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THE DEVELOPMENT OF 
 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 *** 
 
 BY 
 HOWARD ROBINSON, Ph.D. 
 
 Professor of History, Carleton College 
 
 UNDEK THE EDITORSHIP OF 
 
 JAMES T. SHOTWELL, Ph.D. 
 
 Professor of History in Columbia University 
 
 HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
 
 BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 Cfje &foerstbe $tees Camiribgc 
 
Ut\ lb 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1922 
 
 BY HOWARD ROBINSON 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
 *?*" 
 
 ®t)e 3&ibetfiiBt $te6S 
 
 CAMBRIDGE • MASSACHUSETTS 
 PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. 
 
 OCT 21 ,2 
 
 ©C1A686418 
 
TO 
 
 MY PARENTS 
 
EDITOR'S FOREWORD 
 
 Few of the great themes of history have a more compelling 
 interest than that which is the subject of this book, for it 
 includes almost every kind of appeal to the student or reader. 
 There is romance in the beginning, in the story of discovery 
 and exploration, of those who sailed with Drake or Raleigh 
 or followed the track of Portuguese caravels to India. Even 
 the homely narrative of obscure settlements carries on that 
 great adventure which lends an epic quality to what might 
 otherwise at first seem insignificant in itself, however impor- 
 tant its subsequent effects upon national institutions. The 
 culmination of this heroic theme is reached with Wolfe and 
 Clive. Then come other considerations not less interesting 
 to the English-speaking peoples, problems of colonial gov- 
 ernment, experiments reaching all the way from repression 
 in America through revolution on the Atlantic seaboard and 
 rebellion in Canada to liberty and democracy in self-govern- 
 ing Dominions and finally to mandated territories held un- 
 der contract with the League of Nations. The economics of 
 world-empire, with its diverse and mutually conflicting claims 
 and systems, is a subject hardly less vast than that of its po- 
 litical structure, and one almost as important to America as 
 to Great Britain itself. The peculiar problems of Egypt and 
 India and of the growth of nationalism in other parts of the 
 empire is a matter of too recent public discussion to call for 
 further comment here. 
 
 A history of the Development of the British Empire writ- 
 ten by an American historian who can survey the process 
 with detachment and whose well-turned narrative rests upon 
 adequate research needs no word of editorial commendation 
 or apology. Professor Ptobinson's volume will be its own jus- 
 tification. 
 
 J. T. Shotwell 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Interest in the British Empire, its growth, its organization-, 
 and its possibilities, needs no apology. The present volume 
 is an attempt to describe, from a detached point of view, the 
 story of the growth of Greater Britain. Especial emphasis 
 has been placed on the momentous development of the last 
 one hundred years, a century that has witnessed an extraor^ 
 dinary growth in the oversea Empire. Although the results 
 of the World War are not as yet fully realized, yet it has been 
 thought wise to relate to the previous evolution of the Em- 
 pire the diverse changes and increasing complexities that 
 have resulted from British participation in the war that be- 
 gan in 1914. 
 
 It will be taken for granted, it is hoped, that this account 
 of British expansion is not intended as an exhaustive study, 
 but as an introduction to a part of modern history that has 
 received altogether too little emphasis in the past in Ameri- 
 can schools and colleges. In accordance with this purpose, 
 bibliographies have been appended to the chapters. They 
 refer, it is believed, to the best selection of available books 
 for further reading, although they do not pretend to include 
 all the important works on British imperial growth. Biblio- 
 graphical data have been added in order that the titles may 
 be more than names, and may lead to an acquaintance with 
 the volumes themselves. 
 
 The combination of geographical and historical interests 
 can nowhere be better formed than in the study of British 
 expansion. Maps of especial importance are to be found in 
 the volume. No book, however, can contain too many maps; 
 the constant use of additional maps cannot be too strongly 
 recommended. Care has been taken in the volume to make 
 concrete references to geographical facts, with stress on those 
 details only of which a definite knowledge is necessary for 
 the understanding of the historical development. If it is an 
 
viii PREFACE 
 
 excellent intellectual habit never to pass a word in reading 
 without an exact knowledge of its meaning, it is even more 
 important to follow the same rule with regard to the location 
 of geographical references. By so doing, one can appreciate 
 the enlarging scope of Britain where, as Conrad has put it, 
 "men and sea interpenetrate, so to speak." 
 
 Something should be said regarding terminology. The use 
 of the word " American' ' in referring to the United States of 
 America only — a usage to which Canadians sometimes ob- 
 ject — seems inevitable. There is no word to substitute for 
 it. It has been in common use with this meaning ever since 
 1783; the references by British writers to the United States, 
 in the years following the American Revolution, are usually 
 to the "united states of America." A second source of con- 
 fusion is the indiscriminate use of "England" and "Great 
 Britain." For a time the formation of the British Empire 
 was almost exclusively the expansion of England, but after 
 the organic union with Scotland it became British expansion, 
 and the accomplishments of the Empire are rightly those of 
 Great Britain. In the third place, there is no good word or 
 phrase to describe the group of self-governing units, Crown 
 Colonies, Chartered Companies, Mandates, and spheres of 
 influence, which have come to form Greater Britain. "Em- 
 pire" is inaccurate, for the great self-governing Dominions 
 are not under absolute control in the political sense; "Do- 
 minion" has much the same fault, whereas "British Com- 
 monwealth" errs in the other direction. In the use of the 
 current appellations for Greater Britain, it should be under- 
 stood that the British Empire is, politically and socially, 
 something "new under the sun." 
 
 I desire to express my obligations to many friends who 
 have aided me with their learning and counsel. Former 
 colleagues, Professor Henry R. Mueller, of Muhlenberg Col- 
 lege, and Professor H. H. Carter, of Indiana University, have 
 given the manuscript the benefit of careful reading. Pro- 
 fessor Walter M. Patton, of Carleton College, has assisted 
 and encouraged me in many ways, and has read several of the 
 chapters. I am grateful to Professor Charles M. Andrews, 
 
PREFACE ix 
 
 of Yale University, for making many helpful suggestions as 
 a result of a careful reading of the text in manuscript, and I 
 gladly acknowledge a similar indebtedness to Ramsay Muir, 
 Professor of Modern History in the University of Manches- 
 ter from 1913 to 1921. Professor James T. Shotwell, whom 
 I am so fortunate as to count among my teachers, has read 
 the text in manuscript, has made many wise suggestions, and 
 has contributed greatly, by his editorship, to whatever value 
 the volume may possess. I only am responsible for the in- 
 terpretation of British imperial development as well as for 
 any errors that may have escaped detection. Lastly, I am 
 much indebted to my wife without whose interest and co- 
 operation the task might well have wanted completion. 
 
 Howard Robinson 
 
 NORTHFIELD, MINNESOTA 
 
 July, 1922 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Editor's Foreword v 
 
 Preface vii 
 
 I. The Preparation for Empire 1 
 
 II. The' Commercial Revolution 10 
 
 Trade in the Middle Ages — English commercial expansion — 
 
 The Far East — The new West 
 
 III. The Foundation for Empire 22 
 
 The Spanish Empire — Henry VIII and Elizabeth — The 
 Elizabethan seamen 
 
 IV. The Beginnings of Empire in the West 35 
 
 The Stuarts — Jamestown — New England — Newf oundland 
 and Hudson Bay — The West Indies — The buccaneers 
 
 V. The Commercial Rivalry of England and Holland 56 
 
 The Dutch and the Far East — The English East India Com- 
 pany — Anglo-Dutch rivalry in the West — English North 
 America x 
 
 VI. The Duel with France 74 
 
 France in America and India — The duel in America — The 
 Peace of Utrecht — The Seven Years' War — Ancient India 
 
 — The duel in India — The Peace of Paris 
 
 VII. The Old Colonial System 98 
 
 ^ Mercantilism — Navigation Acts — ■ Colonial administration 
 
 — The administration of India 
 
 VIII. The Revolt of the American Colonies 115 
 
 Causes for rebellion — The approach of war — The war 
 IX. The Industrial Revolution 131 
 
 Mercantilism attacked — The textile industry — The steam 
 engine — The aftermath of revolution 
 
 X. The British Empire and Napoleon 146 
 
 A world war — The continental system — The fruits of Brit- 
 ish victory 
 
 XI. A New Colonial Interest 160 
 
 The nadir of empire — Beginnings of a new interest— Edward 
 Gibbon Wakefield — Systematic colonization 
 
Xll 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 XII. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 The Spread op British Power in India , 177 
 
 Lord Clive — Warren Hastings — Lord Cornwallis — Lord 
 Wellesley — The Marquess of Hastings 
 
 The Completion of British Dominion in India 
 
 Bentinck and reform — Lord Auckland and the northwest 
 Lord Dalhousie — The Mutiny 
 
 194 
 
 XIV. The Growth op Canada 1760-1867 212 
 
 Quebec — Canada and the American Revolution — Upper 
 and Lower Canada — Responsible government — Confedera-* 
 tion 
 
 \ 
 
 XV. The Establishment of Empire in Australasia 235 
 
 The finding of the continent — New South Wales — Tasma-, 
 nia — Victoria and Queensland — Western Australia — South 
 Australia — The gold rush — New Zealand 
 
 XVI. The Establishment of Empire in South Africa 259 
 
 Cape Town — The natives — The British occupation — The 
 Great Trek — Cape Colony 
 
 XVII. Imperial Interests of the Victorian Age 279 
 
 The British monopoly — Rival empires — A new interest 
 
 XVIII. Modern India 
 
 Foreign policy — The Empire of India — Nationalism and 
 reform — The life of the people 
 
 301 
 
 XIX. The Highway to the East 
 
 The route around Africa — Malavsia — Borneo 
 
 320 
 
 China 
 
 XX. The Suez Canal and Egypt 337 
 
 The Mediterranean — The British occupation of Egypt — 
 The Sudan — Modern Egypt 
 
 XXI. The Union of South Africa 357 
 
 Continued racial friction — British expansion — The ap- 
 proach of war — The South African War — The Union of 
 South Africa 
 
 "^ XXII. Modern Australasia 
 
 Maori troubles in New Zealand — New Zealand unification — 
 Recent progress in New Zealand — Australian self-govern- 
 ment — The exploration of the interior — The growth of de- 
 mocracy — The Commonwealth of Australia — The Pacific 
 islands 
 
 376 
 
CONTENTS xiii 
 
 XXIII. British North America — Canada and Newfoundland 401 
 
 Canadian confederation — The unification of the Dominion — 
 Conservative and Liberal — Provincial problems — The Can- 
 ada of to-day — Canada and the United States — Newfound- 
 land 
 
 XXIV. The Imperial Organization at the Opening of the 
 Twentieth Century 428 
 
 The growth of Greater Britain — The government of the Em- 
 pire — Colonial Conferences 
 
 XXV. The Empire and the World War 448 
 
 Military achievements — An enlarged Empire — Dominion 
 politics — Unrest — Ireland — Constitutional growth 
 
 A.PPENDIX 
 
 Statistical Summary i 
 
 Diagram of Approximate Political Relations with- 
 in the Empire ii 
 Diagram showing Distribution and Relative Size of 
 Populations within the Empire iv 
 
 Index vii 
 
MAPS 
 
 The British Empire 1922 (colored) Frontispiece 
 
 Mediaeval Trade Routes 15 
 
 The West Indies in 1763 49 
 
 The East Indies 57 
 
 The Indian Peninsula in 1763 89 
 
 The British Empire in 1783 129 
 
 The British Empire in 1815 158 
 
 India in 1857 195 
 
 Canada before Confederation 215 
 
 Australia and New Zealand 237 
 
 The Development of South Africa ' 265 
 
 Africa in 1881 292 
 
 The Indian Ocean 325 
 
 Malaysia 329 
 
 The Western Entrance to the Mediterranean 341 
 
 The Suez Canal and its Approaches 345 
 
 The Southwestern Pacific 396 
 
 The Growth of Canada 402 
 
 Africa in 1922 454 
 
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE 
 BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 • 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE PREPARATION FOR EMPIRE 
 
 The spread of the British Empire begins with the permanent 
 settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. With each suc- 
 ceeding century the Empire has expanded, with the single ex- 
 ception of the closing years of the eighteenth century, when 
 the American colonies were lost. To-day, it is one of the great 
 dominating forces of the world. The War of 1914 has dem- 
 onstrated more than ever its power and its adaptability to 
 new needs and conditions. As one endeavors to appraise its 
 possibilities, a review of the growth of Greater Britain serves 
 to furnish the key to motive and the secrets of successful ex- 
 pansion. It is a fascinating study, this extension of England 
 beyond the seas; it has all the attractiveness and swing of a 
 cosmic epic. In order that we may understand the settle- 
 ment of Jamestown and all that follows, a preliminary sur- 
 vey must needs be made of the growth of English unity at 
 home, of this composite product called an Englishman, of 
 the institutions developed during the Middle Ages and the 
 early modern period that gave a beneficent as well as a power- 
 ful quality to English endeavor. 
 
 One of the remarkable traits of the inhabitants of the 
 British Isles has been their genius for colonizing, their adapt- 
 ability to new conditions. The process of joining races and of 
 forming a composite capable of such accomplishment has 
 been in progress during the whole of British history. It is 
 sometimes forgotten that the Britisher of modern times is 
 a mixture of numerous racial elements. The earliest inhab- 
 itants of Britain of whom anything at all definite is knowo 
 
2 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 were probably akin to the Basques. These people, sometimes 
 called Iberian, controlled the islands in the New Stone Age. 
 Following them, the Celts began to occupy the British Isles in 
 the Bronze Age. The Celts came in at least two waves: the 
 Goidelic Celts, whose descendants live with the least inter- 
 mixture in the Highlands of Scotland, on the Isle of Man, and 
 in Ireland; and the Brythonic Celts, who are represented to- 
 day by the Welsh and the Cornishmen. Each new wave of 
 invading people tended to push farther westward or moun- 
 tain-ward the preceding groups. There was probably some 
 amalgamation of conquerors and conquered, but it is very- 
 difficult to say to what extent it took place. It is important 
 to note, however, that when the Romans came to Britain in 
 55 b.c. the people of the British Isles were already of mixed 
 stock. 
 
 The Romans stayed for about four hundred years. They 
 built great roads, reared defensive walls in northern Eng- 
 land against the wild and unconquered inhabitants of Scot- 
 land, and established Roman customs and civilization. But 
 the pressure of the barbarian tribes on the Roman Empire 
 in the fifth century compelled the transfer of the troops in 
 Britain to more important points of defense. When the is- 
 land was evacuated in the fifth century, relatively few traces 
 of the Roman occupation were left to the succeeding centu- 
 ries. This was largely owing to the almost immediate con- 
 quest of the island by new and uncultured races. About 
 450 a.d., the Jutes landed on the island of Thanet, off the 
 coast of Kent. They came from the northeast and were 
 Teutonic in race, and with them began numerous movements 
 of Teutonic groups into the island. The Jutes occupied 
 Kent; the Saxons settled in Surrey, Sussex, Wessex, and 
 Middlesex; the Angles conquered the east and north of Eng- 
 land, including East Anglia, Northumbria, and Mercia. In 
 this way there was added another distinct stock to form the 
 composite Britisher. 
 
 By the end of the seventh century the Anglo-Saxons had 
 conquered most of England. Out of the chaos of small king- 
 doms there grew overlordships, and the dominance was held 
 
THE PREPARATION FOR EMPIRE 3 
 
 first by one strong kingdom and then by another. Finally 
 it rested in the southwest kingdom of Wessex. Hardly had 
 Egbert, the ruler of Wessex, assured his overlordship when 
 he was troubled by the beginning of the Danish invasions. 
 By the term "Dane" is meant not only the inhabitant of 
 Denmark, but of Scandinavia as a whole. In the ninth cen- 
 tury there seems to have been a tendency to unify the rule of 
 the Scandinavian countries, and this had led to the migra- 
 tion of dissatisfied Northmen to Greenland, Iceland, Russia, 
 France, and the British Isles. These fierce sea-rovers be- 
 came a distinct menace for several centuries. Alfred the 
 Great, who ruled Wessex at the close of the ninth century, 
 spent most of his time opposing them. It proved impossible 
 to drive them away, and finally they occupied the north- 
 eastern part of England, which, in consequence, came to be 
 known as the " Danelaw." Thus a new racial group was 
 added to the mixture of peoples in England. Danish inva- 
 sions were renewed at the opening of the eleventh century, 
 and resulted in the actual conquest and rule of the country 
 by the kings of Denmark. 
 
 With the coming of William the Conqueror from Nor- 
 mandy in 1066, another strain was added to the English 
 stock. It is true that the Normans were descendants of the 
 Norsemen who had occupied northern France when England 
 was suffering a like invasion. In the intervening centuries 
 Latin culture and refinement had been acquired by the Nor- 
 mans. They served, in consequence, to connect the develop- 
 ing England with the older civilizations of southern Europe, 
 and their language, Norman-French, brought with it new 
 legal ideas and governmental conceptions. After a long 
 period of struggle between the two cultures, a gradual amal- 
 gamation took place, which was well advanced by the end of 
 the reign of Henry II (1189). The new contribution added 
 by the Normans had become an integral part of the evolving 
 English type. 
 
 The value of racial origins can be overemphasized very 
 easily. It appears to be true that an individual is very 
 largely influenced by his cultural environment. But it is surely 
 
4 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 worth while to realize that the Englishman of later centuries 
 was produced from a blending of peoples, a process not unlike 
 that going on to-day in the Western Hemisphere and in many- 
 British colonies. Yet it must be remembered that this mix- 
 ture of racial groups in England has not been pronounced 
 since the twelfth century, as the island was never success- 
 fully attacked after the days of William the Conqueror. 
 Peaceful immigrations, such as the coming of the Flemish 
 workmen in the late Middle Ages and of the Huguenots in 
 the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, have been of minor 
 importance. Because the blending of peoples in the British 
 Isles took place so long ago, the cultural influences known as 
 British have extended to all classes of the population, giving 
 to the national development a conscious cultural and his- 
 torical unity. The various races forming the national type 
 were admirably adapted to the daring work of mastering the 
 sea and of empire-building, for they were lovers of the sea and 
 conquerors. Added to this is the fact that the British Isles, 
 in physical character and location, were peculiarly fitted to 
 become the seat of empire, as they had formerly been the 
 object of venturesome, sea-roving invasion. 
 
 The earlier history of England is concerned not only with 
 racial combination. For centuries the unification of the 
 British Isles occupied the chief attention of the rulers. Only 
 when the islands forming Great Britain were conquered, 
 could England look beyond to empire. 
 
 Until the time of the Normans, England was the extent of 
 the conquered territory. With the strong hand of William 
 the Conqueror holding in no uncertain grasp the control of 
 English affairs, the subjugation of neighboring territory was 
 undertaken. William established palatine earldoms along 
 the Welsh and Scottish frontiers. Toward the close of his 
 reign he even invaded Scotland and Wales, but this by no 
 means meant a complete or permanent conquest of these 
 neighbors. Yet Henry I, his son, compelled Malcolm of 
 Scotland to do homage, and he also completed the conquest 
 of South Wales. The period of anarchy, known as the reign 
 of Stephen, made it necessary to do the work over again. 
 
THE PREPARATION FOR EMPIRE 5 
 
 Henry II (1154-1189) was even ambitious enough to attack 
 Ireland. Strongbow and other adventurers set up a feudal 
 control in the western island, and the King went there in per- 
 son to assure a mastery of these vassals. Henry II took the 
 title " Lord of Ireland," being the first English ruler to be mas- 
 ter, in the vague feudal sense, of the British islands. The 
 reign of this King was noteworthy for the empire he estab- 
 lished; it comprised not only Great Britain but many terri- 
 tories on the Continent. All western France was subject to 
 him from Ponthieu on the north to Gascony in the south. By 
 advantageous marriages of his children and by constant wars 
 he endeavored to hold together this " Angevin Empire." His 
 life was one of continual military activity, mostly on the Con- 
 tinent; had he not been of almost superhuman energy and 
 ability, the incongruous combination would not have lasted 
 so long as it did. He never spoke the English language, and 
 his interests were more continental than insular. England 
 was really but part of a foreign empire. 
 
 The loss of most of the continental possessions by John 
 Lackland in the opening years of the thirteenth century was 
 fortunate for the growth of English unity. The country be- 
 came more isolated, foreign influence was gradually expelled, 
 and internal problems were given more attention. Great 
 Britain, however, was not yet ready to think of empire. 
 Edward I (1272-1307) gave much of his attention to the 
 conquest of Wales. His son, Edward II, who was born at 
 Carnarvon, was made Prince of Wales, and the title has 
 henceforth been used to designate the heir to the throne. 
 Edward I also fought hard to establish English rule in Scot- 
 land. He was partially successful when Balliol was made King 
 of Scotland under terms that made him the vassal of Ed- 
 ward I. But Scotland soon rose under the inspiring lead of 
 Wallace, and, just as Edward I completed his long reign, 
 Robert Bruce headed a revolt that proved ultimately success- 
 ful. Scotland became a separate, independent kingdom; it 
 was not to be united with England until the personal union of 
 the two countries under the Scotch King, James VI, in 1603. 
 
 Much valuable effort was wasted in the attempt to re- 
 
6 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 vive English claims to French territory by Edward III and 
 Henry V. As a result, England was more or less continually 
 at war with France for one hundred years, but, by the middle 
 of the fifteenth century, the English were driven from the Con- 
 tinent. Then followed the extremely wasteful civil conflicts 
 known as the " Wars of the Roses." There was great loss of life 
 and material resources in these military struggles that occupied 
 the middle years of the fifteenth century. Gradually, how- 
 ever, the rival claimants to the English throne were re- 
 moved by a process of elimination. This period of internal 
 struggle came to an end with the accession of Henry VII to 
 the kingship in 1485. As the representative of both rival 
 factions, he brought peace and prosperity, for under his rule 
 and that of his house, the Tudors, was laid the foundation 
 for a strong and aggressive England, able to take part in the 
 larger life of the world. 
 
 Wales had been subjugated by Edward I. The Welsh an- 
 cestry of Henry VII made it more definitely a part of the 
 kingdom. In 1536, Henry VIII united it with England, and 
 the Welsh counties were given the same rights as the English. 
 Ireland remained a difficult problem, nor has it yet ceased to 
 trouble British statesmen. In the reign of Henry VII, Ire- 
 land was practically independent under its feudal and tribal 
 rulers. Henry VIII was the first to assume the title "King 
 of Ireland." His daughter, Elizabeth, gave considerable at- 
 tention to the Irish question, extending the plantation of the 
 country in a ruthless manner. The Irish problem became 
 more acute at this time, as the English rulers had gone over 
 to the Protestant religion, while the great mass of the Irish 
 were unmoved by the changes taking place to the east. In 
 spite of this ill omen for British unity, the unification of 
 Great Britain was nearer than ever before. With the death 
 of Elizabeth in 1603, James VI became the ruler of England 
 as well as of Scotland, and assumed the title "King of Great 
 Britain." Four years later the first permanent English set- 
 tlement beyond the seas was made, marking the beginning 
 of a greater Britain. 
 
 An important consequence of the accession of James was the 
 
THE PREPARATION FOR EMPIRE 7 
 
 opening of the critical struggle that resulted in the establish- 
 ment of a parliamentary government in Great Britain. The 
 course of this development need not be exhaustively traced. 
 It will be sufficient to indicate the way in which it culminated 
 in the seventeenth century. The Witan of the Saxon period 
 had at times a restraining power on the monarch. Yet repre- 
 sentative government cannot be traced back to that time, as 
 it really was started by the revolts of barons and churchmen 
 against the aggressions of the absolute rulers who governed 
 England after the Norman Conquest. 
 
 The most noteworthy step in the checking of the royal 
 power was the forcing of the Magna Charta from King John 
 in 1215. The monarchy was further limited in the next reign 
 by the beginning of a representative body that came to be 
 known as "Parliament." Simon de Montfort, who led the 
 opposition to absolute rule, called a parliament in 1265 to 
 which shires, cities, and boroughs were to send representa- 
 tives in addition to those of the nobles and the church. 
 Further steps in the direction of representation and the 
 growth of the power of Parliament were taken as time went 
 on. If a king were weak or interested in foreign war and 
 needed funds, additional privileges were wrested from him 
 in payment for grants. For example, Edward I called the 
 " Model Parliament" in 1295 in order to obtain the coopera- 
 tion of the people in his enterprises. The "Parliament of 
 York" in Edward IPs reign established the custom that the 
 consent of the Commons was necessary to make a law valid. 
 The process of impeachment was exercised by the "Good 
 Parliament" in the reign of Edward III. The chaos of the 
 closing centuries of the Middle Ages as well as the des- 
 potism of the Tudors in the sixteenth century tended to 
 weaken the power of Parliament and to retard its growth. 
 The ideals had not been forgotten, however, for, when the 
 foreigner, James, came to the throne in 1603, the struggle for 
 the control of the monarch was renewed. "Charles I had 
 his Cromwell" and James II was forced to "vacate" the 
 throne in 1688. In the next year William of Orange — an- 
 other foreigner — and Mary ascended to power at the re- 
 
8 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 quest and by the permission of Parliament. By that time 
 Parliament had effectively curbed the royal power, although 
 much progress had to be made before the representation of 
 the people by Parliament became real. 
 
 This brief survey has shown that Great Britain was re- 
 markably prepared to build an empire at the opening of the 
 seventeenth century. Practical unity had been attained at 
 home; there was a strong government under the control of 
 the representative Parliament. Centuries of struggle had 
 moulded a composite people into a group capable of imperial 
 tasks. In the next place, we must consider the conditions 
 outside Great Britain that were so profoundly modifying 
 world affairs as to give to the prepared kingdom of Great 
 Britain the opportunity to go on to empire. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 
 
 The student of British expansion will have occasion to use the standard 
 guides to the history of Great Britain, but reference must be made to the 
 additional volumes for the colonial development. Sir Charles Lucas, The 
 British Empire (London, 1915), is a brief but comprehensive introduction 
 to the subject. A work of somewhat similar character is Imperial England 
 (New York, 1919), by C. F. Lavell and C. E. Payne. The best one-volume 
 survey of imperial growth is The British Empire — Its Past, Its Present, 
 and Its Future, edited by A. F. Pollard (London, 1909). An indispensable 
 series is the "Historical Geography of the British Colonies," edited by Sir 
 Charles Lucas, and issued by the Oxford Press. The introductory volume, 
 The Origin and Growth of the English Colonies (1903), is by H. E. Egerton. 
 The seven volumes of this series, published in parts as twelve, take up the 
 geography and growth of the various colonies; more detailed reference will 
 be made to these volumes in subsequent bibliographies. The series con- 
 tains excellent maps. A. Wyatt Tilby has published in six volumes a care- 
 ful and readable account of "The English People Overseas" (London, 
 191 1-14) . The first volume of A Short History of the British Commonwealth 
 has appeared from the pen of Professor Ramsay Muir (London, 1920) ; the 
 attempt to make a synthesis of British history by relating the gradual ex- 
 pansion and unification of English influence in the British Isles to the work 
 of empire beyond the seas is carried in this volume to 1763. The Cambridge 
 Modern History and the Dictionary of National Biography will be found of 
 much value for particular subjects and individuals. The Annual Register 
 has been published ever since the time of the Seven Years' War, and fur- 
 nishes a detailed and contemporary treatment of colonial matters as well 
 as general politics for those to whom it is available. 
 
 There are several bibliographical guides that will be found of service. 
 The English Historical Association has published a leaflet on Books on 
 
THE PREPARATION FOR EMPIRE 9 
 
 Colonial History. In the "Helps for Students of History" series there is a 
 useful consideration of books on this subject by Professor A. P. Newton, 
 An Introduction to the Study of Colonial History (London, 1919). A full 
 bibliography of somewhat older date will be found appended to H. E. 
 Egerton, A Short History of British Colonial Policy (London, 1910). 
 
 A brief collection of documents has been made by A. B. Keith, Selected 
 Speeches and Documents on British Colonial Policy, 1763-1917 (2 vols., 
 Oxford, 1918) . A useful volume of maps is that of Robertson and Barthol- 
 omew, Historical and Modern Atlas of the British Empire, published by the 
 Clarendon Press. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE COMMERCIAL REVOLUTION 
 
 It is customary to begin modern history with the opening 
 of the sixteenth century. About that time such significant 
 changes were taking place that the break seems more easily 
 made at that point than elsewhere. One of the important 
 reasons for making a convenient division of world-progress 
 about 1500 was the remarkable change occurring at that 
 time in European commercial conditions. It is necessary, 
 in the next place, to see just what this change was, and what 
 part England took in the commercial and industrial move- 
 ments of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. 
 
 TRADE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 The emergence of commerce and the development of town 
 life are two very interesting aspects of the later Middle Ages. 
 Some towns evolved from markets or fairs held at convenient 
 places. Others can be connected with certain industries. 
 During the Middle Ages the commercial intercourse that ex- 
 isted was carried on, for the most part, by towns with each 
 other. It is incorrect to speak of a national trade in the 
 Middle Ages. In the towns the trade was controlled at first 
 by organizations known as "merchant gilds." These gilds, 
 which became prominent in the twelfth century, consisted of 
 those of a particular community who were interested in trade. 
 Both the buyer and the seller in a community were protected 
 by the gild which had the monopoly of trade for the town. 
 In England, for example, foreigners from other countries or 
 other English towns were forbidden to trade in such a way as 
 to interfere with the gild's members. Buying and selling had 
 to be in certain specified places, tolls could be exacted, and 
 reciprocal arrangements made with other towns. This pro- 
 tective and fraternal organization later merged into the town 
 government. 
 
THE COMMERCIAL REVOLUTION 11 
 
 As industry developed, the craft gilds were added to the 
 merchant gilds. These became common in the thirteenth 
 century. Craft gilds were composed of members doing a 
 particular kind of manufacture or trade in a particular com- 
 munity. The weavers and fullers of cloth seem to have 
 formed the first craft gilds. Many odd craft names have 
 come down to our day, often as surnames; e.g., the lorimers 
 (makers of bits), goldsmiths, bowyers, fletchers (arrow-mak- 
 ers), tailors, mercers, pepperers (grocers). By the end of 
 Edward Ill's reign (1377) there were in London about fifty 
 gilds with separate organizations. The remnants of some 
 seventy-five gilds exist to-day in London, no longer control- 
 ling in their trades, but exercising by their large ownership of 
 property and their charities an important influence in Lon- 
 don municipal affairs. 1 These gilds did much to further in- 
 dustry. Manufacturing was regulated, careful arrangements 
 were made for proficiency in the trades by apprenticeship 
 and for the standardization of the size and quality of goods. 
 Fines were imposed for "false work" and expulsion from the 
 gild might be used as a punishment. 
 
 The merchant and craft gilds were still in operation at the 
 close of the Middle Ages. By this time they had outlived 
 their usefulness, although they had done good service in pre- 
 paring for more comprehensive arrangements. The growth 
 of trade on a large scale, especially with foreign cities, tended 
 to break down the gild system. An increasing national feel- 
 ing and stronger centralized governments worked toward a 
 more adequate commercial policy. 
 
 In its relations commercially with the Continent, Eng- 
 land was long dependent for fine manufactured goods on its 
 better developed neighbors. Even the carrying trade was 
 largely in the hands of foreigners for most of the Middle Ages. 
 Great fairs were held in the various parts of England con- 
 venient for the bringing of products from afar, and here the 
 people would congregate for their annual purchasing of goods 
 
 1 The twelve great companies of London at the present time are the Mercers, 
 Grocers, Drapers, Fishmongers, Goldsmiths, Skinners, Merchant Taylors, 
 Haberdashers, Salters, Ironmongers, Vintners, and Clothworkers. 
 
12 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 not made at home. A famous fair was that of Winchester, 
 which was held mainly for the disposal of woolen goods. The 
 greatest of all English fairs was held in September of each 
 year at Stourbridge near Cambridge. This was attended by 
 merchants from across the seas. Here English raw materials 
 were exchanged for Venetian and Genoese goods from the 
 Far East, for Flemish cloth, French wines, and the varied 
 supply brought by the merchants of the Hanse towns. 
 
 England, as the producer of raw materials, was famous for 
 its wool, since the unsettled conditions in Europe — the 
 result of the constant wars — gave to England consider- 
 able importance as a sheep-raising country. The chief pur- 
 chaser of English raw woolens was Flanders, although some 
 went as far as Italy. The evident Flemish interests of the 
 English kings can be accounted for by the desire to keep 
 these markets open, especially as the wool-tax was one of 
 the king's important sources of income. Edward III re- 
 ceived annually about £50,000 from this tax. Edward I 
 had named certain ports through which the wool trade could 
 proceed in order that the duties on wool could be more easily 
 collected. This trade was entrusted to an organization known 
 as the " Merchants of the Staple." A patent was issued in 
 1313 requiring the choice of one staple in the Low Countries 
 to which all wool should be taken ; Bruges was the staple in the 
 early fourteenth century. About the middle of that century 
 the staple was removed to England, and later it was located 
 at Calais after that port had become an English possession. 
 Finally the whole system declined because of the growing de- 
 mand at home for the raw materials, since the Merchants of 
 the Staple dealt only in the raw product. 
 
 Impetus was given to the development of the woolen man- 
 ufacture in England by the immigration of Flemish cloth- 
 makers in large numbers during the fourteenth century. The 
 chief center of the foreign weavers was Norwich, and the 
 principal product was called "Worsted" from Worstead, the 
 place of manufacture. This change by which England be- 
 came a manufacturing nation as well as a producer of the 
 materials for manufacture is very significant; it meant that 
 
THE COMMERCIAL REVOLUTION 13 
 
 England was to take a more important place in the world's 
 commerce. 
 
 ENGLISH COMMERCIAL EXPANSION 
 
 English commerce in English ships became important only 
 toward the close of the Middle Ages. Before the sixteenth 
 century, the Hanse merchants and the Italian cities had the 
 major part of English foreign commerce, although the Mer- 
 chants of the Staple exported raw wool to Flanders. When 
 England began to produce cloth for foreign use, an organiza- 
 tion of English merchants known as the " Merchant Adven- 
 turers" began to contend with the Hanse for the Baltic trade. 
 By 1505 the Merchant Adventurers had a strong central or- 
 ganization. It was found to be necessary for English mer- 
 chants to unite, as foreign commerce was hazardous and ex- 
 posed to attack. As English commerce extended to new 
 fields, companies similar to the Merchant Adventurers were 
 granted trading privileges for particular parts of the Euro- 
 pean continent or of the new lands being discovered. In the 
 sixteenth century unorganized or free trade existed only with 
 France, Spain, and Portugal. During this time, in conse- 
 quence, many important companies came into being. The 
 Russian or Muscovy Company was established in 1554. The 
 Mediterranean trade was granted to the Turkey or Levant 
 Company. In 1579 Queen Elizabeth sent William Harburn 
 to Turkey to obtain trading privileges. He was successful, 
 and two years later the Company was organized. Previous 
 to that time the Venetians had been accustomed to send an 
 annual fleet with eastern goods to Southampton. The Bar- 
 bary or Morocco Company was organized in 1585, and the 
 Guinea Company three years later. In 1600, the most im- 
 portant of all for colonial expansion, the East India Com- 
 pany was chartered. Of similar character are the companies 
 that had to do with early colonizing and commercial activity 
 on the part of England in the Western Hemisphere, such as 
 the Virginia Company, the Plymouth Company, the Hud- 
 son's Bay Company. 
 
 When Henry VII became King in 1485 he brought peace 
 
14 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 to England by the union in his one person of the rival claims 
 to the throne. He accomplished much more. This frugal 
 and business-like King, who left nearly £2,000,000 in his 
 treasury, did a great deal to foster commerce. With his reign 
 the transition from the Middle Ages is made. He offered 
 bounties for the building of large ships, and built at Ports- 
 mouth the first drydock in England. In 1493 the Flemings 
 were banished from England and the headquarters of the 
 Merchant Adventurers were moved from Antwerp to Calais. 
 The Intercursus Magnus of 1496 was entered into with the 
 Netherlands, and commercial treaties were concluded with 
 many other countries. 
 
 Two treaties are of particular interest as showing commer- 
 cial expansion in widely different fields. In 1490 a treaty was 
 made with Norway permitting the English certain privileges 
 in Iceland, such as the right to form companies, trade directly 
 with that island, and work under favorable customs terms. 
 In the same year a treaty was made with Florence whereby 
 greater freedom of trade was allowed with England, and an 
 English wool staple was established at the port of Pisa. Eng- 
 lish enterprise soon went farther afield, for we learn that an 
 Englishman by the name of Dionysius Harris was made con- 
 sul of Candia in 1530. 
 
 Just at the close of the fifteenth century, Henry VII is- 
 sued a patent to John Cabot, a Venetian residing at Bristol, 
 to sail in search of a northwest passage to the Far East. In 
 June, 1497, he landed on the North American continent near 
 Cape Breton. With this voyage England had been drawn 
 into the stream of an even wider interest, and the Middle 
 Ages had been left behind. It will now be necessary to find 
 why such a voyage as this should ever have been made. 
 
 THE FAR EAST 
 
 The desire to come into close touch with the Far East is 
 explained by the variety and value of its goods and their 
 great desirability for European use. There was an insistent 
 demand in Europe for the spices of the East. During the long 
 winters, salt meat and salt fish were the common articles of 
 
16 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 food. The monotonous diet, the coarse food, and the un- 
 skilled cookery justified a generous use of condiments. The 
 only known source for them was Asia. Nutmegs, mace, 
 cloves, and allspice could be obtained only from the Spice 
 Islands or Moluccas, a group of small islands southeast of the 
 Philippines. Pepper was still more valuable than these 
 spices, so much so that it was even eaten separately as a deli- 
 cacy. In fact, grocers were commonly called "pepperers." 
 Great quantities of this condiment must have been con- 
 sumed, as the Venetians for years had a contract with the 
 Sultan of Egypt to buy annually 420,000 pounds of pepper. 
 The field of production for pepper was largely confined to 
 the Malabar (southwest) coast of India. Precious stones, 
 fine woods, and perfumes were largely exported from Asia as 
 well. Fine cloths came from various parts of that continent. 
 Calicut gave its name to calico; muslin was named from the 
 Mesopotamian city of Mussolo (the modern Mosul) ; many 
 names, such as taffeta, damask, brocade, buckram, sendal, 
 cashmere, cubeb, have survived as mute witnesses of this 
 trade. 
 
 This important and lucrative commerce followed three 
 routes in the closing centuries of the Middle Ages. There 
 was a southern route which followed the coast of Asia to 
 India and thence along the shore of the Indian Ocean to 
 Mecca. From here the goods of the East were taken by cara- 
 van to the Nile, and at Cairo and Alexandria were reloaded 
 on Venetian vessels for Europe. A second course was fol- 
 lowed by turning up into the Persian Gulf, where at Bagdad 
 caravans received the riches of the East, and bore them to 
 the coast towns of western Asia Minor, especially Beyrout, 
 Tripoli, and Antioch. Here again Italian merchants were 
 prepared to carry the goods to the western continent. A third 
 route was to the north. It came from the rear of India and 
 China by way of the Caspian to the Black Sea, where the 
 Genoese were the principal receivers of the " spicy drugs" 
 of the East. 
 
 Toward the close of the Middle Ages, however, these lines 
 of communication were becoming more and more difficult to 
 
 
THE COMMERCIAL REVOLUTION 17 
 
 keep open as a result of the growing power of the Ottoman 
 Turks. These fanatical converts to Mohammedanism had 
 the instinct of barbarians; trade and luxury and the arts of 
 peace were to them contemptible. These Osmanli began to 
 expand from their settlements just east of the Sea of Marmora 
 about 1350. By the latter part of the fourteenth century 
 they controlled most of western Asia Minor and eastern Mac- 
 edonia. By 1450 all of Macedonia and modern Bulgaria and 
 eastern Asia Minor had been conquered. In 1453 the Turks 
 captured Constantinople. In the latter part of the fifteenth 
 century, Crete and Cyprus became theirs; by 1525 Syria and 
 even Egypt had been added to the dominions of the Turks. 
 This progress meant more than the destruction of the East- 
 ern Empire; it seems to have resulted in a partial disruption 
 of trade in the goods for which Europe had conceived a great 
 need. Commerce along the two northern routes, in particu- 
 lar, was hampered during and after the Ottoman conquests 
 in Asia Minor and the Balkan Peninsula. The Turks nat- 
 urally endeavored to make what they could from this com- 
 merce, which became burdened with heavy tolls. In ad- 
 dition, the constant wars caused much dislocation to the 
 commercial relations with the East. 
 
 While this situation was taking shape in the Levant, Portu- 
 gal, a nation hitherto unimportant, was busily engaged in ex- 
 ploring the west coast of Africa. In addition to natural ad- 
 vantages of location, the Portuguese were fortunate in having 
 a very able line of kings in the fifteenth century, who were 
 much interested in the spread of Portuguese power. Various 
 motives seem to have prompted Portuguese maritime activ- 
 ity. The mythical kingdom of Prester John was supposed 
 to be somewhere in central Africa; the Christian zeal of the 
 Portuguese led them to wish to make union with this sur- 
 vival of ancient Judaism in order to wage a further crusade 
 against the encroaching infidel. To the natural interest 
 in exploration and the extension of national influence was 
 added the desire to reach the sources of eastern wealth by a 
 route of their own that they might share in the lucrative 
 commerce which hitherto had come by way of the Mediterra- 
 
18 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 nean. Before the western coast of Africa was made known 
 by actual exploration, that continent was not thought to ex- 
 tend so far south. Toward the close of the fifteenth century 
 an interest in a new eastern trade route became strong. 1 
 
 The Portuguese prince, known as Henry the Navigator, 
 inaugurated the great work of exploring the coast to the 
 south. He established himself at Sagres near Cape St. Vin- 
 cent, where he founded an observatory and a school of instruc- 
 tion. Prince Henry not only greatly furthered the science 
 of navigation, but, in addition, he carried forward the prac- 
 tical knowledge of new shores. At the time of his death in 
 1460, his captains had gone down the west coast of Africa 
 to within fifteen degrees of the equator. In 1471 the Portu- 
 guese passed the equator, and in 1487 Bartholomew Diaz 
 rounded the southern end of the continent. It became a 
 Cape of Good Hope, as it was now felt that the point had 
 been reached whence the journey north and east could be 
 easily made. 
 
 Vasco da Gama completed this remarkable series of voy- 
 ages. He sailed from Lisbon in July of 1497, and by Christ- 
 mas Day had gone beyond the point attained by Diaz; he 
 appropriately gave the name of Natal to the land sighted 
 on that day. In May, 1498, after a twenty-three day voy- 
 age across the Indian Ocean, the vessels of the Portuguese 
 ceased their wanderings before Calicut on the Malabar coast 
 of India. A new route had been found. Great was the 
 rejoicing in Lisbon when the expedition returned with a 
 valuable cargo. The King wrote exultantly to Ferdinand 
 and Isabella of Spain that the real Indies had been reached 
 by Vasco da Gama: "Of spices they have brought a quan- 
 tity, including cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg and pep- 
 per . . . also many fine stones of all sorts, such as rubies and 
 others." 2 
 
 1 The coincidence in time between the partial closing of the old routes and 
 the exploration of the west African coast by the Portuguese does not mean that 
 the two should be regarded as cause and effect. As a matter of fact, the Portu- 
 guese began their African explorations long before there was any serious inter- 
 ference with the Levant trade. 
 
 * Quoted by Bourne, Spain in America, p. 73. 
 
THE COMMERCIAL REVOLUTION 19 
 
 The Portuguese immediately set about the task of making 
 this new-found wealth their own. " Factories" or trading 
 posts were established on the Malabar coast of India, of 
 which Goa is still in Portuguese possession. In 1511 Ma- 
 lacca in the Malay Straits was taken, and in the next year 
 the Spice Islands were added to the dominions of the Por- 
 tuguese king. But it was not deemed sufficient to possess the 
 lands whence the valuable products of the East came. To 
 make their monopoly of the eastern trade more secure, Sokotra 
 and Aden on the Red Sea route were occupied. In addition 
 Ormuz on the Persian Gulf became a Portuguese holding in 
 order to prevent goods going to Europe by way of Bagdad. 
 These steps served not only as a means of hampering Ara- 
 bian trade; the commerce of the Italian cities was further 
 restricted. 
 
 THE NEW WEST 
 
 Meanwhile, in 1492 Columbus had made his memorable 
 voyage across the Atlantic. The story of his efforts to find 
 a patron, and of his belief that by sailing westward he could 
 reach the Indies, has often been told. It is clear that the Far 
 East was his goal, for, when he left Spain, he took with him 
 a letter from Ferdinand and Isabella to the Great Khan. 
 Moreover, a converted Jew by the name of Torres accom- 
 panied the expedition in order to act as interpreter because 
 of his knowledge of Arabic. When, after his landfall, Co- 
 lumbus heard of Cuba, he believed it to be Cipango, and 
 made plans for a visit to the Great Khan. He thought him- 
 self to be in front of Zaitun with its hundred pepper ships 
 a year, as he noted on his copy of Marco Polo. On reach- 
 ing Cuba he imagined it was the mainland, and sent ahead 
 the interpreter to the Great Khan. But Torres found only 
 a village of naked Indians, who were drawing smoke from 
 leaves rolled in the form of a tube, which they called tobacco. 
 Columbus died after a checkered career in the belief that he 
 had found the East by a new route. His contemporaries soon 
 realized that he had discovered a new continent with large 
 opportunities for exploitation. Columbus sought nutmegs 
 
20 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 and pepper, pearls and cubebs, and to that extent his work 
 was a failure. 
 
 The English took but a modest part in the task of explora- 
 tion. Columbus' brother, Bartholomew, had come to Lon- 
 don in 1487 in the hope of interesting Henry VII in his 
 brother's plans. He was robbed by pirates on the way, and 
 found employment at the English court in drawing maps and 
 making globes, but was unsuccessful in his mission. John 
 Cabot, a Genoese by birth, a Venetian by naturalization, 
 and a resident of Bristol during the last decade of the century, 
 was more fortunate. In 1496 he obtained permission from 
 Henry VII to sail in quest of Cathay. He hoped to reach 
 "the island of Cipango and the lands from which Oriental 
 caravans brought their goods to Alexandria." The discov- 
 eries of Cabot were for a time believed to have given the 
 King of England " a part of Asia without drawing the sword." 1 
 This venture deserves especial recognition for its daring, as 
 Cabot had but one small vessel manned with eighteen men. 
 But in spite of this meager equipment he discovered land in 
 1497. He made a second journey in 1498 from which he 
 never returned. John Cabot's son, Sebastian, followed the 
 profession of his father, although much of his time was spent 
 in the service of Spain. Later in the century he returned to 
 England, where he became head of the Company of Merchant 
 Adventurers and led in the organization and sending forth 
 of expeditions to discover a northeast sea-passage to India. 
 Sebastian, who died just as Elizabeth became queen, serves 
 as the link between the early voyages of exploration and the 
 great days of the Elizabethan seamen. 
 
 The development from inter-municipal trade in the early 
 Middle Ages to the great national interest in exploration in 
 the fifteenth century has been briefly traced. These explora- 
 tions were so remarkably rapid in their consequences that 
 this time of change has been aptly named the "Commercial 
 Revolution." The difficulties put in the way of trade in the 
 Levant by the Turks and the discovery of a sea-route around 
 Africa to the Far East ruined the great Mediterranean city- 
 
 1 See Cheyney, The European Background of American History, p. 5. 
 
THE COMMERCIAL REVOLUTION 21 
 
 states, as great commercial traders and carriers. Trade be- 
 gan to center on the western coast of Europe. In the early- 
 days of this change — for most of the sixteenth century — 
 Portugal was supreme in the eastern trade. In addition to 
 the trade with the Far East a world of opportunity was 
 found to the west across the Atlantic. These new worlds, 
 suddenly made accessible to the maritime nations of western 
 Europe, gave a magnificent field for the establishment of 
 colonial empires. 
 
 Wealth greatly increased during this period and the na- 
 tions were more than ever influenced by commercial motives. 
 As a consequence, the trading classes became more important. 
 With the sixteenth century we enter a new atmosphere. It 
 is no whim of historians that Modern History is felt to begin 
 at this time, for, indeed, " History broke in halves." By this 
 change England could not but be greatly affected. Henry 
 VII, patron of John Cabot and of all profitable commercial 
 ventures, excellently illustrates the new type of thrifty mon- 
 arch. For a while England played but a modest part in this 
 world-drama evolving so rapidly. The Age of Elizabeth was 
 to come and go before England stood beside Spain and Por- 
 tugal in the establishment of colonial empire. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 
 
 For the development of English industrial and commercial life reference 
 may be made to H. de B. Gibbins, Industry in England (New York, 1916) ; 
 G. Townsend Warner, Landmarks in English Industrial History (11th ed., 
 Glasgow, 1910); E. P. Cheyney, Industrial and Social History of England 
 (New York, 1919) ; and A. P. Usher, An Introduction to the Industrial His- 
 tory of England (Boston, 1920). W. Cunningham, The Growth of English 
 Industry and Commerce in Modern Times (Cambridge, 1904), is a mine of 
 information. E. P. Cheyney, The European Background of American His- 
 tory (New York, 1904), in "The American Nation" series, contains some 
 excellent chapters on the changing commercial conditions at the opening of 
 the modern period. 
 
 For Portuguese activity during this period see C. R. Beazley, Prince 
 Henry the Navigator (1897), in "The Heroes of the Nations" series, and 
 R. S. Whitelaw, Rise of the Portuguese Power in India, 1497-1530 (London, 
 1899). 
 
CHAPTER III 
 THE FOUNDATION FOR EMPIRE 
 
 The rapid progress of Portuguese and Spanish exploration 
 soon gave to these two states the major part of the newly 
 found lands. John Cabot's voyage entitled the English to 
 go forward in like manner. But the first half of the fifteenth 
 century found Englishmen lethargic; they did not awaken to 
 their opportunities until aroused by the wonderful achieve- 
 ments of their seamen. The causes for this inertia will be 
 considered presently. But in the meantime the Spanish 
 Empire grew with unabated vigor. Later when the English 
 began the making of empire, the Spanish structure was 
 already well builded. As the work of Spain considerably 
 modified the nature of English expansion, the growth of 
 Spain's oversea power must be briefly told. 
 
 THE SPANISH EMPIRE 
 
 In the sixteenth century a colony was a very real and ex- 
 clusive possession of the mother country. When Columbus 
 went forth under the flag of Spain, he was cautioned not to 
 trespass on the Portuguese possessions in Africa. In partic- 
 ular, he was not to visit the coast of Guinea, as Spain had 
 recognized by a treaty in 1479 the exclusive rights of Por- 
 tugal to lands discovered in Guinea and the islands off the 
 coast with the exception of the Canaries. As soon as news 
 was received that Columbus had discovered new lands, Fer- 
 dinand and Isabella set about assuring their control of his 
 discoveries. 
 
 The Spanish rulers informed the Pope, Alexander VI, of 
 their newly acquired possessions and asked confirmation of 
 their ownership. Accordingly the Pope, in a bull of 1493, 
 gave them possession of the lands discovered in the west to- 
 ward the Indies in the " Ocean Sea." Mere confirmation, 
 however, was too vague. Later in the year a second bull 
 was issued establishing a north and south line one hundred 
 
THE FOUNDATION FOR EMPIRE 23 
 
 leagues west of the Azores and Cape Verde Islands and re- 
 serving all lands to the west of that line for Spain. This did 
 not satisfy John of Portugal, and he opened direct negotia- 
 tions with the Spanish rulers. The result was the Treaty of 
 Tordesillas (1494), by which the demarcation line was moved 
 to a point three hundred and seventy leagues west of the 
 Cape Verde Islands. In consequence, Brazil was to become 
 Portuguese territory; as yet it had not been discovered, nor 
 had Vasco da Gama made his voyage to Calicut. 
 
 With matters so settled, the rapidly developing Spanish 
 kingdom built empire in amazingly quick fashion. Columbus 
 made three more voyages, skirting the mainland of Central 
 America for a considerable distance and touching South 
 America near Trinidad. Hojeda, just at the close of the 
 century, sailed along the coast of the present British Guiana 
 and Venezuela. Shortly afterward Pinzon discovered land 
 on the shores of Brazil. When the Portuguese finally found 
 India, it became evident to the Spanish that there was a 
 barrier in their way to the attainment of the same goal. 
 Columbus seems to have thought that this barrier was an 
 extremity of Asia. It was felt that there must be a strait 
 through or a way around the Novus Mundus by which to 
 obtain the pepper of the East. In 1508, Pinzon, after prov- 
 ing Cuba an island, followed the coast of Central and South 
 America for several thousand miles. Five years later, Balboa 
 from a "peak in Darien" viewed the Pacific, taking posses- 
 sion of the sea for the King of Spain, and in the same year 
 Ponce de Leon discovered Florida. 
 
 Renewed interest in a strait resulted in the expedition of 
 Solis in 1514. The Rio de la Plata was discovered, but no 
 passageway to the Pacific was revealed. Five years later, a 
 Portuguese mariner named Magellan persuaded the Spanish 
 King, whose service he had recently entered, that the Moluc- 
 cas could be reached without trespassing on Portuguese terri- 
 tory. In 1519, he started with five ships and coasted down 
 the eastern shore of South America, passing through the 
 Strait of Magellan in 1520. The Pacific Ocean was given its 
 name, and the Philippines were discovered, but there Ma- 
 
24 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 gellan fell battling with the natives. His comrades visited 
 the Spice Islands where they procured a precious cargo, 
 crossed the Indian Ocean, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, 
 and reached Spain after three years' absence. One ship bear- 
 ing thirty-one men had succeeded in circumnavigating the 
 globe and discovering a way around the great obstruction 
 between Europe and the Spice Islands. 
 
 Spanish explorers on land were as successful as those on 
 the sea. Cortez conquered Mexico while Magellan was on 
 his memorable voyage. The southern half of the United 
 States became known through the expedition of De Soto and 
 the explorations of Coronado and da Vaca. Pizarro, in 1531, 
 succeeded in conquering Peru with its well-nigh unlimited 
 sources of wealth, and by 1540, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Chile 
 had been added to the Spanish Empire. When the mid- 
 century was reached, the work of the Spanish conquerors was 
 practically accomplished. /By the end of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, Spain possessed the great empire of the New World to 
 the west.,, In 1580, the kingdom of Portugal had been added 
 to the Spanish dominions, and, as a consequence, the New 
 World of the East fell under the sway of the Catholic kings. 
 
 HENRY VIII AND ELIZABETH 
 
 With this record of achievement, England has nothing to 
 compare. The first half of the century was practically barren 
 of oversea exploration; the work of John Cabot was not con- 
 tinued. Possibly the unsatisfactory character of the lands 
 discovered and the roughness of the North Atlantic help to 
 account for this hesitancy. Nevertheless, England's political 
 relation to the Continent was probably the most important 
 hindrance to expansion. 
 
 Henry VIII had succeeded his father in 1509. As the sec- 
 ond of the Tudor line, his throne was not any too secure, and 
 he had to tread the mazes of foreign policy carefully. The 
 connection with Spain seemed important enough for Henry 
 to marry the Spanish princess Catherine, the widow of his 
 deceased brother. When Charles I of Spain became the 
 Emperor Charles V in 1519, Henry became his ally. Henry's 
 
THE FOUNDATION FOR EMPIRE 25 
 
 policy changed about 1527, as he no longer felt any need of 
 keeping on good terms with the Spanish King or with the 
 Pope. Various motives were back of this reversal of pol- 
 icy; Charles' opposition to the English monarch's desire for 
 French territory, Henry's distaste for his Spanish wife, the 
 attraction of Anne Boleyn, all played a part. Over the 
 question of the divorce, Henry broke off relations with the 
 papal court, made himself Supreme Head of the Church in 
 England, suppressed the monasteries — much to the help of 
 his pocketbook — and ruled State and Church as an absolute 
 monarch. The Reformation was in progress on the Conti- 
 nent at the time, but Henry was not of the reforming type; the 
 Reformation received official sanction in England only after 
 his death. The years of his reign were replete with problems 
 of European foreign policy and internal adjustments. The 
 reign of his son, Edward VI, continued the struggle over re- 
 ligious matters, which, in the years of Mary's rule (1553-58), 
 resulted in the reestablishment of Catholicism and her mar- 
 riage to Philip II of Spain. 
 
 During this half-century England was not the sworn enemy 
 of Spain, but on friendly terms for most of the time with that 
 expanding state. The rulers of England were too much con- 
 cerned with European politics to give attention to empire. 
 And yet it would be unfair to omit mention of Henry's inter- 
 est in the navy, which served indirectly to prepare for the 
 accomplishments of the Elizabethan seamen. The primary 
 aim of the King was not empire-building, but the improve- 
 ment of the national defense. Against France and Scotland 
 a good navy was an essential. When the French besieged 
 the English in Boulogne and when the Scotch attempted to 
 do the same to Henry's friends in St. Andrews, the need for 
 an adequate navy was evident. The King was largely de- 
 pendent on private vessels impressed for war service, as there 
 was no permanent staff of naval officers. In fact, the ships 
 of the Cinque Ports were still an important part of the na- 
 tional defense. 1 
 
 1 The great ports on the southeast coast of England were given special privi- 
 leges as early as the reign of Edward I in return for defending the southern sea- 
 
26 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 The Henry Grace de Dieu was launched in 1515 in the 
 Thames. It was a five-masted vessel and was the largest 
 ship then afloat. So earnest had been Henry's efforts for 
 improving England's sea-power that the King was able to 
 muster one hundred and fifty vessels when invasion seemed 
 imminent in 1539. In 1545, a Navy Board was established 
 for the first time. Henry also founded a gild, now known 
 as Trinity House, for the supply of trained pilots with power 
 to make "all and singular articles in any wise concerning the 
 science and art of mariners." He also founded Woolwich 
 dockyard. At his death Henry left a fleet of seventy-one 
 vessels. All this is exceedingly important for our under- 
 standing of England's later greatness on the sea, for, with 
 Henry VIII, England became a real maritime state. The 
 time of test for this growing naval strength was to come in 
 the reign of Elizabeth. 
 
 When Elizabeth, the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne 
 Boleyn, became Queen in 1558, peculiar difficulties faced the 
 new ruler, which called for all her diplomatic ability and 
 caution. Two religious factions, an extreme Catholic and a 
 violent reforming party, were fighting for power. Elizabeth, 
 however, could be nothing but a Protestant and retain her 
 self-respect, for she was the fruit of Henry's marriage after he 
 broke with Rome. Elizabeth hoped by pursuing a middle 
 course to avoid serious complications and to please the ma- 
 jority of her subj ects. There was real reason for this caution, 
 as a possible occupant of the throne was Mary, Queen of the 
 Scots, and a Catholic ; if Spain by any chance should make 
 war with England and should make up with France, England 
 would be a Protestant country surrounded by enemies eager 
 to take advantage of any slip or weakness. This meant 
 that Elizabeth had to be particularly careful in foreign rela- 
 tions, especially avoiding open war with Spain. 
 
 board of the island. Until the time of the Tudors they furnished nearly all of 
 the ships, and for some time after gave much assistance to the permanent fleet. 
 Originally, they were five in number — "Sandwich and Romney, Hastings, 
 Hithe and Dover" — but later were increased to seven by the addition of Rye 
 and Winchelsea. Their task is recalled in Longfellow's "The Warden of the 
 Cinque Ports." 
 
THE FOUNDATION FOR EMPIRE 27 
 
 As the long reign progressed, it was more and more difficult 
 to keep a neutral course. Catholicism, of which Philip II 
 was regarded as the great champion, was becoming aggres- 
 sive in its efforts to recover ground lost earlier in the century 
 to the Reformation. The Council of Trent (1545-63) had 
 restated the doctrines of the Catholic Church in such a way 
 as to make them effective against the Protestants. The 
 Order of the Jesuits, founded by Loyola in 1540, made in- 
 creasing efforts to further the Catholic cause by its absolute 
 obedience to the wishes of the Pope. Mary, Queen of Scots, 
 who had returned to Scotland in 1561, was forced to flee to 
 England six years later for refuge from her disgusted sub- 
 jects. There she was imprisoned for twenty years, but, in 
 spite of that, Mary was always a center of Catholic revolt 
 against Elizabeth. The Jesuits, to make matters worse for 
 the English, established a school at Douai, whence priests es- 
 pecially trained to win England back to the Catholic Church 
 went across the Channel in increasing numbers. The Hu- 
 guenot Wars in France and the revolt of the Netherlands 
 against Spain gave the English Queen alternate hope and 
 despair. 
 
 At last, in the eighties, the veiled conflict of England and 
 Spain became open war. The English Queen gave assistance 
 to the Netherlands in 1585 because Philip II of Spain and 
 Henry of Guise in France had agreed to drive Protestantism 
 from both France and the Netherlands. Philip thereupon 
 planned an attack upon England and the Netherlands simul- 
 taneously, while the Catholics of England were to rise in 
 favor of the imprisoned Mary. This plan, added to plots 
 against the life of Elizabeth, sealed the doom of the Scotch 
 Queen, who was executed in 1587. Shortly after, the Great 
 Armada of Spain descended on England. The struggle be- 
 tween the two countries had become a death-grapple. 
 
 Before describing the event that gave to the English their 
 mastery of the sea, attention must be called to another 
 cause for Spanish enmity. As a matter of fact, it was prob- 
 ably not religious animosity or even anger at Elizabeth's 
 assistance to the Netherlands that led to Philip's direct at- 
 
28 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 tack on England. The Spanish Empire and its valuable 
 commerce had become the prey of the daring English "sea- 
 dogs." 
 
 THE ELIZABETHAN SEAMEN 
 
 There had been a growing estrangement between the 
 "tight" little island and the Spanish dominions, for which 
 the reasons are not hard to find. For one thing, the exclu- 
 sive nature of Spain's colonial system made it impossible for 
 any other nation to trade legitimately with Spanish colo- 
 nies and thus share, even to a small degree, in the riches 
 flowing in such abundance to Madrid. The Spanish colonial 
 policy was so framed as to restrict the trade of the Empire 
 to Spanish subjects. Furthermore, not even all of Philip's 
 subjects could carry on trade with the colonies, as Cadiz and 
 Seville were declared to be the only places from which ships 
 could sail to the colonies and to which they could return. The 
 vessels for the colonies went in fleets after 1561; each year 
 two fleets were supposed to go, although in some years this 
 service was interrupted. The fleet system enabled the fleets 
 to be protected by an escort and made the collection of cus- 
 toms dues easier. The sale of goods in the colonies was 
 carried on in fairs in specified places such as Cartagena and 
 Porto Bello (near Colon). When the fleet arrived at Carta- 
 gena, trade in.-European goods was prohibited between Lima 
 and Quito. On account of the great rigidity of this system 
 and its unfairness to certain parts of the Spanish colonies, 
 the colonists were not averse to illicit trade with foreigners, 
 and such people as the English, with their growing com- 
 merce, were able to take advantage of the opportunities thus 
 offered, even though it were at a high risk. 
 
 This growing English commerce made the situation from 
 England's point of view a more and more difficult one. The- 
 oretically, England could not trade at all with the Far East 
 or the new West; the only hope of Englishmen was to find 
 a new route to the Oriental sources of wealth, as the trade 
 routes were as much of a monopoly as the lands to which they 
 led. Valiant attempts were made to" find a northeast as 
 
THE FOUNDATION FOR EMPIRE 29 
 
 well as a northwest passage to the Indies. Under Sebastian 
 Cabot's direction, a joint-stock company was formed in Lon- 
 don, and an expedition was sent out under Chancellor and 
 Willoughby in 1553. Archangel was reached, and an outlet 
 was found for English commerce. This was a notable achieve- 
 ment, as it opened a way for English trade through Russia 
 to the Caspian Sea and the lands farther east, under the guid- 
 ance of the Russia or Muscovy Company. 1 
 
 In the eighties, three important trading companies were 
 formed, the Turkey, the Morocco, and the Guinea Com- 
 panies. In the nineties daring English seamen even rounded 
 the Cape of Good Hope. English trade was developing so 
 fast that sooner or later it could not but come into conflict 
 with Spain's great monopoly of the desirable sources for 
 tropical wealth. 
 
 Probably the most important reason for the growing trou- 
 ble between Philip and Elizabeth lay in the growth of the 
 spirit of English maritime adventure. This is an intangible 
 force to appraise, but its effects were soon evident. Much of 
 the "spaciousness" of the reign of good Queen Bess lay in the 
 energizing breath of the salt sea and in the enlarging freedom 
 that came to cramped muscles with the achievements of the 
 Elizabethan buccaneers. It is the story over again of the 
 Northmen of the early Middle Ages, with England now the 
 source and not the object of the sea-roving expeditions. 
 
 One of the foremost mariners of the age was John Hawkins. 
 His name is particularly connected with the beginning of the 
 African slave-trade with America. The Spanish planters 
 
 1 A notable Englishman connected with this development was Anthony 
 Jenkinson. In 1553, he had been at Aleppo and had obtained from Solyman 
 the Great the right to trade in Turkish ports without hindrance. Two years 
 later, he became a member of the Mercer's Company and headed the Muscovy 
 fleet in 1557. He made three journeys into Russia, visiting the Czar and ob- 
 taining for Englishmen the monopoly of trade in the White Sea. Jenkinson 
 also penetrated Persia and went as far as Bokhara in the interests of trade; he 
 was the first Englishman to go into Central Asia. A document granting him a 
 coat of arms tells the story of many others of his time; in the grant he is de- 
 scribed as "one who for the service of his prince, weal of his country, and for 
 knowledge sake, hath not feared to adventure and hazard his life and to wear 
 his body with long and painful travel into divers and sundry countries." See 
 the Dictionary of National Biography, xxix, 309. 
 
30 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 were in need of workmen, but the natives of the New World 
 died in great numbers under the restraint and hard labor im- 
 posed upon them. Las Casas, the great missionary to the 
 Indies, had advocated the use of the blacks from Africa as 
 a providential plan for protecting the natives of the New 
 World, whose souls he was so intent on saving. In accord- 
 ance with this benevolent purpose, Hawkins made his first 
 voyage in 1562. Three hundred negroes were obtained in 
 Guinea and sold with profit in San Domingo for hides, ginger, 
 sugar, and pearls. In 1565 a second cargo of slaves was ob- 
 tained and again disposed of, though with more difficulty 
 than before, as Spain had taken measures to prevent this 
 illegal trade. So successful was this expedition that Eliza- 
 beth granted Hawkins a coat of arms, the heraldic emblems 
 of which include symbols that indicate that there was thought 
 to be something akin to a crusade in Hawkins' expedi- 
 tions. 1 
 
 A third expedition of five ships went out in 1567, again led 
 by the Jesu,s, and with young Francis Drake as commander of 
 one of the vessels. Between four and five hundred negroes 
 were exported to the West Indies. The narrative in Hak- 
 luyt reads: "We coasted from place to place, making our 
 traffic with the Spaniards as we might, somewhat hardly, 
 because the king had straitly commanded all his governors in 
 those parts by no means to suffer any trade to be made with 
 us. Notwithstanding, we had reasonable trade, and cour- 
 teous treatment, from the isle of Margarita to Cartagena." 
 But this good fortune did not continue. At a town called 
 Rio de la Hache, "from whence come all the pearls," they had 
 to storm the place in order to obtain sale for their human 
 goods. In the harbor of St. John de Ullua, the port of Mex- 
 ico, they were treacherously attacked by the Spaniards, 
 after having been promised safety. Only two vessels were 
 
 1 It is difficult to see how gentlemen could have engaged in this wretched 
 business, but there were few to find fault in those days. Hawkins' flagship was 
 named the Jesus, and his sailing orders included the admonition to "serve God 
 daily." On the second voyage, the fleet was becalmed in mid-ocean, but when 
 the wind finally arose, Hawkins' comment was, "Almighty God, who never 
 suflereth his elect to perish, sent us the ordinary breeze." 
 
THE FOUNDATION FOR EMPIRE 31 
 
 able to escape; in one was Hawkins and in the other was 
 Francis Drake. 1 
 
 Hawkins remained in England for some years after this 
 disastrous voyage. In 1573 he was made Treasurer and 
 Controller of the Royal Navy, contributing by his practical 
 experience much that made the superiority of the English 
 vessels in the fight with the Spanish Armada so outstanding. 
 Drake took his revenge in more spectacular fashion. He be- 
 came the " Dragon," so successful was he in terrifying the 
 Spanish by his bold attacks on their shipping; his circumnav- 
 igation of the globe carried his revenge into seas that had 
 hitherto been the exclusive possession of the Spanish. 
 
 This famous voyage began in 1577 with five ships, of 
 which the largest was the Pelican, of one hundred tons. 
 After the Strait of Magellan was passed, the flagship had to 
 go on alone. The account of the Pelican's northward jour- 
 ney reads like a fairy story. At Valparaiso the English 
 plundered a large ship and rifled the town: "We came to a 
 small chapel which we entered, and found therein a silver 
 chalice, two cruets and one altar cloth, the spoil whereof our 
 General gave to M. Fletcher his minister." At Tarapaca 
 they found a Spaniard lying asleep with thirteen bars of silver 
 beside him: "We took the silver and left the man." At 
 Arica fifty-seven wedges of silver were acquired. At Lima, 
 Drake learned of a treasure-ship that had recently departed 
 for the Isthmus. All haste was made, and the vessel was 
 overtaken: "We found in her great riches, as jewels and 
 precious stones, thirteen chests full of reals of plate, four- 
 score pound weight of gold and six-and- twenty ton of silver." 
 Not long thereafter a vessel was met containing much linen 
 and China dishes and China silks, "all of which things we 
 took as we listed." It was at this point that Drake began 
 to plan for the return voyage, "thinking himself both in 
 respect of his private injuries received from the Spaniards, 
 as also their contempts and indignities offered to our country 
 and prince in general, sufficiently satisfied and revenged." 
 
 1 See Voyages of the Elizabethan Seamen, edited by E. J. Payne (Oxford, 
 1907), pp. 71 ff. 
 
32 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 The intrepid Drake decided to return by way of Asia and 
 the Cape of Good Hope. After going northwards along the 
 American coast probably as far as Oregon, the Pelican went 
 across the Pacific. A stop was made at the Spice Islands, in 
 due time the Cape of Good Hope was passed, and the Pelican 
 ended its three-year voyage around the world in 1580. Great 
 was the Spanish wrath, but Drake's reception at home was 
 enthusiastic. The Queen received him with undisguised 
 favor, making him a knight on board his ship. 1 
 
 During the years that Drake was away, Sir Humphrey 
 Gilbert attempted to colonize Newfoundland. But he was 
 lost at sea in 1583, and his half-brother, Walter Raleigh, 
 succeeded to his patent rights. Raleigh made a number of 
 efforts to colonize the country called Virginia, where in 1587 
 an ill-fated colony was established at Roanoke. John White, 
 who returned to England from Virginia to obtain help for the 
 new colony, found no sign of life when he went back to Roan- 
 oke in 1591; what happened to this "lost" colony has been 
 a subject of much conjecture. 
 
 Numerous other exploits might be added to the list al- 
 ready made, but these are typical of the work of the Elizabe- 
 than seamen. The motives were varied; plunder, commerce, 
 and colonization all have a place, with the desire for easily 
 won wealth as the usual spring of action. 
 
 John White was delayed on his return to England in ob- 
 taining succor for the needy colonists at Roanoke. He found 
 that Philip and Elizabeth at last were waging open conflict. 
 The defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 was the climax of 
 the work of the Elizabethan seamen. The story of this running 
 sea-fight is well known and need not be retold here. Suffice 
 it to say that Philip felt that the only thing to do was to 
 attack his covert enemy openly and at home. A great fleet 
 was fitted out, but its one hundred and thirty vessels were 
 better prepared to carry troops than to fight battles at sea. 
 The English had advanced rapidly in maritime science in 
 the years immediately preceding, and their heavily armed and 
 mobile ships were manned by men trained to the sea. In the 
 
 1 See Voyages of Elizabethan Seamen for the contemporary account. 
 
THE FOUNDATION FOR EMPIRE 33 
 
 great sea-battle in which the Spanish Armada was defeated, 
 the enemy of England lost sixty-three ships in the fight and 
 as a result of the storms encountered on the return voyage. 
 The English lost no vessels, and but sixty-eight men were 
 killed or wounded. 1 
 
 The significance of this victory for the Empire was great; 
 as Seeley's words attest: "Here begins the modern history of 
 England." The English had shown themselves masters of 
 the sea; the dreaded Spaniard was no longer to be feared. 
 On the contrary, the war which followed was carried to Spain 
 itself, for Drake led an expedition to Lisbon — at that time 
 a Spanish possession — where sixty vessels were seized. A 
 crusading spirit was developed against Spain, and England 
 was unified and strengthened by its great victory. Not only 
 did the mastery of the sea lead England to think of empire, 
 but it produced a national patriotism in proportions hitherto 
 unknown. 
 
 Literature expressed this new national feeling and opti- 
 mism. The chroniclers put into form the accounts of the 
 various exploits that had shown the "mettle" of the English 
 on the "vasty fields" of the sea. Hakluyt in 1582 published 
 Divers Voyages Touching the Discovery of America, and in 1589 
 his Principall Navigations, Voyages and Discoveries of the 
 English Nation. So great was its success that a larger edition 
 appeared in 1600. Samuel Purchas early in the next cen- 
 tury supplemented the work of Hakluyt by having printed 
 Purchas His Pilgrimes, Containing a History of the World in 
 Sea-Voyages, and Land-Travails by Englishmen and Others. 
 
 One of the most familiar and classic expressions of this 
 national temper is the description of the proud and confident 
 England of Elizabeth's day in Shakespeare's Richard 11: 
 
 This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle, 
 This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, 
 This other Eden, demi-paradise; 
 This fortress built by Nature for herself 
 Against infection and the hand of war; 
 
 1 On the base of Drake's statue at Plymouth are the words: "Efflavit Deus 
 et dissipati sunt." 
 
34 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 This happy breed of men, this little wolrd, 
 This precious stone set in the silver sea, 
 Which serves it in the office of a wall 
 Or as a moat defensive to a house, 
 Against the envy of less happier lands. 
 
 With the close of this great age we have reached the be- 
 ginnings of Greater Britain. The English had come to see, 
 as Henry VIII was reported (by Lord Herbert of Cherbury) 
 to have said on an earlier occasion: " England alone is a just 
 Empire, or when we enlarge ourselves, let it be in that way 
 we can and to which it seems the eternal providence hath 
 destined us, which is by the sea." The defeat of the Armada 
 made this a conviction with Englishmen and began the "mod- 
 ern history of England." 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 
 
 The development of the Spanish Empire has been well told in E. G. 
 Bourne, Spain in America, 1450-1580 (New York, 1904). A recent and 
 detailed account is that of H. B. Merriman, The Rise of the Spanish Empire 
 in the Old World and in the New (New York, 1918). For the early explora- 
 tion see Winsor, Narrative and Critical History of America, vol. in. A de- 
 lightful and authoritative record is that of Edward Channing, History of 
 the United States, vol. i, chapters i-v (New York, 1905). Perhaps the most 
 convenient place in which to read the contemporary accounts of the Eng- 
 lish voyages is Voyages of the Elizabethan Seamen, edited by E. J. Payne, 
 with additional notes by C. R. Beazley (Oxford, 1907), though a very useful 
 edition of Hakluyt is to be found in "Everyman's Library." For a de- 
 tailed treatment of the growth of England's maritime power during this 
 period see the two works of Sir Julian S. Corbett, Drake and the Tudor 
 Navy; with a History of the Rise of England as a Maritime Power (2 vols., 
 London, 1898), and The Successors of Drake (London, 1900), as well as Sir 
 Charles Lucas, The Beginning of English Over Seas Enterprise: A Prelude to 
 the Empire (Oxford, 1917). 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE BEGINNINGS OF EMPIRE IN THE WEST 
 
 The sixteenth century has been found to be fundamental in 
 the preparation for empire by its enlargement of the scope of 
 English maritime interest. There was also the beginning of 
 a navy and the formation of trading companies for the monop- 
 olization of the English commercial relations with the va- 
 rious parts of the non-European world. The seventeenth 
 century, with these accomplishments as a foundation, served 
 as the age in which the imperial structure was begun, an 
 empire that grew with the succeeding years so that by the 
 end of the nineteenth century it girdled the earth. Although 
 the major emphasis of the present volume is on the modern 
 conditions, the genesis of the Empire is so important that it 
 warrants careful attention. 
 
 THE STUARTS 
 
 The political conditions in England during this century 
 were so unsettled that it is surprising that any time was found 
 for things over the sea. When Elizabeth died in 1603, the 
 throne went to James VI of Scotland, who became the first 
 Stuart ruler of Great Britain, under the title of James I. The 
 union of the two countries was not a real or organic one, but 
 a nominal one only effected by the person of the ruler; the 
 actual union was retarded for one hundred years. For nu- 
 merous reasons James was ill-fitted to rule his dominions: he 
 regarded himself as a paragon of wisdom; he held excessive 
 opinions concerning divine right; in person, speech, and 
 manner he was eccentric and unkingly. James ruled until 
 his death in 1625 in conflict with Parliament concerning his 
 prerogatives, endeavoring to keep on good relations with 
 Spain, permitting England to take an ignoble place in con- 
 tinental affairs, causing much bitterness among his subjects, 
 and leaving to Charles I, his son, an empty treasury and 
 numerous problems. 
 
36 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 Charles I began his reign sorely pressed financially, and 
 Parliament was determined to take advantage of this to 
 obtain more privileges. In 1628 the Petition of Right was 
 forced on the King, but the next year Charles dissolved Par- 
 liament and endeavored to rule the country until 1640 with- 
 out the assistance of this pugnacious body. Taxation was 
 arbitrary, and the king's prerogatives seemed to be increas- 
 ing. Moreover, Puritan sentiment was outraged, as Charles 
 seemed to be going in the direction of Roman Catholicism. 
 When the Long Parliament met in 1640, the struggle be- 
 tween the King and the people reached a more acute stage. 
 The result was the beginning of the Civil War in 1642, a con- 
 flict that ended with the King's execution in 1649. 
 
 For the next eleven years the Commonwealth, controlled 
 by Cromwell and the army, was the form of government. A 
 rather vigorous foreign policy was entered upon, eventuating 
 in war with the Dutch and the rapid decline of that state as 
 the commercial rival of England. In 1660 the restoration of 
 the Stuart line, in the person of Charles II, brought about 
 the overthrow of Puritan rule in politics and life. Religious 
 toleration was granted, an alliance was made with the Por- 
 tuguese by Charles' marriage to Catherine of Braganza, and 
 another war with the Dutch ensued. As the reign progressed, 
 there was growing evidence of increasing intimacy between 
 Charles and the Catholic ruler of France, Louis XIV, and the 
 country again became fearful of possible Romanism in its 
 rulers. 
 
 When James II succeeded his brother in 1685, this fear be- 
 came a fact, as James was a Roman Catholic. Yet even this 
 could be endured with the prospect of a Protestant successor. 
 But when a son was born to the King by his Catholic wife 
 this possibility vanished. In addition, his high-handed 
 measures against Parliament and his Indulgences for the 
 Catholics created such ill-feeling that there was a revolution. 
 James was allowed to leave the country and was succeeded 
 by William of Orange and his wife, Mary, a Protestant 
 daughter of James II. Under these rulers, the two former 
 enemies, England and Holland, were united. The assent of 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF EMPIRE IN THE WEST 37 
 
 the new King and Queen to the Declaration of Right meant 
 rapid progress in the Parliamentary control of the government. 
 The early years of the seventeenth century were not so fa- 
 vorable for an interest in external affairs and commercial 
 enterprise as were the closing years of the sixteenth century. 
 Nevertheless, so sure was the foundation and widespread the 
 interest that trade increased and settlements of a permanent 
 character began — and this in spite of financial extravagance 
 and bad administration by England's rulers. The navy, 
 which deteriorated in the first years of the century, was as- 
 siduously built up by Charles I, and proved adequate under 
 the Commonwealth and the Restoration for the naval wars 
 with the Dutch. The internal disorders during the middle of 
 the century tended to the confusion of English foreign inter- 
 ests. Yet the very unsettlement at home caused emigration. 
 The royal need for money led to lavish grants to speculative 
 subjects and to the establishment of "wild-cat" schemes. 
 Empire in any ordered progressive manner was not being 
 built. It was largely despite lack of policy that expansion 
 came on the heels of trade. The motives that led to settle- 
 ment can best be clarified by a review of what was done 
 by Englishmen in various parts of the world 
 
 JAMESTOWN 
 
 The first permanent colony was established in Virginia. Sir 
 Walter Raleigh, who obtained from the Queen a continuation 
 of the patent rights of his half-brother, Sir Humphrey Gil- 
 bert, attempted to colonize Virginia. It was in the year before 
 the defeat of the Spanish Armada that the "lost" colony had 
 been founded at Roanoke. 1 But Raleigh, who fell into ill fa- 
 vor when James became King, lost his rights. The First Vir- 
 ginia Charter, under which a permanent plantation took 
 place, was granted in 1606. 2 The right to "make Habitation, 
 Plantation, and to deduce a Colony of sundry of our People 
 into that Part of America, commonly called Virginia, and 
 other Parts and Territories in America, either appertaining 
 
 1 See p. 32. 
 
 2 It is to be found conveniently in Macdonald's Select Charters, pp. 1 ff. 
 
38 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 unto us, or which are not now actually possessed by any 
 Christian Prince or People," was granted to a Company in- 
 cluding George Somers, Richard Hakluyt, Ralegh Gilbert, 
 and George Popham. There were two companies: one con- 
 sisting of certain "Knights, Gentlemen, Merchants and other 
 Adventurers" of London with the right to "plant" between 
 thirty-four and forty-one degrees north latitude along the 
 coast; the other was composed of "sundry" gentlemen of 
 Bristol, Exeter, Plymouth and other places with the priv- 
 ilege of making settlements between thirty-eight and forty- 
 five degrees north latitude. The region between the thirty- 
 eighth and the forty-first parallels was common ground, the 
 company first settling it to have one hundred miles of adja- 
 cent seacoast. But neither company appropriated the coast 
 where the grants overlapped. The charter provided for a 
 Council of Virginia in England — appointed by the King — 
 and councils in America. 
 
 Article sixteen is of more than passing importance. It 
 reads: "All and every the Persons, being our Subjects, which 
 shall dwell and inhabit within every and any of the said sev- 
 eral Colonies and Plantations, and every of their children . . . 
 shall have and enjoy all Liberties, Franchises and Immunities 
 within any of our Dominions ... as if they had been abiding 
 and born within this our Realm of England." This remark- 
 able provision foreshadowed a different colonial policy than 
 the world had seen hitherto. By it Englishmen were acknowl- 
 edged as free to live in England's colonies and yet retain their 
 rights under the English common law. It need hardly be said 
 that the progress to be made in the conflict with Charles I 
 was not within the view of the monarch who granted the 
 charter to Virginia. It was interpreted, nevertheless, as a 
 transportation of English law and the developing constitution 
 beyond the island which gave them birth. Besides, it was a 
 distinct step beyond trade to permanent settlement. 
 
 The London Company sent colonists out in the winter of 
 1606-07, and they settled at a place they named Jamestown 
 in May of 1607 on the banks of the James River. It is im- 
 possible here to detail their trying experiences, interesting 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF EMPIRE IN THE WEST 39 
 
 as they would be. Starvation, ill-considered sites for settle- 
 ment, disease and dissension, all helped to bring misfortune. 
 Over three fourths of the two hundred original settlers died 
 in the first two years. When the Virginia Company was dis- 
 solved in 1624, almost £200,000 had been expended. Why 
 this prodigal waste of life and treasure? We have a hint of 
 their aims in the charter, article nine of which reads in part: 
 "The said several Councils . . . may . . . dig, mine and search 
 for all Manner of Mines of Gold, Silver and Copper, as well 
 within any part of their said several Colonies, as for the said 
 Main Lands on the Backside of the same Colonies.' ' The 
 King was to have twenty per cent of the gold and a fifteenth 
 of the copper. 1 
 
 It arouses compassion to read of the efforts to find treasure 
 in a country we now know could not possibly fulfill the expec- 
 tations of the Virginian settlers. The Order in Council for 
 the guidance of the colonists directed them to explore the 
 country with a band of twenty men provided with pickaxes 
 to discover metals. One of the leaders took " gold " ore back 
 to England in the summer of 1607, only to find it worthless. 
 Yet Captain Newport returned with two goldsmiths, two re- 
 finers, and a jeweler. Captain John Smith reported that in 
 Virginia there was "no talk, no hope, no work, but dig gold, 
 wash gold, refine gold, loade gold." 
 
 Another motive for the establishment of the colony is re- 
 vealed in the instructions which were prepared for the Council; 
 they were directed to find a river which would be navigable 
 for a long distance, especially one with a northwestern bend, 
 "for in that way you shall soonest find the other sea." In 
 1608 Captain Newport received private instructions to find, 
 if possible, the true route to the South Sea. This quest seems 
 to us absurd, as we now realize that it is a journey of fully 
 
 1 The popular notion that Virginia was the home of gold was expressed in a 
 play called Eastward Ho, written in 1605: "I tell thee golde is more plentifull in 
 Virginia than copper is with us. All the chaines with which they chaine up 
 their streets are massie gold; all the prisoners they take are fettered in golde, 
 and for rubies and diamonds, they goe forth in holidays and gather them by the 
 seashore to hang on their children's coates and sticke in their children's caps as 
 commonly as our children wear saffron, gilt breeches and groates with hoales in 
 them." Quoted in Bruce, Economic History of Virginia, i, 14. 
 
40 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 three thousand miles across the continent at the latitude of 
 the James River. Yet Drake had sailed up the west coast 
 past this degree ; to cross to the coast he had explored did not 
 appear an impossibility to his contemporaries. Ralph Lane, 
 in his account of the Roanoke colony, stated that he had been 
 informed by the Indians that it required a journey of only 
 thirty days to the headwaters of a river which gushed out of 
 a rock so near to the other sea that the waves of the latter 
 very often dashed over into the river in time of storm. Lane 
 traveled one hundred and sixty miles inland searching for 
 this curious physical phenomenon, which even the men of 
 that day should have realized was impossible. 
 
 Gradually the true worth of the colony was understood. 
 Captain John Smith urged the saner and more prosaic task 
 of agriculture, but the possibilities of the land were realized 
 but slowly. By 1609 about forty acres had been cleared and 
 planted to corn. Not until 1612 did the colonists begin the 
 cultivation of tobacco. John Rolfe, the husband of Poca- 
 hontas, started the cultivation of the weed with a small patch 
 for his own use. In this modest fashion began the crop which 
 has been the staple product of Virginia for two hundred and 
 seventy-five years. With the profitable growth of tobacco 
 the permanency of the colony was assured, since the demand 
 for tobacco was increasing in Europe despite the severe re- 
 strictions placed upon its use in some countries. 
 
 The adaptability of Virginian soil for tobacco culture 
 shaped decisively the future character of the colony. To- 
 bacco required virgin soil for its production in perfection. 
 As artificial fertilizers were unknown, the effect was greatly 
 to extend the bounds of a plantation beyond the ground ac- 
 tually used at one time. This meant a system of large plan- 
 tations, each standing by itself with its own laborers and me- 
 chanics, a system that developed an independent self-reliant 
 type with the inevitable growth of a landed aristocracy. Silk, 
 rice, indigo, and wheat were cultivated to some extent, but 
 rarely for export, as the profit on tobacco was much greater. 
 It was not long before Virginia became a great colony along 
 the shores of the Chesapeake and up the numerous rivers. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF EMPIRE IN THE WEST 41 
 
 Had it not been for tobacco, Jamestown would probably have 
 been but one more fruitless attempt at colonization. 
 
 Virginia enjoyed an exceptional measure of self-govern- 
 ment. In 1609 a second charter was granted, which dif- 
 fered from the first in leaving the whole control practically 
 in the hands of the stockholders of the Company. Three 
 years later, another charter was issued by King James, 
 allowing still greater powers to the Company, even to that 
 of holding meetings of the stockholders under the name of 
 the "Great and General Courts." Shortly after this, the 
 Company went into the hands of Puritan leaders, the most 
 prominent of whom was Sir Edwin Sandys. He had been 
 a radical reformer in England, and was inclined to experi- 
 ment in this direction in the new American colony. The 
 first Governor under this regime, Sir George Yeardley, 
 called an Assembly to meet at Jamestown in 1619 composed 
 of two burgesses from each place and plantation. It exer- 
 cised privileges much like the body in England that was 
 causing James so much discomfort. 
 
 The Company was overthrown in 1624, owing to the King's 
 dissatisfaction with the control of the Company by a group 
 connected with the opposition party in Parliament, and on 
 account of the "slow progress of the colony and its exclu- 
 sive devotion to tobacco." 1 Charles I, who became King in 
 1625, was too busy at home to trouble about colonial matters, 
 and the colony was about as free as before. In 1627, at the 
 instance of Charles, a General Assembly was called to con- 
 sider the tobacco trade with England. This is interesting, as 
 showing a recognition by the King of representative institu- 
 tions. During the Commonwealth period in England, Vir- 
 ginia was given even greater freedom, governing itself 
 through an elected Assembly, which, in turn, selected the 
 Governor and his Council. This large allowance of self- 
 government served later as a dangerous precedent. 
 
 1 Beer, Origins of the British Colonial System, p. 305. 
 
42 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 NEW ENGLAND 
 
 The story of the early settlement of "Northern Virginia" 
 — that part allotted to the Plymouth Company — is in 
 great contrast to the record of the establishment of James- 
 town. The Plymouth Company sent out a fleet under 
 Ralegh Gilbert and George Popham to what is now called 
 Maine. After a year, however, the unpromising settlement 
 was abandoned. In 1620 a new charter was granted for the 
 territory between forty and forty-eight degrees north latitude 
 under the name of New England. The first settlement to 
 take permanent hold there was the plantation at Plymouth 
 in 1620. But it did not have a commercial aim. This group 
 of men and women were impelled to cross the sea by the 
 desire for freedom of worship. 
 
 The well-known story needs but a brief treatment. In 
 the reign of Elizabeth radical Protestant sects had developed, 
 which were unwilling to conform to the rules of the Estab- 
 lished Church. The Puritans desired to stay within the 
 Church and purify it; in consequence, there was constant 
 opposition by them to alleged Roman Catholic tendencies. 
 Some were so violently opposed to the "abuses" practiced by 
 the Church that they left its communion. Various names 
 were given them, e.g., Brownists, Independents, Separatists. 
 One of these radical groups was located at Scrooby in Not- 
 tinghamshire, where they were ministered to by John Robin- 
 son of Norwich. Because of persecution they sought asylum 
 first in Holland and later across the seas westward. 
 
 The Mayflower left Plymouth, England, in the autumn of 
 1620, bringing this body of devoted men and women to the 
 coast of Massachusetts, where they established New Ply- 
 mouth. They had made arrangements with the Virginia 
 Company for the right to settle on their grant, but, as they 
 landed outside the bounds of that territory, they had to 
 make other provision for the government of their colony. 
 This was done by the brief Mayflower Compact made on 
 shipboard. l The Plymouth Pilgrims were subjected to much 
 
 1 The Mayflower Compact was but a temporary agreement to be used until 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF EMPIRE IN THE WEST 43 
 
 hardship. Starvation stared them in the face much of the 
 time, for they were a group unaccustomed to pioneer life. It 
 was only later that they found their salvation in a develop- 
 ing fur trade. 
 
 Soon other colonies were established in New England. 
 Charles I, as we have found, was having trouble with the 
 Puritans from the time that he became King in 1625. By 
 1629, the conflict was serious, and eleven years followed in 
 which Charles tried to rule England without a Parliament. 
 This caused great dissatisfaction among the Puritans, to 
 whom the New World seemed to furnish a refuge from 
 tyranny. Some Nonconformists obtained from the New 
 England Council, in 1628, a grant of land extending three 
 miles north of the Merrimac to three miles south of the 
 Charles and westward to the South Sea. In 1630, over one 
 thousand people, including the Governor and officers of the 
 Company, left for New England. It was the beginning of 
 what is known as the ' ' Great Emigration. ' ' Boston, Charles- 
 town, Roxbury, Dorchester, Watertown, and Cambridge 
 were established. As the High-Church party continued to 
 control English affairs during the whole of the next dec- 
 ade, emigration went on apace. During the years pre- 
 ceding the meeting of the Long Parliament in 1640, twenty 
 thousand colonists are said to have settled in New England. 
 This was a remarkable movement. Hardly anything like 
 this transplantation of people to a new home had ever oc- 
 curred before. A veritable New England was being formed 
 across the sea. 
 
 The temper and government of the new colonies was akin 
 to that developing in England. Powers were given to free- 
 men or stockholders of the corporation. Much emphasis, 
 
 the government at home had signified its wishes. When some of the hired 
 laborers on the ship realized that the vessel was landing outside the territory of 
 the Virginia Company, they threatened to break loose. The Compact, signed 
 by forty-one persons of whom seven were hired workmen, has been lauded as an 
 early example of a written constitution. The signers combined "into a civil 
 body politic, for our better ordering and preservation." They agreed "to en- 
 act, constitute and frame such just and equal laws ... as shall be thought most 
 meet and convenient for the general good of the colony, unto which we promise 
 all due submission and obedience.'' 
 
44 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 also, was put on religious conformity as a result of the pre- 
 vailing interest in religious matters at the time. In 1631, the 
 number of freemen was enlarged to one hundred and sixteen, 
 but only Puritan church members had the franchise. Three 
 years later, representative government was established, 
 members being chosen by the various towns to act as a Com- 
 mittee of the General Court. In Plymouth a representative 
 system similar to that in Massachusetts Bay was instituted 
 in 1638. We must not infer that this was democracy. The 
 freemen were few, probably numbering not more than one 
 fifth of the number of grown men. Nor was freedom of wor- 
 ship permitted. Although the New England colonists had 
 left England to exercise freedom in this regard, they were not 
 inclined to grant it in their turn. 
 
 Internal trouble could not but come with such limitations 
 on individual liberty. Roger Williams, minister of the 
 church at Salem, was extreme in his Separatist views, and, in 
 addition, aroused opposition by declaring that the colonists 
 should have purchased their lands from the Indians. In 
 consequence, he was compelled to leave; ultimately he made 
 his home in Rhode Island. Anne Hutchinson, a woman of 
 remarkable intellect, caused similar trouble to the leaders. 
 It is not altogether clear what was the matter with her be- 
 liefs, as Winthrop at her trial refused to give the causes that 
 satisfied the court she should be banished. The expulsion of 
 Roger Williams and of Anne Hutchinson led to the founding 
 of Rhode Island. There the land was "purchased " from the 
 Indians and freedom of worship was granted to the inhab- 
 itants. Williams has won lasting fame by his pioneer advo- 
 cacy and practice in the Providence Plantations of the sepa- 
 ration of Church and State. 
 
 The latter half of the thirties saw the beginnings of Connec- 
 ticut. The Massachusetts Bay colonies were the sources for 
 these settlements as well as that of Rhode Island. It was of 
 their own free will, however, that Massachusetts men went to 
 the Connecticut valley. Hartford, Windsor, and Wethers- 
 field were founded in 1635 and 1636. Saybrook, named from 
 Lord Brook and Lord Say and Sele, who had obtained a 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF EMPIRE IN THE WEST 45 
 
 grant of this region, was placed at the mouth of the Connec- 
 ticut River to safeguard the English in their new possessions. 
 In 1638, New Haven was founded. Settlements took shape, 
 also, during this time in the present states of New Hamp- 
 shire and Maine to the north of Massachusetts Bay. 
 
 At last civil war between Charles and Parliament broke 
 out in 1642, and the chaos in England led to a closer union of 
 the New England colonies. Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, 
 Connecticut, and New Haven united in a confederation, 
 which illustrated the virility and independence of the group. 
 One of the causes for the organization was found in the "sad 
 distractions" in England. Another cause for a combination 
 of forces was the Indian menace, for the natives had com- 
 mitted "sundry insolencies and outrages upon severall 
 Plantations of the English" and had "of late combined 
 against us." A third cause for union lay in the dangerous 
 proximity of the people of "severall Nations and strange 
 languages, which hereafter may prove injurious to us." They 
 referred to the French and the Dutch. There was to be a 
 "perpetual league of friendship," all wars were to be borne 
 by all parts of the confederation, and two commissioners 
 were chosen from each of the four colonies "being all in 
 Church-fellowship with us" to form a group to decide on 
 common matters. The combination, although it did not in- 
 clude Rhode Island and Maine, served a good purpose. 
 
 New Netherland, as the territory between Virginia and 
 New England was called, had been occupied by the Dutch 
 under the energetic leadership of the Dutch West India 
 Company. This settlement was a serious menace to Eng- 
 lish control of the coast and to colonial unity, as it separated 
 Virginia from New England. Its loss by the Dutch will be 
 recounted on a later page. 1 
 
 NEWFOUNDLAND AND HUDSON BAY 
 
 Newfoundland was not a very satisfactory field for coloni- 
 zation, although Gilbert, as early as 1583, had taken formal 
 possession of it for England. In the next year, Hakluyt ad- 
 
 1 See pp. 66 ff, 
 
46 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 vised that it be held and that England levy taxes on foreign 
 vessels fishing there. At this time fish was one of the princi- 
 pal elements of English diet, but the country had been de- 
 pendent on foreigners, especially the Dutch, for a large part 
 of the fish used. The English soon had a permanent hold of 
 the island in spite of growing French competition, possibly 
 because they were accustomed to remain there and cure their 
 fish. The French, on the contrary, cured their fish at home. 
 In 1610 a company was formed to colonize Newfoundland. 
 But much trouble soon arose between the fishermen and the 
 English colonists over fishing rights of various kinds. The 
 fishing, however, continually grew in importance, for by 
 1640 over ten thousand mariners were employed in these 
 fisheries, and men-of-war were sent to protect the fishing 
 craft from pirates and foreigners. Much of this fish went to 
 southern Europe in exchange for products desired by Eng- 
 lishmen. Thus Newfoundland early became a valued over- 
 sea dominion. The Golden Fleece, published by Vaughan in 
 1626, quaintly expressed the general opinion: "This is our 
 Colchos, where the Golden Fleece flourisheth on the backes of 
 Neptunes sheepe, continually to be shorne. This is Great 
 Britaines Indies, never to be exhausted dry." x 
 
 To the north of the French acquisitions on the St. Law- 
 rence the English continued their efforts at finding a water- 
 way through the continent. 2 The account of this search does 
 not include a record of colonization, but later, with the de- 
 velopment of the fur trade, it led to important results. The 
 voyages of the Elizabethans have already been mentioned. 
 Gilbert wrote an elaborate Discourse of a Discovery for a New 
 Passage to Cataia to encourage the hunt for the northwest 
 route. John Davis made three voyages about the time of 
 the defeat of the Spanish Armada in search of a passage to 
 Cathay, and his name remains on our maps attached to 
 
 1 Quoted in Beer, Origins of the British Colonial System, p. 294. 
 
 2 These efforts, in which the East India Company took an interest, seem to 
 have been the result of a feeling that by reaching northern climes a better mar- 
 ket for "English clothes and kersies" would be found, and eastern products 
 obtained without a large exportation of English bullion. See Cunningham, 
 The Growth of English Industry and Commerce, u, 259. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF EMPIRE IN THE WEST 47 
 
 the great strait between Greenland and Canada. Of even 
 greater importance was the work of Henry Hudson. He 
 made several voyages for English companies before he was 
 employed by the Dutch East India Company in 1609; it was 
 for them that this Englishman discovered the Hudson River 
 and sailed as far as Albany in the hope of finding an outlet to 
 the South Sea. In 1610, Hudson, who was again working for 
 the English, sailed in search of a northwest passage. He 
 discovered Hudson Strait and passed into the great bay be- 
 yond, which bears his name. His vessel was frozen in, and 
 the winter was spent under severe conditions. In June, 1611, 
 a part of the crew mutinied and Hudson, his son, and several 
 others were set adrift in a small boat; they were never again 
 heard from. 
 
 Two years later, Sir Thomas Button entered Hudson Bay. 
 He thoroughly explored it, and named the western side of 
 the bay (where he vainly sought an outlet) " Hope's Check." 
 He also discovered the Nelson River. In 1615-16, William 
 Baffin made two important voyages. The great bay known 
 under Baffin's name was discovered beyond Davis Strait, and 
 the two sounds leading from it westward were found and 
 named. Fox Channel extending north from Hudson Bay 
 received its name from "Northwest" Fox, who located it 
 in 1631. 
 
 The first stage in Arctic discovery ended in the early part 
 of the seventeenth century. These daring explorers added 
 materially to geographical knowledge, although they failed 
 to find a way around the continent. Nowhere in all the new 
 fields of English interest was the intrepidity of English sea- 
 manship better revealed. Compensation, as elsewhere, was 
 found in trade. Indeed, in 1612, the "Company of the Mer- 
 chants of London Discoverers of the Northwest Passage" 
 was incorporated; two years later the East India Company 
 helped in the search. It was not until 1670 that the famous 
 Hudson's Bay Company was incorporated. It had the sole 
 right to trade with the natives on the shores of Hudson Bay. 
 The growth of the Company was slow, as there was difficulty 
 with the French in the St. Lawrence basin. When New 
 
48 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 France was added to England's Empire in 1763, this great 
 Company became very powerful. Its later progress is a 
 part of the history of Canada. 1 
 
 THE WEST INDIES 
 
 During this century, also, much work of great importance 
 was done for the British Empire in the islands to the south. 
 The old colonial Empire had few more important parts than 
 the British West Indian possessions. With the addition of 
 other and vaster territories serving England in a similar way, 
 the West Indies have not retained their former position. 
 
 In the seventeenth century the location of the West Indies 
 served to make them bases for encroaching on Spanish trade. 
 The larger islands, Cuba, Santo Domingo, Porto Rico, and 
 Jamaica, had been occupied by the Spanish. The mainland, 
 however, was so much more valuable as a field to be exploited 
 that the Spanish paid little attention to most of the smaller 
 islands. A glance at the map makes it clear that the Lesser 
 Antilles form a sort of half -moon extending southward from 
 Porto Rico to the South American mainland. Of these 
 Lesser Antilles the northern are called the Leeward Islands 
 and the southern the Windwards. At the extreme upper 
 corner of the half-moon are the Virgin Islands, owned since 
 1917 by the United States. North of Cuba and Santo Do- 
 mingo lie the Bahamas, and on the route from Europe to 
 the West Indies are the Bermuda Islands, some five hun- 
 dred miles off the coast of the Carolinas. 
 
 Sir George Somers, by whose name the Bermudas are 
 sometimes known, was on board the Sea Adventure in 1609, 
 when it formed one of a fleet of nine vessels bound for the 
 Virginia colony. A hurricane sent one ship to the bottom 
 and cast the Sea Adventure on the Bermudas. In May of 
 the next year the survivors of this vessel reached Virginia. 
 In 1610 an account of the shipwreck was published, enti- 
 tled A Discovery of the Bermudas, otherwise called the lie of 
 Devils. The reference by Shakespeare in the Tempest, writ- 
 ten in 1610 or 1611, to the " still vexed Bermoothes" proba- 
 
 1 See pp. 405 ff. 
 
50 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 bly refers to this famous shipwreck. In 1612 the islands 
 were settled for the first time, and three years later a com- 
 pany was formed for the plantation of the " Somer Islands." 1 
 Early in their history, tobacco became the staple crop. The 
 colonizing company opposed this exclusive interest, as the 
 tobacco was of low grade; on the contrary, they wished wines, 
 figs, sugar, and olives produced there. But efforts to estab- 
 lish these products proved unsuccessful. Curiously enough, 
 the Bermudas served for some time as a source of provisions 
 for other colonies. Virginia and New England sent there for 
 foodstuffs. But as the large colonies became self-support- 
 ing, the Bermudas declined in importance. Their strategic 
 value, however, has been recognized from the very first. 
 
 The Bahamas were not of great value to England in these 
 early years, though settlers went to them in the first half of 
 the seventeenth century. Their chief use during this period 
 was as a safe retreat for pirates. In the Lesser Antilles, how- 
 ever, the English took a great interest. Thomas Warner began 
 the colonization of St. Christopher (commonly known as St. 
 Kitts) in 1623, and Barbados was settled about the same time. 
 Within a few years Nevis (the birthplace of Alexander Hamil- 
 ton), Antigua, and Montserrat were settled by Englishmen. 
 In 1627 the Earl of Carlisle was granted these and the other 
 principal islands of the Lesser Antilles, and from this time 
 on their occupation proceeded rapidly. They were found to 
 be valuable sources for tropical products. At first tobacco 
 was the staple, but by the middle of the century sugar-cane 
 had been successfully introduced. Indigo and cotton, fustic 
 and ginger, were valued exports as well. Population in the 
 group increased at a rapid rate, for in 1639 there were twenty 
 thousand planters on the Earl of Carlisle's islands. 
 
 Of the group, Barbados occupied the most conspicuous 
 place. In 1636 there were six thousand settlers there, and in 
 the latter part of the same century, the population was as 
 
 1 The charter called the islands after Sir George Somers, but the name of 
 their Spanish discoverer, Juan Bermudez, has persisted. Sir George Somers 
 returned to the islands from Virginia in 1610 and died there shortly after- 
 ward. His body was taken to England but his heart was buried in the 
 islands at a spot near the scene of the memorable shipwreck of 1609. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF EMPIRE IN THE WEST 51 
 
 high as one hundred and twenty to the square mile, or about 
 thirty thousand. This rapid increase was owing partly to the 
 unsettled conditions in England, but in greater measure to 
 the development of the sugar industry. It is interesting to 
 find that the inhabitants of the Barbados were as keenly con- 
 cerned in self-government as were the English colonies of 
 Virginia and New England. In the reign of Charles I and 
 later under the Commonwealth the independent spirit of the 
 colonists was the cause of considerable friction. 
 
 The island of Jamaica is England's largest insular posses- 
 sion in the Caribbean. It was captured from Spain in 1655 
 during Cromwell's rule. The English had come into in- 
 evitable conflict with Spain when they had occupied the 
 West Indian islands. Massacres, reprisals, and counter- 
 attacks had occurred. The Protector determined finally to 
 make a really vital attack on the Spanish power in the West 
 Indies. Admiral Penn, father of the founder of Pennsyl- 
 vania, and General Venables were sent against Santo Do- 
 mingo, but the attack on that Spanish possession miserably 
 failed. They then turned for revenge to an attack on Ja- 
 maica and captured it in 1655. * A garrison was left and Crom- 
 well set about peopling the island. He endeavored to induce 
 settlers to go from New England and the Windward Islands, 
 and in addition men and women from Great Britain were 
 sought for transportation. The population of Jamaica was 
 nondescript, the planters and merchants uniting piracy and 
 privateering with more legitimate pursuits. During much 
 of the century it was a chief resort for the buccaneers and 
 served in very truth as a " sharp thorn in the side of the 
 Spaniard." 
 
 1 For an interesting account of the expedition see Clarendon's well-known 
 and contemporary History of the Rebellion and Civil War in England. He began 
 to write it about the middle of the seventeenth century and it was first pub- 
 lished in 1702. He wrote of Jamaica : " The English revenged themselves upon 
 a neighbor island, called Jamaica." Of the purpose of the occupation, he de- 
 clares that a garrison was left " to fortify and plant in this island, a place fruitful 
 in itself, and abounding in many good provisions, and a perpetual sharp thorn 
 in the side of the Spaniard." (Oxford, 1839, vn, 233-34.) 
 
52 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 THE BUCCANEERS 
 
 The buccaneers of the seventeenth century were the suc- 
 cessors of the Elizabethan sea-dogs, who so relentlessly 
 "singed the king of Spain's beard." Unregulated naval 
 operations had continued against Spain from the days of 
 Drake. In fact it was not until the close of the century that 
 piracy was to any degree suppressed. Both the English and 
 the French were only too glad to harry Spanish shipping and 
 seaports by giving tacit encouragement to these " brethren 
 of the coast." This was especially true of England after 
 Charles I's breach with Spain in 1623. Not only was semi- 
 legal piracy encouraged, but there was also considerable colo- 
 nial activity in a part of the world that had hitherto been 
 largely a Spanish monopoly. This double interest serves as 
 the connecting link between the exploits of the Elizabethan 
 seamen and the solid establishment of British power in the 
 West Indies with the capture of Jamaica in 1655. 
 
 There was an English settlement on the island of St. 
 Christopher as early as 1623. French colonists soon joined 
 the English on this island, which for a time was jointly oc- 
 cupied. Nevis was colonized by Englishmen in 1628, but in 
 the next year the two islands suffered from Spanish attacks. 
 In consequence, a more convenient center for buccaneering 
 was found off the northwest coast of Santo Domingo in the 
 main course of the Caribbean trade. There the island of 
 Tortuga, or Association, as it was renamed, was seized in 
 1630. It was already the resort of rovers of all nationalities, 
 for it had many attractions. Tortuga was near the Wind- 
 ward Passage, its mountainous interior abounded in wild 
 hogs, and herds of cattle were on the neighboring island of 
 Santo Domingo. It was settled by the Providence Island 
 Company, which had already begun to colonize Old Provi- 
 dence Island off Nicaragua. Tortuga became the center of 
 a thriving trade, not because of the natural wealth of the 
 island — it is now uninhabited — but on account of its con- 
 venience as a refitment and victualing-station for merchants 
 and freebooters on one of the main routes of trade. In 1635, 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF EMPIRE IN THE WEST 53 
 
 Tortuga was captured by the Spanish and finally in 1640 by 
 the French. 1 Fortunately for the West Indian pirates Ja- 
 maica was obtained from Spain in 1655 with the assistance 
 of the buccaneers, who by this time had a formidable merce- 
 nary fleet at the command of any enemy of Spain, provided 
 they were allowed to share in the plunder. 
 
 The most prominent leader of the buccaneers during this 
 time was Henry Morgan. Born in Wales, he was sold as a 
 servant to Barbados, whence he escaped to Jamaica. He 
 rapidly rose to prominence among the buccaneers, becoming 
 admiral of their fleet in 1667. With Jamaica as a center, he 
 carried out many successful expeditions. In 1668, he was 
 sent by Modyford, Lieutenant-Governor of Jamaica, to at- 
 tack Cuba. After a successful expedition to Cuba, he made 
 a daring attack on Porto Bello on the Isthmus. In the next 
 year he led a strong expedition against Maracaibo, which was 
 successfully sacked and barbarously treated. In 1671 Mor- 
 gan even went across the Isthmus and captured the city of 
 Panama, to the almost utter paralysis of Spanish commerce. 
 For this exploit of buccaneering warfare he was taken to 
 England for trial in 1672. Nothing better illustrates the 
 English attitude at this time toward buccaneering when 
 Spain's colonies were the victims than the treatment ac- 
 corded Morgan. Instead of being hanged, he was knighted, 
 and two years later returned to Jamaica as Lieutenant-Gov- 
 ernor and Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty's forces in 
 the colony. The remainder of his life was spent in quiet on 
 this island home, where he was occasionally Acting-Governor. 
 
 The buccaneers by their operations revealed once again 
 Spanish weakness, and contributed by their exploits to the 
 establishment of French, Dutch, and English colonies in the 
 West Indies. These ' ' devils of the sea ' ' disappeared with the 
 close of the century, when France and Spain were once again 
 friends, and French and English were enemies. Growing 
 national navies also helped to bring about the decline of 
 
 1 For these activities see in particular A. P. Newton's The Colonizing Activi- 
 ties of the English Puritans — The Last Phase of the Elizabethan Struggle urith 
 Spain. 
 
£4 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 buccaneering. The famous Captain Kidd, who carried on 
 the buccaneering tradition, was a generation too late. He 
 was brought to England in 1700 to be tried — as Morgan 
 had been twenty-five years before — but instead of being 
 knighted, he was hanged. 
 
 In treating the West Indies we must consider another part 
 of the empire-building business in the seventeenth century. 
 The settlement of white men in tropical countries and the 
 introduction of crops requiring a large amount of hand- 
 labor resulted in the introduction of slavery. One method 
 of procuring labor was by transportation — the shipment of 
 England's outcast population to the colonies. The abolition 
 of gilds in England, along with the rapid change in the condi- 
 tions of the working classes, had led to much unemployment. 
 The famous Elizabethan Poor Law was inadequate and a 
 solution of domestic difficulties was found in transportation. 
 Many went out as indentured servants. In addition, the 
 doors of English prisons were opened. Waifs and strays of 
 the larger cities were gathered in or kidnaped and used as 
 laborers. For example, the London authorities turned over 
 hundreds to the Virginia Company. Jamaica received large 
 additions to its population by transportation at the order of 
 Cromwell, by whom a " thousand Irish girls" and "male and 
 female " vagabonds were sent out. The settlement of Georgia 
 from debtors' prisons is well known. This lamentable phase 
 of colonization did not cease with the seventeenth century; 
 we shall meet it again when considering the settlement of 
 Australia. 
 
 A more satisfactory way of obtaining laborers was to kid- 
 nap or purchase negroes in Africa. Hawkins' voyages for 
 this purpose have already been described. 1 It was natural 
 that negroes should be used in English as well as in Spanish 
 colonies where they had proved a profitable form of labor. 
 There was an almost complete lack of sensitiveness to this 
 nefarious commerce. New England, where the slaves were 
 not profitable chattels, was as callous as Virginia or the West 
 Indies, and carried on an unscrupulous trade. In 1619 the 
 
 1 See pp. 29 ff. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF EMPIRE IN THE WEST 55 
 
 negro was introduced into Virginia. Yet by the end of the 
 century there were only six thousand negroes in that colony. 
 It was in the West Indies that the African was most valued. 
 Probably it is no exaggeration of the extent of the slave- 
 trade to state that there was an annual average shipment of 
 twenty thousand negroes to the West Indies from Africa 
 during the closing years of the seventeenth century. In the 
 early part of the century, the carriers were largely Dutch 
 vessels, but by the close of the century this trade had be- 
 come a British monopoly. Indeed, the Treaty of Utrecht in 
 1713 gave the English the contract for supplying the Spanish 
 colonies as well. Englishmen became, to their discredit, the 
 chief slave-traders until public sentiment brought the traffic 
 to an end early in the nineteenth century. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 
 
 The beginnings of the English colonial system have received wide treat- 
 ment. The economic aspects are treated briefly in W. Cunningham, An 
 Essay on Western Civilization in its Economic Aspects, vol. n (Cambridge, 
 1910), as well as in his larger work already mentioned. An important volume 
 is G. L. Beer, Origins of the British Colonial System, 1578-1660 (New York, 
 1908) . For the beginnings of Virginia see P. A. Bruce, Economic History of 
 Virginia in the Seventeenth Century (2 vols., New York, 1907). The de- 
 velopment of the American colonies is fully treated in Channing, History of 
 the United States, vol. i, chapters vi-xiv, and by the English historian J. A. 
 Doyle, in his volumes Virginia, Maryland and the Carolinas, The Puritan 
 Colonies, The Colonies under the House of Hanover, and The Middle Colonies 
 (London, 1882-1907). An authoritative American treatment is H. L. 
 Osgood, The American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century (3 vols., New 
 York, 1904, 1907). For another English account there is The American 
 Colonies, 1588-1763, the first volume of A. Wyatt Tilby's "The English 
 People Overseas." For a brief American treatment see C. L. Becker, The 
 Beginnings of the American People (Boston, 1915). A comprehensive 
 consideration of the colonial activity of the European nations in North 
 America as a whole is to be found in H. E. Bolton and T. M. Marshall, 
 The Colonization of North America, 1492-1783 (New York, 1920). 
 
 The West Indian colonies are considered in Sir Charles Lucas, West In- 
 dies (Oxford, 1905), in the "Historical Geography of the British Colonies," 
 F. W. Pitman, The Development of the British West Indies, 1700-1768 (New 
 Haven, 1917), and A. P. Newton, The Colonizing Activities of the English 
 Puritans (New Haven, 1914). 
 
 One of the best expositions of the colonial ideals of the time is George 
 Peckham's pamphlet (in Hakluyt's The Principal Voyages of the English 
 Nation, Everyman's Edition, vi, 42 ff.), under the title A discourse of the 
 necessitie and commoditie of planting English colonies upon the North partes 
 of America, 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE COMMERCIAL RIVALRY OF ENGLAND AND HOLLAND 
 
 We have found that the English were able to colonize in 
 America along a coast of considerable extent with practically 
 no interference. But when they entered upon the waters of 
 the Far East, the penetration could not be peaceful, for other 
 nations had preceded England to that part of the world. 
 The courageous Portuguese had found the sea-route around 
 Africa and thereby had captured the trade of Asia. Early in 
 the sixteenth century, they had founded factories on the Mal- 
 abar coast of India. In order to hamper Arabian trade, So- 
 kotra and Aden on the Red Sea route had been taken, and 
 Ormuz on the Persian Gulf was captured to prevent goods 
 going to Europe by way of Bagdad. Very early this enter- 
 prising nation secured Malacca and the control of the Spice 
 Islands, and by the middle of the sixteenth century they had 
 developed commercial relations with China and Japan. The 
 upshot of their work amounted to this, that for the whole of 
 the sixteenth century the eastern trade was a Portuguese 
 monopoly. This position, altogether out of proportion to 
 the resources and importance of Portugal, was destined soon 
 to be challenged. 
 
 In 1580 Portugal was united with Spain under one ruler and 
 the two countries remained as one until 1640. This union, by 
 which Spain became mistress of the East as well as the West, 
 came at a crucial point in colonial development, as it was 
 effected at a time when Spain was suffering from the severe 
 attacks of its European enemies. Drake had just completed 
 his voyage around the world when the two colonial empires 
 were combined, and eight years later England was to win 
 the freedom of the sea by the defeat of the Spanish Armada. 
 
 THE DUTCH AND THE FAR EAST 
 
 An even more serious danger was Holland. The Low 
 Countries, as Belgium and Holland were then commonly 
 
6J •*« S» ■§ 
 
58 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 known, had become a part of the great Empire of Charles V, 
 the father of Philip II, and they had remained in the hands of 
 Philip and of Spain after his father's death. No two peoples 
 could have been more unlike than the Spanish and the Dutch. 
 The Dutch were strongly Protestant, while Spain was the 
 most Catholic country of Europe. Besides, the Netherland- 
 er were an industrious and prosperous business population, 
 and their great cities were the distributing centers for the 
 goods of all the nations. The Dutch were also a natural 
 maritime people, who by the end of the sixteenth century had 
 already developed an important merchant marine. Even 
 the carrying of the spices of the East had come into their 
 hands before the union of Spain and Portugal in 1580. Por- 
 tugal, who had control of the Spice Islands, did not attempt 
 to distribute the spices to Europe; the Portuguese brought 
 them to Lisbon only, whence they were transshipped by the 
 merchants of the Netherlands to the various ports of the 
 Continent, especially to Antwerp, at this time the great 
 maritime emporium for the goods of the East. 
 
 Philip II made every effort to reap a rich financial profit 
 from the commercial activity of the Low Countries, an atti- 
 tude that quite naturally was resented by the Netherlanders. 
 The addition of a bigoted religious policy for the Low Coun- 
 tries led to a revolt which was destined to continue for many 
 years. It is not necessary to recount the progress of the con- 
 flict, in which the Dutch were usually the victors at sea and 
 the conquered on land. They suffered terribly under the 
 oppressive rule of the Duke of Alva, but were united for a 
 determined resistance by William the Silent. Gradually the 
 resistance of the Netherlands, which was later strengthened 
 by the aid of England, grew stronger and stronger. It was 
 not until 1609 that an end came to the hostilities. In 1648, 
 the independence of the Netherlands was acknowledged by 
 the Peace of Westphalia. 
 
 The union of Spain and Portugal in 1580 came at a vital 
 point in this conflict, for it put into Spanish hands the control 
 of the eastern spice trade. Naturally this was a serious blow 
 to the Dutch, who were accustomed to transship the goods 
 
RIVALRY OF ENGLAND AND HOLLAND 59 
 
 of the East from Lisbon. In consequence, the Dutch deter- 
 mined to go to the East themselves in order to bring the 
 goods to Europe. They felt also that, by harassing the 
 Spanish on the sea and especially by tapping their sources of 
 wealth, they might bring a more favorable decision to the 
 struggle in the Low Countries. It was out of these condi- 
 tions that the Dutch began with great vigor the building of 
 a colonial empire. Englishmen entered the East about the 
 same time, but, as England was not an open enemy of Spain, 
 their work in the Far East was by no means so aggressive as 
 that of the Dutch. Therefore, before we proceed to consider 
 English interests in the Indies, it will be necessary to sketch 
 briefly the rise of the Dutch Empire, England's chief rival 
 during the seventeenth century. 
 
 In 1597, three Dutch ships returned from the East with 
 valuable cargoes. It is not strange that a few years later, in 
 1602, the Dutch East India Company was founded with the 
 enormous capital of over two hundred and fifty millions of 
 dollars. It was a private company, but semi-national in 
 character. Sixty ships were sent out by the Dutch in the 
 eight years following the founding of the Company. In 1609 
 the important island of Amboina, in the southern part of the 
 Spice Islands, was taken by the Dutch. The next year, the 
 Portuguese fleet was burned in front of Malacca in the Ma- 
 lay Peninsula. In 1615 the defeat of a Spanish-Portuguese 
 fleet, commanded by the Spanish Governor of the Philip- 
 pines, secured to the Dutch a firm hold of the Spice Islands. 
 Their method of occupation was to make treaties with the 
 native chiefs in the Moluccas, by which the natives were 
 guaranteed from attack by the Portuguese, and in turn the 
 Dutch obtained the right to erect factories and to monopolize 
 the trade. 
 
 By 1619 the Dutch were so strongly established in the 
 East that a capital was created for the Dutch East Indies in 
 the island of Java, and named Batavia. A governor-general 
 of the Indies was appointed, and there were subordinate gov- 
 ernors and a strong naval force. A series of able governors, 
 culminating in Van Diemen (1636-45), gave the Dutch a firm 
 
60 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 hold. In the early years of his governorship Van Diemen 
 began to wrest the island of Ceylon from the Portuguese, and 
 he gradually brought Sumatra and Borneo under Dutch con- 
 trol. A footing was also gained on the coasts. The climax 
 came in 1640 with the capture of the Portuguese strong- 
 hold of Malacca. This strategic point, which commanded 
 the strait separating Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula, 
 gave the Dutch a control not only of the trade with 
 the Spice Islands, but also of that with China and Japan. 
 They developed a large commerce in Chino-Japanese waters. 
 Formosa became important for its tea, which the Dutch in- 
 troduced to Europe, and for over a century no other nation 
 had intercourse with Japan. 
 
 In western Asia they were as successful as in the East 
 Indies. A regular trade was carried on with Mocha, from 
 which coffee was first brought in 1616. In order to have a 
 halfway house to this extended field of the Far East, Cape 
 Colony was founded in 1651. Not only in South Africa, but 
 in many other places no longer in their possession have 
 Dutch names adhered as witnesses to the wide range of Dutch 
 activity. Cape Horn, New Zealand, the Gulfs of Van Die- 
 men and Carpentaria, Tasmania, are suggestive of the work 
 of the Dutch during the seventeenth century. When the 
 Peace of Westphalia was signed in 1648, the United Prov- 
 inces were recognized as free from Spain, and they were con- 
 firmed in the possession of the territories taken from Portu- 
 gal. Moreover, the trade of the East and West Indies was 
 declared to be free. 
 
 Thus on the weakness of Portugal and the mistakes of 
 Philip II was founded a new colonial empire. Most of the 
 East Indies continue to-day in the possession of the Dutch — 
 all, excepting the Philippines, which belong to the United 
 States, parts of Borneo and New Guinea in British hands, 
 and half of the small island of Timor, which is all that is left 
 to Portugal in that part of the East where the Portuguese 
 pioneered so successfully. 
 
RIVALRY OF ENGLAND AND HOLLAND 61 
 
 THE ENGLISH EAST INDIA COMPANY 
 
 As we turn to the work of the English, we have no such 
 rapid and powerful movement to record. The English were 
 not so ready to go ahead as the Dutch, but, if they began 
 more modestly, they were distancing their Dutch rivals by the 
 end of the century. As early as 1579, the English became 
 interested in India from the letters of Thomas Stevens, who 
 had gone to Goa. Four years later, three Englishmen started 
 overland for India and sent home interesting accounts of 
 their travels. We have already noted the embassy of Wil- 
 liam Harburn to Turkey in 1579 for the purpose of obtaining 
 trading rights in the Levant. In 1591 the first venture was 
 made by three ships under Captains Raymond and Lancas- 
 ter, but only one of the vessels accomplished the voyage. A 
 second attempt under Captain Benjamin Wood, who bore a 
 letter from Queen Elizabeth to the Emperor of China, re- 
 sulted in the total disappearance of the expedition. Finally, 
 on the last day of the sixteenth century the famous English 
 East India Company was formed. This organization, which 
 began as a commercial concern, gradually became a powerful 
 medium for imperial growth, in much the same way as its 
 Dutch rival. To it is due the acquisition of British India. 
 
 In 1599 the price of pepper on the English market was 
 more than doubled by the Dutch monopoly. Various mer- 
 chants, in consequence, petitioned for and received a charter 
 from Elizabeth for trading in the East. This cooperative 
 group of London merchants was a private organization sanc- 
 tioned by the state and no such semi-national company as the 
 Dutch East India Company founded two years later. The 
 charter was granted to over two hundred persons under the 
 name of the "Company of Merchants of London trading 
 into the East Indies." The Company had a right to trade 
 anywhere between the Cape of Good Hope and the Straits of 
 Magellan for a period of fifteen years without competition on 
 the part of other English merchants. The Company also had 
 a monopoly on the sale of its goods as well as various conces- 
 sions regarding customs duties and the export of bullion. 
 
62 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 The privileges of the trading organization were made more 
 liberal about the end of the first decade by the indefinite ex- 
 tension of its rights with the provision that if the trade of the 
 Company were not advantageous to the kingdom, its priv- 
 ileges were to be withdrawn on three years' notice. Each 
 voyage until 1612 was undertaken as a joint-stock venture by 
 members of the Company, no single merchant entering on 
 private trading. Under this plan subscriptions were ob- 
 tained for a voyage to the Indies; the money was used to 
 purchase merchandise, fit out the vessels, and serve as cash 
 for buying goods in the East. On the return a division was 
 made to the investors. In 1612, instead of having separate 
 funds for each voyage, a joint-stock for all purposes for a 
 limited period was made the rule. The chief officers of the 
 Company were a governor, deputy-governor, and a board of 
 twenty-four members, all elected annually. 
 
 The East India Company's beginnings illustrate what has 
 already become evident, as the first steps in English coloniza- 
 tion were considered in America, that it was largely the pri- 
 vate initiative of men interested in commercial expansion 
 that led to the beginnings of empire. The first Governor of the 
 East India Company, Sir Thomas Smythe, is a typical illus- 
 tration; he is more than that, for, if any one is entitled to the 
 name of Founder of the British Empire, it would be this Eng- 
 lish haberdasher. In 1580, he had become a member of the 
 Haberdashers' Company and also of the Skinners' Company. 
 His grandfather, Sir Andrew Judd, was one of the founders of 
 the Muscovy Company. Smythe himself was interested in 
 this field of trade, and in 1604 was a special ambassador to 
 the Czar of Russia from whom he obtained extensive priv- 
 ileges for the English. As a member of the East India Com- 
 pany he was interested in the northwest passage as well; his 
 name was given to Smith's Sound by Baffin. In 1609 he was 
 largely influential in obtaining the charter of the Virginia 
 Company, of which organization he was treasurer until 1619. 
 For several years Smythe was one of the chief commissioners 
 of the navy and a governor of the Somers Islands (Bermuda) 
 Company. In addition to all these varied interests, he was 
 
RIVALRY OF ENGLAND AND HOLLAND 63 
 
 the Governor of the East India Company from its origin 
 until 1621, excepting for the years 1606 and 1607. 
 
