ial nations) to the whole
principle and policy of imperialism. This revolt relies for support
upon those elements in the population who believe either that they are
not benefited by imperialism or only slightly benefited. Liberal and
socialistic sentiment forms the core and centre of this opposition.
For the most part the socialists are theoretically opposed to
imperialism on the ground that it is immoral, brutal, anti-democratic
and uneconomic. It does not, they believe, pay the people who in the
end pay for it.

This anti-imperialistic philosophy of the Socialists is chiefly derived
from the anti-colonial attitude of the liberals of the early nineteenth
century. That attitude was founded on opposition to special trade
privileges, which was the basis of the old colonial policy, and also on
the belief that colonies did not benefit the mother country. In the
middle of the eighteenth century Turgot had declared that "colonies are
like fruits which cling to the tree only till they ripen," and he
predicted that "as soon as America can take care of herself, she will
do what Carthage did." When the American colonies later fulfilled this
prediction {129} by securing their independence, and when it was
perceived that this separation did not lessen England's commerce with
America, the opponents of colonialism, who were also advocates of free
trade, were reinforced in their convictions. The only true extension
was trade, and to secure trade political domination was unnecessary.

It was by no means contended even by the most doctrinaire free trader
that an increase in the population and wealth of new countries, such as
the United States and Canada, was undesirable. All they opposed was
political dominion by the home country and the adoption of a
restrictive trade policy. Similarly the orthodox Socialists of to-day
make a sharp distinction between colonisation and imperialism, between
the acquisition, by conquest or otherwise, of lands suitable for
settlement and the seizure of populous countries to which emigration is
impossible. In this distinction it is not the intention but the fact
that counts; whatever the motives of the explorers, the new country
becomes a colony if it furnishes homes. Such colonising is a direct
national gain, benefiting all classes. The redemptioner, who was
carried off to the British settlements in America, did in the end
improve his economic condition, and his descendants, like those of the