y ^ (\ fr 0°- ftft A PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN Eight Hon. Sir CHAELES WENTWOETH DILKE, Bart. AUTHOR OF 'GREATER BRITAIN,' 'THE FALL OF PRINCE FLORESTAN OF MONACO,' 'THE PRESENT POSITION OF EUROPEAN POLITICS,' AND 'THE BRITISH ARMY' IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. I WITH MAPS SECOND EDITION 3LontJon MACMILLAN AND CO. AND NEW YORK 1890 All rights reserved First Edition January 1S00 Second Edition March 1S00 TO MY FRIEND His Excellency General SIR FREDERICK SLEIGH ROBERTS, Baronet V.C. G.C.B. G.C.I.E. D.C.L. LL.D. COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF IN INDIA I DEDICATE THIS RECORD OP THAT PEACEFUL PROGRESS OF GREATER BRITAIN WHICH IS MADE SECURER BY HIS SWORD PKEFACE In 1866-67, on leaving Cambridge, I made a journey round the world on which I wrote a book of travel, the name of which has lived while the book is wholly out of date. Owing to the success of the title of Greater Britain, the work, since the cessation of its sale as a new book, has continued to be in demand — a demand which has shown no tendency to decrease with the lapse of years, — but has been a source of embarrass- ment to the author, who could not but feel that the work had become in a great number of points wholly inapplicable to existing circumstances. In 1875 I made another journey round the globe, after which I added two chapters to Greater Britain, and, by the insertion of footnotes, tried to bring my volumes up to date ; but the attempt was a failure, as the whole scheme of the work would have had to be recast in order to prevent it, in many passages, from conveying inaccurate impressions. As regards two subsequent journeys, in each of which I made my way half round the world, I have not attempted to write of them in the form of a record of travel ; I have thought, however, that there was room for an entirely new book upon the same viii PREFACE subjects as those treated in the original work, but dealt with from the point of view of political and social observation and comparison rather than from that of descriptive sight-seeing. This then is not a book of travel, but a treatise on the present position of Greater Britain, in which special attention has been given to the relations of the English- speaking countries with one another, and to the com- parative politics of the countries under British govern- ment. The MM. Beclus have shown the usefulness of one form of such general works, and I have tried to do for the statecraft and legislation of the colonies and possessions of England across the seas what they have done for the geography of the world. In making the attempt to survey the position and prospects of Greater Britain, and to re-examine, after a lapse of twenty years, the lands of English government and English tongue, I am encouraged by the feeling that, although the task may be a difficult one, and in some respects almost impossible of accomplishment, there exists no recent work in which it can be said to have been performed. There are indeed general sur- veys of the British Empire in the German and French tongues, and one of them — M. Avalle's book — is the best work upon the colonies and dependencies of the United Kingdom ; but in English we have little since Martin's book except mere pamphlets, or books of reference such as the excellent Colonial Office List, or general treatises on colonisation with no special reference to the legisla- tion and the circumstances of the moment. Some PREFACE ix authors, such as Dr. Dale, have written excellent books on groups of colonies, which will be mentioned in due course, but have not dealt with the Empire as a whole ; and Mr. Fox-Bourne, who has gone lightly, and Professor Seeley, who has gone deeply, over a wider field, have surveyed it mainly from the point of view of history. Even supposing that my inquiry into the present posi- tion of Greater Britain should be pronounced a failure, I may at all events be able to feel that in attempting it I have pointed the way to others, who may contrive to make better use than I have done of the raw material. That material in my own case has chiefly been amassed by some industry in reading many things that issue from colonial presses, and discussing the matters to which they relate with colonists of all pursuits. It would, indeed, have been impossible to have even attempted to enter upon the task without assistance from many inhabitants of the colonies described, and from persons who have made themselves acquainted with the legislation and condition of various portions of the Empire. As, however, I have sometimes found it a necessity to take a view diametrically opposed to that which some at least of my informants hold, I almost hesitate to name them with a word of thanks for fear they might be supposed to be thus committed to opinions which, as a fact, they in some cases must disapprove. It is better with this caution to run the risk than to appear ungrateful for much kind, courteous, and valuable help. Among those to whom I am under deep obliga- tion for answering my questions, for contributing PREFACE memoranda upon special colonies, or for readiug manu- script or proofs, I should wish to mention the Agents- General of the colonies, from all of whom I have received unfailing help, and whose collections of statistics and of laws have been freely open to me, and especially my friend Sir Charles Mills, whose personal fund of informa- tion with regard to all matters relating to South Africa has been at my disposal by his kindness, although it is possible that he may not approve of my conclusions. I must also specially name Mr. J. E. C. Bodley ; as well as Mr. Francis Stevenson, M.P., who has paid much atten- tion to the position of our Crown Colonies ; Mr. W. A. M c Arthur, M.P. ; Mr. Alexander Sutherland and Mr. Patchett Martin of Victoria ; Mr. Clegg of New South Wales ; and Mr. Stanley Grantham Hill of Queensland. The officers whose help I gratefully acknowledged in my book upon the British army, have assisted me in the chapter upon Imperial Defence, and I have also to express my acknowledgments ■ to my secretary, Mr. H. K. Hudson. CHAELES W. DILKE. 76 Sloane Street, New Year's Day, 1890. CONTENTS Introduction ...... 1 Part I.— NORTH AMERICA CHAP. I. Newfoundland . . . . . .11 II. The Dominion of Canada . . . .26 III. The Dominion of Canada — continued . . .128 IV. The United States, Canada, and the West Indies. 149 Part II.— AUSTRALASIA I. Victoria . . . . . .183 II. New South Wales . . . . .266 III. Queensland . . . . • .329 IV. Australia and New Zealand . . .376 Part III.— SOUTH AFRICA I. The Cape ...... 465 II. South Africa ...... 514 LIST OF MAPS British North America . . • To face page 9 Australia . . • • • » 1°* New Zealand . » 415 South Africa . . . • • >> INTRODUCTION The British Empire, with its protectorates, and even without counting its less denned spheres of influence, has an area of some nine million square miles, or, very roughly speaking, of nearly three Europes ; revenues amounting to some two hundred and ten millions sterling ; and half the sea-borne commerce of the world. This empire, lying in all latitudes, produces every requirement of life and trade. We possess the greatest wheat granaries, wool markets, timber forests, and diamond fields of the world. In tea we are rapidly reaching the first place, and in coal, iron, and copper at present hold our own with all mankind. In sugar we stand well : in tobacco India and Jamaica produce fine qualities which occupy the third place, after those of Havana and Manilla, and are beginning to compete with them ; and our coffee, though the produce is small in bulk by the side of that of Brazil and Java, is now the finest that there is. As regards food supply, it is certain that we might, if we pleased, be entirely independent of any foreign source. The states of Greater Britain thus scattered over the best portions of the globe vary infinitely in their forms of govern- ment, between the absolutism which prevails in India and.the democracy of South Australia or Ontario. The dominant force in bringing that empire together PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN and in maintaining it as one body has been the eminence anions the races of the world of our own well-mixed people. As to the ultimate result of their high deeds there can be no doubt. The greatest nations of the old world, apart from us, are limited in territory situate in temperate climes, and France and Germany and the others can hope to play but little part in the later politics of the next century, while the future seems to lie between our own people — in the present British Em- pire and in the United States, — and the Russians, who alone among the continental nations of Europe are in possession of unbounded regions of fertile lands, outside Europe, but in climates in which white men can work upon the soil. Towards the middle of the last century France appeared at one moment to be the colonising power of the future. Her Canada and Louisiana to- gether gave her the whole west-centre of North America, and India seemed already hers. But now the English- speaking people have conquered India, almost the whole of North America, the greater part of Polynesia with Australasia, and most of the opened parts of Africa, Their position, however, at the present is a mere index to their probable position in the future. The increase of the race, and the increase of that larger body who speak its tongue, are both keeping pace with the figures suggested in the dreams and speculations of half a century ago. More than a hundred million people speak English as their chief tongue, and vastly more than that number as one of two languages ; while four hundred millions of people are, more or less directly, under English rule. In the future conflict of rivalry between our own and the Great-Russian people, we have upon our side the advantage of combining in our race the best qualities INTRODUCTION of the foremost races of the old world, with the result that in our daughter-countries there are present courage, national integrity, steady good sense, and energy in work such as are perhaps unknown elsewhere. Con- siderable as is the power of assimilation of subject races possessed by the Russians, our own people seem, to judge from American and Australian experience, even better able to swallow np Germans, Scandinavians, and the other less numerous emigrants from Europe ; and while we have in the point of bravery in fighting against obstacles no advantage over the Russians, who are our equals in that respect, we do possess in the greater hopefulness of our national character a point in our favour which is perhaps rather a cause than a result of the very different political circumstances under which the English and the Russians live. While it is probable that neither the democratic autocracy of Russia nor the constitutional and parliamentary democracy of Great and Greater Britain may be a permanent political form, it is possible that those institutions which we have invented for ourselves will develop more easily, and with less revolutionary shock, into the ultimate political forms of society than is the case with the institutions of our Russian rivals — the only rivals worth considering so far as our race-history goes, if we ignore for a moment the immediate dangers that grow out of the temporary military position of the United Kingdom itself. A comparison between the three great growing- powers, of which two are mainly Anglo-Saxon, shows that the British Empire exceeds the Russian Empire slightly in size and vastly in population, and has treble the area of the United States ; that its revenue is more than double that of Russia, and nearly three times that of the United States; while its foreign trade greatly PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN exceeds that of the American Union and vastly exceeds that of Russia, although no exact comparison between the British Empire and the United States in trade can be made, inasmuch as it is impossible accurately to distinguish, in all cases, trade between the Empire and foreign countries, from trade which is really carried on between various portions of the Empire itself and is similar to the local trade of the United States. In ship- ping the British Empire surpasses the whole world, but the manufactures of the United States have gained rapidly upon our own, and already perhaps equal ours, although it is difficult to make a precise comparison, on account of differences of classification. In coal production the British Empire still stands far before the United States, while Russia hardly appears upon the list, and we not only stand second in the extent of our coal measures for future use, but first as regards the possibilities of the supply of coal to shipping for the North Atlantic and for the whole of the Pacific. In the production of gold the British Empire and the United States stand upon a fairly equal footing, and each of them produces nearly double as much as Russia. In silver the United States possesses an overwhelming preponderance. In iron the British Empire and the United States are run- ning a race in which the latter must in the long-run win, while Russia is all behindhand. In wheat produc- tion our empire exceeds the production of the United States, and each of them produces nearly double as much wheat as Russia ; but in maize the United States is far ahead. In wool the British Empire stands first of the three, and has nearly double the production of Russia, which itself exceeds by more than a third that of the United States. In cattle the United States stands first, the British Empire second, and Russia third ; while in INTRODUCTION horses Russia stands first, the American Union second, and the British Empire third. In sheep, as in wool produc- tion, the British Empire is predominant, and Russia occupies the second place; but in pigs the order is reversed. In railway mileage the United States stands altogether first, having more than double the mileage of the British Empire, and Russia is nowhere in the race. On the whole, then, we may consider that for the present the British Empire holds her own against the competi- tion of her great daughter, although the United States is somewhat gaining on her. Both are leaving Russia far astern, and it is possible that the growth of Canada and Australia may enable the British Empire not only to continue to rival the United States, but even to reassert her supremacy in most points. In spite of my having entered on this brief examina- tion of the relative positions of the three great powers of the future, it will be remarked that in the course of some of my speculations I once more put out of sight, as I put out of sight in Greater Britain, the political separation that exists between England and the United States. In these introductory words I desire to call attention chiefly to the imperial position of our race as compared with the situation of the other peoples, and, although the official positions of the British Empire and of the United States may be so distinct as to be some- times antagonistic, the peoples themselves are — not only in race and language, but in laws and religion and in many matters of feeling — essentially one. There is another point of view from which the present and future of the British Empire are full of interest : our offshoots or daughter-countries are trying for us political and social experiments of every kind. While Germany with her State-Socialism and Switzer- PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN land with her Referendum are initiating experimental legislation which is full of interest, the action of our own colonies and of the United States in the social and political field has this vastly greater importance for us — that it is taken among our people and under circumstances which more closely touch us here at home. One reason why little attempt has yet been made to promote the methodic discussion of colonial experiments is that there is a great deal of ignorance in the colonies about each other, and they are only now beginning to overcome an apparent reluctance to study one another's institutions. The very fact of the newness of the ground in this respect makes the comparative study of Australian and Canadian institutions one of the most interesting possible, and one specially and peculiarly important for ourselves. While, however, we have so much of which to be proud in the development of our tongue, our trade, our literature, and our institutions, there is a corresponding present and temporary weakness to which it will be necessary in due place to call attention. The danger in our path is that the enormous forces of European militarism may crush the old country and destroy the integrity of our Empire before the growth of the newer communities that it contains has made it too strong for the attack. It is conceivable that within the next few years Great Britain might be drawn into war, and receive in that war, at the hands of a coalition, a blow from which she would not recover, and one of the consequences of which would be the loss of Canada and of India, and the proclamation of Australian independ- ence. Enormous as are our military resources for a prolonged conflict, they are inadequate to meet the unprecedented necessities of a sudden war. We import INTRODUCTION half our food ; we import the immense masses of raw material which are essential to our industry. The vulnerability of the United Kingdom has become greater with the extension of her trade, and, by the universal admission of the naval authorities, it would be either difficult or impossible to defend that trade against sudden attack by France, aided by another considerable naval power. Our enormous resources would be almost useless in the case of such a sudden attack, because we should not have time to call them forth. Such is the one danger which threatens the fabric of that splendid Empire which I now attempt to describe. b . ~> L.M1.I..11 M.it i.nll;ui & ( u PAET I NOETH AMEEICA VOL. I CHAPTER I NEWFOUNDLAND The nearest to Great Britain of those of her colonies Newfound- which possess responsible government is also the colony laud ' which claims to be the oldest English settlement in connection with the British Crown. Newfoundland has a history which has been full of interest ever since the first colonisation by Sir Humphrey Gilbert in 1583, when a number of ships sailed for St. John's with a view of peopling the island with inhabitants of all kinds. Although the project proved a failure, shortly after this time Newfoundland became the resting-place of English fishermen, who were joined by a resident Irish population. The Calvert family established them- selves in one corner of the island ; but it was not until near the end of the seventeenth century that anv attempt by England for the government of the settle- ment was made, while our rights were disputed by the French, and our young colony was continually harried by them. A division of rights in Newfoundland between Great Britain and France has unfortunately continued in some degree up to the present time, with evil conse- quences which I shall have presently to trace. New- foundland now includes a large part of Labrador, which continental territory of the colony is three times as large as Newfoundland proper, but almost uninhabited, PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN Catholi cism. having but 4000 people in its vast solitudes. The colony itself being outside the confederation of the Canadian Dominion, has to be dealt with separately in that consideration of the present position of the North American colonies upon which I now embark. Roman Not only is Newfoundland peculiar in her situation and conspicuous as a colony for her great age, but also worthy of notice in another marked respect. The colony is one in which the Roman Catholic community is some- what more numerous than are the members of the Church of England, and in which the bodies represent- ing British Nonconformity or Scotch Presbyterianism are small, with the exception of the Wesleyan, lately merged in the united "Methodist Church of Canada." In Canada itself we shall find that the Roman Catholics more com- pletely outnumber the Church of England, while in the Dominion the Methodists are, next after the Roman Catholics, the most numerous religious body. But in Canada the Presbyterians are very nearly as numerous as the Methodists, and far more numerous than the Churchmen ; moreover, the Roman Catholics predomi- nate in one Province and the Protestants in the others, while in Newfoundland there is no such geo- graphical separation. The effect of the religious position of Newfoundland was brought markedly before the world at the time when, the Irish population in Queens- land having objected to receive Sir Henry Blake as Governor, and their view having been approved by the Queensland Government, it was pointed out that he during his governorship of Newfoundland had ruled successfully the most Irish of our colonies and the most Roman Catholic of our self-governing colonies, except Canada. The Irish, however, of Newfoundland are Newfoundland - born ; and the descendants of those who NE WFO UNDLA ND 1 3 went thither in the seventeenth century, and of those who joined them in 1798, do not possess the fulness of Australian knowledge as to the doings of Dublin Castle officials, or the writings of " Terence M c Grath." The Roman Catholic clergy and the educated portion of their flocks were anxious to adopt a conciliatory policy, and carefully abstained from rousing the feeling which might easily have been excited after the objection which had been previously taken by the Protestants to the nomina- ation of a Roman Catholic Governor. St. John's itself is the centre of the Roman Catholic population of New- foundland, and out of 37,000 people in the two districts of St. John's, East and West, over 23,000 are Roman Catholics. As a result of the state of things which has been described, education in Newfoundland is strictly denominational ; its administration in chief is vested in three persons, who represent the three leading denomi- nations — Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Methodist; and the schools of each Church are managed and inspected by the representatives of these bodies respect- ively. The education grants come out of the general revenue of the colony, and pass through the hands of the Superintendents of Education, nominated each of them by one of the three principal denominations. To them the inspection of schools is entirely confided, and the Boards of Education in the various districts are also nominated by the three Churches and are entrusted with the appropriation of the grants. There is no Govern- ment superintendence, and the whole power is left to the independent jurisdiction of the denominational superintendents and Boards. The system therefore is peculiar, and stands at the opposite pole from the school system of most of our other self-governing colonies. In practice the Roman Catholics manage their own schools i 4 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN exclusively themselves, and the Government grant goes to the Bishop, who can virtually dispose of it as he pleases. The Church of England and the Methodist Church to some extent act together, for in the outlying- districts, distant from the towns, the Anglican and Methodist inspectors alternately inspect the schools of both denominations. There is in Newfoundland one Congregational school, and this I believe is inspected by the Church of England and the Methodist inspectors alternately, in the same way. Denominational feeling, especially as between Pro- testant and Roman Catholic, runs high in Newfoundland. Elections often turn upon it, and have sometimes been accompanied by riot and loss of life. "When a distin- guished local politician, Sir Ambrose Shea — for a long time Speaker of the Assembly, who had been the delegate to Quebec at the time of the Confederation negotiations, and the delegate of the colony to Washington for the Fishery Treaty — was proposed by the Colonial Office for Governor, he being a Roman Catholic, all the Pro- testants in the island were against the nomination, and an exchange was effected between Sir Ambrose Shea and Mr. Henry Blake, at that time the Governor of Bahamas. The most curious feature of the hot party feeling which exists is that no great principle appears to be at stake in the controversy. Protestants are not anxious to upset the denominational system of education, and most of their leaders are pledged to it as strongly as are the Roman Catholics. The struooles which I have men- tioned seem to take place upon the question of nominal ascendency, and a Roman Catholic majority appears, when elected, to pursue much the same policy as an adminis- tration supported by Protestant votes ; but as a fact the Prime Minister has been almost invariably Protestant. chap, i NEWFOUNDLAND 15 The Roman Catholic objection to the interference of a Protestant State in matters in any way connected with religion is in Newfoundland so strong that the colony has no system for the registration of births or deaths, and this owing, it is said, to the opposition of the priests, who would have to make the returns, and who do not desire to be under the control of the State ; but, on the other hand, the objection is not pressed against a religious census, which is very completely carried out, and which forms to some extent the basis for the dis- tribution of the education grant. If a registration system should be introduced, it will be because some amateur statisticians have lately been declaring St. John's to be the most unhealthy town in the civilised world, and stating that the death-rate over the whole city is 35 in the thousand — a statement which can only be effectually disproved by the introduction of a proper system of registration. As is the case also in Canada, the revenue of the Taxes. colony is drawn chiefly from customs duties, more than half the receipts coming directly from customs, and, also as in Canada, so far as Dominion taxation is concerned, there is no direct taxation, although there are in some cases local rates, as, for example, the water-rate in the city of St. John's, which curiously enough is mentioned as a franchise base in the acts relating to the representation of the people. The customs tariff is mainly a revenue tariff, and there being few manufactures other than those connected with the fishing interest, with the exception of some tanneries and small iron foundries, it has not at present the effect of incidental Protection except in the case of rope. Whatever may ultimately be the case in the settled parts of the colony, the present distribution of the population upon the island, and the sparseness of 16 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN population in the Labrador district of the colony, would make the collection of direct taxation cost more than the revenue to be collected. The whole population is barely 200,000 ; although the total area, with Labrador, is twice as great as that of the young colony of Victoria, or, without Labrador, half as great as Victoria. The area of the island is considerably larger than that of Ireland, and the area of the whole colony greatly larger than that of the United Kingdom. The most populous part is the peninsula of Avalon, — once the first Lord Baltimore's, — on which stands the city of St. John's. On several of the bays, not included in what is unhappily still known as the " French Shore," of which presently, there is a considerable population ; but otherwise the inhabitants of Newfoundland are sparsely scattered, and a large part of the interior of the island can hardly be said to have been thoroughly explored. The collection of direct taxation under such circumstances would indeed be costly, and, moreover, the fishing people of the island are for the most part almost without money, and in the habit of carrying on their business transactions by the exchange of goods in kind. The colony, although old, is back- ward. The municipality of St. John's, now lately brought into existence, constitutes almost the first attempt at true local government in the country, and it is a municipality created with small powers, which, how- ever, will probably be soon increased. Labrador. Labrador is still Arctic and uncivilised. The small immigrant population is mainly French from the St. Lawrence and from the formerly French parts of Nova Scotia. Eider-duck, silver-fox, and black-fox, with seals and fish, rather than wheat, are the products of Labrador; but the climate is healthy, and in the long run Labrador may rival Norway as a health resort. NE WFO UNDLA ND 1 7 The backward nature of even the island part of the Newfound- i ^ ant ^ Fish- colony is illustrated by the prevalence 01 the truck eries. system, or payment of wages in goods, and the condi- tion of the fishermen is described by the opponents of that system as abject servitude. The cod -fishing industry is carried on by the poor population, who catch tha fish either from schooners on the banks that lie off the coast, or by means of traps and engines at the harbours. For the bank -fishing various kinds of bait have to be secured according to the season of the year — herring, squid, and caplin. The cod-fish are brought to establishments upon the coast where are erected what are known as " stands " ; they are cut open by a class of men called, in the trade, " cut- throats " ; the livers are set aside for the best oil, other portions of the entrails for cod oil for machinery, and the fish are split, salted, and left to dry. For all the processes, especially for catching the cod and bait, expensive o-ear is needed, and the cost is advanced to the fishermen by merchants upon the mortgage of the catch. The maintenance of the fishermen during the fishing season is provided for by the merchants, who supply them with clothing and flour at, it is said by opponents of the system, an exorbitant rate of interest. At the end of the fishing season the fishermen have sometimes to balance their accounts upon the wrong side, and some of them are said to go on year by year in debt, and seldom to be able to make a fresh start even on the profits of a good season. The merchants contend that they run great risks, and that frequently they get no return from the supply of boats and gear. They were till October 1889 strong in the House of Assembly, and they made out a fair case with regard to their profits. The fishing folk seemed to accept their situa- PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN tion as a part of their somewhat primitive existence, but in the recent elections made a considerable demon- stration of their power and turned out the merchants. They spend the fishing months in hardship and peril upon the banks, and the cold months in inactivity ; and in the long and trying winters the distress is great. condition For some years past the Government has periodically People, relieved the wants of those who have been unable to support themselves, but a stand was lately made against the granting of Government relief to able-bodied men, to the destruction of the self-reliance and independence of the population, and in 1888 it was decided that relief from public funds should be confined to the infirm, the widows, and the orphans. Large sums have been from time to time expended upon relief works, and with a disastrous effect upon the finances of the colony, for road-making cannot be carried out to advantage in such a climate at the period of the year when distress is at its height. In 1886 the expenditure upon the poor amounted to nearly a quarter of the total expenditure, and to more than a third of the total revenue apart from loans, but the state of things was somewhat better in 1887 and 1888. It has been charged against the system that members of the Assembly have obtained grants for the poor in the interior by reporting that the people in their districts were dying of starvation, and have used the grants as instruments of political corruption. Generally speaking the condition of the working population must be looked upon as backward. The societies of Foresters and Oddfellows, and the trade unions, which flourish as greatly in most of the colonies as at home, have little strength in New- foundland, where they are represented only by a few NE IVFO UNDLA ND 1 9 benevolent societies among the Roman Catholics and by a shipwright's union at St. John's. The colony is loyal to the imperial connection, in and of the spite of a general belief that the Americans would ex- tinguish French claims to which we submit. The Irish O Roman Catholic inhabitants place the crown above the harp on the flag that floats upon St. Patrick's Hall, and the Protestant population when it wants to grumble at supposed disloyalty has to point to the drinking of the immortal memory of St. Patrick on one occasion on St. Patrick's Day before the toast of the Queen's health — a question of etiquette as to the respective precedence of deceased saints and living sovereigns on which much might be said on either side. Confederation with the Dominion of Canada seemed possible in 1888. The Electors' Qualification Act, 1889, raised — by a peculiarity, confined to Newfoundland among all British colonies, unless we count the tiny dependency of Norfolk Island — the electoral age to twenty-five, as in Japan and Spain, and in other respects gave manhood suffrage. This legislation w r as supposed to be connected with a local desire to prevent the younger people from casting their votes upon the side of federation. The fishermen of twenty-five are mostly married, while those of twenty-one to twenty-five who are not yet married are generally intending emigrants. The confederation question has been settled in the negative, and Newfoundland con- tinues to stand apart. The chief matter which was at issue in the discussion of federation was that of tariff, and the Newfoundlanders gave up the idea of joining the Dominion because they did not desire to replace the revenue tariff by a protective tariff. The merchants were against confederation, which would have disturbed their business ; but the lawyers and some of the politicians PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN were in favour of the change, which would have given them a larger field. Great Britain has no reason to complain of Newfoundlanders standing out, for most of the imports (except food) to Newfoundland come from the United Kingdom — food coming to a considerable extent from Canada, although chiefly from the United States. The export trade in salt-fish is largely to Brazil, Spain, and Portugal, in which countries the fish is consumed in Lent ; but there is a considerable trade in the inferior classes to our West Indies, where the fish is eaten by the coloured people. Had confederation taken place Canadian capital would have come in to increase the 84 miles of Newfoundland railroads, and the side of the island nearest towards Nova Scotia would have been brought into a closer connection with the mainland, with the result of a development of Newfoundland's mineral resources. Confederation is not, however, now likely to be again mooted for some time, for that shrewd politician Sir William Whiteway appears, on the whole, now to have made up his mind against it. Although the island is regarded as a fishing island, and cod, seals, and lobsters are the staples of Newfoundland trade, there is excellent timber, great mineral wealth, and rich land which, if the Newfoundland summers were always as long and good as that of 1889, would support a considerable population. Some day the country, which is at present known only as having fisheries almost equal to those of the United States, will become celebrated for something besides cod-fish and icebergs, or " cods, dogs, and fogs," as the Bishop of Newfoundland put it at the Lambeth Conference ; and it should not be forgotten that the colony possesses coal. shore rencb The main difficulty of Newfoundland arises from its NE WFO UNDLAND relations with the Government of France, and those of its peculiarities which I have already mentioned are small as compared with the extraordinary anomaly of a British colony not possessing full rights over the whole of its own soil. By the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713 the struggles between England and France for the posses- sion of the island were brought to an end, and there were reserved to France rights over a portion of the coast which is known as the French Shore. These rights were unfortunately confirmed by all the treaties of the eighteenth century, and by those of 1814 and 1815. although the strip of coast itself was varied in 1783. The people of the United States also possess by treaty the right of landing to dry fish and nets on a small strip of the Newfoundland shore. It is a pity that the termina- tion of the great Napoleonic struggle was not made the occasion of a settlement of the extraordinarily dangerous questions then pending and still pending between the French and ourselves both in Newfoundland and in India ; questions out of which it is not too much to say that, but for an amount of tact upon both sides which cannot be permanently counted upon, war might arise at any time. Disputes have been kept from coming to a head in the case of Newfoundland hitherto, chiefly by the spirit of conciliation displayed by the officers of the British and French navies in command of the respective squadrons upon the station. Attempts have been made to bring our disputes with France to an end by conventions which have been many times agreed upon between the countries, but which have failed to be accepted by the Parliament of Newfoundland. The part of the coast, upon which French rights exist, has been divided by these conventions, but the provisions reserving to the French their establishments upon the PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN parti portion of the coast which they actually occupy season by season for curing fish, and giving up the rest of the French Shore to settlement, were marked by the same weakness which was found in the Treaty of Utrecht itself. None of the conventions solved the question at issue ; they all of them left the same difficulties to be fought over in the not distant future, and the Newfoundlanders were perfectly justified in their oppo- sition. Over and over again riots have been caused by the ejection of colonists from French drying-places. When British subjects occupy portions of the coast not at present taken up by French establishments the French turn them out by force. The Newfoundlanders claim that the right given to France, by the Treaty of Utrecht, to catch fish upon this shore and to dry them upon land, does not include that of erecting lobster- canning factories, for lobsters are not fish and canning is not drying. The French operations involve the exclusion of the British population of a British colony from the occupation of the soil and from the working of mines in a large portion of the interior. The French maintain that by their treaties with us they enjoy the exclusive right of fishery between Cape St. John and Cape Ray, passing round the north of the island, and that all British fixed settlements of whatever nature on this coast are contrary to treaty. The Newfoundlanders maintain that we have a concurrent right of fishery so lono- as we do not interfere with or interrupt the fishery of the French, and that while we have no right to fixed fishing settlements upon the French Shore, we have a right to fixed settlements of any other kind. In practice the French bar the mouths of the rivers with nets and ruin the streams for salmon fishery, while we maintain that they have no rights to river fisheries. I myself agree NE WFO UNDLA ND 23 with the Newfoundlanders that the last arrangement, which was come to at Paris in November 1885, was no settlement of the question, and that the French conces- sions, which fell to the ground through the opposition of the colony, were only concessions upon paper. The French promised to give up large portions of the coast, which, however, consisted chiefly of sheer cliff or of districts otherwise useless for all purposes. The New- foundlanders, while praising, as all praise, the tact and ability of Sir Clare Ford, think that he was placed at a disadvantage by not having a highly-skilled naval ex- pert as a colleague, while the French had on their side an officer who knew every inch of the coast and who used his knowledge. The Newfoundlanders assert that in the coast over which France was to surrender her rights there was not a landing-place for a canoe. The very presence of the French fishermen upon the coast, bringing together as it does French and British men- of-war, although the officers of the two squadrons try to live upon terms of courtesy and of friendliness, gives rise to a constant risk of national irritation. The French fishermen, who inhabit rude dwellings upon the shore during the fishing season, dismantle them in winter, when they retire to their own islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, or even cross the Atlantic to France, and leave the frames in charge of English colonial keepers ; and the quarrels which arise upon such questions are but one kind of dispute out of many which occur. In all probability the French will not give up their fishing rights, or the essential portion of them, until after some great change has taken place in the power