Page:The empire and the century.djvu/801

 abused, and be turned to derision. But it represents, nevertheless, a living force, especially in the East, and we should soon discover to our cost what it means in India if we were to shrink from the responsibilities inseparable from our position as one of the great Asiatic Powers in the widest sense of the term. At home, too, the loss of that position would speedily be felt by our working-classes not less than by their employers, for whether we cling to the practice of what is called Free Trade, or whether we make the experiment of a new Tariff policy, we may be sure that the markets of the world will be more and more fiercely disputed to us by our competitors wherever they can extend their political influence at the expense of our own, and no continent at the present day possesses markets of such potential value or such undeveloped fields of industrial activity as those which still remain to be opened up in Asia. Our alliance with Japan, based on either side, as all durable alliances must be, on an enlightened sense of self-interest, will go far to avert the dangers which have begun to threaten our position as an Asiatic Power, and with it the stability of our whole Empire.

But in the long-run we must rely, not upon any alliance, however solid, but upon ourselves. If, as the consequence of an alliance with Japan, we were to relax our energies, and allow ourselves to be lulled into a sense of false security, then that alliance would ultimately prove to have been not a boon, but a curse to the Empire. What we are justified in expecting from that alliance is that it will secure peace in Asia for a long term of years, and that it will therefore give us time to put our house in order, to reform and strengthen our military organization at home and in India, to place the economic future of India on a sound basis by fostering the new spirit of industrial and commercial enterprise which is already astir, to extend the great system of railway and irrigation works which is doing so much to mitigate the ruin periodically wrought by famine; and, beyond the borders of India, to coordinate