of the same ameliorative [177] objects." Except in
the sense embodied in the foregoing sentence, we cannot, in these days,
conceive with what intent persons of one section should so specially
combine as to compel combination on the part of persons of any other.
The further statement that a confederation having a full black
voting-power would be a government "by the blacks and for the blacks,"
is the logical converse of the now obsolete doctrine of Mr. Froude's
inspirers--"a government by whites should be only for whites." But
this formula, however strenuously insisted on by those who gave it
shape, could never, since even before three decades from the first
introduction of African slaves, be thoroughly put in practice, so
completely had circumstances beyond man's devising or control compelled
the altering of men's minds and methods with regard to the new
interests which had irresistibly forced themselves into importance as
vital items in political arrangements. Nowadays, therefore, that Mr.
Froude should desire to create a state of feeling which had, and could
have had, no existence with regard to the common interests of the
inhabitants for upwards of two full centuries, is [178] evidently an
excess of confidence which can only be truly described as amazing.
But, after all, what does our author mean by the words "a government by
the blacks?" Are we to understand him as suggesting that voting by
black electors would be synonymous with electing black representatives?
If so, he has clearly to learn much more than he has shown that he
lacks, in order to understand and appreciate the vital influences at
work in West Indian affairs. Undoubtedly, being the spokesman of few
who (secretly) avow themselves to be particularly hostile to
Ethiopians, he has done no more than reproduce their sentiments. For,
conscious, as these hankerers after the old "institutions" are, of
being utterly ineligible for the furthering of modern progressive
ideas, they revenge themselves for their supersession on everybody and
everything, save and except their own arrogant stolidity. White
individuals who have part and lot in the various Colonies, with their
hearts and feelings swayed by affections natural to their birth and
earliest associations; and Whites who have come to think the land of
their adoption as dear to themselves as the land of their birth,
entertain no such dread of [179] their fellow-citizens of any other
section, whom they esti