into a court of equity must come with clean hands. And any pseudogovernment which appeals to the canons of international law to protect it in the wanton acts which it misnames acts of sovereignty should be required as an antecedent to prove its right to be regarded as a government at all. When there is positive proof that the persons constituting such a government have in fact usurped by force the offices they pretend to occupy, in violation of their own legal systems and in contravention of the usages of civilization, and when there is further unimpeachable evidence that such persons abuse the power which they have thus wrongfully assumed, violating the decencies of life and shocking the sensibilities of mankind by their atrocities, destroying commerce and education, and disregarding the common requirements of civilization, then it is the moral duty of any civilized power to intervene and establish law and order. In the face of such intervention all arguments regarding the infringement of the alleged rights of sovereign nations may be dismissed as sheer nonsense.

The doctrines of the Declaration of Independence, the precepts of our Constitution, and the rules of international law are all designed to promote real liberty and justice in the world, to advance the cause of civilization, and bring about the greatest possible good to the greatest possible number. None of them has any higher warrant than this for their authority, and should they, or any one of them, conflict with this ultimate and highest conception of human advancement, they must in that respect inevitably be modified. But only a narrow and restricted view of these great documents could make them seem to oppose the one or the other.

III. WHAT RIGHTS HAVE SEMI-SAVAGES TO HOLD VAST TERRITORIES UNIMPROVED, TO REFUSE TO WORK AND TO PREVENT OTHERS FROM WORKING?

"There is another celebrated question to which the discovery of the new world has principally given rise. It is asked whether a nation may lawfully take possession of some part of a vast country in which there are none but erratic nations, whose scanty population is incapable of occupying the whole. We have already observed, in establishing the obligation to cultivate the earth, that those nations cannot exclusively appropriate to themselves more land than they have occasion for, or more than they are able to settle and cultivate. Their unsettled habitation in those immense regions cannot be accounted a true and legal possession; and the people of Europe, too closely pent up at home, finding land of which the savages stood in no particular need and of which they made no actual and constant use, were lawfully entitled to take possession of it and settle it with colonies.

"The earth, as we have already observed, belongs to mankind in general, and was designed to furnish them with subsistence; if each nation had from the beginning resolved to appropriate to itself a vast country, that the people

might live only by hunting, fishing, and wild fruits, our globe would not be sufficient to maintain a tenth part of its present inhabitants." (Vattel's "Law of Nations," Chitty's edition, page 101.)

IV. A GOOD GOVERNMENT IS INDISPENSABLE; HOW IT IS
BROUGHT ABOUT IS A MATTER OF DETAIL

Government is to a society what a house is to a family. It not only protects and is a place of refuge, but it is essential to all true growth and progress. As families which have comfortable and permanent homes are distinguished from wandering tribes, so a society which has a good government is differentiated from the savages. Not all fathers of families can build houses, so that some must acquire them by purchase or hire. A man may be a talented artist, a profound jurist, or a great banker and still not be able to build a house. We do not esteem it a discredit that such men live in houses built by others. But to establish and maintain a good government requires aptitudes fully as specialized as is architecture or carpentry. Why, then, expect that each society establish its own government, in other words, self-government? To the family the important thing is that it has a good house in which to live, and he would be set down as a fool who should demand that every family should live outdoors until it knew how to build its own house. Does not the analogy hold good with reference to government? Because I have not the knowledge, the experience, the executive skill, the physical power, or the good faith to establish a good government, shall I therefore live under a bad government?

A bad government has neither excuse nor pretext for existing. However much people may differ about theories, every one knows whether a concrete act is just or unjust, honest or dishonest. Given the one element of good faith, and the problem of government is solved. Ignorance of duty is less to be feared than disregard of duty, for the former may be cured by education. The governments of South America are intolerable precisely for the reason that there is no such thing as good faith among them, and the good people of South America are as impotent to overcome them as the children of a kindergarten would be to construct the house in which they are domiciled. To demand that these people should remain without the benefits of good government until they are strong enough and wise enough and honest enough to establish it themselves, would be like asking children to live in the wilderness without the benefits of education until they are competent to build their own schoolhouses and make their own charts.

V. EXPANSION OF THE CIVILIZED NATIONS

In succeeding chapters we very briefly indicate in a general manner what has been done in the way of expansion and colonization by the powers - Great Britain, Russia, France, Germany, and the United States in order that we may profit by the precedents thus established.

