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chiefly as a fluent debater and a great favorite in society, and his critics felt some surprise that such a position as that of Indian Viceroy should have been given to one whose career as a Member of Parliament had never made a deep impression on the House.

This volume cannot follow very far the history of Lord Curzon's career, and this would not be the place to express any definite views as to the results of his Indian Administration. It may be said that from the first he showed himself determined to carry out that forward policy which he had previously advocated in some of his writings, and it soon became clear that whatever future history might have to say about his Administration, it was not likely that future history could fail to have a good deal to say about it. It may be mentioned as a fact of some interest that Lord Curzon had of his own choice accepted an Irish and not an English peerage, and the general impression was that he had made this choice because he was unwilling to separate himself forever from that House of Commons which he liked so well and in which he had been so popular. According to our Constitutional arrangements, an Irish Peer may be elected a member of the representative chamber by an English constituency, although he cannot represent there an Irish borough or county, and it may be taken for granted that the House of Commons is certain to hold among its members at any time one or two Irish Peers representing British constituencies. There was, therefore, a very general belief that Lord Curzon had reserved to himself a right to return to his old debating-ground if, when his tenure of office in India should come to an end, he felt unwilling either to accept a new Viceroyalty or to settle himself down to a life of retirement.

There had not been for some time any very animated controversy in England about the Administration of

India. Such a controversy was, however, certain to be revived before very long, and, in the opinion of many observers, Lord Curzon was well qualified to revive it. For that reason his appointment as Viceroy was looked upon with much satisfaction and still greater hope by one section of political observers, and with dread and apprehension by the other. The Imperialists felt confident that he was just the man to carry out, the Imperialist policy in his rule of India. It is not easy to describe by any appropriate name the men opposed to the Imperialists. To describe them as anti-Imperialists would be entirely unfair, for it cannot be doubted that the great majority in all English political parties are unchangingly in favor of the maintenance of the Empire. On the other hand, it would be unfair to the Imperialists if you were to describe their opponents merely as the peace party, because we must not assume that every Imperialist is naturally an enemy of peace, or that every Imperialist is a professional promoter of war. Still, the distinction between the two parties is clear enough. The Imperialists are possessed by the faith that the mission of England is to extend her power wherever she can, while the wholesome creed of the best of their opponents is that England's first duty is to provide for the peace and prosperity of the vast realms which she already owns, and to avoid all wars, unless such wars as are absolutely needed for the purposes of national defence. That which might be called, and was once called, the peace party—the party led in former days by men like Cobden and Bright-can hardly be said to have had any political existence as an organized influence during the later years of Queen Victoria's reign. There were still some eminent men in both Houses of Parliament who proclaimed their objection to all war which was not strictly defensive, and especially to war for territorial aggrandizement. But

such declarations of faith were not often heard in Parliamentary debate, and there was nothing like an organized party, however small, to maintain that faith within the walls of Parliament. The Imperialists had it all very much their own way for the time, and the alarms and disturbances breaking out here and there in the East only seemed to give a new impulse and a plausible support to their appeals for the spread of English dominion as a means of resistance to the efforts of new rivals for acy in the East.

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Then set in the period when what were commonly described as "spheres of influence" and "spheres of interest" began to be adopted by Western statecraft as the rightful claim which civilized Powers might press upon Asiatic Governments and populations. There were some plausible advantages about this way of putting the question. The civilized Powers were nearly all of them great trading Powers, and it was held to be clearly for the good of the whole world that legitimate and healthful trade and commerce might have the door kept open for them in every Asiatic State. The landing of trading ships is not warlike invasion: commerce is not conquest. Why should not England be guaranteed secure landing-places on the shores of such countries as China, for instancelanding-places which were to be hers merely in the trading sense, and could give her no claims to any territorial jurisdiction outside the limits of the port itself? Thus would be offered the open door for the introduction of all manner of foreign products, and thus might be established the copartnership of the world in general in the benefits enjoyed by each civilized nation. Such an open door was the privilege which Russia claimed when she sought for a lease of certain ports and sea-coast places belonging to the Chinese Empire; such was the privilege sought also by Germany and by Japan, and then by England herself.

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