But
what should be thought of the sense, if not indeed the sanity, of a
grave political teacher who prescribes "European government" and
"European education" as the specifics to qualify the Negro for
political emancipation, and who, when these qualifications are
conspicuously mastered by the Negro who has undergone the training,
refuses him the prize, because he is a Negro? We see further that,
in spite of being fit for election to council, and even to be prime
ministers competent to indite governors' messages, the pigment under
our epidermis dooms us to eventual disappointment and a life-long
condition of contempt. Even so is it [183] desired by Mr. Froude and
his clients, and not without a spice of piquancy is their opinion
that for a white ruler to preside and rule over and accept the best
assistance of coloured men, qualified as above stated, would be a
self-degradation too unspeakable for toleration by any Englishman--
"even a bankrupt peer." Unfortunately for Mr. Froude, we can point
him to page 56 of this his very book, where, speaking of Grenada and
deprecating the notion of its official abandonment, our author
says:--
"Otherwise they [Negroes] were quiet fellows, and if the politicians
would only let them alone, they would be perfectly contented, and
might eventually, if wisely managed, come to some good.
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