Page:The empire and the century.djvu/863

 and many another form of individual activity have created the 'accomplished fact.' Conflict has often been provoked, successive administrations have been forced to defend the interests of British subjects. The public, looking on, has applauded, and the position has passed beyond discussion. Here we stand with the direct administrative responsibility for one quarter of a quarter of the globe upon our shoulders.

In India this responsibility has been faced, and the administration of India is a thing apart But in the remainder of the tropical Colonies the question still remains to be asked. What shall we do with them? They are as yet undeveloped properties; some of them are much more. They are nations of human beings with a history of which we are for the most part as profoundly ignorant as they themselves are of their future. It is scarcely realized that the extent of territory acquired for Great Britain in Africa within the last five-and-twenty years is nearly half as great again as the whole of British India. Who remembers that British New Guinea covers nearly 250,000 square miles; or that British Guiana, with over 100,000 square miles, is half as large as France? 'Are they of any use to us?' says the sceptical Little Englander; and whatever be the opposing convictions of the Jingo and Little Englander, they would probably agree in the one conclusion that the tropical Colonies are not of as much use to us as they might be. On this possible agreement it appears to some of us that the basis of a new development in colonial administration might be laid.

The self-governing Colonies have for a long time received a large share of public attention. A good deal of public money has been spent on them and in them. Public time has been freely lavished upon the consideration of their affairs, and in the course of the last half-century, since we entered on the new colonial chapter which was initiated by the abolition of the Com Laws and the repeal of the Navigation Acts, they have established themselves very firmly, and, in spite of assertions