THE AMERICAN COLONIES. T HE American people have taken the great
plunge. They have decided to accept a great and widely divided Colonial Empire, which, under an irresistible though inexplicable historic law, will expand and ex pand until their destiny is accomplished. Their attitude seems to puzzle the Continent and some strict legists here, but it is not, we think, unintelligible or even obscure. They have already annexed Hawaii, which is in no sense an island of America, and will govern it, we presume, as a Territory, that is, through its people subject to the general control of Congress. They have avowedly annexed Porto Rico, and will, we imagine, after a short interval, make of that a Territory also, though they may for a year or two leave it to be reduced to perfect order by military agents. They have not annexed Cuba for three reasons,— first, because they do not intend to pay her Debt; secondly, because they do not know how far her population will prove loyal; and thirdly, because they do not wish to leave a half-savage mass of half-castes and negroes to govern themselves and the white men. They will wait till the island grows calm, and fills up, as it will do, with Ameri- cans and American-Italians ; and meanwhile they will remain "in military occupation," will govern the island with a strong hand, and will, of course, remain answer- able to the world for its conduct and its destiny. They will have no option about that last matter, and we do not believe they will claim one. A derelict island is impossible. Finally, they have through the President instructed their Peace Commissioners to claim the whole of the Philippine Islands, offering at the same time to pay a sum equal to the local Debt, not as compensation for districts not actually in their possession—that is a grotesque sug- gestion when the history of colonial conquest is considered —but in payment for certain rights of property, as apart from dominion, possessed by the Spanish Government. As Spain is unable to create a fleet which can defeat the American squadrons, she must perforce submit, and will, we imagine, do so without very keen reluctance. The pride of Spain suffers cruelly ; but her statesmen have long been sick of the burdens imposed by the colonies, while her people, who valued them, have been disenchanted by the horrible weight which their defence has added to the burden of conscription. How the islands are to be governed is not as yet decided ; but as they contain eight or nine millions of people, they will doubtless be controlled, under one fiction or another, by picked men from West Point, and a Civil Service slowly organised for judicial and fiscal administration. At all events they will be governed from Washington, and the Americans start, therefore, on their new career in full possession of Cuba, Porto Rico, Hawaii, the Ladrones, and the Philip- pines as dependencies, all of them of one character, that a, islands defensible by sea-power only, but difficult to govern because all occupied by dark labouring populations ruled, guided, and to a large extent taxed by dominant white castes.
To govern such possessions so peopled, wisely, with a certain vivifying gentleness, and yet through decrees from above, is very difficult work, as we discovered when we began it, and before an experience marked by many failures had taught us a sound tradition; and the Americans will find that the task will produce many changes, both in their internal organisation and their dominant ideas. They must, for example, as they already admit, greatly strengthen their Navy, and thus modify their relation to all the Powers of Europe, which, with all their enormous armaments, stand in great awe of power- ful fighting fleets. They talk already of the British Fleet as a "menace to mankind," and now here is a second, possibly as strong a sea-Power, about to manifest itself and its strength in the business of the world. The Americans will be unable, with their new position, to abstain from " interfering " in European politics, and will probably, with their new sense of empire and new fears for their possessions, be indisposed to abstain. Then they must have a much larger regular Army, for the security which their rule will give to person and property in their colonies will attract large and diversified populations and to keep them quiet they must have troops which can be used at a moment's notice, without the delays and excitement and lavish expenditure attendant on volunteering. Moreover, half these troops must be dark men, negroes, half-castes, Tagals, and, we should say, Mahommedan Malays, who are among the bravest men in the world. The islands, Whether in the Caribbean Sea or the Pacific, cannot support, even if they are well governed, the cost of American soldiers by the ten thousand, nor will American opinion lightly regard the necessary expenditure of life in islands which it will take half a century to render fairly healthy for white men. To make such dark troops into trustworthy auxiliaries they must be governed in a way which Americans have yet to learn, and, above all, be exempted from the first from any insult or any ridicule on the ground of colour. The dark races fear, and, in a way, reverence, the white one, but without giving up their own impression that they also are God's creatures, entitled both to self-respect and to personal vanity. Individual American officers have displayed great aptitude for organising dark regiments both at home and in China ; but Washington will now have to establish a tradition by. the help of which ordinary officers may do this work nearly as well as picked men. And, finally, the Americans will have to acquire that wonderful, to us almost inexplic- able, English tolerance which alone enables English- men to avoid incessant collisions with their millions of dark subjects. They have, by a miracle of good luck, this tolerance already as regards religion, holding as they do a conviction that no man's faith can be the business of the State ; but they have to acquire it as regards many moral questions, poly- gamy for example, many questions of grade, no dark race being at heart democratic, and some few fiscal questions of high importance, the aversion of dark men, for example, to any new kind of direct taxation. The most completely popular rebellion we ever had to face in India was caused by a rate which all Englishmen and Americans pay without a murmur. That our kinsfolk will learn all these lessons in time we have no doubt, but the learning will be slow, and will be attended at first with failures which will tax their splendid patience, and the resourcefulness and openness of mind which they have hitherto displayed in every department of life except the political. Their trouble will be to believe that schemes for securing social order which work admirably in Massa- chusetts will hardly work in Cuba and Hawaii, and will produce nothing but wild disorder in Luzon and Mindanao.
We wonder greatly if the American Colonial Dominion will pay its own expenses. It should, for most of it is fertile, and some of it, Porto Rico and Luzon, for example, extraordinarily productive. Nevertheless, we are not quite sure. The Spanish soldier costs little beyond hie keep, while the American soldier is a more expensive article even than our own. A tropical Civil Service, again, to be pure, and to be composed of picked men, must be highly paid, and must be provided with pensions, which become in time a serious burden on the Treasury. Ai. colony, too, which is a mass of islands like the Philippines, demands a good many officials, for every island not pro- vided with ahem sinks rapidly into anarchy. And lastly, the colonies are in want of public works, railways, roads, harbours, healthy barracks, quays, and lighthouses, and the amount which can be spent on those "necessities of civilisation" is almost limitless. The colonies may cost a good deal of money for some years, and though the Union can pay anything, we are not quite sure of its willingness to export treasure. We also can pay any- thing if we try, but we are very unwilling to pay either for India or the Colonies. The Americans have not shown themselves very willing to accept Debts, and were obviously relieved when General Merritt reported that there was for the present money enough in Manila to pay everybody_ The taxation of the islands will have to be made searching, and to include direct as well as indirect imposts ; and we should not be surprised to find that the first ground of quarrel between the islanders and their new rulers was the weight of the financial burden. The natives will grow rich very soon, and be able to pay any reasonable demands ; but they do not like taxation, and the only mode of resisting it with which they have hitherto been acquainted is murderous insurrection.
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