of the Newfoundlanders, or until after a European war, and all that we can hope is that the tact which has been displayed upon both sides Bait 24 PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part i in the past may continue to exist in the future between the representatives of the Western Powers. Meanwhile a recent Act of the Newfoundland legis- lature has resulted in somewhat reducing the value of the French fishery. The Bait Bill of 1887 prohibited the exportation of the bait used for the cod fishery, and the operation of this Act has already had some effect. The best bait is only procured in the early season on shores where the French have no rights, and they had been dependent on the Newfoundland fishers for their supplies of bait. They, as well as the Americans, who are also affected by the Bill, now have with difficulty to fish for their own bait and to go some distance for it, and in this way they lose the first market of each season. The French, however, now assert that they find that periwinkles, which grow everywhere, form good bait; but this is doubtful. The French bounty system is a hardship to colonial fishermen. The New- foundlanders say that French-caught fish is sold for 12s. 6d. a French hundredweight or quintal, and British- caught fish for 14s. 6d. because it is better prepared; but the French fishermen receive 8s. 6d. bounty. The Newfoundland Parliament would be glad to remove the restrictions laid down in their Act if the French Govern- ment would abolish bounties ; but if the effect of the Bait Act had been the partial withdrawal of the French from the shores of Newfoundland, it would have been a step in the right direction, for the present condition of affairs with regard to the French Shore is a disgrace to our standing as a nation. American r phe Americans of the United States possess, as I have said, in Newfoundland the right by treaty to land on and use a strip of coast, but only so long as it is unsettled. There is, of course, less danger, on account rights NE WFO UNDLAND 2 5 of the words of limitation, that conflicts will arise upon the " American Shore " than is the case with regard to the French Shore, which is not affected by any equally sensible and just provision. It is possible that the United States, which would The future .of New- be glad to possess the fisheries of Newfoundland, and foundiand. the outpost on the route of all Atlantic trade with Europe which Newfoundland affords, may make offers to the Newfoundlanders to quit the British Empire for the Union. The latter are, however, more likely to use these proposals for the purpose of putting pressure on the Canadians or on us at home, to bring the French claims to an end by purchase, than they are to leave us. It is possible that Irish emigration and emigration from the Western Highlands and islands of Scotland may begin to flow into Newfoundland, which offers to the children of the mist good cheap land, suitable for family colonisa- tion, and near at hand, in a climate somewhat similar to their own. In the next chapter — that on Canada — we shall see how such immigrants to the Dominion have prospered in the West. vol. 1 D Kingdom. CHAPTER II THE DOMINION OF CANADA British Continental British North America, the area of which, America, roughly speaking, may be said to be nearly equal to that of Europe, or about equal to that of the United States, has until recent years been looked upon as an ice-bound desert, fringed by a fertile strip along the border of the United States. Emigration Since 1829 there has been a considerable emigration United 16 from the United Kingdom to western Canada, but an emigration which has never in late years been equal to the emigration to the United States, although that federation is under a different flag. It has been stated by Mr. Burnett, than whom no higher authority upon the question could be found, that British emigrants do not as a body care whether they go to lands under or not under British rule, and cross the seas to the United States, Canada, Australasia, the Argentine Republic, or the Transvaal, at the prompting not of sentiment but of interest. Irish emigrants have on the whole preferred, when free agents, to quit the shadow of the British flag, and the United States have accordingly in the past received the majority of the emigrants from the United Kingdom. Many of those who are set down to Canada in the tables have only journeyed through Canada to the Western States, so chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 27 that the census, and not the emigration statistics, must be our guide. Up to a period between 1830 and 1840 the emigration from the United Kingdom to Canada exceeded our emigration to the United States, both being, however, comparatively small ; but from the commencement of the Irish famine the tables were turned, and the gold rush to California increased the dispropor- tion. In 1852 the emigration from the United Kingdom to the whole of British North America fell to about 10 per cent of our total emigration, and it has remained at about that figure up to a recent period though it is now beginning to increase ; while nearly 70 per cent of the persons of British and Irish origin emigrating from the United Kingdom in the last thirty-six years have gone to the United States, and nearly 20 per cent to Austral- asia, or double as many to the vastly more distant southern colonies as to British North America. It is also a remarkable fact that the proportions going to the United States, to Australasia, and to British North America have been, till lately, fairly constant, although the Irish element was at one time predominant in the emigration, while the English element is predominant now. Of the total number of emigrants from the United Kingdom who have gone to the United States since 1853 the Irish outnumber the English; at the present moment the English vastly outnumber the Irish among the emigrants, but still resort mainly to the United States, although the emigration to the Trans- vaal and Argentine Eepublics is now rapidly increasing in extent. Three times as many natives of the United Kingdom are living in the United States as in the whole of our colonies put together. As among colonies it is, however, the fact that in the last few years, while emigration to Australasia has declined, that to 28 PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part i Canada lias remained steady, and is now, as I have said, on the increase, and that at the present moment Canada is receiving a larger number of British emigrants than are going to Australasia. It is striking to notice to how considerable an extent British emigration fails to follow the flag, even when tempted to remain within the Empire by the magnificent soil of Manitoba — the land legislation of the western Provinces of Canada being nevertheless, as we shall see, as liberal as that of the United States. Another curiosity of emigration is the fact that until the last year or two as many British emigrants of the farming; class were going; to Australasia as to Canada, and that far more than half as many are going thither at the present moment ; yet Canada gives free grants of land, while in Australia the land has to be bought for money, and in the Canadian North West the land is prairie land which can be ploughed at once, while in Australasia it is as a rule either too dry for farming; or has to be cleared of bush. The British farm- ing emigrant to Manitoba needs but little capital, and requires only the means of living until he has brought his land under cultivation; whereas in the least arid por- tions of Australasia he requires capital both to buy and to clear his land, and has to find the money after he has paid for a far more costly journey. While in Canada he receives free 160 acres, which need no clearing, in Australasia he must either buy land, costing at least £1 an acre, and pay perhaps £10 an acre to clear it, or take land in districts in which drought is deadly. There has been a recent revival of some suggestions by that most able former Agent-General of Canada, Sir Alexander Gait, now retired from very active public life, which proposals have been once more put chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 29 forward as a basis of colonisation by farming families. The idea by which the adoption of the scheme may be recommended to Parliament at home, is that relief would be felt in London and the great towns if the current of unemployed agricultural labour setting towards the cities could be diverted. Sir Alexander Gait has tried to meet the objection that emigration takes from home many of the best of our workmen, who go to Canada and Victoria and the United States, and help these countries to build up manufactures by the use of our picked labour, while they shut out our goods by high duties. His scheme is one mainly intended for placing the agricultural classes in agricultural districts, and it is meant to be self- supporting or nearly so.. Sir Kobert Herbert is a high authority upon this subject, and he has told a Committee of the House of Commons, after carefully considering every plan that has been laid before the Colonial Office, that the Government must expect a loss of money. Now this means that those who stay behind are to be taxed for the benefit of those who a;o, while any interference by Government in emigration must tend to destroy the present magnificent system of emigration by self-help, which takes from the United Kingdom some two hundred thousand people every year. It must also be remembered that there is a strong feeling among English workmen against organised and widespread emigration, which they think is offered to them only as a substitute for social and political reform. Then, too, it is admitted that the emigrant families under the new scheme must be helped by a large advance of money, as the crofter Government emigrants were helped, in order that they may live while they bring the land under tillage ; but it has yet to be shown that, given 30 PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part i the fact that steady families are selected, they could not do, in many cases, as well with such advances made to them in connection with their trades in England. There doubtless will be much said for the Canadian plan of discouraging individual immigration, and of encouraging the immigration of farming families. No objection can be raised to the Canadian principle of helping family colonisation by allowing the exporting agencies to take the security of the land for the advance of money ; but when Government aid is asked for, even for a nearly self-supporting scheme, it is certain to be pointed out that the poorest and the weakest will be among those who stay behind, and who are to be taxed to meet the deficit, while the value to the mother- country of the exportation of farming families is prob- lematical. Canada refuses to take our paupers, except our pauper children who are being sent there to the general advantage ; and the feeling against pauper immigration is as strong in Canada as it is in the United States, and is indeed almost as powerful as that in Australia against convict immigration. In other words, the colonies are now only willing to receive those whose expatriation is hardly to be looked upon as an advantage to their country, and it will be difficult to induce the home-staying population to assent to taxation in any form to help even Sir Alexander Gait's well-thought-out scheme. On the other hand, there are many benevolent people who are willing to incur a certain risk in aiding emigration, and it is probable that, even if Government should decline to assist except in organising effort, such defici- ency in funds as might arise under the Gait Scheme could be met by voluntary help. In any case it is probable, as will be seen, that the tide of emigration will for the chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 31 future flow more strongly towards Canada. Even at the present mighty rate of growth of the American nation, many years beyond the limit of the present century must elapse before the lands of the United States are all occupied by settlers. The people of the British Islands are, however, becoming aware, on the one hand, that the United States will not always remain open as an emigration field, and, on the other hand, that we possess a Far West superior in fertility to many States and Territories of the Union, and in climate not much less favoured. In the past there was a vague idea at home that our possessions extended beyond the Eocky Moun- tains to British Columbia; the Pacific Station of the fleet at Vancouver Island was known to those who had friends or relations in the navy ; but in the not distant time when British Columbia could only be reached after a long voyage round Cape Horn, or by a tedious voyage across the Isthmus of Panama, or even, later, by the tiring journey by way of San Francisco, the most remote regions of British North America to which adventurous emigrants made their way were those backwoods of Canada which are now within nine days of London. In the early days indeed of the emigration move- The open- ment of the present century, and when that movement ^ west- was in its infancy, Canada attracted, it has been seen, oj n t h e tates as large an emigration from Europe as did the United American ° l . Union. States. Just as in our time, moreover, we have witnessed a great migration of Canadian people into the United States, so from the close of the American War of 1814 up to about 1820-30 there was a large migration of Americans into Canada. The United Empire Loyalists, who had fled or been removed into Canada at the con- 32 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN elusion of the Revolutionary War, had left friends in the United States, and their friends gradually joined them in large numbers, and were indeed known as a class by the name " Late Loyalists." Besides the Loyalists, or persons who disliked republican institutions, and more or less preferred the rule of the British Crown, there were in these early days a good many Americans who found that money was to be made more easily in Canada than in the United States, and many Americans who were Republicans in sentiment came into Canada for the sake of gain. All this immigration was, however, to Ontario or to the non-French portions of the present Province of Quebec. About 1830 the rich valley of the Mississippi began to attract world-wide attention, and the gradual opening up of the region known as the Western States, being ultimately followed by an immense famine -emigration from Ireland, gave an enormous impetus to the prosperity of the United States. The fertility of the maize districts of the new lands not only attracted that stream of immigration from. Northern Europe which since that time has never ceased, but also drew large numbers of the inhabitants of Canada across the frontier. The devei- ; Meanwhile Canada's North West, the counterpart of theTaLv the Western States, similar to Minnesota, and as suitable West N ° rth f° r wneat as Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa are suit- able for Indian corn, was locked up, and continued so to be until the territorial claims of the Hudson Bay Company were purchased, under the Rupert's Land Act of 1868, by the Canadian Government in 1869. A year later the North- West Territories were added to the Dominion, which had been created by the British North America Act in 1867, and the Province of Manitoba was admitted into confederation, and in 1871 British Columbia. chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 33 Canada hastened to make up for lost time in developing the new region, and there are now a hundred million acres of land surveyed for settlement, while railway development is steadily proceeding. In 1880 a contract was signed for the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and in 1886 the first through train ran from Montreal to Vancouver. The completion of this line of communication from Atlantic to Pacific, succeeding the political acts of which it was the consequence, has pro- duced a phenomenon never seen before in the world's history, and never likely to be seen elsewhere, — two countries with a common frontier 4000 miles in length, three -fourths of which is an artificial frontier — two countries under different flags, inhabited by people to a great extent of identical race, speaking the same tongue, each governed by free Federal institutions, and each now provided with independent parallel lines of communica- tion bringing ocean within one week of ocean. On the maps this artificial partition of the continent had existed for generations, but for half the period the western territories of the two powers were, comparatively speak- ing, unexplored, and for the remainder of the time the northern was dependent upon the southern for its com- munication with its own remoter regions. The utility of a new overland route to the East and to our Australian colonies, and the strategical value to the Empire of the Canadian Pacific Railway, will be dealt with by me here- after ; but a fact often overlooked in England is that hitherto the western centres of population of British North America have been more intimately connected with districts lying south of them across the American frontier than with places east and west of them within the Canadian border. Emigration from Quebec has flowed in the direction of New England and of New York. 34 PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part i Winnipeg, after its rapid rise, was in closest communica- tion with St. Paul, and British Columbia (including Van- couver Island) was chiefly dependent on San Francisco, and, in a less degree, upon Portland (Oregon) and on the growing American seaports on Puget Sound. The Canadian "national policy" of 1879, with its protective tariff, would not have prevented relations across the frontier in all these cases becoming even closer and more intimate, had not the new trans-continental line opened up fresh developments of commerce and com- munication from West to East and East to West. Superiority Although it is true that years and perhaps genera- cfanadian ^ons must elapse before even the increasingly rapid North peopling of the Western States and Territories of the Union fills with population the vast extent of the Ameri- can Eepublic, yet it must be borne in mind that a large proportion of the centre and west centre of the United States is desert land, only fit for agriculture after the supply of irrigation, which, in immense tracts of territory, is impossible at paying rates. There are three great systems of communication between the Eastern States and the Far West. The Southern Pacific Railroad, which passes through the arid plains of Western Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, has opened up a less favoured country than that which is traversed by the Union Pacific, which runs through Colorado, Utah, and Nevada ; and the latter districts themselves are inferior to parts of North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and Washington, which are served by the Northern Pacific route. The country traversed by the three main lines is least valuable on the southern route, and increases in agricultural utility as we go north ; and when the British frontier is crossed the same superiority in the northern regions is again found up to the point at which climate becomes too severe chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 35 for the growth of wheat. Much of the land through which the Canadian Pacific line passes is superior to that in any portion of the west-central districts of the United States. Nor is the good land of our Canadian North West confined to a narrow fringe on either side of the new Pacific road. The best land in the Far West of the whole American continent is said to be found upon the valley of the North Saskatchewan, opposite to the giant peaks of the Eocky Mountains which form the frontier between British Columbia and Alberta. Of the superiority of the Canadian Far West to the land in the same longi- tude across the American frontier there can be no doubt. There is another particular in which it is frequently Projects urged that Canada has an advantage over the United routes to States, as to which I have myself more doubt, and that Eur °P e - is nearness for trade purposes to Europe. Canada is indeed geographically nearer than the United States both to Europe and to Asia, and the more northerly the main line of communication across the world is made the shorter it will be. From British Columbia to Japan is a less distance than from San Francisco to Japan, just as from Glasgow to Quebec itself is a far shorter distance than from Liverpool to New York. It must, however, be remembered that the Great Circle route across the Pacific is subject to tempestuous weather off the Aleutian Islands at the mouth of Behring Sea, and we have to inquire if the most northerly Atlantic route can be worked under more favourable conditions. Every year sees produced some new scheme of improved direct communication between the British Isles and British North America. There is a plan for running a railway along the south coast of New- foundland in connection with a steam-ferry between 36 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN parti Cape Ray and the opposite point of Cape Breton. By this means Montreal is to be brought within five and a half days of London. The journey from Montreal to St. John's by railway and steam-ferry is to be completed in twenty-four hours. St. John's is only 1730 miles from Queenstown, a voyage which, in these days of Atlantic steamers making five hundred knots a day, can be done in three and a half days, leaving a margin of twenty- four hours for the remainder of the way from Queens- town to London. Advocates of this plan confidently assert that the Newfoundland route would not only bring the Canadian Dominion closer to England, but would divert most of the American passenger traffic, which now goes from New York, on account of the advantage which a sea passage of 1800 miles possesses for a dyspeptic people over one of 2800 miles. There are, however, difficulties in the way. If the channel between Cape Breton and Newfoundland were as clear as that between Holyhead and Queenstown a sea passage of 60 miles in a ferry-boat would be a serious difficulty, but even during; the short Newfoundland summer these coasts are frequently wrapped in impenetrable fog, the recurrence of which would destroy all certainty in the regulation of the traffic and of the mails. Moreover, even if the difficulties of the Gulf of St. Lawrence were overcome, it would not be worth the while of any owners of fast steamships to ply between St. John's and Liver- pool for the brief season during which St. John's would be really available for trade and passage. The duration of the Newfoundland winter and the almost entire cessa- tion of navigation upon the Newfoundland shores during half the year are little realised by the advocates of the short ocean routes. At the same time, fog and ice are drawbacks to some extent shared by all the routes, chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 37 because it should not be forgotten that Newfound- land projects so far into the Atlantic as to lie upon even the road from New York to Northern Europe. Another of the schemes involves a railway down the north bank of the St. Lawrence to that point of Labrador where the Atlantic meets the Straits of Belle Isle. If it is supposed that a railway could pay expenses in the short season during which the ports of Labrador could alone possibly be utilised, there is then the further objec- tion of the danger, even in summer months, of the coast of Labrador on account of fogs and icebergs. A third project for bringing the Dominion closer to the old country is the Hudson Bay Scheme. Its advo- cates argue that the railway journey from the Atlantic seaboard to Manitoba is too long for immigrants. The Western States of America, they say, were not settled by immigrants who came thither direct from Europe, but by those who flocked in from the more sterile of the New England States, and the average British immigrant has not the means to undertake a long land journey immediately after his sea voyage. They argue that immigrants from the United Kingdom who are bound for Manitoba are apt to disappear before they reach AVinnipeg by the Pacific route, dispersing at Montreal to swell the already crowded labour market of Ontario, or to cross the frontier into the United States. Manitoba and the North West must be content, they think, with the surplus of the East until a direct route is established from England to some point upon the coast of Hudson Bay. Thus immigrants might be conducted into the very heart of Canada by an ocean voyage shorter than that from Liverpool to New York, — by a journey the same length as that from Liverpool to Montreal ; the distance 38 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN parti from Liverpool to Port Nelson or to Fort Churchill, both on the west coast of Hudson Bay, being about 2900 miles. This project has not been received with much enthusiasm either by the Dominion Government or by the Provincial Government of Manitoba, the argument against it beino- the ice-bound condition of o o o the waters of Hudson Bay during the greater portion of the year. The route might be used for immigrants if a good deal of money were spent upon it, but immigrants, without trade, would hardly pay, and by the time that the route was opened in the spring, goods intended for the North West might have reached there by other roads, while the autumn closing of Hudson Bay might come too early for the transport of the produce of the North West itself. It has been suggested that steam- saws might be used for keeping open the channels after they had been blocked by ice, but this is not a hopeful project. Although the various schemes put forward are per- haps a little visionary, it is not to be thought that communication between Canada and the mother-country is never to be more rapid. All that can be asserted is that there is no immediate prospect of a more direct communication than that which now exists between Eimouski on the St. Lawrence in the summer months, and Halifax in the winter, and this country. That the Canadian communications are not yet in a thoroughly satisfactory position is shown by the fact that there are towns in Ontario which do a trade with the Maritime Provinces of the Dominion and find it cheaper to send their goods by rail via the United States. The north shore of Lake Erie, for example, exporting goods to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, largely sends them by rail to Boston and then by sea, instead of using the Canadian chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 39 railroads or the water-way of the lakes and the St. Lawrence. That Canada has a prosperous future before her there Future of can be no doubt. Of all the lands under a temperate ° anada " climate to which British emigrants can go, North America is by far the most accessible, and until that continent is completely filled it is unlikely that in great numbers they will go elsewhere. The Argentine Kepublic is farther off, and is a land of Spanish and Italian speech; and South Africa has been too largely peopled by Dutch and natives, while Australia is still more distant, Canada, like the United States, tempts the immigrant by free grants of land, and in the North West, as we have seen, no clearing is required, so that the intending immigrant has, as compared with those who go to other parts of the globe, the cheapest journey, and the least expenditure to face when he arrives at his journey's end. The immigrants are still too few, but they soon multiply, for Canada produces men on the scale on which she produces timber, and the Canadian popula- tion increases by natural growth at a wonderfully rapid rate. Of five millions of people in Canada, four millions are Canadian -born — a very different state of things from that which we shall find existing in Australia, On the other hand, while Australia is a. land almost certain to be free from the scourge of war, in North America we have to face the fact that there are between the people of our own race, established to the north and to the south respectively of the artificial line which I have described, causes of dispute which I shall presently attempt to investigate. The nearest to Europe of all parts of British North The p ro - America after Newfoundland and eastern Labrador, ti" C Domin. which, as they do not form a part of the Dominion of Scotia* ™ 40 PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part r Canada, have been already dealt with, is the Province of Nova Scotia, made up of the peninsula east of the Bay of Fundy, and of the island of Cape Breton. Not only is Nova Scotia nearest absolutely to England after New- foundland, but nearest, not excluding Newfoundland, for purposes of navigation ; its harbours being open in the winter. It is the unrivalled fishery of the Nova Scotian coast that has given rise to the heartburnings and disputes with which, in the last chapter of this part, I shall have to deal. Acadie Nova Scotia has sometimes been called Acadia, while the name was formerly extended to the whole of the Maritime Provinces of the Dominion, including Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, and forming an old French colony. The name Acadie is said to have been derived from a Micmac word " cadie," signifying " plenty," whence the country was styled La Cadie in a charter from Henri IV in 1604, when the settle- ments were founded. Acadia is a name now rarely used, and chiefly remembered indeed in connection with the deportation of the French Acadians in 1755. Poetry, not fact, makes popular history, but Longfellow's pictur- esque account of the sad story of Grandpre is so fanciful that the American historian of Canada, also a distin- guished son of Harvard, has suggested that the author of Evangeline confused Acadia with Arcadia. However that may be, fewer than 6000 Acadian French were deported by the British Government for refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the British Crown, but at the present time there are in Nova Scotia more than 40,000, in New Brunswick nearly 60,000, and in Prince Edward Island over 10,000 persons of French descent — or 110,000 in the ancient French province of Acadie, as against the 5000 or 6000 who were sent away ; and so far from chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 41 refusing allegiance to Great Britain, like the Acadians of the last century, they are among the strongest supporters of our rule. Nova Scotia, like Newfound- land, was fought for by England and France. The French attempted to occupy it in 1598, and again in the following year, while in 1604 a French Pro- testant colony was actually established in Nova Scotia, which failed on account of the destruction of the Protestant party in France, and was succeeded by a colony under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Church. But the latter was soon destroyed by an expedition commanded by a Virginian English cap- tain, and Nova Scotia was named and claimed and granted by James I. of England, and the Scottish order of Baronets founded, although a small French population remained in the peninsula. After fighting and dispute, and the cession of British rights in Acadie to France by Charles I., the formation of the company of New France by Richelieu upon a priestly base, with the direction to exclude Protestants, the conquest of Acadie by Lord Protector Cromwell and its recession to France, Acadie once more became a Jesuit preserve. A French writer has pointed out the weakness of the colonial system which was established there — the ecclesi- astical organisation of the colony, burdening the colonists with tithe, made Government oppressive. The main reason for the foundation of the colony in the view of the Church was the protection of the natives, who nevertheless were in fact destroyed almost as rapidly as in the neighbouring possessions of the English Crown. The prevention of the sale of drink to natives, which was enforced by law, was found to place the French colonists at a disadvantage as compared with the American English, without saving the native races ; and vol. 1 e 42 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN parti it is indeed a striking fact that M. Paul Leroy-Beaulieu has drawn a. picture of Acadia which in many respects resembles that which might be drawn of Basutoland and parts of Bechuanaland in the present day, and has given as a reason of the downfall of the French power in America the adoption of those very principles upon which public opinion in Great Britain desires to proceed in South Africa, Nova Scotia was formally ceded to England by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, and received the grant of a legislative Assembly in 1758, but the island of Cape Breton remained French until the con- quest of Canada. That island was afterwards sometimes under the Nova Scotian Government and sometimes not, and from 1784 to 1820 formed a separate British colony. In 1864 Nova Scotia, with New Brunswick, took the first step which led three years later to the British North America Act and the confederation of the Dominion of Canada, Halifax. It has been said in jest that the drum-beat of Britain, which previously followed the morning round the world, now stops at Halifax, the Nova Scotian capital, which is our only military station held by regular troops upon the continent of America ; but while it is true that no garrison of the British imperial army is found west of Halifax until we reach the coast of Asia, yet the red coats of the Royal Marines are sometimes seen as far west as Montreal, and again at the headquarters of the North Pacific squadron on Vancouver Island, where they will soon be joined by a small force of soldiers chosen and sent out from England, whether in British or in Canadian pay. Between Montreal and the Pacific the forces of the Empire are represented by the Dominion militia. To the English traveller who comes to Halifax as a first landing-place upon the American continent, Halifax may chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 43 have an American appearance on account of the number of wooden houses and the darkening of the air by telegraph and telephone wires ; but to one who returns to Halifax from the United States the place looks English, with its English citadel, its red-coated soldiers, and trim villa residences in the woods on the north arm of the magnificent harbour. The completion of the inter- colonial railway from Quebec, down the St. Lawrence, through New Brunswick, and across Nova Scotia to Halifax, has made Halifax the winter port of the Dominion, and in addition to an export trade of fish and lumber, and excellent Nova Scotian coal, manufac- tures are springing up in it. The coal-mines of Nova Scotia are at present the most Coal. important in the Dominion. It is indeed a happy fact that, though the " two Canadas " had no coal, by the recep- tion into the Dominion of the Maritime Provinces and of British Columbia and Vancouver Island, as well as by the annexation of the North West, magnificent coal-fields have been conferred upon Canada. The coal-mining industry in the North- West Territories is new, and has been brought into existence by the development of the branches of the Canadian Pacific Eailway, but local coal from the Rocky Mountain beds is being tried upon that line. There is excellent coal upon Vancouver Island, which will be most important in the future, as it is the only good coal upon the North Pacific ; but Nova Scotia still holds her own as the chief coal-pro- ducing Province of the Dominion. There are fine coal- fields in Cape Breton and in the isthmus which connects the peninsula of Nova Scotia with New Brunswick, and some of the coal is of the best quality, though the British Columbian coal fetches a higher price from its being situate on the Pacific coast, where coal is scarce 44 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN parti indeed. Nova Scotia is already raising nearly two million tons a year, and is exporting a quarter of a million tons to the West Indies, Newfoundland, and the Gold. United States. Nova Scotia also shares with British Columbia the most productive gold-fields of the Dominion, but, while British Columbian gold is as yet in part alluvial, the Nova Scotian gold has all along- been obtained from quartz. Gaelic. Not only is there a French population in Nova Scotia, but also, oddly enough, a British non-English- speaking population, whose language, however, has been brought from the British Isles. A portion of the Scotch Highlanders of Nova Scotia are a Gaelic-speaking people, of whom some do not understand the English tongue, and, while those near the coal-mines of Pictou are chiefly Presbyterians, the Highlanders at Antigonish possess churches dedicated to Celtic Catholic saints. Nova Scotia has given to the Dominion, in the person of the sir Charles statesman of United Empire Loyalist descent who brought her into the Canadian federation, Sir Charles Tupper, a possible future Prime Minister of Canada. New The Province of New Brunswick is maimed by a monstrous boundary line. The greater part of the State of Maine belongs geographically to New Brunswick or to Lower Canada, and that a large portion of that State is not British territory is the fault of our own repre- sentatives. More than half a century after the treaty of peace between the mother- country and the revolted colonies, a President of the United States made a fair proposal to the British Government, and its rejection, and the subsequent Ashburton Treaty, with the result of the creation of the present boundary, form a monu- ment of that ignorance and neglect of national inter- est which have often unfortunately characterised the chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 45 action of our imperial representatives. Had ordinary diplomatic skill been made use of by us in 1842, we should have obtained a tract of territory, the importance of which to Canada has only been realised since the development of railways. The junction in New Bruns- wick of the Intercolonial Railway, where the lines from St. John and from Halifax meet, is nearly due east of Montreal ; but in order to reach that point from Montreal without passing through the territory of the United States, the railway has to run through nearly three degrees of latitude to the north. Among the consequences of the Ashburton Treaty are an additional outlay of ten million dollars in the first cost of the Intercolonial Railway, and the removal of Nova Scotia for political, military, and commercial purposes 200 miles farther from the capital and from the chief Provinces of the Dominion. The extra charge on the transport of coal alone would make a difference of a dollar a ton in price to the consumers in the Provinces of Quebec and of Ontario. The Grand Trunk Railway runs through American territory to an American port, and the greater portion of the traffic of the Canadian Pacific line will pass, as well as the greater portion of that from the Province of New Brunswick to the Canadas, over American soil. The population of New Brunswick is to a great extent composed of descendants of the United Empire Loyalists who left New England at the conclusion of the peace and founded the city of St. John. Although they hated republican institutions, they were as democratic in many of their ways as were the rest of the American colonists, and the New Brunswick Assembly preceded the Assembly of Victoria itself by conducting in the last century a series of struggles with its Legislative Council precisely similar to those which have raged 46 PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part i in our time in the great gold colony of Australia. The fight in New Brunswick, as in Victoria, was as to payment of members, and the dead lock between the two Houses was of thoroughly Victorian complete- ness. The people of New Brunswick are chiefly con- nected with ship-building, with the valuable fisheries, and the lumber trade. The city of St. John, including two districts which virtually form part of it, although under separate forms of local government, has 40,000 people ; but New Brunswick follows American example in having its capital established elsewhere than in its chief town, and the picturesque city of Fredericton, the Provincial seat of government, is small. Manufactures are beginning to be developed in New Brunswick, and the interior is well adapted for farming, and has less bad land in proportion to its area than any Province of the Dominion except Prince Edward Island. The New Brunswickers are by no means wanting in a sense of their own importance. The Americans are inclined to ridicule under the term "blue noses" — a name derived from a species of potato, and properly speaking applicable to Nova Scotians only — the inhabitants of the British 'Maritime Provinces ; but New Brunswick replies that she could beat any two out of the three nearest New England States, and that her militia are superior from every point of view, except that they possess fewer general officers. Prince The beautiful island which is named after the father island? °f the Queen is sometimes called the garden of the Canadian Dominion, and is a lovely Province of farm- steads, villages, and rural