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THE RELATIVE GROWTH OF THE EMPIRE 239
rapid increase of the means of subsistence than the
increase of the population itself such as has been
secured in the English portions of the Empire. The
moral is that our position as a governing race remains
not altogether satisfactory so long as we have not
created such life and energy in the subject races that
an improvement in quality and power of production
er head may accompany the increase of numbers .. In
fndia such an improvement has taken place among
many classes of the native community. But it is not
quite universal, and it does not go deep enough down
among the lower classes. Something more is wanted,
and we should not despair of that something more
being added, if the governing races have it made clear
to them how vital and urgent the problem may"become
for the general welfare of the Empire. A natural flow
of capital to India and other parts of the Empire for
purposes of internal development, and the cultivation
of a capacity to use capital among the native races
themselves, are, in fact, indispensaJ>le if the Empire is
to prosper. As yet on this head the progress we have
made is far from what it should be.

The constitutional changes which the growth of the
Empire must render necessary, make another question
suggested by such a review as we have taken to-night.
Although force is not wanting to keep the Empire to-
gether, the drain upon the energies of the Parliament
and Cabinet at Westminster increases with all the vast
growth of population and resources. Already we have
two ministers. the Secretary of State for India and the
Secretary of State for the Colonies, occupied with the
affairs of our possessions abroad, and the departments
which these ministers attend to have long been increas-
ing. The Foreign Minister has also been entangled
in Egypt and elsewhere with what is in fact Colonial
administration. It is quite on the cards, I should say,
that before long we may have a separate Secretary of
State for Africa, or for a part of it like South Africa,