGGRAXDIZEMEXr. 5i; of Spanish p,nd himself bound old aggrandlzc- f moderation as tea ness of the is one of many Koman Empire minds. The age before Hu- ality was in the as the only law zation. Coming of matrix for rved a purpose again. By unit- iterranean under war, the great ss of humanity, on of ideas, be- the barriers ot reproduce it, or uld be an anach- id. It sstability any rival power, editerranean na- d, in this respect i divided among be not so much , that the more ome herself was ed, to conquest, ire, which com- va, though there ensions of terri- wars, the spirit iominated over le Antonines, if bly be " pseudo- •f every country n the nineteenth as well as cog- )f hero-worship ogress, proposes by pounding it • of Thor. The proposed by the zing what they xperience, to be t brutal of all harm in asking ndizement clear- i ly to state tlio case with which wo may fairly as- sume they are prepared. England will thon ad- vance her ca'^les not only with the assurance tliat some of licr foiis would be groatly ^'ratified ,>t present, but without misgiving as to the effect (iri tlie general wolt'iire of her peojjle for the luture. Does conquest bring strength to England ? Tiiat is tiic most ol)vious question, and for the oidinary advociitos of aggrandizement the most important. To the Uonian it brouglit strength, because it brought him botii tribute and military contingents ; to the Spaniard it brought tribute, with which his armies were paid. l?ut in the case of England modern sentiment interposes. England draws from her dependencies no tribute; large sums come from India, but they come into private hands. Sepoys were sent to Egypt at tlio time (if the war with r.unco, and Mr. Sidney Owen, in tlie prefiice to his "Selection from the Wellesley Dispatches," contends that, though they were not actually engaged, tl:eir presence pro- duced an eflect, and might be regarded a;! the symbol of a real addition to the military power of Englanil. Hut rating this addition at the highest, and taking into consideration also any instance of the employment of negro regiments from the West Indies, will it be contended that tlie accession of force derived by England from her dependencies bears any proportion to the force expended by her in acquiring and defending tliein ? India must be debited not only with all that has been expomled in her acquisition and defense, but with all that has been expended in securing access to her, and notably with a large portion of the cost of the Crimean War. But the expendi- ture, whether of money or of blood, is not all ; the whole foreign policy of England quivers with alarm for India. We are being constantly drawn away from that which would otherwise be the manifest line of our interest by that besetting fear. Under its influence we have sullied our civilization l)y an alliance with the foid decrepi- tude of Turia'v, and made an enemy of Russia, perhaps the only sincere friend we had in the world. The Boman Empire, thouL'h colossal, was ge- ographically united, and the jirovinces, as time went on, were more or less incorporated with the imperial state. The Bussian Empire, though equally colossal, is also geographically united ; it annexes conterminous regions, which are gradual- ly incorporated, and will no doubt be thoroughly assimilated in the end. The Spanish Empire was 35 scattered ; its dependencies were incapable of incorporation, mmh more- of assimilation, and the same is the case with ours. A line of com- munication with the East has to be maintained, to the length of which, and the forces threaten- ing it at every point, attention has been already called. In England the strength of England lies. Why this thought should be unwelcome, it seems dilli- eult to say ; at any rate, such is the fact. In the days before free trade, monopoly of markets was a very intelligible and solid, though not a very laudable, aj)panage of cmi>ire. But free trade has thrown open the ports of the In- dies, East and West, to all nations alike, and, if England still has the lion's share of the trade, it is not because she is the mistress, but because she is the great exporting nation. The commer- cial handling of the dependencies by planters, contractors, and others engaged in the internal proiluctinn and trade, is, on the other hand, an advantage connected with poUtical dominion. The only drawback from it is that English pro- duction in the dependencies may exclude British imports, as in the ease of the cotton-manufactures of India, which are supplanting British goods in the Indian market. It is said, and with truth, that empire trains soldiers and administrators. But are they not, for the most part, soldiers and administrators of a special kind ? Algeria trained soldiers, and her training is said to have been one of the causes of the military disasters which befell France. Administrators generally end their official lives in the dependency, and the benefit of th" Indian Civil Service is therefore reaped more by the in- dividual Englishmen employed in it and their families than by the country, except in so far as the appointments may act as prizes in stimulat- ing education. Even were it otherwise, bureau- cracy, intensified by excluslveness of race, and by severance from English society and opinion, would scarcely be a good school for the service of a free nation. The author of " The Abode of Snow " seems to be an acute observer, and he is certain- ly not indifferent to the glory of British dominion, or opposed to the extension of British influence. In a passage on official character in India, which, as its tenor is mixed, it may be fiiir to append in a note, he draws a strong, and what seems a probably just, distinction between the effect of Inilia on superior minds, or those immediately under their influence, and its effect on the mind of the ordinary official. His general estimate may be somewhat adverse, and it may be fairly 546 THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MOXTHLY.