Thus far of the dependencies whose population is in a sufficiently
advanced state to be fitted for representative government. But there
are others which have not attained that state, and which, if held at
all, must be governed by the dominant country, or by persons delegated
for that purpose by it. This mode of government is as legitimate as
any other if it is the one which in the existing state of civilisation
of the subject people most facilitates their transition to a higher
stage of improvement. There are, as we have already seen, conditions
of society in which a vigorous despotism is in itself the best mode of
government for training the people in what is specifically wanting
to render them capable of a higher civilisation. There are others,
in which the mere fact of despotism has indeed no beneficial effect,
the lessons which it teaches having already been only too completely
learnt; but in which, there being no spring of spontaneous improvement
in the people themselves, their almost only hope of making any steps
in advance depends on the chances of a good despot. Under a native
despotism, a good despot is a rare and transitory accident: but when
the dominion they are under is that of a more civilised people, that
people ought to be able to supply it constantly. The ruling country
ought to be able to do for its subjects all that could be done by a
succession of absolute monarchs, guaranteed by irresistible force
against the precariousness of tenure attendant on barbarous
despotisms, and qualified by their genius to anticipate all that
experience has taught to the more advanced nation.
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