Adams J.T. Empire on the Seven Seas. The British Empire 1784-1939
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GOVERNMENT IN
NEW
ZEALAND
which
has
been
described as
"more
English
than
England
itself."
Unlike
Australia,
in
which the
native
population
was
one
of
the
lowest
types
in
the world
and
has
had
practically
no
influence
in
peace
or
war
on
the
white
settlers,
the native
Maoris
of
New
Zealand,
with
possibly
a Caucasian strain
in
their
Polynesian
blood,
were
one
of
the finest
savage
races
in
the
world,
though
cannibals.
Early
in
the
century,
when the
few white
settlers
were
of
a
low
sort,
missionary
enterprise
was
particularly
active
among
the
natives,
and
the
ideas
of
the
missionary
groups
were
to
clash
with
those
of
the
colonial
reformers,
complicating
the
problem
of
large-scale
settlement
of the
right
sort.
Nevertheless
Wakefield,
with Durham
and
others,
formed
a
1,000,000
company
to
buy
land
and send
out
emigrants
on the
general
lines
of Wakefield's
theory
of
colonization. It
was
intended
honestly
to
protect
the
interests of the
Maoris,
but
as
so
frequently happens
in
the
clash
of
cultures
the
different
concepts
of
land
titles made serious trouble.
Just
as in
early
North
America
some
500,000
barbarians
claimed
tribal
ownership
of
3,000,000
square
miles
of
the
present
United
States,
so
in the islands
of New Zealand
100,000
Maoris
claimed
about
65,000,000
acres
though
even in
their
savage
way
of
life
they
actually
occupied
less than a tenth of the
whole/The
islands
had
never been
formally
annexed to
the
Crown but this
was
done
in
1840
after
the
early
settlers,
the Wakefield
colonists,
the
mis-
sionaries
and
the
Maoris,
among
them
all,
had
brought
about such
a
confused
situation
as
to
demand
strong
action
by
Britain.
In
the
Treaty
of
Waitonga
the
natives surrendered
all
rights
of
sover-
eignty
and
became
British
subjects
guaranteed
in
possession
of
their
lands,
a clause which
obviously
would
make
trouble
later^
The
difficulties
were,
for
the time at
least,
adjusted
by
Sir
George
Grey,
who,
after
fine
similar service
in
Australia,
had been
appointed
Governor
in
184.5.
Meanwhile the
New
Zealand Com-
pany
of
Wakefield,
Durham
and
others,
had succeeded in
planting
30,000
British
in
the
two
great
islands
of the
group,
and
when
the
Company,
which
carried
on the
tradition of
the
colonizing
com-
panies
of
the seventeenth
century
combined with the humanitarian-
ism
of
the
nineteenth,
surrendered
its charter in
1852,
each of
the
137
EMPIRE
ON
THE
SEVEN
SEAS
six
provinces
which
had
grown
up
was
given
a local
self-govern-
ment
with
a
large
degree
of
responsibility.
In
spite
of
the
fact
that
the
Crown
reserved
the
right
to
make
all
land
purchases
from
the
natives
and
maintain
their
tribal
rights,
there
was
to
be
war
and
difficulty,
but
in
a
few
years
the
government
had
established
another
future
Dominion
and
started
it
on
the same
lines
of
politi-
cal
independence
as Canada
and Australia.
VIII.
THE
SHIFTING
POLICY
IN
SOUTH
AFRICA
Unfortunately
the
story
in South Africa is
a
very
different
one,
and
the
mishandling
of the
situation
there
is
more
like
the
long
and
unhappy
story
of
Ireland,
though
the
trouble
largely
began
through
a
misguided
humanitarianism
and not
from
any
desire
for
annexation
or
oppression.
We have
already
seen how the
Cape
Colony
was
acquired
and
paid
for
after
the
Napoleonic
wars,
much
as Porto
Rico
was
by
the United States
after
the
Spanish
War.
The
white
population
consisted
almost
entirely
of
Boer
farmers
who
had
all the
stubbornness
of
the
Dutch race
and
who
in
their isolation
had
lagged
far
behind the
newer intellectual outlook
of
Europe.