— SUPPLE M EXT. I iiift perhaps by an appeal to the net results of Indian administration/ But he brings certain peeuliarities, and tlic circumstanees which pro- duce them, distinctly under our view.' Wo have renounced for tlie present purpose • "Socli'ty everywhere in India labors under very great disadvantages, and varies very much aceording to tho character of its evcr-clianging leaders. Sir Ktnerwon Ten- nent has oliserved that it is, ' unhappily, the tendency of sniidl sections of society to decompose when separated from tho great vital mass, as pools stairnate and putrefy when cut otf from tho invigorating How of tlie sea;' and be adds tliat the process is variable, so that a colonial so- ciety which is repulsive to-day may bo attractive to-mor- row, or a contrary change may take place with one or two departures or new arrivals. The same holds go.,d in India; and thouL'h Indian society can boast of some superiority to colonial (a superiority which Is amusingly asserted on board mail-steamers), it has very great defects of its own, and in certain circumstances degenerates into the intoli;r- able. One tendency of life in India is to creat(! an iuunenso amount of conceit, and to make men assume airs of su- periority, not because of any superiority of mind or char- acter, or on account of great services rendered to the state, but simply because long residence in the country, or in some particular district of it, has given them high appointments, or tho advantage as regards local knowl- edge. Then, tliough mihtary society has many good points, * discipline must be observed,' and It was in per- fect good faith, and expressing his own opinion as well as that whii-h he believed to bo generally entertained, that an old Indian remarked to me, ' We don't think mucli of any one's opinions hero until ho is a lieutenant-colonel at least.' Of course, in all countries opinions are often meas- ured by the position of tho spokesman, but in Europe that is not so much tho case as in India, and in our happier climos it is easy to slum the society of snobs, wliether social or intellectual, without becoming a social pariah. This social tendency is not corrected, but developed rather than otherwise, by a close bureaucracy, such as the Indian Ci\1l Service— and there is no other element in the com- munity sufflciently strong to coiTcct it— while it is almost ,iu8tified by tho extraordinary effect India has in rapidly producing intense conceit and insuffernblo presumption among Europeans of a low order of mind and character, whatever classes of tho community they may belong to. Nothing struck mo more in that country than the contrast between its elevating and even ennobling etfocts on those Europeans whose minds were abo.e a oertain level, and its exactly contrary effects on almo *t all those who were bo- low that level. What. then. Indian society has specially to struggle against are two apparently oi>posite tendencies, a slavish respect for more position, and for exceptional power and knowledge in particul.ir directions; and, on tho other hand, excessive individual conceit and presumption. Rut those evil tendencies (which, curiously enough, be- long also to the Indian native character) are not opposed in any such way as to counteract each other. On tho contrary, they are apt to foster and inflame each other, because the old Indi.an justly sees that ho has opposed to him an immenso deal of ignorant prestimption, which ought to be severely repressed, while the democrat and the grilHn instinctively feel that thoy are oppressed by an amount of tryrannlcal old-fogyism which would not bo allowed to exist in anj' other country." — (" Abode of Snow," by Andrew Wilson, p. 56.) the consideration of morality, but we must bo allowed to consider the influence of empire on the political cliaracter of tlic imperial country. Our free institutions witli tlie character on which they rest, and the corruption of which they wouL not survive, are supposed, apart from sentiment, to be objects of paramount importance. The ad- dition of an uncon.-ititutional title to tlie constitu- tional titles of the British soverei}:n seems aptly to symbolize a tendency already perceptible, and which that measure was perhaps j)artly intended to assist. Dependencies, even under the mildest system, must be governed on principles wholly different from these of a constitutional polity, and, though superior minds may be able to keep the distinction between the two spheres always be- fore them, and to don tho despot without doffing tho citizen, in ordinary minds the lines of aepa- rate allegiance will become more or less blurred and the indefeasible sanctity of freedom will be lost. The effect will bo intensified by every re- bellion which breaks out in a dependency, and, after exciting the passions of the imperial nation, is quenched in servile blood. It was for this rea- son that many people who were by no means admirers of the East India Company deprecated its abolition, and the political identification of India with England which necessarily ensued. The company being under the control of the Briti.sh Government, the responsibility under the old system was the same, but the danger of po- litical contagion was not so great. Anglo-Indians, as a body, return rich ; thoy must therefore have some political influence, and it would be interesting to know what their politi- cal tendencies are, and what sort of citizens In- dia scuds back to England. In former days, be- fore the dependencies were controlled, both East Indian nabobs and West Indian planters avenged the oppressed native upon the dominant race by playing a leading part in the corruption of the English Parliament. It was on the East India Bill and with the support of the nabobs that George III. gaim d tho victory over the constitu- tion which established his ascendency, and en- abled him to bring a train of calamities on the country. But the reflex influence may go deeper still and affect not only those sentiments which lie at the root of political liberty, but those which lie at the root of all civilization. A conqueror neces- sarily persuades himself that his yoke is righteous, that submission to it is loyalty, that insurrection against it is the worst of treasons. He forgets that, as Pym said when Strafford pleaded that I . *. . ^ (T. THE POLICY OF AGGRANDIZEMEXT. a4t but we must be ice of empire on iiipi'iiiil country, anu'tcr on which whicli they woul^ from sentiment, irtancc. The nd- e to tlie constitu- cign seems nptly ■ perceptible, luid s jtartly intended inder the mildest principles wholly [tional polity, and, able to keep the [)horcs always be- )t without doffing he lines of scpa- e or less blurred f freedom will be ified by every re- dependency, and, le imperial