 The first voyage for the Company was made by four ves- 
 sels and a supply-ship, with James Lancaster as " General" 
 of the fleet. The vessels were loaded with iron, tin, lead, 
 and cloth as well as with presents for native princes. Mer- 
 chants were appointed to each of the vessels. In 1602 Su- 
 matra was reached, where the King of Achin, living on the 
 northern part of the island, was presented with gifts and with 
 a letter from Queen Elizabeth, expatiating on the advantages 
 of mutual trade. Lancaster, after capturing a richly laden 
 Portuguese vessel off Malacca, proceeded to Bantam, the 
 most important town on the island of Java before the founda- 
 tion of Batavia by the Dutch. Here a factory was estab- 
 lished and pepper was obtained. This first venture of the 
 Company proved a financial success; the fleet brought back 
 over a million pounds of pepper. The " General" of so suc- 
 cessful an expedition became Sir James Lancaster. Soon a 
 second fleet was sent to the Spice Islands, and a third pro- 
 ceeded to India. By 1610 seventeen vessels had been sent to 
 the East. For the voyage of 1610 the East India Company 
 built two new ships, a pinnace and a large vessel of eleven 
 hundred tons burden, the largest English merchant vessel of 
 the time. Such significance was attached to the launching 
 of these vessels that the King attended the ceremony and 
 named the two ships; the smaller he called the Peppercorn 
 and the larger the Trades Increase. Although the first dec- 
 ade of British activity was comparatively modest when 
 placed beside the work of the Dutch, it marks the beginning 
 of a commercial activity that was to reach amazing propor- 
 tions. 
 
 As the Portuguese and the Dutch were fiercely contesting 
 for the East Indies, the English turned to India. The East 
 India Company had no intention at this time of mixing in 
 their struggle for territory, but desired to confine its activi- 
 ties to "quiet trade." Early in the century, Surat, on the west 
 coast of India north of Bombay and at the mouth of the Tap- 
 tee River, was chosen as a site for an English factory. In 
 
64 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 1607 Captain William Hawkins commanded an East India 
 Company's ship bound for Surat with orders to find a suit- 
 able harbor for an English depot. From there he went in- 
 land to Agra where the Mogul had his court, and remained 
 there for three years combating Dutch intrigues. He was 
 successful in obtaining formal permission for an English fac- 
 tory at Surat. Hawkins' work was continued by Sir Thomas 
 Roe, who was sent to the court of the Mogul at the expense of 
 the Company in 1614. He was a man of marked diplomatic 
 ability, who by his skill laid the foundations for British power 
 in India. The Portuguese, however, were not in the mood to 
 allow English infringements on their rights, and while Roe 
 was at the court of the Mogul, they made a determined effort 
 to drive the English away from Surat. A large fleet attacked 
 five British ships off Swally in 1615, but were disastrously de- 
 feated. In the same year the Dutch were victors in a naval 
 combat with the Portuguese. In consequence, from this 
 time forward the Portuguese caused the English little trouble. 
 
 The issue with the Dutch was not so easily settled. 
 Trouble occurred because of English efforts to trade in the 
 Spice Islands; the Dutch felt that the English had no busi- 
 ness in a field which had been won by the loss of their own 
 blood and treasure. The Banda Islands, south of the Spice 
 Islands, where the Dutch had established a fort to prevent 
 English encroachments, became the scene of the conflict. 
 The Bandanese found the Hollanders as hard to deal with as 
 the Portuguese, and welcomed the English. The latter in 
 1615 made an unsuccessful attempt to place a factory on 
 Great Banda Island, and in the next year the English were 
 kept out by a superior Dutch fleet. In 1619 the English 
 aided the natives of Java in fighting the Dutch, and out of 
 this conflict came an agreement by which the English were 
 to have one third of the trade of the Spice Islands and the 
 Banda group. 
 
 But such an arrangement could only be temporary. The 
 smothered Dutch discontent came to a head in 1623 with the 
 "massacre" of Amboina. They professed to believe that 
 the English on Amboina, eighteen in number, were conspiring 
 
RIVALRY OF ENGLAND AND HOLLAND 65 
 
 to capture the fort on that island garrisoned by two hundred 
 men. Torture was applied until a confession of guilt was 
 won from the unfortunate Englishmen, twelve of whom were 
 executed. This barbarous proceeding did much to arouse 
 popular English feeling against the Dutch, a feeling which 
 the East India Company fostered by widely distributing a 
 picture depicting the scene of torture. Later, the Dutch had to 
 make amends for this act, but at the time James I was in no 
 position to enter on a war with Holland. The outcome of the 
 incident was the expulsion of the English from the East Indies. 
 
 More interest attaches to the commencement of English 
 activity in India. The establishment of a factory at Surat 
 has already been noted. This remained long the headquar- 
 ters of the English on the west coast, although subordinate 
 factories were located elsewhere in the Mogul's dominions. 
 An important step was taken in 1661, when the island of 
 Bombay was ceded by Portugal to England as part of the 
 dowry of Catherine of Braganza, Charles' queen. In 1668 
 it was turned over to the East India Company for an annual 
 payment of £10. Although but a miserable fishing village, it 
 was so free from the attacks of warlike tribes, that finally in 
 1687 the presidency of the west coast was transferred from 
 Surat to Bombay. From this time on it was England's chief 
 port in western India. On the Coromandel coast, Masulipa- 
 tam had been the seat of an agency as early as 1611. In 
 1640 the English bought from a native ruler a favorable site 
 farther south called Madraspatam where Fort St. George 
 was erected. It was the beginning of the great city of 
 Madras, and was the first acquisition of territory on the 
 mainland of India by the British. Thus before the middle 
 of the seventeenth century the foundations of British India 
 had been laid. 
 
 Farther north in Bengal the English were slower in estab- 
 lishing themselves. In 1634 the Mogul gave the English the 
 privilege of trading in that region, and in 1640 a factory was 
 placed at Hugh, just above the site of the modern Calcutta. 
 Two years later another factory was located at Balasor, some 
 hundred miles down the coast in Orissa. The possession of 
 
66 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 territory in Bengal came much later than elsewhere in India. 
 It was not until about the end of the century that Fort Wil- 
 liam was built by the East India Company on the site of 
 Calcutta, where the purchase of three villages at this point 
 on the river marked the beginning of territorial expansion in 
 this part of India. Before this happened, the factories in 
 Bengal had been separated from the Madras Presidency 
 in order to form a separate unit. 
 
 It is evident that the English were to have a permanent 
 interest in India. But it is an interest altogether different 
 from that in the mainland of North America. There was no 
 influx of colonists; the interest was wholly commercial, and, 
 in consequence, territorial control came very slowly. The 
 political situation in India, in addition, was complex; strong 
 warlike peoples were more of an obstacle than the helpless 
 Indians of the Caribbean or the comparatively few aborigines 
 of the American coast. We shall leave a study of the Indian 
 situation until we come to describe the struggle of England 
 and France for India in the seventeenth and eighteenth 
 centuries. 1 
 
 ANGLO-DUTCH RIVALRY IN THE WEST 
 
 The Dutch, as well as their British rivals, found the new 
 world of the West a fruitful field for commercial expansion. 
 In the carrying of slaves from the western coast of Africa to 
 the Caribbean, the Dutch had taken an active part, a trade 
 in which they were outranked by the English only toward the 
 close of the century. The Dutch were also keenly interested 
 in the Portuguese colony of Brazil, where they captured but 
 later restored Bahia and Pernambuco. The attacks on the 
 Portuguese dominions in South America were prosecuted by 
 the Dutch West India Company, which had interests also 
 in the Caribbean. Guiana and the Orinoco were seats of 
 Dutch factories; the island of Curagao and its neighbors still 
 remain in the possession of the Netherlands. In the West 
 Indies the outcome was the reverse of that in the East Indies, 
 for English efforts were more successful than Dutch. 
 
 1 See pp. 92 ff. 
 
RIVALRY OF ENGLAND AND HOLLAND 67 
 
 On the mainland of North America, the Dutch took pos- 
 session of the valley of the Hudson River. In 1614, at the 
 mouth of the Hudson they built Fort Manhattan on Manhat- 
 tan Island, and around it grew the city of New Amsterdam. 
 The shores of the Hudson River were settled and Fort 
 Orange (later Albany) was founded in 1622. As this Dutch 
 colony lay between the English settlements of Virginia and 
 New England, it was in a position to cause much difficulty to 
 its English neighbors, especially under the energetic leader- 
 ship of such a Governor as Peter Stuyvesant. The Dutch 
 wanted to expand north along the coast toward the Connec- 
 ticut River, a tendency that the English attempted to antic- 
 ipate by the Confederation of the New England colonies. 1 
 
 At last a war grew out of the various rivalries of these two 
 great commercial powers. There were various causes. For 
 one thing, the English had not forgotten the massacre at 
 Amboina. The Commonwealth was opposed to the thriving 
 trade that the Dutch carried on with the Royalist colonies 
 in the West Indies. Royalists had also gone to the Nether- 
 lands for refuge. In 1651 the English passed a Navigation 
 Act which forbade foreign ships to carry colonial products 
 from Asia, Africa, or America or goods of other countries to 
 England save from the countries to which the ships be- 
 longed. As the Dutch were the great carriers, it was obvi- 
 ously aimed at them. Although the Act was not rigidly en- 
 forced, the English exercised the right of search to the great 
 inconvenience of their maritime competitors. 
 
 War began in 1652. Blake and Tromp, who were the op- 
 posing admirals, alternately held command of the Channel. 
 Blake was defeated in the first year off Dungeness by Tromp 
 in spite of the fact that the Dutch commander was inconven- 
 ienced by the large number of merchant vessels he had to 
 convoy to port. In 1653 Blake, with one hundred ships, won 
 an indecisive victory off Portland while the Dutch admiral 
 was convoying a fleet of two hundred merchantmen. Tromp 
 was again defeated off Harwich and the merchant shipping 
 of the Dutch tied up in port. As the Portuguese had retaken 
 
 1 See p. 45, 
 
68 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 Brazil in the meantime and as there was dissension at home, 
 the Netherlander made peace in 1654. They agreed to pay 
 an indemnity for the Amboina massacre and granted Pula- 
 roon in the Spice Islands to the English. 
 
 The rivalry continued, however. When Charles II be- 
 came King in 1660, the reestablished monarchy was not 
 particularly friendly to the Dutch Republic. In 1661 Louis 
 XIV, who was very much opposed to republics, assumed the 
 government of France and began his long conflict with Hol- 
 land. Charles II, moreover, made an alliance with Portugal, 
 the enemy of Holland. He also endeavored to foster English 
 commerce. Pularoon had not been relinquished as agreed, 
 and the Dutch seemed to be gaining on the English in the 
 carrying trade. 
 
 Renewed warlike measures began in a manner not at all 
 creditable to the English; they made irregular attacks on 
 Dutch commerce. In 1664 a piratical fleet was sent, with 
 the knowledge of the English Government, to the Guinea 
 coast, where it caused havoc to Dutch trade. New Amster- 
 dam, at the mouth of the Hudson, was taken before a formal 
 declaration of war. It had been granted by Charles to his 
 brother, the Duke of York, more than a year before it was 
 captured, during a supposed time of peace between the two 
 countries. This was too much for the Dutch to bear, and 
 open war was waged during the years 1665-67. In the first 
 year the Duke of York gained a decisive naval victory. 
 Both fleets suffered defeat in 1666, though De Ruyter, the 
 Dutch commander, brought the Dutch East India Com- 
 pany's fleet safely into port. In 1667 De Ruyter sailed up 
 the Thames and inflicted serious loss to English shipping. In 
 that year peace came at the wish of both combatants, as Hol- 
 land feared Louis XIV, and as England was exhausted not 
 only by the war, but also by the ravages of the plague in 1665 
 and the Great Fire that destroyed two thirds of London in 
 September, 1666. The Treaty of Breda left Pularoon with 
 the Dutch, the Navigation Act was relaxed, and the English 
 retained New Amsterdam, which was renamed New York in 
 honor of the King's brother. 
 
RIVALRY OF ENGLAND AND HOLLAND 69 
 
 ENGLISH NORTH AMERICA 
 
 In the meantime the English were filling in the unoccupied 
 territory along the North American coast. By the end of 
 the century, there was an almost continuous fringe of Eng- 
 lish colonies occupying the shore of the Atlantic and the im- 
 portant rivers. Maryland had been granted to George Cal- 
 vert, Baron Baltimore. He had made an unsuccessful at- 
 tempt at establishing a settlement in Newfoundland. George 
 Calvert died before he could carry out his new plan of colo- 
 nizing the more attractive Maryland. His purpose was ac- 
 complished, nevertheless, by his able son, Cecilius Calvert. 
 This territory, known as Maryland, was colonized for the 
 first time in 1634. As the Cal verts were Roman Catholics, no 
 mention was made of a religious establishment. In 1649 the 
 Maryland Assembly passed a Toleration Act, placing Mary- 
 land beside Rhode Island in allowing freedom of worship. 
 The region between the Hudson and the Delaware was 
 granted Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret in 1664. It 
 was soon setteld, but there was considerable trouble in the 
 colony in spite of the fact that religious freedom and a lib- 
 eral government were given to it by the proprietors. The 
 Quakers became interested in this colony of Jersey, and 
 Berkeley sold his rights to a board of trustees of whom the 
 most prominent was the Quaker, William Penn. A little later, 
 Penn founded the colony of Pennsylvania with the Quakers 
 especially in mind. Religious toleration and large privileges 
 of self-government were given Penn's colony. 
 
 The Carolinas, south of Virginia, were settled shortly 
 after Charles II became King in 1660. This plantation also 
 allowed freedom of conscience to those coming to the colony. 
 In 1680 Charleston was founded, a city destined to be the 
 commercial center for the country south of the Chesapeake 
 during the colonial period. Early in the next century, the 
 colony was divided into its two natural divisions of North 
 and South Carolina. Georgia, still farther south, was not es- 
 tablished until 1732. With the single exception of Georgia, 
 however, a beginning had been made before the close of the 
 
70 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 century in all the English colonies of North America which 
 were later to form the original thirteen revolting states. 
 
 If we take the Revolution of 1688 as a point from which to 
 survey the work done by the English beyond the seas, we 
 shall find that much had been accomplished in the eight dec- 
 ades following the founding of Jamestown. Trading posts 
 had been set up in India, and English ships were active 
 throughout the East. In West Africa — at Gambia, and on 
 the Gold Coast — stations had been established in connec- 
 tion with the slave-trade. As a stopping-place for the ships 
 of the East India Company, the island of St. Helena in the 
 South Atlantic had been taken from the Dutch. Although this 
 little island changed hands several times, it eventually re- 
 mained with the English, who found it important as a supply- 
 station and halfway point. In the West Indies large acquisi- 
 tions had been made and prosperous colonies were enriching 
 the mother country by the end of the century. 
 
 The most important of English oversea possessions were 
 the continental and island colonies of North America. The 
 Hudson's Bay Company was already at work, and New- 
 foundland was an important center for fishing. The colonies 
 to the south already contained a respectable population. By 
 the end of the century, New York City had five thousand 
 people, while Boston claimed seven thousand inhabitants 
 and Philadelphia twelve thousand. The total population of 
 the colonies that later formed the nucleus of the United States 
 was probably not far from two hundred thousand in 1700. 
 Three fourths of this number were about equally distributed 
 between New England and the colonies along the Chesa- 
 peake. 
 
 Why this remarkable expansion? Hints have been received 
 that help to an understanding of the reasons for colonization. 
 Political motives undoubtedly had a large place in English 
 minds in the work of the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- 
 turies. The West Indies were convenient for attacking Spain 
 and were so used. The antagonism was partly religious, 
 growing out of Elizabeth's struggle with Philip II and the in- 
 tense hatred of " Romish" practices held by the English Pu- 
 
RIVALRY OF ENGLAND AND HOLLAND 71 
 
 ritans. Care must be taken, however, not to overemphasize 
 the religious motive. There was not during the sixteenth and 
 seventeenth centuries nearly so much continuity in Eng- 
 land's opposition to Spain as some writers would have us 
 believe. 
 
 The religious motive, irrespective of hatred to Catholic 
 Spain, played a large part in the inception of many of the col- 
 onies. Plymouth was founded in order to have freedom 
 of worship, the Puritan settlements in New England were 
 strongly theocratic, and Roger Williams founded Rhode Is- 
 land as an asylum against their narrowness. Maryland was a 
 home for Roman Catholics, and Carolina was careful to give 
 a large measure of toleration. Pennsylvania became the chief 
 asylum of the persecuted Quakers. 
 
 The new settlements were also valuable as places to which 
 "undesirables" could be banished. English criminals and 
 prisoners of war, waifs and strays from city streets, Irish re- 
 calcitrants and Scotch vagabonds, served to furnish laborers 
 who were often no better than slaves. By no means was emi- 
 gration always voluntary, and yet it must not be inferred 
 that substantial and respectable men and women did not go 
 overseas in large numbers attracted by religious freedom or 
 economic opportunity. 
 
 A very important reason for English oversea interest was 
 the economic value of lands and products beyond the seas. 
 There was no colonizing purpose in the English interest in the 
 East; trade was the motive and territorial possession was in- 
 cidental to business. On the West African coast the slave- 
 trade served as the chief reason for attracting English ships. 
 The fish of Newfoundland, the furs of Hudson Bay, the sugar 
 of Barbados, gave to these possessions their value. The 
 story of Virginia is the record of the rise of the tobacco in- 
 dustry. 
 
 The growth of colonies also gave a market for English man- 
 ufactured goods. Already by the middle of the century the 
 colonial trade had become sufficiently large to cause English- 
 men to try to keep it to themselves, to the inconvenience not 
 only of the Dutch, but of the colonists as well. 
 
72 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 The development of a more systematic colonial policy 
 during the Restoration marks off the latter half of the cen- 
 tury rather distinctly from the preceding fifty years. Prag- 
 matic, economic aims became more prominent. This grow- 
 ing interest in colonies and commerce accounts largely for the 
 rivalry with Holland and for the rise of difficulties with 
 France. It was as the result of the impulses growing from 
 decidedly practical ends that the old colonial system began to 
 take shape after 1660. * 
 
 England's rivals in the colonial field were unable to show 
 anything like the activity and fruitful labor that was to the 
 credit of the British at the close of the seventeenth century. 
 Spain was already decadent. Portugal had seen the days of 
 its greatness as a world-power, and henceforth the friend- 
 ship of England was to be the guarantee of the continuation 
 of the remnant of its former glory. The Dutch had been the 
 severest contestants of the English for supremacy. During 
 the first half of the century the rivalry was between equals, 
 but by 1700 Holland had lost the leadership in commerce to 
 England. The causes for Dutch weakness included smaller 
 resources and the great drain upon them caused by the 
 wars with England and the almost continuous conflict waged 
 with France during the latter half of the century. Holland 
 was not a nation in the sense that England and France were, 
 but more a group of city-states; internal disagreement was 
 thus better able to weaken its effectiveness. Above all, there 
 was lacking the imperial sentiment and the eagerness for ex- 
 pansion which gave constant acceleration to English growth 
 beyond the seas. 
 
 The country that took Holland's place during the latter 
 part of the century as the rival of England was France. Un- 
 der Louis XIV France became the undoubted leader of Eu- 
 rope, even threatening for a time to dominate the Continent. 
 The French entered on colonial expansion with resources back 
 of their efforts that were much greater than those of Spain, 
 Portugal, Holland, or even of England. By 1700 England 
 and France had become bitter enemies and were to remain 
 
 1 See chapter vii for the rise of the old colonial system. 
 
RIVALRY OF ENGLAND AND HOLLAND 73 
 
 so for over one hundred years. Therefore, the rise of the 
 French colonial empire and its conflict with the course of 
 English expansion will be the next subject of study. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 
 
 The volumes by Cunningham will still be found useful. For the works 
 on India see the Bibliographical Note to the following chapter. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 THE DUEL WITH FRANCE 
 
 The "entente cordiale" of France and Great Britain in the 
 early years of the twentieth century has been commonly re- 
 garded as the healing of an ancient breach between these two 
 nations of western Europe. It is true that during the Mid- 
 dle Ages there had been conflict, notably the Hundred Years' 
 War, in the course of which England was practically driven 
 from the Continent. It is by no means true, however, that 
 there was a continuous state of war, recognized or unrecog- 
 nized, between the two countries before the days of Louis 
 XIV. During the century that saw Henry VIII and Eliz- 
 abeth the principal English rulers, foreign policy showed 
 no consistent opposition to France. Henry alternately be- 
 stowed his favor on France and Spain. Philip II and Eliz- 
 abeth were bitter enemies, and this led to Anglo-French 
 friendliness. James I made a marriage treaty with the French 
 King in 1624 with the result that the wife of Charles I was 
 a French princess. During the Commonwealth the Dutch 
 were the rivals of the English abroad, while Cromwell and 
 Mazarin worked in concert. This situation continued dur- 
 ing the reign of Charles II. It was in the famous Treaty of 
 Dover in 1670 that Louis XIV and Charles II agreed to unite 
 against their common enemy. 
 
 With the Revolution of 1688 all was changed. A period 
 of almost unceasing warfare began between England and 
 France, which is sometimes conveniently called the " Second 
 Hundred Years' War." When William of Holland became 
 King of England, the latter country joined in the Dutch op- 
 position to France. From 1689 to 1697 there was the "War 
 of the League of Augsburg" or "King William's War." It 
 was soon followed by the conflict over the Spanish Succession 
 from 1702 to 1713. The War of the Austrian Succession was 
 in progress from 1739 to 1748 and the Seven Years' War 
 
THE DUEL WITH FRANCE 75 
 
 from 1756 to 1763. The American Revolution, during the 
 course of which France, Spain, and Holland became Brit- 
 ain's enemies, began in 1775 and closed in 1783. Ten years 
 later the long twenty-three years' war against the French Rev- 
 olution and Napoleon embroiled the two countries. In all 
 these great struggles France and England were on opposite 
 sides. The eighteenth century was for England predomi- 
 nantly a time of war — especially against France. Over 
 half of the one hundred and twenty-six years from the ac- 
 cession of William III in 1689 to the overthrow of Napoleon 
 in 1815 was occupied by armed conflict between these two 
 countries. 
 
 The ascendency of France under Louis XIV accounts partly 
 for this ill feeling. WTien Louis became the actual ruler 
 of his country in 1661, he found a nation well prepared to 
 assist him in his ambitious designs. The ministries of Sully, 
 Richelieu, and Mazarin had brought wealth to the monarch, 
 efficiency into the army, and success into diplomacy. The 
 " Grand Monarque *'■ had extravagant ideas of divine right and 
 very optimistic conceptions of the French "natural" bound- 
 aries. In consequence, he was engaged almost constantly in 
 war with his neighbors until his death in 1715. For a time it 
 appeared as though he might become the dictator of Euro- 
 pean affairs. As in the days of Napoleon and again in 1914, 
 when a similar danger arose, great alliances were formed 
 against the nation endeavoring to disturb the established 
 equilibrium. 
 
 A contributory cause to the rivalry of these two countries 
 is found in the colonial rivalry of France and England. It 
 would be truer to fact to say that this is the explanation of 
 this continued state of war; no inherent repugnance nor in- 
 herited antipathy can so easily account for it. At first the 
 colonial aspect did not seem to be very important, but as the 
 wars succeeded one another in rapid succession, this issue be- 
 came more and more prominent. Britain's commercial dom- 
 inance and colonial empire grew at the expense of France, as it 
 had grown at the expense of Holland and Spain in the pre- 
 vious centuries. The seven wars of this period are really 
 
76 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 varying phases of one great conflict, a duel from which Brit- 
 ain was to emerge the unquestionable victor and the master 
 of possessions unrivaled in extent and importance. Since 
 that time the wars of Europe have been increasingly con- 
 cerned with commercial and colonial matters. The World 
 War of 1914 is but the most recent illustration. 
 
 FRANCE IN AMERICA AND INDIA 
 
 Before this duel is examined in detail as contributing to the 
 growth of the British Empire, we must find how a French 
 colonial empire was added as a fifth to those of Spain, Por- 
 tugal, Holland, and England. The voyage of Verrazano, a 
 Florentine sailing under the French flag, was undertaken in 
 1524, but resulted in no permanent settlement. In 1636 
 Jacques Cartier sailed up the St. Lawrence, finally reaching 
 the Lachine Rapids in a rowboat. Near these rapids — the 
 name again reminds us of the search for an opening to China 
 — was Hochelaga, an Indian village of importance, and 
 the site of an Indian settlement to-day. Cartier ascended 
 Mount Royal, now located in the center of the city of Mon- 
 treal, and then returned to Quebec, where he spent the win- 
 ter. Though furs and fish continued to attract Frenchmen 
 to this part of the world, no permanent occupation occurred 
 until Champlain built a fort at Quebec in 1608. 
 
 This courageous fur-trader and colonizer, unhappily for 
 France, joined with the Indians of the St. Lawrence region 
 against their enemies to the south, known as the Iroquois. 
 In a war-expedition Champlain saw for the first time the lake 
 that is known by his name and frightened into bitter hatred 
 the Iroquois war-party, astonished by his appearance and 
 firearms. To this unfortunate interference in Indian quar- 
 rels is to be traced much of the later ill fortune of the French. 
 It caused great inconvenience to the fur-traders, hindered 
 the earnest work of Jesuit missionaries intent on the conver- 
 sion of the aborigines, and lent to later French and English 
 border warfare a character of much cruelty. Until his death 
 in 1635 Champlain was the moving spirit in French progress 
 on the North American continent. By his dauntless cour- 
 
THE DUEL WITH FRANCE 77 
 
 age, great interest in exploration, and unwearied patience he 
 stamped his influence strongly on the colony of New France. 1 
 
 When the personal rule of Louis XIV began, there were 
 but a few thousand white settlers in New France and Acadia. 
 This vigorous monarch gave new force to French colonial en- 
 terprise. Explorers made known the river courses of the cen- 
 tral part of the continent. It is probable that Jean Nicolet 
 had camped on the banks of the Wisconsin about 1640, and 
 Radisson and Grosseilliers near the headwaters of the Mis- 
 sissippi twenty years later. Ten years thereafter La Salle 
 reached the Ohio and the Illinois. In the year 1671, in the 
 presence of fourteen Indian tribes, the French took formal 
 possession of the region of the Great Lakes at the Sault Ste. 
 Marie. In 1673 Joliet and Marquette voyaged down the 
 Mississippi as far as Arkansas, and La Salle reached the 
 mouth of the great "Father of Waters" in 1682. He named 
 the country Louisiana in honor of the French King for whom 
 he took possession of the country. 
 
 The energy of Louis XIV's rule was insufficient, however, 
 to "possess" this vast territory extending from Acadia to the 
 Rio Grande, in the solid fashion of the English occupation 
 along the Atlantic seaboard. France had great resources, 
 but divided interests. As a continental nation it was keenly 
 concerned in European affairs, and the fruitless efforts to ob- 
 tain extensive territories on the Continent cost the French 
 much treasure and life, while England was able to give 
 stricter attention to its oversea interests. The French gov- 
 ernmental system was especially rigid, and enterprise was 
 greatly dependent on royal authority. French colonizing 
 companies had difficulty in finding people willing to go to 
 
 1 The interest of Champlain in a route across the continent to the riches of 
 the East was as keen as that of the colonists who established their post at 
 Jamestown two years before Champlain founded the city of Quebec. In 1615 
 he discovered Lake Huron, where he heard of rumors of a great river by which 
 he hoped to reach Cathay. A year before Champlain's death he sent an ex- 
 plorer, Jean Nicolet by name, still farther westward with the result that Lake 
 Michigan became known. So confident was Nicolet of being able to make his 
 way to China that he provided himself with a "grand robe of China damask all 
 strewn with flowers and birds of many colors," similar to those worn by the 
 mandarins. 
 
78 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 new lands in large numbers. Moreover, English colonies had 
 been indebted to religious dissatisfaction, but New France 
 was closed to any but Catholics. Louis XIV's great minister 
 of finance, Colbert, made great efforts to stimulate industry, 
 commerce, and colonization, but his artificial schemes suf- 
 fered from over-regulation, as a glance at the fortunes of the 
 French East India Company will serve to show. 
 
 France was interested elsewhere than on the continent of 
 North America. Mention has already been made of its co- 
 operation with the Dutch and English in the West Indies. 1 
 Martinique and Guadeloupe, two of the most important 
 West Indian islands, became French in 1635; they form a 
 part of the French colonial empire to-day. The islands of 
 Madagascar, lie de France, and lie de Bourbon became 
 French possessions about the middle of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury and served as convenient stopping-places on the jour- 
 ney to India, for the French came to India as other builders 
 of empire had before them. 
 
 Not until 1664, sixty years after the initial undertakings of 
 the English and Dutch East India Companies, was the first 
 French Company formed. It had a capital of fifteen million 
 livres, provided very largely by those near the King. It was 
 a great contrast to the English Company which began away 
 from the court. In France, the King urged an unwilling peo- 
 ple to become interested in oversea trade; one hundred and 
 nineteen lettres de cachet were sent out by Louis to arouse in- 
 terest in the new Company. Comparatively few merchants, 
 notwithstanding, took an active part in its development. In 
 addition, it was greatly restricted by being bound to the re- 
 ligious and political conditions in France, becoming almost a 
 department of state, with conscious colonizing intentions. It 
 is not surprising that in the first eleven years of the Com- 
 pany's life over six and a half million of livres were lost. In 
 spite of these untoward beginnings, settlements were made in 
 India, which were later to become bases for conflict with the 
 English. Factories were established at Surat and Masuli- 
 patam in 1668 and 1669. In 1674 Pondich6ry, a few miles 
 
 * See pp. 52, 53, 
 
THE DUEL WITH FRANCE 79 
 
 south of Madras, was founded. Two years later, a factory 
 was placed at Chandernagore in Bengal, a little north of the 
 site of Calcutta. 
 
 THE DUEL IN AMERICA 
 
 Thus the French had made a start in India before 1689, 
 and in North America had encircled the English settlements 
 by vague claims based on the work of daring explorers. The 
 story of the conflict of these two nations with their adjacent 
 colonies is a complicated one. The wars were not fought in 
 one arena, but in Europe, on the sea, in North America, and 
 in the Far East. The wars in Europe are of secondary inter- 
 est for the present study, although Pitt could say with a 
 large measure of truth that "America was conquered in Ger- 
 many." The large population of the English colonies along 
 the western shore of the Atlantic and the French occupation 
 of the St. Lawrence meant war in North America with the 
 very inception of national trouble. In India the duel did 
 not grow serious until about 1745, when Dupleix gave strong 
 expression to French plans. It will, therefore, be convenient 
 to deal, in the first place, with the American theater of action. 
 India will next claim attention. Then definite conclusions 
 can be drawn as to the effect of this long period of Anglo- 
 French contention. 
 
 The war waged against France from 1689 to 1697 is known 
 in European history as the "War of the League of Augs- 
 burg." In American colonial annals it has the name of 
 "King William's War." The country that was in dispute 
 lay between the English frontier settlements on the north- 
 west and the Great Lakes. It so happened that the region 
 extending from western New England to Lake Erie, and even 
 to Lake Michigan and south to the Ohio, was under the con- 
 trol of the Iroquois League, the most powerful Indian organi- 
 zation on the continent. It consisted of five nations — the 
 Mohawks to the east and the Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, 
 and Senecas in that order to the west. Reputed to be able 
 warriors, they were bitter enemies of the Algonquins in the 
 St. Lawrence valley and of the Hurons farther west. Cham- 
 
80 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 plain's alliance with the Algonquins made the Iroquois the 
 enemies of France. 
 
 Before 1689 the French had made several attacks on the 
 Iroquois with but slight success. In 1684 the English had 
 held an important conference with the Five Nations at Al- 
 bany. There the Indians acknowledged English sovereignty 
 and permitted the arms of the Duke of York to be placed on 
 the walls of Iroquois villages. Governor Dongan thereupon 
 informed the French Governor of Canada that the land un- 
 der his care included all the territory south and southwest of 
 the "Lake of Canada." When the Treaty of Neutrality was 
 signed by France and England in 1686 at London, Dongan 
 interpreted it as prohibiting any relation between the French 
 and "our Indians on this side of the Great Lake." 
 
 When King William's War opened, the French were in a 
 good position to work out their plans. Count Frontenac, 
 who was sent to Canada in 1690, led vigorous attacks on Eng- 
 lish outposts. Schenectady near Albany, Salmon Falls in 
 New Hampshire, and Portland in Maine were successfully 
 attacked with great cruelty. As a result an English inter- 
 colonial congress was called with delegates from Massachu- 
 setts, New Plymouth, Connecticut, and New York. An ex- 
 pedition was planned against Montreal, in which the soldiers 
 of the four colonies were to be assisted by the Iroquois. In 
 addition a naval expedition was to leave Massachusetts for 
 Quebec. The land expedition was abandoned at Lake 
 Champlain, and Sir William Phips, in charge of the attack 
 on Quebec, was unable to capture this key-position of New 
 France. During the latter part of the war, Indian attacks 
 continued, but peace in 1697 left the combatants in about the 
 same position they were at the beginning of the struggle. 
 
 The War of the Spanish Succession came after four years 
 of peace. "Queen Anne's War," as its American counter- 
 part was called, was similar in character to the previous con- 
 flict, except that more assistance came to the colonies from 
 Britain. Deerfield, Connecticut, was surprised in 1704 by a 
 party of Indians and Canadians. The oft-told story of the 
 massacre and of the hardships of the captives well illustrates 
 
THE DUEL WITH FRANCE 81 
 
 the severe character of frontier life during the days of the 
 colonial wars. 1 
 
 British overland expeditions suffered from the lukewarm- 
 ness and instability of the Iroquois, who kept on peaceful 
 terms with the French in the early years of the war. In 
 1710 Port Royal in Acadia was taken by a British fleet with 
 the assistance of colonial troops; it was renamed Annapolis 
 Royal and continued from that time to be in British hands. 
 In the next year a great fleet of eleven war vessels and sixty 
 transports carrying twelve thousand men was sent to attack 
 Canada. It was amply sufficient to have settled the ques- 
 tion of the possession of the St. Lawrence in favor of the 
 British. The fleet under Sir Hovenden Walker and the army 
 under John Hill — brother of Queen Anne's favorite, Mrs. 
 Masham — were so inefficiently led that ten ships and nine 
 hundred men were lost in the St. Lawrence in a vain attempt 
 to reach Quebec. 
 
 Elsewhere the war on the sea had been in favor of Great 
 Britain. France had been badly defeated in the naval battle 
 of La Hogue in 1692, and Louis was so busy on the Continent 
 and his resources so heavily taxed that he had no opportunity 
 to strengthen his weakened maritime forces. This partly 
 accounts for a conspicuous English success, the capture of 
 Gibraltar in 1704. Sir George Rooke, in command of the 
 British fleet in the Mediterranean, had failed to capture Bar- 
 celona or Toulon. Meeting another English fleet under Sir 
 Cloudesley Shovel, he determined to attack Gibraltar be- 
 cause of its insufficient garrison and strategic importance. It 
 was easily taken and has given Great Britain the key to the 
 western opening of the Mediterranean ever since. The 
 Spanish and French immediately set about the recapture of 
 the place, but the combined fleets of the two countries were 
 unable to win a decisive victory over Rooke off Malaga. 
 
 v The ostensible purpose of the expedition was to obtain the church bell of 
 Deerfield. It had been bought in France for the Indian village of Caughna- 
 waga near Montreal. The vessel carrying it to America was captured by a New 
 England privateer and the bell sold to the Deerfield congregation. The at- 
 tacking party obtained the bell, but did much more. Half a hundred of the 
 villagers were killed and twice as many taken into captivity. 
 
82 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 A little later the French made an unsuccessful attack on 
 Gibraltar. 
 
 THE PEACE OF UTEECHT 
 
 In 1713 the War of the Spanish Succession was ended by a 
 series of treaties among the various belligerents; several com- 
 mercial agreements were included. The Peace of Utrecht is 
 exceedingly important in the study of British expansion, for 
 notable progress was registered in the accession of colonial 
 territory, in the increasing security of its maritime control, 
 and in the development of British commerce. Although 
 France retained Cape Breton Island and Louisburg, Aca- 
 dia, later to be known as Nova Scotia, was abandoned to 
 Great Britain. The French also acknowledged British sov- 
 ereignty over the Iroquois, and the Hudson Bay territories 
 were recognized as British. France gave up all claim to 
 Newfoundland, but retained fishing rights as well as the 
 privilege of curing fish on the shores of the island. St. 
 Christopher in the West Indies had been jointly occupied by 
 France and Great Britain up to this time; henceforth it was 
 to be solely British. 
 
 The Spanish made several important concessions to Great 
 Britain. Both Gibraltar and the island of Minorca were left 
 in British hands. The impregnable rock at the western en- 
 trance to the Mediterranean was to prove one of the most 
 valuable stations in the enlarging dominions. Minorca, with 
 its splendid, fortified harbor of Port Mahon, served as a naval 
 station in the Mediterranean. In the wars against Napoleon 
 it was to be replaced by the more strategically located island 
 of Malta. Spain also granted Great Britain commercial con- 
 cessions. The British were given the sole right of importing 
 negroes for thirty years from Africa for the supply of the 
 Spanish colonies in America. By the Asiento Great Britain 
 agreed to furnish each year four thousand and eight hun- 
 dred negroes. In addition, the British could send annually 
 to the shores of South America one trading vessel of not more 
 than five hundred tons. This may not appear of great com- 
 mercial value, yet it was the only trading privilege granted to 
 
THE DUEL WITH FRANCE 83 
 
 any European nation outside the motherland of Spain. As 
 we shall find, this slight opening served as an ever-broaden- 
 ing avenue for British commerce. 1 
 
 There were other terms in the treaties which, if not so well 
 known, served in a very direct way to further British mari- 
 time and commercial progress. Holland emerged from the 
 struggle a victor, but the Dutch made no colonial advance 
 and were so weak on the sea that henceforth they ceased 
 to be important rivals of the British. France gave up all 
 pretensions to maritime power in the English Channel by 
 razing the fortifications and filling up the harbor of Dun- 
 kirk. This port had been a base for privateering warfare 
 against England. Britain guarded against the increase of 
 French colonial power in the New World by a provision of 
 the Anglo-Spanish treaty; Spain promised never to transfer 
 land in America to France or any other nation. The treaty 
 between France and Portugal was important for Great Brit- 
 ain, since Portugal, even as early as this, was in close rela- 
 tion with Britain. France acknowledged the sole sovereignty 
 of the Portuguese over the settlements in the Amazon, and 
 gave up all right, on the part of the French colony of Cay- 
 enne (French Guiana), to trade in the Amazon region. As 
 Brazilian trade was almost solely British, this provision was 
 directly in favor of Great Britain. 
 
 The position of England in 1713 was indeed commanding. 
 Louis XIV was to die two years later, leaving an exhausted 
 treasury and a weakened country. The navy of France was 
 in no position to contend for or protect colonial possessions. 
 Great Britain was already the winner of the race in the 
 struggle for empire, for France was certain to succumb to 
 the undivided interests of its maritime opponent. Admiral 
 Mahan well summarizes the position of England at this time: 
 "The sea-power of England was not merely in the great 
 navy. . . . Neither was it in a prosperous commerce. ... It 
 was in the union of the two carefully fostered that England 
 made the gain of sea-power over and beyond all other states; 
 and this gain is distinctly associated with and dates from the 
 
 1 See below, p. 84. 
 
84 THE BRITISH EMPIRE. , 
 
 » 
 
 War of the Spanish Succession. Before that war England 
 was one of the sea-powers; after that, she was the sea-power, 
 without any second. This power, also, she held unshared by- 
 friend and unchecked by foe." 1 
 
 After Utrecht, England remained at peace for about 
 twenty-five years. It was a period of uninterrupted com- 
 mercial expansion with Walpole as the pilot of the state for 
 much of the time. His aversion to war, even to a successful 
 war, was caused by his interest in English industrial and com- 
 mercial progress. But war finally came in 1739. It began 
 with Spain and Britain as the opponents, although it was not 
 long before England's enemies included France. Friction had 
 arisen with Spain over trade. When Spain let down the bars 
 to one English ship, illegal commerce was indulged in by the 
 English; they stationed the one ship off the coast of South 
 America, where she was continually loaded and unloaded 
 from other English vessels. The Spaniard, in order to pre- 
 vent smuggling and this violation of a treaty entered into be- 
 tween the two countries, rigidly enforced the right of search. 
 Cruelty was exercised, one case of which became prominent. 
 Robert Jenkins, a captain, asserted that his ear had been cut 
 off when his ship had been attacked by a Spanish boarding 
 party. On his return to England, he carried the severed 
 member about in cotton and aroused war feeling by declaring 
 that, as a result of the indignity, he had commended his soul 
 to God and his cause to his country. The country became so 
 enthusiastic over the cause that Walpole was forced to de- 
 clare war. This war was soon linked with the War of the 
 Austrian Succession, in which various continental powers, in- 
 cluding Spain, France, and Prussia, sought portions of the 
 territory of the young Austrian Queen, Maria Theresa. 
 
 For France and Great Britain it was but one more stage in 
 their colonial rivalry. In 1743, by the Second Family Com- 
 pact, the two Bourbon countries became allied, France agree- 
 ing to assist in the recapture of Gibraltar and Minorca, and 
 Spain promising to transfer the Asiento to its ally. The 
 British found the opposition severe during this war, and did 
 
 1 A. T. Mahan, The Influence of Sea-Power upon History, 1660-1783, p. 225. 
 
THE DUEL WITH FRANCE 85 
 
 not come out of the struggle with conspicuous success. The 
 British, however, were the victors in America. After the loss 
 of Acadia, the French had built at great expense and labor the 
 stronghold of Louisburg on Cape Breton Island, where it com- 
 manded the entrance to the Gulf of the St. Lawrence. Gov- 
 ernor Shirley of Massachusetts prepared an expedition of 
 nearly four thousand men and one hundred ships under Colo- 
 nel Pepperrell, which joined with a British squadron under 
 Commodore Warren in an attack on Louisburg. The fort 
 was captured in 1745. Twice in the next two years the 
 French sent fleets to recapture it, but with no success. As a 
 counterbalance to this loss the French captured Madras in 
 India. In a naval battle off Toulon in 1744 the British were 
 not conspicuously successful, but in 1747 two British victo- 
 ries — that of Anson off Cape Finisterre and of Hawke off 
 Belle Isle — completed the destruction of the French navy. 
 The Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle brought but another inter- 
 regnum in the long duel. Louisburg was restored to the 
 French and Madras to the English. The Asiento was re- 
 newed for four years. If the war brought few territorial 
 changes, commerce suffered severely. Great Britain lost 
 over three thousand vessels, while the French and Spanish 
 combined lost five hundred more than the English. In con- 
 sequence, the relatively small fleets of France and Spain suf- 
 fered in much greater proportion than these figures would in- 
 dicate. The French want of an adequate navy is more than 
 ever in evidence, while it is clear that Britain was again 
 saved by sea-power, even if it were not always used with 
 signal ability. 
 
 THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR 
 
 The culmination of the series of conflicts was the Seven 
 Years' War, which began in 1756. It was a gigantic struggle. 
 On the continent of Europe, Frederick the Great of Prussia, 
 assisted by the subsidies of Britain, fought tirelessly against 
 Russia, Austria, and France. On the sea, in America, in 
 India, the issue was sharply drawn between England and 
 France. 
 
86 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 Fortunately for Great Britain, there was a man at the head 
 of affairs who saw clearly the issue in its largest meaning and 
 was not content with a stalemate. William Pitt is largely re- 
 sponsible for the extraordinary measure of success that Brit- 
 ain attained in this mid-century war. He was forty-eight 
 years of age when the war began and had already made his 
 mark in parliamentary life. His grandfather, Thomas Pitt, 
 had been Governor of Madras, and he had raised the family 
 to a place of wealth and political influence through the sale 
 of a remarkably large diamond for the sum of £135,000. The 
 tenure of Old Sarum, later so conspicuous as a "rotten bor- 
 ough," was purchased; it was from this borough that Wil- 
 liam Pitt went to Parliament. There he exercised great 
 influence by his oratorical gifts, his integrity, and the sweep 
 of his ideas. Grattan said of him: "In the conduct of af- 
 fairs he saw the British Empire as a whole and refused to 
 allow England to be lost in the intricacies of continental poli- 
 tics." Pitt was alive to the need of keeping France busy at 
 home, so that his liberal subsidies to Frederick the Great 
 during the war served indirectly his main purpose. He 
 showed also a wonderful power in choosing lieutenants who 
 could do things, and in arousing them to something of his 
 own tremendous energy. 
 
 Great Britain was in need of a vigorous leader, as the 
 French were feverishly active in India and North America. 
 Louisburg had been made stronger than ever, and the French 
 were busy trying to arouse the people of Acadia to revolt. So 
 serious did this menace seem that the military authorities 
 decided to deport the Acadians. Accordingly, in 1755, about 
 six thousand of them were carried to the English colonies to 
 the south. There was inevitable hardship and misfortune, 
 which Longfellow has idealized in his Evangeline. As war 
 was imminent and the Acadians, who were living within the 
 range of military operations, refused to give oaths of alle- 
 giance, the British authorities felt that deportation was nec- 
 essary. It was at about this time that the British subdued 
 the country to the west of Acadia, now known as New Bruns- 
 wick. 
 
THE DUEL WITH FRANCE 87 
 
 More serious still was the aggressive attitude of the French 
 in the Ohio valley. Marquis Duquesne, Governor of Can- 
 ada, had undertaken to establish a chain of forts in the dis- 
 puted territory. In 1754 Fort Duquesne had been built at 
 the point where the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers 
 unite to form the Ohio. In the next year General Braddock 
 was sent from England with regular troops to capture Fort 
 Duquesne. Virginian colonials, among whom was George 
 Washington, assisted in the campaign. The expedition was 
 totally defeated with the loss of its leader and seven hundred 
 men, about ten miles from the fort, largely because Braddock 
 refused to fight in frontier fashion. 
 
 On the eastern side of the Atlantic, the war began inauspi- 
 ciously for Britain. Early in 1756 Great Britain was led to 
 fear invasion, which proved to be merely a blind to cover a 
 successful attack on Minorca. The British squadron under 
 Admiral Byng was unable to prevent the capture of the is- 
 land. Nothing shows better the hold that empire-building 
 and commercial interests had on the British mind than the 
 storm of indignation with which the defeat was received. 
 
 Up to this point Pitt had not been the leader of the country 
 politically, as the King could not endure him. Finally in 
 1757, to the disgust of the monarch, he was given the whole 
 charge of foreign affairs. Soon Pitt's plans began to bear 
 fruit. In America four campaigns were waged. In 1758 a 
 strong British force under Admiral Boscawen and General 
 Amherst was sent to capture Louisburg. The fortress was 
 taken and two years later demolished, it was of no particular 
 value to the English, as Halifax had been founded by the Brit- 
 ish to take its place. A second expedition against the French 
 forts on Lake Champlain and Lake George was repulsed. 
 But a force sent against Fort Duquesne succeeded in cap- 
 turing this important post; it was renamed Fort Pitt and was 
 later to become the busy industrial center of Pittsburgh. A 
 fourth expedition destroyed Fort Frontenac, commanding 
 the outlet from Lake Ontario, where the city of Kingston 
 now stands. 
 
 In the next year elaborate preparations were set on foot for 
 
88 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 the conquest of Canada. Niagara was taken, but Amherst, 
 who was to approach Quebec by land, could not proceed far- 
 ther than Lake Champlain. Therefore, the naval expedition 
 under General Wolfe, who had assisted in the capture of 
 Louisburg, was compelled to attack Quebec without the as- 
 sistance of Amherst. Wolfe had nine thousand men and a 
 strong fleet under Admiral Saunders. Montcalm, the French 
 commander, had fifteen thousand men for the defense of 
 Quebec. As the city was located on high bluffs overlooking 
 the river, it was in a position difficult to attack. Wolfe, 
 therefore, decided to approach the city from the rear. His 
 soldiers scaled the cliffs some distance above the town and 
 presented themselves to the astonished gaze of Montcalm on 
 the morning of September 13, 1759, drawn up in battle array 
 on the Plains of Abraham. The British were victorious ; in the 
 next year their hold on Canada was assured by the capture 
 of Montreal, the last French stronghold on the St. Lawrence. 
 The fate of New France had been decided. 
 
 In other quarters Pitt's leadership was equally fruitful. A 
 naval force was sent against the French possessions on the 
 west African coast. Here the districts about the Senegal 
 River, the island of Goree and Lagos became British. The 
 French West Indian islands of Marie Galante, Guadeloupe, 
 Martinique, Grenada, Sta. Lucia, and St. Vincent were cap- 
 tured. Spain, which had joined France against Great Britain, 
 suffered the loss of Havana in the West Indies and of the 
 Philippines in the Far East. The British fleet under Bos- 
 cawen — he was popularly known as "Old Dreadnought" — 
 dispersed the French fleet in the Mediterranean, and Hawke 
 won a brilliant victory over the enemy's fleet from Brest in 
 Quiberon Bay near the mouth of the Loire. Horace Wal- 
 pole declared with truth: " Indeed, one is forced to ask every 
 morning what victory there is for fear of missing one." 
 
 ANCIENT INDIA 
 
 In the meantime secure foundations were being laid for em- 
 pire in India. There the conflict between the French and the 
 British had not begun so early as in America. It was not un- 
 
THE DUEL WITH FRANCE 
 
 89 
 
 til the War of the Austrian Succession that the two countries 
 found their interests clashing in the Far East. A clear under- 
 standing of this part of the great duel is dependent on a 
 knowledge of the internal conditions of this future home of 
 
 MALDIVE ;r. 
 ISLANDS • 
 
 N D 
 
 THE INDIAN PENINSULA 
 IN 1763 
 
 Heavy line bounds British acquisitions under Give kssbbsss 
 British places shown Bombay Dutch Qochiji, ' 
 
 French — Karikal. 
 
 Portuguese Gq4 
 
 BRITISH ISLES 
 Comparative Size 
 
 British power. Heretofore, we have not had occasion to go 
 inland from the coast, as the early settlements were but 
 trading-posts on the ocean or on some convenient river. 
 Therefore, even though there is a slight interruption to the 
 
90 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 narrative, it is necessary to find for what sort of a country 
 these two western nations were striving so far from the home- 
 lands. 
 
 When Europe began to trade with India, it was already oc- 
 cupied by a very large and a very complex population. In- 
 dia was quite different from the North American continent, 
 where the aborigines were few in number, and but poorly or- 
 ganized. The highest developed group in America, the Five 
 Nations, was far behind the Indian groups in governmental 
 power. Although the Iroquois were important in the wars 
 we have been considering, they ceased to be a serious menace 
 long before the peoples of India were under British control. 
 The aborigines of North America are no longer a problem to 
 Canada, but the people of India are causing the British 
 statesmen of to-day very serious thought. 
 
 Probably as far back as 2000 B.C. Aryans invaded India 
 and found there before them well-advanced tribes known as 
 Dravidians. The Aryans developed the various forms of 
 Hinduism until all parts of India were more or less Hindu in 
 culture. It was just about the time of the "fall" of the Ro- 
 man Empire (500 a.d.) that Hinduism was at its golden age. 
 But political centralization was impossible of attainment in 
 so large a peninsula as that of India with so diverse a popula- 
 tion. The Rajput kingdoms arose shortly after the golden 
 age, and their name and descendants are preserved to-day in 
 Rajputana. About this time the Huns invaded India, only 
 to be assimilated. More momentous for the future of the 
 country were the invasions by the Mohammedans, who be- 
 gan entering the peninsula about the year 1000 a.d. Turks, 
 Afghans, and Mongols came in successive hordes, culminat- 
 ing in the establishment of the Mogul dynasty by Babar in 
 1526. 
 
 Babar was a lineal descendant of the famous Tartar known 
 as Tamerlane. When he died in 1530, the Mohammedans 
 had captured Delhi and extended their Empire to lower Ben- 
 gal. Akbar the Great, Emperor from 1556 to 1605, was the 
 next ruler of importance and the real founder of the Mogul 
 Empire. Under him the Rajputs were reduced, the Hindus 
 
THE DUEL WITH FRANCE 91 
 
 conciliated, and the various independent Mohammedan 
 kingdoms of northern India conquered. He labored with 
 less success to establish his power south of the Vindhya Hills, 
 which serve as the northern boundary of peninsular India. 1 
 Akbar's Empire was not unlike the great feudal creations of 
 western Europe; the country was partitioned into provinces 
 and ruled over by governors who were bound to make stated 
 payments of revenue to their emperor. 
 
 Akbar was succeeded by his favorite son, Jahangir, who 
 ruled until 1627. Sir Thomas Roe, the agent of the East In- 
 dia Company, of whom mention has already been made, was 
 a resident at his court. Under Jahangir's successor incessant 
 strife continued, especially in the south. With Aurungzeb, 
 who became Emperor in 1658 and ruled for the rest of the 
 century, the Mogul Empire attained its widest limits. Con- 
 tinuous war was the penalty, for already there were evidences 
 of decay. Aurungzeb's utmost efforts to conquer southern 
 India were hindered by the rise of a strong Hindu confederacy 
 in the central and western parts of the peninsula, composed 
 of tribes known as Marathas. Under their great leader, Si- 
 vaji, who died in 1680, the Marathas forced tribute from Mo- 
 gul provinces in southern India and gave deadly body-blows 
 to the Empire founded by Babar. WTien the British set 
 about consolidating their conquests in the next century, we 
 shall find that the Marathas formed the most serious obsta- 
 cle to the growth of the British rule. 
 
 After the death of Aurungzeb in 1707, the Mogul Empire 
 rapidly disintegrated. The Deccan became independent 
 during the first half of the eighteenth century. Oudh, in 
 the central Ganges valley, and Rajputana obtained their 
 freedom. The Marathas secured the cession of Malwa and 
 Orissa, and wrested tribute from Bengal. The climax 
 came in 1759, when the Marathas captured Delhi, the 
 ancient capital, and became masters of the person of the 
 emperor. 
 
 1 This range stretches in an easterly and westerly direction a few hundred 
 miles above Surat. The territory south of this line of hills is known as the 
 Deccan. 
 
92 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 THE DUEL IN INDIA 
 
 All this is very important for understanding the struggle of 
 the British and French in India. Their contest came to its 
 height just as the old Mogul Empire was declining. Various 
 small independent states and subordinate governments with 
 indefinite obligations to their superior states were growing 
 out of the misrule of Aurungzeb and his successors. It was 
 just the opportunity that the foreigners needed. Penetra- 
 tion into the interior came by the use of an intricate diplo- 
 macy, by the setting of one prince against another, and by 
 the furnishing of European advisers and military assistance 
 for ambitious or hard-pressed native rulers. 
 
 During the War of the Austrian Succession the French 
 were making efforts to establish a firmer hold in the territory 
 about their trading-post of Pondichery in the Carnatic and 
 around Chandernagore in Bengal by taking advantage of the 
 unstable political situation we have been describing. The 
 man responsible for what measure of success the French at- 
 tained was Dupleix. As early as 1720 he had gone to Pondi- 
 chery as a member of the Superior Council. There he gained 
 a large private fortune. In 1731 he went to Chandernagore 
 as Intendant and infused some of his energy into this French 
 outpost in Bengal. As a result of his conspicuous accomplish- 
 ments, he was made commander of the French possessions 
 in India in 1741. Dupleix was a master of diplomacy, skill- 
 fully reaching the hearts of eastern potentates by munificent 
 presents and much ostentatious display. He used the rival- 
 ries of native states to further his ends, but this meant con- 
 tinual and exhausting warfare. Had his aggressive plans 
 been seconded by the home government, it might have led to 
 the permanent discomfiture of the British. He was not 
 backed in his schemes partly because of the jealousy his im- 
 mense financial gains aroused; inconsequence, Dupleix had 
 to spend much of his private fortune to forward his plans. 
 Moreover, the control of the sea was lacking when it was 
 most needed. 
 
 When the French and British conflict extended to India in 
 
THE DUEL WITH FRANCE 93 
 
 1745, a British fleet appeared off Pondichery. Dupleix, at 
 this juncture, gave a goodly present to the Nawab of Arcot — 
 the ruler of the lowland stretch between the central plateau 
 and the sea — and the Nawab, in turn, threatened vengeance 
 on the British if they injured French interests. Next year, 
 when the hostilities were renewed, La Bourdonnais had come 
 from Madagascar with a fleet that prevented the British from 
 doing harm to the French settlement; he was even able to 
 capture Madras with little difficulty. But Dupleix and La 
 Bourdonnais were bitter rivals. The admiral wished to re- 
 store Madras to the British for a ransom, while Dupleix de- 
 sired to make it a strong French port. As La Bourdonnais' 
 fleet was badly injured by the monsoon — to the ill-con- 
 cealed joy of Dupleix — this left the French commander at 
 Pondichery free to treat Madras as he wished; in the Peace of 
 Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748 it was restored to the British to bal- 
 ance the restoration of Louisburg to France. 
 
 In spite of this setback, Dupleix's diplomacy was at work 
 to further the growth of French influence. A disputed suc- 
 cession at Arcot gave him the chance to place his nominee on 
 the throne. At the same time a similar condition in Haidar- 
 abad resulted in the appointment of Dupleix's choice as Ni- 
 zam. The Nizam of Haidarabad ruled in the Deccan proper 
 and had a nominal authority over the entire southern part of 
 the peninsula including the territory of the Nawab of Arcot. 
 Had Dupleix been uninterrupted by the British, he might 
 have laid secure foundations for French control by means of 
 his artful diplomacy. 
 
 The British, however, were fortunate in having in India 
 one who was capable of opposing Dupleix successfully. 
 Robert Clive had gone in 1743 to the Carnatic as a "writer" 
 for the Company, but he was uncomfortable under the re- 
 straint and monotony of the work. He fought a duel, and 
 under fits of depression he tried to commit suicide. When 
 Madras was taken by La Bourdonnais, he escaped with some 
 others to Fort St. David, some twenty miles south. Here he 
 became an ensign, and had already shown signs of military 
 ability — a quality that Dupleix lacked — before the Peace 
 
94 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 of Aix-la-Chapelle. While the Nawab of Arcot, who had 
 recently been made the ruler under French influence, was 
 besieging an English garrison at Trichonopoli, Clive con- 
 ceived the idea of capturing his capital, Arcot. The work 
 was brilliantly done with two hundred Europeans and three 
 hundred native troops in 1751. The French were unable to 
 recapture the citadel, and finally Clive and his little army 
 were relieved after a fifty-day siege. 
 
 By this bold stroke the British were able to establish, in the 
 opinion of the natives, their reputation for power. Clive was 
 hailed by the natives as "The Daring in War," and Pitt pro- 
 claimed him a " heaven-born " general. The French, how- 
 ever, continued to be powerful in the Deccan as a whole. 
 It was not until toward the close of the Seven Years' War 
 that they were decisively defeated in this part of India. By 
 that time both La Bourdonnais and Dupleix had returned 
 to France in disgrace. De Bussy remained in the Deccan 
 where he labored to build up French influence. A strong 
 expeditionary force was sent out to India in 1758 under 
 Count Lally, who captured Fort St. David and invested 
 Madras in the spring of 1759. The resistance was stubborn, 
 and at the needed moment a British fleet under Admiral 
 Pocock appeared to raise the siege. Pocock, in the autumn 
 of 1759, successfully kept off another French fleet that had 
 come to Lally's assistance, now that the latter, in his turn, 
 was besieged in Pondichery. Sea-power was again the de- 
 cisive factor. On land, Lally was defeated in 1760 at Wande- 
 wash by Colonel Eyre Coote, and Pondichery was invested and 
 starved into capitulation in January, 1761. With its capture 
 the British had become supreme on the Coromandel coast. 
 
 In Bengal the duel was carried on with equal stubbornness. 
 Again Clive made possible an ultimate British victory. The 
 event that brought him to Bengal was the terrible "Black 
 Hole" incident at Calcutta. The local Nawab of Lower 
 Bengal, Suraj-ud-daulah, was suspicious of British expan- 
 sion. Possessed by an ungovernable temper, he had pursued 
 one of his family to Calcutta in the year 1756. The runa- 
 way, who was protected by the English, was one whose 
 
THE DUEL WITH FRANCE 95 
 
 wealth the Nawab coveted; he accused the British of a sim- 
 ilar design. The strengthening of the Calcutta fortifica- 
 tions made the Nawab, in addition, suspicious that the 
 British exploits in the Carnatic would be attempted in Ben- 
 gal. The town was easily taken and the few Europeans who 
 remained heroically to continue the hopeless defense were 
 thrust for the night into a military jail at Fort William. 
 One hundred and forty-six Europeans were confined in a 
 room less than eighteen feet square and with two small 
 barred windows opening into a low veranda. In the morn- 
 ing only twenty-three remained alive. The Nawab showed 
 no regret save that he had not had the pleasure of witnessing 
 personally the torture of his victims. With the capture of 
 Calcutta, Suraj-ud-daulah no longer feared the foreigners; 
 he could govern them, he said, with a pair of slippers. The 
 British let little time pass before they took measures to set 
 matters aright. 
 
 Fortunately Clive had just returned from England to 
 Madras as Lieutenant-Colonel. He hastened to Bengal, 
 where Calcutta was recovered with little difficulty. By 
 that time war had reopened between France and England, 
 and that meant war in India as well. Clive proceeded to 
 capture the French fortress of Chandernagore. Through 
 fear and rage the Nawab reopened hostilities against the 
 British. Clive, who had anticipated that this step would be 
 taken, had bribed the Nawab's commander, Mir Jafar, to 
 desert in case of battle. The decisive conflict occurred in 
 1757 at Plassey, seventy-five miles north of Calcutta, where 
 one thousand Europeans and two thousand native troops de- 
 feated fifty thousand of the Nawab's forces, who were aided 
 by some fifty Frenchmen. Mir Jafar's cavalry joined the 
 English camp when the victory was assured, and, as his re- 
 ward, he was declared the successor of Suraj-ud-daulah as 
 Nawab of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa. After the capture of 
 the capital, Murshidabad, immense sums were wrested from 
 the country as compensation to the Company and to various 
 individuals. 1 
 
 1 The narrative of Indian development is continued in chapter xuu 
 
96 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 THE PEACE OF PARIS 
 
 We have now reviewed the remarkable succession of vic- 
 tories won by the British under the lead of Pitt. A victorious 
 war was brought to an end by the Peace of Paris in 1763. In 
 North America, France gave up Canada, Nova Scotia, and 
 all the territory east of the Mississippi save New Orleans. 
 France was given two small islands near Newfoundland as 
 fishing stations, and in the West Indies it received back 
 Guadeloupe and Martinique. Havana was restored to Spain 
 and Minorca to Britain. By a previous treaty, France had 
 ceded Louisiana and New Orleans to Spain. In India, 
 France recovered its possessions, but could erect no fortifi- 
 cations in Bengal. The English Company retained its con- 
 quests of native territory. 
 
 By this treaty France, the last great rival of Great Britain, 
 retired from the struggle for a great oversea empire. The re- 
 sult was owing to Great Britain's navy, to undivided interests, 
 and to the leadership of William Pitt. War as well as trade 
 had come to minister to British expansion. Horace Walpole's 
 oft-quoted words express the opinion of a contemporary: "I 
 shall burn my Greek and Latin books. They are the histo- 
 ries of little people. We subdue the globe in three cam- 
 paigns, and a globe as big again as it was in their days." 
 
 With the close of the Seven Years' War, the old colonial 
 Empire of England had been formed. Before describing its 
 partial loss in the revolt of the American colonies and its re- 
 construction as a new and greater Britain, it is necessary to 
 understand the conception Englishmen had, in the days be- 
 fore the American Revolution, of their lands over the seas, 
 and of the way in which they were governed. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 
 
 French expansion with the story of the various colonial wars waged in 
 North America is delightfully told by Francis Parkman beginning with the 
 Pioneers of France in the New World and ending with the Montcalm and 
 Wolfe. See also W. C. Abbott, The Expansion of Europe (2 vols., New 
 York, 1918), and A. G. Bradley, The Fight with France for North America 
 (Edinburgh, 1900). Older Canadian life is revealed in C. W. Colby's 
 
THE DUEL WITH FRANCE 97 
 
 Canadian Types of the Old Regime, 1608-1698 (New York, 1910): The 
 second volume of Channing's History of the United States and W. E. H. 
 Lecky's History of England in the Eighteenth Century furnish excellent ac- 
 counts. For the operations on the sea there is A. T. Mahan's The Influence 
 of Sea-Power upon History, 1660-1783 (Boston, 1898) and Sir Julian S. 
 Corbett's England in the Seven Years' War (2 vols., London, 1918). 
 
 The conditions of Indian life and thought are well presented for the be- 
 ginner in T. W. Holderness, Peoples and Problems of India, in the "Home 
 University Library." For the French activities see G. B. Malleson, His- 
 tory of the French in India, 1674-1761 (2d ed., reissued, Edinburgh, 1909). 
 The beginnings of the British penetration in India will be found briefly 
 treated in Sir W. W Hunter, A Brief History of the Indian Peoples (Oxford, 
 1897), in A. D. Innes, A Short History of the British in India (London, 
 1915), in P. E. Roberts, History of India to the End of the East India Com- 
 pany (Oxford, 1916), in the "Historical Geography of the British Colo- 
 nies," by Sir A. Lyall, The Rise and Expansion of the British Dominion in 
 India (5th ed., London, 1910), and by A. Wyatt Tilby, British India, 
 1600-1828 (London, 1911). A compact survey of India before and since 
 the British entry is V. A. Smith's Oxford History of India (Oxford, 1920). 
 An elaborate Cambridge History of India in six volumes is in process of pub- 
 lication. 
 
 The life of William Pitt is so closely bound up with Anglo-French rivalry 
 that it may be well to mention the two most important lives of this great 
 minister: Basil Williams, The Life of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham (2 vols., 
 New York, 1913), is favorable to Pitt; Albert von Ruville, William Pitt, 
 Earl of Chatham (English translation, 3 vols., New York, 1907), is hostile. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE OLD COLONIAL SYSTEM 
 
 A misconception is apt to arise from the use of the word 
 " system" in describing the relation of the mother country 
 to the colonies in the eighteenth century. There was very 
 little of the complex organization that has arisen since in the 
 handling of the Empire. In this distinction is found an im- 
 portant difference between the "old" and "new" colonial 
 Empires of Great Britain. As colonial possessions have in- 
 creased, more attention has been paid to the colonies, but the 
 development of the imperial organization has always been 
 more marked for its deference to local conditions than for any 
 attempt to "standardize" the treatment of the oversea pos- 
 sessions. The lack of system was especially inevitable in 
 the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, for the idea of em- 
 pire was comparatively new, especially of empire as wide- 
 spread as that of Britain and so widely separated by stretches 
 of sea. Nevertheless, the imperial structure that was taking 
 shape bore the impress of the master minds that were creat- 
 ing it. It was receiving the cultural heritage that had been 
 accumulating in the homeland, and was already significant 
 for the adaptation to varying environments of the ideals 
 which have always served as the strongest of bonds in greater 
 Britain. In this chapter we shall try to find what sort of an 
 empire, in interests and government, had evolved by the time 
 of the signal victory over France in 1763. 
 
 A review of the origins of the Empire will make clear that 
 the ruling motive throughout its growth had been the foster- 
 ing of trade and commerce. We have seen how the lure of 
 valuable products for enriching the kingdom and individuals 
 had led to daring voyages and venturesome exploration. In- 
 deed, the efforts to obtain oversea possessions had not been 
 urged so much by the Government as by persons interested 
 in trading developments and quickly gotten riches. The 
 lack of royal initiative is especially noticeable. Various 
 
THE OLD COLONIAL SYSTEM 99 
 
 companies and small groups of zealous men opened new fields 
 with little, if any, encouragement from the Government. In 
 America, individuals and proprietors were responsible for 
 many colonies, while the Empire's inception in India was the 
 result of the activities of a trading company. It was not 
 until the eighteenth century that the Empire became a 
 matter of serious concern to the British Government. Then 
 the great duel with France and the wonderful increase of co- 
 lonial possessions as the result of successful wars gave the 
 oversea dominion a much greater importance. 
 
 MERCANTILISM 
 
 The key to Britain's relation to its colonies is found in 
 trade. During the eighteenth century the commerce of Eng- 
 land was developing with great rapidity. In the course of 
 the century it increased five or six fold, with the exports con- 
 tinually overbalancing the imports. The trade with the 
 colonies was only a minor part of the total, that with Europe 
 distancing the trade with Asia, Africa, and America com- 
 bined. About the middle of the century the American trade 
 was slightly more valuable than that with Asia, but only 
 about one sixth as valuable as that with Europe. The phe- 
 nomenal advance in commerce that began with the third 
 quarter of the century will be accounted for in a later chap- 
 ter. But even by 1750 there had been a marked accelera- 
 tion in commerce, attended by a growing amount of regula- 
 tion that it might be fostered discriminately. The regula- 
 tion, such as it was, was entirely in the interests of home 
 industry; even the development of national power and of the 
 colonies in and for themselves was strictly subordinated to 
 the demands of England's manufacturers and shippers. 
 
 There is abundant illustration of this attitude in Britain's 
 relation to its great trade rivals and to its colonies. The 
 sale of finished cloth and the opportunity for adequate mar- 
 kets explains the famous Methuen Treaty of 1703 with Por- 
 tugal. The Portuguese market had been closed to England in 
 the interest of home manufacture, but Methuen was able to 
 reopen it by granting Portuguese wines, entrance into Eng- 
 
100 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 land at two thirds the duty paid on French wines. Bur- 
 gundy was replaced by port, and port could be consumed in 
 good quantity with the virtuous feeling that English industry 
 was profiting as a result of this pleasant reciprocal arrange- 
 ment. In 1713 there was an effort on the part of friends of 
 France to give French goods comparatively easy entrance 
 into England. A storm of protest occurred, and public opin- 
 ion prevented the injury which it was felt would come to 
 home industry as a result of favoring France. A relaxation 
 of the trading relations with France did not come until the 
 close of the American Revolution. 
 
 This attitude toward commerce and industry, dominant in 
 Europe from the very beginnings of the great colonial em- 
 pires until the latter part of the eighteenth century, is usu- 
 ally known as the " mercantile system." It is sometimes 
 called "Colbertism," from the restrictive over-regulation of 
 trade in France during the time of Colbert, the minister of 
 Louis XIV. The precious metals could only be obtained 
 from abroad, and yet an adequate supply of money was re- 
 garded as essential, especially in the conduct of the numerous 
 wars. The stock of money, it was believed, could only be re- 
 tained and increased by a favorable balance of trade — by 
 the selling of more than was purchased, thus bringing bul- 
 lion into the country. As a consequence, imports were re- 
 stricted. English saltmakers, for example, in the seventeenth 
 century urged the prohibition of foreign salt on the ground 
 that it was the "wisdom of a kingdom or nation to prevent 
 the importation of any manufacture from abroad which 
 might be a detriment to their own at home, for if the coin of a 
 nation be carried out to pay for foreign manufactures and 
 our own people left unemployed, then in case a war happen 
 with our potent neighbors, the people are incapacitated to 
 pay taxes for the support of the same." * 
 
 Probably the most important book published during the 
 early development of the mercantile system was by Sir 
 Thomas Mun; this work, issued in 1664, had the significant 
 title: England's Treasure by Foreign Trade; or the Balance 
 
 1 Quoted in Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce, h, 310. 
 
THE OLD COLONIAL SYSTEM 101 
 
 of our Trade the Rule of our Treasure. Another influential 
 work of the same period was Sir Josiah Child's The Nature 
 of Plantations and their Consequences to Great Britain seri- 
 ously Considered, which first appeared in 1669. Among other 
 things the author endeavored to prove "that all Colonies 
 or Plantations do endanger their Mother-Kingdoms, whereof 
 the Trades of such Plantations are not confined in severe laws, 
 and good execution of those laws to the Mother-Country." 
 Charles D'Avenant, Inspector-General of Exports and Im- 
 ports, published in 1698 a pamphlet On the Plantation Trade. 
 His work and that of William Wood, The Great Advantage of our 
 Colonies and Plantations to Great Britain, published in 1728, 
 reechoed the ideas of Sir Josiah Child. 1 An influential work 
 of the early eighteenth century had the title : The Trade and 
 Navigation of Great Britain Considered shewing that the surest 
 way for a Nation to increase the Riches is to prevent the Importa- 
 tion of such Foreign Commodities as may be raised at Home. 
 In the correct growth of this system it was necessary that 
 the Government interfere more and more by the use of the 
 law for the regulation and restriction that would make mer- 
 cantilism work satisfactorily. Navigation acts, commercial 
 treaties, and import duties were numerous. Gradually this 
 sort of supervision became so extreme as to cause a reaction 
 toward the idea that non-interference and the action of nat- 
 ural law would work better for the country than the restric- 
 tive plans of Colbert and the mercantilists. The Physiocrats 
 in France, among whom Turgot was the most prominent, 
 urged an attitude of laissez-faire. In England Adam Smith 
 published, in 1776, his Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of 
 the Wealth of Nations. Its influence was tremendous in over- 
 throwing the old system of over-regulation. Fortunately for 
 England, it came at a time when the phenomenal industrial 
 advance could not suffer from foreign competition. The in- 
 auguration of this system of non-interference is beyond the 
 scope of the present chapter. 
 
 1 The works of Sir Josiah Child, Charles D'Avenant, and William Wood 
 were reprinted together under the title of Select Dissertations in the year 1775 
 to assist in the settlement of the "unhappy differences between Great Britain 
 and America." 
 
102 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 The application of restrictive measures to the colonies was 
 but natural. Home industry was not thought to include co- 
 lonial industry, and the latter was made subordinate in the 
 effort to make English industry independent of foreign com- 
 petition. To this end the colonies were to be excluded from 
 trade with foreign states. The products of the colonies were 
 to come to England, where they would either serve England 
 or would go to foreign countries with the mother country as 
 a profiting intermediary. It was even desired that England 
 should be the emporium for the trade among the different 
 parts of the Empire. In accordance with this theory the 
 measure of value attained by the various colonies was in pro- 
 portion, not to their internal development or size or possibili- 
 ties, but only to their value for the commercial development 
 of England. 
 
 India aroused a good deal of concern to English industrial 
 interests during the eighteenth century. Anxiety regarding 
 India was the result not only of the slight sale of English 
 manufactures in India but also in consequence of the 
 import into England of the goods that could be used in the 
 place of the textile fabrics made at home. Indian muslins 
 and silks were attacked on the ground that their introduction 
 affected the price of wool and the employment of two hun- 
 dred and fifty thousand people in home manufactures. In 
 1697 a weaver of London issued a pamphlet against the East 
 Indian trade entitled The Great Necessity and Advantage of 
 Preserving our Own Manufactures. In the same year, a weaver 
 of the same city published Reasons Humbly Offered for the 
 Passing of a Bill for the Hindering of the Home Consumption of 
 East India Silks. Even the " Fann " makers had a grievance 
 on account of the East Indian competition. In 1700 an Act 
 was passed restricting the Indian trade so far as the home 
 market was concerned, as it "must inevitably be to the great 
 Detriment of this Kingdom by exhausting the Treasure 
 thereof and melting down the Coine, and takeing away the 
 Labour of the People." 1 The woolen industries of England 
 finally succeeded in procuring the passage in 1721 of the 
 
 1 Cunningham, op. cit., II, 465. 
 
THE OLD COLONIAL SYSTEM 103 
 
 Calico Act. By this measure Indian cotton goods could not 
 be sold, used for upholstering furniture or worn in England. 
 As yet Britain's cotton industry had not assumed impor- 
 tance. 
 
 The southern American colonies were valuable for their 
 cotton, rice, and indigo. There was no competition with 
 England here, and every effort was made to foster and 
 monopolize this trade. The West Indies were even more 
 highly valued for their products. These sugar colonies of- 
 fered supplies that were much needed, and which brought 
 them into direct competition with the French sugar colonies. 
 Immense sums were expended in the commerce and indus- 
 try of these islands. Careful measures were taken, as we 
 shall note presently, that this money and interest should 
 not be mistakenly applied. The West Indian islands were 
 also of great value as the emporium of the slave-trade, and 
 throughout the eighteenth century a thriving business in 
 negroes was carried on, not only for the Spanish colonies, 
 by virtue of the Asiento, but for the English colonies as well. 
 Liverpool seems to have profited most by this trade, but 
 New England ships, also, did a considerable business in 
 slaves. 1 
 
 The colonies north of Virginia proved of less interest to 
 England. English statesmen felt no special interest in New 
 England, for it produced little that England did not have and 
 was a constant menace by its possible competition. The 
 Board of Control declared in 1732 that there were "more 
 trades carried on and manufactures set up in the provinces on 
 
 1 Charles D'Avenant is particularly clear as to the place of negroes in the 
 prosperity of the West Indies: "It would much conduce to the support and 
 prosperity of the sugar and tobacco Plantations to put the African trade into 
 some better order. So great a part of our foreign business arising from these 
 colonies, they ought undoubtedly to have all due Encouragement, and to be 
 plentifully supplied and at reasonable Rates, with Negroes, to meliorate and 
 cultivate the land. The Labour of these slaves is the principal foundation of 
 our Riches there; upon which account we should take all proper measures to 
 bring them on easy terms. ... It must certainly be prudent in any trade, manu- 
 facture or business to render the first material as cheap as possible. Slaves are 
 the first and most necessary material for planting; from whence follows that all 
 measures should be taken that may produce such a plenty of them, as may be 
 an Encouragement to the Industrious Planter." Select Dissertations, p. 55. 
 
104 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 the continent of America to the northward of Virginia, prej- 
 udicial to the trade and manufactures of Great Britain, than 
 in any other of the British colonies." 1 This but restated the 
 opinion of Sir Josiah Child. He wrote of New England, 
 which he praised for frugality, industry, and temperance: 
 "Although men ought to envy that virtue and wisdom in 
 others, yet I think it is the duty of every good man primarily 
 to respect the welfare of his native country; I cannot omit to 
 notice the particulars wherein Old England suffers diminu- 
 tion by the growth of these colonies settled in New England. 
 All our Plantations except that of New England produce 
 commodities of different natures from those of this Kingdom, 
 whereas New England produces generally the same." 2 
 
 The colonial woolen industry was small, but it aroused the 
 jealousy of English manufacturers, and an attempt was made 
 to check it by Act of Parliament in 1698. The making of 
 hats in the American colonies came to the knowledge of the 
 London Company of Feltmakers; thereupon, they procured 
 an Act of Parliament in 1732 by which the export of hats from 
 one colony to another was prohibited. The beginning of an 
 iron industry in these colonies was looked at askance, as well. 
 It never competed seriously with English iron, as the Ameri- 
 cans did not make so fine a grade of material. Yet in 1750 
 an Act, which allowed the free importation of colonial pig- 
 iron into England, prohibited the American manufacture 
 beyond that stage. 
 
 In the New England colonies and Pennsylvania there was 
 a large business in the building of ships. There were excel- 
 lent facilities for this industry along the American seaboard 
 and an abundance of raw materials to draw upon. Al- 
 though the Thames shipbuilders in 1724 complained of this 
 competition, nothing was done to prevent this industry ex- 
 cept that the raw materials needed for the building of ships 
 and the supplies for naval purposes were sought in the col- 
 onies. Attempts were made to reserve areas of forests for 
 providing masts and spars, and bounties were given on spars 
 
 1 Quoted in Greene, Provincial America, p. 278. 
 1 Select Dissertations, p. 21. 
 
THE OLD COLONIAL SYSTEM 105 
 
 and masts, pitch tar and hemp. In 1721 Parliament passed 
 a law reserving for the use of the royal navy all trees fit for 
 masts not growing on private lands in the colonies north of 
 Pennsylvania. The interest shown in these supplies is an 
 evidence, not only of commercial policy, but also of the grow- 
 ing importance of the navy. 
 
 The English attitude toward Ireland was in line with that 
 toward the other plantations. The nearness of Ireland to 
 England and the consequently greater danger of effective 
 competition, if its industries developed, led to more oppres- 
 sive measures here than elsewhere. Irish cloth manufac- 
 turers were prohibited from exporting their goods to other 
 colonies, to England, or to foreign nations. At the close of 
 the seventeenth century, bar-iron was permitted to come 
 into England without the duty previously levied, but this 
 manufacture, along with the exportation of timber to Eng- 
 land for shipping purposes, brought about the serious de- 
 pletion of the Irish forests. Ireland's wealth was for Eng- 
 land's use. Because of nearness, Ireland suffered from the 
 mercantile system, but reaped few of the advantages of 
 distant colonies producing materials not obtainable in the 
 mother country. The retarded development of Ireland, as 
 compared with the self-governing dominions and the hesi- 
 tancy of England to grant to Ireland institutions existing in 
 other parts of the Empire, has found its raison d'itre very 
 largely in their geographical proximity. 
 
 It must also be borne in mind that, until the Organic Union 
 of Scotland and England in 1707, Scotland was a foreign land 
 so far as British law and administration were concerned. 
 
 NAVIGATION ACTS 
 
 The commercial code of England's old colonial policy was 
 based on a series of navigation acts, which were designed to 
 bring to pass the conditions described in the preceding para- 
 graphs. Reference has already been made to the Navigation 
 Act of 1651, directed against the Dutch shortly before the 
 First Dutch War. 1 But the law known usually as the "First 
 
 1 See p. 67. 
 
106 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 Navigation Act" was passed in 1660. By it the importation 
 of goods from Asia, Africa, or America, whether British or 
 foreign, was confined to English or colonial vessels; goods of 
 foreign growth, production, or manufacture, brought in Eng- 
 lish or colonial vessels to Great Britain, must come directly; 
 and foreign vessels were forbidden to take goods of their own 
 country to the colonies, and they were shut out from the 
 coastwise trade. In addition, certain "enumerated" articles 
 — sugar, tobacco, cotton-wool, indigo, ginger, fustic, and 
 other dyeing woods — could be carried only to England. 
 
 In 1663 appeared a Second Navigation Act. By prohibit- 
 ing the importation into the colonies of European commod- 
 ities unless they were first landed in England, the mother 
 country was made the staple for the colonies. Exception was 
 made of salt for the fisheries, wines from the Azores, servants, 
 horses, and victuals from Ireland and Scotland. The pre- 
 amble admirably states the mercantile ideal: "In regard his 
 Majesties Plantations beyond the Sea are inhabited and peo- 
 pled by His Subjects of this His Kingdome of England, For 
 the maintaining of a greater correspondence and kindnesse 
 between them and keepeing them in a firmer dependence 
 upon it, and rendring them yet more beneficiall and advanta- 
 gious unto it in the farther Imployment and Encrease of Eng- 
 lish Shipping and Seamen, vent of English Woollen and other 
 Commodities . . . and makeing this Kingdom a Staple not 
 onely of the Commodities of those Plantations but alsoe of 
 the Commodities of other Countryes and Places. ... Be it 
 enacted, etc." 1 
 
 The Third Navigation Act of 1672 prevented the traffic in 
 enumerated articles between one colony and another except 
 on payment of a duty similar to that required when they 
 were shipped to England. These three acts were in force 
 when the Revolution of 1688 took place. But it was found 
 that they were neither obeyed nor effectively executed. The 
 result was another Act in 1696, which was passed to prevent 
 frauds and regulate abuses. The oaths of royal governors 
 were made more stringent, naval officers had to give security 
 
 1 See Macdonald, Select Charters, for the text of the Navigation Acts. 
 
THE OLD COLONIAL SYSTEM 107 
 
 for the performance of their duties, all colonial laws contrary 
 to the navigation laws were declared null and void, and most 
 stringent measures were taken to suppress Scotch and other 
 alien traders. 
 
 Enumerated articles were added from time to time. In 
 1705 rice and molasses were put on the list. Naval stores 
 were added shortly after, and copper and furs in 1722. 
 When the authorities found New Englanders buying sugar 
 and molasses more cheaply from the French and Dutch West 
 Indies than from their sister colonies in the Caribbean, the 
 British sugar islands petitioned Parliament for relief. In 
 1733 the so-called " Molasses Act" was passed, placing pro- 
 hibitive duties on foreign sugar, molasses, and rum imported 
 into the British colonies. 
 
 These acts were the chief of some half a hundred passed 
 during this period to " encourage trade." They were sup- 
 posedly in force during the eighteenth century, but there was 
 a systematic violation of them and a large measure of illicit 
 commerce. For example, the Scotch did a thriving business 
 with the colonies before 1707. The distinctions between 
 trader and smuggler and pirate were poorly denned. In ad- 
 dition, the navy of England was not yet adequate to enforce 
 its maritime regulations; zealous officials like Edward Ran- 
 dolph and Robert Quary found no end of evasion, and expe- 
 rienced great difficulty in enforcing even partially the regu- 
 lations committed to their care. Randolph made a report 
 in 1697, in which he cites fifteen vessels loaded with tobacco 
 for England that did not land their goods there, twenty-two 
 vessels trading with Scotland, and a Dutch vessel and a Nor- 
 wegian carrier doing a colonial business. A large trade was 
 carried on with the Canary Islands, with France by way of 
 the Newfoundland fisheries, and with Holland through the 
 Dutch colony of Surinam. At the close of the Seven Years' 
 War, renewed colonial interest led to an attempt to enforce 
 these acts and others that would bind the colonies closer to 
 England. 
 
108 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION 
 
 The emphasis that has been placed on commerce and in- 
 dustry in the old colonial system should not exclude from 
 consideration the political relations borne by the colonies to 
 the homeland. The lack of a real colonial policy is evident 
 when the administrative side is considered, for no system of 
 government was considered that did not have a commercial 
 aspect. 
 
 From the Restoration of 1660 to the Seven Years' War, 
 there was marked progress in England in the development 
 of its institutional life. During the years following the de- 
 parture of James II, the legislative side of the Government 
 subordinated the Crown more and more. The development 
 of the cabinet system at this time and its dependence upon 
 the majority party in Parliament kept harmony in the home 
 Government. In the colonies the ideals that found expres- 
 sion in the struggles against the early Stuarts were treasured 
 as guides for their political growth. Beyond the sea, how- 
 ever, there was no such growing harmony between the execu- 
 tive and the legislative as there was in England. This differ- 
 ence in development was probably inevitable, as England 
 was not prepared to allow a movement parallel to that at 
 home to go on in the colonies, even though the inhabitants 
 of the oversea possessions were regarded as having, in theory, 
 the same kind of rights as Englishmen at home. If the 
 colonial governors had been subordinated to the local legis- 
 latures, it would have meant " responsible government," a 
 privilege won by the great colonies of the Empire during 
 the middle of the nineteenth century. The privileges that 
 Englishmen had acquired by the Bill of Rights were not 
 regarded as extending to the colonies. 
 
 Early English colonial policy had been very easy-going; 
 the government of new colonies was left to individuals or 
 corporations acting under royal charters or by simple per- 
 mission of the Crown. Before the accession of James II, 
 Virginia and New Hampshire were the only royal provinces 
 on the American continent, although at this time there were 
 
THE OLD COLONIAL SYSTEM 109 
 
 twelve distinct colonial governments on the American main- 
 land within the boundaries of the later revolting colonies. 1 
 James II, during his short reign, made great efforts to ex- 
 tend his absolutist ideas to other colonies. In 1684, on the 
 eve of James' accession, Massachusetts had lost its charter 
 on account of flagrant violations of the Navigation Laws. 
 Taking advantage of this change of government, the King 
 appointed Edmund Andros Governor of the Dominion of New 
 England, which was intended to include all the territory north 
 of Pennsylvania. But the Revolution of 1688 put an end 
 to James' government in America as well as in England. 
 Thereafter matters went on without great change from the 
 conditions before the interference of James, save that Mas- 
 sachusetts was given a new charter — less liberal than its 
 predecessor — and New York was made a royal province. 
 
 Up to 1689 there had been almost no parliamentary con- 
 trol and but little Crown interference in colonial govern- 
 ment. William III, however, was advised to bring the col- 
 onies into greater dependence upon the Crown. It was an 
 excellent opportunity to put in order colonial affairs, but the 
 newly chosen King was too busily engaged in European mat- 
 ters to do anything constructive. As a result of the military 
 character of his reign, military powers were given the gover- 
 nors of some colonies. The Governor of New York was 
 entrusted with the command of the Connecticut military 
 forces; Rhode Island was subjected in like manner to the 
 royal representative in Massachusetts. To the three royal 
 provinces of Virginia, New York, and New Hampshire there 
 were added, by 1760, New Jersey, North Carolina, South 
 Carolina, Georgia, and Nova Scotia. 
 
 As time went on, the ruling of the colonies took more and 
 more of the time of the executive at home. The Privy 
 Council and especially the secretaries of state gave part of 
 their attention to oversea matters. In 1696 the King au- 
 thorized the organization of the Board of Commissioners for 
 Trade and Plantations, known commonly as the "Board of 
 Trade." The duties of this famous committee were many; 
 
 1 The royal province of Nova Scotia had not yet been acquired. 
 
110 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 trade conditions and improvement, the furthering of manu- 
 factures, trade in the plantations and its development, and 
 the oversight of colonial government were some of the mat- 
 ters that came to their attention. The greater part of their 
 time was taken up with the affairs of the American colonies, 
 including, of course, the West Indies. The Board was not 
 powerful, however, as it served as little more thar an investi- 
 gating and advisory committee, with powers of nomination 
 and remonstrance. During its early years it exercised a 
 fairly large measure of influence, but its power continually 
 declined and whatever consistent policy it advocated re- 
 ceived no adequate support. Long before its abolition at 
 the close of the American Revolution, it had ceased to be ef- 
 fective. In 1784 a committee of the Privy Council on "all 
 matters pertaining to trade and foreign plantations" was es- 
 tablished; two years later, a new committee was formed in 
 its place. These committees served much the same purpose 
 as the former Board of Trade. 
 
 The Privy Council, the secretaries of state and the Board 
 of Trade were not the only executive bodies that had to do 
 with the colonies. The Treasury Department with its audi- 
 tor-general of plantation revenues, the commissioners of cus- 
 toms, the registrar of emigrants to the plantations, and the 
 Post-Office, as well as the paymaster-general of the forces, 
 the Admiralty, and the War Office, were concerned in colo- 
 nial affairs. Both the House of Lords and the House of Com- 
 mons could make formal inquiries and recommendations. In 
 addition, there was considerable supervision of colonial laws 
 by the use of the royal disallowance and by act of Parlia- 
 ment. For example, in 1754, George II disallowed eight 
 acts of North Carolina. During the period from 1689 to 
 1763, this medley of administrative machinery did not work 
 to the serious inconvenience of the colonies, because of the 
 inefficiency and laxity of the various engineers that had to 
 do with the composite and complicated mechanism. Even 
 government at home was neglected by the pursuance of easy 
 courses and the prevalence of corruption, and the colonies 
 were subject to the same conditions. 
 
THE OLD COLONIAL SYSTEM 111 
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF INDIA 
 
 The problems that arose in the administration of Bengal 
 were quite distinct from those growing out of the relation of 
 the American colonies to the mother country. India was 
 not a colony, but a complicated group of native states, with 
 which relations were had through a trading company. The 
 chief political task of England in India was the regulation 
 and restraint of the great East India Company, as it laid ter- 
 ritorial bases for its business success. In the seventeenth 
 century the Company faced a great deal of opposition. This 
 distant trade was declared to be injurious to England's mari- 
 time interests, for it took to distant seas shipping that should 
 be nearer home. Much opposition was aroused by the nec- 
 essarily large exportation of bullion for use in eastern trade, 
 as there was no great demand for English goods in the East. 
 The mercantilist theory of the balance of trade and the con- 
 trol of the money supply came into seeming opposition with 
 this aspect of English commercial life. Besides, those who 
 wanted to carry on business ventures in the East and were 
 not in the Company naturally disliked and fought a monop- 
 oly that hindered their desires. These " interlopers' ' fur- 
 nished much trouble. 
 
 When William became King, the East India Company hoped 
 to have its privileges put into more permanent shape by act of 
 Parliament. It received in 1693 two additional charters, by 
 which its monopoly was continued for twenty-one years, but 
 no act of Parliament made its position secure. The feeling of 
 the House of Commons was so hostile that they permitted 
 the formation of a new or General Company in addition to the 
 older organization known as the " London Company." The 
 conflict of these two trading concerns became so bitter that 
 they were united in 1708 with privileges of exclusive trade 
 until 1733. As 1733 approached, the agitation was renewed, 
 but the Company, by liberal gifts and later by loans to the 
 Government during the War of the Austrian Succession, 
 obtained an extension of its privileges until 1780. Before 
 that time arrived, however, further changes took place. 1 
 
 1 See pp. 181 ff. 
 
112 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 The phenomenal success of British arms in India has been 
 related. The Company's servants found boundless oppor- 
 tunities for enriching themselves as well as their employers, 
 and their actions led to much criticism of the Company. As 
 the result of an inquiry in 1768, its administration was found 
 to be very corrupt. Thereupon an Act was passed defining 
 the financial obligations of the Company to the Government. 
 Five years later (1773), Lord North's Regulating Act brought 
 about an extensive reorganization of the finances of the Com- 
 pany as well as of the Government of India. A supreme 
 court was established, the Governor of Bengal was made 
 Governor-General, and was assisted by a council of four 
 members appointed by Parliament. 
 
 As the Company's affairs continued in a condition of seri- 
 ous difficulty, further measures were taken in the next decade 
 for strengthening the public control. There was a parlia- 
 mentary inquiry in 1781. Charles James Fox introduced an 
 India Bill in 1783, which was intended to bring about a thor- 
 ough reorganization. He proposed to give the government 
 of India into the hands of seven commissioners appointed by 
 Parliament, who were to hold office for four years and then be 
 succeeded by appointees of the Crown. They were to be 
 trustees of the Company's property, which was to be admin- 
 istered for them by a subordinate council of directors. Ex- 
 tensive administrative reforms were also included, which were 
 aimed at ending the corruption that had caused so much criti- 
 cism. Despite its excellencies, the Bill was defeated, for it 
 was regarded as a party measure and was sharply criticized 
 by those who wished the patronage to be in the King's hands 
 rather than with Fox and his friends, if but for a time. 
 
 In the next year the younger Pitt succeeded where Fox had 
 failed. A board of control appointed by the King henceforth 
 supervised the civil and military administration. The Com- 
 pany retained most of the patronage and the appointment 
 of the Governor-General, the Presidents, and Councils in In- 
 dia, appointments that were subject to the approval of the 
 King, who also bad the power of removal. The dual sys- 
 tem of control brought about by this Bill remained the form 
 
THE OLD COLONIAL SYSTEM IIS 
 
 of government until the final change took place in 1858. The 
 compromising character of this measure was the chief reason 
 for its success; it also illustrates the halting progress toward 
 a unified system of colonial control. 
 
 If this review of the old colonial system reveals no consist- 
 ent British policy, we must not be too eager to condemn the 
 Government. The Empire was vast, and was distributed 
 over distant parts of the globe. India, the West Indies, 
 Newfoundland, Africa, Hudson Bay, and North America, 
 furnished no unified group of problems. Ireland, too, mu?^ 
 be thought of as a part of the colonial Empire of this time, 
 and its treatment is to be included under colonial policy. 
 In addition, the problems were comparatively nev?, for 
 Great Britain had no worthy precedents to follow. T he old 
 Roman Empire, the later German one of the Middl e Ages, 
 those of Venice and Spain, were not guides to an int elligent, 
 modern colonial administration. The distance between the 
 mother country and the colonies and between the colonies 
 themselves was much greater than it is in our day. The 
 best that could be done was to treat the colonies from the 
 commercial point of view with the interests of the mother 
 country primary, and to handle each colonial difficulty as it 
 arose, in terms largely economic and financial. The revolt of 
 the American colonies in 1775 was the logical result of the old 
 colonial system. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 
 
 An excellent treatment of the old colonial system, within small limits, is; 
 to be found in C. M. Andrews, The Colonial Period (New York, 1912), in 
 the "Home University Library." Three volumes of the "American Na- 
 tion" series should be mentioned: E. B. Greene, Provincial America (New 
 York, 1905) ; C. M. Andrews, Colonial Self-Government (New York, 1904) ;; 
 and G. E. Howard, Preliminaries of the Revolution (New York, 1905). 
 Miss Mary P. Clarke has contributed an article on "The Board of Trade 
 at Work" to the American Historical Review (October, 1911). An im- 
 portant survey of the old colonial system is found in the three works of 
 G. L. Beer: Origins of the British Colonial System, 1578-1660 (New York,, 
 1908); The Old Colonial System, 1660-1754 (2 vols., New York, 1912); and 
 British Colonial Policy, 1754-1765 (New York, 1907). O. M. Dickerson, 
 American Colonial Government, 1696-1765 (Cleveland, 1912), is a study of 
 the Board of Trade in its relation to the American colonies. A compre- 
 
114 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 hensive treatment by a well-known British authority is H. E. Egerton's A 
 
 Short History of British Colonial Policy (5th ed., London, 1918) . There are 
 briefer treatments in G. B. Hurst, The Old Colonial System (Manchester, 
 1905), and A. P. Newton, The Old Empire and the New (London, 1917). 
 The fourth book of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations treats of the mercan- 
 tile system as applied to the colonies. The texts of the various acts are 
 found in convenient form in Macdonald's Select Charters and other Docu- 
 ments illustrative of American History, 1606-1775 (New York, 1899). 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE REVOLT OF THE AMERICAN COLONIES 
 
 The conclusion of the Seven Years' War brought British 
 expansion to a grand climax. The jubilation was natural. 
 Among the evidences of pride was the record kept of world- 
 affairs in the Annual Register established by Dodsley in 1759, 
 and for which Edmund Burke was engaged to write the polit- 
 ical accounts from year to year. It evidently served a grow- 
 ing interest. Ordinarily the various chapters dealt princi- 
 pally with the continental states. The volume for 1775 is 
 unique in the prominence given to colonial matters; one hun- 
 dred and forty pages are devoted to the troubles in America, 
 and only one chapter, the last, reviewed European matters of 
 importance. 
 
 The opening paragraph of this volume states the cause for 
 the dark times that had succeeded the glorious exploits of 
 the Seven Years' War. "It happens most unfortunately 
 this year, that our own public affairs take the lead of those of 
 Europe, and have in a great degree absorbed all the matters 
 of political speculation. . . . The great disturbers of mankind 
 contemplate the new and unthought of spectacle we exhibit 
 to the world, and perhaps eagerly predict the advantages 
 which they may derive from its fatal consequences. It need 
 scarcely be mentioned that the unhappy contest in which we 
 are involved with our colonies is the event which has thus ex- 
 cited the attention of mankind. Those colonies, which were 
 so long our strength and glory, whose rapid growth and as- 
 tonishing increase mocked the calculations of politicians and 
 outstripped the speculations of philosophers; those colonies, 
 which equally excited the apprehension of our enemies and 
 the envy of our friends, still attract the eyes of the world to 
 them and to us, as a common center. ... It is no longer our 
 task to describe devastation in Poland or slaughter on the 
 Danube, The evil is at home." 1 
 
 l Annual Register, 1,775, Preface, and p. 2. 
 
116 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 It seems indeed strange that one of the brightest periods in 
 the history of the Empire should be followed so soon by such 
 a disastrous occurrence as the loss of the American colonies. 
 It was much more of a calamity than it may seem to the 
 modern observer looking back one hundred and fifty years. 
 The thirteen colonies were the fairest portions of the Old 
 Empire. They included by 1770 a population of nearly two 
 millions of people. Although some of the American conti- 
 nental colonies were not the most valuable feeders of the 
 mother country commercially, their large population con- 
 sumed over two million pounds' worth of exports annually at 
 the close of the Seven Years' War; this was twice the amount 
 used by the West Indian colonies. New Brunswick and 
 Nova Scotia were as yet practically undeveloped, and Can- 
 ada did not seem to have in it the possibilities of the Canada 
 of to-day. As a matter of fact, there was considerable dis- 
 cussion in 1763 as to whether England should take from the 
 French their possessions on the American mainland or the 
 island of Guadeloupe. The loss of the American colonies 
 seemed the beginning of the end of a great colonial empire. 
 
 Prophecies had not been wanting that such an occurrence 
 would take place. Montesquieu, in 1730, had written that 
 England would be the first nation to lose its colonies as a re- 
 sult of the laws of trade and navigation. A little later D'Ar- 
 genson had uttered a similar prediction, and that of Turgot 
 is well known. He likened colonies to fruit that remained on 
 the parent stem only until it was ripe; Turgot declared that 
 America, in like fashion, would some time separate from the 
 British parent. 
 
 When Canada was added to the British dominions, prophr 
 ecy regarding the American colonies became more concrete. 
 In 1761 the Duke of Bedford had written to Newcastle: "I 
 don't know whether the neighbourhood of the French to our 
 American colonies was not the greatest security for their de- 
 pendence on the mother country." 1 Kalm, the Swedish bot- 
 anist who traveled in the colonies in 1748, in his Travels into 
 North America declared that the pressure of the French in 
 
 1 Quoted in Charming, n, 596. 
 
THE REVOLT OF THE AMERICAN COLONIES 117 
 
 Canada was all that held the colonies in submission. Wil- 
 liam Burke, a kinsman of the famous statesman, in a pam- 
 phlet in 1760, felt that there was serious danger for English 
 control if French pressure were removed; for the colonists 
 were "numerous, hardy and independent, communicating 
 little or not at all with England." The French statesman, 
 Choiseul, is reported to have expressed surprise that Pitt in- 
 tended to take Canada as the price of peace in 1763 since the 
 English colonies would not fail to shake off their dependence 
 the moment Canada should be ceded. 
 
 This fact seemed equally cogent when the Revolution had 
 actually begun. In 1776 Turgot published a Memoir e on the 
 attitude France and Spain should take toward England's 
 colonial trouble. In referring to a suggestion that Canada 
 should be retaken, he wrote: " It is a great advantage to us 
 that England possesses Canada to-day for the Americans no 
 longer see behind them enemies that can cause them uneasi- 
 ness as they look toward probable independence." 1 The 
 famous Dean of Gloucester, Josiah Tucker, published Four 
 Tracts in 1776. He diagnoses the cause for the existing 
 troubles as follows: "It was not the Stamp Act which in- 
 creased or heightened these ill humours in the colonies; it was 
 rather the reduction of Canada. . . . From the moment in 
 which Canada came into the possession of England, an end 
 was put to the sovereignty of the mother country over her 
 colonies." 2 It is certain that the idea was widespread in 
 both Great Britain and France that colonial rebellion in 
 America bore a direct relation to the acquisition of Canada 
 by the English. 
 
 CAUSES FOR REBELLION 
 
 Such a serious rupture of the Empire cannot be based solely 
 on so simple an external cause. Many conditions existed 
 that were probably more responsible for this revolt and the 
 break-up of the old colonial system. One important factor 
 
 1 CEuvres (Paris, 1844), n, 555. 
 
 2 Four Tracts on Political and Commercial Subjects (3d ed., Gloucester, 1776), 
 pp. 160, 161. 
 
118 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 was the nature of the navigation and trade laws. The at- 
 titude of the British Government toward its dependencies 
 was dominated by the commercial ideals sketched in the 
 preceding chapter. Although these laws were not at all 
 times enforced, the commercial attitude is well expressed by 
 them, and they were constantly at hand as a disturber of 
 the possible good relations between the mother country and 
 its colonies. 
 
 Serious objection to this attitude of Great Britain toward 
 its possessions would have been pronounced before the close 
 of the Seven Years' War had the laws been rigidly enforced. 
 But they were not. Smuggling had become as widespread 
 and respectable in the colonies as it was at this time on the 
 coasts of England itself. It was either connived at or the 
 officials were helpless to prevent the practice. Indeed, it is 
 estimated that during the sixty years before the Revolution 
 began, Great Britain paid out, in order to uphold its commer- 
 cial system, a sum exceeding the value of the whole real and 
 personal property of the colonies. About 1755, an attempt 
 was made to improve the situation by the use of writs of 
 assistance, which authorized customs officers to use every 
 facility in their search for contraband goods. 
 
 The inconveniences of the colonial system worked hard- 
 ship not only on the colonial merchant; it caused irritation to 
 the large group of consumers as well. When the Seven Years' 
 War began, the situation became more complicated than ever. 
 The illicit trade then became treasonable, since much of it 
 was with the French West Indies. French colonies received 
 supplies from the British colonies. The British navy was 
 greatly hampered in prosecuting the war as a result of this 
 trade. At the close of the struggle, it was not surprising 
 that Great Britain should expect the colonies to share to 
 some extent the expense of their own defense, especially as 
 they had garnered wealth during the conflict by what seemed 
 unpatriotic means. As a result, a more rigid policy of law 
 enforcement ensued. The proposed taxation was not in- 
 tended for the support of the home government but only to 
 pay in part for the upkeep of an army stationed in America 
 
THE REVOLT OF THE AMERICAN COLONIES 119 
 
 for the defense of the colonies. With this new policy the 
 Revolution really began. 
 
 It was not so much economic restriction as a feeling of in- 
 dustrial and commercial independence that led to the grow- 
 ing dissatisfaction. The effects of the British commercial 
 system have often been overestimated, as the causes for the 
 discontent have been sought. The grievances suffered by the 
 colonies in connection with trade were not so very serious, 
 and Englishmen were frequently at a loss to explain the im- 
 mense furore aroused. The truth is that the colonies by that 
 time had grown away from the mother country to such an ex- 
 tent that they were not willing to recognize even moderate 
 restrictions. The very evasion of the laws of trade by smug- 
 gling had developed this independence. When the war with 
 France came, they felt no particular compunction in contin- 
 uing their commercial enterprises along the usual lines. 
 
 The independent spirit, expressed in this reaction to the 
 stricter colonial policy of the years following the Peace of 
 Paris, is to be explained, therefore, by the causes that brought 
 about a sturdy, self-centered, and independent type of co- 
 lonial. Life on the frontier has always bred men of strong and 
 pronounced individuality. Struggles with the Indians and a 
 stubborn soil served as teachers of self-reliance. The severe 
 and strenuous conditions of colonial life must always be 
 borne in mind in appraising their apparent thoughtlessness 
 of the mother country. The very physical remoteness of 
 colonies three thousand miles away had a powerful liberal- 
 izing effect. 
 
 The results of physical remoteness and frontier life were 
 even more significantly expressed in the constitutional de- 
 velopment of the colonies. New England showed its indi- 
 viduality in an early attainment of practical self-government. 
 It will be recalled x that the Company which received the 
 charter of 1629 removed to America and became the colony. 
 In Massachusetts Bay and its offshoots, Rhode Island and 
 Connecticut, and in its neighbor, Plymouth, democracy re- 
 ceived a remarkable expression in the town meeting and the 
 
 1 See p. 43. 
 
120 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 congregational system. In Virginia a House of Burgesses 
 had been authorized in 1619, and during the period of the 
 Commonwealth this colony enjoyed the privileges of prac- 
 tical self-government. In other colonies varying degrees of 
 the representative system were reached, so that their own 
 self-constituted life had a fair expression. This resulted 
 in an unconscious estrangement from the mother country. 
 Freedom of institutional life was to a great extent the re- 
 sult of extremely liberal charters given to foster settlement. 
 In every case the colonies that revolted were indebted to 
 private individuals or companies for their formation, and not 
 to the home Government. Although most of the settlements 
 had become royal colonies by the time of the Revolution, 
 their past and their practice tended to make the colonists 
 feel that the rights of Englishmen had been brought with 
 them across the sea. The revolt against Charles I had left 
 its deep impress in America, an impress so strong that Pat- 
 rick Henry's appeal to it as a precedent in their relations 
 to George III was more than a rhetorical flourish. 
 
 The men and women who came to America were not, as 
 a rule, prosperous and conservative. Often they were not 
 members of the respected classes. Large numbers emi- 
 grated because of religious dissatisfaction or radicalism in 
 political beliefs. If there was much unrest in the England of 
 the seventeenth century, there was bound to be more in the 
 colonies that were established at that time. The inherent 
 rights of Englishmen which were fought for in the struggles 
 with the Stuarts were carried to the world of the West, where 
 a congenial atmosphere free from the restraining effects of an 
 older civilization caused those ideas to find a full expression. 
 Tendencies toward self-government and democratic ideas 
 were simply inevitable. 
 
 Added to this sense of political remoteness and freedom 
 was a growing consciousness of strength resulting from suc- 
 cessful colonial wars and the passing of the French menace. 
 In addition, there was an increasing feeling of kinship in the 
 colonies during the eighteenth century. Isolation was slowly 
 broken down by the movements of population from one 
 
THE REVOLT OF THE AMERICAN COLONIES 121 
 
 group to another or westward to establish another frontier. 
 As early as 1643 the New England colonies had banded to- 
 gether against Indians and Dutch and French. James II 
 made an ill-starred attempt to form all the territory north of 
 Pennsylvania into one Dominion of New England under a 
 single governor. A little later, in 1690, an intercolonial 
 congress had been held at New York following the suggestion 
 of Massachusetts in view of the imminent military dangers. 
 The numerous wars of the eighteenth century aided much in 
 fostering this feeling. Finally, in 1754, as the Seven Years' 
 War was about to open, a congress was held at Albany, in 
 which all the colonies except the Carolinas, Georgia, Virginia, 
 and New Jersey, were represented. The plan of union pro- 
 jected there did not come into operation, but, in spite of its 
 failure, it showed that there was a widespread desire for a 
 " general union of strength and interest." By 1760 the col- 
 onies were conscious of their power and of their common in- 
 terests. 
 
 It was surely unfortunate, from the British point of view, 
 with such forces as these in operation, that the British Gov- 
 ernment should not have been manned with the very best 
 sort of leadership. George III, who succeeded to the throne 
 in 1760, "gloried in the name of Briton." This feeling, 
 however, was in him more a fault than a virtue, from the 
 point of view of constitutional development, as he made a 
 stubborn effort to revive royal influence in order to be more 
 of a king. He was a "consummate politician in the worst 
 sense," 1 rejecting good leadership in Parliament that he 
 might consolidate his personal power. 
 
 THE APPKOACH OF WAR 
 
 It was under such auspices that a "tightening" policy was 
 inaugurated at the close of the Seven Years' War. This con- 
 flict had been expensive, the debt having almost doubled, 
 and the expenditures having risen to three times their nor- 
 mal size within eight years. Colonial evasion of English 
 trading regulations, continuing during the time of the war, 
 
 1 John Morley, On Politics and History, p. 190. 
 
122 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 had aroused the wrath of the British Government. Writs of 
 assistance were issued under the name of George III in 1761 
 to help the collectors put the laws of trade into execution. 
 This action aroused much opposition in Boston, where James 
 Otis in that year eloquently stated colonial ideas in speaking 
 against the issuance of these writs. In fact, Great Britain 
 had to do something, as the colonial customs were producing 
 less than two thousand pounds a year, hardly a fourth part 
 of the cost of collection. In addition to the writs of assist- 
 ance, the mother country sought a remedy for the situation 
 by compelling customs officials to do their work in America 
 and not by means of deputies. Colonial governors were 
 commanded to be more diligent and naval vessels were em- 
 powered to seize ships doing an unlawful trade. 
 
 In April, 1764, a new revenue law, known usually as the 
 "Sugar Act," came into force. Its purpose is stated in the 
 opening paragraphs of the act; it was to renew the Molasses 
 Act of 1733, 1 to " defray the expenses of defending, protect- 
 ing and securing the said colonies and plantations," to dis- 
 allow drawbacks on exports from England and to prevent 
 the "clandestine conveyance of goods to and from the said 
 colonies and plantations," and to secure and improve the 
 trade between "the same and Great Britain." Careful pro- 
 visions were made for enforcing the law, and the penalties for 
 disobedience were extremely severe. 
 
 In spite of outspoken opposition to this measure by the col- 
 onists, a further step was taken in the following year by the 
 passage of a Stamp Act toward "further defraying the ex- 
 penses of defending, protecting and securing the same." Its 
 one hundred and seventeen paragraphs covered every con- 
 ceivable form in which a stamp duty might be obtained, from 
 ships' papers to playing-cards and dice. What made it more 
 disagreeable was the injunction that the money collected 
 was to be paid directly into the British exchequer. 
 
 Still greater opposition followed this measure. Various 
 colonial assemblies passed resolutions. Riots occurred. 
 Stamp masters had to resign. Nine colonies joined in a 
 
 > See p. 107. 
 
THE REVOLT OF THE AMERICAN COLONIES 123 
 
 Stamp Act Congress at New York, which drew up a petition 
 to the King and a memorial to Parliament. When the day 
 for enforcing the Act came, neither stamp masters nor stamps 
 were to be found. William Pitt rejoiced that America had 
 resisted, and he advised that no money be taken without co- 
 lonial assent, at the same time recommending measures that 
 would evidence Britain's authority across the seas. Pitt's 
 suggestion was followed in 1766; a Declaratory Act was 
 passed and the Stamp Act was repealed in the face of deter- 
 mined opposition in the House of Lords. The Declaratory 
 Act stated that the colonies "have been, are and of right 
 ought to be, subordinate unto, and dependent upon the im- 
 perial crown and parliament of Great Britain." Full power 
 of making laws for the colonies was affirmed and the denial of 
 this right by colonial assemblies was declared "utterly null 
 and void." In fact, political developments in the American 
 colonies had already gone so far that it is difficult to conceive 
 that a compromise could have been reached even as early as 
 1766. 
 
 Another source of dissatisfaction was the Quartering Act 
 passed in 1765, which again aroused the opposition of Massa- 
 chusetts and New York. The New York Assembly did not 
 fully comply with the requirements of the Quartering Act and 
 the colony's charter was suspended as a punishment. Added 
 to this grievance was a renewal of measures for procuring 
 revenue. Townshend, who, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
 was uncontrolled in 1766 on account of the illness of Pitt, pro- 
 posed plans for enforcing the existing laws and providing 
 revenue. Three Acts were passed in the next year, one for 
 establishing customs commissioners, a second for providing 
 revenue by the collection of import duties, and a third to 
 encourage the "consumption of teas legally imported within 
 this kingdom and increasing the exportation of teas to his 
 Majesty's plantations in America which are now chiefly fur- 
 nished by foreigners in a course of illicit trade." 
 
 Further riot and rebellion resulted. Non-importation 
 agreements spread through the various colonies. The Mas- 
 sachusetts General Court — that is, the legislature — sent a 
 
124 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 circular letter to all the colonies urging some common meas- 
 ure of redress. Thereupon, the Governor dissolved the 
 legislative body, and troops were sent to Boston to assist in 
 the enforcement of the law. As a result of the tense feeling, 
 a riot occurred in Boston in 1770, in which some citizens were 
 killed. Matters became so serious that Lord North, who 
 had become Prime Minister in 1770, removed all the duties 
 except that on tea. In spite of concessions, committees of 
 correspondence were vigilant in keeping colonial feeling and 
 cooperation at a high pitch; it was no longer the particular 
 duties that offended, but the principle that was being estab- 
 lished. In 1775 the tea that came to Boston — it was being 
 exported under permission granted to the East India Com- 
 pany by Lord North's Regulating Act of 1773 — was pitched 
 into the harbor. At Philadelphia and New York the tea was 
 not allowed off the vessels and at Charleston it was placed 
 in damp cellars to rot. 
 
 Parliament's indignation was great. In 1774 four statutes 
 were passed to meet the situation that was now seen to be 
 serious indeed. March 31, 1774, the port of Boston was 
 closed by an Act that passed both Houses of Parliament 
 without a division. A second measure revoked in part the 
 Massachusetts charter, while a third provided for a careful 
 administration of justice by changing the place of trial from 
 Massachusetts, if necessary, as a result of the "present dis- 
 ordered state of that province." A more complete Quarter- 
 ing Act was made law, which amounted to a temporary 
 military government for the province. The Quebec Act, 
 passed at the same time, reorganized the government of this 
 recently acquired possession. Although the measure did not 
 directly affect the thirteen colonies, it was obnoxious to the 
 northern colonies, since Quebec was considered to extend 
 south to the Ohio and west to the Mississippi. 1 
 
 The American colonies replied by calling a meeting of a 
 
 Continental Congress that sat at Philadelphia in September 
 
 of 1774. Growing unification of feeling was evident. When 
 
 a Second Continental Congress met in 1775, definite prepara- 
 
 1 See pp. 214-17 for a full treatment of this notable act. 
 
THE REVOLT OF THE AMERICAN COLONIES 125 
 
 tions were made for war. A month before it met, the British 
 troops in Boston had fought with the colonists at Lexington 
 and Concord. With these skirmishes, war began. Wash- 
 ington was made Commander-in-Chief and repaired to Mas- 
 sachusetts to take charge of the force gathered to withstand 
 the British troops quartered in Boston. 
 
 THE WAR 
 
 It is unnecessary to enter into detail regarding the conflict 
 that was concluded by the Treaty of Versailles in 1783. The 
 leadership of the British was irresolute and often half- 
 hearted. Washington, a host in himself, was assisted by 
 men drawn to the cause of those seemingly struggling for lib- 
 erty against oppression. Alexander Hamilton from the island 
 of Nevis became an enthusiastic aide of Washington, while 
 Lafayette and De Kalb from France, Steuben from Ger- 
 many, and Kosciuszko from Poland came to give assistance 
 to the revolting colonists. The British forces were, in gen- 
 eral, confined to the important cities. Boston, New York, 
 and Philadelphia were occupied during periods of the war, 
 but the country as a whole remained unconquered. 
 
 In 1777 the Revolution entered on a new stage. General 
 Burgoyne led an expedition from Canada into the State of 
 New York, hoping to cut the communications of the New 
 Englanders with the south. He was decisively defeated, 
 however, at Saratoga. The French had long hesitated as to 
 what they should do in view of the colonial troubles of their 
 rivals, but this evidence of American power led them to side 
 with the revolting colonists. With this development the con- 
 flict took on a larger importance; it became one more of the 
 series of Franco-British wars that had begun in 1689. It 
 was not long before Spain and Holland joined the enemies of 
 Britain, and, to make matters worse still, Prussia, Russia, 
 Sweden, and Denmark in 1780 entered into an agreement 
 known as the "Armed Neutrality." Britain's problem was 
 no longer the chastisement of unruly colonies; the Revolution 
 had broadened into a world-war. 
 
 The conflict on the mainland of America continued to be, 
 
126 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 on the whole, indecisive. Operations in the south by Corn- 
 wallis were partially successful until Washington's most ef- 
 ficient assistant, General Greene, masterfully confined the 
 British to the coast towns. Cornwallis took a position in 
 Yorktown, Virginia, near the mouth of the James River in 
 the year 1781, where he was promptly besieged by Washing- 
 ton and Lafayette. The French fleet under Comte de 
 Grasse was fortunately at hand to cooperate in the mili- 
 tary movements against Cornwallis. On the 19th of Octo- 
 ber, 1781, he surrendered. The American cause had been 
 won. 
 
 In other parts of the world Britain's embarrassments were 
 acute. The weakness of the British in America is accounted 
 for to a considerable degree by the enlarged area of the war 
 after 1777. Yet Washington doubted whether Yorktown 
 had ended the struggle. He placed his forces in the most 
 advantageous positions for defense and awaited the return 
 of the French fleet under De Grasse, without whose assist- 
 ance he admitted the patriot party was helpless. In Novem- 
 ber, 1781, the French captured the West Indian island of St. 
 Eustatius, so valuable as a free trading-center. To make mat- 
 ters worse for the British, Admiral Kempenfelt was unable 
 to intercept the fleet bringing supplies to De Grasse. A fur- 
 ther disaster was the loss in February, 1782, of Minorca to 
 the French and Spanish. In the same month a more serious 
 misfortune came with the capture of the West Indian island 
 of St. Christopher by the French. The trend of events was 
 unmistakable; the most precious of the British possessions, 
 the sugar islands, seemed to be slipping from British hands. 
 The Whigs, taking advantage of the military and naval situa- 
 tion, gave notice that they would offer a resolution of want 
 of confidence in the ministry. Lord North, rather than face 
 this, resigned. 
 
 The naval superiority remained for a while longer with 
 Britain's enemies. Montserrat and Nevis were captured by 
 the French shortly after the fall of St. Christopher, leaving 
 but three islands in the West Indies in the possession of the 
 British. A great colonial empire was disappearing. Fear 
 
THE REVOLT OP THE AMERICAN COLONIES 127 
 
 was felt for India, as the Far East would doubtless be the 
 next place of attack after the command of the Atlantic was 
 wrested from Britain. This untoward succession of events 
 was concluded when Admiral Rodney in April met the fleet 
 of De Grasse between the islands of Guadeloupe and Marti- 
 nique as the French were on their way to join a Spanish fleet 
 at Hispaniola. In the greatest naval battle of the time, De 
 Grasse was decisively defeated, surrendering his flagship 
 when he and another were the only ones left standing upon 
 the upper deck. It was the salvation of British sea-power 
 and of the British colonial Empire. The naval supremacy, 
 held by the French long enough to enable the Americans to 
 capture Yorktown and win the Revolution, was soon regained 
 by the British, and has been held by them ever since. 
 
 The treaty was finally arranged in 1783. By it independ- 
 ence was obtained for the thirteen colonies with the terri- 
 tory of the United States extending westward to the Missis- 
 sippi and northward to the Great Lakes. The Mississippi 
 was to be open to the navigation of both countries. Britain 
 granted fishing rights near Newfoundland to the Americans, 
 and gave the French additional privileges in these waters. 
 In the West Indies, France obtained Tobago from Great 
 Britain, but returned the other islands captured in the war. 
 In Africa, the French received Senegal and Gor£e, and in 
 India they were given back their trading-posts. Spain ob- 
 tained Minorca and Florida; Gibraltar, which the Spanish 
 had made great efforts to capture, remained with the British. 
 
 The effect of the loss of the British colonies was momen- 
 tous. The effort of George III to revive the royal preroga- 
 tive was definitely checked. As this conflict was the first 
 successful revolt of a colony against the mother country, it 
 spread the feeling, so well expressed by Turgot, that the fruit 
 when ripe would drop from the tree. Franklin's boast that 
 "he would furnish Mr. Gibbon with materials for writing 
 the History of the Decline of the British Empire" seemed 
 more than a partisan's fling. 1 The loss of the American colo- 
 nies marked the low point in the development of the Empire 
 1 Sir C. P. Lucas, A History of Canada, p. 204. 
 
128 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 when the old colonial system was discredited and the new 
 had not yet come. 
 
 The causes of the revolt so emphasized the evils of mercan- 
 tilism that saner ideals in the treatment of colonies were to 
 arise. It shifted British imperial interests to the Far East, 
 where India became of increasing importance. Not improb- 
 ably it led to the opening of new territories such as Australia 
 and New Zealand; if the American colonies had been re- 
 tained, a sufficient outlet for British energy and the surplus 
 criminal population might still have been found in the West. 
 
 The attitude of Great Britain in the nineteenth century, 
 by which the severity of colonial control was gradually re- 
 laxed until the great dominions became practically self-gov- 
 erning, is the result of a more intelligent treatment of colo- 
 nies than we find in the old colonial Empire. It cannot 
 be traced to the American Revolution as an immediate re- 
 sult, but was only to come with the lapse of time, and the de- 
 mand of dominions that had become "ripe," but were not in- 
 clined to leave the parent stem. A more immediate effect is 
 to be found in the treatment of Ireland, a plantation more 
 nearly analogous to the American colonies than any others 
 held by England at that time. In 1780, Ireland was granted 
 free trade. Two years later, Henry Grattan and his fol- 
 lowers demanded that Ireland be granted legislative inde- 
 pendence. The Government yielded by an unconditional re- 
 peal of the law of the reign of Henry VII, by which Irish bills 
 could be revised by the English Privy Council, and by the 
 withdrawal of the right of the Parliament in England to legis- 
 late for Ireland, an Act that had been on the statute book 
 since the reign of George I. 1 
 
 The freedom of the thirteen colonies erected an England 
 outside of England's control, and thus increased the influence 
 
 1 This condition of affairs existed for eighteen years. Yet it did not mean 
 "home rule" in the full sense, for the Catholic majority in Ireland could neither 
 vote nor enter Parliament. The Catholics were enfranchised in 1793. The 
 turmoil of that decade — the French Revolution had aroused a desire for po- 
 litical independence — brought the end of legislative independence by the Act 
 of Union in 1800. Henceforth, for more than a century Ireland was repre- 
 sented in the Parliament meeting in London. Catholics won the privilege of 
 sitting in Parliament in 1829. 
 
130 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 of English ideals in world-affairs. As the United States has 
 come to manhood, the power of British conceptions of law 
 and freedom and international justice has been doubled. 
 Therefore, the success of the American Revolution was by no 
 means a calamity, even to the British Empire. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 
 
 There are a number of good accounts of the American Revolution. 
 W. E. H. Lecky's chapters on this period in his History of England in the 
 Eighteenth Century have been conveniently reprinted in a single volume. 
 Sir George Otto Trevelyan's The American Revolution (6 vols., New York, 
 1917) is another British account that is eminently fair and readable. See, 
 in particular, vol. vi, chapters xx-xxm, for the growing complications for 
 Great Britain in 1780 and 1781. Of accounts by American writers men- 
 tion should be made of G. E. Howard, Preliminaries of the Revolution (New 
 York, 1905), and C. H. Van Tyne, The American Revolution (New York, 
 1905), in "The American Nation" series. In The Cambridge Modern His- 
 tory, J. A. Doyle treats the Revolution from the English point of view. An 
 excellent account in brief compass is to be found in Channing's History of 
 the United States, vol. m, chapters i-xii, and a more detailed and critical 
 treatment, favorable to the Loyalists, in S. G. Fisher, Struggle for American 
 Independence (2 vols., New York, 1908). The maritime aspects are fully 
 considered in A. T. Mahan, The Influence of Sea-Power upon History, 1660- 
 1783, and the relations of Canada to the revolting colonies find careful 
 treatment in Sir Charles Lucas, A History of Canada, 17 68-18 12 (Oxford, 
 1909), and A. G. Bradley, The Making of Canada (New York, 1908). For 
 the commercial conditions reference may be made to A. M. Schlesinger, 
 The Colonial Merchants and the American Revolution (New York, 1917). 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 
 
 The American Revolution was regarded as a calamity to 
 Great Britain, resulting as it did in the loss of its best- 
 developed colonies. As we have found, this calamity was, in 
 part, the result of the monopolistic commercial system that 
 had been in vogue for one hundred years. In consequence, 
 the whole colonial and commercial system was, for a time, 
 discredited. Especially did it seem a waste of time and 
 money and men to fight for the retention of colonies that 
 were maturing, and therefore preparing to leave the parent 
 that had nourished them. 
 
