a protracted and sanguinary struggle, had scarcely attained its own freedom before it won by its prowess a distant empire. By a strange anomaly this commonwealth, so arduous in the protection of the privileges of its own citizens, deeded away in absolutism, to a private association, the rights of millions of its vanquished subjects. A commercial organization

frequently imitated on a smaller scale—is to be described, to which, by its charter, the arbitrary dominion over vast regions was granted; a state was erected within a state. A further circumstance connected with the rapid growth of the Dutch colonial realm is in the fact of its acquisition by the expulsion of another European people, rather than by the direct subjugation of native races.

445. General nature of French colonization. The essential features of French colonial activity may be stated as follows:

The narrative of earlier French colonization is essentially a recital of adventure; it is this element, indeed, which chiefly prevented enduring success; many other reasons may be cited partially to explain the numerous misfortunes experienced. The government was invariably vast in plans, but feeble in execution. The forces allotted for tasks were nearly always immeasurably inadequate for their achievement. By brilliancy of action, unity of purpose, and the moderation of their rule, the French succeeded in bringing immense and widely scattered regions under their nominal authority; but, for the most part, throughout their great empire of the West and the East the fabric of their power was weak; when collision came with a more sturdy and better-equipped rival its frailty was at once manifest. Had the French not unreasonably stretched the frontiers of their territories, and had they been content to possess more densely settled, but smaller, domains, they would have undoubtedly stood against the shock of British blows.

By far the greater proportion of French acquisitions are of modern date; for the colonial history of France is sharply divided into two epochs, the one from the end of the sixteenth to the close of the eighteenth century . . ., the other from 1830 to the present. The balance sheet at the day of reckoning for the earlier period showed only insignificant returns, and even these were engulfed in the chasm opened by the Revolution. Of all the leading powers France suffered the most complete loss of national possessions. After the seizure of Mauritius by the English, in December, 1810, not a single outpost remained unconquered by the enemy. As in former ages the French people were in their foreign enterprises the most unlucky, so in the nineteenth century their success has not been more than mediocre; but very recently they have shown an ardor, energy, and resolution which promise better fortune for the future.

446. Britons as colonizers. An English writer mentions the qualities requisite for successful colonization, and bases on the possession of these attributes the success of the British as a colonial people.

There are seven qualities specially useful in the work of colonization. All colonizing nations possess some of these qualities; British success is based on the majority of them. They are

(1) Physical Strength. In the competition for colonies all parts of the earth have been occupied, and that nation must be most successful which can best stand all varieties of climate and come through all dangers with least permanent harm. . .

We may add here the tendency to rapid increase in population which helps to occupy rapidly, and so maintain a hold on, the comparatively waste lands where colonies are formed.

(2) Adventurousness. Nations mainly continental are slow to move; it is the maritime powers that scatter their explorers over the world. And it is a great advantage here that a nation should be composite, not all of one stock.

(3) Trading Spirit. It is not enough to discover new lands; the colonizer must have some motive for holding them.

(4) Settling Spirit. After all, a trading colony like the Dutch East Indies is not our idea of a colony at all. To hold one or two towns along the coast of a big island and keep some order among the native chiefs is not work that can build up new states. The empire-making races must contain men who will open up new countries with the hope of living in them. . .

(5) Fighting Spirit. This does not mean aggressiveness, but the determination to "stand no nonsense." It is the carrying out of the old advice: Beware of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in, bear 't that the opposéd may beware of thee." . . .

(6) Adaptability to the Native Element. The Red Indians in North America, the Bantu tribes of South Africa, the Aztecs of Spanish America, were all important factors in the settlement of those countries; they were too many to be despised and too warlike to be cowed. The nation that could best humor them gained an advantage over its competitors...

(7) Dominance. You can utilize native tribes by humoring them; but to establish an empire among them you must be able also to master them, and to do it in such a way that they will own the mastership without chafing under it.

447. The British Empire and the Roman Empire. In several striking points a similarity may be observed between the two greatest empires that the world has seen. In other respects they are essentially different.1

English writers are fond of comparing the Roman Empire with their own, and in many ways the resemblance is striking. Beginning with a small country, each expanded over a huge domain, carrying with it an enlightened administration, respect for justice, more gradually its own conception of law, and at length a peace and order which, in imitation of the Latin term, it has become the fashion to speak of in England as the Pax Britannica. But if the likeness is great, the differences are not less marked. The possessions of Rome were continuous, stretching in all directions from the shores of the Mediterranean. Her neighbors were at arm's length on the extreme edge of her frontier; no powerful state was interposed between the different portions of her empire. Moreover, the countries under her rule contained all the people most nearly akin to her in blood and civilization, and they formed the bulk of her subjects, for she governed no vast population wholly different in race and color. She was therefore enabled to stamp her own character indelibly upon a great part of her dominions.

To all this the British Empire presents a strong contrast. The dependencies of England are scattered over the whole face of the earth in almost every habitable latitude, while there are scarcely ten consecutive degrees of longitude in which she does not have a foothold. Including Egypt, her six most important possessions lie in five different continents with no means of communication between them but a long sea voyage. Outside of the British Isles with their hundred and twenty thousand square miles, she holds no land in Europe of other than a military significance; but she has nearly four millions of square miles in North America, as much more in Africa, over three millions in Australasia, and nearly two millions in Asia, besides innumerable islands and small bits of coast dotting the map of the world.

448. Expansion of the United States. While only recently become a colonial power, the United States has always been an expansionist nation.

Among the prime factors that have determined the character and history of the United States from the beginning of its existence, none has been of greater importance than the possession by it of a vast 1 Copyright, 1908, by The Macmillan Company.

territory abounding in resources and fertility and suitable in every way for permanent occupation and settlement. As the nation grew, and before the pressure of increasing population scarcely had been felt, this area was constantly added to. At first, taking the form of successive pushings-forward of the boundaries, until there had been included all of the adjacent territory, which either was but partly settled or the ties of which to another country were not of sufficient strength to maintain it in its allegiance, this movement of expansion has at length leaped all barriers of distance and, as the result of rapidly moving events, has brought under the sovereignty of the United States, first, a great territory lying far to the north, then islands lying in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and finally, returning to the mainland, has added a valuable strip of land to the south, where the two American continents are joined together.

Looking back over the course of these events, one cannot fail to be impressed with the slight extent to which this great movement has been consciously planned or directed by those having in charge the destinies of the nation; how largely, indeed, it has practically been beyond their powers to control. The United States, thus, though it has never deliberately or consciously pursued an imperialistic policy, yet to-day finds itself in fact possessed of a territory truly imperial in its extent, in the variety of the people or races occupying it, and in the wide difference of the conditions that have to be met in its government and administration.

III. COLONIAL POLICY

449. The French as colonizers. The difficulties preventing French colonization may be stated as follows: 1

The colonies of France cover a vast territory, although large tracts of it are practically worthless. For various reasons the French are not good colonizers. In the first place, it may be noted that there is no overpopulation in France forcing families to seek sustenance in foreign countries. Most important of all, perhaps, as a cause of failure in colonization is the fact that to Frenchmen the life of their home is too attractive to permit a thought of permanent residence élsewhere. As recent French writers have emphasized, there is too much attachment to the settled conditions of a civilized country, too little spirit of enterprise. Young men are satisfied with a moderate income from an official position which enables them to enjoy the advantages of social life in the mother country. Again, the equal distribution of family property among children deprives France of the large class of penniless but venturesome younger sons

1 Copyright, 1900, by The Macmillan Company.