HUMAN RIGHTS.
Oh! sacred rights of man, ordained of God, yet only won by blood, and tears, and toil.
Here there was a digression, and an essay on “the rights of man,” for the poetess Vauline inquired by what “right” the Europeans were “portioning out Africa,” if that country had already 150,000,000 people?
“This,” said the sage Oseba, as he moved his eyes from his admiring critic to his audience, “this is a pertinent question; but remember, my children, most of the inhabitants of Africa are black—they are very black.”
“But is that an answer to my question?” said the poetess Vauline.
“Well,” said Oseba, “it would be so deemed among the Outeroos, for questions of right and wrong do not apply to people who are unbleached.”
This created great surprise, for the Shadowas had not gone entirely through the bleaching process.
“But why, among so-called civilised people, have the blacks no rights?” said the poetess Vauline.
“Plain enough,” said Mr. Oseba, “for black people have no blunderbusses, and among the most civilised Outeroos ‘rights’ are measured by the carrying power of the guns and the skill of the men behind them. Among all the ‘civilised nations’ on Oliffa ‘right’ is measured, not by the pleadings of the master, not by the demands of humanity or justice, but in the first instance by color, for this indicates the capacity of the blunderbusses, and the nerve of the gunner.
“Yellow have rather more rights than black people, for they sometimes have a few guns and some saltpetre. ‘Thou shalt not kill’ and ‘Thou shalt not steal’ apply only to white men; and even then, only to small neighborhoods or in police affairs, for ‘nations’ are above these honeyed ravings, and expediency, not right, becomes the patriotic guide.
“But, my children, as John Bull is rapidly painting Africa red, we will preserve an open mind regarding that much-talked-of and little known country, though for the present it is no place for saints or Shadowas.
“I may say, in referring to colour in the discussion of questions of right, that ‘red’ is considerably respected. Then, too, of recent years, with improved tastes among the nations, ‘red, white and blue,’ thusly arranged is quite respected, while ‘yellow’ is very unfashionable, and ‘green’ is mostly admired when in uniform.
“That black Africa will, ere long, be about all red, about all British—at least in language, in sentiment, in human sympathy, in social, industrial and political methods and aspiration, if not in allegiance—can hardly be doubted; and as her ideals alone of all the races on the upper crust would satisfy us, our children may hope for further communication with these British-African colonies.”