We do not, of course, know whether General Miles is
a person whose judgment is to be completely trusted in the matter of accepting and rejecting evidence, though of his bona fides there can be no question. That a good deal of misconduct of a kind which deserves the severest punishment did take place, however, we cannot doubt. At the same time, we must not forget that the American troops suffered very great provocation, and that stragglers were repeatedly enticed into the villages and literally cut to pieces or tortured to death in indescribable ways. Barbarism in white men is not, of course, to be excused by barbarism in yellow, but as we know from what happened in Jamaica, under Governor Eyre, the reprisals of white men are often very cruel. Nothing, however, is more true than that the Americans will never succeed in the Philippines unless they banish cruelty, and make clemency, and not reprisals, the distinguishing mark of the ruling race. The only sound foundation for Empire is justice, and mercy is a part of justice. The Americans are not by nature cruel any more than the race from whom they spring, but " the brightness of Columbian air" has given them, besides alertness of body and mind, a certain fierceness which makes them liable to act in hot blood, and in hot blood there is little equity.
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