made after the rebellion of 1837. This document, to which I have already referred, pointed out forcibly the evils that had flowed from placing side by side an elected legislature and a governor with real authority, and it urged the necessity of establishing responsible government in the colony. Although Canada had then been under English rule for about eighty years, and had had an elective assembly for nearly half a century, the training of the French Canadians in self-government would hardly have been enough to make the remedy suggested practicable had it not been for the vast tracts of waste land which brought a great influx of English settlers. In fact the province of Upper Canada, which was united with the French province by the act of 1840, was entirely English. Now the people of Porto Rico are not very much less lacking in political experience than the French Canadians were at the capture of Quebec, and there is no vacant territory into which Americans can move in great numbers. Hence responsible government in the English sense cannot safely be set up for a long time to come, and the island must first undergo a period of apprenticeship. Moreover, our own people are quite unfamiliar with the conceptions that underlie the principles of responsible government, and they would fail to understand the position of a governor who, on the ground that his legal powers were in the safe keeping of a colonial cabinet, sanctioned unwise and unjust laws, or a hostile tariff, enacted by the colonial legislature. If the governor is to exert no real authority it would probably be wiser to cast the island adrift, providing only that it should hold no communication with the outside world save through the President of the United States. This would, no doubt, involve complications with foreign powers, but at least it would be a system that our people could comprehend. The island would then be a protected state and not a dependency. It would be a Spanish-American republic whose foreign relations alone would be under the guardianship of the United States. Perhaps this would be the most prudent relation for us to hold with the island, and a great deal could be said on both sides of that question.

Assuming, however, as the title of this discussion indicates, that Porto Rico is to remain a dependency of this country, it would seem that an elected assembly with

general legislative powers cannot wisely be established. If that is true, two courses are open to us. An elected assembly with strictly limited powers may be created, other matters being reserved for the governor and an appointed council; or the English example may be followed of vesting general legislative powers in a body composed partly of appointed and partly of elected members, the latter, say a dozen in number, being perhaps chosen by the seven provinces. The second plan, at least at the outset, would probably be the safer with a people unused to constitutional limitations. But in any event the appointed members of the governor's council ought to be selected from residents, and as far as possible, from natives of the island. By this process, jealousy of foreign rule could be minimized, for the mere fact that the chief officials were appointed ought not to be seriously obnoxious to the inhabitants, who are not accustomed to any other method of selection.

I am aware that the powers entrusted to the governor and council may be abused, although the danger is surely no greater than in the case of a popular assembly elected by a people unused to self-government. But I do not think we need to fear a repetition of the carpet-bag rule. That was made possible only by the disorganized and distracted state of the south; and by the sudden enfranchisement of an enormous mass of untrained voters, at a time when the North distrusted every Southerner who had the slightest experience of public affairs. It may be observed, also, that where the political conditions are such as to permit the existence of carpet-bag rule, the presence of an elected assembly tends rather to aggravate than to remove the evil; and further, that if we appoint governors of the carpet-bag type, they will wreck any system of government that can be devised.

The development of local self-government is a matter of the highest importance, for it is the foundation of true political liberty. Capacity for popular government cannot be created by edict. It must be acquired by slow experience, and efforts to produce it suddenly have usually been disastrous. It requires the gradual training of large numbers of men to the conduct of public affairs on a small scale; and not less a strong reverence for the authority of law, as distinguished from the commands of men. Hence it must begin with local government administered under strict rules

Lord Durham remarked the defective municipal organization of Canada, and laid stress in his report upon the necessity of improving it. We ought to foster by every means in our power the management of local affairs in Porto Rico by the people themselves, and in doing so it would be well to follow as nearly as possible the existing forms and institutions, filling them with a more vigorous spirit. It may be necessary at first to appoint the alcalde, or mayor, but he should be selected from among the leading citizens of the commune, and should be assisted by a council elected on some qualification based on property or education, which will insure that the electorate shall not be an ignorant and credulous mass of voters. The franchise could easily be so arranged that it should gradually expand automatically as prosperity and education increased. The general principles of local self-government once fixed, their application will no doubt be tentative for some time to come, and it is certainly presumptuous for anyone unfamiliar with life on the island to attempt to talk about details. A permanent civil service is essential in Porto Rico as well as in the Philippines, although it would have a somewhat different character. In the Philippines we must depend in the main on American officials, while in Porto Rico the service ought, after the first few years, to be recruited almost exclusively from the natives. The reason why the spoils system has not proved even more intolerable in the United States must be sought in the extraordinary versatility of the American, and in the general diffusion of education. But these qualities are wanting in the inhabitants of Porto Rico, and therefore if we are to have the support of an efficient administrative force, we must have a permanent and well-trained civil service. The United States cannot afford to throw away any chances in the difficult and untried task before it.

