Is it not, then, sufficiently clear that this state-colonization is as indefensible on the score of colonial welfare, as on that of home interests? May we not reasonably doubt the pro- priety of people on one side of the earth being governed by officials on the other? Would not these transplanted societies probably manage their affairs better than we can do it for them? At any rate our benevolent anxiety on their behalf may be at rest, should it turn out that they would willingly dispense with our superintendence. All that the most ro- mantic generosity can require from us, is the tender of our good offices; and should these be decUned, our consciences may feel fcdly discharged of any assumed duty. Now on poll- ing the inhabitants of each colony on the question whether England should conrinue legislating for them or not, we should be pretty certain to get the answer that, were it the same thini^ to us, they would much rather legislate for themselves.
Great, however, as are tlie evils entailed by govei-nment colonization upon both parent state and settlers, thev look GOVERNMENT COLONIZATION. 367 insignificant wlien compared with those it inflicts upon the aborigines of the conquered countries. The people of Java beheve that the souls of Europeans pass at death into the bodies of tigers; and it is related of a Hispaniolan chief that he hoped not to go to heaven when he heard there would be Spaniards there. Significant facts these: darkly suggestive of many an unrecorded horror. But they hint nothing worse than history tells of. Whether we think of the extinct West- Indian tribes, who were worked to death in mines; or of the Cape Hottentots, whose masters punished them by shooting small shot into their legs; or of those nine thousand Chinese whom the Dutch massacred one morning in Batavia; or of the Arabs lately suffocated in the caves of Dabra by the French, we do but call to mind solitary samples of the treatment com- monly received by subjugated races from so-called Christian nations. Should any one flatter himself that we English are guiltless of such barbarities, he may soon be shamed by a nar- rative of our doings in the East. The Anglo-Indians of the last century — " birds of prey and of passage," as they were styled by Burke — showed themselves only a shade less cruel than their prototypes of Peru and Mexico. Imagine how black mjist have been their deeds, when even the Directors of the Company admitted that "the vast fortunes acquired in the inland trade have been obtained by a scene of the most tyran- nical and oppressive conduct that was ever known in any age or country." Conceive the atrocious state of society described by Vansittart, who tells us that the Enghsh compelled tlae natives to buy or sell at just what rates they pleased, on pain of flogging or confinement. Judge to what a pass things must have come when, in describing a journey, Warren Hastings says, " most of the petty towns and serais were deserted at our approach." A cold-blooded treachery was the estabhshed policy of the authorities. Princes were betrayed into war with each other; and one of them having been helped to overcome his antagonist, was then himself dethroned for some alleged misdemeanor. Always some muddied stream was at hand as a 368 GOVERNMENT COLONIZATION.
pretext for official wolves. Dependent chiefs holding coveted lands were impoverished by exorbitant demands for tribute; and their ultimate inabihty to meet these demands was con- strued into a treasonable offence, punished by deposition. Even down to our own day kindred iniquities are continued^. Down to our own day, too, are continued the grievous salt- monopoly, and the pitiless taxation, that wrings from the poor j^ots nearly half the produce of the soil. Down to our omi day continues the cunning despotism which uses native soldiers to maintain and extend native subjection — a despotism under which, not many years since, a regiment of sepoys was dehbe- rately massacred, for refasing to march without proper clothing. Down to our own day the police authorities league with wealthy scamps, and allow the machinery of the law to be used for purposes of extortion. Down to our own day, so- called gentlemen will ride their elephants through the crops of impoverished peasants; and -nill supply themselves with provisions from the native villages without paying for them. And down to our own day, it is coromon with the people in the interior to run into the woods at sight of a European!
No one can fail to see that these cruelties, these treacheries, these deeds of blood and rapine, for which European nations in general have to blush, are mainly due to the carrying on of colonization under state-management, and with the help of state-funds and state-force. It is quite needless to point to the recent affair at Wairau in New Zealand, or to the Kaffir war, or to our perpetual aggressions in the East, or to colonial history at large, in proof of this, for the fact is self-evident. A schoolboy, made overbearing by the consciousness that there is always a big brother to take his part, typifies the colonist, who sees in his mother-country a bully ever ready to back and defend him. Unprotected emigrants, landing amongst a strange race, and feeling themselves tlie weaker partv, are tolerably certain to behave well, and a community of them is " See Sir Alexander Burns' de.-patches.