Even
by
the
1830'$
they
greatly
outnumbered
the
comparatively
few
English
settlers.
Had it
been
merely
a
race
problem
similar
to
that
in
Canada,
where
a
nucleus
of
foreign
whites
had
to
be
absorbed
or
gradually
outnumbered
by
British,
the
difficulty
might
have
been
peaceably
settled in
time.
But
there was
a
far
more
serious
race
problem
which
was
to
destroy hope
of
adjustment
of
the
mere
dual British-Dutch one.
This
was
the
problem
of the
African
Negroes.
It
was
clear that
the vast
majority
of
the white
population,
being
Boers
who
were
primitively
religious
but had
had no
training
in
self-government
on
British
lines,
would
preclude
subjecting
the
British to
them
in
any
such
form of
local
democratic,
responsible
ways
as
were
then
about
to
be
adopted
in
the next
few
years
in
the
colonies
we
have
just
discussed.
The Governor
of
Cape
Colony
had
frankly despotic
powers,
though
under
the close
control
of
the
Colonial
Office, which,
in
turn,
in
this
period
of
reform,
religious
fervor and
humanitarianism,
was
controlled
by Evangelicals.
Un-
138
SHIFTING
POLICY
IN
SOUTH
AFRICA
happily
they
saw
everything
in
Africa
through
the
eyes
of
the
missionaries,
who as
in
New Zealand
objected
to
any
one
having
anything
to do
with the
natives
except
themselves.
The
natives
in
and
immediately
near
the
colony
were
Kaffirs,
but
beyond
them
were
other
savages
of
various
races,
the
Zulus,
Matabeles
and others.
All
were
fierce,
and
like
waves of
the
sea
in a
storm the
teeming
millions
of
blacks
were
constantly
in
upheaval
in
their
intertribal
wars.
It was
estimated that a
million
had
been
slaughtered
in such conflicts
in
a
quarter
of a
century.
The Boers
had maintained themselves
against
attacks,
and if
not
high
in
civilization
themselves were
far
higher
than
the
savages
who took their
chief
delight
in
torture,
murder and
rapine.
Nevertheless,
the
missionaries,
in
excess
of zeal
and
senti-
mentalism,
sided
with
the
savages
and
misrepresented
in
England
and
especially
in
the
Colonial
Office their real
nature as
well as
that
of
the
Boers.
In
missionary
eyes
the
Boers
were
always
wrong
and
the
savages
always
right.
The
situation
was
complicated
by
another
effect
of
the
refprm
movement when
in
1834
slavery
was outlawed
in
the
colony.)
If
the
abolition of
slavery
was
considered
an
unwarranted
hardship
by
the British
in
the
West
Indies,
who received
handsome
compen-
sation
and
who
might
be
expected
to
have shared
to
a
considerable
extent in
the British
currents of
thought
of
the
day,
it could
not
fail
to
be
considered
an
act
of
oppression by
the
Boers. These
took
the
Old
Testament
view
of
slavery.
Moreover,
although
their
slaves outnumbered
themselves,
they
received
in
compensation
only
a
little
over
a third of
the
market
value
of their
property,
be-
sides
having
thrust on
them
the
problem
of
what
to
do
with the
emancipated
savages
surrounded as
they
were
by
millions
of
free
blacks bent
on
war.
Almost
at the
moment
of
emancipation,
thousands of Kaffirs
raided
over the
Boer
frontier,
burning
and
killing.
The
British
Governor,
drove
them
back,
and
annexed an
additional
strip
of
territory,
in which
the
Kaffirs were
to
be left
alone
if
they
kept
the
peace.
However,
under
missionary
influence,
the
Colonial
Secre-
tary,
Lord
Glenelg,
an ardent
Evangelical,
recalled
the
Governor
and revoked
the settlement.
The
Boers felt that
they
had
first been
139
EMPIRE
ON THE
SEVEN SEAS
robbed
and
then
left
unprotected.
The
result
was
the
Great
Trek
of
the
1830*8.
Some
Boers
had
earlier crossed the
Orange
River
but
now
they
swarmed,
mostly
in
unorganized
bands,
first
into
the
High
Veldt
of what
is now
the
Orange
Free
State,
and then
into
Natal.
