BOOKS.
THE CHILDREN OF THE NATIONS.* THE world has changed its mind on many questions of politics, but there has never been so complete a right-about-turn as in English opinion on the Colonies during the past fifty years.
• The Children of the Mations a Study of Colonisation and its Problems. By Ponitney Bigelow. London: W. Heinemann. [10e. net.] irti the " sixties " we find Sir Frederick Rogers, afterwards Lord Blachford, when permanent Under-Secretary of the Colonial Office deliberately N6iting to Sir Henry Taylor, another important official of the Department, "I go very far with you in the desire to shake off all responsibly governed Colonies," and Taylor himself informed the Colonial Secretary that he had "long held and often expressed" the opinion that our American possessions were "a sort of damnoscs haerreditas," and that he considered that the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Newcastle "were drawing closer ties which might better be slackened." This was in 1864. It is a remarkable testimony to the worth of imagination in statecraft that the only Colonial Minister of the middle of the last century who possessed the power of foreseeing that Imperial connection which is now the leading idea in the greater politics was that fantastic meteor in the revolving official firmament, the first Lord Lytton. It was he who told some Australian gentlemen in 1863 what a future lay before them, and how great their value would be to the Mother-country to whom they were bound by a tie of affec- tion that was "all the stronger because it has been more gently felt." Lord Lytton's rhetoric was of a kind that people do not perhaps appreciate now, but his peroration was prophetic. "It may so happen," he said, "that in that distant day England may be in danger, that the great despotic and military powers of Europe may rise up against the mother of many free Commonwealths. If that day should ever arise I believe that her children will not be unmindful of her, and that to her rescue, across the wide ocean, ships -will come thick and fast, among which there will be but one cry,
While Australia lasts England shall not perish." This may be " high-falutin'," but it is true, and Lord Lytton, scholar and dreamer, realised what official pedantry refused to recognise for many a year, the essential unity of the Empire. "Spiritus intus alit, totarnque infusa per artus Mens agitat motem, et magno se corpora miscet."
It was, of course, precisely because "the tie was gently felt" that the English Colonies, after a time of fractious ill- humour fomented by injudicious Colonial Secretaries, re- mained faithful and loyal to the Crown. After reading Mr. Poultney Bigelow's suggestive pages one is forced to admit that our Colonial Empire has been a success in spite of our- selves. "England," he remarks, "has had plenty of Colonial checks ; she has committed more blunders than any other nation could have repaired and still survive." E pur se muove. The very obstacles and blunders, insurrections and Colonial wars, seem to have kept the Empire alive. On the other hand, "Spain has enjoyed comparative quiet in her Colonies for nearly three centuries. If ever a nation had a free hand for colonisation it was Spain in her early days ; and she has failed hopelessly." The reason for this failure is found simply enough in a wrong-headed policy :— " Suspicion was the keynote of Spanish colonial administra- tion. The governor or vicerGy had no sooner sailed from Spain than a commission followed him charged with the duty of report- ing secretly about him. The Crown trusted no one. Every man was suspected, and the Inquisition machinery was set in motion for political quite as much as for theological heresy Spain's legislation against emigration was due less to economic reasons than to her chronic distrust of her colonists. She instinctively felt her own weakness and acted in the belief that her children would break away from her as a matter of course. She therefore adopted the policy of keeping them individually weak, and not only that, but of forbidding on pain of death all commercial intercourse between one colony and another. The Spanish Court wanted gold and silver, but beyond that desired no commerce with the New World. She limited the number of ships that might annually cross the ocean, as she limited the number of men that sailed in them. She took no interest in supplying the New World with Spanish products—she was not intelligent enough even to be protectionist."