France is obviously in no condition to extend its influence in a marked degree beyond its present limits. That country finds itself with vast colonial possessions, towards the development of which it is apparently incapable of doing justice. Merely to hold an alien people tribute by military power and collect taxes from them, falls far short of complying with the mandates of civilization. The people must be educated, regenerated, led into the paths of material prosperity and of intellectual advancement. Above all, there should ever be incited in them the spirit and competency of self-government and a keen appreciation of the necessity for unceasing progress. France is by no means living up to these high ideals, because temperamentally and physically she is not equal to the task. The population of France is almost at a standstill, and there have been years in which the number of deaths in that country actually exceeded the number of births. In the French colonies, vast as they are in extent, the number of Frenchmen are comparatively few, and the business of many of them is even now in the hands of the English and Germans. There is not in France that surplus of creative energy and enterprise, that increase in population, which is essential to a great colonizing power. It is doubtful if France will ever till the fields which lie uncultivated at her door, and so far as any new or additional colonization movements on a large scale are concerned, France may safely be omitted from the discussion.

The creative and reproductive powers of Russia are real and vast, but Russian expansion has for ages been confined to adjacent territory. Its area is already so great that it would appear that it has ample room for internal development for generations to come. Owing to the character of its people and its traditional policy, it would appear highly improbable that it should ever enter the Western Hemisphere.

While certain other European powers have colonies, none of them is of special importance, and they may be dismissed so far as this discussion is concerned.

The United States, England, and Germany are left, and into their hands it would appear must be confided the destiny of those vast tracts of the earth's surface which are still barbarous or semi-barbarous. England has done her full share; she has acquitted herself with a glory imperishable. The vast territories now under her

dominion are sufficient to afford a theatre for the activities of her citizens for centuries to come, and the work of civilizing the unnumbered hordes under her jurisdiction will tax to the utmost the powers of her surplus population. Whether England desires any large additional territories added to her empire is doubtful, for it would appear as though she has her hands about full, that she has about all the ground which she can cultivate thoroughly.

Germany and the United States are young giants which have not yet arrived at a realization of their real strength. They are fountains of energy, Atlases on whose shoulders might rest a world. In Germany the births exceed the deaths by eight or nine hundred thousand a year. The increase of the population from 1895 to 1900 was more than four millions, notwithstanding emigrants who have gone into the remotest corners of the earth. Germany needs colonies; she ought to have them, she must have them. The man who loves savages and hates civilized men will oppose Germany in her legitimate efforts to provide outlets for her surplus population and products. In what direction German interests will lead her to extend her territory I do not know, but the larger the number of German emigrants who go to South America or as to that matter to North America the better it will be for the world.

As to the United States, I believe she has just fairly commenced to grow. The whole American continent, except Canada, ought to be ours, and I believe it will be. If I see aright, the finger of destiny points that way.

A

CHAPTER II

ENGLAND AS A CIVILIZING POWER

On, on, you noblest English,

Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!

SHAKESPEARE.

LL civilized men owe to England a debt of gratitude which is immeasurable. She has been, and is to-day, the mightiest factor in the world for good. It is England who has made it possible for a white man to live on some part of every one of the six continents. In South America the spot of safety is small. Mother of nations, home and birthplace of law and order and progress, England stands to-day a supreme factor in the development of the world.

There is to-day, thanks to England, a band of civilized governments encircling the world. Science and education have followed in the wake of commerce, and when the guns of England have blazed a hole through the walls of barbarism, her system of freedom and justice has followed like a mighty torch illumining the dark places. The crimes and superstitions and tyrannies and pestilences of the past have melted away before the white light of her progress, and millions, nay, hundreds of millions, who were sunk in utter helplessness and despair, have at last caught a glimpse of the Star of Hope. Where squalor and misery and filth and death lurked, and famine slew thousands, there are now peace and happiness and cleanliness and plenty. Where fanatics buried sorrowing widows alive, or murdered helpless babes under the feet of elephants, there is now hope in the presence of death. Where the cruelty and rapacity of bandit chiefs filled regions with fear, there is now luxury and splendor; the whistle of the locomotive is heard, the hum of the factory, the glad shout of happy school children. Incomparable England! Since the sun commenced to shine no other nation has done the world so much good. Where the English flag flies there is peace, prosperity, safety, freedom.

In her work of colonization there has been but little sentiment; she is a practical nation. Suppose England, and not the United States, had been dealing with Cuba at the outbreak of the Spanish War. Do you suppose she would have wasted breath in perfervid declarations of humanitarian ideals? Not at all. England must have smiled broadly when our Congress, with as much emotionalism as a

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