The
fights
with
the
Kaffirs
in
the
latter
territory
threatened
to
drive
the
natives
over
into
Cape
Colony
and in
1842
the
British
Government
in
self-defense
annexed
the
new
section,
which
lay
partly
along
the
seacoast.
The
Boers were
incapable
of
governing
themselves
or
of
maintaining
peace
with the
Kaffirs,
and
it was
a
question
of
abandoning Cape
Colony
or of
creating
a new
colony
under
the
Crown
in
Natal.
*
The
Boers,
after
some
show
of
fight,
abandoned their
new-won
land,
and
the
Trek
now
entered a
new
phase.
Moving
from Natal
to
the number
of some
12,000
persons,
and
from
Cape
Colony
and the
High
Veldt,
great
swarms
moved
still
farther
north,
fight-
ing
the
Zulus,
and
having
broken the resistance of
two
of
the
most
powerful
savage
tribes,
by
1854
had established the
independence
of
the
Orange
Free
State
a#d
the Transvaal.
Meanwhile
the British
Government,
genuinely
anxious
not
to
extend its
responsibilities
and at
the same
time,
under
missionary
influence,
wishing
to
protect
the natives and induce
them
to lead
a
peaceful
and
orderly
life,
had
pursued
a
constantly
shifting
policy.
It
had
tried
the
plan
of
the
erection
of
barrier-protected
native
states,
and
of
annexation
again
of
part
of the
territory
claimed
by
the
Boers,
but
the
confusion
merely
deepened,;
and in
the
Sand
River
Convention
of
1852
and the
Bloemfontein^
Convention
two
years
later,
the
independence
of the
Transvaal and
of
the
Orange
Free
State
was
respectively
recognized.
The
native
problem,
however,
had not been settled to the
satisfaction of
either
the
ad-
vanced
humanitarian-minded
English
at
home or
of
the
more
primitive-minded
Boers,
and
although large
numbers
of
the latter
in
the
Free State
would have
preferred
to
remain under
the
or-
dered
government
of
the British
at the
Cape
instead
of
the
semi-
anarchy
of
Boer
rule,
intensely
bitter
feeling
had
been
aroused
between
the
greater
part
of
the
now
independent
Boer
Trekkers
and
the British.
140
NEW
TRENDS
IN
INDIA
The two
conventions
were
clearly
but a
temporary
and
half-
settlement
of
questions
which
would
some
day
be raised
again
in
more
aggravated
form.
By
the
end
of the
century
they
were
to
divide
opinion
bitterly
even in
England
itself but
the
final solu-
tion,
after
long
blundering,
was
eventually
to
become one
of
the
most
shining
examples
of
British
statesmanship
and
character,
though
the
muddling
through
for
three
generations
was
even
more
typically
British. It
must be
admitted,
however,
that the
problems
involved
were
among
the
most
difficult
of
the
many
in the
developing
Empire.
Naturally
under the
conditions
there
could
be
no
opportunity
for
the
bestowal
of
that
responsible
self-
government
which
was
being
established elsewhere.
IX.
NEW TRENDS IN
INDIA
The
same was
obviously
true of
India,
where
a
mere handful
of
British
were
maintaining
control over
several hundred millions
of
varied
and
alien"
races.
Nevertheless,
roughly
the
decade
under
review
in
this
chapter
was
pregnant
with
great
events
in
the
Indian
portion
of the
Empire,
whose
effects
are felt
in our
own
day. They
were
the resultants of all
the forces of
the
time,
including
those
of
European
politics
and
fears,
and
so
give
that mixed
effect which
so
often
in
the
life of
nations
enables critics
to
class
them
as
ad-
vancing
morally
or
as
being
hypocritical.
The
forces of
reform,
educational
ideals,
humanitarianism
and the
new
sense
of
respon-
sibility
for
native
races
were
all
to
bear fruit
in a
new Indian
policy,
but
European politics
and
international rivalries
were
also
to
bring
about ten
years
of
war
in the
East.
We
have
already
mentioned
the
fact that the charter
of the
East India
Company
was
to
expire
in
1833,
j
ust
when
many
of
the
new
forces
in
Britain
were
coming
to
a
head.