 MERCANTILISM ATTACKED 
 
 Yet, even before 1783, there were Englishmen holding an 
 anti-imperial point of view. One of the most interesting ad- 
 vocates of this opinion was Josiah Tucker, Dean of Glouces- 
 ter. He seems to have been more interested in trade than in 
 religion; his bishop complained that he made a trade of his 
 religion and a religion of his trade. In 1763, he published a 
 tract against " going to war for the sake of trade." At the 
 opening of the American Revolution, he wrote a number of 
 tracts advocating a voluntary acquiescence in the colonial de- 
 sire to be independent. In the year 1781, as the war was 
 coming to a close, Tucker published a work, in the form of a 
 letter to M. Necker, arguing that the conflict was a mistake 
 for all the nations concerned. He contended that the volun- 
 tary rejection of empire on Britain's part would be the best 
 course to adopt, and that the British should trust solely to 
 the cheapness and goodness of manufactures, and the strength 
 of their capital. As for military matters, he felt that England 
 should prepare simply for home defense. 1 
 
 1 The title of the appeal was Cui Bono t or an Inquiry, what benefits can arise 
 either to the English or the Americans, the French, Spaniards or Dutch, from the 
 greatest victories or successes in the present War ? (Gloucester, 1781), The paw* 
 
132 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 A much more powerful opponent of the old colonial system 
 and of the entire point of view resulting in the discrimination 
 against trade rivals was Adam Smith. It was in 1776 — the 
 year of the appearance of the Declaration of Independence — 
 that he published his Inquiry into the Nature and Causes 
 of the Wealth of Nations. This great work helped materi- 
 ally to change the commercial attitude of the British na- 
 tion from a strict mercantilism to a belief in freedom of 
 trade. The fourth book of this inquiry is principally de- 
 voted to an elaborate attack on the commercial system. 
 Here Adam Smith revealed the unreasonable character of 
 the various restraints of trade, the false channels into which 
 it had been turned by artificial stimuli to the upsetting of 
 the freedom of commercial intercourse upon which the rela- 
 tions of nations should be based. He held that "all the 
 European colonies have, without exception, been a cause 
 rather of weakness than of strength to their respective 
 mother countries." x This was owing to the fact that the 
 commercial system, by its emphasis on exclusive trade be- 
 tween the colonies and the homeland, tended to render the 
 colonies less abundant in surplus produce than they other- 
 wise would be. 
 
 He further attacked the idea, prevalent at the time, that a 
 great empire should be founded "for the sole purpose of rais- 
 ing up a people of customers. ' ' This pro j ec t he felt to be alto- 
 gether unfit even for a nation of shopkeepers. To this false 
 conception Adam Smith laid the blame for the expensive 
 wars that Great Britain had been waging and the one it 
 was entering on in 1776. " The latest war [the Seven Years' 
 War] was altogether a colony trouble, and the whole expense 
 of it in whatever part of the world it may have been laid out, 
 
 phlet was in the press as the news of Yorktown was received in England. Tuck- 
 er's postscript is characteristic: "This moment an account has arrived that the 
 brave Cornwallis with his little army has been obliged to submit to the united 
 forces of superior numbers. I am at a loss what to say upon this occasion — to 
 congratulate my country on being defeated is contrary to that decency which 
 is due to the public. And yet if this defeat should terminate in a total separa- 
 tion from America, it would be one of the happiest events that has ever hap- 
 pened to Great Britain." 
 
 * The Wealth of Nations (New York, 1878), p. 460. 
 
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 133 
 
 whether in Germany or the East Indies, ought justly to be 
 stated on the account of the colonies. . . . The Spanish War, 
 which began in 1739, was principally a colony quarrel. 
 ... Its pretended purpose was to encourage the manufac- 
 tures and to increase the commerce of Great Britain. But 
 its real effect has been to raise the rate of mercantile profit." 
 His conclusion was : " Great Britain derives nothing but loss 
 from the dominion which she has assumed over her colo- 
 nies." l 
 
 Adam Smith did not go to the extreme position of Dean 
 Tucker, however, and advocate that Great Britain volunta- 
 rily give up all its authority over its colonies. "The most 
 visionary enthusiast would scarce be capable of proposing 
 such a measure with any serious hope at least of its ever 
 being adopted. If it was adopted, however, Great Britain 
 would not only be freed from the whole annual expense of the 
 peace establishment of the colonies, but might settle with 
 them such a treaty of commerce as would effectually secure 
 to her a free trade, more advantageous to the great body of 
 this people, though less so to the merchants than the mo- 
 nopoly which she at present enjoys." 2 He does go to the 
 point of advocating the relaxing of the laws of trade, not only 
 with the colonies, but with other nations as well. 
 
 The author of this remarkable work has many hard things 
 to say of the "mean rapacity, the monopolizing spirit of mer- 
 chants and manufacturers." "In every country it must be 
 and always is the interest of the great body of the people to 
 buy whatever they want of those who sell it cheapest." 
 From this point of view a neighboring nation's wealth is ad- 
 vantageous in trade though dangerous in war. "A nation 
 that would enrich itself by foreign trade, is certainly most 
 likely to do so when its neighbors are all rich, industrious, and 
 commercial nations." 3 He thus became, in this powerful at- 
 tack on the old system, the great and successful advocate of 
 an "open and free commerce." 
 
 The break-down of mercantilism was brought about to a 
 
 i The Wealth of Nations (New York, 1878), p. 480. 
 * Ibid., p. 481. » Ibid., p. 378. 
 
134 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 considerable extent by this epoch-making book. The Tories 
 accepted its arguments easily, as they were not in favor of the 
 "monopolizing manufacturers." The Whigs cared for the 
 colonies only in so far as they added to the wealth of the 
 mother country. Adam Smith had an important disciple in 
 the younger Pitt, who became the Prime Minister of Great 
 Britain at the close of the American Revolution. Although 
 a freer trade was opened with France shortly before the 
 French Revolution, the monopolistic attitude toward the 
 colonies did not appreciably relax, and the newly independ- 
 ent United States was accorded but the necessary privileges 
 to secure to the British the greater part of its trade. 
 
 Strangely enough, the American war, in which France, 
 Spain, and Holland were involved as well, did not seem to af- 
 fect British trade seriously. Adam Smith, himself, pointed 
 out this fact for 1776. Although Great Britain lost many 
 possessions in 1783, that nation remained supreme on the 
 sea, and British commercial growth continued at a faster 
 pace than ever. The trade of the United States was re- 
 tained in spite of the efforts of France and Holland to ac- 
 quire it, largely because of the superior British mercantile 
 marine. In fact, those two nations lost more than they 
 gained in the conflict. So far as they were concerned, Dean 
 Tucker and Adam Smith seemed to be right. 
 
 In 1793 Jeremy Bentham wrote an interesting pamphlet 
 entitled Emancipate your Colonies! It was addressed to the 
 National Convention of France, but drew its illustrations of 
 the value of emancipation from the experience of Great Brit- 
 ain. After arguing that trade is the child of capital and that 
 a monopoly only keeps up prices, he refers to the youthful 
 United States: "Will you believe experience? Turn to the 
 United States. Before the separation Britain had a monop- 
 oly of their trade; upon the separation, of course, she lost it. 
 How much less of their trade has Britain now than then? On 
 the contrary, it is much greater. . . . Hear a paradox — it is 
 a true one. Give up your colonies, they are yours. Keep 
 them, they are ours." One reason given by Bentham in 
 urging the French to emancipate their colonies was that their 
 
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 135 
 
 example might lead the British to do the same: "By setting 
 an example, you may open our eyes and force us to follow 
 it." 1 
 
 This remarkable vitality of Great Britain, by which it 
 apparently came out of a disastrous war stronger than ever, 
 is to be found in the solid basis of its material prosperity 
 during these years. While these external events were occur- 
 ring — events which often occupy exclusively the pages of 
 British histories of this period — a wonderful change was tak- 
 ing place in British manufactures and trade. It was not so 
 spectacular a movement as the military conflicts of the Amer- 
 ican Revolution and of the Napoleonic period. The changes 
 it wrought, however, were so sudden and momentous that 
 it has come to be known as the "Industrial Revolution." 
 
 Pitt, in 1792, made an address on the public finances, in 
 which he emphasized the vast increase that had come in 
 commerce and industry. The reason that he gave for this 
 unprecedented progress was the "improvement that has been 
 made in the mode of carrying on almost every branch of man- 
 ufacturing and the degree to which labor has been abridged 
 by the invention and application of machinery." Great 
 Britain was indeed becoming the workshop of the world 
 during the last half of the eighteenth century. This came 
 as the result of the extraordinary development of the hard- 
 ware and textile trades in conjunction with maritime suprem- 
 acy and the growing freedom of commercial intercourse. A 
 well-known writer on the subject of the industry of Great 
 Britain has stated the significance of the movement in the 
 following way: "Nothing has done more to make England 
 what she at present is — whether for better or worse — than 
 this sudden and silent Industrial Revolution, for it increased 
 her wealth tenfold and gave her half a century's start in front 
 of the other nations of Europe." 2 The wealth and resources 
 of Great Britain produced an energy exhaustless in its ap- 
 plications, surviving the enervating Napoleonic period and 
 furnishing the adequate foundation for forces that were to 
 
 1 The Works of Jeremy Beniham (Edinburgh, 1843), iv, 413-16. 
 8 Gibbins, Industry in England, p. 341, " 
 
136 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 lead to an even greater expansion of the Empire than the 
 eighteenth century had witnessed. 
 
 THE TEXTILE INDUSTRY 
 
 The Industrial Revolution was the result of a series of re- 
 markable inventions applied especially to the textile trades 
 and to improvements in the utilization of power for manu- 
 facturing, mining, communication, and transportation. The 
 period during which this revolution was bringing in a new 
 world, 1770 to 1825, included two great political revolutions, 
 the American and the French. The series of inventions that 
 so changed industry was the product of British ingenuity, 
 save that of the cotton gin, which was invented by an Amer- 
 ican, Eli Whitney. Great Britain, therefore, had the full 
 advantage of a long lead over the other nations, as every 
 effort was made to prevent other nations from taking advan- 
 tage of these inventions. It was not fortuitous, however, 
 that these inventions were largely British. The formation of 
 capital in England had been fostered by the foundation of the 
 Bank of England during the reign of William and Mary. 
 Besides, Britain's maritime power was secure and its markets 
 were unlimited and accessible. Expensive improvements 
 under such conditions could well be risked. Moreover, the 
 Royal Society offered liberal prizes for needed improvements, 
 and the inventions appeared with a responsiveness that has 
 something almost mysterious about it. 
 
 It is very significant that the inventions dealt especially 
 with the manufacture of cloth, particularly from cotton. 
 As cotton could not be grown in the British Isles, the in- 
 creasing usefulness of the plant gave it a world-role in the 
 expanding industrial movement and helped appreciably to 
 enlarge the British commercial outlook. The conditions in 
 the cloth manufacture that were so fundamentally changed 
 by these mechanical improvements are known under the 
 name of the " domestic system." Before these epoch-mak- 
 ing changes took place, the workmen themselves often 
 bought the raw wool they used and went through the whole 
 process of converting it into cloth. Naturally the work was 
 
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 137 
 
 done very slowly. The home was the workshop and the 
 family helped in the various processes with which the artisan 
 was concerned. The women did the spinning and the man, 
 and his assistants, the weaving. If not employed by some 
 merchant, the master would dispose of his own products at 
 the market or fair. 
 
 The cotton manufacture included a definite number of 
 processes. In the first place, the raw wool or cotton had to 
 be carded by a rough sort of comb, in order to straighten the 
 fibers for use. Thereupon the fibers were drawn out and 
 twisted into thread or yarn for weaving by means of the 
 spinning-wheel. The next step was to prepare cloth for the 
 tailor by the hand-loom. This consisted of a frame on which 
 the threads forming the warp were stretched, and between 
 these threads others were inserted by means of a shuttle, 
 thrown through the alternate threads by the weaver. 
 
 The first improvement to be made in the cloth manufac- 
 ture was in the weaving. In 1733 John Kay, of Bury in 
 Lancashire, took out a patent for a fly shuttle, by which the 
 shuttle was rapidly thrown from side to side through the warp 
 by means of a shuttle-driver. This improvement, which 
 more than doubled the production of one weaver's work, 
 came into general use about 1760. It naturally increased 
 the demand for yarn, a demand that could not be met by 
 hand-labor. 
 
 The spinning process was revolutionized by the work of 
 three inventors, James Hargreaves, Richard Arkwright, and 
 Samuel Crompton. The need for a more rapid means of 
 spinning was met first by James Hargreaves' invention of the 
 spinning- jenny about 1764. To a simple wooden frame he 
 attached eight spindles turned by a wheel; they provided 
 eight threads at one time. By the close of the American 
 Revolution, the number of spindles on one jenny had in- 
 creased from eight to eighty, and over twenty thousand of 
 these machines were in use in England in that year. They 
 were doing the work that would have demanded the exclusive 
 labor of a million and a half spinners twenty years before. 
 
 Richard Arkwright invented a process of spinning by 
 
138 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 means of rollers; they were in pairs that revolved at different 
 rates of speed and thus drew out the fibers. Arkwright used 
 great secrecy in perfecting this process, and the mystified 
 neighbors declared they heard strange noises proceed from 
 his house, noises of a humming nature as if the devil were 
 tuning up his bagpipes. At first horses were used for power, 
 but to lessen the expense, Arkwright utilized water instead. 
 Hence the machine was called the water-frame. The threads 
 produced by the water-frame were of particularly good qual- 
 ity, and came to be used as warp instead of linen. 
 
 In 1779 Samuel Crompton, of Bolton in Lancashire, made 
 a further improvement in the spinning process, by combining 
 the virtues of the two previous inventions into what came to 
 be known as the "mule." By 1811 more than four and a 
 half million spindles worked by " mules" were in use in Eng- 
 land. 
 
 Soon the weaving process was greatly accelerated by the 
 invention of the power-loom. Dr. Edmund Cartwright, of 
 Kent, obtained the patent for his new machine in 1785. 
 Hand-loom weaving was thus largely superseded. Further 
 improvements were made, so that by the beginning of the 
 nineteenth century the loom could be worked without inter- 
 mission and a child of fourteen or fifteen years of age could 
 operate this machine that wove several times as much cloth 
 as the best hand-weaver. 
 
 Cotton had been cleaned by hand until Eli Whitney, an 
 American, invented the cotton-gin in the last decade of the 
 eighteenth century. Formerly the cleaning of cotton had 
 been so slow that little cotton could be used in the manufac- 
 ture of cloth. 
 
 To these various inventions, which appeared almost si- 
 multaneously, might be added others hardly less important. 
 It is sufficient to say that the effect of the introduction of 
 these various mechanical assistants in the textile industry was 
 amazingly to increase the production of cloth, especially cot- 
 ton cloth, in England. Besides, it is most important to real- 
 ize that these machines improved instead of cheapened the 
 quality of the finished product. 
 
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 139 
 
 THE STEAM ENGINE 
 
 Just as significant for England's colonial and commercial 
 expansion were the improvements made at this time in power 
 with its numerous practical applications. As indicated above, 
 Arkwright used horses and later water to operate his ma- 
 chines. Yet water power imposed serious limitations on in- 
 dustry; rivers with a sufficient fall were needed, but often 
 they were not to be found in convenient locations. These 
 difficulties were overcome by the invention of the steam en- 
 gine. It grew out of a crude invention for pumping con- 
 trived by Newcomen early in the century. From 1725 until 
 1770, Newcomen's engine was in common use in England. 
 James Watt was repairing, in 1763, a Newcomen engine for 
 the University of Glasgow. He was struck by its inefficiency 
 and made a number of changes that produced an engine so 
 greatly superior that it could be used for other purposes than 
 pumping. In 1785 Watt's engine was introduced into the 
 cotton factories, where its enormous advantages over water 
 power were soon evident. Largely as a result of this new 
 form of power, the cotton trade trebled in fifteen years. 
 
 The intimate relationship of the various manufacturing 
 processes has been illustrated by the effect of the foregoing 
 inventions. Further results were soon forthcoming. Ma- 
 chines demanded iron and iron that was of good quality. 
 The iron trade, in turn, was dependent on fuel. Heretofore, 
 wood had been used for smelting purposes, but the forests 
 were so seriously affected that legislative prohibitions had 
 limited the use of wood. Watt's new engine solved the diffi- 
 culty by stimulating the production of coal, for by it mines 
 were not only cleared of water, but shafts were sunk, and 
 coal was brought from the pits. The English coal-fields be- 
 came at once important. In consequence, the iron industry 
 took on new life now that fuel for smelting was in greater 
 abundance. In 1760, a blast furnace was invented which used 
 coal in place of wood. Improvements appeared, also, in the 
 mode of working malleable iron and making wrought iron. 
 In 1784, the puddling forge was first used. As a result of 
 
140 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 these various inventions, the output of iron ore at the close 
 of the American Revolution had increased fourfold over the 
 production of 1750. 
 
 A marked effect was produced on industry and commerce 
 by the application of steam and improved machinery to com- 
 munication both on land and water. Great improvements 
 in roads were made at the time of the Industrial Revolution 
 by such well-known roadmakers as Metcalfe, Telford, and 
 Macadam. Carriage by water was becoming more general 
 at this time by the development of the canal system. Brind- 
 ley in 1758 completed the famous Bridgewater Canal, con- 
 necting the Duke of Bridgewater's colliery at Worsley with 
 Manchester. In 1777 a canal ninety-six miles long was 
 built between the Trent and the Mersey. Hull and Liver- 
 pool, Liverpool and Bristol, London and Oxford, were con- 
 nected by canals in the latter part of the century. It was not 
 long before these improvements were superseded by the ap- 
 plication of the steam engine to transportation. 
 
 The application of steam power to railways and to ocean 
 vessels was made toward the end of this period. It has done 
 probably as much as the great inventions to revolutionize 
 commerce. Richard Trevithick constructed a locomotive in 
 1801, but this predecessor of the modern automobile was 
 found too expensive to operate. He next turned to the use of 
 rails for the wheels, and in 1804 his railway locomotive made 
 its first trip on a prepared track. The name of George Ste- 
 phenson is better known, however, in the development of the 
 railway. His " traveling engine" of 1814 was used between 
 a colliery and a shipping port nine miles away. The Stock- 
 ton and Darlington Railway operated a Stephenson engine 
 in 1822. It was seven years later that his Rocket won against 
 its rivals in trials on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. 
 His engine, weighing a little over four tons, ran twenty-nine 
 miles an hour. 
 
 The effect of steam on navigation has been just as re- 
 markable. The first practical steamship was the tug Char- 
 lotte Dundas, which was used in 1802 in the Forth and Clyde 
 Canal. It was propelled by a Watt engine. The Comet, built 
 
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 141 
 
 by Henry Bell and launched on the Clyde in the year 1812, 
 was the first steam passenger vessel in Great Britain. In 
 the meantime, Robert Fulton, who seems to have received 
 assistance from Bell, built the Clermont in New York. This 
 boat, equipped with an engine made by Watt, successfully 
 steamed up the Hudson to Albany, one hundred and forty- 
 five miles away. 
 
 From this time the application of steam engines to navi- 
 gation went on rapidly. The first steamship to cross the 
 Atlantic was the Savannah, an American vessel, which ac- 
 complished the journey in 1825 in twenty-six days. The 
 famous Great Western began to make regular passages in 1838. 
 Two years later Sir Samuel Cunard established his well- 
 known line of Atlantic steamships. In 1850 the Collins line 
 was organized as its American rival, but the latter's success 
 was shortlived, owing to a succession of marine disasters. 
 The keen competition of these lines, however, brought the 
 time for the transatlantic journey to nine days by the year 
 1854. In that year, Great Britain had nearly two hundred 
 thousand tons of shipping under steam power. When the 
 War of 1914 opened, it had reached the tremendous aggre- 
 gate of nineteen million tons. 
 
 Such were some of the amazing results of this period of in- 
 ventions. The list could be extended almost indefinitely. 
 The first steam printing-press was installed by the London 
 Times in 1814. This particular application of steam meant 
 cheaper and more widely diffused printed materials, and thus 
 better education for the poor, and a greater interest in the 
 world beyond one's own small community. The possibilities 
 for an enlarged democracy are in a real way to be connected 
 with the work of James Watt and his successors. A further 
 means of communication was found in 1832 with the inven- 
 tion of the telegraph. With this invention a new source of 
 power, electricity, came into use. It was much later that 
 the telephone (1876) and the wireless (1895) assisted still 
 further in binding man to man and nation to nation. 
 
 The improvements mentioned in the last paragraph carry 
 us beyond the first stage of the Industrial Revolution. They 
 
142 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 serve, however, to illustrate the continuity of the great move- 
 ment that took so sudden a start back in 1760. With the use 
 of electricity for the locomotive, the ocean vessel, the air- 
 ship, the street-car, the truck, and the automobile, the age of 
 steam has reached its limit. As a result of this constantly 
 accelerating development we are as far from the days of the 
 Mayflower in the use of our tools as the Pilgrim ship was be- 
 yond the days of the Roman trireme. 
 
 THE AFTERMATH OF REVOLUTION 
 
 What did this development mean for the British Empire? 
 So extensive have been its influences that the division be- 
 tween the old and the new colonial Empires is to be marked 
 not only by the American Revolution, but also by the revo- 
 lutionary change taking place at this time in industry. 
 
 For one thing the wealth of Great Britain was marvelously 
 increased. There was no immediate corresponding develop- 
 ment on the continent of Europe, for the inventions were by 
 Englishmen or Americans and were first applied success- 
 fully and generally in Great Britain and in the United States. 
 One evidence of the growth in Britain's wealth is found in 
 the increase of the revenue. At the opening of the Seven 
 Years' War, it was but five million pounds and had not dou- 
 bled since the opening of the century; by the year 1830, the 
 revenue was ten times its size at the beginning of the In- 
 dustrial Revolution. The increase in the important indus- 
 tries illustrates even more vividly the growth of the nation's 
 wealth. Seventeen thousand tons of pig iron were manufac- 
 tured in England in 1740; by 1830, production had been in- 
 creased forty-fold. 
 
 The growth of the textile industries is very significant. 
 The woolen manufactured annually in the middle of the 
 eighteenth century was worth four million pounds; by 1833, 
 it had doubled, in spite of difficulties found in obtaining 
 wool. 1 The greatest increase came in the cotton manufac- 
 
 1 By 1800, sheep farming had begun in Australia; its marvelous development 
 in Australia and New Zealand was of prime importance to English manufac^ 
 turers. See pp, 242 ff., 256, 
 
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 143 
 
 tures. Previous to Whitney's invention of the cotton-gin in 
 1792, the supply of cotton for British manufacturers was al- 
 most wholly from the British and French West Indian is- 
 lands. Whitney's gin greatly speeded the production of raw 
 cotton, especially in the United States. In 1750 there were 
 less than three million pounds imported by England from all 
 sources; in 1792, the amount had increased eleven times, and 
 by 1830, ninety times. Since 1760 the cotton manufactures 
 of Great Britain have enlarged over six hundred times, and 
 that nation is still ahead of every competitor in this impor- 
 tant branch of industry. 
 
 The extraordinary increase in wealth produced the concen- 
 tration of capital. The factory system led to the employ- 
 ment of large numbers of people in the industrial centers by 
 the relatively few capitalists who controlled the industries. 
 The capitalist appeared with alarming rapidity. His great 
 wealth gave him weight in politics, and this, in turn, led to an 
 increasing influence of capital on the country's foreign and 
 colonial policy. With the parliamentary reform of 1832, the 
 rich bourgeoisie began to shape British political tendencies 
 with greater force than before. It is well to note, in view 
 of this result of the Industrial Revolution, that the connec- 
 tion of the Empire with trading interests is more prominent 
 than ever after the period of the great inventions. 
 
 As more goods were produced than could be used at home, 
 ocean transportation was an absolute necessity for the de- 
 velopment of the new industry. In addition, raw materials 
 were needed from beyond the seas. Steam navigation an- 
 swered this need while the wealth of the country lessened 
 the burden imposed by the great fleets which continued to 
 give Britain the mastery of the sea. At the same time the 
 export and import trade made British sea-power more im- 
 portant than ever to its life. From 1750 to 1830 exports 
 and imports increased fivefold; in 1910 they totaled seventy 
 times their aggregate at the opening of the Industrial Revo- 
 lution. This is one of the most amazing phenomena of mod- 
 ern British life, for in the same period of time previous to 
 1750, Britain's exports and imports had increased but four- 
 fold. 
 
144 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 One important result of this rapid industrial advance is to 
 be seen in the effect it had on the population. In the first 
 half of the nineteenth century, England's population in- 
 creased seventy per cent. The easier production of clothing 
 and food, as a result of the numerous mechanical improve- 
 ments for factories and agriculture, certainly accounts in 
 part for this advance. There was a baneful effect of the 
 movement as well, for it brought hardships to large sections 
 of the population in England. The rapid changes in indus- 
 trial life resulted in great unsettlement, as there was a strong 
 movement to the cities and the factory centers. Poorer liv- 
 ing conditions and new standards imposed by the callous 
 capitalists made the workers' conditions less pleasant and 
 healthy. Women and children were subjected to inhuman 
 treatment; unemployment and "hard times" brought dis- 
 satisfaction. This led to a considerable emigration from the 
 mother country, and helps to account for the rapid peopling 
 of the colonies in the nineteenth century. During every 
 decade of the nineteenth century several hundred thousand 
 inhabitants of Great Britain went to the colonies, there to 
 start new Britains and bind them to the mother country 
 across the seas. 
 
 The effect of the improved means of communication on the 
 growth of the Empire will be evident without elaborate ex- 
 planation. One of the great difficulties with the old Empire 
 had been the matter of distance. England had difficulty in 
 transporting and caring for a few thousand troops in America 
 during the American Revolution. What a contrast there is in 
 the recent transportation of two million men and their sup- 
 plies from the United States to the battle-fields of France 
 during the last years of the World War! What the railway 
 and telegraph did for the various parts of the British Isles, 
 steamships and cables have done for the Empire. A new 
 sense of national unity came with greater surety and speed in 
 communication. The new Empire has grown in a surer way, 
 because to the "mystic cords" of memory and loyalty are 
 added the actual mechanical bonds of fast steamships, a 
 great navy, transoceanic cables, and wireless communication. 
 
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 145 
 
 We have found that the Industrial Revolution covered, 
 roughly speaking, the years between 1770 and 1825. Dur- 
 ing this time the American Revolution took place, but it pro- 
 duced no appreciable effect on the industrial life of Great 
 Britain because of the changes then taking place in the do- 
 mestic system of manufacture. A third revolution, the great 
 political and social upheaval that began in France in 1789 
 and was continued by the wars of Napoleon until 1815, is also 
 included in the years of the industrial change in England. It 
 was of importance in its effect on the British Empire; of es- 
 pecial interest is the way by which the Britain which had 
 been strengthened by the new economic resources was able 
 to withstand Napoleon, who strained every effort to become 
 master of the Europe of his day. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 
 
 The Industrial Revolution is treated in the works referred to in the 
 Bibliographical Note for chapter n. Gilbert Slater, The Making of Mod- 
 em England (Boston, 1915), is written from the social and economic point 
 of view. The volume contains full annotated bibliographies on the varied 
 phases of English nineteenth-century life. For the development of the 
 new system see J. A. Hobson, The Evolution of Modern Capitalism; A 
 Study of Machine Production (rev. ed., New York, 1913.) 
 
CHAPTER X 
 THE BRITISH EMPIRE AND NAPOLEON 
 
 The American Revolution ended in 1783 with the loss to 
 Great Britain of an important part of its Empire. This was 
 the consequence, to an extent, of the aimless and inefficient 
 leadership that characterized the British Government during 
 the early years of the reign of George III. A hopeful change 
 occurred when the younger Pitt came to office in 1783. The 
 son was to prove as remarkable a leader in time of crisis as his 
 father had been in a similar situation forty years earlier. 
 Pitt was but twenty-four years of age when he obtained the 
 highest office in British public life, a significant fact, as his 
 youth contributed energy and optimism at a time when they 
 were sorely needed. In truth, Great Britain might well have 
 been despondent over the outcome of its fifth great struggle 
 with France. His youth accounts, also, for his energy in in- 
 troducing reform ideas into the administration and in repair- 
 ing " the evils arising out of the old order of things." He was 
 a sympathetic student of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations. 
 Above all he had high principles and an enthusiastic belief in 
 Britain's future. Fortunately for him, the Industrial Revo- 
 lution was already amassing wealth in the country, and thus 
 preparing the nation to furnish Pitt with the sinews of war so 
 needed in the approaching troubles. 
 
 A WORLD WAR 
 
 Six years after the thirteen colonies left the Empire, the 
 great French Revolution began. In some ways it was the 
 British Empire's severest test. This protracted struggle 
 with France and Napoleon, which lasted with but few inter- 
 missions from 1793 to 1815, was the last in the series of wars 
 we have been considering. From 1689 to the downfall of Na- 
 poleon, Great Britain and France were enemies. Moreover, 
 the enmity was more than European; it was a world-struggle. 
 
THE BRITISH EMPIRE AND NAPOLEON 147 
 
 This last conflict for commercial and maritime supremacy 
 between these two dominant nations — the sixth act of a 
 world-drama — resulted in an unqualified victory for the 
 British Empire. The British naval and industrial supremacy 
 were the effective weapons used in the struggle with France. 
 So signal was the victory that a new Empire was made pos- 
 sible. 
 
 In consequence, this period of strife is important in a sur- 
 vey of the Empire and its growth. To-day's world-girdling 
 dominion received its sanctions in the strain of a world war. 
 A brief account of the struggle needs to be given that the na- 
 ture of British strength may be seen. In addition, significant 
 operations were taking place in various parts of its oversea 
 possessions, former conquests were being consolidated, and 
 strategic points added to the fabric of the imperial structure. 
 They make the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Period note- 
 worthy in our study. 
 
 When the Estates General of France was changed in 1789 
 into the Constituent Assembly for the purpose of reforming 
 the government and finances of France, many Englishmen 
 were warmly in favor of the movement. But by 1790 the 
 radicalism of the French lower classes was becoming so 
 strong, and extreme measures were already so much in evi- 
 dence, that conservative Englishmen began to doubt the 
 value of the Revolution. Edmund Burke took a strong 
 stand against the movement in his famous Reflections pub- 
 lished in that year, and his prognostications seemed justi- 
 fied when the Reign of Terror developed in France. Pitt, the 
 Prime Minister, had been favorable to the movement at the 
 outset, but he gradually was led to a more hostile position. 
 When French troops threatened to overrun the Netherlands 
 in the latter part of 1792, Holland appealed to Great Britain 
 for help; assistance was promised if the need should arise. An 
 additional grievance appeared when the French opened the 
 Scheldt in defiance of treaties guaranteed by Great Britain. 1 
 
 1 This river, with its outlet in Holland, flowed past the Belgian cities of 
 Ghent and Antwerp. The Scheldt had been closed to navigation as far back as 
 1648. Just before the Revolution, Joseph II had wished it opened so as to 
 
148 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 Moreover, republicanism was contagious. The French were 
 so enthusiastic as even to call men of like feeling in other coun- 
 tries to follow their lead, and throw off the yoke of kings and 
 tyrants. The tension became so severe early in 1793 that 
 the French minister was ordered out of England. In Febru- 
 ary of that year, France declared war on Great Britain and 
 Holland. 
 
 It was during 1793 and 1794 that the worst of Revolution- 
 ary excesses found expression in the Reign of Terror. 
 Though the weak and inefficient government of the Direc- 
 tory succeeded the terribly effective days of Terror, Britain 
 and its allies accomplished little in spite of their numerical 
 strength. The complete defeat of Austria in Italy by the 
 young General Bonaparte in 1797 brought a temporary ces- 
 sation to hostilities. It was soon ended, however, by his ex- 
 pedition to Egypt in 1798. In the next year he returned as a 
 popular hero to organize the French Republic as a consular 
 government with himself as the First Consul. A military 
 genius of the first order, possessed with unlimited ambition 
 and controlled by no scruples whatever, became the ex- 
 ponent of revolution. 
 
 A second coalition against Bonaparte was formed in 1799. 
 Again his unexampled ability brought his continental ene- 
 mies to defeat. Two years later the coalition was broken up, 
 and in 1802 Great Britain and France signed the Peace of 
 Amiens. It was but a truce, for within thirteen months the 
 two nations were again at war. In 1804 Bonaparte became 
 hereditary Emperor of the French. During the next ten 
 years he endeavored to build a secure empire in Europe on 
 the basis of military power. For a time he continued to win 
 victory after victory, his armies ranging from Spain and 
 Portugal to Moscow and Berlin. About 1811, when the Cor- 
 sican adventurer was at the height of his power, all of Eu- 
 rope was in his Empire, under his control, or allied with him 
 
 serve as an outlet for the commerce of the Austrian Netherlands (Belgium). 
 Now that the French controlled Belgium, it seemed more necessary than ever 
 to keep Antwerp from direct communication with the sea. France was a great 
 maritime power, and, with Antwerp as a base for its fleet, the position of Eng- 
 land would be seriously endangered. 
 
THE BRITISH EMPIRE AND NAPOLEON 149 
 
 by compulsion, with the exception of Turkey, Russia, Swe- 
 den, Portugal, and Great Britain. 
 
 Britain remained throughout all this long period Bona- 
 parte's one bitter, implacable, unconquerable enemy; wealth 
 and sea-power finally wore down his military brilliancy. 
 And when Bonaparte's mistreatment of the various peoples 
 subject to his rule roused in them the spirit of national 
 revolt, he succumbed. Napoleon, after being driven back 
 to France, made a last effort to recover his position in the 
 Hundred Days of 1815. He was defeated at Waterloo, and 
 the lonely island of St. Helena — a possession of the Eng- 
 lish East India Company — became the home of one who had 
 for a time held Europe as in the hollow of his hand. 
 
 What is the place of this struggle in the building of Brit- 
 ain's Empire? 
 
 For one thing, it demonstrated beyond a doubt the su- 
 premacy of Britain on the sea and the decisive part that sea- 
 power was to play in international strife. Even in the days 
 before the establishment of Napoleon's power, the lesson had 
 come home with telling force. Admiral Howe, in 1794, had 
 tried to intercept a supply of food coming from the United 
 States to France. Although the convoy was not captured, 
 he won a great victory on the " Glorious First of June" over 
 the Brest fleet. In 1797 the French planned to invade Eng- 
 land with the assistance of the Spanish and Dutch fleets. 
 The danger was averted by the defeat of the Spanish off 
 Cape St. Vincent in that year by a British fleet that was in- 
 ferior in size. It was in this battle that Commodore Horatio 
 Nelson won the title of Admiral by his daring attack on the 
 vanguard of the Spanish line. In the same year Admiral 
 Duncan defeated the Dutch fleet off Camperdown. 
 
 Sea-power was decisive again when Napoleon invaded 
 Egypt in 1798. He managed to reach Egypt with his army, 
 but Nelson completely destroyed the French fleet in Aboukir 
 Bay. This famous Battle of the Nile established British 
 supremacy in the Mediterranean, and limited Bonaparte's 
 efforts to unsupported expeditions in Egypt and Syria, 
 which largely failed in their purposes. Yet in the seductive 
 
150 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 land of the Nile he dreamed of a new empire that would 
 rival that of Alexander the Great. Marmont has preserved 
 for us his grandiloquent schemes: "Egypt was once a power- 
 ful kingdom. What a point of vantage this would be in of- 
 fensive warfare against the English! We are perhaps des- 
 tined to change the fact of the Orient. This is the hour when 
 characters of a superior order should show themselves." But 
 the loss of the navy prevented the working out of his plans. 
 Leaving the remnants of his army in Egypt, he eluded the 
 British vessels in 1799 and returned to France to take a more 
 direct hand in the government. 
 
 When war began in 1803, after the short truce following 
 the Peace of Amiens, British naval supremacy was to be 
 more severely tested. Napoleon made every effort to de- 
 feat his island opponent. Elaborate plans were prepared for 
 an invasion of Britain. An army was gathered at Boulogne; 
 flat-bottomed boats in large numbers were prepared for the 
 transportation of troops; Spain was dragged into the con- 
 test to furnish additional defense for the invading army. 
 This master of land warfare did not realize the way that 
 British skill, energy, and familiarity with the sea, especially 
 in those days of sailing vessels, were continually upsetting 
 his best-laid plans. The French Emperor's hope of success- 
 ful maritime warfare was definitely destroyed in 1805, when 
 Nelson met the combined fleets of France and Spain off 
 Trafalgar, near the western entrance to the Strait of Gibral- 
 tar. Nelson had twenty-seven ships, his opponent thirty- 
 three. After a terrible contest in which Nelson lost his life, 
 the British won a great victory, having sunk or captured 
 three fourths of the vessels of the French and Spanish fleet. 
 Britain, "compassed by the inviolate sea," had been saved 
 from Napoleonic attack. 
 
 The effect of Trafalgar was momentous. Napoleon there- 
 after was forced to confine his operations to the Continent. 
 He had planned, in case his major campaign against Eng- 
 land should prove indecisive, to attack India, for the Em- 
 peror was possessed with the idea that Britain's wealth was 
 in its Indian Empire. With the overwhelming defeat of 
 
THE BRITISH EMPIRE AND NAPOLEON 151 
 
 Trafalgar he had to give up all hope of making the conflict a 
 colonial struggle. In addition, as a result of this disaster in 
 1805, he was compelled to abandon his plans of reviving the 
 French colonial Empire. There was left but one other way 
 of attacking Great Britain. The French Emperor now 
 hoped to destroy his opponent by excluding British com- 
 merce from the Continent. But to do this he must conquer 
 or subordinate all of Europe. Britain replied to this at- 
 tack by subsidizing its continental allies — as the elder Pitt 
 had done in the Seven Years' War — and by carrying a 
 stubborn opposition to fields where Napoleon was most at 
 home. 
 
 THE CONTINENTAL SYSTEM 
 
 The next phase of the duel, therefore, is the great com- 
 mercial struggle between the two Empires. Bonaparte at- 
 tempted to establish a " Continental System" for excluding 
 British goods from Europe. As the Continent was England's 
 chief market, Napoleon was convinced that the prohibition 
 of this traffic would cripple his opponent and at the same 
 time build up the resources of France. The Emperor was 
 unable fully to appreciate the extensiveness of British indus- 
 trial and commercial growth or the effect of the continental 
 war on his island-enemy. Great Britain's wealth of re- 
 source had been augmented so greatly by the inventions of 
 Arkwright, Hargreaves, Crompton, and Watt that the at- 
 tack of Napoleon was ineffectual. It was not only the de- 
 velopment of the Industrial Revolution before the war 
 that strengthened England; the world-conflict itself tended 
 startlingly to accelerate the movement. The demands of a 
 fighting nation increased the industrial output, and this de- 
 mand was the more easily met as Britain more and more 
 monopolized ocean commerce. With the progress of the war 
 the harbors of Great Britain received a larger and ever larger 
 percentage of the products of non-European countries, es- 
 pecially tropical products. This flow of raw materials di- 
 rectly favored an industrial revolution in which a tropical 
 plant such as cotton played so important a role. The output 
 
152 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 and the cost of cotton goods were such that the restrictions 
 of a continental system were largely ineffectual. 
 
 From 1806 to the disastrous campaign in Russia six years 
 later, the struggle went on. The task was a difficult one for 
 Napoleon, since it meant constant vigilance along a great 
 stretch of irregular coast. He was led inevitably to trample 
 upon the peoples of the nations he brought into his ' ' System ' ' ; 
 by restricting their supplies of goods from the outside he intro- 
 duced discomfort and want, and engendered ill feeling by the 
 military occupation of these subordinate states. The out- 
 come was a foregone conclusion, in spite of the fact that the 
 deluded Emperor believed he could " conquer the sea by the 
 land." 
 
 The British had issued an Order in Council in 1806, putting 
 under blockade the coast of the Continent from Brest to 
 the Elbe. This order gave provocation to Napoleon, who re- 
 taliated with the Berlin Decree in the same year. This fa- 
 mous document declared a blockade of the British Isles by a 
 government without a navy. It decreed that all commerce 
 by France or its dependents with Great Britain was for- 
 bidden and that British goods were subject to capture. The 
 British replied by an Order in Council early in 1807 intended 
 to stop the coastwise trade in Europe. The measure was 
 hard on neutrals, the Americans in particular, but in the 
 death-grapple of these two Empires neutrals mattered little. 
 Napoleon also directed his plans against neutrals. In July 
 of 1807 he notified both Portugal and Denmark that they 
 must choose France or Great Britain. In November Great 
 Britain went still further by the issuance of three more Orders 
 in Council, by which a blockade was declared for all ports of 
 France and French colonies and, in addition, those of nations 
 allied to France. Ships importing to the Continent must 
 first stop at a British port and there pay charges amounting 
 practically to an import duty. The same process was to be 
 observed on the return voyage. The commerce of the Conti- 
 nent thus paid toll both going and coming, and Great Britain 
 was made the staple for world-trade. 
 
 This attempt to make Britain the center of the world's 
 
THE BRITISH EMPIRE AND NAPOLEON 153 
 
 commerce found Napoleon in Italy. In December he retal- 
 iated with the Milan Decree. All ships submitting to search 
 by the British became " denationalized" and were regarded 
 as "good and lawful prizes." Although France had no navy, 
 there were French privateers that could cause much harm. 
 More British Orders followed. Napoleon replied by further 
 Decrees and by harsher measures on land in the hope of en- 
 forcing a " System" capable of defeating his enemy. The 
 conflict became a struggle between one power commanding 
 the sea and the other controlling the land. 
 
 The French Emperor found it impossible to keep British 
 goods from finding their way to the Continent. There was 
 too much coast-line to watch and the nations were not suffi- 
 ciently sympathetic with his plans to suffer the privations 
 and high prices in order that Britain might be defeated. In 
 1808 Napoleon was compelled to include Spain in his pos- 
 sessions in order to strengthen the " System." His brother 
 Joseph was made King of Spain, but the conquest proved 
 no easy matter. The occupation of the peninsula is often 
 regarded as the beginning of his decline, for the Spanish 
 "ulcer" terribly drained the resources and life of France, and 
 the stubbornness of this national resistance to the tyrant 
 proved malignantly infectious by arousing other countries 
 to the same temper. 
 
 Holland had received another Bonaparte as ruler in 1806. 
 Louis, who sought to identify himself with this people, would 
 not ruin his country by throttling its great maritime com- 
 merce. Neutral ships were openly admitted into Dutch ports 
 and confiscations did not take place. The country became a 
 regular way of entry for the goods of near-by Britain. Na- 
 poleon, who could not tolerate this breach in his defenses, 
 compelled Louis to abdicate in 1810, and annexed Holland to 
 France. A little later in that year northwestern Germany 
 was added, which extended the French frontier to Denmark. 
 In this way the trading towns of the Hanse came under the 
 direct supervision of the Corsican. 
 
 In spite of all these efforts, the "Continental System" did 
 not work. Success would have required more military force 
 
154 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 than Napoleon could obtain even by conscripting boys in 
 France and forcing from subject states unwilling levies. 
 Britain's sea supremacy, achieved in 1805, controlled com- 
 merce so completely that rival commercial navies were swept 
 from the sea. The Industrial Revolution had developed 
 Britain so wonderfully that it became the necessary source 
 for materials for a Continent racked by war. Great Britain 
 seized Heligoland in 1807, and used it as a d£pot of supplies 
 for the Continent. Another method of keeping trade moving 
 was by the use of neutralized vessels. Although contrary to 
 the Orders in Council, Britain permitted their use, as they 
 assisted in the disposal of goods. These vessels were fur- 
 nished with licenses which allowed them to ply their business 
 under other flags than the British. Large fleets of licensed 
 vessels went yearly to the Baltic with British and colonial 
 goods. When loaded for the return, they would be convoyed 
 in fleets of about five hundred by the British navy as they 
 returned to England. 
 
 The strain of the war became severe on Great Britain, but 
 French imperial control suffered still more. In 1811 serious 
 commercial crises occurred in France, as French luxuries 
 could not find markets and British smuggled produce under- 
 sold the French materials. Moreover, Spain still held out 
 stubbornly against the French army. 
 
 Another nation, Russia, began to cause serious trouble 
 about this time. For some time Russia had been restless un- 
 der the "System," and in 1810 Napoleon had written to the 
 Czar: "Six hundred English merchant ships wandering in the 
 Baltic, have been refused admission to Prussian ports and 
 those of Mecklenburg, and have steered for your Majesty's 
 states. . . . Your Majesty knows that if you confiscate them 
 we shall have peace. Whatever their papers, under what- 
 ever names they are masked, your Majesty may be sure they 
 are English." x But Russia finally chose war, permitting the 
 entry of British goods by a secret understanding. There- 
 upon followed the Napoleonic invasion of Russia in 1812. 
 The disasters that ensued gave hope to Napoleon's other 
 
 1 Mahan, The Influence of Sea-Power on the French Revolution, n, 344. 
 
THE BRITISH EMPIRE AND NAPOLEON 155 
 
 enemies. They joined against him in 1813 and defeated him 
 in the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig. Two years later 
 came Waterloo. 
 
 THE FRUITS OF BRITISH VICTORY 
 
 One consequence of the sort of war waged from 1806 to 
 1812 was the crushing of neutrals. The nations were com- 
 pelled to side with the one or the other belligerent, since a 
 world war makes neutrality impossible for any nation with 
 large outside interests. A neutral carrier could not be left 
 the freedom of the sea, for it weakened the commercial 
 measures aimed at the enemy. As the United States was an 
 important maritime nation with many products of which it 
 wished to dispose, the Decrees of Napoleon and the British 
 Orders in Council were very seriously felt. The United States 
 remained neutral for a time, but in 1812 was led to declare war 
 on Great Britain as a result of the difficulties arising out of 
 the rights of shipping on the high seas. Madison, as well as 
 Calhoun, thought the logical thing was to make war on both 
 the nations. Napoleon deceived the United States into 
 thinking that he was giving way in regard to his dealings 
 with neutrals. As a matter of fact, he did not, while Great 
 Britain actually did withdraw the objectionable Orders in 
 Council before the United States declared war. Transat- 
 lantic communication was so slow, however, that it was not 
 known in time. 
 
 Another consequence of the trade-war was the monopoli- 
 zation of the commerce of the world by Great Britain. The 
 navies of its rivals "fade away" in the unequal struggle. 
 The Danish navy, for example, was seized in 1807 and kept 
 until the end of the war for fear that Napoleon would use it. 
 In addition to the destruction of fighting ships, the com- 
 mercial navies of other nations became very weak, and Great 
 Britain absorbed the greater part of the carrying trade. 
 Thus the necessary complement to industrial supremacy 
 was added when commercial leadership on the sea was as- 
 sured by the naval supremacy of Great Britain. 
 
 Moreover, Great Britain found the opportunity ideal for 
 
156 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 enlarging an already extensive colonial Empire, inasmuch as 
 the rival colonial empires of France, Spain, and Holland were 
 nominally under the control of Napoleon. The Spanish Em- 
 pire consisted, in large part, of the continent of South Amer- 
 ica. It was as a result of the European war that independ- 
 ent nations developed from these colonies. They had drifted 
 into independence during the time when Joseph Bonaparte 
 was attempting to subjugate Spain; after 1814 the Spanish 
 were unable to bring them into submission. They received 
 assistance from both Great Britain and the United States. It 
 was in this connection that the United States later asserted 
 the famous Monroe Doctrine, the germ of which was a sug- 
 gestion by the British minister, Canning. This document 
 stated the determination of the United States to regard as an 
 "unfriendly act towards the United States" any attempt to 
 oppress or control the republics that had recently declared 
 their independence. The Monroe Doctrine was not aimed 
 at Great Britain, although the British made an abortive ef- 
 fort during this period to conquer Argentina. It expressed 
 opposition to the possible spread to the New World, by the 
 reconquest of South America, of the reaction then dominant 
 on the European continent. Although the South American 
 republics did not become a part of Britain's Empire they 
 were an important field for British commercial activity. 
 
 Of the greatest importance were the actual additions made 
 to the British Empire as a result of the wars from 1793 to 
 1815. The British navy took Tobago in the West Indies and 
 St. Pierre and Miquelon (near Newfoundland) in the first 
 year of the war. Martinique, Sta. Lucia, and Guadeloupe 
 surrendered to Great Britain in 1794. Some of these islands 
 changed hands several times before the British won sure 
 command of the sea at Trafalgar. After the formation of the 
 Batavian Republic in 1795, the Dutch colonies, also, became 
 open to British attack. In 1796 Demerara, Essequibo, and Ber- 
 bice (parts of Guiana) were taken, and Surinam and Curacao 
 were added a few years later. Of the Spanish possessions in 
 the West Indies, Trinidad was taken in 1797. In 1801 even 
 Sweden and Denmark lost their islands across the Atlantic. 
 
THE BRITISH EMPIRE AND NAPOLEON 157 
 
 The Dutch island of Ceylon off southern India was seized 
 by an expedition from Madras early in the war. In spite of 
 the fact that Ceylon welcomed the end of the severe Dutch 
 rule, the natives of the mountainous interior caused the Brit- 
 ish considerable trouble, and it was not until 1817 that quiet 
 finally prevailed. The British were not slow to appreciate 
 the value of the island as a part of their Empire. In the 
 same year that Ceylon was taken, Banda and Amboina — 
 ancient battle-grounds of British, Dutch, and Portuguese — 
 were captured by the British. The very important Dutch 
 possession of Cape Colony was occupied by the British in 
 September, 1795. 
 
 In 1802 the Peace of Amiens served to stop the struggle, if 
 but temporarily. By the terms of this treaty Great Britain 
 restored all the colonial possessions of France, Spain, and Hol- 
 land it had taken, except Ceylon and Trinidad. Minorca 
 and Malta, in the Mediterranean, were also relinquished. 
 
 As noted above, the war was reopened in 1803. Britain 
 quickly retook the West Indian possessions which had been 
 returned in 1802, and before the war ended no other flags save 
 the British and the Spanish waved in that part of the world. 
 In the East the British conquered the Dutch island of Java. 
 Napoleon's plans against the British Empire in India had 
 prompted the occupation of the two French islands, Bourbon 
 and the lie de France (Mauritius) off the coast of East Africa. 
 With their capture the colonial Empire of France ceased to 
 exist. In 1806 Cape Colony was retaken, this time to be 
 held permanently and to become the nucleus for one of the 
 most important parts of Greater Britain. 
 
 Sir Home Popham had led the expedition to Cape Colony. 
 After its capture he proceeded to South America, there to add 
 another valuable possession to the British Empire by the cap- 
 ture of Buenos Aires. This expedition seems to have been 
 made on his own initiative. It is clear, however, that Pitt, 
 as early as 1796, had in mind the acquisition of part of South 
 America. The Board of Admiralty in 1804 desired Admiral 
 Popham to take advantage of any opportunity that arose 
 "which might lead to our obtaining a position on the conti* 
 
158 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 nent of South America, favorable to the trade of this coun- 
 try." x Buenos Aires was taken in 1806. The shipment to 
 England of goods worth a million and a half dollars aroused 
 joy and resulted in the approval of the unauthorized capture. 
 The British thereupon determined to send an expedition for 
 the capture of Chile. Before it had proceeded to the west 
 coast of South America, Buenos Aires had been recaptured 
 by the Spanish. The British endeavor to retake the city 
 failed through the stupidity of General Whitelock, who had 
 twelve thousand troops at his command. Had the British 
 at this juncture been efficiently led, the Greater Britain of to- 
 day might include the fertile plains of the Argentine. 
 
 By the Congress of Vienna a final disposition was made of 
 all the problems arising out of the downfall of Napoleon. 
 The British retained, of the Dutch colonies, Ceylon, Cape 
 Colony, and a portion of Dutch Guiana (Demerara, Esse- 
 quibo, and Berbice). Banda was returned in exchange for 
 Cochin and the Dutch possessions on the Malabar coast of 
 India. The French received again their colonial possessions 
 with the exception of Tobago and Sta. Lucia, in the West 
 Indies, and Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean. Heligoland, 
 which had been taken from Denmark as a convenient post 
 for evading Napoleon's "Continental System," was retained 
 by Great Britain. Malta was added to the British Empire, 
 and the Ionian Islands, west of Greece, were placed under a 
 British protectorate. 2 
 
 The additions to the Empire, as a result of the long war, do 
 not compare in size to the acquisitions following the Seven 
 Years' War or to the losses resulting from the American Re- 
 volt. Cape Colony, however, was to prove very important, 
 and ample compensation was soon to be found for the loss of 
 the American colonies in 1783. Britain does not seem to 
 have had any conscious desire to enlarge its colonial posses- 
 sions at this time; military considerations were dominant in 
 its selection of the enemy's colonies that were kept after 
 1815. Otherwise Java certainly would have been retained. 
 
 1 Quoted by Moses, South America on the Eve of Emancipation, p. 255, 
 « See p. 341. 
 
160" 140° 120° 100" 80° 60° 40" 
 
 160° 
 
 140" 120° 100" 80° Longitude 00' West 40° from 20° Greenwich 0" L 
 
' 40° 60" 80° 100" 120° 140° 160° 180° 
 
 East 40' from 60 Greenwich 80' 
 
THE BRITISH EMPIRE AND NAPOLEON 159 
 
 It should be noted that during this time the consolidation 
 of the Indian Empire was going forward. And Canada, al- 
 though as yet confined to the eastern part of the present 
 Dominion, was pushing its frontier westward. George Van- 
 couver, in the last decade of the century, made important sur- 
 veys of the west coast of North America, where an important 
 British colony was to take root. Beginnings had been made 
 in Australia as well. 
 
 Even though there was no great conception of a new colo- 
 nial Empire, it was at hand. The war had once more made 
 clear the naval supremacy of the British. This, in turn, gave 
 a feeling of security in the possession of distant lands. Along 
 with the naval supremacy Great Britain had obtained the 
 monopoly of maritime commerce as well as a more secure 
 leadership in industry. It was but natural that out of the 
 sense of security and the need of commercial expansion there 
 gradually grew a new Empire. Our next task is to trace the 
 rise of this new colonial interest. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 
 
 Books on the French Revolution are legion. The Cambridge Modern 
 History gives a volume to the period. For the maritime operations see 
 A. T. Mahan, The Influence of Sea-Power upon the French Revolution and Em- 
 pire, 1793-1812 (2 vols., Boston, 1897). For British policy see J. Holland 
 Rose, William Pitt and the Great War (2d ed., London, 1912). A. T. 
 Mahan, The Life of Nelson, the Embodiment of the Sea-Power of Great 
 Britain (2 vols., Boston, 1897), is a standard biography. M. R. P. Dor- 
 man, A History of the British Empire in the Nineteenth Century (London, 
 1902, 1904), is a detailed treatment of this crucial period. Vol. i covers the 
 years 1793-1805; vol. n, 1805-25. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 A NEW COLONIAL INTEREST 
 
 In 1825 Great Britain had an empire of imposing size. 
 There were numerous trading-posts and islands in all parts 
 of the globe. Sections of continents, such as India, Canada, 
 Cape Colony, and even a continent, Australia, formed part of 
 its far-spread dominions. The Empire included lands oc- 
 cupied by Englishmen, others by foreign European popula- 
 tions, and some largely occupied by native peoples. It was the 
 only empire of any importance existing at that time. Eng- 
 lishmen might well be proud. In 1811, as the Napoleonic 
 wars were drawing to a conclusion, the Quarterly Review ex- 
 pressed this satisfaction in such broad possessions in the fol- 
 lowing fashion: " England, that 'little body with a mighty 
 soul/ has carried its arts and its arms to every corner of the 
 habitable globe. If we cast our eyes on the map of the world 
 we shall find that the sun in its daily course never sets upon 
 Englishmen." 1 
 
 THE NADIR OF EMPIRE 
 
 Yet, strangely enough, this feeling of satisfaction does not 
 seem to have been very general in the years immediately fol- 
 lowing the downfall of Napoleon. The imperial spirit was 
 lacking. This disregard was certainly owing somewhat to 
 the domestic troubles following 1815, when social and finan- 
 cial readjustment took much attention. The general atti- 
 tude of the British public at that time toward its colonies has 
 been well described as one of " indifference tempered by un- 
 easiness." It is traceable to various causes. 
 
 In the first place, the possessions Great Britain retained in 
 the early nineteenth century were not of a character to cause 
 great pride. Its fairest colonies — those in North America 
 — had become a free United States. Canada was strongly 
 French and the Cape largely Dutch in population. In- 
 
 1 Vol. vi, p. 496. 
 
A NEW COLONIAL INTEREST 161 
 
 dia was an immense holding, but its great population was of 
 alien stock. The West Indies were overwhelmingly negro in 
 race. In fact, the colonies as a whole were not British. The 
 population of the colonies about 1825 was three million, 
 roughly speaking, of whom two fifths were whites and the re- 
 mainder free blacks and slaves. Trouble had occurred and 
 was likely to present itself again as the British met other ra- 
 cial stocks in these possessions. Canada was to rise in insur- 
 rection in 1837, and the negroes as well as the Dutch were 
 causing trouble at the Cape. In the West Indies the labor 
 problem was arousing continual anxiety, as the abolition of 
 the slave-trade in 1807 had not improved matters for the 
 planters. In addition to all this we must remember that the 
 beginnings of the great colony of Australia had been made 
 with the worst classes of the population; the transportation 
 of criminals to New South Wales had been carried on since 
 1788. When the British thought of colonies, they thought of 
 backward native peoples or the transportation of criminals 
 and paupers, conditions that caused the very word " colony " 
 to " stink in the nostrils of self-respecting men." 
 
 Another important cause for dissatisfaction was the great 
 expense of colonial establishments. And this was in the face 
 of a desire for retrenchment after the exhausting Napoleonic 
 conflict. In 1830 Sir J. W. Gordon stated this widespread 
 feeling when asked to take part in an inquiry concerning co- 
 lonial expenditure: "The House of Commons and the public 
 have their attention very closely fixed upon the state of our 
 Colonies; they have for years been made the scapegoat of our 
 expenditure, and when we are now called upon to explain the 
 reasons for keeping up our present military establishments, 
 our answer is ' The Colonies, the Colonies.' There is no de- 
 partment of the public service which has not a drain upon its 
 resources from the Colonies.'' * Colonies also served as a 
 convenient means of satisfying placemen and obtaining the 
 perquisites of office, since it was hard to make government at 
 a distance responsible. Charles Buller wrote as late as 1840: 
 "The patronage of the colonial office is the prey of every hun- 
 
 1 Quoted in King's College Lectures on Colonial Problems, pp. 144r-45. 
 
162 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 gry department. On it the Horse Guards quarters its worn- 
 out general officers as governors; the Admiralty cribs its 
 share; and jobs which even Parliamentary rapacity would 
 blush to ask from the Treasury, are perpetuated with impu- 
 nity." x 
 
 The colonial burden was satirized in 1828 by Disraeli in 
 his Voyage of Captain Popanilla. An uninhabited island, 
 consisting of bare rock, is discovered by the secretary. Its 
 fortification is immediately ordered; a president of the coun- 
 cil is appointed, a bishop, judges, and an agent for dealing 
 with the original inhabitants. Popanilla asks why this small 
 rock is crammed "full of clerks, soldiers, lawyers and priests." 
 The guide replies: " I am the last man in the world to answer 
 questions, but I believe we call it the colonial system." 2 
 
 The numerous references to the expense of the system 
 make it evident that the problem was felt keenly. The trade 
 with the West Indies was decreasing in value during this pe- 
 riod, owing to the discontinuance of the slave-trade and the 
 competition of the beet-sugar industry on the European con- 
 tinent. If the important sugar colonies no longer served the 
 mother country, small use could be found for the snow-clad 
 Canadas or the distant possessions in the southern hemi- 
 sphere. Sir Henry Parnell published, in 1830, a work en- 
 titled Financial Reform, in which he concluded: "The dis- 
 covery of the real sources of wealth has shown the folly of 
 wasting lives and treasure on colonial possessions." 3 In 
 1825 J. R. McCulloch discussed at length in the Edinburgh 
 Review the value of colonial territories. Serious objection to 
 the idea of colonies was advanced by this important econo- 
 mist on the ground of expense. "The mere military expense 
 attending the government of our West Indian and North 
 American colonies costs the treasury of Great Britain, in 
 times of peace, little less than a million a year, exclusive of 
 the revenue collected in them. . . . We defy any one to point 
 out a single benefit, of any sort whatever, derived by us from 
 the possession of Canada, and our other colonies in North 
 
 1 Mills, The Colonization of Australia, p. 16. 2 Ibid., p. 16. 
 
 * Quarterly Review, xlii, 506. 
 
A NEW COLONIAL INTEREST 163 
 
 America. They are productive of heavy expense to Great 
 Britain, but of nothing else. We are well convinced that it is 
 a moderate computation to affirm that these provinces have 
 already cost us sixty to seventy millions." * 
 
 Trade was often given as a reason for keeping and develop- 
 ing colonies. This argument seemed especially defenseless 
 during the early years of the nineteenth century. The United 
 States, no longer an expense to Great Britain, had proved 
 since its independence a very important market for British 
 materials. McCulloch further argued the uselessness of colo- 
 nies by using the United States as an example. "Has the 
 emancipation of the American colonies been in the slightest 
 degree prejudicial to our wealth, commerce or industry? 
 The reverse, as every one knows, is decidedly the fact. We 
 have continued since the peace of 1783, to enjoy every pre- 
 vious advantage resulting from our intercourse with the colo- 
 nies; and we have done this without being subjected, as was 
 previously the case, to the heavy expense of maintaining 
 armaments for the defence of such distant and extensive terri- 
 tories. . . . Our trade with the United States, now that they 
 are independent, rests on quite as firm a basis as it did when 
 they were subject to our regulations." 2 
 
 The United States served as an influence, in another way, 
 that led to doubt as to the value of the colonial system. 
 Englishmen became more and more convinced that the loss 
 of the American colonies had taught the uselessness of en- 
 deavoring to keep dependencies that had come to maturity. 
 Turgot, Dean Tucker, and Adam Smith seemed right. The 
 colonies apparently proved two things: that a growing de- 
 mocracy led to an increasing restiveness in imperial bonds; 
 and that the attempt to make the colonies self-supporting 
 or to induce them to share in imperial expense would be un- 
 availing. The British statesmen of the day were thinking 
 largely in terms of the financial return. The same attitude 
 that caused the weakening of the old colonial system in 1783 
 was tending to break up the whole fabric of external domin- 
 ion. Imperialistic thinking, wit& which we are familiar to- 
 1 xm, 291. « Ibid., p, 284, 
 
164 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 day, was rare indeed. If some of the Whig leaders of the day- 
 had had their way, Great Britain might have had no old 
 Empire as a nucleus for the new. 
 
 . The Edinburgh Review, in considering in 1808 a life of 
 Washington, declared that " America left because the acqui- 
 sition of wealth and power had brought to maturity that la- 
 tent principle of revolt which inheres in all distant colonial es- 
 tablishments. We admit (with Talleyrand in his excellent 
 Essay on Colonies, and Mr. Baring, also, in his late excellent 
 pamphlet) with all these writers, that independence is a stage 
 at which all distant and prosperous colonies are destined ul- 
 timately to arrive. If foresight does not voluntarily relax 
 the ties of the metropolis, force will in time assuredly break 
 them." * Three years later even the Tory Quarterly Review 
 expressed hesitation regarding the colonial system. This 
 periodical, in reviewing some books on Java, discussed the 
 subject in the following manner: "We beg leave to premise 
 that we are not among those who declaim against the colonial 
 system. . . . But in admitting this (the value of colonies) we 
 must also admit that we may be over-colonized." The au- 
 thor declared that the drain on the population would not be 
 serious, but he questioned the possibility of meeting the ex- 
 pense. He accordingly advocated the voluntary relinquish- 
 ment of lie de France, Bourbon, Java, and the other Dutch 
 possessions in the East Indies. The same Review in 1816, in 
 discussing the probable independence of South America, gen- 
 eralized in the accepted manner: "Unless the people of the 
 Spanish colonies are made of material different from the rest 
 of the species, we may venture to predict that their final 
 emancipation is an event not very far distant." 2 
 
 Violent disapproval of the colonial idea continued to ap- 
 pear at the close of the first quarter of the century. In 1830 
 the Westminster Review could say that "colonial dominion 
 has been the bane and curse of the people of this country." 
 In the same year Sir Henry Parnell, whose point of view has 
 been noted above, advocated the relinquishment of colo- 
 nies, especially of the Ionian Islands, Ceylon, the Cape, Mau- 
 
 1 xin, 153, 2 vi, 496-98, and xiv, 401. 
 
A NEW COLONIAL INTEREST 165 
 
 ritius, and Canada. He concluded his suggestions in the fol- 
 lowing way: "It is clear that, on the whole, the public de- 
 rives no commercial advantage from colonies which it might 
 not have without them." 1 
 
 The opinions of the very influential economist, J. R. Mc- 
 Culloch, whose contributions to the Edinburgh Review have 
 already been noted, received an even wider reading in his 
 Statistical Account of the British Empire, which appeared in a 
 second edition of two bulky volumes in 1839. This, the best 
 contemporary survey of Great Britain's varied activities, has 
 a misleading title to present-day students of British expan- 
 sion. Hardly a dozen pages of the fifteen hundred that make 
 up the two volumes are concerned with " Colonies and De- 
 pendencies." The author affirms that "our colonies confer 
 on us no direct advantage," since the supposed value of col- 
 ony trade is largely "imaginary," and because the dependen- 
 cies are a cause of continual expense to the British nation. 
 In addition to the direct expenditure of about two and a half 
 million pounds, McCulloch would add indirect expenditure 
 through discriminating duties and the outlay on military 
 force to keep them in subjection. The United States is in- 
 stanced as an illustration of the advantage of relinquishing 
 colonies, while Canada is regarded as a possession which 
 "never has been of advantage to England" and which "in 
 some ten or twenty years will be independent or will be in- 
 corporated with the United States." The Canadian Rebel- 
 lion of 1837, which was undoubtedly in his mind as he penned 
 these words, seemed to give additional point to his earlier 
 statement that England was but paying out money to pre- 
 pare a colony for the United States: "Certainly John Bull 
 discovers no great impatience of taxation, when he quietly 
 allows his pockets to be drained, in order to clear and fertilize 
 a province for the use of his rival Jonathan." 
 
 It should be clear from the opinions that have been called 
 in witness that "men of sense" held colonies to be a question- 
 able good. Where there was not violent opposition there was 
 indifference, an indifference that reformers of the day found 
 
 1 Quarterly Review, xlii, 505. 
 
166 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 it hard to overcome. Gibbon Wakefield, Wilmot Horton, 
 Joseph Hume, and others complained of this chilling neglect. 
 Lord Stanley, in 1834, even apologized to the House in dis- 
 cussing a subject (the colonies) on which it was so difficult 
 to command its attention. 
 
 BEGINNINGS OF A NEW INTEREST 
 
 By the close of the reign of George IV, however, a new in- 
 terest in colonies was already evident. The worth of these 
 distant possessions was conceived, not from the economic 
 point of view or the narrow and unimaginative attitude of the 
 financial reformer and tradesman. The method of approach 
 was that of the philanthropist, interested in the spread of 
 British influence or in the relief of social and industrial condi- 
 tions at home. It was as a solution of domestic problems 
 that the new belief in the efficacy of colonies developed. 
 
 Britain's population had grown rapidly in the days of the 
 Industrial Revolution. About 1750 England had six and a 
 half million inhabitants, which had increased by a million in 
 the preceding hundred years. In the last fifty years of the 
 eighteenth century, two and a half million more had been 
 added. By 1830 five more millions of people brought the pop- 
 ulation to nearly fourteen millions — double its size seventy- 
 five years before. Along with this had gone the evils attendant 
 upon factory work and concentration in the large cities. Pau- 
 perism had increased so seriously during the early nineteenth 
 century that it was an almost constant subject of discussion 
 for those concerned with the welfare of England and its 
 children. A committee of the House of Commons, appointed 
 to consider the poor laws in 1818, found an appalling situa- 
 tion. More than nine tenths of the population were occa- 
 sionally subsisting on public charity, and the nation was an- 
 nually taxed for their support over eight million pounds, a 
 sum " larger than its whole revenue in the days of its great- 
 est power and glory." x 
 
 Malthus (who died in 1834) had called attention, at the 
 beginning of the century, to the alarming increase in popu- 
 
 1 Edinburgh Review, xxix, 500. 
 
A NEW COLONIAL INTEREST 167 
 
 lation. In 1798 and again in 1803 he stated clearly and un- 
 reservedly the principle that population at all times tended 
 to outrun subsistence. There could be no permanent ameli- 
 oration of the conditions of the lower classes so long as the 
 proportion continued to increase at its present rate. A re- 
 distribution of wealth might be of value, but in spite of that 
 population would soon overtake subsistence. Starvation 
 would then be the check on further increase. 
 
 Emigration naturally occurred as a solution of the distress 
 of the lower classes in Great Britain. Out of this grew a new 
 interest in the colonies for the relief of the conditions at home. 
 Thereupon it was natural to find a fresh stimulus for colonial 
 ideals, since the establishment of new Britains beyond the 
 seas would create a new value for colonial territory. Mal- 
 thus, himself, held that migration would be inadequate in 
 making room for unrestricted increase, although it might be 
 a temporary relief for the condition in which Great Britain 
 found itself at that time. 
 
 In 1812 the Quarterly Review, in discussing the poor laws 
 and the increase in population, advocated emigration. 
 " Cast a thought over the map and see what elbow room there 
 is for England. ... It is time that Britain should become the 
 hive of nations and cast her swarms. What is required of 
 government is to encourage emigration by founding settle- 
 ments and facilitating means of transportation." Two years 
 later this Review declared: "If the population of our happy 
 and prosperous island goes on increasing as it has done in the 
 last half century, the time cannot be far distant when it may 
 be thought wise policy to encourage emigration by a bounty." 1 
 
 One of the early advocates of emigration was Lord Sel- 
 kirk. In 1792, in a tour of the Highlands, he had found the 
 changing conditions very hard for many of the lower classes 
 of the population. He concluded that emigration was una- 
 voidable and that it should be directed to the British colonies. 
 In 1803 he sent out eight hundred emigrants to Prince Ed- 
 ward Island, a venture that was an unqualified success. In 
 1810 Lord Selkirk acquired control of the Hudson's Bay 
 
 1 viii, 355, and xi, 252. 
 
168 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 Gompany, and in the following years sent out the first of his 
 settlers to the Red River Valley (now in Manitoba). This 
 effort at establishing a colony was not so successful as the 
 first, for he met determined opposition from the Northwest 
 Fur Company. With the amalgamation of the two com- 
 panies in 1821, the country was gradually and peaceably 
 settled. 
 
 Lord Selkirk was a remarkable man, who lived somewhat 
 before his time. It was not until the close of the Napoleonic 
 wars that the modern history of emigration from the British 
 Isles began. The movement is one of the most noteworthy 
 in the nineteenth century. But two thousand and eighty- 
 one emigrants left England in 1815; in 1850 "over three 
 hundred thousand emigrated. This continually increasing 
 stream sent to various parts of the world the British language 
 and ideas. Many of the emigrants went to the United 
 States and other countries outside the Empire. Great num- 
 bers, nevertheless, were directed to the British colonies. It 
 was out of this movement that a new Empire grew. 
 
 In 1819 the ministry, alarmed at the distress of the lower 
 classes in England, procured a vote of £50,000 to assist la- 
 borers to the Cape of Good Hope. Imperial grants were 
 made in 1821, 1823, and again in 1825 to assist emigrants 
 from Ireland to Canada and the Cape. In 1826 and 1827 
 committees of the House of Commons considered the prob- 
 lem at great length, recommending that a Board of Emi- 
 gration be established. The Committee of 1827 reported: 
 "Emigration appears to your Committee to be a remedy well 
 worth consideration, whether with reference to the improved 
 conditions at home, and the saving of that expense which, as 
 it appears to your Committee, is now incurred in the main- 
 taining a portion of them, or with respect to the prosperity of 
 your colonies." x The first vote for an Emigration Establish- 
 ment was in 1834. 
 
 Wilmot Horton, who became Under-Secretary of State for 
 War and the Colonies in 1822, was responsible for a good deal 
 of this governmental interest in emigration. His aim was to 
 
 1 Mills, Colonization of Australia, p. 41. 
 
A NEW COLONIAL INTEREST 169 
 
 free England of its surplus population and at the same time 
 to furnish laborers to the colonies needing them. Horton 
 believed that this would strengthen the bonds between the 
 mother country and its dependencies, especially Canada. 
 His scheme, which was confined to the shipment of paupers, 
 was to be aided and controlled by the State. The grants of 
 1823 and 1825 were for the purpose of settling paupers in 
 Canada and the Cape. Three hundred and fifty laborers 
 were sent to the Cape and about six hundred Irish paupers to 
 Canada. In 1827 two thousand more were sent to British 
 North America. Horton was chairman of the Committee of 
 1826 and also of that of 1827. In 1828 and again in 1830 he 
 introduced bills in the House of Commons to enable parishes 
 to send " able-bodied paupers" to British colonies. In 1831 
 he was knighted and made Governor of Ceylon. When he 
 returned to England in 1839, the work of the "systematic" 
 colonizers was already under way. 
 
 EDWARD GIBBON WAKEFIELD 
 
 The man chiefly responsible for creating the new interest 
 in the colonial Empire was Edward Gibbon Wakefield. He 
 was born in 1796. In 1816 he had married a ward in chancery, 
 who died in 1820, leaving him two children. Six years later 
 he made another runaway match with an heiress whom he 
 lured from school. As a result he was arrested and sentenced 
 to three years' imprisonment in Newgate. Quite naturally 
 he was an object of suspicion, and his work was always hin- 
 dered by the burden of his early misdeeds. 
 
 Wakefield's imprisonment was a turning-point in his ca- 
 reer. WTiile in Newgate he became interested in the colo- 
 nies, possibly as a result of his contact with paupers and con- 
 victs. At any rate, in 1829 he wrote eleven letters to the 
 Morning Chronicle which were republished in book form 
 under the title A Letter from Sydney . . . together with the Out- 
 lines of a System of Colonization. So vivid were the letters 
 that they seemed the work of an inhabitant of New South 
 Wales. In them the colonist pictured his difficulties to the 
 people in the homeland. With plenty of land he was hin- 
 
170 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 dered in its development by the lack of labor; the convicts 
 were not entirely satisfactory in this regard. Laborers com- 
 ing from England were lured away by the opportunity of 
 having land of their own, as it was obtainable very easily. 
 The main hindrance to the growth of the colony, therefore, 
 was the scarcity of labor. To remedy this the Letter from 
 Sydney proposed what came to be known as "systematic col- 
 onization," a method by which the prosperity of the colonies 
 would be assured. 
 
 Wakefield's scheme, however, was intended to solve much 
 more than the labor problem of a colony. A manufacturing 
 country, such as England, would obtain a cheap grain supply 
 by the use of labor in colonial fields, and there would be fur- 
 nished for the manufacturer a larger market for his goods. 
 In reply to those who disparaged colonies by saying that an 
 independent country was as good a market as a colony, he 
 declared that there did not exist sufficient available markets 
 in independent states. In consequence, new colonies must be 
 founded and old ones extended. The plan was also supposed 
 to solve the difficulty of excess population that was felt so 
 seriously at that time in Great Britain. Competition for em- 
 ployment would be relieved and the poor rate for paupers 
 would be lessened as well. He showed, in addition, that col- 
 onization furnished a field for capital that was not at that 
 time profitably employed at home. 
 
 Just what was his plan and why did it seem so attractive? 
 To remedy the scarcity of colonial labor he proposed that the 
 land in the colonies be sold instead of given away. The land 
 was to be valued at a "sufficient" price, so that the laborers 
 coming to the colony would be compelled to work for wages 
 for a time with the prospect of owning land later. It was 
 intended by this proposal to keep a correct relation between 
 land and labor. Under such conditions colonial capitalists 
 would pay the cost of an emigrant's passage, and emigrating 
 capitalists would bring laborers. The revenue resulting from 
 land sales was to become an emigration fund, which, however, 
 was not to be used unsystematically. The haphazard ship- 
 ping of paupers and convicts to the colonies was to cease. 
 
A NEW COLONIAL INTEREST 171 
 
 Emigrants were to be selected in such a way as to take from 
 the mother country and introduce into the colony the great- 
 est amount of population and labor at the least cost. He 
 considered that young married couples should be given the 
 preference. 
 
 Gibbon Wakefield had pronounced views also regarding 
 the political relation of colonies to the home Government. 
 Indeed they were nothing less than revolutionary, for he ad- 
 vocated colonial self-government. The numerous evils cen- 
 tering in the Colonial Office he assigned to the arbitrary sys- 
 tem of " government from a distance." He blamed the loss 
 of the American colonies on the attempt to deprive them of 
 their " municipal" right of government and to substitute for 
 it the " central" principle of administration from the distant 
 center of the Empire. His proposal was a return to the sys- 
 tem by which the American colonies had been governed be- 
 fore the " tightening" policy was inaugurated in 1763. It 
 would be cheap, the people would rule themselves well in their 
 own interests, colonies would thereby become attractive to 
 emigrants, and they would gradually acquire the means for 
 their own protection. The theory of Gibbon Wakefield was 
 strange indeed. Colonies were to be fostered and given an 
 honorable place in the Empire. Colonists were to be proud 
 of their work and of their place. A new spirit was to be 
 breathed into the colonial Empire of Great Britain. 
 
 Wakefield published anonymously in 1833 a book entitled 
 England and America, which developed his ideas with greater 
 care. In 1849 he issued his final work, A View of the Art of 
 Colonization. Besides these volumes many magazine articles 
 appeared from his facile pen. 
 
 This remarkable thinker was not alone in fostering these 
 ideas, for he inspired an able group of followers who con- 
 tributed much to the spread of the new conceptions. His 
 most intimate helper was Charles Buller. A man of ability 
 and power, he was elected to Parliament on the passing of the 
 Reform Bill in 1832, representing Liskeard from that time 
 until his death in 1848. Buller was a strong reformer of the 
 group known as the Philosophical Radicals. When Lord 
 
172 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 Durham went on his mission to Canada in 1837 he chose 
 Buller as his chief assistant. 1 In 1840 Buller published 
 Responsible Government for Colonies. Another important 
 member of this group was Sir William Molesworth, who 
 entered Parliament in 1832 as a Philosophical Radical. In 
 1837 he acted as chairman of the Transportation Committee 
 and wrote a report that created considerable discussion. His 
 great aim was to further self-government in the colonies; 
 and he always insisted that it was consonant with a close re- 
 lation to the mother country. His advice in 1838 to the 
 House of Commons was : " Do not ' emancipate your colonies ' ; 
 but multiply and improve them — reform your ideas of colo- 
 nial government." 2 
 
 Another important supporter of the Wakefield system was 
 John Stuart Mill. George Grote, the historian, is to be in- 
 cluded in this group as well. R. S. Rintoul, the editor of the 
 Spectator (but recently founded), made his publication the 
 organ of the systematic colonizers. Jeremy Bentham, 
 shortly before his death in 1832, became convinced of the 
 value of the Wakefield theory. Sir Rowland Hill, later so 
 famous as the author of the penny postal system, became 
 secretary in 1832 of Wakefield's company for colonizing 
 South Australia. Lord Howick, afterwards the third Earl 
 Grey and Colonial Secretary from 1845 to 1852, was an early 
 convert. 
 
 SYSTEMATIC COLONIZATION 
 
 In, 1830 the group, of whom Wakefield was the center, 
 formed the National Colonization Society "to establish a 
 general system of colonization, founded on the main princi- 
 ples of Selection, Concentration, and the sale of Waste Land, 
 for the purposes of Emigration." It had an uphill struggle. 
 Yet the society zealously issued pamphlets and agitated for 
 their particular theory and for a general interest in the colo- 
 nies. In 1831, through the influence of Lord Howick, the 
 Colonization Society was successful in bringing about the 
 
 1 See below, pp. 225 ff. 
 
 2 Quoted in King's College Lectures, p. 157. 
 
A NEW COLONIAL INTEREST 173 
 
 appointment of an Emigration Commission. Regulations 
 regarding the sale of waste lands were put in force, the income 
 to be used as an emigration fund. During the next four 
 years £42,000 was expended and nearly three thousand 
 women emigrants were assisted. In 1837 an Agent-General 
 for Emigration was appointed to superintend this whole mat- 
 ter for all the colonies. In 1840 a new Land and Emigration 
 Board was created, whose instructions conformed rather 
 closely to the Wakefield theory. In 1842 the sale of the Aus- 
 tralian public lands became obligatory. Charles Buller's 
 connection with the Durham mission to Canada has already 
 been noticed. Wakefield, also, went with the mission; 
 though in no official capacity, he exercised a strong influence 
 on this very important report, by which responsible govern- 
 ment was recommended for the colony and in which the 
 questions of land and emigration occupy important places. 
 
 It was not only by propaganda and by influence on legisla- 
 tion that the systematic colonizers showed their effective- 
 ness; they furthered colonization plans of their own. In 
 seeking for a site on which to carry out their ideas they 
 avoided New South Wales on account of the transportation 
 of convicts to Botany Bay. South Australia was selected as 
 the location for their practical experiment. The home Gov- 
 ernment was hostile, but after four years of waiting a bill 
 authorizing the plan went through Parliament, and in 1836 
 the colony was founded at Adelaide. South Australia was 
 not successful in the beginning in the sense that it was self- 
 supporting, but the expense was largely the result of careless- 
 ness in controlling the venture, for which Wakefield and his 
 plan were not to blame. By 1843 it was in a prosperous con- 
 dition. 1 
 
 A further result of the Wakefield movement was the estab- 
 lishment of colonies in New Zealand. As the Government 
 refused to sanction the plan to colonize this unclaimed terri- 
 tory, the New Zealand Land Company, under the active di- 
 rection of Wakefield, determined in 1839 to go ahead without 
 governmental sanction, on the ground that New Zealand 
 1 See chapter xv for a detailed consideration of this experiment. 
 
174 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 was a no man's land. In 1840 a treaty was made with the 
 natives just in time to forestall French efforts to possess what 
 has proved to be one of the most important of Britain's colo- 
 nial possessions. It was settled on a system of land sales and 
 assisted emigration. Wakefield spent the last years of his 
 life as a New Zealand citizen, dying at Wellington in 1862. 1 
 
 A great change had come in colonial affairs by the agita- 
 tion and work of these reformers in the two decades follow- 
 ing the Reform Bill of 1832. Transportation was brought 
 into disfavor and largely discontinued. Old colonies were 
 invigorated and new colonies established. Emigration of a 
 superior class of settlers was assisted. Self-government be- 
 came the accepted ideal for colonies of British stock. Above 
 all, there was a revival of the colonizing spirit and of colonial 
 interests on the part of the British public. Thus a great 
 change was brought about in British colonial policy. Colo- 
 nists were no longer so vastly underrated politically and so- 
 cially as they had been in the days gone by. Charles Buller 
 expressed this change in 1843, when he said: "A colonial ca- 
 reer is now looked upon as one of the careers open to a gentle- 
 man." In our study of the particular parts of the Empire we 
 shall find many men of distinguished name and ability dedi- 
 cating their services to colonial development. 
 
 Yet it must not be forgotten that an interest in a colonial 
 empire was by no means universal, even by the middle of 
 the nineteenth century. During the whole of Queen Victo- 
 ria's reign there were two currents of opinion with regard to 
 the lands oversea. During the first half of the century the 
 anti-imperialists — later dubbed "little Englanders" — were 
 strong. The grant of self-government to the dominions and 
 the increasing English-speaking populations in the oversea 
 possessions, in addition to the growing attractiveness of em- 
 pire to all the European nations in the years following the 
 opening-up of Africa, led to a remarkable change of senti- 
 ment. In the later days of Queen Victoria's reign imperial 
 problems were to become more and more engrossing. 2 
 
 1 See pp. 252 ff. 
 
 2 See chapter xvn for the evolution of this colonial interest. 
 
A NEW COLONIAL INTEREST 175 
 
 As a result of the change of sentiment traced in this chap- 
 ter, a new Empire has taken the place of the old one so badly- 
 discredited by the experiences of the eighteenth century. 
 The history of the English-speaking people is no longer an ac- 
 count of what happens in the southern half of an island adja- 
 cent to the European continent. It is not even the record of 
 the complex life of Great Britain as a whole. Great Britain 
 has evolved into a greater Britain, whose world-empire is 
 the largest yet created on the globe. The history of the 
 British Isles is henceforth intimately bound up with that of 
 its distant possessions. Therefore, it is our next task to turn 
 to the various parts of the expanding Britain to examine the 
 way in which they evolve under the new conceptions. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 
 
 H. E. Egerton, whose Short History of British Colonial Policy is of im- 
 portance for the whole course of imperial development, has an interesting 
 lecture on the "Colonial Reformers of 1830" in The King's College Lec- 
 tures on Colonial Problems, edited by F. J. C. Hearnshaw (London, 1913). 
 An important handbook of use from this point is the concise treatment of 
 British Colonial Policy, 1783-1915 (Oxford, 1916), by C. H. Currey. A 
 book of prime value in connection with the subject of this chapter is R. C. 
 Mills, The Colonization of Australia, 1829-1842, The Wakefield Experiment 
 in Empire Building (London, 1915). There is a Life of Wakefield by 
 R. Garnett (London, 1898). An excellent edition of Lord Durham's Report 
 has appeared under the editorship of Sir Charles Lucas (3 vols., Oxford, 
 1912). H. E. Egerton has edited the Selected Speeches of Sir William 
 Molesworth on Questions Relating to Colonial Policy (London, 1903). For 
 the colonial experiment of Lord Selkirk see Chester Martin's Lord Sel- 
 kirk's Work in Canada (Oxford, 1916) in the "Oxford Historical and Lit- 
 erary Studies." 
 
 In addition to the various volumes to which reference has already been 
 made, there are the contemporary publications of the reformers and others. 
 Mention should be made of the works of Gibbon Wakefield, Charles Bul- 
 ler's Responsible Government for Colonies (1849), Sir George Cornewall 
 Lewis' Essay on the Government of Dependencies (1841), Herman Merivale's 
 Lectures on Colonies and Colonization (1841), and J. A. Roebuck's The 
 Colonies of England (London, 1849). Lewis' Essay has been edited by Sir 
 Charles Lucas (Oxford, 1891). Wakefield's A View of the Art of Coloni- 
 zation has been made available by the Oxford University Press (1914). 
 The best contemporary statement of conditions is J. R. McCulloch's 
 A Statistical Account of the British Empire (2d ed., 2 vols., London, 1839). 
 The work of McCulloch is almost wholly concerned with Great Britain. 
 A valuable contemporary description of the colonies is the History of the 
 
176 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 British Colonies (5 vols., London, 1834), by R. Montgomery Martin. This 
 extensive work is based on a personal knowledge of many of the colonies, 
 and was published with the ardent desire to make evident the intrinsic 
 worth of the colonies "which is neither understood nor appreciated by 
 the mass of the people." 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 THE SPREAD OF BRITISH POWER IN INDIA 
 
 The Battle of Plassey, won by Clive in 1757, is usually re- 
 garded as the initial step in the rapid growth of British do- 
 minion in the Indian peninsula. In a former chapter the 
 events leading to this decisive contest have been narrated. 1 
 French and English competition had produced military con- 
 flict and encouraged intrigue with the native rulers. Before 
 the Battle of Plassey, the British had been concerned largely 
 with coastal holdings, the most important of which were 
 Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta. The East India Company 
 was interested in commerce ; it must not be forgotten 
 that the military exploits of Clive in the Carnatic and Ben- 
 gal had been for a commercial company. With the victory 
 of Plassey was to come a change. When the British replaced 
 the defeated Nawab by a puppet of their own, Mir Jafar, 
 greater trading privileges were obtained in Bengal. No 
 other development seems to have been anticipated. 
 
 LORD CLIVE 
 
 To Clive British penetration meant much more; he con- 
 ceived the idea of placing this territory directly under the rule 
 of the Company. Although this scheme was not carried out 
 at the time, it later became inevitable. Nominally the Na- 
 wab of Bengal was the ruler, but he held his position at the 
 good will of the British. The Company felt that, if it with- 
 drew, French or Dutch traders would assume a like relation 
 to the native power. Yet, on the other hand, if the Brit- 
 ish continued in control, the status quo could not remain. 
 Pride, ambition, the prospect of further gain, all counseled an 
 advance, for the internal situation of the country was such 
 that the expanding trade of the Company and the foreign in- 
 terests of Bengal forced either complete withdrawal or fur- 
 ther penetration and a larger measure of control. 
 
 1 See pp. 92 ff. 
 
178 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 Before the story of British expansion is studied, there 
 should be a clear understanding of the political characteris- 
 tics of India in 1757, as the peculiar situation in the penin- 
 sula conditioned the measure of success attained by the Com- 
 pany's servants. 1 Back in 1526 Babar had founded a great 
 Mogul Empire, including much of India and centering in the 
 valley of the Ganges with Delhi as the capital. In the first 
 half of the eighteenth century this imposing edifice had fallen 
 to pieces. There were various reasons for the collapse. The 
 Emperors did not show the ability of the earlier representa- 
 tives of the royal line. The attempt to control the Deccan 
 — the southern part of the peninsula — was too great a 
 strain on the imperial resources. The Hindus themselves de- 
 veloped strong military power in opposition to their oppres- 
 sors, and, as a result, there grew up great provinces in this un- 
 wieldy Empire, forming for all practical purposes independ- 
 ent states. In the Deccan the Nizam of Haidarabad had 
 become the principal ruler. Below the Nizam's territories 
 was the state of Mysore, and along the eastern coast 
 stretched the Carnatic, in which Madras was located. In 
 northern India as well, independent states had emerged. 
 West of Delhi, Rajputana under its Indian princes had been 
 practically independent since 1715. In the central Ganges 
 valley to the east of the imperial capital lay the territory of 
 Oudh with its teeming population and the important cities of 
 Cawnpore and Lucknow; it had been autonomous under its 
 Nawab since about 1730. Still farther to the east, near the 
 mouth of the Ganges, was Bengal, still nominally under the 
 Mogul. The eastern coast of India, between Bengal and the 
 Carnatic, was divided into two principal parts; south of Ben- 
 gal stretched Orissa and between Orissa and the Carnatic lay 
 the Northern Circars — territories that early became British. 
 
 One of the principal causes for the absolute decrepitude of 
 the Mogul Emperor was the invasion of Nadir Shah, the Per- 
 sian monarch. In 1736 the Shah had annexed Afghanistan 
 to his dominions, and thus had brought his possessions into 
 touch with the Mogul Empire. In 1739 he invaded India; 
 
 1 See pp. 88 ff. 
 
THE SPREAD OF BRITISH POWER IN INDIA 179 
 
 the capital, Delhi, was captured by the victorious Persians 
 and given over to massacre and plunder. The government 
 and all wealthy persons were systematically robbed of their 
 riches. The immense booty, including the celebrated pea- 
 cock throne, was taken back through the Afghan passes. 
 Among the rewards of victory were jewels of inestimable 
 value, plate, furniture, elephants, and camels, besides a treas- 
 ure in money estimated as equivalent to eight or nine mil- 
 lions of sterling. Not one but six such invasions were en- 
 dured, and, as a result, no vitality was left in the imposing 
 Empire of Babar and Jahangir. 
 
 Hardly less weakening than foreign invasion was the emer- 
 gence in central India during the seventeenth century of a 
 powerful military race known as the Marathas. At the time 
 that Clive was conquering Bengal they had under their con- 
 trol most of central India from the Nizam's dominions in the 
 south to Oudh and Rajputana in the north, and from Bombay 
 in the west to Orissa on the eastern coast. These peasant 
 soldiers, derisively called by one of the Emperors "the moun- 
 tain rats of the Deccan," were such remarkable warriors that 
 their sway spread over central India like an uncontrollable 
 pestilence. Under their leader Sivaji, who died in 1680, the 
 Marathas had established chauth, or blackmail, over much of 
 the Mogul territory; one fourth of the revenue of subjected 
 states was theirs on condition that they protected the terri- 
 tory from further spoliation. In the twenty years preceding 
 the Battle of Plassey they had been particularly successful, 
 obtaining the cession of Malwa (south of Delhi), Gujerat, 
 which lay north of Surat on the west coast, as well as Orissa 
 on the east coast. In 1751 they had even been granted an 
 imperial tribute from Bengal. 1 The holdings of this race had 
 
 1 Even the British in Calcutta felt the Maratha menace, as the country about 
 the trading-post was harried by these marauders. The Hugli River was a 
 sufficient protection on the western side, and there were morasses to the east of 
 the town; but the danger of an attack on the landward side led the inhabitants 
 to measures of defense. In 1742 they began to dig a semi-circular moat at the 
 back of the town which followed the course of the modern Circular Road. Its 
 ends were to reach the river, but it was never completed along the southern 
 boundary. The purpose of the moat is preserved in its name; it was called the 
 "Maratha Ditch." _ 
 
180 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 already broken into groups when the British came into con- 
 tact with them. It was this process, so similar to that work- 
 ing in the Mogul Empire as a whole that at a later date was 
 to aid the British in the subjection of the Marathas. Even 
 so, they were to prove the most troublesome obstacle to Brit- 
 ish expansion. 
 
 Such was the political situation in India when Clive won 
 the Battle of Plassey in 1757 and found himself in practical 
 control of Bengal. Mir Jafar was made Nawab, but he served 
 as a figurehead, with Clive as the real ruler for the East India 
 Company. His immense energy and indomitable will had 
 made the British supreme in the lower Ganges valley as far as 
 the southern boundary of Oudh. 
 
 The way this newly won power was used was not altogether 
 to the credit of the Company or of its servants. There was 
 no thought of improving the condition of the country, but of 
 extracting as much of its supposedly fabulous wealth as could 
 be done by fair or questionable means. The money gained 
 was tribute from a subject nawab and province, resembling 
 the Marathas chauth in fact if not in name. Before Plassey 
 it was agreed that the army and navy should be given £400,- 
 000 and that £120,000 should go to the Select Committee of 
 six persons. The battle won, the task of inquiring into the 
 state of the Nawab's treasury, so deeply interesting to the 
 victors, was attended to with all diligence. Although the 
 amount found was below expectations, Clive received in all 
 for his personal gratuity £234,000 and other members of the 
 Company from £50,000 to £80,000. But Clive was not sat- 
 isfied. Mir Jafar obtained from the Emperor for Clive the 
 title of Omrah or noble, with which it was customary to grant 
 a jagir or land revenue when such a title was given. At first 
 Clive did not receive the jagir, but on demanding it he was 
 granted the enormous annual revenue of £20,000 as a quit- 
 rent for lands south of Calcutta. Thus the servant of the 
 Company became its landlord. 1 
 
 1 In this curious transaction is found one more similarity between the careers 
 of Dupleix and Clive. Dupleix had obtained a, jagir in the days of his prosper- 
 ity, and had garnered immense wealth for himself and his relatives. Shameless 
 corruption was not confined to the servants of the English Company. Al- 
 
THE SPREAD OF BRITISH POWER IN INDIA 181 
 
 After Clive left for England in 1760, the system of "bleed- 
 ing" the country was unblushingly continued. Mir Jafar 
 was soon deposed in favor of a successor, who granted further 
 districts and additional gratuities. In 1763 Mir Jafar was 
 restored, with more financial advantages for the British. 
 This tool of the British died in 1765 just as Clive was return- 
 ing to exercise his second governorship. In England rewards 
 had been freely granted to Clive; an Irish peerage and a posi- 
 tion in Parliament, in addition to a number of rotten bor- 
 oughs he had purchased, made him an important personage. 
 On his return to India he reformed as best he could the cor- 
 rupt system under which he had waxed wealthy, acting with 
 integrity as the Company's servant. He also acquired for 
 the Company during this period the diwani or right to collect 
 and administer all the revenues of Bengal. The collection 
 was made by natives under British supervision and the 
 charges of the government of the Nawab were defrayed by an 
 annual fixed payment. It was the first real step toward terri- 
 torial dominion, but it meant power without responsibility 
 and thus left the way open to much abuse. 
 
 In 1767 Clive returned to England broken in health. Five 
 years later, when the Company was in bad financial condi- 
 tion, two committees of the House of Commons inquired into 
 Indian affairs. Colonel Burgoyne at that time moved that 
 "Robert Clive had abused the power with which he was in- 
 trusted to the evil example of the servants of the public and 
 to the dishonor and detriment of the state." 1 Clive was 
 finally exonerated and a unanimous vote was recorded to 
 the effect that "Robert Clive rendered great and meritorious 
 services to his country." Clive, brooding over the attacks 
 made on him, and with a name not altogether unspotted, 
 took his own life in 1774. Though his acts would not re- 
 ceive the approbation of a later age and were not altogether 
 
 though it is no justification of the British, it is certainly true that the French 
 had shown the way in this as in many other particulars. 
 
 1 Before the Committee, Clive defended himself on the ground that he 
 used restraint: "Am I not rather deserving of praise for the moderation 
 which marked my proceedings? . . . Mr. Chairman, at this moment I stand 
 astonished at my own moderation.". 
 
182 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 up to the expected standard of his own day, it must be ad- 
 mitted that he made possible an Indian Empire for Great 
 Britain, acting, as he undoubtedly believed, in the interests 
 of the Company and his country. 
 
 WARREN HASTINGS 
 
 The next important Governor of Bengal was Warren Hast- 
 ings; from 1772 to 1785 he was the Company's chief servant 
 in India. His acts were subject to even more serious attacks 
 than were those of Clive, but later students of Indian history 
 have been inclined to regard the assaults made upon him as 
 excessive in their severity. If Clive made the Indian Empire 
 possible, Hastings laid its real foundations. 
 
 His most important work was in the Ganges valley, for 
 with his reforms in that part of India we have the beginning 
 of a civil administration. The dual system of Clive for col- 
 lecting the revenue had proved a failure; henceforth the 
 taxes were not only collected but also expended by the Com- 
 pany. A Board of Revenue was established, and the treas- 
 ury was transferred from the native capital to Calcutta. 
 Hastings also set up courts of appeal in Bengal. 
 
 It was during his administration that an important revi- 
 sion of the rules of Indian government was effected by the 
 Regulating Act of Lord North. The inquiry leading to the 
 attack on Clive resulted from the evident need of more care- 
 ful scrutiny of the Company's work in the Far East. As we 
 have found, the Company was practically bankrupt; in 1772 
 Lord North was told that unless the Company could obtain a 
 state loan of one million pounds it could not continue in busi- 
 ness. In the next year the Government granted a measure 
 of assistance to the Company by allowing a drawback on the 
 duty on tea reshipped to the American colonies. It was in 
 consequence of this attempt to help the Company that the 
 good people of Boston indulged in a "Tea Party" as a prel- 
 ude to the American Revolution. 
 
 The Regulating Act granted a new constitution. The 
 Governor-General of Bengal was to be assisted by four coun- 
 cilors, and in their decisions the majority was to decide the 
 
THE SPREAD OF BRITISH POWER IN INDIA 183 
 
 action to be taken. The Governor-General and his Council 
 were to superintend the other presidencies in their relations 
 to the native powers. All correspondence dealing with the 
 revenues was to be laid by the Directors before the Treasury. 
 In addition, a Supreme Court of Judicature was set up at 
 Calcutta. Although the Act left the Nawab of Bengal titular 
 head, it made more definite the governmental control of the 
 Company. The councilors sent out under the new system 
 were critical and suspicious of Hastings, greatly hampering 
 his administration by their obstructive tactics and later lead- 
 ing to his famous impeachment. 
 
 The only addition to the British territory during the Hast- 
 ings administration was that of the country about Benares, 
 which was obtained from Oudh. But Hastings' foreign pol- 
 icy and accomplishments were important, nevertheless. The 
 Emperor, who had been given by Clive some territory for his 
 personal support, in the meantime came under Maratha con- 
 trol. Hastings promptly discontinued the subsidies formerly 
 sent to the puppet and ceded to Oudh the lands that the 
 Emperor had been granted by Clive. This close relationship 
 established with Oudh led to British assistance for that coun- 
 try when it fought the Rohilla War with the Mohammedans 
 who controlled the territory of Rohilkhand. By this act a 
 precedent was set up whereby British assistance might be 
 furnished in a quarrel among the natives. 
 
 In western and southern India Hastings made his influence 
 felt also, for as Governor-General he had supervisory power 
 in Bombay and Madras. In these parts of India the British 
 suffered much from too great an interest in Indian political 
 matters. To this was joined bad diplomacy and mismanage- 
 ment. In the west Bombay determined to become the mas- 
 ter of the Maratha court at Poona. The result is known as 
 the First Maratha War. In the beginning of this conflict the 
 Marathas were successful. In spite of several brilliant mili- 
 tary feats by the British forces, the British were unable to 
 obtain more than the status quo, when peace was concluded 
 in 1781. The Maratha powers were to remain at peace 
 with the British for the next twenty years. 
 
184 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 In the south the trouble was more serious. Tactless ac- 
 tion of the Madras authorities led to the union of Mysore, 
 Haidarabad, and the Marathas under the lead of Haidar Ali 
 of Mysore. The conflict that resulted (1780-84) is known 
 as the First Mysore War. In 1780 Arcot, the capital of the 
 Carnatic, fell into Haidar Ali's possession and the territory 
 about Madras was given over to pillage. Under the vigorous 
 guidance of Hastings, however, the British position was re- 
 trieved. Sir Eyre Coote, the victor of Wandewash, was sent 
 to the relief of Madras. In 1782 Haidar Ali died, and two 
 years later his son Tipu concluded peace. 
 
 All this was expensive; the Company, which had formerly 
 been prosperous under Hastings' leadership, faced bank- 
 ruptcy. As a result, the Governor-General was involved in 
 measures for obtaining money that brought about his im- 
 peachment. As early as 1773 charges of defalcation had 
 been brought against Warren Hastings. The most famous 
 accusation was made by Nandkumar (Nuncomar), a Brah- 
 man. Shortly afterward Nandkumar was arrested on a charge 
 of forgery that was made by a Calcutta merchant; as a result 
 of the trial he was condemned and executed. In spite of the 
 surprising coincidence of his accuser having been in turn ac- 
 cused and executed, Hastings seems to have been guiltless of 
 any connection with the trial of Nandkumar. 
 
 In 1778, when war began with the French, Hastings en- 
 deavored to improve the financial situation by levying a war 
 contribution from the Raja of Benares, Chait Singh. The 
 Raja was finally banished and his successor compelled to pay 
 a heavier tribute than that demanded in the first instance. 
 The most famous case, however, that grew out of Hastings' 
 financial measures was that of the princesses of Oudh, known 
 as the Begums. Oudh was paying tribute to the Company, 
 but was badly in arrears. The Nawab, as an explanation 
 and a solution of his financial condition, complained that his 
 mother and grandmother, the Begums, held large landed es- 
 tates and a valuable treasure of the late Nawab. Hastings 
 consented to the Nawab's request that the treasure be seized 
 for the debt of the Company. This act was an abrogation 
 
THE SPREAD OF BRITISH POWER IN INDIA 185 
 
 of a treaty, and in the taking of the treasure the Nawab was 
 assisted by British troops. 
 
 For these and other alleged acts of oppression Warren 
 Hastings was put on trial in 1788, three years after his return 
 from India. Burke, Fox, and Sheridan were the leaders in 
 an impeachment so bitterly prosecuted that the philippics of 
 these famous orators have hardly been excelled for bitterness. 
 The trial dragged on until 1795 when Hastings was acquitted 
 on all the articles. It is true that the great Governor-Gen- 
 eral was compelled to take an aggressive attitude and that 
 his methods undoubtedly bordered on the unscrupulous. 
 Although he was acquitted, it became more evident than 
 ever that the system of Indian administration needed to be 
 thoroughly overhauled. In judging both Clive and Hast- 
 ings it must be remembered that these two remarkable men 
 were working for a trading Company primarily intent on 
 financial gain. 
 
 The close of Hastings' administration corresponded with 
 the end of the war of the American Revolution and the begin- 
 ning of Pitt's long control of British politics. One of the first 
 reform acts of Pitt was the improvement of the Indian ad- 
 ministration. In 1783 Charles James Fox, during a brief ten- 
 ure of office, had proposed an India Bill which was so thor- 
 oughgoing that it would have ended once for all the power of 
 the East India Company. The measure passed the Com- 
 mons successfully, but suffered defeat in the upper house 
 largely through a royal influence that would now be regarded 
 as unconstitutional. By Pitt's India Act of 1784 the East 
 India Company was more than ever subordinated to the 
 State. Civil and military matters were to be handled by a 
 Board of Control, consisting of the Chancellor of the Ex- 
 chequer, one of the Secretaries of State, and four Privy 
 Councilors. The Proprietors of the Company were to be un- 
 able to modify the action of the Board. In India authority 
 was granted to the Governor-General and his Council of 
 three. 1 - . 
 
 * See pp. 111-13, 
 
186 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 LORD CORNWALLIS 
 
 For the fourteen years following the India Act of Pitt 
 there was very little growth of British power in the peninsula. 
 This is the result of two Governors-General who were inter- 
 ested more in the matter of internal reform than in the assim- 
 ilation of new territory. The first was Lord Cornwallis, well 
 known for his part in the American Revolution. He was a 
 man of high character, of no personal ambitions, and free 
 from the love of money. In 1786 he was persuaded to assume 
 the government of India; a special bill was passed by Parlia- 
 ment giving him extraordinary powers. As one who had not 
 spent his life laboring for the Company, it was felt that he 
 could and would bring in the reform measures so much in 
 demand. With him the old system of plunder practically 
 ceased. He proved the enemy of all that was underhanded 
 and questionable, substituting for commissions, generous 
 salaries at a fixed amount, and separating the executive from 
 the judicial function. 
 
 Cornwallis is remembered especially for the Permanent 
 Settlement of the revenue in Bengal. From 1786 to 1789 he 
 and Sir John Shore studied the problem. A settlement was 
 made in 1789 which was declared permanent in 1793, a set- 
 tlement that has aroused much discussion as to its real value. 
 The zamindars, or government farmers, were recognized as 
 having the right to collect revenue from the actual cultiva- 
 tors of the soil. The amount to be paid by them to the Com- 
 pany was fixed, while the amounts they collected varied. It 
 tended to make the zamindars a landed aristocracy, a position 
 that they had not always occupied, and deprived the vil- 
 lage communities and peasant cultivators of their privileges. 
 The lower classes did not receive real relief from this system 
 until the Bengal Land Act of 1859. Cornwallis did impor- 
 tant work, also, in elaborating the system of law courts begun 
 by Hastings. 
 
 In his relations to the independent Indian governments 
 he followed the recommendations from England to "avoid 
 schemes of conquest and the extension of dominion in India." 
 
THE SPREAD OF BRITISH POWER IN INDIA 187 
 
 Nevertheless, he was forced into war with Tipu, the ruler 
 of Mysore. Even Cornwallis found neutrality impossible. 
 The Second Mysore War lasted from 1790 to 1792. Tipu 
 began the war by attacking an ally of the Company, the Raja 
 of Travancore, the ruler of a small state at the extreme south- 
 western end of the peninsula. Haidarabad and the Mara- 
 thas joined Cornwallis, who led the army in person. Tipu 
 submitted when his capital, Seringapatam, was endangered, 
 and arranged a treaty of peace by which he gave a large in- 
 demnity to his enemies, and surrendered half of his domin- 
 ions. The three allies divided the territory; the third re- 
 ceived by the British included strategic points by which My- 
 sore was effectually crippled. Another war, unfortunately, 
 was necessary to bring this troublesome state to terms. 
 
 In 1793 Cornwallis was succeeded by Sir John Shore, who 
 had assisted in the settlement of the Bengal revenue. He 
 carried the policy of neutrality, or timidity as expansionists 
 would term it, to the extreme. The native states took cour- 
 age from his inactivity, and as he left office in 1798, the 
 country was on the eve of a storm, the more serious because 
 it had been delayed. 
 
 LORD WELLESLEY 
 
 The expansion of British power was resumed with the 
 governor-generalship of Lord Wellesley, the older brother of 
 the better known Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington. He 
 stands beside Clive and Hastings in the importance of his 
 work. Where they had laboriously laid the foundations, he 
 built consciously with brilliant success; in seven years the 
 British Company became the predominant power in India. 
 Wellesley was masterful and self-confident, ideally fitted to 
 take control of Indian affairs when the policy of non-inter- 
 ference was proving difficult. His aggressive military policy 
 was governed in large part by the contemporary world-situa- 
 tion. The French Revolution had opened in 1789, and France 
 and Great Britain had been at war since 1793. Napoleon 
 was just rising to power as a great military leader; already he 
 was dreaming of an empire in the East. Wellesley carried to 
 
188 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 India the imperial point of view and the fear of Napoleonic 
 and French ambition, then so important in British thinking. 
 
 He first dealt with Mysore. Tipu smarted under his defeat 
 at the hands of Cornwallis, and in the interregnum he sought 
 allies with whom to attack his arch-enemy, the British. 
 Emissaries were sent to Arabia, Constantinople, Kabul, and 
 Mauritius. The emissaries to Mauritius returned with the 
 promise of a French alliance for the purpose of freeing India 
 from British rule. Tipu planted a liberty tree, became a 
 member of the Jacobin Club, and was the proud bearer of the 
 title " Citizen Tipu." When his intrigues with the French 
 became known, Wellesley promptly attacked him. In the 
 Third Mysore War a single campaign was decisive. Tipu 
 was compelled to retire to his capital, which was stormed. 
 The ruler of Mysore was killed in the attack, and his king- 
 dom was left at the mercy of his conquerors. A child of the 
 Hindu royal family of Mysore — the family dispossessed by 
 Tipu's father — was placed on the throne of a greatly re- 
 stricted possession; the Nizam, the Marathas, and the Brit- 
 ish divided the rest. 
 
 Wellesley's chief task was the humbling of the Marathas. 
 We have already noted the wide extent of their possessions in 
 central India, their very efficient military power, and their 
 disdain of the apparently weak British rule. At the time 
 that Wellesley came into conflict with them they were not 
 united, but consisted of independent confederate states. 
 The descendants of Sivaji, the great Maratha chief of the 
 seventeenth century, still dwelt near Bombay. All power 
 had long passed from this line of rulers into that of the Prime 
 Minister or Peshwa. The Peshwa dwelt at Poona, some hun- 
 dred miles southwest of Bombay, where his territories formed 
 a broad belt of land along the west coast. 
 
 In other parts of the Maratha dominions there were chiefs 
 nominally dependent on the Peshwa, but actually self-gov- 
 erning. Three hereditary generals of the Peshwa — originally 
 given lands as a reward for military service — were the prin- 
 cipal Maratha lords in addition to the Peshwa. The Bhonsla, 
 Raja of Berar, ruled just north of Haidarabad. North of his 
 
THE SPREAD OF BRITISH POWER IN INDIA 189 
 
 territories were those of Holkar of Indore, while still farther 
 toward the Ganges valley were the possessions of Sindhia. 
 In Gujerat, north of Surat, ruled the Gaekwar of Baroda. 
 Sindhia was the outstanding leader of the Marathas of this 
 time. He ruled in the upper Ganges valley by virtue of a 
 finely disciplined army, including in his control at this time 
 Delhi and the person of the Mogul Emperor. The Emperor 
 had made Sindhia the vicegerent of the Empire. 
 
 When the ruler at Poona died in 1800, Sindhia and Holkar 
 immediately endeavored to add to their possessions from the 
 territory of the Peshwa. The new Peshwa thereupon fled to 
 Bassein and appealed to the British for aid. At the close of 
 1802 the British entered into treaty relations with the nom- 
 inal ruler of the Marathas. The Peshwa was restored to his 
 capital by British troops and henceforth the state's foreign 
 policy was to be in British hands. The treaty had an imme- 
 diate effect on the Maratha chieftains ; the Bhonsla and Sin- 
 dhia combined in a Maratha struggle for independence. The 
 Second Maratha War that resulted was one of the most bril- 
 liant fought in India. Simultaneous campaigns were carried 
 on both in the Deccan and Hindustan, in Gujerat and Orissa. 
 Arthur Wellesley, afterwards the Duke of Wellington, won a 
 great victory at Assaye in the Deccan in 1803. At the same 
 time Lake in the north captured Delhi and brought the aged 
 Mogul Emperor once more into the hands of the British. In 
 Gujerat and Orissa the successes were equally outstanding. 
 In four months the Maratha confederacy was utterly de- 
 feated. 
 
 As a result of the war the person of the Emperor came into 
 British control. In addition, Sindhia renounced his claims 
 to the lands north of the Jumna, the important southern 
 tributary of the Ganges. The Bhonsla ceded Orissa on the 
 east coast to the British and Berar to the Nizam of Haidara- 
 bad. British residents were accepted at the courts of Sindhia 
 and Holkar, and they became nominal allies of the British. 
 They remained unsubdued, however, and the sullen resent- 
 ment and bitter hatred of these native leaders were to result 
 in one more Maratha war before their power was destroyed. 
 
190 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 Lord Wellesley proved altogether too imperialistic for the 
 Directors and he was recalled in 1805. His constant mili- 
 tary operations had increased the Company's debt from 
 seven to thirty-one millions of pounds during his governor- 
 ship. With his return a reaction from the policy of annexa- 
 tion and consolidation was expressed in the brief administra- 
 tion of Cornwallis in 1805 and in those of his successors, 
 Sir George Barlow and the Earl of Minto. 
 
 THE MARQUESS OF HASTINGS 
 
 The reaction from the Wellesley policy was concluded 
 when Lord Moira, later the Marquess of Hastings, became 
 Governor-General in 1814. After a nine years' interval he 
 completed the work of Lord Wellesley. During his adminis- 
 tration three groups of Indian peoples felt the British power 
 — the Gurkhas, the Pindaris, and the Marathas. 
 
 The Gurkhas, who claimed a Rajput origin, occupied 
 Nepal, a strip of territory about one hundred and thirty 
 miles broad stretching along the Himalayas to the north of 
 Bengal and Oudh. About the middle of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury they conquered Nepal, but since they were a warlike 
 people they found the limits of Nepal altogether too strait- 
 ening. As they raided the country to the south they inevit- 
 ably came into conflict with the British. In 1814 there be- 
 gan a war between them and the British, which was very 
 stubbornly fought by these hill people. When peace was 
 concluded they lost a few of their territories and a British 
 resident was established at the capital. Since that day they 
 have given the British no trouble. 
 
 The Pindaris were making central India a place of anarchy. 
 Originally they were connected with the Maratha armies as 
 irregulars and skirmishers. They consisted of outcasts and 
 desperados of all races and with no common religion. 1 The 
 
 1 The Pindaris have not inaptly been compared to the free companies of 
 mediaeval Europe. Readers familiar with European history will already have 
 noted the feudal character of Indian government. The Peshwa reminds one of 
 the major domus of the Merovingians, and the Maratha chieftains of the rulers 
 of the early English kingdoms under the Joose overlor&ship of one of their 
 number. 
 
THE SPREAD OF BRITISH POWER IN INDIA 191 
 
 Pindaris were located principally in Malwa, but extended 
 their operations far and wide in central India. In 1815 and 
 1816 they plundered the Nizam's lands and laid waste the 
 Northern Circars, belonging to the British. Hastings gath- 
 ered an army of over one hundred thousand to crush them. 
 The Marathas were overawed temporarily while the Pindaris 
 were being hunted down and brought under control. 
 
 In 1817, the year that the Pindaris were overcome, the 
 Marathas rose for their final duel with the growing British 
 power. The Bhonsla, Holkar, and the Peshwa joined in the 
 rebellion. Brilliant military operations resulted in the de- 
 feat of the Marathas in the third and last war with this, the 
 most stubborn of native peoples. Holkar lost half of his 
 dominions. The office of the Peshwa was abolished and his 
 territory was formed into the Bombay Presidency. At the 
 same time the Rajput states accepted a feudal relation to 
 the British power. It was decidedly for the advance of 
 civil conditions in India that marauders and professional 
 fighters such as the Gurkhas, the Pindaris, and the Mara- 
 thas were at last rendered harmless. 
 
 This period of expansion is completed by the governor- 
 generalship of Earl Amherst. He succeeded the Marquess of 
 Hastings in 1823 and ruled for five years. The further ex- 
 pansion made during this administration was to the north- 
 east in Burma. The boundary between British Bengal and 
 these non-Indian territories was ill defined. The Tibetan 
 stock that had conquered this country in the valley of the 
 Irrawaddy was warlike and very confident of its ability to 
 fight a successful war with the British. The unwillingness of 
 the British administration to come to an issue with them led 
 to a belief among the Burmese that they could conquer Ben- 
 gal. In 1824 they encroached on British territory. The 
 war that ensued was slowly carried on at great expense, for 
 Amherst did not exhibit the ability of Wellesley or Hastings. 
 Twenty thousand lives were sacrificed before the treaty was 
 signed in 1826. The King of Ava — just below Mandalay — 
 ceded two coast provinces, withdrew from Assam, and per- 
 mitted a British resident at his court, besides paying a large 
 indemnity. 
 
192 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 This is a convenient point from which to make a survey 
 of the accomplishments of sixty years. The period was one 
 of rapid expansion broken by stretches of inactivity. Be- 
 ginning as a rival of the French and Dutch companies, the 
 British East India Company enlarged its work to include the 
 control of revenue in the restricted districts. This led inevi- 
 tably to the assumption of political power. Yet when this 
 step had been taken, it meant that there must be a definite 
 attitude toward the independent Indian states, and a policy 
 of protecting the states already occupied. In the safeguard- 
 ing of the territories already under control it was often felt 
 that an aggressive foreign policy was the best one. The 
 guarding of British territory could also be insured by means 
 of alliances. All these measures complicated the problem 
 by the natural extension of British interest and power. And 
 thus it happened that in sixty years a great peninsula com- 
 posed of many peoples and races and religions and govern- 
 ments was brought under a dominant British rule. It is all 
 the more amazing when we realize that this expansion took 
 place at a time when the idea of empire was at a low ebb in 
 Britain. 
 
 In spite of this apparent contradiction, the conquest of 
 India must not be thought of as an accident; possession re- 
 sulted from the business acumen of a Company whose serv- 
 ants were intent on realizing as large dividends as possible 
 from this El Dorado of the East. The student of coloniza- 
 tion is reminded of the work of the Spanish conquistadores in 
 America. Whether or not Great Britain was wise in extend- 
 ing its power in India is another question. Suffice it to say 
 that by 1828 the British had a great composite problem on 
 their hands, for a large part of the Indian peninsula had come 
 into British control. The next task was to organize the gov- 
 ernment for the good of the governed. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 
 
 In the Bibliographical Note for chapter vi are given books on India that 
 continue to be of value. Brief biographies of all the important governors- 
 general will be found in "The Rulers of India" series, edited by Sir W. W. 
 Hunter. The reading of these short biographies is an excellent way to 
 
THE SPREAD OF BRITISH POWER IN INDIA 193 
 
 understand the working of the Indian administration and the growth of 
 British dominion. The careers of Clive and Hastings have naturally- 
 evoked considerable treatment, often of a biased character. There is an 
 excellent life of Clive by G. B. Malleson (1895). The Life of Lord Clive 
 by Sir George Forrest (2 vols., London, 1918) is detailed, fully docu- 
 mented, and laudatory. Among the more recent treatments is Henry 
 Dodwell's Dupleix and Clive (London, 1920). For Warren Hastings notice 
 should be made of John Strachey, Hastings and the Rohilla War (Oxford, 
 1892), Sir Alfred Lyall, Warren Hastings (London, 1902), S. C. Grier, The 
 Great Proconsul (London, 1904), G. W. Hastings, Vindication of Warren 
 Hastings (London, 1909), and M. E. Monckton Jones, Warren Hastings 
 in Bengal, 1772-1774 (Oxford, 1918). An excellent source-book is that of 
 Ramsay Muir, The Making of British India, 1766-1858 (Manchester, 
 1915). 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE COMPLETION OF BRITISH DOMINION IN INDIA 
 
 The period that has been outlined in the previous chapter is 
 an important one in Indian history. India was conquered 
 once more, and this time the conquerors were representatives 
 of a totally different civilization. A western people, prima- 
 rily actuated by trade, had become the masters of India. 
 Their sense of law and order, their attainments, and above all 
 their mastery of the physical world were much more advanced 
 than those of the peoples they conquered. Fortunately also 
 for the inhabitants of the peninsula, they were possessed of a 
 desire to spread their own culture, which they regarded as 
 superior to that which they found in the peninsula. Instead 
 of accepting the civilization of the conquered, as has so often 
 been the case in history, these conquerors attempted to bring 
 India to a better understanding of European development 
 and ideals, an effort that is still in progress. 
 
 By 1825 the control of the peninsula became so evident to 
 the British that it led to a sense of responsibility for the wel- 
 fare of the country. Conditions had been truly terrible be- 
 fore the British came. Abundant justification could be 
 found for the British conquest in the abolition of the earlier 
 anarchy, if there were need of doing it. Lord William Ben- 
 tinck in 1804 contrasted the past with the probable future in 
 these words: "If the annals of Indian history are retraced . . . 
 it will be found that this vast peninsula has presented one 
 continual scene of anarchy and misery. Constant revolu- 
 tions without even a proposed legitimate object have suc- 
 ceeded each other. Wars of great and petty chieftains, un- 
 warranted in their origin and unprincipled in their conduct, 
 for the sole object of robbery and plunder, have depopulated 
 and laid waste the general face of this unhappy country." 
 Bentinck, who was then Governor of Madras and who was 
 to inaugurate reform on a large scale when he became Gov- 
 ernor-General in 1828, went on to state what should be done: 
 
196 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 "Happily a period has arrived to these barbarous excesses. 
 For the first time the blessings of universal tranquillity may 
 be expected. That system of policy which could embrace the 
 whole of India . . . deserves the admiration of all the civi- 
 lized world. That system which has founded British Great- 
 ness upon Indian Happiness, demands in a particular manner 
 the thanks and applause of this country." * 
 
 This ideal of the British conquerors began to be strongly 
 evident by the end of the first quarter of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury. The feeling of responsibility resulting from the con- 
 quest accounted in part for this development. The expres- 
 sion of this feeling is also to be explained as a result of the 
 general movement of ideas then influencing Great Britain. 
 We have already seen how new conceptions of empire were 
 becoming current about 1830. The idea that colonies were 
 extensions of the British stock beyond the seas was to affect 
 India as well as the possessions composed mainly of British 
 settlers. Then, too, humanitarian feeling was strong at this 
 time. The interest in the Indian was but another expression 
 of that same sympathy that went out in those days to the 
 Catholic, the slave, the criminal, the pauper, and the men, 
 women, and children of the overworked lower classes. It 
 was at this time that the great missionary societies were be- 
 ginning to arouse an active interest in undeveloped parts of 
 the globe. 
 
 BENTINCK AND REFORM 
 
 Lord William Bentinck, the Governor-General from 1828 
 to 1835, was the first Governor-General to act conspicuously 
 on the theory that the welfare of the subject peoples was the 
 primary duty of the British in India. Bentinck was a thor- 
 ough liberal and a man of peaceable inclinations. Moreover, 
 pomp and display were distasteful to him. In an unheroic 
 way he began the work of making India happy, a task still 
 calling for British effort and interest. 
 
 Among the social reforms he inaugurated was the aboli- 
 tion of sati — the burning of the living widow on her hus- 
 1 Muir, The Making of British India, pp. 282-83, 
 
COMPLETION OF BRITISH DOMINION IN INDIA 197 
 
 band's funeral pyre. The widow's position in Indian society 
 was unhappy indeed. In case of passionate devotion sati 
 might be a form of suicide, but too frequently social pressure 
 brought about an immolation that was nothing short of 
 murder. The custom was time-honored and largely prac- 
 ticed. Seven hundred women were said to have been burnt 
 alive in Bengal in the year 1817. The former governors had 
 hesitated to abolish the custom, for fear of arousing too great 
 a resentment in the native population. Bentinck, however, 
 after examining the situation carefully, in 1829 made it il- 
 legal to practice sati. All persons aiding in such a ceremony 
 were declared guilty of homicide, whether or not the woman 
 were a willing sacrifice. Bentinck's reforming zeal was jus- 
 tified, for no serious consequences followed the act. As he 
 wrote in his minute on sati: "The first and primary object of 
 my heart is the benefit of the Hindus." 
 
 Another practice he suppressed was thagi. India was bur- 
 dened with an organized system of murder and robbery 
 carried on by brotherhoods of hereditary assassins known as 
 thags or thugs. They had their tutelary goddess, Kali, and 
 sacrificial rites. It was their profession to strangle and rob 
 innocent travelers. Bentinck deputed Major Sleeman in 
 1829 to suppress this system of sanctified robbery and mur- 
 der. Gradually information was obtained and the law was 
 actively invoked, so that within ten years the thugs had 
 largely disappeared within the British dominions and the 
 native states as well. A similar evil that was vigorously 
 attacked was known as dacoity. The dacoits worked in large 
 gangs in contrast to the methods of the thugs. Major Slee- 
 man was set at this task also, but success was not so imme- 
 diate as in the case of thagi. 
 
 Bentinck also brought about a very great reduction in in- 
 fanticide. The killing of female babies was very general. In 
 some parts of India the proportion of girls to boys was as one 
 to six. The chief motive for this practice was the discredit 
 of having an unmarried daughter; the expense of the dowry 
 and of the marriage ceremony was very burdensome to the 
 parents. Nor was the finding of a suitable husband of the 
 
19S THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 right caste always an easy matter. The Governor-General, 
 in order to improve the situation, limited the possible ex- 
 penditure for marriages. Every effort was made to discover 
 actual cases of infanticide that the law might be brought to 
 bear. As a result the number of girls in the population be- 
 came more normal. 
 
 These social reforms would be sufficient to make Bentinck's 
 name a prominent one in Indian history. His administra- 
 tion is noteworthy, in addition, for the advance of educa- 
 tional conditions. As early as 1813 money had been used by 
 the Company for educational purposes. But the grants were 
 interpreted as applying to the study of the ancient languages 
 of the East, such as Sanscrit and Arabic; manifestly this 
 could be of very little practical benefit to the people of India. 
 India was a great complex, a veritable Babel, and it was rec- 
 ognized in Bentinck's administration that no one language 
 of the peninsula could be used as the medium for education. 
 English was finally chosen as a means for instruction. It was 
 argued that the language of the government of the country 
 should be taught in the government schools. Lord Macaulay, 
 who had much to do with bringing about this reform, pro- 
 duced a convincing statement in his famous "Minute on 
 Education" that " English is better worth knowing than 
 Sanscrit or Arabic." The great advantage of English over 
 Sanscrit lay in its civilizing power through the literature and 
 the moral standards thus made available and the opportunity 
 it gave to the natives to enter the civil service in their own 
 country. 
 
 Another important advance was the improvement of the 
 government of India and Indian law, especially as far as it 
 dealt with the natives. Formerly natives had been excluded 
 from all but the lowest offices. During Bentinck's adminis- 
 tration the natives were granted increased opportunities; the 
 Act of 1833 declared that race and religion should not be a 
 bar to public service. 
 
 In 1833 the East India Company's charter came up for re- 
 newal and it was once more subjected to important revision. 
 This change reflected the prevailing temper of the reform 
 
COMPLETION OF BRITISH DOMINION IN INDIA 199 
 
 movement. The Company had lost its monopoly of the 
 Indian trade in 1813; in 1833 it was no longer permitted to 
 compete in the China trade on even terms with private mer- 
 chants. It thereby lost almost completely its commercial 
 character as a trading company, remaining in an anomalous 
 position as partly a private corporation, partly a government 
 department. Its dividend of ten and a half per cent was paid 
 from the Indian revenues. A fourth presidency, Agra, was 
 added to those of Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta, but it was 
 shortly after reduced to a lieutenant-governorship. Britain's 
 chief representative in India received the name of Governor- 
 General of India for the first time, and Bombay and Madras 
 were more strictly subordinated than formerly to this officer, 
 who had developed out of the Governor of Bengal. 
 
 By this revision of Indian government a fourth member 
 was added to the Council of the Governor-General whose 
 special work was the codification of Indian law. The first to 
 occupy this office was Lord Macaulay. 1 Liberalism found a 
 remarkable expression in the new principles promulgated. 
 It was declared (Section 53) that due regard should be had 
 for the " rights, feelings and usages of the People" and for 
 the " distinction of caste, differences of religion and manners 
 and opinions prevailing among different races and in differ- 
 ent parts of said Territories." No native was to be kept 
 from office by reason of " religion, place of birth, descent or 
 colour" (Section 87). Furthermore, Indian territories under 
 the government of the Company were opened to British sub- 
 jects for residence. The interest in colonization, which has 
 been found to be developing at this time in England, was in 
 this way applied to India. 
 