nation, t was for this rea- ere by no means mpany deprecated I identification of ecessarily ensued. ic control of the isibiiity under the the danger of po- -at. return rich ; they ical influence, and 1 what their politi- ort of citizens In- n former days, be- itrolled, both East n planters avenged dominant race by corruption of the on the East India ■ the nabobs that over the constitu- ^cendency, and en- ' calamities on the ' go deeper still and its which lie at the those which lie at A. conqueror neces- is yoke is righteous, ;y, that insurrection easons. He forgets ifford pleaded that I 1 Ireland was a conrpicrcil country and you might do what you pleased in it: " If the king, by the riirht of a conciueror, gives laws to his people, the people mu must have bred in tliein " hardness of lu'art " and " callous inditt'erencc to taking human life." Sup- challenged, and, recoiving no Bnswor, flrod, and hit the poor old wretch in (piestion in the leg. lie was brought out. and soou surrounded by a noisy, ga[iiiig crowd of HoldlHfS, who clamored loudly for hi.s imuiedlato execu- tion, expressing themselves In language more remarkable by its vigor than either its elegance or its huinanitv. "Ave his nut otf," said one; 'Hang the brute," cried mi- other ; ' Put him out of mess,' said a third ; ' tiive him . Cawnporo dinner' (six inches of steel), cried a fourtb , but tho burden of all their cries was the same, and they meant death. The only person in the group who ap- peared unmoved and iuditVerent to what was uoing on was he who certainly had every right to be the most interest- ed. I mean the old man hiinself, whose stoicism one could not but admire. Ho must have read his fate u hundred times over in the angry gestures and looks of his captors, but never once did he open his lips to supplicate for mer- cy, or betray either ag'tatiou or emotion, giving one the idea of a man bored by the noise and the i)roceedings generally, but not otherwise affected. His was a case which h.ardly demanded a long or elaborate trial. Ho was a native— ho could give no account of himself— he had been found prowling about our position at night ; stealth- ily moving among houses, every one of which contained a ([uantity of gunpowder, and where, for aught we knew, and as was more than probable, mines may have existed, which a spark dropped from his hand would have Ignited — or he was a spy, or — but what need of more? In this time of stern and summary justice (?) such evidence was more than ample ; ho was given over to two men. who received orders to ' destroy him ' (tho expression usually emploj-ed on those occasions, and implying in Itself how dreadfully common such executions had become), and they led him away. This point being ecttlod, the soldiers returned to their games of cards and their jiipes, and seemed to feel no further interest in the matter, except when tho two executioners returned, and one of their com- rades carelessly asked, ' Well, Bill, what did yer do to him ? ' ' Oh.' said the man as he wijicd the blood off an old tidwar, with an air of cool and horrible inditTerence which no words cm convey—' oh, sliced his 'ed otf,' resum- ing his rubber, and dropping the subject much a.s a man might who had drowned a litter of puppies" (page 1.-,. This old man, it will bo observed, was not a Sepoy, ho was only a native, and not tho slightest .attenipt appears to have been made to verify tho suspicion as to a mine of gunpowder. In the next case tho victim was a Sepoy, taken in a skirmish, in which a British otiicer of a Sikh regiment had fallen : " Infuriated beyond measure by the death of their offi- cer, the Sikhs (assisted, I regret to say, by some English- men) proceeded to take their revenge on this one wretch- ed man. Seizing him by the two legs, tliey attempted to tear him in tu-o. Failing in this, they dragged him along by the legs, stabbing him in the face with their bayonets as they went. I could see the \ioor wi'eteh writh- ing as the blows fell upon him, and could hear his moans as his captors dug the sharp bayonets into his laceriited and trampled body, while his blood, trickling down, dyed the white sand over which he was being dragg'^d. But tho worst was yet to come ; while still alive, though faint : I > ; I' I' I i 548 THE PoPULAn SCIENCE MOXTULV.—SrPPLEMEXT. poso these rebfls had l)ccn natives of Aljjjcna, aiiJ the executioners French Zoimvcs, Hhould wo not imve been eoiilirnn'il in tiie belief that Alge- riu WHS u (ioiibtfui guin to 1-' ranee 'i Tiie Sepovs were mutineers. Hut tlic people ot Oiiile were not mutineers. Tiiey wire fi;,'ht- iiij;, most unwisely, no doubt, but not uiiiiaturally, lor their native dynasty. Their crime cannot be said to liave been worse than that of the Scotch Jacobites, who are now objects of historic sym- pathy ; yet they were incluiled in the nndiscrim- inatiii!^ Hlau<^hter. Lord Elgin was above the suspicion of pseu- do-philanthropy, or of any weutiiiess or illusion which could interfere with a rational pursuit of British interests. For that reason we shall make u free use of his testimony, as recorded in his "Letters and Diary." Visitin*,' India, on his way to China, at the time of the mutiny, he came ' into contact with the .spirit of sanguinary terror- | ism evoked among the dominant race ; and the impression which it made upon him is not doubt- ful : i ^^ Aiir/iist 21.^/. — It is a terrible business, how- ever, this living among inferior races. I have sel- dom from man or woman since I cume to the East ! heard a sentence which was reconcilable with the : hypothesis that Christianity had ever come into the world. Detestation, contempt, ferocity, ven- : geance, whether Chinamen or Indians be the ob- ' ioct. There are some three or four hundred ser- vants in this house. When one first i>asses by . their salaamimr, one feels a little awkward. But the feelinLf soon wears oft', and one moves among them with perfect inditferenco, treating them, not as dogp, >)ccause in that case one would whistle to tlum and pat them, but as machines Avith which one can have no communion or sympathy. Of course, those who can speak the language are somewhat more en rapport with the natives ; but very slii^htly so I take it. When the passions of fear and hatred are ingrafted on this indifference, the result is friirhtful : an absolute callousness to the sufferings of the object=> of