The result
was
to
be
of immense
importance
to
British
India. As
in
so
many
other
cases
in
the
acquisition
of
colonies or
possessions,
the
period
of
usefulness
of
the
trading
company
under
which
they
had
originally
been
brought
within the
imperial
sphere
had
passed.
In this
case,
however,
it was
convenient
to
keep
the
Company
alive
as
a
link
in
the chain
of
administration,
but
it was
almost
completely
altered
141
EMPIRE
ON
THE
SEVEN SEAS
and the
new
charter
reflected
the
new ideals
of
empire.
The
Com-
pany,
which
now
became
purely
a
political
and
governmental
organ,
had
to
give
up
all
trading
rights
and
all
ideas
of
dividends.
Not
only
was
the
welfare
of
the Indians
to
be substituted for
what
we
call
today
the
"profit
motive,"
but
the
Report
of the
Parlia-
mentary
Committee
whose
recommendations were
followed also
declared
that whenever
the
interests
of
Europeans
and
the
natives
might
come
into conflict those
of
the
latter
were
to have
precedence.
;
The new
charter
also established
a
single
unified
government
over
all British
India
for the
first
time,
and
thus
paved
the
way
for
better
administration.
(A
large
part
of
India
was still
under
the
rule of
independent
native
princes.)
The
point
of
view of
the
native
Indian
was
also
adopted
to
a
remarkable
extent,
though
the
new
ideas
were
to
create in time
problems
incomparably greater
than those
they developed
in
South
Africa. The
new code
of
laws
for
all
British India was
to
be
based on
Indian,
and
not
on
British
law and
custom,
and
Macaulay's
work in
revising
the
Penal Code
was
one
of
his
most constructive
contributions
to
the
development
of India.
Moreover,
it
was
provided
that
no
Indian
could
be
re-
fused
office
under the
Company
on
account of
creed,
birth
or
color,
a
principle
comparable
to 'the XlVth Amendment
to
the
Amer-
ican Constitution with
reference
to
Negroes
after
the
Civil
\Yar.
But
other
changes
were
even more
important
for the
future. As
the
Company
was
no
longer
a trade
monopoly
the old
licensing
system
became
an anachronism
and
all
Europeans
were
allowed
free
access
to the
country.
Moreover,
the
change
in
attitude
to-
ward
Indian
education
still further
altered
the
outlook
and
aspira-
tions
of
the
natives.
Macaulay
had
been
sent
out
to
study
the
edu-
cational
problem,
and
in his famous
Report
of
1835,
which was
accepted
and
followed,
European
learning
was
not
only
brought
to
India
and
taught
in Indian
institutions,
but
in view
of the
fact
that
there were
nearly
150
different
languages
in
the^
peninsula,
English
was
used
as
the
common
vehicle
of
instruction.-,
From all
these various
changes
it
came about
that
the
victory
of
the
newer
trends
of
thought
over
the old roused
the ambitions of
the
natives,
brought
them
increasingly
into
contact
with
Europeans
142
NEW
TRENDS
IN
INDIA
and
European
culture,
and
gave
to the more educated
classes
of
all
races
a
means
which
they
had not
possessed
before
by
which
they
could communicate
their
ambitions and
discontents.
The
seeds
were
thus
being
sown
which
in the
course of
some
generations
would
grow
up
into
the Indian movements
of our
present
time.
Gandhi
and
others of
today
are
the natural
successors
of the
re-
formers
and
humanitarians
of the
1
830*8.
Had
the
population
been
British,
the
process
would
naturally
have led to a
self-govern-
ing
Dominion
of
the
general type,
but
the
results
of
the
different
conditions
will
be considered
later
in
our
story.
Bentinck
was
Governor in India
when
the new
regime
and
new
title
of
Governor-General
were
inaugurated
and he
continued until
1836.
We have
already
spoken
of
his
social reforms in the
aboli-
tion
of suttee and
the
efforts to
uproot
the
practice
of
thuggism.
For
the
dozen
years
from
his
return until
1848,
under his
suc-
cessors,
Auckland,
Ellenborough,
and
Hardinge,
we
have to turn
from
reform
to
war,
conquest,
blundering,
and
heroism.