towns. Long depressed by an aristocratic land system — which is now a part of ancient history, for the absentee landlords and tenant formers have given way to a peasant proprietary farming their chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 47 own lands — Prince Edward Island is entering upon a course of rapid agricultural development. Most of the country is cleared and the greater portion of it occupied, but land is still to be bought cheaply, as the English-speaking colonists who mainly inhabit it have not the same attachment to the soil which is found among the French, and looking upon the West as the land of promise are willing enough to move. The chief drawback to Prince Edward Island is the difficulty of regular communication with the main- land during the winter months, owing to ice in Northumberland Straits. The population is, never- theless, growing dense, and the island is more than twice as thickly populated as any other Province of the Dominion, and very densely populated for a colony, although, of course, sparsely inhabited as compared with England. As we pass westward by the railway, or up the province of St. Lawrence to Quebec, the shores recall the early ?he French settlement of Canada by the French. The ancestors Canadians - of the inhabitants of the lower St. Lawrence were partly Bretons and partly Normans, and, living in the neighbourhood of the sterile rock scenery of the Saguenay, they have not become more Parisian than they were when they left France, although they are not less French. The French have been at Gaspe since 1534, although nearly one hundred years later they were conquered, and Canada held for three years, by England, and it may now be pretty safely said that, whatever else may happen upon the American continent, this part of it will not speak English, and that this branch of the French race with its extraordinarily prolific nature is too tough a morsel for our digestion. Professor Seeley, indeed, whose name cannot be mentioned in connec- 48 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN parti tion with subjects relating to our colonial empire, even when one differs from him, without the statement that he is one of the few modern writers who possess a point of view which renders all that they write useful to the world, has said that in Canada as elsewhere the alien element is likely ultimately to disappear. The prophecy may come true, for all things are possible, but is at variance with all that we know of the past and present of the French Canadians in their own stronghold of Quebec. The increase by natural growth of the French -Canadian race has been the subject of remark in many books. Tocqueville already found ten times as many French Canadians as there had been at the British conquest, and said that they were as French as he was, and much more like the French than the Americans are like the English, which is still true of their descendants. Besides the vastly greater number that exist within the Canadian bound- aries now than Tocqueville found, we have to re- member the French - Canadian population in New England, which also as yet retains its tongue. The Canadian French have even assimilated Highlanders. Between the Saguenay and Quebec, in the district of Charlevoix, there is on the left bank of the St. Lawrence the seigniory of Murray, which was granted to one of Wolfe's officers and settled by his men. Frasers, M c Neils, and other Scottish names abound, but their owners can speak no word of English or even Gaelic. When Jacques Cartier of St. Malo took possession of Gaspe in the name of God and the King of France, and put up his cross with the escutcheon bearing- three fleurs de lis and the inscription " Vive le roy de France," he founded the only great offshoot of the French race, and the most God-fearing, although the chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 49 French monarchy has been longer dead in northern North America than in Europe. When the 60,000 French colonists became, for good, British subjects in 1763, the English, although they had sworn to respect their customs, expected to absorb them. We behaved at Quebec as we behaved at Cape Town, and with the same result. After causing insurrection we were compelled to give way and to keep our promise. At one time we forced upon the French our laws, our language, and in a measure our religion. The French resisted, at first quietly, and then in arms, as the Dutch at the Cape resisted, at first in arms, and then quietly ; but in each case the defence won, and Quebec is now as French as Stellenbosch and The Paarl are Dutch. There was, however, a curious interlude in Canada. During the wars in which the United States attempted to drive us out of Canada, the Canadians fought upon our side. The only moments at which we were ever popular in Lower Canada, until we gave her free French institutions, were the moments when the Ameri- cans were trying to expel us. " Papineau's Rebellion " of 1837 (and Papineau himself had fought for us in arms against American invasion, as, too, Washington had fought for us in his youth) won for Canada the constitution of February 1841 by which she obtained Home Rule. It gave the French but little in the direct form, but it gave them the means of winning everything they asked, and they soon carried the use of the French language in all the documents of Parliament, and the equality of French with English as the language of debate. At the time of Tocqueville's visit he pointed out that the French - Canadian newspapers published with care everything that could inflame popular passion against the British. It is indeed the case that when 50 PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part i Te Deums were sung in the French- Canadian Roman Catholic churches, on the occasion of the Queen's acces- sion, the congregations walked out. But Madame de Tocqueville, an Englishwoman herself, was able after her husband's death to show, in the notes which she contributed to his works when they were reprinted, that the liberties granted to Canada by the imperial Parliament have pacified that country, and have con- verted the Province of Quebec into one of the bulwarks of the British Empire. Soon there came about that union of the two peoples in heart and spirit which the recent administration of Sir Hercules Robinson has also left behind it at the Cape, but which in Canada the Protestant opposition to the Jesuit Bill has lately shaken. Sir George Cartier, the Conservative statesman who led the French Canadians at the time of the accomplishment of Confederation, had himself as a young man taken part in Papineau's Rebellion, but there never was a stronger supporter of a united empire than my host at Ottawa in the year of the passing of the Bill. The French in Canada have grown from the 60,000 of the conquest to over 1,400,000 in Canada, with 700,000 in the United States. There were parts of The Townships . in Lower Canada which were by a majority English-speaking at the time of my first visit to the American continent in 1866, which are by three to two French at the present time. The French are increasing in numbers and spreading as regards geo- graphical limits, and they are now so numerous in parts of the State of Maine as to have succeeded in some cases in seating their members in the State legislature. The Canadian Government have been driven by French feeling to establish a representative in Paris to assist in guiding French emigration towards Canada, but without chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 51 success. That in the Dominion, created by the Federa- tion of 1868, the old race prejudice condemned as " odious " by the Queen's father, the Duke of Kent, and deplored fifty years later by Charles Buller, writing in Lord Durham's name, continues, is only the stronger testimony to the value of those Federal institutions which have built up a great daughter-power out of the discordant elements. I have, it will be seen, by inference instituted a French comparison between the French of Lower Canada and and Dutch the South African Dutch. In both cases we found the ^^ an " alien people in the land and dispossessed their mother- country of the province. In each case they have clung to their language and their institutions, and in each country the language of the non-English colonists may now be made use of in the legislature. Both races are filled with an intense conservatism, and the French of Canada and the Dutch of South Africa are now in fact almost the only surviving true Conservatives living under free institutions. Both races are prolific, and in each case religion is a powerful factor in the national life, and has more political, social, and domestic influence than is usually found among Christian communities of the present day. The difference between the Boer and the French Canadian is not the ordinary difference between Calvinist and Catholic, for, curiously enough, although, as will be seen when I come to treat of the Cape, the Afrikander Boer makes use of Scripture terminology in ordinary conversation as copiously as did the Puritans of Eliza- beth's reign or the Covenanters of the Western High- lands, in his mode of life he is less rigid — or narrow if we choose to call it narrow — than is the French Canadian. Let us take dancing as an example. It is a Puritan tradition to hold that exercise in abhorrence, while in 52 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN parti Roman Catholic countries it has usually received the sanction of the Church. Yet, while no Boer festivity is ever celebrated without a dance of portentous length and' energy, among the French Canadians dancing now lies under the frown of the ecclesiastical authorities. In South Africa, indeed, some predikants discourage dancing, but their teaching upon this point meets with no success, while the French bishops are obeyed. The Roman Catholicism of Lower Canada was always of a severe type. In the time of Colbert there was an angry correspondence between him and the Bishop of Quebec, the latter wishing to shut up public -houses, while the Minister refused. Attitude of Both the French Canadians and the Boers have kept Canadians a certain connection with their former mother-countries, towards j-^ j n ^he cage £ ^ ie French Canadians the tie is one France. of sentiment rather than of sympathy, for the inhabitants of Quebec are Catholic and Monarchical even more perhaps than they are French, and many phases of modern French thought are repulsive to the majority among them. When, after the events of 1871, some supporters of the Commune of Paris came to Montreal, I believe that they met with a reception such as might be given to extreme members of the Italian Left at the Vatican itself. Now that there is easy communi- cation between France and Canada, a few Canadians, both priests and laymen, go to seminaries and schools in France, — no large number ; but the younger men in the Province of Quebec have taken the French tri- colour as their nag, and another curious example of pro- French sentiment lies in the frequency of the name of Napoleon as a Christian name in some parts of the Province. Through the fact that the similarity of language leads in Canada to the study of French laws, chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 53 there is a certain artificial adoption in Canada of French public institutions, as, for example, the school savings banks, which are copied from a French model. In one admirable respect, indeed, the French Canadians bear a close resemblance to the peasant class of France. Their frugality is remarkable, and in Montreal, where Britons and Frenchmen are not given to needless praise of one another, there is heard on every side testimony to the industrious, prudent, and saving disposition of the French. The language of the habitants, or habitans as the Habitant word is often written in the French of the past and of Fmieh ' the future, has become somewhat mixed with Eno-lish phrases. Cardinal Taschereau talks the dignified French of the Grand Siecle, and although his style may be archaic, his conversation would be a delight to a French purist of the old school. The peasant or the shopkeeper, however, will say " Je n'ai pas de change " for "I have no change." He will describe dry goods on his signboards as " Marchandises seches," and will call out when he is busy, " J'ai im job a remplir." In public meetings we hear of " les minutes," and the seconder of a resolution is officially called " Le secondeur." For the use in the Dominion Parliament of "L'orateur" for "the Speaker," and for the cry "Ecoutez" for "Hear, hear," there is good French authority. Change is now in the direction of purifica- tion, and day by day in the speech and writing of the educated among the French-Canadian people, local words are giving way to the more scientific forms of modern French. The British North America Act provides that either tongue may be used in the debates in the Federal Houses, that both must be used in the journals, and that the Acts both of the Dominion Parliament and 54 PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part i of the Quebec legislature must be printed in both languages. After a motion has been seconded in the Dominion Houses it is read in English and French by the Speaker if he be familiar with both tongues, and if not, he is bound to read the motion in one language and to direct the clerk to read it in the other. Provision has hitherto been made for the use of the French language not only in Quebec and in the Dominion Parliament, but in the Houses of Manitoba and of the North West. An agitation is, however, on foot to banish the official use of French from these parts of the Dominion. We are far from the days when, the two provinces of Canada having been united under one Parliament, it was provided that English should be the only language used in legislative records. This was part of the policy, to which even Lord John Russell had at one time given his adhesion, of denationalising the French Canadians ; but this clause was repealed in 1848, and the whole policy has followed the clause into oblivion. The speakers in the Dominion House who wish to exert the widest influence make, nevertheless, a point of addressing it in English, and Mr. Laurier, the acting leader of the Opposition, is an eloquent instance of a French-Canadian member wdio speaks in Eno-lish with admirable effect. This matter of language is one of many points in which the French Canadians know that they would make a bad bargain if they were to join the United States. They are well aware that they would not be permitted to speak French in Congress, and still less to have the proceedings printed in their tongue. In certain schemes which have been published in America, displaying the political arrange- ment of Canada after the proposed annexation of the Dominion to the United States, the Province of Quebec is divided into two States — Montreal and Quebec. This THE DOMINION OF CANADA 55 is of course held out as a bribe to Montreal, where exists the chief friction between French and Briton ; but the proposal is not one calculated to enamour the French Canadians with annexation. Even if Quebec Province, in its present size, became a State of the Union it would have a very different relative importance from that which it now enjoys ; but if it were split up, the French influence, notwithstanding the toughness of the French - Canadian race, would be overwhelmed. At the present moment the French are not only conquering the small British element in Lower Canada, but are migrating into Ontario as well as into the United States, and there is a stream of Frenchmen, in spite of their fondness for their own Province, passing westward along the main line of the Canadian Pacific Kailway. Quebec suffers a slight loss on the whole by migration, and Ontario gains. The chief sign of the inflow of the French into The French Ontario is the establishment of French schools in the m 0utari °- districts where the immigration has taken place. In two counties lying between Ottawa and Montreal there are about sixty French schools, that is, schools in which the teaching and use of French preponderate over the teaching and use of English. These two counties of Ontario are united for local government purposes, and the county council has ten French members out of twenty -four. The original settlers of this part of Ontario were United Empire Loyalists who came in from New England and New York after the Eevolutionary War. The French immigration began about forty years ago, and the incomers occupied the low lands which had been rejected by the British settlers, who still hold the upper lands, but are hemmed in on all sides by habitants. Many English farmers have sold out and left for Manitoba, and others are likely to follow 56 PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part i their example. It is no doubt the increase of the French population in Ontario which has been a potent cause of recent demonstrations in that Province against French Canadians and their religion. The less narrow Pro- testants assert that, although in northern and eastern Ontario the French population is increasing, a large proportion of the French in these districts are becoming less distinctively French, and are growing more like the English in dress, in ways of living, and even in tongue. The Roman Catholic population of Ontario do not by any means universally make use of the separate-school system, and more than half of their children are said now to attend the public schools. The French in Ontario are becoming Anglicised by the operation of powerful causes, and this change suggests that the busi- ness of the whole continent will ultimately be transacted in the English tongue, and that only those who are willing to be left behind in the race will neglect to learn English, at all events as a second language. Such a change as is occurrino; anions the Ontario French would never have happened under any system of government which did not give them absolute freedom. Had they been forced to send their children to the public schools it would have been a matter of pride with them to speak nothing but French in their own homes ; but as the contrary view has prevailed they have less resisting force, because the patriotism of race does not enter into the account. Not only has an official representative of Canada been placed in Paris, as we have seen, but an attempt is being made by pri- vate French Canadians to introduce French immigrants into the French portions of Ontario, and the editor of a French newspaper, published in Ontario, has taken a leading part in the introduction of the Frenchmen of THE DOMINION OF CANADA S7 France. As yet only a few thousands have come, while there are nearly 300,000 Germans in Canada who have come in without assistance, although they hardly retain so much separate nationality in Canada as they do in the United Stages. The existence of large and solid communities of French French Canadians in New England presents some curious Sttf"" 1 features. They replace New Englanders, who are pour- g t °" e e s d ing into Montana and the two Dakotas, and it has been estimated that something like half of the French- Canadian population of the United States is in New England, while it is in the New England States that 350,000 French Canadians are conspicuous from their situation in the midst of a population entirely unlike them in race, religion, and manner of life. The Canadians of New England gain their livelihood as farmers, carpenters, wheelwrights, and operatives in cotton and woollen mills. Some of the factories in Ehode Island are entirely worked by French Canadians, and in that State, until within the last few years, they have shown no disposition to become naturalised or Americanised in any way. They still keep very much to themselves, and hold but little intercourse with operatives of other nationalities, and have often refused to unite with them in strikes. The American French bear a good character as law-abiding, frugal, and sober workmen, easily taught the use of machinery and the processes of manufacture. The usual course of their immigration is for a family to come down from Canada, the father obtaining work as a common labourer, the mother taking charge of the house and of the usually enormous family of children, and the sons and daughters as they grow up getting work in mills. They live economically, and save their wages to send to Canada VOL. I 58 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN parti for investment in land in the township from which they came. When their end has been accomplished the whole family often goes to Canada in the spring and works until the end of summer, and then returns to the mills for the winter months. As the parents grow older they remain in Canada, and the children go back to the United States and send remittances home, and neither the old nor the young, until very recent years, have been in the habit of learning to speak or even to understand the English tongue. Within the last few years, however, the education laws of the United States have begun to break down this system, having a less complete French family life to conquer than existed in Lower Canada itself, in which we failed to fuse the races when we tried to do so. There has been a struggle between the two classes of schools. French -Canadian priests have been educated in the United States, and placed in charge of Canadian schools in New England, where many parochial French schools have been founded. Gradually the influence of the parish priests of Canada, which has always been strongly exerted to keep the people at home or to bring them back when they went away, has been weakened, and a persistent and successful effort has recently been made by both the political parties in New England to induce the French Canadians to become naturalised, with the result that a good many of them have become members of State legislatures, while the commissioner from the State of Rhode Island to the Paris Exhibition of 1889 was himself a French Canadian. Still it may be said that at present the French Canadians remain, on the whole, a community apart. There are New England factories in which are operatives who have been employed there for fifteen or twenty years, and who cannot speak a word of English. chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 59 The incoming of French Canadians to New England under contract, which used to be common, has been checked by the enforcement of American laws forbid- ding the importation of labour under such conditions. Of the great number of French- Canadian newspapers in the New England States many have no doubt been started with interested political views, but it is easy to see from the nature of their contents that the readers do not pay much attention to subjects not Canadian, and that these inhabitants of the United States are more interested in questions relating to France, or to their Church, than in those which have to do with the United States. That desire of the Lower Canadians to retain the Future of French nationality which kept them on our side during Canadians. the American wars will always leave the Quebec Province rather British than American in its sympathies. The Canadians are willing; enough to make their fortunes in the United States, but mostly on condition that they may return one day to Canada, and they do not believe that it would be possible for them to enjoy the same measure of insurance of their national peculiarities in the event of their absorption in the United States as they now enjoy under the Act of 1867, which makes Quebec a separate Province with a Parliament of its own. If there were not many other reasons for desiring that the bonds between the Canadian Dominion and the United Kingdom should be rather strengthened than relaxed, there would be a sufficient one in the fact that we are now ourselves upon good terms with both French-Canadian Roman Catholics and British-Canadian Protestants, between whom, under an independent system, a conflict would be probable. The success that the principle of federal self-government has achieved 60 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN parti in uniting in one Canadian Power two races and two religions so distinct — the success the same principle has had in uniting three races and two religions in Switzer- land — seems to show that no difficulties are too great to be conquered in this fashion. It is probable that federa- tion such as that of Canada would have kept the old American colonies themselves in permanent connection with the British Crown. Their past. One reason for the present attachment of the French Canadians to the Empire is to be found in the fact that although for many years they had their disputes with us as to their liberties and rights, they had not enjoyed free institutions when under the Crown of France, and the liberties which they possess in so full a measure at the present time are of wholly modern growth. When Colbert was laying down the principles upon which French Canada should be governed, it was proposed to him by a Governor that provision should be made for the summoning of an assembly in the future ; but the Minister severely reproved him, saying that he must always follow in Canadian affairs the forms used in France, and that, as the Kings of France had decided not to call together the French States-General, having indeed the design of ultimately ridding the kingdom of the very theory of their existence, the Governors of Canada must take the greatest pains to gradually sup- press every form of collective action, " it being wise that each man should speak for himself, but that no one should speak for all." Surprise has often been expressed that the purely German population of Alsace should have proved, since 1789, and up to 1870, the most patriotic citizens of France ; and in the fact that they owed their social and political liberties to the French conquest is to be found the chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 61 explanation. So, too, in Canada, although the defeat and conquest of the French were followed for a time by a continuation of arbitrary government, the liberties which the French Canadians now enjoy under the British Crown, being new to them in history, are a powerful cause of their general loyalty. Moreover, in the case of the Canadians, the excesses which followed the French Eevolution for long years severed any sentimental con- nection between the Catholic, monarchical, Canadian population and the people of France itself. When I wrote of Quebec in 1868 I laid much stress Quebec upon the striking appearance of the city. To say that"** the town is in picturesqueness and in position unrivalled on the American continent is poor praise for the capital of Lower Canada. In the grouping of its buildings "the Ancient Capital" rivals Edinburgh, and its situa- tion on the heights above the St. Lawrence does not suffer in comparison with that of Lisbon as it rises on the sharp hills from the Tagus. After the dreary monotony of many of the American cities of the North and the North West the eye is not fastidious, but the beauty of Quebec, whether seen from afar or viewed from its own terrace, appeals even to those whose life has been spent among the loveliest cities of the old world. Within the walls, too, at every turn, one discovers some bit of architecture which calls to mind a corner of a quiet French provincial town, and many of the modern buildings of Quebec are not inharmonious, but are, on the contrary, in keeping with the style of the old city. While signs are not wanting throughout the countries of English speech that as our race conquers the non-Russian globe it will estab- lish everywhere in its cities one dull level of unloveliness in architecture, and while even now the most experienced traveller finds it difficult, in examining a photograph of 62 PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part i any new settlement of English-speaking people, to say if the scene represented lies in Manitoba, in Texas, in South Africa, or in the back country of New South Wales, the colonies of the Latin races have in their towns some old-world picturesqueness — Quebec like G-oa, Macao, Havana, and many more. It would seem as though the penalty of the expansion of England, whether in her own colonies or in the United States, is the destruction of much of the beauty of the world ; but if architectural superiority belongs to the Latin race prosperity follows on the Anglo-Saxon trail. The city of Quebec, although in the rising portion of the world, is now a stationary town, which actually decreased in population between 1861 and 1871, although it has risen again since the latter date. The slow increase of population in Quebec is especially significant on account of the fruitfulness of the French-Canadian race, among; whom families of ten or twelve children are normal, and of eighteen to thirty not unknown. Various causes have been assigned for the comparative decadence of Quebec. The Orangemen of Ontario ascribe it to the ascendency of the Koman Catholic Church, which can hardly be looked upon as a sufficient cause. Employers of labour lay the blame on the Ship Labourers' Union, Rivalry of which has prescribed a higher rate of wages and shorter Montreal. . hours than those of Montreal, with the effect of driving a portion of the shipping trade higher up the great water- way of Canada. Others say that the destruction of the forests near Quebec has spoiled the lumber trade, and others that the real reason why some part of its commerce has left Quebec is that the British community, which, in spite of the preponderance of French population, directs the trade of Montreal, is more enterprising than the French Canadians all-powerful at Quebec, and that chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 63 its energy has made Montreal the head of navigation for sea-going* vessels and the centre of Canadian commerce. It used to be said in the old days that there were two advantages which Montreal could not steal from Quebec — the citadel and the tide. The citadel remains as an attraction to the tourists of the whole world, but the deepening of the channel has robbed Quebec of the control of the ocean shipping trade, and Montreal has become the point of transfer for Western freight and the point of distribution of import trade. The owners of ocean steamers are certain, indeed, to make the head of navigation as far inland as they can, and especially in the present state of railway development in Lower Canada. The waterway of the St. Law- rence, however, is blocked for navigation for half the year, and efforts are being made to firmly establish Halifax as the winter port of the Dominion. The city of Quebec is connected by rail with Montreal by the north shore railway, which extends to Ottawa, but the intercolonial line has its termination on the south bank of the St. Lawrence at Levi or Levis (now offi- cially styled Levis, and named after the Chevalier de Levis) opposite to Quebec, and there is no through rail- way communication west and east through the Lower Canadian capital. Quebec contributed largely towards the building of the north shore line, but has not retained control over the administration, and the tariff of charges for the 180 miles from Montreal to Quebec is often com- pared with that from Quebec to Halifax — a distance of 680 miles — the former being on certain classes of freight one-third higher than the latter rates. The completion of the Canadian Pacific line to the Atlantic through the State of Maine has been partly caused by the diffi- culty in the past of bridging the St. Lawrence at Quebec. 64 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN Nevertheless the river banks are high, and the deep water channel could in the present state of science be crossed by a single span lofty enough to admit of the passage of vessels of the tallest masts. Even the beautiful land- scape would not be interfered with by a bridge, for a handsome bridge is no disfigurement to the finest land- scape, as may witness the Victoria Bridge at Montreal or the tubular bridge across the Menai Strait, and the most practicable site for a bridge near Quebec is several miles distant from the city, where the familiar features of the scene would not be interfered with. A bridge across the river would divert freight which is now carried to the ports of the State of Maine, and, in addition to assisting the development' of Halifax as the winter port, might restore to Quebec a share of the shipping- trade. Until Quebec is made a centre of railway com- munication the complaint will undoubtedly continue that Quebec wages are on a lower scale than those of Montreal, for the terms upon which the Ship Labourers' Union insist are an exception to the usual rate. Montreal. At the extreme west of Lower Canada lies Montreal, hardly belonging to the Province of Quebec by its geo- graphical situation, and in dispute between Upper and Lower Canada as regards its population. Containing within the city and the suburbs 200,000 people, and possessed of handsome buildings, it must be regarded as the first city of the Dominion, although the next census will probably reveal the fact that Toronto has crept up to it, if not passed it, in the number of its inhabitants. In one respect Montreal resembles the largest city of the United States — New York, namely, that although it has always been the largest city in the land, it is not the capital either of the country or of the federal unit. In another respect there is similarity between the cities, chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 65 namely, that both owe much to their geographical situa- tion, Montreal standing on an island at the meeting of the Ottawa and the St. Lawrence, as New York stands at the junction of the East and the North river ; but Mon- treal, though comparatively small, is a finer city than New York, both in architecture and in the background given to it by the wooded slopes of Mount Royal. If Quebec is the most picturesque city, Montreal is the most sumptuous in appearance of all towns of the American continent. Its chief feature is the splendour and the number of its churches, and " Mark Twain," who as a good American is used to cities full of churches, said of it that he was never previously in a city where one could not throw a brickbat without breakino- a church window. To one O who comes to Montreal knowing the statistics, which show that a large majority of the inhabitants are Roman Catholics, the sight of the crowd of domes and spires gives the impression that he is in a city swarming with Roman Catholic churches ; but on inquiry it is found that the crosses and the rose windows and the gargoyles belong in some cases to the Anglican Church, and in many to Methodists, Presbyterians, Unitarians, and other societies, whose early existence involved protest against ecclesiastical emblems. Although Montreal is a French- Canadian city, in the sense that the majority of its inhabitants belong to the French - Canadian race, the British minority are so far superior in wealth that, except for a certain beauty which is unusual in Anglo- Saxon towns, a month might be passed in the chief quarters of Montreal without the discovery being made that it is not an English city. The teeming French population dwell in their own quarter, which is so separate from the parts where are the finest business streets and the handsomest private residences that excitement may 66 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN parti prevail in the French quarter over an election or a strike without a sign of it being seen in the English quarter of the town. The existence of French and English popula- tions side by side in " The City of Churches " is the chief cause of friction between the two races in the Dominion. The British minority of Montreal, largely Scottish by de- scent or birth, strongly Protestant, rich and enterprising, includes the chief men of the community, and this section is given to complain that progress is retarded by the French Canadians, who, being in a majority, make use of the wealthy part of Montreal as the milch cow of the whole Province. There is, moreover, in the city of Montreal a large Irish population, which at the last census numbered nearly 30,000 out of a total of 140,000 people. These are, with few exceptions, Roman Catholics, and although they do not in any way coalesce with their French co-religionists, they vote with them in questions that affect the Church, which include most questions in the Province of Quebec. It is now computed that the Roman Catholics are to the Protestants in Montreal nearly three to one, and the number and the imposing- architecture of the churches belonging to the minority are the more to be wondered at. The very existence of such churches is a proof of the wealth and activity of the British community in the city. Montreal flourishes in spite of religious and racial disunion and of political vicissitudes. The city seems to thrive upon religious warfare, race antipathy, and social division. Neither has the removal of the seat of government of the country injured it, nor the withdrawal of the British garrison, though these changes have placed Montreal society on a commercial instead of on an official basis. The reason of the continued and increasing prosperity of the town is that its naturally fine position has caused it to become chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 67 both a centre of railway communication and the head of the navigation of the St. Lawrence, and the sio;ht of Atlantic liners and British men-of-war lying ofT the wharves makes it difficult to realise that the ocean is a thousand miles away, and the nearest salt water two hundred and fifty miles down the St. Lawrence. Quebec, like Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, hasinstitu- a nominated Upper House, while Prince Edward Island province. e has an elective Upper House, and Ontario, Mani- toba, and British Columbia one chamber only. The names of the deputies of the Legislative Assembly of Quebec are nearly all French, and the names in the Legislative Council French by an overwhelming majority. It is natural that this should be so, as the census of 1881 showed that out of 1,300,000 persons of French race in the Dominion 1,000,000 formed the French- speaking population of Quebec. The members of both Houses are paid. As the Province has the control of its own constitution — subject only to the possibility of a veto rarely used — it enjoys manhood suffrage and a purely denominational system of education, which latter is guaranteed to it, while it also keeps up the institu- tion of a virtual parochial establishment of the Roman Catholic Church. It is represented in the Macdonald Cabinet, which governs the Dominion, by Sir Hector Langevin, w T ho is a brother of a bishop, the past editor of religious journals, a writer of treatises on ecclesiastical law, and a Commander of the Order of Gregory the Great ; while, upon the other side, the Province claims Mr. Laurier, the member for Quebec East, w T ho professes, however, a strong desire to cement the two races into one nation. Of French Provincial politicians Mr. Honore Mercier, the Prime Minister of Quebec, is the most prominent, and seems likely to lead the Lower 68 PROBLEMS OF CREA TER BRITAIN part r Canadians during his whole life. The Province has not only the alteration of its own constitution and the school system, but the disposal of Provincial public lands, poor law or charitable institutions, a portion of the public works, power of imposing direct taxation for local purposes, loans on Provincial credit, offices, officers and public servants, matters concerning property, the civil laws, and the administration of justice ; and Quebec enjoys, therefore, as much as she pleases of the French civil laws. The criminal law of England prevails through- out the Dominion. The French Canadians possess their own civil code, which has grown from the Roman law through the Customary usages of old France, but has been powerfully affected by the codification of French law by the First Napoleon. It is maintained by the opponents of the Roman Catholic Church that by the Quebec system there is State aid to religion, and the institution of the fabrique gives colour to that view. Of social peculiarities in the Province of Quebec one is the clause in the Quebec Liquor Act allowing persons to be put under notice by their relations in order to pre- vent their being served with liquor, a principle which we shall find further developed in one or two other Provinces and colonies, and which also exists in some States of the American Union. The Quebec law has not been generally enforced, although drunkards in country districts are made to go a good many miles for their liquor, and the " Dominion Alliance for the Suppression of the Liquor Traffic " is now taking the matter in hand. Parties. The Quebec Parliament is a little lively, and there is within its walls a local division of parties into Liberal (National) and Conservative ; or Rouges and Bleus (Bleus having in Canada exactly the opposite meaning from that which it bore in France in 1793), which is chap, u THE DOMINION OF CANADA 69 not the same division as exists in Ontario affairs between the " Tories," who style themselves Liberal- Conservatives, and the " Grits " or Liberals. The Quebec Liberals now object to be called " Bouges," and claim to be a new party, and