Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 5.djvu/220

 THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS

pist, I will hope — sitting cosily by his fireside and denouncing the methods by which British civili- zation was promoted. This philanthropist com- plained of the use of Maxim guns and other instruments of warfare, and asked why we could not proceed by more conciliatory methods, and why the impis of Lobengula could not be brought before a magistrate, fined five shillings, and bound over to keep the peace.

No doubt there is humorous exaggeration in this picture, but there is gross exaggeration in the frame of mind against which it was directed. You can not have omelettes without breaking eggs; you can not destroy the practises of bar- barism, of slavery, of superstition, which for centuries have desolated the interior of Africa, without the use of force; but if you will fairly contrast the gain to humanity with the price which we are bound to pay for it, I think you may well rejoice in the result of such expedi- tions as those which have recently been conducted with such signal success in Nyassaland, Ashanti, Benin, and Nupe — expeditions which may have, and indeed have, cost valuable lives, but as to which we may rest assured that for one life lost a hundred will be gained, and the cause of civi- lization and the prosperity of the people will in the long run be eminently advanced. But no doubt such a state of things, such a mission as I have described, involves heavy responsibility. In the wide dominions of the queen the doors of the temple of Janus are never closed, and it is 188

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