GOVERNMENT COLONIZATION. 369 likely to grow up in amicable relationship with the natives. But let these emigrants be followed by regiments of soldiers — let them have a fort built, and cannons mounted — let them feel that they have the upper hand, and they will no longer be tlie same men. A brutality will come out, which the discipline of civilized life had kept under; and not unfrequently they will prove more vicious than they even knew themselves to he. Various evil influences conspire with their own bad propensi- ties. The military force guarding them has a strong motive to foment quarrels; for war promises prize-money. To the civil employes, conquest holds out a prospect of more berths and quicker promotion — a fact which must bias them in favour of it. Thus an aggressive tendency is encouraged in all — a ten- dency which is sure to show itself in acts, and to beti-ay the colonists into some of those atrocities that disgrace civilization.
As though to round oif the argument more completely, his- tory presents us with proof that whilst government coloniza- tion is accompanied by endless miseries and abominations, colonization naturally carried on is free from these. Notwith- standing the misconduct he is accused of, to WilUam Penn belongs the honour of having shown men that the kindness, justice, and truth of its inhabitants, are better safeguards to a colony than troops and fortifications and the bravery of go- vernors. In all points Pennsylvania illustrates the equitable, as contrasted with the inequitable, mode of colonizing. It was founded not by the stat€, but by private individuals. It needed no mother-country protection, for it committed no breaches of the moral law. Its treaty with the Indians, described as " the only one ever concluded which was not ratified by an oath, and the only one that was never broken," served it in better stead than any garrison. For the seventy years dtuing which the Quakers retained tbe chief power, it enjoyed an immunity from that border warfare, with its concomitant losses, and fears, and B B S7() GOVERNMENT COLONIZATION.
bloodshed, to which other settlements were subject. On the otlier hand, its people maintained a friendly and mutually-be- neficial intercourse with the natives; and, as a natural conse- quence of complete security, made unusually rapid progress in material prosperity.
That a like policy would have been similarly advantageous in other cases, may reasonably be inferred. No one can doubt, for instance, that had the East India Company been denied miUtary aid and state-conferred privileges, both its own affairs, and the affairs of Hindostan, would have been in a far better condition than they now are. Insane longing for empire would never have burdened the Company with the enormous debt wliich at present paralyzes it. The energy that has been expended in aggressive wars would have been employed in developing the resources of the country. Unenervated by monopohes, trade would have been much more successful. The native rulers, influenced by a superior race on friendly terms with them, would have facilitated improvements; and we should not have seen, as now, rivers unnavigated, roads not bridged or metalled, and the proved capabilities of the soil neglected. Private enterprise would long ago have opened up these sources of wealth, as in fact it is at length doing, in spite of the discouragements thi-own in its way by conquest- loving authorities. And had the settlers thus turned their attention wholly to the development of commerce, and con- ducted themselves peaceably, as their defenceless state would have compelled them to do, England would have been better supphed with raw materials, the markets for her goods would have enlarged, and something appreciable towards the civiliza- tion of the East would have been accomphshed.
In many ways, then, does experience enforce the verdict pronounced by the law of state-duty against state-colonization. It turns out that extension of empire is not sjTionymous with GOVERNMENT COLONIZATION. 371 increase of wealth; but that, on the contrary, aggressions bred of the desire for territorial gain, entail loss. The notion that we secure commercial benefits by legislative connection with colonies, is a proved delusion. At best we throw away the whole sum which colonial government costs us; whilst we may, and often do, incur further loss, by establishing an arti- ficial trade. The plea for protection to the settlers must be abandoned; seeing that this so-called protection is in practice oppression; and seeing that the settlers, from whose judg- ment on the matter there is no appeal, liint very plainly their wish to dispense with it. As for the aborigines, it is manifest that the cruelties inflicted on them have been mainly due to the backing of emigrants by the parent state. And, lastly, we have conclusive proof not only that voluntary colonization is practicable, but that it is free from those many evils attendant upon colonization managed by a government.