Mr. Mercier repudiates the term " Liberal " and most of its Quebec associations. In the days of Sir George Cartier the Conservative party of Quebec had had the undivided support of the Roman Catholic Church, and the Liberals were of the European type, and opposed to all exten- sions of clerical influence. The leading men of the Quebec Liberal party belonged to VInstitut Canadien at Montreal, which was distinctly anti- clerical, but the Church bent her influence to the destruction of the society and excommunicated its members. The body of a Mr. Guibord, thus excommunicated, was left in the dead-house for several years while the Privy Council investigated his rio-ht to interment in his own freehold grave. The society was broken up. The Liberal party, which as long as it was anti-clerical was in a minority (except for one brief term), became as clerical as the Quebec Conservative party, and under Mr. Mercier's lead styles itself National and is triumphant. The loyal inhabitants of the Premier Province of the Ontario Dominion, as Ontario loves to style herself, boast that of all England's possessions it was first occupied in a manner unique in the history of British colonisation. Whereas England has obtained colonies elsewhere by conquest, by exchange, by purchase, by discovery, Ontario is the only Province of the Empire which was first settled by men who deliberately gave up their homes to maintain their allegiance to the British flag. The land beyond the Coteau du Lac was in French times unbroken forest except for the forts at Niagara 70 PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part i and where Kingston now stands, and the political existence of Ontario really commenced when, late in the last century, under the name of Upper Canada, it was divided from the old Province of Quebec to be the home of the United Empire Loyalists. Ontario was settled chiefly by those from New York and from the middle States, and especially Virginia, while those from New England withdrew to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The descendants of the United Empire Loyalists are among the most vigorous and the most successful of the inhabitants of the Dominion. The Province of Quebec is in many respects virtually un- changed since I wrote of it in 1868. Ontario, on the other hand, has become a new country since that time, and while Quebec is still from many points of view, as it always was, a part of the old world, in Ontario we reach one of those young offshoots of Great Britain which are recognised in Australia and New Zealand, in Natal, and in the Eastern Province of the Cape. It is in considering the condition of Ontario, of Manitoba and the North West, and of the Pacific States of the Dominion, that one has to realise the immense impetus given to British North America by federation. Just as in Syria, in Central Asia, or in Baluchistan, the traveller feels as though he were among people who lived a thousand years ago — in Ontario, as in Australia, he is in the midst of a population who seem to be living half a century later than his own time. Although the Province of Ontario is smaller than that of Quebec, and consider- ably less than half the size of British Columbia, yet it is larger than the six New England States with New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland ; nor do its climate and soil compare unfavourably with those of the ten States named. Its average yield of wheat to the chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 71 cultivated acre during recent years has been consider- ably above that of the best grain-producing countries of the Union, although Minnesota still raises more wheat than the sparse settlement of Canada allows the Dominion to produce. Ontario is an excellent country for wool and cattle -raising, and for wine. In minerals and in timber it is rich, and every part of it has easy access to its markets. Peopled as it is by a robust stock, Ontario has a future full of promise. The city of Toronto, the capital of the Province, dis- Toronto, plays the energy which characterises Ontario as a whole. If Montreal is the finest city of .the Dominion, Toronto is becoming the most prosperous and is the most pro- gressive. Its increase of population gives promise of a growth approaching that of the great American commer- cial centres. Between 1861 and 1881 Toronto doubled its population, and, if recent estimates may be relied upon, it has already again done so since the last census — the population being at that time 86,000, and being estimated at from 170,000 to 180,000 in 1889. No two cities in the whole world are less alike than the capitals of the neighbouring Provinces of Ontario and Quebec, though neither is American. While Quebec is French, Toronto is more English than American, and looks like one of the southern suburbs of our own London, adorned with a trans-Atlantic equipment of innumerable electric wires. Toronto has no great beauty, and its site upon a flat lake-shore gives it no natural advantage to the eye ; but there is about the city an air of business anima- tion which yields an agreeable impression of vigorous growth. As in Montreal, the churches form the chief architectural feature, but the buildings of the University constitute a dignified group. The educational and reli- gious activity of " The Queen City " is as striking as its 72 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN parti commercial enterprise. It is to the fact of its having become a great railroad centre that the prosperity of the lake-side capital of Ontario is due — no less than eight lines converging there from different directions. Ottawa. Ottawa owes its position of capital of the Dominion to the jealousies of the greater cities. The situation of the town on the high banks of the Ottawa, close to the boiling falls, is superior to that of Washington on the low lands of the Potomac, and, though the Gothic Houses of Parliament are not of the size of the classic Capitol of the United States, the grouping of the legislative and departmental buildings on three sides of an imposing square makes a finer single architectural display than anything to be found in Washington, where the handsome public edifices are scattered about and lost in a wilderness of villas. The Parliament Library at Ottawa is perhaps the finest building of its kind upon the continent, and a block of new Government offices, in the immediate vicinity of the great group, has just been completed, the desigD of which is a model for the erection of public offices. The arrangement of the Houses of the legislature combines features which are- found at Westminster and at Washington. The Upper House, though it is called the Senate, and though its members, following the American custom, frequently adopt their official rank of Senator as a titular prefix, is in its arrangement, with seats upon opposite sides of the chamber, on either hand of the Throne, constructed on the British plan. On the other hand, in the House of Commons, which adheres so closely to English names as to confer the style of M.P. on its members, the seats are arranged in circular form after the pattern of Congress. A sitting of the Dominion House of Commons is an orderly spectacle compared with a session of Congress ; chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 73 but although the Lower House at Westminster has lost in recent years some of its character for decorum, it is severe in its formality as compared with the Canadian Lower House. One of the most sober journals of the Dominion, lately describing an unusually quiet division, said that " it looked all right in Hansard," but " to the galleries it appeared as though a comic opera had been replaced by a lesson in arithmetic." During the last session, when the most important division of the year was taking place, the members on both sides sang the Marseillaise in chorus — the choice of the sons;, however, having no political significance. It seems incredible, but it is the case that, in the interval after the division bell has rung, the Canadian members not infrequently call on some one with a good voice to sing a song- with a rousing chorus, in which the other members join, and the Frenchmen, being musical, are first asked, and often, though "clerical" in feeling, start the Marseillaise for fun. The society of Ottawa is mainly official, and revolves society and around the residence of the Governor-General at Rideau public men ' Hall. The city is, however, not entirely given up to Parliament and the offices ; there are lumber mills upon the Chaudiere falls, which employ many workpeople, who form the nucleus of a large industrial population. Al- though Ottawa is geographically within the Province of Ontario, it stands on the extreme frontier and is also near that portion of Ontario which is almost as French as is Quebec. There are in consequence signs of the exist- ence of a French element, and the French notices over the street shops cannot be put up entirely for the benefit of the Quebec members and their families who "board" in Ottawa during the parliamentary session. Ottawa city returns one of the fifty -four French members of the Dominion House of Commons. vol. 1 G 74 PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part i The Governors -General since confederation have been men of the highest mark, and Lords Dufferin. Lome, Lansdowne, and Stanley of Preston have done much for Canada, but of all those who make Ottawa their home for a portion of the year, and of all men in Canadian politics, there is one figure which rises above Viceroys, and above other statesmen of all sir John parties. The position of personal influence which Sir Macdonaid. j | m ^ Macclonalcl holds in the Dominion is unique among the politicians of the British Empire. If it were possible to institute a comparison between a colonial possession and a first-class European power, Sir John Macdonald's position in Canada might be likened to that of Prince Bismarck in the German Empire. In personal characteristics there is much in " John A.," as he is often styled, to remind one of another European statesman now deceased — Signor Depretis, the late Prime Minister of Italy, — for there are certainly not a few points of resemblance between "The Old Stradella" and "Old To-morrow," as Sir John is also- familiarly called, from his custom of putting off all disagreeable matters. The Prime Minister of the Dominion is frequently likened to Mr. Disraeli, but this is chiefly a matter of facial similarity, a point in which the resem- blance is striking. The first time that I saw Sir John Macdonaid was shortly after Lord Beaconsfi eld's death, and as the clock struck midnight. I was starting from Euston Station, and there appeared on the step of the railway carriage, in Privy Councillor's uniform (the right to wear which is confined to so small a number of persons that one expects to know by sight those who wear it), a figure precisely similar to that of the late Conservative leader, and it required indeed a severe exercise of pres- ence of mind to remember that there had been a City chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 75 banquet from which the apparition must be coming, and to rapidly arrive by a process of exhaustion at the knowledge that this twin brother of that Lord Beacons- field, whom shortly before I had seen in the sickroom which he was not to leave, must be the Prime Minister of Cauada. Sir John Macdonald's chief outward note is his expansiveness, and the main point of difference from Disraeli is the contrast between his buoyancy and the well-known sphinx attitude. Macdonald is the life and soul of every gathering in which he takes a part, and in the exuberance of his antique youthfulness Sir John Macdonald resembles less Mr. Disraeli than Mr. Glad- stone, whose junior he is by a few days more than five years, and whom he also successfully follows in House of Commons tactics or adroitness, as well as in his detestation of those who keep him past midnight chained to his House of Commons seat. Sir John Macdonald has had unrivalled experience as a first Minister — from confederation up to nearly 1873, and from 1878 to the present time. Dominion Parliaments live long, considering that their duration is limited to five years, the dates of the last four dissolutions having been January 1874, 1878, 1882, 1887; but Canadian Minis- tries live longer still, and that of Sir John Macdonald seems eternal. The composition of his Cabinet is a monument to his The Mac- powers of management and to his skill. There never cablet was a ministry so singular for the successful admixture of incongruous elements. Sir Hector Langevin, who is eleven years younger than his chief, although Sir John Macdonald looks his junior, represents the French Roman Catholics, together with Sir Adolphe Caron and Mr. J. A. Chapleau. Sir John Thompson, the Minister of Justice, is a Roman Catholic of a very different type. 76 PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part i being by birth a Nova Scotian Presbyterian. Another Roman Catholic member of the Cabinet became cele- brated in 1882 as the mover in the Dominion House of the address to Her Majesty praying that she would grant Home Rule to Ireland. Side by side with these sit as colleagues high officials of Grand Orange Lodges, and such is the influence of the Prime Minister that they, carrying with them many non-official Orangemen, voted against the disallowance of the Jesuits' Estates o Bill of Quebec, in the famous division of last year, in face of the hot opposition of the whole Orange Society of Ontario and of every Protestant Church. The Do- Since confederation, Sir John Macdonald has been, poTition 0p " as I sa id> perpetual Prime Minister, save for the five years when Mr. Mackenzie's Reform Administration was in office. Mr. Mackenzie, who, like Mr. Service and Mr. Deakin of Victoria, and many other leading colonial politi- cians, has declined knighthood, has now to a great extent retired from active politics. Mr. Blake, the well-known Minister of Justice and President of the Privy Council in the Reform Administration, a frequent visitor to London, has been compelled to give up public life on account of ill health. The most prominent parlia- mentary survivors among the leading members of the Mackenzie Government are Sir Richard Cartwright, the former Minister of Finance, and Mr. A. G. Jones of Halifax, who have both been conspicuous in urging commercial union with the United States, although both represent distinguished United Empire Loyalist families. The acting leader of the Opposition, now certain to become its chief, is Mr. Laurier, a French Canadian, but, as I have hinted, a master of the English tongue. He also for a short time held a portfolio in the Mackenzie Cabinet, but is a younger man than his former colleagues. THE DOMINION OF CANADA yy By the laws both of the Dominion and of the Pro- vinces the same men cannot serve in the Provincial and in the Dominion Parliaments. There is an exception to this rule, for members of the Quebec Upper House can sit also in the Dominion Senate ; but the rule is absolute as regards representative bodies, and the exception is wholly unimportant. Of Provincial statesmen the most Provincial eminent are Mr. Mowat, who has been the Liberal politicians - Prime Minister of Ontario for the last seventeen years ; and Mr. Mercier, the first Minister of Quebec— already named; and Cardinal Archbishop Taschereau, the re- spected head of the French Eoman Catholic community, may perhaps be reckoned among them, though he holds no political or legislative position. The word Opposition is a confusing one in Canada, where the one party is in permanent power in the Dominion or Federal Govern- ment and the other party in the Provinces ; but I may incidentally remark that, while we speak in England of "Her Majesty's Opposition," the Conservatives of Ontario have attempted to better the phrase, and style them- selves " Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition." That the tone of politics is on the whole higher in Political Canada than in the United States, and that there is less hfe ' abstention from politics among some of the best men than is the case across the border, may be seen from the class of members who sit in both Houses of the Dominion Parliament, and in the Provincial legislatures. Party feeling runs high both at Ottawa and at Toronto and Quebec, and at moments of extreme bitterness Canadian politicians, both Federal and Provincial, make serious charges against their opponents, but, nevertheless, the best men are throughout the Dominion willing or anxious to undertake parliamentary duties. In the United States many of the best citizens are absorbed in 78 PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part i the pursuit of wealth, and the great railway and banking magnates are seldom to be found either in Congress or in State legislatures. The wealthy, and unfortunately a large proportion of the most highly educated, among American citizens shun political life as a career with which honest men of substance should have nothing to do ; but in Canada the rich men, like Sir Donald Smith, and the chief inhabitants of all the principal cities, are active legislators. The fact that members are paid both in the Federal and in the Provincial Houses does not call forth the imputation that they seek seats for the sake of the stipend, and scandals of corruption are all but unheard of. The Canadian political press stands as high as do the Canadian politicians. There are leading journals in Toronto and in Montreal which may be com- pared in general character with such papers as the Liverpool Post or the Manchester Guardian, and it is remarkable, considering the proximity of the United States, how little the newspapers of Ontario and Quebec are infected by the sensationalism of a portion of the American press. The amazing headlines which are so conspicuous a feature of the leading journals of New York exist in Canada only in the mildest form. The French press contains a good deal of characteristic Canadian journalism, very different from any matter published in France. In several of the newspapers excellent French style is found ; but there are be- tween fifty and sixty French journals published in the Dominion, of which more than a quarter are daily papers, and the style in some of them would puzzle a Parisian reader. An effort to improve French- Canadian style is noticeable in Canada, which is similar to the constant striving after classical Greek to be met with among the journalists of Athens. chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 79 The bitterest of Canadian political controversies of The Roman recent years lias been that which lately arose over the church! power and position of the Eoman Catholic Church in the Province of Quebec. That Church in French Canada is predominant and privileged. The spires of its churches are conspicuous in the smallest hamlets. The cassocks of the priests are met at every turn, and the mere perusal of a French-Canadian newspaper will be sufficient to show that in the Province of Quebec the Church of Eome has a stronger position than in any Catholic country in Europe — stronger even than in Belgium or in Ireland itself. Sentences of excommuni- cation are published by some of the Lower Canadian journals, with the names of the offenders, almost in the way in which bankruptcies are gazetted in communities less ecclesiastical. Even in Belgium, where political laymen take part in religious processions, it would be thought remarkable if leading statesmen appeared in the costume in which Mr. Mercier, the Prime Minister of Quebec, was attired at a festival held lately at St. Hyacinthe. This chief man of a British Province which adjoins the United States appeared in the gorgeous raiment of a Papal order, which included white breeches trimmed with red, a green satin vest, a red mantle, a hat with white feathers, and a breastplate set in brilliants. Mr. Mercier's speeches are often as ecclesiastical as his costume. In July 1889 he made one on the spot where Jaccpies Cartier landed, in which he said that the thought which " had arisen uppermost in his mind while he had assisted at the solemn sacrifice of the mass by a Prince of the Church that day " had been of "the immortal Jacques Cartier and the heroic Jesuit missionary kneeling at the foot of the Cross, and that those heroes were with them that day, and that their So PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part i words of greeting and of warning to their compatriots would be, 'Cease your fratricidal strife; be united.' In the name of their religion, in the name of their country, he would say to them, ' Cease your fratricidal strife ; be united.' For the benefit of their religion, for the benefit of their country, and for the benefit of Canada at large, he urged them to remember that, stand- ing in the face of a common danger, the rouge and the bleu should give place to the tricolour. The demonstra- tion of that day had been a triumph for the national cause. Their nationality was insulted, their institutions were decried, their language, their customs, and their laws attacked ; and there were those who were ready to achieve success by the discomfiture of their compatriots. They were but two millions of people in the midst of sixty millions. The Government of which he was the head was ready to disappear if that would be the means of uniting the French- Canadian people for the triumph of their sacred cause, for the sake of their nationality and their religion. Their strength lay in the union of the people with the clergy, for to the clergy the French Canadians owed what they were to-day, and if they were a great and patriotic people it was due to the faith of their fathers, which they had maintained. For the sake of their religion, and for the sake of the Dominion at large, the French Canadians must be united. The agitation which was being conducted in Ontario was a baseless and a dangerous agitation, and if the French Canadians were to accept the provocation that had been offered them they might not be the first victims of that agitation. Profiting by an act of justice that had been rendered by the legislature of Quebec, in the full authority of its constitutional powers, the fanatics of Ontario were depriving the French Catholics of some of chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 81 their dearest and most cherished rights by the most insolent and insulting agitation ever indulged in by a people, conducted by the same men who were saying that the French Canadians had no right to teach their children French in the Province of Ontario. Let them contrast that action with the conduct of the French Catholics of Quebec towards the Protestant minority. The Protestants of Quebec were given one-third of the educational grant, and they were not asked what they taught in their schools, but were allowed to teach a different creed and a different language. These men who had been treated with so much generosity and liberality were now joining the fanatics of Ontario. The Quebec legislature had its documents translated into English for the benefit of the few English members, and these fanatics would not allow French to be taught in Ontario. The French - Canadian people were too generous to retaliate on the minority. It was useless to imagine that they would ever cease to be French and Catholic." It will be seen that this speech is a valuable indication of the drift of the internal politics of Quebec, and of their bearing ujDon the politics of the Dominion. Ptoman Catholic interests are, however, unlikely to be really trampled upon in a country in which the Eoman Catholics possess, as they do in Canada, some 42 per cent of the religious world and are almost as numerous as the three next great denominations put together. Bishops and priests exercise in Lower Canada a somewhat minute supervision over the lives of their people. They, of course, discourage mixed marriages, and they do so to such an extent as to strongly promote the homogeneous character of the French- Canadian population. Some grief is caused in the city of Quebec, during the periodical residence of the 82 PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part i Governor-General, by the fact that no dispensation for dancing is given to French-Canadian ladies on the occa- sion of Viceregal balls. Archbishop Fabre of Montreal in a recent pastoral warned the faithful against a number of wicked and doubtful practices, contained in a list which brought together amateur theatricals, circuses, and snow- shoe tramps. The legal holidays imposed by the civil code of Quebec include a number of Church festivals not recognised in Protestant countries ; but the bishops are also strict as regards Sunday observance. In the greater portion of the Province of Quebec there is little active opposition to Roman Catholic pretensions, but at Montreal, where the Protestant element is larger, there is some friction and considerable feeling against the powers and privileges of the Church. The Christian Brothers have a large printing establish- ment at Montreal, and there are complaints that this house, which pays no taxes, should enter into competition with employers of labour who have to pay high muni- cipal rates. Similar complaint is made regarding a laundry on a large scale connected with the Good Shepherd Reformatory. French Roman Catholic influ- ence is, however, strong in Canada even outside the Province of Quebec, and the action of the Corporation of Ottawa, the capital of the British Canadian Dominion, may be contrasted with that of the municipality of the capital of France, the eldest daughter of the Church, in the matter of change of names of streets. At Ottawa the name of " Water Street " was recently altered to that of " St. John Baptist," in honour of the patron saint of the French Canadians. It may be interesting to note that in this most Catholic country in the world the Queen's name and not the Pope's takes the first place on the toast -list of banquets even of Catholic chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 83 societies. Last St. John's Day, the chief annual festival of Quebec commenced in the morning with high mass, at which the Cardinal officiated, the host being elevated to the sound of bugles and a salute of artillery, while in the evening, at the banquet of the societies which had attended this solemn service in the Basilica, the first toast was offered " a la Reine." The Church of Rome within the Province of Quebec a virtual State has the powers of a State Church, and indeed greater church, powers than those enjoyed by the Church of England in England and Wales, but remains unfettered by State restrictions. By an Act of George III passed in 1774 the clergy of the Church of Rome may receive their accustomed dues with respect to such persons as profess the religion of the Church of Rome, and it is under this law that the Church in Quebec now collects its tithes. According to the " Code des Cures" tithe is due upon the crops harvested " by every proprietor or tenant pro- fessing the Catholic religion " ; but any one who has once been a Roman Catholic cannot evade payment by merely alleging that he no longer belongs to the Church, and he has to produce a formal declaration of apostasy or a certificate that he is recognised as a member of a Protestant Church. Moreover, the Church has the power to assess and raise rates for the support of ecclesi- astical fabrics, and there is also an exemption of Church property from municipal taxation. The recent contro- versy on the Jesuits' Estates Bill illustrates the position of the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec and the feeling outside that Province with regard to it. After the suppression of the Society of Jesus by Clement XIV, the Jesuits' property in Canada was confided to the Legislature of Quebec to be devoted to purposes of education. When the Jesuit body was reinstated in 84 PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part i favour at Rome it began from time to time to demand back the property; and in 1888 the Provincial Legisla- ture passed an Act by which the Lieutenant-Governor in Council was authorised to pay to the representatives of the Eoman Catholic Church a large sum as a quittance for all old claims — the sum to remain as a special deposit until the Pope had ratified the settlement and made known his wishes as to the distribution of the money. The Pope gave nearly half to the Jesuits, and divided the remainder between the Laval University and the dioceses of Lower Canada, and the money, as though to irritate the Orangemen, was handed over on Gun- powder Plot Day, 5th November 1889. The same Act appropriated a far smaller sum — but to judge by popula- tion a fully proportionate sum — to the Protestants to be used for the purposes of higher education. Immediately an agitation sprang up in Ontario among Orange and Protestant bodies to prevail upon the Governor-General in Council to use his power of veto against the Provincial Act, which was denounced as infringing upon the supremacy of the Crown, reserved in the Act of George III of which I have spoken, and while the whole Jesuit Act was characterised as unconstitutional, the subsidy to Protestant education was called a bribe. The unusual course was taken of bringing the question before the Dominion Parliament, but in a full House of Commons, 202 members being present out of 215, only 13 could be found to vote for the resolution in favour of the disallowance of the Provincial Act. Although party feeling is bitter, the motion had the effect of uniting the Government and the Opposition, and the overwhelming majority who voted against advising the Governor- General to veto the Act consisted for the most part of English Canadians of every shade of political opinion, chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 85 and in most cases of unimpeachable Protestantism. After the division the House adjourned, but before the members left they all joined in singing " God save the Queen." It should be added that the Protestant minority in the Provincial Legislature of Quebec had previously assented with unanimity to the Bill. The curious fact of certain Privy Councillors in the Dominion Lower House, who are opposed to one another on every subject except their common Protestantism, voting together for this Eoman Catholic Bill, shows that there was an overwhelming feeling throughout the Dominion that the legislation was constitutional. But, even though constitutional, it could have been vetoed, and all the Protestant religious bodies passed resolutions in favour of a veto of the Act. A Presbyterian clergyman who declined to denounce the vote of the House of Commons was compared to the profligate abbes of the court of Louis XV. The politicians had virtually agreed to shelve the question by discussing it on the constitutional point, which could only be settled in one way, and possibly had so agreed because, the Roman Catholics being united and well drilled, neither party could afford to incur their hostility. But the Protestant objection is to the character and policy of the Act, and the controversy has drawn attention to the privileges of the Roman Catholic Church, and has led to the formation of "Equal Rights Associations." Although there is this bitterness of feeling between the Protestants of Ontario and the Roman Catholics of Quebec, in the Lower Province the population, except at Montreal, willingly accept the privileged position of the Roman Catholic Church. On the occasion of Archbishop Taschereau's elevation to the Cardinalate, the first official visit of congratulation 86 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN parti which His Eminence received was from the Anglican Bishoj) of Montreal, accompanied by his chapter and all the archdeacons of the diocese. The ceremonial of the reception of the biretta at Quebec was one in which the whole population took part, and the day was observed as a public holiday, while the artillery of the militia fired a salute when the Cardinal gave the benediction from the balcony of the Basilica. The Roman Catholic Church in Quebec accords seats of honour in its cathedrals and all its churches, as of right, to the Queen's judges and all the high officials of the colony. While, however, the claims of the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec meet therewith general accept- ance, the position of that Church, as by far the largest religious community in the Dominion, intensifies resist- ance to its claims in other Provinces ; and the Orange body in Ontario is not confined to the Protestant Irish, but counts among its members many Englishmen. An attempt, too, is being made in Canada to form a united Protestant body, and the Methodist Conference (repre- senting the Methodist Church of Canada which unites the Wesley an and the other Methodist bodies) and the Presbyterian General Assembly have entered into nego- tiations with the Anglican Provincial Synod of Montreal with a view to attempt a union. The neighbourhood of the highly organised branch of the Roman Catholic Church in Lower Canada makes Ontario Episcopalianism evangelical in its type. The Methodists are the second, the Presbyterians the third, and the Church of England the fourth religious body in number of members in the Dominion. Position of It has already been pointed out that the privileged catholic position of the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec tends Canadaand to prevent a movement towards absorption by the United chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 87 States. No two things can indeed be in greater contrast m the than the surroundings of the heads of the Roman Catholic state? Church in the United States and in Canada respectively. Cardinal Taschereau, holding a reception in his old palace at Quebec, in a gallery hung with the pictures of his pre- decessors from the earliest French days, is the embodi- ment of the aristocratic Roman Catholic system. Cardinal Gibbons receiving visits in his unpretentious house at Baltimore represents the modern democratic side of the activity of the Church. The difference in the surround- ings of the prelates is the distance which divides the France of Louis XIV from the America of our time, and the co-existence in North America of two cardinals so different in their views of the position of the Church is an instance of the comprehensiveness of the Church of Rome and the elasticity of her system. Cardinal Taschereau has a unique position in Canada in possessing the respect of all parties in the Dominion, and it has been seriously suggested by some of the Protestants of Montreal that they would gladly see the government of the Province of Quebec absolutely in the Cardinal's hands, as they would have under his government a sense of security which they state that they do not at present feel. I may add that one reason prompting this peculiar display of Protestant feeling may be that the Cardinal and his secular clergy are generally supposed not to be on terms of amity with the Lower Canadian Jesuits, who were reincorporated by an Act of the Quebec legislature in 1887. Of the " Liberal" members of the Dominion House Constitu- of Commons about a third are French - Canadian o\ "Nationals," who, though still called "Reds" by their ^^ opponents, are, as has been seen, not " Reds " in the ment - Continental sense, as they have mostly strong Roman tion of the position PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN Catholic sympathies, while of the remaining two -thirds a good many are also Eoman Catholics — of Irish race. The Conservatives contain in their ranks, as an essential portion of the majority by which they govern the Dominion, the French-Canadian Blues ; but the Tories of the remainder of the Dominion are strongly Protestant. One of the marvels of equilibrium which are found in Sir John Macdonald's rule of the majority consists in his being able to hold together his Orange- © © © men and his Roman Catholics when religious questions are under discussion, and there is indeed always a risk that if his great personality were removed some of the strong Protestants of the Dominion might begin to favour annexation to the United States as a means of swamping their Roman Catholic opponents. The existence of this and other serious dangers is a source of strength to Sir John Macdonald himself. In colonies in general there is a feeling, as we shall see when we come to deal with Australia and South Africa, that changes of government do good, inas- much as in young countries they accustom more men to the responsibilities of power, and train up statesmen to fill gaps in the ranks of the colonial leading men. Owing to the possession of power in Canada for so long a period by the same statesman, there is in Canada a lack in numbers of experienced politicians. But the danger of absorption by the United States, in consequence of religious and other disputes, is in Canada so pressing that these considerations fall into the background, and those who earnestly desire to preserve the Dominion as it is all feel that they must do their best to strengthen the hands of the Prime Minister. He rules by a Conservative majority, although there are Conservative majorities in only two of all the Provincial chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 89 Houses. Ontario and Quebec have a commanding position in the Dominion owing to their population, wealth, and culture, and yet the Liberals are in power both in Ontario and in Quebec, while the Tories are in power in the Federal Parliament. There are Provinces the Parliaments of which are overwhelmingly Liberal, and which, nevertheless, send a Tory phalanx, elected virtually by the same electors, to the Dominion House. The fact is that the opinion of the whole country sustains the general policy of the Macdonald party for the main- tenance and development of the Dominion, although Liberal and even democratic views prevail with regard to local affairs. The Macdonald Government is a govern- ment by the Tory party, but there is nothing reactionary about it, and nothing inconsistent with local Liberalism. Moreover, the Liberalism of one Province is a very different thing from the Liberalism of another. In ecclesiastical matters some of the Quebec " Reds " re- semble the Ultramontane party of Germany or the clerical Conservatives of Belgium. In large portions of Canada the Macdonald Government is chiefly looked upon as a business Government, building railways by subsidies of land and money, and creating great steam- ship lines. "Conservative" — or rather "Liberal-Con- servative," for that is the accepted term — is only a convenient label for the Macdonald party : Sir John Macdonald for many purposes is the party ; and Dominion politicians are perhaps best classed as those who " want to keep Macdonald in " and those who want to turn him out. The " Grits," or Ontario Liberals, are in the habit of stating that Sir John's predominance is brought about by gerrymandering practices, as the Dominion and the Provincial voting districts are in some Provinces not the same ; but this cause cannot account for the large vol. 1 H by Quebec. 