The suspicion of Spain, joined to her contempt for trade. alienated her colonies, which soon grew richer and more intelligent than herself ; but she never professed to be in- different to them. Her mistake was too much meddling. England's former indifference, combined with perfect freedom for the colonies to manage their own affairs, produced exactly the opposite effect. The example of England and America, moreover, did more than anything else to point the way to the independence of the Spanish colonists, who were not blind to the advantages of their neighbours under different rule. Hong-kong and Singapore had much to do with the revolt of
the Filipinos, in spite of every effort. to exclude foreign influence. "The Filipino, the Chinese, and the Creole tor. 'chant saw 'trade spring up wherever a British Governor made his residence, and only the Spanish priest and official &Edo] to check this influence," which achieved "more in tee ye,m than three centuries of Spanish rule." That the rule of Spain has lasted so long isa spite of its abuses—and it lasted 'between three a4c1 four .centuries over vast countries—is he to the splendid organisation of the Roman Church. The Catholic priest in the colonies makes a study of the art of government, and it is the study of a lifetime. He amulet come home when he has "made his pile"; he makes no pile and as a rule he dies at his post. Whatever good was don'
e in South America under Spanish rule was done by the Jesuits:
and since this meant good for the natives rather than for the planters and the Court, the Jesuits were expelled. In de Philippines the governing power has been the Church, and to
its skill and patience and knowledge of the people is dne the long permanence of a corrupt system.
Mr. Bigelow writes of what he knows. We do not mean his history, of which there is a great deal, sometimes more smart than profound, which does not pretend to go much beyond the text-books. Yet even here, since people do not read the text-books, there is much that will be wholly fresh and in- structive. On the present state of the various colonies of which he treats, however, he speaks from personal experience. He has been in Cuba during the war; he has visited the Philippines since the American invasion ; he knows Deluge • Bay, Macao, and Goa, the wreck of the "Portuguese Empire of Asia " ; he has studied the Boer at home, and visited the Germans at Siao-chow; the little Danish islands in the West Indies are familiar ground, and furnish a delightful chapter; and he has much to say of the British West Indies, the questions of Chinese labour, the white man in the tropics, French colonisation, and the spread of Russia. In every case he writes from personal observation, enlightened by study and reflection. He writes as a journalist, no doubt. Bat he is always fresh, independent, and honest, and his statements, even when based on too short an experience, have the value of photographs,—which at least truthfully represent one aspect at one time He is admirably detached in his views, never waves the Stars and Stripes of his own country in an offensive manner, and is quite, ready to see and admire the best in all foreign systems. His admiration for English ways of coloni- sation and administration is particularly flattering from an American, and his criticism of his own nation's policy is a mark of his honesty :— " It is of prime importance," he says, "that at the beginning of our colonial career we impress the Filipinos with the superiority of our civilisation to that of Spain. Our officials and soldiers should not merely be more honest, more courageous, they should also appear to the natives as in every way better worth copying The American Volunteers whom I saw about Manila resembled anything rather than the warriors of a great nation, and the fault was not theirs, but of an inefficient administration at Washington. The natural thing for an honest government to have done was to have called in the assistance of Americans who had lived in the Philippines : if that were impos- sible, then to have called in the aid of such as were at least familiar with that part of the world in general. In 1898 I could find but a single American Consul who had been a year in the Far East, and not one who knew any language but English. The men who officially represented us in Chinese waters at the out- break of the Spanish War were not only of no official value, they were in most instances disgraceful to the community that sent
them forth At the very outset, therefore, we impressed the Filipinos with the worst rather than the best features of am civilisation."
The Filipino, by the way, is a "highly intelligent creature,' whP, "of all the natives of the Far East, has a character which endears him to me." Mr. Bigelow has a poor opinion of Kiao-chow,which he considers inferior to Wei-hai-wei. He found that German merchants would not go there—there were only five to fifteen hundred soldiers and officials—prefer- ring the freedom of Hong-kong to the red-tape meddlesome- ness of German military rule. "It is impossible to do any- thing in a German colony," remarked a German planter, "there is too mach government." That is the reason that while Germany has sent out more colonists than any countrY but England, they prefer any flag to their own. Trade unquestionably does not- follow the flag when it bears the Hohenzollern eagle.
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