those passions, which must be witnessed to be understood and believed. and fcohio from his many wnunds, ho was (lolibor.atfly pl.iced upon a sniall pile of dry 8ti<'ks, which had been improvised for the purposi;. and tliore held down, in spite of his dyins strns^Tles, which, bccomins; weaker and more feeble every moment, wore, from their verv faintness and futile desperation, cruel to behold. Once, diirins: this friprhtful operation, the wretched victim, maddened by pain, manageit to break a ....y from his tonnenters, and, already horribly burnt, fled a short distance, but ho was immediately broiicht back and placed upon the fire, and there held till life was extinct." Englishmen were look- injr on all the time ! Aiiijuiit 22il. — tells nu; that yester- day, nt dinner, the fact that (iovernment had re- movcil some commissioners who, not content with hanging all the rebels they could lay tlu'ir hainls on, had been insulting them by destroying their caste, telling them that after death th'.'y shotild be cast to dogs to be devoured, etc., was nu'iitioned. A ri^vft'end gentleman could not understand the coiuluct of Government ; c(Uild not see that tiiero was any impropriety in torturing men's houIs ; seemed to think that a gootl deal might be said for torturing their bodies as well. These are your teachers, () Israel ! Imagine what the pupils be- come under such leading 1" (page lit!)). Subsetiucntly, its governor-general, Lord Elgin had the opportunity of lea'-ning more of these events from sources which he deemed authentic: " The feeling of the natives of India toward Canning was in some measure duo to a similar cause. The clamor for blood and indiscrimimito vengeance which raged around him, and the abuse poured upon him because ho would not listen to it, imparted in their eyes to acts whieh carried justice to the very verge of severity the grace of clemency. I could give you plenty of proofs of this. . . . The following sentences occur in a let- ter written from Delhi during our recent panic by an officer: . . . 'The luitive force here is much too small to be a source of anxiety, and, uidess they take the initiative, it is my ojiinion that there can bo no important rising. The Mussulmans of Del- hi are a contemptible race. Fanatics are very rare on this side of the Sutlej. The terrors of that period when every man who had two enemies was sure to swing are not forgotten. The people de- clare that the work of Nadir Shah was as nothing to it. Ills executions were completed in twelve hours. But, for months after the last fall of Delhi, no one was sure of his own lite or that of the being dearest to him for an hour.' " We might fancy ourselves reading an account of the reign of terror in Ireland after the rising in '98. That all this is not English, that it is ut- terly at variance with the general character of the English'people, is certain ; every candid crit- ic of English society would say so ; but no char- acter is independent of circumstance, and if wc choose to put ourselves into the circumstances of foreign conquerors, into the place of Nadir Shahs, the natural consequences will ensue. There is nothing to save us from them, any more than there was to save the Spanish conquerors of Mex- ico. From Egypt we shall infallibly be drawn on to Abyssinia; and in Abyssinia, if not in Egypt, there is likely to be just as bloody work as there [ has been in Kindostan. I Increased facilities of communication and rep- I 4 f ' lilt; tlint yestor- crniiunt luul re- liot t'l'Iltl'Ilt witli lay tlu'ir luiiuls ilrstriiyiiifr tlicir 1 tlivy sliipiilil Ill- was iDi'iitionc'd. t uiulcrstaml tliu ot see tliut tlioro li,' men's souls ; tl nii^lit bu said Tlifse are your it tlic pui)ilrt 1)0- I'.tit). noral, Lord Eljfiu s, more of these eiiicd authentic : of India toward duo to ft siiiiihir id iiKliscriminate im, and the abuse )uld not listen to cts whieh carried I'rity the grace of enty of proofs of CCS occur in a let- ir recent panic by e liere is much too , and, unless they ion that there can ussulmans of Del- laties are very rare he terrors of that 1 two enemies was . The people de- ah was as nothing npleted in twelve 3 last fall of Delhi, ir that of the being eadlng an account nd after the rising glish, that it is ut- icral character of every candid crit- |r so ; but no char- istancc, and if wc the circumstances le place of Nadir s will ensue. There em, any more than conquerors of Mex- lUibly be drawn on a, if not in Egypt, )ody work as there iiunication and rep- I THE POLICY OF AGGRAXDIZIJMEXT. )4!) rc:*cntuti(m now bring scenes enacted in a distant depeiidt n( \ completely home to the mimls of the people in the imperial country, to as closely to identify them witii all that they do not repudiate and condemn. And when did the people of an imperial country heartily repudiate and effectual- ly condemn acts necessary, or plausiMy alleged to be noee^Hury, to the maintenance of their own ise of the Egyptian Fellah there would be no groat obstacle of this kind ; but the Fellah would probably be an object of still greater contempt than the Hindoo. From war we h ive saved Iiidi >. But what if in doing so we have unwittingly aggravated the danger of famine? What if, in t!ie calm biit en- feebling security created by our rule, a helpless and shiftless population has multiplied without any limit but that of bare subsistence, to be the prey of this periodical destroyer, or to be rescued only by Government aid on an enormous scale? We may well feel proud both of the humanity which accepts the burden, and of the adminis- trative vigor w ith which it is borne. Yet this may be an instance of the tendency of interference with tl e course of Nature in other countries to work out in unexpected ways. Since England has taken India into her own hands, her sense of responsibility has compelled her to introduce improvements, administrative and educational, on the pattern of the best Euro- pean civilization. But can India afford this sys- tem ? Can she afford it when she has to pay exile price for all her officials, and to give them all large pensions besides ? She is gorgeous, but, in proportion to her population, poor. The Duke of Wellington is reported to have said of her : "She is a magnificent country, and it would be a shame to govern her ill ; but it would be ruinous to govern her well." With an annual deficit always