The judicial system is perhaps the most important point of all. If the people of Porto Rico are to acquire our political ideas and traditions it must be chiefly by means of the courts of law, for the relation of the courts to the administrative officials and to the citizens is the fundamental point of difference between the Anglo-Saxon system of government and that of the Latin races. It is the force that prevents the government from being autocratic, that makes it a government of laws and not of men. Porto Rico can never

obtain our political system unless she first becomes thoroughly familiar with our judicial conceptions. I do not mean that the substantive law needs to be changed. On the contrary, some branches of the law must obviously be retained, and nothing would be gained by changing most of the others. To change the law of land is oppressive, while commercial law, the law of contracts and so forth, are very much alike over the whole civilized world. England had to decide the same question when she conquered Canada, and after an unfortunate effort to introduce the common law, she determined, in the Quebec Act of 1774, to substitute the English criminal law as being milder than the French at that time, but to leave the Canadian law in other respects untouched. Porto Rico has now the civil law, and it had better not be disturbed except so far as it may be amended in detail from time to time by legislation. There is no difficulty in administering the civil law by means of the American judicial system. The common law has always recognized the binding force of local customs, and there has never been any trouble in the case of Louisiana, which still retains the civil law as the basis of her jurisprudence. Incidentally the maintenance of the existing law would avoid any question about juries in civil suits,—if the provision about jury trial in the Constitution applies to Porto Rico at all,-because in civil cases the provision extends only to suits at common law. It does not apply to equity causes or to litigation under the civil law.

The important thing is that the organization and authority of the American courts should be planted in Porto Rico, together with the method of procedure and the rules of evidence. The best judicial organization would probably be that under which the common law was successfully built up; local courts with a limited jurisdiction, and a central court for the whole island, which should hear appeals in bank, and whose members should go on circuit through the several provinces. They could be assisted in ascertaining the facts in any case by local assessors or the local magistrates. No system better adapted for maintaining the dignity of the courts and the authority of the law has ever been devised. It would appear wise also to allow appeals in certain cases to the Supreme Court at Washington, although such appeals would not be numerous. England has always permitted an appeal from her colonial courts to the Judicial

Committee of the Privy Council, which is to-day virtually the same court as the House of Lords, the highest tribunal of the United Kingdom. Such an appeal is useful in many ways. It tends to unify the law, and to preserve the authority of the parent state without the irritation that might be provoked by action of the executive department. Moreover, it acts as a restraint on all public bodies and functionaries in the colony to know that the legality of their acts is liable to be called in question before a paramount power, the greatest tribunal of the parent state.

A potent force in fostering the affection of the people of Porto Rico for the United States might be found in the army and the navy. Not only might the natives of the island be recruited into the ranks, but a certain number of promising young men might receive Presidential appointments year by year to West Point and Annapolis, just as commissions in the British army are now reserved for young colonials. There is certainly nothing that stimulates loyalty to a flag so much as serving under it.

The regulation of the grant of concessions or franchises will be a thorny problem in both our dependencies, for the danger of abuse is exceeding great. England encountered the same question in the form of the disposition of crown lands in the colonies; and we know a little about it ourselves from some trifling experiences at home. The only safeguard we have yet discovered is to provide that such grants shall not be made by special acts, but by general law alone; and although that principle cannot be strictly applied to the gigantic corporations bred by economy of operation in a huge country, it can probably be applied in our new possessions for many years to come.

One more suggestion before closing, for suggestions are singularly easy to make when one has no responsibility for carrying them out. There would seem to be no motive for haste in creating civil governments either for Porto Rico or the Philippines. The military rule in Porto Rico appears to be proceeding smoothly, and in the Archipelago civil government cannot be established until order is restored. There are certainly cases where it is more important to act right than to act quickly.