In Euro-
pean
foreign policy,
Palmerston
and
not
the
missionaries or re-
formers
was
now in
control in
Britain,
and
Palmerston
had con-
stantly
before him
in
this
period
the
bogey
of
a
Russian
conquest
of India.
North
of
British
India
lay
border
states and
tribes,
the
most
important
being
the
Afghans,
with
whom
the
English
had
tried to
cultivate
and
maintain
friendly
relations
as a barrier
against
Russian
aggression.
When Palmerston found
that Russians had
penetrated
to
the
Afghan
capital
of Kabul he at
once
jumped
to
the
conclusion
that
the
dreaded
attack
might
be imminent.
The
Afghan
situation
had
been
complicated
by
the
overthrow
of
the
ruler,
Shah
Shuja
(who
subsequently
took
refuge
in
British
India),
by
Dost
Mohammed, who,
however,
had
not
been
able
to
control
much
of
the
country
outside of
the
capital,
but who
had
grievances
against
the British.
Briefly,
in
view
of the real
or
sup-
posed
Russian
menace,
the
Governor-General,
Lord
Auckland,
finally
sent a
force to reinstate
a
friendly prince
in
the
person
of
the
elderly
Shah
Shuja. Although
he was
placed
on
the
throne the
Afghans
resented
outside
interference,
and
the
small
isolated
force
in
Kabul was
forced
to retreat
after
the
British
Resident had
been
H3
EMPIRE
ON THE
SEVEN
SEAS
assassinated,
and
was
wholly destroyed
in
trying
to
make its
way
through
the
gloomy
Khyber
Pass.
Caught
in
its
defile,
the
an-
nihilation
of
the
little
British
army
was
the
worst
disaster
which
British
military
force
had
yet
encountered
in
India,
and
the
loss
of
prestige
was
felt to
be
so
great
that
unfortunately
the
next
Gov-
ernor,
Ellenborough,
felt
it
necessary
not
only
to
recapture
Kabul
but,
as soon
as that was
evacuated
for the
second
time,
to
make war
on
Sind.
It
was
conquered
but
there
was
practically
nothing
to
justify
the
proceeding.
Meanwhile
the
Sikhs
in
the
Punjab,
with
a
highly
trained
army
of
some
90,000,
had,
during
Lord
Hardinge's
administration,
at-
tacked
the
British
and been
driven back
only
after
the most
bloody
and
furious
fighting
the British
had
ever had to suffer,
[it
was
not
until
the
battle
of
Gujerat
in
1849,
a
^
ter
Hardinge
had
been
recalled
and Dalhousie had taken his
place,
that the Sikhs
finally
submitted,
and
the
Punjab
province
was
annexed.)
British
India,
now
increased
by
the
entire
Indus
Valley,
stretched
over
the
peninsula
up
to
the
Himalayas
and
the
waste lands
of the North-
west
frontier.
Although
these
formed
the
natural
northern
bound-
aries
of
the
Raj,
the
extension
had
taken
place
at
enormous
cost,
and
had
occurred not
from
a desire
to
expand
in
India
but
owing
to
a natural
sequence
of
events
following
the effort
by
Palmerston
to
block
Russia in
Afghanistan.
A
new Burmese
war entered into
on
account of
Burmese
attacks
on
British trade resulted in
further
annexations
in
that small
peninsula,
the
acquisition
of
what was
to
become the
important
port
of
Rangoon,
and
control
of both
coasts
of
the
Bay
of
Bengal,
much
as
the
recent
Italian
conquest
of Albania
has
given
that
nation control
of
the
Adriatic.)
X.
CHINA
AND THE
OPIUM
WAR
Owing
to
a
series
of
unforeseen
and
fortuitous
circumstances,
not
only
had
the
bounds
of
British
India
been
vastly
extended
but
the
Empire
had
advanced
farther into
the
East and now
included
Oriental
races
who
had
nothing
in
common
with
its
subjects
in
India. Still farther
beyond
lay
China,
and
British
relations
with
144
.