B B ic CHAPTER XXVIII.
SANITARY SUPERVISION.
The current ideas respecting legislative interference in sanitary matters do not seem to have taken the form of a definite theory. The Eastern Medical Association of Scotland does indeed hold " that it is the duty of the state to adopt measures for protecting the health as well as the property of its sub- jects;" and the Times latelv asserted that "the Privj' Council is chargeable with the health of the Empire;"'' but no con- siderable political party has adopted either of these dogmas by way of a distinct confession of faith. Nevertheless, the opinions that widely prevail on questions of sewage, water- supply, ventilation, and the like, fully commit their advocates to the behef these dogmas embody.
That it comes within the proper sphere of government to repress nuisances is evident. He who contaminates the atmo- sphere breathed by his neighbour, is infringing his neighbour's rights. Men having equal claims to the free use of the elements — having faculties which need this free use of the elements for their due exercise — and having that exercise more or less limited by whatever makes the elements more or less unusable, are obviously trespassed against by any one who unnecessarily vitiates the elements, and renders them detrimental to health, or disagreeable to the senses; and in the discharge of its func- tion as protector, a government is obviously called upon to afford redress to those so trespassed against.
SANITARY SUPERVISION. 373 Beyond this, however, it cannot lawflilly go. As akeady shown in several kindred cases, for a 'government to take from a citizen more property than is needful for the efficient defence of that citizen's rights, is to infringe his rights — is, conse- quently, to do the opposite of what it, the government, is com- missioned to do for him — or, in other words, is to do wrong. And hence all taxation for sanitary superintendence coming, as it does, within this categorj', must be condemned.
This theory, of which Boards of Health and the like are embodiments, is not only inconsistent with our definition of state-duty, but is further open to strictures, similar to, and equally fatal with, those made in analogous cases. If by say- ing "that it is the duty of the state to adopt measures for protecting the health of its subjects," it is meant (as it is meant by the majority of the medical profession) that the state should interpose between quacks and those who patronize them, or between the druggist and the artizan who wants a remedy for his cold — if it is meant that to guard people against em- pirical treatment, the state should forbid all unlicensed per- sons from prescribing — then the reply is, that to do so is directly ta violate the moral law. Men's rights are infringed by these, as much as by all other trade interferences. The invalid is at Uberty to buy medicine and advice from whomso- ever he pleases; the unlicensed practitioner is at Hberty to seU these to whomsoever will buy. On no pretext whatever can a barrier be set up between them, without the law of equal freedom being broken; and least of all may the government, whose office it is to uphold that law, become a transgressor of it.
Moreover this doctrine, that it is the duty of the state to protect the health of its subjects, cannot be established, for the same reason that its kindred doctrines cannot, namely, the impossibility of saying how far the alleged duty shall be car- <'J74 SANITARY SUPERVISION.
ried out. Health depends upon the fulfilment of numerous conditions — can he "protected" only hy ensuring that fulfil- ment: if, therefore, it is the duty of the state to protect the health of its subjects, it is its duty to see that all the condi- tions of health are fulfilled by them. Shall this duty be con- sistently discharged? If so, the legislature must enact a national dietary; prescribe so many meals a day for each individual; fix the quantities and quaJities of food, both for men and women; state the proportion of fluids, when to be taken, and of what kind; specify the amount of exercise, and define its character; describe the clothing to be employed; determine the houre of sleep, allowing for the difference of age and sex: and so on with all other particulars, necessary to complete a perfect synopsis, for the daily guidance of the nation: and to enforce these regulations it must employ a sufliciency of duly-qualified officials, empowered to direct every one's domestic arrangements. If, on the other hand, a uni- versal supervision of private conduct is not meant, then there comes the question — Where, between this and no supervision at all, lies the boundary up to which supervision is a duty? To which question no answer can be given.
