Passion's 'Cumulative Poison': Colonial Desire and Friendship in Kipling's Early Fiction

In their speeches and writings, many British Victorian colonials raise concerns about the successful implementation of law and authority. Their anxiety resonates beyond imperial governments and legislative structures; it also questions the internal coherence of colonial rule.4 In interpreting this anxiety, I suggest in this paper that a conflict between desire and mastery prevailed on what I shall term Britain's 'colonial impulse to power'.