called extraordinary, yet regularly recur- ring, is it certain that the duke's saying will not prove true? Bankruptcy is a foe at least as inuch to be dreaded by the Anglo-Indian Govern- ment as the Russian legions which fancy sees descending from the clouds of the Himalayas. From bankruptcy the Indian GoTer.iinent is in fact saved only by the revenue from the opium- traflic, which, as the present Secretary of State for India said in defending it, "involves incon- veniences of princijjle, but is wrapped up in our finances." Inconveniences of principle the traffic does seem to involve, when we consider that it is not mer.,ly, like the liquor-traffic in this coun- try, a trac 3 licensed by Government, but a Gov- ernment trade. The Chinese Government is semi-barbarous, but it is paternal ; and there is no reason for doubting the sincerity of its desire to save the 30uls and bodies of its people from the ravages of this hellish drug. But we, im- pelled bv financial exigency, constrain the Chi- nese to admit it and bombard Canton when they refuse. The excuses put forward — that Govern- ment limits the traffic by undertaking it, and that private villainy might commit the crime if Government did not — would hardly impose upon a child. Such, however, is the pillar of Indian finance and it can hardly be thought adaman- tine, u;ilcss morality and religion cease to be forces in the world. XT. THE POLICY OF AGGRANDIZEMENT. 551 1 t!ie calm but en- ur rule, a ht'lplesa iiultiplicd without iistcnce, to be tlie r, or to be rescued 1 enormous scale ? of the humanity d of the aduiiiiis- >rne. Yet this may cy of interference other countries to ndia into her own lity has compelled its, administrative of the best Euro- lia afford this sys- n she has to pay , and to give them le is gorgeous, but, 1, poor. The Duke have said of her : , and it would be a t would be ruinous an annual deficit et regularly recur- e's saying will not a foe at least as iglo-Indian Govern- which fancy sees ' the Himalayas, lian Goverament is lue from the opium- Sceretary of State t, "involves incon- wrnpped up in our principle the traffic ve consider that it traffic in this coun- ;rnment, but a Gov- se Government is ernal ; and there is ncerity of its desire of its people from Irug. But we, im- constrain the Chi- l Canton when they yard — that Govcrn- indertaking it, and ommit the crime if hardly impose upon he pillar of Indian )c thought adaman- jligion cease to be The propagation of Christianity will hardly be alleged as the object of Jiritish conquest in India or anywhere else, especially «8 the governing class of the imperial nation is itself rapidly tending in a very ditrerent direction. Whatever else Chris- tianity may be, it is not a religion of conquest. Its founder.s, and that later body of apostles who evangelized and civilized the northern tribes, pre- sented themselves at all events as purely spiritual agencies, wholly unconnected with military power or with blowing rebels away from guns. A mem- ber of the Society for the Propagation of the Gos- pel would, perhaps, be shock'jd by the suggestion that whatever is best and most spiritual in the nature of a Hindoo would be likely to restrain him from abandoning the religion of his fathers to embrace the religion of the conqueror. If the number of converts made by the Church of Eng- land in Ituiia, backed as she i'^ by power and wealth, were compared with the number made by Xavier, taking the latter at the lowest possible estimate, the result would be by no means flatter- ing to political religion. Nor, if the testimony of the shrewdest observere may be trusted, are the converts of Xavier likely to have been less re- spectable or less sincere than those made by the Church of England. The political dominion of India is a legacy from generations, tlie political aims, the commer- cial policy, the public morality, and the general conditions of wiiich were different from ours. Whether, if it were offered to us now for the first time, we should do wisely in accepting it — whether it would not be better to secure free commercial access without political dominion — may be rea- sonably doubted. In fact, even the generations by which the empire was founded were drawn on for the most part, not only without design, but against their wishes, and were always trying to set a limit to the progress of conquest, though they could never succeed in doing so.^ But, by a course of events which there is little use in dis- cussing, as it cannot now be reversed, India has become ours ; and nobody would now propose that we should either give it up or let it be taken fron» us. Independently of imperial pride, we are bound to maintain our hold on it by strong bonds both of duty and of hiterest. Our depart- ure, after siipprjssing the native governments and destroying the organizing forces, would con- sign the country to a sanguinary anarcliy, and place in jeopardy British property and invest- » See tho proface to Mr. Sidney Owon's "Selection from Marquis Wellesloy's Dispitches," and tho dispatches them- solvos. ments, the aggregate value of which can hardly be less than four hundred millions. Still, of the two objects, India and England, the most spirited advocate of aggrandizement must allow that Eng- land is to be preferred, and therefore that there is a limit to the perils to be incurred, and the sacrifices to be made, for the sake of India. Some things have been mentioned which seem to show that this limit is not entirely beyond the horizon, and even that, unless Indian finances assume a more hopeful aspect, it may come very distinctly into view. There are tn'O ways of keeping our hold on India. One, and no doubt the more certain while it lasts, is to forego internal improvement, and to lavish the earnings of our people in the mainte- nance of armaments large enough to command the Mediterranean, at the same time occupying Egypt and every place else that maybe necessary in order literally to annex India to England by an unbroken line of British territories, fortresses, and waters. The other way is to keep on good terms with the Mediterranean nations. What- ever depends on amity must be to some extent precarious. But there is no apparent reason why this amity should be broken. Our possession of India does not hurt or menace the Mediterranean nations in the slightest degree; it benefits them, so long