90 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN parti figures and the permanence of the majority. Others say that the immense influence of the Canadian Pacific rail- road is the reason of that political omnipotence which they deplore. But the fact is that Sir John Macdonald's Government is looked upon as "National" and "Cana- dian," though he himself is a Scotchman born and only Canadian by his training ; and nothing in its traditions offends the natural democratic sentiment of the Pro- vinces, which finds local expression in the return of Liberal legislatures. illustrated An analysis of the Quebec members, in the Dominion Lower House and in the Quebec Legislative Assembly, throws a good deal of light upon the relations between Provincial and Dominion politics. Quebec has 65 members in the Ottawa House of Commons, of whom 37 are called Conservatives and 28 Liberals; 11 of the Conservatives and 4 of the Liberals having names not French. The Quebec Legislative Assembly has the same number of members elected for the same districts, and the franchise is almost identical. Comparing the election to the Quebec Assembly in October 1886 and that to the House of Commons in February 1887, the House of Commons being elected by a somewhat larger constituency than was the Provincial Assembly — in Quebec West, which returned a Conservative to the Federal Parliament and a Liberal to the Provincial Assembly, the Liberal at the Provincial election had been returned by a small majority, and at the Dominion election the Conservative was returned by a large majority on a much larger number of votes. The Liberal poll had increased, but the Conservative poll had increased in considerably greater proportions. A Ross coalition Ministry had lasted in Quebec from January 1884 to January 1887, the Prime Minister chap, n THE DOMINION OF CANADA 91 calling himself a Liberal, but his colleagues, of whom two were French and three English or Irish, calling themselves Conservatives or Liberal - Conservatives. After a general election, and the resignation of the Prime Minister in January 1887, Mr. Taillon, his At- torney-General, formed a Government with three of his old colleagues and one additional English Liberal- Conservative ; but the Ministry fell in two days, and Mr. Mercier formed his Government with seven colleagues, of whom four were French and three English or Irish, the former Prime Minister, Mr. Ross, being one. The Taillon Conservative Administration had been turned out on a party vote which showed 28 Conservatives to 35 Liberals, and it was on this majority of 7 that Mr. Mercier formed his Government. The chief questions, however, that come before the Quebec House are ques- tions in which Catholic or French- Canadian national feeling is involved, and in these the majorities are over- whelming. In the great division of 1886, on a motion expressing regret at the execution of Kiel after his second rebellion in the North West, the members were 41 for to 18 against ; and on the question of the Jesuits' Estates Bill there was no minority. On Church questions there is little difference between the Quebec parties. The extreme men on both sides believe that Riel died only because he was a Frenchman of the Roman Church, and was killed by English Orangemen and fanatics ; but this feeling carried into power Mr. Mercier, just because the Quebec Conservatives were connected with the Con- servatives of the Dominion who had ordered or silently permitted the execution. A section of the Ultramontane Conservatives, known as the " Castors," however, joined Mr. Mercier's Liberals in his new " National " party. Shrewd and far-seeing, the Quebec Minister has now 92 PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part i won the support of the Church authorities, and sweeps all before him at the local polls. Quebec Liberals in the Federal House of Commons vote with the Ontario Liberals or " Grits " on party questions, as, for example, on commercial reciprocity, fisheries, and the treaty- making power ; but there is a very general belief that if the Liberals should come to power after the retire- ment of Sir John Macdonald, they would hardly persist in their American policy in its sharper form. Mr. Laurier is, as I have said, the leader of the Federal Opposition in the Dominion Parliament, but he does not meet with Mr. Mercier's success, perhaps because he has to explain away his votes to Protestant public meetings ; and 26 Quebec French Canadians habitually oppose him, while only 24 vote regularly in his support. Education. One consideration which, when we come to the schools. Australian colonies, we shall find to be of political importance, in causing the break-up and fresh formation of parties, does not greatly enter into the Dominion affairs of Canada. Education is delegated to the Pro- o vinces, and the Federal Government has with regard to it no power except to secure that in the Provinces in which there exists a separate or dissentient school system for the benefit of the minority that system is maintained. There are "separate" or "dissentient" schools in Quebec and in Ontario for the benefit of the Protestant and the Koman Catholic minorities re- spectively, and these are guaranteed by the British North America Act. In Manitoba there are separate Roman Catholic schools, and these might be protected under the same statute by the A 7 iceregal veto. In Quebec the Council of Public Instruction is divided into two committees, the one composed of the chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 93 Roman Catholic hierarchy and an equal number of Roman Catholic laymen appointed by the Lieutenant- Governor in Council, and the other composed of Protestants, partly appointed by the Lieutenant- Governor, but with co - optative members. Any minority, however small, in a school district, may declare itself to be dissentient, and either form a separate school or join with the dissentients of some neiohbourino- district to form one, which becomes entitled to a grant from the municipal school funds. In Ontario the Roman Catholics form a larger minority than do the Protestants of Quebec, and the separate school system attains larger proportions, although more than half the Roman Catholic children in Ontario are believed to attend the public schools. The difference in the working of the two systems, which accounts for Roman Catholics sending their children to public schools in Ontario, is that (while the Protestant separate schools of Quebec are undenominational) the Roman Catholic separate schools of Ontario are ecclesi- astical, and give an education generally thought to be inferior to that obtained in the public schools. The public schools of Quebec are strictly Roman Catholic and denominational. The expenditure upon educa- tion, both district and Provincial, is singularly high, and the school attendance throughout the Dominion, in spite of the sparseness of the population in large portions of its territory, is perhaps the highest in the world. We have seen in the case of education how the Federal- Federal system, by leaving the subject to the Provinces (except so far as the separate schools of the " two Canadas " were guaranteed at the time of Confederation), avoids dangers which in a country of sharp religious diffi- 94 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN parti culties would otherwise have been great, and on a close consideration of Canadian affairs we shall discover that the same cause of peace is one of general operation. Canada is a country which presented difficulties in the way of united government as great as could be easily conceived. Elsewhere there are united in one country, upon a federal plan, three races, not altogether friendly, and two religions : but in Canada were found the same two creeds, in fierce conflict, and races separated by memories of constant war or of the grinding tyranny of past ages. The compilers of the Canadian census of 1881 undertook a difficult task in trying to divide the Canadian people among the different nation- alities from which they spring, but it may be assumed that the risk of error in this matter affects all races equally, and that, on the whole, the figures are not far wrong. The Dominion had then, as I have said, about 1,300,000 French, while we may class together the 900,000 English and the 700,000 Scotch as being united by history, for most purposes, into a body of 1,600,000 Britons, representing those who carried on continued warfare with the ancestors of the French in North America. One million Irish are separated from the English - Scotch combination by recollections of the penal laws of previous ages and of what they think oppression. While the majority of the Irish, and the French, together form a Roman Catholic popu- lation not very different in numbers from the Scotch and English and Ulster Protestant population, the remainder of the inhabitants of the Dominion con- sisted in 1881 of a quarter of a million of Germans, now increased to over 300,000, and of Scandinavians and persons of United- States- American descent. The Scandinavian and Icelandic element is now increasing chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 95 rapidly. The jealousies of the two great races and of the two chief Provinces had caused the adoption upon federation of the provision that Quebec and Ontario, in spite of the superiority in number of population of the latter Province, should have equal representation in the Senate; but the historic claims of Lower Canada upon the representation question were disallowed in the creation of the Lower House, where representation was allotted to the Provinces in strict proportion to population, and upon a self-acting system, such as we shall also see at work in some of the Australasian colonies. In Switzerland many of the difficulties of federation were removed by the fact that the cantons had an ancient history which made of them virtually sovereign States coming freely into union, as was also the case in fact and theory with the old English colonies when they formed themselves into the United States, but in Canada this basis for confederation was wanting. Before federation there existed in Canada intense religious and racial jealousies; and in another delicate matter of importance, namely, local finance and interests, the various colonies had set up custom-houses against one another, and all of them traded with and depended on the United States more than with or on each other. The Provinces (except in some degree the " two Canadas"), with their then distinct systems of govern- ment, isolated by the absence of transit facilities, were as separate as so many foreign countries. At the same time the United States held open wide her arms, and the set of opinion towards aggregation into large communities worked towards absorption into the United States rather than towards British North American union. Some are shocked in the present day when they hear of resolutions in Congress 96 PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part i suggesting the reception of Canada into the States system, but while I was in Canada in July 1866 a detailed Bill was introduced and read twice in the House of Representatives at Washington " for the admission of the States of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Canada East and Canada West, and for the organisa- tion of the territories of Selkirk, Saskatchewan, and Columbia." The United States were to assume the debt of the Provinces and to give an annual grant in aid of local expenditure, promising to construct the Pacific railroad, and to improve the canals so that large ships should be able to pass into the Upper Lakes, while the Bill also provided for buying-out the Hudson Bay Company. The only remedy for such a state of things was confederation, but the obstacles in the way appeared to be insuperable. By the prudence of the authors of Canadian federation these difficulties were conquered. It was decided that the new Dominion should have all powers except those delegated to the Provinces by the constitution, thus reversing the system which exists in the United States owing to the sovereignty of the various States, but which in Canada would not have had within it a germ of historical truth. The idea of a new Canadian national unity was favoured by the creation of a local Privy Council. The defence of Canada was naturally placed under the Dominion, as well as the customs, trade, and currency. The old Pro- vinces received the control of their public lands, forests, and mines, but lands in the territories of Manitoba and the North West, as yet at that time unsettled, were to belong to the Dominion. Generally speaking, it may be said that the Federal Government has all powers necessary to the unity, permanence, and develop- chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 97 ment of the Dominion, and the Provincial Government power over the daily local life of its inhabitants. Onr own has been a federal age. The year 1865 a federal 8£T6 saw the victory of the principle in the United States ; 1867-68 the new birth of Canada through the adoption of the system I have described ; 1870 the creation, in the German Empire, of the strongest federal system of the Continent of Europe ; 1874 the adoption in Switzerland of a federal constitution greatly improved over that of 1848. In 1885 was laid the foundation of the edifice of Australasian federation, while portions of our West Indian Crown colonies have recently been brought together under similar systems ; and in South Africa alone of the countries in which the experiment has been attempted has a complete failure — and this perhaps only temporary — as yet occurred. The difficulties which have been conquered in Canada by federation are greater than those which the founders of the constitution of the United States had to face. The territory now adminis- tered by the Canadian confederation is as extensive as the territory now ruled from Washington. The Roman Catholic and Protestant populations are more nearly equal in strength than is the case in the United States, and the fact that nearly a third of the people speak a different tongue from the majority, and have a far different history, prevents the creation of a homo- geneous nationality such as is found across the border. On the other hand, the very fact of the existence of the United States, in its enormous power, upon the Canadian frontier, has furnished the necessary reason for a Canadian federation, to the success of which "combination -to -prevent -absorption" is the key, and which was hurried into existence on the lapse of the Reciprocity Treaty at a moment when many 98 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN parti Americans were expecting application for admission to the Union from what they looked on as a bankrupt colony. The details of the Canadian constitution can be fully studied in the various admirable works of Dr. Bourinot and Mr. Todd, to which has now to be added a work of home production by Mr. Munro. If Dr. Bourinot's views of the situation are too optimistic, the writings of Mr. Goldwin Smith may supply the necessary corrective, but it is the fact that the latter author has scored up against the Canadian constitution a great number of points which are not specially applicable to Canada, but which are as true of the mother-country. For example, he has made an attack upon the existing state of things in Canada on the ground that the power of dissolution has virtually passed to the Ministries, Federal or Provincial as the case may be, and has pointed out that at recent dissolutions the question was simply whether dissolution would be a good move in a party game. But it is a well-known fact that the date of dissolution after a Parliament has existed for three or four years is in England, and indeed in every constitutional country in these days, in the discretion of the Minister, and that there is nothing peculiar in the recent action either of Sir John Mac- donald or of the Prime Minister of Ontario in this matter. It is indeed an unfortunate thing for Canada that the great English writer and powerful contro- versialist who has taken up his residence within her borders should write so strongly as he does, in English and American organs of opinion, against the " National " policy of the Liberal-Conservative or Macdonald Admi- nistration. Canadians prefer to fight the matter out among themselves. chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 99 Generally speaking, the main difference between the Canadian Canadian constitution and that of the United States g^J 1 ^ is that in the newer confederation the central power is stations, far stronger, as compared with the Provincial legisla- tures and executives, and in this point the Canadian Dominion resembles the German Empire more than the United States. The Dominion Parliament keeps in its own hands the Criminal law and the law of marriage, the appointment of the judges, the nomination of the Lieutenant-Governors of Provinces, and the militia system, all of which are in the United States left to the various States. The Dominion has a veto — virtually exercised by the Prime Minister, though in the name of the Crown — upon the legislation of the Provinces, while no such veto, if the local laws be constitutional, exists in the United States. Another superiority is given to the central power in Canada by the fact that the Senate, which in the United States is elected by the States, and in equal numbers and not upon a population base, is in Canada appointed by the central Government, with the result, however, that the Canadian Senate is a less useful body. The Canadian constitution follows that of the mother -country, and differs from that of the United States in allow- ino- Ministers to sit in Parliament. Mr. Goldwin Smith asks what confederation has done for Canada, and I cannot but think that the very existence of Canada in the present day as a powerful self-governing community is an answer. Canada, like Switzerland, seems to have reached the ideal of a federal power as traced by Toccmeville when he said that what was needed was that the central power should be given immense prerogatives, and should be energetic in its action towards the provinces, whilst the pro- PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN vinces themselves were to have perfect local freedom, the sphere of the central power being strictly defined by the constitution. Canada possesses the combination of central dignity and strength of government with local liberty and variety in the Provinces, and when the completion of the federation of Australia, by the entrance into it of the mother-colony, if not of New Zealand, presents us with a similar picture at the other extremity of the Pacific, three English-speaking federal powers will dominate that greatest ocean of the world. Canadian federation is declared by Sir Henry Parkes to be the model on which the future institutions of the British States of Australia are to be built up. imperial In Canada and in Australia the bearing of local n * federation upon Imperial Federation is frequently discussed. Just as in Australia most of the warmest advocates of local federation are averse to formal proposals upon Imperial Federation, although ardent advocates of a strong empire, so in Canada there is a similar feeling among leading; men. It is regarded as ft ft ft ft safe for Canadian politicians to talk enthusiastically about Imperial Federation in the abstract, provided it be understood that no serious practical action is to be taken towards that end, but Sir Charles Tupper's recent suggestions are viewed with some misgiving. There is, however, a certain tendency among some Canadians towards a partial tariff union with the mother -country upon a protective base, and the advocates of Imperial Federation in the colony are forced to work upon these lines ; but in the opinion of Sir John Macdonald's Cabinet it is desir- able that Canadian public men should avoid other- wise committing themselves upon Imperial Federation. chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 101 The principle is looked upon with disfavour by a large part of the population as possibly involving liabilities for projects which they think of purely imperial con- cern, such as the maintenance of fleets other than those intended for the defence of Canada itself. Sir John Macdonald has pronounced impracticable any project of a common legislature for Canada and the United Kingdom, and apparently holds the same views in favour of ultimate alliance upon equal terms as are popular with the younger statesmen of Australia. The general Canadian opinion is that it is a mistake to suppose that the alternatives before Canada are those of independence, acceptance of Imperial Federation, or annexation to the United States; and the prevailing tone of thought is in the direction of a continuance of the present system, which, on the whole, gives satisfaction to a majority of the Canadian people. It is very generally admitted that from a purely material point of view it might not be a bad thing for Canada to join the United States, and the Liberals make use of this feeliua" when they propose closer trade relations with the Union ; but, on the other hand, they repudiate the over-zealous members of the party who profess their willingness to accept annexation, and the feeling of the French Roman Catholic Canadians in favour of their present privilege is, as I have said, a powerful argument against a change. Mr. Mowat, the Liberal Prime Minister of Ontario, has spoken as strongly against annexation to the United States as Sir John Macdonald himself. When it is remembered that, as I have pointed out, a Canadian four millions out of five millions of the Canadian popula- tion are Canadian - born, it is seen that Canada has successfully passed through the " birth crisis " in which Australia finds herself at the present time. It is a natioi PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN commonplace of political discussion in our colonies of the South Seas that separatist feeling must spring up as the population becomes less and less British -born and more and more Australian -born, or " native-born," as it is there called ; but in Canada the population has become Canadian to a far greater extent than the population of the most Australian colonies is Australian. The British- born English and Scotch element in Canada is extremely small as compared with that in Queensland, or in New South Wales,' but Canada, owing, I think, to the success of federal institutions, is, in spite of the neigh- bourhood of a rival and attractive English-speaking power, less separatist in feeling than is young Australia. The effect of the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway has been great in knitting together the various portions of the Dominion ; but there are two weak points : the one that the railroad, useful as it is in peace, could not be held in a war against the United States, and the other that Canada has not made the necessary sacri- fices for an effective colonial defence. Although the success of Canadian confederation, considering the difficulties of race, of religion, and of geographical con- formation, has been as remarkable as that of Swiss confederation, Canada should imitate Switzerland in another matter if she wishes to remain a self-respecting and independent power, and should bring her brave citizen soldiery into a condition more closely resembling that of the Swiss in numbers and in training. Canadian The permanent corps of Canada are small in pro- portion to those of the Australian colonies, and some of the less important among those colonies have a larger regular fully paid force than has the Dominion. The "active militia" and " partially paid " force of Canada consists of about 37,000 men with a tendency to de- defence. chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 103 crease, and this is a number which is distinctly inferior to the requirements of the case. However much we may trust the pacific intentions of the United States and the friendliness of her people, we can hardly be of opinion that a country under a separate flag, with a fron- tier purely arbitrary and of enormous length, can occupy a position consistent with her dignity as a separate Con- federation unless she possess a defensive force which would have some chance of repelling a possible attack. As matters stand it is universally admitted by European military authorities that large portions of Canada would be overrun by the American militia immediately upon a declaration of war. The Canadian Pacific Railway, the waterway of the St. Lawrence and the Lakes, and the mastery of the canals, would be lost at once, and while Quebec could be covered by a British fleet, as well as perhaps the peninsula of Nova Scotia and the islands of Cape Breton and Vancouver, the whole of the rest would lie open to an American invader. Canada possesses an enormous advantage in having placed her militia under the central Government instead of under the federal unit ; but, on the other hand, while she has good mili- tary schools for officers, numbers are so overwhelmingly against her that she is bound, in my opinion, if she wishes to stand apart from the United States, to increase the numbers of her active militia, instead of allowing them to diminish. Moreover, the training received by the active militia, and especially by the rural battalions, is sadly short, while they have no proper equipment, transport, or reserve of arms. Of wholly unprovoked invasion the Dominion runs no risk, but war between the United Kingdom and the United States, though happily improbable, is a possible contingency for which the Canadians are unprepared. Considering the danger to io4 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN which Canada is exposed, and the remote character of any which can threaten Victoria or New South Wales, it seems an extraordinary fact that more should have been done in the Australasian colonies for defence than in the Canadian Dominion. The expedition against Riel was admirably conducted by the Canadian authori- ties, but the number of men moved was small, and the feeding them by civil contracts was a mere matter of expense. It may also be admitted that the Canadian militia possess fine fighting qualities, but this fact only makes us regret the more that they should be organ- ised with so little system. Compared with Canada, Switzerland itself is a first-class military power. As Canada stands at the present moment it is confessed that it would be hopeless for her to attempt in the event of war the defence of the country west of the great lakes. Manitoba and the North- West Territories would be aban- doned on the outbreak of hostilities, and, the Dominion being cut in half, British Columbia would probably be detached from the confederation, with the result of a complete collapse of the whole Canadian system. The eastern wheat supply would be cut off by the occupa- tion of New Brunswick and of the townships on the St. Lawrence ; the coal supply from Nova Scotia and British Columbia would be prevented, and the Dominion would be ruined. As long as Canada refrains from providing adequately for her defence, her wish to remain apart from the United States cannot be regarded as assured. At the present moment not only is land defence ill provided for, but naval defence is non-existent, except so far as it is supplied by the United Kingdom at the cost of the people of the mother-country ; and the Canadian Dominion, which has an enormous shipping trade, and THE DOMINION OF CANADA 105 which is in fact one of the first-class shipping powers of the world, pays no contribution towards defending that trade at sea. It is certain that as long as Canada remains a British Canadian colony, but fails to take sufficient steps for her own eemg ' protection, we stand at a disadvantage in negotiations with the United States. As a general rule, when one country is invulnerable by another the advantages and disadvantages of that situation are reciprocal. If Great Britain did not own Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States would stand to one another in a military sense in the same relation in which Great Britain and Germany stand to one another, each of them to all practical purposes invulnerable by the other. But, holding Canada as we do, we naturally have to think twice before even standing up for our own in any dis- cussion with the Government of the United States. The Canadian frontier is absolutely indefensible by England, and there are great difficulties and drawbacks in the way of its defence by Canada herself. If Canadians were unanimously anxious at all cost to maintain their independence of American influence or domination they would keep up a large organised defence militia. As a fact Canada does not do so, and her organised militia is, as has been seen, not sufficiently numerous to be able to make any serious defence of her enormously long frontier line against American levies. On the other hand, the overrunning of the Dominion by the United States in the event of war would appear, when considered from a point of view wider than that of mere British interests in North America, to be a serious blow to the United Kingdom, and the loss of Canada by force would prob- ably have a good deal of influence upon our position in Australia and in India. It is impossible for us of our- vol. 1 1 106 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN parti selves to strike out any new policy upon these subjects, and evident that we must follow Canadian lead. The majority of the present Dominion Opposition are in favour of commercial union between Canada and the United States, but not in favour of political union. Commercial union, of course, implies Free Trade in favour of a nation under another flag, and differential duties as against the mother- country. There are obvious drawbacks to the adoption of this policy, but so difficult is a permanent continuance of the present state of things, if Canada refuses to provide adequately for her defence, that it is possible that people in the mother-country might resign themselves to this curious and anomalous arrangement, which we shall have, in a ■ later chapter, to consider. In the ranks of the Canadian Conservative majority there is, as has been seen, a considerable United Empire element, but commercial interest may in the long-run be stronger in Upper Canada than Canadian national feeling among the Irish, Scotch, and English settlers. With the French Canadians it is otherwise, and it is possible that their objections to political union with the United States will be more lasting than those of the people of Ontario. We must conclude, then, that an immense change has been produced in Canada by federation. A majority of the Canadians are attached to their federal institutions, and as yet desire politically to work out their future apart from the United States, although many of them lean towards a closer commercial connec- tion with that country. AVhile some would attempt to gain a better market for Canadian produce through an imperial customs union, even these are disinclined to undertake in return heavy imperial burdens, and in fact prefer their own Dominion federation, in alii- chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 107 ance with the mother-country, to Imperial Federation, which they think might weaken their system, and will not trust their protective tariff to what might prove a Free Trade imperial majority. The feeling of the French Canadians, who naturally prefer a Canada in which they are king to being swamped either in the United States or in imperial British confederation, also tends in the direction of keeping matters as they are, and, failing a strictly Protective imperial customs union with little other union about it, the drift of opinion in Canada, as we shall find also in Australia, appears to set in the direction of local federations in alliance with one another. One practical form in which the points which we The treaty- have been discussing have lately become matters at j^w! 8 issue in active Canadian politics concerns tariff arrange- ments and commercial treaties. During the session of 1889 a resolution was brought forward in the Canadian House of Commons in favour of giving to the Dominion the right of negotiating and concluding treaties. It was generally felt that the object sought for was the power to conclude treaties with the United States, with special reference to commercial treaties. It was not denied by the supporters of the resolution that if treaty- making powers were conceded to a colony the latter would have no means of enforcing a treaty, nor would the country with which the treaty was made have any means of enforcing it, except by war with the mother- country. It is a fact that in bygone days British diplomacy has cost Canada dear ; but that diplomacy in relation to Canadian affairs is now controlled from Ottawa, and no British Government would run counter to the wishes of a self-governing colony in the regulation of its fiscal affairs. Not only do the colonies now possess and exercise full power in tariff matters, shaping 108 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN parti their policy to suit the needs or supposed needs of their peoples and the geographical position of their lands, even where the policy adopted is hostile to the interests of the mother-country, but the colonies have practically a supreme voice in making commercial treaties with foreign countries which concern themselves. There are many recent cases which illustrate the freedom of action which we give to Canada. There were negotia- tions carried on at Madrid for several years, first by Sir Alexander Gait and afterwards by Sir Charles Tupper, for a commercial treaty between Spain and Canada. Full power was given to the Canadian High Commissioner to negotiate directly with Spain, the char- acter and scope of the proposed treaty being left to his determination ; and the only reservation which was made by the imperial authorities was that when concluded the convention should be signed by the British Minister at Madrid in order that Great Britain might become a party to the instrument, and, by being at the back of Canada, might secure the enforcement of the treaty. Sir Alexander Gait, however, informed the imperial Govern- ment that Canada would not entertain proposals for differentiation against the goods of the mother-country. We have also granted to the leading colonies the right of inclusion in or exclusion from commercial treaties, concluded between Great Britain and foreign countries, at the choice of the colonies themselves, and the imperial authorities are in the habit of submitting to the Canadian Government as well as to the Governments of the other leading colonies drafts of all conventions of this character, with a request to know whether they desire to be in- cluded or left out. Sir Richard Cartwright, who moved the address praying that Canada might be empowered to appoint diplomatic agents of her own, competent to chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 109 sign commercial treaties, received general Liberal support, and was beaten only by the usual party majority. The speech of the mover pointed to a cutting of the connec- tion with the mother-country ; but Oppositions of all kinds in all countries are given to doing curious things, and it can hardly be supposed, I think, that those who voted with Sir Richard Cartwright concurred generally in his speech, or had fully considered the consequences of the carrying of his resolution. The trade of Canada, checked by protective duties, The trade is not on so large a scale as Australian trade, only partly ° subject to the operation of Protection. The area of Canada is as great as the area of Australasia ; the popu- lation of Canada is larger. The railway mileage of Canada is greater than that of Australasia, and as great in pro- portion to population ; but although Canada possesses magnificent fisheries and a lumber trade which is the first in the world, her total trade is only on the scale of the trade of a single Australian colony. It is pleaded in favour of the " national " or protective policy that it has built up manufactures ; but the Canadian market is not a large one, and the manufactures do not show well in exportation. Not only is Canadian trade rather on the scale of that of a single Australian colony than on that of Australasia as a whole, but the Cana- dian revenue and expenditure and debt are small as compared with ordinary colonial figures. The debt of Canada is one -third the debt of Australasia, although 7 O the latter has, as I say, the same area and a smaller population. The Australian colonies all of them raise vastly larger revenues in proportion than does Canada, and they deliberately adopt the policy of spending money freely upon railways and upon local public works. Canada, having over 12,000 miles of railway, and a mag- PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part i nificent system of canals made chiefly at the public cost, may be looked upon as having obtained her public works more cheaply than Australia. While Government does not make the railways in the Dominion, as it does in almost all of the Australasian colonies, the Dominion, the Provinces, and the Municipalities all help railways : the Provinces to a very large extent, as in Quebec, and the municipalities to almost as large an extent, especially in Ontario. But in the case of the municipalities there is an example of the Referendum (similar to that which exists in England in the case of the adoption of the Library Acts, of a decision as to triennial elections of Guardians, and a few other matters), for by-laws of the Councils have to be submitted to a poll of the rate- payers before the subsidy can be given. It must amuse Australians to notice the apologetic manner in which Canadians often speak of their expenditure, inasmuch as a far larger expenditure in Australia is universally admitted to need no defence in young countries, where English money can be borrowed cheaply, upon the credit of the colony, to execute public works, while colonial capital is producing a larger return in undertakings for which British capital would not be lent. The longer among the Australian railways have chiefly been made in districts where the land was nearly worthless, whereas the Canadian Pacific railroad, passing for the most part through fertile territory, has been built largely out of grants of land. It is probable that the policy of Canada will in the future approximate more closely towards the Australian model. More money will be spent ; more taxes will be raised ; and, to judge by what we shall discover when we come to deal with these questions in Australia, probably with the best results. Canadian trade is certain rapidly to increase. The chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA in Dominion is beoinnino- to send to the United Kinodom a substantial amount of wheat, already as large as the amount which comes from Russia, although still a small quantity as compared with that which comes from India or the United States. Canada possesses, as already mentioned, a self- Legislative acting system of redistribution of seats in Parliament, ties" ia and there are in Canada a much greater number of dis- qualifications of persons from voting than in the mother- country. For instance, the Judges of the Supreme Court, and of the Superior, District, and County Courts of Provinces ; the Revisers ; and persons of Mongolian or Chinese race, are all disqualified by law from taking part in elections. The interest in politics is great, the percentage of votes polled at elections being higher than the average in England, which is unusual in the case of colonies where large districts are sparsely settled. The whole of the polls at a general election are held on one day, a point in which it is probable that the mother- country will shortly follow colonial example. Indians possess one of the several Canadian franchises in the older portions of the country, but are altogether excluded in the greater part of the West. Parlia- ments are quinquennial, an arrangement which slightly exceeds the average colonial term, and members of both Houses, as I have incidentally said, are paid. As regards Provincial systems, neither Ontario nor British Columbia has an Upper House, while Manitoba succeeded in inducing hers to take part in its own abolition. Other Canadian peculiarities will be named when I come to discuss the comparative politics of our colonies. Canada is well supplied with local government insti- Local gov- tutions, and the system of local government adopted in Ontario may be looked upon as nearly perfect, and PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN certainly the best in the whole world. The rural portion of the country is comprised in townships, the villages with a population of over 750 being separately governed, as well as the " towns," with a population of over 2000. The "cities," with over 15,000, are also separate, but with more highly organised institutions. The council of every village or township consists of one reeve and four councillors, and the county council con- sists of the reeves and deputy-reeves of the townships and villages within the county. Women ratepayers vote, and I should add that Sir John Macdonald is in favour of giving them the political vote as well. In Quebec also the county council is composed of the mayors of the several municipalities of the county. In Manitoba, as in Ontario, the ancient names of reeve and warden are made use of, and that of prefet, for warden, in Quebec in the case of the elective chairman of the county council. Some of the Ontario wardens for many years used a cocked hat and a gown when in the chair, being of opinion that this assumption on their part conduced to respect and order. There is local taxation on real property, and on certain descriptions of personal property, including all bonds and stocks, and, in Ontario, on incomes. Great difficulty is found in obtaining accurate returns, for the purposes of local taxation, of securities held by indi- viduals, and little light is thrown by colonial experience upon the best means of solving the difficulty which has always been felt in England with regard to local taxa- tion of personal property. The Dominion municipal system generally is superior to that of the United States. It is a remarkable fact that in local govern- ment the mother -country — which really invented the whole system, or developed it out of Saxon institutions to a higher pitch of perfection than was reached chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 113 elsewhere — should now lag far behind her Canadian and Australian colonies. Even the Act which has at last been passed in England is admitted by its authors to be an utterly imperfect measure, needing to be completed by the creation of the district councils, out of which the county councils should in fact have been built up. In the North American colonies no trace is to be found of that fear of trusting the elected repre- sentatives of the people with the control of the local police which is met with in the English Act ; and in all cases there is that close connection between the district and the county which was wholly wanting in the English measure even as first introduced, and before the clauses relating to the districts were for a time abandoned. The peculiarities of Canadian Liquor Legislation will be dealt with in the second volume. Trade unions have largely increased of recent Labour or- years in the Dominion, especially in the Province of Sade**"" 1 ' Ontario, some of the organisations being Provincial, unions- some Dominion, and others having