 William Bentinck retired in 1835. He was one of the 
 best rulers India ever had. His aims were high; his accom- 
 plishments, remarkable. The inscription on his statue in 
 Calcutta is not mere fustian: "He abolished cruel rites; he 
 effaced humiliating distinctions; he gave liberty to the ex- 
 pression of public opinion; his constant study was to elevate 
 
 1 Trevelyan's Life of Lord Macaulay contains some interesting observations 
 on the India of the early thirties, 
 
200 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 the intellectual and moral character of the nations committed 
 to his charge." 
 
 LORD AUCKLAND AND THE NORTHWEST 
 
 Political reasons led to the appointment of Lord Auckland 
 in 1836, and with him another period of war and annexation 
 succeeded the pacific years of reform and reorganization. 
 Fortunately for Great Britain the twenty years following the 
 beginnings of Lord Auckland's administration were the last 
 years of serious unsettlement in the peninsula. The result of 
 this militaristic, expansionist regime was the extension of the 
 frontiers of India to their " natural" limits on the northwest 
 and the northeast. Along with this accomplishment much 
 was done during this period that was unworthy of British 
 ideals in its best moments; some acts occurred that are 
 regrettable, to say the least. 
 
 The northwest calls for consideration first. In 1836 the 
 frontier of the British power on the northwest was the Sutlej 
 River, the easternmost branch of the Indus. It flows south- 
 west from the Himalaya Mountains, where its sources are not 
 far distant from those of the Ganges and the Jumna. To the 
 south of the Sutlej lies Rajputana. Beyond the British pos- 
 sessions in the northwest were three well-defined territories 
 with which the British came into military contact at this time. 
 In the lower valley of the Indus west of Rajputana lay Sind, 
 a thinly peopled region ruled by Amirs. Its chief importance 
 was found in its control of the lower Indus and, therefore, of 
 the commerce of northern India which used that mighty 
 waterway. The trade of northwest India was thus subject 
 to the levies of the Amirs. 
 
 In the upper valley of the Indus beyond the Sutlej River 
 lay the Punjab, controlled by a remarkable people known as 
 the Sikhs. The Sikh confederacy was a union formed on the 
 basis of religion, a "sort of Puritan offshoot of Hinduism." 
 With the downfall of the Mogul Empire the Sikhs had de- 
 veloped a dominion as the result of their marvelous fight- 
 ing ability. During the period we are now studying, their 
 ruler was the very able Ranjit Singh, who had entered into 
 
COMPLETION OF BRITISH DOMINION IN INDIA 201 
 
 treaty relations with the British in 1809 by which the Sutlej 
 was defined as the common boundary. Until his death in 
 1839, Ranjit Singh preserved with care his good relations 
 with the British. 
 
 Beyond the Punjab to the northwest lay Afghanistan. It 
 is an exceedingly mountainous country; the loftiest peaks of 
 the Hindu-Kush are 24,000 feet high. The ranges run in a 
 northeast and southwest direction, and through them a few 
 passes of importance communicate with the plain of the In- 
 dus. All through ancient times this country had been the 
 gateway through which India's conquerors had descended 
 into Hindustan. In southern Afghanistan is the city of Kan- 
 dahar, approachable from the lower Indus through Sind and 
 northern Baluchistan by the Bolan Pass. In the north lies 
 Kabul near the headwaters of the Kabul River, and it is ap- 
 proached from India through the Khyber Pass. Herat is 
 situated in western Afghanistan near the Persian boundary; 
 to the north there are the trans-Caspian provinces of Russia. 
 
 In 1836 the political condition of this mountainous bound- 
 ary state was anarchic. Shah Shuja, the heir of the old ruling 
 family, had been an exile in India since 1809, a pensioner of 
 the British. At Kabul Dost Mohammed ruled in his stead. 
 The Sikhs and the Afghans were frequently at war, Shah 
 Shuja using Ranjit Singh's ambitions as a means of possible 
 return to his former dominions. 
 
 It was with this very delicate situation that Lord Auck- 
 land interfered. Dost Mohammed desired an alliance with 
 the British, but Auckland wisely preferred to keep the friend- 
 ship of the Sikhs. Thereupon the Afghan ruler entered into 
 negotiations with the Russians. To prevent the growth of 
 this Russian influence Lord Auckland determined, by means 
 of a military expedition, to replace on the throne the sub- 
 servient old man, Shah Shuja. International politics played 
 an important part in this decision. The fear of Russian 
 power was then predominant in the minds of British states- 
 men, and Lord Auckland, as an adherent of Palmerston, 
 shared this apprehension. It was felt at the time that Con- 
 stantinople was in danger of capture by the Russians. It 
 
202 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 is true that Nicholas I was adding to his Asiatic territories, 
 and the presence of a Russian envoy in Kabul seemed but 
 the prelude to an attack on India. Auckland wrote to the 
 Secret Committee in 1836 expressing this fear: " Russia can 
 have no legitimate ground for extending her political con- 
 nections to Afghanistan, while we are necessarily interested 
 in the peace and independence of that country by proximity 
 and position." • The Crimean War was the chief expression 
 of this anxiety over Russian development, an anxiety which 
 preserved the despicable government of the Sublime Porte in 
 the Balkans as a means of restraining the Russian advance. 
 
 In 1838 the Sikhs, Shah Shuja, and the East India Com- 
 pany made a Tripartite Treaty. Although the British were 
 not obligated to cross the Indus, it became evident that the 
 Shah could not obtain his throne unaided. In an evil hour 
 Auckland committed himself to the invasion of Afghanistan. 
 As the Sikhs objected to the passage of the British army 
 through their territory, it entered Afghanistan through the 
 Bolan Pass after crossing the country of Sind. By August 
 of 1839 Kabul was in British possession and Shah Shuja 
 placed on a throne that was stable only when the British 
 lent their aid. It soon became abundantly clear that the 
 Shah had not even a small measure of Afghan support. 
 Either he must withdraw or the British army must remain. 
 Auckland determined to adopt what was a halfway policy, 
 by which troops were quartered in Afghanistan, and reduced 
 sums paid to the chiefs of eastern Afghanistan to keep 
 the passes open. 
 
 By 1841 the situation was precarious, indeed, for rebellion 
 was rife. The British military leaders were not efficient nor 
 of one mind. Finally it was decided to abandon Kabul and 
 retire to Jalalabad. On December 11 an humiliating treaty 
 was arranged by the British forces in Kabul; by its terms the 
 British were to evacuate Afghanistan, free Dost Mohammed, 
 and retire to the frontiers under the safe conduct of Dost Mo- 
 hammed's son. On January 6, 1842, the army of sixteen 
 thousand began its retreat. The men, women, and children 
 were insufficiently provided with clothing, food, and arms. 
 
COMPLETION OF BRITISH DOMINION IN INDIA 203 
 
 The rigors of the winter and the treachery of the Afghans 
 made their retreat one of the most bitter episodes in British 
 annals. During the journey about one hundred and twenty 
 of the army became prisoners of the natives in the hope of 
 acting as hostages for the rest. With the exception of these 
 prisoners but one person, half dead, staggered into Jalalabad 
 on January 14. British arms had never known such a dis- 
 aster. 
 
 Lord Auckland was recalled. He was succeeded by Lord 
 Ellenborough, who set himself with vigor to redeem the situ- 
 ation. He conceived his task to be that of reestablishing 
 British prestige in the northwest. The British forces at 
 Kandahar and Jalalabad advanced into Afghanistan and 
 captured Kabul. After the burning of its great bazaar, they 
 returned to India where elaborate preparations were under 
 way for celebrating their triumph. Under the orders of the 
 Governor-General they had returned with the gates of the 
 tomb of Mahmud at Ghazni, gates supposed to have been 
 carried out of India in the eleventh century. In grandilo- 
 quent phrase Ellenborough declared that the " insult of eight 
 hundred years is avenged." Unfortunately, the gates proved 
 to be of later date than the ones taken from India. British 
 prestige was not altogether retrieved in spite of the triumphal 
 arches and the paeans of victory with which the returning 
 army was greeted. 
 
 Ellenborough's love for military glory led, also, to the an- 
 nexation of Sind. The Amirs were prepared to attack the 
 British if the Afghans were successful. On the other hand, 
 the British had flagrantly violated treaty rights in sending 
 troops through Sind into Afghanistan. Back of the desire 
 for Sind, however, lay the need of vindicating British arms 
 and of freeing the commercial intercourse on the Indus. Un- 
 der Sir Charles Napier acts of war were committed before a 
 declaration was made, with the evident intention of provok- 
 ing the natives. The country was annexed in 1843. This 
 act of aggression rightly aroused dissatisfaction in England 
 and led to the recall of the Governor-General. 
 
 In 1844 Lord Hardinge, a tried soldier, became head of the 
 
204 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 Indian Government. It was felt that further military diffi- 
 culties were ahead, and, in truth, the Sikhs were the next peo- 
 ple on the northwest frontier with whom the British were to 
 have trouble. Ranjit Singh had died in 1839 and since that 
 time the Punjab had been restless. The magnificently 
 trained and equipped army of the Sikhs was under no ade- 
 quate restraint. Finally the British, who maintained a large 
 army near the frontier, were led into war by the advance of 
 the overconfident Sikh troops into the territory east of the 
 Sutlej. The so-called First Sikh War was fought in 1845. A 
 number of very severe battles occurred, the last being waged 
 on the bank of the Sutlej. When the Sikh capital, Lahore, 
 was entered, a peace was arranged that did not provide for 
 annexation, as Lord Hardinge was not eager to endanger his 
 successes. An indemnity was demanded, the Sikh army was 
 cut down, and a British army remained in the Punjab while 
 the Government was being reorganized under the son of Ran- 
 jit Singh. Colonel Henry Lawrence was appointed Resident 
 in Lahore. By this treaty the Punjab was given the oppor- 
 tunity of becoming an " independent and prosperous" state. 
 
 LORD DALHOUSIE 
 
 In 1848 Lord Hardinge was succeeded by Lord Dalhousie, 
 one of the most important of India's numerous governors. 
 From 1848 to 1856 he conducted Indian affairs in such a vig- 
 orous and uncompromising fashion that with him the work of 
 Clive, Hastings, Wellesley, and Bentinck came to a culmina- 
 tion. Sir William Hunter goes so far as to say: "He was the 
 only one of the long list of the Governors-General for whom 
 both the great services in India, civil and military, and also 
 the non-official British public, felt a real and lasting enthu- 
 siasm." His character was masterful, his personality excep- 
 tionally forceful, his will imperious, his interest in India and 
 its problems earnest, practical, and yet idealistic. It is no 
 wonder that his accomplishments measure up to the promise 
 of this young man of thirty-five who assumed the govern- 
 ment in 1848. Dalhousie did three things for India; he ex- 
 tended the frontiers to the position they now occupy, consoli- 
 
COMPLETION OF BRITISH DOMINION IN INDIA 205 
 
 dated the control of the internal states, and revolutionized in 
 a fashion almost too vigorous the economic, social, and com- 
 mercial life of the country. 
 
 Dalhousie had been in India but a few months when he was 
 called on to settle the problem of the Punjab. The Sikhs 
 showed themselves unwilling to remain independent and yet 
 friendly to the British, who had adopted an attitude of "ex- 
 perimental tolerance." The Sikh army was not yet con- 
 vinced of its inability to defeat the British, and certain Sikh 
 chieftains developed a strong nationalist feeling. The Sec- 
 ond Sikh War broke out in 1849. In January the severe 
 Battle of Chilianwala was fought, in which nearly twenty- 
 five hundred men of the British army were killed or wounded 
 while the Sikhs practically maintained their position. Gen- 
 eral Gough retrieved this disaster in the next month at Gu- 
 jerat, about fifty miles directly north of Lahore; the Sikh 
 army was practically annihilated, and the Afghan forces of 
 Dost Mohammed were driven into their mountain retreats. 
 As a result of this victory Dalhousie annexed the whole of the 
 Punjab. It seems to have been a wise move, as the natural 
 boundary to the northwest was reached and the country was 
 opened up to civilizing influences. The great justification of 
 the annexation is to be found in the remarkable way in which 
 the country was developed and the good will of the natives 
 obtained. When the mutiny of 1857 occurred, the Punjab 
 remained quiet; presumably another part of the old Mogul 
 Empire had been made "happy." 
 
 In 1852 Dalhousie dealt with Burma to the northeast in a 
 similar manner. The First Burmese War under Lord Am- 
 herst had not been a great success. 1 When the Burmese dis- 
 regarded the treaty then made and interfered in unnecessary 
 ways with the trade then set up, Dalhousie determined to 
 complete the task started twenty-five years before, or, as he 
 put it, take a "second bite of the cherry." In order to fore- 
 stall any possible danger of defeat he superintended very 
 carefully the military preparations, especially providing 
 against the attacks that the damp climate would make on the 
 
 * See p. 191. 
 
206 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 health of his army. The war was a success, but as the Court 
 of Ava, far to the north, was unwilling to cede lower Burma, 
 Dalhousie annexed it by proclamation in 1852. Independent 
 Burma was thus shut off completely from the sea, and the 
 coast down to the Malay Peninsula came into British posses- 
 sion. The remarkable development of the country has as 
 signally justified its accession as has that of the Punjab. 
 
 Dalhousie's administration is noteworthy also for the 
 strengthening of the British control of the various Indian 
 states that had been allowed to exist in a feudatory relation 
 to the Company. Some of these states were subject to seri- 
 ous internal misrule, but the Company could not interfere 
 without violating its agreements. Dalhousie applied his 
 Doctrine of Lapse to the cases where the reigning ruler of a 
 subject state died without natural heirs. * During his term of 
 office some half a dozen native states were thus assimilated, 
 the best known of which is Nagpur, a part of the old Maratha 
 confederacy. In 1853 Dalhousie stated the case of Nagpur 
 to the Directors in this style: "The case of Nagpur stands 
 wholly without precedent. The question of the right of 
 Hindu princes to adopt is not raised at all by recent events 
 at Nagpur, for the Raja had died and had deliberately ab- 
 stained from adopting an heir. His widow has adopted no 
 successor. The State of Nagpur, conferred by the British 
 government in 1818, on the Raja and his heirs, has reverted 
 to the British government on the death of the Raja without 
 any heir." 2 The Governor-General also allowed the lapse of 
 a number of pensions to old royal families on the extinction of 
 the direct male line, thus simplifying the complex demands 
 on the Company's treasury. In this way the pensions of the 
 former rulers of the Carnatic, of Tanjore, and of the Peshwa 
 died with their holders. 
 
 Probably Dalhousie's most notable achievement in the 
 internal affairs of India was the annexation of Oudh. It will 
 
 1 In the Indian states it was the custom to adopt an heir if there were no 
 children to succeed to the throne. Dalhousie held that where the natural suc- 
 cessor did not exist the sovereignty reverted to the paramount British Govern-? 
 ment. It is similar to the European feudal practice of escheat. 
 
 2 Muir, The Making of British India, p. 352, 
 
COMPLETION OF BRITISH DOMINION IN INDIA 207 
 
 be recalled that this district, next northwest of Bengal in the 
 Ganges valley, had been left under its native ruler. From 
 the beginning of the century serious misrule had been com- 
 mon. Bentinck had warned the King that " unless his 
 territories were governed upon other principles than those 
 hitherto followed, and the prosperity of the people made the 
 principal object of his administration," the British would 
 take over the " entire management of the country." Lord 
 Hardinge had issued a similar warning in 1847. In 1856 
 Dalhousie summed up the case in these words: "The time 
 has come when inaction on the part of the British govern- 
 ment, in relation to the affairs of the Kingdom of Oudh, 
 can now be no longer justified, and is already convert- 
 ing our responsibility into guilt." Dalhousie's wish that the 
 King retain his royal title and rank, but vest the civil and 
 military administration in the Company, did not appeal to 
 the Directors; they decided on the more extreme course of 
 annexation. Accordingly, just on the eve of his departure 
 for home in 1856, Dalhousie annexed Oudh, adding a fourth 
 to the three great annexations of the Punjab, Burma, and 
 Nagpur. The lands he handed to his successor in 1856 were 
 between a third and a half larger than those he had received 
 in 1848. 
 
 Dalhousie's place among the makers of modern India rests 
 not only on his foreign policy, but also on his tireless labor for 
 improving the condition of the country by the introduction 
 of western civilization. He was a Wellesley and a Bentinck 
 in one. Dalhousie was the originator of the Indian railway 
 system. In 1850 the first sod was turned, and six years later 
 when he sailed for England thousands of miles of railway 
 were in operation or under construction. The country was 
 thus opened up and products found their way more easily 
 to the outside world while capital came in for the develop- 
 ment of the country. During the six years of his rule ex- 
 ports nearly doubled and imports increased two and a half 
 times. Along with the railway he introduced the telegraph. 
 This was done under tremendous odds, not the least being 
 the native aversion to the newfangled invention. When 
 
208 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 Lord Dalhousie arrived in India the postal service was be- 
 yond the use of the native population because of high charges 
 and, in addition, the service was very corrupt. In 1853 he 
 established the modern postal system, a halfpenny post for 
 all India. 
 
 His administration also saw the organization of the edu- 
 cational system on its broad basis of the vernacular lan- 
 guages and an orderly gradation of the various schools cul- 
 minating in the three universities created by an Act of 1857. 
 The Governor-General's interests were multifarious indeed. 
 Even scientific forestry received a place among his interests. 
 The war against sati, thagi, infanticide, and dacoity was 
 carried on by him in a more relentless manner than by any of 
 his predecessors. 
 
 THE MUTINY 
 
 In 1857 occurred the terrible Mutiny which brings this 
 period to a natural close, for it was followed by the transfer 
 of India to the Crown. There has been much discussion and 
 considerable disagreement as to the causes of this sanguinary 
 uprising. There can be no doubt, however, that the rapid 
 Europeanization of the peninsula from the days of Bentinck, 
 and especially under the ardent guidance of Dalhousie, had 
 made the natives restless and fearful that their ancient stand- 
 ards were no longer respected. The discontinuance of some 
 large pensions, especially that of Nana Sahib, the adopted 
 son of the last Peshwa, aroused much discontent, for this was 
 the sop that reconciled many to British expansion. The 
 great administrative changes inevitable in the districts an- 
 nexed by Lord Dalhousie created distrust as well. In gen- 
 eral, the political changes and social and financial reforms 
 to which India had been subjected in the decades before the 
 Mutiny, as well as the great economic movement so pro- 
 foundly affecting the country, may be considered as back of 
 the widespread response the Mutiny received among the 
 natives. 
 
 The Mutiny itself was a matter of the army. In the south 
 the native castes serving in the British forces were very much 
 
COMPLETION OF BRITISH DOMINION IN INDIA 209 
 
 mixed. The Bengal army, on the contrary, was recruited 
 mainly from the Brahmins and Rajputs of the upper Ganges; 
 it was, therefore, largely homogeneous and of the upper 
 castes. In the military provision for India the proportion of 
 natives to British was as six to one. The increase of new ad- 
 ministrative positions following the annexations of new ter- 
 ritories had tended to enhance this ratio. These upper- 
 caste soldiers disliked foreign service — even service in Af- 
 ghanistan — as they feared the loss of caste. Yet in 1856 
 an Act had declared that no recruit should be taken for the 
 army who would not be willing to serve wherever he was sent, 
 possibly out of India, possibly over the seas. The spark 
 that set the smouldering discontent of the Sepoys aflame was 
 the blunder of the " greased cartridges." Rumor had it — 
 and rightly — that the ammunition for the new Enfield 
 rifles to be used by the Sepoy army consisted of cartridges 
 that had been greased with the fat of cows and pigs. To the 
 Hindu the former was sacred; to the Mohammedan the latter 
 was unclean. 
 
 The Mutiny began in May among the Sepoys stationed 
 near Delhi. One of the first acts of the Sepoys was to pro- 
 claim the Mogul representative Emperor of India. The re- 
 volt soon spread beyond the great city to Oudh and Bengal, 
 and to some extent into the northwestern provinces. In the 
 Ganges valley especially there was great disorganization in 
 the army and much rapine and murder, for the natives aimed 
 at nothing less than the extermination of the British. 
 
 The fate of Cawnpore is illustrative of the lot of many 
 isolated garrisons. Not far from this city on the Ganges 
 lived Nana Sahib, who hoped to be ruler of the Marathas 
 with the termination of English rule. He directed the deter- 
 mined native attack on Cawnpore which led to the surrender 
 of the British. Although they had been granted a safe con- 
 duct, they were massacred by the treacherous natives in a 
 peculiarly atrocious manner; as the British embarked in 
 boats they were fired on and only four survived in addition to 
 the one hundred and twenty women and children reserved for 
 a worse fate. Sir Henry Havelock, on reaching Cawnpore 
 
210 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 with his relief expedition, found that all the British survivors 
 had been murdered. Leaving a small garrison he hastened on 
 to the relief of Lucknow, some forty miles to the northeast. 
 Here Sir Henry Lawrence had made careful provision, and 
 the British held out until relief came in September, but this 
 expedition led by Havelock and Outram only reached Luck- 
 now after the death of its brave defender, Sir Henry Law- 
 rence. Later it was necessary to send a second relief expedi- 
 tion, commanded by Sir Colin Campbell, as the forces of 
 Havelock and Outram proved insufficient. In the middle of 
 September the city of Delhi was reoccupied, largely through 
 the efforts of John Lawrence, the Governor of the Punjab. 
 In spite of these achievements on the part of the British, 
 much remained to be done. It was only with the middle of 
 the next year that the Governor-General, Lord Canning, felt 
 justified in proclaiming the country at peace. 1 
 
 Immediately after this terrible revolt and its successful 
 suppression, the great change took place by which the East 
 India Company ceased to exist and India was brought nom- 
 inally as well as actually under the Crown. The Company 
 through John Stuart Mill made an able defense of its work, 
 and expressed its reasons for the continuance of the former 
 system. But at best divided authority was unwise. The 
 new British Empire growing up in all parts of the world under 
 the direct supervision of the Colonial Office seemed to justify 
 a more direct relation to India as well. The Act of 1858 
 simply completed the policy that had been furthered grad- 
 ually by the well-known reconstructions of the Company's 
 rights in 1773, 1784, 1813, 1833, and at other times. Hence- 
 forth a Secretary of State for India was to have charge of 
 Indian affairs in place of the President of the Board of Con- 
 trol. The Governor-General became the Viceroy. Few 
 changes were made in the administration of India. 
 
 We have reviewed the manner in which the great Indian 
 Empire was won. Many men of distinct ability and varying 
 
 1 The English victories, especially the recapture of Delhi, were followed by 
 acts of cruel and bitter revenge. Yet the Governor-General was derisively 
 called "Clemency" Canning by an enraged British public, dissatisfied with 
 his comparative leniency. 
 
COMPLETION OF BRITISH DOMINION IN INDIA 211 
 
 ideals contributed to the expansion of the power of the Hon- 
 ourable East India Company. The concern began its work 
 as a commercial venture in 1600 and later expanded into a 
 landholding and conquering organization of undreamed-of 
 growth and dimensions. It is a fascinating development, 
 and, if there are acts to condone, there are many to laud. If 
 motives were not so lofty at all times as they should have 
 been, the betterment of India was an undoubted outcome of 
 the Company's work. Peace and prosperity had come to a 
 country accustomed to intestine strife and foreign invasion. 
 Yet the tasks set the British were not completed in 1858. In 
 a later chapter we shall study the way in which Indian prog- 
 ress has continued and the extent to which the political de- 
 mands and economic needs of this great group of peoples 
 have been answered in the last half-century. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 
 See the Bibliographies appended to chapters vi, vn, and xn. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE GROWTH OF CANADA 
 
 1760-1867 
 
 In 1759 Wolfe lost his life in the battle that resulted in the 
 capture of Quebec. With the close of the war by the Peace 
 of Paris in 1763 Canada was ceded to the British. We have 
 found that it was perplexing to Chatham to decide whether 
 to return Canada or Guadeloupe to the French. It is per- 
 haps equally difficult for us to-day, as we consider the won- 
 derful expansion of British North America, to appreciate 
 Chatham's quandary. Nevertheless, the question was a se- 
 rious one to England's prime minister, for, with the possession 
 of Canada, a new sort of colonial situation was faced by the 
 British Government. Formerly territories were increased 
 largely by settlement. Jamaica and New York had been 
 taken before this time, but they did not involve a settled pol- 
 icy of expansion by conquest, j Canada seemed to present pe- 
 culiar difficulties as a continental acquisition settled by in- 
 habitants of another colonizing nation, which had already 
 subjected a native population in a relatively high degree of 
 development. To make the treatment of Canada still more 
 difficult was the fact that it bordered on English possessions 
 to the south where there was a decidedly advanced concep- 
 tion of political rights. 
 
 QUEBEC 
 
 In 1763 a Royal Proclamation was issued establishing gov- 
 ernments in the recently conquered American possessions. 
 The " Government of Quebec" was about the size of the Que- 
 bec of to-day. The continuance of the Roman Catholic re- 
 ligion was provided for and a promise was made of political 
 rights. There was provision, also, for the protection of the 
 Indians and for the settlement of soldiers on the bounty 
 lands. 
 
 The new Governor was General Murray, In 1766 Mon- 
 
THE GROWTH OF CANADA 1760-1867 213 
 
 seigneur Briand was chosen, with the Governor's approval, as 
 the new Catholic Archbishop of Quebec, an act that did much 
 to reconcile the Canadians to British rule. The Govern- 
 ment, notwithstanding, remained unsettled for some years in 
 spite of the terms of the Proclamation. The difficulties that 
 General Murray faced were great indeed. Baron Maseres, 
 afterwards the Attorney-General of Quebec, expressed at 
 this time his views on the " Expediency of Procuring an Act 
 of Parliament for the Settlement of the Province of Quebec." 
 He described the situation in the following manner: "Two 
 nations are to be kept in peace and harmony, and moulded, 
 as it were, into one, that are at present of opposite religions, 
 ignorant of each other's language, and inclined in their affec- 
 tions to different systems of law. The bulk of the inhab- 
 itants are hitherto either French from old France, or native 
 Canadians that speak only the French language, being, as it 
 is thought, about ninety thousand souls, or, as the French rep- 
 resent it in their Memorial, ten thousand heads of families. 
 The rest of the inhabitants are natives of Great Britain or 
 Ireland, or of the British Dominions in North America, and 
 are at present only about six hundred souls. The French are 
 almost uniformly Roman Catholics; there were only three 
 Protestant families among them at the time of the conquest 
 of the province. But what is more to be lamented is that 
 they are violently bigoted to the Popish religion, and look 
 upon all Protestants with an eye of detestation. . . . The 
 French insist, not only upon a toleration of the public wor- 
 ship, but upon a share in the administration of justice, and on 
 a right, in common with the English, of being appointed to all 
 the offices of the government. The English, on the contrary, 
 affirm that the laws of England made against the Papists 
 ought to be in force there, and consequently that the native 
 Canadians, unless they think proper to turn Protestants, 
 ought to be excluded from all those offices and various 
 branches of power." x 
 For a number of years the Government was "practically 
 
 1 A. B. Keith, Select Documents illustrative of British Colonial History, i, 
 12-13. 
 
214 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 chaotic." Had it not been for the enlightened common sense 
 of Governor Murray and his successor, Guy Carleton, later 
 Lord Dorchester, the conditions would have been serious. 
 Carleton became the actual Governor in 1766, and during the 
 next thirty years did more than any other man to shape and 
 foster the development of this new British possession. Born 
 in Ireland in 1724, he entered the army twenty-two years 
 later, and by the opening of the Seven Years' War had be- 
 come a lieutenant-colonel. Wolfe relied much on Carleton 
 during the campaign against Quebec. After service at Belle 
 Isle and Havana he came back to Quebec in 1766. Justice 
 and impartiality as well as aristocratic reserve were prom- 
 inent characteristics of Governor Carleton. He became con- 
 vinced during the early years of his stay that "this country 
 must to the end of time be peopled by the Canadian race." 
 Accordingly, he advised in 1767 that the old Canadian laws 
 be left entire, and that even feudal tenures be retained. 
 
 In 1770 Carleton went to England, just as the troubles with 
 the colonies to the south were growing. He did not return 
 to Quebec until four years later, the year in which the fa- 
 mous Quebec Act was passed. This settlement of the Cana- 
 dian question came just at the time that Great Britain was 
 legislating against the Massachusetts colony by acts that 
 came to be known in America as the "Intolerable Acts." * 
 The Quebec Act, coming as it did at this juncture and pro- 
 viding for arrangements not agreeable to the revolting colo- 
 nies, was included by them among their grievances. They 
 felt that it had been designedly aimed at their liberties. In 
 the "long train of abuses and usurpations" listed in the Dec- 
 laration of Independence, reference is made to this Act as 
 "abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighbouring 
 province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and 
 enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example 
 and a fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule 
 into these colonies." 
 
 The Quebec Act provided in the first place for enlarged 
 boundaries for the province. The Labrador coast was joined 
 
 1 See p. 124. 
 
216 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 to Canada and lands west and southwest of the province, as 
 defined in 1763, were placed under Carleton's administration. 
 The territory north of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi 
 was included, "provided always, that nothing herein con- 
 tained, relative to the Boundary of the Province of Quebec 
 shall in anywise affect the boundaries of any other Colony." 
 The expansion of the province seems to have been made to 
 protect the Indians, and to join to Quebec that part of the 
 back country that had been French in the days when Quebec 
 was a French possession, and with which it had a convenient 
 water connection. 
 
 Another important provision of the Act dealt with religion. 
 "For the more perfect Security and Ease of the Minds of the 
 Inhabitants of the said Province" the free exercise of the 
 "Religion of the Church of Rome" was permitted, subject to 
 the King's supremacy. A simple oath of allegiance was sub- 
 stituted for the elaborate one of Elizabeth. The "accus- 
 tomed dues and rights" belonging to the Roman Catholic 
 clergy were permitted. It is important to note that the Act 
 provided also for the support of a Protestant clergy in the 
 province. Civil matters were to be governed by the French 
 law of Canada, but the criminal law of England was to be 
 continued in the province as the inhabitants had "sensibly 
 felt" its benefits from an experience of more than nine years. 
 It was thought inexpedient to call an Assembly. A Legisla- 
 tive Council of not more than twenty-three members was to 
 be appointed by the King. The Council was not given the 
 power of taxation, and its ordinances were subject to the 
 royal veto. 
 
 There has been much difference of opinion regarding this 
 notable Act. It certainly fell short of the ideas of colonial 
 rights held to the south. Chatham was opposed to it as anti- 
 British. Yet it went far in improving the system of govern- 
 ment in Canada, even though it was a compromise. The 
 French Canadians seem to have regarded it as a good meas- 
 ure, for they paid little heed to the American appeals to join 
 the cause of independence. It perpetuated French law and 
 custom within the British Empire. Had the British Govern- 
 
THE GROWTH OF CANADA 1760-1867 217 
 
 ment foreseen the growth of the later Dominion and its occu- 
 pation by English-speaking people, it might well have under- 
 taken the anglicizing of Canada in 1774. Certainly the 
 chief difficulties the Dominion has faced have found their 
 source in the traditional protection given to French customs, 
 laws, and language; but, as we have seen, Carleton expected 
 Canada to remain French. The independence of the thir- 
 teen colonies in 1783 brought an altogether new situation 
 into existence. 
 
 CANADA AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 
 
 Carleton had hardly returned to Canada before the British 
 colonies, which had been quarreling with the mother country 
 for the past ten years, revolted. One of the first military acts 
 of the American Revolution was the invasion of Canada. 
 General Montgomery led an expedition north to Montreal, 
 and Benedict Arnold penetrated the province through the 
 valleys of the Kennebec and the Chaudiere. Carleton had 
 sent troops to reinforce Gage at Boston, and found it difficult 
 to meet the American attack. He was unable to defend Mont- 
 real, which was occupied by the Americans, and he narrowly 
 escaped capture in his retreat by water to Quebec. There 
 the forces of Montgomery and Arnold joined in the siege. 
 Carleton had but three hundred regulars at his command, 
 but he proved himself sufficient for the situation. On the 
 last day of the year 1775 the Americans unsuccessfully at- 
 tacked the city; Montgomery fell dead as he was leading for- 
 ward his men. 
 
 The Americans had sent a delegation to Montreal to as- 
 certain the character of the situation and bring the Cana- 
 dians, if possible, into the conflict on the side of the Revo- 
 lution. The commissioners, one of whom was Benjamin 
 Franklin, were soon forced to return south when Carleton re- 
 ceived reinforcements in the spring of 1776. By the end of 
 that year the British had regained complete control of Can- 
 ada. In the next year the British planned to subjugate the 
 colonies by a comprehensive attack, including the occupation 
 of Philadelphia, the control of the Hudson, and an attack 
 
218 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 from Canada. The Canadian expedition was in charge of 
 Burgoyne, who had superseded Carleton as military leader 
 by order of Lord Germain. There seems to have been a per- 
 sonal grudge at the bottom of this change. Had Carleton 
 been at the head of the expedition one may well believe that 
 the disaster to the British arms at Saratoga might have been 
 avoided. Conspicuous lack of generalship was shown by the 
 British in this campaign — in fact, throughout the war — 
 and it is possible, as an English writer has put it, that, had 
 Carleton been in place of the "torpid Howe, the heavy 
 Clinton or the light Burgoyne, there might have been a dif- 
 ferent tale to tell." x 
 
 Carleton resigned his governorship in 1777 and returned 
 to England only after he had given every assistance to Bur- 
 goyne that he as the Governor of Canada could give. He 
 was succeeded by General Haldimand, a Swiss soldier of for- 
 tune, who had served in the British army since 1754. He 
 proved to be an excellent Governor for this war period. 
 Haldimand held Carleton's point of view regarding the 
 French Canadians, governing them justly and sympatheti- 
 cally, if strongly. His administration, extending to 1784, in- 
 cluded the critical years at the close of the war when Canada 
 became the haven for Loyalists from the thirteen colonies. 
 Shortly after the defeat of Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781, 
 Carleton became Commander-in-Chief in America in place 
 of Clinton; his duties were largely confined to the evacuation 
 of the country with the coming of peace. 
 
 The treatment of the American Loyalists was one of the 
 most important matters that came up for settlement. As 
 soon as the Americans avowed independence as their purpose, 
 many of the colonists held back. Love for the British con- 
 nection and a natural conservatism among official and prop- 
 ' ertied classes helped to make the number of Loyalists large. 
 In New England they were in the minority, but in the Middle 
 States probably a majority of the people were Loyalists or 
 "pacifists." In the South, also, Loyalism was strong. Va- 
 rious estimates have been made of the number of Loyalists; 
 1 Goldwin Smith, Canada and the Canadian Question, p. 83. 
 
THE GROWTH OF CANADA 1760-1867 219 
 
 probably a third of the population would be a conservative 
 figure. It will be evident, as a result of the strength of this 
 class, that the Revolution was a civil war in a real sense. 
 Bitterness of feeling reached such a great height that the 
 winning side was not inclined to return lands to those who 
 had sympathized with Great Britain. Ostracism — social, 
 political, and commercial — was apt to be their lot. By the 
 Treaty of 1783 the Americans promised there should be no 
 lawful impediment to the recovery of debts, and Congress 
 was to recommend to the States the return of confiscated 
 property. In addition, future confiscations were to be for- 
 bidden. Congress, unfortunately, was powerless and the pro- 
 visions regarding the Loyalists remained largely inopera- 
 tive. 
 
 In consequence, there was a widespread emigration into 
 Canada from the colonies that had recently won their inde- 
 pendence, a movement in which Carleton played an impor- 
 tant part. He delayed the evacuation of New York until 
 ample provision was made for the departure of those who 
 wished to live under the British flag. "He regarded it as a 
 point of honor that no troops should embark until the last 
 Loyalist who claimed his protection should be safely on board 
 a British ship." Britain's care for the Loyalists was shown 
 by its compensations for their losses. Five thousand claim- 
 ants appealed for a money indemnity, and after lengthy in- 
 quiry these Loyalists were granted over £3,000,000. 
 
 The great majority of those who left the United States 
 were compensated by lands in Canada and Nova Scotia. In 
 1783 a large emigration took place to the latter province, the 
 number that settled in the province being over twenty-eight 
 thousand. The western part of Nova Scotia was separated 
 in the next year under the name of New Brunswick, for the 
 express purpose of furnishing a home for the Loyalists. The 
 first Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick met in St. John 
 in 1786, and of its twenty-six members, twenty- three were 
 Loyalists. Its first Governor was Colonel Thomas Carleton, 
 brother of Sir Guy Carleton. Some ten thousand refugees 
 found homes in the St. Lawrence valley, where Montreal and 
 
mo THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 the rich farming land to the south, known as the Eastern 
 Townships, were the principal places of settlement. 
 
 The great majority of the Loyalists, who emigrated over- 
 land, went farther west and formed the nucleus for the later 
 province of Upper Canada or Ontario. The immigrants 
 settled in large numbers around Kingston (near the outlet of 
 Lake Ontario), on. the Bay of Quinte, across from Niagara, 
 and to the east of Detroit. The number of inhabitants in 
 Upper Canada in 1791 was twenty-five thousand, and they 
 were largely those whose enthusiasm for British rule and in- 
 stitutions brought them across the boundary. An interest- 
 ing part of this group were the Mohawk Indians, under their 
 leader Joseph Brant (from whom Brantford was named). In 
 the early years of the province the new settlers often endured 
 great hardship. In 1789 it was decided at a council meeting 
 in Quebec that the names of those who had adhered to the 
 "unity of the empire" should be recorded and preserved "to 
 the end that their posterity may be discriminated from future 
 settlers." From this arose the name of United Empire Loy- 
 alists or U.E. Loyalists as they are commonly and honorably 
 known in Canada. This recognition but emphasizes their 
 part in the making of Canada. With their coming a great 
 impetus was given to the growth of the province, and a col- 
 ony, formerly almost exclusively French, became strongly 
 English-speaking. 
 
 In 1786 Sir Guy Carleton — created in that year Lord 
 Dorchester — became Governor of Canada for a second time, 
 and he guided the development of British North America for 
 the next ten years. His office was a larger one than formerly, 
 as he was "Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief of Que- 
 bec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick." His enlarged pow- 
 ers were analogous to those granted about this time to the 
 Governor of Bengal in India. l The chief interest in his sec- 
 ond administration lies in the Constitutional change made in 
 1791, by which Upper Canada was separated from the lower 
 part of the province. 
 
 The immigration of U.E. Loyalists in such numbers ren- 
 
 1 See pp. 182 ff. 
 
THE GROWTH OF CANADA 1760-1867 221 
 
 dered the Quebec Act obsolete. The loss of the American 
 colonies and the feeling on the part of many of the British 
 settlers that the possessions left to Great Britain in North 
 America should be joined to the mother country by bonds of 
 affection made a reform of the Government of Canada es- 
 sential. In addition there was much dissatisfaction with the 
 former Act as an expression of British constitutional stand- 
 ards. Burke spoke of it as a " measure dealt out by this 
 country in its anger under the impulse of a passion that ill 
 suited the purposes of wise legislation." In 1786 a petition 
 signed by his " ancient and new subjects" was addressed to 
 the King for a free constitution. The French Canadians 
 presented a counter-petition, and the disbanded soldiers pre- 
 sented one of their own for the creation of a separate district 
 in the territory about Kingston, where there would be ex- 
 emption from French tenures. Other petitions followed, and 
 finally in 1788 Adam Lymburner, a Quebec merchant, went 
 to Lond©n as the representative of the British inhabitants. 
 Lord Dorchester tendered his advice by letter. In replying 
 to a letter from Lord Sydney in 1788, he expressed his belief 
 that a division of the province was by no means advisable 
 at that time. He would have the western Loyalist counties 
 under the control of a lieutenant-governor. 
 
 UPPER AND LOWER CANADA 
 
 Parliament acted under the lead of Pitt in 1791. The 
 Constitutional Act of that year is chiefly remembered as 
 dividing the colony into two provinces, Upper and Lower 
 Canada. Each province was to have a Legislative Council 
 and Assembly. The me'mbers of the Councils were appointed 
 by the King; the assemblymen were selected by electors qual- 
 ified to vote by ownership of property. The Roman Catholic 
 religion was guaranteed permanently and the Established 
 Church of England was endowed by the permanent appro- 
 priation of one seventh of the uncleared Crown lands. These 
 provisions were the cause of later religious controversy, as the 
 two endowed churches were granted privileges and wealth 
 that the Protestant Dissenters did not possess. The British 
 
222 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 system of land tenure was established in Upper Canada and 
 made optional in the lower province. The British Parlia- 
 ment was to impose no taxes but such as were necessary for 
 the regulation of trade and commerce, and to guard against 
 the abuse of this power such taxes as were levied were to be 
 disposed of by the legislatures of each division. 
 
 The separation of Canada into two parts was very impor- 
 tant. Pitt expressed the purpose of the Act in introducing the 
 bill: "This division, it was hoped, would put an end to the 
 competition between the old French inhabitants and the new 
 settlers from Britain or British colonies by which the prov- 
 ince had been so long distracted." Unfortunately, the sepa- 
 ration did not greatly improve the situation. The British 
 in Quebec did not receive fair treatment. The divided ex- 
 ecutive authority was unwise when the parts of British 
 North America should have been bound closely together. 
 Upper Canada was purely inland and dependent on the lower 
 province in connection with trading regulations. To the 
 racial and religious troubles there was added one more cause 
 of friction, two provinces. It is significant that in 1806 the 
 French Canadian newspaper, Le Canadien, appeared for 
 the first time, having as its motto, "Nos institutions, notre 
 langue et nos lois." 
 
 The story of Canada during the first third of the nineteenth 
 century can be briefly related. There was a long interim 
 after the close of the Dorchester regime in 1796 and Governor 
 Prescott's short term of three years before a new Governor- 
 General was appointed. In 1807, when the troubles of Great 
 Britain were many, Sir James Craig was appointed the head 
 of the two provinces. Craig, who had been wounded at Bun- 
 ker Hill, was a distinguished soldier, and the danger of war 
 with the United States over the questions of impressment and 
 trade led to the appointment of one who would be an ade- 
 quate military leader in case of actual trouble. Before the ap- 
 proaching war began, however, he retired in ill health. The 
 chief act of his administration was the temporary suppres- 
 sion of Le Canadien. He seems to have been responsible for 
 an increase in the ill feeling existing between the two races. 
 
THE GROWTH OF CANADA 1760-1867 223 
 
 War opened with the United States in 1812. The desire 
 for the conflict was strong in certain sections of the new na- 
 tion to the south, and it was felt there that the capture of 
 Canada might be expected as a result of its numerical inferi- 
 ority, Britain's occupation in the Napoleonic struggle, and 
 the internal troubles in Canada itself. Sir George Prevost 
 was Commander-in-Chief and Governor-General in Canada 
 with General Brock at the head of the Government of Upper 
 Canada. American attempts to enter British territory were 
 largely directed at the upper province, but the U.E. Loyal- 
 ists proved a strong and patriotic defense. The Americans 
 were not efficiently led and had no adequate war organiza- 
 tion. In 1815 peace was signed and Canada was allowed to 
 continue to develop its resources in an undisturbed way. 
 Fortunately for the two countries, war has not occurred be- 
 tween them since. The War of 1812 undoubtedly led to in- 
 creased bitterness against the Americans — an animosity 
 that found expression in a variety of ways throughout the 
 century. The war was of great value in helping to unite the 
 people of Canada by fusing them through a common interest. 
 Racial elements were forgotten for the time being, and Cana- 
 dians became more passionately attached to the Empire than 
 before, if that were possible. 
 
 Nevertheless,]with the end of the conflict the former causes 
 of trouble revived. In Lower Canada there was friction be- 
 tween the judges and the legislature. In Upper Canada ar- 
 rears in pay as well as restrictions on American immigration 
 caused ill feeling. Beyond these apparently petty matters lay 
 the great cause of difficulty, the struggle between the Execu- 
 tive and the Legislative Assembly. It found chief expression 
 in the question of the budget, the Assembly asserting at 
 times an altogether extreme right over the amount to be ex- 
 pended. The Assembly in determining to dispose of public 
 monies without the concurrence of the Council was exceeding 
 even the privileges of the House of Commons in England. 
 As time went on the tension in Quebec took on more and 
 more of a racial character. The French in the province were 
 led by Papineau who was so strengthened in the elections of 
 
224 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 1834 that the British in the province formed associations as a 
 counter-measure. In that year the Assembly refused to fur- 
 nish supplies, and demanded unconditional control of all the 
 revenues, an elective Legislative Council, and better use of 
 Crown patronage. 
 
 In 1835 commissioners were sent to Canada to consider 
 these grievances and find, if possible, a solution, but the dele- 
 gation failed to accomplish anything. When in 1837 the 
 British Parliament voted credits to meet the needs of the ad- 
 ministration in Quebec, a rebellion broke out, with Papineau 
 as its leader. The rebels were largely French Canadians, but 
 there was also an English-speaking element among them. 
 The center of the movement was the Richelieu district, 
 where Dr. Wolfred Nelson was the leader. The rebellion 
 never took on large proportions and never had any hope of 
 success. The bulk of the French were kept faithful through 
 the guidance of the Roman Catholic Church and the loyalty 
 of most of the French Canadians of social and political stand- 
 ing. As a result of the rebellion the constitution of Lower 
 Canada was suspended and a second commission was sent 
 out to investigate. Before dealing, however, with the work 
 of Lord Durham's Commission it is necessary to relate the 
 progress of events in Upper Canada. 
 
 There the causes for dissatisfaction were not so numerous. 
 The financial dispute was never so fierce as in the lower prov- 
 ince; in 1831 the Assembly made permanent provision for 
 the civil list and caused no difficulty over the judicial officers. 
 There was more difference over the relations of the Legisla- 
 tive Council and the Assembly. The latter wanted the 
 former elective. The chief cause of the trouble in Upper 
 Canada was the conservative, close-corporation nature of the 
 Government, the so-called Family Compact. Executive, ju- 
 dicial, and legislative prizes were monopolized by a govern- 
 ing class that consisted largely of descendants of the U.E. 
 Loyalist settlers of 1784, who felt that it had a sort of tradi- 
 tional right to power. They were unwilling to grant privi- 
 leges to newer immigrants and to more progressive men. 
 Church matters were important also. The Act of 1791 en- 
 
THE GROWTH OF CANADA 1760-1867 225 
 
 dowed Protestantism, but that meant only the Established 
 Church of England. The clergy reserves set aside for that 
 church caused much ill feeling among other Protestant de- 
 nominations who felt the discrimination to be unfair. Their 
 great champion was the Reverend Egerton Ryerson, a Meth- 
 odist minister of Loyalist descent. Through the paper of his 
 denomination, The Christian Guardian, he delivered powerful 
 attacks against the system of clergy reserves. 
 
 The leader of the radical reform party was William Lyon 
 Mackenzie, who, when Toronto was incorporated in 1834, be- 
 came its first mayor. Through him and his friend, Joseph 
 Hume, in Great Britain, a report of the conditions needing 
 remedy was spread broadcast in the home country. In 1836 
 the clergy-reserves question was reopened by the endowment 
 of forty-two Anglican rectories by the authorization of the 
 Lieutenant-Governor. In that same year elections which 
 took place for the Legislative Assembly were so manipulated 
 by the conservative group as to make it appear that the issue 
 was loyalty to the British connection. The unfair way in 
 which the progressive element had been treated resulted in 
 open rebellion in 1837 under the lead of Mackenzie. The 
 rising, though similar to that under Papineau, was even less 
 effective. There was thorough loyalty in the province and 
 no racial problem to complicate the issues. Mackenzie fled 
 to the United States after ineffectual efforts to organize a 
 successful revolt. His attempts to act against Canada from 
 the American side of the border proved utterly abortive. 
 
 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 Early in 1838 Parliament suspended the constitution of 
 Lower Canada and made temporary provision for its govern- 
 ment by sending out a commission under Lord Durham, the 
 son-in-law of Lord Grey of Reform Bill fame. Durham went 
 to Canada in the spring of 1838, returning to England in the 
 late autumn. His report appeared in the winter of 1838-39. 
 Lord Durham was given great powers. He acted as an in- 
 vestigator, while at the same time serving as Governor-in- 
 Chief . He was not only the ruler of Lower Canada, but his 
 
226 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 jurisdiction also included Upper Canada, Nova Scotia, New 
 Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, for there had been 
 some trouble regarding the government in other parts of the 
 British North American possessions as well as in Canada. 
 As a matter of fact, Durham was concerned almost exclu- 
 sively with Lower Canada, visiting Upper Canada for a pe- 
 riod of only eleven days and the other British possessions not 
 at all. Durham was a close friend of Sir William Moles- 
 worth, and his principal assistants in the investigation were 
 Charles Buller and Gibbon Wakefield, with all of whom we 
 have become familiar in the study of the reviving colonial in- 
 terest in Great Britain during this time. x Charles Buller was 
 regarded for a time as the real author of the Report, but this 
 is probably an incorrect way of thinking of his position. 
 Lord Durham was a ''leading" man and quite capable of the 
 colonial ideas expressed in the findings of the Commission. 
 
 The Report dealt with every phase of the difficulties in 
 Canada. Lower Canada, Upper Canada, the Maritime Prov- 
 inces, and Newfoundland were considered in their political 
 needs and Public Lands and Emigration were fully discussed 
 as well. 2 Lord Durham advocated the reunion of Canada by 
 the "complete amalgamation of peoples, races, languages and 
 laws." His words describing the conditions in Lower Can- 
 ada are famous: "I expected to find a contest between a 
 government and a people : I found two nations warring in the 
 bosom of a single state; I found a struggle not of principles 
 but of races, and I perceived that it would be idle to attempt 
 any amelioration of laws or institutions until we could first 
 succeed in terminating the deadly animosity that now sepa- 
 rates the inhabitants of Lower Canada into the hostile divi- 
 sions of French and English." 
 
 In addition to reunion he advocated responsible govern- 
 ment for the reunited provinces as a means of terminating 
 the animosity. It was the colonial ideal of the reformers of 
 1830 applied to a particular part of the Empire. By respon- 
 
 1 See chapter xi. 
 
 2 The Report is found conveniently in the edition admirably edited by Sir 
 Charles Lucas. 
 
THE GROWTH OF CANADA 1760-1867 227 
 
 sible government Durham meant not an increased measure 
 of representation, but the mastery of their own affairs by the 
 subjection of the Executive to the control of the elected As- 
 sembly. He also drew a close distinction between local and 
 imperial matters, limiting as far as possible the power of the 
 Colonial Office. Lord Durham believed, contrary to the 
 opinions of many in his day, that responsible government 
 would be a means of binding the colonies more closely to the 
 mother country. The Report also included the Wakefield 
 system of colonization as adapted to Canadian conditions 
 with recommendations that it was hoped would lead to a bet- 
 ter distribution and a greater cultivation of the land. In 
 addition, he advised that careful measures be taken for fos- 
 tering and controlling emigration. 
 
 These, in brief, were the recommendations of this very im- 
 portant Report. Charles Buller told the House of Commons 
 in 1839 that the Report would be "the text-book of the colo- 
 nial reformer until it became the manual of the colonial gov- 
 ernment of Great Britain." Its great significance for the 
 growth of the British colonial Empire lies in its recommenda- 
 tion of responsible government. Canada was to lead the 
 way and other self-governing dominions were to follow until 
 to-day there is a large measure of truth in calling the British 
 Empire a Commonwealth of Nations. But the doctrine was 
 "new wine" in 1840. Lord John Russell held the proposal 
 to be utterly incompatible with the relations between the 
 mother country and its colony. Gladstone said at the time 
 that "responsible government meant nothing more than an 
 independent legislature." The Quarterly Review could not 
 comprehend this system of colonial connection; "To our un- 
 derstanding it is absolute separation." Sir Charles Lucas, 
 in his edition of the Report, truly speaks of it as " the corner- 
 stone upon which a single and undivided British Empire 
 should be reared to abiding strength." 
 
 Lord Durham's recommendations were not entirely ac- 
 cepted. He himself was subj ected to much wordy abuse, and 
 when he died in 1840 he was apparently discredited. Poulett 
 Thomson was appointed Governor-General to succeed Dur- 
 
228 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 ham and proved a man well fitted to carry forward the work 
 of conciliation and reconstruction in Canada. Shortly after 
 he arrived in the colony, the Upper Canadian Legislature and 
 the governing body of Lower Canada made evident their wish 
 for reunion. As a consequence, the British Parliament passed 
 an Act in 1840 reuniting the provinces. The members of the 
 common Assembly were divided equally between the two 
 provinces, in spite of the fact that Quebec had a somewhat 
 larger population. The Governor and the members of the 
 Council were to be appointed by the Crown, the assemblymen 
 chosen by popular vote on a property qualification. The 
 English language was to be used in the legislative records. 
 
 Poulett Thomson — created Lord Sydenham in 1840 — 
 convened the first parliament under the new Act in the follow- 
 ing year at Kingston. The Assembly determined to have the 
 matter of responsible government understood from the first. 
 Therefore, resolutions on this important matter, not unlike 
 a bill of rights, were passed by the first Assembly. The 
 three resolutions stated the colonial wish for responsible self- 
 government clearly, while duly recognizing the place of im- 
 perial authority. 1 
 
 Lord Sydenham died in 1841. After three brief adminis- 
 trations, a notable Governor in the person of Lord Elgin di- 
 rected with wisdom and conspicuous success Canadian affairs 
 from 1847 to 1854. He was the son-in-law of Lord Durham. 
 It was appropriate, therefore, that under his guidance re- 
 sponsible government should have been definitely assured for 
 the colony. He gave his support to the party of reform, and 
 while reserving the right to veto measures he considered to be 
 opposed to the interests of the Empire, he went the full 
 length of permitting the parliamentary party leader to choose 
 the ministers. It is significant that the first man to do this 
 was a French Canadian, Louis Hippolyte Lafontaine. In 
 fact, during Elgin's administration the French won back 
 much of the position that appeared jeopardized by the Act of 
 1840. The explanation of French influence is found partly 
 in the desire to carry responsible government to its consistent 
 
 1 The Resolutions are given in Keith's Select Documents. 
 
THE GROWTH OF CANADA 1760-1867 229 
 
 end and partly in the formation of factional groups among 
 the British. 
 
 Lord Elgin went so far as to accept a Rebellion Losses 
 Bill, which indemnified the rebels of the late rebellion. It 
 was strongly denounced by the Tories in the British House 
 of Commons and by the same party in Canada. The battle- 
 cry "No pay to rebels" aroused high opposition to this 
 measure. It resulted in the burning of the Parliament 
 buildings in Montreal in 1849 and in the abuse of the Gover- 
 nor. On one occasion he was pelted with stones and rotten 
 eggs and only escaped rough handling by retiring to his resi- 
 dence, Monklands, by a circuitous route. 1 
 
 In 1847 the Civil List was given over to the Canadian Gov- 
 ernment. In 1854 the Seigniorial Tenure Act practically 
 did away with the old system of land-holding. At the same 
 time the clergy-reserve question was settled by the handing 
 of this property over to the municipal corporations for secu- 
 lar purposes. The same year was notable for a reciprocity 
 treaty with the United States, the result of agitation that 
 had, in addition, brought about the repeal of the British navi- 
 gation laws, so hampering to Canadian commerce. 
 
 CONFEDERATION 
 
 By 1854 the Canadian Parliament had developed a num- 
 ber of very notable men, whose efforts during the next dozen 
 years were to be centered upon the problem of federation. 
 The French were ably led by Sir Etienne Tache" and Sir 
 George Cartier. Tache" was premier in 1856 and was the 
 chairman of the historic meeting at Quebec in 1864. Cartier 
 had taken a rebel's part in 1837, but later he became conserv- 
 ative, and was one of the most important men in politics 
 during the middle period of the century. It was by his ac- 
 tive cooperation that seigniorial tenure had been abolished 
 and the clergy reserves secularized. He also gave vigorous 
 
 1 Keith's Select Documents (i, 179-90) give6 Lord Elgin's interesting account 
 of the affair in a letter to Lord Grey. The Government which found Kingston 
 too small removed to Montreal in 1844. In 1849 the Legislature decided to 
 meet in Quebec and Toronto alternately for four-year periods. In 1858 Queen 
 Victoria chose Ottawa as the capital. 
 
230 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 support to movements for the material improvement and 
 educational development of Lower Canada. 
 
 The man who held the corresponding place of leadership 
 among the English-speaking inhabitants was Sir John A. 
 Macdonald, one of the most notable of Canadian statesmen. 
 In Parliament he rapidly rose to the leadership of the Con- 
 servatives. He was interested, however, in reform, and was 
 tolerant of the French. During the critical days before and 
 after confederation, he and Cartier worked hand in hand. 
 For most of the time from 1854 to 1873 their alliance enabled 
 them to govern the country. The leader of the Radicals was 
 George Brown. In 1844 he had established the Toronto 
 Globe, a newspaper, which became a daily in 1853, and was 
 used by him in powerfully influencing public opinion for re- 
 form of every kind. He entered Parliament in 1851, and 
 from that time on was leader of the Radicals or " Clear 
 Grits," opposing privilege of all kinds, social, religious, and 
 political. 
 
 By 1860 political matters were at a deadlock, and chang- 
 ing conditions in the population were demanding recognition. 
 In 1840 Lower Canada, which had a larger population than 
 the upper province, was represented by but half of the As- 
 sembly. Twenty years later the situation was reversed and 
 there were three hundred thousand more people in the upper 
 province than in the lower. George Brown stood for the 
 right of representation according to population. Cartier, as 
 the champion of Quebec, opposed this, denying that the ex- 
 cess population had any more right to consideration than so 
 many codfish in the Bay of Gaspe\ Matters came to such a 
 pass that no government could stay in office for any length 
 of time — within two years five appeals were made to the 
 country. Public business could not be administered under 
 such conditions. Finally in 1864 George Brown proved his 
 greatness by forming a coalition with Cartier and Macdonald 
 for the purpose of finding a solution of their difficulties "by 
 introducing the federal principle into Canada, coupled with 
 such provisions as will permit the Maritime Provinces and 
 the northwest territories to be incorporated into the same 
 system of government." 
 
THE GROWTH OF CANADA 1760-1867 231 
 
 In the meantime the Maritime Provinces (Nova Scotia, 
 New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island) had been work- 
 ing toward a similar end. Constitutional matters had been 
 the chief cause of what trouble had occurred in the Maritime 
 Provinces. Joseph Howe contributed more than any other 
 Nova Scotian to the development and protection of respon- 
 sible government in his province. In 1861, as leader of the 
 Liberal Party, he sponsored and successfully presented a res- 
 olution favoring the federation of the Maritime Provinces. 
 In 1864, the head of the Conservative Ministry, Charles Tup- 
 per, arranged a conference of delegates from the three prov- 
 inces to consider federation at Charlottetown. The Cana- 
 dian Government, on learning of this meeting, sent a delega- 
 tion, including Macdonald, Brown, and Cartier, to meet with 
 the conference. The result of the discussion was favorable 
 to a larger confederation than that of the Maritime Provinces. 
 Accordingly it was decided to hold another conference at 
 Quebec to consider the question at greater length. 
 
 The Quebec convention met October 10, 1864, on the 
 call of Lord Monck, the Governor of Canada. Among the 
 thirty-one men present were Macdonald, Brown, Cartier, 
 Tache, and Tupper. Other influential members were Alex- 
 ander Gait from Quebec, William McDougall and Alexander 
 Campbell from Ontario, and Judge Gray and Leonard Tilley 
 of New Brunswick. The members of this convention have 
 become enshrined in Canadian history as the "Fathers of 
 the Confederation." x The deliberations, under the chair- 
 manship of Tache*, continued for eighteen days behind 
 closed doors. The result of their work was seventy-two 
 resolutions, which became the basis for the Act of Union. 
 When the result of the convention's work was presented 
 to the Canadian Parliament it passed by large majorities. 
 Thereupon, Macdonald, Cartier, Brown, and Gait went to 
 London in 1865 to confer with the home Government. Later 
 New Brunswick and Nova Scotia signified their willingness 
 to join the movement and a second committee went to Eng- 
 land, including representatives from the Maritime Prov- 
 
 1 The last of the "Fathers," Sir Charles Tupper, died in 1915. 
 
232 THE BRITISH EMPIRE v 
 
 inces. They met in London in December of 1866 and 
 framed an act for the union of Canada, Nova Scotia, and 
 New Brunswick. It was passed by the British Parliament in 
 1867 and became effective in Canada on July 1 of that year. 
 
 The British North America Act, as it is usually known, 
 gave the name "Dominion of Canada" to the confederation. 
 Upper and Lower Canada became known as Ontario and 
 Quebec. Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland did not 
 join. The latter is still a separate Dominion, but Prince Ed- 
 ward Island followed its sister provinces in 1873. x The Do- 
 minion Government was given control of all British posses- 
 sions on the continent, and through the years additional prov- 
 inces have been created out of what was then practically 
 unoccupied territory. The working of the confederation can 
 well be left until the recent development of Canada is consid- 
 ered in a later chapter. Yet it has seemed wise to detail at 
 some length the movement resulting in responsible govern- 
 ment and confederation in Canada, for this Dominion served 
 as the leader and the model in the extension of the principle 
 of self-government to those parts of the Empire fitted to re- 
 ceive it. As a result the great dominions have become al- 
 most nations while remaining enthusiastic members of a 
 group that loves the British connection. Or, as Sir John A. 
 Macdonald put it in his famous speech of February, 1865, in 
 which he presented the Quebec Resolutions to the Canadian 
 Parliament: "The colonies are now in a transitional state. 
 Gradually a different colonial system is being developed — 
 and it will become year by year, less a case of dependence on 
 our part, and of overruling protection on the part of the 
 mother country, and more a case of a healthy and cordial al- 
 liance. Instead of looking on us as a merely dependent col- 
 ony, England will have in us a friendly nation — a subordi- 
 nate but a powerful people." 2 
 
 What a change from the days when Canada was taken 
 from France one hundred years before! Then it consisted 
 almost wholly of an alien people, less than one hundred thou- 
 sand in number, located in a few weak settlements along the 
 
 1 See pp. 405, 422 ff. 2 Keith's Select Documents, i, 324. 
 
THE GROWTH OF CANADA 1760-1867 233 
 
 St. Lawrence River. New Brunswick and Ontario were un- 
 settled. The two cities of Quebec and Montreal contained 
 together but seventeen thousand people. There were but 
 six hundred Englishmen in the colony. Gommerce, educa- 
 tion, and industry were hampered by the French laws of the 
 " ancien regime." On the other hand, the Dominion contained 
 between three and four million people in 1867. Ontario 
 was occupied by nearly a million and a half of inhabitants; 
 Quebec had a little over a million. Montreal was a city 
 of one hundred thousand people, Toronto of sixty thousand, 
 and Quebec of fifty thousand. Industry had developed and 
 commerce had grown by leaps and bounds, especially after 
 the reciprocity treaty with the United States and the removal 
 of the navigation laws. Since the days when John Molson 
 operated the first steamer on the St. Lawrence in 1809, the 
 navigation of that great waterway had been developed by an 
 efficient system of canals. Already several thousand miles 
 of railway were in existence in 1867, foreshadowing the ex- 
 traordinary growth of transportation facilities so necessary 
 to a country of Canada's character. 
 
 Sir John A. Macdonald may well be pardoned for the op- 
 timism with which he looked to the future in the days when 
 he was so earnestly urging confederation. ' ' When this union 
 takes place we will be at the outset no inconsiderable people. 
 We find ourselves with a population approaching four millions 
 of souls. Such a population in Europe would make a second 
 or, at least, a third rate power. And with a rapidly increas- 
 ing population — for I am satisfied that under this union our 
 population will increase in a still greater ratio than before — 
 with increased credit — with a higher position in the eyes of 
 Europe — with the increased security we can offer to immi- 
 grants — with all this, I am satisfied, that, great as has been 
 our increase in the last twenty-five years . . . our future 
 progress will be vastly greater. And when by means of this 
 rapid increase, we become a nation of eight or nine millions 
 of inhabitants, our alliance will be worthy of being sought by 
 the great nations of the earth." 1 
 
 1 Keith's Select Documents, i, 323-24. 
 
234 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 
 
 For the earlier history of the period covered in this chapter reference 
 should be made to Sir Charles Lucas, A History of Canada, 1768-1812 (Ox- 
 ford, 1909) ; A. G. Bradley, The Making of Canada (New York, 1908) ; Victor 
 Coffin, The Province of Quebec and the Early American Revolution (Madi- 
 son, Wis., 1896); C. H. Van Tyne, The Loyalists of the American Revo- 
 lution (New York, 1902); A. G. Bradley, Lord Dorchester (Toronto, 1907); 
 and Justin H. Smith, Our Struggle for the Fourteenth Colony (2 vols., New 
 York, 1907). For general accounts of the period see the volume by H. E. 
 Egerton, Canada under British Rule (Oxford, 1917), in the "Historical Ge- 
 ography of the British Colonies"; Goldwin Smith, Canada and the Cana- 
 dian Question (London, 1891); Sir John G. Bourinot, Canada under British 
 Rule, 1760-1900 (rev. ed., London, 1922); A. Wyatt Tilby, British North 
 America, 1763-1867 (London, 1911); and O. D. Skelton, The Canadian Do- 
 minion (New Haven, 1919). William Kingsford's History of Canada (10 
 vols., London, 1887-97) treats in detail the years 1608-1841. A standard 
 work in French is F. X. Garneau's Histoire du Canada (2 vols., 5th ed., 
 1920). Lord Durham's Report is a vital document; the period immedi- 
 ately following his investigation has been considered by J. L. Morison, 
 British Supremacy and Canadian Self -Government, 1889-1854 (Glasgow, 
 1919). In "The Makers of Canada" series, George R. Parkin has written 
 a life of Sir John A. Macdonald (1909), and G. M. Wrong that of the Earl 
 of Elgin (1905). A recent and valuable treatment of this and the follow- 
 ing period in Canadian history is The Life and Times of Sir A. T. Gait, by 
 O. D. Skelton (Toronto, 1920). 
 
 The British North America Act with a full introduction is given in H. E. 
 Egerton, Federations and Unions within the British Empire (Oxford, 1911), 
 and the constitutional development of the colony in H. E. Egerton and 
 W. L. Grant, Canadian Constitutional Development (London, 1907), and by 
 G. M. Wrong, "The Constitutional Development of Canada," Royal Hist. 
 Soc. Trans., 4th series, i, 236-53. See also Keith's Source-Book already 
 noticed. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF EMPIRE IN AUSTRALASIA 
 
 Thus far, in describing the growth of the British dominions, 
 no reference has been made to Australia and New Zealand, 
 two of the most conspicuous parts of the Greater Britain of 
 to-day. Much has been said of India, and mention has been 
 made of the beginnings of South Africa. But Australia and 
 the islands forming the archipelago of New Zealand came to 
 European knowledge late, and there was much less interest in 
 them than in the more accessible and better known lands 
 discovered during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. 
 
 THE FINDING OF THE CONTINENT 
 
 There are sufficient reasons for the delayed interest in 
 Australia and its colonization. All the maritime nations of 
 western Europe had been interested in the East Indies after 
 Vasco da Gama discovered the way around Africa in 1497 
 and Magellan that about South America in 1519. The mo- 
 nopolization of the Far East by Spain and Portugal during 
 the sixteenth century prevented any save occasional voyages 
 by mariners of other nations. When the Dutch obtained the 
 monopoly of the East Indian trade, they found the islands in 
 their possession amply sufficient for exploitation. The Brit- 
 ish turned to the development of trade in India as a field well 
 known and of proved value. Added to all these reasons for 
 disregarding Australia was the location of this southern 
 island-continent. It was out of the way and would not be 
 apt to be hit upon save by mariners blown from their regular 
 courses to the Indies or except when a deliberate attempt 
 was made to explore the southern seas. 
 
 During the Age of Discovery there was a belief among map- 
 makers that the southern hemisphere was occupied by an un- 
 known continent. The idea that equal areas of land and 
 water were necessary to make the balance and symmetry of 
 the globe probably accounted for this belief. By the middle 
 
236 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 of the sixteenth century, as shown in the French map of Jean 
 Rotz, there was supposed to be a great body of land uncon- 
 nected with Africa or Asia in the southern seas. The voy- 
 age about Africa had proved that continent to be separated 
 from this southern land and the growing knowledge of the 
 East Indies seemed to indicate that this southern land might 
 be a great archipelago. Terra Australis, therefore, was 
 thought to stretch to the south and much farther to the east 
 than it actually does, in order to fill in the great expanse of 
 unmapped space in the southern Pacific. 
 
 It was just at the opening of the seventeenth century that 
 Torres, a Spanish navigator, sailed through the narrow 
 strait separating Australia from New Guinea, which now 
 bears his name; but, if he sighted Australia, he did not re- 
 gard it as a continent. It was the Dutch who are responsible 
 for the growing knowledge of Australia in the seventeenth 
 century. With their monopoly of the East Indian trade this 
 would be but natural. In 1616 Dirk Hartog accidentally 
 touched the coast of Australia at its most westerly point, 
 where Sharks Bay and Dirk Hartog Island are found on 
 modern maps. The cape at the southwest corner of Austra- 
 lia is known as Cape Leeuwin from Dutch explorations 
 made at that spot in 1622. Nuyt's Archipelago in South 
 Australia has received its name from a Dutch explorer who 
 coasted along that shore in 1627. About the same time the 
 Gulf of Carpentaria in the north became known under the 
 name of the Dutch Governor then in the East Indies. 
 
 The most famous of all the Dutch seamen in these waters 
 was Abel Tasman. In 1642 Van Diemen, the Dutch Gov- 
 ernor at Batavia, determined that the southern land should 
 be found, and sent Tasman in search of it with such instruc- 
 tions that, it was believed, he could not miss the continent. 
 He went to Mauritius, thence south to the fortieth parallel, 
 and then to the eastward. In due time he came to land 
 which he named after Van Diemen, but which is now more 
 appropriately called Tasmania. This island, one hundred 
 and forty miles south of Australia, was not known by Tas- 
 man to be an island and thus separate from the great land to 
 
238 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 the north, for he sailed around its southern side in continuing 
 his journey to the eastward. Not until one hundred years 
 later did Europeans realize that Tasmania was an island. 
 
 On continuing his voyage Tasman found the archipelago to 
 which the name of New Zealand was given by the Dutch 
 authorities. In 1643 he returned to Java by way of New 
 Guinea. He had accomplished the remarkable exploit of 
 sailing completely around Australia without once sighting its 
 shores. In a second voyage two years later he continued his 
 explorations by tracing some of the northern coast of the 
 continent, and at that time the name of New Holland was 
 given to Australia. It was not until the early days of the 
 nineteenth century that Flinders, an English explorer, sug- 
 gested the name by which the continent is now known "as 
 being more agreeable to the ear [than Australis] and an as- 
 similation to the names of the other great portions of the 
 earth." 1 
 
 The most notable of all the many voyages made in this 
 part of the world, fruitful because it led to the colonization 
 of the continent, was that of the famous Captain James Cook. 
 He was in charge of the vessel taking astronomers to Tahiti 
 to observe a transit of Venus in 1769. His instructions also 
 included an order to search for the great South Land, which 
 was still generally believed to be east of Australia and New 
 Zealand. The first land that he sighted was New Zealand, 
 to which Tasman had come one hundred and fifty years 
 before from the other direction. Cook sailed through the 
 strait which bears his name, separating the North Island 
 from the South Island, and also circumnavigated the group. 
 He next continued westward, but being driven north he 
 sighted the Australian mainland instead of Tasmania, of 
 which he was in search. On April 28, 1770, he anchored in a 
 bay which he called Botany Bay on account of the "great 
 quantity of plants found in this place." Captain Cook soon 
 discovered a better anchorage three leagues north of Botany 
 Bay, which he named Port Jackson; it is on this bay that 
 Sydney, the capital of New South Wales, is located. When 
 
 1 Swinburne, A Source Book of Australian History, p. 25. 
 
THE EMPIRE IN AUSTRALASIA 239 
 
 he had coasted north as far as Torres Strait, Captain Cook 
 took possession of the land for England. The attractiveness 
 of the name Botany Bay and the enthusiastic report of 
 Australian conditions by Joseph Banks, a member of the 
 Cook expedition, led to the growth of interest in the new 
 possession. Before the end of the century the British had 
 begun to occupy it. 
 
 NEW SOUTH WALES 
 
 Joseph Banks became an ardent advocate of Australian 
 colonization. As President of the Royal Society he held an 
 important place in British scientific circles. It is not sur- 
 prising, therefore, that his description of Botany Bay should 
 have had much influence. Nevertheless, had it not been for 
 the Government's need in connection with the disposition of 
 criminals, the sending of colonists might have been delayed 
 for a long time. The independence of the thirteen American 
 colonies stopped the transportation of criminals that had 
 taken place, especially to the southern members of the group. 
 An inquiry was made into the problem arising from the rap- 
 idly congesting jails, and, as a result, an Act of Parliament 
 was passed in 1783 authorizing the King in Council to fix 
 places within or without the Empire where criminals could 
 be sent. Joseph Banks suggested Botany Bay. But it was> 
 not until 1788 that the first expedition reached Australia. 
 
 Eleven vessels in all made up the first expedition. In the 
 six transports there were about seven hundred and fifty 
 criminals. On their arrival at Botany Bay the harbor and 
 mainland, so much lauded by Banks, proved unfit for settle- 
 ment. Captain Arthur Phillip, in charge of the expedition, 
 went a few leagues north to Port Jackson, where he found a 
 "suitable site in a cove of the finest harbor in the world," as 
 he described it in his letter to Lord Sydney, the Colonial 
 Secretary. He named the new settlement Sydney. The 
 usual difficulties of a new colony faced Governor Phillip. 
 Scurvy proved serious, and the wooded character of the land 
 around Sydney made the clearing of the ground for grain- 
 sowing a slow process. 
 
240 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 Added to these ordinary anxieties was the further one of 
 watching over a large number of convicts. Fresh supplies 
 of prisoners were continually sent out so that new centers 
 had to be started. Norfolk Island was used for that purpose, 
 and along the coast and inland convict settlements were lo- 
 cated. Discipline was a serious problem, since Phillip tried 
 to use the criminals for labor. It must be borne in mind that 
 all of the convicts were not by any means abandoned charac- 
 ters. Many were political prisoners, for when rebellion broke 
 out in Ireland in 1795 in connection with the French Revolu- 
 tion, the Government used stern measures, sending out many 
 Irish political agitators to Port Jackson, where they caused 
 a deal of trouble. 1 Most of the convicts were sentenced for a 
 term, usually of seven years. They then became free and 
 were known as "Emancipists"; their entry into the free so- 
 ciety of the colony naturally brought new problems to the 
 Government. 
 
 In addition to the sources of difficulty already noted, the 
 early Governors of New South Wales were also faced with 
 questions arising from the presence of a native population. 
 The Australian aborigines were not so serious an obstacle to 
 the white men as were the Maoris of New Zealand or the Red 
 Indians of North America or the natives of India. Gover- 
 nor Phillip, however, wrote back that they were far more 
 numerous than they were supposed to be; he estimated that 
 there were fifteen hundred in the district around Port Jack- 
 son and Botany Bay. Mistreatment of the aborigines was 
 inevitable and reprisals naturally followed. But the difficul- 
 ties from this quarter never hindered to any extent the devel- 
 opment of the Australian continent. 
 
 It was to be expected that exploration would take place 
 under the early Governors in order to find the resources of 
 the coast and the country beyond the mountain ranges that 
 rise rather abruptly from the eastern shore of the continent. 
 Coal deposits were early discovered by some castaways to 
 the south of Sydney. In 1797 a lieutenant, sent north to 
 bring back some runaways, entered a river, hitherto unknown, 
 
 : See p. 128, n. 
 
THE EMPIRE IN AUSTRALASIA 241 
 
 about a hundred miles north of Sydney. Valuable coal de- 
 posits were found there and shortly afterwards the town of 
 Newcastle was started on the Hunter River, whence large 
 supplies of coal have been obtained ever since. 
 
 An important discovery was made in 1797 by George Bass, 
 who found that the coast south of Sydney, instead of con- 
 tinuing to South Cape (the southern point of Tasmania), 
 turned westward. He went as far as Western Port and be- 
 came convinced that a strait separated Tasmania from the 
 mainland; it received the name of Bass Strait. With Mat- 
 thew Flinders he made a careful survey of the coast of Tas- 
 mania in 1798. Later Flinders, in the ship Investigator, 
 mapped out the whole of the southern and eastern shores of 
 Australia. As noted above, it was he who suggested the 
 name of Australia for the continent. 
 
 While on this voyage of exploration, Flinders met a 
 French expedition under Captain Baudin, which was also ex- 
 ploring the new continent. The place where they met be- 
 came known as " Encounter Bay"; it is located south of Ade- 
 laide on the coast of South Australia. Although Baudin had 
 named this shore "Terre Napoleon," it is not clear that Na- 
 poleon was intent upon building up a colonial empire in this 
 new quarter of the globe. At any rate, the British had ob- 
 tained possession by earlier exploration and settlement. In 
 two other instances the British but just forestalled the 
 French in Australasia. A fortnight after Governor Phillip 
 arrived at Port Jackson in 1788 the ships of the unfortunate 
 La Perouse 1 appeared at the same place. It is interesting to 
 note that some years later, when the French were eager to oc- 
 cupy New Zealand, they were again anticipated by the British. 
 It was owing in no small part to the energy and the command- 
 ing sea-position of the British after the decisive Napoleonic 
 
 1 This famous French navigator was sent out by his Government in 1785 to 
 enlarge the European knowledge of the Pacific. Much valuable work was done 
 before the expedition stopped at Botany Bay in 1788. The movements of La 
 Perouse and his companions after their departure from Botany Bay are unknown. 
 The French Government offered liberal rewards in order to ascertain either 
 the whereabouts of the expedition or the cause of its destruction. Half a cen- 
 tury elapsed before it was definitely established that the expedition was ship-, 
 wrecked, with the loss of all on board, near the New Hebrides. 
 
242 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 wars that the islands of New Zealand and the whole conti- 
 nent of Australia became completely British, Had Australia 
 been opened for settlement half a century or a century earlier, 
 it is not at all improbable that it might have been divided 
 among the European powers, as were India and North Amer- 
 ica, and have been the scene of colonial conflicts. 
 
 The interior of the continent was especially difficult of ac- 
 cess from the east coast, for the mountains, rising rapidly 
 from the shore, form an effective barrier. In the earlier days 
 it was regarded as fortunate, since the convicts could not get 
 away by escaping to the interior. During the governorship 
 of Macquarie (1810-21) it became necessary to expand in or- 
 der that new territories for stock-raising might be included in 
 the colony. In 1813 the explorer, Blaxland, crossing the Blue 
 Mountains that had so effectively hemmed in the coastal set- 
 tlements, found beyond an abundance of fertile land, which 
 was named the "Bathurst Plains." It was particularly for- 
 tunate for the colony that larger grazing lands were dis- 
 covered, as it made possible the development of the wool 
 industry. The introduction of sheep was made by John Mac- 
 arthur, an officer of the New South Wales Corps. In 1797 
 he obtained from the Cape of Good Hope some fine "woolled 
 sheep of the Spanish breed." Sheep-raising rapidly devel- 
 oped ; in 1825 there were twenty thousand sheep in the colony. 
 Soon it became the chief industry, and at the present time it 
 has increased even beyond the proportions Macarthur fore- 
 saw. The production of raw wool in large quantities came 
 at an opportune time, for it furnished an abundance of ma- 
 terial from one of Britain's own colonies for its growing textile 
 industries. An indefinite expansion of this phase of the cloth 
 industry became possible, with a more secure lead to Great 
 Britain in its industrial development in the nineteenth cen- 
 tury. 
 
 During the second quarter of the century the knowledge of 
 the back-country was greatly increased by the journeys of 
 daring explorers. The interior of what is now New South 
 Wales and Victoria was revealed by the expedition of Hume 
 and Hovell. Stuart wandered over the stretches beyond 
 
THE EMPIRE IN AUSTRALASIA 243 
 
 the Bathurst Plains, where it was thought that there was 
 a great inland sea; it proved to be a desert instead. The 
 daring journey of this same intrepid explorer overland and 
 down the basin of the Murray River made known a part 
 of the country that was to prove of great value. The center 
 of the continent remained an unsolved mystery until much 
 later. But sufficient information was in the possession of the 
 British early in the century to make possible the development 
 of vigorous offshoots of the mother colony at Sydney. 
 
 TASMANIA 
 
 Tasmania — or Van Diemen's Land as it was known until 
 1853 — was the first district far from Sydney to be developed 
 on a large scale. In 1804 — six years after Tasmania was 
 found to be an island — a convict settlement was started in 
 the southern part at Hobart when Captain Collins brought 
 four hundred criminals from England. In the same year set- 
 tlers from Sydney began life in the northern part of the is- 
 land. Agricultural and pastoral pursuits developed very 
 rapidly; by 1821 fourteen thousand acres were under cultiva- 
 tion. Sheep from Macarthur's flocks were introduced and 
 Tasmania was found especially fitted for the production of 
 fine wool. In 1821 there were over one hundred and eighty 
 thousand sheep on its pastures. 
 
 The greatest hindrance to the growth of the colony was 
 this introduction of convicts. As Sydney grew tired of the 
 evils of transportation, the worst criminals were sent to Tas- 
 mania, where escaped convicts by their bushranging made 
 life miserable for the free settlers. In 1821 Macquarie Har- 
 bor, on the west coast, was set aside for those convicts who 
 were so incorrigible as to be untrustworthy in assigned serv- 
 ice or government-work gangs. When free settlers came to 
 this part of the island the prison was removed to Port Arthur 
 on the Tasman Peninsula. Colonel George Arthur, who was 
 Lieutenant-Governor from 1824 to 1836, ruled with an iron 
 hand and brought a large measure of order into the island. 
 He was disliked, nevertheless, by the free settlers, as he 
 firmly believed that Tasmania should be and should remain 
 primarily a convict settlement. 
 
244 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 It was at this time also that trouble occurred with the abo- 
 rigines of Tasmania. A fruitless attempt was made to herd 
 them into one part of their island home. Later they were in- 
 duced to settle on a small island off the north coast. But 
 confinement was not congenial to their wild natures and the 
 last of the aborigines died in 1876. We have here a signal il- 
 lustration of the way Europeans, in their eagerness to exploit 
 new lands the world over, have too often ruthlessly pushed 
 aside weak and helpless peoples. 
 
 After Governor Arthur's time convicts came in greater 
 numbers than ever, for the mainland was freed from trans- 
 portation in 1840. Sir John Franklin, the next Governor, 
 but better known as an Arctic explorer, tried to reform the 
 convicts by mildness. By that time half the adult male pop- 
 ulation were criminals. It was but natural that the free set- 
 tlers should make earnest protests against the continuance of 
 transportation. At last, when in 1846 the home Govern- 
 ment decided to remove the worst cases from Norfolk Island 
 to Tasmania, the Tasmanian settlers rose in revolt against 
 Governor Wilmot, driving him from the colony. Transpor- 
 tation was finally abolished in 1853. 
 
 VICTORIA AND QUEENSLAND 
 
 Victoria, the state of Australia occupying the southeast 
 corner of the continent, had its beginnings in settlements on 
 Port Phillip Bay. As we have found, Hume and Ho veil had 
 explored the interior by an overland journey from New 
 South Wales. It was not until ten years later that the real 
 beginnings of Victoria were made at Port Phillip by John 
 Batman. He formed the Port Phillip Association in Tas- 
 mania, and proceeded to purchase large tracts of excellent 
 land from the aborigines. When he returned to Tasmania to 
 persuade Governor Arthur to confirm the purchase, another 
 resident of the island, by the name of Fawkner, brought a 
 party of settlers to Port Phillip. Out of the efforts of Bat- 
 man developed the settlement of Geelong; Fawkner and his 
 followers were the founders of Melbourne. The Governor of 
 New South Wales claimed jurisdiction over the new colony, 
 and it became subordinate to the ruler at Sydney. 
 
THE EMPIRE IN AUSTRALASIA 245 
 
 Port Phillip developed very rapidly, as there was an abun- 
 dance of fine grazing land along the coast, while Gippsland 
 and the interior districts afforded unlimited opportunities for 
 growth. The history of the colony was uneventful during 
 these early days. The only serious difficulty it found was in 
 being governed from Sydney. In 1840 the Government of 
 Victoria was separated from New South Wales for land pur- 
 poses, but the colony was still a part of New South Wales po- 
 litically. In 1842 the movement for separation began. It 
 was found to be useless to elect to the Council at Sydney men 
 from Melbourne, who would go there only to be outvoted. 
 Accordingly, the Port Phillip colony elected to the Sydney 
 Council, as their representative, Earl Grey, the Secretary for 
 the Colonies in the home Government. This unique pro- 
 ceeding accentuated their demands, and they were separated 
 from New South Wales in 1851. This same year saw the dis- 
 covery of gold in the colony. Almost overnight the hitherto 
 insignificant settlement became one of the most discussed 
 places in the world. 
 
 Queensland, the state north of New South Wales, lies 
 about Moreton Bay, on which Brisbane, the present capital, 
 is located. Moreton Bay was made a convict settlement in 
 1826. Brisbane for fourteen years was nothing but a govern- 
 ment station. The sheep-owners of New South Wales, how- 
 ever, were pushing north for new pasturage, and in their 
 search they came upon the extensive Darling Downs just 
 back of Brisbane. With the abolition of transportation in 
 1840, Brisbane became the port for the sheep-raisers of the 
 interior. It developed rapidly as a free man's settlement, but 
 it was not until 1859 that Queensland was separated from 
 the mother colony. 
 
 WESTERN AUSTRALIA 
 
 Western Australia was so far removed from Sydney that 
 it never came under its jurisdiction. Ever since the days of 
 Dirk Hartog it had not been regarded as a favorable part of 
 the continent for European occupation, owing to the lack of 
 good harbors, water supply, and rich soil. In 1827 Captain 
 
246 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 Stirling, who was exploring the coast of Western Australia, 
 was especially attracted by the coast and land near the Swan 
 River, and sent home a very enthusiastic account of its pos- 
 sibilities. He was also impressed with the need of occupy- 
 ing the coast in order to prevent other nations from taking 
 it. In fact, some convict settlements, notably the one at Al- 
 bany east of Cape Leeuwin, had been recently established to 
 forestall the French occupation of this part of the continent. 
 An offer was made to the Government by a body of British 
 capitalists, of whom the most prominent was Thomas Peel, 
 to colonize the Swan River district. They wanted four mil- 
 lion acres of land and agreed to send one hundred thousand 
 settlers to the Swan River within four years. The Govern- 
 ment, however, limited the grant and so formulated the plans 
 that there would be no public expense. Settlers were to re- 
 ceive grants at the rate of forty acres for every three pounds 
 invested in capital. 1 The Government put Captain Stirling 
 in command of the colony and paid his salary by the grant of 
 one hundred thousand acres of land. 
 
 In 1829 the first settlers arrived at the Swan River, and it 
 was not long before there were four thousand free inhabit- 
 ants in Western Australia. But the colony did not prosper. 
 The settlers were given grants of land that were altogether 
 too large. And, to make matters worse, the largest land- 
 owners were given first choice, which meant that Perth and 
 Fremantle were surrounded by enormous estates. Much of 
 the soil remained uncultivated owing to the scarcity of labor; 
 there were no convicts and land was so cheap that everybody 
 who wanted it had it. In 1832 the population dropped to 
 fifteen hundred. As a result of this unfortunate beginning 
 the colony received a bad name. As late as 1849 there were 
 less than five thousand people in this part of the continent. 
 During all this time the Swan River settlement had no con- 
 victs. But in 1849 the landowners requested that such labor 
 be sent them. Immediately the situation improved, and in 
 
 1 "One man at least brought a seventy-guinea piano, landed it on the beach 
 at Fremantle, got his order for nine hundred and eighty acres on the strength 
 of it, and then left it to rot on the sand.". The British Empire, Past, Present, 
 and Future, p. 353. 
 
THE EMPIRE IN AUSTRALASIA 247 
 
 ten years the population had increased to fifteen thousand. 
 The transportation of convicts was introduced into Western 
 Australia at a time when the other Australian colonies were 
 trying to rid themselves of this incubus. Western Australia, 
 however, paid the penalty for its prosperity, for when repre- 
 sentative institutions were granted to the other colonies in 
 1850, it was not included. Not until forty years later did 
 this most backward of the Australian settlements receive 
 representative institutions. 
 
 SOUTH ATJSTKALIA 
 
 South Australia had been explored by way of the Murray 
 River in 1829 and 1830. When the failure of the Swan 
 River colony made Englishmen as a whole pessimistic of col- 
 onizing efforts, Gibbon Wakefield pressed for a further trial 
 on the basis of systematic colonization. By this plan he 
 hoped to avoid the dangers met by the Swan River colony 
 and encountered at that time in eastern Australian groups 
 where transportation was still prevalent. In 1829 Wake- 
 field published his famous Letter from Sydney. It has already 
 been noted that his contribution to colonization was on the 
 two problems of land and labor. He would make land of 
 sufficient price to prevent every one from becoming an owner. 
 Thus a body of laborers would be produced. In addition, 
 Wakefield desired the price to be within reasonable limits 
 so that the laborer could look forward to ownership. This 
 plan would furnish a body of free laborers to take the place 
 of the unsatisfactory convict workmen. The scheme would 
 tend to bring all the land that was purchased under immedi- 
 ate cultivation. An emigration fund was to be formed from 
 the proceeds, by which laborers were to be brought out free 
 of cost. 1 
 
 In 1832 the South Australian Land Company was organ- 
 ized for the purpose of applying Wakefield's ideas to this un- 
 occupied section of the southern continent. Although diffi- 
 culties were met because a lack of sympathy was shown by 
 the Colonial Office, the Company and an Association formed 
 
 1 The Wakefield plan has been more fully treated in chapter xi. 
 
248 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 in 1833 effected the passage of an Act through Parliament in 
 1834 authorizing settlement in South Australia. Commis- 
 sioners were appointed who had powers to sell land at auction 
 for not less than twelve shillings an acre, a price that was 
 higher than in the neighboring settlements. When the popu- 
 lation should reach fifty thousand, a constitution was to be 
 granted to the colony. 
 
 After considerable land had been sold and a body of emi- 
 grants enlisted, the colony was established in 1836. Colonel 
 Light, the Surveyor-General, chose with care the site of the 
 capital city, Adelaide. Settlers came so fast that the sur- 
 veying parties could not keep ahead of the demand for land. 
 One of the early Governors, Gawler, felt?compelled to pro- 
 ject public improvements in Adelaide to give employment to 
 the laboring class. This was doubly bad, as it took them 
 from the land where they were needed and piled up debts 
 which the colony could ill afford. In the two years of 1839 
 and 1840 Gawler had spent over £300,000. In spite of the 
 departure of considerable numbers of immigrants to other 
 parts of Australia, the population of the colony was fifteen 
 thousand when Gawler was recalled in 1840. 
 
 Captain George Grey, who had recently become known for 
 his explorations in Australia, was hurried out to South Aus- 
 tralia in the next year to remedy a situation that seemed crit- 
 ical. The colony was bankrupt, and Captain Grey was given 
 the strictest injunctions to retrench. His great object, as he 
 put it himself, "was to give the labourers no inducement to 
 remain in town, or upon public works; but to make them re- 
 gard the obtaining of a situation with a settler as a most de- 
 sirable event." The new Governor reduced relief works to a 
 minimum and limited the amount of the daily wage paid by 
 the Government. There was a loud protest raised among the 
 laborers and by the press. Grey was burned in effigy and 
 threatened with violence. The success of his work in reduc- 
 ing expenditures and spreading the population over the rural 
 districts was marked. In three years the annual govern- 
 ment expenditure was lowered from £170,000 to £30,000. 
 In 1840 two thirds of the population were in Adelaide. In 
 
THE EMPIRE IN AUSTRALASIA 249 
 
 1845 the situation was reversed; fourteen thousand people, 
 two thirds of the colony's inhabitants, lived in the rural dis- 
 tricts. In 1840 there were fewer than three thousand acres 
 under cultivation; when Grey left in 1845, the cultivated 
 land had increased tenfold. 
 
 A fortunate discovery that helped, but does not wholly 
 account for, the success of the Grey administration was the 
 finding of copper in 1842 at Kapunda and Burra Burra, 
 whence thousands of tons of copper were sent to Great 
 Britain within a few years. It was not unnatural that the 
 early hatred of Grey should have turned to admiration and 
 gratitude as the colony prospered under his guidance. Lord 
 John Russell spoke in the British Parliament of Grey's work 
 in the highest terms: a In giving him the government of 
 South Australia I gave him as difficult a problem of colonial 
 government as could be committed to any man, and I must 
 say after four or five years' experience of his administration, 
 that he has solved the problem with a degree of energy and 
 success which I could have hardly expected from any man." * 
 In 1845 an admiring Government hastened George Grey off 
 to New Zealand to adjust a situation as perplexing as he had 
 faced in Australia. Later, as Sir George Grey, he became 
 famous as a colonial Governor in South Africa as well. 
 
 Four years after Grey's departure the population of South 
 Australia passed the fifty-thousand mark. Thereupon the 
 home Government redeemed its promise of a constitution. 
 In 1851 the colony was granted representative institutions 
 along with the other Australian colonies, Western Australia 
 only excepted. 
 
 A natural division point in Australian development is 
 reached when a large measure of self-government was given 
 the well-established colonies in 1851. The evolution of the 
 constitution was not dissimilar to that of Canada. At first 
 the rule had been predominantly military. The Governor 
 was an autocrat indeed, but it was necessary where there was 
 such a strong mixture of convicts and emancipists. The 
 early judicial system did not provide for the exercise of tra- 
 
 1 Henderson's Sir George Grey, p. 70. 
 
250 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 ditional British liberties, as there were no juries and the judge 
 was the accuser as well as the one who gave the decision. In 
 1823 an imperial statute improved the judicial system, and 
 provided for a Legislative Council for the Governor, which 
 was appointed by the Colonial Office. 
 
 An important step toward self-government was made in 
 1842. Two years before, transportation to the eastern main- 
 land of Australia was abolished. By an Act of Parliament in 
 1842 New South Wales received some of the privileges that 
 Lord Durham recommended in 1839 for Canada. A Legisla- 
 tive Council was established, one third of whose members 
 were appointed by the Crown and the remainder selected by 
 the colonists. It was to have complete control of colonial rev- 
 enue. We have found that Victoria, in spite of the fact that 
 it had six members in the Council, objected to the cumber- 
 some way in which it was governed. Earl Grey accord- 
 ingly asked the British Board of Trade to investigate the sit- 
 uation. In their report, presented in 1849, proposals were 
 made that resulted in the Act of 1850. This Act separated 
 Victoria from New South Wales and granted to these two 
 and also to Tasmania and South Australia a large measure 
 of self-government. The customs revenue was handed over 
 to the colonies, the land revenue was to be used for local gov- 
 ernment purposes, and the four colonies were empowered 
 to make constitutions. Thus the privileges already won in 
 Canada were extended to the southern continent. Queens- 
 land became a separate colony in 1849, and Western Austra- 
 lia was included under the privileges of the Act in 1890, * 
 
 THE GOLD HUSH 
 
 One more influential factor that profoundly modified the 
 character of Australian development at the mid-century 
 point remains to be presented. In 1851 E. H. Hargraves 
 discovered gold on Summerhill Creek in New South Wales. 
 He was a resident of that colony, who had gone to California 
 when the gold rush occurred there in 1848. Hargraves was 
 
 1 See pp. 384-86 for an account of the development of self-government in the 
 Australian colonies. 
 
THE EMPIRE IN AUSTRALASIA 251 
 
 struck by the similarity of the land formation in the Sac- 
 ramento valley to that which he had seen in New South 
 Wales. He was so impressed by this similarity that, on re- 
 turning to Australia in 1851, he sought and found gold where 
 he expected it would be. By the middle of June the country 
 about Bathurst and along the various branches of the Mac- 
 quarie was thickly peopled with seekers for gold. It was not 
 unnatural that enthusiasm was at a high pitch, for in July 
 a squatter by the name of Kerr found a mass of virgin gold 
 weighing one hundred pounds. The colony of Victoria was 
 naturally eager to participate in this prosperity and offered 
 a reward of £200 for the first gold discovered in that colony. 
 The money was soon won. Not far northwest of Melbourne, 
 gold was found in even greater quantity than in the north- 
 ern colony. Rich deposits were brought to light, especially 
 around Ballarat. 
 
 The effect was far-reaching. "Many houses might be 
 seen half finished for want of men to proceed with the work, 
 though the owners and contractors were offering enormously 
 high wages to any that would complete the work. The fields 
 were left unsown, flocks of sheep were deserted by the shep- 
 herds. . . . Even the very ' devils ' bolted from the newspaper 
 offices; in short, the yellow fever seized on all classes of so- 
 ciety." 1 From the neighboring colonies large numbers of 
 immigrants rushed to the new gold fields. South Australia 
 was in danger of depopulation, and eleven thousand men 
 crossed from Tasmania in seven months. When the news 
 reached the outside world, Australia became a land of prom- 
 ise. Thousands came from the Californian fields. Britain 
 and the continent sent large contingents. The numerous 
 European revolutions of 1848, including the Chartist move- 
 ment in England, had been largely failures, and the restless 
 and dissatisfied radicals found a new field of interest. In 
 five years the population of Victoria mounted from seventy 
 thousand to three hundred thousand. 
 
 The influence of the gold rush on future Australian devel- 
 opment was very great. A peaceful, gradually evolving pas- 
 1 Swinburne, Source Book of Australian History, pp. 141-42. 
 
252 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 toral country, with an almost unalloyed British population, 
 was inundated with new elements. The population of the 
 continent, which was about four hundred thousand in 1850, 
 almost trebled in size in ten years. Many of the immigrants 
 were not of the solid, steady sort, and were radicals politi- 
 cally. The colony of Victoria, in particular, acquired a dif- 
 ferent character from the colonies that remained pastoral in 
 type. These additions to the population occurred just as the 
 Australian settlements were in the act of making new consti- 
 tutions. 
 
 Tasmania and South Australia, as well as the two gold- 
 producing colonies, profited by the movement, for they be- 
 came places of investment for the newly-won gains and 
 sources for large shipments of produce for the greatly in- 
 creased population of Victoria and New South Wales. It 
 is important to realize that the continent, which began as an 
 out-of-the-way dumping ground for convicts at the close of 
 the American Revolution, proved to be of enormous value as 
 a result of the abundance of wool and gold. It meant that 
 the future development of the continent was already on a 
 sure basis. 
 
 NEW ZEALAND 
 
 The archipelago of New Zealand had been visited by Tas- 
 man in 1642, but Captain Cook's later visit proved of more 
 importance, as he determined the true character of the 
 group. 
 
 New Zealand is one of the most interesting parts of the 
 British Empire. It consists of a group of islands, three of 
 which are of importance, North Island, South Island, and 
 Stewart Island. The group is shaped like the Italian penin- 
 sula with the toe of the boot pointing toward the equator; it 
 is about five sixths the size of the British Isles,. The North 
 Island is very mountainous and at its northern extremity 
 exceedingly broken in coastline. On a narrow isthmus in the 
 north, so located as to have easy communication by sea both 
 east and west, is Auckland. At the southern end of the is- 
 land is the capital, Wellington. The South Island has even 
 
THE EMPIRE IN AUSTRALASIA 253 
 
 a higher mountain system, known as the " Southern Alps." 
 This chain extends along the west side of South Island, 
 reaching a height of over twelve thousand feet in Mount 
 Cook. The descent to the sea is abrupt on the west, and in 
 the southwest deeply indenting fiords have been formed. On 
 the east are found the only extensive lowlands in New Zea- 
 land — the Canterbury Plains. Nelson on Tasman Bay in 
 the north, Christchurch on the east coast at the northern end 
 of the Canterbury Plains, and Dunedin and Invercargill in 
 the southeast are the principal cities. 1 
 
 From the first the British faced great difficulty in occupy- 
 ing this group of islands so congenial to the natives of the 
 British Isles. They found an aboriginal population that had 
 to be considered far more seriously than the inhabitants of 
 Australia or Tasmania. The Maoris had reached a stage 
 of civilization not unlike that of the barbarian tribes of 
 northern Europe at the opening of the Middle Ages or of 
 the North American Indians of the Six Nations group 
 when the British began their settlements in America. The 
 Maoris, who were almost exclusively in the North Island, 
 had well-planned fortifications, and found in warfare their 
 chief occupation. They possessed an elaborate mythology, 
 emphasizing taboo and blood vengeance in their plan of life, 
 and had practiced cannibalism. Yet Sir George Grey spoke 
 highly of them: "They are in many respects a noble race. 
 . . . They are splendid warriors, very eloquent, very sensible 
 of praise, very proud; yet easily led. Indeed they have won 
 all my feelings and sympathies in their favour by their con- 
 duct to me." 2 
 
 The earliest settlers of New Zealand were escaped convicts, 
 whalers, shipwrecked sailors — the flotsam and jetsam of the 
 Pacific. They were followed by a much better element, 
 when the missionaries began their labors among the Maoris 
 in 1814. Wesleyan and Catholic missions soon followed the 
 representatives of the Church Missionary Society. The 
 work of the missionaries seems to have been very successful, 
 although it was retarded by the abuse of the natives by un- 
 * See map on p. 237. ? Henderson, Sir George Grey, p, 77, 
 
254 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 principled white men and by the sale to the Maoris of liquor 
 and firearms. In order to prevent lawlessness, the islands 
 were put provisionally under New South Wales, much in the 
 same way as Tasmania was subject to the mother colony. 
 
 Extensive settlement did not begin until the " systematic" 
 colonizers turned their attention to New Zealand. Little 
 had come of a colonization society which Lord Durham had 
 founded in 1825. Twelve years later Gibbon Wakefield was 
 influential in forming the New Zealand Association, an organ- 
 ization of which Lord Durham became a member. It was to 
 be granted sovereignty over a part of New Zealand, with 
 rights to purchase and resell land. The Church Missionary 
 Society, however, was opposed to any scheme that would in- 
 terfere with missionary labors. The opposition was so per- 
 sistent that at last in 1839 the various groups interested in 
 New Zealand colonization determined to go ahead without 
 governmental permission. Gibbon Wakefield's brother, 
 Colonel Wakefield, was sent out and began bargaining with 
 natives for land; the first immigrants of the New Zealand 
 Land Company arrived in January, 1840. 
 
 As a result of this activity on the part of colonizers, the 
 home Government was forced to act, in order that the settle- 
 ment might be under imperial control. Therefore, in 1840 
 Captain Hobson was sent out as Governor. It was made 
 clear that no land purchases would be valid unless sanctioned 
 by the Crown. One of Governor Hobson's first acts was to 
 make a treaty with the Maoris; by the aid of the missionaries 
 the famous Treaty of Waitangi was negotiated with the na- 
 tives in February, 1840. In this agreement the full sover- 
 eignty of the islands was ceded to Great Britain, which, in 
 turn, granted the natives the standing of British subjects and 
 the right to possess their lands as long as they wished to do so. 
 In case of the sale of lands the Government was to exercise 
 supervision over their disposal. Hobson established Auck- 
 land in 1840 as the capital and proceeded to exercise the 
 rights of the ordinary British governor. 
 
 His task was a hard one. The New Zealand Company, 
 which received its charter in 1841, had rights of purchase and 
 
THE EMPIRE IN AUSTRALASIA 255 
 
 an almost independent status. The early years of New Zea- 
 land history were filled with difficulties that arose out of this 
 dual system of occupation, for it became almost impossible to 
 keep to the Treaty of Waitangi when a zealous land company 
 was concerned in obtaining as many acres as possible. It 
 should be said that the New Zealand Land Company did not 
 remain the philanthropic organization that Gibbon Wake- 
 field had dreamed of back in the early thirties. He himself 
 repudiated their later methods when he declared that the 
 "Company was founded by men with great souls and little 
 pockets, and fell into the hands of men with little souls and 
 great pockets." The Maoris, moreover, were unwilling to 
 part with their land. An old Maori proverb had declared: 
 "It is from food that a man's blood is formed, and it is land 
 which grows his food and sustains him. Never part with 
 your land." An additional source of trouble was the Maori 
 system of land tenure. The land was not held in private 
 ownership, but was the common property of the tribe. In 
 purchasing native land it was difficult, on the one hand, to sat- 
 isfy the numerous owners or, on the other, to convince the 
 white purchaser that the disposition of a few beads and trin- 
 kets to a single Maori did not satisfy the native idea of pur- 
 chase. 
 
 The New Zealand Company sent its first settlers to Port 
 Nicholson in 1840. There, in the vicinity of the present 
 town of Wellington, large tracts were "purchased" from the 
 Maoris. Shortly afterwards, settlements were made at New 
 Plymouth on the west coast of the North Island and also at 
 Nelson on the upper end of South Island. Land troubles 
 grew out of these "purchases," especially in connection with 
 lands claimed by the Company on the Wairau River near 
 Nelson. Colonel Wakefield was killed in an altercation with 
 the natives concerning these lands. 
 
 Most of the South Island up to this time had been left un- 
 occupied. But after the establishment of the Free Church in 
 Scotland a movement for sending emigrants to New Zealand 
 was organized at Glasgow. In consequence, Scotch settlers 
 established themselves in 1848 at, and in the neighborhood 
 
256 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 of, Dunedin in the province of Otago. In 1849, the Church 
 of England, through the Canterbury Association, purchased 
 large tracts in the eastern plains of the South Island. 1 In 
 the next year Christchurch was established and the neighbor- 
 ing rich pastoral and agricultural district was occupied by 
 Church of England immigrants. In 1851 the bankrupt New 
 Zealand Land Company was dissolved, and the way was pre- 
 pared for the unification and constitutional development of 
 the archipelago. 2 
 
 The record of early New Zealand growth would be incom- 
 plete if no mention were made of Sir George Grey. We have 
 found that he brought order into the recently established col- 
 ony of South Australia, where he was Governor from 1841 to 
 1845. In the latter year he was suddenly sent to New Zea- 
 land at a critical moment in the relations between the British 
 and the Maoris. There he labored earnestly from 1845 to 
 1853 as Lieutenant-Governor of New Zealand. In dealing 
 with the Maoris he showed himself remarkably sympathetic, 
 and endeavored to blot out by kindness and thoughtful con- 
 sideration the righteous Maori indignation against the 
 treacherous and unfair methods by which the Treaty of Wai- 
 tangi had been systematically violated. For example, Grey 
 found that one speculator had obtained over four thousand 
 acres of land near Auckland for one horse, a saddle and bri- 
 dle, five double-barreled guns, and a pair of trousers. The 
 Governor proceeded to set much that was wrong to rights. 
 The New Zealand Company found him a determined oppo- 
 nent of their extensive schemes, and even church missiona- 
 ries, who had acquired extensive grants, were subjected to his 
 searching investigation. Sir George Grey studied the na- 
 tives with great success. He learned how to win their loy- 
 
 1 The Canterbury Association was an Anglican colonization society, in which 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Lyttelton, took a prominent part. The 
 district in New Zealand, to which the Canterbury "pilgrims" came, was fit- 
 tingly named Canterbury; the port was Lyttelton. 
 
 2 Gibbon Wakefield left the New Zealand Land Company before its dissolu- 
 tion, and was influential in the establishment of the Church of England colony 
 on the Canterbury Plains. In 1853 he took up his residence in New Zealand, 
 and was a member of the first Parliament of 1854. He died in Wellington in 
 1862. 
 
THE EMPIRE IN AUSTRALASIA 257 
 
 alty and greatly ministered to their growth in civilization and 
 prosperity by restricting the sale of spirituous liquors and by 
 preventing the distribution of arms and ammunition. He 
 gave them a share in the administration of justice by organ- 
 izing a native police, and afforded the Maoris ample protec- 
 tion before the law. 
 
 When the New Zealand Company was dissolved in 1851, 
 there were six distinct settlements in the islands — Auckland, 
 Wellington, and New Plymouth on the North Island and 
 Nelson, Otago, and Canterbury on the South Island. In the 
 next year they were united under a constitution. Governor 
 Grey had recommended to the Colonial Office in 1851 that 
 representative government be granted to New Zealand. The 
 imperial Parliament responded with the Constitution Act of 
 1852. Six provinces were formed, each with a Provincial 
 Council and Superintendent. The franchise was limited by 
 a property qualification. As the centralizing element, there 
 was to be a Governor, a Legislative Council, and a House of 
 Representatives. The Legislative Council was nominated 
 by the Governor; the members of the House of Representa- 
 tives were chosen by vote as for the Provincial Councils. 
 The Governor was given considerable power; he only could 
 initiate money bills, his approval was necessary in the choice 
 of a speaker of the House of Representatives, and his ex- 
 penses were definitely reserved. The Maoris were to be care- 
 fully protected in the possession of their land. 
 
 This provincial system existed until 1875. New provinces 
 were created from time to time, and New Zealand assumed 
 its place among British possessions as a group of loosely cen- 
 tralized colonies with limited self-government. In 1852 
 the white population of the islands was twenty-seven thou- 
 sand; the Maoris numbered about twice that number. Fur- 
 ther wars with the natives were to occur, and Sir George 
 Grey was to be sent back to solve the troubled relations of 
 native with white invader before the islands were to settle 
 down to a peaceful development. In recent years, as we 
 shall find in a later chapter, the growth of this "Britain of the 
 South" has been as remarkable as that of any other part of 
 the Empire. 
 
258 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 
 
 There are numerous histories of the southern continent and of New 
 Zealand, of which the following should be mentioned: Edward Jenks, 
 A History of the Australasian Colonies (Cambridge, 1912); J. D. Rogers, 
 Australasia (Oxford, 1907); Ernest Scott, A Short History of Australia 
 (Oxford, 1916); A. W. Jose, History of Australasia (6th ed., Sydney, 
 1917); and A. Wyatt Tilby, Australasia 1688-1911 (London, 1912). 
 Of these, the first is especially good on constitutional developments, 
 the second for geographical matters. The third furnishes a very good 
 survey by an Australian of the general development. R. C. Mills, The 
 Colonization of Australia — referred to in the Bibliographical Note for 
 chapter xi — treats fully of the early years of the southern continent, 
 particularly of South Australia. For the French projects there is Ernest 
 Scott, Terre Napoleon, A History of French Explorations and Projects in 
 Australia (2d ed., London, 1911). G. C. Henderson's Sir George Grey, 
 Pioneer of Empire in Southern Lands (London, 1907) is valuable; Sir 
 George Grey's personal life and opinions are treated in an intimate manner 
 in James Milne, The Romance of a Pro-Consul (London, 1911). A brief 
 source-book of Australian history has been furnished by Gwendolen H. 
 Swinburne, A Source Book of Australian History (London, 1919). For 
 maps consult Bartholomew and Cramp, Australasian School Atlas (Oxford 
 Press, 1915)., 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF EMPIRE IN SOUTH AFRICA 
 
 The southern end of the great African continent forms an 
 important part of the British Empire. In 1910, by the 
 Union of South Africa, the various geographical divisions 
 were formed into a self-governing Dominion. Yet, strange to 
 say, this youngest of the great Dominions is the oldest, so far 
 as its discovery and settlement are concerned. 
 
 For_two £ejituries it was under the rule of the Dutch, who 
 stamped their standards of language and political and social 
 life so strongly on South Africa that they remain very impor- 
 tant factors to-day. No other great British Dominion has so 
 large a population of non-British Europeans. As we shall 
 find, the difficulties arising among the European stocks were 
 not easily arranged. The French in Canada, for instance, 
 have caused little trouble to the British when compared with 
 the Boers in South Africa. In addition, the British have had 
 to face a more serious native situation in Africa than any- 
 where else in the great Dominions, with the exception of In- 
 dia. In the Union the proportion of dark-skinned peoples to 
 the Europeans is as four to one; of the European stock, the 
 British element is in the minority. 
 
 CAPE TOWN 
 
 The discovery of South Africa was the result of Portu- 
 guese activity. Under the inspiring guidance of Prince 
 Henry the Navigator, daring seamen explored the African 
 coast. In 1487 Bartholomew Diaz rounded the southern tip 
 of the continent and named the stormy headland the "Cape 
 of Tempests." But the Portuguese monarch, who saw the 
 significance of the discovery, renamed it appropriately the 
 "Cape of Good Hope," "for by this Cape shall we sail to In- 
 dia." Vision became reality in 1497 when Vasco da Gama 
 sailed around Africa on his way to Calicut. It was on this 
 voyage that the Portuguese navigator anchored off the coast 
 
260 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 of Natal on Christmas Day, and gave to the shore the name 
 it has since retained. Strangely enough, the Portuguese did 
 not occupy the Cape even as a landing-station, but after 
 leaving St. Helena they usually went to Mozambique for the 
 next stop. If compelled to make an intermediate landing, it 
 was usually at Delagoa Bay in what is now Portuguese East 
 Africa. 
 
 When the Portuguese monopoly of East Indian trade gave 
 way before Dutch and English competition in the seven- 
 teenth century, the Cape country became of great impor- 
 tance. The first fleet sent to the East by the English (in 
 1591) stopped at the Cape. The English, however, did not 
 long need the Cape as a place to break the long voyage to 
 India, as they had obtained St. Helena by the middle of the 
 seventeenth century. When the French developed an east- 
 ern trade they used Madagascar and Mauritius as stopping- 
 places. It fell to the Dutch to occupy the southern end of 
 the African continent as a port of call and a victualing-sta- 
 tion. The Dutch ships gradually came to use a convenient 
 landing-place some thirty-five miles north of the Cape on the 
 Atlantic coast known as " Table Bay." The outgoing and 
 incoming fleets found it a refreshing break in the long voyage 
 and not nearly so tempestuous as was generally supposed. 
 Contrary to common belief, the natives proved friendly. 
 Fresh meat could be obtained for a few trinkets, and letters 
 could be left for other ships that were to stop at the Bay. 
 
 The impetus to a definite settlement was given by the 
 wreck of a Dutch ship, the Haarlem, at Table Bay in 1648. 
 After a five months' sojourn the survivors were rescued by 
 the homeward-bound fleet. During their stay they had 
 found the land fertile, and on their return to Holland their 
 enthusiastic statements of the advantages of the station led 
 to its occupation by the. Dutch East India Company. An 
 expedition of one hundred men landed at Table Bay in 1652. 
 A fort was constructed and accommodations prepared for 
 invalided soldiers and sailors. Early advantage was taken 
 of the fertility of the soil about Cape Town for providing 
 vegetables for the passing ships. The great yajue of a vict- 
 
THE EMPIRE IN SOUTH AFRICA 261 
 
 ualing-station in those days was the opportunity it gave to 
 obtain fresh meat and green vegetables. The great scourge 
 of life on the sea was scurvy, a disease whose ravages are 
 almost unbelievable. 1 
 
 The first step toward colonization was taken in 1657. 
 Nine men left the Company's service in that year and settled 
 just back of Cape Town. These ' ' free burghers " or " boers ' ' 
 were given tools and seeds for their farms. They were ob- 
 ligated to offer their produce first to the Company; after the 
 Company had purchased all that it desired they might then 
 sell to foreigners. If cattle were purchased from the natives 
 they could be disposed of only to the Company. The mo- 
 nopoly held by this great concern, both of the produce and of 
 its disposition, illustrates the type of government for most of 
 the Dutch period. For the greater part of the time before 
 the British occupation the narrowly paternalistic monopoly 
 of the Company was the system under which Cape Town and 
 its developing environs were ruled. 
 
 THE NATIVES 
 
 As soon as the settlement became more than a stopping- 
 place for East Indian fleets, contact with the natives was in- 
 evitable. There are three distinct native races in the terri- 
 tory where British South Africa now extends, the Bushmen, 
 the Hottentots, and the Bantu. The Bushmen were the 
 aborigines. They are a yellow-skinned people and short in 
 stature. In a low stage of civilization, they had no organized 
 form of government, were nomadic, did not work the soil, 
 nor keep herds of cattle. They lived in the bush on the nat- 
 ural products of the ground and by hunting with their poi- 
 soned arrows. At the time that the Europeans came to the 
 continent the Bushmen were located in the less desirable 
 parts, as they had already succumbed to a stronger race. 
 The Europeans were never seriously troubled by this people, 
 for they had little sense of property. 
 
 1 For example, in 1695 a fleet of eleven ships arrived at Cape Town with 678 
 men so ill that they could not walk. Two years before, three Dutch ships had 
 lost 500 men by scurvy before the vessels reached Cape Town on the outward 
 voyage. 
 
262 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 It was different with the Hottentots, the ruling people of 
 South Africa when the Cape was settled. Until the opening 
 of the nineteenth century they were the only important na- 
 tive group in touch with the expanding European colony. 
 The Hottentot is taller than the Bushman and dark-skinned. 
 He is higher in the scale of civilization, for, although nomadic, 
 the race was formed into definite tribal groups under chiefs. 
 They cultivated the soil and kept herds of cattle. For an in- 
 definitely long period before the white man came, the Hotten- 
 tots seem to have warred with the Bushmen and to have 
 mingled racially with their more primitive enemies. It is 
 possible that the difference between the Hottentot and the 
 true negro type may be due to a cross between the Hotten- 
 tots and the Bushmen. The Hottentots, because of their 
 sense of property and their large flocks and herds, came into 
 conflict with the Europeans in a very real way. Yet they 
 offered little serious resistance, because of the lack of mili- 
 tary organization and an incapacity for sustained war. 
 They were located along the coasts and in the vicinity of the 
 Orange River. 
 
 When European occupation extended eastward and north- 
 ward beyond the home of the Hottentots, the settlers came 
 into contact with a third native race known to ethnologists as 
 the Bantu. Most of Africa south of the equator is occupied 
 by tribes of this group, which is regarded as the true negro 
 type. To the colonizing British and the trekking Boers they 
 were a serious menace. The Bantu possessed a well-devel- 
 oped tribal system, and had a strong sense of property both 
 in land and cattle. Their large herds were their chief form of 
 wealth. The worth of a bride, for example, was computed 
 in terms of a certain number of cattle, usually from ten to 
 one hundred head. Above all, the Bantu tribes possessed a 
 strong military sense, including a high degree of obedience 
 and fearlessness. The charge of the impi, or native regi- 
 ment, was something much to be dreaded. The emigrant 
 Boers were able to withstand this fearless onslaught only by 
 "laagering" their wagons; that is, by forming them in a 
 compact circle much as the early pioneers of the American 
 prairies defended themselves from Indian attacks. 
 
THE EMPIRE IN SOUTH AFRICA 263 
 
 It was peculiarly unfortunate for the advance of the white 
 man that when he first came into contact with the Bantu it 
 was with the strongly military tribes of this racial group. 
 They comprise many tribes well known to the student of 
 South African history, such as the Kafirs, the Xosas, the 
 Matabele, and the Zulus. Farther north and in the interior 
 the Bantu were, on the whole, more pacific. Such tribes as 
 the Basutos, the Baralongs, and the Bechuanas have become 
 known through missionary enterprise. It was among the 
 Bakwains, a branch of the Bechuanas, that David Living- 
 stone served as a missionary before he began his explorations 
 of the more remote interior. 
 
 During the period of Dutch control, however, it was only 
 with the Hottentots that the Europeans were concerned. 
 Wars began with the expansion of the settlement at Table 
 Bay. But the Hottentots were appeased by an early recog- 
 nition of their rights and by the purchase of lands. The 
 expansion of the settlements was given a powerful impetus 
 by the immigration to the colony of some two hundred 
 Huguenots, who came to the Cape shortly after Louis XIV of 
 France revoked the Edict of Nantes (1685). They were 
 settled in the newer districts, where they proved excellent 
 additions to the population; in time they were absorbed by 
 the dominant Dutch. The census of 1691 showed that the 
 colony with its various outposts contained at that time about 
 one thousand Europeans, of whom two thirds were Nether- 
 landers. 
 
 During the eighteenth century expansion went on slowly. 
 By 1700 the first barrier range had been crossed, and the 
 white man began to penetrate the higher plateau region back 
 from the coast. In addition to the growth inland, settle- 
 ments were extended eastward along the south coast. The 
 district of Swellendam was organized in 1745, and at the same 
 time the eastern limit of the colony was declared to be the 
 Gamtoos River — almost to Algoa Bay on which Port Eliz- 
 abeth is now located. In the latter half of the century the 
 Dutch went still farther east to the Fish River. It was in 
 these border settlements that the magistracy of Graaf Reinet 
 
264 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 was formed in 1786. By this gradual expansion the Dutch 
 had occupied a stretch of territory about five hundred miles 
 east and west along the coast, and averaging less than half 
 that distance north and south. 
 
 This expansion to the Fish River brought the Dutch, in the 
 latter part of the century, into relation for the first time with 
 the Kafirs of Bantu stock. The Kafir tribes had been push- 
 ing southward during the time the Europeans were moving 
 north and west. In 1779 occurred the so-called " First Kafir 
 War." In 1793 a second conflict resulted in the temporary 
 relinquishment of some land to the warlike Bantu. The 
 Government at Cape Town seemed unable to realize the mil- 
 itary character of these new enemies; it had been accustomed 
 to Bushmen and Hottentots. But the farmers were fully 
 aware of their danger, and felt discontented with the Cape 
 Town Government for its lack of understanding of the border 
 conditions. 
 
 By this time the Dutch East India Company had de- 
 clined. Corruption and mismanagement were rife. Offi- 
 cials were chiefly concerned with taking bribes, and other- 
 wise adding to their private fortunes. In 1791 the Stadt- 
 holder of Holland appointed a commission to investigate 
 the affairs of the decadent trading concern, and to suggest 
 methods of reform. When the commissioners arrived in 
 South Africa, they were apprised by numerous memorials of 
 the serious situation. Retrenchment was instituted, and the 
 moribund company might have survived for some time 
 longer had not other causes ended its rule. The American 
 Revolution of 1776 and the French Revolution of 1789 had 
 an influence even in South Africa. The French Declaration 
 of the Rights of Man was furnishing the European inhab- 
 itants with ideas that were incompatible with the rule of a 
 monopolistic trading company that had outlived its useful- 
 ness. In 1795 an insurrection occurred at Graaf Reinet, and 
 Swellendam soon imitated the border district. A "National 
 Assembly" was called. Tricolor badges were worn, the 
 Company's officials were expelled, and a free republic was 
 declared. 
 
266 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 THE BRITISH OCCUPATION 
 
 Just at this juncture outside events of importance pro- 
 foundly influenced this remote colonial establishment so in- 
 tent on obtaining greater privileges. Holland was rent in 
 two by party strife on account of the spread of French Rev- 
 olutionary ideas. One party followed the House of Orange; 
 the other was republican. Finally the Stadtholder was com- 
 pelled to flee to England. In the meantime the British had 
 gone to war with the French, and they were determined that 
 the French should not obtain South Africa, even if they made 
 successful advances against the Netherlands. After the war 
 began the fugitive Stadtholder ceded the colony to the Brit- 
 ish, and in 1795 a fleet under Admiral Elphinstone appeared 
 at the Cape and took over the colony. 
 
 The British occupation ceased in 1802, for by that time the 
 Treaty of Amiens brought about a temporary peace between 
 Napoleon and his great enemy. Along with the restoration 
 of various other territories South Africa was handed back 
 to Holland. The peace was of short duration, however, as 
 hostilities were renewed in Europe after but a few months' 
 respite. Napoleon, recently made Emperor, gathered a 
 mighty army at Boulogne for the invasion of England, but 
 the plans against his island neighbor failed, as the British 
 retained command of the sea, a control that was made more 
 certain by Nelson's victory at Trafalgar in 1805. The next 
 year the Netherlands, which, as the Batavian Republic, had 
 been practically a satellite of the French Republic, was made 
 into the Kingdom of Holland with Louis Bonaparte as its 
 King. In that same year Great Britain retook Cape Colony, 
 in order to prevent the absorption by the Napoleonic Em- 
 pire of this important possession on the road to India. This 
 second occupation was to be permanent, for the Congress of 
 Vienna in 1814 formally recognized Britain's possession of the 
 Dutch colony in southern Africa. 
 
 Cape Colony, received by conquest in 1806, had a total 
 population of seventy-five thousand, of whom one third were 
 Europeans, and the rest negroes and slaves. The Dutch had 
 
THE EMPIRE IN SOUTH AFRICA 267 
 
 found expansion and colonization a slow and difficult process; 
 the British were faced with even greater obstacles. During 
 most of the period of Dutch rule the natives encountered 
 were the unwarlike Hottentots. It has been noted, however, 
 that just about the time the colony changed hands, the mili- 
 tary Bantu loomed up as a standing menace to advance. 
 The monotonous succession of Kafir wars became a constant 
 strain on the British resources of men and money. But to 
 the native question was now added a nationality problem. 
 The European population was almost wholly Dutch. The 
 Boers had idiosyncrasies, to be sure; they were parsimonious, 
 persevering, set in their religious beliefs, and tenacious of 
 their rights. The English rulers did not take very great 
 pains to appreciate the Dutch inhabitants. 
 
 As it was, fusion did not occur. The presence of sufficient 
 native manual labor and the slave-holding system of the 
 farmers effectively prevented the migration of British labor- 
 ers to South Africa at the time they were going in such num- 
 bers to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. British farm- 
 ers were so discouraged by the initial capital needed to de- 
 velop the upland veld that there was little British immigra- 
 tion compared to that made to other dominions during the 
 first two thirds of the nineteenth century. The British were 
 confined largely to the official class and to the towns. During 
 the years 1820 and 1821 about five thousand British immi- 
 grants settled in the Albany district back of Algoa Bay. Port 
 Elizabeth and Grahamstown became their chief communities. 
 They introduced British local administration in this part of 
 the colony, and helped to give something of a British char- 
 acter to the population of this stretch of the south coast. 
 
 During the early years of the British occupation troubles 
 were almost constant with the Kafirs, with whom five distinct 
 wars had been fought by 1833. The Albany district with the 
 Fish River as its eastern boundary was the chief sufferer. 
 The depredations of the Kafirs consisted in the murder of 
 farmers and the taking away of stock. A Cape corps of 
 Hottentots was formed for the defense of the boundary. 
 These, with regulars and frontier farmers, did their best to 
 
268 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 protect the borderland. In the Fifth Kafir War, when the 
 conflict was finally carried into the enemy's country, the in- 
 vaders captured 32,000 head of cattle. The next river east 
 of the Fish, known as the "Keiskamma," was declared the 
 boundary, and the territory between the two rivers was to 
 remain uninhabited and to be patrolled by the Hottentot 
 Corps for the safety of the Albany settlers. This was in 1819. 
 In the Sixth Kafir War (1834-35) the depredations of the 
 Bantu were terrible. Over 120,000 cattle and horses were 
 taken away and even a larger number of small animals. 
 Heavy fighting occurred before the natives were driven back 
 of the Kei River (about seventy miles east of the Keiskamma). 
 The Kei was now proclaimed the boundary, and a fort was 
 established at King William's Town to hold the new frontier. 
 To the amazement of the colonists, who had won this ex- 
 tension by hard fighting, the home Government vetoed the 
 new measure, and returned to the Kafirs all the territory east 
 of the Fish River. This action was due to Charles Grant, 
 later Lord Glenelg, at the time Secretary of State for War 
 and the Colonies. He was not interested in colonial expan- 
 sion. His point of view is well illustrated by his opposition 
 to the extension of responsible government to Canada and 
 his unfriendliness to the efforts of the systematic colonizers 
 in Australia and New Zealand. In the South African ques- 
 tion he frankly took the side of the native. Among other 
 things his dispatch declared: "In the conduct which was pur- 
 sued toward the Kafir nation by the colonists and the public 
 authorities of the colony through a long series of years, the 
 Kafirs had an ample justification of the war into which they 
 rushed. . . . The claim of sovereignty over the new province 
 bounded by the Keiskamma and the Kei must be renounced. 
 It rests upon a conquest resulting from a war in which, as far 
 as I am at present enabled to judge, the original justice is on 
 the side of the conquered, not of the victorious party." x 
 
 1 Theal, History of South Africa, iv, 58. Johnston characterizes Lord Glenelg 
 as a "sentimental doctrinaire, who had evolved from his inner consciousness an 
 unreal South Africa in which Kafir raiders of oxen were noble-minded black 
 kings, whom a harsh proconsul was dispossessing of their ancestral territories." 
 The Colonization of Africa, p. 260. 
 