as we keep the Indian ports open to their trade, and it need not give them any sort of um- brage. To do wanton mischief may be in their power, but there is no ground for presuming that they will be inclined to do it, especially as they would obviously hurt themselves. As to the po- tentate, whoever he may be, through whose ter- ritory the Suez Canal runs, he will surely be no more tempted to destroy or close it than a turn- pike man is tempted to nail up his own gate. That Russia meditates an invasion of British India is a belief which, if it were not shared by some persons of mark, we should be inclined to call a chimera. Mere proximity does not denote hostile designs ; if it did, there would be no peace on earth. The natural barrier between the two empires is stronger than that between any other two conterminous countries in the world. If Russia, reckoning by mere miles, without regard to obstacles, is near to us, we are equally near to her; and if she has arrived at this position by continual additions of territory, we have done the same. Both empires have grown in the same manner, and one as naturally as the other, by ex- tension in a sort of political vacuum, where noth- ing opposed them but the arms of barbarous or ba!f-civilized powers. In each case, probably. 552 TJIB POPULAR SCIENCE MONTULY.— SUPPLEMENT. ' J: i l\ the growth has been to a great extent ir. de- signed, and evt-n involuntary, though we persist ill ascribing to deliberate and far-reaching ambi- tion on the part of Russia that which we know, on our own part, is to be ascribed to nothing of the kind. That either England or Russia, having reached the foot of the Himalayas by extending her empire over regions unoccupied by any civil- ized nation, will proceed to scale the Himalayas for the purpose of attacking another grc;'c Euro- pean power, is as little to be presumed <■■, it is to be presumed that the tide will scale the cliff be- cause it has raced in over a sandy flat. The movements of Russia farther west are assignable to an obvious cause, and one totally unconnected with any imaginable designs on India. Every great and growing power is led by a natural im- pulse to make its way to an open sea. England would hardly submit to being corked up in the Dardanelles in order to gratify the jealous appie- hensions of Russia, and she cannot expect that Rus ia will complacently submit to being corked up in order to gratify hers. Suppose Russia, like ourselves, obtains the full freedom of the Medi- teiTanean. All diplomatists and Russophobists hold up their hands in horror at the thought. But what is the specific evil which would ensue ? Why is Sebastopol, or, if it came to that, Constan- tinople, so much more likely to be dangerous than Brest? If Russia is provoked, she will very likely give us trouble in India ; but why should she be provoked ? It is assumed that the Suez Ca al would be available in time of war. This is a point on which, of course, we cannot presume to form an opinion ; but it lies so near the root ( f the whole question that it is to be hoped a deliberate opinion will be formed. To occujiy Egypt in de- fiance of the wrath and future hostility of France, to go to the expense of creating armaments pow- erful enough to command the eastern Mediterra- nean, and then to see the object for which all this had been done practically annihilated by a few shillings' worth of dynamite or the scuttling of an old ship, would be mortifying in the extreme. Already our nervous anxloty about the canal has brought an avalanche of calamity on the world. To avoid this war with all its horrors, and the danger of further '•onflfgration which it involves, it was necessary that from the outset separate interests should be suppressed, and that the crisis should be treated as a European one, to be dealt with by the common councils of Europe. But hardly had it arrived when Fr;'' iid avowed her intention of separately securmg her own in- terests, and pounced upon the Suez Canal. T)'*j was the signal that a wreck had commenced, and that everybody nmst look out for himself Everybody did look out for himself; every- body made his own game. Cordial cooperation thenceforth was impossible, and the inevitable re- sult was this war — a war which puts back civili- zation. Lord Derby has said that of British in- terests the greatest is peace, and what Lord Derby says is always wise. If we ask why Lord Derby did not make a sincere and resolute effort to pre- serve the greatest of British interests by enforc- ing in common with Russia and the other powers the reforms to which Turkey was pledged, and which, if vigorously pressed, she would most cer- tainly have conceded, the answer will partly be that this obvious line of policy was crossed by the alarm about the Suez Canal and the interests of England in the East. Egypt no doubt differs greatly in some respects from India. But in Egypt, as in India, you would have a dominant and a subject race. You would have a foreign government ruling, on arbitrary principles, over people divided from the officials by a wide soci d gulf The reflex action on the character of he imperial country would probably be much the same. In the course of empire, one act of aggran- dizement leads to another. The conquest of a small territory round the British factories in India has led to the conquest of the whole country. This, again, leads to the occupation of Egypt. India being in the hands of England, no one will deny that the occupation of Egypt, in case of a break-up of the Turkish Empire, presents itself as a natural question for consideration. But the advocates of the measure must allow it to be fiiirly discussed, and not think to settle it by im- pugning the patriotism of their opponents, though, as wc have already admitted, the nation is just now in a mood in which such appeals are likely to tell. If the party of moderation is inferior to the party of aggrandizement in anything, it is not in love of the country, but in power of discerning her true interests. It does not seem to itself to be advocating a policy of weakness. It holds that, as we said before, the strength of England is in herself, and that she derived more real strength from one of her own counties than she docs from all her foreign dependencies put to- gether. It holds, in fact, that acquisition of ter- ritory which is not self-defending is extension, not of strength, but of weakness ; and in proof of the fact it may cite, amonp; other things, the per- petual complaints of its opponents that the em- mi. THE POLICY OF AGGRAN-DIZEMENT. 