Page:The Relations of the Advanced and the Backward Races of Mankind.djvu/49

 The answer seems to be that as regards political rights, race and blood should not be made the ground of discrimination. Where the bulk of the coloured race are obviously unfit for political power, a qualification based on property and education might be established which should permit the upper section of that race to enjoy the suffrage. Such a qualification would doubtless exclude some of the poorest and most ignorant whites, and might on that ground be resisted. But it is better to face this difficulty than to wound and alienate the whole of the coloured race by placing them without the pale of civic functions and duties.

As regards social relations, law can do but little save in the way of expressing the view the State takes of how its members should behave to one another. Good feeling and good manners cannot be imposed by statute. The best hope lies in the slow growth of a better sentiment. When the educated sections of the dominant race have come to realize how essential it is to the future of their country that the backward race should be helped forward and rendered friendly, their influence will by degrees filter down through the masses of the people and efface the scorn they feel for the weaker race. The philosopher may say, 'Let who will make the laws if I make the manners'; for where manners are wholesome, the laws will be just, and will be justly administered. Manners depend upon sentiment, and sentiment changes slowly.