ABSTRACT
Doubtless a modern critic can pick holes in Lord Grey's theories. He greatly underrated the difficulty of the task he had undertaken, and was impatient for tangible results. He hoped too much from education, nor did he realize sufficiently what education meant. In his measures for inducing the native to work he was too apt perhaps to assume that the sole end and aim should be to train him to be a docile labourer. In respect of native levies he was too apt, as Russell saw, to draw analogies with India. But, after all, scientific knowledge and experience of the problems with which he grappled have vastly increased since Lord Grey was Secretary of State. All pioneers must make mistakes, and Lord Grey was a pioneer. He swept aside the ideas of laisser-faire and limitation of
responsibility which pervaded British policy once slavery had been abolished. He perceived that Government must assume some responsibility for health and education. He perceived that industry was one of the prime factors in civilization. He realized the significance-pointed out by Lord Lugard in his Dual Mandate in Tropical Africa-of methods of taxation, and particularly of direct taxation. He realized the need, also pointed out by Lord Lugard, of a tribal authority with recognized standing where nothing else lies between an uncivilized society and social chaos. He realized something of the significance of railways, which are one of the cornerstones of modern native policy. It is not too much to say that it was Lord Grey who first gathered up the scattered threads of humanitarian tradition and unco-ordinated experience, and wove them into a real native policy; and that he thereby strengthened the whole fabric of the modern British Colonial Empire.