553 Suez Cunal. Tl-'j c had coiiiiuenced, )k out for liimselt". r liiniiiclf; evory- Jordial cooperation id the inevitable re- ch puts back civili- tli;it of British in- nd what Lord Derby Lsk wliy Lord Deriiy ssolute etl'ort to prc- intercsts by enforc- nd tlie other powers ■y was pledged, and she would most cer- iswcr will partly be dicy was crossed by aal and the interests jatly in some respects s in India, you would !Ct race. You would ruling, on arbitrary led from the officials reflex action on the untry would probably e, one act of aggran- The conquest of a itish factories in India f the whole country, occupation of Egypt. ' England, no one will f Egypt, in case of a ilmpiro, presents itself msideration. But the must allow it to bo ink to settle it by im- lelr opponents, though, ted, the nation is just uch appeals are likely oderation is inferior to it in anything, it is not in power of discerning !3 not seem to itself to f weakness. It holds 3 strength of England he dcrivci:: more real own counties than she I dependencies put to- that acquisition of ter- endiug is extension, not ness ; and in proof of ?; other things, the per- opponcnts that the em- pire is unfortified, and their unheeded cries for further expenditure in defenses.' It avows that its main objects of interest are not external but internal, and that it is less solicitous about remote acquisitions, and tliose posts in Asia the names of which are dear and familiar to the pundits of Kussophobia, than about the many millions of Englishmen who at present share only to a very miserable extent the advantages, moral, intellect- ual, or material, of English eivilizaticm. It docs not admit that this is "parochialism," unless England is a parish. It desires, at all events, to see the proof that aggrandizement is good for the whole English peoi)le. As to the question of courage or cowaidice, which is LJomctimes raised ir. the fervor of debate, statesmen and journalists, however bellicose, do not go to the front; and the only way in which they can show courage of any kind is by manfully expressing what sectn to them true opinions, though they may happen to ?je unpopular at the tiuie. To make a perfectly clean breast, we will con- fess that there are some peoi)le who believe that the consecration of filibustering nationality is rather out of date; that the day of humanity has dawned, and that to resent its arrival is about as rational as to resent the arrival of autumn or anything else that the curse of Nature brings. It is the more desirable that at this crisis, on which the policy of the future may depend, there should be a full discussion of the subject in the press (which is now, more truly than rarliament, the great council of the nation), and that the mind of England should be deliberately made up, be- cause otherwise her hand may be forced by agen- cies which the respectable advocates of aggran- dizement would disown, though they can hardly hi'lp warming them into life by encouraging the general tendency and decrying the principles which rcf^train it. For a description of these agencies we will once more have recourse to Lord Elgin, who encountered them in China, where tliey have more than once been successful in drawing England into a use of her power which, it is to be hoped, no party among us would have deliberately approved : " I never felt so ashamed of myself in my life, ami Elliot remarked that the trip seemed to have nuule me sad. Tiiere we were, accumulating the moms of destruction under the very eyes, and within the reach, of a population of about 1,000,000 1 Tho Canadian riovorninent wns nskcd tlio otlior dny, l)y an oiiiiiipiit orKan of ftpKTnndlzcinpnt. to qumh-iiple its inililary oxpcndituro, and this in Ww fuoo of a fidlintJ ro" cniic. YdU nd^'lit literally ns Wfil usk the Canadian Gov- ornment for tholr heads. people, against whom these means of destruction were to be employed ! ' Yes,' 1 said to Elliot, ' I am sad, bceuuse when I look at that town, 1 feel that I am earning for myself a place in the Litany immediately alter " plague, pustilenee, and fam- ine." I believe, however, that, as far as I am concerned, it was impossible for me to do other- wise than as I have done. I could not have aban- dimed the demand to eutL-r the city after what happened last winter, without compromising our position in China altngetlier, and opening the way to ealamities even greater than those now before us. I niade my demands on Yeh as moderate as 1 could, so as to give hiiu a chance of accepting ; al- tliough, if he had accepted, I knew that I should have brought on my head the imprecations both of the navy and army and of the civilians, the time being given \>y the missionaries and the women. And now Yeh having refused, I shall do whatever I can possibly do to secure the adoption of plans of attack, etc., waich will luad to the least de- struction of life and property.' . . . The weath- er is ehanning ; the thermometer about Gu" in the shade in the morning ; the sun powerful, and the atmosphere beautifully clear. When we steamed up to Canton, luul saw the rich alluviu' banks covered with tlii; luxuriant evidenees of u' rivaled industry and natural fertility eombineu ; heyond them, barien uplands, sprinkled with a soil of reddisli tint, wliich gave them the ai>pear- ance of heather slopes in the Highlands ; and be- \ j\\'\ these again, the white-cloud mountain-rangL', standing out bold and blue in the clear sunshine, I thought bitterly of thofie who, for the most selfish objects, are trampling under loot this ancient civil- ization.''