,
CHINA AND
THE
OPIUM
WAR
that
country
in
this
period
form
a
sordid
ending
to the
story
of
the
reform
and
other forces
which
we have
described
as
at
work.
The
great
Reform Bill
had,
as
we
have
seen,
enthroned
the
middle
class
in
power
at
home,
and to
a
great
extent
the
interest
of
the
middle
class
was
in
trade.
From
it,
however,
also
came
largely
the
nobler
motives
and
movements
we have
noted,
but
in
far-away
China,
where
Britain had no
territorial
foothold,
the
trade motive was
dominant
without
a
sense
of
responsibility
for
a
people
not
under
British
control.',
The Chinese had
steadily
at-
tempted
to
keep
foreigners
out
for
nearly
two
centuries,
but a
con-
siderable
and
lucrative
trade had
been
carried
on
under
the
mo-
nopoly
of
the
East India
Company
because there
were
plenty
of
Chinese,
from
Mandarins
down,
who
were
personally
interested
in
its
profits.
When
the
Company's
new
charter
was
issued in
1833,
outsiders
flocked into the
Chinese trade as
they
had
into
that with
India
in
1
813".
The
Company
had been
making
a
profit
of
about
1,000,-
ooo
a
year by
exporting
opium
from
India
in
exchange
for Chinese
tea, silk,
and
chinaware,
although
the
importing
of
ogium
had
been
prohibited,
since
1796
by
the
Chinese
Government^
if we
can
use
that
term
for
this
period.
With the
connivance
of
Chinese
officials
the
trade had
been a
smuggling
one,
and
it
was
largely
this busi-
ness
which
the
outside
traders went after when
the
Company
ceased to have
trade
privileges.
There
can
be
no
question
that
the
prohibition
of
the
trade was
for the
good
of
the
miserable Chinese
addicts
to
the
drug
and
there
can
be
no
excuse
for
the insistence
of
the
Company
on
its
continuance.
Its
representatives,
however,
had
at least known how
to
deal with the
humiliating
exactions
of
the
Chinese
officials,
and there
had
been
no
serious
difficulty
until the
new swarm of
traders refused to
comply
with
the
exactions
en-
forced.i
The
Chinese still
wished,
theoretically,
to exclude
all
foreigners
and
all
foreign
trade,
but
the immediate cause
of
the
miserable
war of
1
840
to 1
842
was
ostensibly,
and
to a
large
extent
really,
due
to
the
opium question,
and
consequently
has been
known
as
the
"Opium
War."
\
Not
match
for
Western
arms,
the
Chinese were
finally
obliged
H5
EMPIRE
ON
THE SEVEN
SEAS
to
consent
to
trade
through
five
Treaty
Ports,
and
Britain
annexed
the
splendid
port
of
Hong
Kong.
It has been said
that
the
stoppage
of
the
opium
trade would
have
laid
a
heavy
burden
on
the tax-
payers
in
India,
but
clearly
the
object
was
British
profits
rather
than
any
tenderheartedness
for
an alien
race. In
view
of
the
harm
opium
was
doing
to
the
Chinese
the answer
to the tax
problem
would
have
been a
revision
of
Indian taxation
rather
than a
lucra-
tive
debauching
of another
race. The British
treaty
of 1
842,
like
the
American
opening
of relations
with
Japan
in
the next
decade,
was
among
the
most
important
events
in
world
history,
and
the
present
Sino-
Japanese
conflict,
with
all
the
deadly
weapons
and
methods of so-called
Western civilization
in the
twentieth
century
as
well as
the
menace
of
the
Oriential
situation
today,
may
be consid-
ered
to stem
directly
back
to the
increasing
trade
demands of
the
Western nations a
century
ago.
No
one
could
then foresee
the
re-
sults,
and
perhaps
the
chief
interest of
many
of
the
episodes
in
this
chapter
lies in
showing
the
inability
to forecast the results
of acts
whether
deriving
from
the
highest
motives
of
missionaries
and re-
formers or
the baser
ones
of
unidealistic
businessmen
bent
only
on
a
profit.
All
start
threads in
the
tapestried picture
we
call
history,
woven
by
fate and
in
which
human
foresight
plays
a
negligible part.
146