So natural
is this state of feeling in a situation like theirs that even under
the discouragement which it has hitherto met with from the ruling
authorities it is impossible that more or less of the spirit should
not perpetually break out. The Government, itself free from this
spirit, is never able sufficiently to keep it down in the young and
raw even of its own civil and military officers, over whom it has so
much more control than over the independent residents.
As it is with the English in India, so, according to trustworthy
testimony, it is with the French in Algiers; so with the Americans
in the countries conquered from Mexico; so it seems to be with the
Europeans in China, and already even in Japan: there is no necessity
to recall how it was with the Spaniards in South America. In all these
cases, the government to which these private adventurers are subject
is better than they, and does the most it can to protect the natives
against them. Even the Spanish Government did this, sincerely and
earnestly, though ineffectually, as is known to every reader of Mr.
Helps' instructive history. Had the Spanish Government been directly
accountable to Spanish opinion we may question if it would have made
the attempt: for the Spaniards, doubtless, would have taken part
with their Christian friends and relations rather than with Pagans.
The settlers, not the natives, have the ear of the public at home;
it is they whose representations are likely to pass for truth, because
they alone have both the means and the motive to press them
perseveringly upon the inattentive and uninterested public mind.
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