their headquarters in the old country — for instance, the machinists, whose organisation is a branch of the British Amalgamated Society of Engineers. Some of the Canadian trade societies are upon an international base, as, for ex- ample, the painters' : in other instances we meet with American unions, esjDecially in the case of towns near the frontier of the United States ; and finally, there are powerful branches of the Knights of Labour in some of the larger towns. A considerable number of Canadian members of that order wish to form a national Dominion organisation — a movement which implies impatience of " American dictation," and is resisted at headquarters in the United States. There are instances where the Knights of Labour have ii4 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN parti been able to secure improved terms for workmen in Canada ; but the employers of labour in Ontario, who as a rule have no objection to the existence of trade organi- sations, seem to stand in some dread of the name of this American union, and there have been cases where employers have declined to employ men belonging to the organisation of the Knights of Labour. Certain trades in Canada have voluntarily left the American organisation, as, for example, in Hamilton, where some have formed a brotherhood of their own, on the ground that in the case of arbitration they do not wish to put the matter into the hands of men who know nothing: of their particular business. The Unions are not strong enough in Canada (although they have shortened hours and raised wages) to be able in all cases to go on strike where non-union men are employed. The cigarmakers of Montreal, who give a " blue label " to manufacturers paying union wages — a mark which is supposed to be advantageous to the sale of the cigars consumed by the working classes — have only a seventh of the persons (in- cluding women and children) employed in the local trade. I have mentioned the decline of trade at Quebec on account of the supposed " tyranny " of the Shiplabourers' Union, which insists on an eight-hour day. The printers of Quebec struck not long ago for a nine-hour day, their demand being formulated for them by a branch of the Knights of Labour and by a printers' union of French workmen ; and the employers raised against the men the prejudices of the Roman Catholic Church upon the subject of secret societies, the Knights of Labour being: denounced as a "masonic society." The French- Canadian boatmen are often forced by their French employers to sign a declaration that they do not belong to any society whatever. The Masters and Servants Act of Canada is chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 115 a most antiquated piece of legislation, and it is an amazing fact that the Montreal Unions have not been strong enough to force its repeal, although it is true that incorporated towns have the right to make their own by-laws upon the subject. The miners' organisations are powerful in Nova Scotia, and Unionism generally — partly American — at Halifax, the capital. Of the friendly societies which flourish in the Friendly Province of Ontario and the city of Montreal, the Man- chester Unity of Oddfellows is one of the strongest, as is the case throughout the English-speaking colonies. The societies are agitating for federal legislation upon friendly societies, not being satisfied with the Ontario Act, and desiring to obtain uniformity throughout the Dominion. The Independent Order of Foresters is also prosperous, but the Order to which the greater number of Canadian foresters belong is not the Ancient Order of Foresters of the old country, but a Dominion order having branches in the United States, the supreme court of which, however, cannot sit out of Canada, and the chief officers of which must be resident in the Dominion. Many employers and companies have imposed on their workmen systems of compulsory insur- ance, which are as unpopular with the men as such systems must be everywhere, the Grand Trunk Railway system being similar to that of the Great Western Railway of England. There is a growing feeling in Canada that the Dominion Government should follow the successful example of New Zealand, and set up a system of Government insurance. Already the insurance companies doing business in the Dominion are compelled to make a deposit with the Government as a security for policy-holders, and a Government Superintendent of Insurance examines n6 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN parti Acts their accounts, and reports to Parliament in an annual Blue-book. Factory Since the growth of protected manufactures under the tariff of 1879, child labour has been largely employed in sugar factories, glass works, and cotton mills, and the Factory Acts which have been passed in Ontario and Quebec have not been adequately enforced by inspection. In Ontario two whole years elapsed after the passing of the Act before inspectors were appointed, and even after their appointment it was a long time before they got to work. The Quebec Act was not passed till 1885, but it has hardly been put in force, and its very existence is still unknown in some manu- facturing centres. Although it prohibits the employment of boys under twelve and of girls under fourteen, children are as a fact still employed who are much under the ages named. It is not difficult to detect one powerful cause for the supineness of the Provincial authorities in putting in force their laws. The statutes of Quebec and of Ontario upon the subject are not uniform, and where the laws of one Province impose severer restrictions than do those enacted by its neigh- bour, competition furnishes a strong temptation to the former not to put its regulations in force for fear of driving trade out of the Province. There is consequently a growing feeling in Canada in favour of the enactment of Dominion factory legislation, but there is some doubt as to the powers of the Federal Government in this respect, although, if the British North America Act does not confer the right to deal with the question, each of the Provinces might give its consent to a general Act. Hours of The Canadian rule as regards hours of labour is that ten hours constitute a working day, but there are a good many exceptions, and some of the Quebec cotton labour. chap, a THE DOMINION OF CANADA 117 mills, where children are unfortunately employed, are said to work nearly thirteen hours. On the other hand, the nine-hour system prevails very generally through- out Ontario in many trades, and the hours of labour in some trades are compulsorily shortened in winter by climate. Still, the street-car drivers work twelve hours throughout the Dominion, and shop - assistants are employed for extraordinarily long hours. One firm of tobacco manufacturers at Hamilton has made the experi- ment of a gradual reduction of hours from ten to nine, with the result that there has been no diminution what- ever in production. A Canadian Koyal Commission reported in 1889 to the effect that the Factory Acts should be strengthened as regards the employment of women and children, so as to absolutely forbid more than eight hours a day or fifty-one hours a week, and as regards the labour of men they recommended that all Government contracts should stipulate for hours of labour under them not to exceed nine. I shall have to return to their report in my general chapter upon Labour, but may here say that the commissioners were unanimous upon the point, and stated that their ground was that, the Federal Government setting an example, Provincial and municipal bodies would follow, with the result that the working classes would have more leisure for the acquirement of knowledge. Not only are the working classes of Canada badly Truck- off as compared with those of our Australasian colonies in several of the points which have been mentioned, but the payment of wages in goods still exists in an aggra- vated form in certain portions of the Dominion. It is no doubt difficult to work the lumber trade, where gang's of men are despatched great distances, or the fishing trade, without some resort to truck ; and the condition n8 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN of the fishermen of the Maritime Provinces of the Dominion is superior in this respect to that of the fishermen of Newfoundland, although very little money circulates among them. Even in their own Provinces, however, they constitute a class so entirely apart that their grievances do not appeal to the working population who get their living on shore, while the inhabitants of cities like Toronto and Montreal have no more know- ledge of their modes of life than they have of those of the Esquimaux of Baffin Land, also their fellow-countrymen. There appears to be no Canadian legislation against truck, but a system of infrequent payment of wage being common, there seems to be ground for such legislation. Fortnightly pay-days are more usual in Canada than weekly payments, and many Canadian workmen have to wait a month or six weeks for their wages, although the Unions have pronounced for weekly payments, upon Fridays. There are people in Montreal who make a practice of buying the debts of working- men at a discount, as the law with regard to seizure of wages is favourable to the creditor, and these points too contrast sharply with what will be found to be the power of the working classes to enforce their views in our other colonies. Material Although the condition of the working classes in condition. Q anac j a i s inferior to what we shall discover to be the general colonial standard, it has improved during the last few years — a point which will doubtless be scored to the advantage of Protection. Wages are high, hours of labour are shorter, while the necessaries of life are lower in price, with one grave exception, namely, that the rents of dwelling-houses have risen in the larger cities. House rent has been increasing even more rapidly than wages, and although houses may be chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 119 obtained at low rents in the outskirts of the cities, as, for example, at Toronto, the prices are equalised by- car fares. In Canada, as we shall find also in Australia, while the working classes pay a very large proportion of their income in rent, they obtain for the outlay much better accommodation than is found in the old country, and single families not infrequently occupy houses containing from five to eight rooms. The higher wages which are obtained for labour ini mm igra- Canada, as compared with England, tempt thither aj^ u ° r f considerable number of British immigrants in addition to those farming colonisers of whom I have already spoken at the beginning of this chapter. The home Government advertise in London, through the Emi- grants' Information Office, that the average time taken on the voyage to Canada is nine days, against forty-five to New Zealand and fifty-five to Queensland ; the lowest fare for unassisted passages £4, as against 16 guineas to New Zealand and 1 5 guineas to Queensland ; and they state that there is a demand for good farm-labourers, a slight demand in two or three districts for mechanics, some demand for general labourers, a demand for miners in parts of the colony, and a good demand for female domestic servants. The more detailed circular for the emigration season of 1889 gives a full account of the depots for the temporary reception of the immigrants ; shows that there is a fair demand for carpenters, painters, and plasterers in some parts of the Dominion ; states the high wages obtained by bricklayers, plasterers, and masons ; explains the cheapness of the necessaries of life ; and generally exhibits the Dominion in a truthful and tempting light. The Canadian Government has ceased to give assisted passages, and it is unlikely that help to immigration will be revived, as the workmen in 120 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN parti the large towns of Ontario are as strongly opposed to immigration as are those of Australia itself. The policy of assisting immigrants is now at an end in almost every British colony possessing responsible institutions. There are two kinds of immigration which take place largely in the case of Canada even since the abolition of assisted passages, namely, that of labour under contract, and an immigration of children exported by philan- thropists or by Boards of Guardians. The towns com- plain that immigrants arrive often late in the summer, and are not prepared for the stoppage of many branches of industry by the rigours of a Canadian winter ; and that the result is that, while the inhabitants have to support themselves upon their summer savings, the immigrants undersell them in many trades. Some years ago there was a considerable amount of pauper immigration, mainly Irish, from the United Kingdom, and it is un- fortunately the case that a good many of these people have remained at Toronto, in streets of their own, in a condition of helpless poverty ; and the families from the east end of London are looked upon as equally unsatis- factory. It is said that their children never have a chance in Canada, as they are brought up with the old bad atmosphere about them, the parents having acquired a habit of dependence upon chance work or upon outside help. On the other hand, the information as to the success of " orphan and deserted " pauper children is of the most encouraging kind, but there is an objection to reformatory boys. Some Canadians, how- ever, hold, to put it in their own quaint language, "that the country is quite capable of producing all the children it requires," and it is possible that in the future even child immigration may be stopped. Canadian feeling sets strongly against what is called, chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 121 in Transatlantic phrase, poor persons being "dumped upon our shores " ; and the Viceroy has already power to prohibit it by proclamation under the Immigration Act of 1886. It is, indeed, probable that the Dominion Government will soon be forced to follow the lead of the United States by putting this power in force, and providing for the inspection of ships bringing immi- grants, with the intent to send back, at the expense of the shipowners, the cripples, the sick, and those who have no money and no friends ready to receive them. There is the more reason for such action that, in con- sequence of the operation of this law in the United States, undesirable immigrants, who would be rejected at New York, are now making their way to Canada. The American Union prohibits the importation of labour under contract, and it is said that an English clergyman, whose preaching, when he was on a visit, had pleased a New York congregation, was prevented from landing on his return in consequence of his pro- spective flock having then brought him over under con- tract to pay a certain stipend for his labour. This law is likely to be imitated by Canada, which has, as I have already said, suffered from the rejection, under its provi- sions, of many of her own emigrants from Quebec to the New England States. The importation of labour under contract helps employers to resist the just demands of their workmen, and enables them to coerce the domestic labour. The incoming of immigrants of an undesirable class throws heavy burdens upon the charitable institutions, and the House of Industry at Montreal, for example, is overcrowded in winter, and its managers have to give outdoor relief to a large number of families of this descrip- tion. It is proposed to legislate against the importation of immigrants between October and March, a season vol. 1 k PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN at which it is impossible for them to obtain work on account of the severity of the weather ; and when it is objected that it is difficult to prevent British subjects from landing in British colonies, it is pointed out in reply by the Canadians that the settlement laws of the old country do not permit paupers to become charge- able to parishes to which they do not belong. The resistance to immigration comes, however, chiefly from Ontario and from the city of Montreal. In the Pro- vince of Quebec generally, French speech is a check to British immigration, and in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Manitoba, and the North West, immigrants do well and are well received. It may, however, be re- marked that the very existence of a public feeling of any kind is a consequence of the existence of large centres of population, and that Winnipeg is the only British city west of Ontario which can properly be so described. It is not unlikely that the recommendation of the Royal Commission on Labour will be carried out in the establishment in the Dominion of a labour bureau similar to that founded at Washington in 1884, with a view to the more equal distribution of the labour of which there may be a surplus in one part and a de- ficiency in other parts of the Dominion. There remains the problem of Chinese immigration, which applies on a large scale, in the case of Canada, at present only to British Columbia (including Vancouver Island), but which will engage our attention, and specially as con- cerns Australia, in the second part of this volume. sport. The northern climate, with its long winter, seems to have prevented the development among • Canadians of that extraordinary love of sport which is manifest in Australia ; but, compared with the Americans of the United States, they are a sporting people, and in chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 123 certain exercises, as, for example, in sculling, the Cana- Sculling. dians have been able to hold their own even with the Australians, and to beat the mother -country. Indeed the only practical shape which up to the present time has been taken by the idea of imperial unity seems to be the selection of the rivers of the old country for the struggles of the oarsmen of Australia and of the Dominion. The national game of Canada is Lacrosse — a French - Canadian pastime of Indian origin Lacrosse. — while the American Base-Ball and the English Cricket are also played. The most characteristic sports, how- ever, of the Canadians are their winter amusements, winter universally indulged in by the population. Rink-skating ' is a fine art in Canada, tobogganing is an accomplish- ment; but sleighing and snow-shoeing, though often pastimes, are also normal methods of locomotion during the long winter. There is no prettier sight than a meet of one of the four-in-hand sleighing clubs, and the ice -carnivals of Montreal and other cities attract spectators from all parts of the world. If we turn next to things of the mind we shall dis- Literature. cover, as might have been expected, that Canada has not as yet a really great literature of her own. I have mentioned two authors out of many writers of admirable treatises upon the practice of Parliament, upon local government, and upon law, which have appeared from the presses of the Dominion ; but of literature purely Canadian the best perhaps is still to be found in the works of Haliburton, whether in the now superseded humour of Sam Slick, or in the volumes of his his- tories, remarkable as they are for their excellent style. Haliburton's otherwise admirable histories are somewhat disfigured by party prejudice, and just as a French judge — Brillat-Savarin — in his time distinguished, and 124 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN parti celebrated for his works on jurisprudence, is now remem- bered only as the first of theoretical cooks, so Haliburton, although thanked in his place in the Assembly of Nova Scotia for one of his serious works, will be best known to posterity as Sam Slick. There is, however, no lack of quantity in Canadian literary production. The yearly review of literature, science, and art which is given in Morgan's Annual Register (an excellent publication) fills more pages than do similar accounts of British productions in the annuals at home. Every year there are published in Canada many volumes of original poetry, history, and fiction, theological works without end, and scientific books of considerable value, as well as legal and educa- tional handbooks. At present, however, there are but few living Canadian writers who have more than a local reputation. Among those whose works are known throughout the English reading; world is Dr. Bourinot, already named, author of a series of volumes worthy to rank with the works of Erskine May ; and among scientific and educational writers there is the distin- guished name of Sir William Dawson, of the M c Gill University at Montreal. Canadian Of Canadian poets, on the whole the best is Mr. Douglas Roberts, a writer now in his thirtieth year, the son of the rector of the Church of England cathedral at Fredericton, New Brunswick, and origin- ally a schoolmaster by profession, who published when in his twentieth year a volume through a Philadelphia house. Mr. Lighthall, in his Songs of the Great Dominion, the Canadian anthology, tells us that Mr. Roberts is now a professor of modern literature in a Nova Scotia college. Roberts's "Canada" is a poem which has much political interest, and which begins — poetry. chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 12$ " Child of Nations, giant-limbed, Who stand'st among the nations now Unheeded, unadorned, unhymned, With unanointed brow, — " How long the ignoble sloth, how long The trust in greatness not thine own ? Surely the lion's brood is strong To front the world alone ! " How long the indolence ere thou dare Achieve thy destiny, seize thy fame, — Ere our proud eyes behold thee bear A nation's franchise, nation's name 1 " The Saxon force, the Celtic fire, These are thy manhood's heritage ! Why rest with babes and slaves ? Seek higher The place of race and age." It is, of course, unreasonable to expect literature of the first class from British North America, with five millions of population, when so great are the difficulties in the way of Transatlantic literature caused by English competition, by the feverish race for wealth and absence in young countries of a leisured class, that even the United States, with its sixty millions, does not produce much literary work of the highest order. On the other hand, while the pressure upon Canadian French- literature of that of England, and of Canada's great books. 1 *" next-door neighbour, does not, of course, affect French- Canadian literature, there are other causes which militate against the production in Canada of high-class work in French. Every year brings forth its crop of pretty verses, of which some, such as the Chansons Populaires of Ernest Gagnon, have had more than an ephemeral success. The Church, however, discourages the reading both of modern Parisian literature and of many of the French classics, and the French booksellers' shops at Montreal 126 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN parti and Quebec somewhat resemble in their stocks the semi-ecclesiastical libraries found in French provincial cathedral towns, while the best-known French books have to be bought at the English bookstores, as the Church practically exercises expurgatorial authority over the catalogues of the booksellers of its flock. It is somewhat difficult, therefore, for French - Canadian authors to study the French models of best style. A French-Canadian poet, M. Frechette, is the author of a poem as interesting in its teaching as the " Canada " of Mr. Roberts. It is called " Le Drapeau Anglais," and describes a French-Canadian father calling on his son to admire the flag of the United Kingdom, the glories of which he tells at length, and ends by bidding his son bow the head before this emblem of Canadian prosperity and freedom. The son replies — " Mais, pere, pardonnez, si j'ose. N'en est-il pas un autre, a nous % Ah ! celui-la, c'est autre chose : II faut le baiser a genoux ! " The Fine Art education is progressing in the Dominion, and Princess Louise and Lord Lome, during the term of office of the latter, did much to encourage the Fine Arts in Canada, founding the Canadian Academy of Art, and also the Canadian Art Gallery at Ottawa. There exist now grants by the Academy to art schools at Montreal, Toronto, and the Dominion capital, as well as an annual exhibition. A very large proportion of Canadian school children learn drawing, while commissions are beino - given to Canadian sculptors for statues for erection in various parts of the Dominion. Some of the private collections of pictures at Montreal bear comparison with those of the rich men of New York, as, for example, the gallery of Sir Donald Smith, which contains Henner's chap, ii THE DOMINION OF CANADA 127 "La Source" and Jules Breton's "La premiere Com- munion." For the latter beautiful picture an enormous price was paid. Canada is too near to the United States and too near compari- to Great Britain for her indigenous art and literature to Australia stand a fair chance at present, and although she has taken the lead over Australia in the perfecting of her political institutions, she must be admitted to be a little behind our South-Sea colonies in many of these points which I have lately mentioned. Her press is good ; her poetry not as yet equal to that which we shall find Australia has produced ; her impatience of direct taxa- tion, as compared with colonies raising a large budget expended with admirable skill, most striking ; her labour, although well paid, not yet more politically and socially powerful than that of the mother-country ; and her condition generally more like the old world than is the thoroughly modern and typical colonial growth which we shall find existing in Australia. In one respect, indeed, Canada seems to have led the way, namely, in that temperance legislation which has per- haps too hastily been pronounced a failure, and which I shall discuss separately in my second volume. CHAPTER III the dominion of caxada — continued. The West. Manitoba. The transition from the Canadas to Manitoba is one from a comparatively old civilisation to a region of new settlements, which are of such recent growth that, even where centres of population have arisen, the conditions of life are undeveloped ; and although the growth of cities, springing into being with all the features of modern town existence, is rapid on the American Continent, the time has hardly yet arrived for comparing the people of the Canadian West with those of Old Canada or of the Maritime Provinces. In Quebec, as at the Cape, several cities have arrived at years of respectable antiquity. In Manitoba the towns are even younger than in Australia. The Ancient Capital will celebrate its tercentenary in less than twenty years. Soon Montreal will complete what is awkwardly called, in Canadian phrase, its " quarter- millennium" : indeed, the same year will see the 250th anniversary of Montreal, the 400th anniversary of the landing of Columbus, and the silver wedding of the Provinces of the Dominion. The city of Trois Rivieres is older than Montreal. The most thriving towns of Ontario have a record, like many of the Australian cities, of only a little over half a century. Toronto has recently celebrated its jubilee, and about the same age are chap, in THE CANADIAN WEST 129 Hamilton — the fourth city of the Dominion — and London, which is becoming so important that travellers from the metropolis of the Empire have to inscribe their addresses as "London, Eng.," or it is inferred that they hail from "London, Ont." Kingston, the pros- perous site of the military college, on Lake Ontario, is somewhat older ; but all these cities, as well as those which date from the French times, retain certain characteristics of the era before railways. The new growths in the western section of the Dominion, which one day perhaps will outstrip them all — for Canada at present contains no city which is in popula- tion of the first, or even of the second rank of the whole world — display those features only which have come into existence in Greater Britain in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The capital of Manitoba is the only city of the new Winnipeg North West which displays true features of town European life. Distant over 1400 miles from Montreal, it is now reached after a journey from that city of two days and three nights. Formerly known as Fort Garry, the Hud- son Bay Company's chief post, it possessed in 1871 a population of 250 : ten years later its inhabitants were about 8000, and in 1886 had increased to 20,000, while the population is now said to be 30,000 — probably more than a fifth of that of the whole Province of Manitoba. Winnipeg is recovering slowly from the effects of a " boom," the accounts of which show that Winnipeg par- takes of the nature of the cities of the new civilisatiou, in which a boom is as invariable an incident of early life as the distemper of the youth of dogs. The architecture of Winnipeg, though as yet unprepossessing, is ambitious, and its main street is of a width in which the traffic of Piccadilly would be lost. Winnipeg is, without doubt, 130 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN parti destined to be the metropolis of the central Canada of the future, lying as it does half-way between Montreal and the Pacific, in the midst of a district the soil of which is perhaps the richest in the world. It is already a railway centre of immense importance, lines radiating from it like the spokes of a wheel, and the politics of the local legislature are chiefly concerned with rail- roads. It is needless now to enter into the dispute between the Dominion Government and the Province on the subject of the monopoly rights of the Canadian Pacific Eailway ; suffice it to say that it is highly probable that, had the Canadian Pacific line not been built, Manitoba would by this time have gravitated towards the United States, as before the construction of the line its communication with the outer world lay through Minnesota. Manitoba. In 1886, the year after the second Riel rebellion, a th^popu- census was taken of Manitoba which went into detail as to the origin of the people, a similarly elaborate census of the three districts of Assiniboia, Saskatchewan, and Alberta in the North-West Territories having been taken eleven months earlier. Although so short a time has elapsed since these enumerations, considerable changes have occurred in the numbers of the people, and also in their places of origin. On the last day of July 1886, of the 108,000 inhabitants of Manitoba 34,000, mostly grown-up, had been born in Ontario, and the same number, mostly children, in Manitoba ; England and Wales together supplied over 10,000; Scotland and Quebec nearly 6000 apiece ; and Russia the same number, partly Mennonites and partly Polish Jews ; Ireland more than half that number ; the United States and Iceland about 2000 each. There were also 8000 half-breeds, mostlv French. The foreign element is now lation. THE CANADIAN WEST 131 increasing, and in the North -West Territories there are, in addition to the settlements of Scotch crofters, of French Canadians, and of Londoners from the East End, colonies of Tsechs from Bohemia, of Slavs and of Magyars from Hungary, of Germans, of Kouman- ians, and of Scandinavians, as well as Icelanders. The Scandinavian element is that which, after the English, has been increasing most rapidly of late years (though in 1889 the German immigration was greater than the Scandinavian), and in the last few years the Scandi- navian immigration has exceeded that from Scotland and Ireland together. Manitoba, having been chiefly settled at first from Ontario, is mainly Protestant. It may be seen, from the list I have given, how widely different are the communities springing up in the North West from those of the old Provinces of the Dominion, and this fact will make the growth of Mani- toba and of the Territories an interesting study. The first nucleus of a population were the Selkirk settlers, who had their conflicts with the Hudson Bay Company. The life of these men and of the half- breeds, far from the residence of visible government, was one calculated to develop independent spirit to resist outside authority ; and the rebellion of 1869-70, and its recrudescence in 1885, were as much a conse- quence of the supposed wrongs of settlers living remote from Government as of reasons of race. Into this scattered community have been introduced the hetero- geneous elements that I have mentioned, but in all probability their absorption will present little difficulty as compared with that of French Canadians. The whole population will assimilate itself to the original Anglo- Scotch element, and instead of the babel of tongues heard now within the distance of one day's drive, English will PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN become universal. Manitoba stands, however, an inter- mixture of all races gathered in a land where there were no institutions and no traditions save those of freedom. One foreign community in the North West is likely for some time to remain isolated — that of the German- Russian Mennonites, whose chief settlement lies between Winnipeg and the United States frontier, where they farm profitably large tracts of land held upon a communal system : the one instance of the kind in Canada. They are a frugal, industrious people, and number now at least 10,000. Their German ancestors were given land in Southern Russia by the Empress Catherine, and the recent adoption by Russia of the Armed Nation system having destroyed their exemption from military service, they have found another resting-place in Manitoba. The rapid growth of these immigrant communities is accounted for by the fertility of the soil, and although the total yield of wheat is not yet great as compared with that of the United States, that wheat is of excellent character. It is found, however, that wheat farms can- not hold their own against the occasional uncertainties of the summer, and mixed farming is now in vogue. The people who make money in Manitoba are those who have moved on from Ontario, and who are thoroughly acquainted with Canadian winters and with the farming systems to which they give rise. The European immi- grants live, but only live, and do not realise fortunes. The homestead law gives them 160 acres of land for each male person of the age of eighteen years, on pay- ment of a mere office fee, subject to the commencement of residence and to the immediate cultivation of reason- able portions, and ultimately to the continuance of residence and cultivation, and the erection of a habitable house. The settlers obtain their supplies from Winni- chap, in THE CANADIAN WEST 133 peg, and send their wheat to its stores, and the rapid growth of this railroad centre is a necessary conse- quence of the system. Although the winter is in some sense a drawback, it is supposed to conduce to the fer- tility of the soil, and in the west of Manitoba and in Assiniboia and Alberta it is less cold than farther east, and as we approach the Rocky Mountains warm winds so often melt the snows that wheels are used throughout the winter. Sheep do not seem to do well in Manitoba as a rule, but cattle thrive ; and it is a curious fact that just as the most tropical portions of Australia are found unsuited to sheep, but suitable to cattle, so the most northerly portions of the Great Plains are also suitable to the creatures of the wider range. Wheat, however, is a special product of the North West ; the growth of wheat is spreading fast, and there can be no doubt that out of the Territories will be carved several Canadian Provinces of the future as large and as productive as Minnesota. Areas are vast in the Dominion : France or Germany could be dropped into the salt lake that is known as Hudson Bay, and be far from filling that single Canadian inlet. Manitoba possesses no legis- lative peculiarities as yet, for in abolishing her Council, and so giving herself a single chamber, she only followed the example of Ontario and of British Colum- bia, which had done without an Upper House. The early presence of the French in Manitoba had been recognised by the establishment of the use of the two tongues in official documents, and by that of a separate - school system ; but, under the influence of the strong feeling now prevalent among the Pro- testants of the Dominion, the Provincial Government are abolishing the dual - language system, and have pledged themselves to bring in a Bill to put an end to i 3 4 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN Alberta. the separate denominational schools.. As I read Clause 93, sub-section 3, of the British North America Act, which bears upon the point, there will, however, be an appeal to the Governor-General in Council against the Provincial law should it pass, and if that be so it is not likely that the separate schools will be in fact abolished. Assiniboia. From Winnipeg to the foot-hills of the Eocky Moun- tains, by railway, is a distance of about 900 miles. The prairie is apparently as level as a table, but a gradual rise takes place, and Calgary, the last town upon the prairie before the mountains are reached, has an altitude of 3400 feet, or 2700 above Winnipeg. New towns are dotted along the line, some of which, like Portage la Prairie, rose too swiftly at the time of the Manitoba " boom." A temporary depression following on the un- natural prosperity of that town caused its municipality to repudiate its debt, while the Provincial legislature of Manitoba passed a Bill indemnifying the town against its creditors. The growing communities along the railway have an air of progress, and the prosperity of the neigh- bourhood may be gauged by the size of the "grain elevators " which speak to the productiveness of the sur- rounding country. The smallest and newest of these cities of the future are better provided than English towns with the telephone and the electric light. There is a good deal of local colour in places. After the Territories are entered the mounted police are frequently seen in their scarlet patrol jackets, performing with efficiency their extended duties — from looking after the Crees and Black Feet to regulating the liquor traffic and watching the American frontier for smugglers ; and when the foot- hills are approached the cowboys, with the hats and saddles and stirrups found all the way from the North of Athabasca to the south of Mexico, show that ranching chap, in THE CANADIAN WEST 135 thrives. The Hudson Bay Company used to spread the report throughout the world that the region closed by its all but impenetrable wall was buried in eternal snows. Lord Selkirk's men had lived upon the soil since 1813, but their colonisation was on too small a scale to have become generally known. There is no doubt that the climate of this region is much more temperate than either that of eastern Canada or that of Maine. The contiguous States of North and South Dakota have progressed in a manner unequalled in the history of the Union. Some of the land in the Territories is alkaline, like a great portion of Colorado and Utah, though not so heavily covered with the soda as are Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico ; but it is discovered, as has been found by the Mormons, as well as in Baluchistan, that when broken up it is fertile. In the ranching country of the foot-hills the bunch grass which covers the prairie as far as the eye can reach looks as little nutritious as the arid vegetation of central Australia or of the South African Karroo, but in reality there is no better pasturage in the world. There is coal all over the North-Western Territories, coal, both in the prairie district and in the mountains ; and the anthracite found in the Rocky Mountains near the boundary of British Columbia is closer to San Francisco itself than are any of the anthracite coal-fields of the United States. The northern part of the Territories is now known Saskatch as " Canada's great reserve," and the districts upon some j^a, and of the largest rivers in the world, which flow northwards ^{J into the Arctic regions, produce agricultural country West." even up to the 66th degree of latitude, and present none of the usual characteristics of a sub-Arctic country. It is possible that in the extreme north-west of Canada 136 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN parti there exists a region of settlement as remarkable and as unexpected as that district of Australia " behind the range" which, long looked upon as sterile, is now becoming the most valuable part of the new continent. Govern- The Territories of Assiniboia, Alberta, and Sas- Tenitories! katchewan are governed by a Legislative Assembly, and possess elective but not responsible government. Three judges sit in the Assembly as legal experts on the nomination of the Governor-General, and without votes, along with twenty -two elective members. The Lieutenant-Governor is allowed to choose four members of the Assembly as a Council for Finance. He rules, from his seat of Government at Regina, Athabasca which is outside the represented Territories. All the members of the Assembly are paid, but the Canadian Dominion takes the receipts from the Territories, and provides the funds for carrying on the government. The electors are male non-alien householders, resident a year in the Territories and three months within the district. The Territories are represented both in the Senate and in the Dominion House of Commons, and so possess a superiority of constitutional position