The Spanish idea in its government of Cuba was purely and absolutely the idea of possession, and the facts pointing to this will be abundantly set forth in the several chapters in this volume relating to the fiscal, commercial, and industrial condition of the Island of Cuba. The work of reconstruction already so auspiciously begun by the United States Government in Santiago, and described in a subsequent chapter, is absolutely in line with what Mr. Chamberlain aptly terms the root idea of British administration in the tropics. The primary obligation of the United States in Cuba is to maintain peace, the safety of life and property, and equal justice for all, irrespective of race or class. The final instructions given by the President of the United States, last August, to the author, leaving for Cuba, were to the effect that the United States desired to secure no tribute from Cuba, that the work of reconstruction must be performed in the interests of the people of Cuba, only, and that the profit to the United States must come in the increased prosperity of the people of Cuba, and in the benefits accruing from a peaceful, instead of a constantly warring neighbour. According to Mr. Chamberlain, this is the fundamental principle underlying England's operation in her tropical colonies. [Illustration: ON THE ROAD TO CASTLETON, JAMAICA.] In comparing British administration in Jamaica with any possible operations of the United States Government in Cuba, the fact of the great difference in the population must be considered. In Jamaica not over 15,000 of the 700,000 population are white. When England began to treat this island as a trust, and not as a possession,--say about 1834,--the population was made up of 311,070 slaves, 15,000 whites, 40,000 coloured, or brown people, as they are called in Jamaica, and 5000 free blacks. In Cuba a majority of the population are white--the census of 1887 showing 1,102,889 white and 528,798 coloured--in all provinces; Matanzas, with forty-five per cent. coloured, and Santiago, with forty-two per cent. coloured, representing the strongest coloured sections of the Island. That half a century of British rule in Jamaica has improved the population of Jamaica, nearly all of whom were slaves when the work was begun, is self-evident, though it is equally true that similar government in Cuba would have resulted, by reason of the preponderance of white population, in more far-reaching results. That is, Cuba, under such a government as England has given Jamaica, would, in all reasonable probability, have numbered at this time a population of from four to five millions, with a greatly increased commerce, diversified industries, magnificent main and parochial roads, an adequate railway system, many prosperous and well-built cities, and a degree of prosperity and civilisation far in excess of that which the United States officials found when they took possession of the Island.