There is a manifest analogy between committing to govern- ment-guardianship the physical health of the people, and com- mitting to it their moral health. The two proceedings are equally reasonable, may be defended by similar ai-guments, and must stand or fall together. If the welfare of men's souls can be fitly dealt with by acts of parliament, why then the welfare of their bodies can be fitly dealt with likewise. He who thinks the state commissioned to administer spiritual remedies, may consistently think that it should administer material ones. The disinfecting society from vice may natui-ally be quoted as a pre- cedent for disinfecting it from pestilence. Purifying the haunts of men fmm noxious vapours may be held quite as legitimate SANITARY SUPERVISION. 375 as purifying their moral atmosphere. The fear that false doctrines may be instilled by unauthorized preachers, has its analogue in "the fear that unauthorized practitioners may give deleterious medicines or advice. And the persecutions once committed to prevent the one evil, countenance the penalties used to put down the other. Contrariwise, the arguments em- ployed by the dissenter to show that the moral sanity of the people is not a matter for state superintendence, are applicable, with a slight change of terms, to their physical sanity also.
Let no one think this analogy imaginai^. The two notions are not only theoretically related; we have facts proving that they tend to embody themselves in similar institutions. There is an evident inclination on the part of the medical profession to get itself organized after the fashion of the clericy. Moved as are the projectors of a railway, who, whilst secretly hoping for salaries, persuade themselves and others that the proposed railway will be beneficial to the public — moved as all men are under such circumstances, by nine parts of self-interest gilt over with one part of philanthropy — surgeons and physicians are vigorously striving to erect a medical establishment akin to our religious one. Little do the public at large know how ac- tively professional publications are agitating for state-appointed overseers of the public health. Take up the Lancet, and you shall find articles written to show the necessity of making poor-law medical ofiicers independent of Boards of Guardians by ap- pointing them for Ufe, holding them responsible only to central authority, and giving them handsome salaries from the Conso- lidated Fund. The Journal of Public Health proposes that " every house on becoming vacant be examined by a competent person as to its being in a condition adapted for the safe dwelUng in of the future tenants; " and to this end would raise by fees, chargeable on the landlords, " a revenue adequate to pay a sufE- cient staff of inspectors four or five hundred pounds a year each.' A non-professional publication, echoing the appeal, says — " No reasonable man can doubt that if a proper system of venti- lation were rendered imperative upon landlords, not only would 876 SANITAKV SUPERVISION.
the cholera and other epidemic diseases be checked, but the ge- neral standard of health would be raised." Whilst the Medical Times shows its leanings, by announcing, with marked appro- bation, that " the Ottoman government has recently published a decree for the appointment of physicians to be paid by the state," who " are bound to treat gratuitously all — both rich and poor — who shall demand advice."
More or less distinctly expressed in these passages there is an unmistakable wish to establish an organized, tax-supported class, chai-ged with the health of men's bodies, as the clergy are charged with the health of their souls. And whoever has watched how institutions grow — how by little and little a very innocent-looking infancy unfolds into a formidable maturity, with vested interests, political influence, and a strong instinct of self-preservation, will see that the germs here peeping forth are quite capable, under favourable circumstances, of developing into such an organization. He will see further, that favourable circumstances are not wanting — that the prevalence of unem- ployed professional men, with whom these proposals for sanitary inspectors and public surgeons mostly originate, is likely to con- tinue; and that continuing, it will tend to multiply the offices it has created, much in the same way that the superabundance of clergy multiplies churches. He will even anticipate that, as the spread of education is certain to render the pressure upon the intellectual labour-market still more intense than it now is, there will by-and-by be a yet greater stimulus to the manufac- ture of berths — a yet greater tendency on the part of all who want genteel occupations for their sons, to countenance this manufacture— and, therefore, a yet greater danger of the growth of a medical establishment.