over the Territories of the United States, which send only delegates without votes to the lower House of Congress. Britisii The passage of the Rocky Mountains by the railway Columbia. j iag p rac ti ca ]iy added to the British Crown a province of enormous extent and of boundless capacity, for when the gold discoveries on the Fraser river had brought a population of Californian diggers between 1856 and 1858, and the country was given the name and the status of a colony, its connections were with the United States. In 1866 the colony of Vancouver Island and that of British Columbia were united — the mainland supplying the name and the island the seat of govern- chap, in THE CANADIAN WEST \yj ment — but the new country was still virtually reached only from San Francisco. When in 1871 British Columbia was admitted into the Dominion it was with the promise that the railway should be made. Its representatives came to Ottawa after a sea-voyage to San Francisco, followed by a weary journey across the United States, and it was a case of Federation under difficulties. Esquimalt Harbour was the remotest of all the stations of the British fleet, and this very fact kept up the feeling of distance and of isolation. The inaccessibility of the colony prevented all similarity between it and the rest of British North America, but Victoria, the capital, is a curiously English city. British Columbia has a far larger area than the other Provinces of the Dominion, and will some day be divided, if its northern country turns out to be as capable of development as seems probable from what is known of it. Roughly speaking, British Columbia is of the size of New South Wales, or of France with Italy, Holland, and Belgium. When the Canadian Pacific line was finished its population, including Indians and Chinese, was estimated at between 60,000 and 90,000, but large portions of the interior are yet unex- plored, and even the ranges crossed by the railway lie in a country hardly trodden by the foot of man until the exploring party which made the railway survey first went over it. The mountain scenery which commences on the railway within the boundary of Alberta, where a larore reserve has been made for a national park, is as fine as any in the world ; and these mountains serve as a barrier for British Columbia against the severe winter cold of the continent to the east, and in the valleys between the ranges, and upon the Pacific Slope, there are not only vast tracts of magnificent forest land, but VOL. i L 138 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN parti also stretches of open prairie, extremely fertile and well adapted for farming. Some of the country in the valleys has a climate sufficiently dry for the land to require irri- gation, but the lakes afford an unlimited supply of water for that purpose. On the coast of the south part, both of the mainland and of Vancouver Island, the climate is one of the mildest and most equable in the world. Victoria is an agreeable place for residence, but although it has been favourably affected by the opening up of the Province, it views with regret the rise of a rival on the mainland at the terminus of the Canadian Pacific railroad. Hitherto the only town of considerable size upon the mainland had been New Westminster, which was the seat of government during the short period in which British Columbia was an independent colony separate from Vancouver Island ; but the railway has left New Westminster upon oue side, and has planted at its terminus on Burrard Inlet a new city which has been named Vancouver ; and the fact that Vancouver is not on Vancouver Island is likely to prove as great a stumbling-block to the schoolboys of the future as the anomaly that Washington City is not in Washington State, or the fact that Mont Blanc is not in Switzer- land. coast The laying-out of the city of Vancouver has been executed on so excellent a plan that the town deserves to be cited as a striking exception to the ugliness of the urban settlements of the Anglo-Saxon race. Its situa- tion would take a good deal of spoiling, placed as it is on a gently rising peninsula with a background of forest, while across an arm of the sea rise the soft outlines of a magnificent mountain range. The site chosen is a good one, not only as regards its picturesqueness, but also from the points of view of commerce, of defence, and towns. chap, in THE CANADIAN WEST 139 of natural drainage ; and Burrard Inlet is a landlocked harbour 1 1 miles long and from 2^ to 3 miles broad, and one of those Sounds of which it is said that all the navies of the world could ride within it. Vancouver — at that time Granville, and originally Gastown — was destroyed by fire in the first months of its existence, but has risen again rapidly from its ashes, and has now a population of over 13,000 people. Victoria is distant six hours' steam across the Straits. Vancouver The naval station at Esquimalt gives an official air to the place exceeding that supplied by the seat of a Provincial government and the residence of a local Lieutenant-Governor. In the law courts both judges and advocates wear the English forensic wig, British Columbia being the only Province of the Dominion where that custom is followed. On the other hand, although there is a decorous British air about everything in Victoria, the street scenes are less English than in many other parts of British North America, owing to the presence of large numbers of Chinese and Indians. Victoria shows no decadence through the rise of the city of Vancouver. Much of the prosperity that the railway is bringing to the western coast of the mainland will travel over to the island, which admits of great development. Vancouver Island is practically unex- plored, but is known to contain tracts of prairie capable of producing wheat, while its forests will become of value, as are already the coal mines of Nanaimo, north of coal. Victoria, and connected with it by railway. Both these collieries and the still larger Wellington coal-fields are close to the sea. Canada, which possesses, in Nova Scotia on the Atlantic and in Vancouver Island on the Pacific, two magnificent coaling stations, receives British forces, as we have seen, for the defence of Halifax, and 140 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part i Defence, desires to receive them for the defence of Vancouver Island, but has not been able to agree with the home Government as to the latter station because the Dominion contends that the mother - country should defend it, as " Canada can do without it," and it is needed for the British fleet. The coal-shipping ports of Nova Scotia, although not far off from the defended Halifax, are themselves defenceless, and Vancouver Island is not yet in a position of defence. The home Government lately proposed a partnership between Canada and the mother-country for its protection, and some men who were to be sent out to form the nucleus of the force, and to organise and train the local militia, were to have been borne upon the Canadian rolls and paid by the Dominion Government. The imperial Govern- ment were prepared to find the armament, ammunition, and submarine stores ; the Canadian Government provid- ing the garrison, although marine artillerymen and submarine miners were to have been sent from England to instruct the force. The important armament, how- ever, that was to have gone to Esquimalt was sent else- where, the home Government stating that they did not feel justified in keeping the guns in England to await the completion of fortifications which were only in contem- plation. The arrangement of June 1888 broke down, and the arrangement of May 1889 broke down, and I fear that the naval headquarters at Esquimalt are still inade- quately defended ; that Burrard Inlet — the terminus of the railway — is not defended at all ; and that the same is the case with the coal mines themselves. It is hardly necessary to point out the strategic importance of the naval station at Vancouver Island, which would inevit- ably be attacked by Kussia in the event of war unless our naval predominance in the North Pacific were chap, in THE CANADIAN WEST 141 complete. In the Canadian reply of July 1889 Canada insisted on a British force being maintained in the Straits as a condition on which alone the Dominion could build fortifications. Both the practical utility and the military import- The ance of the new direct communication with the Pacific overland coast turn upon the value of the road as a route between ro Great Britain and China and between the United Kingdom and her Australasian colonies. As compared with the journey by New York and San Francisco, the distance from Liverpool by Halifax and Vancouver to Yokohama or Shanghai is less by over 500 miles, while to Auckland and to Moreton Bay the distance is about the same ; and some are inclined to see in the Canadian Pacific line a binding force for the closer union of the British Empire. For the first time in the history of Greater Britain it is possible to travel from England to Australia by an overland route (in which that phrase, from the proportion of land to sea on the passages, has a real significance) without traversing a yard of soil not British. As regards the route in time of peace, con- sidered as a passenger route, the people from the Australasian colonies who make excursions to the mother-country are accustomed to luxurious accommoda- tion and swift travelling, and although many Australians have already taken advantage of the Pacific route, the steamers running across the Pacific to Dominion soil are hardly as yet, either in speed or comfort, of a class to tempt travellers to choose it as against the Suez Canal. The class of accommodation which they require is, however, already provided on the passage across the Atlantic and on the journey across the continent, rail- way travelling on the Canadian Pacific line being more comfortable than that on the American " roads," and the 142 PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part i improvement upon the Pacific is pretty sure to come. Letters have been sent from England to Vancouver in twelve days ; a time which we shall doubtless soon see reduced to ten. From there to Yokohama is under 4500 knots, which eventually will give the Suez Canal route but little chance ; while the distance to Auck- land from Vancouver is under 6300 knots, and that to Brisbane under 6400, so that it is easy to see that when swift ships are put on, this intercolonial line will enter upon a serious competition with the route by the Suez Canal. The Canadian road, however, cannot compete with the canal for the carriage of China tea to England ; but the local freight traffic between China and Canada is on the increase, and there is hope of a trade with Australia in Canadian produce, including Vancouver Island timber and British Columbian salmon. It is a question whether, in consequence of the completion of the railway, the naval station at Esquimalt should be moved to Burrard Inlet. The southern point of Vancouver Island, in the San Juan Straits, at which Esquimalt stands, three miles to the west of the city of Victoria, and nearer therefore to the ocean, is very close to American territory, A 7 ictoria and Esquimalt being immediately opposite the entrance to Puget Sound — an almost landlocked arm of the sea running due north and south, on the shores of which some of the most important ports and cities of the future of the whole United States are springing up. Burrard Inlet has an entrance a few miles to the north of the United States frontier, and just within the Sound are the terminus of the transcontinental railway and the city of Vancouver. When the naval station was first established at Esquimalt, over thirty years ago, it was in an isolated British colony, farther removed from chap, in THE CANADIAN WEST 143 communication with England, except through a foreign country, than Australia itself. At that time the settle- ments on the Pacific Slope of the United States were also far from the centres of population in that country, and the only practical route to them was by the Isthmus of Panama. Russia again had a very different position on the Pacific from that taken by her now ; and the city of Victoria, small as it was, was the only important British settlement on the North Pacific, there being no large town upon the mainland. It is impossible to conceive a sharper contrast than that which is to be found in the present condition of this portion of the Pacific coast. San Francisco has become a city of the first rank ; Seattle and other towns in the extreme north-west of the old territory of the United States are rising fast, and Russia has a powerful squadron in Pacific waters. These facts alone would have greatly altered the conditions even without the opening of the Canadian Pacific road, which has brought our North Pacific station within twelve days' post of England, and is planting a population upon the main- land of British Columbia. In favour of Esquimalt the home Government urge that a dry dock has been completed there at great cost, and should not be abandoned without the strongest reasons, while Esqui- malt is not subject to a land attack from the United States, and they look upon Burrard Inlet as a dangerous trap in which our fleet might possibly be one day caught. On the other hand, it is pointed out by many Canadian authorities that the dockyard and dry dock at Esquimalt are on an unprotected spit exposed to the fire of any passing ship. Even if Esquimalt were made impreg- nable it could not prevent the seizure, by a land force, of the terminus of the railway, or, if we had not local 144 PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part i supremacy at sea, of the coal mines by a naval expedition. Stress is laid upon the fact that Burrard Inlet possesses a fine harbour, well adapted for a naval establishment and a coaling station. It is also nearer to the Nanaimo coal mines than is Esquimalt, and independent of even that supply owing to its communication with the mines on the mainland. As a matter of fact, however, if Canada were as inclined to protect herself as is Australia, she would have amply defended both Escpihnalt and Burrard Inlet. For a good many years to come a land attack upon Burrard Inlet must be improbable, inasmuch as between it and the American frontier there is only one road — a forest track impassable for artillery; aud there are two rivers to be crossed, of which one is the Fraser, not bridged in the lower portion of its course. Almost the whole Canadian Pacific Railway lies more open to attack from the American frontier than does its terminus at Burrard Inlet, but while the risk from organised attack must everywhere be great, the danger from mere raiders is not of so extreme a nature as is commonly supposed. There is no bridge or other structure between Montreal and the Columbia river — nearly 2500 miles, which, in the event of its destruction, could not be replaced by a temporary structure over which trains could pass within two days, unless, indeed, the spot were held in force by a hostile army. From the Columbia to the Fraser river bridge there are half a dozen structures which would require from five to ten days to replace, but these are on a section of the line which lies far to the north, within the mountains, and are, like the terminus itself, practically inaccessible to mere raiders. Given the fact that the Canadian Pacific line has little to fear from raids across the border, although doubtless exposed in its prairie and eastern portions to chap, in THE CANADIAN WEST 145 attack by an organised force, it may be taken into consideration as a means for the rapid transit of troops except in the case of a war with the United States. Troops could be sent from Halifax to Vancouver in from six and a half to seven days, and the line has the means of providing at short notice trains furnished with baggage and accoutrement cars, and provision and kitchen cars sufficient to allow 5000 troops landed at Halifax on a Monday morning to be at Vancouver on the next Monday ; while field artillery and cavalry in small numbers could be sent across in eight days. The largest guns can be taken over the line, but two weeks' notice is required in the case of guns over 30 tons. On the other hand, there is liability to delay in winter from the snow, but the risk is not considerable, as through the winter of 1888-89 the majority of the trains from Montreal to Vancouver were exactly punctual, and the greatest detention from snow was two hours in a journey of nearly six days. The only peculiarities of the Canadian Far West are The to be found in the presence of large numbers of Chinese, and in the nature of the Provincial taxation of British Columbia. At the date of the opening of the Canadian Pacific line the number of Chinese in British Columbia was calculated to be about 25,000, of whom 3000 were in the city of Victoria. The local legislature of a Pro- vince has, under the British North America Act, no jurisdiction in respect of relations with foreign powers. A section of that Act indeed gives to Provincial legisla- tures the power to make laws regulating immigration, but these powers are expressly limited so as in no way to interfere with those of the Dominion Parliament. The British Columbian legislature, taking the same course as had previously been taken in the United 146 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN parti States and in our Australian colonies, on several occa- sions passed resolutions denouncing the Chinese, and soliciting the Parliament of Canada to enact a law pro- hibiting their incoming ; indeed at one time local legis- lation, of doubtful legality, upon the matter became the subject of a decision by the Courts. In 1884 there was appointed a Dominion Commission of inquiry which found that the great body of white inhabitants did not wish for the removal of the Chinese already established ; that their presence did not prevent an immigration of a good class of white settlers, and had not an injurious effect upon the labour market ; and that the moral and sanitary dangers attributed to Chinese immigration were exaggerated ; but the Commission recommended that, as regarded further accession to the Chinese population, moderate restrictive powers should be obtained and made use of. The consequence of these recommendations has been that, while the Chinese are prohibited from entering the United States and some of our Southern colonies, they can enter the Dominion on payment of a license fee. The result of the prohibition in force in the United States has been to largely increase the influx of Chinese to British Columbia, and a considerable proportion of the newcomers smuggle themselves across the American frontier. There are in British Columbia boot and shoe factories employing Chinese labour, to which I shall allude in my chapter on the Protection of Native In- dustries. The building of the Canadian Pacific line has had some bearing on the recent attitude of the Dominion towards the question, both during construction, when a large amount of Chinese labour was employed upon the railway, and since its completion, for it was pointed out that it would be futile to open up a new road of com- munication with China, and then to prohibit a large chap, in THE CANADIAN WEST 147 proportion of the resulting traffic. Impartial testimony from Canada shows that the Chinese are not only a hard- working, but a quiet and an honest people. They are now beginning to find their way to some of the larger cities of eastern Canada. Their chief calling in the towns is that of laundrymen, but they also make excellent gardeners, cooks, and waiters ; and the most determined opponents of immigration in Canada themselves acknow- ledge that as yet there need be no limitation put upon the importation of domestic servants, for which class there is a demand greatly in excess of the supply. At the same time, in the Dominion Franchise Act, the expression " person " means any male person including an Indian, and excluding a person of Mongolian or Chinese race. Australian example shows that it is impossible to strictly confine the Chinese to merely domestic work, and it is possible that the power of the trade unions will ultimately assert itself in Canada, as in Australia, against the Chinese, and cause a stop to be put to their immigration, as may be done, without further legislation, by use of the Viceroy's powers. The Knights of Labour organisation is being tried as a means of ridding British Columbia of the presence of the Chinese, after the plan that has been pursued in the adjoining American State of Washington. There has lately been introduced into British The British J . . i • i Columbian Columbia a local system of Provincial taxation which system of is remarkable for establishing a poll-tax, of three dollars taxatiST a head, on every resident of the Province except clergy- men of the various denominations. The Select Committee of the House of Commons on immigra- tion colonisation had before it on two occasions m 1889 a schemes. gentleman, calling himself " Colonisation Commissioner " from British Columbia, who proposed a scheme for taking out 1250 crofter families from Caithness and the neigh- PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN bourhood to Vancouver Island at a cost of £150,000, which was to be advanced by the imperial Government on a guarantee of repayment from the Province ; but it is to be hoped that the Committee will support the Treasury in the objections which the latter raise to the financial provisions of the scheme, conclusion. We may find in the Australian chapters political developments more interesting than are to be met with in Canada even in the working of the Dominion federal system, interesting as that is. But, however beautiful may be New Zealand or Tasmania, the English traveller round the world cannot leave without regret the great northern British country, with her Atlantic and Pacific coasts alike remarkable for noble harbours, for shores and rivers teeming with fish, backed by an interior traversed by unrivalled waterways. At either end of Canada are dark forests yielding the best timber in the world ; in the centre, prairies producing the finest of all wheats where till lately were only winter snows and summer flowery swards ; in the west -centre the grandest of snowy peaks ; and at each end and in the middle of her great iron way inexhaustible coal-realms of the yet un dethroned steam king. The one drawback, if Canada desires to remain unabsorbed by the neighbouring- Republic, is the absence of sufficient means for defending all these treasures in the event of war. CHAPTER IV THE UNITED STATES, CANADA, AND THE WEST INDIES In entering upon a necessarily brief examination ofDissimi- larities the present and probable future relations between the between two English - speaking communities upon the North thTunited American continent I should remind my reader of the states> considerable constitutional difference between Canada and the United States, in spite of there being in each of the two countries a supreme Federal Government com- prehending a union of States or Provinces. In Canada, as has been shown, all powers are held by the Federal Government excepting those delegated to the Provincial legislatures, and both Dominion and Provincial powers proceed . from the Crown. In the United States the presumption is that, where the law is silent, power in any given matter belongs to the State, but the sovereign States have delegated certain powers to the Federal Government, and all powers proceed originally from the people, while the Federal Government is unable by the constitution, did it wish to do so, to confer titles, to establish or give a preference to a particular creed, or to restrict the liberty of the press, of speech, or of public meeting. In Canada the Provinces have no militia, as the States of the Union have, but the militia belongs to the Dominion ; and while, on the other hand, in the United States there are no subsidies annually paid by t 150 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN parti the Federal Government to the States, in Canada there are such subsidies paid out of Dominion revenue to each Province — a system which it is sometimes proposed to introduce into the United States constitution for the purpose of facilitating the introduction of British North America to the Union. Leaving political for racial resemblances or distinc- tions, I am struck, in considering Canada and the United States, with the similarity of their component parts and the difference of the result. It is true that in the United States the Irish-born element is stronger in proportion to the English and Scotch-born than is the case in Canada, but there are more German-born people in the United States than there are Irish, and the mixture of the Irish and German races is producing a people physically very like the English. Moreover, the English, Scotch, and Welsh immigrants to the United States are rapidly gaining upon the Irish, and, while the number of the Irish-born in the United States is slightly on the decrease, the number of those born in other parts of the United Kingdom who inhabit that country is increasing fast. The negro element, large in the United States, and predominant in the British West Indies, is almost non-existent in Canada, but it cannot be said at present to greatly affect American Federal affairs, and it does not mix with the remainder of the population. While, however, the white race is, substantially speaking, in its origin the same upon the two sides of the border, climate, or soil, or institutions, or manner of life, have produced remarkable dissimilarities of type which must strike every observer of the countries. Even if we put out of consideration the French Eoman Catholic population of Canada, the superficial dissimilarity between the English chap, iv THE UNITED STATES 151 Canadians and their American neighbours across the border is remarkable. If we compare, for instance, the inhabitants of the Maritime Provinces and Ontario with the New Englanders or rural inhabitants of New York State, we find that, although the Ontario men may differ in some slight degree from the Nova Scotians (their difference being, however, no more than is found to exist in adjacent counties in England), they differ from the inhabitant of Maine or of Vermont, who is close upon their border, in accent, intonation, and choice of language, as much as does a Cornishman from a Lowland Scot. Nevertheless they often descend from a common ancestry of less than a century and a half ago. On the other hand, the similarity of American to American is becoming daily more marked throughout the Union — the Cali- fornian growing like the New Yorker, who is separated from him by a distance as great as the breadth of the Atlantic, and the Texan like the inhabitant of the Dakotas. Canadians from the border are more like English Afrikanders, or Victorians, or Englishmen of the old country, than they are like Americans of the United States, and this although in Canadian society there is less of the mere imitation of English fashions and pursuits than is found in those wealthy American centres that follow the lead of New York. When a Canadian hunts a fox it is generally because his father hunted with the garrison or his grandfather hunted in the old country ; but when an " American Anglomaniac " rides after a drag, and arrays himself in scarlet so to do, it is because he fancies the practice English. The main reason of the difference which exists between Englishmen, whether in Canada or in our Australian or other colonies, and the Americans of the United States is, I am convinced, to be found in the circumstances under which the old 152 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN colonies of America were first founded. To those who have studied the American " colonial " portraits of the first half of the last century, it must seem possible that the American peculiarities had been evolved before the separation from Great Britain. The revolution gave public form to a sharp distinction which had already grown up, and the type which existed before Washington has been imposed, by the strong individuality and character of the American people, upon the Irish and other settlers who in vast numbers have gradually drifted into their midst. The Mississippi valley in the first place, and the North West later, have themselves been colonised mainly from New England, and the moral and physical features which are predominant throughout the United States are of the old Massa- chusetts type. The New England character was formed by emigration for the sake of religion, and by conflict with nature under a harsh climate and upon a sterile soil, and the granite state of New Hampshire and its equally " dour " neighbours have sent out into the West a granitic people. Tendency The tendencies which, in spite of such dissimilarities, Canadians are t° be found in certain quarters in Canada towards a lcro°s° k th c l° ser connection with the United States are political, border. or res t U p 0n actual or fancied interests, and are not to be ascribed to social or sentimental causes. There is a widespread feeling in the Dominion that, although the new nation seems vigorous and healthy, it is somewhat "out of sorts." Nothing is hopelessly wroDg with Canada. It has the vitality of a young country, and the undeveloped power that lies in its territories is immense ; but Canadians think (little as they have spent or borrowed as compared with prosperous Australia) that they have borrowed and spent a great deal of money of chap, iv CANADA 153 late years, and that the results of the expenditure are not yet sufficiently apparent. The commercial situation of Canada under the so-called National, or protective, policy of Sir John Macdonald continually affords an opportunity for unfavourable criticism and for the suggestion of radical remedies as a tonic. One set of people very naturally prescribe absolute freedom of trade, accom- panied by direct taxation ; another set, imperial customs union, more or less complete ; another, a re-adjustment of the tariff on behalf of infant industries, with higher duties upon certain classes of goods and free admission of others. Another ascribes the malady of the country to the predominance of the Eoman Catholic religion ; and it is not to be wondered at that a large section look across the frontier to the United States, and find in the prosperity of that country a reason for associating with its future, in a greater or less degree, the fortunes of the Dominion. It must not be supposed that a majority of the Cana- Extent and cli&rn.ctt'V dians hold these last-named views. Allusion has been f this made in the second chapter to the fact that, while the teiuencj ' majority in the Dominion Parliament is in favour of the "National" policy of Sir John Macdonald, in the Provincial legislatures, elected virtually by the same con- stituencies, the majority belongs to the Federal Opposi- tion. This fact shows that, while the public sentiment throughout the Dominion, outside Quebec, is Liberal or Eadical, or at least progressive, some of the electors who support Liberals in Provincial legislatures are inclined, through a sentiment of Canadian nationality, to give Sir John Macdonald a free hand at Ottawa. Moreover, the chief function of an Opposition is to criticise, and, inasmuch as Sir John Macdonald, with that parliamentary astuteness which marks his character, vol. 1 M i 5 4 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN has formed his Cabinet of men representing every shade of opinion in domestic or Provincial matters, the Oppo- sition are almost driven to find their battlefields in criticism of the " National " policy of his Government. At the same time they are afraid to declare themselves free traders, on account of the interests which have grown up under a system of high duties, and indeed pledged themselves to Protection just before the last general elec- tion. The Dominion Opposition are therefore as it were forced to suggest, with a view to the re-invigoration of their country, or the ejection from office of Sir John Macdonald, remedies which are apt to be misunderstood. Political The suggested changes in relations with the United withuuited States fall under one or other of the three heads of states. unlimited reciprocity, commercial union, and complete or political union. As to the last, it may be said at once that the Liberal Opposition at Ottawa repudiate the idea, and that in the Dominion there are but few persons in responsible positions, and but a small section of the electorate, who are open advocates of annexation or absorption by the United States. Mr. G-oldwin Smith indeed objects to the word "absorp- tion," and speaks of eventual "union" between Canada and the United States ; but a union between five millions and more than sixty millions of people could hardly be a union upon equal terms, and although Canadian population will fast grow, it will no more catch up that of the United States than does the age of a younger catch up that of an elder brother. It is a curious fact that most Canadians are inclined to think themselves more free than they would be were they citizens of the United States. In the case of annexation or absorption the democracy of Ontario would have but little weight at Washington, chap, iv CANADA 155 while under the existing system it is dominant at Ottawa, except in ecclesiastical affairs. The power of the President and the absence of Ministerial responsi- bility to Congress are features of the American federal system which are not regarded with favour upon the Canadian side of the border line. But increased trade facilities for Canada, and a better market, are ideas as popular, as union with the United States is, at all events for the moment, the reverse. Unrestricted reciprocity is no new policy with the unre- Canadian Liberals. Before the elections of 1878 the reciprocity. policy of the Mackenzie Government was free trade between Canada and the United States, combined, doubtless, with Protection against the world, which was apparently thought consistent with free -trade opinions, for Mr. Mackenzie has been since 1875 one of four Canadian members of the Cobden Club (two of the others beino- Sir Richard Cartwright and Mr. Goldwin Smith). This was the remedy proposed in a period of distress ; and to the fact that Sir John Macdonald at that time formulated, as a rival remedy, the policy of increased Protection, known as the National policy, is due the defeat of the Liberal party. Since 1878 Canada has made much progress, and although there is at least room for doubt whether even greater rapidity of advance might not have been secured under com- plete free trade, a majority of the voters seem inclined to think that the progress has been in a considerable measure the result of the protective policy. Manu- factures have undoubtedly grown up under Protection ; the Canadian Pacific Railway has been built ; and the Canadian North West has been thrown open for settle- ment, although that settlement might, indeed, have been better promoted by free trade. The Liberal 156 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN parti party, under Mr. Laurier, Sir Kichard Cartwriglit, and Mr. A. Gr. Jones, lias to justify its existence. Its mem- bers point to the fabulously great increase of population in Minnesota and North Dakota as compared with that in the neighbouring parts of Canada. They say, too, that in twenty years the Dominion has trebled her debt, trebled her taxation, and added but 30 per cent to her population. They emphasise the fact that although, even in Ontario, Canada has territory superior in their opinion to any land in the United States, there is an increasing exodus of Canadians across the border, and they seem confident that unrestricted free trade with the United States would remedy all these real or pretended evils. There is, however, a difficulty in establishing unlimited reciprocity, namely, that ever since a period some time anterior to the lapse, through American action, of the old Reciprocity Treaty in 1866, the set of American opinion has been against unrestricted intercourse, and there is little doubt, in spite of occa- sional all but unanimous resolutions of Congress, that the United States will continue to decline it as a one- sided bargain. The American protectionists hold that the Canadians would obtain by reciprocity a free market of sixty -one million people for their raw material in exchange for a free market of five million people for the American manufacturer ; and they believe that the American markets would be flooded with British goods imported through Canada, with the result of a break- down of the American revenue system. commer- The last consideration which I have mentioned has led the Canadian advocates of free intercourse with the United States to see that there is no hope of their obtaining unrestricted reciprocity without discriminat- ing against the goods of other countries, until indeed cial uirion. chap, iv CANADA 157 the United States are prepared to see their advantage in free trade with the whole world. They advocate commercial union, and the idea has made way among the classes interested in agriculture, in timber, and in fisheries, all of whom look eagerly for the American market. There are, however, stupendous difficulties in the way of that commercial union which is proposed by Mr. Gold win Smith. Its first result would be the destruction of the protected industries of the Dominion. Moreover, it is not only a large class of Canadians who are opposed to that destruction. One result of the policy of levying protective duties against the United States has been that throughout the eastern parts of Canada American capitalists have established branches of their manufactories, and these would be extinguished by commercial union. Some who favour commercial union are, like Mr. Goldwin Smith, free traders, but think that free trade throughout the Ameri- can continent is worth obtaining, even at the cost of a protectionist policy as against countries outside that area, including the mother-country, while some of those who advocate the same view are theoretical protectionists. There is also another cross division of parties among them, as some of them desire to see the connection with Great Britain continue, whereas others, few and scattered, desire commercial as a first step towards political union. It is contended by the opponents of commercial union that it would necessarily lead to complete or political union, for Ottawa would otherwise be allowed no voice in regulating the common tariff of the two countries. Canada would agree to take a percentage of the gross customs revenue collected at the seaboard, but the tariff would be fixed at Washington. The Dominion would become commercially dependent upon the United 158 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN parti States, and could hardly continue to be politically dependent upon Great Britain while admitting American goods free and prohibiting the importation of many classes of British goods. The majority, indeed, of Cana- dian writers and politicians believe that commercial would sooner or later be followed by political union. This is the opinion of nearly all those who are opposed to taking the first step, as well as of some of those who advocate it, although these look upon annexation as far off. Others of the advocates of commercial are determined to resist political union. There is as yet, as I have shown, no annexation party in Canada. There are, however, from time to time momentary ebullitions of discontent at temporary grievances, which take the form of an expression of desire for union with the United States, but they are in fact only manifestations ot discontent at incidents of the existing order of things, and are not serious proposals for absorption. Strong Protestants in Ontario have made such demonstrations, called forth by "Jesuit ascendency"; others have been caused by the railway grievances of Manitoba : but, taking the country through, Canada does not desire political union. During the hot discussion on the Jesuit Bill, threats of helping to procure absorption were made indeed upon both sides. Certain descendants of the United Empire Loyalists, who came to Canada to be away from republican rule, threatened to return straightway to that Government, and equally loud protestations of the desire for annexation came also from the fiercer men among; that French Boman Catholic population, who as a fact would cling to British rule after those of British origin had turned against it. These manifestations were not, in my belief, seriously intended upon either side. The prevail- chap, iv CANADA 159 ing popular sentiment of Canada asks with Mr. Talon- Lesperance — " Shall we break the plight of youth, And pledge lis to an alien love 1 " And replies also with him — " Britain bore us in her flank, Britain nursed us at our birth, Britain reared us to our rank 'Mid the nations of the earth." It would not appear that across the border there is Feeling in „ ,. . f. f. . m -. the United any strong feeling in favour 01 annexation, loo much states. stress ought not to be laid upon occasional suggestions of resolutions in Congress, or upon newspaper utter- ances, upon this point. When things are dull the annexation of Canada makes an excellent headline, but the resolutions and the articles have the opposite effect in Canada