FRENCH COLONISATION.
L'Avenir Colonial de la Prance. Par E. Fallot. (Ch. Delagrave, Paris. 5 fr.)—It is not every one who knows that France is at present the second Colonial Power in the world, if we measure by square miles of territory and millions of inhabitants. Judged by this standard, her Colonial Empire even exceeds our own, if India be deducted from the latter; though, of course, in more important respects there is no possible comparison. By far the larger part of existing French dominions overseas was won under the Third Republic, and the new problems which their possession has raised for urgent solution are very clearly and sensibly set forth ia M. Fallot's admirable book. In the brief preface contributed by M. Rene Millet we learn that this work had an interesting origin. A technical school was recently founded at Tunis for the training of intending colonists. Unfortunately there were no available funds for the payment of teachers, and the French officials had to volunteer their services. One of the most enthusiastic of these lecturers was M. Fallot, who was then in charge of the statistical and immigration departments of the Tunis Administra- tion. From his lectures has arisen the present volume, which gives a remarkably clear and well-arranged account of the present colonial possessions of France, and discusses the problem of their future treatment and prospects in the light of an historical survey of the colonising experience of other countries. M. Fallot is a great admirer of the English colonial system, from whose success he deduces many useful lessons for his countrymen. In as admirable chapter on English colonisation he rightly points out that the growth of our vast Empire beyond the seas is not solely due—as foreigners sometimes assume—to a peculiar Anglo-Saxon faculty which they despair of imitating. "A careful study of the history of English colonisation will con. vince us," says M. Fallot, "that the unprecedented success which has attended the English in the foundation of their colonies is not due to any miraculous gift of nature, but to their ability to profit by fortunate circumstances, and above all to the perseverance and methodical spirit which they brought to bear on policy as well as on administration, and which impelled them to draw their chief inspiration from the lessons of experience. With them, when a system has once been definitely put to the test of practice, and has thus proved defective, it is definitely condemned, and no time is wasted in listening to the arguments of its advocates in future. But in place of hastening to replace it by the diametrically opposed system, as is too often the ease in French colonies, they gradually modify it until no ground is left for the adverse criticism which it justified at first. The English have long known a thing which the French do not yet seem to understand,—namely, that no ideally perfect system of administration exists; that in substituting one system for another it is certain that a new set of imperfections will replace the old, and that it is consequently preferable to be con- tent with correcting such imperfections as fast as they are revealed by experience." It would be hard to give a better account of the secret of our colonial success than is to be found in this brief passage, which serves N. Fallot as a text for a full exposition of the remarkable varieties of our colonial system. He has perhaps overrated the continuity of our colonial policy in the nineteenth century, but this is a venial fault in a work which is mainly designed as an admonition to the French. As far as the facts of colonial administration go, N. Fallot's accuracy deserves all praise. His criticism of the cast- iron uniformity which the French Government has attempted to impose on all its colonies, without any consideration of differences in social, ethnic, and economic conditions, is full of acute good sense. In a final chapter M. Fallot deals with the future of the colonial possessions of the Third Republic, pointing out that a necessary consequence is a complete change in the relations of France to the world; her outlook is no longer Continental, but world-wide. The true use of colonies, he adds, is to be "a nursery of men," and there seems to be good ground for hoping that the depopulation which has so long alarmed all who have the interest of France at heart may be checked by the new prospects which Africa and Indo-China offer to young Frenchmen who have souls above the cafe and the boulevard.
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