If the Philippines [he says] succeed in winning their independence at the close of a heroic and bitterly contested war, their people can rest assured that neither England, Germany, France, nor Holland will dare to pick up the territory that Spain could not retain. Within a few years, Africa will absorb all the attention of the great European nations, and none of them would neglect the immense territories and opportunities that will open in the Dark Continent for the sake of a handful of rugged islands at the other end of the world. As to England, she has already enough of colonies in the Orient, and she is too wise to imperil her equilibrium by adding more. She does not wish to run the risk of losing her great empire in India for the sake of the comparatively poorer Philippine Archipelago. If England had even thought of taking the Philippines, she would never have retired from Manila after she had captured it in 1763; she would have retained that great vantage-point and so would have spread her power from Island to Island until all should be hers. For her the game was not worth the candle, and is not. Singapore, Hong-Kong, Shanghai, mean much more to British trade and the empire than the Philippines could ever mean, and she has no idea of risking these great possessions for the sake of a domain so dubious and restless as these Islands. For all reasons of common sense and commercial advantage, England would look with favor upon a state of independence that would open the Philippine ports to British trade. There is, besides, in England a feeling always growing that the country has gone too far in imperialism and expansion, that the colonies have already begun to weaken the mother-country and there must be no additions to them. He proceeds next to discuss the probable policies of Germany, China, Holland, Japan, and the United States toward Philippine independence. None of them, in his view, would feel any temptation to interfere with it or to seize the Islands for itself. But, in any event, he says: The Philippines would defend with the utmost ardor and courage the liberty bought with so much blood and sacrifice. A new man will spring from the Philippine bosom; with new energy he will dedicate himself to progress; he will labor with all his resources to strengthen his country at home and abroad. Gold will be dug from the Philippine soil; copper, lead, coal, and other minerals will be developed. The country will revive the maritime and mercantile activities to which the Islanders are especially adapted by nature, instincts, and aptitude. Filipinas will recover those good qualities that she had centuries ago and has since been losing. [120] Easily, then, we can see her once more a lover of peace, a home of justice, and as of old merry, smiling, hospitable, audacious.