esponsibility along with it. If they
are brought so close to us we shall be obliged to exert ourselves, and
to rescue them from a condition which would be a reproach to us.

The English of those islands are melting away. That is a fact to which
it is idle to try to shut our eyes. Families who have been for
generations on the soil are selling their estates everywhere and are
going off. Lands once under high cultivation are lapsing into jungle.
Professional men of ability and ambition carry their talents to
countries where they are more sure of reward. Every year the census
renews its warning. The rate may vary; sometimes for a year or two there
may seem to be a pause in the movement, but it begins again and is
always in the same direction. The white is relatively disappearing, the
black is growing; that is the fact with which we have to deal.

We may say if we please, 'Be it so then; we do not want those islands;
let the blacks have them, poor devils. They have had wrongs enough in
this world; let them take their turn and have a good time now.' This I
imagine is the answer which will rise to the lips of most of us, yet it
will be an answer which will not be for our honour, nor in the long run
for our interest. Our stronger colonies will scarcely attach more value
to their connection with us if they hear us declare impatiently that
because part of our possessions have ceased to be of money value to us,
we will not or we cannot take the trouble to provide them with a decent
government, and therefore cast them off. Nor in the long run will it
benefit the blacks either. The islands will not be allowed to run wild
again, and if we leave them some one else will take them who will be
less tender of his coloured brother's sensibilities. We may think that
it would not come to that. The islands will still be ours; the English
flag will still float over the forts; the government, whatever it be,
will be administered in the Queen's name. Were it worth while, one might
draw a picture of the position of an English governor, with a black
parliament and a black ministry, recommending by advice of his
constitutional ministers some measure like the Haytian Land Law.

No Englishman, not even a bankrupt peer, would consent to occupy such a
position; the blacks themselves would despise him if he did; and if the
governor is to be one of their own race and colour, how long could such
a connection endure?

No one I presume would advise that