of physical locality, and, if left to develop along separate lines, there is no reason to doubt that, a hundred years hence, each of our own colonies will afford us this form of enjoyment quite as much as the United States of America do at present. New dialects and even physical types, differing from that of the mother-country, will appear; new ideals of beauty and refinement will give rise to new forms of thought and fresh æsthetic conceptions. For a time the efforts of young communities in these directions will probably be less successful than those which will continue to be made in old countries; but it by no means follows that this will always be so. The struggle for existence in crowded and exhausted communities. is unfavourable to that life of contemplation which Aristotle pronounced to be the highest of all. No man can tell where God will send His rarest gifts; and the appearance of ten men of genius might, in a single generation, transfer the spiritual hegemony of the Anglo-Saxon race from the mother-country to one of her colonial children.

If the view which I have here presented of the probable future of our colonial empire be correct, it is obvious that the new element with which the international body would have to deal would not be the recognition of greater States, but of a greater number of States. The problem which we internationalists have hitherto considered would not be changed in character, but only increased in magnitude.

It is not impossible that new extra-European States might, like America, decline all connection with an international body of which the members must continue to be preponderatingly Europeans. Apart from the scheme of an Anglo

Saxon confederation, it is conceivable that the American and Polynesian groups might form themselves into separate international organisms of their own; but, sprung as they are from European roots, it is inconceivable that they should be independent of the great European organism, or that it should be independent of them. Most of them contain what Savigny would have called "particularist" elements, resulting from nationalities which, for several generations, cannot be wholly absorbed by the prevailing colonial type; and very considerable advantages might result from the interposition of an international legislative and judicial body, by which any grievances which they might allege might be considered. The relations between the Dutch Boers of the Transvaal and the Cape Colony, for example, might be thus adjusted in a manner more satisfactory to the interested parties, both in Africa and in Europe, than they can be by British Commissioners or by the British Parliament. As matters stand, Holland cannot venture to open her lips, otherwise than by popular demonstrations of dissatisfaction; and however just the policy of England may be, it is regarded by the whole of continental Europe with as much jealousy and suspicion as the judgment of a prize-court.

Whether colonies of dependencies of non-European race are destined to reach the stage of national development which will entitle them to international recognition by European States, is a question that admits of no present decision. Nor will the decision, at any time, be the same for all of them. The Indian problem for us is the most momentous. Much importance is justly attached to the influences of commerce

and industry, to which in Upper India that of colonisation may now be added; but the future of India is hidden in mystery so profound, that even so bold and thoughtful a writer as Mr Seeley does not dare to penetrate it. For my own part, I shall venture to add only one remark which I do not remember to have found in any of the numerous articles and speeches which I have read on the subject. The education of the natives of India of both sexes is progressing with such rapidity as to bring native and European thought into much closer contact than at any former period, and this process cannot fail to result in the gradual breaking down of those barriers of religious and social prejudice which have hitherto separated the conquerors from the conquered. However the matter may stand with Mahometans, there is nothing in the fundamental creed of Hindus or Buddhists which, even if conversion to Christianity should fail to become general, need hinder progress along the lines of that ethical creed which forms the basis of all religions. Nor, as regards social organisation, are the differences of so fundamental a kind as we sometimes suppose, seeing that the institution of Caste had no place in the earliest time. In the Aryan race, as existing in India, there is no inferiority, either intellectual or physical, which, in the event of intermixture of blood, would exercise a degrading influence on families of pure Anglo-Saxon descent. On both sides the tie of kindred will ultimately be felt to be of a closer kind than the ties of common humanity which bind us to the Mongolian, the Polynesian, the Negro, or even the Semitic race. It is time and distance alone that have held us so long apart; and now

that our destinies have brought us together in so marvellous a manner, the natural course seems to be that we should embrace and be friends. In these circumstances it is not inconceivable that, at his next avatar, Vishnu should assume the form of Hymen-the-Uniter! Small as are the numbers of the English in India, there is no reason to believe that any single section of a population so divided as that of the native races will ever be able to throw off our yoke by force of arms, or to hold undisputed possession of the land if it did so. But what is impossible to Mars may be possible to Venus. When the pupils of the Zenana missions issue from their seclusion, adorned with the graces of the East and the culture of the West, they may conquer their conquerors as the Anglo-Saxon heiresses conquered the Norman nobles, and a race may spring up not unworthy to inherit an empire which is ruled by a woman.