THE EMPIRE IN SOUTH AFRICA 269 
 
 The chief explanation of Lord Glenelg's attitude and ac- 
 tion was his close relation to and sympathy with the work 
 of the missionary societies. The humanitarian feeling so 
 widely prevalent at this time in England found a natural 
 expression for what seemed a downtrodden and mistreated 
 negro race. The British missionaries found much to con- 
 demn in the Boer treatment of the natives, whether they 
 were slaves or freemen. But the charges seem to have been 
 feverishly exaggerated, in spite of the fact that Dutch moral- 
 ity was not much more advanced than that of the Hebrew 
 patriarchs. It is certainly true that the missionaries wid- 
 ened the breach between the Dutch farmers and the British 
 Government. As early as 1808 charges were made against 
 the Dutch by the missionaries on account of their treatment 
 of the natives, charges that a full investigation only partially 
 confirmed. The greatest advocate for the South African 
 native was Dr. John Philip. He believed the native, save in 
 matters of education, equal to the European. In 1828 he 
 published his Researches in South Africa with the purpose of 
 showing the way in which the native was abused. Whatever 
 the facts in the case, the feeling of resentment felt by the 
 farmers and South African British officials was greatly 
 aroused by this volume. Those in intimate touch with the 
 Hottentots and the Bantu had not found them such perfect 
 specimens of the " noble savage" as a missionary imagina- 
 tion had pictured them to the British reading public. 
 
 The Dutch farmers were particularly incensed against a 
 government that was guilty of so impractical an attitude. In 
 addition, they had other causes for resentment. In 1813 a 
 farmer by the name of Bezuidenhout was accused of mis- 
 treating a Hottentot servant. He refused to appear at 
 court and military forces were used to obtain him. The 
 Boers were particularly irritated by the use of the Hottentot 
 Corps for the capture of Bezuidenhout. As an outgrowth of 
 this incident a conflict occurred between Boer insurgents and 
 government troops at Slaghter's Nek. The bitterness of the 
 Boers was greatly increased when the authorities hanged five 
 of the captured rebels — an unnecessarily harsh act. About 
 
270 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 this time legislation was passed favoring the Hottentots and 
 putting them on a practical legal equality with the whites, to 
 the great disgust of the Dutch. 
 
 The abolition of slavery in 1833 was the climax for the 
 Dutch farmers. This humanitarian step was empire-wide 
 and grew out of the feeling of sympathy for the weak and op- 
 pressed, which we have already remarked as strong in Brit- 
 ain at this time. The abolition was not immediate; the 
 slaves were to remain with their masters as apprentices for 
 five years. But the compensation paid by the Government 
 seemed altogether inadequate. The great losers in South 
 Africa were the Dutch, for they were dependent upon a large 
 use of native labor in the operation of their farms and the 
 care of their herds. 
 
 THE GREAT TREK 
 
 The effect of these accumulated grievances was far-reach- 
 ing. The more irreconcilable element among the Boers de- 
 termined to move northward out of the bounds of British 
 jurisdiction where they would be free to live according to 
 their own standards. Retief , the pioneer leader, published in 
 the Grahamstown Journal in 1837 the reasons for the depar- 
 ture of himself and his companions. They included evils re- 
 sulting from vagrants who infested the country, the losses 
 growing out of the emancipation, the system of plunder en- 
 dured from the Kafirs, the " unjustifiable odium which has 
 been cast upon us by interested and dishonest persons in the 
 name of religion." 
 
 The first party of thirty wagons left in 1834. The move- 
 ment continued until 1840. During these years about ten 
 thousand Boers trekked northward across the Orange River. 
 It was a hard undertaking, as the country was rough and prog- 
 ress was necessarily slow. Much real danger was encoun- 
 tered when the emigrants came into the country of the mili- 
 tary Bantu. It took courage and endurance of a high order 
 to make this pilgrimage for a new home, and as such it has 
 always aroused great admiration. Piet Retief, Andries Pot- 
 gieter, Gerrit Maritz, and Andries Pretorius were prominent 
 
THE EMPIRE IN SOUTH AFRICA 271 
 
 in the leadership of the migration. Paul Kruger, later a 
 President of the South African Republic, was but a boy when 
 the Great Trek took place. 
 
 Fortune did not favor the attempt of the trekkers to settle 
 in Natal. The Zulus under their leader Dingaan offered a 
 fierce resistance to the newcomers. It was only after much 
 costly fighting that Natal was temporarily occupied and the 
 city of Pietermaritzburg founded. More important was the 
 conquest of the lands north of the Orange River whence the 
 warlike Matabele were driven northward into the district 
 that now bears their name. 
 
 In the new territory north of the Orange a government was 
 soon organized by the trekkers. It is of interest to note that 
 in the earliest Grondwet or Constitution civil and political 
 equality between white and colored persons was not recog- 
 nized, and rights of citizenship were granted only when an 
 oath had been taken that a person had had no connection 
 with the London Missionary Society. The Boers regarded 
 themselves as divinely led in their work, for the meetings at 
 which this constitution was adopted were opened and closed 
 with prayer and the singing of psalms. There was a Volks- 
 raad with legislative and judicial functions and a Comman- 
 dant-General. 
 
 The Government was not altogether effective. The Brit- 
 ish felt that the Orange River settlements served as a refuge 
 for fugitives from justice in Cape Colony. In addition, trou- 
 ble developed between the Boers and the Griquas to the west 
 of the new settlements. This native people claimed the pro- 
 tection of Cape Colony. In 1845 Governor Maitland gave 
 the Griquas military assistance, and three years later his suc- 
 cessor, Sir Harry Smith, came to the conclusion that peace 
 could be maintained only by the establishment of a regular 
 government. He, therefore, issued a proclamation of sov- 
 ereignty declaring all the country between the Orange and 
 Vaal Rivers a British dependency under the name of the 
 " Orange River British Sovereignty." The Boers under Pre- 
 torius took up arms, but in the Battle of Boomplaats they 
 were defeated. As a result of this act of Sir Harry Smith the 
 
272 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 people who had moved beyond the confines of the British 
 system in the thirties found themselves enmeshed in it again 
 by the middle of the century, 
 •r The irreconcilables were compelled to move northward a 
 second time. This time there was a considerable migration 
 across theJVJaal into what is now known as the Transvaal. 
 Emigrant farmers had settled in this more remote district 
 & long before 1848, and already the Matabele had been driven 
 from this territory to the north of the Limpopo River. 
 Many of the Boers who settled in western Natal, but later 
 found it an undesirable home, moved on into the Transvaal. 
 The country north of the Vaal suffered from much disorder 
 during the second quarter of the nineteenth century, where 
 there was even less effective governmental control than in the 
 Orange River Sovereignty. Potgieter and Pretorius were 
 the chief Boer leaders in the northern colony, but they would 
 not cooperate, and their inability to work together kept the 
 Transvaal in an unsettled state. 
 
 The British were not long in control of the Orange River 
 Sovereignty before a strange reversal of policy occurred that 
 set both the Boer colonies beyond the control of Great Brit- 
 ain. The British had not been successful in bringing order 
 into the Orange River district. The prevailing anarchy led 
 the republican party to petition Pretorius (now in the Trans- 
 vaal) to come to their assistance and give the country a 
 peaceful but non-British administration. Naturally the 
 British resented this. Commissioners were sent from Cape 
 Colony to inquire into conditions; they met Pretorius and 
 ^ several hundred Transvaal farmers on the Sand River in Jan- 
 \ uary, 1852. There the SanoL^Riv^r^pjrvention was agreed 
 upon; by it the Transvaal was promised the~right to manage 
 its own affairs without any British interference. The British 
 further agreed not to push their claims nor make tribal alli- 
 ances beyond the Vaal River. The Boers, on their part, 
 agreed to the prohibition of slavery and slave-trading. Both 
 declared that they would not furnish war material to the 
 native tribes. In this Convention peace, free trade, and 
 friendly intercourse were provided for in a friendly manner 
 
THE EMPIRE IN SOUTH AFRICA 273 
 
 for the northern Boer colony. But the people south of the 
 Vaal declared that Pretorius had betrayed them by making 
 terms for the northern district only. He tried to meet this 
 objection by inviting the anti-British inhabitants to cross 
 the river where farms would be provided for those that came. 
 
 Two years later the British retired voluntarily from the 
 Orange River Sovereignty. The constant wars with the 
 Bantu had been a heavy strain upon the Government. 
 When the Orange River Sovereignty was taken over, the 
 load for the taxpayers was increased. The Basuto Wars of 
 1851 and 1852 came as a final argument for the abandonment 
 of this district. Earl Grey, the Secretary of State for War 
 and the Colonies, had agreed unwillingly, in the first place, to 
 the assumption of authority beyond the Orange River. Al- 
 though Englishmen had settled there in the years following 
 1848, the country, in spite of their protests, was declared 
 independent from British authority by the Convention of 
 Bloemfontein in 1854. The terms of this Convention were 
 similar to those made two years before with the Transvaal, 
 including the prohibition of slavery and the slave-trade in the 
 Orange Free State. 
 
 By these two treaties the Boer states became self-govern- 
 ing, the one south of the Vaal as the Orange Free State, its 
 northern neighbor as the South African Republic. It is not 
 necessary to follow in detail the growth of these states in 
 the years before the discovery of gold and diamonds. The 
 southern republic, which made a constitution in the year it 
 was freed, chose as its first President Josias Philip Hoffmann. 
 For the first ten years dissension continued, until Jan Hen- 
 drik Brand was elected President of the Orange Free State in 
 1864. He was reelected four times, administering the coun- 
 try continuously from 1864 until his death in 1888. Under 
 his excellent leadership prosperity and order came to the 
 republic. 
 
 In the Transvaal confusion reigned for some time after the 
 Sand River Convention. Both Potgieter and Andries Pre- 
 torius died in 1853. Two years later a new constitution was 
 drafted by a committee of three, one of whom was Paul Kru- 
 
274 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 ger. Marthinus Pretorius, son of the great trekker, was an 
 early President. But discord, even civil war, was too often 
 the order of the day. Sir George Grey, Governor of Cape 
 Colony during this period, declared that matters had reached 
 such a stage in the Transvaal that he was at a loss to know 
 who was the head of the Government. Anarchy was par- 
 tially overcome in 1864 with the general recognition of Mar- 
 thinus Pretorius as President and of Paul Kruger as Com- 
 mandant-General. 
 
 Just about the time the Conventions were being arranged, 
 the Transvaal Boers came into conflict with a distinguished 
 missionary of the hated London Missionary Society, David 
 Livingstone. He was stationed at Kolobeng among the Bak- 
 wains on the western border of the Boer territory. Pretorius 
 threatened to kill Livingstone if he caught him. Fortunately 
 for the famous missionary, he was on a visit to the Cape in 
 1852 when a party of Boers attacked Kolobeng. Dr. Liv- 
 ingstone aroused the hatred of the Boers by his unmeasured 
 condemnation of their treatment of the natives; he felt that 
 it amounted to practical slavery. The Boers were not in- 
 fluenced by the ideas of equality spread by the French Revo- 
 lution, nor by the humanitarianism that had so greatly af- 
 fected the life of England at the opening of the century. Yet 
 Governor Sir George Grey of Cape Colony, who made in- 
 vestigations at this time, found the Boers to be, on the whole, 
 considerate of and kindly to the natives. The code of the 
 Dutch farmers was very different from that of the London 
 Missionary Society; it was uncompromising in its recognition 
 of racial inequality. The true position on this vexed question 
 probably lies between the extreme stand of the Dutch farmer 
 and that of the British missionary. 
 
 CAPE COLONY 
 
 The internal development of Cape Colony went on more 
 rapidly after the Great Trek than before. The home Gov- 
 ernment had less hesitancy in granting representative insti- 
 tutions after the more anti-British elements left the colony. 
 Petitions were presented from time to time asking for a bet- 
 
THE EMPIRE IN SOUTH AFRICA 275 
 
 ter system than an appointed Legislative Council offered. 
 A question that arose early was as to whether the eastern dis- 
 tricts should be separated from the older part of the colony, 
 or whether the capital should be moved farther eastward so 
 as to be in closer touch with the frontier. Earl Grey asked 
 the Cape Government for an expression of its wish on this 
 and other matters. The colony decided to stay as a unit with 
 Cape Town as the capital. A draft constitution was pre- 
 sented to the home Government and the assurance was given 
 that the Dutch and the British would get on well together 
 under a more representative system. 
 
 The Constitution was finally drafted in 1853. It pro- 
 vided for two houses of Parliament, a Legislative Council, 
 and a House of Assembly. Members to both were elected on 
 the basis of a property qualification. The Governor could 
 dissolve the chambers at will. Although Parliament was to 
 be convened at least once a year, its acts were to be subject to 
 a double veto, that of the Governor and that of the Crown. 
 This constitution provided for representative but not respon- 
 sible government. In 1855 both houses passed resolutions 
 favoring the further step. The authorities, however, were 
 not yet prepared for the advance, and it was not until 1872 
 that responsible government became a fact in Cape Colony. 
 Since that time this part of the British Empire has lived un- 
 der the familiar system of a ministry enjoying the confidence 
 of Parliament. 
 
 Reference should be made to the administration of Sir 
 George Grey. His accomplishments in South Australia and 
 New Zealand have been recounted in an earlier chapter. In 
 1854 he was sent to Cape Town as Governor of Cape Colony 
 and High Commissioner of South Africa. His signal success 
 with the Maoris in New Zealand led to his appointment to a 
 field where the relation of native and Britisher was not satis- 
 factory. Sir George Grey was in Cape Colony until 1861, 
 earnestly endeavoring to aid the Kafirs and at the same time 
 to keep them under due control. He preserved satisfactory 
 relations with the Boer states, although he disapproved of 
 the British relinquishment of control over the Orange River 
 
276 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 Sovereignty. He even went counter to official instructions 
 when he encouraged the return of the Boer states to the 
 British Empire. Sir George Grey was an enthusiastic advo- 
 cate of federation fifty years before it became a fact. 
 
 The expansion of Cape Colony continued after the Great 
 Trek. It will be recalled that Lord Glenelg ordered the terri- 
 tory between the Keiskamma and the Kei to be returned to 
 the Kafirs. Notwithstanding this concession, raids contin- 
 ued and the frontier was never safe. After a Seventh Kafir 
 War in 1846, the boundary was again extended to the Kei, 
 and a new district known as " British Kaffraria" was organ- 
 ized. This district was not at first a part of Cape Colony, 
 but was administered by the Governor as High Commissioner 
 of South Africa. It was annexed in 1865 after the native 
 population had been greatly diminished by famine. 1 
 
 Basutoland, another thickly populated native territory, 
 was a serious menace to both Boers and British. It is located 
 in the mountainous district just east of the Orange Free 
 State. During the numerous wars it became a refuge for the 
 natives of various tribes, who combined under the guidance 
 of a wise leader named Moshesh. As a result of much trou- 
 ble with the Boers, the Basutos appealed to Great Britain. 
 In 1871, shortly after the death of Moshesh, the land was 
 annexed to Cape Colony. It later was separated from Cape 
 Colony and to-day is directly under the Crown, in a closer 
 relation to the British Government than that held by the 
 dependent native states of India. 
 
 In the same year that Basutoland was annexed, the terri- 
 tory known as Griqualand West — north of the Orange River 
 and west of the Orange Free State — was added to Cape Col- 
 
 1 The starvation of thousands of Kafirs in 1857 was the result of their own 
 delusions. A priest declared that he had received a message directing the 
 Kafirs to destroy all their corn and cattle, for their ancestors, on the fulfillment 
 of that condition, would reappear and bring with them cattle bigger and better 
 than they had possessed before. On the fateful day, February 18, the sun was 
 to turn back and set in the east after ascending for a time toward the zenith. 
 The great purpose of the return of the ancestors was to be the total destruction 
 of the British. The Kafirs followed the advice of their priest with the result 
 that thousands starved, despite every effort made to help them, and 100,000 
 had to leave Kafirland and seek employment in Cape Colony. 
 
THE EMPIRE IN SOUTH AFRICA 277 
 
 ony. A chief reason was the discovery of diamonds in this 
 district at Kimberley. 
 
 One other British possession in South Africa remains for 
 consideration. Natal is located beyond Kaffraria on the east 
 coast; at its back lies Basutoland and the Orange Free State. 
 We have followed Boer trekkers who came into this district 
 in 1838. Even before the Boer invasion the British had oc- 
 cupied the coast and started settlements, notably at the pres- 
 ent site of the city of Durban. The two white races came 
 into conflict early in the forties, with the result that Natal v 
 was declared a dependency of the Cape in 1844. v The great 
 part of the Boers thereupon trekked northwestward. In 
 1848 Natal obtained a separate legislature and in 1856 was 
 made an independent colony, under a constitution much 
 less liberal than that granted to the Cape in 1853. Re- 
 sponsible government was not granted until the close of the 
 century. 
 
 The European settlements multiplied and grew during the 
 period of European occupation and Boer emigration. When 
 the British came into permanent possession of South Africa 
 in 1806, there were 75,000 inhabitants, one third of whom 
 were Europeans. By 1870 the approximate white population 
 of Cape Colony was 175,000, of Natal 25,000, of the Orange 
 Free State 60,000, and of the Transvaal 50,000. The devel- 
 opment since 1870 has been rapid, and to-day the Union of 
 South Africa comprises a million and a half whites and 
 wealth many times greater than that possessed when Kimber- 
 ley suddenly leaped into fame. The discovery of remarkable 
 wealth in diamonds and gold, which gave an impetus to 
 immigration not unlike the Australian gold discoveries of 
 twenty years before, accounts in large part for the sudden ac- 
 celeration of population and wealth. But the complexities 
 and troubles as well as the growth of South Africa during the 
 past fifty years must be reserved for a later chapter and a 
 more detailed treatment. 
 
278 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 
 
 The standard history of South Africa has long been that of G. M. Theal, 
 History of South Africa from 1795 to 1872 (5 vols., London, 1916), though 
 somewhat partial to the Boers. His one-volume history of South Africa 
 in the "Story of the Nations" Series appeared in 1899. W.C. Scully, A 
 History of South Africa from the Earliest Days to the Union (London, 1915), 
 is more of a chronology than a history. W. B. Worsfold, The Union of 
 South Africa (Boston, 1913), contains some good preliminary chapters on 
 the period under consideration. Sir Charles Lucas has published in three 
 volumes the material dealing with South Africa in his "Historical Geog- 
 raphy of the British Colonies," of which volume 1 (Oxford, 1913) brings 
 the account down to 1895. An interesting, if somewhat diffuse, story of 
 the development is that of A. Wyatt Tilby, South Africa, 1486-1913 (Lon- 
 don, 1914). Reference should also be made to Sir Harry H. Johnston's 
 A History of the Colonization of Africa by Alien Races (Cambridge, 1913) 
 and N. D. Harris' Intervention and Colonization in Africa (Boston, 1914). 
 The lives of Sir George Grey treat of his work in South Africa, and the 
 lives of the missionaries, notably that of Livingstone, give interesting rec- 
 ords of life among the natives. Recently an account of the Records of the 
 Early History of South Africa has been written by C. Graham Botha in the 
 ?' Helps for Students of History" Series (1921). 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 IMPERIAL INTERESTS OF THE VICTORIAN AGE 
 
 When Victoria became the Queen of England in 1837, the 
 possessions over which she was to rule were widespread in- 
 deed. Her Empire included great holdings such as Canada 
 and India, numerous islands, and small beginnings in far- 
 away lands south of the equator that did not, in 1837, seem to 
 be capable of the surprising growth they have since made. 
 In fact, the Empire Queen Victoria inherited was still em- 
 bryonic. As we have seen, there was a great apathy toward 
 colonial possessions after the loss of the thirteen American col- 
 onies. 1 The expensive Napoleonic wars served to arouse fur- 
 ther question in the minds of many British thinkers as to the 
 value of money and effort expended on oversea dominions. 
 
 Yet it will be recalled that even before 1837 there was evi- 
 dence of a keener interest in the colonies. The flow of emi- 
 grants to British possessions beyond the seas attached new 
 value to these homes of English-speaking people. Enthu- 
 siastic colonizers promoted schemes for the development of 
 the newly occupied regions in establishments as far removed 
 as New Zealand, Manitoba, and South Africa. In tracing 
 the expansion and anglicizing of Canada, Australia, New 
 Zealand, and South Africa we have been able to visualize this 
 amazing change. Canada had been transformed from a 
 French-speaking river settlement, Australia from a penal sta- 
 tion, South Africa from a Dutch trading and agricultural col- 
 ony, into new Englands beyond the sea, which were being 
 more and more closely united to Britain by the indefinable 
 bonds of sentiment. The constantly accelerating growth of 
 the Industrial Revolution naturally increased the value of the 
 colonies as sources of raw materials and as probable markets 
 for British manufactures. A new colonial empire was in 
 formation because of these various forces at work, and that, 
 
 1 See chapter xi. 
 
280 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 too, in spite of much opposition to, and gross ignorance of, 
 the colonies in the early nineteenth century. 1 
 
 What makes the Victorian Age so important are the very 
 great changes the British Empire went through in the later 
 years of the century. It is essential to understand, even 
 though in this connection the survey be but superficial, the 
 character of the influences that so profoundly modified and 
 developed the older holdings into the more compact organi- 
 zation of the present day. During this time there was no 
 ordered development of the Empire. Parts of it were well 
 advanced and received many privileges. Other possessions 
 were little more than military posts. The organism was a 
 hybrid. And yet, in spite of its heterogeneity; the British 
 Empire became, during the reign of Victoria, a well-knit, 
 political unit. It is significant to compare the inauspicious 
 beginnings of the reign with its magnificent close. In 1837 
 there was a distressing rebellion in Canada. Sixty years 
 later the Diamond Jubilee was held, where the Premier that 
 made the most notable impression at the Colonial Confer- 
 ence in that year was the French Canadian, Sir Wilfrid Lau- 
 rier. The Jubilee announced to the world that the British 
 Empire had intense loyalty and enthusiasm for a queen who 
 symbolized this unity in a very appealing way. 
 
 Before proceeding to a study of the recent growth and pres- 
 ent character of the various parts of the imperial organism, 
 we must survey the dominions as a whole and appraise the in- 
 fluences that wrought such changes within sixty years. 
 
 THE BRITISH MONOPOLY 
 
 The period that we are studying naturally divides itself 
 into two almost equal parts. In the first half of the reign the 
 
 v 1 Readers will probably be familiar with the anecdote told of the well-known 
 Lord Palmerston, successively Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary and Prime 
 Minister during the second quarter of the century. Palmerston once intro- 
 duced himself at the Colonial Office with the words: "I have come to look after 
 the colonies — in the first place, where are the colonies?" In 1852 Disraeli, 
 who was later to be one of the most ardent Imperialists, exclaimed a propos of the 
 fisheries dispute between Canada and the United States: "These wretched 
 colonies will all be independent too in a few years, and are a millstone round 
 our necks" (quoted in Hall, British Commonwealth of Nations, p. 47). 
 
IMPERIAL INTERESTS OF VICTORIAN AGE 281 
 
 Empire stood almost unrivaled. This part of the Victorian 
 Age has been aptly termed the period of British monopoly. 
 The United States was concerning itself wholly with conti- 
 nental expansion by pushing westward its frontier. Ger- 
 many was not able as yet to interest itself in outside mat- 
 ters. Spain, Portugal, and Holland held empires that were 
 unchanging in form or government — not essentially differ- 
 ent from the days when they were established. In fact 
 France was the only European nation that was showing an 
 interest in new colonies during the first part of this period, 
 but French efforts were confined to fields with which Great 
 Britain was not concerned. As a result there was none of 
 the anxiety felt by British statesmen for the oversea posses- 
 sions that has governed thought and action so powerfully 
 in the last thirty-five years. 
 
 As a consequence, the natural interests of Englishmen 
 were influencing the character of the new Empire during the 
 mid-century period. There was neither haste nor anxiety 
 as a factor governing colonial attitudes. Probably foremost 
 among the forces at work was the humanitarian interest 
 which prevailed, not only in regard to affairs at home, but 
 also in the colonies. Many of the results of the growing sen- 
 sitiveness to wrong in the decades following the French 
 Revolution have been noted. 1 The prisons were relieved of 
 criminals by transportation, especially to the new Australian 
 settlements. Paupers and other unfortunates were sent 
 across the seas to find new homes. Better conditions were 
 granted to downtrodden Ireland. 
 
 A more important effect of this humanitarian interest on 
 colonial life was the feeling growing during this time against 
 slavery and the slave-trade. In 1807, to the credit of the na- 
 tion that had formerly done so much of the carrying of hu- 
 man chattels, the slave-trade was abolished. British policy 
 from this time on aimed at the abolition of the slave-trade 
 among other nations. At the Congress of Vienna, in 1814- 
 15, the British representatives were influential in having the 
 Powers proclaim their adoption of the principle Great Brit- 
 
 1 See pp. 166 ff., 196 ff., 208, 254, 256-57, 268 ff. 
 
282 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 ain had so much at heart. Shortly after Queen Victoria be- 
 gan to reign, an agreement was reached by the United States 
 and Great Britain whereby they were to cooperate in sup- 
 pressing the slave-trade off the coast of Africa. 
 
 The abolition of slavery in the dominions of Great Britain 
 is even more creditable to her humanitarian feeling. In 1833 
 the victory was won by the abolitionists for the whole Em- 
 pire; a bill was passed by Parliament providing for the grad- 
 ual abolition of slavery, apprenticeship to continue for a 
 period in order to make the transition to free labor easier. 
 Twenty million pounds was paid to the slave-owners through- 
 out the Empire. The effect of this measure on the slave- 
 holding Boers of South Africa has been recounted. 1 In the 
 West Indies, especially in the island of Jamaica, considerable 
 trouble was caused by the measure. The Act of 1833 showed 
 to the world that the British Empire was not to be a field for 
 the further merciless exploitation of backward races, even 
 though abolition caused temporary economic inconvenience. 
 
 The humanitarian spirit found further expression in the 
 interest shown by the home country in the betterment of the 
 conditions under which natives in the colonies were living. 
 Lord Bentinck's reforms in India serve as an illustration. 2 
 The interest in the Hottentots of South Africa, in the Maoris 
 of New Zealand, and in the natives of other possessions was 
 an expression of this widely applied sympathy. During the 
 first half of the century the missionary societies were an 
 important, if not the controlling, influence in the home Gov- 
 ernment's attitude toward the colonies. 3 This tendency 
 to make the Colonial Office more carefully recognize the 
 needs of native races has given to British imperial develop- 
 
 1 See p. 270. 2 See chapter xin. 
 
 3 In 1792 the Baptist Missionary Society was organized, and Carey was sent 
 to India in spite of the opposition of the East India Company to missionary 
 activity. The London Missionary Society, a Congregational body, was 
 founded in 1795; it has been especially important in South Africa and Poly- 
 nesia. The Church Missionary Society, in which Lord Glenelg was much in- 
 terested, was founded in 1799 but did not receive the recognition of the Episco- 
 pate for nearly fifty years. Its missionaries were particularly important in 
 Melanesia and New Zealand. The Wesleyans had sent missionaries to various 
 colonial fields before the opening of the nineteenth century, although the Wes- 
 leyan society was not organized until 1814. 
 
IMPERIAL INTERESTS OF VICTORIAN AGE 283 
 
 ment a finer moral tone than has been general in colonial 
 policy. As has been already pointed out, South Africa did 
 not profit altogether from this extreme consideration of the 
 natives. The marked warlike propensities of the Bantu and 
 the uncompromising attitude of the Boers toward the subject 
 population made the British problem in South Africa partic- 
 ularly difficult. 
 
 The development of the humanitarian spirit resulted in a 
 fairer treatment of colonial native races. On the other hand, 
 the growth of British industry and commerce tended toward 
 a relaxation of the bonds between the colonies and the home 
 country, and resulted in a fairer treatment of the various 
 parts of the Empire. The old colonial system with its re- 
 strictive navigation laws had been built on monopoly and 
 exploitation. The weakness of this system was explained 
 by Adam Smith as far back as the beginning of the Ameri- 
 can Revolution. Little, however, was done to improve the 
 situation within the Empire until after the close of the Na- 
 poleonic wars. In 1820 the Merchants' Petition, asking for 
 greater freedom of trade, was presented to the House of 
 Commons. Three years later Huskisson became President 
 of the Board of Trade. He did much to improve the situa- 
 tion, altering some of the Navigation Laws, reducing duties 
 on raw materials from foreign countries, and wholly remov- 
 ing the tax on those from the colonies. 
 
 When the reign of Queen Victoria opened, the free-trade 
 movement had acquired considerable momentum. The In- 
 dustrial Revolution had so increased the business prosperity 
 and commercial supremacy of Great Britain that the manu- 
 facturers became more convinced than ever of the advan- 
 tages of free trade. Cheaper food would naturally cheapen 
 wages as well as bring greater efficiency to the workshops. 
 The loss of duties would be counterbalanced by the in- 
 creased capacity of the country to pay taxes. In the forties 
 the repeal of protective duties came rapidly. A high point 
 was reached when the Corn Laws were legislated out of ex- 
 istence in 1846. In 1849 the old Navigation Laws were 
 repealed. And when Gladstone became Chancellor of the 
 
284 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 Exchequer further steps were taken that made Greater Brit- 
 ain more than ever a free-trade Empire. 
 
 As a result of these measures, the new colonial Empire, by 
 the mid-century, was placed on an altogether different basis 
 from that of the old colonial system of the early eighteenth 
 century. The colonies were freed from hampering laws made 
 by the home Government. Yet this new policy did not seem 
 to harm the British Isles or the colonies. The one found the 
 phenomenal development of the Industrial Revolution an 
 ample protection, while the colonies for that very reason saw 
 in the home country the best market for raw materials. It 
 followed, of course, that Britain became the emporium for 
 colonial trade. By 1859 so far had this movement gone to- 
 ward laisser-faire that Britain allowed her self-governing 
 colonies practical independence in financial matters. The 
 growth of protectionist ideas was not to assume importance 
 until the British Empire began to feel the menace of rivals in 
 her industrial and commercial activity at the opening of the 
 twentieth century. 
 
 In the field of government there was the same tendency 
 toward a relaxation of the hold on the colonies. The Reform 
 Bill of 1832, by which the franchise was more equitably dis- 
 tributed in Great Britain, became law only after the re- 
 peated efforts of Lord John Russell, in particular, to further 
 reform. This grant of greater privileges to the people of the 
 British Isles was but preliminary to more freedom in the po- 
 litical affairs of the colonies. The American colonies had re- 
 volted in the previous century on the question of self-govern- 
 ment. It was not unnatural that their experience should be 
 paralleled when the Canadian provinces came to greater 
 maturity. Great Britain, however, did not attempt to solve 
 this new problem by force. Instead Lord Durham was sent 
 out to examine the causes of the Canadian Rebellion. In his 
 famous Report he proposed that self-government be granted 
 to the British North American provinces. 1 Although Lord 
 Durham's recommendations met with much opposition, his 
 ideas were gradually accepted. Under his son-in-law as 
 
 1 See pp. 225 ff. 
 
IMPERIAL INTERESTS OF VICTORIAN AGE 285 
 
 Governor-General, Canada became practical master of her 
 own political life: Lord Elgin did not exercise the veto with 
 the freedom of earlier governors; he preferred to let the 
 will of the majority in the colonial legislature decide matters 
 affecting colonial life. 
 
 Lord Elgin received instructions as to his plan of action 
 from a Colonial Secretary who holds an important place in 
 the growth of representative government in the Empire. In 
 1846 the third Earl Grey was appointed the Secretary for 
 War and the Colonies in the newly formed Cabinet of Lord 
 John Russell. Both the Prime Minister and the Colonial 
 Secretary were earnest believers in colonial self-government 
 for the well-advanced dominions. They also held that the 
 colonies, not yet prepared for self-government, should be 
 trained for greater privileges by definite probation. When 
 Lord Elgin promoted the principle of self-government in 
 Canada by going so far as to accept the Indemnity Bill for the 
 rebels of 1837, Earl Grey upheld the Canadian Governor. 
 
 This significant action took place in 1847; it marks the be- 
 ginning of a process that is still in operation. Three years 
 later a second step was taken in granting constitutional priv- 
 ileges to colonies. In a noteworthy speech the Prime Minis- 
 ter showed that his grant of privileges to the colonies was not 
 intended to weaken but rather to strengthen their connection 
 with the mother country. New South Wales, Victoria, Tas- 
 mania, and South Australia were given the right to choose 
 constituent assemblies and to make their own constitutions 
 — constitutions that were sanctioned by the home Govern- 
 ment in 1856. The constitution of New Zealand went into 
 effect in 1853 and Newfoundland was granted responsible 
 government in 1855. This principle of granting representa- 
 tive institutions and responsible government to the strong 
 English-speaking colonies continued and was applied as the 
 opportunity arose. Cape Colony in 1872, Western Australia 
 in 1890, and the Boer Republics after the war with England 
 were added to the group of self-governing dominions. 
 
 Great Britain was able to develop her Empire leisurely 
 during these early years of the reign of Victoria. The British 
 
286 THE BRITISH EMPIRE , 
 
 dominions were enlarged, but there was no hurried, conscious 
 effort to snatch up the desirable additions to British territory. 
 Canada grew westward across the plains, India absorbed ter- 
 ritories to the northwest and the northeast, the Australian 
 coast-line became more and more British, Cape Colony 
 reached out east and north. The importance of the period, 
 nevertheless, rests not in the additions made to the Empire so 
 much as in the adoption for the government of the Empire of 
 the ideals we have been considering. 
 
 The problem of defense was not a serious one until the 
 Crimean War in the fifties made the need of army reorgani- 
 zation abundantly evident. As time went on, the British 
 statesmen concerned with colonial policy tended to turn over 
 to the self-governing colonies more and more the problem of 
 their own protection. This meant a withdrawal of many 
 isolated garrisons from colonial stations during this time of 
 reorganization, and their establishment at more strategic 
 points. 
 
 During the third quarter of the century international re- 
 lations became more and more important for Greater Britain. 
 Her widely scattered dominions brought her into touch with 
 almost every important diplomatic problem. To state but a 
 few of the more outstanding happenings of the time is to reg- 
 ister a need for increased care on the part of the Empire. 
 Hardly had the Crimean War ended before the Indian pos- 
 sessions were endangered by the Mutiny. In 1859 occurred 
 the Franco-Italian War with Austria. In 1861 began the 
 Civil War in the United States. Both these conflicts raised 
 delicate questions for the British Foreign Minister. In 1870 
 the Franco-Prussian War gave Europe a new master in 
 Prussia. German unity was achieved in the defeat of France, 
 and Italians took the opportunity of completing the work of 
 uniting the Italian states under one government. Austria 
 and France became weaker, but Prussia grew very much 
 stronger, becoming a potent continental and world-power. 
 Russia, in the meantime, was expanding. As a result of the 
 Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, the Ottoman Empire seemed 
 well-nigh ejected from Europe. But the Great Powers, Brit- 
 
IMPERIAL INTERESTS OF VICTORIAN AGE 287 
 
 ain included, feared the menace of an overgrown Russia and 
 revised the Russian rearrangement of the Balkans at the 
 Congress of Berlin in 1878. The meetings of this great 
 Congress revealed the essential characteristics of the Euro- 
 pean situation in the latter part of the nineteenth century — ■ 
 the important place of Germany and the disagreement of the 
 Powers over the disposition of the territories of weak states. 
 
 These rapid changes in European matters naturally 
 aroused concern in British governmental circles. Imperial 
 interests became more and more important. The Empire 
 took on new value in the eyes of British statesmen. The 
 man who contributed most during this time to the increased 
 official interest in the Empire was Benjamin Disraeli. In his 
 two ministries (1868 and 1874-80), he labored earnestly for 
 the strengthening and extension of the dominions. In 1875 
 he purchased the Suez Canal shares. In the following year 
 Victoria became Empress of India, the "White Queen over 
 the Seas." In 1877 the Transvaal was annexed, in the next 
 year the government of Cyprus was assumed, and the occu- 
 pation of Egypt began in 1881. A new imperialism gave 
 to the British Empire deeper significance and a greater value. 
 
 Disraeli was not alone among prominent Englishmen in the 
 advocacy of an aggressive and confident imperial policy. 
 James Anthony Froude, the historian, who had visited South 
 Africa in 1874-75, and Australia and the West Indies in the 
 eighties, made these parts of the Empire better known by the 
 published accounts of his impressions. Sir Charles Dilke, 
 on leaving Cambridge, journeyed around the world, and pub- 
 lished his observations on his return under the title Greater 
 Britain: A Record of Travel in English-Speaking Countries 
 during 1866-7. This work met a wide demand and was is- 
 sued in enlarged form in 1875 as a result of a second journey. 
 In 1890 his book of travel was brought up to date and made 
 more directly valuable as a store of knowledge regarding the 
 Empire in his well-known Problems of Greater Britain. The 
 advanced Liberal, William E. Forster, was an advocate of 
 imperial federation as early as 1875, and the chief founder 
 and first president of the Imperial Federation League. Sir 
 
288 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 George Grey's enthusiasm for Greater Britain has already 
 been recorded. 1 Another colonial administrator, Sir Bartle 
 Frere, was also important in spreading an interest in the Em- 
 pire as well as in furnishing leadership in India and South 
 Africa. We shall have occasion to study in a later chapter 
 the work of Cecil Rhodes, who went to Kimberley in 1871. 
 One of the most earnest exponents of the new imperialism 
 was the historian, Sir John Seeley. In 1883 he published the 
 Expansion of England. It won for him knighthood, and has 
 served as a very important if not a chief means of spreading 
 the new conception of the Empire. A poet of wide imperial 
 vision was found in Rudyard Kipling, born in Bombay in 
 1865. 2 
 
 RIVAL EMPIRES 
 
 The motive power, however, for the new British imperial- 
 ism came not solely from within. One of the greatest stimuli 
 to this freshened interest in the oversea dominions was the 
 appearance of rival empires during these momentous years. 
 The marvelous growth of British industry and commerce was 
 not incorrectly connected by onlookers with the numerous 
 possessions Britain held "in fee." As the Industrial Revo- 
 lution took a stronger hold on the continental European na- 
 tions, it was natural that they should consider empire neces- 
 sary to the development of their own internal resources. 
 Besides, the very pride and position of Britain with her " far- 
 flung dominion" engendered an envy that was soon to result 
 in the creation of strong rivals. So important is an under- 
 standing of this competition as a factor in forming the British 
 Empire of to-day that a brief survey must be made of the 
 other imperial dominions created in the last quarter of the 
 nineteenth century. 
 
 1 Chapter xvi. 
 
 2 Kipling's tales of Indian life did much to popularize this distant possession. 
 By 1889 Kipling had become famous, and as the years went on he inveighed 
 with increasing force against "little Englandism." A broad imperial feeling 
 was in no small measure the result of his exhilarating appeals. The call came 
 in such well-known and unforgettable songs as "The Ballad of the East and the 
 West" (1889), "The English Flag" (1891), "The Native Born" (1894), "Our 
 Lady of the Snows" (Canada) (1897), "The Recessional" (1897), and "The 
 Houses (A Song of the Dominions)". (1898). 
 
IMPERIAL INTERESTS OF VICTORIAN AGE 289 
 
 France has one of the great empires of the present time, in 
 spite of the fact that most of the old Empire was lost to Great 
 Britain in the eighteenth century. When the Napoleonic 
 wars ended, France retained but a few insignificant and 
 widely scattered posts and islands. The first important ad- 
 dition to the new Empire was the result of bringing Algeria 
 under the French flag and an orderly rule. Beginning with 
 an attempt to suppress piracy, a gradual occupation of the 
 country was carried on, so that by the end of the reign of 
 Louis Philippe (1848) this part of the north African coast was 
 French. During the Second Empire the Senegal Valley was 
 added to the formerly small French possessions in equatorial 
 Africa; beginnings had also been made in Cochin China. 
 
 It was not until after the disastrous Franco-Prussian War 
 that France began to have ambitious imperial plans. The 
 people of the humiliated country had their attention turned 
 to colonies by Jules Ferry in the hope that the loss of Alsace- 
 Lorraine might not remain so poignant. In 1881 Tunis was 
 occupied, in spite of a strong feeling in Italy that this part of 
 the African coast was by right Italian. A notable addition 
 to the French Empire was the island of Madagascar, which 
 was taken in the nineties. From Algeria it was but natural 
 that the work of penetration should be carried farther west 
 into Morocco, where, in spite of German attempts to 
 prevent it, a French protectorate was established in 1912. 
 France had come into collision with British interests in 
 Upper Egypt just at the close of the nineteenth century, 
 but, as a result of the settlement of the Sudan bounda- 
 ries, better relations ensued between these two empire 
 builders. Even cordial good feeling and cooperation were 
 the result. To-day the French possessions in Africa occupy 
 more of the continent than those of any other nation. 
 
 The Russian Empire, until its disintegration in the World 
 War, was the greatest continuous stretch of territory under 
 one government to be found on the globe. The great bulk 
 of Russia and Siberia had been acquired before France 
 started to rebuild her Empire in the nineteenth century. 
 But Russia, too, has made notable additions in recent years. 
 
290 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 After long wars Russia became mistress of the Caucasus re- 
 gion, and the way was opened to northeastern Turkey. Dur- 
 ing the nineteenth century the Kirghiz Steppes and Turkestan 
 were slowly brought under the power of the Czar. By this 
 advance northern Persia came under the control of the en- 
 larging Russia, and, in the years just before the World War, 
 Britain and Russia even mapped out for themselves spheres 
 of influence in Persia. As a result of Russian advances into 
 Bokhara, the British in India became nervous for the safety 
 of their northwestern boundary. Russian pressure on 
 China became severe also during these years. In 1860 Rus- 
 sia acquired the seacoast on the Japan Sea thereby obtaining 
 Vladivostok as a seaport and a terminus for the trans-Sibe- 
 rian Railway. By the opening of the present century this 
 great trunk-line was completed, and Russia began the ab- 
 sorption of Manchuria. 
 
 Among the other states of Europe, Portugal, Spain, and 
 Holland were content with the remnants of their old empires. 
 Austria never aspired to the possession of non-contiguous 
 territory, but enlarged its possessions by additions in the 
 Balkan Peninsula. Italy and Germany did not become uni- 
 fied until 1870. After the Franco-Prussian War the new 
 German Empire began its amazing advancement under the 
 astute guidance of Bismarck. Of necessity, these two re- 
 cently unified national groups, Italy and Germany, came to 
 possess an imperial consciousness after much of the non- 
 European world, and especially its most valuable portions, 
 had already been appropriated. As they saw the growth of 
 commerce and industry in the rival states, they felt that it 
 [was partially based on the possession of colonies. Therefore 
 it was natural that Italy and Germany should follow in the 
 footsteps of their neighbors and build empires across the seas. 
 1 Curiously enough the immediate impulse that led to the 
 surprising "boom" in imperialism came from the exploration 
 of the interior of Africa, particularly by British explorers. 
 David Livingstone, before his death in 1873, had made 
 known great stretches of the interior of the continent. Dark- 
 est Africa was found to be much more valuable than was 
 
IMPERIAL INTERESTS OF VICTORIAN AGE 291 
 
 formerly thought to be the case. The interior, of which air 
 most nothing had been known heretofore, proved to be 9 
 high tableland, well watered and the producer of much eco- 
 nomic wealth, with even larger potential possibilities. 
 
 In 1876 Leopold II of Belgium, who had become interested 
 in African exploration and colonization, held a conference at 
 Brussels, where a society called the " International African 
 Association" was formed. Henry M. Stanley, who had 
 made a name for himself in his search for the lost Living- 
 stone, was employed by Leopold to explore the Congo; in the 
 five years following 1879 Stanley mapped out a great deal of 
 the interior of the Congo region. The International African 
 Association soon became frankly a commercial and not a 
 philanthropic organization. Therefore, in consequence of 
 the possible clashing of various national interests in this rich 
 region, it became necessary to codify regulations for interna- 
 tional relations. 
 
 This was the primary aim of a meeting held at Berlin in 
 1884-85. The conference at Berlin marks the beginning of 
 a frantic scramble for territory that is characteristic of the 
 new imperialism. The Congo matter was arranged by grant- 
 ing freedom of commerce in what came to be known as 
 the "Congo Free State." More important were the rules 
 adopted for the appropriation of other African territories by 
 the Powers. It was stipulated' that all the Powers should 
 be notified when a protectorate was purposed. The test of 
 ownership was to be actual occupation and the maintenance 
 of law and order; a "sphere of influence" was not to be con- 
 fused with a territorial acquisition. No provision, however, 
 was accepted regarding freedom of trade. Although this had 
 been Great Britain's traditional policy with regard to her 
 colonies, the protectionist idea was growing, especially in the 
 nations that seemed far behind in industrial and commercial 
 competition. As a result of the inaction of the Berlin confer- 
 ence on this matter, an exclusive and selfish policy accom- 
 panied the acquirement of colonies; it led to endless embitter- 
 ment in international affairs, and was a main cause back of 
 the great World War that began in 1914. 
 
292 
 
 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 Germany had no possessions outside of Europe before the 
 rise of the new imperialism. Bismarck does not seem to have 
 cared much for colonies, for his interests had been necessarily 
 centered on continental politics. Before the Franco-Prus- 
 
 sian War he expressed himself as believing that colonial ac- 
 tivity was a field for private enterprise only. Even after the 
 defeat of France, when asked to take colonies as part of the 
 indemnity, he refused on the ground that they were of use 
 simply for providing offices. Indeed, a number of protector- 
 ates that were offered to Germany by various native chiefs 
 in the seventies were refused. 
 
IMPERIAL INTERESTS OF VICTORIAN AGE 293 
 
 About 1882 Bismarck began to change his mind. During 
 this decade Germany was entering on a protectionist pol- 
 icy and, in addition, a large German emigration to foreign 
 states led to uneasiness, for the new national conscious- 
 ness regretted the permanent loss of emigrating Germans. 
 Probably as important a cause as any was the rapid acqui- 
 sition of territories by other states at this time. There 
 should be added to these influences the cumulative effect of 
 the wishes of ardent German advocates of colonies — espe- 
 cially of merchants who had sought for some time to inter- 
 est the Government in their business undertakings. In 
 1881 a German Colonial Society was formed; it was fol- 
 lowed in 1884 by a Society for German Colonization. These 
 and other organizations revealed the restlessness of Ger- 
 mans in view of the rapid enlargement of existing colonial 
 empires. 
 
 In 1882 a Bremen merchant, F. A. L. Luderitz, bought 
 territory in what later became German South-West Africa. 
 Bismarck promised him the protection of the Government, 
 and in 1884 the new territory was declared a protectorate. 
 The British public did not accept with grace this initial step 
 in the building of a German colonial Empire, and resentment 
 was aroused in Germany in consequence. In order to forestall 
 a German connection with the Boers of the Transvaal the 
 British Empire acquired Bechuanaland at this time. In 
 1884 a Dr. Nachtigal, under the guise of investigating Ger- 
 man commercial conditions in equatorial Africa, annexed 
 Togoland and the Cameroons. British feeling was aroused 
 more than ever by this act, especially when it became known 
 that the British in 1876 had refused to accept a protectorate 
 of the Cameroons when the native chiefs asked for it. From 
 now on Bismarck was committed to an aggressive colonial 
 policy. Shortly after the African territories were taken an 
 expedition was sent to New Guinea (north of Australia). 
 This caused further tension with Great Britain, as an inter- 
 colonial congress in Sydney, in session at that time, wished 
 New Guinea to become British territory. 
 
 After the conference at Berlin, relations with Britain be- 
 
294 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 came better. An arrangement was effected with Great Brit- 
 ain by which Germany obtained large possessions in north- 
 eastern New Guinea, and also received the Bismarck Archi- 
 pelago. It was at that juncture in the development of the 
 German Empire that Gladstone made his famous statement 
 in Parliament: "If Germany is to become a colonizing Power, 
 all I say is, 'God speed her. ' " German East Africa was ob- 
 tained in 1886, and by the end of this decade the Marshall 
 Islands and a number of adjacent groups in the Pacific had 
 been added to the growing Empire. When Spain was de- 
 feated by the United States at the close of the century, the 
 remainder of the Spanish islands in the Pacific were sold to 
 Germany. At this time Germany received part of Samoa as 
 well, and leased on a long term from China the port of Kiao- 
 chau on the Shantung Peninsula. A new colonial empire 
 had come into being, backed by an aggressive colonizing in- 
 terest, a strong belief in protection, and a marvelously devel- 
 oping industry and commerce. 
 
 Italy had been slow in exerting influence outside of Europe 
 for the same reason that German colonizing efforts had been 
 retarded — a late unification. In the eighties, however, the 
 new imperialism appealed as much to Italians as to Germans. 
 The Dual Alliance between Germany and Austria of 1879 was 
 made a Triple Alliance in 1882 by the entry of Italy. This 
 strange combination of Austria and Italy is to be explained 
 by the deep resentment caused in Rome as a result of the 
 French absorption of Tunis; the Italians felt that this terri- 
 tory, lying nearest to Italian Sicily, should have been theirs. 
 Shortly after the Berlin Conference, the coast of Eritrea (on 
 the Red Sea) was occupied. In the early nineties Crispi 
 planned a great Italian Empire in that part of Africa, which 
 was to include Abyssinia. But this sturdy native govern- 
 ment soundly defeated the Italian expedition, and Abyssinia 
 was left a free country. Italy has since held the African 
 coast to the southeast, known as "Italian Somaliland." In 
 1911 a war was waged against Turkey by which Italy ac- 
 quired Tripoli — renamed Libya — and the Dodecanese off 
 southwest Asia Minor. Italian efforts to become a great 
 
IMPERIAL INTERESTS OF VICTORIAN AGE 295 
 
 Power in the colonial field as well as in other ways have been 
 hampered by financial resources that do not at all correspond 
 to Italian ambitions. 
 
 Even the United States was swung into the imperialistic 
 maelstrom. Her professed policy of isolation, made at the 
 outset of the country's history, had been adhered to without 
 difficulty. The Monroe Doctrine tended to keep the United 
 States out of European politics, while the internal develop- 
 ment of the West more than absorbed excess energy and 
 capital. By the close of the century, however, the frontier 
 had been pushed to the Pacific. Yet when the opportunity 
 occurred of obtaining the Hawaiian Islands in the early 
 nineties, it was not accepted. But in 1898 came the turn- 
 ing-point — the war with Spain over Cuba. As a result Spain 
 lost to the United States the Philippines, Porto Rico, and 
 Guam, and Cuba came under the paternal protection of the 
 great Republic. At the same time the United States annexed 
 the Hawaiian Islands and two islands in the Samoan group, 
 including the best harbor in the southern Pacific. American 
 isolation had become a thing of the past. 
 
 A NEW INTEKEST 
 
 When the partition of non-European countries began to 
 move forward so rapidly about 1885, Great Britain was the 
 one state with a widely spread dominion containing highly 
 civilized states alongside of undeveloped possessions. 
 
 As soon as the colonizing tendencies in other nations found 
 a rapid realization in the "boom" of the eighties, the British 
 became apprehensive. They naturally feared the growth of 
 dominions that would endanger the safety of what we have 
 found was heretofore a British monopoly. There was some 
 justification in this, as British traders were carrying on busi- 
 iness and British missionaries were doing their work in many 
 sections of the world as yet unappropriated. Before the rush 
 for colonies began in 1884, the British Empire had had many 
 opportunities to establish protectorates over native peoples 
 in Africa and elsewhere. But these requests of native chiefs 
 had often been refused. It is easy to understand why the 
 
296 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 British Empire should feel a certain paternal relation, for ex* 
 ample, in the Cameroons and Nigeria, even if a protectorate 
 were not definitely established. Further apprehension arose 
 from the probable cutting off of commercial relations with 
 portions of Asia and Africa, should they be occupied by rival 
 European states with a protective system. 
 
 Great Britain showed hesitation in entering into the 
 scramble for new territory. In fact, during the past half- 
 century the British had unwillingly added to their colonial 
 burdens. Feeling in South Africa and Australia, however, 
 was strongly in favor of a forward movement. Thus Great 
 Britain joined the others in the partition of the unclaimed 
 parts of Asia and Africa and the islands in the adjacent 
 waters. 
 
 In Africa trouble occurred with Germany over South-West 
 Africa, and although the British lost this territory, with the 
 exception of Whale Bay, they added Zululand and Bechu- 
 analand to their possessions in southern Africa. A further 
 foothold was gained in Rhodesia (Mashonaland and Matabele- 
 land). More trouble occurred with Germany in the Cam- 
 eroon district. Although the British were forestalled by the 
 German expedition of Dr. Nachtigal, Nigeria was taken over 
 and proved to be an immensely rich region. British Somal- 
 iland was added in 1884. In 1886 Germany and Great Brit- 
 ain settled their spheres of influence in East Africa, and by 
 the end of the decade Uganda (back of British East Africa) 
 and the island of Zanzibar were brought under British suze- 
 rainty. France and Britain were on the brink of war in 1898 
 over the question of the Sudan, when a French expedition 
 occupied Fashoda (Kodok) a few weeks before Lord Kitch- 
 ener came to claim the territory for Great Britain. The ten- 
 sion was relieved by the Anglo-French Agreement of 1899, 
 by which France gave up all claims to this region in return for 
 a recognition of French control in Tunis. French interest in 
 northwestern Africa was again indicated when they acquired 
 Morocco early in the twentieth century. 
 
 During these years considerable territory was added to the 
 Empire in the Far East, as well. In 1885 Upper Burma was 
 
IMPERIAL INTERESTS OF VICTORIAN AGE 297 
 
 annexed. As a result of German and British rivalry in New 
 Guinea, the eastern part of the island was divided between 
 the two Powers. Large parts of the island of Borneo (North 
 Borneo, Brunei, and Sarawak) became imperial possessions in 
 this decade. Just at the close of the century Weihaiwei (on 
 the tip of the Shantung Peninsula) was leased from China as 
 " compensation " for the German lease of Kiao-chau and the 
 Russian lease of Port Arthur. 
 
 Certainly Great Britain was not behind the other nations 
 in snatching up non-European lands during the years after 
 the new imperialism began. The British Empire possessed 
 the largest colonial dominion in 1881; this Empire grew 
 more swiftly than any of its rivals during the rapid colonial 
 expansion that followed. Over a million square miles of 
 the earth's surface became definitely British in the last two 
 decades of Victoria's reign. It was but natural that there 
 should be a greatly increased interest in the enlarged 
 dominions, including a special interest in their defense, 
 their organization, and their unity. Misunderstandings and 
 ill feeling were inevitable, especially with Germany and 
 France. It has been stated that relations with France were 
 better after 1899. The same cannot be said of Germany. 
 Its extreme aggressiveness and confidence, its marked im- 
 portance in the business world, its naval program, all made 
 the British suspicious of this new rival. 1 
 
 The new British imperial enthusiasm was most notably ex-^ 
 pressed by a series of colonial conferences. In 1887 Victoria 
 and the Empire celebrated the fiftieth year of her reign at a 
 time when the colonial interest was strong. A great Thanks- 
 giving service was held on June 21st in Westminster, and in 
 July there was an elaborate naval review at Spithead. Most 
 important of all was the meeting in April and May of a con- 
 ference containing representatives from Britain's colonies as 
 well as from the home Government. Numerous matters of 
 
 1 The historian, Treitschke, who died in 1896, did not improve matters by 
 his outspoken belief that a clash of interests between Great Britain and Ger- 
 many was "inevitable." It was his advice that Germany adopt an "inde- 
 pendent colonial policy" and come, if necessary, to a reckoning with Britain. 
 
 /- 
 
298 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 importance were discussed, colonial defense taking much of 
 the attention of the conference. 1 
 
 Ten years later, in 1897, the sixtieth anniversary of Vic- 
 toria's reign was celebrated in an even grander manner. The 
 premiers of all the self-governing colonies and representatives 
 from the Crown colonies discussed colonial problems. The 
 self-governing colonies showed great interest in the unity 
 of the Empire; the Canadian Prime Minister, Sir Wilfrid 
 Laurier, expressed the loyalty of Canada in a way that was 
 very impressive. The introduction in the next year of penny 
 postage between the British Isles and most of the colonies 
 helped to bring the Empire closer together. This Confer- 
 ence of 1897 may also be regarded as marking the beginning 
 of a trend toward a protectionist policy for the Empire. A 
 third Colonial Conference was held in 1902, and thereafter 
 the meetings were periodical. 2 
 
 The survey made in the foregoing pages of the reign of 
 Queen Victoria should impress the student of British expan- 
 sion with the almost totally new situation that had arisen 
 by the opening of the twentieth century. During this reign 
 British possessions had grown marvelously, amounting in 
 grand total in 1900 to one quarter of the land surface of the 
 globe. Self-government had been granted the most advanced 
 portions of the Empire, and interest in the large British world 
 had become keen. Already federation was a subject of dis- 
 cussion. Over against the British Empire stood, in 1900, 
 rival powers with world-dominions and with an equal interest 
 in the growth of commerce and trade for the benefit of their 
 respective countries. Practically all the world had been 
 brought under some sort of European influence. The British 
 Empire faced, in consequence, a definite challenge. As we 
 proceed to survey the fortunes of the various parts of the 
 British dominions in recent years, this new and complicated 
 
 1 Charles Dilke's Problems of Greater Britain, published three years later, 
 reflects this paramount interest. After a lengthy discussion of imperial de- 
 fense he concludes: "It is difficult to view without anxiety the military situa- 
 tion of an Empire so little compact, and so difficult, in consequence, to defend" 
 (p. 698). 
 
 2 For a more extended treatment of the Colonial Conferences reference 
 should be made to chapter xxiv. • 
 
IMPERIAL INTERESTS OF VICTORIAN AGE 299 
 
 world-situation must be kept in mind as an essential part of 
 the picture. 
 
 This new feeling of anxiety for the " far-flung battle line" 
 and the consequent need for united action was phrased in un- 
 forgettable fashion by Rudyard Kipling in his poem of "The 
 Houses (A Song of the Dominions) " written in the year after 
 the Diamond Jubilee: 
 
 'Twixt my house and thy house the pathway is broad, 
 In thy house or my house is half the world's hoard; 
 By my house and thy house hangs all the world's fate, 
 On thy house and my house lies half the world's hate. 
 
 For thy house and my house no help shall we find 
 Save thy house and my house — kin cleaving to kind; 
 If my house be taken, thine tumbleth anon. 
 : If thy house be forfeit, mine followeth soon. 1 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 
 
 Reference for this period should be made to the treatment of the reign of 
 Queen Victoria in the various histories of nineteenth-century Britain. 
 Volumes of value, already listed, are Egerton's Origin and Growth of English 
 * Colonies, The British Empire — Past, Present, and Future, and the volumes 
 on colonial policy given in the Bibliographical Note to chapter xi. A 
 treatment of the newer colonial interest is that of Ramsay Muir, The Ex- 
 pansion of Europe — The Culmination of Modern History (London, 1917). 
 For Germany, see W. H. Dawson, The German Empire, 1867-1914, and the 
 Unity Movement (2 vols., New York, 1919), and for German activity in 
 Africa, A. F. Calvert, The German African Empire (London, 1916), and 
 Evan Lewin, The Germans in Africa (London, 1915). For the partition of 
 Africa see the works of Sir Harry Johnston, A History of the Colonization of 
 Africa by Alien Races (Cambridge, 1913), and the briefer survey in the 
 "Home University Library," The Opening Up of Africa; J. Scott Keltie, 
 The Partition of Africa (2d ed., London, 1895); Sir E. Hertslet, The Map 
 of Africa by Treaty (3 vols., 3d ed., London, 1909). A valuable study of 
 the colonial conference held at Berlin in 1884-85 and of the Congo Free 
 State is that of A. B. Keith, The Belgian Congo and the Berlin Act (Oxford, 
 1919). 
 
 Important contemporary works are Seeley, Expansion of England 
 (1883), Dilke, Problems of Greater Britain (1890), C. W. Dilke and Spenser 
 Wilkinson, Imperial Defence (1892), and Earl Grey, The Colonial Policy of 
 Lord John Russell's Administration (2 vols., London, 1852). The last- 
 named work is of especial value; in thirteen letters written as though justi- 
 fying his actions as Colonial Secretary in the eyes of the Prime Minister, 
 
 1 Rudyard Kipling's Verse, New York, 1919, p. 204. 
 
300 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 Earl Grey surveys the whole oversea Empire for the exceedingly important 
 years of Lord John Russell's administration (1846-52). Sir John Seeley's 
 The Growth of British Policy, published posthumously in 1895, was in- 
 tended to be an introduction to an elaborate account of British expansion. 
 Much insight into the period is to be obtained through the biographies 
 of leading British statesmen of the time. Notable for this purpose are 
 John Morley, The Life of William Ewart Gladstone (2 vols., London, 1908) ; 
 Spencer Walpole, The Life of Lord John Russell (2 vols., London, 1891); 
 W. F. Monypenny and G. E. Buckle, The Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of 
 Beaconsfield (6 vols., New York, 1910-20); and Stephen Gwynn and Ger- 
 trude M. Tuckwell, The Life of the Right Honorable Sir Charles W. Dilke 
 2 vols., New York, 1917). 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 MODERN INDIA 
 
 In the previous chapter the Victorian Age has been reviewed 
 from the standpoint of colonial matters as a whole. We 
 have discovered a remarkable increase in imperial feeling and 
 in the desire for expansion during the later years of Victoria's 
 reign. It was but the prelude to a feverish energy displayed 
 in the early twentieth century. With this chapter we shall 
 begin a survey of the great British dominions as they have 
 taken on their modern character under the imperial impulses 
 of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. 
 
 It seems natural that India should be studied first. It 
 was the most important of the possessions of the old colonial 
 system. Its government was much less democratic than 
 that of the other great imperial divisions, and progression to 
 the more democratic parts of the Empire might well start 
 with India. The possessions in southern Asia also serve to 
 reveal most of the difficulties the British have faced in those 
 colonial holdings where the Anglo-Saxon is not dominant 
 racially. Because of India's size and its very great popula- 
 tion, it also ushers before us questions that put this great 
 dependency into a class by itself. A prominent student of 
 modern British tendencies has declared: "The first and 
 greatest of all the problems of Empire is the problem of In- 
 dia." 1 Lord Morley, Secretary of State for India from 1905 
 to 1910, has said of this possession: "The five years that I 
 passed as head of the India Office marked an arduous mo- 
 ment in what is, and must remain, the most delicate of im- 
 perial problems." 2 
 
 FOREIGN POLICY 
 
 -' The history of British rule in India has been traced as far 
 as the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. Largely as the result of dis- 
 
 1 Slater, The Making of Modern England, p. 276. 
 
 2 Recollections, u, 149. '' 
 
302 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 content aroused by the vigorous imperialism and the want 
 of tact of the energetic Dalhousie, the sepoys rose in revolt. 
 Only after a fearful loss of life was the Mutiny suppressed. 
 It gave the opportunity and pointed to the necessity for a 
 closer control of the government of India. As a result, the 
 East India Company ceased to exist and India was brought 
 directly under the Crown. 
 
 By the Act for the Better Government of India, passed in 
 1858, India was to be controlled through a Secretary of State 
 assisted by a Council. The Governor-General was given 
 the title of Viceroy to indicate the new relation to the Crown, 
 but the former title continued in common use. He was as- 
 sisted by his Council or cabinet, and official pronouncements 
 were issued in the name of the Governor-General-in-Council. 
 In 1861 a further act provided for a Legislative Council. 
 This body included certain non-official, nominated members 
 from the native and European elements of the Empire of 
 India in addition to the Governor-General and Executive 
 Council. Just about the same time the law courts were re- 
 organized and the civilian and penal codes were established. 
 
 The first Viceroy was Lord Canning. He had succeeded 
 Dalhousie before the outbreak of the Mutiny. Although 
 he wished for a peaceful administration, none was ever 
 more stormy and taxing. By almost superhuman efforts he 
 brought British rule safely through this critical period and 
 reestablished something like confidence in the British admin- 
 istration. This was done in several ways. The clemency 
 which he advocated was welcomed in India, if derided in 
 Great Britain. His assurance that Dalhousie's Doctrine of 
 Lapse was abolished increased confidence in the British Gov- 
 ernment. Lord Canning was earnestly interested, also, in 
 promoting the welfare of the people. He made great efforts 
 to protect agriculture as well as to reorganize the codes of 
 law, the police organization, and the army. One of the most 
 noteworthy of the acts of Canning's regime was the estab- 
 lishment of the three universities of Calcutta, Bombay, and 
 Madras on the plan of Oxford and Cambridge. 
 
 The second Viceroy was Lord Elgin, whose name has al- 
 
MODERN INDIA 303 
 
 ready become known to us by his farseeing work in Canada 
 where his interest in the progress of responsible government 
 had set the standard for the Empire as a whole. 1 Lord Elgin, 
 who came to India in 1862, left no imprint on the Indian 
 administration, as he died within a year. 
 
 In 1864 Sir John Lawrence, famous for his work in the 
 Punjab, became the third Viceroy. He had the advantage 
 over most of his predecessors and successors of long service in 
 India and an intimate knowledge of its complex life. In his 
 first durbar at Lahore he was able to address the assembled 
 princes and chiefs in their own tongue. During the remain- 
 der of the decade he administered his difficult office with 
 credit. He was restrained in his foreign policy; in connec- 
 tion with the perennial frontier question of the northwest he 
 was an advocate of "masterful inactivity." Sir John Law- 
 rence had to combat a tendency toward an aggressive im- 
 perialism, which was already being expressed by such influ- 
 ential men as Sir Bartle Frere, then Governor of Bombay, 
 and Sir Henry Rawlinson, the famous Assyriologist. 
 
 In 1869 Lord Mayo became the Governor-General. In his 
 foreign policy there was an adherence to the principles on 
 which Sir John Lawrence had acted — the establishment of a 
 ring of friendly and independent kingdoms on the frontiers. 
 As he expressed it: "We should establish with our frontier 
 states of Khelat, Afghanistan, Yarkand, Nepal, and Burma, 
 intimate relations of friendship. . . . We should thus create 
 in them outworks of our Empire and, by assuring them that 
 the days of annexation are passed, make them know that 
 they have everything to gain and nothing to lose by endea- 
 voring to deserve our favor and respect." 2 Lord Mayo was 
 not so successful in his internal administration as in his 
 peaceful foreign policy; there was a marked increase in the 
 burdens laid upon the people. Yet his great personal energy 
 and influence left a strong impression. Lord Mayo's rule 
 was brought to an untimely end by his assassination in the 
 Andaman Islands; while visiting this penal settlement in 
 1872 he was stabbed by a convict. 
 
 1 See pp. 228-29. 2 Quoted in Dutt, India in the Victorian Age, p. 254. 
 
304 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 The policy of peace so consistently followed by Canning 
 and his immediate successors was continued by Lord North- 
 brook, the Viceroy from 1872 to 1876. During this period 
 an opportunity came for proving the sincerity of Canning's 
 announcement that the annexation of native states had 
 ceased. The Gaekwar of Baroda was accused of an attempt 
 on the life of the British Resident; he was also quite unfit to 
 rule. After a fair trial he was dethroned, but the state of 
 Baroda did not become British territory, as might have hap- 
 pened before 1858. Instead, a young boy of the ruling 
 house was put on the throne — a ruler who has proved to 
 be one of the most enlightened and devoted of the native 
 princes. A further proof that Britain's attitude in this case 
 was a settled policy was given in 1881 during the viceroyship 
 of Lord Ripon. The great state of Mysore in the south had 
 been administered by the British since 1831. It was here 
 that Haidar Ali and his son Tipu caused the British so much 
 trouble at the close of the eighteenth century. The ancient 
 dynasty had been replaced in power in 1799, but misrule led 
 to a British administration from 1831 to 1881. The return 
 of this large state to the Maharaja in 1881 did much to 
 create confidence in the sincerity of British pledges. 
 
 With the opening of the last quarter of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury the "urge" of imperialism became very strong. In the 
 preceding chapter we have taken note of the causes for this 
 change. The unification of Germany in 1871, Russia's dis- 
 regard of the Black Sea Treaty, and the new crisis in the rela- 
 tions of Russia and Turkey, all created distrust in the minds 
 of British statesmen. The route to India was safeguarded by 
 the purchase of the Suez Canal shares in 1875, but it seemed 
 to be endangered by the probable break-up of the Ottoman 
 Empire in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877. The advance of 
 Russia in Asia was keenly watched during these years by 
 Great Britain. Sir Henry Rawlinson, who had spent much 
 of his life in Asia, published his England and Russia in the 
 East in 1875. The book, as a revelation and a warning, had 
 a wide reading. The immediate question for India seemed 
 to be the safety of its northwestern frontier. Afghanistan 
 
MODERN INDIA 305 
 
 became of prime interest at this time and the policy of "mas- 
 terful inactivity" ceased when the second Disraeli adminis- 
 tration came to office in 1874; a restless imperialism replaced 
 the former policy. 1 India, already overburdened, found ad- 
 ditional drains on her slender resources in order that the 
 British hold on the peninsula might remain secure. 
 
 Lord Northbrook resigned in 1876 when asked to interfere 
 in Afghanistan with the intention of establishing a permanent 
 mission there. He was replaced by Lord Lytton. Disraeli 
 gave his reason for the change when he informed Lord Lytton 
 why he was chosen as Viceroy: "The critical state of affairs in 
 Central Asia demands a statesman." 2 
 
 Disraeli's imperialism found a significant, if somewhat 
 melodramatic, expression in the proclamation of Queen Vic- 
 toria as Empress of India in 1876. The advance in the Far 
 East, however, serves as a better illustration of the temper of 
 the new cabinet in London. An envoy was sent to Kabul, 
 the capital of Afghanistan, in 1876. On his rebuff by the 
 Amir, who feared a permanent mission was to be established, 
 expensive preparations were made for advance along the 
 frontier. This was done in the face of one of the worst fam- 
 ines India has had to bear, that of 1877. In the next year a 
 Russian mission reached Kabul. This was enough to urge 
 Lord Lytton to the action demanded of a "statesman." A 
 war was waged for the "rectification of the boundary and a 
 scientific frontier." After a successful invasion a mission 
 was located at Kabul, but in 1879 the British agent was mur- 
 dered. After more hostilities the lesson, that the best policy 
 was to leave Afghanistan alone, was relearned. The British 
 were more successful in Baluchistan, where an increasing con- 
 trol was being exercised during this decade. 
 
 The short Liberal reaction under Lord Ripon (1880-84) 
 was succeeded by a continuance of the expansionist policy 
 under Lord Dufferin. During his governor-generalship Up- 
 per Burma was conquered at the expense of India. There 
 was no particular danger on the northeastern frontier, even 
 though France was becoming interested in Tonkin and Co- 
 
 1 See pp. 287 ff. 2 Dutt, op. cit., p. 420. 
 
306 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 chin China. The explanation of advance on this border is 
 found in the feverish spirit that characterized all the great 
 European nations during the eighties, although there was 
 some cause for discontent inthe hindrances to trade in Burma 
 as a result of the rule of the tyrannical King Theebaw and 
 his Queen. 
 
 About the same time Afghanistan again became impor- 
 tant. War was nearly precipitated between Great Britain 
 and Russia when the Russians attacked an Afghan frontier 
 post at Penjdeh. This scare resulted in increased military 
 measures for the protection of India. An expensive rail- 
 way was built to allow greater access to the frontier. The 
 offer of military assistance by some of the native rulers dur- 
 ing the period of the Penjdeh scare resulted in the establish- 
 ment of the Imperial Service troops, contingents of which 
 have been in existence in the native states ever since. A 
 boundary commission was appointed to decide on the line 
 separating the Russian territories from those of Afghanistan. 
 By the Durand Agreement of 1893 a definite boundary was 
 fixed between India and Afghanistan as well. It brought 
 wild native tribes under British control and border wars oc- 
 curred in consequence in 1895 and 1897. 
 
 Lord Curzon's viceroyship (1898-1905) was notable for 
 further active interest in the northwestern frontier. Garri- 
 sons were withdrawn from stations where trouble was likely 
 to occur, and the Northwest Province was established as a 
 buffer. In 1901 the Amir of Afghanistan, who had ruled 
 efficiently for twenty years, died; he was succeeded by Habi- 
 bullah Khan, who governed the country until his assassina- 
 tion at the close of the Great World War. Since the dis- 
 patch of Sir Lewis Dane's mission to Kabul in 1904, as a 
 result of Russian advances, there has been little trouble with 
 Afghanistan. 
 
 In 1907 a convention was signed between Great Britain 
 and Russia, by which the position of Afghanistan was 
 definitely determined. Russia agreed that this state was in 
 Great Britain's sphere of influence and that communication 
 between the Governments of Russia and Afghanistan should 
 
MODERN INDIA 307 
 
 be made through Great Britain. England agreed not to an- 
 nex or occupy any part of Afghanistan and to allow Russia 
 full rights of trade in this border country. This policy has 
 happily prevented a recurrence of the military disasters 
 which Great Britain's relations with Afghanistan have 
 twice illustrated. The collapse of the Romanoff rule dur- 
 ing the World War and the repudiation of the Agreement of 
 1907 by the succeeding Government has freed this border 
 state from the pressure of imperialistic Russia. If Russia 
 does not reestablish her control in the territories north of Af- 
 ghanistan, this frontier state will cease to have a significance 
 as one of the " shields of India," and the policy of non-inter- 
 ference adopted in 1907 will prove the most effective way of 
 keeping the peace. The relations between India and Af- 
 ghanistan were the subject of further negotiation in 1921; 
 this time it was not an agreement between two nations inter- 
 ested in this border state. Instead, the Dobbs Mission nego- 
 tiated for Great Britain a treaty with Afghanistan, in which 
 a notable step was taken, for Afghanistan was recognized as a 
 fully grown independent state with a Minister in London. If 
 the provisions for the removal of suspicion and difficulty re- 
 garding the Afghan frontier prove effective, it will mean 
 much for the future of India. 
 
 During Lord Curzon's governorship of India the British 
 became interested in Tibet for much the same reason that 
 had led to interference in Afghanistan. This high and almost 
 inaccessible plateau under the nominal influence of China was 
 coveted by Russia early in the twentieth century, and Great 
 Britain became worried over the northeastern Indian fron- 
 tier. An expedition was sent to Lhasa under Colonel Young- 
 husband in 1904. After needless slaughter of the Tibetans, 
 China agreed to prevent the intervention of any other power 
 in Tibet. The Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 restated 
 the position of Tibet as a Chinese territory, although Great 
 Britain was recognized as having a special interest in this 
 Chinese possession. When the revolution occurred in China, 
 affairs in Tibet were again upset. It has since been practi- 
 cally self-governing, though Great Britain preserves a keen 
 
308 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 interest in this border state by means of which India is ap- 
 proached from the northeast. 
 
 THE EMPIRE OF INDIA 
 
 We have seen that foreign policy has been very important 
 as a result of the fear of Russia. The Viceroys have been 
 primarily interested in this phase of the administration; of 
 the various departments of the Government the cabinet 
 members have taken charge of Home Affairs, the Legislative, 
 the Army, Revenue and Agriculture, Commerce and Indus- 
 try, and Education, but the portfolio of Foreign Affairs has 
 usually been retained by the Governor-General. In the sur- 
 vey of modern India it is natural to pass from frontier prob- 
 lems to a study of the interior of the great Empire in which 
 Britain has been so deeply interested. On the northern bor- 
 ders are the two semi-independent states of Nepal and Bhu- 
 tan. They are not considered a part of India, but are bound 
 in a close way to the Indian Government. Nepal has a Brit- 
 ish Resident, and Bhutan has felt British pressure in con- 
 nection with the misrule of its Maharaja. Of the near-by 
 islands, Ceylon is a separate colony, but the Nicobar and 
 Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal and the Laccadive 
 Islands in the Indian Ocean are under the Indian adminis- 
 tration. The Government of India has also included under 
 its jurisdiction the port of Aden and its dependencies on the 
 route to the Suez Canal. 1 British interests in the Persian 
 Gulf have also been nta^agedJSy the Indian Government. 
 
 In turning to continental India we find a vast, compli- 
 cated, and thickly peopled part of the British Empire. It 
 has a population of over three hundred and twenty million, 
 comprising nearly one half of the population of Asia and one 
 sixth of that of the globe. The inhabitants are not homo- 
 geneous; over two hundred vernacular languages of great 
 variety are spoken in the peninsula; and numerous racial 
 and religious differences exist. There are over two hundred 
 million Hindus, about sixty million Mohammedans, and ten 
 million Buddhists and, in addition, large numbers of Sikhs, 
 
 1 For their present status see chapter xx. 
 
MODERN INDIA 309 
 
 Parsis, Jains, Christians, and Jews, as well as followers of 
 the primitive animistic cults. So complicated is the human 
 life of the peninsula that it is impossible to think of this 
 teeming center of population as having a linguistic or racial 
 bond capable of making it a unit. 
 
 Politically, the peninsula is composed of two great groups. 
 The parts directly under British control consist of fifteen 
 provincial governments scattered in various parts of India. 
 The eight important provinces are ruled by Governors. 
 These eight districts have Legislative Councils similar to 
 that of the Governor-General. Burma is under a Lieuten- 
 ant-Governor and the remaining British districts are con- 
 trolled by Chief Commissioners. More than one half of the 
 territory and four fifths of the population are contained in 
 these parts which are directly under British rule. 
 
 The remainder of peninsular India is made up of native 
 states. Ever since the British came to trade in the seven- 
 teenth century, there has existed the problem of the relation 
 of the Company and later of the Crown to the native govern- 
 ments. At times an active annexationist policy has brought 
 many of these states under British rule. But the process was 
 not completed when Great Britain felt the need of respecting 
 the interests of the native states. To-day there are over six 
 hundred of these native governments. Many, of course, are 
 very small. The most important are Kashmir in the north, 
 Bikaner, Jaipur, Baroda, Indore, Udaipur, and Gwalior in 
 the west-central section, and Haidarabad, Mysore, and Tra- 
 vancore in the south. The greatest of these states, Haidara- 
 bad, is larger than England and Scotland combined and has a 
 population of over thirteen millions. 
 
 The relation of the native states to British India is not un- 
 like the relation of a subject-state in the feudal system of 
 mediaeval Europe. They are not independent so far as for- 
 eign policy is concerned, for British Residents watch over the 
 interests of the central Government, and in some of the 
 smaller states the Resident practically governs in the name 
 of the hereditary prince. A lawless ruler may be deposed, as 
 we have found to be the case in the state of Baroda. A lim- 
 
 / 
 
310 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 ited military establishment may be kept by a native ruler; 
 since the days of Lord Dufferin these contingents have been 
 known as Imperial Service Troops. In the larger and better 
 governed states the native ruler enjoys a great measure of un- 
 restricted control. Some of them, such as the Gaekwar of 
 Baroda, the Nizam of Haidarabad, the Maharaja of Gwalior, 
 and the Maharaja of Bikaner, are notable and efficient rulers. 1 
 The native states tend to be more backward than the prov- 
 inces of British India. Nor is there, on the whole, so intelli- 
 gent an expenditure of the public monies as in the provinces. 
 The need of keeping up the local court naturally diverts funds 
 that might otherwise go to the improving of the condition of 
 the natives. In these states, " scattered like so many islands 
 of varying size in the sea of British India," there is a diversity, 
 and yet amid this diversity there seems to be a strong attach- 
 ment to the British Crown. The compromising yet practical 
 quality of the British imperial mind, which has been wittily 
 characterized as an "uncontrollable instinct for the anoma- 
 lous," is nowhere better illustrated than in the complexities 
 existing in India. 
 
 NATIONALISM AND REFORM 
 
 The twentieth century has brought to the British increas- 
 ing trouble in India. Since 1905 there has been an insistent 
 demand for reform. The immediate occasion was the parti- 
 tion of Bengal in 1905 during the rule of Lord Curzon. The 
 educated Hindus felt that the partition was an effort to 
 weaken whatever national, religious, and political feeling ex- 
 isted in Bengal. Since that time the Viceroys, Earl Minto, 
 Lord Hardinge, Lord Chelmsford, and Lord Reading, have 
 had the problem of " unrest" continually before them. 
 
 The movement originated as far back as 1885, with the 
 meeting of the first Indian National Congress at Bombay. 
 Year after year at Christmas-time this great meeting has 
 given expression to the aspirations of Indians. The move- 
 ment received greater impetus in the twentieth century, when 
 
 1 His Highness, the Maharaja of Bikaner, was one of the representatives of 
 India at the Peace Conference that met at Versailles in 1919. 
 
MODERN INDIA 311 
 
 the peoples of other Asiatic countries began to come to na- 
 tional self-consciousness. The Young Turk movement, the 
 Persian efforts for independent government, the remarkable 
 success of the Japanese in world-politics, the Chinese nation- 
 alist movement, the strong patriotic sentiment among the 
 Siamese, all gave the educated Indians encouragement. As 
 Lord Morley has well stated it: "The danger arose from a 
 mutiny, not of sepoys about greased cartridges, but of edu- 
 cated men armed with modern ideas." The educated In- 
 dians were thoroughly dissatisfied with the British use of In- 
 dia and the restraint put on the native desire for political 
 opportunities. Notable among the Extremist leaders were 
 B. G. Tilak and Lajpat Rai. 
 
 During the first years of the Earl of Minto's viceroyship 
 (1905-10) the "unrest" did not take violent form. The 
 Hindus had found an opportunity for expressing their wishes 
 in the National Congress year after year. The Mohamme- 
 dans, over sixty million strong, organized the All Moslem 
 League in 1906 to press their particular interests. More 
 violent measures soon followed. By 1907 an extreme nihil- 
 ist group, wanting nothing short of freedom from British 
 rule, had begun to find expression. In that year the first 
 shot was fired, and in 1908 bombs began to be used. In 
 1909 a bomb was thrown at Lord and Lady Minto, and three 
 years later an attempt was made on the life of the next 
 Viceroy, Lord Hardinge. There was also in operation dur- 
 ing this time the Swadeshi movement for the boycott of 
 British goods. As an answer to these forms of violence the 
 Government invoked more severe laws, such as the Explo- 
 sives Act, the Prevention of Seditious Meetings Act, and 
 the Criminal Law Amendment Act. 1 
 
 Had the "unrest" been primarily a violent, nihilistic, 
 separatist movement, Great Britain might have taken still 
 stronger measures to protect her rule in India, and might 
 have ignored the demands of the natives. But the great ma- 
 jority of the leaders have not been Extremists. Men of 
 prominence, such as the late G. K. Gokhale, the Aga Khan, 
 
 1 For domestic disturbances in India since 1914 see Chapter xxv. 
 
312 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 and Romesh Dutt, have been severe critics of the British 
 regime. Yet they have been fully aware of the debt of India 
 to Britain and the need for continued British leadership. 
 
 Great Britain has been inclined to make concessions to 
 these demands, even though such concessions have come 
 haltingly. In 1907 Lord Morley, then Secretary of State, 
 appointed two Indians to his Council, and a Hindu barrister 
 became a member of the Governor-General's Council for the 
 first time in 1909. The governmental attitude was well ex- 
 pressed in a proclamation made by King Edward to the 
 "Peoples and Princes of India" on the fiftieth anniversary 
 of the change of government from the hands of the East 
 India Company to those of the Crown. He reminded them 
 of Queen Victoria's earnest interest in India, and then pro- 
 ceeded to tell of what the future would hold in store. "From 
 the first, the principle of representative institutions began to 
 be gradually introduced, and the time has come when, in the 
 judgment of my Viceroy and Governor-General and others 
 of my counsellors, that principle may be prudently extended. 
 Important classes among you, representing ideas that have 
 been fostered and encouraged by British rule, claim equality 
 of citizenship and a greater share in legislation and govern- 
 ment. ... I will not speak of the measures that are now being 
 diligently framed for these objects. They will speedily be 
 made known to you and will, I am confident, mark a notable 
 stage in the beneficent progress of your affairs." * 
 
 The measure to which the King referred was the Indian 
 Councils Act of 1909. By this act an electorate of some 
 thirty thousand was provided, by which additional members 
 were chosen for the Legislative Councils. A majority of non- 
 official members was allowed in the provincial councils, but 
 the Government was unwilling to lose official control of the 
 Governor-General's Council. This central Council was made 
 to consist of sixty-eight members, twenty-five of whom were 
 elected. The choice was so arranged that there was certain 
 to be an official majority of three. These legislative bodies, 
 though representing but a small fraction of the people of 
 
 1 The Proclamation is given in Lord Morley's Recollections, u, 371. 
 
MODERN INDIA 313 
 
 India, gave a chance for wider discussion and for criticism of 
 the Government. 
 
 Lord Chelmsford became Viceroy in 1916 after the opening 
 of the World War. The situation in India was precarious. 
 Germany evidently expected the Extremists to cause con- 
 siderable trouble, but, except for some trouble in Bengal 
 and the Punjab, her expectations were not fulfilled. India 
 proved, on the whole, as loyal to Britain as other parts of the 
 Empire. The desire to retain the good-will of India and to 
 meet the continuous demand for a further grant leading 
 toward responsible government led Great Britain to take 
 further steps for reform. An elaborate investigation and 
 report was made, culminating in the Montagu-Chelmsford 
 reforms, which went into effect with the passing of the Gov- 
 ernment of India Act in December, 1919. 
 
 Considerable concessions were made. The nine provinces 
 having Legislative Councils were the ones affected by this 
 Act. The electorate was increased from thirty thousand to 
 over five million — about two and one third per cent of the 
 total population of these nine provinces. In the provincial 
 legislative councils it was provided that there was to be in- 
 dependence in certain " transferred subjects" — local self- 
 government, public health, education, etc. But the Gov- 
 ernor still retained the control of legislation. Some changes 
 were made in the Governor-General's Council; the number 
 of members was increased to one hundred and twenty, but 
 the Council was given no real power in the essential matter 
 of finance. No proposal for appropriations could be made 
 except on the recommendation of the Governor-General. 
 Moreover, the Legislative Council was not granted permis- 
 sion to vote on or discuss certain parts of the budget save by 
 the Viceroy's permission, and if the Council refuses to con- 
 sent to a grant the Governor-General may, if he regards it 
 as essential, act as if it had been assented to. 
 
 The reforms of 1919 are but a step in the process of making 
 India a self-governing colony. The new Act provided for a 
 reconsideration of Indian Government in ten years, with a 
 view to further reform at that time. In spite of this provi- 
 
314 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 sion, the concessions made in this measure have not met 
 the demands of loyal Indians. His Highness, the Aga Khan, 
 Dne of the foremost of the Mohammedan princes of India, 
 wrote in 1918: "The Government of India needs radical 
 change; the time has come when it should no more be a 
 mere government of fiat, however excellent that fiat, but an 
 essentially modern state based on the cooperation of every 
 community and of the Government, by giving to the people 
 themselves the right to direct policy." x The time will 
 come, but it is probably not near at hand, when India 
 will be a self-governing group of peoples. Much progress 
 needs to be made before the government of India can be 
 placed in the hands of its three hundred million subjects; 
 certainly that is the goal toward which events in India are 
 traveling. 2 
 
 THE LIFE OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 - It is impossible to consider in an adequate way the com- 
 plicated life of modern India in a brief chapter such as the 
 present one. Yet our attempt to visualize this great British 
 possession would be incomplete if reference were not made 
 to matters of finance, industry, agriculture, education, and 
 social relationships. 
 
 The attitude of Great Britain to India has seemed to its 
 critics needlessly financial in its character. Ardent natives 
 have felt for years that India has been exploited. In truth, 
 it would not be surprising if Great Britain should seem to 
 err in this way. For centuries India was in the hands of a 
 great trading company. It was supposed to be fabulously 
 rich, and was of interest solely as a source of wealth. Even 
 after the East India Company ceased to rule, the British 
 Government seemed to feel that India had almost unlimited 
 powers of production. Costly wars were waged at India's 
 
 1 India in Transition, p. 32. 
 
 2 The new epoch of cooperation in India was inaugurated in 1920 with the 
 appointment of Lord Sinha as Governor of Bihar and Orissa. For the first 
 time, an Indian was appointed as head of a major provincial government. 
 Lord Sinha had formerly been Under-Secretary of State for India in the Im- 
 perial Cabinet, being the first Indian to bold cabinet rank. 
 
MODERN INDIA 315 
 
 expense, wars that were often dictated by an imperialistic 
 foreign policy rather than by the needs of the Indian Em- 
 pire. 
 
 The Indian debt stood at £57,000,000 in 1857 and was in- 
 creased to nearly £100,000,000 by the Mutiny. By the mil- 
 itary changes that followed £10,000,000 were added to the 
 annual expenditure. An income tax was imposed at the 
 time, in addition to the land tax, to meet the new demands. 
 During the years of growing imperialism Indian expenditure 
 was increased in connection with the troubles in Afghanistan 
 and Burma. At the opening of the World War there was a 
 debt of over £300,000,000, and a total annual revenue of 
 nearly one third of that amount. The debt has been very 
 greatly enlarged by a contribution of £100,000,000 to the 
 cost of the World War; this was not a patriotic gift, but was 
 made by the Government of India, which is responsible to the 
 British Parliament and not to the Indian people. 1 In recent 
 years nearly half of the annual revenue has been expended 
 on the army, and one fourth has gone for the upkeep of the 
 Indian Civil Service. The natives have sharply criticized this 
 seemingly excessive drain. 
 
 There has always been an intimate connection between the 
 agricultural system and the collection of the revenue. From 
 the remote centuries Indian conquerors found a tax on land 
 the most convenient way of collecting toll. It is the univer- 
 sal system in the East; the great majority of India's inhab- 
 itants, as well as the neighboring peoples, are dependent on 
 the land. Agriculture is not simply the chief industry of 
 India; it is much more than that, for over two thirds of the 
 population is supported by agriculture. The British have 
 perpetuated the system they found. More than one fourth 
 of the annual revenue comes from a tax on land. The pos- 
 sibilities of the soil are carefully estimated and an assess- 
 ment is made accordingly. The land settlement, as it is 
 called, varies in different parts of the Empire. The older 
 British holdings, chiefly in the valley of the Ganges, have a 
 tenure by which large proprietors collect on the basis of a 
 
 1 In 1920 the debt of British India was nearly £465,000,000. 
 
316 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 permanent settlement. The newer districts are, in general, 
 under a tenure by which the petty owner of land holds a 
 direct relation to the Government. 
 
 It is unfortunate that this principal source of British rev- 
 enue, agriculture, should still present so depressing a picture 
 to one who examines the condition of the people of India. 
 The life of the average worker in the fields is dreary indeed; 
 poorly clad, underfed, and inadequately housed, the ryot has 
 had no real opportunity to avoid a life of grinding and un- 
 ending toil. 
 
 No country has been more subject to the ravages of fam- 
 ines and pestilence than the Indian Empire. The soil is rich 
 and gives abundance in return for the labor bestowed upon 
 it. In consequence, the population that is supported is great 
 and dense. So dependent are multitudes of people on the 
 results of agriculture that a crop failure immediately brings 
 serious trouble. Unfortunately, this is just what is likely to 
 happen. The intense heat of the sun is tempered by the 
 heavy annual rainfalls brought by the monsoons. If the 
 monsoon fails to furnish the needed moisture, as it sometimes 
 does, the result is a sun-baked and fruitless land. The sun's 
 intense rays are responsible also for the plague which is so 
 likely to infest the country. Where standing water is found, 
 the sun rapidly produces sources of disease that take a heavy 
 toll indeed. Terrible famines have occurred in 1866, 1874, 
 1877, 1896, and 1900. The British have made great efforts 
 to prevent distress and the toll resulting from starvation and 
 disease. Several commissions have examined the methods 
 of relief, and the campaign against famine is well organized. 
 Canals and railways have helped to make the efforts of 
 famine-fighters more successful. 
 
 The industrial life of India has been of increasing impor- 
 tance, particularly since the opening of the present century. 
 Silk rearing and weaving are important, but the manufac- 
 ture of cotton cloth holds the most prominent place. This 
 phase of India's industrial life has developed notably in and 
 about the city of Bombay. The Industrial Revolution has 
 been attended here with the same distressing conditions that 
 
MODERN INDIA 317 
 
 occurred in Lancashire over one hundred years before. The 
 growth of the cotton industry has not been unhindered, how- 
 ever, for the well-established mills of Lancashire in England 
 have done their best through the British Parliament to ob- 
 tain favorable discrimination in their trade with India. In 
 the agricultural industry, which occupies the efforts of two 
 thirds of the population, the production of rice, wheat, cot- 
 ton, jute, and oil seeds is important. A noteworthy part of 
 India's industrial life is the tea industry, of which several 
 hundred million pounds are exported every year. The large 
 production of this and other foodstuffs gives India a high 
 rank as a food-producing and food-exporting country. In 
 the year before the World War, India sent to various parts of 
 the world, though principally to the United Kingdom, food- 
 stuffs to the value of £39,000,000. 
 
 One of the most important sources of revenue in the past 
 was the export of opium to China. It is a government mo- 
 nopoly and the manufacture of opium has been practically 
 prohibited, save in the districts of Bengal and the United 
 Provinces. The revenue from this drug has been high in the 
 past, but the trade in recent years has diminished as a result 
 of adverse public opinion. It was the Opium War of 1840-42 
 that led to the cession of Hong Kong to the British and the 
 forcing of the trade in opium on China. The annual income 
 on opium was about three million pounds in 1921. Another 
 curious source of revenue is salt. The student is reminded of 
 the Old Regime in France, where similar conditions existed 
 before the days of the Revolution. Until recently the tax 
 varied in different parts of India, as was the case in France 
 before 1789. There is now one standard rate for the Empire. 
 Although this source of revenue has been very important, it 
 now contributes but a small share to the annual income. 
 
 One of the most pressing problems facing the Indian ad- 
 ministration is the matter of education. According to the 
 census of 1911 five people out of every hundred were able to 
 read and write in some one of the numerous languages of the 
 peninsula, and five out of every thousand possessed a knowl- 
 edge of English. The obstacles to a general application of 
 
318 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 education to the mass of the people are very great. Caste, 
 the varied languages, immemorial superstition, the position 
 of women, all have retarded the spread of education. Yet, 
 in spite of these difficulties, the British Government has been 
 severely criticized for its lack of energy in fighting the igno- 
 rance of the masses. Higher education has been well devel- 
 oped by means of a carefully worked-out system culminating 
 in the great examining universities. Industrial education, on 
 the other hand, has been sacrificed, so say England's critics, 
 to the classical standards so long held at home. The annual 
 expenditure of the Government on education at the opening 
 of the World War was one third that given to the Civil Serv- 
 ice and a quarter of the amount expended on the army. 
 Strange as it may seem, the portfolio of education was not 
 added to the Governor-General's Council until 1910. 
 
 Probably no more important field of effort should com- 
 mand the attention of future administrators. The appalling 
 death-rate, the superstition, the insanitary conditions of life, 
 the prevalence of disease, the backwardness of agriculture 
 and the consequent poverty will be met and overcome only 
 when the program for reform includes a strong emphasis on 
 education for the present illiterate masses. 
 
 It is undoubtedly true that British trusteeship faces its 
 greatest problem in India. The benefits of British rule have 
 been great indeed. Peace and order have replaced the al- 
 most ceaseless warfare of the days when the weak Mogul 
 dynasty held subject states under poor control. Lawlessness, 
 organized murder, and gross mistreatment of women have 
 given way before an impartial justice. The efficient Indian 
 Civil Service has served as an avenue for the expression of the 
 energy of chosen Britishers in the prime of their usefulness in 
 a country sorely needing leadership. Justice and the civil 
 service have been entrusted more and more to the hands of 
 native officials. Railways, canals, agriculture, and industry 
 have grown under British leadership. A great composite 
 Empire has been put into an ordered form in a way that re- 
 flects credit on British resourcefulness, ability, and interest. 
 Yet much remains to be done. Guidance in tfee journey to^ 
 
MODERN INDIA 319 
 
 ward self-government, the ushering of a disunited India to a 
 unified interest, and the elevation of the standards of health 
 are tasks for the future. For this work British leadership 
 seems necessary, in order that India may be developed and 
 governed for the good of the people of India by the frank, 
 if gradual, substitution of partnership and cooperation for 
 the old idea of ascendency. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 
 
 See the Bibliographical Notes for chapters vi, xn, and xm. P. E. Rob- 
 erts has recently added to the "Historical Geography of the British Colo- 
 nies" the History of India under the Government of the Crown (Oxford, 
 1920). The works of Romesh Dutt give the ideas of a prominent Indian; 
 they include The Economic History of British India, 1757-1837 (London, 
 1902), and The Economic History of India in the Victoriar Age (3d ed., 
 London, 1908). A recent Indian expression of opinion has been made by 
 the Aga Khan, India in Transition, A Study of Political Evolution (London, 
 1918) . An excellent volume on Indian administration is that of the French 
 writer Joseph Chailley, Administrative Problems of British India (London, 
 1910). The earlier phases of the dissatisfaction with the British rule are 
 reviewed in Sir Valentine Chirol, Indian Unrest (London, 1910). A "his- 
 tory of the Nationalist movement from within" is Lajpat Rai's Young 
 India (New York, 1916) ; his England's Debt to India (1918) and India and 
 the Future (1919) are other indictments by an extremist of British rule in 
 India. Viscount Morley's Recollections (London, 1918) give in detail the 
 work of an important Secretary of State for India. Critical treatments of 
 the British administration of the peninsula will be found in H. A. Gibbons, 
 The New Map of Asia, 1900-1919 (New York, 1919) and in H. M. Hynd- 
 man, The Awakening of Asia (London, 1919). 
 
 For this and the succeeding chapters on contemporary conditions the 
 various colonial year-books and general year-books should be used. The 
 most convenient work for imperial statistics is the current number of the 
 Statesman's Year- Book, though the authoritative one for India is the India 
 Office List. See also the Indian Year Book, published in Bombay. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 THE HIGHWAY TO THE EAST 
 
 India is the most important in size and wealth of all the parts 
 of the British Empire in the Far East. As a result, it has 
 often captured the imagination, to the exclusion of other 
 British possessions. Yet no student of the map of southern 
 Asia and the Indian Ocean can be ignorant of the many 
 scattered islands and coastal regions over which the British 
 flag now flies. On maps where it is customary to mark by 
 red the parts of the British Empire, the Asiatic coasts and the 
 neighboring waters seem reddened by a perplexing and ap- 
 parently indiscriminate amount of blotches. As we attempt 
 to survey in brief fashion these parts of the British dominion, 
 we shall find that the interest in India and the Far East is the 
 explanation of the ubiquity of the Union Jack in eastern 
 waters. 
 
 The Europeans of the Middle Ages did much trading with 
 the East, by overland routes to the Orient as well as by 
 coasting vessels that skirted the shores of the Persian Gulf 
 and the Red Sea. In this mediaeval trade various places 
 along the way grew important. Probably Calicut on the 
 west coast of India was the most noteworthy port for accu- 
 mulating the goods of the farther East and of India for the 
 journey to the West. To this emporium were brought the 
 spices of the East Indies and the products of China and 
 Japan as well as the wealth that India herself produced. The 
 most important point in the voyage to Calicut from the east- 
 ern coast of Asia was Malacca at the southern end of the 
 Malay Peninsula. 
 
 With the Commercial Revolution at the dawn of Modern 
 History the trade with the East assumed a new importance. 1 
 Vasco da Gama's journey around Africa to Calicut in 1497- 
 98 furnished another route to the Far East. At the same 
 time other epoch-making ventures were being made on the 
 
 1 See chapter n. 
 
THE HIGHWAY TO THE EAST 321 
 
 great ocean. This impulse to bolder navigation marks the 
 approximate time of, if it does not account wholly for, the 
 decline of the great trading cities of the Mediterranean. 
 Spain, Holland, France, and England took an interest in the 
 discovery of new lands and the search for commercial wealth. 
 But Portugal, by Da Gama's voyage, had acquired a prior 
 claim to the route around Africa. Of this she took great 
 advantage and Portuguese outposts were soon established at 
 Goa, Calicut, Malacca, in the Spice Islands, at Macao on the 
 Chinese coast, in Formosa, and elsewhere. The route to 
 these eastern factories was well provided with a chain of 
 stations, of which the most notable were the Cape Verde 
 Islands, St. Helena, St. Paul de Loanda, Delagoa Bay, and 
 Mozambique. 
 
 In spite of this auspicious start, the Portuguese were not 
 permitted to enjoy the lucrative trade of the East unhin- 
 dered. Holland and Spain organized East India Companies 
 and began regular commercial relations with the Far East. 
 The Dutch, who were very active in the seventeenth cen- 
 tury, made their most important stopping-place on the route 
 at Cape Town. They also took St. Helena from the Portu- 
 guese, and in the course of the century wrested from the 
 hands of Portugal most of the vast East Indies, including the 
 island of Ceylon, the tip of the Malay Peninsula, and the 
 Spice Islands. 
 
 With the opening of the seventeenth century the British 
 and French also became actively interested in the trading 
 possibilities of southern Asia. As the British were unable to 
 break into the Dutch monopoly of the East Indies, they 
 turned to India, where, by gradual conquests of the native 
 states and successful wars against the French, an empire was 
 created. It grew more and more valuable with the years. 
 Although the French remained, they were confined to a few 
 insignificant towns. With the decline of the Dutch coloniz- 
 ing and commercial activity as well, the British forged ahead 
 as the supreme nation on the sea. As India developed and 
 the British became more and more the masters of the mari- 
 time world, the Indian trade increased in value. While the 
 
322 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 other parts of the British Empire were being lost or were 
 in an undeveloped state, India was sending a continuous 
 stream of wealth to her conquerors. 
 
 It was but natural, therefore, that India should powerfully 
 affect British foreign policy. Indeed, it is not going too far 
 to say that the last one hundred and fifty years of British 
 foreign policy on the eastern seas and in eastern Europe have 
 been predominantly influenced by this great peninsula of 
 Asia. In its behalf the various routes had to be safeguarded. 
 Portugal and Holland and France lost valuable possessions, 
 because they seemed essential to the security of India. The 
 Ottoman Empire was kept intact largely through British in- 
 fluence, because it seemed to safeguard a route to India. 
 Russia's expansion into Central Asia and Turkestan was 
 viewed with suspicion out of solicitude for India. The In- 
 dian Empire is the explanation of the numerous British pos- 
 sessions on the eastern highways of the sea and the key to the 
 comprehension of the British policy regarding both the Near 
 and the Far East. 
 
 In the previous chapter we have discussed the policy of 
 Great Britain with regard to the land approaches to India. 
 Extensions were made all along the territorial borders to 
 afford a "scientific frontier" for the protection of British 
 India. Burma on the east with its forested hills serves as a 
 guard, and Tibet to the northeast and Afghanistan to the 
 northwest have been of much interest to British statesmen 
 as buffers for India. The deserts and the barren highlands 
 of Baluchistan were acquired to safeguard the western ap- 
 proach. 
 
 THE ROUTE AROUND AFRICA 
 
 But it is with the "wet ways of the sea" that we are 
 chiefly concerned in this chapter. As the British traders 
 continued to go around Africa, the route gradually became 
 marked by the possessions of England. 
 
 One of the most interesting of Britain's holdings on this 
 highway is St. Helena. Discovered by the Portuguese, its 
 value was early realized for the eastern traders. In the days 
 
THE HIGHWAY TO THE EAST 323 
 
 of small ships and slow sailing before capricious winds, nu- 
 merous stopping-places for food and water were necessary. 
 St. Helena was ideally located for the purpose. Purchas, the 
 continuator of Hakluyt's record of British voyages, has writ- 
 ten truly of the value of St. Helena: "It seems God has 
 planted it in convenient place for the long and dangerous In- 
 dian navigations." This important link in the chain of em- 
 pire was especially useful to vessels on the return journey, as 
 they were driven northward by the prevailing winds. 
 
 Lancaster, in his voyage to the east in 1591, had stopped at 
 St. Helena. For a time in the early seventeenth century it 
 was used by the Dutch, but since about 1650 it has been in 
 British hands. In 1673 the East India Company received 
 the island by charter as "very necessary and commodious for 
 . . . merchants trading into the East Indies for refreshing 
 their servants and people in their returns homewards." 1 
 This port of call on the way to India acquired a fame 
 unconnected with its real use to the East India Company, 
 when it served as the prison for Napoleon from his defeat 
 at Waterloo until his death in 1821. During this period the 
 island was lent to Great Britain by the Company for this 
 special use and returned to the Company after Napoleon's 
 death. In 1834 it became a Crown Colony. With the 
 improvement of sea navigation and the opening of other 
 routes to the East, this lonely isle of the mid-Atlantic has 
 greatly declined in importance. 
 
 South Africa was the next valuable port of call for the Brit- 
 ish trader. It was settled by the Dutch as their victualing- 
 station, but was lost to the British in the Napoleonic wars; 
 the fear that the French would obtain this valuable post on 
 the road to India had led to its capture in 1795. 
 
 Mauritius had somewhat the same importance in the In- 
 dian Ocean that St. Helena possessed in the Atlantic. It is 
 about as far from the Cape of Good Hope as it is from the 
 coast of India. The Portuguese were uninterested in Mau- 
 ritius, nor did the Dutch use it to a great extent, although 
 they gave it the name of Mauritius after the Stadtholder of 
 
 , l Quoted in C. P. Lucas, West Africa, p. 392. 
 
324 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 Holland, Count Maurice of Nassau. The French, however, 
 found it of value. Early in the eighteenth century it was 
 taken over as a port of call and renamed the lie de France. 
 In the wars waged between the French and the British dur- 
 ing the eighteenth century the island became of great strate- 
 gic value, as it lay on the direct route to the East. The fa- 
 mous admiral Labourdonnais gave much of his life to Mauri- 
 tius, for it proved an admirable center for disturbing British 
 trade and a useful base for attacking India. If the French 
 East India Company had been more efficient and Dupleix 
 more willing to cooperate with Labourdonnais, there might 
 have been a different outcome to the Franco-British conflict 
 in the East. Mauritius finally became a British possession 
 during the Napoleonic wars; in 1810 it was attacked and cap- 
 tured by forces sent from India. 
 
 When the Suez Canal was opened shortly after the middle 
 of the nineteenth century, Mauritius suffered the loss of 
 much of its transit trade. Its chief source of wealth at pres- 
 ent is sugar. This very densely populated island has still a 
 very strong French character, although Indians are now 
 greatly in the majority. At the close of the World War in 
 1918 the islanders were influenced by the tendency to settle 
 national control according to "self-determination" with the 
 result that there was a movement on the part of the French 
 inhabitants for a retrocession of the island to France. 
 
 About one thousand miles north of Mauritius is the group 
 of islands known as the Seychelles Archipelago. With it, un- 
 der one colonial government, is grouped a number of other 
 clusters north of Madagascar. The Seychelles have had 
 much the same history as Mauritius. They were occupied 
 by the French at the opening of the Seven Years' War, when 
 the group was named after the Controller of Finance of that 
 time, Vicomte Sechelles, and the largest of the islands was 
 called Mahe, from Mahe Labourdonnais, the great Governor 
 of Mauritius. In the Napoleonic wars Mahe" was valuable 
 as a place of refuge and as a supply-base for French vessels. 
 On that account the archipelago was captured by the British, 
 with whom it has remained ever since. It is somewhat out 
 
CQ CQ offiCQ SCO 
 
326 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 of the routes of trade, though on the line of ships going from 
 Bombay to Zanzibar. 
 
 As we approach the Indian coast the next island-groups of 
 any importance are the Maldives and the Laccadives. The 
 Laccadive Islands are administered from India, while the 
 Maldive group is connected with Ceylon. 
 
 Much more valuable than any of the possessions already 
 considered is the island of Ceylon, hung like a pendent jewel 
 from the tip of India. Its area is somewhat less than that of 
 Ireland; it has a population of four million. Although ra- 
 cially and geographically related to India, it has had a sepa- 
 rate history, and is in no sense a part of the Indian Empire. 
 With the rise of Portuguese power Ceylon was brought under 
 the rule of this European nation. It was not long before the 
 Dutch took Ceylon from the Portuguese, and when the Na- 
 poleonic wars brought Holland into French possession the 
 British from Madras took the island from their rivals. Since 
 1796 it has belonged to Great Britain. 
 
 Ceylon was well known in the Middle Ages, for Marco 
 Polo had visited it in his travels. The Portuguese and Dutch 
 found it particularly valuable in the spice trade, as it pro- 
 duced large quantities of cinnamon. It was also famous for 
 precious stones. Several hundred gem quarries are still 
 worked, and the pearly banks on the west coast have long 
 been noteworthy. With the British occupation and conquest 
 and the opening-up of commercial possibilities, Ceylon has 
 become valuable in many other ways. In recent years coco- 
 nut products, rubber, and tea have been the chief sources of 
 wealth for the island. Several hundred million pounds of 
 tea are exported every year — about half the world's supply. 
 
 Politically Ceylon has lagged somewhat behind the more 
 advanced provinces of India, although the development has 
 not been dissimilar. The same demand for a reform of the 
 way in which they are governed has been made by the Cey- 
 lonese as by the Egyptians and the Indians. They held a 
 National Congress in 1919 which drafted proposals for rep- 
 resentative institutions. Constitutional reform has long 
 been overdue, and the native "unrest" in other parts of the 
 
THE HIGHWAY TO THE EAST 327 
 
 East has found expression here as well. As a result of the 
 agitation a new constitution has been granted which gives 
 a majority in the Legislature to the unofficial element. 
 
 MALAYSIA 
 
 The peninsula of India was by no means the only center of 
 interest for the eastern traders when England and France, 
 Portugal and Holland, were contending for the privilege of 
 holding the " gorgeous East in fee." As we have found, In- 
 dia was not regarded at first of such value for commercial 
 purposes as the East Indies. The Malabar Coast was rather 
 the place of assemblage. It is to be expected, therefore, that 
 Great Britain should acquire possessions along this route to 
 the East as the Empire has been built. 
 
 In the Bay of Bengal are the Andaman and Nicobar Is- 
 lands, administered as a part of India. The Andamans are 
 used as a penal settlement for life-term convicts from India. 
 It was here that Lord Mayo was assassinated in 1872. 1 
 
 On the journey to the eastern coast of Asia the strategic 
 point is the end of the Malay Peninsula where but a narrow 
 strait separates it from the great island of Sumatra. Here 
 the British have taken a strong position as the other trading 
 nations had done before them. The port of Malacca had 
 been famous for centuries before the Portuguese came to it 
 early in the sixteenth century. It was captured by Albu- 
 querque, who made it a base for conquest and for the control 
 of the trade of the islands to the south and east. With the 
 decline of the Portuguese power, the Dutch, who ever dogged 
 their heels, took possession of the East Indies and Malacca. 
 It was captured by them in 1641, remaining a Dutch port 
 until captured by the British in 1795. For thirty years its 
 status remained unsettled. Malacca was restored to Holland 
 by the Peace of Amiens (1802), recaptured by the British 
 five years later, returned to Holland in 1818, and finally 
 became British by treaty in 1825. 
 
 Before the British procured this trading-post they had 
 
 1 See page 303. Readers of The Sign of the Four will recall Conan Doyle's 
 realistic use of this penal settlement. 
 
328 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 taken steps to obtain a footing in the straits. It is true that 
 the Dutch, in the seventeenth century, had driven the British 
 from the East Indies, with the exception of a few posts on the 
 island of Sumatra. As the China trade of the English East 
 India Company grew more important, it became necessary to 
 have a post on the natural sea-route between India and 
 China. The island of Penang at the northern end of the 
 straits and above Malacca was chosen as a satisfactory port 
 of call. In 1786 a representative of the East India Company 
 obtained it from the neighboring sultan. The strip of main- 
 land which was included in the British territory by an addi- 
 tional cession in 1800 was called Province Wellesley from the 
 Governor-General then ruling in India. In 1805 so impor- 
 tant had Penang become that it was raised to the rank of a 
 presidency under the Governor-General of Bengal. 
 
 During the Napoleonic wars the British became a menace 
 to the Dutch possessions in the East as well as to Ceylon and 
 Cape Colony. Although no permanent holdings were added 
 to the Empire from the Dutch islands in the East Indies dur- 
 ing this period, British control was consolidated and strength- 
 ened in the straits. This was largely owing to the energy 
 and foresight of a remarkable man, Sir Stamford Raffles. 
 In 1805 Raffles had been sent to Penang as secretary for the 
 East India Company. It was he who, in 1809, suggested to 
 Lord Minto, then Governor-General of India, the conquest 
 of Java. This was successfully undertaken in 1811, and 
 Raffles was made Lieutenant-Governor of the new territory 
 for the Company. He ruled for five years with conspicuous 
 success over this island, which to-day is so valuable a part of 
 the Dutch holdings in the East Indies. Nothing shows 
 better the British disinclination for Empire in the early nine- 
 teenth century than the return of Java to the Dutch at 
 the close of the Napoleonic wars. In 1818 this energetic 
 servant of the Company was made Lieutenant-Governor of 
 Benkulen, the British trading-post still retained on the west 
 coast of Sumatra. 
 
 The most important work that Sir Stamford Raffles per- 
 formed for the Company was the selection of the island of 
 
330 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 Singapore as the chief British port in the Malay Straits. In 
 1819 he induced the Governor-General of India to annex 
 this admirably located island. Lord Hastings was heartily 
 in favor of Raffles' desire for Singapore, although the East 
 India Company felt that it was likely to be an expensive 
 addition to her territories and one that might embroil the 
 English with the Dutch. In truth, Sir Stamford Raffles 
 believed that the possession of Singapore would help British 
 trading interests by furnishing an adequate means of coun- 
 tering Dutch influence in the Malay Straits. At the time the 
 Dutch held Malacca on the north side as well as the islands 
 of Sumatra and Java to the south. 
 
 The letters of this clear-sighted Englishman graphically 
 describe the importance of the new port at the same time 
 that they reveal the dominant commercial motive for a se- 
 cure highway to the farther East. He wrote in the year in 
 which he acquired Singapore : "You have only to glance at the 
 map for the Straits of Singapore, at the south extreme of the 
 Straits of Malacca and consider that we have another port 
 under which all of the China trade must pass; this will con- 
 vince you that our station completely outflanks the Straits 
 of Malacca and secures a passage for our China ships at all 
 times and under all circumstances. It has further been my 
 good fortune to discover one of the most safe and extensive 
 harbours in these seas. In short, Singapore is everything we 
 could desire. ... It will soon rise into importance; it breaks 
 the spell; and they [the Dutch] are no longer the exclusive 
 sovereigns of the Eastern Seas." 
 
 Never was a discoverer more certain of the enduring char- 
 acter of his work. In another letter of the same year he de- 
 clared:" It is not necessary to say how much I am interested 
 in the success of the place; it is a child of my own, and I have 
 made it what it is. It bids fair to be the next port to Cal- 
 cutta. You may take my word for it, this is by far the most 
 important station in the East; and as far as naval superiority 
 and commercial interests are concerned, of much higher value 
 than whole continents of territory." To another correspond- 
 ent he asserted a claim that proved to be true: "Our free port 
 
THE HIGHWAY TO THE EAST 331 
 
 of Singapore in these seas must eventually destroy the spell 
 of Dutch monopoly; and what Malta is in the West that may 
 Singapore become in the East." * His foresight was abun- 
 dantly justified. Already in 1828 the import and export 
 trade of Singapore was twice that of Penang and three times 
 as large as that of Malacca. This was in large part the re- 
 sult of making Singapore a free port. It became the great 
 transit port in the Malay seas and has ever since constantly 
 increased in importance. 
 
 During the nineteenth century the whole of the lower part 
 of the Malay Peninsula came under British influence. Ben- 
 kulen was exchanged for Dutch Malacca in 1825. The 
 native Malay states to the north of Singapore gradually 
 came under British influence. Toward the close of the 
 nineteenth century the governments of five were federated 
 under a British High Commissioner. In 1909 five more 
 of the native states were transferred by treaty from Siam 
 to Great Britain. Their position is not unlike that of the 
 native states of India. Indeed, for the first half of the nine- 
 teenth century the Malay possessions were regarded as addi- 
 tions to India. It was only in 1867 that the Straits Settle- 
 ments became a separate Crown Colony. 
 
 BORNEO 
 
 After passing out of the Straits past Singapore the next 
 British possessions are found about seven hundred miles due 
 east on the island of Borneo. Both the Spanish and Portu- 
 guese traded with this island in the sixteenth century. For a 
 time the English East India Company had a factory there 
 also. The trade languished, however, largely as a result of 
 the excessive barbarism of the head-hunting Dyaks and of 
 the extensive piracy carried on in these seas. About the 
 time of the War of the American Revolution interest in the 
 island was renewed. It was in 1774 that the East India 
 Company entered into a treaty relation with the Sultan of 
 Brunei — Borneo is but a corruption of this word — by 
 
 1 Memoir of the Life and Public Services of Sir Thomas Stamford Baffles. By 
 his Widow. London, 1830, pp. 377, 380, 383. 
 
332 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 which they obtained a monopoly of the pepper trade in his 
 dominions. But the trade was not very brisk, because of the 
 extraordinary hindrances we have already mentioned. 
 
 British interest in the country was finally renewed by a 
 private adventurer of great interest, James Brooke. Born 
 in India in 1803, he served under the East India Company, 
 but retired from their service in 1826 after having been 
 wounded in the Burmese War. He was of an adventurous 
 spirit and talked of leading a crusade against the " Dutch 
 vagabonds in the eastern seas." His aims were commercial 
 as well, for he wanted to sail to Borneo and visit " Sarawak, 
 the place whence small vessels bring the ore of antimony." 
 He landed at Sarawak in 1839 and was much impressed by the 
 country. In July, 1840, he made a second visit to Borneo 
 with the intention of remaining but ten days. At the time 
 the Sultan of Brunei was attempting to suppress a revolt in 
 Sarawak, but he became discouraged in his efforts to repress 
 the rebellion — an uprising for which his misrule was largely 
 to blame. He implored the assistance of Brooke and offered 
 him the rule of Sarawak as his representative, or raja. 
 
 Strange as it may seem, James Brooke accepted the offer 
 of the Sultan, and became known as Raja Brooke of 
 Sarawak. In an important letter written from Sarawak in 
 1841 he states the objects he had in view: "The extension of 
 trade, the propagation of Christianity, the suppression of the 
 atrocities practiced in the Dyak tribes and the extirpation of 
 piracy." 1 His work was not easy, for he was almost alone. In 
 the early years of his rule he had with him as assistants but 
 four men who were not natives of Borneo, a doctor, a colored 
 interpreter from Singapore, an illiterate servant, and a ship- 
 wrecked Irishman. Nevertheless his success was real. The 
 lower classes were freed from the burdens of harsh taxation; 
 they had the benefits of a court of justice in the Raja's own 
 house; piracy and head-hunting were suppressed; in short, 
 civilization took the place of savagery. The native chiefs 
 assisted the white Raja in the administration of the country. 
 From the very first, Sarawak has been ruled with an extraor- 
 
 1 The Private Letters of Sir James Brooke, London, 1853, i, 169- 
 
THE HIGHWAY TO THE EAST 333 
 
 dinary regard for the interests of the native population. 
 James Brooke looked upon his rule as a trust, and his succes- 
 sors have not deviated from his ideals. 
 
 Raja Brooke retired in 1863, worn out by his strenuous 
 life in a tropical country. He was succeeded by his nephew, 
 Sir Charles Johnson Brooke, who carried on his uncle's be- 
 neficent methods until his own death in 1917. In the latter 
 year, Charles Vyner Brooke, the present Raja, succeeded his 
 father as the ruler of this Malay state. Sarawak, larger than 
 England, thus presents one of the most curious conditions to 
 be found in the world. It is a Malay state ruled by an he- 
 reditary line of white rajas, who are at the same time citizens 
 of Great Britain. Sarawak bears the same relation to the 
 British Empire as do other protected native states, except 
 that there is no need whatever for interference in its govern- 
 ment. It is a part of the Empire so far as its relation with 
 foreign powers is concerned. 
 
 North of Sarawak is Brunei, from whose Sultan it had been 
 obtained by Brooke. During the nineteenth century Brunei 
 has dwindled in size, and is now under the protection of a 
 British Resident. North Borneo, which is adjacent to 
 Brunei and occupies the northern end of the island, is under 
 the government of a chartered company. The British 
 North Borneo Company does not trade, as might be ex- 
 pected; its sole task is to govern. Off the coast of North 
 Borneo is the island of Labuan. It is not a protectorate like 
 the three mainland districts already mentioned, but an out- 
 and-out British possession. Before it was ceded to Britain 
 by the Sultan of Brunei in 1846, it had been the site of a fac- 
 tory of the English East India Company. Great things com- 
 mercially were expected of this advantageously situated is- 
 land; it was to be a second Singapore. But the unadvanced 
 character of the peoples of Borneo have prevented the ex- 
 pected development. 
 
 CHINA 
 
 Continuing our journey along the Asiatic coast we find a 
 much more valuable post for British trade in the island of 
 
334 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 Hong Kong on the south coast of China at the mouth of the 
 Canton River. In 1557 the Portuguese established them- 
 selves at Macao across the river from Hong Kong. In 1634 
 the English endeavored to open relations with the Chinese at 
 Canton. At first they were unsuccessful, but later were per- 
 mitted to trade on a very restricted basis with certain Can- 
 ton merchants at the close of that century. The amount of 
 trade was limited and it was to be carried on only through the 
 East India Company. This situation remained until 1834, 
 when the revision of the Company's charter deprived them 
 of the monopoly of the Chinese trade. 
 
 Under the new arrangement a Superintendent of British 
 trade was appointed for Canton. Yet the relations between 
 the Chinese and the British were not smooth under the new 
 system. The Chinese resented in particular the large im- 
 portation of opium from India. This, as we have noticed, 
 was a lucrative government monopoly and an important 
 source for Indian revenue. The Chinese tried to prohibit 
 the importation of the drug save for a small licensed trade. 
 In consequence, smuggling became very common. The 
 Chinese opposed the growing opium evil as best they could, 
 even to the point of dumping twenty thousand chests of 
 opium into the sea. As a result of this and other causes 
 for friction, the so-called Opium War began in 1840. The 
 British found the Chinese no match for European military 
 methods, and easily conquered several coast cities with great 
 slaughter. By the Treaty of Nanking (1841) five Chinese 
 ports were opened to British trade, and Hong Kong was 
 ceded to the victors. Although the Chinese refused to legal- 
 ize the opium trade, the drug has been introduced in consid- 
 erable quantities ever since. The cession of Hong Kong to 
 the British has given the Empire a highly valued base in east- 
 ern waters. As a free port it has enjoyed an enormous busi- 
 ness. 1 
 
 The only other British foothold on the eastern Asiatic 
 
 1 In 1861 China ceded to Great Britain the peninsula of Kowloon, which is 
 separated from Hong Kong by a narrow strait. Some additional neighboring 
 territory was leased from China for ninety-nine years in 1898. , - — 
 
THE HIGHWAY TO THE EAST 335 
 
 coast has been Weihaiwei, located at the end of the Shantung 
 Peninsula within convenient distance of Kiao-chau and Port 
 Arthur. It was obtained by lease from China in 1898. Ger- 
 many in March of that year became the possessor of Kiao- 
 chau by means of a ninety-nine-year lease. Later in the same 
 month Russia obtained Port Arthur in a similar manner. In 
 April France leased Kwangchau-wan, and in June and July 
 Great Britain extended its territory about Hong Kong as 
 well as procured a hold on the Shantung Peninsula by the 
 lease of Weihaiwei. The necessity for preserving the balance 
 of power in the Far East was the excuse for the British leases. 
 Although strategically located Weihaiwei has never been 
 fortified. 
 
 The relation of the Powers to China was profoundly af- 
 fected by the Washington Conference of 1921-22. Early in 
 the sessions China pressed for a removal of existing limita- 
 tions upon its freedom of action. When the question of 
 leased territories came before the Conference, the nations 
 holding leases agreed to a partial withdrawal. France was 
 willing to return Kwangchau-wan, and Japan, after long ne- 
 gotiations, promised to release its hold of Kiao-chau, which 
 had been taken by the Japanese during the World War. 
 Thereupon, Mr. Balfour, the chairman of the British delega- 
 tion, stated formally what he had already made public that 
 Great Britain would hand back Weihaiwei to China. Great 
 Britain was not prepared, however, to act in the same mam- 
 ner regarding the territorial additions made in 1898 around 
 Hong Kong, on the ground that the lease of the Kowloon ex- 
 tension had been effected in order that the free port of Hong 
 Kong, the financial center of the East, might be more secure. 1 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 
 
 , In the "Historical Geography of the British Colonies" R. E. Stubbs has 
 written a volume on the Mediterranean and Eastern Colonies (Oxford, 1906) 
 and Sir Charles Lucas has contributed the volume on West Africa, the 
 third edition of which has been revised by A. B. Keith (Oxford, 1913). In 
 
 1 For the government of the Crown Colonies, the group to which most of the 
 British possessions mentioned in this chapter belong see pp. 43S ff. 
 
336 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 A. Wyatt Tilby's "English People Overseas" there is Britain in the Tropics, 
 1527-1910 (London, 1912). H. E. Egerton has written a Life of Sir Stam- 
 ford Raffles (London. 1900) and Sir Spencer St. John an account of the 
 work of Rajah Brooke (London, 1899), these biographies appearing in the 
 "Builders of Greater Britain" series. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 THE SUEZ CANAL AND EGYPT 
 
 We have traced the growth of British power along the old 
 trade routes around Africa to India, and from India east- 
 ward through the Malay Straits to the farther East. Com- 
 merce in the interests of a trading company is the key to the 
 extension of the British power along these maritime high- 
 ways. On our return to the homeland from India we have 
 still a third route to traverse — now the most important of 
 all three for the security of British India and British com- 
 merce. It is the route westward across the Indian Ocean, 
 past the southern side of the Arabian Peninsula, through the 
 Suez Canal into the Mediterranean, and thence to the Brit- 
 ish Isles by way of Gibraltar. 
 
 Trading vessels had followed this course into the Red Sea 
 in the Middle Ages. The prevailing north winds, however, 
 and the lack of a continuous water route had led to the trans- 
 ference of goods by caravan to the Nile. They were then 
 taken down the river to Cairo and Alexandria, and at Alexan- 
 dria the riches of the East were loaded on Mediterranean ves- 
 sels for the European trade. The value of this highway was 
 greatly diminished when the all-sea journey around Africa 
 was discovered, for a long carriage on water was cheaper and 
 easier than a short journey requiring several reloadings of 
 goods. It was not until the nineteenth century that the Red 
 Sea route sprang to a place of first importance. The intro- 
 duction of steam navigation had a marked influence, for con- 
 trary winds became of less importance. More influential 
 was the connecting of the Red Sea with the Mediterranean 
 by the Suez Canal. As a result, this route became the most 
 traveled one between the British Isles and the valuable In- 
 dian and Australasian possessions. 
 
