e of prime
importance,--native conscientiousness and honesty of purpose being
definitively presupposed.

BOOK III: SOCIAL REVOLUTION

[113] Never was the Knight of La Mancha more convinced of his imaginary
mission to redress the wrongs of the world than Mr. James Anthony
Froude seems to be of his ability to alter the course of events,
especially those bearing on the destinies of the Negro in the British
West Indies. The doctrinaire style of his utterances, his sublime
indifference as to what Negro opinion and feelings may be, on account
of his revelations, are uniquely charming. In that portion of his book
headed "Social Revolution" our author, with that mixture of frankness
and cynicism which is so dear to the soul of the British esprit fort of
to-day, has challenged a comparison between British Colonial policy on
the [114] one hand, and the Colonial policy of France and Spain on the
other. This he does with an evident recklessness that his approval of
Spain and France involves a definite condemnation of his own country.
However, let us hear him:--

"The English West Indies, like other parts of the world, are going
through a silent revolution. Elsewhere the revolution, as we hope, is
a transition state, a new birth; a passing away of what is old and worn
out, that a fresh and healthier order may rise in its place. In the
West Indies the most sanguine of mortals will find it difficult to
entertain any such hope at all."

As Mr. Froude is speaking dogmatically here of his, or rather our, West
Indies, let us hear him as he proceeds:--

"We have been a ruling power there for two hundred and fifty years; the
whites whom we planted as our representatives are drifting into ruin,
and they regard England and England's policy as the principal cause of
it. The blacks whom, in a fit of virtuous benevolence, we emancipated,
do not feel particularly obliged to us. They think, if they think at
all, that they were [115] ill-treated originally, and have received no
more than was due to them."

Thus far. Now, as to "the whites whom we planted as our
representatives," and who, Mr. Froude avers, are drifting into ruin, we
confess to a total ignorance of their whereabouts in these islands in
this jubilee year of Negro Emancipation. Of the representatives of
Britain immediately before and after Emancipation we happen to know
something, which, on the testimony of Englishmen, Mr. Froude will be
made quite welcome to befor