the central Government would willingly permit this; but that Government is not strong enough to check all its citizens. If we could not prevent the 'Alabama' from going out of Liverpool can we be sure that the President of the United States could prevent ‘Alabamas' from going out from any port on the many thousand miles of seaboard of the United States ? This actual fact is certain, that, in view of the proba bility or possibility of war with us, the Emperor of Russia has had several first-class cruisers built in Philadelphia, though he must have paid much more heavily for them than they would have cost in Europe; and the other day these cruisers were brought out and delivered over to the Russians with much parade. Happily this was after the immediate danger of war with Russia had passed. But that the vessels should have been built by Americans for the purpose for which they were intended seems to me to point to a very great danger. If we once got into a war there is no saying how far it might extend. If we ever go to war with Russia that country would strain every nerve, by means of such cruisers, to involve us with the United States; and if once it comes to privateering from United States ports there is all too much fear that sparks leading to a conflagration might be struck at any moment. I sincerely hope, by a good understanding, so terrible a calamity may be rendered almost impossible; and the word I say in conclusion, is, pray cultivate friendship, good-will, and amity with the people of the United States; come to know them well, and encourage them to know us well.

THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED

RACES.

6

THE paper on Black and White in the Southern States,' which follows this, has appeared in the Fortnightly Review,' and is now republished, with the kind permission of the Editor. I was, as I have there stated, led to look particularly into the relations between the black and white races in the Southern States, for the sake of the lessons that might be learned as bearing on our management of British possessions where white and black races are intermingled.

I do not here speak of our great dependency, India, where our system has been to rule both races by a Government avowedly absolute and despotic. In regard to that system I am one of those to be judged rather than to judge others; but this at least I may claim, that the Indian administration of the past cannot be accused of any habitual subordination of the rights and interests of the coloured races to those of the whites.

Of our Colonies, beyond a few very casual visits, I have no personal experience, but as a member of Parliament, and also in connection with the coolie

emigration from India to the Colonies, my attention has been during the past few years much directed to the management of our colonial possessions in tropical and semi-tropical regions. I cannot pretend to have mastered the details of the various colonies--the materials are not available. But the strong and broad glimpses obtained from official reports and Parliamentary papers and discussions have certainly led me to an unfavourable opinion of their administration as regards the treatment of the coloured races.

In none of the Colonies does the Home Government exercise absolute and direct control, as in India; in every case the colonists are admitted to some substantial share in the government, whether in the shape of Constitutional Assemblies or of nominated Councils. Except to a limited degree in a portion of the Cape Colony proper (where, I believe, a very creditable and successful commencement has been made), there is no attempt to admit the coloured races to any share of political franchise--where there is any elec tion of legislators or officials the election is in the hands of the white colonists only. And in the colo nies called Crown Colonies the administration is almost as much in the hands of a white oligarchy, for the Councils are mainly composed of the leading white colonists; and the Colonial system is such (in this respect widely differing from that of India) that a large proportion of the official members of Council and other high officials are intimately connected by blood, business, and interest with the dominant race of settlers. Whenever the views or interests of that

race conflict with those of the labouring population the safe-guarding of the latter rests principally with the Governor sent out by the Colonial Office. Not only, however, is he in many cases without sufficient power, but also the atmosphere and surroundings in which he lives are such, and the public opinion which is heard of beyond the colony is so one-sided, that it requires much more than common firmness to do justice in excited times. Some governors have nobly done their duty; some have more or less failed to do So. I think one might point to cases in which the latter have gone off in a blaze of popularity and obtained pleasant promotion, while those who have taken the part of subject races have fared very dif ferently.

In the colonies where slavery once prevailed there is a hankering after compulsion to labour, which has, I think, given rise to injustice in many cases; and even in colonies where there never was slavery, and where one would have supposed oligarchical abuses the least possible, recent official inquiries have disclosed an astounding partiality in financial matters. Not only. to this day have the revenues of Malta and Ceylon been largely derived from taxes on the imported food of the people (while the rich by comparison escape) to a degree with which the worst days of protection in England cannot compare, but it ap pears that in Ceylon the internal cultivation of paddy or rice, the food of the poorest of the people, is subjected to a special tax from which the valuable products of the rich colonists are exempt.

In our Colonies the disposition to compel labour has not affected the emancipated negroes nearly so much as in those of some other European countries. The negro has been to some extent under the protec tion of a powerful philanthropic party in this country; and he himself, though good-natured and submissive up to a certain point, has shown that he can break out in an extremely dangerous way when treated with injustice--we have had some experience of that in Jamaica and elsewhere--and it is patent that the last negro outbreak in the Danish island of Santa Cruz was caused by extreme injustice in the attempt to limit wages and prevent free movement of the labourers. As a rule our colonists have probably more frequently failed to manage and utilise the free negro than greatly oppressed him. My own attention has been more directed to the condition of the Indian labourers who have been substituted for the negro labour which has failed. Several inquiries by competent Royal Commissions in the past few years show that they have been treated with great unfair ness in some of our colonies.

In order to obtain the means of carrying on the coolie emigration the Government has been induced to sanction a system which would not be tolerated in the case of white labourers. In consideration that the expense is borne by the Colonies or the colonists, the labourers are bound down to labour for a term of They do not engage themselves to masters whom they know, or to any individual, but are engaged to serve in the colony, and on their arrival are assigned to a master.

years.