 The Suez Canal is on the line of a waterway which was 
 probably in use centuries ago. When Napoleon was in 
 Egypt, he planned for a connection between the Red Sea and 
 
S38 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 the Mediterranean, but the British interference with his 
 occupation of Egypt prevented the fulfillment of this pur- 
 pose. In 1837 a committee of Parliament reported on the 
 best means of establishing communication with India by 
 way of the Mediterranean. The committee, however, did 
 not favor the Red Sea passage, recommending instead the 
 route by way of the Euphrates River. Interest in a canal 
 grew by the middle of the nineteenth century to the point 
 of an investigation of the route by an international commis- 
 sion of engineers. The British were opposed to the plan, 
 but a Frenchman, De Lesseps, formed a company, which 
 was largely capitalized in France. The Mohammedan 
 ruler of Egypt agreed to contribute the necessary laborers 
 by furnishing Egyptian fellaheen. In addition the Egyp- 
 tian ruler, Said Pasha, made a preliminary loan and sub- 
 scribed for a large share of the stock. The completed 
 canal was formally opened in November, 1869. 
 
 Although the British had opposed the project, its value 
 to them became evident almost immediately. Within five 
 years over a thousand British vessels were passing through 
 the canal annually. So important did the new waterway 
 seem to the imperialistic Disraeli that he took measures in 
 1875 to bring it under British control. The Egyptian ruler, 
 Ismail — Said's successor — becoming bankrupt, proceeded 
 to make endeavors to liquidate his canal stock in Paris. Dis- 
 raeli, on his own responsibility, purchased Ismail's shares for 
 about four million pounds. This act was ratified by Parlia- 
 ment, and Great Britain became the chief owner of the new 
 canal. It cut down the voyage from western Europe to In- 
 dia by thousands of miles and saved several weeks of time. 
 In the year before the World War five thousand vessels used 
 the canal, three fifths of which flew the British flag. 
 
 Great Britain has a number of stations on the road from 
 India to the Suez Canal. At the point where the Red Sea is 
 joined to the Gulf of Aden lies the little island of Perim; it is a 
 British coaling-station. On the south shore of the Gulf of 
 Aden is British Somaliland; on the north is the Peninsula of 
 Aden. Farther east on the road to India is the British island 
 
THE SUEZ CANAL AND EGYPT 339 
 
 of Sokotra. The Kuria Muria Islands, off the coast of 
 Arabia, were obtained by Great Britain in 1854 as a land- 
 ing-place for the Red Sea cable. All these stations are links 
 in the chain binding Britain to India. This is clearly in- 
 dicated by the fact that, for governmental purposes, Aden 
 with its dependencies, Perim, Sokotra, and the Kuria Muria 
 Islands, have been under the Bombay Presidency. After 
 the World War, however, they were transferred from the 
 India Office to the Colonial Office. 
 
 Aden is very valuable. In mediaeval days it was note- 
 worthy in trade. The great Portuguese commander, Albu- 
 querque, in the opening of the sixteenth century, regarded 
 its possession as essential for the control of the wealth of the 
 East Indies. Naturally its importance declined with the 
 discovery of the sea-route around Africa, since the Portuguese 
 held it more to prevent than develop its trade. It was in 
 1839 that the British obtained Aden. With the opening of 
 the Suez Canal it leaped into prominence immediately. As 
 Aden is about halfway between Suez and Bombay, it is a stra- 
 tegic station on one of the chief highroads of the world. 
 Though mostly a bare rock, it has a good harbor that has 
 been strongly fortified by Great Britain. 
 
 The Arabian Peninsula, which is shaped like an enormous 
 axe with its cutting edge to the south, is bounded on the 
 eastern side by the Persian Gulf. This great body of water, 
 not far from India, is important for its commerce; at the head 
 of the Gulf is Mesopotamia, comprising the rich river val- 
 leys of the Tigris and Euphrates. Because of near-by India, 
 Great Britain has always had " peculiar interests" in the is- 
 lands and shores of the Persian Gulf. In 1622 the East India 
 Company expelled the Portuguese from Ormuz. As early 
 as 1763 there was a British Resident in the Gulf. The agree- 
 ments, commercial and political, with the various rulers of 
 territory along its shores have been numerous in the past cen- 
 tury and a half. Persia, on the eastern side of the Gulf, has 
 been a sphere of British influence for some time, for the In- 
 dian Government has felt it necessary to keep at least south- 
 ern Persia under British control. The latest illustration is 
 
340 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 the agreement between Great Britain and Persia made in 
 1919. 
 
 On the Arabian side of the Gulf there are various tribal 
 groups under their emirs and sheiks. The most important is 
 the state of Oman, which has a thousand miles of coast-line 
 at the southeastern end of the Peninsula. This independent 
 Arabian sultanate is actually subordinate to the Government 
 of India. A state of similar character is the new kingdom of 
 the Hejaz on the western side of the Peninsula. The only 
 important islands in the Gulf are the Bahrein Islands, famous 
 for their pearl fisheries. The relation of the Indian Govern- 
 ment to these islands is even closer than to Oman; they are 
 regarded as a part of the British Empire. British commer- 
 cial interests in the Gulf have been so predominant for the 
 last century that it was no surprise that the mandate of Mes- 
 opotamia went to the Power which enjoys commercial and 
 political ascendancy in the Gulf. 
 
 THE MEDITERRANEAN . 
 
 The Mediterranean part of the journey from India to the 
 mother country is as carefully guarded as the road from Bom- 
 bay to the canal. At the eastern end of the Mediterranean 
 the British hold Cyprus; as a halfway station there is Malta; 
 the western entrance is controlled by Gibraltar. 
 
 In considering British interests in the Mediterranean one 
 must not forget that Great Britain has possessed important 
 holdings in this sea which it no longer controls. Charles II, 
 by his marriage with the Portuguese princess, Catherine of 
 Braganza, in 1662, received a dowry of uncommon impor- 
 tance from the point of oversea expansion; it included Bom- 
 bay in the East Indies and Tangier on the northwest coast of 
 Africa. Bombay was turned over to the East India Company 
 to become the nucleus of territorial possessions in India. 1 
 Tangier, thirty-five miles southwest of Gibraltar, was forti- 
 fied and held for only twenty years. A fortress and harbor, 
 that might have served British interests in the Mediterra- 
 nean almost as well as Gibraltar, was abandoned in 1683 be- 
 
 1 See p. 65. 
 
THE SUEZ CANAL AND EGYPT 
 
 341 
 
 cause Charles II could not afford to defend it against Moorish 
 
 attacks, and was unwilling to submit his needs to Parliament. 
 
 The island of Minorca, to the east of Spain, came into 
 
 British possession early in the eighteenth century at the 
 
 same time that Gibraltar was acquired. Its excellent harbor 
 of Port Mahon was in some ways better located than Gibral- 
 tar, especially for watching French activities. The island was 
 lost, temporarily, in 1756. Admiral Byng, whose squadron 
 did not prevent its capture, was shot on the quarter-deck of 
 the Monarque, as a result of a court-martial that found him 
 guilty of misconduct. 1 
 
 The Ionian Islands, west of Greece in the Adriatic, were 
 placed under British protection by the Congress of Vienna 
 at the close of the Napoleonic wars. They did not go the or- 
 dinary road of protectorates, however, and later become a 
 Crown Colony, but were voluntarily relinquished to Greece in 
 
 1 See p. 87. Minorca was finally ceded to Spain in 1802. 
 
342 ; THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 1864. Fifteen years after the downfall of Napoleon, Greece 
 became independent, and the inhabitants of the Ionian Islands 
 desired to unite with their kindred on the Continent. In 1858 
 Gladstone went out as a commissioner to investigate the na- 
 tive request; he was at first opposed to the cession of the 
 islands to Greece, but five years after his brief mission the 
 Ionian protectorate was surrendered "in spite of that na- 
 tional aversion to anything like giving up." x This recogni- 
 tion of the principle of nationality, uncommon in the early 
 nineteenth century, came before the rise of the new imperial 
 enthusiasm recorded in chapter xvn. Had the islands been 
 kept for another generation, it is doubtful whether they 
 would have been surrendered. 
 
 In spite of the loss of points of vantage so important for 
 naval operations as Tangier, Minorca, and the Ionian Islands, 
 Great Britain is still able to guard effectually the road to the 
 Suez Canal by means of such strategic holdings as Cyprus, 
 Malta, and Gibraltar. 
 
 The Rock of Gibraltar is one of its best-known possessions. 
 This impregnable fortress fell into British hands early in the 
 eighteenth century. It was at the opening of the War of 
 the Spanish Succession that the English admiral, Sir George 
 Rooke, was instructed to take Cadiz or Gibraltar in order 
 that Great Britain might have a convenient naval base 
 whence to attack the French at Toulon. Gibraltar was cap- 
 tured in 1704 after a bombardment of a few hours. Several 
 times in the early part of the eighteenth century the British 
 Government was not unwilling to abandon Gibraltar. Grad- 
 ually, however, its strategic value was realized. This Rock 
 became a synonym for impregnability when the Spanish and 
 French failed to capture it in the siege of 1779-83, in spite 
 of extraordinary efforts to take this guardian of the Medi- 
 terranean. Its possession has given to the British a feeling 
 of security for the most important of the Empire's highways. 
 It is strongly fortified. The good harbor has made Gibraltar 
 an important port of call for merchant shipping as well; be- 
 
 1 For a full account of this interesting episode see Morley's Life of Gladstone, 
 Bk. iv, ch. x. 
 
THE SUEZ CANAL AND EGYPT 343 
 
 tween four and five thousand vessels stop there every year. 
 Although it has an area of less than two square miles, Gi- 
 braltar is a Crown Colony of the autocratically governed type. 
 
 Almost exactly halfway between Gibraltar and the Suez 
 Canal is the island of Malta. This island has great historic 
 interest and serves also as a highly valuable link on the high- 
 way to the East. The successive empires of the ancient and 
 the Mediterranean world had left their impress on Malta be- 
 fore it became British. One of its supposed visitors during 
 the days of Roman sway was the Apostle Paul. The ship- 
 wreck which is recorded in the Book of Acts took place, ac- 
 cording to tradition, in St. Paul's Bay on the northwest coast. 
 From the opening of the sixteenth century it was the seat of 
 the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. Napoleon, on his way 
 to Egypt, captured the island in 1798. The British took it 
 two years later and have retained it ever since. Valetta, 
 the chief town, has "one of the finest natural harbors in the 
 world." It ranks with Aden and Gibraltar as a port of call 
 and as a refitment station and base for the British navy. 1 
 
 In the eastern Mediterranean the British hold the large 
 island of Cyprus. Like Malta it has been under many mas- 
 ters and has received diverse influences. The student of Eng- 
 lish history will recall its conquest by Richard I during the 
 Third Crusade, and the latter's marriage there to Queen 
 Berengaria. For a time it belonged to the Knights Templars, 
 later was an outpost of the Venetians, and finally in 1570 
 passed under Turkish control. In 1878 it became subject to 
 British rule, though remaining nominally a part of the Turk- 
 ish Empire. Great Britain took care that this island should 
 not go to any other power, for it is but two hundred and 
 thirty miles from the Suez Canal. It was considered of 
 value, also, as a coaling-station and as a point from which 
 Great Britain could keep a watchful eye on the neighboring 
 Turkish mainland. In 1914 Cyprus was formally annexed, 
 when Turkey became an enemy of, and a menace to, the 
 British Empire. 
 
 The attitude of Great Britain toward the Ottoman Empire 
 
 1 For Malta's novel political status in the Empire see pp. 439 ff. 
 
344 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 during the nineteenth century has been much influenced by 
 the possession of India and by the Mediterranean route to 
 the East. During the early years of the century the British 
 were concerned in the freeing of European Turkey from the 
 rule of the Ottomans; they assisted in obtaining the inde- 
 pendence of Greece in 1830. As Russia became more aggres- 
 sive in its approach to Constantinople, Great Britain grew 
 more anxious to prevent its reaching the Mediterranean. 
 This was to be done best by preserving the integrity of the 
 Turkish dominions. For this reason the Crimean War was 
 waged in the mid-century against an advancing Russia. The 
 menace became ominous again in 1877 when Russia defeated 
 Turkey disastrously, and rearranged the Balkan boundaries 
 so as to deprive the Ottoman Empire of most of Macedonia. 
 Again Britain feared Russian influence in Bulgaria and the 
 Mediterranean. It forced the reconsideration of the Bal- 
 kan question at the Congress of Berlin in 1878. There it was 
 decided that the " unspeakable Turk" should keep Mace- 
 donia. Austria at this time " occupied " Bosnia and Herze- 
 govina, and Great Britain assumed the same relation to 
 Cyprus. If the integrity of the Ottoman Empire was not 
 to be preserved, Great Britain was determined to have its 
 share of the " sick man's " property, or, in any case, to keep 
 control of the eastern Mediterranean. 
 
 THE BRITISH OCCUPATION OF EGYPT 
 
 This attitude toward the problem of the Near East is illus- 
 trated again by the history of Egypt, the part of the Turkish 
 dominions most vitally related to the Suez Canal. 
 
 When Napoleon went to Egypt in 1798, he was opposed by 
 the Mamelukes, a body of mercenary soldiers that had, to its 
 great misfortune, ruled Egypt for a long time. Out of the 
 troubles of the Napoleonic wars rose an adventurer of re- 
 markable energy who was able to wrest the control of Egypt 
 from the Mamelukes. Mehemet Ali, commander of an Alba- 
 nian corps, was made Viceroy of the country in 1805 by the 
 Sultan of Turkey. He found the Mamelukes a great obstacle 
 to his power; it was over a decade before he succeeded in ex- 
 
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346 . THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 terminating them. After securing control of the land of the 
 Nile, Mehemet Ali set about reorganizing the army, building 
 a navy, and developing the resources of the country. His 
 ambitions were boundless. The Upper Nile valley known as 
 the Sudan, was brought under partial control. The Sultan 
 had to give him Crete in 1830; a few years later the ruler of 
 Turkey was forced to hand over Syria to this ambitious 
 Viceroy, although these territories were later returned to the 
 Sultan on the intervention of the Powers. Mehemet Ali, 
 while in some ways a veritable tyrant, proved an extremely 
 vigorous administrator of Egypt for nearly fifty years. He 
 died in 1849. 
 
 The next noteworthy ruler of Egypt was Ismail, the grand- 
 son of Mehemet Ali, whose rule lasted from 1863 to 1879. Is- 
 mail encouraged the building of the Suez Canal, which was 
 completed during his reign, furnishing assistance for the ac- 
 complishment of the great task by his money and the forced 
 labor of the fellaheen. Just two years before the canal was 
 opened he obtained from the Sultan the title of Khedive, in- 
 cluding the hereditary right for his family of the rule of Egypt. 
 The Khedive was very active in developing and extending 
 his power. Agriculture was promoted, roads built, the 
 Sudan brought under further control. But to this interest 
 in the development of his country he added a reckless ex- 
 travagance that more than outweighed the good he accom- 
 plished. He spent large sums in procuring his freedom 
 from Turkish rule. Expensive palaces were built, and his 
 coffers were drained by the extravagant life of the court. 
 In 1875 Ismail was a bankrupt. It was at this juncture 
 that he sold his canal shares to Disraeli. 
 
 The next year the Khedive repudiated his debts. His 
 creditors immediately took alarm. Thereupon the European 
 states organized an international Caisse de la Dette, or Bank 
 of the Debt, to secure enough of the Egyptian revenues to 
 pay the interest on the Khedive's foreign obligations. In ad- 
 dition, France and Great Britain, as the two nations chiefly 
 concerned, appointed controllers to supervise the finances 
 of the bankrupt state. When Ismail balked again in 1879 — 
 
THE SUEZ CANAL AND EGYPT 347 
 
 he refused to pay the interest on the debt — he was deposed 
 by the Sultan of Turkey at the request of the Powers. 
 
 Under his son and successor Tewfik the financial hold of 
 the European nations became stronger. France and Great 
 Britain established a Dual Control in 1880. But the growth 
 of foreign interference aroused dissatisfaction among the 
 Egyptians. A Nationalist revolt followed under the lead of 
 a certain Arabi Pasha. There was an insistent demand, on 
 the part of the Mohammedans, for a National Parliament, 
 and an army sufficiently strong to insure " Egypt for the 
 Egyptians." In 1882 Arabi Pasha became Minister of War 
 and the practical ruler of the country. Thereupon he de- 
 clared the financial control of the foreigners at an end. The 
 resentment of Great Britain and France was natural. In 
 addition to the financial obligations that were endangered 
 Great Britain feared for the safety of the canal. 
 
 The governments of these two nations felt that it was nec- 
 essary to suppress the movement under Arabi and to rein- 
 state Tewfik, who had taken refuge with the British. But 
 just at this time an adverse vote of the French Chamber of 
 Deputies dissolved the Dual Control; Britain was left alone 
 to deal with a growing nationalist movement. In 1882 riots 
 occurred in the city of Alexandria. Arabi's forces began to 
 fortify the city just at the time that the French fleet sailed 
 away and left the British alone. As the latter were deter- 
 mined not to lose hold of the situation, they promptly bom- 
 barded the newly erected fortifications. It was not of its 
 own will that Great Britain was unassisted in restoring order 
 and demanding recognition of financial obligations in Egypt. 
 After France refused to give active assistance — even to the 
 extent of patrolling the canal — Italy was invited to join. 
 But Great Britain had no aid from either Italy or France in 
 Egypt. After securing Alexandria an army of British and 
 Indians was dispatched from the canal against Cairo. In 
 September, 1882, Arabi's forces were defeated at Tel-el-Ke- 
 bir, and Cairo fell shortly afterward. Arabi was captured 
 and sent as an exile to Ceylon, and Tewfik was reinstated on 
 his throne. 
 
348 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 The throne had become an " empty chair," for, with this 
 military action by the British, there began a British occupa- 
 tion. As France had taken no part in suppressing Arabi 
 Pasha's revolt, Great Britain naturally felt that the Dual 
 Control had ceased. Britain's predominant interest in the 
 Suez Canal and the financial condition of Egypt made it un- 
 wise to evacuate the country after the revolt had been over- 
 come, for that would have meant anarchy internally as well 
 as danger to outside interests. The British decided, there- 
 fore, to remain and to supervise Egyptian affairs until peace 
 and prosperity were established and the Egyptians proved 
 themselves capable of self-government. At that time the 
 British did not expect that the occupation would be perma- 
 nent. 
 
 In 1884 Sir Evelyn Baring (Lord Cromer) was appointed 
 British Agent and Consul-General. This great administra- 
 tor was the wise guide of Egyptian affairs until his retirement 
 in 1907. He well deserves the title of "Maker of Modern 
 Egypt." Lord Cromer was set to work under a regime that 
 was anomalous, to say the least. It would have been much 
 simpler for him if Great Britain had immediately declared a 
 protectorate over Egypt. But that would have reopened to 
 a fresh consideration the question of the Near East. Russia 
 and Austria-Hungary might have demanded " compensa- 
 tion " to offset Britain's gain. It required extraordinary abil- 
 ity in Lord Cromer to labor with a people of different lan- 
 guage and race and religion who were being " advised," but 
 were not willing to accept innovations. Lord Cromer proved 
 "resolute, tactful, far-seeing, and inexhaustibly patient." It 
 was fortunate that the Khedive, Tewfik Pasha, was not of 
 the high-spirited type of his predecessors, Mehemet Ali and 
 Ismail. He owed his throne to British intervention, and 
 he cooperated with the British in the regeneration of the 
 country. 
 
 Lack of space does not permit of a detailed treatment of 
 the work done by the foreign administrators, who practically 
 remade Egypt. For one thing, the corvee or forced labor of 
 the fellaheen was abolished. The bulk of the peasantry had 
 
THE SUEZ CANAL AND EGYPT 349 
 
 been in practical slavery for centuries. The fellaheen, 
 though freed from the ordinary corvee, were still liable to be 
 called out in cases of emergency during the flood season of the 
 Nile. Another measure of reform was a careful revaluation 
 of the land, so that small cultivators would be taxed fairly 
 and owners of large tracts of good land would not evade their 
 obligations. The distribution of Nile water in the irrigation 
 system has been made more equitable by the even-handed 
 justice of the British officials. The reduction of the direct 
 tax on the land and of the salt tax has gone far to better the 
 lot of the lower classes. Above all, there was honesty and 
 efficiency in the administration — a signal triumph in that 
 part of the world. 
 
 The financial condition of Egypt has decidedly improved 
 since 1882. When the British occupation began there was a 
 debt of one hundred million pounds. It was necessary to 
 make the service of this debt a first claim on the revenue. 
 Besides, the Egyptian Government was required to hold in 
 reserve other funds, making it difficult to finance the needed 
 internal improvements. When the World War began the 
 debt remained about as large as it was forty years before. It 
 has been gradually decreasing, however, and the burdensome 
 debt-charge of over three million pounds annually is being 
 slowly diminished. Since 1905 the reserve funds have been 
 at the disposal of the Egyptian Government. 
 
 The financial conditions were bound to improve as a re- 
 sult of the increased revenue obtainable from a developing 
 country. The British have worked wonders in the conserva- 
 tion and distribution of the Nile water, so essential to the 
 life of Egypt. The reservoir system has been enlarged, and 
 the barrage just south of the Delta put into working order. 
 The greatest accomplishment of the British was the comple- 
 tion, in 1903, of the Assouan Dam. This dam, near the 
 southern border of Egypt, is over a mile long and backs up 
 the waters of the Nile for nearly two hundred miles. Thou- 
 sands of acres have been brought under cultivation as a 
 result of these various projects. 
 
350 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 THE SUDAN 
 
 During the time the British occupied Egypt they also 
 brought the country to the south, known as the Sudan, un- 
 der their control. Mehemet Ali had subjugated some of the 
 tribes of the Sudan, but the greater part of it remained un- 
 known and unconquered. It was in 1864 that the English 
 traveler, Sir Samuel Baker, pushed up the Nile to Lake 
 Victoria Nyanza. A few years later Ismail appointed this 
 famous explorer and hunter to restore his waning au- 
 thority in the Sudan. Baker suppressed the slave-trade and 
 opened the country to commerce. On his departure, how- 
 ever, in 1873 the conditions in the Sudan soon relapsed to the 
 state in which he had found them. In 1874 Ismail sent 
 General Charles (" Chinese") Gordon to the Upper Nile 
 country to complete the work of Baker. His wonderful 
 energy in suppressing rebellion as well as in preventing the 
 trade in slaves only served to arouse a feeling of bitter revolt 
 among the tribesmen against the foreigners who were inter- 
 fering with their ways of life. Gordon's governorship in the 
 Sudan ended in 1879 when Ismail was deposed as Khedive. 
 
 Two years later the Sudanese dissatisfaction came to a 
 head just at the time that Arabi Pasha was leading a similar 
 movement in Egypt. The uprising in the Sudan was under a 
 leader known as the Mahdi. He was particularly successful 
 in arousing the dervishes against the foreigner, because of 
 the appeal he made to religious fanaticism. It was widely 
 believed that the Mahdi — or " Guide" — was a forerunner 
 of the Messiah. The religious character of his frenzied 
 leadership added great enthusiasm to the desire of the tribes- 
 men to be free from the tax collector and the foreigner. The 
 opportunity to carry on the slave-trade had something to do, 
 also, with the growth of the Mahdi's power. A holy war be- 
 gan with the capture of Kordofan. The Egyptian Govern- 
 ment determined to settle the Sudan question once for all by 
 the decisive defeat of the new movement. For this purpose 
 Colonel Hicks, a retired British officer, was sent south at the 
 head of an army of ten thousand Egyptian troops. In 
 
THE SUEZ CANAL AND EGYPT 351 
 
 September, 1883, Hicks Pasha, as he is known, invaded Kor- 
 dofan. Forty thousand of the Mahdi's forces attacked the 
 little army and exterminated it. 
 
 This great disaster was not immediately retrieved, for the 
 Egyptian Government and army were in a disorganized 
 state. In addition, the Nationalist movement led by the 
 Mahdi was growing stronger and stronger. It was decided, 
 in view of the situation in both the Sudan and Egypt, to 
 abandon the country of the Upper Nile. The withdrawal of 
 the garrisons, the most important of which was at Khartum 
 where the Blue Nile joins the« White Nile, was the chief 
 difficulty. General Gordon, despite Lord Cromer's disap- 
 proval of the selection, was sent to Khartum for the purpose 
 of bringing about the evacuation. The choice was not a 
 good one. As an uncompromising Christian of strongly reli- 
 gious temperament, he aroused the fanaticism of the der- 
 vishes, who so profoundly believed in the Mahdi; as Gov- 
 ernor-General of the Sudan from 1874 to 1879, he had been 
 responsible for the cordial ill will of the natives by his vig- 
 orous attacks on the slave-trade and by other measures. 1 
 
 Gordon arrived at Khartum in the spring of 1884. By 
 that time the evacuation of the Sudan became of less interest 
 to him — and to the British public as well — than the reor- 
 ganization of the Sudanese Government and the " smashing 
 up of the Mahdi." Gordon delayed the evacuation until it 
 was too late and the retreat was cut off by the Mahdi's 
 forces. A remarkable siege of over ten months followed. 
 After long delay, for which Gladstone was in part responsi- 
 ble, a relief expedition was organized. But it did not reach 
 Khartum until January 28, 1885. Two days before, the 
 place was stormed and the townspeople slaughtered. The 
 head of Gordon was exhibited by order of the Mahdi in a 
 prominent place on the public highway where all who passed 
 could throw stones at it. The blame for this terrible disaster 
 rests to a considerable degree on Gordon himself who, allured 
 by the idea of ruling the country he had formerly adminis- 
 
 1 There is an interesting essay on "The End of General Gordon" in 
 Strachey's Eminent Victorians (New York, 1918). 
 
352 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 tered, had exceeded his instructions. Queen Victoria wrote 
 General Gordon's sister a letter of warm sympathy for "the 
 stain left upon England for your dear Brother's cruel, though 
 heroic fate." 
 
 After the great catastrophe at Khartum the Sudan was 
 left to itself for a while. During the next decade the Egyp- 
 tian army was reorganized with British officers in charge. It 
 was not until 1896 that Lord Kitchener, the Sirdar or head of 
 the Egyptian army, was ordered to reconquer the Sudan. 
 The motives that led to the reconquest were diverse. Under 
 the Khalifa, who had succeeded the Mahdi, the peace had 
 been kept, but in the middle nineties the dervishes were grow- 
 ing active again, and Osman Digna, the ablest of the der- 
 vish leaders, was endangering the Egyptian frontier. The 
 British, moreover, felt it necessary to hold the Upper Nile in 
 order to secure the supply of water for Lower Egypt. An- 
 other reason for the reoccupation was the French inten- 
 tion to acquire the country by an invasion from the Congo 
 region. Kitchener carried on his campaign of reconquest 
 with great care. He maintained strong connections with his 
 base of supplies, even building a railway two hundred miles 
 long across the desert. In 1898 at Omdurman, across the 
 Nile from Khartum, a great victory was won over the forces 
 of the Khalifa. On his return to Great Britain the victorious 
 general received the title of Baron Kitchener of Khartum. 
 
 After the Battle of Omdurman, Kitchener learned that a 
 French force had reached Fashoda (Kodok), four hundred 
 and fifty miles farther up the river. Major Marchand had 
 penetrated to that point, marching east from the French 
 Congo, in order to lay claim to the district for his Govern- 
 ment. Thereupon Kitchener proceeded to Fashoda, where 
 he found Marchand with his few followers in imminent 
 danger of attack from the dervishes. Marchand refused to 
 lower the French flag at Kitchener's demand. When the 
 news reached home, feeling ran high on both sides of the 
 Channel, and there was danger of an Anglo-French war had 
 France persisted in supporting Marchand. It proved to be 
 but an " incident," however, as France relinquished rights to 
 
THE SUEZ CANAL AND EGYPT 353 
 
 that part of the Sudan. In return, Great Britain recognized 
 France's claim to the territory east and southeast of Lake 
 Tchad in central Africa. The Anglo-French Agreement of 
 1904 settled other problems of the two Governments, giving 
 mutual support for projected colonial plans in Africa; French 
 interests in Morocco were recognized by Great Britain, and 
 the British were allowed by this Agreement to choose their 
 own time for evacuating Egypt. Thus, by a strange turn in 
 affairs, the "Fashoda Incident," instead of bringing war be- 
 tween France and England, laid the basis of that entente 
 cordiale, which lasted through the World War against Ger- 
 many. 
 
 The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is administered by Egypt and 
 Great Britain in concert, though it is really nothing more 
 than the rule of the stronger of these two partners. The 
 Governor-General is appointed by Egypt with the assent of 
 Great Britain. The latter also has decided on the general 
 policy of the administration. The governors of the fifteen 
 provinces are British officers in the Egyptian army. The 
 provincial subdivisions are in the hands of British inspectors, 
 under whom Egyptian officers superintend the various dis- 
 tricts. The population of this immense section of central 
 Africa is over three million. Commercially it is useful as the 
 world's most important source for gum arabic and ivory. 
 
 MODBKN EGYPT 
 
 The thirteen million inhabitants of Egypt live along the 
 Nile and in the Delta. The inhabited districts are densely 
 peopled, averaging over one thousand to the square mile; the 
 population has doubled since the British occupation took 
 place. The Nile valley has been noted for centuries as one 
 of the greatest producing areas in the world. In addition to 
 the crops of wheat and rice there is a large amount of cotton 
 produced; Great Britain annually obtains from Egypt more 
 than £20,000,000 worth of raw cotton for the mills of Lan- 
 cashire. 
 
 The government of Egypt at the opening of the World War 
 was nominally under the Khedive and a ministry of natives. 
 
354 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 A Legislative Assembly came into being in 1913, consisting of 
 the ministers, sixty-six elected members, and seventeen mem- 
 bers appointed by the Government. The assembly was given 
 the power to initiate legislation and was consulted on the 
 matter of loans, but the Government was not responsible to 
 this body. If the two disagreed, the Government enacted 
 laws as it saw fit. An exception to this autocratic system 
 was the veto power over new direct personal or land taxes. 
 Provincial and municipal councils were established that as- 
 sisted in the administration of the country. The Egyptian 
 army, which was reorganized after the British occupation, 
 became an efficient force under British officers. There was 
 also a British Army of Occupation, which continuously 
 served as a thorn in the side of the subordinated country. 
 Justice has been administered by a system of laws and courts 
 in line with the customs of the people, although foreigners in 
 Egypt have not been under the jurisdiction of the lower 
 courts. The Capitulations (or treaties) made by the Turkish 
 Empire with the fourteen principal Christian states have 
 applied to Egypt as well. A person living in Egypt, but a 
 citizen of one of these countries, has had the privilege of trial 
 for an offense before the consul of his own country; in addi- 
 tion, he has been largely exempt from taxation. 
 
 Since the opening of the new century Egypt has gone 
 through a period of " unrest," not unlike that we have found 
 in India. Nationalism had developed both in Egypt and the 
 Sudan in the days of Arabi's revolt. It was made more bitter, 
 as time went on, by the apparent intention of the British to 
 stay permanently in the land of the Nile. The promises of 
 the first years of the occupation that the British administra- 
 tion was but temporary gave place to more indefinite state- 
 ments. The agreements entered into with France in 1898 
 and 1904 granted Britain permission to choose its own time for 
 leaving the country. At the same time the British Govern- 
 ment declared that it had no intention of altering the politi- 
 cal status of Egypt. The fear of Egyptian Nationalists that 
 Britain intended to remain permanently seemed to be proved 
 correct, for in December, 1914, the " veiled" protectorate of 
 
THE SUEZ CANAL AND EGYPT 355 
 
 the country was declared formally to be in effect and the 
 suzerainty of Turkey at an end. 
 
 The Mohammedans, who compose ninety per cent of the 
 population, had long looked forward to an independent, self- 
 governing Egypt. The evident weakness of the Ottoman 
 Empire since 1900 had given the Nationalists strong hope. 
 The Young Turk revolt of 1908 further encouraged them in 
 their wish for representative institutions, while the Italian 
 and Balkan attacks on the Ottoman Empire made it evident 
 that the "sick man" was moribund. Egypt's day seemed 
 at hand. Since Abbas Hilmi succeeded Tewfik in 1892 the 
 "unrest" has been continuous. The Nationalists have de- 
 manded a completely constitutional regime, even the re- 
 moval of the British control of the Government and the 
 army. Much the same criticism has been leveled against 
 British rule in Egypt as in India. The military administra- 
 tion was felt to be a burden. The Egyptian Nationalists 
 were strongly convinced that the country had been exploited 
 to bring financial benefit to the foreigner. Above all, the 
 Anglophobes have carped on the lack of any apparent plan 
 for making Egypt serve primarily the Egyptians. 
 
 Sir Eldon Gorst, the successor of Lord Cromer, was inter- 
 ested in reform, but his amiable intentions were misinter- 
 preted by the people. In 1910 Boutros Pasha, the Coptic 
 Prime Minister, was murdered by a Mohammedan Nation- 
 alist. Seditious agencies in intimate connection with the 
 Young Turks were found in Cairo. In 1912 a plot to mur- 
 der the Khedive, the Premier, and Lord Kitchener was un- 
 earthed. Before the World War began, Lord Kitchener, as 
 the British administrator, had strengthened his hold on the 
 country. With the opening of the War of 1914 this ganglion 
 of British dominion in the Old World became of supreme im- 
 portance, for the Suez Canal needed protection, and Egypt 
 was the country which would best serve this purpose, and at 
 the same time serve also as a base of attack on the Turkish 
 Empire. Accordingly, in December, 1914, the pro-German 
 Khedive was deposed and Hussein Kamil became Sultan 
 under Britain's "protection." 1 
 
 1 For the relations between Great Britain and Egypt since 1914 see pp. 464 ff. 
 
356 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 This step was but the registration of the growing con- 
 trol of Egypt, the occupation of which, at first regarded as 
 temporary, became more definite with the passing of time. 
 Great Britain found Egypt of such vital interest that a per- 
 manent hold seemed justified. Politically the country of the 
 Nile is of great value, because of its proximity to the road to 
 India. Economically it has been highly useful as the source 
 of the best raw cotton for the mills of Lancashire. This 
 double interest illustrates the natural British attitude to the 
 other Turkish possessions that border the great sea-road. 
 They have become important to Great Britain because of 
 their relation to the Indian highway. And the very high- 
 way has increased in value as the British have added to their 
 holdings along its course. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 
 
 In addition to the volumes noted in the previous Bibliographical Note, 
 reference may be made to C. W. J. Orr, Cyprus under British Rule (Lon- 
 don, 1918), and for the earlier history of British interests to Sir Julian S. 
 Corbett's England in the Mediterranean: A Study of the Rise and Influence 
 of British Power within the Straits, 1603-1713 (2 vols., London, 1904). Sir 
 Harry H. Johnston, A History of the Colonization of Africa by Alien Races, 
 and H. A. Gibbons, The New Map of Africa, 1900-1916 (New York, 1917), 
 are volumes of a general character that include Egypt and the Sudan in 
 their survey. There is a considerable literature on Egypt among which 
 mention should be made of Viscount Milner's England in Egypt (London, 
 1892), the Earl of Cromer's Modern Egypt (2 vols., New York, 1916), Sir 
 Sidney Low's Egypt in Transition (New York, 1914), and Sir Auckland 
 Colvin's The Making of Modern Egypt (London, 1906). Sir Valentine 
 Chirol's The Egyptian Problem (London, 1920) treats the period of the 
 British occupation and includes an account of the uprising of 1919. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA 
 
 The last fifty years of South African development have been 
 far different from the leisurely progress of earlier days. 
 Before 1870 the provinces of the present Union had begun to 
 take form and to reveal conditions that have become in- 
 creasingly important. The Boers trekked north of the 
 Orange and across the Vaal in the thirties to form the Orange 
 Free State and the Transvaal; just at the middle of the cen- 
 tury these two pastoral districts were granted self-govern- 
 ment by the Sand River and Bloemfontein Conventions of 
 1852 and 1854, respectively. Natal came under British 
 control, in spite of the attempts of the Boers to occupy it. 
 Cape Colony, with the largest British population, was the 
 most prosperous of the South African groups. In 1872 it 
 received responsible government, after the form already 
 granted to Canada and Australasia. 
 
 The relations of the Boers and the British conquerors had 
 not been cordial. As we have found in an earlier chapter 
 (xvi) the Dutch farmers became restless and dissatisfied 
 under the rule of Britain. After the Great Trek the irrecon- 
 cilables founded new homes where they could practice their 
 pastoral form of life unhindered by standards they did not 
 relish. Politically, the Boers were uninterested in the growth 
 of the British Empire; they wanted the chance to be self-gov- 
 erning after their own conservative standards. Their reli- 
 gious and social viewpoints tended to separate Briton and 
 Boer more and more as the nineteenth century progressed. 
 
 CONTINUED RACIAL FRICTION 
 
 The two Boer states north of the Orange were not destined 
 long to continue in the isolation they desired. Yet for a 
 quarter of a century after the republics were granted their 
 independence the position of the two nationalities remained 
 the same. But causes of further discord were appearing, 
 
358 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 The Orange Free State had less difficulty than its northern 
 neighbor, for it was under the wise guidance of President 
 John Brand from 1863 to 1888. Although a believer in 
 Dutch independence, his moderation and his willingness to 
 cooperate with the Cape for the general welfare had helped 
 to relieve tension. 
 
 In the Transvaal the situation was different. The more 
 irreconcilable and adventurous elements had trekked to this 
 more northern Boer state. For some time after the Sand 
 River Convention an anarchic condition existed. Various 
 parts of the Transvaal were practically self-governing until 
 a union under the presidency of Pretorius was effected in 
 1864. In 1872 Pretorius had been succeeded by T. F. Bur- 
 gers as President; by this time Paul Kruger, the most stub- 
 born of the irreconcilables, had come to occupy an important 
 place in Transvaal politics. The Transvaal Boers were cut 
 off from the outside world and so felt freer to practice their 
 exclusiveness than did the Boers of the Orange Free State. 
 
 Dutch exclusiveness, however, was an impossible condition 
 for several reasons. The Boers were gradually expanding 
 their territories by settlements beyond the original districts 
 to which they had trekked. In this way they came into con- 
 tact with British pioneers, for British expansion was just 
 as natural as Boer growth. The British missionaries had 
 worked for several decades in central Africa and in the dis- 
 tricts to the west and east of the Boer republics. As else- 
 where, settlement and trade followed in their steps. It was 
 also natural that British subjects should move into the Boer 
 states. Even if pastoral pursuits had remained the chief in- 
 terest of Boer and Briton, trouble would have developed 
 sooner or later in South Africa. The irrepressible conflict 
 was seriously hastened by the discovery of diamonds at Kim- 
 berley and of gold on the Rand. These two sources of wealth 
 attracted thousands of outsiders — Uitlanders — to the new 
 industrial centers. With the intrusion of the foreigner and 
 with his demand for equal privileges, trouble began that 
 only ended with the Boer War at the close of the century. 
 
 In 1867 a valuable diamond was picked up near the Orange 
 
THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA 359 
 
 River. A search for others was stimulated, with the result 
 that "dry diggings" were discovered near the Vaal River at 
 the western side of the Orange Free State. Here in 1871 the 
 town of Kimberley was founded, and it rapidly became one 
 of the most important mining centers in the world. This 
 sterile district, known as Griqualand West, was the scene of 
 remarkable changes. Diggers and capitalists, promoters and 
 adventurers, brought a new sort of life to this remote section 
 of South Africa. The former pastoral conditions were rudely 
 upset by the new industry that grew so rapidly around Kim- 
 berley. Mining had come to revolutionize South African 
 conditions and to intensify racial feeling. 
 
 The political effect of the discovery of diamonds was imme- 
 diate. Kimberley lay in the land of the Griquas, whose 
 chief was Waterboer. The Orange River sovereignty for- 
 merly included this district, and presumably the Orange Free 
 State possessed it in 1871. But the claim of the Free State 
 was ignored by the diggers, who named their new town after 
 the British Colonial Secretary of the time. The contro- 
 versy between Waterboer and the Orange Free State as to 
 the control of the region was referred to the arbitration of the 
 Lieutenant-Governor of Natal; the award placed most of the 
 diamond field in Waterboer's territory. The Griqua chief- 
 tain, finding the burden of governing the tumultuous life of a 
 mining camp too arduous, ceded his territories to the British, 
 and Griqualand West became a Crown Colony in October, 
 1871 . The people of the Free State naturally suspected such 
 a transaction as prearranged, and strongly protested at the 
 loss of this territory to their stronger neighbor the moment 
 that it became valuable. In 1876 the Boers received £90,000 
 as compensation from the British Government. 
 
 The annexation of the diamond country in 1871 and of 
 Basutoland, to the east of the Free State, a few years before, 
 marked the beginnings of a British advance that resulted 
 in the annexation of the Transvaal in 1877. Gladstone's 
 "Great Ministry," which had been characterized by a keen 
 interest in liberal domestic reforms, but by a disinclination 
 to a spirited and aggressive policy in foreign affairs, ended 
 
\ 
 
 360 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 in 1874. The Conservatives under the leadership of Dis- 
 raeli came to power in that year and remained in power for 
 the rest of the decade. A strong interest was evidenced by 
 Disraeli and his party in imperial matters. The purchase of 
 the Suez Canal shares, the proclamation of Victoria as Empress 
 of India, the " occupation" of the island of Cyprus, all took 
 place during this decade. The annexation of the Transvaal 
 was in line with the policy of the administration. 
 
 Lord Carnarvon of the Colonial Office was greatly inter- 
 ested in the confederation of the South African colonies. A 
 well-known historian, J. A. Froude, was sent to the Cape to 
 urge Carnarvon's scheme. The choice was not an altogether 
 felicitous one, and the opposition to federation grew stronger. 
 A conference was called in London in 1876, but it was no 
 more successful. In the next year a Permissive Federation 
 Act passed Parliament, by which machinery was provided if 
 the colonies wished to use it. In 1877 Sir Bartle Frere was 
 sent out as Governor of Cape Colony with instructions to 
 further union. 
 
 Although confederation seemed no nearer acceptance than 
 in the days of Sir George Grey, there grew out of this general 
 desire for a larger and better-knit British dominion in South 
 Africa the addition of the Transvaal in 1877. Sir Theophilus 
 Shepstone, Secretary of Native Affairs in Natal, was author- 
 ized to visit the Transvaal, to inquire concerning disturbances 
 that had been occurring, and, if it seemed wise and a suffi- 
 cient number of inhabitants desired it, to annex the territory 
 in question. It is true that conditions in the Boer republic 
 were bad; the executive was greatly weakened and the 
 finances of the state were so low that salaries remained un- 
 paid. Wars with the Zulus and the menace of a further 
 conflict were doing much to demoralize the state. Sh* >- 
 stone, as a result of his visit to the Transvaal, professe -to 
 find there a considerable interest in a more stable goA /)rn- 
 ment, even if that government were British; therefore, in 
 accordance with his instructions, he annexed the country in 
 1877, promising that the Transvaal would have its own 
 administration, its own laws, and legislative principles " com- 
 
THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA 361 
 
 patible with the circumstances of the country and the in- 
 telligence of the people." 
 
 It proved to be an unwise step. President Burgers pro- 
 tested to no effect, except that he was allowed to retire on a 
 British pension. The irreconcilables, notable among whom 
 was Paul Kruger, began to do everything possible to bring 
 about the freedom of the Transvaal. 
 
 To make matters more difficult for the British, they found 
 themselves with a Zulu war on their hands just at the close of 
 this decade. The Zulu danger had been one of the causes for 
 Boer weakness. Cetewayo, the Zulu chieftain, was follow- 
 ing in the path of his ancestors; he and his followers were 
 eager to dip their spears in blood. Sir Bartle Frere felt com- 
 pelled to bring order into Zululand by force of arms. The 
 conflict began with decisive defeats for the British, although 
 they were able to break down the power of Cetewayo by 
 July of 1879. In spite of the fact that the war ended victo- 
 riously, it was disastrous for the administration, as it dissatis- 
 fied the people at home. The quarrel with the natives was 
 really a Transvaal quarrel which had been passed on to the 
 British as a result of the annexation. The people at home 
 were tired of the expense and the monotony of the seemingly 
 endless wars with the natives. 
 
 Shortly after the annexation Sir Theophilus Shepstone 
 was succeeded by a less sympathetic Governor, and the 
 Boers felt more restless than ever. Ill feeling in the Trans- 
 vaal was increased by the non-fulfillment of the promises re- 
 garding representative government; a belated constitution 
 was granted in 1880. Unfortunately, in that same year the 
 Transvaal question was injected into British politics. The 
 Liberals under Gladstone took the Conservative action in 
 South Africa as a convenient point for attack during the po- 
 litical campaign. Gladstone in the Mid-Lothian speeches 
 condemned the policy that had been paramount during the 
 Disraeli administration: "If these acquisitions were as val- 
 uable as they are valueless, I would repudiate them, because 
 they were obtained by means dishonorable to the character 
 of our country." Naturally the victory of Gladstone in the 
 
362 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 spring of 1880 gave the Transvaal Boers great hope. As 
 Gladstone did not act in the spirit of the Mid-Lothian 
 speeches, the Boers of the Transvaal, under the lead of Kru- 
 ger, Pretorius, and Joubert, declared the republic reestab- 
 lished. 
 
 In the war that followed the Boers quickly brought the 
 Transvaal under their control. Sir George Colley hastened 
 up from Maritzburg in Natal to relieve the British garrisons. 
 The Boers disputed his advance at Laing's Nek, where the 
 British were defeated. The crowning disaster came at the 
 end of February, 1881, at Majuba Hill. Here, on the west- 
 ern side of Laing's Nek, at the northern end of Natal, the 
 forces of Colley occupied the hill in order to turn the Boer po- 
 sition. The Boers fearlessly ascended the hill and completely 
 defeated the British force. Colley and one hundred of his 
 followers were killed; the Boers lost but two men. The Brit- 
 ish immediately agreed on an armistice and terms were ar- 
 ranged that gave the Boers practical independence. 
 
 The Pretoria Convention of August, 1881, granted large 
 concessions to the Transvaal. There was to be a British 
 Resident, British troops could be marched across the country, 
 and the British were to control the Transvaal's foreign rela- 
 tions. Otherwise, the Boers were practically their own mas- 
 ters. The " Transvaal State," as it is called in the Conven- 
 tion, was not satisfied with these concessions. Kruger and 
 his followers pressed for more privileges, which were granted 
 in the London Convention of 1884. The "Transvaal State" 
 became definitely the " South African Republic." "With 
 a view to promote the peace and order of the said state" 
 changes were made in "certain provisions which are inconven- 
 ient." l The right to march troops across the country was 
 discontinued, and the supervision of native affairs was turned 
 over to the Transvaal. The British control of foreign affairs 
 was reduced to the right of vetoing a treaty within six 
 months. 
 
 The result of the return of the Transvaal to independence 
 
 1 The text of these Conventions will be found in Lucas, South Africa, n, 
 488-508. 
 
THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA 363 
 
 in conjunction with a British defeat in battle was to em- 
 bolden the Boers with the belief that they could go farther 
 in their aims without serious hindrance. It was a mistake to 
 grant concessions to the Transvaal after Majuba Hill. The 
 Boers were not grateful for their independence; they felt that 
 they had won it by force. 
 l The vacillating British policy and its apparent willingness 
 to allow defeat to remain unavenged led to a growth of the 
 feeling of independence in the other South African colonies as 
 well as in the Transvaal. Nationalist sentiment came to a 
 concrete expression in 1882 in Cape Colony, when a congress 
 was held at Graaf Reinet which declared for a united South 
 Africa under its own flag. The organization formed was 
 known as the Afrikander Bond. The feeling of the Dutch 
 as a whole is expressed in 1881 in the address to President 
 Brand on the part of the victorious Transvaal: "Freedom 
 shall arise in South Africa like the sun from the morning 
 clouds, as freedom rose in the United States of America. 
 Then shall it be Africa for the Afrikander, from the Zambesi 
 to Simon's Bay." 
 
 BRITISH EXPANSION 
 
 The prophecy of an Afrikander union under its own flag 
 was not to be fulfilled, at least in the near future. Other 
 forces were at work which were to checkmate the Boer aspi- 
 rations, for about 1885 a number of occurrences rendered 
 British control of southern Africa more certain in spite of the 
 vacillation of a few years before. 
 
 For one thing, imperialistic Great Britain was taking pos- 
 session of many territories whose relationships had hitherto 
 been uncertain. To the west, the north, and the east of the 
 Boer republics the British Empire was extending its sway. 
 In doing so the Government was but following in the wake of 
 the missionaries. 
 
 By 1825 the missionaries had gone north of the Orange 
 River, and in that year the town of Philippolis had been es- 
 tablished and named in honor of the doughty opponent of the 
 Boers, Dr. Philip. In 1816 work was begun among the 
 
364 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 Bechuanas west of the Transvaal district, and the famous 
 missionary, Robert Moffat, had settled at Kuruman in 1821. 
 About the time that the Boer trekkers were driving the Mat- 
 abele out of the Transvaal, the British missionaries were ex- 
 tending their operations to this people. The Boers, with 
 equal determination, expelled the missionaries and the sav- 
 ages from the country between the Orange and the Limpopo. 
 In 1840 the greatest of modern missionaries, David Living- 
 stone, went to South Africa. He married a daughter of 
 Robert Moffat, and became a worthy successor of that pio- 
 neer laborer. By the mid-century he was working as far north 
 as Kolobeng. His intense interest in exploration as well as 
 his love for the blacks led him to range far and wide. In 1849 
 he discovered Lake Ngami, north of the Kalahari Desert. It 
 was not long before he reached the Zambesi River. In 1854 
 he made his way to the west coast of Africa at Loanda; he 
 then returned eastward and crossed the continent by way of 
 the Zambesi to the Indian Ocean. It was at this time that 
 he discovered the great Victoria Falls, where the town of 
 Livingstone is now located. 
 
 On his return to England in 1856, Livingstone was show- 
 ered with honors and attention. In the next year appeared 
 his Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa, a work 
 that very greatly served to increase British interest in the 
 interior of the continent. When the explorer returned to 
 Africa in 1858, he no longer went as a representative of the 
 London Missionary Society, but as the commander of an ex- 
 pedition to explore central and eastern Africa. In 1859 he 
 discovered Lake Nyasa; eight years later he was on the shores 
 of the immense Lake Tanganyika, laboring to solve the ques- 
 tion of the sources of the Nile and the Congo. Finally ex- 
 haustion overtook the tireless worker, and he died in 1873 
 about sixty miles south of Lake Bangweolo in Northern 
 Rhodesia. It was truly a typical act that his native followers 
 should have buried his heart in the center of the continent 
 which he did so much to open to European civilization. 
 
 Largely as a result of the work of Livingstone and Stanley, 
 Africa became of great interest to the European nations. 1 
 
 1 See p. 290. 
 
THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA 365 
 
 By 1885 there was a strong movement among the Powers of 
 Europe to partition the Dark Continent. The year previous 
 Germany had declared a protectorate over what came to be 
 known as German South- West Africa. Contrary to the terms 
 of the London Convention, the Boers began to spread out 
 into Bechuanaland, which lay between the Boer states and 
 German South- West Africa. Bechuanaland, as the "Suez 
 Canal to Southern Central Africa," was very necessary for 
 British interests which had already been established farther 
 inland, and accordingly it was annexed in 1885 out of fear of 
 a possible connection here between Boers and Germans. For 
 similar reasons, Zululand on the eastern side of the Trans- 
 vaal was taken by Great Britain in 1887. Parties of Boers 
 had gone into the country, and there were rumors of a pend- 
 ing German annexation. In the same year Tongaland was 
 added, at the request of the native queen. Thus the Boers 
 were shut in on both the east and the west. 
 
 North of the Transvaal — that is, beyond the Limpopo 
 River — was the Mashona country into which the Matabele 
 had retired when driven from the Transvaal. The Matabele 
 chieftain, Lobengula, ruled the country from his capital at 
 Buluwayo. The possibilities of this unknown territory were 
 thought to be very great. When gold was found in the 
 Transvaal it was not unnatural to expect wealth from the ad- 
 joining country. In 1888 the British made an agreement 
 with Lobengula, by which the Matabele chieftain promised 
 to make no treaties with foreign powers and to dispose of 
 none of his territories to other nations. During the next 
 year a charter was granted to the British South Africa Com- 
 pany for the purpose of developing this district, with due 
 consideration for native interests. 
 
 In 1890 a pioneer expedition was sent into this new country 
 and forts were established at various points. Three years 
 later, after a war with the Matabele, the capital was occupied. 
 As the country furnished excellent grazing-lands the British 
 settlers came in increasing numbers during the years follow- 
 ing the British occupation. 
 
 Matabeleland no longer goes by its old name; on the map 
 
366 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 of Africa it appears as Rhodesia. It was so called from Cecil 
 Rhodes, one of the chief promoters of the British South Africa 
 Company, and a principal figure in the development of Brit- 
 ish imperialism in opposition to the Boers under Kruger. 
 Cecil Rhodes, the frail son of a vicar of Hertfordshire, was 
 born in 1853. He prepared for matriculation at Oxford, but 
 his health forbade his entry, and instead he was sent to a 
 brother's cotton plantation in Natal, where it was thought 
 the dry and bracing air would give him back his strength. 
 He arrived in South Africa just as the diamond fields of Kim- 
 berley were being opened. With a " bucket and a spade, sev- 
 eral volumes of the classics and a Greek lexicon," he followed 
 the crowd to Kimberley. Soon he outdistanced all others in 
 procuring wealth, being one of a group that organized the De 
 Beers Mining Corporation in 1880. In the next year he ob- 
 tained his degree at Oriel College, Oxford, having spent al- 
 ternate half-years since 1876 at the university. No stranger 
 figure is to be found in the annals of the British Empire than 
 that of this health-seeking Oxford student coming to South 
 Africa, where he rapidly rose to a commanding position 
 among the diamond kings of Kimberley. Wealth, however, 
 was not wholly an end with him; it became a means by which 
 he hoped to further his ideas of empire for Britain. He was 
 proud of the Empire, and determined that it should not be 
 lost to Britain in South Africa. 
 
 In 1881 Cecil Rhodes entered the Cape Parliament, at a 
 time that seemed especially untoward for one with his ideals. 
 The disaster at Majuba Hill occurred in that year, and the 
 Afrikander Bond was organized in the next. At first Rhodes 
 was almost alone. But his advocacy of expansion under the 
 flag was joined with a strong feeling that Boer and Briton 
 should be on an equality. Gradually he won the Cape Dutch 
 support by standing for protection in behalf of agriculture; 
 Jan Hendrik Hcfmeyer, for many years the controller of the 
 Bond, was his close friend. The northern expansion of the 
 eighties, which we have already traced, was owing in large 
 measure to the enthusiasm of Rhodes. By the end of the 
 decade he became the head of the British South Africa Com- 
 
THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA 367 
 
 pany which controlled Rhodesia, was master of the entire 
 diamond business in Kimberley, and became Premier of Cape 
 Colony in 1890. For the next six years he labored by means 
 that were not always scrupulous to bring to fruition his 
 scheme of a British South Africa. He found a worthy oppo- 
 nent in President Kruger of the Transvaal. During the last 
 decade of the century the rivalry of Rhodes and Kruger, of 
 Briton and Boer, led to a bitter conflict. 
 
 THE APPROACH OF WAR 
 
 A profound effect was produced on the growing ill feeling 
 between the Boers and the British by the discovery of gold in 
 the Transvaal Free State. In 1884 the precious metal was 
 found in quartz formation at Barberton in the eastern part of 
 the republic. Richer deposits were soon discovered in 1885 
 south of Pretoria on the Witwatersrand (or white-waters- 
 ridge). The deposits, consisting of a conglomerate called 
 " banket," were found in beds that could be traced for long 
 distances and for several thousand feet in depth. The Rand 
 immediately took rank as one of the great gold-producing 
 centers of the world. It eclipsed both California and Aus- 
 tralia, which had created such a sensation thirty-five years 
 before. To-day over a third of the world's annual gold pro- 
 duction is obtained from the Transvaal. It was but natural 
 that another "rash" should take place. In 1886 the city of 
 Johannesburg was founded. In a few months it had out- 
 grown Pretoria, in ten years its population was over one hun- 
 dred thousand, and to-day it is the largest and the richest 
 city of South Africa. 
 
 The effect on the Transvaal of the Rand discoveries was 
 far-reaching. The comparatively poor pastoral republic 
 suddenly leaped to affluence. This was not necessarily a 
 misfortune for the Boers, but accompanying this increase in 
 wealth were a number of factors that were perceived with 
 foreboding by Kruger and his compatriots. The influx of 
 Uitlanders was not welcomed, for this isolated farmers' re- 
 public was faced with problems that an alien population 
 brought into the country. The gold-seekers were largely 
 
368 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 British and they had standards of living and conceptions of 
 progress that the Boers were unwilling to accept. Machinery 
 and railways, commercial intercourse, and the growth of 
 democratic government were but added complications for 
 the Boers in their effort to keep free from British control. 
 
 Trouble soon developed between the Transvaal Govern- 
 ment and the Uitlanders, for the Boers hampered the work of 
 the miners in many ways. Railway construction was hesi- 
 tatingly allowed, so that transportation, so essential a part of 
 an inland industry, was inadequately provided. All mate- 
 rial intended for the Rand was charged with heavy customs 
 duties. This was especially true of the food-supplies. The 
 price of coal to work the engines was made very expensive by 
 the heavy freights. The dynamite so necessary for the blast- 
 ing was the monopoly of a single company, which proceeded 
 to make enormous profits from the concession. The large 
 revenue obtained in these and other ways from the new in- 
 dustry went to the enrichment of the Boer state, but it was 
 not used for the benefit of the Johannesburg miners. The 
 courts used Dutch, with which the Uitlanders as a rule were 
 unfamiliar, and the educational system made no provision 
 for the teaching of English. The Uitlander was powerless 
 to work in his own behalf, for he possessed no political 
 privileges; in 1882 the residence requirement for the fran- 
 chise had been made five years, and in 1890 it was fixed at 
 ten. 
 
 Under such conditions the Uitlanders began to agitate for 
 reform. In 1892 they organized the Transvaal National 
 Union to obtain " political rights and the redress of griev- 
 ances." In 1894 some British subjects were forced to serve 
 in levies used to quell native uprisings. In the next year the 
 drifts, or fords of the Vaal River, through which goods came 
 from the Cape, were declared closed. The British Govern- 
 ment, through the High Commissioner of South Africa, had 
 to intervene at this point to prevent distinct violations of 
 former agreements. 
 
 By 1895 the Uitlanders were completely out of patience. 
 A plot was formed to overthrow the Transvaal Government. 
 
THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA 369 
 
 The Uitlanders had come to an understanding with Cecil 
 Rhodes, then Prime Minister of Cape Colony, by which out- 
 side assistance was promised the conspirators. Guns were 
 sent to Johannesburg and a force under Dr. Jameson — an 
 intimate friend of Rhodes — was collected at Mafeking to 
 cooperate with the Uitlanders. It was arranged that the 
 revolution should occur just at the end of the year and Dr. 
 Jameson was then to hurry to the assistance of the uprising, 
 while Cecil Rhodes was to keep the Dutch quiet in the Cape 
 Colony and urge British governmental intervention. But 
 the revolution in Johannesburg was delayed on account of 
 a disagreement among the Uitlanders. Unfortunately Dr. 
 Jameson was so impatient that he invaded the Transvaal 
 with five hundred men on January 29th, even though a 
 revolution had not yet started on the Rand. The Raid was 
 premature and unwise. The entire force was captured a few 
 days later a few miles west of Johannesburg. 
 
 The whole affair tended to strengthen the Transvaal Gov- 
 ernment, for the Raid seemed to show that British imperial- 
 ists had worked from the outside to overthrow the Dutch re- 
 public. A few days after the Raid the Kaiser startled the 
 world by a telegram to Kruger, which aroused a storm of re- 
 sentment in Britain. It read: "I express to you my sincere 
 congratulations that without appealing to the help of friendly 
 Powers you and your people have succeeded in repelling with 
 your own forces the armed bands which had broken into your 
 country, and in maintaining the independence of your coun- 
 try against foreign aggression." 
 
 Indeed, the Raid was quite indefensible. Jameson and 
 his chief followers were tried and condemned in British 
 courts. Cecil Rhodes was stripped of his honors, forced to 
 give up the chairmanship of the British South Africa Com- 
 pany, and compelled to resign as Premier of Cape Colony. 
 It is clear that the British Government was not concerned in 
 the affair. An exhaustive inquiry was made by the House of 
 Commons, which found Rhodes at serious fault for his ac- 
 tion, but which found that the High Commissioner of South 
 Africa, Sir Hercules Robinson, and the Colonial Secretary, 
 
370 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 Joseph Chamberlain, were ignorant of the conspiracy. The 
 report of the Committee of Inquiry concluded that grave 
 injury had been done to British influence in South Africa; 
 "Public confidence was shaken, race feeling embittered, and 
 serious difficulties were created with neighboring states." 
 
 Certainly from this time on matters grew rapidly worse. 
 Kruger's heart was hardened against any concessions. As 
 for the Uitlanders, they were worse off than ever; the leaders 
 of the revolt were heavily fined, a severe press law was 
 passed, and public meetings were restricted. The Uitlanders 
 were still practically disenfranchised. In 1898 a British sub- 
 ject in Johannesburg was shot in his home by a Boer police- 
 man who entered without a warrant. Colored British sub- 
 jects were ill-treated and Uitlander meetings prevented. In 
 the spring of 1899 the Uitlanders sent a petition to Queen 
 Victoria, in which it was pointed out at length that "the con- 
 dition of Your Majesty's subjects in this state has become 
 wellnigh intolerable." In May Sir Alfred Milner, who had 
 been appointed High Commissioner of South Africa, tele- 
 graphed to England that he believed intervention was neces- 
 sary "to obtain for the Uitlanders in the Transvaal a fair 
 share of the government of the country which owes every- 
 thing to their exertions." A conference in June at Bloem- 
 fontein was of no avail, as Kruger took the position that the 
 granting of concessions would mean handing his country over 
 to the foreigner. In the latter part of September, 1899, the 
 Transvaal and the Free State — which had now united with 
 its sister-republic — sent an ultimatum to the British, and 
 war was the result. 
 
 THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR 
 
 The British were quite unprepared for the conflict. The 
 Boers, on the other hand, were fighting on familiar ground, 
 had chosen their own time to begin, and were defending their 
 fatherland. Two days after the ultimatum the Boers began 
 the war by invading Natal. The British forces were pushed 
 southward until they were surrounded and besieged in Lady- 
 smith. Kimberley and Mafeking, on the other side of the 
 
THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA 371 
 
 Boer states, were soon in a similar plight. At first everything 
 went against the British; Buller's attempts to relieve Lady- 
 smith were slow and very costly, and Methuen's efforts to 
 succor Kimberley resulted in several severe defeats. The 
 news of these disasters was received with consternation by 
 the Empire as a whole, for it was commonly thought that the 
 war would be over in six weeks. Thereupon Lord Roberts 
 and Lord Kitchener were promptly sent to retrieve the situ- 
 ation, and the various parts of the Empire offered military 
 assistance. 
 
 In February, 1900, Kimberley and Ladysmith were re- 
 lieved and the advance on Bloemfontein and Pretoria was 
 begun. On March 13th Bloemfontein was entered. In May 
 Mafeking was succored and Johannesburg occupied. On 
 June 5, 1900, the British entered the Transvaal capital, Pre- 
 toria. Thereupon the two Boer states were annexed. The 
 occupation of the two capitals did not mean that the war was 
 at an end, for the Boers carried on a guerilla struggle with 
 great bravery for some time. Kitchener's severe methods 
 and the systematic occupation of the country, which was 
 facilitated by the gathering of Boer non-combatants into con- 
 centration camps, finally wore down the opposition. By 
 May, 1902, the republics were ready for peace. 
 -~ The Treaty of Preto ria provided for the subjugation of the 
 Free State and the Transvaal to British authority. But the 
 terms were not ungenerous. Repatriation of prisoners was 
 to take place as rapidly as possible. The Dutch language 
 was to be taught in the schools of the defeated states and to 
 be allowed in the courts of law. The military administra- 
 tions of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State were to be 
 replaced by civil government, and, "as soon as circumstances 
 permit," representative institutions leading to self-govern- 
 ment were to be introduced. The expenses of the war were 
 not to be defrayed by a land tax on the Boer states. The 
 sum of three million pounds was to be placed in the hands of 
 a commission for the purpose of helping the war-scourged 
 people to rebuild their homes and to obtain seed and live 
 stock and implements. In addition to this amount, loans 
 
372 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 were to be made free of interest for two years and thereafter 
 at three per cent to help in the work of reconstruction. 
 
 THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA 
 
 After the conflict the work of reestablishing the defeated 
 people was pressed forward. Lord Milner had been ap- 
 \ pointed Governor of the two Boer states, and until his resig- 
 nation in 1905 he worked earnestly for the betterment, mate- 
 rially and politically, of the states under his care. He formed 
 a nominated Legislative Council for the Transvaal to which 
 the prominent Boer leaders were invited. Within three 
 years a further step was taken, by which a constitution was 
 granted to this state, providing for a Legislative Council, of 
 which a portion of the members were elected on a very wide 
 franchise. 
 
 In 1905 came the change from the Conservative Govern- 
 ment under Mr. Arthur Balfour, which had carried on the 
 war, to a Liberal Government under Sir Henry Campbell- 
 Bannerman. The newly installed party immediately went 
 the full step of giving the Transvaal responsible government. 
 The Constitution of 1906 provided for two chambers; in case 
 of disagreement they were to sit together, a provision that 
 gave the real power into the hands of the elected Legislative 
 Assembly. The Prime Minister of the Transvaal was the 
 former Boer general, Louis Botha. This early grant to the 
 Transvaal of representative institutions was a daring but 
 successful move. Two years later responsible government 
 was given to the Orange Free State, where the Boers came 
 into power under the leadership of Christian de Wet, another 
 brilliant military leader in the late war. 
 
 By this time the movement for the union of all the British 
 colonies in South Africa was growing stronger. Confedera- 
 tion had been advocated prematurely by Sir George Grey in 
 1856 and by Lord Carnarvon and his appointee, Sir Bartle 
 Frere, in the seventies. After the Boer War the feeling for 
 union became widespread for various reasons. The South 
 African states suffered from want of a concerted policy with 
 regard to the native population. Labor, especially for the 
 
THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA 373 
 
 mines, was a fruitful source of misunderstanding. For exam- 
 ple, the introduction of Chinese coolies during the reconstruc- 
 tion days in order to quicken the production of wealth, was 
 the cause of much criticism. The tariffs and the railways 
 needed to be controlled in a way that would be fair to all the 
 states. Lord Milner urged greater cooperation, and a num- 
 ber of his assistants in reconstruction, notably Lionel Curtis, 
 did much to further the federation movement by publications 
 and agitation. Lord Selborne, the Colonial Secretary, was in 
 favor of a closer union and so expressed himself in a note- 
 worthy memorandum in 1907. At this time also a resolution 
 to this effect was presented in the Cape Assembly. 
 
 In 1908 an inter-colonial conference was held in Pretoria to 
 discuss the railway rates and the tariff. At that meeting 
 General Smuts moved that a National Convention be called 
 to draw up plans for union; toward the close of 1908 the 
 National Convention met in Durban. Twelve delegates 
 came from the Cape, the Transvaal sent eight, Natal and 
 the Orange Free State were represented by five each. The 
 Transvaal representatives included the former Boer generals, 
 Botha and Smuts, and the old Uitlanders, Farrar and Fitz- 
 patrick. The chairman of the Convention was Sir J. H. de 
 Villiers, Chief Justice of the Cape Colony. The delegates, 
 first at Durban and in later sessions at Cape Town, worked 
 out the union constitution behind closed doors. It was 
 published in February, 1909, and, after some changes, it was 
 accepted by the four states. Then it went to the Imperial 
 Parliament at Westminster and received the royal assent in 
 September, 1909. 
 
 The constitution of South Africa provides for a close union 
 with power in the central Government instead of a federation 
 like that of Australia. The adoption of this unitary form of 
 government seemed natural. The divisions in South Africa 
 were more along racial than territorial lines. The difficulties 
 which it was hoped union would solve were matters that 
 needed a strong central administration. The tariff, the rail- 
 ways, the native, could be best handled by a single central 
 authority. Yet the very emphasis on a unitary system has 
 
374 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 caused some dissatisfaction, which a looser federal organiza- 
 tion might not have aroused. 
 
 The Governor-General represents the home Government 
 as in the other dominions. There is a Senate and a House of 
 Assembly. The former is composed of forty members, eight 
 appointed by the Governor-General-in-Council and the re- 
 mainder selected by the colonial legislatures, eight from each 
 province. Four of the appointed senators " shall be selected 
 on the ground mainly of their thorough acquaintance, by rea- 
 son of their official experience or otherwise, with the reason- 
 able wants and wishes of the colored races in South Africa." 
 The House of Assembly is elected by the people, the prov- 
 inces deciding their own franchise regulations. The Execu- 
 tive is a Cabinet of seven members responsible to Parliament. 
 There are two capitals, the Parliament sitting at Cape Town, 
 and the administration centering in Pretoria. A provision 
 that contributed much to the growth of good feeling was the 
 arrangement by which the English and Dutch languages were 
 both official languages "ona footing of equality." 
 
 On the organization of. the Union, General Botha became 
 Prime Minister. He headed a Boer party which had a ma- 
 jority over the combined British and Labor representatives. 
 In 1913 the Boer party split, the moderate Boers following 
 General Botha and forming the South African Party. The 
 extremists, comprising the National Boer Party, were led by 
 General Hertzog. The outbreak of the war in Europe in 
 1914 seemed to the irreconcilables to offer the chance for a 
 recovery of Boer independence, but the ease with which the 
 rebellion was suppressed was the direct result of the wisdom 
 of the British Government in having granted such generous 
 terms of self-government to their late enemies. South Africa 
 felt that it had gained freedom and something more — the 
 privileges which go with inclusion in that great community of 
 nations which make up the British Empire. 
 
 South Africa has had a checkered history, in which strain 
 and stress have been constant. Two rival white races have 
 settled in a country peopled by a predominant black popula- 
 tion. In 1921 but twenty per cent of the total population 
 
THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA 375 
 
 of seven millions was white. The white peoples had strug- 
 gled for supremacy with the blacks in many wars, and then 
 the whites fought out their own difficulties, with the result 
 that the Empire of Britain won. There are irreconcilables 
 yet among the Boers; it would be strange if such were not the 
 case. The government, however, is so completely in the 
 hands of the white inhabitants, with so little interference 
 from the authorities in Great Britain, that the Union of 
 South Africa — the youngest of the self-governing Domin- 
 ions — would seem to be wise if it worked out its difficulties 
 under the flag of the Empire. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 
 
 J. A. Froude's Two Letters on South Africa (reprinted 1900) and Oceana 
 (reprinted 1901) give the attitude of Lord Carnarvon, while the other side 
 of the situation is handled by W. J. Leyds, The First Annexation of the 
 Transvaal (London, 1906). For the South African War there is W. B. 
 Worsf old, Lord Milner's Work in South Africa from the Commencement in 
 1897 to the Peace of Vereeniging in 1902 (London, 1906). The first volume 
 of the Times History of the War in South Africa, edited by I;. S. Amery, 
 gives a full, if somewhat partial, account of the events leading to the con- 
 flict. A prominent Uitlander has recorded his experiences in Sir J. P. 
 Fitzpatrick's The Transvaal from Within (London, 1900), and the Boer 
 attitude is expressed in W. J. Leyds, The Transvaal Surrounded (London, 
 1919) . Sir Charles Lucas covers the period from 1895 to 1910 in the second 
 volume of his South Africa and A. Wyatt Tilby's account terminates with 
 1913. The best life of Cecil Rhodes is by Basil Williams (London, 1921), 
 to which are appended useful notes on books dealing with the period cov- 
 ered by this chapter. H. A. Gibbons, The New Map of Africa, treats the 
 period from the Boer War to 1916. For statistics see the Official Year 
 Book of the Union of South Africa (Pretoria). Egerton's Federations and 
 Unions within the British Empire (Oxford, 1911) treats fully as well as re- 
 prints the Constitution of the Union. A recent source book is that of 
 G. W. Eybers, Select Constitutional Documents Illustrative of South African 
 History, 1795-1910 (London, 1918). T 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 MODERN AUSTRALASIA 
 
 In considering the recent years of Australasian growth we 
 shall first treat of New Zealand, as it grew to be more and 
 more distinct from the colonies on the continent of Australia. 
 Although it had an altogether different native problem, the 
 growth of New Zealand, both politically and materially, has 
 been strikingly like that of its neighbors to the west. Sir 
 George Grey had done notable work as the executive of New 
 Zealand from 1845 to 1863. During Grey's administration 
 in the land of the Maoris, the government had been consoli- 
 dated by the Constitution Act which went into effect in 1853. 
 By this Act the three colonies of the North Island — Auck- 
 land, New Plymouth, and Wellington — and the three on 
 South Island — Nelson, Canterbury, and Otago — were 
 made into provinces which were bound together by a Gover- 
 nor, a Legislative Council, and a House of Representatives. 
 As pointed out in an earlier chapter (xv), the six colonies 
 were not extensions from one original foundation, but settle- 
 ments that had been formed independently. As a result, 
 provincial feeling was strong from the first, and the members 
 were but loosely bound together by the Constitution of 1852. 
 The closer union was to come only with the growth of the 
 population and the break-up of the original units by the 
 formation of new provinces in which the local feeling was not 
 so strong. 
 
 MAORI TROUBLES IN NEW ZEALAND 
 
 The Governor under the Act of 1852 did not share the con- 
 duct of native affairs with the assemblies, and it was natural 
 that friction should result. In fact, the Maori was the ab- 
 sorbing interest in New Zealand for some years after the new 
 constitution went into effect. The problem was similar to 
 that in South Africa, for in both colonies the aborigines were 
 highly developed and adept in war. In South Africa the 
 
MODERN AUSTRALASIA 377 
 
 possession of extensive flocks and herds caused bitterness be- 
 tween the whites and the blacks; in New Zealand the en- 
 croachment of the settlers on the land of the Maoris eventu- 
 ated in serious trouble. 
 
 Not long after the departure of Sir George Grey for South 
 Africa, trouble with the Maoris recommenced. An unsym- 
 pathetic governor and rapacious settlers led to a neglect of 
 the native interests so solemnly promised in the Treaty of 
 Waitangi 1 and in the Constitution. The Maori found him- 
 self outside the protection of English law, neglected and 
 slowly losing his property. In order to protect themselves, 
 the aborigines formed a sort of government of their own, with 
 a king at the head. Although the "king movement" did 
 not include all the tribes, it became a means of unifying the 
 Maoris when trouble actually materialized. 
 
 War broke out in 1859 over a land matter. The settlers at 
 New Plymouth — on the west coast of the North Island — 
 wanted more land. A certain native offered to sell some 
 land, known as the "Waitara Block," near New Plymouth, 
 but the chief declared the land the property of the tribe. 
 The Governor ignored the chief, but, on attempting to take 
 possession of the tract by force, he found himself opposed by 
 the natives. It was ten years before the conflict or series of 
 conflicts with the natives came to an end. The Maoris re- 
 garded the struggle as a war for their country and fought 
 with great determination. The wild character of the dis- 
 tricts they occupied added to the difficulties of the British 
 troops. In addition, the natives were expert fighters, 
 equipped with firearms and possessed with good defense 
 works in their pahs. 2 
 
 Sir George Grey was sent back to New Zealand in 1861 to 
 
 1 See p. 254. 
 
 2 A pah was not unlike an early mediaeval stronghold. It showed considera- 
 ble engineering skill, consisting of ditches, double lines of palisades, and towers. 
 Within were barracks and ovens and magazines. Great care was taken to pro- 
 vide a means of escape, if the occupants should be hard pressed by the enemy; 
 there were secret paths through the near-by swamps by which the pah was 
 usually partially surrounded. In Jenks, History of the Australasian Colonies, 
 p. 288, and Henderson, Life of Sir George Grey, p. 210, plans of these curious 
 structures are given. 
 
378 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 make peace between native and settler. His second adminis- 
 tration lasted until 1868. It was one of constant trouble 
 with the Maoris. He advised and arranged for the return of 
 the Waitara Block to the natives, but, before the matter 
 could be settled, some British soldiers were shot from an am- 
 bush near New Plymouth. The renewed hostilities lasted 
 until 1868. The British gradually wore out the Maoris, con- 
 fiscating and occupying the land of the " rebels." 
 
 In the end, the Maori was not exterminated, nor was he 
 completely deprived of his lands. In the South Island and 
 certain parts of North Island, Dotably on the east coast, 
 the natives have accepted the white man's civilization to a 
 considerable extent. The King Country — the central part 
 of the North Island — is yet poorly developed. The Maoris 
 cling to the land, but often do not evince a great interest in 
 the development of the several million acres they still possess. 
 As it is more than they actually need, if compared with the 
 holdings of the whites, the alienation of further sections may 
 take place if the land is not properly developed. 
 
 Since 1870 there has been little trouble, and for the past 
 thirty years the two peoples have dwelt together peacefully. 
 It is impossible to conjecture what the future of the Maoris 
 will be. In 1850 the natives were in a majority, but the 
 incoming of wh? Le settlers has changed the proportion. The 
 Maoris are now but five per cent of the total population. 
 For a time the actual number of natives was decreasing; in 
 the past ten years, however, they have been increasing 
 slightly, numbering about fifty thousand in 1921. As a re- 
 sult of their ownership of land they are on an equality with 
 the white settlers. Near the close of the war (1921) an Act 
 was passed by which four native members were elected to the 
 House of Representatives. The Maoris are represented, 
 also, in the Council. Although racial intermixture is not tak- 
 ing place to any extent, the present tolerant attitude of the 
 two races should lead to a gradual growth of the Maori peo- 
 ple. They have made wonderful advances in civilization, 
 when it is remembered that half a century ago they were liv- 
 ing as cannibals. 
 
MODERN AUSTRALASIA 379 
 
 NEW ZEALAND UNIFICATION 
 
 The Constitution Act of 1852 had provided for a federal sys- 
 tem by which the six provinces were given considerable local 
 power. There was reason enough at the time for this type of 
 government, since New Zealand was not yet thickly settled 
 and since the provinces were distinctly separated by conflict- 
 ing interests and by natural physical barriers. As time went 
 on the provincial system came to be less and less satisfactory. 
 The creation of several new provinces only helped to empha- 
 size the need for a stronger central government. The seat of 
 federal administration became better located in 1865, when 
 the government of the provinces was transferred from Auck- 
 land to Wellington. The increasing importance of South Is- 
 land had much to do with the choice of this more accessible 
 capital. 
 
 The final step toward unity came in 1876. In that year 
 the provincial system was abolished. It was not done with- 
 out a struggle, however. Sir George Grey, who had lived in 
 retirement since 1868, came back into public life to defend 
 the system he had done so much to establish. He was 
 elected Superintendent for the Province of Auckland and 
 chosen as a member of the House of Representatives. 
 Nevertheless, his eloquence was unable to prevent what the 
 progress of the islands had made imperative — the abolition 
 of the Provincial Councils. Since 1876 there has been but 
 one government for New Zealand. 
 
 One of the principal objections to the old system was the 
 difficulty of rapidly developing the public interests of the 
 islands. What was called the Public Works Policy was the 
 colony's main interest from 1868 to 1890, a development in 
 which Sir Julius Vogel took the lead. After a central Min- 
 istry of Public Works had been created in 1870, the New- 
 Zealand Government borrowed large sums by which to force 
 forward the colony's growth. Railways were to be con- 
 structed from end to end of each island. Labor for the im- 
 provement policy and settlers to take up the waste lands 
 were to come from immigration. Systematic efforts were 
 
380 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 made to revive an interest in New Zealand as a place attrac- 
 tive to British and European immigrants. As the Maori 
 wars had given the islands a bad reputation, commissioners 
 were sent to Europe to correct evil impressions and to 
 "boom" the country. An Emigrants' and Colonists' Aid 
 Corporation was established in London, by which liberal 
 financial assistance was given to prospective settlers. So 
 successful was this policy that New Zealand's population 
 doubled in thirteen years. The revenue increased even more 
 rapidly, for that of 1873 was double that of 1871. 
 
 Sir George Grey was a believer in the Public Works Policy, 
 and also held advanced ideas about the taxation of the land 
 and its release to the small farmers. In his premiership of 
 1877-79 the high tide of this "boom" was reached. During 
 the next decade there was considerable depression, causing a 
 necessary retrenchment on the incautious policy of Sir Julius 
 Vogel, but there was no serious delay in New Zealand's 
 growth. 
 
 RECENT PROGRESS IN NEW ZEALAND 
 
 Since 1890 New Zealand has been the theater of highly 
 dramatic and novel acts of radical legislation in many fields. 
 Sir George Grey may well be regarded as the progenitor of the 
 progressive party which has been in power since 1890. The 
 purpose of Grey and his successors has been the destruction 
 of private monopoly and the extension of the power of the 
 people. Noteworthy in the list of leaders in this reform 
 movement was John Ballance, who assumed office in 1891; 
 under his guidance the new policy of State Socialism was 
 definitely inaugurated. When he died in 1893 he was suc- 
 ceeded by his lieutenant, Richard John Seddon. Gifted with 
 courage, enthusiasm, and a robust constitution, Seddon was 
 the dominating power in New Zealand politics from 1893 
 until his death in 1906. After that year Seddon's party was 
 led by Sir Joseph Ward. The legislation enacted under the 
 leadership of these men dealt with taxation, labor conditions, 
 and various social matters. In addition, the state has taken 
 an increasingly important part in many industries. 
 
MODERN AUSTRALASIA 381 
 
 Noteworthy constitutional changes have been made. In 
 1879 triennial parliaments and manhood suffrage were in- 
 troduced. In 1893, at the opening of the new legislative era, 
 women of both races were given the vote on the same terms 
 as men. In 1896 plural voting was abolished. Twelve years 
 later a scheme for registering the real wish of the majority 
 was established by the introduction of the second ballot; by 
 this provision the two highest candidates in a group in which 
 no one has received a majority are voted on a second time. 
 
 Taxation, before the nineties, had been imposed on prop- 
 erty in general, but in 1891 the property tax was replaced 
 by a taxation on land and incomes. In both cases the tax 
 was graduated, with a decided a hardening-up" for the 
 holders of wealth. By this system the land and the wealth 
 have been more generally distributed and the burden for 
 state expenditures more equitably placed. In 1918 half of 
 New Zealand's receipts were realized from the income tax. 
 
 The principal reason for the graduated land tax was the 
 holding of a great share of the usable land by a compara- 
 tively few people. In 1891 one million acres of land were 
 held by fifty absentee landlords, and nearly half of the ten 
 million acres under private ownership was in holdings of over 
 ten thousand acres in size. This situation needed sharp treat- 
 ment, and it certainly received it at the hands of the Ballance- 
 Seddon reforming party. In addition to the graduated tax 
 on land, provision was made for the purchase of large estates 
 from their private owners, to be cut up into small farms. If 
 the owners were unwilling to sell, the land might be taken 
 compulsorily under the Land for Settlements Act. Adequate 
 compensation has been given the owners, and, in general, 
 they have shown little enmity to this process of subdividing 
 large estates. By this method a million acres have been made 
 available for settlement. Elaborate provisions were enacted 
 for the occupation of government or Crown lands as well. As 
 a result of these determined efforts to redistribute the land, 
 the situation has been remarkably improved over that of 
 forty years before; the average area of holdings in 1918 was 
 less than six hundred acres. 
 
382 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 New Zealand has been noted for its pioneer labor legisla- 
 tion. In fact, this was regarded, along with the closer settle- 
 ment of the land, as the "twin measure" of relief, by which 
 the country's condition could be ameliorated. The Indus- 
 trial Conciliation and Arbitration Act of 1895 is the basis for 
 the labor legislation. By this measure workers were allowed 
 to organize unions and to file their collective complaints with 
 a Conciliation Board. The Board then investigated and 
 made a recommendation. If this were rejected by either 
 party, the case could be taken to the Arbitration Court, 
 whose decision was law. The tendency of this system of set- 
 tling labor disputes has been to make the New Zealand 
 worker more willing and more intelligent. On the other 
 hand, disputes of a questionable nature were often brought 
 up, to the scandal of the system. In 1901 the law was 
 amended so that it became possible to take matters directly 
 to the Court. A further change was made in 1908, when 
 Conciliation Councils consisting of nominees of the interested 
 parties were instituted in place of the former Boards. Indus- 
 trial arbitration has become well rooted in New Zealand, 
 where it has worked for the general betterment of conditions. 
 
 The most interesting of New Zealand's activities has been 
 the very great part taken by the state in various fields often 
 controlled by private individuals. The welfare of the people 
 has been so constantly before the legislators that many 
 activities have been entered by the state to protect the pub- 
 lic. New Zealand has a state bank. Since 1905 houses for 
 workmen have been erected by the Government in many of 
 the industrial centers. New Zealand even deals in trading 
 stamps. For many years there has been a Life Insurance 
 Department of the New Zealand Government, and since 
 1905 the state has been in the fire insurance business as 
 well. In 1873 a Public Trust Office was organized, which, 
 in 1918, administered over thirteen thousand estates. The 
 Government owns the entire railway system, which is oper- 
 ated at a profit of but three per cent. Any excess of in- 
 come over this rate has been followed by reductions in pas- 
 senger charges and freight rates. 
 
MODERN AUSTRALASIA 383 
 
 Many other interesting phases of state activity could be 
 added. The Government owns and operates extensive coal 
 mines. The Auckland oyster beds were taken over by the 
 state to prevent their ruthless misuse. Sawmills, fish hatch- 
 eries, assisted immigration, the importation of blooded 
 stock, and maternity hospitals furnish other outlets for state 
 activity. The Government even took over the town of 
 Rotorua, because the expenditure of state money on baths 
 and resorts was practically the only source of the com- 
 munity's wealth. The general effect of state interference 
 in the fields ordinarily under private enterprise has been to 
 make prices more reasonable, and to improve the welfare of 
 the people as a whole. Of late years, however, the tendency 
 toward state action of this sort has not been so pronounced. 
 The encouragement of private enterprise is now safe, since 
 the Government has so firm a hold on the country's life. 
 
 The recent years of New Zealand's history have been 
 happily uneventful, save for the successive steps in state con- 
 trol which have been briefly enumerated. In 1907 the name 
 of the colony was changed to the Dominion of New Zealand, 
 and ten years later the Governor became the Governor-Gen- 
 eral. New Zealand has a real claim to the title " dominion," 
 for it has outlying possessions as do sovereign states. A 
 number of island groups have been attached to the Domin- 
 ion. Notable among them are the Cook Islands, whose 
 inhabitants speak a language closely related to that of the 
 Maoris. After the Dominion's entry into the World War, 
 New Zealand forces captured the German islands in the 
 Samoan group, and they are now under its control. 1 
 
 New Zealand, which has been called the "most purely 
 British in blood of all the colonies," has a population of a 
 million and a quarter. As one of the most distant of Britain's 
 dominions, with a marked tendency toward advanced social 
 legislation and a fresh outlook on imperial politics and or- 
 ganization, the progress of this "Britain of the South "cannot 
 fail to attract increasing attention and respect. 
 
 1 For New Zealand's part in the World War, as well as recent political devel- 
 opments, see pp. 451 £f., 457 ff. 
 
384 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 AUSTRALIAN SELF-GOVERNMENT 
 
 As we turn to the consideration of the recent growth of 
 Australia, it will be well briefly to recall the changes that 
 took place in the sixty years between Captain Phillip's expe- 
 dition to Sydney with a convoy of convict ships in 1788 and 
 the discovery of gold sixty years later. 1 New South Wales 
 served as the nucleus for growth. The island of Tasmania 
 was burdened with convicts to its retardation until the col- 
 ony demanded the privilege of a dignified and self-respecting 
 existence. Even before the mid-century was reached, the 
 colony of Victoria, centering at Melbourne, chafed under its 
 connection with New South Wales. The farcical election of 
 Lord Grey, the Colonial Secretary in England, as Victoria's 
 representative in the Legislative Council at Sydney, was the 
 spectacular manner in which the demand for separation was 
 expressed. In the meantime settlements were started in 
 what are now Queensland, South Australia, and Western 
 Australia. 
 
 Yet the growth of these colonies, later to form the states of 
 the Australian Commonwealth, was unequal. The excellent 
 grazing-lands and later the discovery of gold in New South 
 Wales and in Victoria meant rapid growth. Western Aus- 
 tralia, which had been occupied as early as 1829, did not 
 prosper, owing to the lack of cheap labor and the tendency 
 toward the ownership of very large estates. In 1849 the in- 
 habitants had requested the use of convicts at a time when 
 the other colonies on the continent were ridding themselves 
 of the evils of transportation. South Australia had been 
 started a few years after Western Australia on the program of 
 the Wakefield system. Here growth was rapid, and, after 
 some initial failures, the district about Adelaide grew into a 
 prosperous colony under the guidance of Sir George Grey. 
 Queensland remained a part of New South W'ales after the 
 other colonies became distinct. 
 
 The Act for the Government of New South Wales and Van 
 Diemen's Land, passed in 1842, introduced a measure of self- 
 
 1 See chapter xv. 
 
MODERN AUSTRALASIA 385 
 
 government; the next step was the passage of the Australian 
 Colonies Government Act in 1850. This statute made Port 
 Phillip a separate colony under the name of Victoria. A Leg- 
 islative Council, two thirds elective, was granted Victoria, 
 and the same machinery for local government was set up in 
 Western Australia, South Australia, and Tasmania, as well 
 as in the mother colony. The most remarkable provisions of 
 this statute, with which the new epoch in Australia was in- 
 augurated, were those enabling the colonies to fix the fran- 
 chise according to their wishes, to impose customs duties as 
 seemed fit, and to make such constitutions as they should de- 
 sire. With these wide privileges came the era in which Aus- 
 tralia has worked out its own needs and has met the various 
 crises that have arisen as seemed wise to those who knew the 
 situation from first-hand knowledge. 
 
 New South Wales took the first step toward making a new 
 constitution. In 1852 a committee was appointed which 
 drew up a constitution based on the one in operation in Eng- 
 land. There were two houses in the legislature. The upper 
 house, or Legislative Council, was composed of nominees of 
 the Governor, acting on the advice of his ministers, and the 
 lower house, or Legislative Assembly, was entirely elected by 
 the vote of those who had a slight property qualification. 
 The Cabinet was made responsible to the lower house. Par- 
 liaments were not to last longer than five years and to be 
 summoned annually. 
 
 The colony of Victoria appointed its committee in 1853. 
 Its constitution, proclaimed in 1855, differed from that of 
 New South Wales in having the upper house elected. Its 
 members were chosen for ten years, and the choice was re- 
 stricted to those owning property of the value of £5000 or 
 with an annual income of one tenth that sum. The franchise 
 was based on a higher property qualification than that in 
 New South Wales — £1000 instead of £100 as in the older 
 colony. The year 1855 also brought into being the constitu- 
 tions of South Australia and Tasmania. South Australia had 
 the most democratic government of the four. There the fran- 
 chise was granted to those over thirty who had been residents 
 
386 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 for three years, and the life of its parliaments was limited to 
 three years. Queensland, formed into a separate colony in 
 1859, was provided with a government similar to that of New 
 South Wales, where the members of the upper house were 
 appointed. 
 
 Western Australia was very slow in attaining a position 
 that can be compared to that of the other colonies on the con- 
 tinent. The introduction of the convict system there, just at 
 the time the other colonies were discarding it, led to the pro- 
 posal of a boycott against the west coast. Western Australia 
 finally abolished the transportation system in 1868, but it was 
 not until 1890 that self-government was granted and this col- 
 ony put on an equality with its neighbors. 
 
 THE EXPLORATION OF THE INTERIOR^ 
 
 Thus far we have been concerned with the story of the 
 coastal districts, where a few important communities had 
 served as centers for later self-governing colonies. The gen- 
 eral outline of the continent was determined early in the 
 century. The work of Flinders, Bass, George Grey, and 
 many others revealed the character of the Australian coast. 
 But the interior was not well known, even by the middle 
 of the nineteenth century. Blaxland opened the Bathurst 
 Plains to settlement as early as 1813, but otherwise interior 
 exploration was largely confined to the great river system 
 that reaches the sea near Adelaide. 
 
 The exploration of the vast interior was a later and distinct 
 task, involving the work of a large number of daring explor- 
 ers. It was no slight achievement to make known the inte- 
 rior of the continent, for Australia is about the size of the 
 United States. From Adelaide it is over one thousand miles 
 to the Gulf of Carpentaria, while Brisbane is twice as far from 
 Perth. The object before the men who figured in the work 
 of exploration during the forties and fifties was to ascertain 
 the nature of the central part of the continent and to discover 
 practicable routes across the trackless wilderness, northward 
 from Adelaide and Victoria and westward from Brisbane and 
 Sydney. 1 
 
 1 See the map of Australia on p. 237. 
 
MODERN AUSTRALASIA 387 
 
 Edward John Eyre did much to spur others on to the great 
 work. Although he had visited Lake Torrens in 1839, he was 
 not satisfied with this exploit; it was his wish to raise in the 
 center of the continent a Union Jack which had been worked 
 for him by his female admirers at Adelaide. The attempt 
 was made in 1840, but salty swamps barred his way and he 
 turned to the west, reaching Albany twelve months after 
 leaving Adelaide, having endured almost unexampled priva- 
 tions. The explorer, Captain Charles Sturt, who had inves- 
 tigated the Murray River basin in earlier days, also sought the 
 center of the continent by starting from South Australia. In 
 1844 his well-organized expedition traveled northward. Al- 
 though he avoided the salt swamps that obstructed Eyre, he 
 was turned back before reaching the center of the continent, 
 after wandering for more than thirteen months in the inter- 
 minable "'gloomy and burning deserts." 
 
 During this same period expeditions were sent out from 
 New South Wales to the northwest. Sir Thomas Mitchell, the 
 Surveyor-General of the colony, revealed in 1844 the charac- 
 ter of the country back of the Darling Downs. A Prussian, 
 Ludwig Leichhardt by name, came to Australia in 1842, 
 deeply interested in scientific work. He brought introduc- 
 tions to Sir Thomas Mitchell, and the latter agreed to take 
 Leichhardt with him on a projected journey to the northern 
 gulf. As a delay occurred, the eager German scientist organ- 
 ized an expedition of his own in 1844. Success crowned his 
 efforts, for he was able to traverse the country to the south of 
 the Gulf of Carpentaria and to reach a British naval station 
 on Van Diemen's Gulf. On his return to Brisbane he was en- 
 thusiastically received. A second expedition was conducted 
 in 1845, and a third was fitted out in 1848 by which Leich- 
 hardt hoped to cross the continent through its center from 
 west to east. In this expedition, however, he perished, for 
 nothing was ever heard of the ill-fated explorer after he pene- 
 trated the central regions. 
 
 At the end of the fifties there was a proposal to connect 
 Australia with England by cable. The South Australians 
 were desirous that its southern terminus as it traversed the 
 
388 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 continent should be Adelaide. Accordingly South Australia 
 offered two thousand pounds to the first man who would 
 cross the continent from south to north. The explorer who 
 took up the gage was John McDouall Stuart. He had been 
 in Sturt's expedition and had proved his ability and courage 
 in later journeys. In 1860 he reached the center of the con- 
 tinent by a route leading directly north from Adelaide. He 
 found fertile land north of the Torrens basin, but he was com- 
 pelled to turn back on account of illness, lack of provisions, 
 and attacks by the aborigines. A second attempt in 1861 
 was fruitless, but in a third trial in 1862 he was successful. 
 Stuart came out upon the north coast of Australia not far to 
 the east of Port Darwin. It was a very important expedition, 
 for it made possible an overland telegraph line and gave South 
 Australia a claim to the Northern Territory. 
 
 There were many other workmen interested in this roman- 
 tic, if trying, labor of discovery, and much remained to be 
 done after Stuart's transcontinental journey. Western Aus- 
 tralia and the country to the west of the Torrens basin were 
 made known in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. 
 The great gold-fields at Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie — now 
 producing more than the mines of Victoria — were found in 
 1892 and 1893. By the efforts of these explorers and others, 
 whose names cannot be included in this short treatment, the 
 country became known. Tracks were later to become roads, 
 and even railroads were traced through much that was barren 
 waste. Yet many promising districts were found and links 
 formed that bound the great colonies on their interior lines. 
 
 The disposal of the Northern Territory was in question for 
 some time. The home Government did not wish to take the 
 responsibility for a new colony in that tropical region. 
 Queensland would have liked to control it, but in the sixties 
 it was as yet too weak to bear the burden of its government. 
 Squatters were coming into the region, and it was necessary 
 that order be preserved. On the return of McDouall Stuart 
 in 1862, South Australians learned that the country was valu- 
 able. Stuart was convinced also that a telegraph line could 
 be laid along his route. Thereupon South Australia asked 
 
MODERN AUSTRALASIA 389 
 
 for and received control of the Northern Territory in 1863. 
 In 1869 Darwin, or Palmerston as it was then called, was 
 surveyed. In 1872 the overland telegraph line from Darwin, 
 where it connected with the English cable, was constructed to 
 Adelaide. It was a tremeDdous task, for the telegraph line 
 was 1973 miles long. After the federation of the Australian 
 colonies the Northern Territory became a dependency of the 
 Commonwealth. Another great link binding the Australian 
 colonies more closely together was the construction of an 
 overland telegraph line along Eyre's route from Adelaide to 
 Albany in 1877. 
 
 THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 After the constitutions were formed in 1855, and during 
 the period when great material advances were being made 
 and the continent was becoming known, the various colonies 
 were working out their problems, each in its own way. With 
 the federation of the colonies into a Commonwealth in 1900, 
 the work went on as a unit. And yet, in the period from 1855 
 to 1900, the attitude of the different colonies to their common 
 difficulties was not dissimilar. There was much interchange 
 of population, which was greatly assisted by the mining dis- 
 coveries made in the various colonies at different times. Their 
 very isolation from the rest of the world tended to bring them 
 together in spirit before federation was accomplished in fact. 
 
 In the working-out of the new governments the greatest 
 difficulty was found in the relations of the lower to the upper 
 houses. As already indicated, the members of the upper 
 house were appointed in New South Wales and Queensland. 
 As there was no limit to the membership of the upper houses 
 of these colonies, the addition of members at the dictation 
 of the ministry could override opposition. 
 
 The situation was not solved so easily in the colonies where 
 the Legislative Council was elected. The most memorable 
 illustration of difficulty occurred in Victoria, where the coun- 
 cil members were chosen for a ten-year term on a high prop- 
 erty qualification. The issue was the question of protec- 
 tion, which the McCulloch Ministry advocated in 1865, 
 
390 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 largely as the result of the agitation of David Syme and 
 Graham Berry. Failing to obtain the assent of the Legis- 
 lative Council, McCulloch added the tariff legislation as a 
 " rider" to the annual budget. The Council proceeded to 
 reject the budget. Finally, after the tariff had gone to the 
 Council for the fourth time, a spirit of concession brought 
 agreement. 
 
 Another crisis came in the same colony in 1877 over the 
 payment of members of Parliament. Graham Berry in- 
 cluded the measure in the annual budget, which was rejected 
 by the Council. Thereupon the Prime Minister determined 
 to bring the Council to terms by dismissing important public 
 servants from office on the ground of reduced funds. January 
 8, 1878, known as "Black Wednesday," was the day when 
 this was done. So upset was the financial situation that the 
 Council was forced to come to terms. Similar difficulties had 
 occurred elsewhere and led the framers of the Commonwealth 
 constitution to take care that no such deadlock could occur in 
 the federal legislature. A solution has been provided by 
 making the Councils more amenable to popular influences 
 and " somewhat more representative of human beings than of 
 sheep." 
 
 One cause for the bitter conflicts between the two houses 
 has been the radical legislative tendencies of the Assemblies, 
 which the more conservative have tried to block through the 
 control of the Councils. In social and industrial matters, 
 the Australian colonies developed in a pronouncedly ad- 
 vanced way along a course similar to that of their near neigh- 
 bor, New Zealand. As we have already considered in some 
 detail New Zealand growth in this respect, it is unnecessary 
 to go into full particulars regarding Australia. 
 
 Woman suffrage appeared in Australia shortly after its in- 
 troduction into New Zealand in 1893. South Australia fol- 
 lowed in 1894, and by 1909 it was the law in all the colonies. 
 Since 1902 federal elections have been by adult suffrage. 
 Voting by ballot was adopted by Victoria shortly after the 
 new constitution went into effect in 1855. The other colo- 
 nies soon followed, and it was not long before it spread across 
 
MODERN AUSTRALASIA 391 
 
 the seas. England adopted the " Victorian" ballot in 1872; 
 in the United States the " Australian " ballot, as it is generally 
 called, was used for the first time in 1889 in the State of 
 Massachusetts. Compulsory preferential voting is now in 
 force in several of the states of the Commonwealth. 1 
 
 The distribution of the land has been the subject of much 
 legislation. Large estates were created in Australia as well 
 as in New Zealand. Sheep-raising tended to aggravate the 
 evil. Much ill feeling was aroused when the leased land of 
 the sheep-raisers was allowed to be taken by farmers if they 
 would " improve" their holdings. Large tracts were broken 
 up in later years by methods of compulsory sale — save in 
 South Australia and Western Australia — by which " closer 
 settlement" became possible. New Zealand's treatment of 
 the situation is typical of that of Australia as well. Coopera- 
 tive communities, village settlements, and labor colonies are 
 provided for by several of the states. 
 
 Labor legislation has been of an advanced character, par- 
 allel to that already noted in New Zealand. In the same 
 year that New Zealand introduced its arbitration system, 
 similar legislation was enacted in New South Wales, Victoria, 
 and South Australia, and it has since been extended to the 
 whole Commonwealth. 
 
 A characteristic development has been the attitude to- 
 ward immigration. In a new country capable of sustaining 
 a much greater population than it yet possesses, this always 
 takes a place of great prominence. Immigration has been 
 assisted from the earliest days. On the other hand, care has 
 been taken to keep out those regarded as undesirable. We 
 have already seen the attitude taken toward the introduc- 
 tion of convicts. Likewise, in no uncertain tones, Australia 
 has decided against the advent of colored races, especially 
 the Chinese and Japanese. "Australia for the Australians," 
 that is, a "white Australia," has been the slogan. 
 
 In the days when gold was drawing the people in such 
 
 1 The novelty of the procedure consists in the requirement that the voter in- 
 dicate his preference for every candidate listed. If a majority is not reached, 
 the lowest candidate is omitted and the second choices are considered until a 
 majority is reached. 
 
392 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 numbers to the mines, the influx of Chinese laborers aroused 
 anxiety. Victoria imposed a ten-pound poll tax in 1855 and 
 forbade a ship to carry more than one Chinese passenger for 
 every ten tons of the vessel's tonnage. By 1888 feeling 
 against the Chinese had become so strong that it was deter- 
 mined to exclude Orientals altogether. At present a high 
 poll tax is in force, and the law for the prohibition of unde- 
 sirable immigrants is so framed as automatically to exclude 
 those who are not Europeans or white Americans. Persons 
 may be kept out who fail to pass a dictation test, that is, who 
 cannot write out fifty words of a language dictated by the 
 immigration inspector. As the language dictated is a Euro- 
 pean one, it is easy to bar Orientals and any others that are 
 not wanted. The dictation test is not usually imposed on 
 those of European race; its purpose is the exclusion of the 
 non-desirables. So effective has been the policy of Australia 
 toward the colored races that there were but eleven non- 
 Europeans in Australia to every thousand of the population, 
 according to the census of 1911. 
 
 THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA 
 
 The discussion of Australian growth since 1855 has neces- 
 sitated reference to the Commonwealth. The union of the 
 seven communities into one government in 1900 is the most 
 notable event in the expansion of the white man's power on 
 the continent. 
 
 The Act of 1850 had originally made provision for a fed- 
 eration of the colonies, if it should seem wise, but it was 
 only with the lapse of time that the feeling for union became 
 strong. The growing tension over colonial possessions that 
 appeared about 1885 led to much apprehension in Australia. 
 The occupation of northern New Guinea by Germany was a 
 cause for intense dissatisfaction in the southern continent, 
 where the desire to control the adjoining Pacific islands was 
 already strong. 
 
 In 1880 a conference of representatives of all of the self- 
 governing colonies was held at Melbourne; another meeting 
 took place three years later. Henry Parkes, the New South 
 
MODERN AUSTRALASIA 393 
 
 Wales statesman — the greatest promoter of the federation 
 movement — had suggested the formation of a Federal 
 Council. The scheme was adopted in 1883 and authorized 
 by Act of the Imperial Parliament in 1885. This Council 
 possessed very limited powers, and neither New South Wales 
 nor New Zealand saw fit to authorize the sending of represent- 
 atives. Nevertheless, it held meetings every two years, and, 
 although there was no coercive power back of its enactments, 
 the Federal Council undoubtedly helped to call attention to 
 the need for unified action. 
 
 In 1889 Henry Parkes reopened the question of federation 
 by urging a conference of ministers of the various colonies 
 to prepare a constitution. The Conference met in 1890, and 
 out of its work grew the Federal Convention at Sydney 
 in 1891. This organization, composed of representatives 
 chosen by the parliaments of each of the colonies, including 
 New Zealand, prepared a draft constitution which became 
 the basis of the later federal organization. If accepted by 
 three of the colonies, it was to be passed by the Imperial Par- 
 liament and to become law. Unfortunately, New South 
 Wales again balked, with the result that action by the other 
 colonies was deemed useless. Parkes, who died in 1895, 
 seemed to have failed. On the contrary, popular feeling be- 
 gan to express itself in the nineties for the federation that 
 Parkes had so much desired. Leagues were formed, in 
 which the idea was fostered that a convention elected by the 
 people should be chosen to make a constitution that should 
 be submitted directly to the people for their approval. As 
 the end of the century approached the movement became 
 more and more powerful. In 1897-98 members were chosen 
 by the people, except in the case of Western Australia, for a 
 convention that was to draft a new constitution. 
 
 During 1897 and 1898 three sessions were held. Al- 
 though the draft of 1891 was made the basis of discussion, 
 many stumbling-blocks were encountered. The large states 
 feared the power granted to the weaker members in a senate 
 where each state was on an equality, and were unwilling to 
 contribute in customs receipts what seemed more than their 
 
394 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 share to the Commonwealth expenses. On the latter ques- 
 tion a compromise was reached in the third session by the 
 agreement that uniform customs were not to be inaugurated 
 until two years after the constitution was in effect, and even 
 then a proportional amount was to be returned to each state 
 above the amount needed for Commonwealth expenses. The 
 common expenditure from customs duties was also limited. 
 By these measures the Federation Bill was made acceptable 
 to the Convention in 1898. 
 
 It was then necessary to submit the document to the people. 
 In Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania it received the 
 required vote. But Queensland and Western Australia did 
 not vote, and New South Wales did not give the constitution 
 the required minimum number of votes needed for its ac- 
 ceptance. It seemed useless to go further unless some means 
 could be found to bring the lagging states into line. A con- 
 ference of Premiers, this time including Queensland, was 
 held at Melbourne in 1899, when changes were made in the 
 constitution which it was hoped would lead to its acceptance. 
 The customs compromise was to continue but ten years, and 
 New South Wales was placated by an understanding that the 
 federal capital should be located somewhere in the mother 
 colony, not less than one hundred miles from Sydney. A 
 second referendum was then taken and all the colonies gave 
 the needed majorities. Western Australia abstained from 
 a referendum at the time, but joined the Commonwealth 
 after the constitution was authorized by the Imperial Par- 
 liament. 
 
 After full consideration by the home Government and after 
 some slight changes regarding the right of appeal to the 
 Privy Council, the Constitution Bill received the royal assent 
 in July, 1900. The Commonwealth of Australia came into 
 being on January 1, 1901. When Joseph Chamberlain in- 
 troduced the bill he spoke of the measure as "marking an era 
 in the history of Australia and a great and important step 
 toward the organization of the British Empire." It is re- 
 markable that these states should have organized into one 
 group, when we recall that no foreign war drew them to- 
 
MODERN AUSTRALASIA 395 
 
 gether. Nor was there any undue interference with their 
 local privileges, such as had fostered the union of the Amer- 
 ican colonies in the eighteenth century. No menace of pos- 
 sible internal strife need have caused them worry. Nor was 
 it owing to pressure from imperial sources that the federa- 
 tion feeling produced concrete action. 
 
 The Commonwealth Constitution was altogether of local 
 construction, elaborated by Australian statesmen who were 
 guided by British traditions, but who independently gath- 
 ered suggestions from various sources. The resemblance be- 
 tween the Constitution of the United States and that of Aus- 
 tralia is striking. In the Commonwealth Government the 
 legislative bodies are two in number, a Senate and a House of 
 Representatives. As in the United States, the Senate is com- 
 posed of equal numbers of senators from each state — six in 
 Australia — who are chosen by direct election. The lower 
 house is representative of population as in the United States. 1 
 There is, however, one great difference between the Austra- 
 lian and American Constitutions, in that the Australian 
 combines representative with responsible government. The 
 Executive consists of a Cabinet whose members belong to the 
 House of Representatives and who are subject to question 
 and control by that assembly. 
 
 In the working of the Australian Constitution there is no 
 danger of a deadlock between the executive and the legisla- 
 tive departments, as in the United States. Experience had 
 taught the possibility of a deadlock between the upper and 
 the lower house. To prevent a situation such as occurred in 
 Victoria in 1865 and again in 1877, there is a provision by 
 which a majority vote in a joint meeting of the two houses 
 shall decide on a measure thrice rejected by the Senate. The 
 interpretation of the Constitution and the settling of vexed 
 questions between states and on federal matters was given 
 to the High Court, corresponding to the United States Su- 
 preme Court. 
 
 1 The relative size of the states is indicated by their proportion of members 
 in the House of Representatives. As a result of the census of 1911 New South 
 Wales obtained 27 members, Victoria 21, Queensland 10, South Australia 7, 
 Western Australia 5, and Tasmania 5. 
 
396 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 The federal capital was not to be less than one hundred 
 miles from Sydney. It was only after several years of wordy 
 discussion that nine hundred square miles of territory south- 
 west of Sydney in the Canberra district were ceded to the 
 Federal Government. The initial ceremony for preparing 
 the district as the seat of the central Government took 
 place in 1913, at which time " Canberra" was decided on as 
 the name of the capital city. 
 
 Since 1900 the states have been working out their common 
 problems by means of the familiar party system. At the be- 
 ginning of the Commonwealth there were three groups, the 
 protectionists led by Barton, the free-traders under G. H. 
 Reid, and the labor representatives led by J. C. Watson. 
 From the first the Labor Party held the balance of power, as 
 neither of the others was able to stay in office without its as- 
 sistance. In 1904 a labor government took the lead for a 
 short time. By 1908 it had attained great strength, and since 
 that time, first under the lead of Andrew Fisher and later of 
 William Morris Hughes, it has controlled Australian affairs 
 during the period before and including the time of the World 
 War. 
 
 The Commonwealth has developed notably from the days 
 of its founding, one hundred years ago. A great continent as 
 large as the United States has been brought under one gov- 
 ernment. Unlimited resources have been revealed in this 
 English-speaking dominion in the southern hemisphere. The 
 particular interest it has for the student of the British Empire 
 is the opportunity Australia affords for the development of 
 British institutions under the guidance of men willing to try 
 the untried in the field of land, labor, and industrial legisla- 
 tion. At the opening of the World War the population of 
 Australia was over five million. Of this total four fifths were 
 natives of the continent, and but four per cent were of other 
 than British stock. There were but twenty thousand aborig- 
 ines at that time in addition to the fifty thousand non- 
 Europeans. It is veritably a white man's country. 
 
160° 
 
 140° 
 
 FANNING I. 
 (Br.) 
 
 . CHRISTMAS I. 
 (Br.) 
 
 PHOENIX IS 
 » (Br.) 
 
 UNION IS. 
 (Br.) 
 
 MALDEN I 
 a (Br.) 
 
 J?! 
 
 STARBUCKI. 
 (Br.) 
 
 //, 
 
 J? 
 
 DA IS. ,_^ 
 
 iU^^.^SUVAROV, 
 
 
 iii 
 
 o/ 
 
 c 
 
 \ 
 MARQUESAS V 
 • ISLANDS \ 
 
 • (Fr.) 
 
 • „TlAMOTU 
 ARCHIPELAGO 
 o« (Fr.) 
 
 PALMERSTON I," 
 (N.Z.) 
 
 SOCIETY 
 ISLANDS 
 " (Fr.) 
 
 ISLAND^ - 
 
 (N.Z.) 
 
 PITCAIRN I. 
 (Br.) 
 
 E 
 
 A 
 
 N 
 
 ^ 
 
 SOUTHWESTERN PACIFIC 
 
 LEGEND 
 
 Sphere of influence of British Colonial Office = = = = = 
 
 Australia x x x x x x x 
 
 New Zealand 111 
 (Man.) Mandate (formerly German) 
 
 BRITISH ISLES 
 Comparative Area 
 
 from Greenwich 160 
 
 140° 
 
MODERN AUSTRALASIA 397 
 
 THE PACIFIC ISLANDS 
 
 Besides Australia and New Zealand the British Empire 
 includes numerous island groups in the southern Pacific. As 
 they bear a rather intimate relationship to the dominions 
 we have been studying, it is necessary to bring them into our 
 view before leaving the southern hemisphere for the study of 
 Canada and Newfoundland. 
 
 One of the most important groups from the British point of 
 view is the Fiji Islands, located about one thousand miles 
 directly north of New Zealand. Early in the nineteenth 
 century these islands were the haunts of traders and runa- 
 ways. The London Missionary Society had its representa- 
 tives in the Fiji Islands and other neighboring groups as well 
 as in South Africa. One method of proselyting was to take 
 the native boys of the island on trips, to learn their language 
 and in turn to teach them English. Sometimes they were 
 even taken to school to Auckland or elsewhere for a time. 
 Then the converted natives would be returned to spread the 
 new religion and civilization they had acquired. The famous 
 missionary bishops, Selwyn and Patteson, employed this 
 method. 
 
 This proceeding was soon parodied by unscrupulous men 
 interested in cheap labor for the Queensland sugar and cotton 
 plantations. These men-merchants were harsh and the 
 natives not unnaturally resisted measures that led to prac- 
 tical slavery. It was to be expected, also, that reprisals on 
 the part of the natives would result from this kidnapping of 
 dark-skinned laborers, or "blackbirding" as it was called. 
 The natives, in their reprisals, could not or would not dis- 
 criminate between missionary philanthropists and the steal- 
 ers of men. The murder of Bishop Patteson by the natives 
 of the Santa Cruz group in 1871 revealed a situation that 
 needed attention. Great Britain took action to restrain the 
 labor trade and to keep order among the natives by super- 
 vising these islands through a High Commissioner for the 
 Western Pacific. His residence was placed in the Fiji Is- 
 lands, which were annexed to the Empire in 1874. 
 
398 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 After 1874 the international rivalry of Great Britain, 
 France, and Germany led to further additions to the British 
 Empire, as well as to those of its rivals. New Zealand and 
 Australia particularly resented the intrusion of non-British 
 influences in the southern Pacific. The French, nevertheless, 
 became interested in the New Hebrides and New Caledonia, 
 which lie between Fiji and Queensland. Their proximity to 
 the Australian mainland was a nuisance after the French had 
 made New Caledonia a penal colony, since criminals in escap- 
 ing found Queensland a convenient home. Finally an agree- 
 ment was reached between France and Great Britain; the 
 French control of New Caledonia was recognized, but it was 
 not to be the prison-house of criminals. The New Hebrides 
 have been jointly supervised by the commissioners of the two 
 countries, an arrangement that has caused much dissatisfac- 
 tion. 
 
 Germany awoke in the eighties to the need for a colonial 
 empire. In the southern Pacific it was interested in New 
 Guinea, in the Melanesian islands to the north, and in 
 Samoa, northeast of Fiji. Queensland, however, coveted 
 New Guinea, and annexed it on its own responsibility in 
 1883. Notwithstanding, the home Government in London 
 hesitated on the question of the ownership of the island until 
 Germany had taken possession of the northeastern part of it 
 in 1884. The exasperated Australians were able to bring 
 about the "protection" of southeastern New Guinea only 
 after Germany had taken what it wanted. In 1889 the ad- 
 ministration of the British part of New Guinea, known as 
 Papua, was entrusted to Queensland. After the Common- 
 wealth came into being, Papua became a subject-territory of 
 the new Australian federation by virtue of the Papua Act 
 of 1905. 
 
 Other groups besides the Fiji Islands became British in 
 these years, in order to keep control of the lines binding the 
 Empire together. When the Canadian Pacific Railway was 
 completed in 1885, mail service was established between 
 Canada and Australasia, and many islands grew in impor- 
 tance thereby. In this connection Fanning Island should be 
 
MODERN AUSTRALASIA 399 
 
 mentioned. It lies in a central position in the southern Pa- 
 cific, and is a landing-place of the all-British cable from 
 Australasia to Vancouver. In 1889 the Cook Islands were an- 
 nexed to New Zealand, and that Dominion also received the 
 administration of several other groups, which are compara- 
 tively unimportant. 
 
 The Tonga or Friendly Islands became a protectorate of 
 Great Britain in 1900. During the nineties Great Britain 
 took possession of the Solomon, Gilbert, and Ellice Islands. 
 The British Solomon Islands (to be distinguished from the 
 German Solomon Islands administered under a mandate by 
 the Commonwealth of Australia) are a protectorate. The 
 Gilbert and Ellice groups, proclaimed protectorates in 1892, 
 were annexed in 1915. The jurisdiction of the High Commis- 
 sioner of the Western Pacific extends over these islands as 
 well as other groups not within the jurisdiction of a civil- 
 ized power. The High Commissioner, who is stationed in the 
 Fiji Islands, rules that group, not by virtue of his appoint- 
 ment as High Commissioner, but as Governor. 
 
 Australia and New Zealand have persistently expressed 
 the opinion that Great Britain should adopt a "forward pol- 
 icy" in the organization of the Pacific, by allowing these two 
 great self-governing Dominions to become stewards of the 
 Empire for the numerous scattered groups in the South Pa- 
 cific. A step in that direction was taken when the German 
 islands were placed under these Dominions as mandatories. 
 The present distribution of the islands we have been studying 
 among New Zealand, Australia, and the Colonial Office in 
 London does not seem the most rational arrangement. The 
 abolition of the High Commission of the Western Pacific and 
 the transfer of the various groups to the near-by Australasian 
 Dominions would simplify a complicated situation. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 
 
 Little need be added to the Bibliographical Note for chapter xv. Both 
 New Zealand and Australia publish elaborate Official Year Books (the 
 former at Wellington and the latter at Melbourne) . A good treatment of 
 recent New Zealand history and conditions is that of G. H. Scholefield, 
 New Zealand in Evolution, Industrial, Economic, Political (London, 1916). 
 
400 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 In addition to J. D. Rogers's Australasia, the Pacific islands are considered 
 in A. Wyatt Tilby's Australasia, by C. Brunsdon Fletcher in The Problem 
 of the Pacific (London, 1919), and in G. H. Scholefield's The Pacific, Its Past 
 and Future (London, 1919). In the King's College Lectures on Colonial 
 Problems a former High Commissioner of the Western Pacific, Sir Everard 
 imThurn, has a lecture on "Native Land and Labour in the South Seas." 
 For the Constitution and a treatment of its political characteristics see 
 Egerton's Federations and Unions in the British Empire. Missionary 
 enterprise in the South Seas has called many remarkable workers. Among 
 the more prominent missionaries may be mentioned Bishop Selwyn, 
 Bishop John C. Patteson, James Calvert, William Ellis, John Williams, 
 John G. Paton, and James Chalmers. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 BRITISH NORTH AMERICA — CANADA AND 
 NEWFOUNDLAND 
 
 A survey of recent Canadian growth has been reserved to 
 the last for several reasons. Canada was the first of the do- 
 minions to attain self-government. Born on July 1, 1867, 
 it has served as a model and an inspiration to the younger 
 members of the Empire. As the most mature of the sister 
 Dominions Canada is both a record and a prophecy. It holds 
 a strategic position in another way as well, for its geographi- 
 cal location makes Canada an important link by which the 
 Pacific interests of Great Britain are connected with the 
 home country. In addition, the Dominion has a common 
 and unfortified boundary four thousand miles long with the 
 greatest English-speaking nation outside the Empire. The 
 reciprocal influences operating between Canada and the Em- 
 pire on the one side and the United States on the other are 
 fateful for the future of the human race and the place of Eng- 
 lish-speaking ideals in its uplift and control. 
 
 CANADIAN CONFEDERATION 
 
 The British North America Act went into effect July 1, 
 1867. It provided for a federal union or partnership of four 
 provinces, Upper and Lower Canada — renamed Ontario 
 and Quebec respectively — and Nova Scotia and New Bruns- 
 wick. The Act was so framed as to make possible the later 
 admission of Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, British 
 Columbia, " Prince Rupert's Land and the North-Western 
 Territory," all of which save Newfoundland have since en- 
 tered the Dominion. The Governor-General, appointed by 
 the imperial authorities, represents the King in Canada and 
 guards imperial interests. The assent of the Governor-Gen- 
 eral is necessary to make valid the laws promulgated and 
 passed by the Dominion Senate and House of Commons. 
 
 The Senate was intended to represent the provinces, and 
 
402 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 was formed so as to comprise equal numbers from each of the 
 three divisions, Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritime Prov- 
 inces. As the senators are appointed by the Government, 
 the Senate has not exercised the power that was expected 
 of it; it serves in no serious way to impede the work of 
 the House of Commons. l The greater power rests with the 
 lower house, in which all money bills must originate. The 
 Executive, nominally the Governor-General representing the 
 King, consists of a Premier and his Cabinet; it is based on 
 the English model and is responsible to the House of Com- 
 mons. If an adverse vote occurs on a government measure, 
 the Premier must resign, as in the procedure of the House 
 of Commons in England. "Thus with a Governor-General, 
 who is much more important socially than politically, and a 
 Senate which does what it is told, Canada is perhaps the most 
 democratic country in the world." 2 
 
 The Dominion is a federal union, differing from the 
 United States to the south in that the provinces are granted 
 certain specified powers and all others are vested in the Do- 
 minion Parliament. Twenty-eight classes of subjects are 
 listed in the Act as within the scope of the central Gov- 
 ernment besides any others not assigned exclusively to the 
 legislatures of the provinces. In general, the division made 
 is between matters of national and of local interest. The 
 provincial governments have control of local self-govern- 
 ment, known as the Municipal System, and have charge of 
 other local matters, including taxation and education. The 
 matter of education is probably the chief prerogative left to 
 the provinces. The Act provides that rights held at the 
 time of the union by denominational schools within a prov- 
 ince cannot be affected by later legislation. 
 
 In each of the provinces there is a Lieutenant-General, ap- 
 pointed by the Governor-General on the advice of the Cabi- 
 net. The Legislative Assemblies of the various provinces 
 are chosen by the people and the provincial Executive Coun- 
 
 1 There has been occasional difficulty when the majority of the Senate has 
 been opposed to the Government, illustrated by the attitude of the Liberal 
 Senate in the years immediately following Laurier's downfall. 
 
 2 The British Empire — Past, Present, and Future, p. 295. 
 
BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 403 
 
 cils are responsible to the Assemblies in the same way that 
 the Dominion Cabinet is controlled by the House at Ottawa. 
 At present, there is, in addition to the Legislative Assembly, 
 a Legislative Council, or upper house, in Nova Scotia and 
 Quebec. 
 
 THE UNIFICATION OF THE DOMINION 
 
 With its inauguration the new Dominion faced many prob- 
 lems of a serious character. Even the four provinces that 
 were charter members were widely separated in their interests 
 as a result of inadequate means of communication. In fact, 
 the Act provided for the building "with all practicable 
 speed" of the Intercolonial Railway to connect the St. Law- 
 rence with Halifax. When British Columbia joined the con- 
 federation a few years later, a similar condition was imposed 
 "to consolidate the union" of this far-distant province. In 
 1867 British Columbia was totally isolated, as the vast 
 stretches of the prairie provinces were at that time largely un- 
 occupied. The Hudson's Bay Company controlled this terri- 
 tory, in which the only real settlement was Lord Selkirk's 
 colony on the Red River. In addition, Dominion agricul- 
 ture and trade were suffering from a discontinuance of the 
 reciprocity arrangements with the United States. Manufac- 
 turing had as yet assumed little importance. The Dominion 
 was inaugurated at a particularly unfortunate time, so far as 
 its relations with the United States were concerned. The 
 recent Civil War in the United States had embittered the 
 relations between England and the Republic. Added to 
 these difficulties was the task of bringing about a good under- 
 standing and a working agreement between the French of the 
 province of Quebec and the English-speaking peoples of the 
 other provinces. 
 
 The first Parliament of the Dominion met in the new 
 buildings in Ottawa in the autumn of 1867. With a few 
 exceptions, the men prominent in bringing the confedera- 
 tion into being were in the first Government. The Prime 
 Minister was John A. Macdonald, and his Cabinet included 
 such well-known men as George E. Cartier, S. L. Tilley, and 
 
404 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 A. T. Gait. George Brown, the leader of the "Clear Grits" 
 of pre-Confederation days, had united with Macdonald and 
 Cartier to effect the union, but he returned in 1867 to a ve- 
 hement opposition of his recent colleagues. Macdonald and 
 Cartier formed an Anglo-French Conservative Party, which 
 was able to control the growth of the Dominion during its 
 critical years; with the exception of the five years from 1873 
 to 1878, when the Liberals were in office, the Conservatives 
 held the reins of power from the inauguration of the Domin- 
 ion until 1896. 
 
 The policy of the Conservative Party was plainly outlined 
 by the evident needs of the Dominion. The sectionalism of 
 former days needed an antidote in the form of a strong cen- 
 tral Government. This, as well as a forceful emphasis on 
 the imperial connection with Great Britain, was dictated by 
 the strained relations that had existed with the United 
 States since the beginning of the sixties, especially as the Re- 
 public to the south had just come out of the Civil War and 
 would be a formidable enemy should trouble arise. Industry, 
 commerce, and especially the settlement of sparsely peopled 
 areas were subjects in great want of attention. Probably 
 the most crying need was the binding together of the prov- 
 inces by telegraphs, railways, and canals. Advocate of all 
 these policies, and "Father" — if any one can be called such 
 — of the Dominion was John A. Macdonald, a remarkably 
 sagacious politician, untiring, courageous, and enthusiastic 
 in his support of imperial interests. He, more than any 
 other, should have credit for the unification and the grow- 
 ing prosperity that came to Canada in the last third of the 
 nineteenth century. 
 
 Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were in the Confedera- 
 tion at the time it was organized. At the outset, the former 
 did not prove to be heartily in favor of the union. Halifax felt 
 that its interests were not forwarded by a combination with 
 Canada. Nova Scotians found it easier to think of centering 
 their attention "in London under the dominion of John Bull 
 than in Ottawa under the dominion of Jack Frost." Joseph 
 Howe, the most prominent man of the province, even went 
 
BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 405 
 
 to London to urge the interests of Nova Scotia. It was only 
 after protracted negotiations with the Dominion Govern- 
 ment, by which better financial terms were granted to Nova 
 Scotia, that Howe became reconciled to joining the Dominion 
 Ministry in 1869. 
 