The most specious excuse for not extending to medical ad- vice the principles of free- trade, is the same as that given for not leaving education to be diffused under them; namely, that the j udgment of the cousumer is uot a sufficient guarantee for the goodness of the commodity. The intolerance shown by or- thodox surgeons and physicians, towards unordained followers of their calling, is to he understood as arising from a desire to defend the pubHc against quackery. Ignorant people say they cannot distinguish good treatment from had, or skilful ad- visers from unskilful ones: hence it is needful that the choice should be made for them. And then, following in the track of priesthoods, for -whose persecutions a similar defence has always been set up, they agitate for more stringent regula- tions against unlicensed practitioners, and descant upon the dangers to wliich men are exposed by an unrestricted system. Hear Mr. Wakley. Speaking of a recently-revived law re- lating to chemists and druggists, he says, " It must have the effect of checking, to a vast extent, that fi'ightful evil called counter practice, exercised by unqualified persons, wliich has so long been a disgrace to the operation of the laws relating to medicine in this country, and which, doubtless, has been attended with a dreadful sacrifice of human life." {Lancet, Sept. 11, 1841.) And again, " There is not a chemist and druggist in the empire who would refuse to prescribe in his own shop in medical cases, or who would hesitate day by day to prescribe simple remedies for the ailments of infants and children." * » * * " We had previously considered the evil to he of enormous magnitude, hut it is quite clear that we had under- estimated the extent of the danger to which the pubhc are exposed." {Lancet, Oct. 16, 1841.)
Any one may discern through these ludicrous exaggerations much more of the partizan tlian of the philanthropist. But let that pass. And without dwelUng upon the fact, that it is strange a " dreadful sacrifice of human Life " should not have drawn the attention of the people themselves to this " frightful evil," — without doing more than glance at the further fact, that nothing is said of those benefits conferred by " counter practice," which would af least form a considerable set-off against this " evil of enormous magnitude," — let it be conceded that very 378 SANITARY SUPERVISION.
many of the poorer classes are injured by druggists' prescrip- tions and quack medicines. The allegation having been thus, for argument's sake, admitted in full, let us now consider whether it constitutes a sufficient plea for legal interference.
Inconvenience, suffering, and death, are the penalties at- tached by nature to ignorance, as well as to incompetence — are also the means of remedying these. And whoso tliinks he can mend matters by dissociating ignorance and its penalties, lays claim to more than Divine wisdom, and more than Divine benevolence. If there seems harslmess in those ordinations of tilings, wliich, with unfaltering firmness, punish every breach of law — if there seems harshness in those ordinations of things which visit a shp of the foot with a broken Hmb — which send lingering agonies to follow the inadvertent swallowing of a noxious herb — which go on quietly, age after age, giving fevers and agues to dwellers in marshes — and which, now and then, sweep away by pestilence tens of thousands of unhealthy livers — if there seems harshness in such ordinations, be sure it is apparent only, and not real. Pai-tly by weeding out those of lowest development, and partly by subjecting those who remain to the never-ceasing discipHne of experience, nature secures the growth of a race who shall both understand the conditions of existence, and be able to act up to them. It is impossible in any degree to suspend this discipline by stepping in between ignorance and its consequences, without, to a corresponding degree, suspending the progress. If to be ignorant were as safe as to be wise, no one would become wise. And all measures wliich tend to put ignorance upon a par with wisdom, inevitably check the growth of wsdom. Acts of parliament to save silly people from the evils which putting faith in empirics may entail upon them, do this, and are therefore bad. Unpitying as it looks, it is best to let the foolish man suffer the appointed pe- nalty of his foolishness. For the pain — he must bear it as well as he can: for the experience — he must treasure it up, and act more rationally in future. To others as weU as to liimself will his case be a warning. And by multiplication of such warn- SANITARY SUPERVISION. 379 ings, there cannot fail to be generated in all men a caution corresponding to the danger to be shunned. Are there any who desire to facilitate the process? Let them dispel eiTor; and, provided they do this in a legitimate -way, the faster they do it the better. But to guard ignorant men against the evils of their ignorance — to divorce a cause and consequence which God has joined together — to render needless the intellect put into us for our guidance — to unhinge what is, in fact, die very mechanism of existence — must necessarily entail nothing but disasters.