ENGLAND'S MISSION IN INDIA. 297 prove short measure of government: one would crushing and enslaving, without any qualification; while the other, good in design but uncertain in execution, paternal without moral steadfastness and mean without governing sagacity, The policy of England, on the contrary, in spite of its little anomalies, has ever continued to be just; and it has given us laws and privileges as free as the state of our circumstances permits, during the century she has held us in subjection. Freedom of conscience, person, and property, has been granted, such as we never had before, and perhaps never will have after England's sway. Her mission is evidently threefold: first, to elevate the people of India in the scale of civilised nations; secondly, to develope its rich resources, which now lie neglected; and thirdly, to open its commerce to her markets; and if the two first objects be secured, and there be a surety for the third, she would very willingly leave this country in the hands of its own children. In fact, we lay it down as our firm conviction that England holds India only as a ward: she has to rear it as a trust; and after it has attained to the position of selfmanagement, she will leave it independent, connected only in bonds of mutual assistance in trade and enlightenment. That is the future in store for us; there are plain signs in the heavens and the earth proclaming it: but we must abide our season, and mar not so fair a harvest by putting in our sickle ere it is ripe. CHAPTER XI. A CHAPTER OF NONSENSE, IF IT BE SO UNDERSTOOD. THE FUTURE OF INDIA AND THE EAST. ENGLAND'S capacity for foreign acquisition and colonisation compared with other mighty powers of Europe.-With Italy.-With Spain.—With Portugal.-With Holland.—With France. The Anglo-Saxon Colony carries away all other Colonies before it.-The finger of God traced in the progress of the British in the East. The tendency and course of the Empires of the World.-Civilisation not likely to end in America.—It is returning to the land of its birth.— Dr. Arnold's theory of Civilisation examined and refuted.The prospect of another and mightier Civilisation. It will commence from India.-Our grounds for so supposing.Bright future for Young India.-His future Religion. "IN dreaming of each mighty birth, That shall one day be born; From marriage of the Western earth, So dreamt the poet. Whether his dreams are actually to be realised, we do not pretend to say; but we see the probability of an epoch dawning upon the destinies of the human race, grander than any yet recorded in history. This epoch is signalising the English nation, as acquiring the dominion of the world, and will be consummated we hope by an universal British empire. We may seem over-sanguine in our hopes; but we have in enforcing conviction only to ask for a review of political history, and comparison of other countries of Europe with England in the capacity they have shown some time or other to govern distant dominions, or aptitude for colonisation. Italy, Spain, Portugal, Holland, France, and Russia pass under review in this place. Italy, though her Rome in ancient times established numerous military colonies, has never in modern history occupied a significant page in political history or colonising adventures. It seems as if all her capacity for distant acquisitions was exhausted in the ascendency of Rome in the ancient world. Spain and Portugal set out on their career together; and while the one voyaged to the West, the other took her course to the East. Spain discovered savage countries, and, in the unequal strife between civilisation and barbarism, conquered, and acquired exhaustless wealth, in natural mines and streams of gold, in the New World. But in the triumphs over the rude Americans, she had that easy access to wealth A APTITUDE FOR COLONISATION. 301 which takes away the stimulus of activity, and undermines the constitution; and Spain, sunk in wealth and luxury, forfeited that power, which, when duly sustained, would have secured to her the lead of empires. Portugal, running her course, acquired dominions in the East; but she lacked a capacity of sustenance, and early succumbed to a superior power from the insignificance of her means, and possibly also the illiberalism of her policy. Holland succeeded in the line. She was close upon Portugal; but her colonies were limited in extent, and she had gained but little experience in governing affairs from her comparative nonage as a political state, separated from the guidance of Spain. Even now, she seems to have gained little or no improvement; and Java, her only possession of importance, does not cover the cost of its tenure under her management! France comes next; but her possessions in the East were early relinquished, with heavy loss to the state; and Algeria is yet but an experiment in her hands. France has martial character; but, despite that, she has, we believe, failed, undoubtedly from a want of constitutional aptitude, to derive any marked advantage from her distant acquisitions. Russia |