attain his political manhood--what then are the
prospects held out by Mr. Froude to us and our posterity on our
mastering the training and discipline which he specially recommends for
Blacks? Our author, in view, doubtless, of the rapidity of our onward
progress, and indeed our actual advancement in every respect, thus
answers (pp. 123-4):--"Let a generation or two pass by and carry away
with them the old traditions, and an English governor-general will be
found presiding over a black council, delivering the speeches made for
him by a black prime minister; and how long could this endure? No
English gentleman would consent to occupy so absurd a situation."

And again, more emphatically, on the same point (p. 285):--"No
Englishman, not even a bankrupt peer, would consent to occupy such
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 would such
a connection endure?"

[182] It is plainly to be seen from the above two extracts that the
political ethics of our author, being based on race and colour
exclusively, would admit of no conceivable chance of real elevation to
any descendant of Africa, who, being Ethiopian, could not possibly
change his skin. The "old traditions" which Mr. Froude supposes to be
carried away by his hypothetical (white) generations who have "passed
by," we readily infer from his language, rendered impossible such
incarnations of political absurdity as those he depicts. But what
should be thought of the sense, if not indeed the sanity, of a grave
political teacher who prescribes "European government" and "European
education" as the specifics to qualify the Negro for political
emancipation, and who, when these qualifications are conspicuously
mastered by the Negro who has undergone the training, refuses him the
prize, because he is a Negro? We see further that, in spite of being
fit for election to council, and even to be prime ministers competent
to indite governors' messages, the pigment under our epidermis dooms us
to eventual disappointment and a life-long condition of contempt. Even
so is it [183] desired by Mr. Froude and his clients, and not without a
spice of piquancy is their opinion that for a white ruler to preside
and rule over and accept the best assistance of coloured men, qualified
as above stated, would be a self-degradation too unspeakable for
toleration by any Englishman--"even a bankrupt peer."