— (" Letters and Journals," page 21-J.) " I am now oif from Canton, never, I hope, to see it again. Two month" I have been there, en- gaged in this painful service, clucking, as I have been best able to do, the disposition to maltreat this mfortunate people. . . . On the whole! think I have been successful. There never was a Chinese town which suffered so little by the occupation of a hostile force ; and, considcrina the ditflculti(^s which our alliance with tho French (thouirh I have had all sui.port from Gros, in so far as he cim trivo it) has occasioned, it is a very signal success. Tho good p>ople at IIong-Kong, etc., do not know wheth' .'to be incredulous or disgusted at this pol- icy" (page 224). " The settlement hero is airainst treaty. Tt consists mainly of agents of the two great opium houses, Dent and Jardine, with their hangers-on. This, with a considerable business in the coolie trade — which consists in kidnapping wretched coolies, putting them on board ships where all the horrors of tho slave-trade are reproduced, and sending them on Mpccious i)romises to such places as Cuba— is the chief business of the 'foreign' merchants at Swatow " (page 22*1). " Besides, I own that I have a conscientious ■ I I 654 THE POPUL^^R SCIENCE MONTnLY.— SUPPLEMENT. feeling on the subject. I am sure that in our rela- tions with those Chinese wo have acted scandal- ously, and I would not have been a party to tlio measures of violence which have been taken, if I had not believed that I could work out of them some good for them. Could I leave this, the real- ly noblest part of my task, to be worked out by others ? Any one could have obtained the Treaty of Tientsin. AVhat was really meritorious was, that it should have been obtained at so small a cost of human sulfering. But this is also what dis- credits it in the eyes of ma/t!/, of almost ail, liere. If we had carried on war for some years, if we had carried misery and desolation all over the empire, it would have been thought quite natural that the emperor should have been reduced to accept the terms imposed upon him at Tientsin. But to do all this by means of a demonstration at Tientsin ! The announcement was received with a yell of de- rision by connoisseurs and baffled speculators in tea" (page 280). " IJavo you read Russell's book on the Indian mutiny ? I have done so, and I reeonnneml it to you. It has made mo very sad ; but it only eon- firms what I believed before respecting the scan- dalous treatment which the natives received at our hands in India. I am glad that he has had courage to speak out as he does on this jioint. Can I do anything to prevent England frcmi culling down on her.self God's curse lor brutalities eounnitted on anotlier feeble Oriental race? Or are all my exertions to result only in the extension of the area over which Englishmen are to exhibit how hollow and superficial are both their civilization and their Christianity i The tone of the two or three men connected with mercantile houses in China, whom I lind on board, is all for blood and massacre on a great scale. I hope they will bo disappointed ; but it is not a cheerful or hopeful prospect, look at it from what side one may " (page 325). Lord Elgin, we repeat, was neither a pseudo- philanthropist nor a patriot of every country but his own ; he was wanting neither in British feel- ing nor in courage ; and the records of his ex- perience deserve attention, as well as the snort- ings of the war-horses on the Stock Exchange and in Tall Mall. — Fortn'ifjhlly Review. 4_ /I '> THE SKEPTICISM or BELIEYEES. By LESLIE STEPHEN. NOT long ago an interesting question was discussed by a respectable and presumal)ly competent meeting. Why, it was asked, does not the spiritual warfare against the unbeliever meet with greater success ? A " materialistic atheism." as a high authority assured us, is " in the air ; " and the malign contagion spreads in spite of Bampton lecturers, Christian Evidence Societies, and other apologetic ninchiuery. At all which it is hard not to exclaim, Sancta simpli- citas! Can you really not guess this very open secret ? Men die of many diseases ; creeds of one — the disease of being found out. Do you ever remember that David Iluine died ." century ago, and that the matter which absorbs the in- tellects of the most zealous part of the clergy at the present day is the " eastward position ? " When such a spectacle as the Folkestone case is presented to gods and men, what wonder that unbelief spreads ? If a more articulate reply were requested, one might perhaps say that the old belief is perishing chiefly for two reasons: first, because it has become a sham belief; sec- ondly, because it is a negative belief. No man can make converts who does not believe what he says ; nor will he, as a general ride, make them rapidly, when his creed consists chiefly in deny- ing the strongest and most fruitful convictions of his neighbors. I shall not hero inquire into the first of these explanations ; but it may be worth while briefly to defend the other, which, indeed, is, at first sight, in greater need of de- fense. It sounds paradoxical to declare that the or- thodox belief is essentially skeptical. The infi- del is popularly identified with the Mephistophe- Ics, whose essence it is to deny. He denies, it is said, a hereafter and a divine clement in the present. That denial implies the abandonment of the most cheering hopes and highest aspira- tions of mankind. To bring the charge of skep- ticism against those who arc fighting against ma- terialism and atheism is at best to indulge in a frivolous tu quoipie. A parallel phrase, however, is common on the lips of the orthodox. It is a commonplace to taunt skeptics with credulity, I nor is the taunt without foundation. So long as ; men of science continue to dabble in the filth of [ " spiritualiam" it will have a meaning. A con- ; fessor is, after all, better than a medium ; and I I ■i % lENT. atives received at our lat lie lias Lad courage this ])oiiit. Can I do d troin calling down brutalities couimittcd race J Or are all my the extension of the n are to exhibit liow lotli their civilization e tone of the two or mercantile houses in I, is all for blood and I hope they will be a clieerful or hopeful rhat side one may " sas neither a pseudo- of every country but leither in British fcol- he records of his ex- as well as the snort- ; Stock Exchange and Forhurjldly Rcviciv. loral rule, make them nsiirits chiefly in deny- st fruitful convictions not hero inquire into tions ; but it may be end the other, which, n ;rrcater need of de- to declare that the or- y skeptical. The infi- with the Mcphistophe- deny. He denies, it is ilvinc clement in the ilics the abandonment es and highest aspira- ng the charge of skep- re fighting against ma- at best to indulge in a ,rallel phrase, however, the orthodox. It is a :cptic3 with credulity, oundation. So long as > dabble in the filth of re a meaning. A con- than a medium ; and I