 Prince Edward Island had held aloof in 1867. Neverthe- 
 less, it was inevitable that it should follow its neighbors, as 
 in the case of Rhode Island when the United States was or- 
 ganized under the Constitution, for there was more to be 
 gained by Prince Edward Island if it joined the Dominion 
 than if it remained separated from its sister provinces. 
 Very favorable financial arrangements were offered Prince 
 Edward Island, and in 1873 it became a province of the 
 Dominion. 
 
 One of the essentials in order to bring about real unity be- 
 tween the Maritime Provinces and the two Canadas was rail- 
 way communication. As we have noted, the Act of Union 
 provided for a railway from Halifax to the St. Lawrence. A 
 bill guaranteeing £3,000,000 for the Intercolonial Railway 
 was passed by the Imperial Parliament at the time when the 
 British North America Act received its official form. This 
 was on the demand of New Brunswick. The route, however, 
 proved a difficult one to select. The State of Maine jutted 
 so far up toward the St. Lawrence that the natural route be- 
 tween the Maritime Provinces and the upper St. Lawrence 
 could not be followed. As a route too near the American 
 boundary was not regarded as wise, the course finally selected 
 by Mr. (later, Sir) Sandford Fleming, the government en- 
 gineer, reached the St. Lawrence by skirting the Bay of 
 Chaleurs. In 1876 this much-needed railway was opened. 
 
 Meanwhile, on the western coast of the continent British 
 settlers were forming a colony that was to join the Dominion 
 and to be linked to its sister provinces by another important 
 railway. The Hudson's Bay Company had leased the terri- 
 tory north of the United States boundary and on the Pacific 
 coast for the purposes of trade. It included the mainland of 
 British Columbia as well as the island of Vancouver. There 
 had been little settlement on the mainland until the discov- 
 
406 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 ery of gold in the bed of the Fraser River in 1856. In 1858 
 British Columbia was made a Crown Colony. Two years 
 earlier Vancouver Island received a legislature. For a time 
 the two districts remained separate, since their interests did 
 not coincide (one was a trading city, the other a mining dis- 
 trict). As the two colonies grew, they became more con- 
 vinced that union was desirable; it was in 1866 that Van- 
 couver Island and British Columbia united under the name 
 of British Columbia with Vancouver, on Vancouver Island, 
 as the capital. 
 
 A step of greater importance was taken when the unified 
 Pacific colonies determined to join the confederation which 
 had been formed far to the east. It is a credit to the far- 
 seeing vision of Canadian statesmen and the colonists on the 
 Pacific coast that this apparently strange proceeding should 
 have seemed feasible. But Sir John A Macdonald's concep- 
 tions could easily span a continent. After considerable de- 
 lay in British Columbia, partly the result of the attitude of 
 the Governor, resolutions were passed by the legislature in 
 favor of union with the Canadian provinces. After dele- 
 gates from the Pacific coast had arranged terms at Ottawa 
 with the Dominion Government, British Columbia became 
 part of Canada in 1871. The chief stipulation made by the 
 new province and agreed to by the Dominion was that within 
 two years construction should begin on a railway connecting 
 British Columbia and Canada. Ten years from the date of 
 the admission of British Columbia into the confederation the 
 railway was to be completed. 
 
 It was exceedingly important that the long stretches of 
 territory between Ontario and the Rocky Mountains be se- 
 cured for Canada, if railway connection and future expansion 
 were to be made secure. Between the settled part of On- 
 tario and Fort Garry (Winnipeg) the country was barren and 
 impenetrable; it served as a great barrier to communication. 
 In fact, the prairies were usually entered by way of the 
 United States. In what is now Manitoba and the prairie 
 provinces, the Hudson's Bay Company held sway for about 
 two centuries. Its only competitor had been the North- 
 
BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 407 
 
 West Company, which, established about the opening of the 
 American Revolution, had been absorbed by its rival in 1820. 
 Settlements, other than for purposes of the fur-trade, did not 
 exist, save for the solitary exception of Lord Selkirk's col- 
 ony in the Red River Valley. As we have found, 1 this lone 
 colony was subjected to many discouragements. In fact, 
 the Hudson's Bay Company did not care to have settlers in 
 Prince Rupert's Land and the North- West Territory. The 
 Company's servants did not hesitate to declare the worth- 
 lessness for grain-raising of a district which has since become 
 notable as one of the world's important granaries. 
 
 As Confederation approached, Canadian statesmen became 
 interested in these vast territories. A committee of the Im- 
 perial House of Commons investigated the Hudson's Bay 
 Company's affairs in 1857 with a view, among other things, 
 to finding what lands were suitable for settlement in order 
 that they might be ceded to Canada. In 1863 the Company 
 was reorganized and facilities for settlement were provided. 
 But the situation was anomalous at the time of the formation 
 of the Dominion. It was felt that Great Britain should exer- 
 cise a more certain control over these territories, either by 
 establishing a Crown Colony or by uniting Prince Rupert's 
 Land and the North- West Territory with Canada. Added 
 incentive was given by the fear that the United States might 
 acquire the lands in question. In 1867 Russia sold Alaska to 
 the United States ; the addition of lands connecting the 
 United States with Alaska would thereafter seem a nat- 
 ural step. In 1865 Macdonald wrote: "If Canada is to re- 
 main a country separate from the United States, it is of great 
 importance that they should not get behind us by right or by 
 force and intercept the route to the Pacific." 2 
 
 The province of Quebec was not keenly interested in Mac- 
 donald's plans, for the French half-breeds, or metis, as they 
 were called, might suffer with the settlement of the country 
 in which they found occupation in serving the interests of the 
 Hudson's Bay Company. In 1867 resolutions were intro- 
 duced in the Dominion House of Commons urging the union 
 
 1 See chapter xi, 2 Egerton, Canada under British Rule, p. 266, 
 
408 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 with the new Dominion of the territories under the Hudson's 
 Bay Company. The resolutions were sent to England, where 
 negotiations finally culminated in an arrangement satisfac- 
 tory to Canada. In 1869 the deed of surrender was signed by 
 the Hudson's Bay Company; Canada paid the Company 
 £300,000 and left the trading rights of the territories in the 
 hands of their former owners. 
 
 The transfer was not to be made without disturbance. 
 The metis did not want annexation, for they feared they 
 might lose their lands. The descendants of Lord Selkirk's 
 Scotch settlers were discontented as well. Of course the 
 Company's employees did not look with favor on the sale of 
 the Hudson's Bay Company's lands to Canada. To make 
 matters worse, the surveyors, who penetrated the Red River 
 country in 1869, seem to have shown want of tact in their 
 work. As a result, the French Canadians rose in rebellion 
 under a leader by the name of Louis Riel and established a 
 provisional government. They aroused the anger of Canada 
 by the murder of Thomas Scott of Ontario. Troops were 
 sent to the seat of trouble in the spring of 1870. Riel 
 promptly fled across the border and the work of annexation 
 proceeded with little further interruption. In 1870 the Red 
 River territory was organized as a province of the Dominion 
 under the name of Manitoba, with the same political ma- 
 chinery as in the other provinces. The prairies between 
 Manitoba and British Columbia were as yet so sparsely 
 settled that they were not formed into the provinces of Sas- 
 katchewan and Alberta until thirty-five years later. 
 
 When the Dominion was extended from the Atlantic to the 
 Pacific, the matter of next importance was the railway join- 
 ing British Columbia and Ontario. Two companies were 
 eager for the right to construct the proposed line. The Gov- 
 ernment did not wish American capital to be used, and de- 
 sired that the work be done by an amalgamated company 
 instead of by two rival concerns. While this question was 
 up, an election took place in 1872, by which Macdonald and 
 his party were returned to power. Shortly afterward it was 
 found by the Prime Minister's enemies that Sir Hugh Allan 
 
BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 409 
 
 of Montreal had made heavy contributions to the Conserv- 
 ative campaign funds. As he was the head of one of the 
 rival companies desiring the government contract, the ex- 
 posure of the "deal" seriously compromised the Government. 
 Macdonald endeavored to defend himself on the ground that 
 large funds were needed to counteract local patronage. In 
 addition, Sir Hugh Allan was found to be backed to some ex- 
 tent by the tabooed American capital. There was an inves- 
 tigation of the scandal by a Royal Commission. Macdonald 
 dared not face the vote of want of confidence and resigned. 
 He had certainly used unscrupulous tactics, but this episode 
 in his career should not be allowed to detract from the worth 
 of his great services to Canada. 
 
 The election resulting from the exposure of Macdonald's 
 financial methods in the campaign of 1872 brought the Lib- 
 erals under Alexander Mackenzie into power; from 1873 to 
 1878 this party controlled the policies of the Dominion. The 
 Liberal Party performed much useful service during its short 
 tenure of office. Mackenzie, however, did not prove so bold 
 in his policies as seemed to be needed at this stage of Cana- 
 dian development. Commercially, Canada did not prosper. 
 The panic of 1873 in the United States seriously affected the 
 Dominion, which had not the powers of recovery possessed by 
 its stronger neighbor to the south. Mackenzie was also slow 
 in granting adequate government aid for the Pacific railway. 
 So discouraged did British Columbia become with the sit- 
 uation that it threatened to secede. The combination of 
 economic depression and a vacillating railway policy led the 
 people to wish for the vigorous leadership of Macdonald, 
 even though he had but recently been rejected by the coun- 
 try. It was not unexpected that the election of 1878 brought 
 Sir John A. Macdonald and his party back into power.' 
 
 CONSERVATIVE AND LIBERAL 
 
 During the few years he was out of office Macdonald had 
 perfected his ideas for Canadian government under the 
 name of the " National Policy." A resolution which he in- 
 troduced in the House of Commons in 1878 declared that the 
 
410 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 "welfare of Canada requires the adoption of a National 
 Policy." By this, Macdonald meant a readjustment of the 
 tariff for the protection of Canadian industries, by which 
 prosperity would be restored and an inter-provincial trade 
 developed. He looked forward to a later reciprocity agree- 
 ment with the United States. The National Policy included 
 also the grant of bounties for the encouragement of indus- 
 tries. As the term has come to be used in more recent years, 
 it has been extended to include immigration propaganda 
 and all other measures tending to develop the Dominion. 
 
 A generous attitude to the perennial railway question was 
 a natural part of this policy. Some work had been done on 
 the Pacific railway as a public work before the Conservatives 
 returned to office, but this expensive procedure was aban- 
 doned after the Canadian Pacific Railway Commission re- 
 ported in 1882. Instead, the task was turned over to a new 
 private company, with whom very liberal terms were made. 
 George Stephen, afterwards Lord Mountstephen, and his 
 cousin, Donald A. Smith, better known as Lord Strathcona, 
 were prominent in the new company. Donald Smith risked 
 every penny of his accumulated savings to insure the success 
 of the enterprise. When the Northern Pacific Railway failed 
 in 1883, conditions looked very serious for the Canadian 
 Pacific. Liberal financial aid, in addition to the original 
 grants, was asked and generously granted by the Dominion 
 Parliament. At last in November, 1885, the Canadian Pa- 
 cific Railway was completed when Donald Smith drove the 
 last spike at Craigellachie in the Rocky Mountains. In the 
 next year Sir John Macdonald rode to the Pacific over the 
 new road and saw the great task, which he had long held in 
 vision, a completed fact. The only "fly in the ointment" 
 was a rebellion of metis in the Saskatchewan district, for 
 reasons not unlike those leading to the rebellion of 1869. 
 Riel again led the insurrection, which was subdued in the 
 summer of 1885, after considerable bloodshed. This time 
 he was captured and hanged in spite of strong efforts of the 
 province of Quebec to prevent his execution. x 
 
 1 Lord Strathcona is one of Canada's most remarkable men. A Scotchman 
 
BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 411 
 
 In 1891 Sir John A. Macdonald died, shortly after a tri- 
 umphant political campaign that had brought him to power 
 for the fourth time. The slogan of the campaign had been 
 "The old flag, the old man, and the old policy." Some ex- 
 tremists had talked of annexation to the United States and 
 this had given the sagacious politician his opportunity. The 
 country realized its loss with his death and paid him fitting 
 honor. A rising Liberal leader, Wilfrid Laurier by name, 
 already recognized as a remarkable orator, paid a glowing 
 tribute to the great leader whose life had been permeated with 
 devotion to Canada. 
 
 After Macdonald's death the Conservative Party lost the 
 hold that it had retained for eighteen years on the political 
 power of the Dominion. Three Conservative prime minis- 
 ters held brief office after the great leader's death, but in 
 1896 the Liberals under Laurier came to power — a position 
 they were to retain until 1911. 
 
 Sir Wilfrid Laurier proved a fitting leader of the country 
 in the years chiefly important for the growth of unity and of 
 remarkable expansion in varied fields of activity. This man, 
 who became Premier in 1896, was a French Canadian, born 
 not far north of Montreal in 1841. Although educated as a 
 Catholic, he learned English in the home of a Scotch Presby- 
 terian minister. He gained not only a remarkable control of 
 English and its literature, but also a liberal attitude that ad- 
 mirably served to make the suavity of Laurier a means of 
 more intimately uniting the diverse racial interests of the 
 Dominion. As an orator he has had few equals in Canada, 
 either in French or in English. At the Diamond Jubilee of 
 Queen Victoria in 1897, there was no more notable repre- 
 sentative of the oversea possessions than Sir Wilfrid Laurier. 
 
 The ideas of the Liberals under his leadership proved to be 
 little different from the "National Policy" of Macdonald. 
 
 like Macdonald, he early went into the service of the Hudson's Bay Company. 
 For thirteen years he was a factor in the wilds of Labrador, but by the time of 
 confederation he had become a chief member of the Company. When Riel's 
 rebellion occurred in 1869, he was one of the men sent to negotiate and bring 
 peace. He lived to an advanced and honored old age, dying in 1914, after long 
 service in London as High Commissioner of Canada. 
 
412 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 As a matter of fact, the Liberals were accused of catching the 
 Conservatives in bathing and stealing their clothes. Pro- 
 tection was continued for native industry. Greater and 
 greater preference was accorded to Great Britain by the 
 Laurier Government in the matter of trade, until it re- 
 ceived a thirty- three and one third per cent preference 
 over foreign countries in customs duties. The imperial 
 connection was strengthened in various other ways as well. 
 
 The downfall of the Liberals came in 1911 over the matter 
 of reciprocity with the United States. Before the death of 
 Macdonald there had been advocates of a customs union with 
 the Republic. Many had felt, on the contrary, that a union 
 of this sort might be but a step toward political annexation. 
 Reciprocity was urged in the campaign of 1891, and, as we 
 have already noted, it gave the Conservative leader a telling 
 slogan. Macdonald had the gifts of a politician, but there 
 was much of sincerity in his words at the time of that cam- 
 paign: "A British subject I was born, a British subject I will 
 die. With my utmost effort, with my latest breath, will I 
 oppose the veiled treason which attempts, by sordid means 
 and mercenary proffers, to lure our people from their alle- 
 giance." 
 
 Under Laurier's leadership the Liberals sought to draw 
 closer to the United States. In 1911 definite negotiations 
 were carried on with Washington. An agreement was ar- 
 rived at which, it was thought, would aid Canada by giving 
 its raw materials a larger market and bj' providing greater 
 resources of capital for internal development. The Amer- 
 ican Congress sanctioned the Reciprocity Treaty. The op- 
 ponents of the measure in Canada, however, found an op- 
 portunity to attack it as a result of references to annexation 
 made by Mr. Champ Clark in Congress — references that 
 certainly did not represent the feeling of the people of the 
 United States. The same fear again became evident as in 
 1891 when Macdonald appealed so effectively to the elec- 
 torate for a National Policy. In 1911 Robert L. Borden, the 
 Conservative leader, successfully aroused similar feeling by 
 denouncing an arrangement that would make Canada an 
 "appanage of the United States." 
 
BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 413 
 
 The defeat of the Liberals in the 1911 election was decisive. 
 Robert L. Borden became Premier under the very evident 
 development of a growing devotion to the imperial connec- 
 tion and interests. The increasing conviction that Canada 
 should link itself closely to the mother country and the 
 Empire has been evidenced by an interest in a navy and the 
 enthusiastic participation in the World War. The year 1914 
 came as the acid test of the ideals which had governed Cana- 
 dian growth since the days of Confederation. 1 
 
 PROVINCIAL PROBLEMS 
 
 In addition to the political development which has been 
 sketched, there have been certain characteristic internal 
 troubles that need to be considered. Occasional strain has 
 occurred in the relations between the provinces and the cen- 
 tral Government. Sir John A. Macdonald recommended in 
 1879 the dismissal of the Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec for 
 the summary way in which he had dismissed his ministry. 
 The prerogatives of the central Government were empha- 
 sized also in the matter of the boundary between Ontario 
 and Manitoba, in which Macdonald seemed to be working 
 against the interests of his own province. 
 
 The matter of education was left to the provinces, with the 
 restriction that denominational privileges in effect at the 
 union should not be diminished by later legislation. There 
 was difficulty in several provinces over the question of church 
 rights under the laws enacted after the union. Probably the 
 most notable case occurred in Manitoba where education was 
 a serious question during the nineties. When the province 
 was organized, denominational schools had been established, 
 but in 1890 the legislature made provision for strictly non- 
 sectarian schools. The Roman Catholics pressed for their 
 former position, and the Conservative Dominion Premier, 
 Mackenzie Bowell, demanded in 1895 that such be granted. 
 Feeling was running high, however, and Manitoba refused to 
 act as required. The question was brought into the elections 
 of 1896, but it failed, to deflect any large Roman Catholic 
 
 i See p. 450. 
 
414 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 vote from Laurier, as the Conservatives had hoped. After 
 conferences between the federal and provincial ministries it 
 was finally agreed to allow religious teaching in the schools 
 during certain hours, if a sufficient number of parents so re- 
 quested. It was essentially a victory for the province. 
 
 An interesting case in which the provincial privileges were 
 tested was in the matter of the Jesuits' Estates. In the 
 early days of Canada the Jesuits had acquired lands in the 
 French Canadian province of Quebec. With the abolition of 
 the Order in 1773 these lands came into the possession of the 
 Government and were used to further public instruction in 
 the province of Quebec. When the Jesuit Order was reestab- 
 lished in the nineteenth century, it naturally demanded back 
 its lands. But the Roman Catholic bishops laid claims to 
 the lands as well. At last, in 1888, the Quebec legislature 
 passed a bill authorizing compensation to the Jesuits in the 
 sum of $400,000, but with the provision that distribution 
 should not be made until the Pope had declared his wishes. 
 Extreme Protestants were aroused by this appeal to an out- 
 side Government in order to settle an affair that concerned 
 Canadian lands. The Pope awarded the compensation, in 
 part to the Jesuits, in part to the Roman Catholic bishops, 
 and in part to Laval University. A resolution introduced 
 in the Dominion House of Commons to disallow the Quebec 
 Jesuits' Estates Act was voted down. Thus another in- 
 stance of provincial independence was furnished. 
 
 There has been considerable racial strain and stress not 
 unlike that in South Africa. The French have remained in 
 an overwhelming majority in Quebec. They have been ap- 
 prehensive of losing the strong position they had at the time 
 of Confederation, on account of the growth of the other, and 
 especially the western, provinces. The French Canadians 
 have been very tenacious of their institutions, language, and 
 religion, and jealous of any infringement of their rights. As 
 time has gone on, the French have grown stronger, if any- 
 thing, in Quebec, and have asserted their claims to special 
 school concessions in those counties of eastern Ontario border- 
 ing on Quebec. 
 
BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 415 
 
 In general, this group has proved loyal to the British Em- 
 pire. As might be expected, however, they have not shown 
 such spontaneity in the meeting of imperial needs as their 
 British fellow citizens. The World War brought this issue 
 clearly before the French Canadians. Even Sir Wilfrid 
 Laurier was in favor of an army liable for home service 
 only, and Quebec, in the election of 1917, registered its feel- 
 ing on compulsory service by granting the Borden Govern- 
 ment but three seats out of sixty-five. At that time the 
 Quebec Nationalists under the lead of Henri Bourassa even 
 talked of secession; during the South African War Bourassa 
 opposed closer relations between Canada and the Empire, 
 and the assumption of an obligation for the defense of the 
 Empire. It is probably inevitable that in Canada as in 
 South Africa local interests should more largely control the 
 racial group that is not British. 1 
 
 THE CANADA OF TO-DAY 
 
 The Dominion of Canada has a population of nearly nine 
 million. As the total area of Canada is about the same as 
 that of the United States, the population per square mile is 
 comparatively low. On the contrary, there is no general 
 distribution, for the inhabited part of Canada is largely con- 
 fined to a rather narrow strip along the southern border of 
 the Dominion. There are nine provinces: four, Ontario, 
 Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, were united by 
 the Act of Confederation in 1867; British Columbia joined 
 in 1871 and Prince Edward Island in 1873. In 1870 the 
 province of Manitoba was formed out of the territories of the 
 Hudson's Bay Company, which had been transferred to the 
 Dominion by an Order-in-Council of that year. The Yukon 
 
 1 The death of Sir Wilfrid Laurier in 1919 removed one of the most pictur- 
 esque and most beloved statesmen from Canadian public life. His career 
 serves as an excellent illustration of the patriotism of a Canadian whose inter- 
 ests were somewhat divided by his French-Canadian nationality. Though re- 
 sisting clerical interference in political affairs, he was invincibly loyal to his 
 race and clung to the last to Quebec. Laurier had opposed confederation in 
 his youth and to the end could not be regarded as an ardent Imperialist. As he 
 felt in 1867 that Confederation was " the tomb of the French race," so in later 
 years he felt that the Dominion would be comparatively uninfluential in an 
 Empire more centrally organized. 
 
416 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 Territory was organized in 1898 and the provinces of Sas- 
 katchewan and Alberta in 1905. In 1912 large areas of the 
 Northwest Territories were transferred to Quebec, Ontario, 
 and Manitoba. Quebec then received the whole of Ungava, 
 excepting that part of Labrador which belongs to Newfound- 
 land, Ontario was carried to the southern shores of Hudson 
 Bay, and the province of Manitoba was extended northward 
 to the sixtieth parallel of north latitude, the northern bound- 
 ary of Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia as well. 
 In spite of these large additions to the provinces, one third of 
 the land-surface of Canada is still in the Northwest Terri- 
 tories. 
 
 Ontario led in 1921 with a population of three million, 
 followed by Quebec with two and a third million inhabit- 
 ants. Saskatchewan ranked third with three quarters of a 
 million, and Manitoba came next with a population of over 
 six hundred thousand. Alberta, Nova Scotia, and British 
 Columbia each possessed over half a million inhabitants and 
 New Brunswick about three hundred and ninety thousand. 
 Prince Edward Island, with fewer than one hundred thou- 
 sand people, was the most thickly populated province of the 
 Dominion. Particularly remarkable has been the growth 
 of the prairie provinces. At the opening of the present cen- 
 tury Saskatchewan and Alberta had smaller populations than 
 Prince Edward Island. For several decades there has been 
 a full stream of immigration to Canada, which reached a 
 high-water mark in 1913 when over four hundred thousand 
 persons entered the Dominion, more than a third coming 
 from the United States. 
 
 Agriculture is important in all the provinces, although the 
 great prairie provinces lead. In recent years there has been 
 much " advanced" legislation in these provinces in the inter- 
 ests of the farmers. Fishing is a valued industry in the At- 
 lantic provinces and in British Columbia. The chief mining 
 districts are found in Nova Scotia, British Columbia, On- 
 tario, and Quebec. The importance of the Yukon Terri- 
 tory in this regard has declined within recent years. The 
 older provinces, especially Quebec and Ontario, lead in man- 
 ufacturing and commerce. 
 
BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 417 
 
 The general election of 1921 illustrates well the developing 
 interests of the various parts of the Dominion. In it the Co- 
 alition Party, which was formed for war purposes in 1917, 
 was very badly defeated. The Liberals came back to power 
 under the lead of William Lyon Mackenzie King, the grand- 
 son of the leader of the Canadian Rebellion in Ontario in 
 1837. 1 The prairie provinces returned, almost as a unit, the 
 candidates of the Progressive Party, the farmers' organiza- 
 tion. The Conservative Party, which came to power under 
 Sir Robert Borden in 1911, won fewer seats than the Progres- 
 sives ; even the Prime Minister was not returned. 
 
 In connection with the remarkable expansion of recent 
 years in Canada no better test is to be found than the devel- 
 opment of communications. So important has this been in a 
 country with the population distributed as it is in Canada 
 that government assistance and supervision have been more 
 common than in many countries. The construction of the 
 Intercolonial and the main line of the Canadian Pacific rail- 
 ways has been described. The Grand Trunk, older than 
 either of these railways, has increased in size, until to-day 
 it is one of the chief continental lines. A third great sys- 
 tem, known as the Canadian Northern, has spanned the con- 
 tinent as well. The Canadian National Railways, under 
 the control of the government, now include all the impor- 
 tant lines save the Canadian Pacific — more than half of 
 the railway mileage of Canada. Numerous branches of 
 these railway systems have been constructed in the agricul- 
 tural provinces in particular, by which many new belts of 
 prairie have been opened to communication and to outside 
 markets. It is estimated that over two hundred millions of 
 dollars have been granted by the Dominion, the provinces, 
 and the municipalities in direct financial aid for the forty 
 thousand miles of trackage in Canada. The great railway 
 companies of Canada are much more than common carriers; 
 they are public service corporations with a high sense of obli- 
 gation to the country. They have been particularly notable 
 as advertisers of Canada and have granted much assistance 
 
 i See pp. 225 ff. 
 
418 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 to Old-World immigrants in the occupation of unsettled terri- 
 tories. Ify virtue of the Canadian Pacific Railway's ocean 
 service on both the Atlantic and the Pacific an all-British 
 route is maintained between Europe on the one side, and 
 Asia and Australasia on the other. 
 
 Thus far the work of the Canadian has been that of the 
 pioneer. In the fifty years since the Dominion came into be- 
 ing Canada has shown remarkable growth in many ways. 
 Materially the great possibilities of the country have been 
 realized, if by no means exhausted. Politically, responsible 
 government, with a close adherence to imperial interests, has 
 been worked out so successfully as to form an inspiration to 
 other self-governing dominions. The National Policy of 
 Macdonald has evolved into a national ideal. Imperial con- 
 nections have been carefully maintained, and yet it was no 
 idle boast of Canada's Premier that the Dominion took part 
 in the World War of 1914 as a " participating nation." 
 
 CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES 
 
 For four thousand miles the United States and Canada 
 have a common boundary. In addition, the population of 
 the Dominion is distributed like a long ribbon along this 
 frontier. It is inevitable that there should be reciprocal in- 
 fluences of the one nation upon the other, particularly as they 
 are of the same stock, speak the same language, and have 
 similar institutions. The relations of the two have not al- 
 ways been amicable. Yet, since the War of 1812, there has 
 been peace, although at times trouble of a serious nature 
 seemed at hand. 
 
 Much controversy has raged over boundary questions. 
 The early treaties were indefinite, owing to an inaccurate 
 knowledge of the geography of the North American conti- 
 nent. In 1842 the vexed question of the Maine boundary was 
 settled after Maine and New Brunswick were almost at 
 blows in the so-called "Aroostook War." The settlement of 
 the conflicting claims of the two neighbors gave the Ameri- 
 cans much less than they claimed, and the United States 
 paid the State of Maine $150,000 for its loss; but the Cana- 
 
BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 419 
 
 dians felt that Maine had received much more than was its 
 due, as a result of confusion with regard to the River St. 
 Croix, which had been declared in 1783 to be a part of the 
 boundary. As it is, Maine juts so far toward the St. Law- 
 rence as to make the direct route between Montreal and 
 St. John cross American territory. 
 
 The Oregon boundary was settled at about the same time. 
 The Hudson's Bay Company was trading in British Colum- 
 bia and along the Columbia River long before 1846. Citi- 
 zens of the United States began to settle along the Columbia 
 after Lewis and Clark made their famous overland journey 
 early in the century. It was a question of great perplexity 
 as to whom the district rightly belonged. In 1845 the Demo- 
 cratic Party declared that the United States should have the 
 coast to the southern point of Alaska, 54° 40'. The cam- 
 paign slogan was "Fifty-Four-Forty or Fight," but after 
 President Polk's election the administration was not eager to 
 prolong trouble over the Oregon territory, inasmuch as a war 
 was imminent with Mexico over Texas. The President of- 
 fered to compromise with Great Britain on the forty-ninth 
 parallel. After some hesitation, Great Britain agreed to this 
 boundary. 
 
 The Treaty of 1846 declared that the boundary line along 
 the forty-ninth parallel continued westward to the middle of 
 the channel separating Vancouver Island from the continent, 
 and thence southerly through the middle of the channel and 
 of Fuca's Straits to the Pacific. This gave Great Britain all 
 of Vancouver Island, a part of which extends below the 
 forty-ninth parallel. The British and Americans, however, 
 could not agree on the channel that the boundary line was 
 supposed to follow. It was a matter of no great importance, 
 as it concerned only the ownership of the small island of San 
 Juan. At last in 1871 the question was referred to the Ger- 
 man Emperor, who decided in favor of the United States. 
 
 Although all boundary trouble seemed to be over with the 
 settlement of this matter, a further cause for controversy re- 
 mained. The purchase of Alaska by the United States in 
 1867 made it necessary to settle the common frontier with 
 
420 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 Canada, especially after the discovery of gold in the Yukon 
 gave great value to seaports. The land boundary of the long 
 stretch of Alaskan coast from the fifty-fourth to the sixtieth 
 parallels was to follow the summits of the mountains which 
 lay along the coast and the line was to be drawn parallel to 
 the coast where the mountains were more than ten miles in- 
 land. The settlement between Russia and Great Britain of 
 1825, which the United States had inherited in 1867, declared 
 that the boundary followed the windings of the coast at a dis- 
 tance not exceeding ten miles from the shore. The Lynn 
 Canal inlet which deeply indents the very broken shore line, 
 was most convenient for the miners of the Klondike, but the 
 Americans claimed it. Some settlement of the jurisdiction 
 of the two countries was necessary, in view of the growing im- 
 portance and great attractiveness of Alaskan and Yukon 
 gold-fields. Finally an agreement was reached in 1903, by 
 which a joint commission of six members, three from the 
 United States, two from Canada, and the Lord Chief Justice 
 of England, was appointed to decide the question. The 
 United States could hardly lose in such a body, if its repre- 
 sentatives kept together. As it was, the Chief Justice sided 
 with the Americans on the important points at issue. The 
 disappointed Canadians declared that Great Britain's chief 
 concern was to preserve friendly relations with the United 
 States. 
 
 Considerable trouble has occurred over the fisheries. The 
 Treaty of 1783 gave the people of the United States fishing 
 rights in British waters. This was extended in 1818, and 
 again in 1854 when a Reciprocity Treaty was made between 
 the two adjoining countries. In 1866 the United States ter- 
 minated the reciprocity agreement. Yet American fisher- 
 men were reluctant to discontinue their customary practices. 
 Licenses proved ineffective, and the British had recourse to a 
 small fleet for the protection of their fishing rights. Consid- 
 erable friction resulted, which was terminated by the Treaty 
 of Washington in 1871. Yet a satisfactory arrangement was 
 not reached, as the privileges accorded the Americans in this 
 agreement were felt by the Canadians to outweigh those 
 
BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 421 
 
 granted the Dominion. After commissioners were appointed 
 to determine the amount of compensation, if any, Great 
 Britain was awarded the sum of five and a half million dollars. 
 
 On the west coast, trouble occurred over the fishing for fur 
 seals in Bering Sea. The United States took the position 
 that Bering Sea was a mare clausum, and attempted to pre- 
 vent other nations from carrying on sealing. A commission 
 that met to decide the question in 1897 declared against the 
 interpretation of the United States and awarded Great 
 Britain half a million dollars for ships wrongly seized by the 
 United States outside the three-mile limit. 
 
 Of great assistance to the peaceful character of the rela- 
 tions of the two countries was the agreement of 1817 by 
 which no armaments were to be kept on the Great Lakes. 
 There have been, however, occasional causes of trouble. At 
 the time of the Canadian Rebellion of 1837 insurgents ob- 
 tained supplies from the American side. In the capture by 
 the Canadians of the vessel used for conveying munitions to 
 Canada an American was killed. The feeling aroused finally 
 died down, and the man who asserted that he had shot the 
 American was acquitted and released by the State of New 
 York. 
 
 Shortly after the Civil War the Fenian troubles were a 
 fruitful cause for ill feeling. The Fenians of Ireland had 
 sympathizers in the United States, who thought to aid the 
 cause of Ireland by attacking Canada. To the Dominion the 
 Fenians seemed a serious menace, as the Civil War had given 
 military training to many Irish adventurers. In 1866 fifteen 
 hundred Irishmen crossed the Niagara River, but were soon 
 driven back, and their leaders were arrested by the American 
 authorities. Another attempt to invade Canada in 1871 was 
 suppressed by the United States; but the Fenian invasion 
 served to arouse in Canadians a fear of American aggression, 
 which has done much to perpetuate the feeling that the 
 United States would like to annex Canada if it dared. The 
 difficulty over the matter of trade relations, to which refer- 
 ence has been made, is owing in no small measure to the same 
 suspicion of American motives. 
 
422 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 It is evident that sensitiveness and suspicion, arrogance 
 and tactlessness have been present in the relations of the 
 United States and Canada. A brilliant Canadian journalist, 
 in a series of lectures before an American university in 1917, 
 has thus summed up the situation: "Each people has its ad- 
 vantages and its handicaps. Both are alike in this, that Ca- 
 nadians have been slow to learn from the longer experience of 
 Americans, and quick to resent both dictation and advice; 
 even as Americans, in the youthful days of their nation, 
 thought Britain an old fogey. With so much in common we 
 have often declined to learn the primary things in each other's 
 history, and sometimes we have behaved with the brutal 
 frankness of blood relations." 1 
 
 The importance of good feeling and friendly cooperation 
 between Canada and the United States cannot be overesti- 
 mated. The great American Republic here comes into its 
 most intimate contact with the great British Empire. The 
 cooperation of English-speaking peoples for the spread of 
 Anglo-American ideals is one of the great potential powers for 
 good in the world of our time. In the promotion of this 
 entente cordiale Canada occupies a strategic position as the 
 great interpreter of the two branches of the English-speaking 
 peoples. 
 
 NEWFOUNDLAND 
 
 One of the strangest members of the British Empire is 
 Newfoundland. This island, which is larger than Ireland and 
 but little smaller than England in area, is separated from 
 Canada by the comparatively narrow strait of Belle Isle. 
 Yet its connection with the European continent has been, if 
 anything, more intimate than with the neighboring conti- 
 nent. It is less than seventeen hundred miles from Ireland, 
 and for centuries has been visited annually by fishing fleets 
 from France and the British Isles. 
 
 Newfoundland is Great Britain's senior colony. Although 
 John Cabot discovered it in 1497, it was not until the end 
 of the War of the Spanish Succession (1713) that France 
 
 1 James A. Macdonald, The North American Idea, pp. 160-61. 
 
BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 423 
 
 ceded to Great Britain its sovereign rights in Newfoundland. 
 Even then the French retained privileges on the Treaty- 
 Shore which were akin to sovereignty. In like manner, the 
 Americans, by the Treaty of 1783 granting independence to 
 the thirteen colonies, were given fishing rights about New- 
 foundland that made the island more an international terri- 
 tory than an exclusively British possession. In addition, 
 the coming of fleets annually from Great Britain made the 
 colony seem less of a colony than most possessions of the 
 mother country; it was, in reality, a part of Great Britain 
 rather than a distinct unit like Canada or Malta or Jamaica. 
 Because of the fact that Canadian, American, and French 
 fleets participated in the fisheries along with the vessels 
 of Great Britain and Newfoundland, this half-colony has 
 seemed almost more of a fishing ground for the nations than 
 a British holding. 
 
 The outstanding feature of Newfoundland life is the in- 
 dustry of fishing. Until recent years, when agricultural and 
 pastoral pursuits, mining and lumbering have been develop- 
 ing, practically the entire population lived on the coast and 
 engaged in fishing. It has been a colony of one industry and 
 that a dedication of all the inhabitants to reaping the sea- 
 harvest of cod, fish-bait, seals, lobsters, and whales. Two 
 thirds of the value of the exports consists of dried cod and 
 cod-oil. Herring, sea-products, and lobsters are also im- 
 portant. Cod are more numerous in the waters about New- 
 foundland than anywhere else in the world. From June un- 
 til the end of October the season is " on. " In connection with 
 the fishing for cod, certain smaller fishes serve as bait — the 
 herring, the caplin, and the squid. These are followed to the 
 banks and shoals by the cod, where the latter are caught by 
 the fishermen in numerous ways. Seals are caught for their 
 oil and their skins. Lobsters are being tinned in larger and 
 larger quantities in Newfoundland; the industry began only 
 as late as 1873. Whaling has assumed greater importance 
 since the invention of the harpoon gun. The whale is valu- 
 able not only for its oil, but for the by-products of guano 
 and bone. 
 
424 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 This international fishing ground did not begin to evolve 
 into a colony with a distinct self-consciousness until the 
 nineteenth century. Until a comparatively recent period the 
 policy of the British Government was not to encourage, but 
 as much as possible to discourage, the regular colonization of 
 Newfoundland. This attitude is to be accounted for largely 
 by the wish to keep the fishing industry a British one, thus 
 profiting more directly British interests, and, in particular, 
 providing a nursery for British seamen. Until 1825 the 
 Governor ruled without a Council. For the next seven years 
 there was a nominee Council, and from 1832 to 1855 this 
 body was composed partly of nominees and partly of elected 
 members. Finally in 1855 responsible government was 
 granted, just about the time it was being extended to the 
 Australasian dominions. The system of government is like 
 that of Canada, consisting of two houses and a cabinet re- 
 sponsible for its acts to the lower chamber. Of the quarter 
 of a million people living on the island the greatest number is 
 concentrated in the southeast corner of Newfoundland, where 
 the capital, St. John's, is located. Because of its value for 
 fishing purposes and its use for the Newfoundland fleet, 
 Labrador is a part of the colony of Newfoundland, though it 
 is located on the mainland. 
 
 The growing self-consciousness of the island has been en- 
 gendered by the endeavor to bring the fisheries more and 
 more under the colony's control. Much controversy has oc- 
 curred with the French over fishing rights. France obtained 
 in 1783 possession of the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon 
 off the south coast as bases for its fishing fleets, and also the 
 exclusive right to fish on the west coast of Newfoundland. 
 There the French regarded their rights as practically absolute, 
 even to the point of prohibiting Newfoundlanders from 
 settling on the Treaty Shore. The situation could not but 
 become acute with the growth of the colony. It claimed the 
 right to legislate for its own fisheries, passing the Bait Act of 
 1886, under which the all-important bait could be sold only 
 under license. The French retaliated by destroying the 
 lobster factories on the Treaty Shore. Great Britain was in- 
 
BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 425 
 
 dulgent of the French in order to prevent international diffi- 
 culties, but in 1904 the tension was relieved by the Lans- 
 downe-Cambon Convention. France abandoned all its 
 rights in Newfoundland, and was compensated by a payment 
 of half a million dollars and the cession of some British terri- 
 tories on the west coast of Africa. 
 
 American fishing concessions have caused considerable 
 trouble as well. The privilege granted in 1783 and reaffirmed 
 in 1818 gave the ships from the United States the right to fish 
 on certain shores and to enter bays and harbors for shelter, 
 repairs, and similar purposes. The Americans caused ill 
 feeling by the use of larger seines than those of the Newfound- 
 landers, by fishing on Sunday, by refusing to pay light and 
 port duties, and by otherwise disregarding local customs and 
 regulations. The colonists possessed an effective weapon in 
 the restriction on bait-selling. By 1905 the situation was 
 serious; the colony passed laws injuring the fishing interests 
 of the United States, in addition to passing further anti-bait 
 regulations. The various causes of trouble were referred to 
 the Hague Tribunal, which gave an award in 1910. Great 
 Britain was declared to have a right to make regulations 
 regarding fishing without the consent of the United States, 
 provided the regulations were bona fide and not in violation 
 of the Treaty of 1818. The Americans were allowed to em- 
 ploy foreigners on their ships and to land in bays and harbors 
 as permitted by the Treaty. The award served to clear up 
 many points of difference, and was a step toward the colonial 
 control of the fisheries. 
 
 The internal development of the island was as dependent 
 on the building of a railway as that of the prairies of British 
 North America on the construction of the Canadian Pacific. 
 By 1890 plans were formed for a railway across the island. 
 In 1893 the contract was let to R. G. Reid of Montreal, who 
 had constructed a large section of the Canadian Pacific Rail- 
 way. The terms of the contract were altogether extraor- 
 dinary; the contractor was to receive over fifteen thousand 
 dollars per mile in Newfoundland bonds and to work the 
 railway for ten years in return for grants of five-thousand- 
 
426 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 acre blocks along the line for every mile of railway operated. 
 In 1898 the Government accepted a new proposal from Reid 
 by which he was to operate the railway for fifty years and 
 then to become the owner. He was to have two and a half 
 million acres of land in addition to the previous grants, to 
 take over the telegraph system, the electric railway in St. 
 John's, and the government dry dock. For these privileges, 
 the Government was to receive one million dollars. There 
 was much objection to these arrangements. In 1900 Sir 
 James Winter, the Premier who had agreed to the contracts, 
 was forced to resign. He was succeeded by Mr. (later Sir) 
 Robert Bond, probably the best known of Newfoundland 
 statesmen. The new Premier arranged for a modified con- 
 tract, under which the Reid properties were held by a com- 
 pany, the telegraph lines taken back by the Government, 
 and Newfoundland given the option of purchasing the rail- 
 way at the end of fifty years. 
 
 There has been considerable discussion from time to time 
 of the wisdom of uniting with Canada. The island's interests, 
 however, have been so distinct that union has never taken 
 place. At the time of Confederation Newfoundland held 
 aloof, as Macdonald did not seem concerned with the island's 
 interests. In 1894-95, when Newfoundland was faced with 
 serious financial disaster, a delegation went to Ottawa to in- 
 quire concerning the possibility of joining the Dominion; but 
 Sir Mackenzie Bowell, then Premier, was unwilling that 
 Canada should assume Newfoundland's debt of $16,000,000. 
 It is probable that this senior colony of the Empire will con- 
 tinue to live its own life in its own way. It may be as well, 
 for no British possession — least of all the provinces of the 
 Dominion — is like the island of Newfoundland, wedded, as 
 it is, to the sea. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 
 
 See the Bibliographical Note for chapter xiv. The government of Can- 
 ada is fully treated in Edward Porritt's Evolution of the Dominion of Can- 
 ada, Its Government and its Policies (New York, 1918). James A. Mac- 
 donald's The North American Idea (New York, 1917) is an attempt to find 
 common ground for Canada and the United States to meet upon. The 
 
BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 427 
 
 hundredth anniversary of the War of 1812 brought out a number of books 
 on British and Canadian relations with the United States, of which proba- 
 bly the best is by W. A. Dunning, The British Empire and the United States: 
 a Review of their Relations during the Century of Peace following the Treaty of 
 Ghent (New York, 1914). See also G. L. Beer, The English-Speaking Peo- 
 ples, Their Future Relations and Joint International Obligations (New York, 
 1917) ; John Bigelow, Breaches of Anglo-American Treaties (New York, 
 1917); A. C. McLaughlin, America and Britain (New York, 1919); and 
 G. M. Wrong, The United States and Canada (New York, 1921). 
 
 Newfoundland is given a volume in the "Historica' Geography of the 
 British Colonies," the work of J. D. Rogers (Oxford, 1911). Lord Birken- 
 head's The Story of Newfoundland has recently appeared in a second edition 
 (London, 1920). An extended account is that of D. W. Prowse, A History 
 of Newfoundland (London, 1896). 
 
 The recently launched Canadian Historical Review, continuing an annual 
 survey of historical publications relating to Canada, is published in To- 
 ronto, and will undoubtedly serve as the important medium for the publi- 
 cation of, and information regarding, research in Canadian history. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 THE IMPERIAL ORGANIZATION AT THE OPENING OF 
 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 
 
 The British Empire has grown through a period extending 
 into four centuries; during all this time, with the single ex- 
 ception of the loss of the thirteen American colonies two 
 hundred years later, the structure has been enlarging from 
 the time that Sir Humphrey Gilbert annexed Newfoundland 
 in 1583. When Gilbert was adding to British territory in 
 North Atlantic waters, Spain and Portugal were the domi- 
 nant European nations with oversea empires. Just at that 
 time, however, England was becoming mistress of the sea 
 and thereby laying the base upon which an oversea dominion 
 could be safely constructed. Therefore, before the Greater 
 Britain of the twentieth century is considered as a whole, it 
 will be well for us to review briefly the course by which the 
 imperial territories were increased after the beginning made 
 in 1583. 
 
 THE GKOWTH OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 During the seventeenth century the English were not by 
 any means so important as other peoples in the building of 
 empire. Holland attained a temporary leadership during 
 this time, while Spain and Portugal were becoming more 
 and more apathetic. England was adding to its possessions 
 more slowly than Holland, but its work proved to have more 
 lasting vigor. The interests of England were to be found in 
 two parts of the new world in the seventeenth century. In 
 the Far East the Honourable East India Company was 
 trading in spices and other precious merchandise with no 
 thought of sovereignty on a large scale. Before 1700 the 
 Company had acquired possession of but four stations, 
 Madras, Bombay, Fort St. David, and Calcutta. 
 
 Across the Atlantic Englishmen were doing very different 
 work. Early in the century the islands off the southeastern 
 
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY EMPIRE 429 
 
 shores of North America were of such interest that by the 
 end of the Commonwealth many islands of the West Indies, 
 as well as the Bermudas, were in English hands. Most prom- 
 inent among them were Barbados, settled by 1625, and Ja- 
 maica, which was captured by Cromwell's officers thirty years 
 later. We have found how the slave-trade was connected 
 with West Indian development; therefore, it is not surprising 
 to know that holdings in West Africa at Gambia and on the 
 Gold Coast were taken about this time. It was in this cen- 
 tury also that St. Helena was acquired by the East India 
 Company. 
 
 Most important of all in the accomplishments of the sev- 
 enteenth century was the settlement of the American main- 
 land, first in Virginia and Massachusetts, and afterwards 
 along the whole coast from Florida and the Spanish posses- 
 sions in the south to the basin of the St. Lawrence in the 
 north. The Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, separating 
 the English in New England from the southern colonies, was 
 captured shortly after the Restoration of the Stuarts. 
 
 With the eighteenth century the Empire assumed a new 
 and important place in the political world. Holland, Spain, 
 and Portugal had declined, but France had risen in then- 
 place to be Great Britain's rival for oversea territories. Be- 
 ginning with 1689, a series of wars with France lasting over 
 a century resulted in some British colonial losses which were 
 offset by substantial additions of territory. The British 
 mastery of the sea was the decisive factor that made possible 
 the continual advance of British imperialism. In fact, the 
 wars of the eighteenth century gave to Great Britain 
 the leading position among maritime powers. By the end 
 of the Seven Years' War (1763) numerous additions to the 
 British Empire had been made. Gibraltar, various West 
 Indian islands, and Canada came under British control; 
 English-speaking people seemed to have secured hold of a 
 continent. In India the Franco-British duel resulted in a 
 decisive victory for the British, with the conscious desire to 
 bring more and more of India under the Company's control. 
 
 From 1763 to 1815 the rivalry of the French and the Brit- 
 
430 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 ish continued. The revolt of the American colonies and their 
 loss was a severe blow to British imperialism; a calamity that 
 was made possible by French assistance and the enlargement 
 of the Revolutionary War into a world conflict. As the cen- 
 tury came to a close the Empire seemed to be dissolving, and 
 numerous prophets uttered jeremiads on the decline and fall 
 of British oversea dominion. The "Old" Empire was dis- 
 credited. In the last of the series of wars with France — the 
 conflict with the Revolution and Napoleon — Great Britain 
 somewhat retrieved its standing, for possessions some of 
 which were to prove of great value later were added at this 
 time — British Guiana and Trinidad in the West Indies; 
 Malta, Heligoland and the Ionian Islands off the European 
 coast; and Malacca, Ceylon, the Seychelles, Mauritius, and 
 Cape Colony along the course of eastern trade. In India the 
 British power was reaching far inland from the original fac- 
 tories, and a beginning was made in the Malay Straits by the 
 acquisition of the island of Penang. 
 
 The nineteenth century can be divided into two parts, 
 from the point of view of British colonial policy. From the 
 close of the Napoleonic wars until about 1885, when the 
 other European nations became keenly interested in Empire, 
 Great Britain leisurely added to its possessions by the occu- 
 pation of new lands or of territories contiguous to former 
 holdings. In India considerable energy was displayed. 
 There, by wars with the native states, great additions were 
 made in Burma, on the northwest frontier, and across the 
 Indus to the west. After the Mutiny (1857) the Company 
 ceased to exist and Great Britain ruled in name, as it had 
 formerly controlled in fact, the Indian peninsula. To the 
 west of India strategic points such as Aden and Perim were 
 obtained, and in the Malay Peninsula further additions were 
 made. In 1841 Hong Kong became British, and shortly 
 afterwards Sarawak was the scene of British activity. In the 
 Mediterranean the Ionian Islands were surrendered and 
 Cyprus was occupied. 
 
 The most noteworthy development of the years between 
 the loss of the American colonies and the emergence of a new 
 
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY EMPIRE 431 
 
 imperialism just one hundred years later was the growth 
 among the English-speaking colonies of great self-governing 
 " dominions," which were to become more and more conscious 
 of the right of nationhood for themselves. Canada, which 
 came to its own after the secession of its southern neighbors, 
 grew until it extended from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 
 After obtaining political control of its own internal affairs in 
 the forties, it went on to federation in 1867, furnishing the 
 leadership in these two regards for the other self-governing 
 Dominions. In the southern seas the British made settle- 
 ments shortly after the American Revolution; for convicts 
 were sent to New South Wales in 1788. From this question- 
 able beginning there developed numerous settlements on the 
 Australian coasts and in New Zealand and Tasmania; by 
 1885 the convict settlements — they did not include New 
 Zealand and South Australia — had freed themselves from 
 transportation and had attained responsible government. 
 During this time many changes took place in South Africa. 
 The Cape and Natal came under definite British jurisdiction, 
 while the Boers trekked northward and established the sover- 
 eignties of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal. Later 
 they were to be added to the British Empire and become a 
 part of another self-governing Dominion. 
 
 As a matter of fact, for most of the nineteenth century 
 interest in the colonies was not keen, and the "New" Empire 
 was growing naturally by extensions of settlements previ- 
 ously made. The years since 1885 can be conveniently con- 
 sidered as the years of the New Imperialism, when a great 
 advance in imperial interests and in actual possessions was 
 registered, not only by Great Britain, but by its rivals as 
 well. The numerous islands and territories unappropriated 
 by European Powers and yet too backward to defend or con- 
 trol themselves were snatched up by the various nations dur- 
 ing these years. Great Britain made important additions to 
 its Empire in several parts of the world. 
 
 Although there were accessions in the Western Pacific, the 
 chief field for the operation of this new enthusiasm was the 
 continent of Africa. It was "opened up" in the eighties; 
 
432 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 the decades following saw most of the continent parceled out 
 among the European nations. Cyprus was " occupied" by 
 Britain in 1878, and Egypt and the Sudan came under British 
 supervision shortly afterward. On the west coast the terri- 
 tory back of Sierra Leone — ceded to Great Britain in 1787 
 — was acquired, and similar proceedings took place with 
 regard to the hinterlands of the Gold Coast and Gambia. 
 During the seventies the British began to exercise, by means 
 of residents, a supervision of various Malay states, which 
 were consolidated into the Federated Malay States in the 
 following decade. The vast region of Nigeria was at first 
 (1886) under the Royal Niger Company, but was later (1890) 
 transferred to the Crown. In 1884 British Somaliland, on 
 the southern shore of the Gulf of Aden, was taken over; in 
 the eighties and nineties the protectorates of Uganda, East 
 Africa, and Zanzibar, adjacent to each other, were brought 
 securely under British control. 
 
 In southern Africa great changes have taken place since 
 1885. The discoveries of diamonds and gold gave value to the 
 lands of the interior. After a war with the Transvaal and the 
 Orange Free State just at the close of the century, these 
 countries were added to the British possessions and later 
 (1910) joined with Natal and Cape Colony to form the self- 
 governing Union of South Africa. British power was exer- 
 cised over neighboring territories, so that during these dec- 
 ades the Empire came to include Nyasaland, Basutoland, 
 Bechuanaland, Swaziland, and Rhodesia as well. 
 
 Other additions to the Empire after the rise of the New Im- 
 perialism include additional Malay states, further territory 
 in North Borneo and about Hong Kong, as well as the addi- 
 tion by lease from China of Wei-hai-wei in 1898. 
 
 From 1814 to 1914 the imperial accretions were not at the 
 expense of rival European Governments. Yet in South 
 Africa, India, and New Zealand the enlarging Empire was 
 met with military resistance on the part of native peoples. 
 In South Africa trouble occurred with the Dutch in addition. 
 The World War of 1914 created a situation out of which fur- 
 ther expansion became possible. 
 
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY EMPIRE 433 
 
 The structure whose gradual construction we have briefly 
 sketched is surely an imposing accomplishment. The Brit- 
 ish Empire included, at the opening of the World War in 1914, 
 lands on all the continents, as well as islands in every ocean, 
 totaling about thirteen million square miles of territory — 
 about four times the size of the United States and approxi- 
 mately one fourth of the total land-surface of the globe. The 
 racial mixture within this one political group is very great 
 indeed. Within the Empire live 460,000,000 people — one 
 fourth of the world's population — among whom are repre- 
 sentatives of all the great racial divisions. Over 60,000,000, 
 or one seventh of the total, are of the white race. The Indian 
 Empire, with a population of over 319,000,000, is the home of 
 nearly three fourths of the Empire's population. 
 
 THE GOVERNMENT OF THE EMPIRE 
 
 The political situation in so complex an organism presents 
 almost as diversified a picture as does the human make-up of 
 the Empire. Greater Britain may be divided into five dis- 
 tinct groups so far as its government is concerned — the 
 United Kingdom, the self-governing Dominions, the Crown 
 Colonies, the territories under the jurisdiction of chartered 
 companies, and British India. As an outer fringe over which 
 there is a lesser degree of political jurisdiction, there are the 
 various protectorates and spheres of influence. The govern- 
 ments in the Empire are by no means static. Progress in the 
 constitutional development has been continuous, and in re- 
 cent years, especially since 1914, very rapid. 
 
 It is unnecessary to detail the government of Great 
 Britain, for out of it American institutions have grown. Eng- 
 land, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland have been united under 
 the control of one Parliament sitting in London. The House 
 of Commons is elected from the United Kingdom on a fran- 
 chise now practically universal. The party that can control 
 a majority in the Commons rules through a Cabinet depend- 
 ent upon its good will and support and, therefore, on the ma- 
 jority opinion of the inhabitants of the United Kingdom as 
 expressed at the polls. The Cabinet — an organization un- 
 
434 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 recognized by law, but wielding the greatest power in the 
 government of the Empire — serves as the executive, the 
 King acting on the advice of the Cabinet. 
 
 Wales was united to England during the time of the Tu- 
 dors. The organic union with Scotland was consummated at 
 the opening of the eighteenth century after the two countries 
 had been under a common ruler for one hundred years. Ire- 
 land was more or less dominated by English kings through 
 the later Middle Ages. Queen Elizabeth attempted to sub- 
 ordinate it more completely, and Cromwell, in the middle 
 of the seventeenth century, harshly subdued Irish revolts 
 against alien rule. As we have found, this island was treated 
 much as a colony under the old mercautile system, suffering 
 even more than the other colonies because of its proximity to 
 England. In 1782, however, England was forced to grant 
 Ireland legislative independence, or self-government. This 
 privilege was taken from it in 1800, when Ireland was made 
 part of the United Kingdom in the sense that thereafter it 
 sent members to the Parliament in London. 
 
 During the nineteenth century the situation in the western 
 isle became gradually worse. Being largely of different race 
 and religion from the English and separated by a stretch of 
 sea, the Irish chafed under the situation in which they found 
 themselves. The desire for Home Rule developed, but was 
 strongly opposed by the Unionists in both England and Ire- 
 land. Republicanism began to appear as a result of mis- 
 treatment and unrealized hopes; first as the Fenian uprising, 
 later as Sinn Fein, this movement grew to an alarming ex- 
 tent. By the opening of the War of 1914 it had become a 
 distinct menace. Ireland has furnished the Empire one of 
 its most perplexing problems, and England seems to have 
 experienced uncommon difficulty in finding the appropriate 
 time and method for its solution. 1 
 
 The British Isles include, in addition to the United King- 
 dom, two interesting groups of islanders, those on the Isle of 
 Man in the Irish Sea and those living on the Channel Islands 
 
 1 At the close of 1921 the revolting Irish were offered Dominion home rule. 
 For this very significant extension of Dominion self-government see pp. 465 ff. 
 
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY EMPIRE 435 
 
 off the coast of France. The Isle of Man was a Norwegian 
 possession until it came under the control of Scotch kings in 
 the thirteenth century. Since the opening of modern history 
 it has been held under the English kings, at first in a feudal 
 relation and, since 1765, directly by the Crown. It does not 
 send representatives to London, but has its own law courts 
 and a Parliament known as the Tynwald. It is not to be re- 
 garded as a part of the United Kingdom, but is much like 
 a self-governing colony under the control of a committee of 
 the Privy Council. 
 
 The Channel Islands, of which Jersey and Guernsey are 
 best known, have much the same relation to the United King- 
 dom as the Isle of Man. They are the one remnant of the 
 old Duchy of Normandy still held by the British Crown. 
 The Channel Islands have their own assemblies, their 
 peculiar laws, and a bilingual system, Norman-French still 
 being spoken in the islands. Like the Isle of Man, they 
 are best thought of as making up a small self-governing 
 dominion similarly controlled by the Privy Council. The 
 laws and customs of the islands retain, to an uncommon de- 
 gree, the evidence of a long and unbroken tradition. When 
 George V visited this ancient duchy in 1921, he received as 
 feudal overlord the homage of the fief-holders. One of the 
 seigneurs performed his serjeanty, by the presentation, as of 
 old, of two mallard ducks to the sovereign. 
 
 What are known commonly as the self-governing Domin- 
 ions are those parts of the British Empire across the seas 
 where the British stock is predominant and where, in conse- 
 quence, the privilege of ruling themselves on terms similar to 
 those in the United Kingdom has found expression. They 
 are five in number, the Colony of Newfoundland and the Do- 
 minion of Canada in the western hemisphere and the Union 
 of South Africa, the Dominion of New Zealand, and the Com- 
 monwealth of Australia south of the equator. Newfoundland 
 has always been a unit, but in every other case the present 
 political organization is the result of a federation or union. It 
 is unnecessary to consider the government of these Dominions, 
 as that was explained when the history of these various colo- 
 
436 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 nies received consideration. To each is sent a representative 
 of the Crown, whose power is as limited as is that of the King 
 in Great Britain. Each has the parliamentary system with 
 a Cabinet as the executive, the idea of which has gone to 
 the colonies along with English common law and culture. 
 The formation of the federations has necessitated the study 
 of similar systems, such as exist in the United States and 
 Switzerland, and the inclusion of principles not found in the 
 government of the United Kingdom. The upper houses in 
 the self-governing colonies have tended to represent the geo- 
 graphical divisions, as in the United States. 
 
 The Dominions are bound to Great Britain in a variety of 
 ways. The racial bond and the common cultural heritage 
 are very significant. The self-governing Dominions are the 
 only important imperial possessions outside the British Isles 
 in which the white race lives in any large numbers. Of the 
 60,000,000 white people in the Empire, three fourths are in 
 Great Britain and most of the remainder in the five Domin- 
 ions. There are numerous common commercial and finan- 
 cial interests as well. This has been particularly true be- 
 cause of the importance of England as a manufacturing 
 country and because of the need of assistance by the rapidly 
 expanding Dominions for their adequate growth. The over- 
 sea possessions have Agents-General or High Commissioners 
 in London to watch over the interests of the Dominions they 
 represent and to further the financial and commercial welfare 
 of their constituents. In recent years attempts have been 
 made to increase the commercial interdependence within the 
 Empire. Since 1908 Trade Commissioners have been ap- 
 pointed by the Board of Trade in each of the oversea Domin- 
 ions as well as elsewhere in the Empire. The administration 
 of this service has been handed over by the Board of Trade 
 to the Department of Oversea Trade. 
 
 Legally there are a number of ways in which the attach- 
 ment of the Dominions to Great Britain has been expressed. 
 Each of the five has a Governor or Governor-General ap- 
 pointed by, and a representative of, the Crown. Further- 
 more, Dominion legislation must receive the assent of the 
 
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY EMPIRE 437 
 
 Crown and must not be inconsistent with any Imperial Act of 
 Parliament. The Parliament of London has the right to 
 pass laws for the Empire as a whole, but such a power has be- 
 come less and less operative. The right of the Imperial Gov- 
 ernment to withhold assent to Dominion legislation is prac- 
 tically obsolete. There also exists the right of appeal from 
 the Dominions to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Coun- 
 cil. 1 The ties that bind the Dominions in a legal way to the 
 Government in London have been the subject of much dis- 
 cussion in recent years. There has been a decided tendency 
 on the part of the oversea colonies with responsible govern- 
 ment to minimize the legal bonds that subordinate them to 
 the mother country or, at least, so to interpret the consti- 
 tutional relationship as to emphasize the equality of the 
 Dominions and Great Britain. Recent epoch-making de- 
 velopments, especially in the relation of the Dominions to 
 the Imperial Cabinet and the foreign policy of the Empire, 
 have been reserved for a later chapter. 2 
 
 British India does not come under the jurisdiction of the 
 Colonial Office, largely because of its size and of the great and 
 complicated problems peculiar to India which are connected 
 with its administration. As we have learned, it was for long 
 under the East India Company, but, as time went on, the 
 British Government more and more carefully supervised the 
 administration of the Company. In 1858 the Indian posses- 
 sions were transferred to the Crown. With the method of gov- 
 erning India then and the changes since made we are not here 
 concerned. 3 The Indian Empire's connection with the home 
 Government is made, not through the Colonial Office, but by 
 means of a Secretary of State for India, who is assisted by a 
 Council and numerous subordinates in the India Office The 
 Secretary of State for India is a member of the Cabinet ad- 
 vising the Government on Indian matters and responsible to 
 Parliament for the conduct of affairs in this part of the Em- 
 pire. It is through him that the Viceroy in India communi- 
 
 1 See Jenks, The Government of the British Empire, pp. 63-66, and Lowell, 
 The Government of England, n, 392-407. 
 
 2 See pp. 308 ff. 3 See chapter xvm. 
 
4S8 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 cates to the home Government and vice versa. India has re- 
 ceived increasing rights of participation in the government of 
 the peninsula from time to time, but relatively few of its peo- 
 ple share as yet in the government of their land. 
 
 A large number of colonies are known as Crown Colonies. 
 They vary in the nature of their governments, but are alike 
 in the fact that they do not have responsible government as 
 do the Dominions; they are more or less directly under the 
 control of the Colonial Office. This department, headed 
 since 1854 by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, has 
 charge of matters concerned not only with the Crown Colo- 
 nies, but also with the Dominions. The business of the Of- 
 fice, however, is largely made up of Crown Colony matters, 
 and it is now divided into a Dominion Department and a 
 Crown Colonies Department. The relation of the Domin- 
 ions to the Colonial Office is not so real as the legal connec- 
 tion implies, for the direct executive control of the Colonial 
 Office over the Dominions is almost negligible. The Secre- 
 tary of State for the Colonies is a member of the Cabinet, and 
 responsible for the conduct of his office to Parliament. 1 
 
 The Crown Colonies are inhabited, for the most part, by 
 backward populations or have been taken from other em- 
 pires, and would, therefore, not be considered capable of gov- 
 erning themselves according to British standards. At the 
 head of each colony is the appointee of the Crown, who is 
 assisted but not controlled by councils varying in character 
 and number with the different colonies. It is usual to have 
 an Executive Council whose members are appointed by the 
 Crown, and which often includes non-official as well as offi- 
 cial members. Although it has only advisory powers, the 
 fact that its membership may include members of the colony 
 with a great knowledge of local conditions makes it often 
 influential in shaping the policy of the Government. 
 
 1 The colonies had been cared for in a number of ways before 1854. Previ- 
 ous to the American Revolution the Secretary of State for the Southern De- 
 partment supervised colonial matters. After 1782 the "Home" Secretary 
 took care of "southern" business. In 1801 the colonies were transferred from 
 the home to the war office, where they remained until 1854 in charge of the 
 Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. 
 
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY EMPIRE 439 
 
 The higher type of Crown Colony has a legislature as well 
 as an Executive Council. In its most advanced form the 
 legislature is of two houses, the upper appointed by the 
 Crown and the lower wholly elected by the inhabitants of the 
 colony who are entitled to vote. Three colonies — the Ba- 
 hamas, the Bermudas, and Barbados — are in this category; 
 they may be considered as representing the highest type of 
 Crown Colony. Slightly less advanced is a Crown Colony 
 with a lower house partially appointed and partially elected. 
 A good illustration of this type is Jamaica where the Legisla- 
 tive Council consists of five ex-officio, ten nominated, and 
 fourteen elected, members. 1 The five presidencies of the Lee- 
 ward Islands have a Federal Executive Council nominated 
 by the Crown and a Federal Legislative Council of whom 
 half are appointed and half elected. British Guiana, Malta, 
 Cyprus, Ceylon, Mauritius, and Fiji were similarly governed 
 at the opening of the World War. 
 
 In 1921 the island of Malta received a new constitution 
 which has placed it in a position above any of the Crown 
 Colonies. It was granted responsible self-government, 
 such as exists in the Dominions, for purely local affairs, while 
 matters of imperial concern were retained under the control 
 of the Governor, assisted by an Executive Council. In 1919 
 there was a very evident desire in Malta for a constitution 
 granting responsible government. The National Assembly 
 proposed a draft constitution, which was made the basis of a 
 second draft constitution prepared by the Colonial Office. 
 This, in turn, received wide discussion; the completed docu- 
 ment was formally put into effect in May, 1921. 
 
 The Maltese constitution makes provision for two con- 
 current systems of government, one for matters of impe- 
 rial concern and one for purely local affairs. The two are 
 united in the person of the chief Crown appointee, who is 
 known as the Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Malta; 
 from one aspect he is the mouthpiece of the Imperial Govern- 
 
 1 Jamaica was formerly in the same category with the Bahamas, the Ber- 
 mudas, and Barbados, but its powers of fully representative government were 
 lost in 1866 as the result of protracted differences with the mother country, 
 largely because of the emancipation of the negroes. 
 
440 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 ment, from another aspect the head of a self-governing com- 
 munity. The constitution provides for a legislature of two 
 houses. There is a Ministry responsible to the legislature, 
 as in the Dominions. English and Italian are recognized as 
 the official languages; speeches in the legislature may be in 
 Maltese as well. Matters of imperial concern which are 
 without the jurisdiction of the constitution are such as affect 
 the general defense of the Empire and the position of Malta 
 as an imperial fortress, dockyard, and maritime center. This 
 novel constitutional experiment has been made in order to 
 grant a colony of great imperial importance, with a popula- 
 tion largely non-British, a measure of self-government; this 
 diarchical system seemingly answers the objection that one 
 might about as well grant a constitution to a battleship as 
 give one to Malta. 1 
 
 Below those colonies with a lower house partially ap- 
 pointed and partially elected are those with legislatures 
 wholly nominated; in the western hemisphere British Hon- 
 duras, the Windward Islands, and Trinidad are representa- 
 tives of this most common form of Crown Colony. In a few 
 colonies, of which Gibraltar and St. Helena are illustrations, 
 the Governor is the autocratic ruler of the colony. Mili- 
 tary reasons have been influential in deciding the govern- 
 mental character of this group of British possessions. 
 
 Next below the Crown Colonies are the protectorates. By 
 far the greatest number of protected states are the native 
 states of India, whose relation to the Indian Government has 
 been explained on another page. The Federated Malay 
 States have a similar connection with the Straits Settlements. 
 This class of imperial possessions is well represented in the 
 various parts of Africa. Bechuanaland in the south, Somal- 
 iland, Uganda and Nyasaland in the east are protectorates. 
 In addition, Gambia, the Gold Coast, and Nigeria in west 
 Africa, and Kenya on the eastern coast are Crown Colonies 
 with which native protected states are connected. Pre- 
 vious to the opening of the World War, Egypt was a part of 
 
 1 See the official Papers Relating to the New Constitution of Malta. May, 
 1921 (Cmd. 1321). 
 
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY EMPIRE 441 
 
 the Turkish Empire with an hereditary line of rulers who 
 were " advised" to such an extent as to make the rule essen- 
 tially British; the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan was under the joint 
 administration of Great Britain and Egypt. When the war 
 broke out in 1914 the informal Egyptian protectorate became 
 formal, to the great dissatisfaction of many Egyptians. In 
 1922 Egypt obtained the status of an independent, sovereign 
 state. 
 
 There is a small group of British holdings that are admin- 
 istered by chartered companies. The commercial interests 
 of the eighties are responsible for a sort of development re- 
 calling to mind the trading companies of the seventeenth and 
 eighteenth centuries. The British North Borneo Company 
 was granted a charter in 1881 for the purpose of acquiring 
 and governing territories in North Borneo. It does not 
 engage in trade, however, and its Governor is appointed 
 with the approval of the Colonial Secretary. 
 
 The exploitation of Africa in the eighties offered consider- 
 able opportunity for the activity of trading syndicates. In 
 1886 the National African Company obtained a charter un- 
 der the name of the Royal Niger Company which enabled it 
 to develop and administer the valuable lands along the Ni- 
 ger River. This Company was very active for the remainder 
 of the century; it surrendered its charter in 1899, when grow- 
 ing international complications as well as the increasing bur- 
 den of the administration led to the formation of British pro- 
 tectorates in this important commercial region, "one of the 
 most solid and valuable possessions of the British Crown." 
 Similarly in East Africa a British chartered company held 
 sway for a time. The Imperial British East African Com- 
 pany received a royal charter in 1888 to administer some ter- 
 ritories obtained from the Sultan of Zanzibar the year before. 
 The task was so great and the Germans were so active in East 
 Africa that the Company surrendered its rights to the British 
 Government in 1895. 
 
 The best known of the modern chartered companies is the 
 British South Africa Company with which we have become 
 familiar in studying the efforts of Cecil Rhodes to establish 
 
442 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 British dominion in the lands which Livingstone had made 
 known. 1 This important Company obtained its charter in 
 1889; it has retained the right to administer the government 
 of Rhodesia to the present time. This chartered Company 
 has done notable work for the Empire in developing a part of 
 Africa so full of possibilities. It will soon cease to exercise 
 its rights in Rhodesia where the inhabitants are already ask- 
 ing for a responsible government. 
 
 A more shadowy relationship is borne to certain states, not 
 under British jurisdiction, but whose position gives the British 
 Empire an inherent interest in their development. Under 
 this caption Egypt, Oman, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan, and 
 Tibet might be included. Very definite spheres of influence 
 were marked out in Persia and China in the opening years 
 of the twentieth century. 
 
 COLONIAL CONFERENCES 
 
 Truly the British Empire is not homogeneous either as re- 
 gards its inhabitants or its political divisions. Growing out 
 of these conditions and resulting from imperial expansion on 
 every continent and in every ocean are numerous interna- 
 tional problems, which a more compact geographical unit 
 would not have to face. Thus the foreign policy of the Em- 
 pire is a delicate matter, requiring much care to engineer suc- 
 cessfully, since so many different sorts of interests have to be 
 borne in mind. This foreign policy has been in the care of a 
 Cabinet member in London answerable only to the Parlia- 
 ment of the British Isles. In consequence, no part of the 
 Empire but the British Isles represented in the Parliament 
 in London could be regarded, in the days before the World 
 War, as self-governing, so far as the foreign affairs of the Em- 
 pire were concerned. This peculiarity, as well as the need 
 for greater cooperation in other ways, has led to efforts to 
 secure the assistance in imperial affairs of the most highly 
 developed colonies — the self-governing Dominions — by 
 means of Conferences. 
 
 The need for a closer articulation of the scattered parts of 
 1 See pp. 365 ff. 
 
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY EMPIRE 443 
 
 the Empire was felt even before the days of the new imperial- 
 ism in the eighties. In 1868 the Royal Colonial Institute was 
 organized by men of both the great political parties to 
 awaken an interest in the oversea Empire; from the outset it 
 had as its motto a "United Empire." The Imperial Federa- 
 tion League was the direct result of greater interest in the 
 oversea possessions which arose in the eighties, and which af- 
 fected not only the British nation, but other states of the 
 world as well. 1 A year after the appearance of that note- 
 worthy volume, Seeley's Expansion of England, the Imperial 
 Federation League was organized with W. E. Forster, a 
 former Under-Secretary for the Colonies, as its first chair- 
 man. It was directly concerned with securing "by Federa- 
 tion the permanent unity of the Empire" and thus combin- 
 ing "on an equitable basis the resources of the Empire for the 
 maintenance of common interests and for an organized de- 
 fence of common rights." As the first chairman put it, the 
 League was to promote "such a union of the Mother Coun- 
 try with the Colonies as will keep the realm one State in rela- 
 tion to other States." 
 
 For a decade (1884-93) the Imperial Federation League was 
 very active. Branches were formed in the colonies. When 
 Mr. Forster died in 1886, Lord Rosebery succeeded him as 
 chairman. In the next year the first of the Colonial Confer- 
 ences was convened. This step had been urged by a deputa- 
 tion of the League, and that society may rightly be regarded 
 as an important factor in the institution of the Colonial Con- 
 ferences. It urged that the conferences should be periodic, 
 long before they were deemed regular and indispensable ele- 
 ments of the imperial organization. In 1893 the League was 
 dissolved. Imperial federation did not find a large response; 
 as Lord Rosebery later declared, it appeared to be "an im- 
 possible dream." 2 
 
 The first Colonial Conference was held in 1887, the year of 
 Queen Victoria's Jubilee. The Queen's Speech of 1886 had 
 
 1 See chapter xvn. 
 
 2 For the Imperial Federation League, from different points of view see 
 Worsfold, The Empire on the Anvil, and H. D. Hall, The British Commonwealth 
 of Nations. 
 
444 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 declared that there was on all sides a growing desire to draw 
 closer the bonds uniting the various parts of the Empire. At 
 this first Conference military matters were prominent, al- 
 though commercial and social relations were considered as 
 well. The Australian colonies entered into a Naval Defense 
 Agreement, by which they undertook to furnish annual con- 
 tributions for ten years for increased naval forces in Austral- 
 asian waters. Germany was already feared. There was 
 also an agreement for the administration of British New 
 Guinea at the joint cost of the Imperial Government and 
 that of certain Australian colonies. With the first Confer- 
 ence began the long controversy over the matter of tariffs 
 and trade relations within the Empire, but no act leading to a 
 federalizing of the British dominions for this or other pur- 
 poses resulted from the activity of the Imperial Federation 
 League. 
 
 In 1894 a Conference at which the self-governing colonies 
 were represented was held at Ottawa. The proposed Pacific 
 cable was the prime cause of the meeting. The Conference 
 asked the mother country for the right to enter into commer- 
 cial agreements with each other and to grant commercial pref- 
 erences within the Empire; but there was no assent to this 
 request, as it would have meant the denunciation of what 
 Lord Salisbury called the " unlucky" treaties with Belgium 
 and Germany. 
 
 A much more important meeting occurred in 1897 on the 
 occasion of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. This Con- 
 ference, in which all the self-governing colonies were repre- 
 sented by their Premiers, considered in secret sessions the 
 three cardinal points of discussion that have come up at most 
 of the Conferences, namely, the tariffs, racial relationships, 
 and defense. Through the recommendations of this Con- 
 ference the treaties with Germany and Belgium were de- 
 nounced. Trade preferences were accorded Great Britain, 
 and the Dominions were led to feel the growing need for ade- 
 quate defense of the Empire under the control of the Admi- 
 ralty. Joseph Chamberlain had become Colonial Secretary 
 two years before, and had infused a new spirit into the con- 
 
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY EMPIRE 445 
 
 duct of the office. He desired some sort of closer imperial 
 federation with the creation of an Imperial Council, but the 
 Prime Ministers of the Dominions considered "the existing 
 condition of things" as " generally satisfactory." 
 
 Much the same results followed the Conference held in 
 1902 in connection with the inauguration of Edward VII. 
 The Empire had but just brought the Boer War to a conclu- 
 sion. The more important colonies had shown their loyalty 
 to the homeland and their interest in the Empire by military 
 assistance. As would be expected, both the naval contribu- 
 tions and the trade preferences granted to the mother coun- 
 try were increased. Again measures for imperial federation, 
 advocated by Mr. Chamberlain, were repulsed. An impor- 
 tant resolution of the Conference of 1902 was to the effect that 
 meetings should be held periodically at intervals of not more 
 than four years. 
 
 Normally the next Conference should have met in 1906, 
 but it was not convened until 1907 because of political 
 changes in Great Britain. A distinct step in imperial rela- 
 tions was registered in this Conference — the first uncon- 
 nected with some ceremonial — when the constitution for the 
 "Imperial Conference" was worked out, including provision 
 for informing the self-governing colonies of matters of impor- 
 tance that occurred between the Conference meetings. De- 
 fense again received much attention, and this engrossing sub- 
 ject was further considered in a subsidiary Conference in 
 1909. 
 
 The meeting in 1911 was in many ways the climax of the 
 series that began in 1887. It concludes the first stage in the 
 growth of the system of consultation among the important 
 parts of the Empire; the War of 1914 was to bring with it 
 startling advances. Several colonies prepared elaborate 
 agenda for the Conference held in 1911, and the colonial legis- 
 latures discussed the matters that were to receive treatment 
 at the approaching meetings. New Zealand, in particular, 
 proposed numerous changes, recommending, for example, an 
 Imperial Council of State, an Imperial Court of Appeal, the 
 separation of the Dominions from the Crown Colonies in the 
 
446 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 Colonial Office, the renaming of the Secretary of State for 
 the Colonies so that he should be known as the Secretary of 
 State for Imperial Affairs. The Colonial Office had already 
 been divided into two departments. It did not seem desira- 
 ble, however, to have an Imperial Council, as it would con- 
 flict, on the one hand, with the government of the United 
 Kingdom and, on the other, with that of the Dominions. 
 The latter have been careful in the discussions concerning 
 the reorganization of the Empire to safeguard their own 
 privileges while claiming a better position in the imperial or- 
 ganization. Foreign relations received full consideration, the 
 Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs explaining the complex 
 situation he had to face. Little was it realized that before 
 the next Conference was scheduled to meet, the Empire would 
 be engulfed in a World War. 
 
 The importance of military and naval problems for the 
 Empire as a whole is illustrated by the activities of the Com- 
 mittee of Imperial Defense, which was functioning before 
 the War of 1914 on an imperial program. The Committee 
 was created, as the result of the interest of Mr. Balfour as 
 Prime Minister, in questions of defense. The Conference of 
 1907 formally agreed that this Committee should advise on 
 local questions when asked to do so and that a Dominion rep- 
 resentative should be summoned to such a meeting if it were 
 the wish of the Dominion Government concerned. At the 
 time of the Conference of 1911 Dominion representatives 
 sat on the Committee of Imperial Defense. In the next 
 year Mr. Borden asked that Dominion members of the Com- 
 mittee should be given, in confidence, knowledge of foreign 
 affairs ; his request led to the suggestion of the Imperial Gov- 
 ernment that the Dominions have ministers stationed in Lon- 
 don through whom a continuous and close relation with the 
 self-governing colonies could be maintained. The suggestion 
 had received little response by the time the World War 
 opened in 1914. 1 
 
 The practical results of the series of Conferences that cul- 
 minated in 1911 cannot be regarded as very prolific. No 
 
 1 See A. B. Keith, War Government in the Dominions, pp. 13 ff. 
 
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY EMPIRE 447 
 
 super-organization, apart from that of periodic consultation, 
 had resulted. The widely scattered dominions and the 
 mother country continued to be united very largely by the 
 bonds of sentiment and of a common heritage. Commercial 
 and military needs assisted in preserving the unity of the 
 British family. The constitutional bonds were to be found in 
 the representatives of the Crown in the Dominions, but there 
 was no effective unity in the imperial organization which an- 
 swered to the new ideas that were germinating in the matur- 
 ing oversea Britains. It should not surprise us that this 
 anomalous condition existed in 1914. The British Empire 
 has never been conspicuous for system. In the newer Em- 
 pire, as well as in the Old, changes have come as need has 
 arisen; the method has been that of trial and error. If the 
 British Empire is a more heterogeneous combination of terri- 
 tories and peoples and governments than ever has been 
 brought together under any other ruler than the King of 
 Great Britain, it is at the same time true that the British 
 have shown a remarkable capacity for making the seemingly 
 impossible work. Of this the test came in 1914. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 
 
 Surveys of imperial growth have been noted in the bibliography for the 
 introductory chapter. The conditions under which imperial life in all its 
 variety was being conducted at the opening of the twentieth century are 
 summarized in The Oxford Survey of the British Empire, edited by A. J. 
 Herbertson and 0. J. R. Howarth (6 vols., Oxford, 1914). The last vol- 
 ume considers the colonies as a whole from the viewpoints of administra- 
 tion, defense, education, commerce, etc. A bulky one-volume survey is 
 contained in The Empire and the Century (London, 1905). In addition to 
 the works on British government of A. Lawrence Lowell, Sir C. P. Ilbert, 
 and Sir Sidney Low, an excellent and brief treatment of the subject, in- 
 cluding the dominions beyond the seas, is that of Edward Jenks, The Gov- 
 ernment of the British Empire (Boston, 1918). Among more detailed 
 treatments of the oversea aspects are Sir H. Jenkyns and Sir C. P. Ilbert, 
 British Rule and Jurisdiction beyond the Seas (Oxford, 1902), Richard Jebb, 
 Studies in Colonial Nationalism (London, 1905), and A. B. Keith, Respon- 
 sible Government in the Dominions (3 vols., Oxford, 1912). Lord Bryce's 
 Modern Democracies (2 vols., London, 1921) contains admirably lucid ac- 
 counts of the working constitutions of Canada, Australia, and New Zea- 
 land. Movements toward union previous to 1887 are to be found recorded 
 in A. L. Burt's Imperial Architects (Oxford, 1913). The Colonial Confer- 
 ences before the World War are considered in Richard Jebb's The Imperial 
 Conference (2 vols., London, 1911). 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 
 THE EMPIRE AND THE WORLD WAR 
 
 The peaceful evolution of Greater Britain had been going on 
 leisurely for many years when it was suddenly interrupted by 
 the opening of war in Europe in 1914. Within the Empire 
 there had been conflicts, of which the Boer War was the most 
 recent conspicuous example. Frontier strife with subjected 
 peoples had occurred here and there. But Great Britain had 
 not engaged in a major war since the middle years of the 
 nineteenth century. The War of 1914, however, which be- 
 gan in southeastern Europe in a dull midsummer, entangled 
 the important nations of Europe and later embroiled coun- 
 tries on all the continents. The British Empire, by virtue of 
 its declaration of war against Germany in August of 1914, in- 
 cluded in the struggle its numerous territories the world over. 
 Never before had the Dominions, after they had become self- 
 governing portions of the Empire, been drawn into an inter- 
 national struggle. 
 
 It is unnecessary to recount the story or explain the char- 
 acter of the World War. It was a titanic conflict claiming 
 every ounce of energy the combatants possessed during the 
 four long years of its duration. The very demand for this 
 whole-souled participation made it necessary for the British 
 Empire, among others, to subordinate all interests to the 
 successful waging of the war. As such, it served as an 
 epoch-making event in British imperial history, for it tested 
 the strength of the Empire's structure as it had never been 
 tested before. Apparent lack of a unifying organization 
 proved delusive, for unseen and imponderable bonds were 
 revealed by the crisis. 
 
 We are still much too close to the war days to measure 
 with definite accuracy the widespread effects of the strife. 
 Yet a recollection of the results of former great wars would 
 naturally lead to a belief in important influences growing out 
 of this most recent struggle. The War of the Spanish Succes- 
 
THE EMPIRE AND THE WORLD WAR 449 
 
 sion which was the culmination of a series of world wars 
 against Louis XIV, the Seven Years' War, the American 
 Revolution which broadened into an international conflict, 
 the world wars waged against Napoleon, all were of vital in- 
 fluence on the British Empire. One need not go far afield to 
 find the effects on British imperial life of the most recent 
 international conflict. New territories were added to the 
 British dominions, rival empires ceased to be, the world 
 awaited reorganization. So far as Greater Britain was con- 
 cerned, the war not only did not stop the evolution we have 
 traced in the preceding chapter; it tended to hasten the proc- 
 ess of evolution. Certainly the attempt to assess the ma- 
 terial and spiritual stimulus given to the British Empire 
 should not prove unfruitful. 
 
 MILITARY ACHIEVEMENTS 
 
 The British entry into the war was by virtue of a declara- 
 tion made by a government responsible only to the inhab- 
 itants of Great Britain. This was inevitable, since the at- 
 tempt to reorganize the constitution of the Empire before 
 1914 had not proceeded far enough to form an executive that 
 was in any way responsible to the self-governing Dominions 
 as well. Fortunately the issue seemed an exceedingly clear- 
 cut one and the oversea possessions spontaneously offered 
 assistance, even though they had no voice in the direction of 
 the policy that had led to the use of Dominion troops and 
 resources. The hearty response of the Dominions can be 
 explained on several grounds. The young life of the newer 
 parts of the Empire was high-spirited and eager to share in 
 a war that, it was commonly thought would be a short 
 struggle. Fear of German aggressiveness, in case that Power 
 won, influenced motive as well. But far more important was 
 the belief in the unity of the Empire and the conviction that 
 its life and institutions were worthy of perpetuation. 
 
 The Dominions took part in the war in many fields. The 
 widespread German Empire had extended into the south- 
 ern Pacific and into Africa not far from British possessions. 
 This but added stimulus to Dominion interest in the conflict. 
 
450 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 Thus New Zealand and Australia were of much value in con- 
 quering the near-by German holdings. The Australians oc- 
 cupied German New Guinea and the adjacent German is- 
 lands. New Zealand troops conquered Samoa. In addition, 
 Australia had an effective naval force at the opening of the 
 war. The Union of South Africa at the request of the Im- 
 perial Government undertook the conquest of German 
 South- West Africa, whose wireless stations were a distinct 
 menace to successful British sea operations. The task was 
 successfully completed under the leadership of General 
 Botha, in spite of the fact that a serious rebellion handicapped 
 the South African Government. The troops of the Union 
 conquered German East Africa as well, though in this case 
 the operations were under imperial control. 
 
 Three of the Dominions, therefore, took part in attacks on 
 those portions of the German Empire which were sufficiently 
 close to them to make the cause not only an Imperial but also 
 a vital Dominion matter. Far more important in all cases, 
 save that of South Africa, was the dispatch of expeditionary 
 forces to, and their participation in, the European and Asian 
 scenes of conflict, where they uniformly distinguished them- 
 selves. 
 
 Canada possessed the largest white population found in a 
 Dominion, and sent a proportionate number of troops to 
 Europe. Although there was a regular military establish- 
 ment of but four thousand men, the promises of assistance 
 were quickly fulfilled. The need for more troops led to the 
 adoption of conscription in 1916. The French Canadians 
 showed great disinclination to enlist, and there was much op- 
 position to the draft in Quebec after conscription had been 
 adopted. Yet Canada sent overseas during the war or had 
 in training at its close nearly half a million men. 
 
 The Commonwealth of Australia had a system of compul- 
 sory training in operation when the war opened. In conse- 
 quence the military response was prompt. Conscription 
 was never adopted in Australia; in two referendums the in- 
 habitants of the Commonwealth showed disapproval of the 
 draft. Yet, in spite of difficulties with the Labor Party in 
 
THE EMPIRE AND THE WORLD WAR 451 
 
 the later years of the war, the Commonwealth furnished 
 over three hundred and thirty thousand men for service. 
 
 New Zealand had no racial trouble, such as was found in 
 Canada, and was in possession of a system of compulsory 
 training at the outbreak of the war similar to that in Aus- 
 tralia. As a result of these ideal conditions, New Zealand 
 furnished a high percentage of men for the military forces — 
 over one hundred and ten thousand. Early in the war Aus- 
 tralian and New Zealand troops combined to form the Aus- 
 tralian and New Zealand Army Corps, commonly known as 
 "Anzacs." 
 
 Fourth in rank were the forces of South Africa, which num- 
 bered about seventy-five thousand. Newfoundland, where 
 a compulsory service law was passed late in the war, fur- 
 nished ten thousand men, and the smaller colonies were rep- 
 resented by as many more. Outside of the self-governing 
 Dominions many colored troops were obtained, and South 
 Africa furnished large numbers for labor brigades. 
 
 It will be evident from this record that the war was waged 
 by the British Empire as a whole. Yet it must not be for- 
 gotten that, of the military forces at the service of the Em- 
 pire, the United Kingdom furnished the great bulk — over 
 five million men. One quarter of the male population of 
 Great Britain was in service, a proportion not reached by any 
 of the Dominions. On the other hand, the Dominion casual- 
 ties were in every case higher than those of the troops of 
 Great Britain, so that the percentage of casualties to popula- 
 tion in the United Kingdom and the Dominions does not 
 vary greatly, ranging from about eight to about ten per cent 
 of the total population. If blood be the price of empire, the 
 Dominions paid in full. 1 
 
 AN ENLARGED EMPIRE 
 
 The immediate and evident consequences of the victory 
 were of unrivaled importance to the British Empire if we 
 
 1 The casualties of the Dominions are estimated to be nearly half a million, 
 distributed as follows: Canada, 196,000; Australia, 210,000; New Zealand, 
 57,000; South Africa, 18,000; Newfoundland, 3500. 
 
452 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 compare them with the results of any previous European war. 
 Great competitive empires were rendered helpless. The co- 
 lonial possessions of Germany were laid on the peace table. 
 The Austrian Empire disintegrated and left the Allies an un- 
 hindered opportunity to deal at their will with the questions 
 of the Near East, always an important sphere for the exercise 
 of British foreign policy. The Turkish Empire was again 
 subject to partition and distribution. So far as British in-, 
 terests in the Far East were concerned, the collapse of Ger- 
 many had cleared the situation appreciably, while the transr 
 formation of an active Russian Empire into a comparatively 
 weak state unable or unwilling to carry on the aggressive 
 plans of the Romanoffs greatly relieved the tension in Persia, 
 Afghanistan, Tibet, and China, much to the simplification of 
 British policy. 
 
 A far more important consequence to the British Empire of 
 an Allied victory was the addition of territory to the British 
 possessions. As at the Peace of Utrecht in 1713, that of 
 Paris in 1763, and that of Vienna in 1815, so by the Treaty 
 of Versailles in 1919 British advance was chiefly registered by 
 the addition of colonial holdings. The additions were not 
 considered to be organically parts of the Empire, but protec- 
 torates or " mandates" held by the Empire or some one of its 
 parts, the administration of which was to be subject to re- 
 view by the League of Nations. 1 
 
 Of the German islands in the Pacific, New Zealand re- 
 ceived the mandate for that part of the Samoan group for- 
 merly held by Germany. This Dominion had captured the 
 
 1 In the Covenant of the League of Nations the mandates were classified 
 according to the "stage of the development of the people, the geographical 
 situation of the territory, its economic conditions, and other similar circum- 
 stances." Territories formerly a part of the Turkish Empire were considered 
 as mandates of such a high status that their existence as independent states 
 could be provisionally recognized. The peoples of Central Africa were rated 
 to be at such a stage of development that the supervision of the mandatary 
 should be more direct. Territories such as South-West Africa and certain 
 of the South Pacific islands, on account of sparseness of population, or small 
 size, or remoteness from centers of civilization, or contiguity to the territory 
 of the mandatary, "can be best administered as integral portions" of the 
 mandatary state. In every case the mandatary was obligated to render an 
 annual report to the Council of the League of Nations on the territory "com- 
 mitted to its charge." 
 
THE EMPIRE AND THE WORLD WAR 453 
 
 islands early in the war and administered them in a military 
 way during the conflict. New Zealand was desirous that 
 Samoa should become a part of the British Empire, and the 
 grant of the mandate to New Zealand, with its implied limi- 
 tations, came as an "unpleasant surprise" to the Dominion. 
 The care of the islands was accepted, however, and they as- 
 sumed a relation to New Zealand much the same as that of 
 the Cook Islands, which had been subordinated to the Do- 
 minion as an outlying possession. According to the mandate, 
 however, no fortifications or naval bases can be erected in the 
 islands mandated; therefore, they cannot serve as a naval 
 outpost, though under British control. The chief problem 
 that Samoa presents is the question of indentured labor, a 
 form of service largely used by the Germans before the war; 
 care is to be taken to safeguard the interests of the natives, 
 since the primary purpose of a mandate is not to increase the 
 exportation of rubber and coconuts. 
 
 Before the war the Commonwealth of Australia had charge 
 of British New Guinea, otherwise known as Papua. A part 
 of this enormous island of almost continental proportions 
 was held by Holland and by Germany, while Germany also 
 possessed some neighboring island groups both north and 
 south of the equator. Australian forces easily conquered 
 German New Guinea and the near-by islands; they were 
 under Australian military rule during the war. The man- 
 date for German New Guinea was entrusted to Australia, 
 although there was a much stronger desire for direct annexa- 
 tion and the simple extension of the government of Papua to 
 include the neighboring German territory. Instead, under 
 the mandatary system the German part of the island was 
 given a distinct administration as the Territory of New 
 Guinea. 
 
 The Australian troops likewise occupied during the war the 
 German island of Nauru, just south of the equator, impor- 
 tant not only as a wireless station, but also for its extensive 
 phosphate deposits. At the time of the occupation the de- 
 posits were being worked under a German concession by a 
 British company. Australia wished the mandate, as it had 
 
454 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 been obtaining large supplies of phosphate from the island. 
 Instead, the mandate was given to Great Britain, and an im- 
 perial agreement was made by which New Zealand was to 
 obtain sixteen per cent of the phosphate and the rest was to 
 be equally divided between Australia and Great Britain. 
 There has been some objection to the monopolistic character 
 of the control of this small but exceedingly valuable speck of 
 land in the Pacific. 
 
 The German Empire included large territories in central 
 and southern Africa, which have been adjudged to the various 
 victors with neighboring interests. German territories in 
 central Africa on both the eastern and western coasts have 
 been treated as mandates directly granted to Great Britain 
 and other European nations. 
 
 There have been marked effects of the War of 1914 in the 
 rearrangements of boundaries and the ownership of colonies 
 and protectorates in central Africa. On the west coast the 
 Gambia Colony and Protectorate and Sierra Leone Colony 
 and Protectorate were not affected territorially by the out- 
 come of the war. On the contrary, both the Gold Coast Col- 
 ony and the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria have been 
 slightly enlarged by additions from contiguous German terri- 
 tory, although the larger share of Togoland and the Cameroons 
 have gone under French administration. 1 In eastern Africa 
 Great Britain possessed in 1914 the Protectorates of Somali- 
 land, East Africa, Uganda, and Zanzibar. British East 
 Africa, which is bordered on the northwest by the Anglo- 
 Egyptian Sudan, had, as its southern neighbor, German East 
 Africa. South of this large German possession lay more of 
 British Africa — the Protectorate of Nyasaland and North- 
 
 1 The British connection with Gambia dates from 1618. The Gold Coast 
 became of interest to British merchants in the same century because of the trade 
 in gold and slaves (see p. 54). Sierra Leone was brought within the sphere 
 of British activity in 1787 as a result of the philanthropic efforts to find a home 
 for freed African slaves; Freetown, in Sierra Leone, is the greatest seaport in 
 West Africa. Lagos was ceded to Great Britain in 1861 by the local king; it 
 became a convenient center for carrying out the suppression of the slave-trade. 
 In 1906 it was united with Southern Nigeria to form the Colony and Protector- 
 ate of Southern Nigeria. This British holding was combined in 1914 with the 
 Protectorate of Northern Nigeria to form the Colony and Protectorate of Ni- 
 geria. For Nigeria, see p. 441. 
 
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THE EMPIRE AND THE WORLD WAR 455 
 
 ern Rhodesia. Following the war the East Africa Protector- 
 ate became a Crown Colony under the name of Kenya Col- 
 ony and the Zanzibar Protectorate was renamed the Kenya 
 Protectorate. 1 German East Africa was divided between 
 Belgium and Great Britain, the former receiving a small por- 
 tion which bordered on the Belgian Congo, the latter obtain- 
 ing the great bulk of this German possession as a British 
 mandate. It is now known as Tanganyika Territory. The 
 addition of Tanganyika to the British holdings in Africa is 
 of the utmost significance, for the Cape-to-Cairo Railway, of 
 which Cecil Rhodes dreamed, can now be constructed in its 
 entire length of some six thousand miles without leaving 
 lands under British influence. 2 
 
 The case of German South- West Africa was deemed to be 
 different from that of German East Africa, as the former was 
 adjacent to the British territories of the Union and the 
 troops of the Union had effected its conquest. This Ger- 
 man possession was accepted as a mandate by South Africa, 
 although, as in the case of the mandates for New Zealand 
 and Australia, direct annexation would have been much pre- 
 ferred. There is a strong tendency to consider it as an in- 
 tegral part of Union territory. German administration of 
 South- West Africa had not been particularly considerate of 
 the natives, who were used under a system of forced labor, 
 and who were not allowed to own any large stock and not 
 more than five head of small stock. The supervision of this 
 new possession but adds to the already engrossing native 
 problem in the Dominion. 
 
 More than a year after the completion of the Treaty of 
 Versailles, the Treaty of Peace with Turkey was drawn up 
 and signed at Sevres on August 10, 1920. It was of prime 
 interest to Great Britain, as its relation to the Turkish Em- 
 
 1 They are so called from Mount Kenya. It is over 17,000 feet high, and, 
 though not the highest, is probably the largest mountain in Africa. On the 
 upper heights of this vast pile, which is situated at the equator, there are thir- 
 teen glaciers. For further information on British East Africa see the official 
 Handbook of Kenya Colony and Kenya Protectorate (London, 1920). 
 
 2 In 1920 elaborate tests were made of a Cape-to-Cairo air route. One 
 government crew succeeded in making the long air journey over much the same 
 course which the proposed railway will follow. 
 
456 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 pire had been a vital matter for many years. During the 
 war the Hejaz, in southwestern Arabia, was made an inde- 
 pendent Arabian state. Palestine, Syria, and Mesopotamia 
 were regarded as mandates, though of higher grade than 
 those we have already had occasion to notice. France and 
 Great Britain were made the supervising states to assist in 
 the creation of an "autonomous Arab kingdom." In addi- 
 tion, the more intimate connection with Great Britain of 
 Egypt, Cyprus, and the Sudan was recognized in the Treaty. 
 The delay in the completion of the arrangements for the 
 Turkish Empire made the Treaty as much a recognition of 
 the situation growing out of the war as a direction for future 
 action. Yet the difficulties were increased as the Arabs 
 became restless under the continued military occupation, and 
 the Turks stubbornly refused to accept as definitive the 
 arrangements of the Treaty of Sevres. 
 
 Mesopotamia was accorded to Great Britain for "advice 
 and assistance." It is of value to Great Britain for its inher- 
 ent commercial possibilities, on account of its close relation 
 to Persia and because of its importance in the eyes of those de- 
 siring to protect India. Ever since the British mandate for 
 Mesopotamia was announced in May, 1920, there has been 
 much confusion, and distressing disturbances have necessi- 
 tated a considerable expenditure of life and money. 
 
 The problem in Palestine has been more clear-cut. In 
 1917 Mr. Balfour made public the intention of the British 
 Government to make provision that Palestine should become 
 a "national home for the Jewish people." A step in the ful- 
 fillment of the promise was taken when the Treaty mandated 
 Palestine to Great Britain and a High Commissioner was ap- 
 pointed to put into effect the British declaration of 1917. Al- 
 though this use of Palestine has created satisfaction among 
 the Zionists, it has not been gracefully accepted by the 
 Arabs. The dangerous doctrine of self-determination seems 
 here to be disregarded, since the Jews compose a minority 
 of the population; in fact, not a quarter of the inhabitants be- 
 fore the war were Jews. If the experiment of making Pales- 
 tine a national home for the Hebrew race is to be a success, 
 
THE EMPIRE AND THE WORLD WAR 457 
 
 care must be taken, in the words of the High Commissioner, 
 "to develop the country to the advantage of all the inhabit- 
 ants." 
 
 However difficult the nature of the Palestinian mandate, 
 there is no doubt of the value accruing to Great Britain from 
 its control of the Holy Land. Its situation is such as to 
 make it of prime value in the defense of the Suez Canal. 
 Hitherto Egypt had been the principal base for the defense of 
 this vital line of communication between east and west. Pal- 
 estine, however, offers as good, if not better, facilities for 
 safeguarding this sea-road. It is farther from the canal, but 
 there is railway connection, completed during the war, 
 through the Sinai Peninsula. As the peninsula is practically 
 uninhabited, there is no cause of worry over the communica- 
 tions. Not only is Palestine accessible; the climate is so salu- 
 brious, when compared to that of Egypt, that during the war 
 it was found an excellent station for what was really the re- 
 serve of the Army of Egypt. Even should the land of the 
 Nile become less a part of the Empire than it has been, 
 Great Britain would still have an adequate base for guarding 
 the imperial highway. 
 
 DOMINION POLITICS 
 
 The war period has witnessed much of interest in the do- 
 mestic life of the self-governing portions of the Empire. In 
 New Zealand political development was largely ud disturbed. 
 The Maoris proved loyal and willing to assist in the war. In 
 1912 the Liberal Government under Sir Joseph Ward had 
 been defeated and replaced by the Reform Party. The new 
 Premier, W. F. Massey, retained the control of Dominion gov- 
 ernment during the war, although a coalition was organized 
 in 1915. It was dissolved at the end of the conflict, and the 
 ensuing general election replaced in power the Reform Party 
 under Mr. Massey with a more substantial majority than 
 ever. In general it may be said that the Reform Party does 
 not hold such decided social and labor views as characterized 
 the attitude of the Liberals from 1890 to 1912. 1 
 
 1 See pp. 380 ff. 
 
458 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 Australian war-time politics have seen much strain and 
 stress. In 1913 the Liberal Party came to office by a narrow 
 margin, but was replaced by the Labor Party in the elec- 
 tions held in September, 1914. When the Labor leader, An- 
 drew Fisher, was appointed Australian High Commissioner 
 in London, he was succeeded as Prime Minister by Mr. W. M. 
 Hughes. Mr. Hughes remained in power during the war, 
 but it required extraordinary skill on his part to retain his 
 place in the very troubled waters of Australian politics. The 
 extreme wing of Labor early declared Mr. Hughes a traitor to 
 his party, and that organization assisted greatly in defeating 
 his efforts to obtain conscription in 1916. In 1917 a National 
 War Government was formed out of a combination of Mr. 
 Hughes's personal followers and the Liberal Party. The 
 new Government was defeated on the issue of conscription, 
 but it did not resign, as constitutional practice would lead 
 one to expect; it was feared that the Labor Party, if it came 
 to power, would not ' ' carry on. ' ' The Labor opposition to the 
 war in the closing years of the conflict became more serious 
 than ever, and Australia found increasing difficulty in meet- 
 ing the military requirements. "Nothing but the early 
 termination of the war saved Australia from inability to 
 maintain her forces in France." * 
 
 After a settlement of the war-issues at Versailles, and on 
 the return of Mr. Hughes, definite steps were taken to form a 
 new Nationalist Party out of the Liberals and conservative 
 Labor group which had worked together in the coalition 
 Government. The elections in 1919 gave the Nationalists 
 substantial majorities, and the leadership of Mr. Hughes was 
 continued. 
 
 The declaration of war found Canada ruled by the Conserv- 
 atives under the lead of Sir Robert Borden. Although the 
 Liberal opposition under Sir Wilfrid Laurier loyally sup- 
 ported the war measures, divergences soon appeared when 
 the Conservatives became convinced of the need of conscrip- 
 tion after the return of Mr. Borden from London in 1917. 
 The Liberals were divided on conscription largely along ra- 
 
 1 A. B. Keith, War Government in the Dominions, p. 96. 
 
THE EMPIRE AND THE WORLD WAR 459 
 
 cial lines; the French in Quebec followed Sir Wilfrid Laurier 
 in opposing the draft, while western Liberals joined with the 
 Conservatives in forming a coalition Government. In Octo- 
 ber, 1917, a general election, fought on the issue of conscrip- 
 tion, gave an overwhelming victory to the Government, al- 
 though sharp criticism was made that this decision had been 
 greatly assisted by the manipulation of soldiers' votes and by 
 the enfranchisement of the nurses, wives, widows, mothers, 
 and sisters of soldiers. 
 
 During the war there was an unfortunate recrudescence of 
 racial trouble in Canada. The French population in Quebec 
 showed itself much less willing than the English-speaking 
 population to send its men to war. Indeed, Sir Wilfrid Lau- 
 rier did not wish that Canadian troops should serve in South 
 Africa during the Boer War and had only yielded under ex- 
 treme public pressure. In 1917 he was opposed to conscrip- 
 tion, but after it became law he urged that the law be re- 
 spected. The attempt to enforce conscription in Quebec led 
 to serious rioting in Quebec City in March, 1918. Much 
 property was destroyed and the mob rule of the city was only 
 overcome by military action, which resulted in the death of a 
 number of civilians. French Nationalism became very ex- 
 pressive during the war especially in the outspoken utter- 
 ances of M. Bourassa in his journal, Le Devoir. 
 
 The racial situation in South Africa at the opening of the 
 war was in a much more delicate condition than that in Can- 
 ada. The Boer War was a comparatively recent memory, 
 which was carefully nurtured by the Boer Nationalist Party 
 under the lead of Mr. Hertzog. General Botha was Prime 
 Minister of a Government in the hands of the South African 
 Party; it stood for a loyal acceptance of British rule and was 
 not eager to emphasize the racial issue, though the party was 
 largely composed of Boers. It was strong in the Transvaal 
 and the Cape. The Nationalists were dominant in the 
 Orange Free State where General Hertzog had been a Boer 
 leader in the war of twenty years before. The British ele- 
 ments found expression through a Unionist Party and a La- 
 bor organization. 
 
460 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 Hardly had the determination to conquer German South- 
 West Africa been made before the Union was faced with civil 
 war. General Hertzog was not able to arouse sufficient op- 
 position in Parliament to prevent the attack on German ter- 
 ritory, but others were quite willing to carry their hatred of 
 governmental measures to the decision of arms. Prominent 
 among the leaders of the revolt was Lieutenant-Colonel Ma- 
 ritz, who had lived for some time in German South-West 
 Africa, but who later had returned to the Orange Free State, 
 where at the opening of the war he became an officer of the 
 Defense Forces. In September, 1914, he refused to take the 
 offensive against the Germans, and in October moved into 
 German territory, handing over loyal officers and men to the 
 enemy and receiving a German command. 
 
 Leaders of more importance than Maritz were concerned 
 in the rebellion. General Beyers had become Commandant- 
 General of the Defense Forces in 1912; his disaffection proved 
 dangerous. General De la Rey, very popular in the Trans- 
 vaal, was counted on by the rebels for important service; but 
 his influence was of short duration, as he was shot on Sep- 
 tember 15th while proceeding in an automobile with General 
 Beyers to take charge of the proposed insurrection. General 
 Beyers attempted to hide his intentions after this untoward 
 event, but his efforts to cloak his true motives were but too 
 evident. In October the rebellion had begun in both the 
 Orange Free State and the Transvaal, with General Beyers 
 and General De Wet as the leaders. General Botha defeated 
 the former Commandant-General in October and in the next 
 month, De Wet, who had scored a temporary success, was 
 routed by the loyal Boer leader. At last the rebels attempted 
 to reach German territory, but General De Wet was captured 
 on December 1st and General Beyers was drowned in the 
 Vaal a week later in an effort to avoid his pursuers by cross- 
 ing the river, which was then in high flood. 
 
 Nationalism was not abashed by the defeat of a movement 
 which must have found inspiration, if not actual support, in 
 the Nationalist activity. Throughout the war the Govern- 
 ment was face to face with a vehement Boer nationalism, 
 
THE EMPIRE AND THE WORLD WAR 461 
 
 eager for a severance of the political connection with Great 
 Britain. The Nationalists even went to the point of sending 
 a deputation to Lloyd George asking for a restitution of in- 
 dependence. The Prime Minister of Great Britain met them 
 in Paris in June, 1919; naturally, their request was refused. 
 In August of the same year General Botha suddenly died. 
 In him South Africa lost one of its finest leaders, a man who 
 has been, not unfittingly, compared to George Washington. 
 His mantle fell on General Smuts, who had already distin- 
 guished himself both in military leadership and statesman- 
 like activity. A general election in 1920 strengthened the 
 Nationalists. The seriousness of the situation led to the effort 
 of General Smuts to form a South African Party on non-racial 
 lines, which should include all those loyal to the British con- 
 nection. Another general election was fought on this issue 
 in March, 1921, which resulted in the successful fusing of the 
 moderates of the two races under General Smuts's leader- 
 ship. The result brought something like stability to a Do- 
 minion, whose war-time politics had been exceptionally bois- 
 terous. 
 
 UNREST 
 
 Not only has the life of the Dominions been much vexed 
 during the World War by internal stress and strain, but other 
 parts of the British Empire have been subject to disturbance. 
 Where self-government has not yet been attained this has usu- 
 ally been the expression of a desire for more political rights, 
 ranging all the way from greater privileges within the Empire 
 to complete self-government outside the British sphere of 
 influence. 
 
 The unrest in India, so evident before 1914, was but in- 
 creased by the crisis that faced Great Britain. Early in the 
 war an investigation of Indian conditions was made with a 
 view to granting further rights of participation in the Gov- 
 ernment. On another page is to be found a brief description 
 of the provisions resulting from the inquiry; it is not neces- 
 sary to explain the nature of the Montagu-Chelmsford re- 
 forms in this connection. 1 Unrest continued, however, in 
 
 » See pp. 313 fif. 
 
462 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 spite of this effort to give Indians a greater share in their 
 Government. 
 
 Naturally the Government was more severe on "conspir- 
 acies" during the time of the war. In 1918 a Sedition Com- 
 mittee, which was headed by Mr. Justice Rowlatt, reported 
 at length on "Revolutionary Conspiracies in India," and 
 recommended additional repressive legislation. Two bills 
 based on the Rowlatt Report were the result, one a tempo- 
 rary measure to deal with anarchical movements and the 
 other to make more severe the ordinary criminal law of India. 
 The result was a violent outburst by Extremists against 
 these " Black Bills." * The " Anarchical and Revolutionary 
 Crimes Act" of 1919 was a political mistake, for it kept alive 
 the resentment of the Extremists. In addition, dissatisfac- 
 tion has been fostered by certain regrettable incidents, of 
 which the most noteworthy was the Amritsar massacre in 
 April, 1919. General Dyer attempted to break up a public 
 meeting which was being held in that city in defiance of the 
 British. On reaching the scene of the assemblage his troops 
 instantly opened fire, which was continued until the ammu- 
 nition was exhausted. Nearly four hundred natives were 
 killed and the wounded were left to find relief as best they 
 could. Needless to say, this brutal act was investigated and 
 General Dyer dismissed for a measure manifestly intended 
 to terrorize the people. Nevertheless, the memory of Amrit- 
 sar remained, to the bane of orderly life in India. 
 
 During the closing years of the war disaffection developed 
 to a dangerous degree in India. There was considerable ob- 
 jection on the part of Mohammedan soldiers in the Indian 
 army to service against their co-religionists within the Turk- 
 ish Empire. This feeling was greatly intensified when the 
 Treaty of Sevres arranged for the partition of the Turkish do- 
 minions, for the Turkish Sultan is regarded as the spiritual 
 head (the Khalifa) of all Sunni Mohammedans in the world. 
 The Mohammedan Khalifate crusade against the Turk- 
 ish treaty was led by the two Ali brothers. Toward the 
 close of 1921 the formation of Khalifate Volunteers seemed 
 
 1 See the official Revolutionary Conspiracies of India (Cd. 9190). 
 
THE EMPIRE AND THE WORLD WAR 463 
 
 to the British so menacing that the Ali brothers were ar- 
 rested and stern measures of repression instituted against 
 the movement. 
 
 The Hindu desire for an end of the British domination and 
 the establishment of Swaraj, or self-rule, has been headed by 
 a remarkable leader, M. K. Gandhi. This devout Hindu 
 dresses simply and lives austerely while preaching the end of 
 the British Raj and a return to a primitive state of society. 
 He has been a very active advocate of " passive resistance." 
 The Non-Cooperative movement assumed large proportions 
 in the years following the World War. The program of 
 Mr. Gandhi included the refusal to accept government titles, 
 to serve in the government police, to attend government 
 schools, to use foreign cloth, especially of English manufac- 
 ture. 
 
 When the Duke of Connaught opened the Indian legisla- 
 ture early in 1921, he recognized the seriousness of the situa- 
 tion: " Since I have landed," he said, "I have felt around me 
 bitterness and estrangement between those who have been 
 and should be friends. The shadow of Amritsar has length- 
 ened over the fair face of India." At the same time the royal 
 visitor appealed to British and Indians to bury, along with 
 the past, the mistakes and misunderstandings of the past. 
 But the Non-Cooperative movement grew during the year 
 even to the point of becoming militant, contrary to the plans 
 and wishes of Mr. Gandhi. The Prince of Wales at the close 
 of 1921 visited India; the occasion was made the opportunity 
 by Mr. Gandhi and the Moslem leaders for redoubling their 
 activities, with the result that there was, in certain cities, a 
 boycott of the Prince of Wales. Numerous leaders were ar- 
 rested toward the close of 1921, among them Mr. Lajpat Rai, 
 the most influential political leader in the Punjab. So danger- 
 ous to the British control of India had the leadership of 
 Gandhi become by 1922 that he too was put under arrest. 
 It is to be hoped that there may be no such conclusion to the 
 anti-British movement as that which occurred in 1857, but 
 that a satisfactory program for the development of India's 
 national life may be reached. 
 
464 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 The principles of self-determination and the rights of 
 small nationalities have found response in other parts of 
 the Empire as well. In a cursory survey, such as the 
 present chapter aims to present, all these influences cannot, 
 perforce, be detailed. Yet there are two parts of the Brit- 
 ish Dominions where the new ideas have been so influ- 
 ential that they cannot be overlooked, namely, Egypt and 
 Ireland. 
 
 Egypt was more closely bound to the Empire as a Protector- 
 ate after Turkey had become a British enemy in 1914. The 
 unrest which we have found to exist in Egypt in earlier days 
 was not rampant in 1914. A spirit of nationalism, however, 
 had been spreading among the people. Toward the close of 
 the war the fear of British " colonialism" increased, and there 
 was widespread trouble in Egypt in March and April of 1919. 
 The Nationalists chose representatives to press Egypt's 
 claims at the Peace Conference, but the delegation was de- 
 layed as a result of the deportation by the British of four of 
 its members to the island of Malta in March, 1919. After 
 serious riots the delegation was allowed to go to Paris, where 
 its labors were no more successful than those of the Nation- 
 alist delegation from South Africa. The continued unrest in 
 Egypt led to the dispatch of a commission under Lord Milner 
 to the land of the Nile for the purpose of inquiring as to the 
 real situation and of making recommendations for "prudent 
 and ever-enlarging enfranchisement." The Milner Commis- 
 sion, whose work was greatly hampered by hostile manifesta- 
 tions, proposed that Egypt be ruled by the Egyptians, with a 
 recognition of its sovereignty only limited by a loose relation- 
 ship to Great Britain not unlike that of Cuba to the United 
 States. 1 
 
 The Milner Report, which advised the establishment of the 
 "independence of Egypt on asecure and lasting basis," was 
 apparently intended to form the basis of a treaty with the 
 Egyptian Government. Much hesitation was shown to the 
 acceptance of the "Milner withdrawal policy" as a solution 
 of the Egyptian situation. Other European countries which 
 
 1 The Official Report of the Mission was published in 1921 (Cmd. 1131). 
 
THE EMPIRE AND THE WORLD WAR 465 
 
 had a stake in Egypt were not willing that the Capitulations, 
 which protected their nationals, should be disregarded, and 
 in Great Britain commercial interests in particular were not 
 desirous of a severance of the bonds that kept Egypt in the 
 Empire. 
 
 During 1921 the Egyptian situation reached a position 
 amounting to a deadlock. The British were unwilling to re- 
 linquish military privileges in Egypt; the Egyptian Nation- 
 alists remained unbending in their desire for independence. 
 A peaceful solution was reached early in 1922 after a visit to 
 London by Lord Allenby, the British High Commissioner for 
 Egypt. His representations resulted in a declaration on 
 February 28, 1922, that the British protectorate of Egypt 
 was abolished. In taking this step the British Government 
 reserved to its discretion the subjects of Canal defense, the 
 protection of Egypt against foreign aggression, the care of 
 foreign interests in Egypt, and the British relation to the 
 Sudan. 1 Shortly after the British abolition of the protector- 
 ate, the Sultan, through the Premier, announced Egyptian 
 independence and assumed the title of King of Egypt as 
 Fuad I. This step is the culmination of a movement which 
 began about one hundred years ago under Mehemet Ali. By 
 1840 Egypt entered upon an autonomous existence which, 
 after vicissitudes, has resulted in independence under the 
 great-grandson of Mehemet Ali. 
 
 IRELAND 
 
 One of the most serious storm centers has been Ireland. 
 When the World War began, the island was on the verge of 
 civil strife over the question of home rule. The opening of 
 the war temporarily healed the breach, as the Home Rule 
 Bill was set aside for the time being. There was considerable 
 recruiting in Ireland early in the war, but the western isle did 
 not contribute anything like the proportion of soldiers that 
 were furnished by England, Scotland, and Wales. It is esti- 
 mated that less than seven per cent of the male population 
 
 1 American readers will be reminded of the relation that exists between 
 the United States and Cuba by virtue of the Piatt Amendment. 
 
466 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 served in a military capacity. 1 The attempt to apply con- 
 scription in 1918 failed. 
 
 In the early years of the war' the Sinn Fein or Extremist 
 Party was constantly growing in strength. They rose in re- 
 volt in April, 1916, in the Easter Rebellion, and proclaimed a 
 republic. On the execution by the British of the Provisional 
 President, the Sinn Fein organization chose, as " President of 
 the Irish Republic," Eamon de Valera. Since the Easter 
 Rebellion Ireland has seen little respite from war and an- 
 archy. The very spirit and structure of social order seemed 
 to be crumbling. An attempt in 1917 to form an all-Irish 
 Parliament failed to succeed because Ulster and the Sinn 
 Fein Party could not agree on its character and powers. 
 
 At the conclusion of the World War the Sinn Fein Party, 
 whose strength had been continually increasing, captured 
 most of the constituencies in southern Ireland for the London 
 Parliament. Instead of sitting at Westminster, however, 
 they organized an Irish Parliament in Dublin, known as the 
 Dail Eireann. The military struggle in Ireland became ex- 
 ceedingly bitter in 1919. Agrarian outrage, the destruction 
 of towns and creameries, as well as the loss of life by reprisal 
 after reprisal, characterized what seemed an almost hopeless 
 situation. The British Government used "Black and Tan" 
 auxiliary troops, mostly drawn from ex-soldiers, but not un- 
 der perfect military control, against the guerilla tactics of the 
 "Irish Republican Army." 
 
 Late in the year 1920 a new Government of Ireland Act 
 was passed; it provided for Northern and Southern Parlia- 
 ments and a Central Council. This plan was denounced by 
 the Sinn Fein leaders, but accepted by Ulster; in June, 1921, 
 the Ulster Parliament was opened by King George. Shortly 
 after the formation of the Northern Parliament a truce was 
 agreed upon between southern Ireland and Great Britain in 
 order to negotiate for a peaceful settlement of a question that 
 had become wearying, not only to Englishmen, but to the 
 world at large, because of its very omnipresence. It was a 
 decided triumph when the almost insuperable difficulties 
 
 1 The Round Table, No. 35, p. 500. 
 
THE EMPIRE AND THE WORLD WAR 467 
 
 were surmounted at the close of the year 1921 by the signature 
 of a Treaty between Great Britain and Ireland on Decem- 
 ber 6th. 
 
 By this Treaty, southern Ireland became the newest mem- 
 ber of the group of self-governing Dominions, under the 
 name of the "Irish Free State." Northern Ireland was not 
 to be included in the Irish Free State unless the Northern 
 Parliament within a month of the ratification of the Treaty 
 decided to come within the new State. 
 
 The Dominion status granted to southern Ireland is fully 
 and carefully stated by reference to the constitutional posi- 
 tion of the self-governing states in the Empire. Article I 
 reads: "Ireland shall have the same constitutional status in 
 the community of nations known as the British Empire as 
 the Dominion of Canada, the Commonwealth of Australia, 
 the Dominion of New Zealand, and the Union of South Af- 
 rica, with a Parliament having powers to make laws for 
 peace and order and good government in Ireland, and an exec- 
 utive responsible to that Parliament, and shall be styled and 
 known as the Irish Free State." In order to make the new 
 Dominion status unequivocal, especial reference is made to 
 the dean of the self-governing colonies, the Dominion of Can- 
 ada: "the law, practice and constitutional usage governing 
 the relationship of the Crown ... to the Dominion of Can- 
 ada" shall apply to Ireland. The Dominion status of Ire- 
 land is further guarded by the provision that the Crown 
 representative "shall be appointed in like manner as the 
 Governor-General of Canada, and in accordance with the 
 practice observed in the making of such appointments." 
 A highly interesting recognition of the nationhood of the 
 Dominions is expressed in the oath (Article IV), which mem- 
 bers of the Parliament of the Irish Free State shall take. 1 
 
 No more significant step could have been taken than this 
 great act of emancipation by which England evacuates Ire- 
 
 1 In addition to allegiance to the Irish Constitution, the members of Parlia- 
 ment swear to be "faithful to His Majesty, King George V, and his heirs and 
 successors by law, in virtue of the common citizenship of Ireland with Great 
 Britain and her adherence to and membership of the group of nations forming 
 the British Commonwealth of Nations." 
 
468 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 land after centuries of Irish subordination. So general was 
 the satisfaction in England that, at the special session of 
 Parliament called to ratify the Treaty, large majorities in 
 both houses accepted this solution of the Irish question. 
 The eventful proceeding was made more solemn when the 
 King's address in the House of Lords was moved by the 
 octogenarian, Lord Morley, who was formerly a Chief Sec- 
 retary for Ireland and was prominent in the Gladstonian 
 efforts to grant Home Rule to the Irish at the close of the 
 nineteenth century. 
 
 The Treaty did not pass the Dail Eireann so easily. 
 " President" De Valera was opposed to an agreement that 
 fell short of granting complete independence to southern Ire- 
 land. The Treaty, on the other hand, was warmly advo- 
 cated by those earnestly wishing an end to the five-year 
 strife, among whom Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins were 
 notable. It was finally accepted by the Dail Eireann early 
 in the year 1922. 
 
 It is evident that the British Empire has been subject to 
 attack at many internal points during the war. If the re- 
 view of the more serious problems that have been faced 
 seems depressing, it must be remembered that war crises re- 
 veal conditions for solution that are otherwise largely dor- 
 mant. In a heterogeneous empire such as that of Britain, 
 where all stages of political development and assimilation are 
 in process, it would be strange if there were not places in the 
 political structure that need repair or rebuilding. 
 
 CONSTITUTIONAL GROWTH 
 
 It is a much more pleasant task to review the effects of 
 the great struggle on the constitutional relations of the self- 
 governing Dominions to the motherland. In this sphere 
 changes of a highly interesting and remarkably significant 
 nature have been registered. 
 
 The Dominions spontaneously accepted the war which the 
 authorities in Great Britain assumed on August 4, 1914. 
 But a dilemma was immediately faced, for it was evident that 
 the oversea Britains had no adequate share in the direction of 
 
THE EMPIRE AND THE WORLD WAR 469 
 
 the forces that were sent to the theaters of conflict. In the 
 Dominions the feeling had been growing for some time that 
 they were mature members of the British group and should 
 share in the administration of the Empire. The Colonial 
 Conferences had served to "air" these aspirations; the war 
 brought them to a head. The Honorable C. J. Doherty of 
 Canada well phrased the feeling: "The hand that wields the 
 sword of the Empire justly holds the sceptre of the Empire; 
 while the mother country alone wielded the one, to her alone 
 belonged the other. When as to-day the nations of the Em- 
 pire join in wielding that sword, then must they jointly sway 
 that sceptre." 1 
 
 It was not long before the Dominions participated in 
 the war councils of Great Britain. The early stages of the 
 conflict revealed the unwieldiness of a Cabinet of twenty- 
 two members as an effective war executive. WTien Mr. 
 Lloyd George came to power in December, 1916, a smaller 
 War Cabinet of five was created, which kept in touch with 
 the larger Cabinet by a secretariat. Nor was this all. Tele- 
 grams were sent to the Dominions inviting the Prime Minis- 
 ters to attend the meetings of the War Cabinet as regular 
 members. India was included as well, although up to this 
 time it had not shared in Colonial Conferences. All the 
 Dominions, including Newfoundland, accepted, though Mr. 
 Hughes found the political situation so delicate in Australia 
 that he could not leave at the time. Nor was General Botha 
 present; he was represented by General Smuts. 
 
 As a result of the British Prime Minister's invitation, there 
 met in the spring of 1917 what came to be known as the Im- 
 perial War Cabinet, which was the British War Cabinet plus 
 the oversea representatives. The Secretary of State for the 
 Colonies was also a member, but he was considered to repre- 
 sent only the Crown Colonies and Protectorates. The Brit- 
 ish War Cabinet and the Imperial War Cabinet met alter- 
 nately, while an Imperial War Conference discussed non- 
 military matters of Dominion interest. At the last session 
 of the Imperial War Cabinet, Mr. Lloyd George proposed 
 1 Keith, op. tit., p. 198. 
 
470 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 that such a Cabinet meet annually and become an ''accepted 
 convention of the British Constitution." The Prime Minis- 
 ter recognized the wide desire for a readjustment of constitu- 
 tional relations by suggesting that the question of consti- 
 tutional readjustment should be the subject of a post-war 
 conference. It was later set for 1922. Thus, at one stroke, 
 the demands of war had transformed the Colonial Conferences 
 which had met every four years into an Imperial Cabinet to 
 hold annual sessions. 
 
 The significance of this epoch-making step was not unper- 
 ceived, especially by the Dominion representatives. In a 
 speech before the Empire Parliamentary Association de- 
 livered on April 3, 1917, Sir Robert Borden explained the sig- 
 nificance of the Imperial Cabinet: "It may be that in the 
 shadow of a great war we do not clearly realize the measure of 
 recent constitutional development. . . . For the first time in 
 the Empire's history there are sitting in London two cabi- 
 nets. One of them is designated as the War Cabinet, which 
 chiefly devotes itself to such questions as primarily concern 
 the United Kingdom. The other is designated as the Im- 
 perial War Cabinet, which has a wider purpose, jurisdiction 
 and personnel. To its deliberations have been summoned 
 the representatives of all the Empire's self-governing Do- 
 minions. We meet there on terms of equality under the presi- 
 dency of the First Minister of the United Kingdom; we meet 
 there as equals, he is pri?nus inter pares. Ministers from six 
 nations sit around the Council Board, all of them responsible 
 to their respective Parliaments." l 
 
 In June, 1918, the Imperial War Cabinet assembled a sec- 
 ond time. Two important resolutions were the outgrowth 
 of this conference: the Prime Ministers of the Dominions 
 have the right of direct communication with the Prime Min- 
 ister of the United Kingdom on matters of cabinet impor- 
 tance; the Prime Ministers of the Dominions also have the 
 right each to nominate a Dominion Cabinet Minister as rep- 
 resenting him at meetings of the Imperial Cabinet in Lon- 
 don, which may be held between the plenary sessions and in 
 
 1 H. D. Hall, The British Commonwealth of Nations, p. 172. 
 
THE EMPIRE AND THE WORLD WAR 471 
 
 the absence of the Dominion Prime Minister. It was during 
 this second session of the Imperial War Cabinet that Sir 
 Robert Borden spoke of this war executive as a "Cabinet 
 of Governments." 
 
