The result of all this is, that wages in India are incomparablylower than in the West Indies and South America, whether theplantations there are cultivated by free blacks or by slaves; thatconsequently the production of India, after trade has been set freein that country, and wiser principles of administration haveprevailed, must increase at an enormous rate, and the time is nolonger distant when England will not only be able to supply all herown requirements of colonial produce from India, but also exportgreat quantities to other countries.Hence it follows that Englandcannot lose through the diminution of production in the West Indiesand South America, to which countries other nations also exportmanufactured goods, but she will gain if the colonial production inIndia becomes preponderant, which market England exclusivelysupplies with manufactured goods.(4) Finally, it may be asserted,that by the emancipation of the slaves England desires to hang asword over the head of the North American slave states, which is somuch the more menacing to the Union the more this emancipationextends and the wish is excited among the negroes of North Americato partake of similar liberty.The question if rightly viewed mustappear a philanthropical experiment of doubtful benefit towardsthose on whose behalf it was undertaken from motives of generalphilanthropy, but must in any case appear to those nations who relyon the trade with South America and the West Indies as notadvantageous to them; and they may not unreasonably inquire:
Whether a sudden transition from slavery to freedom may not provemore injurious to the negroes themselves than the maintenance ofthe existing state of things? -- whether it may not be the task ofseveral generations to educate the negroes (who are accustomed toan almost animal state of subjection) to habits of voluntary labourand thrift? -- whether it might not better attain the object if thetransition from slavery to freedom was made by the introduction ofa mild form of serfdom, whereby at first some interest might besecured to the serf in the land which he cultivates, and a fairshare of the fruits of his labour, allowing sufficient rights tothe landlord in order to bind the serf to habits of industry andorder? -- whether such a condition would not be more desirable thanthat of a miserable, drunken, lazy, vicious, mendicant horde calledfree negroes, in comparison with which Irish misery in its mostdegraded form may be deemed a state of prosperity and civilisation?
If, however, we are required to believe that the zeal of theEnglish to make everything which exists upon earth partakers of thesame degree of freedom which they possess themselves, is so greatand irrepressible that they must be excused if they have forgottenthat nature makes no advances by leaps and bounds, then we mustventure to put the questions: Whether the condition of the lowestcaste of the Hindoos is not much more wretched and intolerable thanthat of the American negroes? -- and how it happens that thephilanthropic spirit of England has never been excited on behalf ofthese most miserable of mankind? -- how it happens that Englishlegislation has never intervened for their benefit? -- how ithappens that England has been active enough in deriving means forher own enrichment out of this miserable state of things, withoutthinking of any direct means of ameliorating it?
The English-Indian policy leads us to the Eastern question.Ifwe can dismiss from the politics of the day all that which at thismoment has reference to territorial conflicts, to the dynastic,monarchic, aristocratic, and religious interests, and to thecircumstances of the various powers, it cannot be ignored that theContinental powers have a great national economic interest incommon in the Eastern question.However successful the presentendeavours of the powers may be to keep this question in thebackground for a time, it will continually again come to the frontwith renewed force.It is a conclusion long arrived at by allthoughtful men, that a nation so thoroughly undermined in herreligious, moral, social, and political foundations as Turkey is,is like a corpse, which may indeed be held up for a time by thesupport of the living, but must none the less pass into corruption.
The case is quite the same with the Persians as with the Turks,with the Chinese and Hindoos and all other Asiatic people.Whereverthe mouldering civilisation of Asia comes into contact with thefresh atmosphere of Europe, it falls to atoms; and Europe willsooner or later find herself under the necessity of taking thewhole of Asia under her care and tutelage, as already India hasbeen so taken in charge by England.In this utter chaos ofcountries and peoples there exists no single nationality which iseither worthy or capable of maintenance and regeneration.Hence theentire dissolution of the Asiatic nationalities appears to beinevitable, and a regeneration of Asia only possible by means of aninfusion of European vital power, by the general introduction ofthe Christian religion and of European moral laws and order, byEuropean immigration, and the introduction of European systems ofgovernment.
If we reflect on the course which such a regeneration mightpossibly pursue, the first consideration that strikes one is thatthe greater part of the East is richly provided by nature withresources for supplying the manufacturing nations of Europe withgreat quantities of raw materials and necessary articles of everykind, but especially for producing tropical products, and inexchange for these for opening unlimited markets to Europeanmanufacturers.From this circumstance, nature appears to have givenan indication that this regeneration, as generally is the case withthe civilisation of barbarous peoples, must proceed by the path offree exchange of agricultural produce against manufactured goods.