Political and Literary essays, 1908-1913   By: Evelyn Baring Cromer (1841-1917)

ESSAYS

1908 1913

BY THE

EARL OF CROMER

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON 1913

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA · MELBOURNE

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO · DALLAS · SAN FRANCISCO

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TORONTO

PREFACE

I have to thank the editors of The Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews , The Nineteenth Century and After , and The Spectator for allowing the republication of these essays, all of which appeared originally in their respective columns.

No important alterations or additions have been made, but I should like to observe, as regards the first essay of the series on "The Government of Subject Races" that, although only six years have elapsed since it was written, events in India have moved rapidly during that short period. I adhere to the opinions expressed in that essay so far as they go, but it will be obvious to any one who has paid attention to Indian affairs that, if the subject had to be treated now, many very important issues, to which I have not alluded, would have to be imported into the discussion.

CROMER.

September 30, 1913.

CONTENTS

PAGE "THE EDINBURGH REVIEW"

I. THE GOVERNMENT OF SUBJECT RACES 3 II. TRANSLATION AND PARAPHRASE 54

"THE QUARTERLY REVIEW"

III. SIR ALFRED LYALL 77

"THE NINETEENTH CENTURY AND AFTER"

IV. ARMY REFORM 107 V. THE INTERNATIONAL ASPECTS OF FREE TRADE 127 VI. CHINA 141 VII. THE CAPITULATIONS IN EGYPT 156

"THE SPECTATOR"

VIII. DISRAELI 177 IX. RUSSIAN ROMANCE 204 X. THE WRITING OF HISTORY 214 XI. THE GREEK ANTHOLOGY 226 XII. LORD MILNER AND PARTY 237 XIII. THE FRENCH IN ALGERIA 250 XIV. THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE 264 XV. WELLINGTONIANA 277 XVI. BURMA 287 XVII. A PSEUDO HERO OF THE REVOLUTION 298 XVIII. THE FUTURE OF THE CLASSICS 307 XIX. AN INDIAN IDEALIST 317 XX. THE FISCAL QUESTION IN INDIA 227 XXI. ROME AND MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 340 XXII. A ROYAL PHILOSOPHER 351 XXIII. ANCIENT ART AND RITUAL 361 XXIV. PORTUGUESE SLAVERY 372 XXV. ENGLAND AND ISLAM 407 XXVI. SOME INDIAN PROBLEMS 416 XXVII. THE NAPOLEON OF TAINE 427 XXVIII. SONGS, PATRIOTIC AND NATIONAL 439 XXIX. SONGS, NAVAL AND MILITARY 449

INDEX 459

"THE EDINBURGH REVIEW"

I

THE GOVERNMENT OF SUBJECT RACES[1]

"The Edinburgh Review," January 1908

The "courtly Claudian," as Mr. Hodgkin, in his admirable and instructive work, calls the poet of the Roman decadence, concluded some lines which have often been quoted as applicable to the British Empire, with the dogmatic assertion that no limit could be assigned to the duration of Roman sway. Nec terminus unquam Romanae ditionis erit. At the time this hazardous prophecy was made, the huge overgrown Roman Empire was tottering to its fall. Does a similar fate await the British Empire? Are we so far self deceived, and are we so incapable of peering into the future as to be unable to see that many of the steps which now appear calculated to enhance and to stereotype Anglo Saxon domination, are but the precursors of a period of national decay and senility?