 Hardly had the Prime Ministers returned to their Domin- 
 ions in the autumn of 1918, when they were hastily sum- 
 moned back to share in the peace arrangements that had 
 been precipitated by the collapse of Germany. The Do- 
 minion relation to the preparation of the Peace Treaty was an 
 even greater departure from time-honored practice than the 
 calling of an Imperial War Cabinet. Never before had a 
 Dominion shared in the arrangement of an international 
 peace. 
 
 With the calling of the Peace Conference the Dominions 
 asked for and obtained the right of separate representation in 
 addition to that accorded to the British Empire. They were 
 counted among the small nations, and, of course, were rep- 
 resented as well on the Council of Five where Britain was 
 one of the members. Sir Robert Borden was occasionally 
 the colleague of Mr. Balfour in the Council of Ten, and he 
 also acted as the chairman of the British Empire Delegation 
 in the absence of Mr. Lloyd George. The place the Domin- 
 ions had obtained was further illustrated when the time came 
 to sign the Treaty; it received the signatures of the Domin- 
 ions' representatives. Later the Treaty was presented by 
 the Prime Ministers to their respective Dominion Parlia- 
 ments, where it was ratified after consideration by the Do- 
 minion legislatures, just as if they represented distinct na- 
 tions. This was not held to indicate disunity in the Empire, 
 however, as the ratification was deemed to be that of the 
 Crown acting on the advice of the Dominion Government. 
 Dominion nationhood received further emphasis when the 
 Dominions were granted mandates. In the case of South 
 Africa, General Smuts declared that the mandate was ac- 
 cepted by the Union directly and not through Great Britain. 
 
 Aside from the Canadian expression of the "new status/' 
 General Smuts has given the most decided interpretation to 
 the position achieved by the Dominions. In the discussion 
 
472 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 in the South African Parliament arising out of the ratification 
 of the Treaty, he declared the British Empire to be " a league 
 of free states, free, equal and working together for the great 
 ideals of human government." This did not mean any 
 longer simply internal responsible government: "We have 
 received a position of absolute equality, not only among the 
 states of the Empire, but among the other nations of the 
 world." The amazing character of this change he elaborated 
 in many speeches at home and abroad, stressing the fact that 
 the Empire which existed on August 4, 1914, had ceased to be 
 on June 28, 1919, for it had been subjected to a fundamental 
 change. 
 
 The further growth of the British Commonwealth Consti- 
 tution will prove of great importance. Already Canada has 
 shown a desire to have its own representative in Washing- 
 ton, and Australia has announced its intention of doing like- 
 wise. An Imperial Council has been proposed as a means of 
 preserving unity. Another possible solution would be the 
 admission of Dominion representatives to the London Parlia- 
 ment to vote on imperial matters. The more radical sugges- 
 tion of federation, which was much talked of a generation 
 ago, has made little progress. The federalizing of the Em- 
 pire — that is, the formation of an Imperial Cabinet and 
 Parliament, Great Britain retaining its own Parliament for 
 its own purposes — has been viewed in the Dominions as a 
 "Downing Street conspiracy" to deprive the outlying por- 
 tions of the Empire of their individuality. General Smuts 
 thus states what appears to be the prevalent opinion in the 
 self-governing colonies: "We favor the round table or confer- 
 ence system for discussion and consultation between the gov- 
 ernments in regard to common interests." 
 
 During the summer months of 1921 another meeting of the 
 Imperial Conference or Cabinet met in London, and was of 
 outstanding importance, as it registered for the first time dur- 
 ing a period of peace the changes that had been wrought out 
 in the crucible of war. Foreign policy was widely discussed 
 and means considered for keeping the Dominions in contin- 
 uous touch with the conduct of foreign affairs. The Domin- 
 
THE EMPIRE AND THE WORLD WAR 473 
 
 ion Premiers even met with the British Cabinet for the dis- 
 cussion of external matters. It was significant that internal 
 imperial affairs not directly Dominion concerns were on the 
 agenda. Imperial defense, the air service, and communica- 
 tions naturally occupied a large place. The vital matter of 
 communication was connected with an important decision 
 regarding the proposed Constitutional Conference, which had 
 been scheduled to meet in 1922. The Imperial Conference 
 came to the conclusion that " continuous consultation" can 
 be secured only by a substantial improvement in the use of 
 the air for transit and communication. It was felt that the 
 Dominion Premiers should aim to meet annually, but the 
 difficulty of doing this was recognized, and it was decided 
 that no advantage was to be gained by holding the pro- 
 posed Constitutional Conference. This is not to be inter- 
 preted as a disregard of the changes wrought by the war or 
 as a recognition of growing separatism, for the Address to the 
 King declared it a " unanimous conviction that the most 
 essential of the links that bind our widely spread peoples is 
 the Crown, and it is our determination that no changes in our 
 status as peoples or as Governments shall weaken our com- 
 mon allegiance to the Empire and its Sovereign." * 
 
 In November, 1921, the Disarmament Conference began 
 its meetings in Washington. President Harding's invitation 
 to the British Empire to participate in the Conference came 
 to London while the Imperial Conference was still in session. 
 It gave the opportunity to the Dominion representatives to 
 express their very keen interest in the Conference and in an 
 understanding with the United States regarding armaments. 
 Premier Hughes of Australia declared that the people of the 
 Commonwealth had a very warm corner in their hearts for 
 America: "They see in America to-day," he said, "what they 
 
 1 The "Crown" has been active in recent years in the endeavor to unify the 
 Empire. The Duke of Connaught served as the Governor-General of Canada 
 from 1911 to 1916. He went to India in 1921 to open the new legislature cre- 
 ated by the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms. His son, Prince Arthur of Con- 
 naught, became Governor-General of the Union of South Africa in 1920. The 
 Prince of Wales won considerable popularity by a tour of the Dominions at the 
 close of the World War; in 1921 he visited India at a time of serious stress in 
 Anglo-Indian relations. 
 
474 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 themselves hope to be in the future. . . . Subject to that de- 
 termination which we have to achieve our destiny with each 
 other and with Britain, we resemble so many Americas." 
 Mr. Smuts stated the attitude of the Dominions even more 
 warmly if that were possible: " America is the nation that is 
 closest to us in all the human ties. The Dominions look 
 upon her as the eldest of them. She left our circle a long time 
 ago because of a great historic mistake. I am not sure that a 
 wise policy, after the great events through which we have re- 
 cently passed, might not repair the effects of that great his- 
 toric error, and once more bring America on to lines of general 
 cooperation with the British Empire." 
 
 Three of the Dominions, Canada, Australia, and New Zea- 
 land possess as keen an interest in Pacific problems as do the 
 United States and Japan. It was therefore fitting that these 
 three Dominions should have representation on the British 
 delegation that met in Washington in November, 1 92 1 . The 
 Canadian representative was Sir Robert Borden. Once 
 again the nationhood of the Dominions within the Empire 
 received recognition. 
 
 Surely the world conflict that began in 1914 has been of no 
 little influence on the expansion and government of the Brit- 
 ish Empire. The heat of war has made possible the mould- 
 ing of an organization that has no counterpart in the world's 
 history. If it still seems a loosely coordinated group of 
 peoples, in that may rest its unique value. Over a hundred 
 years ago, when the thirteen colonies were being lost, the 
 great statesman, Edmund Burke declared that the bonds 
 joining colony to motherland were to be found in "a close 
 affection which grows from common names, from kindred 
 blood, similar privileges and equal protection. These are 
 the ties which, though light as air, are as strong as links of 
 iron." Never, in the whole course of British expansion, has 
 there been a better example of the relation between colony 
 and motherland than the bonds that attach the Dominions 
 to Great Britain. Indeed, it may well be that a British 
 group of nations is in formation which can enlarge its affec- 
 tions to include, for the betterment of mankind, all branches 
 of the English-speaking people. 
 
THE EMPIRE AND THE WORLD WAR 475 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 
 
 Books on imperial problems have been numerous since 1914. Students 
 of the imperial constitution are deeply indebted to Professor Keith for his 
 Imperial Unity and the Dominions (Oxford, 1916), his summary of Domin- 
 ion Home Rule in Practice (Oxford, 1921), and his admirable survey of War 
 Government in the Dominions, which appeared in the same year. The latter 
 contains a full bibliography. Mention should be made of The Common- 
 wealth of Nations (London, 1916), edited by Lionel Curtis, as well as this 
 writer's The Problem of the Commonwealth of the same year. Imperial 
 federation was advocated by W. B. Worsfold in The Empire on the Anvil 
 (London, 1916) . An important consideration of imperial politics is that of 
 the Australian H. Duncan Hall, The British Commonwealth of Nations, A 
 Study of the Past and Future Development (London, 1920), in which the 
 necessity for continuous consultation is emphasized. 
 
 Statistics for the present time should be sought in the Colonial Office 
 List, the Statesman's Y ear-Book, the Dominion Y ear-Books, and other an- 
 nual publications. Parliamentary papers of great value appear constantly 
 and are valuable sources for current colonial affairs. These official re- 
 ports, "Presented to Parliament by Command of His Majesty," are serial- 
 ized and are purchasable at reasonable prices. (The "Cd." series has been 
 succeeded by the "Cmd." series.) His Majesty's Stationery Office has 
 published a series of Handbooks Prepared under the Direction of the Histori- 
 cal Section of the Foreign Office, in which territories the world over that 
 were of concern at the conclusion of the World War have received careful 
 treatment. 
 
 A conspectus of sources of information would be incomplete without 
 reference to the more important periodicals bearing on this subject. The 
 Round Table is a quarterly review of the politics of the British Common- 
 wealth, which began publication ten years ago; its articles frequently reach 
 farther back than 1911. The United Empire is the monthly organ of the 
 Royal Colonial Institute, and The Landmark that of the English-Speaking 
 Union. Commercial matters are the concern of The Empire Review and 
 Journal of British Trade as well as of the quarterly Bidletin of the Imperial 
 Institute. The Journal of the Parliaments of the Empire, which began in 
 1920, is a quarterly digest of the debates and legislation of the Parliaments 
 of Great Britain and of the five Dominions. The well-known Contemporary, 
 Fortnightly, and Nineteenth Century and After, though of wider range, fre- 
 quently have important material on imperial affairs. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 
 Abbreviations: ap. = appointed; el. - elected; Adv.C = Advisory Council; Cab. - Cabi- 
 net- Cr Col = Crown Colony; Dom .= Dominion; E. C. = Executive Council; Exec. Off. = 
 Executive Officer; Fed. = Federal; Gov.-Gen. = Governor-General; H.A. = House of Assem- 
 bly H C = House of Commons; H.L. = House of Lords; H.R. = House of Representatives; 
 High Com = High Commissioner; L.A. = Legislative Assembly; L.C. = Legislative Council; 
 par. el. = partially elected; Pol. Res. = Political Resident; Prot. = Protectorate; Resp. govt. 
 «= Responsible government; Sen. = Senate. 
 
 Crown Colony Councils are appointed, unless otherwise stated. 
 
 Pol. unit 
 
 Area in sq. mi. 
 
 Population 
 
 Government 
 
 EUROPE 
 
 The United Kingdom 
 
 121,633 
 
 47,307,601 
 
 Resp. govt. H.L., H.C., and 
 
 England 
 
 
 
 Cab. 
 
 Wales 
 
 
 
 
 Scotland 
 
 
 
 
 Ireland 
 
 
 
 2 self-gov. states. 
 
 Isle of Man 
 
 
 
 Self-govt. 
 
 Channel Is. 
 
 
 
 Self-govt. 
 
 Gibraltar 
 
 2 
 
 25,367 
 
 Cr. Col. No Councils. 
 
 Malta 
 
 118 
 
 225,000 
 
 Diarchy, transferred subjects 
 under a resp. govt. Gov., 
 E.C., and el. L.A. 
 
 AMERICA 
 
 
 
 
 The Dominion of Canada 
 
 3,729,665 
 
 8,769,489 
 
 Self-gov. Dom. Gov.-Gen., 
 
 Provinces of 
 
 
 
 Sen. and H.C. Each prov- 
 
 Alberta 
 
 
 
 ince has a Lieut. -Gov. and 
 
 British Columbia 
 
 
 
 prov. pari. N.S. and Que. 
 
 Manitoba 
 
 
 
 have L.C. and L.A.; the rest 
 
 New Brunswick 
 
 
 
 a single L.A. 
 
 Nova Scotia 
 
 
 
 
 Ontario 
 
 
 
 
 Prince Edward Is. 
 
 
 
 
 Quebec 
 
 
 
 
 Saskatchewan 
 
 
 
 
 Yukon Territory 
 
 
 
 Exec. Off. and el. C. 
 
 North-West Territories 
 
 
 
 Com. and ap. C. 
 
 Newfoundland and 
 
 42,734 
 
 260,922 
 
 Self-gov. Dom. Gov., E.C., 
 
 Labrador 
 
 120,000 
 
 3,647 
 
 L.C, and H.A. 
 
 Bermuda Is. 
 
 19 
 
 21,869 
 
 Cr. Col. Gov., E.C., L.C, 
 and el. H.A. 
 
 Bahama Is. 
 
 4,404 
 
 55,944 
 
 Cr. Col. Gov., E.C., L.C, 
 and el. A. 
 
 Barbados 
 
 166 
 
 171,893 
 
 Cr. Col. Gov., E.C, L.C., 
 and el. H.A. 
 
 Jamaica, including Cayman 
 
 4,620 
 
 905,000 
 
 Cr. Col. Gov., Privy C, and 
 
 Is., Turks and Caicos Is. 
 
 
 
 par. el. L.C. 
 
 Leeward Is. 
 
 715 
 
 127,193 
 
 Cr. Col. Five Presidencies 
 
 Antigua 
 
 
 
 with Fed. E.C. and par. el, 
 
 • St. Kitts-Nevis 
 
 
 
 Fed. L.C. and local coun- 
 
 Dominica 
 
 
 
 cils. 
 
 Montserrat 
 
 
 
 
 Virgin Is. 
 
 
 
 
11 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 
 
 w 
 
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 Dependent 
 
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 and 
 
 Agencies 
 
 
 
 
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APPENDIX 
 
 The British Empire (continued) 
 
 ill 
 
 Pol. unit 
 
 Area in sq. mi. 
 
 Population 
 
 Government 
 
 Windward Is. 
 
 516 
 
 182,689 
 
 Cr. Colonies. Gov., but no 
 
 Grenada 
 
 
 
 federal councils. Each an 
 
 St. Vincent 
 
 
 
 ap. L.C. 
 
 St. Lucia 
 
 
 
 
 Grenadines 
 
 
 
 
 Trinidad and Tobago 
 
 1,974 
 
 386,907 
 
 Cr. Col. E.C. and L.C. 
 
 British Guiana 
 
 89,480 
 
 309,000 
 
 Cr. Col. Gov., E.C, par. el. 
 Court of Policy, and par. el. 
 Combined Court. 
 
 British Honduras 
 
 8,592 
 
 43,586 
 
 Cr.Col. Gov., E.C, and L.C. 
 
 Falkland Is., including 
 
 7,500 
 
 3,252 
 
 Cr. Col. Gov., E.C, and L.C. 
 
 South Georgia 
 
 
 
 
 South Shetlands 
 
 
 
 
 South Orkneys 
 
 
 
 
 Grahams Land 
 
 
 
 
 AFRICA 
 
 
 
 
 Southern Africa 
 
 
 
 
 The Union of South Africa 
 
 795,296 
 
 7,150,666 
 
 Self-gov. Dom. Gov.-Gen., 
 
 Provinces of 
 
 
 (white 
 
 Sen., and H.A. 
 
 Cape of Good Hope 
 
 
 1,542,161) 
 
 Each province with Admin- 
 
 Natal 
 
 
 
 istrator and el. Provincial 
 
 Orange Free State 
 
 
 
 Council. 
 
 Transvaal 
 
 
 
 
 South- West African Pro- 
 
 (322,200) 
 
 
 Mandate. 
 
 tectorate 
 
 
 
 
 Basutoland 
 
 11,716 
 
 406,000 
 
 Cr. Col. High Com. for So. Af. 
 
 Bechuanaland 
 
 275,000 
 
 125,000 
 
 Prot. High Com. for So. Af. 
 
 Rhodesia 
 
 440,000 
 
 1,739,000 
 
 Administered under Br. So. 
 Af. Co. High Com. for So. Af., 
 assisted by E.C. and par. el. 
 L.C. 
 
 Swaziland 
 
 6,678 
 
 100,000 
 
 Cr. Col. High Com. for So. Af. 
 
 Western Africa 
 
 
 
 
 Ascension I. 
 
 34 
 
 250 
 
 Cr. Col. Commandant. 
 
 St. Helena and Tristan da 
 
 47 
 
 3,500 
 
 Cr. Col. Gov. 
 
 Cunha 
 
 
 
 
 Gambia 
 
 4,134 
 
 248,000 
 
 Cr. Col. and Prot. Gov., E.C, 
 and L.C. 
 
 Sierra Leone 
 
 31,000 
 
 1,404,000 
 
 Cr. Col. and Prot. Gov., E.C, 
 and L.C. 
 
 Gold Coast 
 
 80,000 
 
 1,503,386 
 
 Cr. Col. and Prot. Gov., E.C, 
 and L.C. 
 
 Nigeria 
 
 332,000 
 
 17,500,000 
 
 Cr. Col. and Prot. Gov. and 
 E.C. 
 
 Togoland, Part of 
 
 12,500 
 
 300,000 
 
 Mandate. 
 
 Cameroons, Part of 
 
 30,000 
 
 400,000 
 
 Mandate. 
 
 Eastern Africa 
 
 
 
 
 Anglo-Egyptian Sudan 
 
 1,014,000 
 
 4,000,000 
 
 Under joint administration 
 of Great Britain and Egypt. 
 Gov.-Gen. & E.C. 
 
 Egypt * 
 
 350,000 
 
 12,878,000 
 
 Protectorate. (1914-1922.) 
 
 Kenya 
 
 246,822 
 
 3,000,000 
 
 Cr. Col. and Prot. Gov., par. 
 el. L.C. 
 
 Mauritius and 
 
 809 
 
 365,000 
 
 Cr. Col. Gov., E.C, and par. 
 
 island dependencies 
 
 
 
 el. C. of Govt. 
 
 Nyasaland 
 
 39,573 
 
 1,203,000 
 
 Protectorate. 
 
 Seychelles Is. and 
 
 156 
 
 25,000 
 
 Cr. Col. Gov., E.C, and L.C 
 
 dependencies 
 
 
 
 
 British Somaliland 
 
 68,000 
 
 300,000 
 
 Protectorate. 
 
 Tanganyika Territory 
 
 384,000 
 
 4,000,000 
 
 Mandate. 
 
 * Egypt became an independent kingdom, 28 Feb., 1922. 
 
IV 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Isle of Mao and 
 Chancel Is." 
 
 Europe 
 
 Asia 
 
 INDIAN EMPIE 
 PM1Ksh: = india: . - HHHlfiH! 
 
 ::::::::::: NATIVE:: 
 
 isaiATESi: 
 
 ..,,,., ;.. ; 
 
 :i:agengies:: 
 
 II 
 
 •*-Bo 
 
 Malay;|j|| Hon 
 StateaJE] ^^ 
 
 l^iiiif^' 
 
 Hi?" 
 
 * 
 
 -Straits Settlements 
 
 Diagram showing distribution and relative size of populations 
 within the Empire 
 
 I I European (white) population 
 ES$^ Negro and primitive 
 Bi=s3 Asiatic 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 The British Empire (continued) 
 
 Pol. unit 
 
 Area in sq. mi. 
 
 Population 
 
 Government 
 
 Uganda 
 
 110,300 
 
 3,318,000 
 
 Protectorate. Gov., E.C, and 
 L.C. 
 
 Zanzibar and Pemba 
 
 1,020 
 
 200,000 
 
 Prot. High Com. and Br. 
 Res. 
 
 ASIA 
 
 
 
 
 The Empire of India 
 
 1,802,657 
 
 319,075,132 
 
 (In Gt. Br.) Sec. of State for 
 
 British India 
 
 (1,093,074) 
 
 (247,138,396) 
 
 India and his Council. 
 
 Fifteen Provinces of 
 
 
 
 (In India) Viceroy, E.C, 
 
 Aj mer- Merwara 
 
 
 
 Council of State and par. el. 
 
 Andaman & Nicobar Is. 
 
 
 
 L.A. 
 
 Assam 
 
 
 
 
 Baluchistan 
 
 
 
 
 Bengal 
 
 
 
 
 Bihar and Orissa 
 
 
 
 
 Bombay 
 
 
 
 
 Burma 
 
 
 
 Diarchical system in each of 
 
 Cent. Provs. and Berar 
 
 
 
 the fifteen provinces. Gov. or 
 
 Coorg 
 
 
 
 Chief Com. and E.C. Par. el. 
 
 Delhi 
 
 
 
 L.C. with power in "trans- 
 
 Madras 
 
 
 
 ferred" subjects. 
 
 Northwest Frontier Prov. 
 
 
 
 
 Punjab 
 
 
 
 
 United Provs. of Agra and 
 
 
 
 
 Oudh 
 
 
 
 
 Native States and 
 
 (709,583) 
 
 (71,936,736) 
 
 More or less autonomous. 
 
 Agencies 
 
 
 
 
 (about 700 in no.) 
 
 
 
 
 Bahrein Is. 
 
 275 
 
 110,000 
 
 Pol. Res. for Govt, of India. 
 
 Aden, including Perim and 
 
 10,462 
 
 58,000 
 
 Cr. Col. and Prot. Gov. 
 
 Sokotra 
 
 
 
 
 British Borneo 
 
 77,106 
 
 1,000,000 
 
 
 Br. North Borneo 
 
 
 
 Gov. and L.C. for Br. Nor. 
 Bor. Co. 
 
 Brunei 
 
 
 
 Prot. Br. Resident. 
 
 Sarawak 
 
 
 
 Prot. under Eng. Rajah. 
 
 Ceylon 
 
 25,481 
 
 4,758,000 
 
 Cr.Col. Gov., E.C, and par. 
 el. L.C. 
 
 Cyprus 
 
 3,584 
 
 315,000 
 
 Cr. Col. High Com., E.C, 
 and par. el. L.C. 
 
 Hong Kong 
 
 391 
 
 59S.000 
 
 Cr. Col. Gov., E.C, L.C. 
 
 Malay States 
 
 
 
 
 Federated Malay States 
 
 27,506 
 
 1,325,000 
 
 Prot. High Com. 
 
 Other Malay States 
 
 23,486 
 
 955,000 
 
 Protectorates. Br. advisers to 
 native rulers. 
 
 Mesopotamia (Iraq) 
 
 143,000 
 
 2,850,000 
 
 Mandate. 
 
 Palestine 
 
 9,000 
 
 650,000 
 
 Mandate. 
 
 Straits Settlements and 
 
 1,600 
 
 846,000 
 
 Cr. Col. Gov., E.C, L.C. 
 
 Cocos Keeling Is. 
 
 
 
 
 Christmas I. 
 
 
 
 
 Labuan I. 
 
 
 
 
 AUSTRALASIA 
 
 
 
 
 The Commonwealth of 
 
 
 
 
 Australia 
 
 2,974,581 
 
 5,436,794 
 
 Self-gov. Horn. Gov. -Gen., 
 
 States of 
 
 
 
 Sen., H.R. 
 
 New South Wales 
 
 
 
 
 Queensland 
 
 
 
 Each State with Gov., el. 
 
 South Australia 
 
 
 
 L.C. (save Queensland) and 
 
 Victoria 
 
 
 
 el. L.A. (called H.A. in Tas- 
 
 Western Australia 
 
 
 
 mania and So. Aust.). 
 
 Tasmania 
 
 
 
 
 Northern Territory 
 
 
 
 Adm. and par. el. Adv. C. 
 
VI 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 The British Empire (continued) 
 
 Pol. unit 
 
 Area in sq. mi. 
 
 Population 
 
 Government 
 
 Papua 
 
 90,540 
 
 250,000 
 
 Lieut. -Gov., E.C. and L.C. 
 
 German New Guinea and 
 
 89,500 
 
 350,000 
 
 Mandate. 
 
 adjoining Is. 
 
 
 
 
 The Dominion of New Zea- 
 
 
 
 
 land, including 
 
 103,581 
 
 1,268,270 
 
 Self-gov. Dom. Gov. -Gen., 
 
 Auckland Is. 
 
 
 (Maoris 
 
 L.C. and H.R. 
 
 Chatham Is. 
 
 
 50,000) 
 
 
 Kermadec Is. 
 
 
 
 
 Cook Is., and others 
 
 
 13,000 
 
 
 Western Samoa 
 
 1,260 
 
 41,128 
 
 Mandate. 
 
 Fiji Is. 
 
 7,083 
 
 164,000 
 
 Cr. Col. Gov., E.C, and par. 
 el. L.C. 
 
 Unattached British Is. 
 
 
 
 Under supervision of High 
 Com. of West. Pac. 
 
 Tonga or Friendly Is. 
 
 390 
 
 24,000 
 
 Prot. El. L.A. 
 
 Br. Solomon Is. and 
 
 14,800 
 
 150,000 
 
 Prot. 
 
 Santa Cruz Is. 
 
 
 
 
 Gilbert and Ellice Is. 
 
 
 
 
 Colony, including 
 
 226 
 
 30,700 
 
 Cr. Col. 
 
 Fanning I., Union Is., 
 
 
 
 
 Christmas I., Phoenix Is. 
 
 
 
 
 New Hebrides 
 
 5,100 
 
 70,000 
 
 Condominium with France. 
 Prot. Res. Com. 
 
 Starbuck I. and various 
 
 40 
 
 200 
 
 Protectorates. 
 
 others near the equator 
 
 
 
 
 Pitcairn I. and adjoining Is. 
 
 10 
 
 150 
 
 Prot. Pres. and C. 
 
 Nauru I. 
 
 20 
 
 1,200 
 
 Mandate (guano). 
 
 Total Area of Empire 
 
 13,671,902 
 
 
 
 Total Population of Empire 
 
 
 459,307,735 
 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abbas Hilmi, Egyptian Khedive, 355. 
 
 Aborigines, of Australia, 240; of New 
 Zealand, 253; of South Africa, 261-63; 
 of Tasmania, 244 ; treatment of, under 
 new colonial system, 283. See also In- 
 dians. 
 
 Abyssinia, 294. 
 
 Acadia, acquired by Great Britain, 82; 
 deportation of French inhabitants of, 
 86. See also Nova Scotia. 
 
 Achin, King of, visited by Capt. Lancas- 
 ter, 63. 
 
 Adelaide, founding of, 173, 248. 
 
 Aden, capture of, by Portuguese, 19, 56; 
 formerly under Indian Government, 
 308; a valuable British port, 339. 
 
 Afghanistan, conquest of, by Nadir 
 Shah, 178; physical character of, 201; 
 evacuation of, by British, 202-03; 
 growing British interest in , 305 ; British 
 invasion of, in 1878, 305 ; further Anglo- 
 Russian rivalry in, 306 ; Anglo-Russian 
 Agreement of 1907 regarding, 306-07; 
 treaty of, with Great Britain in 1921, 
 307 ; political relation of, to the British 
 Empire, 442. 
 
 Africa, coast of, explored by Portuguese, 
 17-18; opening up of, 290; expansion 
 of British Empire in, 296. 
 
 Africa, British East, acquisition of, 432. 
 See also Kenya Colony. 
 
 Africa, West, early British interest in, 70; 
 attack on French, by British, 88. See 
 also Gambia, Gold Coast, Lagos, Ni- 
 geria, Sierra Leone. 
 
 Afrikander Bond, organization of, 363; 
 under leadership of Hofmeyer, 366. 
 
 Aga Khan, Indian political leader, 311; 
 quoted on political conditions, 314. 
 
 Agra, visit to, by Captain Hawkins, 64. 
 
 Agriculture, importance of, in Canada, 
 416; extent of, in India, 315; in James- 
 town, 40. 
 
 Aix-la-Chapelle, Peace of, 85. 
 
 Akbar the Great, Mogul Emperor, 90-91. 
 
 Alaska, acquisition of, by the United 
 States, 407; boundary dispute, 420. 
 
 Albany, Dutch factory at, 67 ; conference 
 with Iroquois at, 80. 
 
 Albuquerque, obtains control of Aden, 
 339. 
 
 Alexander VI, Pope, confirms Spanish 
 Empire by bull, 22. 
 
 Alfred the Great, 3. 
 
 Algeria, acquisition of, by France, 289. 
 
 Ali Brothers, leaders of Khalifate cru- 
 sade, 462. 
 
 All Moslem League, of India, 311. 
 
 Allan, Sir Hugh, 408-09. 
 
 Allenby, Lord, British High Commis- 
 sioner in Egypt, 465. 
 
 Amboina, capture of, by Dutch, 59; 
 massacre of, 64-65; capture of, by 
 British, 157. 
 
 American Colonies, see under names of 
 colonies. 
 
 American Revolution, 75, 115-30; proph- 
 ecies regarding, 116-17; causes of, 117- 
 21; effects of, 127-30; and Canada, 
 217-19. 
 
 Amherst, Earl, Governor-General of In- 
 dia, 191. 
 
 Amherst, General, 87. 
 
 Amiens, Peace of, 148, 150, 157; and 
 South Africa, 266; and Malacca, 327. 
 
 Amritsar, Massacre of, 462. 
 
 Andaman Islands, assassination of Lord 
 Mayo in, 303; controlled by British, 
 308; Indian penal settlement in, 327. 
 
 Andros, Edmund, Governor of New Eng- 
 land, 109. 
 
 Angevin Empire of Henry II, 5. 
 
 Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, see Sudan. 
 
 Anglo-French Agreement of 1899, 296. 
 
 Anglo-French Conservative Party in 
 Canada, 404. 
 
 Annual Register, quoted, 115. 
 
 Anson, Admiral, 85. 
 
 Antigua, settlement of, 50. 
 
 Arabi Pasha, revolt of, in Egypt, 347. 
 
 Arabian Peninsula, interest of British in, 
 339-40. 
 
 Arcot, Nawab of, 93; capture of, by 
 Clive, 94. 
 
 Arkwright, inventor of water-frame, 
 138. 
 
 Armada, defeat of, 27, 32-33 ; Hawkins's 
 share in defeat of, 31. 
 
 Armed Neutrality of 1780, 125. 
 
 Arnold, Benedict, 217. 
 
 Aroostook War, 418. 
 
 Arthur, Col. George, Lieutenant-Gover- 
 nor of Tasmania, 243. 
 
 Asiento, grant of, to Great Britain, 82; 
 renewal of, 85. 
 
 Assam, granted to Great Britain, 191. 
 
 Assaye, battle of, 189. 
 
 Assembly, in Virginia, of 1619, 41; of 
 1627, 41. 
 
 Association, Isle of, see Tortuga. 
 
Vlll 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Auckland, establishment of, 254. 
 
 Auckland, Lord, Governor-General of 
 India, 200; recall of, 203. 
 
 Aurungzeb, Mogul Emperor, 91. 
 
 Australia, effect of American Revolution 
 on colonization of, 128; reasons for de- 
 layed interest in, 235; early voyages 
 to, 236-39; visited by Captain Cook, 
 238 ; first colonizing expedition to, 239 ; 
 aborigines of, 240; exploration of east- 
 ern interior of, 242-43; evolution of 
 early government in, 249-50; compul- 
 sory land sales in, 173; rush of gold 
 seekers to, 250-52; grant of self-gov- 
 ernment to, 285, 384-86; exploration 
 of interior of, 386-89 ; growth of democ- 
 racy in colonies of, 389-92 ; movement 
 for federation in, 392-93; Common- 
 wealth constitution of, 394-95; federal 
 capital of, 396; party system in, 396; 
 character of population of, 396; and 
 the Pacific islands, 397-99 ; interest of, 
 in defense, 444; share of, in World War, 
 450; politics of, during World War, 
 458. See also under names of states. 
 
 Australian Colonies Government Act, 
 385. 
 
 Austrian Succession, War of, 74, 84-85. 
 
 Ava, King of, defeated by British, 191. 
 
 Babar, Mogul Emperor, 90, 178. 
 
 Baffin, William, search of, for northwest 
 passage, 47; Smith's Sound named by, 
 62. 
 
 Bahamas, settlement of, 50; government 
 of, 439. 
 
 Bahrein Islands, relation of, to British 
 Empire, 340. 
 
 Baker, Sir Samuel, in the Sudan, 350. 
 
 Balasor, English factory at, 65. 
 
 Balboa, discovery of Pacific by, 23. 
 
 Balfour, Arthur James, interest of, in 
 imperial defense, 446; declaration of, 
 regarding Palestine, 456 ; on Council of 
 Ten, 471. 
 
 Ballance, John, 380. 
 
 Ballarat, discovery of gold at, 251. 
 
 Ballot, adoption of, in Victoria, 390. 
 
 Baltimore, Baron, 69. 
 
 Baluchistan, growth of British power in, 
 305. 
 
 Banda Islands, Anglo-Dutch rivalry in, 
 64, 157. 
 
 Banks, Joseph, report on Botany Bay by, 
 239; suggests transportation to Aus- 
 tralia, 239. 
 
 Bantam, English factory at, 63. 
 
 Bantu, character of, 262. 
 
 Baptist Missionary Society, 282 n. 
 
 Barbados, settlement of, 50; rapidity of 
 early development of, 50-51; govern- 
 ment of, 439. 
 
 Barbary or Morocco Company, establish- 
 ment of, 13. 
 
 Baring, Sir Evelyn, see Lord Cromer. 
 
 Baroda, Gaekwar of, 189 ; dethronement 
 of, 304. 
 
 Bass, George, Australian explorer, 241. 
 
 Bass Strait, discovery of, 241. 
 
 Bassein, 189. 
 
 Basutoland, acquisition of, 276, 359. 
 
 Batavia, founding of, 59. 
 
 Bathurst Plains, discovery of, 242. 
 
 Batman, John, pioneer in Victoria, 244. 
 
 Baudin, Capt., French explorer, 241. 
 
 Bechuanaland, acquisition of, 293, 365; 
 a protectorate, 440. 
 
 Bechuanas, Bantu tribe, 263. 
 
 Bedford, Duke of, quoted, 116. 
 
 Begums, the, of Oudh, 184. 
 
 Belle Isle, naval battle of, 85. 
 
 Benares, annexed to Bengal, 183. 
 
 Bengal, early English interest in, 65; 
 nominally under Mogul, 178; collec- 
 tion of revenues of, 181; permanent 
 revenue settlement of, 186. 
 
 Bentham, Jeremy, Emancipate Your 
 Colonies of, quoted, 134; convert to 
 systematic colonization, 172. 
 
 Bentinck, Lord William, quoted on Brit- 
 ish aims in India, 194-95; Governor- 
 General of India, 196; retirement of, 
 199. 
 
 Berar, Raja of, 188. 
 
 Bering Sea, controversy over fur seal 
 fisheries in, 421. 
 
 Berkeley, Lord, 69. 
 
 Berlin, colonial conference of 1884-85, 
 291; decree of Napoleon, 152. 
 
 Bermudas, discovery of the, 48; govern- 
 ment of the, 439. 
 
 Bermudez, Juan, Spanish explorer, 50 n. 
 
 Berry, Graham, 390. 
 
 Beyers, General, of South Africa, 460. 
 
 Bezuidenhout, accusation of, 269. 
 
 Bhonsla, Raja of Berar, 188. 
 
 Bhutan, relation of, to British India, 
 308, 442. 
 
 Bikaner, Maharaja of, at Peace Confer- 
 ence of 1919, 310 n. 
 
 Bismarck, attitude of, toward coloniza- 
 tion, 292-93. 
 
 Black Hole of Calcutta, 94-95. 
 
 Black Wednesday, in Victoria, 390. 
 
 Blake, Admiral, 67. 
 
 Blaxland, Australian explorer, 242. 
 
 Bloemfontein Convention of 1854, 273. 
 
 Board of Trade, organization of, 109; 
 duties of, 110; abolition of, 110; and 
 Dominions, 436. 
 
 Boer War, see South African War. 
 
 Boers, settlement of, 261; exclusiveness 
 of, 358. See also Transvaal and Orange 
 Free State. 
 
INDEX 
 
 IX 
 
 Bolan Pass, 201, 202. 
 
 Bombay, cession of, by Portugal, 65; 
 grant of, to East India Company, 65, 
 340; presidency of west coast at, 65; 
 Presidency of, formed from Maratha 
 territory, 191. 
 
 Bonaparte, see Napoleon. 
 
 Bond, Sir Robert, of Newfoundland, 
 426. 
 
 Boomplaats, battle of, 271. 
 
 Borden, Sir Robert, Prime Minister of 
 Canada, 412, 458; and imperial de- 
 fense, 446; quoted on importance of 
 Imperial Cabinet, 470; at Peace Con- 
 ference of 1919, 471; at Washington 
 Conference, 474. 
 
 Borneo, 297, 331-33. 
 
 Boscawen, Admiral, 87, 88. 
 
 Boston, port of closed, 124; riot in, 124; 
 Tea Party, 124, 182. 
 
 Botany Bay, 238-39. 
 
 Botha, Gen. Louis, Prime Minister of 
 Transvaal, 372; member of National 
 Convention, 373; Prime Minister of 
 Union, 374; during World War, 450, 
 459; death of, 461. 
 
 Bourassa, Henri, anti-English attitude of, 
 415, 459. 
 
 Bourbon, He de, 78, 157. 
 
 Bourne, E. G., Spain in America of, 
 quoted, 18. 
 
 Boutros Pasha, murder of, 355. 
 
 Bowell, Mackenzie, of Manitoba, 413. 
 
 Braddock, General, 87. 
 
 Brand, J. H., President of Orange Free 
 State, 273, 358. 
 
 Brant, Joseph, 220. 
 
 Brazil, becomes Portuguese, 23; British 
 trade with, after 1713, 83. 
 
 Breda, Treaty of, 68. 
 
 Brethren of the Coast, see Buccaneers. 
 
 Briand, Mgr., 213. 
 
 Bridgewater Canal, 140. 
 
 Brisbane, settlement of, 245. 
 
 British Columbia, becomes Crown Col- 
 ony, 406; includes Vancouver Island, 
 406; demands railway connection with 
 Canada, 403; joins Dominion of Can- 
 ada, 406; impatient over railway de- 
 lay, 409. 
 
 British Guiana, acquisition of, 430; gov- 
 ernment of, 439. 
 
 British Honduras, 440. 
 
 British Isles, unification of, 4. 
 
 British North America Act, 232. 
 
 British North Borneo Company, 333 
 441. 
 
 British Somaliland, see Somaliland. 
 
 British South Africa Company, 365, 
 441-42. 
 
 Brock, General, 223, 
 
 Brook, Lord, 44. 
 
 Brooke, Sir Charles J., of Sarawak, 333. 
 
 Brooke, Charles Vyner, of Sarawak, 333. 
 
 Brooke, James; of Sarawak, 332. 
 
 Brown, George, leader of Canadian Radi- 
 cals, 230; joins coalition, 230; member 
 of Quebec Convention, 231; goes to 
 London, 231 ; opposes Macdonald, 404. 
 
 Brunei, 332-33. 
 
 Brussels, colonial conference at, 291. 
 
 Buccaneers of West Indies, 52-54. 
 
 Buenos Aires, capture of, by British, 157, 
 
 Buller, Charles, quoted on colonial pat- 
 ronage, 161-62; member of Durham 
 Mission, 171, 226; his Responsible 
 Government for Colonies, 172; quoted 
 on public opinion of colonies, 174; 
 quoted on importance of Durham Re- 
 port, 227. 
 
 Buller, General, 371. 
 
 Burgers, T. F., President of Transvaal, 
 358, 361. 
 
 Burgoyne, General, surrender of, at Sara- 
 toga, 125, 218; attacks Clive in Parlia- 
 ment, 181. 
 
 Burke, Edmund opposes French Revolu- 
 tion, 147; prosecutes Hastings, 185. 
 
 Burma, first war with, 191; second war 
 with, 205-06 ; lower, annexed, 206 ; up- 
 per, annexed, 296, 305. 
 
 Bushmen, character of, 261. 
 
 Button, Sir Thomas, explorer, 47. 
 
 Byng, Admiral, defeat of, 87; courtmar- 
 tial of, 341. 
 
 Cable, Pacific, 444. 
 
 Cabot, John, voyages to America, 14, 20. 
 
 Cabot, Sebastian, maritime activity of, 
 20, 29. 
 
 Caisse de la Dette, 346. 
 
 Calais, staple at, 12. 
 
 Calcutta, establishment of, 66; capture 
 of, by Suraj-ud-daulah, 95; defense of, 
 against Marathas, 179 n. 
 
 Calico Act of 1721, 102-03. 
 
 Calicut, 15, 18, 320. 
 
 Calvert, Cecilius, 69. 
 
 Calvert, George, 69. 
 
 Cameroons, acquired by Germany, 293; 
 mandate of, to Great Britain and 
 France, 454. 
 
 Campbell, Alexander, of Canada, 231. 
 
 Campbell, Sir Colin, relieves Lucknow, 
 210. 
 
 Camperdown, naval battle off, 149. 
 
 Canada, acquired by Great Britain, 96; 
 probable loss of, affirmed, 165; emigra- 
 tion to, 168-69; invasion of, 217; un- 
 satisfactory government of, in 1786, 
 220-21 ; Act of 1791, 221-22; Rebellion 
 of 1837, 223-25, 421 ; and War of 1812, 
 223 ; Durham Mission to, 227 ; reunion 
 of provinces of, in 1840, 228; confeder- 
 
X 
 
 INDEX 
 
 ation movement in, 229-32; condition 
 of, in 1867, 233; first self-governing 
 Dominion, 232; confederation of, 401; 
 government of, 401-03; purchases 
 Hudson's Bay territories, 408; provin- 
 cial problems of, 413-15; expansion of, 
 415-16; population of, 415-16; to-day, 
 415-18; election of 1921, 417; and the 
 United States, 418-22; participation 
 of, in World War, 450; politics of, dur- 
 ing World War, 458-59. See also Que- 
 bec. 
 
 Canadian Pacific Railway, plan to build, 
 406; delay in construction of, 408-09; 
 completion of, 410; service of, to Can- 
 ada, 418. 
 
 Canals, in England, 140. 
 
 Canberra, federal capital of Australia, 
 396. 
 
 Canning, Charles J., Governor-General 
 of India, 210, 302. 
 
 Canning, George, and Monroe Doctrine, 
 156. 
 
 Canterbury Association, 2£6. 
 
 Canton, 334. 
 
 Cape Colony, foundation of, by Dutch, 
 60; capture of, by British, 157; recap- 
 tured, 266; ceded to Great Britain, 
 158; early growth of, 274-77; receives 
 constitution, 275; becomes self-govern- 
 ing, 275, 285; expansion of, 276; popula- 
 tion of, in 1870, 277; Sir Bartle Frere, 
 Governor of, 360; nationalist senti- 
 ment in, 363; Cecil Rhodes, Premier 
 of, 367. See also Cape of Good Hope. 
 
 Cape Finisterre, naval battle of, 85. 
 
 Cape of Good Hope, discovered by Por- 
 tuguese, 18; emigration to, 168-69; 
 named, 259. See also Cape Colony. 
 
 Cape St. Vincent, naval battle of, 149. 
 
 Cape Town, settlement of, 260-61 ; ques- 
 tion of capital at, 275. 
 
 Capitalism, rise of industrial, 142-45. 
 
 Capitulations, the, with Turkey, 354, 
 465. 
 
 Carleton, Sir Guy, early life of, 214; 
 Governor of Quebec, 214; Comman- 
 der-in-Chief in America, 218; resigns 
 governorship, 218; Governor a second 
 time, 220. 
 
 Carleton, Thomas, Governor of New 
 Brunswick, 219. 
 
 Carlisle, Earl of, grants to, in West In- 
 dies, 50. 
 
 Carnarvon, Lord, desires South African 
 confederation, 360. 
 
 Carolinas, settlement of, 69. 
 
 Carpentaria, Gulf of, 387. 
 
 Carteret, Sir George, 69. 
 
 Cartier, George E., Canadian states- 
 man, 229; champions Quebec province, 
 230; joins coalition, 230; member of 
 
 Quebec Convention, 231; in first cabi- 
 net of Dominion, 403. 
 
 Cartier, Jacques, French explorer, 76. 
 
 Cartwright, Edmund, inventor of power- 
 loom, 138. 
 
 Catherine of Braganza, 36, 65, 340. 
 
 Cawnpore, massacre of, 209. 
 
 Cetewayo, Zulu chieftain, 361. 
 
 Ceylon, captured by Dutch, 60, 326; 
 captured by British, 157, 326; ceded 
 to Great Britain, 158; Wilmot Horton, 
 Governor of, 169; political unrest in, 
 326; government of, 439. 
 
 Chait Singh, raja of Benares, 184. 
 
 Chaleurs, Bay of, 405. 
 
 Chamberlain, Joseph, Colonial Secre- 
 tary, 369, 444-45; quoted on Austral- 
 ian confederation, 394. 
 
 Champlain, Samuel de, 76. 
 
 Chancellor, expedition of, to Russia, 29. 
 
 Chandernagore, French factory at, 79; 
 Dupleix at, 92; captured by Clive, 95. 
 
 Channel Islands, 435. 
 
 Charles I, 36, 41. 
 
 Charles II, married Catherine of Bra- 
 ganza, 36, 65, 340; grants Bombay to 
 East India Company, 340. 
 
 Charleston, foundation of, 69. 
 
 Charlotte town, Conference at, 231. 
 
 Chartered Companies, 441-42. 
 
 Chatham, Lord, see Pitt, William, the el- 
 der. 
 
 Chauth, Maratha blackmail, 179. 
 
 Chelmsford, Lord, Viceroy of India, 313. 
 
 Child, Sir Josiah, The Nature of Planta- 
 tions of, quoted, 101 ; quoted on New 
 England, 104. 
 
 Chilianwala, battle of, 205. 
 
 China, trade of, 60; British sphere of in- 
 fluence in, 442. 
 
 Choiseul, on American colonies, 117. 
 
 Christchurch, settlement of, 256. 
 
 Christian Guardian, 225. 
 
 Church Missionary Society, 253, 282 n. 
 
 Cinque Ports, 25 and n. 
 
 Clear Grits, Canadian Radicals, 230. 
 
 Clergy reserves, grant of, 221; opposition 
 to, 225. 
 
 Clive, Robert, goes to India, 93; captures 
 Arcot, 94; booty obtained by, 180; 
 Governor of Bengal, 181 ; criticism of 
 181; commits suicide, 181. 
 
 Cloth manufacture, see textile industry. 
 
 Coal, importance of, in Industrial Revo- 
 lution, 139; discovery of, in New South 
 Wales, 240-41. 
 
 Cochin China, 289. 
 
 Colbert, French statesman, 78. 
 
 Colbertism, see Mercantilism. 
 
 Colley, Sir George, 362. 
 
 Collins, Capt., in Tasmania, 243. 
 
 Collins, Michael, Irish leader, 468. 
 
INDEX 
 
 XI 
 
 Colonial Conferences, early, 297-98, 442- 
 47; of 1887, 297, 443-44; of 1894, 444; 
 of 1897, 298, 444-45; of 1902, 298, 445; 
 of 1907, 445; of 1911, 445-46; results, 
 of, before 1914, 447; of 1917, 469; of 
 1921, 472-73. 
 Colonial empire, of France, 150-51, 289; 
 of Great Britain, review of growth of, 
 428-33; of government of, 433-42; 
 summary of population of, 433 ; of Hol- 
 land, 56-60; of Russia, 289-90. 
 
 Colonial expansion, during period of 
 British monopoly, 281. 
 
 Colonial Office, sphere of, 438. 
 
 Colonial system, of Spain, 28. 
 
 Colonies, British, lack of interest in, af- 
 ter Napoleonic wars, 160; value of, 
 questioned, 161-66; expense of, 161; 
 revival of interest in, 174-75, 279-88; 
 ignorance of, in Great Britain, in early 
 nineteenth century, 280 n ; political re- 
 lation of, to Great Britain before 1854, 
 438 n. 
 
 Colonization, systematic, see Systematic 
 colonization. 
 
 Columbus, Bartholomew, visits England, 
 20. 
 
 Columbus, Christopher, 19, 22-23. 
 
 Commerce, of England in Middle Ages, 
 10-12; of Europe with Far East, 15- 
 19; concessions regarding, made to 
 England, 82-83; increase of British, in 
 eighteenth century, 99; British, with 
 France in eighteenth century, 100; illi- 
 cit, of American colonies, 107, 123; of 
 American colonies, 118-19; growth of 
 British, during Napoleonic wars, 151- 
 55; expansion of British, after 1750, 
 143. See also Trade. 
 
 Commerical system, influence of Adam 
 Smith on, 132. 
 
 Commission of Lord Durham, see Dur- 
 ham Commission. 
 
 Commonwealth, England under the, 36; 
 and Virginia, 41. 
 
 Concord, battle of, 125. 
 
 Confederation, of New England, 45; 
 movement for in Canada, 229-32. 
 See also Federation. 
 
 Conferences, Colonial, see Colonial Con- 
 ferences. 
 
 Congo Free State, 291. 
 
 Congress, intercolonial, in American col- 
 onies, 80, 121; Albany, of 1754, 121; 
 American Continental, of 1774 and 
 1775, 124; Stamp Act Congress, see 
 Stamp Act Congress. 
 
 Connaught, Duke of, and Indian unrest, 
 463. 
 
 Connecticut, settlement of, 44. 
 
 Conscription, failure to obtain, in Aus- 
 tralia, 458; in Canada, 459. 
 
 Continental Congress of 1774, of 1775, 
 
 124. 
 Continental system, of Napoleon, 151- 
 
 55. 
 Convicts, in New South Wales, 240; in 
 
 Tasmania, 243; in Western Australia, 
 
 246-47. 
 Cook Islands, 383, 399, 453. 
 Cook, Capt. James, 238. 
 Coolgardie, 388. 
 Coote, Sir Eyre, victor at Wandewash, 
 
 94; in First Mysore War, 184. 
 Copper mines, in South Australia, 249. 
 Cornwallis, Lord, in American Revolu- 
 tion, 126; Governor of India, 186-87. 
 Coronado, Spanish explorer. 24. 
 Cortez, conquest of Mexico by, 24. 
 Corvee, in Egypt, 348. 
 Cotton, importance of Egyptian, 353. 
 Cotton gin, 138. 
 
 Cotton manufacture, see Textile indus- 
 try. 
 Craft gilds, see Gilds, craft. 
 Craig, Sir James, Governor of Canada, 
 
 222. 
 Crimean War, 202. 
 Crispi, Italian statesman, 294. 
 Cromer, Lord, work of, in Egypt, 348- 
 
 49. 
 Crompton, Samuel, inventor of "mule," 
 
 138. 
 Cromwell, rule of, 36. 
 Crown Colonies, government of, 438-40 ; 
 
 higher type of, 439-40; lower type of, 
 
 440. 
 Cunard, Sir Samuel, 141. 
 Curtis, Lionel, 373. 
 Curzon, Lord, Viceroy of India, 306. 
 Cyprus, Turkish conquest of, 17; British 
 
 acquisition of, 287, 343; government 
 
 of, 439. 
 
 Dacoity, 197, 208. 
 
 Da Gama, see Vasco da Gama. 
 
 Dail Eireann, 466, 468. 
 
 Dalhousie, Lord, Governor-General of 
 India, 204; his Doctrine of Lapse, 206; 
 administration of, 207-08. 
 
 Dane, Sir Lewis, mission of, to Kabul, 
 306. 
 
 Danelaw, the, 3. 
 
 Danes, invasion of Britain by, 3. 
 
 Darwin, Australia, 388-89. 
 
 Da Vaca, Spanish explorer, 24. 
 
 D'Avenant, Charles, On the Plantation 
 Trade, cited, 101; quoted on West In- 
 dies, 103 n. 
 
 Davis, John, Arctic explorer, 46. 
 
 De Beers Mining Corporation, 366. 
 
 De Bussy, French leader in Deccan, 94. 
 
 Deccan, loss of, by Mogul Empire, 178. 
 
 Declaration of Right, 37. 
 
Xll 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Declaratory Act of 1766, 123. 
 
 Deerfield, Conn., capture of, 80-81 and 
 81 n. 
 
 Defense, colonial, 286, 298 and n., 446. 
 
 De la Rey, General, 460. 
 
 De Lesseps, Ferdinand, 338. 
 
 Delhi, capital of Mogul Empire, 178; 
 capture of, by Nadir Shah, 179; during 
 Indian Mutiny, 209-10. 
 
 Demarcation Line, between Spanish and 
 Portuguese empires, 23. 
 
 De Ruyter, Dutch admiral, 68. 
 
 De Soto, Spanish explorer, 24. 
 
 De Valera, Eamon, of Ireland, 466-68. 
 
 De Villiers, Sir J. H., of Cape Colony, 
 373. 
 
 De Wet, Christian, of Orange Free State, 
 372. 
 
 De Wet, General, rebel leader in South 
 Africa, 460. 
 
 Diamond Jubliee, 280. 
 
 Diamonds, discovery of, at Kimberley, 
 359. 
 
 Diarchical system, in India, 313; in 
 Malta, 439-40. 
 
 Diaz, Bartholomew, 18, 259. 
 
 Dilke, Sir Charles, journeys and publi- 
 cations of, 287 ; quoted on imperial de- 
 fense, 298 n. 
 
 Dingaan, Zulu Chieftain, 271. 
 
 Dirk Hartog, 236. 
 
 Disallowance, royal, 110. 
 
 Disarmament Conference of 1921, 473. 
 
 Disraeli, Benjamin, satirizes colonial 
 burden, 162; imperial interests of, 287, 
 360 ; purchases Suez Canal shares, 338, 
 346. 
 
 Diwani (revenue collection), of Bengal, 
 181. 
 
 Dobbs Mission, to Afghanistan, 307. 
 
 Doctrine of Lapse, 206, 302, 304. 
 
 Doherty, C. J., quoted on Dominion 
 status, 469. 
 
 Domestic system of cloth manufacture, 
 136. 
 
 Dominion of Canada, see Canada. 
 
 Dominions, self-governing, ties that bind 
 the, to Great Britain, 436-37 ; response 
 of, in World War, 449-51 ; recognition 
 of status of, in Irish Treaty, 467 ; poli- 
 tical status of, since 1914, 468-74; at 
 the Peace Conference, 471; present 
 position of, 472. 
 
 Dongan, Governor, 80. 
 
 Dorchester, Lord, see Carleton, Sir Guy. 
 
 Dost Mohammed, 201. 
 
 Dover, Treaty of, 74. 
 
 Drake, Sir Francis, 30-32. 
 
 Dual Control in Egypt, 347. 
 
 Dufferin, Lord, Viceroy of Indi; , 305. 
 
 Duncan, Admiral, 149. 
 
 Dunedin, settlement of, 255. 
 
 Dupleix, Joseph, French leader in India, 
 92, 180 n. 
 
 Duquesne, Fort, 87. 
 
 Duquesne : Marquis, 87. 
 
 Durand Agreement, regarding Afghanis- 
 tan, 306. 
 
 Durban, settlement of, 277. 
 
 Durham Commission, to Canada, 225- 
 27. 
 
 Durham, Lord, sent to Canada, 225; 
 founds colonization society, 254; 
 death of, 227. 
 
 Dutch, trade of, with the East, 60; early 
 explorations of, in the East, 236; in- 
 terest of, in South Africa, 260 ; forma- 
 tion of colonial empire of, 321; and 
 Malacca, 327. 
 
 Dutch Guiana, grant of part of, to Great 
 Britain, 158. 
 
 Dutch War, the first, 67; the second, 68. 
 
 Dutch West India Company, 45, 66. 
 
 Dutt, Romesh, Indian political leader, 
 312. 
 
 Dyer, General, 462. 
 
 East, the Far, see the Indies. 
 
 East India Company, Dutch, employs 
 Hudson, 47; founded, 59; use of South 
 Africa by, 260; decline of, 264. 
 
 East India Company, English, founding 
 of, 13; interest of, in northwest pas- 
 sage, 46 n ; early years of, 62-66 ; charter 
 of, 61-62 ; early voyages for, 63 ; addi- 
 tional charter of 1693 for, 111; exten- 
 sion of its privileges in 1 733 , 1 1 1 ; Regu- 
 lation Act of 1768, 112; Lord North's 
 Regulation Act, 112, 124, 182-83; 
 Fox's India Bill, 112, 185; Pitt's India 
 Act, 112, 185; financial corruption in, 
 180; finances of, in 1805, 190; revision 
 of charter of, in 1833, 198-99; aboli- 
 tion of, 210, 302; grant of Bombay to, 
 340; acquires Ormuz, 339; and the 
 China trade, 328, 334; interest of, in 
 Borneo, 331; obtains St. Helena, 323. 
 
 East India Company, French, founding 
 of, 78. 
 
 Easter Rebellion, in Ireland, 466. 
 
 Eastern Townships, Loyalists in, 220. 
 
 Edinburgh Review, quoted, 164. 
 
 Education, in India, 198, 317-18; in 
 Canada, 413. 
 
 Edward I, 5, 7. 
 
 Edward II, 5. 
 
 Edward III, 6-7. 
 
 Edward VI, 25. 
 
 Edward VII, 312. 
 
 Egbert, King of Wessex, 3. 
 
 Egypt, conquest of, by Turks, 17; begin- 
 ning of British interest in, 287; British 
 occupation of, 344-49; Anglo-British 
 Dual Control of, 347; British accom- 
 
INDEX 
 
 Xlll 
 
 plishments in, 348-49; finances of, 
 349; population of, 353; declaration of 
 British protectorate over, 354; army 
 of, 354; government of, in 1913, 354; 
 value of, to Great Britain, 356; during 
 World War, 441; unrest in, since 1918, 
 464-65; independence of, 441, 465. 
 
 Elgin, Lord, Governor of Canada, 228- 
 29; Viceroy of India, 302. 
 
 Elizabeth, Queen, plantation of Ireland 
 under, 6; foreign difficulties of, 26; 
 and Mary, Queen of Scots, 26-27. 
 
 Ellenborough, Lord, Governor-General 
 of India, 203. 
 
 Ellice Islands, 399. 
 
 Elphinstone, Admiral, 266. 
 
 Emancipists, 240. 
 
 Emigration, during Stuart period, 37; to 
 Massachusetts, 43; resulting from In- 
 dustrial Revolution, 144; advocacy of, 
 167; to Canada, 168-69; to Cape of 
 Good Hope, 168-69; increase of, 168; 
 and Wakefield system, 170-73; and 
 Durham Report, 227. See also Immi- 
 gration. 
 
 Encounter Bay, 241. 
 
 Enumerated articles in the Navigation 
 Acts, 106, 107. 
 
 Eritrea, Italian occupation of, 294. 
 
 Eyre, Edward John, Australian explorer, 
 387. 
 
 Factories (trading posts), Portuguese, 
 19; English, 63-66; French, in India, 
 78-79. 
 
 Factory system, development of, 143. 
 
 Fairs, of Winchester, 12; of Stourbridge, 
 12; in Spanish colonies, 28. 
 
 Family Compact, Second, between 
 France and Spain, 84. 
 
 Family Compact, government of, in 
 Canada, 224-25. 
 
 Famines in India, 316. 
 
 Fanning Island, 398. 
 
 Farming, see Agriculture. 
 
 Fashoda Incident, 296, 352-53. 
 
 Fawkner, pioneer to Victoria, 244. 
 
 Federal Convention, in Australia, 393; in 
 Canada, 231. 
 
 Federal Council of Australia, 393. 
 
 Federated Malay States, 331. 
 
 Federation, imperial, advocated, 287; in- 
 terest in, 443 ; of Australia, 392-93 ; in 
 South Africa, 372. See also Confedera- 
 tion. 
 
 Fellaheen, treatment of Egyptian, 348- 
 49. 
 
 Fenians, 421. 
 
 Ferry, Jules, French statesman, 289. 
 
 Fiji Islands, annexation of, 397, resi- 
 dence of High Commissioner, 399; 
 government of, 439. 
 
 Fish River, 263. 
 
 Fisheries, of Newfoundland, 46, 423-25; 
 and Americans, 127; of Canada, 420; 
 fur seal, in Bering Sea, 421. 
 
 Flanders, emigration of workmen of, to 
 England, 4, 12; English commercial in- 
 terest in, 12. 
 
 Fleming, Sir Sandford, 405. 
 
 Flinders, explorer in Australasia, 238, 
 241. 
 
 Florida, discovery of, 23; ceded to Spain, 
 127. 
 
 Foreign policy, relation of colonies to, 
 442. 
 
 Forster, Wm. E., advocate of imperial 
 federation, 287; and Imperial Federa- 
 tion League, 443. 
 
 Fort Frontenac, 87. 
 
 Fort Garry, 406. 
 
 Fort Manhattan, see New Amsterdam. 
 
 Fort Orange, see Albany. 
 
 Fort St. George, see Madras. 
 
 Fort William, see Calcutta. 
 
 Fox, C. J., India Bill of, 112, 185. 
 
 Fox, "Northwest," explorer, 47. 
 
 France, rivalry of, with England, 75; 
 joins American colonies, 125; trade 
 with, after American Revolution, 134; 
 growth of new colonial empire of, 289; 
 treaty rights of, in Newfoundland, 
 423, 425. 
 
 France, lie de, see Mauritius. 
 
 Franklin, Benjamin, in Canada, 217. 
 
 Franklin, Sir John, Governor of Tas- 
 mania, 244. 
 
 Freetown, Sierra Leone, 454 n. 
 
 Free trade, grant of, to Ireland in 1780, 
 128; influence of Adam Smith for, 132- 
 33; growing interest in, 283. 
 
 Fremantle, founding of, 246. 
 
 French, interest of, in Newfoundland, 
 46; establishment of colonial empire, 
 76-79. 
 
 French-Canadians, rebellion of, 223-24; 
 position of, in Canada, 414. 
 
 French Revolution, 75, 147, 264. 
 
 Frere, Sir Bartle, 288, 303, 360. 
 
 Friendly Islands, see Tonga Islands. 
 
 Frontenac, Count, 80. 
 
 Froude, J. A., 287, 360. 
 
 Fuad I, King of Egypt, 465. 
 
 Fuca's Straits, boundary dispute of, 
 419. 
 
 Gaekwar of Baroda, Maratha chieftain, 
 189. 
 
 Gait, Sir A. T., member of Quebec Con- 
 vention, 231; in first cabinet of the 
 Dominion, 404. 
 
 Gambia, English stations at, 70, 454 n; 
 acquisition of, 429; expansion of, 432. 
 
 Gamtoos River, 263. 
 
XIV 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Gandhi, M. K., advocate of non-coopera- 
 tion in India, 463; arrest of, 463. 
 
 Gawler, Governor, of South Australia, 248. 
 
 Geelong, founding of, 244. 
 
 General (East India) Company, organ- 
 ized, 111. 
 
 George III, royal policy of, 121. 
 
 George, Lloyd, creates War Cabinet, 
 469; calls Dominions into Conference, 
 469; proposes constitutional confer- 
 ence, 469-70. 
 
 Georgia, settlement of, 69. 
 
 German Colonization Society, 293. 
 
 German East Africa, 294. 
 
 Germany, rise of colonial empire of, 292- 
 94. 
 
 Ghazni, gates at, 203. 
 
 Gibraltar, capture of, 81, 342; French at- 
 tempts to recapture, 82; government 
 of, 343, 440. 
 
 Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, and Newfound- 
 land, 32, 428; Discourse of a Discovery 
 for a New Passage to Cataia, 46. 
 
 Gilbert, Ralegh, member of Virginia 
 Company, 38; attempted colonization 
 of Maine by, 42. 
 
 Gilbert Islands, 399. 
 
 Gilds, craft, origin of, 11; in London, 11; 
 decline of, in England, 11; merchant, 
 10. 
 
 Gladstone, W. E., on government of Can- 
 ada, 222; and free trade, 283; mission 
 of, to Ionian Islands, 342; relation of, 
 to disaster at Khartum, 351; Great 
 Ministry of, 359; attack of, on Dis- 
 raeli's imperialism, 361. 
 
 Glenelg, Lord, opposed to South African 
 expansion, 268; characterized, 268 n. 
 
 Goa, a Portuguese outpost, 19; Thomas 
 Stevens at, 61. 
 
 Gokhale, G. K., Indian political leader, 
 311. 
 
 Gold, search for, in Virginia, 39; discov- 
 ery of, in Transvaal, 367; in Western 
 Australia, 388. 
 
 Gold Coast, the, English stations on, 70, 
 429; expansion of, 432, 454 and n. 
 
 Gold Rush, the, to Australia, 250-52. 
 
 Good Hope, Cape of, see Cape of Good 
 Hope. 
 
 "Good Parliament," 7. 
 
 Gordon, General Charles (Chinese) , Gov- 
 ernor of the Sudan, 350; death of, 351. 
 
 Gordon, Sir J. W., quoted on colonial ex- 
 pense, 161. 
 
 Goree, capture of, by British, 88; re- 
 turned to France, 127. 
 
 Gorst, Sir Eldon, Egyptian administra- 
 tor, 355. 
 
 Gough, General, 205. 
 
 Graaf Reinet, settlement of, 263; insur- 
 rection in, 264, 
 
 Grant, Charles, see Glenelg, Lord. 
 
 Grasse, Comte de, French admiral, 126- 
 27. 
 
 Grattan, Henry, 86, 128. 
 
 Gray, Judge, of New Brunswick, 231. 
 
 Greased cartridges, 209. 
 
 Great Banda Island, see Banda Islands. 
 
 Great Britain, government of, 433-34. 
 
 Greene, General, in American Revolu- 
 tion, 126. 
 
 Grenada, capture of, by British, 88. 
 
 Grey, third Earl, interest in Wakefield 
 system, 172, 285; elected by Victoria to 
 the Sydney Council, 245; unwilling to 
 annex Orange Free State, 273. 
 
 Grey, Sir George, explorer in Australia, 
 248; Governor of South Australia, 
 248-49 ; first governorship of New Zea- 
 land, 256-57; quoted on character of 
 Maoris, 253 ; on government of Trans- 
 vaal, 274; Governor of Cape Colony, 
 275; advocate of South African federa- 
 tion, 276 ; second governorship in New 
 Zealand, 3 28; j upholds provincial sys- 
 tem in New Zealand, 379; and New 
 Zealand Public Works Policy, 380. 
 
 Griffith, Arthur, Irish leader, 468. 
 
 Griqualand West, annexed to Cape Col- 
 ony, 276, 359. 
 
 Griquas, assisted by British, 271. 
 
 Guadeloupe, becomes French, 78; cap- 
 ture of, by British, 88; returned to 
 France, 96; naval battle off, 127; cap- 
 ture of, by British (1794), 156. 
 
 Guernsey, Isle of, 435. 
 
 Guiana, capture of Dutch, 156. 
 
 Guilds, see Gilds. 
 
 Guinea Company, 13, 29. 
 
 Gujerat, 189. 
 
 Gujerat (Punjab), battle of, 205. 
 
 Gurkhas, suppression of, 190. 
 
 Haarlem, wreck of, 260. 
 
 Habibullah Khan, 306. 
 
 Haidar Ali, of Mysore, 184. 
 
 Haidarabad, Nizam of, influence of Du- 
 pleix over, 93 ; power of, in Deccan, 178. 
 
 Hakluyt, Richard, writings of, 30-31, 33; 
 member of Virginia Company, 38; 
 advocates retention of Newfoundland, 
 45-46. 
 
 Haldimand, General, Governor of Can- 
 ada, 218. 
 
 Halifax, foundation of, 87. 
 
 Harburn, William, 13. 
 
 Hardinge, Lord, Governor-General of 
 India, 203-04; political unrest during 
 administration of, 311. 
 
 Hargraves, E. H., discovers gold in Aus- 
 tralia, 250. 
 
 Hargreaves, James, inventor of spinning 
 jenny, 137. 
 
INDEX 
 
 xv 
 
 Harris, Dionysius, at Candia, 14. 
 
 Hastings, Marquess of, Governor-Gen- 
 eral of India, 190. 
 
 Hastings, Warren, Governor of Bengal, 
 182; charges against, 184; trial and ac- 
 quittal of, 185. 
 
 Hat industry, curbing of, in American 
 colonies, 104. 
 
 Havana, capture of, by British, 88. 
 
 Havelock, Sir Henry, relieves Lucknow, 
 210. 
 
 Hawke, Admiral, victory of, off Belle 
 Isle, 85; in Quiberon Bay, 88. 
 
 Hawkins, John, voyages of, 29-31; as- 
 sists in defeat of Armada, 31. 
 
 Hawkins, Capt. William, voyage of, to 
 Surat, 64. 
 
 Head-hunting, 331-32. 
 
 Hejaz, the, 340, 456. 
 
 Heligoland, seized, 154; ceded, 158, 430. 
 
 Henry I, 4. 
 
 Henry II, 3, 5. 
 
 Henry V, 6. 
 
 Henry VII, 6 ; fosters commerce, 14, 20-2 1 . 
 
 Henry VIII, and Wales, 6; "King of Ire- 
 land," 6; and Reformation, 25; foreign 
 policy of, 24-25; navy of, 26. 
 
 Henry the Navigator, 18. 
 
 Henry Grace de Dieu, war vessel of Henry 
 VIII, 26. 
 
 Herat, 201. 
 
 Hertzog, General, of South Africa, 374, 
 459. 
 
 Hicks, Colonel, defeat of, in the Sudan, 
 351. 
 
 High Commissioner, of Western Pacific, 
 397, 399; of the Dominions, 436. 
 
 Hill, John, 81. 
 
 Hill, Sir Rowland, 172. 
 
 Hobson, Capt., Governor of New Zea- 
 land, 254. 
 
 Hoffman, J. P., President of Orange Free 
 State, 273. 
 
 Hofmeyer, J. H, of South Africa, 366. 
 
 Hojeda, Spanish explorer, 23. 
 
 Holkar of Indore, Maratha chieftain, 
 189. 
 
 Holland, maritime interests of, 56-60; 
 recognition of independence of, 60; in- 
 terest of, in West, 66; against Great 
 Britain during American Revolution, 
 125; annexed to Napoleonic Empire, 
 153; and French Revolution, 266. 
 
 Holy Land, see Palestine. 
 
 Home Rule, see Ireland. 
 
 Hong Kong, 317, 334. 
 
 Hormuz, see Ormuz. 
 
 Horton, Wilmot, interest of, in emigra- 
 tion, 168-69; Governor of Ceylon, 169. 
 
 Hottentots, character of, 262; Cape 
 corps of, 267. 
 
 Hovell, Australian explorer, 242. 
 
 Howe, Admiral, 149. 
 
 Howe, Joseph, of Nova Scotia, 231; 
 visits London, 404; in Macdonald min- 
 istry, 405. 
 
 Howick, Lord, see Grey, third Earl. 
 
 Hudson, Henry, 47. 
 
 Hudson's Bay Company, 13; formation 
 of, 47-48; and Lord Selkirk, 167-68; 
 sphere of, 403; territory of, 405; op- 
 posed to settlement of western Canada, 
 407; sale of lands of, to Canada, 408. 
 
 Hughes, W. M., Prime Minister of Aus- 
 tralia, 396, 458, 469; quoted on Anglo- 
 American relations, 473. 
 
 Hugli, establishment of English factory 
 at, 65. 
 
 Hugli River, 179 n. 
 
 Huguenots, migration of, to England, 4; 
 settlement of, in South Africa, 263. 
 
 Humanitarianism, in nineteenth century, 
 growth of, in England, 166, 281 ; in In- 
 dia, 196, 208; in New Zealand, 254, 
 256-57; in South Africa, 268. 
 
 Hume, Australian explorer, 242. 
 
 Hume, Joseph, 225. 
 
 Hundred Years' War, the, 74. 
 
 Hunter, Sir William, quoted, 204. 
 
 Huskisson, William, 283. 
 
 Hussein Kamil, Sultan of Egypt, 355. 
 
 Hutchinson, Anne, 44. 
 
 Hyderabad, see Haidarabad. 
 
 Immigration, to South Africa, 267; en- 
 couragement of, by Australia, 391; by 
 New Zealand, 380; hindrances of 
 Oriental, to Australia, 392; to Canada, 
 416. See also Emigration. 
 
 Imperial British East African Company, 
 441. 
 
 Imperial Conference, of 1921, 472-73. 
 See also Colonial Conferences. 
 
 Imperial Defense, Committee of, 446. 
 
 Imperial Federation League, activity of, 
 443. 
 
 Imperial Service Troops, 306, 310. 
 
 Imperial War Cabinet, first meeting, 
 469-70; second meeting, 470-71. 
 
 Imperial War Conference, 469. 
 
 Imperialism, see New imperialism. 
 
 Impi, native negro regiment, 262. 
 
 Independence, growing feeling for, in 
 America, 119. 
 
 India, beginning of English interest in, 
 63; internal conditions, 88-91; effect of 
 mercantilism on, 102; early adminis- 
 tration of, 111-13; under the Moguls, 
 178-79; social reforms in, during Ben- 
 tinck's administration, 197-98; rail- 
 way development in, 208; postal sys- 
 tem of, 208; the Mutiny, 208-10; reor- 
 ganized government of, 210; foreign 
 policy of British in, since 1857, 301-08; 
 
XVI 
 
 INDEX 
 
 importance of, 301 ; northwest frontier 
 of, 304; population of, 308; present 
 government of, 309, 313; native states 
 of, 309-10; unrest in, 310-14; govern- 
 mental reforms of 1909, 312; govern- 
 mental reforms of 1919, 313; life of the 
 people, 314-19; financial condition of, 
 315; industry in, 316-17; education in, 
 317-18; importance of, in British 
 foreign policy, 320-22; political rela- 
 tion of Persian Gulf to, 340; recent 
 political conditions, 437, 461-63, 469. 
 
 India Office, 437. 
 
 Indian Civil Service, 317. 
 
 Indian Councils Act of 1909, 312. 
 
 Indian National Congress, 310. 
 
 Indians, American, 19, 76, 79, 80, 220. 
 
 Indies, early European interest in the, 14- 
 19. 
 
 Indore, Holkar of, Maratha chieftain, 
 189. 
 
 Industrial legislation, see Labor legisla- 
 tion. 
 
 Industrial Revolution, 131-45; effect of, 
 135-36; causes for rise of, 136; conse- 
 quences of, to British Empire, 142-45; 
 and free trade, 283; in India, 316-17. 
 
 Infanticide, in India, suppression of, 197. 
 
 Intercolonial Railway, agreement con- 
 cerning, 403; completion of, 405. 
 
 Intercursus Magnus, 14. 
 
 International African Association, 291. 
 
 Intolerable Acts, of 1774, 124. 
 
 Inventions, of Industrial Revolution, 
 136-^2. 
 
 Ionian Islands, become British, 158, 341 ; 
 mission of Gladstone to, 342; cession 
 of, to Greece, 342. 
 
 Iraq, see Mesopotamia. 
 
 Ireland, conquest of, 6; effect of mercan- 
 tile system on, 105; legislative inde- 
 pendence of, 128 n, 434; effect of Amer- 
 ican Revolution on, 128; emigration 
 from, assisted, 168-69; movement for 
 Home Rule in, 434; since 1914, 465- 
 68; Treaty with Great Britain, 467. 
 
 Iron industry, curbing of, in American 
 colonies, 104; in Ireland, 105; stimulus 
 to, of Industrial Revolution, 139; in- 
 creased output in, 140; growth of, 142. 
 
 Iroquois, the, 76, 79-80. 
 
 Ismail, sale of Canal shares of, 338; de- 
 position of, 346-47. 
 
 Italy, rise of colonial empire of, 294. 
 
 Jagir, granted to Clive, 180. 
 Jahangir, Mogul Emperor, 91. 
 Jalalabad, retreat of British from Kabul 
 
 to, 202-03. 
 Jamaica, capture of, 51; government of, 
 
 439 and n. 
 James I, 5-6, 35. 
 
 James II, 36; and colonial administra- 
 tion* 109. 
 
 James VI of Scotland, see James I. 
 
 Jameson Raid, 369. 
 
 Jamestown, settlement of, 1, 38-40. 
 
 Japan, trade of, with West, 60. 
 
 Java, center of Dutch colonial empire, 
 59; British conquest of,. 157, 328. 
 
 Jenkins' Ear, War of, see Austrian Suc- 
 cession, War of. 
 
 Jenkins, Robert, 84. 
 
 Jenkinson, Anthony, commercial activity 
 of, 29 n. 
 
 Jersey, Isle of, 435. 
 
 Jesuits, 27; in New France, 76; Estates 
 of, in Canada, 414. 
 
 Jesus, flagship of Hawkins, 30. 
 
 Johannesburg, founding of, 367. 
 
 John, King, 5, 7. 
 
 Johnston, Sir Harry, quoted, 268 n. 
 
 Judd, Sir Andrew, 62. 
 
 Kabul, Russian envoy in, 202; British 
 capture of, 203 ; murder of British resi- 
 dent in, 305. 
 
 Kaffraria, British, 276. 
 
 Kafirs, a Bantu tribe, 263 ; first and sec- 
 ond wars with, 264; fifth and sixth 
 wars with, 267-68; sympathy of Lord 
 Glenelg for, 268; seventh war with, 
 276; famine among, 276 n. 
 
 Kaiser, the, see William II. 
 
 Kalgoorlie, Australian go'd field, 388. 
 
 Kalm, Travels into North America, 116. 
 
 Kamerun, see Cameroons. 
 
 Kandahar, 201. 
 
 Kay, John, inventor of the fly-shuttle, 
 137. 
 
 Kei River, 268. 
 
 Keiskamma River, 268. 
 
 Kempenfelt, Admiral, 126. 
 
 Kenya Colony and Protectorate, 455. 
 
 Khalifate, in the Sudan, 352; in India, 
 462. 
 
 Khartum, death of Gordon at, 351; re- 
 covery of, 352. 
 
 Khyber Pass, 201. 
 
 Kidd, Capt., buccaneer, 54. 
 
 K-'mberley, diamonds discovered at, 
 359; relief of, 371. 
 
 King Movement, in New Zealand, 377. 
 
 King William's War, 74, 79-80. 
 
 King, W. L. M., Canadian Prime Minis- 
 ter, 417. 
 
 Kingston, settlement of Loyalists 
 around, 220. 
 
 Kipling, Rudyard, 288 and n., 299. 
 
 Kitchener, Lord, Sirdar of Egyptian 
 army, 352; at Fashoda, 352; adminis- 
 trator of Egypt, 355; in South African 
 War, 371. 
 
 Kodok, see Fashoda. 
 
INDEX 
 
 xvii 
 
 Kolobeng, 274. 
 
 Kordofan, 350. 
 
 Kowloon, cession of, 334 n., 335. 
 
 Kruger, Paul, in Great Trek, 271; lead- 
 ership in Transvaal, 273, 361; in South 
 African War, 367-70. 
 
 Kuria Muria Islands, 339. 
 
 Labor legislation, in New Zealand, 382; 
 in Australia, 391. 
 
 Labor Party, in Australia, 396, 458. 
 
 La Bourdonnais, 93-94, 324. 
 
 Laccadive Islands, 308, 325. 
 
 Lachine Rapids, 76. 
 
 Ladysmith, relief of, 371. 
 
 Lafontame, L. H., 228. 
 
 Lagos, 88, 454 n. 
 
 La Hogue, naval victory of, 81. 
 
 Lahore, Sikh capital, 204. 
 
 Laing's Nek, battle of, 362. 
 
 Laisser-faire, see Free trade. 
 
 Lajpat Rai, Indian political agitator, 
 311; arrest of, 463. 
 
 Lally, Count, French leader in India, 
 94. 
 
 Lancashire, and India, 317; and Egypt, 
 353. 
 
 Lancaster, Capt., 61-62. 
 
 Land for Settlements Act, in New Zea- 
 land, 381. 
 
 Land policy, of Wakefield scheme, 170; in 
 Australia, 173, 391 ; of South Australia, 
 248; in New Zealand, 381. 
 
 Land and Emigration Board, 173. 
 
 Land, "purchase" of, from Maoris, 255. 
 
 Land settlement in India, 186. 
 
 Lane, Ralph, 40. 
 
 La Perouse, French explorer, 241 and n. 
 
 Laurier, Sir Wilfrid, at Colonial Confer- 
 ence of 1897, 298; policy of Liberals 
 under, 411-12; not an imperialist, 415; 
 and World War, 458-59; death of, 
 415 n. 
 
 Lawrence, Sir Henry, 204; death of, at 
 Lucknow, 210. 
 
 Lawrence, John, Governor of Punjab, 
 210; Viceroy of India, 303- 
 
 League of Augsburg, War of, see King 
 William's War. 
 
 League of Nations, 452 and n. 
 
 Le Canadien, 222. 
 
 Leeuwin, Cape, 236. 
 
 Leeward Islands, government of, 439. 
 
 Leichhardt, Ludwig, 387. 
 
 Leopold II, of Belgium, 291. 
 
 Lesser Antilles, see West Indies. 
 
 Levant Company, see Turkey or Levant 
 Company. 
 
 Lexington, battle of, 125. 
 
 Libya, see Tripoli. 
 
 Light, Col., in South Australia; 248. 
 
 Livingstone, town of, 364. 
 
 Livingstone : David, missionary activity 
 of, 274; explorations of, 290, 363. 
 
 Lobengula, Matabele chieftain, 365. 
 
 Locomotive, see Steam engine. 
 
 London Company, establishment, of 38; 
 dissolved, 41. 
 
 London Convention of 1884 (Transvaal), 
 362. 
 
 London Missionary Society, and the 
 Boers, 271, 274, 282 n.; in southern 
 Pacific, 397. 
 
 Long Parliament, 36. 
 
 Louis XIV, 75. 
 
 Louisburg, capture of, 85; restoration of, 
 85; destruction of, 87. 
 
 Louisiana, 77. 
 
 Low Countries, see Holland. 
 
 Lower Canada, 221, 232. See also, Que- 
 bec. 
 
 Loyalists, 218-20, 223. 
 
 Lucas, Sir Charles, quoted, 227. 
 
 Lucknow, relief of, 210. 
 
 Luderitz, F. A. L., German colonial mer- 
 chant, 293. 
 
 Lymburner, Adam, Quebec merchant, 
 221. 
 
 Lytton, Lord, Viceroy of India, 305. 
 
 Macao, 334. 
 
 Macarthur, John, 242. 
 
 Macaulay, Lord, on education in India, 
 198; and the cod'fication of Indian law, 
 199. 
 
 McCulloch, J. R., quoted on cost of col- 
 onies, 162-63; Statistical Account of the 
 British Empire of, 165. 
 
 McCulloch Ministry, in Victoria, 389-90. 
 
 Macdonald, Sir John A., leader of Ca- 
 nadian Conservatives, 230; member of 
 Quebec Convention, 231 ; quoted on the 
 new colonial system, 232; on future of 
 Canada, 233; Prime Minister of Can- 
 ada, 403-04; on menace of the United 
 States, 407; National Policy of, 409- 
 10; on relation of the United States 
 and Canada, 422; death of, 411. 
 
 McDougall, William, of Ontario, 231. 
 
 Mackenzie, Alexander, Prime Minister 
 of Canada, 409. 
 
 Mackenzie, W. L., leader in Canadian 
 Rebellion, 225. 
 
 Macquarie Harbor, 243. 
 
 Macquarie, Lachlan, Governor of New 
 South Wales, 242. 
 
 Madagascar, 78, 289. 
 
 Madras, 65; capture of, by French, 85; 
 Thomas Pitt, Governor of, 86; capture 
 of, by La Bourdonnais, 93; restored to 
 Great Britain, 93. 
 
 Madraspatam, see Madras. 
 
 Maf eking, 369, 371. 
 
 Magellan, 23-24. 
 
xvm 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Magna Charta, 7. 
 
 Mahan, Admiral, quoted, 83. 
 
 Mahdi, revolt of, 350. 
 
 Maine, attempted settlement of, 42; set- 
 tlement of, 45; boundary controversy, 
 418-19. 
 
 Maitland, Sir Peregrine, Governor of 
 Cape Colony, 271. 
 
 Majuba Hill, battle of, 362. 
 
 Malacca, Portuguese capture of, 19, 56; 
 Dutch capture of, 60; British acquisi- 
 tion of, 327; importance of, 320, 327. 
 
 Malaga, naval battle off, 81. 
 
 Malay States, Federated, 432, 440. 
 
 Malaysia, British interest in, 327-31. 
 
 Maldive Islands, 325. 
 
 Malta, acquisition of, 157, 158, 343; gov- 
 ernment of, 439-40. 
 
 Malthus, on population, 166-67. 
 
 Man, Isle of, 435. 
 
 Mandates, grant of, after World War, 
 452 and n. 
 
 Manitoba, Lord Selkirk's colonists in, 
 168; organization of province of, 408; 
 rebellion of metis in, 408; educational 
 question in, 413. 
 
 Maoris, character of, 253 ; treaty of, with 
 British, 254; "purchase" of lands from, 
 255; status of, 376, 378; loyalty of, dur- 
 ing World War, 457. 
 
 Marathas, rise of, 91; power of, 179; first 
 war with, 183; second war with, 188- 
 89; third war with, 191. 
 
 Marie Galante, capture of, 88. 
 
 Maritime Provinces, see New Brunswick, 
 Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island. 
 
 Maritz, rebel leader in South Africa, 460. 
 
 Martinique, becomes French, 78; cap- 
 tured by British, 88; restored, 96; re- 
 captured, 156. 
 
 Mary, Queen of Scots, 26-27. 
 
 Maryland, grant of, to George Calvert, 69. 
 
 Maseres, Baron, quoted on Quebec, 213. 
 
 Massachusetts, settlement of, 42-45; 
 loses charter, 109 ; new charter partially 
 revoked, 124. 
 
 Massey, W. F., Prime Minister of New 
 Zealand, 457. 
 
 Masulipatam, English agency at, 65; 
 French factory at, 78. 
 
 Matabele, a Bantu tribe, 263 ; driven from 
 Transvaal, 271-72; British agreement 
 with, 365. 
 
 Matabeleland, see Rhodesia. 
 
 Mauritius, acquired by French, 78; cap- 
 tured by British, 157-58, 323-24; gov- 
 ernment of, 439. 
 
 Mayflower, the, 42. 
 
 Mayflower Compact, the, 42-43 and n. 
 
 Mayo, Lord, Viceroy of India, 303. 
 
 Mediterranean, Great Britain and the, 
 340-44. 
 
 Mehemet Ali, Egyptian ruler, 344-46. 
 
 Melbourne, founding of, 244. 
 
 Mercantilism, in British colonial system, 
 99-105; influence of, on India, 102; ef- 
 fect of, on Ireland, 105; breakdown of, 
 133-34. 
 
 Mercers Company, 29 n. 
 
 Merchant Adventurers, rise of, 13-14, 20. 
 
 Merchant gilds, see Gilds, merchant. 
 
 Merchants' Petition, of 1820, 283. 
 
 Merchants of the Staple, 12. 
 
 Mesopotamia, mandate of, to Great Bri- 
 tain, 456. 
 
 Methuen Treaty, with Portugal, 99. 
 
 Metis, 407, 408, 410. 
 
 Milan Decree of Napoleon, 153. 
 
 Mill, J. S., advocate of systematic coloni- 
 zation, 172; defends East India Com- 
 pany, 210. 
 
 Milner, Sir Alfred, High Commissioner 
 of South Africa, 370, 372. 
 
 Milner Commission, report of, on Egypt, 
 464. 
 
 Minorca, becomes British, 82; captured 
 by French, 87; returned to Great Bri- 
 tain, 96; recaptured, 126; relinquished 
 to Spain, 127, 157, 341 and n. 
 
 Minto, Lord, Viceroy of India, 311. 
 
 Mir Jafar, Nawab of Bengal, 95, 180. 
 
 Missionary activity, in New Zealand, 
 253; importance of, 282 and n.; in 
 South Africa, 363-64. 
 
 Missionary societies, influence of, 269. 
 
 Mitchell, Sir Thomas, 387. 
 
 Mocha, trade of Dutch with, 60. 
 
 Model Parliament of 1295, 7. 
 
 Modyford, Governor of Jamaica, 53. 
 
 Moffat, Robert, 364. 
 
 Mogul Empire, court of, at Agra, 64 ; es- 
 tablishment of, 90, 178; decline of, 91. 
 
 Mohammedanism, in India, 90; in Egypt, 
 355. 
 
 Moira, Lord, see Hastings, Marquess of. 
 
 Molasses Act of 1733, 107; renewal of, 
 122. 
 
 Molesworth, advocate of systematic col- 
 onization, 172; friend of Lord Durham, 
 226. 
 
 Molson, John, 233. 
 
 Molucca Islands, See Spice Islands. 
 
 Monck, Lord, Governor of Canada, 231. 
 
 Monroe Doctrine, inception of, 156. 
 
 Montagu-Chelmsford reforms, cf Indian 
 government, 313. 
 
 Montcalm, General, 88. . 
 
 Montesquieu, on loss of British Colonies, 
 116. 
 
 Montfort, Simon de, 7. 
 
 Montgomery, General, invades Canada, 
 217. 
 
 Montreal, visited by Cartier, 76; cap- 
 tured by British, 88; captured by 
 
INDEX 
 
 xix 
 
 Americans, 217; Parliament build- 
 ings burned in, 229; growth of, 233. 
 
 Montserrat, settlement of, 50; captured 
 by French, 126. 
 
 Morgan, Henry, buccaneer, 53. 
 
 Morley, Lord, quoted on Indian prob- 
 lems, 301; Secretary of State for In- 
 dia, 312; moves address to ratify Irish 
 Treaty, 468. 
 
 Morley-Minto reforms for India, 312. 
 
 Morocco, 289, 296. 
 
 Morocco Company, 29. 
 
 Moshesh, native leader in Basutoland, 
 276. 
 
 Mosul, 15. 
 
 Mountstephen, Lord, and the Canadian 
 Pacific, 410. 
 
 Mun, Thomas, England's Treasure by 
 Foreign Trade, cited, 100. 
 
 Murray, Gen., Governor of Canada, 212. 
 
 Murshidabad, 95. 
 
 Muscovy Company, see Russian or Mus- 
 covy Company. 
 
 Mutiny, Indian, 208-10. 
 
 Mysore, location of, 178; first war with, 
 184; second war with, 187; third war 
 with, 188; return of, to Maharaja, 
 304. 
 
 Nachtigal, Dr., German colonial agent, 
 293. 
 
 Nadir Shah, 178-79. 
 
 Nagpur, annexation of, 206. 
 
 Nana Sahib, 208-09. 
 
 Nandkumar, trial of, 184. 
 
 Nanking, Treaty of, 334. 
 
 Napier, Sir Charles, 203. 
 
 Napoleon, rise of, 148; establishes con- 
 tinental system, 151, 153. 
 
 Natal, named, 18, 260; attempt of trek- 
 kers to settle in, 271 ; colony of, 277; be- 
 comes self-governing, 277. 
 
 National African Company, 441. 
 
 National Colonization Society, 172. 
 
 National Policy of Canadian Conserva- 
 tives, 409-10. 
 
 Nationalism, principle of shown in ces- 
 sion of Ionian Islands, 342 ; growth of, 
 in Egypt, 347; growth of, in Cape 
 Colony, 363. See also, Unrest, politi- 
 cal. 
 
 Nationalist Party, in Australia, 458. 
 
 Nauru, mandate of, 453-54. 
 
 Naval Defense Agreement, Australasian, 
 444. 
 
 Navigation Act, of 1651, 67; First, of 
 1660, 106; Second, of 1663, 106; Third, 
 of 1672, 106; of 1696, 106-07. 
 
 Navigation, growth of British, 141. 
 
 Navigation laws, repeal of, 229, 283. 
 
 Navy, under Henry VIII, 26; during 
 Stuart rule, 37; power of, in 1713, 83- 
 
 84; during Napoleonic Wars, 149-50, 
 155; supremacy of, 429. 
 
 Nelson, Admiral, in Battle of Cape St. 
 Vincent, 149 ; in the Battle of the Nile, 
 149; at Trafalgar, 150. 
 
 Nelson, Dr. Wolfred, in Canadian Re- 
 bellion, 224. 
 
 Nepal, relation of, to British India, 308; 
 442. 
 
 Netherlands, see Holland. 
 
 Nevis, settlement of, 50, 52 ; captured by 
 French, 126. 
 
 New Amsterdam, 67-68. 
 
 New Brunswick, acquired, 86; set apart 
 for Loyalists, 219; Thomas Carleton, 
 Governor of, 219. 
 
 New Caledonia, 398. 
 
 Newcastle, founding of, 241. 
 
 New England, settlement of, 42-45; 
 value of, 103-04. 
 
 Newfoundland, attempt at colonization 
 of, 32 ; acquisition of, 45-46, 422 ; and 
 George Calvert, 69; France relin- 
 quishes claim to, 82; fishing rights 
 granted to Americans, 127; stays out 
 of the Dominion of Canada, 232; 
 granted self-government, 285, '24; 
 fishing controversies of, with French, 
 424-25; with the United States, 425; 
 railways built in, 425-26; distinctive- 
 ness of, 426; share of, in World War, 
 451. 
 
 New Guinea, German, 293; division of, 
 297; Australian desire for, 398; Ger- 
 man, as mandate, 453. 
 
 New Guinea, British, see Papua. 
 
 New Hampshire, settlement of, 45. 
 
 New Hebrides, 398. 
 
 New Holland, 238. 
 
 New Imperialism, rise of, 287; stimulus 
 to, from rivalry, 288; results of, in 
 British Empire, 295-99; in South 
 Africa, 363-67; summarized, 431-33. 
 
 New Jersey, settlement of, 69. 
 
 New Netherland, 45. 
 
 New Plymouth, New Zealand, 377-78. 
 
 Newport, Captain, in Virginia, 39. 
 
 New South Wales, founding of, 239-43; 
 gold discovered in, 250; grant of self- 
 government to, 285, 385; opposed to 
 Federal Council, 393; federal consti- 
 tution accepted by, 394. 
 
 New York, 109, 123. See also New Am- 
 sterdam. 
 
 New Zealand, physical character of, 252- 
 53; visited by Tasman, 238; visited by 
 Captain Cook, 238; colonization of, 
 under Wakefield scheme, 173; early 
 history of, 252-57; aborigines of, 253; 
 acquired by Great Britain, 254; state 
 of, in 1851, 257; constitution granted 
 to, 257; acquires self-government, 285; 
 
XX 
 
 INDEX 
 
 and the Maoris, 376-78 ; unification of, 
 379; state socialism in, 380-83; consti- 
 tutional advance since 1876, 381 ; be- 
 comes a Dominion, 383; represented at 
 Federal Convention in Sydney, 393; 
 and Pacific Islands, 397-99; desire of, 
 for changes in Colonial Conferences, 
 445 ; conquest of Samoa by, 450 ; share 
 of, in World War, 450; politics of, dur- 
 ing World War, 457. 
 
 New Zealand Association, 254. 
 
 New Zealand Land Company, founded, 
 173; opposed by Wakefield, 255; dis- 
 solved, 256. 
 
 Niagara, 88. 
 
 Nicobar Islands, 308, 327. 
 
 Nicolet, Jean, 77 and n. 
 
 Nigeria, acquired, 296, 441; British in- 
 terest in, 432 ; addition to, by mandate, 
 454; consolidation of, 454 n. 
 
 Nile, battle of the, 149 ; irrigation of val- 
 ley of, 349. 
 
 Non-cooperative movement, in India, 
 463. 
 
 Norfolk Island, 240. 
 
 North, Lord, Regulating Act for India 
 of, 112, 182-83; Prime Minister, 124. 
 
 North Borneo, government of, 333, 441. 
 
 Northbrook, Lord, Viceroy of India, 
 304-05. 
 
 Northern Territory, Australia, 388-89. 
 
 Northwest frontier, of India, 200-05; 
 safety of, 303; formation of buffer 
 province for, 306. 
 
 Northwest Fur Company, 168, 407. 
 
 Northwest passage, search for the, 14, 
 28-29, 46-48; Company of the, 47. 
 
 Norwich, 12. 
 
 Nova Scotia, divided, 219; federation 
 movement in, 231; upper house in, 
 403 ; hesitancy of, in entering confeder- 
 ation, 404. See also Acadia. 
 
 Nuncomar, see Nandkumar. 
 
 Nyasa, Lake, discovered, 364. 
 
 Nyasaland, 432, 440. 
 
 Old colonial system, aims of, 70-73; de- 
 velopment of, after Restoration, 72; 
 lack of system in, 98; character of, 98- 
 113; before American Revolution, 108- 
 10; "tightening" policy after 1763, 
 121-25; effect of American Revolution 
 on, 127-29; attacked by Adam Smith, 
 132-33; summarized, 428-31. 
 
 Old Providence Island, 52. 
 
 Oman, 340, 442. 
 
 Omdurman, battle of, 352. 
 
 Ontario, population of, in 1867, 233. 
 
 Opium, manufacture of, 317; War, 317, 
 334. 
 
 Orange Free State, trek to, 271; an- 
 nexed by Great Britain in 1848, 271; 
 
 independence granted to, 273; popula- 
 tion of, in 1870, 277; loss of Griqua- 
 land by, 359; annexed by Great Bri- 
 tain, in 1900, 371. 
 
 Orders-in-Council, against Napoleon, 
 152-54. 
 
 Oregon, boundary dispute as to, 419. 
 
 Ormuz, occupied by Portuguese, 19, 56; 
 acquired by British, 339. 
 
 Osman Digna, 352. 
 
 Otis, James, 122. 
 
 Ottawa, 229 n. 
 
 Ottoman Empire, see Turkish Empire. 
 
 Oudh, independence of, 178; princesses 
 of, 184; annexation of, 206-07. 
 
 Outram, relief expedition of, 210. 
 
 Overland telegraph, in Australia, 389. 
 
 Overseas Trade, Department of, 436. 
 
 Pah, Maori fortification, 377 n. 
 
 Palestine, mandate of, to Great Britain, 
 456; value of, 457. 
 
 Papineau, leader in Canadian Rebellion, 
 223-24. 
 
 Papua, acquired, 398; government of, 
 453. 
 
 Paris, Peace of, 96. 
 
 Parkes, Henry, of Australia, 392-93. 
 
 Parliament of York, 7. 
 
 Parnell, Sir Henry, quoted on cost of col- 
 onies, 162; advocates relinquishing 
 certain colonies, 164. 
 
 Patteson, Bishop John C, 397. 
 
 Pauperism, 166. 
 
 Peel, Thomas, 246. 
 
 Pelican, flagship of Drake, 31-32. 
 
 Penang, British acquisition of, 328, 430. 
 
 Penjdeh, Afghan outpost, 306. 
 
 Penn, Admiral, 51. 
 
 Penn, William, 69. 
 
 Pennsylvania, settlement of, 69. 
 
 Pepper, in mediaeval commerce, 16. 
 
 Peppercorn, vessel of East India Com- 
 pany, 63. 
 
 Pepperell, Col., 85. 
 
 Perim, 338. 
 
 Permanent settlement of Indian revenue, 
 186. 
 
 Permissive Federation Act for South 
 Australia, 360. 
 
 Persia, 290, 3S9, 442. 
 
 Persian Gulf, British interests in, 308. 
 
 Perth, founding of, 246. 
 
 Peshwa, of Marathas, 188; abolition of 
 office of, 191. 
 
 Petition of Right, 36. 
 
 Philadelphia, 124. 
 
 Philip, Dr. John, Researches in South 
 Africa of, 269. 
 
 Philippines, discovered, 23; British con- 
 quest of, 88. 
 
 Philippolis, 363. 
 
INDEX 
 
 xxi 
 
 Phillip, Captain Arthur, 239. 
 
 Phips, Sir William, 80. 
 
 Physiocrats, rise of, 101. 
 
 Pietermaritzburg, founding of, 271. 
 
 Pindaris, suppression of, 190-91. 
 
 Pinzon, Spanish explorer, 23. 
 
 Pitt, Thomas, Governor of Madras, 
 86. 
 
 Pitt, William, the Elder, character and 
 policy of, 86; in charge of foreign af- 
 fairs, 87; attitude of, toward Stamp 
 Act,123; opposed to Quebec Act, 216. 
 
 Pitt, William, the Younger, India Act 
 of, 112, 185; influence of Adam Smith 
 on, 134-35; character and policy of, 
 146 ; attitude of, to French Revolution, 
 147; and Canada Act of 1791, 221. 
 
 Pizarro, Spanish conqueror, 24. 
 
 Plassey, battle of, 180. 
 
 Plymouth, settlement of, 42-43. 
 
 Plymouth Company, 13. 
 
 Pocock, Admiral, 94. 
 
 Pondichery, French factory at, 78; Du- 
 pleix at, 92; captured by British, 94; 
 returned to France, 96. 
 
 Poona, Maratha court at, 183, 188. 
 
 Poor Laws, 166. 
 
 Popham, George, member of Virginia 
 Company, 38; attempted colonization 
 of Maine by, 42. 
 
 Popham, Sir Home, 157. 
 
 Population, of American colonies in 1775, 
 116; growth of Australian, 396; of 
 Victoria, 251; of Barbados, 50-51; of 
 Canada in 1867, 233; of Upper Canada 
 in 1791, 220; of Quebec in 1763, 213; of 
 Cape Colony in 1806, 266; of Great 
 Britain, 144, 166; of South Africa in 
 1870, 277; rapid increase of, in New 
 Zealand, 380. 
 
 Port Arthur, Tasmania, 243. 
 
 Port Jackson, Australia, 238. 
 
 Port Mahon, 82, 341. 
 
 Port Nicholson, New Zealand, 255. 
 
 Port Phillip, settlement of, 244. 
 
 Port Royal, capture of, 81. 
 
 Portugal, early maritime activity of, 17- 
 19, 259; obtains Brazil, 23; formation 
 of colonial empire of, 32 1 ; dominions of, 
 acquired by Spain, 24; commercial 
 activity of, 56. 
 
 Potgieter, Boer leader, 272. 
 
 Prescott, Governor of Canada, 222. 
 
 Pretoria Convention of 1881, 362. 
 
 Pretoria, Treaty of, 371. 
 
 Pretorius, Boer leader, 272. 
 
 Pretorius, Marthinus, President of the 
 Transvaal, 274. 
 
 Prevost, Sir George, 223. 
 
 Prince Edward Island, settled, 167; 
 joins Dominion, 232, 405. 
 
 Prince of Wales, visit of, to India, 463. 
 
 Privy Council, and colonial administra- 
 tion, 110. 
 
 Privy Council, Judicial Committee of, 
 437. 
 
 Protection, growth of, 291. 
 
 Protectorates, British, 440. 
 
 Providence Island Company, 52. 
 
 Provincial system, in New Zealand, 257. 
 
 Public Works Policy, in New Zealand, 
 379. 
 
 Pularoon, grant of, to England, 68. 
 
 Punjab, location and character of, 200; 
 annexation of, 205. 
 
 Purchas, His Pilgrimes, 33. 
 
 Puritan emigration, to New England, 42- 
 44. 
 
 Quakers, settlement of, in America, 69. 
 
 Quartering Act, of 1765, 123; of 1774, 
 124. 
 
 Quarterly Review, quoted, 164, 167, 227. 
 
 Quebec Act of 1774, 124, 214-15. 
 
 Quebec City, site of, visited by Cartier, 
 76; Cham plain at, 76; attacked by Sir 
 Wm. Phips, 80; captured by Wolfe, 88; 
 attack on, by Americans, 217; popula- 
 tion of, in 1763, 233; confederation 
 conference at, 231. 
 
 Quebec Province, annexation of, 212; 
 boundaries of, in 1774, 214-16; govern- 
 ment of, 216; population of, in 1867, 
 233; upper house in, 403; and Jesuits' 
 Estates, 414; anti-imperialism in, 415. 
 
 Queen Anne's War, see Spanish Succes- 
 sion, War of. 
 
 Queensland, 245, 386, 397. 
 
 Quiberon Bay, naval battle of, 88. 
 
 Quinte, Bay of, Loyalist settlement on, 
 220. 
 
 Racial blending, in British Isles, 1-4. 
 
 Radisson, French explorer, 77. 
 
 Raffles, Sir Stamford, British ruler of 
 Java, 328; acquires Singapore, 330. 
 
 Railways, beginning of, in England, 140; 
 in India, 207; of New Zealand, 382; in 
 Canada, 403, 405-10, 417; in New- 
 foundland, 425. 
 
 Rajput kingdoms, rise of, 90. 
 
 Rajputana, independence of, 178. 
 
 Raleigh, Sir Walter, 32. 
 
 Rand, discovery of gold on the, 367. 
 
 Randolph, Edward, 107. 
 
 Ran jit Singh, ruler of Sikhs, 200-01: 
 death of, 204. 
 
 Rawlinson, Sir Henry, 303 ; England and 
 Russia in the East by, 304. 
 
 Raymond, Captain, 61. 
 
 Rebellion Losses Bill, in Canada, 229. 
 
 Reciprocity, between Canada and the 
 United States, 229, 412, 420. 
 
 Red River, settlement on, 168. 
 
XX11 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Reform Party of New Zealand, 457. 
 
 Reform, political, demand for, see Un- 
 rest, political. 
 
 Reid, G. H., Australian statesman, 396. 
 
 Reid, R. G., railway contractor, 425. 
 
 Representative government, in early 
 Massachusetts, 44. 
 
 Responsible government, see Self-govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Revenue, increase of, 142. 
 
 Rhode Island, settlement of, 44. 
 
 Rhodes, Cecil, 288, early life of, 366; 
 Prime Minister of Cape Colony, 367; 
 promises aid to Uitlanders, 369; loss 
 of power of, 369. 
 
 Rhodesia, Northern, death of Living- 
 stone in, 364; control of, by British 
 South Africa Company, 366 ; desire for 
 self-government in, 442. 
 
 Riel, Louis, leads rebellion of metis, 408; 
 execution of, 410. 
 
 Ripon, Lord, Viceroy of India, 304-05. 
 
 Roanoke, colony at, 32. 
 
 Roberts, Lord, 371. 
 
 Robinson, Sir Hercules, 369. 
 
 Rodney, Admiral, 127. 
 
 Roe, Sir Thomas, 64. 
 
 Rohilla War, 183. 
 
 Rolfe, John, 40. 
 
 Rooke, Sir George, 81, 342. 
 
 Rosebery, Lord, 443. 
 
 Rowlatt Report, on Indian conspiracies, 
 462. 
 
 Royal Colonial Institute, 443. 
 
 Royal Niger Company, 432, 441. 
 
 Royal provinces in eighteenth century, 
 109. 
 
 Russell, Lord John, quoted on responsi- 
 ble government, 227; quoted on work 
 of Sir George Grey, 249; and political 
 reform, 284; and colonial reform, 285. 
 
 Russia, English trade with, 29 ; break of, 
 with Napoleon, 154; British fear of, in 
 southern Asia, 201; empire of, 289; in- 
 terest of, in Persia, 290; aggressive im- 
 perialism ofy- 304; and Afghanistan, 
 305-07; and Tibet, 307. 
 
 Russian or Muscovy Company, 13, 29, 
 62. 
 
 Ryerson, Egerton, 225. 
 
 Ryot, Indian peasant, 316. 
 
 Said Pasha, 338. 
 
 St. Christopher, see St. Kitts. 
 
 St. David, Fort, 93. 
 
 St. Eustatius, 126. 
 
 St. Helena, loss of, by Dutch, 70; prison 
 
 of Napoleon, 149; value of, 322-23; 
 
 government of, 440. 
 St. Kitts, settlement of, 50, 52; becomes 
 
 solely British, 82; capture of, by 
 
 French, 126. 
 
 St. Lucia, capture of, by British, 88, 156; 
 ceded to British, 158. 
 
 St. Vincent, capture of, 88. 
 
 Salt revenue, in India, 317. 
 
 Samoa, German interest in, 294; under 
 control of New Zealand, 383, 450; 
 mandate of, to New Zealand, 453. 
 
 Sand River Convention, 272. 
 
 Sandys, Sir Edwin, 41. 
 
 Santa Cruz Islands, 397. 
 
 Santo Domingo, 51. 
 
 Saratoga, battle of, 125. 
 
 Sarawak, 332-33. 
 
 Saskatchewan, 410. 
 
 Sati, suppression of, 197. 
 
 Saunders, Admiral, 88. 
 
 Say and Sele, Lord, 44. 
 
 Scheldt, neutrality of river, 147 and n. 
 
 Scotland, 5. 
 
 Scurvy, ravages of, 239, 261 and n. 
 
 Sea-power, see Navy. 
 
 Seddon, R. J., 380. 
 
 Seeley, Sir John, Expansion of England 
 of, 288. 
 
 Seignorial Tenure, in Canada, 229. 
 
 Selborne, Lord, Colonial Secretary, 373. 
 
 Self-determination, see Unrest, political. 
 
 Self-government, in Virginia, 41; in Bar- 
 bados, 51; in New England, 119; pro- 
 posed by Wakefield, 171 ; advocated by 
 Durham Report, 226-27; introduced in 
 Canada, 228 ; in South Australia, 249 ; 
 in Australian colonies, 250, 384-86; in 
 New Zealand, 257; in Cape Colony, 
 275 ; in Natal, 277 ; movement to grant, 
 to the Dominions, 284-85; grant of, to 
 Boer states, 372; in Union of South 
 Africa, 373-74; in Canada, 401-03; in 
 Newfoundland, 424 ; partial, in Malta, 
 439-40; in Channel Islands, 435; in 
 Isle of Man, 435; desire for, in Rho- 
 desia, 442; in Ulster, 466; in southern 
 Ireland, 467. 
 
 Selkirk, Lord, 167-68. 
 
 Selwyn, Bishop, 397. 
 
 Senegal Valley, acquired by France, 289. 
 
 Sepoys, revolt of, 209. 
 
 Seringapatam, 187. 
 
 Seven Years' War, 74, 85-88, 121, 132, 
 429. 
 
 Sevres, Treaty of, 455; and India, 462. 
 
 Seychelles, 324. 
 
 Shah Shuja, 201-02. 
 
 Shantung Peninsula, 297, 335. 
 
 Sheep, introduction of, into Australia, 
 242 ; into Tasmania, 243 ; into Queens- 
 land, 245. 
 
 Shepstone, Sir Theophilus, 360. 
 
 Shipbuilding, in American colonies, 104. 
 
 Shirley, Governor, of Massachusetts, 85. 
 
 Shore, Sir John, and Bengal revenue, 
 186; Governor-General of India, 187. 
 
INDEX 
 
 xxm 
 
 Shovel, Sir Cloudesley, 81. 
 
 Sierra Leone, 432, 454 n. 
 
 Sikhs, development of, 200; first war 
 with, 204; second war with, 205. 
 
 Silk industry, in India, 316. 
 
 Sind, location of, 200. 202 ; acquired, 203. 
 
 Sindhia, Maratha chieftain, 189. 
 
 Singapore, acquired, 330; growth of, 331. 
 
 Sinha, Lord, 314 n. 
 
 Sinn Fein, growth of, 466. 
 
 Sivaji, Maratha leader, 91, 179. 
 
 Slaghter's Nek, battle of, 269. 
 
 Slavery, introduced into the West Indies, 
 54; abolition of, 270, 281-82. 
 
 Slave-trade, Hawkins' activity in the, 
 29-31; English participation in the, 
 54-55; extent of, in seventeenth cen- 
 tury, 55; Dutch interest in, 66; West 
 African stations for the, 70; British 
 monopoly of, for Spanish America, 82 ; 
 in old colonial system, 103 ; suppression 
 of, 282, 350. 
 
 Sleeman, Major, 197. 
 
 Smith, Adam, influence of his Wealth of 
 Nations, 101 ; quoted, 132-33. 
 
 Smith, Donald A., 410. 
 
 Smith, Sir Harry, 271. 
 
 Smith, Captain John, 39-40. 
 
 Smuts, General, advocates union of 
 South Africa, 373; Prime Minister of 
 South Africa, 461 ; at War Conferences, 
 469; quoted on Dominion status, 472; 
 quoted on Anglo-American relations, 
 474. 
 
 Smythe, Sir Thomas, 62. 
 
 Sokotra, captured by Portuguese, 19, 
 56; and British, 339. 
 
 Solis, Spanish explorer, 23. 
 
 Solomon Islands, British, 399. 
 
 Solomon Islands, German, 399. 
 
 Somaliland, Italian, 294; British, 296, 
 338, 432, 440. 
 
 Somers, Sir George, 38, 48, 50 n. 
 
 Somers Islands, see Bermudas. 
 
 Somers Islands Company, 62. 
 
 South Africa, settlement of, 259-61, 263- 
 64; British conquest of, 266; the Great 
 Trek, 270-72; early move for confed- 
 eration in, 360; constitution of Union of, 
 373-74; share of, in World War, 450- 
 51; internal affairs of, during World 
 War, 459; civil war in, 460. See also 
 under names of provinces. 
 
 South African Party, formation of, 374, 
 459; success of, 461. 
 
 South African Republic, see Transvaal. 
 
 South African War, 370-72, 415. 
 
 South Australia, colonized under Wake- 
 field scheme, 173 ; early history of, 247- 
 50; grant of self-government to, 285; 
 liberal constitution of, 385-86. 
 
 South Australia Land Company, 247. 
 
 Southwest Africa, 293, 455. 
 
 Spain, beginning of colonial empire of, 
 22-24; acquires Portuguese Empire, 
 24, 58; trade restriction in colonies of, 
 28; during American Revolution, 125. 
 
 Spanish Succession, War of, 74, 80-82. 
 
 Spectator, the, organ of systematic col- 
 onizers, 172. 
 
 Spice Islands, products of, 16, 24; visited 
 by Sir Francis Drake, 32 ; taken by the 
 Dutch, 59; Anglo-Dutch rivalry in, 64. 
 
 Spices of the Far East, demand for, 14- 
 15. 
 
 Spinning, as a cottage industry, 137; im- 
 provements in, during Industrial Rev- 
 olution, 137-38. 
 
 Stamp Act, issuance of, 122; effect of, 
 123. 
 
 Stamp Act Congress, 123. 
 
 Stanley, Henry M., 291. 
 
 State Socialism, in New Zealand, 380- 
 83. 
 
 Steam engine, 139-42. 
 
 Stephen, King, 4. 
 
 Stephen, George, see Mountstephen, 
 Lord. 
 
 Stephenson, George, 140. 
 
 Stevens, Thomas, visits Goa, 61. 
 
 Stirling, Captain, in Western Australia, 
 246. 
 
 Straits' Settlements, 331. 
 
 Strathcona, Lord, 410 and n. 
 
 Stuart, Australian explorer, 243, 388. 
 
 Sturt, Captain Charles, 387. 
 
 Stuyvesant, Peter, 67. 
 
 Sudan, Anglo-French tension in, 296; and 
 Mehemet AH, 346; British relation to, 
 350-53; government of, 353. 
 
 Suez Canal, 287, 337-38. 
 
 Sugar, importance of, in West Indies, 50; 
 in Queensland, 397. 
 
 Sugar Act, of 1764, 122. 
 
 Sugar Islands, see West Indies. 
 
 Summerhill Creek, 250. 
 
 Suraj-ud-daulah, Nawab of Lower Ben- 
 gal, 94. 
 
 Surat, English factory at, 63; French 
 factory at, 78. 
 
 Swadeshi, in India, 311. 
 
 Swally, naval battle at, 64. 
 
 Swan River, settlement along the, 246. 
 
 Swaraj, in India, 463. 
 
 Swellendam, settlement of, 263 ; insurrec- 
 tion in, 264. 
 
 Sydenham, Lord, Governor-General of 
 Canada, 227. 
 
 Sydney, Australia, 238-39; colonial con- 
 gress at, 293. 
 
 Sydney, Lord, on division of Canada, 
 221 ; Colonial Secretary, 239. 
 
 Syme, David, 390. 
 
 Systematic colonization, of Wakefield, 
 
XXIV 
 
 INDEX 
 
 170-71; included in Durham Report, 
 227. 
 
 Tabje Bay, 260. 
 
 Tache, Sir Etienne, Canadian Prime 
 Minister, 229; member of Quebec 
 Convention, 231. 
 
 Tanganyika, Lake, 364. 
 
 Tanganyika Territory, mandate of, 455. 
 
 Tangier, obtained by Charles II, 340; 
 abandoned, 341. 
 
 Tasman, Abel, voyages of, 236. 
 
 Tasmania, discovery of, 237; early his- 
 tory of, 243; treatment of aborigines 
 in, 244 ; abolition of transportation to, 
 244; self-government in, 285, 385. 
 
 Taxation, in Canada, 222; in New Zea- 
 land, 381. 
 
 Tea, duty on, 124; industry of, in India, 
 317. 
 
 Tel-el-Kebir, battle of, 347. 
 
 Terra Australis, belief in existence of, 
 236. 
 
 Terre Napoleon, 241. 
 
 Tewfik, Egyptian ruler, 347-48. 
 
 Textile industry, under domestic system, 
 136-37; importance to, of Whitney's 
 cotton gin, 138; application of Watt's 
 engine to, 139; expansion of, 142-43; 
 in India, 316. 
 
 Thagi, suppression of, 197. 
 
 Theebaw, King of Burma, 306. 
 
 Thomson, Poulett, see Sydenham, Lord. 
 
 Tibet, British interest in, 307. 
 
 Tilak, B. G., Indian political agitator, 
 311. 
 
 Tilley, Leonard, 231, 403. 
 
 Timor, 60. 
 
 Tipu, of Mysore, accession of, 184; war 
 with British, 187-88. 
 
 Tobacco, Indian use of, 19; cultivation 
 of, in Virginia, 40; in Bermudas, 50; 
 in West Indies, 50. 
 
 Tobago, returned to France, 127; recap- 
 tured, 156; granted to British, 158. 
 
 Togoland, 293, 454. 
 
 Tonga Islands, 365, 399. 
 
 Tordesillas, Treaty of, 23. 
 
 Toronto Globe, 230. 
 
 Torrens Basin, Australia, 387-88. 
 
 Torres, Jewish interpreter with Colum- 
 bus, 19. 
 
 Torres, Spanish navigator, 236. 
 
 Tortuga, importance of, to the bucca- 
 neers, 52-53. 
 
 Toulon, naval battle off, 85. 
 
 Towns, commercial importance of, in 
 Middle Ages, 10. 
 
 Townshend, Charles, Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer, 123. 
 
 Trade, development of national, 10-20; 
 Portuguese activity in eastern, 18-19; 
 
 in Spanish colonial empire, 28; with 
 France after the American Revolution, 
 134; with the United States after 1783, 
 134. See also Commerce. 
 
 Trade routes, between Europe and Asia, 
 16-17, 337. 
 
 Trades Increase, vessel of East India 
 Company, 63. 
 
 Trading Companies, establishment of, 
 13. 
 
 Trafalgar, naval battle of, 150. 
 
 Transportation, to Jamaica, 51; to West 
 Indies, 54; to Georgia, 54; to Australia, 
 239; abolition of, to Tasmania, 244; to 
 Queensland, 245; abolition of, to Aus- 
 tralian mainland, 250; Committee of 
 1837, 172. 
 
 Transvaal, migration of Boers into the, 
 272; early confusion in, 273, 358; an- 
 nexation of, 287, 360; revolt of, in 1880, 
 362; gold discoveries in, 367; subse- 
 quent internal troubles, 367-69; rean- 
 nexation, 371. 
 
 Transvaal National Union, of Uitlanders, 
 368. 
 
 Travancore, 187. 
 
 Treaty, commercial, with Norway, 14; 
 with Florence, 14; of Neutrality, 80; 
 of Versailles (1783), 127; of Versailles 
 (1919), 452. 
 
 Treaty Shore, of Newfoundland, 423-24. 
 
 Trek, the Great, 270-72. 
 
 Trent, Council of, 27. 
 
 Trichonopoli, siege of, 94. 
 
 Trinidad, 23 ; capture of, by British, 156, 
 430; government of, 440. 
 
 Trinity House, 26. 
 
 Tripartite Treaty of 1838, 202. 
 
 Tripoli, 294. 
 
 Tromp, Dutch admiral, 67. 
 
 Tucker, Josiah, quoted on American 
 Revolution, 117; anti-imperialism of, 
 131. 
 
 Tunis, acquisition of, by France, 289. 
 
 Tupper, Sir Charles, 231. 
 
 Turgot, on loss of British colonies, 116- 
 17. 
 
 Turkey Company, 13, 29. 
 
 Turkish Empire, 343-44, 455. 
 
 Tynwald, 435. 
 
 Uganda, 296, 432, 440. 
 
 Uitlanders, 358, 367-68; position of, af- 
 ter Jameson Raid, 370. 
 
 Ulster, acceptance of self-government by, 
 466. 
 
 United Empire Loyalists, see Loyalists. 
 
 United Provinces, see Holland. 
 
 United States, British trade with, after 
 Revolution, 134, 163; effect of Napole- 
 onic wars on, 155; illustration of a ma- 
 ture colony, 165; war with Canada, 
 
INDEX 
 
 XXV 
 
 223; new imperialism of the, 295; con- 
 stitution of, 395; and Canada, 403, 407, 
 418-22; and Newfoundland, 425; Dis- 
 armament Conference, 473; and the 
 British Empire, 473-74. 
 
 Unrest, political, in Asia, 311; in British 
 Empire since 1914, 461-68; in Ceylon, 
 326; in Egypt, 354, 464-65; in India, 
 310-11; in Mauritius, 324. 
 
 Upper Canada, see Ontario. 
 
 Utrecht, Peace of, 82-84. 
 
 Vancouver, George, British navigator, 
 159. 
 
 Vancouver Island, 406. 
 
 Van Diemen, Governor of Dutch East 
 India Company, 60, 236. 
 
 Van Diemen's Land, see Tasmania. 
 
 Vasco da Gama, 18, 259. 
 
 Venables, General, 51. 
 
 Verrazano, French navigator, 76. 
 
 Versailles, Treaty of, in 1783, 127, 424; 
 in 1919, 452. 
 
 Victoria, Queen, chooses Canadian cap- 
 ital, 229; colonial interests in reign of, 
 280; golden jubilee of, 297; diamond 
 jubilee of, 298, 411, 444. 
 
 Victoria, beginnings of, 244; separatist 
 movement in, 244; early government 
 of, 245, discovery of gold in, 251 ; grant 
 of self-government to, 285, 385; dif- 
 ficulties with upper house of, 389-90. 
 
 Vienna, Congress of, 158, 281-82. 
 
 Virginia Company, the, 13, 62. 
 
 Virginia, settlement of, 37-41. 
 
 Vogel, Sir Julius, 379. 
 
 Wairau River, 255. 
 
 Waitangi, Treaty of, 174, 254; violation 
 of, 256, 377. 
 
 Waitara Block, trouble over, 377-78. 
 
 Wakefield, Colonel, 254-55. 
 
 Wakefield, Edward Gibbon, early life of, 
 169; publishes A Letter from Sydney, 
 169; scheme of, for systematic coloni- 
 zation, 170-71 ; publishes England and 
 America, A View of the Art of Coloniza- 
 tion, 171 ; member of Durham Mission, 
 173, 226; and settlement of South 
 Australia, 247; founds New Zealand 
 Association, 254; and New Zealand 
 Land Company's policy, 255; later life 
 of, 174, 256 n. 
 
 Wales, English conquest of, 4-6. 
 
 Walfisch Bay, see Whale Bay. 
 
 Walker, Sir Hovenden, 81. 
 
 Walpole, policy of, 84. 
 
 Wandewash, battle of, 94. 
 
 War of 1812, causes of, 155; character of, 
 223. 
 
 War of 1914, and the British Empire, 1, 
 448-74; and Ireland, 465. 
 
 Ward, Sir Joseph, New Zealand states- 
 man, 380, 457. 
 
 Warner, Thomas, colonizing activity of, 
 50. 
 
 Warren, Commodore, 85. 
 
 Washington Conference (1921), 335, 473. 
 
 Washington, Treaty of (1871), 420. 
 
 Washington, George, 87, 125. 
 
 Waterboer, Griqua chieftain, 359. 
 
 Waterloo, battle of, 149. 
 
 Watson, J. C, Australian statesman, 
 396. 
 
 Watts, James, inventor of steam engine, 
 139. 
 
 Weaving, as a cottage industry, 137 ; im- 
 provements in, 137-38. 
 
 Weihaiwei, lease of, 297, 335. 
 
 Wellesley, Arthur, see Wellington, Duke 
 of. 
 
 Wellesley, Lord, Governor-General of 
 India, 187-88. 
 
 Wellington, settlement of, 255; death of 
 Wakefield at, 174. 
 
 Wellington, Duke of, 189. 
 
 Wesleyan Missionary Society, 282 n. 
 
 West Africa, see Africa, West. 
 
 Western Australia, early history of, 245- 
 47; grant of self-government to, 285, 
 386; and federal constitution, 394. 
 
 Western Pacific, High Commissioner of, 
 397, 399. 
 
 West Indies, early British activity in the, 
 48-55; value of the British, 103; trade 
 of French, with American colonies, 118; 
 capture of Danish, by British, 156. 
 See also under individual islands. 
 
 Westminster Review, quoted, 164. 
 
 Whale Bay, 296. 
 
 White, John, 32. 
 
 Whitelock, General, 158. 
 
 Whitney, Eli, inventor of cotton gin, 
 138. 
 
 William, Fort, 95. 
 
 William the Conqueror, 3-4. 
 
 William and Mary, 36-37; colonial ad- 
 ministration under, 109. 
 
 William II, of Germany, telegram of, to 
 Kruger, 369. 
 
 Williams, Roger, 44. 
 
 Willoughby, expedition of, to Russia, 
 29. 
 
 Wilmot, Governor of Tasmania, 244. 
 
 Windward Islands, government of, 440. 
 
 Winter, Sir James, Prime Minister of 
 Newfoundland, 426. 
 
 Wolfe, General, 88. 
 
 Woman suffrage, in New Zealand, 381; 
 in Australia, 390. 
 
 Wood, Capt. Benjamin, 61. 
 
 Wood, William, The Great Advantage of 
 Our Colonies, cited, 101. 
 
 Wool, importance of, in English mediae- 
 
XXVI 
 
 INDEX 
 
 val commerce, 12; production of, in 
 Australia, 242. 
 
 Woolen industry, antagonism of, to In- 
 dian goods, 102. See also Textile in- 
 dustry, Sheep. 
 
 World War, see War of 1914. 
 
 Worstead, 12. 
 
 Writs of assistance, 122. 
 
 Yeardley, Sir George, 41. 
 
 Yorktown, surrender of Cornwallis at, 
 
 126. 
 Younghusband, Colonel, in Tibet, 307. 
 
 Zamindars, in India, 186. 
 
 Zanzibar, British control of, 296, 432, 
 
 441. 
 Zionists, and Palestine, 456. 
 Zululand, 296, 365. 
 Zulus, 263, 271, 360-61. ' 
 
 31+77-7