from that apparently intended by their authors, as the Canadians resent being thus disposed of by their neighbours, and return the compliment by preparing Bills for the admission of the New England States to the Dominion. American statesmen as a rule think that their country is big enough as it is, and wire-pulling politicians are not anxious to dislocate the present balance of political power by the admission of a number of new States containing a large French Roman Catholic element. Although there are Americans of the Republican party who think that Canada would counter- balance the " Solid South," there are other Americans who consider that the existing status of Canada is a pledge of peace between Great Britain and the United States. They think that England is restrained from declaring war with the United States, under occasional provocation, because she is aware that such an act would involve the loss of the greater part of Canada by invasion, i6o PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN and they believe that were Canada, after a war, to be annexed by the United States, England would probably retain Gibraltars at Halifax and Vancouver Island, which would form a constant source of irritation between the countries. It is often said by them that the Canadian frontier is a good insurance against the bombardment by British fleets of American harbours along five or six thousand miles of coast. The argument is, however, a little fanciful, because the provocations which are received by Great Britain from the United States almost invariably concern Canadian interests, as for example in the fisheries of the Maritime Provinces or of Behring Sea. The American Senator Hoar, who has made the best speech that I have found among those delivered by Americans in favour of the absorption of Canada in the United States, has declared that if Canada comes into the Union it must be of her own accord when she finds that hostile tariffs cannot be maintained along such a frontier as both countries become filled, and that commercial union is impracticable. Senator Sherman, the loudest annexationist in the United States, has spoken as fiercely against reciprocity with Canada as has his brother-senator and brother-annexationist against commercial union. causes for The argument in favour of commercial union or nesstn 1 annexation, which is drawn from a contrast between the Canada, countries on either side the border line, is perhaps un- reasonable. Although Canada is of the size of the United States, a portion of its territories is found in ever -frozen Arctic lands, and those arguments are fallacious which are based on a comparison of the entire area with that of the United States, lying wholly in a temperate zone, with the exception of the outlying possession of Alaska. If some adjacent territories be chap, iv CANADA 161 compared — Nova Scotia and New Brunswick with Maine, Quebec with New Hampshire and Vermont, Ontario with western New York, the Territories with Montana and Idaho — the comparison is not discourag- ing, for it must be borne in mind that Canada's North "West was not opened up by railway communication until lono- after the North West of the United States. It is sometimes said that Manitoba and Dakota started side by side eighteen years ago on equal terms, and that the two Dakotas have now five times the population of the Canadian Province ; but long before the so-called start of Dakota the American North West had been opened up as far as the eastern and southern boundaries of that district, whereas the limits of known Canada lay far eastward of Manitoba. A country of the rich resources of Manitoba and the Territories must soon attract a sufficient popu- lation now that the railway communication from ocean to ocean has been made through it, and it is probable that these fertile lands will become the wealth-centre of the Dominion, and communicate to the whole of it a new prosperity. It is, as I have said, sometimes asserted that the only possible paths for Canada lead to annexation, to independence, or to Imperial Federation with a limited customs union ; but I cannot myself see any reason why Canada, if she takes those reasonable steps "for her own defence which are a condition of the existence of a self-respecting nation, should not, if she so wishes, work out a prosperous destiny for herself under her present relations with the British Crown. Canadian opinion is so set upon Protection that it is useless to argue that the wiser commercial policy for Canada might be that which she seems the least likely to adopt, namely, one of unrestricted free trade. Canada is and will be mainly an agricultural country, and ought, one would suppose, 1 62 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part i to promote the sale of her produce to the best advantage, and the supply in return for it, for her agricultural population, of the cheapest goods that can be procured. But, whether under a system of Protection or under a system of free trade, Canada, if she pleases, can, in an international sense, keep matters as they are. Fisheries. I have named the fishery disputes between Great Britain and the United States, with the details of which it is unnecessary that my readers should be burdened. The question on the Atlantic coast is one which only affects a portion of the seaboard, and has little interest for the Dominion at large except as a matter of national sentiment ; while to the United States it is an infini- tesimal matter, which concerns only a handful of New England fishermen in a population of sixty millions. It was certain that the breakdown of the Reciprocity system between Canada and the United States would lead to a revival of that antagonism upon the fisheries question which had in fact preceded Reciprocity. Canada was certain once more to enforce her view of the provisions of existing treaties, which had never been easy to interpret, and had so long been dormant as to have become forgotten, while the United States were certain to resent such action. The abrogation first of the Reciprocity Treaty and then of the Fishery Articles of the Treaty of Washington had once more brought the relations of Canada and the United States under the stipulations of 1818, and there was a difference of opinion between Canada and the United States as to the powers of the Canadian Government under the first article of the Convention. The negotiations which took place between Mr. Chamberlain and the United States plenipotentiaries in the winter of 1887-88 led, as is known, to an agreement and a treaty as well as to a chai\ iv CANADA 163 modus vivendi, and although the treaty was accepted in Canada and Newfoundland it was not ratified by the United States; but the modus vivendi has prevented fresh troubles upon the Atlantic coast. On the other hand, the Behring Sea question, in which the United States have succeeded to the " rights" of Russia, against which they had formerly protested, was not dealt with, and remains open — the United States apparently main- taining on their Pacific coast the opposite principles from those on which they act on the Atlantic side, and making the claim for treating the waters adjoining their coasts and islands as territorial waters, which they dis- pute upon the Atlantic coast when made on a smaller scale by Canada. It is probably the case that the Americans have deliberately raised the Fisheries question in Behring Sea in order to bring home to the Canadians the American objections to the course with regard to fisheries pursued by the colonists in recent years upon the Atlantic side. The authorities of Nova Scotia, before the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854, used to draw a line from headland to headland, and then claimed the right to exclude the Americans from bays, however wide the entrance ; and although the extreme assertion of the headlands view has now been given up, the Americans resent it in every shape, and, if they are giving it a great extension in Behring Sea by showing a disposition to treat the whole of that sea as consisting of territorial waters, this may be done in order to force our hand. The Americans have little idea of suffering themselves to be driven by Canadian legislation into a revival of the Reciprocity Treaty, which they consider to have been one-sided, and they are content therefore to be excluded from the territorial or inshore fisheries, because they will not pay the price which they formerly paid 1 64 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN parti for the privilege of using them ; but they complain of the headlands doctrine in every form, and also of the exclusion of American fishing-boats from Canadian ports by recent Canadian legislation. The modus vivendi protocol loses its force on the 15 th February next, and negotiations are once more in progress at Washington as I write. From the date of the rejection of the recent Treaty by the Senate of the United States the matter had slumbered, except as regards Behring Sea, till November last, when it was revived by our very able Minister. That Sir Julian Pauncefote may be able to bring about a settlement of the questions in dispute will be the prayer of every true friend of either country. It is understood that, after bringing to a conclusion the negotiations for a new Treaty of Extradition, he has taken up the Fishery question in connection with the idea of a limited Reciprocity Treaty, to be proposed by us. weight of The pressure of the United States on Canada, not stat^ani! on h T m tne fisheries question but also in that of com- pressme me rcial relations, is heavy, from her bulk and population, Canada connected as she is at numerous points with Canada by railroads. It is almost as trying to Canadians to live next door to the United States as it is to Asiatic Princes to live next door to Russia. But the attention of the Americans has long been, and is still at the present moment, more turned towards the south than towards the north. There are parts of Mexico in which vastly more American capital is invested than is the case in Canada, and even Central and South America receive more constant attention from the United States than does the Dominion. The Washington Government in this winter of 1889-90 is assuming the position, fairly conquered from the world, of patron of all the republics of America, North and South ; and we must look forward to an eventual chap, iv THE WEST INDIES 165 protectorate, which, great as is the weight of the United States in the world, will bring to it an increase. The Spaniards of Mexico and of Central and South America have given way to an active and intelli- gent mixed race of Spanish, Indian, and Negro blood ; and it is a remarkable fact that while the English in North America, who on the whole adopted a humane treatment of the natives, have in fact destroyed them, the Spanish, who robbed and massacred through two- thii'ds of the New World, have themselves very largely been absorbed by the Indian race. The populations, however, which the United States is attempting to call into subordinate alliance with itself are not all Hispano- Indian, and in the Argentine Republic an infusion of Italian, French, and Irish blood varies the civilisation of South America. The enormous weight in America of the mass of the United States presses tremendously both upon Canada and upon our West Indian Islands. If there were no custom houses between Canada and the United States the bulk of the Dominion trade — indeed, comparatively speaking, almost the whole of it — would be done by the Canadians with their con- tinental neighbours. As it is, a large proportion of and on the Canadian and of West Indian trade is done with the indies. United States in spite of tariff difficulties ; and the West Indies tend to come more and more within the sphere of American influence. In 1885 the United Proposed States Government proposed to us a draft treaty between customs 11 itself and the West Indies, which was equally desired by ^British both parties, or at all events by a portion of our West West Indian dominions as well as by the Government of the United States. The treaty suggested was a Reciprocity Treaty giving favours to West Indian goods which were 166 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN not extended to the goods of other countries, and pro- posing special reductions of duties in the West Indies upon articles imported from the United States. One of the articles of the draft treaty professed to be a most- favoured-nation clause, but it contained words providing that the clause was not absolute, but was only intended to apply in cases where equivalent consideration was given. The effect of this would be that if there were such a treaty between the United States and France, and the United States were to reduce their duties on French cottons in consideration of a reduction of the high French duties on American wheat, England would not, under a most-favoured-nation clause of this description, obtain the reduction on her cottons unless she gave (which as a free-trade country she would be unable to give) to the United States specially among all nations some equivalent to the French reduction upon wheat. Such a most-favoured-nation clause is with- out value, and is a mere cause of dispute. Conversely, another article provided that the privileges of the treaty were not to be granted to other nations by reason of the existence of a most-favoured-nation clause in existing treaties, unless any such nation gave an equivalent. This was obviously a clause providing for the violation by us of our own treaties, and was in itself a reason why it was impossible for us to agree to the propositions. A clause in the draft treaty gave a power of denunciation of the treaty in the event of any change of tariff, so that any change 'of tariff of any of the AVest- India Islands would have had to be submitted to the United States. Another clause barred the possibility of commercial union between the West-India Islands and other parts of the British Empire. The general effect of the treaty would have been to tighten the relations be- chap, iv THE WEST INDIES 167 tween our West Indian colonies and the United States at the expense of the relations between the colonies and the mother-country. The objections to the draft treaty proposed were indeed far stronger than would be those to a complete commercial union. There is a great difference between a connection arising naturally out of unrestricted trade, and one brought about by a series of artificial restrictions in defiance of the plain words of treaties and of the uniform practice of this country. A com- mercial union between Canada and the United States, or between the West Indies and the United States, or between all three, might be inconsistent with our treaties as formerly interpreted by ourselves, but as the contrary pretension has been set up by many other powers of recent years, and has been assented to by other powers and tacitly accepted in some recent cases by ourselves, it is probable that such a union might be lawfully set on foot. The recent customs union between the Cape and the Orange Free State, to which I shall have to allude in the chapters on South Africa, is a case in point, although the arrangement has been limited to land trade on account of the objections of the Foreign Office and the Board of Trade. It is probable that if Canadian sentiment were to demand complete customs union with the United States, which, as I have shown, at present it does not, it would be accepted, though unwillingly, by our Government. In the case of the West Indies there was some doubt about there being a distinct colonial opinion in favour of the treaty, and there was also the fact that the colonies were mainly Crown Colonies, and all of them colonies in which the majority of the population, being black, played but a secondary part in public affairs. 168 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN parti Proposals As a set-off against the arrangement proposed between between the British West - India Islands and the and the United States, private negotiations took place in 1884 Dominion, between Canada and some of our West Indian Govern- ments with a view to union. The negotiations were pushed most actively in the case of Jamaica, but they were all along informal, neither Jamaica nor Canada feeling itself entitled to negotiate directly, and the Colonial Office refusing to entertain the question. The landowners and commercial and middle classes in Jamaica, so far as their views became known, were anxious for union, and there was also a party in Canada in favour of it ; but there was a good deal of doubt as to the sentiment of the majority of the coloured population in Jamaica upon the matter. The home authorities pointed out that the Canadian Govern- ment were unprovided with any machinery for ruling a dependency, and they thought Jamaica unprepared to be placed in the same political position as a Canadian Province, and declared that they could not see their way with regard to the proposals. The West Indies do but a small trade with the Dominion as compared with that which they either do at present or would do under better commercial relations with New York and the nearer American ports. The trade of Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad, and British Guiana with British North America is, for example, about one-tenth of their trade with the United States. Difference The West Indies stand in a very different position towards the towards the United States from that occupied by states, of Canada. In the case of Canada we have seen the strong SiTweX' 1 reasons that exist for believing that commercial union, indies [f [^ j s ever brought about, will be a step towards respective- iy- political absorption. But one of the very reasons which chap, iv THE WEST INDIES 169 prompt some Americans to desire the annexation of Canada, should a wish for it in due time arise to the north of the border-line, tells strongly against the adoption of a similar policy towards the West -India Islands. Canada has, comparatively speaking, no negro population, and some theorists of the United States find a reason for wishing for its absorption in the supposed necessity of counterbalancing the increase of negroes in the South by an increase of white population in the North. On the other hand, the British West Indies are becoming black communities, filled with a peasant pro- prietary of the negro race — very similar, that is, to some of those Southern States in which the Growing; numbers or the preponderance of the blacks form the only night- mare of the American people. While it is possible that, from reasons connected with mines and railways, and the course of trade, the United States may one of these days annex parts of Mexico, after they have already become American in population and in sympathies, it seems likely that, as regards the other southern countries with which they have to do, the Americans will look rather for commercial and political hegemony, secured to them in return for naval protection and by commercial treaties, than towards a policy of actual inclusion of those countries within the boundaries of the United States. There is a larger question than that of the total or Future re- partial absorption of Canada or of the British West theUnited Indies, already discussed, which lies behind, and must S JtS«othti- necessarily be in the minds of those who think upon Eii g ] i sh - . rs , speaking this subject. Mr. Henry George, Professor Hosmer, and peoples others have in their speeches or writings pointed to a time when all the English-speaking peoples will form one league, securing among them freedom of trade, vol. 1 N 170 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part i uniform currency, common postal laws, as well as absolute predominance in the world, and consequent perpetual peace. The reconstitution of the family bond in countries ruled by those of whom the vast majority are of English race is no doubt a beautiful idea, and it may be admitted that even the bringing of all mankind under a single Government, capable at least of preventing war, does not present difficulties much greater than some of those with which the statesmanship of the world has successfully grappled in the past ; but in a book dealing with the present position, and not with dreams, it is necessary to ask, before indulging in specu- lation as regards the distant future, whether, in fact, a federation of the English-speaking world would not be as difficult of accomplishment as a federation of all the peoples of the globe. Jealousy, the great dissolvent, would be more likely to be present in the former than in the latter of these cases, and either the British Empire or the United States could more easily accept a world- wide union than fusion only w T ith the other. At the same time it is, of course, the duty of us all to do nothing that can increase these jealousies, and every Briton must at least be proud that the United States, which form in the classical sense the truest colony of England, are certain to share or to divide with other English - speaking communities at present subject to his authority the empire of two-thirds of the globe. Greater When I made use of the term " Greater Britain" for the countries of English speech or English government I gave the position of honour to the United States, by devoting to that country the first part and the largest part of my book. If a popular usage, in taking possession of my title, has applied it chiefly to the English countries outside of the United Kingdom remaining under British Britain chap. iv THE UNITED STATES 171 government, to the exclusion of the United States, I at least can have but little sympathy with that restriction of its scope. In the controversy upon this point between Professor Seeley and Professor Freeman I cannot but feel that the former has perhaps not given a sufficiently predominant position among the glories of England to the foundation of so magnificent a daughter -State as is the American federal republic. Professor Seeley has said, "To us England will be wherever English people are found;" but he has, in writing upon the expansion of England, with a certain contradiction of his own good saying, distinguished sharply between his Greater England and the United States. He has indeed remarked that " the United States are to us almost as good as a colony ; our people can emigrate thither without sacrificing their language or their chief institutions or habits," and has pointed out, in eloquent and pregnant language, the extent to which the American Commonwealth exercises influence upon ourselves, while at the same time receiv- ing from us equal influence through our literature, and has declared that the whole future of the planet depends upon the mutual influence of the branches of the English race. There is, however, as between the British Empire and the United States, too much tendency to encourage petty jealousies and to exaggerate small differences ; while many look back to the fact that " . . . we were one in the days When Shakespeare wrote his plays," rather to emphasise their belief that we are not one now even in race or spirit. It should indeed never be for- gotten for a moment that the United States is a true colony of England, our other so-called colonies being rather dependencies across the seas, possibly on their 1 72 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN way to grow into allied nations of the same tongue. It is a curious fact — as has often been pointed out, and especially and most ably by Mr. Lucas of the Colonial Office (now charged with the care of British emigration) in his Historical Geography — that none of the English colonies, commonly so called, fall under Sir George Lewis's definition of a colony, the conditions of which, however, are fulfilled by the United States. The United To present a complete picture of the Union in a book states. w hj c h deals with other topics, or, for that matter, in any book at all, would be impossible, and, as Tocqueville observed, could it be written, such a work would certainly be as wearisome as it might possibly be instructive. What can wisely be done in this direction has lately been accomplished by Professor Bryce. It has been said of the Americans that no people ever lived under conditions of existence which made it more likely that they should be at once so happy and so powerful. It is possible in these clays to go further, and to say that no people ever were at once so happy and so powerful, or so likely to continue in this pleasant position. But a question which every thoughtful American must ask himself is how far his country answers to the magnifi- cent description of the ideal modern democracy in the first chapter of Tocqueville's work. It is probable that Tocqueville himself thought that on the whole, and subject to the limitations which he himself pointed out, America would become that ideal democracy, and that he was only checked in the strength and warmth of his statements having special regard to American democracy by the fear constantly present to him, as is shown by his more intimate letters, that the enthusiasm called out in him by the promise of America would be turned against him in France, where he belonged to the Koman chap, iv THE UNITED STATES 173 Catholic Conservative party. I am ready, for my part, to maintain that in the United States, as well as in Canada and in Australia, there is every ground for hope, j udging from the democratic progress of those countries in our own times, that that amount of political corrup- tion which still exists will disappear, and that this one blot having been removed, these English - speaking countries will present a picture of a more general and complete Christian civilisation than the world has ever shown. Already in America, and in Canada and Australia, there is, except as regards the treatment of the negroes and Chinese, a deep respect for the laws which all have helped to make. Already, while individual liberty is prized, the authority of the State is respected, and regard for justice is combined with a fervent patriotism. Already there is a manly give-and-take between different classes, combining respect for superiority of any kind with a total absence of servility ; and there is discernible neither a tendency to anarchy on the one side nor (as between white man and white man) a tendency to oppression. The chief changes in the United States since I wrote changes in of them, other than those which concern mere growth, states in such as the existence of a city of 120,000 people at a twenty- spot which was absolutely desert the first time that I years - passed it, concern the modification in the condition of the Southern States, and the fears which negro pre- Growth of dominance in some of them have occasioned. This population gravest of American problems has not, perhaps, suffi- So uth. ciently engaged the attention of Mr. Bryce in his admirable work. In the State of South Carolina there are twice as many negroes as white men. In Missouri the negroes are to the whites as three to two, and in Louisiana the blacks distinctly outnumber the whites, i 7 4 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN while in North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida, taken together, the two races are about equal in numbers. The statistics are not yet clear as regards the relative rate of increase of the races under negro freedom, but the better opinion is that the rate of increase of the free negro considerably exceeds the rate of increase of the Southern white. On the other hand, the fact that black population received an impetus by the abolition of slavery, which may not continue when the negroes have to provide absolutely for them- selves, and are supplied with the check of the possession of property, may affect the figures, and the development of manufactures in Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee is ' bringing Northern emigrants into the South. The black © © © population is gaining ground in education, but is still illiterate compared with the white American race. Attitude of There has been a remarkable retreat on the part of the United States Government, and of the population of the North, from the attitude of compelling the Southern States to treat the negro as an equal. For many years everything that could be done was done, both by law and by Northern public opinion, to bring about this and of result ; but of late the matter has been left to the Southern States themselves, and the negro has lost his political power in those States, and undergone consider- able social oppression in some of them. Six million negroes have, since the war, been received into member- ship of the American nation ; their males of full age into American citizenship ; but their treatment in the States in which they mainly live first went forward to equality, and has now gone back to an inequality more severely felt than in the days of slavery. It has been declared in the strongest and most emphatic terms on behalf of the South that " the South will never adopt the South. chap, iv THE UNITED STATES 175 social interming-linor of the races. It can never be driven into accepting it. The assortment of the races is wise and proper, and stands on the platform of equal accommodation for each race, but separate." The mean- ing of this is that the blacks are in most places not allowed to enter the churches, schools, or theatres (except separate portions of theatres reached by separate en- trances) of the whites unless they go there as the servants of the whites, and that, not to take up time by mention- ing special instances, everything is done that can be done in order that the two races should never meet. From State juries the blacks are virtually excluded. The Southerners declare that if the race instinct did not exist it would be necessary to invent it as " the pledge of the integrity of each race, and of peace between the races." The " boycotting " of the white teachers of the blacks is now commencing, and as some of them have taken the side of the blacks, to the extent of travelling in the negro " cars " in the trains, social ostracism has been the result. There can be little doubt that the South will in the long-run be beaten in the contest upon which it has entered with such clear views. It is difficult to suppose that a democratic people will for any long number of years tolerate the conferring of practical equality upon the roughest of the emigrants from Europe and refuse it to every member of the black race, however cultivated and refined. There are now in the South great numbers of admirable hio;h schools for blacks, and there are universities for blacks turning out excellent students, while even ultra- Southerners speak of the gentleness and essential nobility of the black race in the highest terms. At the present moment, in some of the States, the most cultivated black woman of the South is made to travel in the 1 76 PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part i negro "car," which is generally an inferior "car," while the " ladies' car," set aside for white women, carries the roughest emigrant women from the lowest classes of Europe. It is difficult to imagine that such a state of things can long continue, and it is a curious example of the way in which any abuse may be defended from habit to find ministers of Christian Churches writing in defence of the doctrine of the separation of the races. The white-man's church, which is open to the greatest criminal, which is supposed to welcome all, is closed in some parts of the English -speaking world to the black face alone, and Christian men and Christian ministers are found to defend this practice, of which the dangers are, however, grave. As the " Episcopalian " Bishop of Kentucky has said, "This is all I plead for, that separation from us is for the negro destruction, and perhaps for us as well." An attempt is being made at the present moment — which has not yet become what is known in America as a "live issue" in the political world — to either drive out or disfranchise the negro, or at least to limit that political power of which he has not lately, however, contrived to make much effective use. It is asked indignantly, by Southerners and by some Northern members of the democratic party, whether the negro has the education, the integrity, the knowledge of American institutions, that make him more deserving of the electoral franchise than American men of eighteen or twenty, or than American wives and mothers. It is admitted that the Southern whites have now for some years past controlled the negro vote, and that the negroes have left off supporting Republican " carpet-baggers " from the North, and vote in great numbers with their employers ; but, on the other hand, it is asserted that this result has been attained by much electoral corrup- chap, iv THE UNITED STATES 177 tion, and, in any case, may not prove lasting, and the Northern public are asked whether they intend that in several of the States negro majorities shall eventually rule. It is pointed out that in a compact group of thirteen States the negroes form nearly half the popula- tion, and are increasing more rapidly than the whites, and that America must look forward to the whole South passing under negro electoral control, while amalgamation of the races is so hateful to the notions of the Southern whites as to be impossible of attainment. With regard to amalgamation the Southern sentiment is carried in some -States to the point that the known existence of a single drop of negro blood in the veins of a woman essentially white makes her a negro for all social purposes, and in practice drives her from the country. It may be also taken as admitted that Southerners generally are willing to allow that the reduction of the political influence of the negroes in recent times, in spite of their growth in numbers, has been brought about in some degree by illegitimate means, although they contend that the very fact that it has been brought about, in whatever manner, shows want of governing power in the negro race. This feeling is not confined to the South, and affects great bodies of people in the North. Almost the whole of the courts of the Ancient Order of Foresters in America have been driven from the Order, because of their rules excluding negroes from membership, and of the insistence of the English governors of the Order upon the repeal of this restriction. It is unlikely that Northern sentiment will forcibly compel the Southern whites to abstain from violating the electoral laws. One of the two great parties which divide the country supports the Southern whites in their attitude, and the other is not united upon the question, for many of 178 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN parti its wealthy members have large investments in Southern railroads and Southern mines and manufactures, and will not risk the chance of disturbance in the South, but will support a policy of non-interference with the State system. In the South itself, while there is no minority willing to accord to the negroes equal social rights, there is a large minority of far-seeing and intelligent men who are willing to make sacrifices for the education of the blacks in the hope that, when taught by white methods to look upon themselves as American citizens, with American rather than merely racial interests and aspirations, they will continue to be, as for one cause and another they at this moment are, divided between the two political parties, and be no source of danger to white institutions. Our own and the French experience in the West Indies will be found on the whole favourable to the blacks, showing that, under the fair treatment that they meet with in the French and in some of the English islands, they may be trusted to exercise electoral power with ad- vantage to the community at large, and this even in colonies in which they form an overwhelming majority of the population. The burden Another point in which there has been some change ments! a " in the situation of the United States towards the world at large, since I last wrote, is in the matter of national expenditure — the American Commonwealth with her fabulously great prosperity, succeeding, in spite of lavish and wasteful expenditure upon pensions growing out of the civil war, in rapidly reducing her debt, while the European countries are running a race in the prodigality of their military expenditure. So small is the cost of Australian defence, efficient as it is, as compared with the revenues of the Australian colonies, so small would be the cost of chap, iv THE UNITED STATES 179 an efficient militia system in Canada, were it to be adopted, as compared with Canadian resources, that our own great groups of colonies are, and will be, as regards this matter, in the same happy position as the Government of the United States. The advantage which America thus gains in purse, in development, and in national happiness, is shared by Australia, which has no military neighbours; and all the various daughter - lands of England are blest in the contrast between their own happy freedom from the necessity of vast expenditure for warlike purposes, and the bankruptcy of the old world. The Canadian Opposition, indeed, deplore the existence of a large debt, almost entirely incurred, however, for reproductive expenditure needed for the development of the country, and trifling by the side of that cheerfully borne and willingly increased by every section of the Australian people ; but such a debt, even from the point of view of the objector or the pessimist, is a very different matter from the war debts of Europe or India. The effect of Continental-European expendi- ture upon armies and marines must be an augmenta- tion in the emigration rate, already manifest in the case of Italy, and certain to continue and to spread ; and this migration of the peoples from the old world to the new must benefit in the long-run the possessions of Great Britain more even than the United States, now fast becoming filled with farming people. While the Canada of to-day as compared with the United States of 1890 is but a small power, there is reason to expect that the rate of increase of population in Canada will become more rapid and the immigration rate higher in proportion as the years pass by. I quoted just now a noticeable statement as to the America strength and happiness of the United States, and while, as Australia 180 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN parti we shall see in the next chapter, time has called up a dangerous rival to the American in the Australian people, so far as happiness of existence goes, the United States as regards power have amply fulfilled their promise of fifty-eight years ago, when Tocqueville wrote. American trade and influence are spreading westward across the North Pacific, and if I was able to prophesy in 18G7 that the relations of America and Australia would be the key to the future of the Pacific, it is now certain that three federal powers will control that ocean, of which the Dominion of Canada and the United States of Australasia will probably remain under the same flag, but even so will be virtually, in their relations to one another, distinct but friendly powers. By the mission to Australia of the leader of the Dominion Upper House, with regard to communications and to trade, their direct relations have now begun. ) Loudon MacmilUni £ Co A PART II AUSTRALASIA CHAPTER I VICTORIA A group of colonies about as large as the Canadian General Dominion, or as the United States, or as Europe ; almost f Aus- wholly settled by people from the United Kingdom, but still sparsely peopled, gives us in Australasia, now officially so called, the prospect of a remarkable develop- ment of our race under conditions of peaceful progress. The western part of the continent of Australia is as yet only a land of stones and flowers, and the greater portion of the remainder, to the unaccustomed eye a kind of desert, almost mountainless, and consequently almost without permanent rivers. In its thirstiest parts, however, enterprising colonists have gradually found that water can be stored and that sheep can live. In this vast isle the first city is the capital of Victoria, a colony which is for Australia small — one -thirty -fourth part of the southern continent — not larger than Great Britain. Victoria is naturally a country of huge untidy trees, with only a few feathery leaves — trees that shed their bark in strips, and when cut down impede the settler with hard stumps that have to be slowly consumed by fire or dragged out of the ground by traction engines. But in soil it is a favoured land, and in climate — except when in summer the bell-birds sound their tuneful notes to a red sun and the tree-crickets chirp through fiery mists 1 84 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n — is suitable to the English people and, even in summer, a healthy country for the white man. It was a happy thing not only for Australia, but for the British race, that the convicts that were sent out to Melbourne did not remain in what is now Victoria, but, after an " in- dignation meeting," were removed elsewhere. victoria— When first I wrote about this interesting colony its duringthe so-called Upper House was fighting against the Lower, last twenty w ^ muc ]2 spirit. Sir Charles Darling had not long- left, and the Council and Assembly were quarrelling over a proposed grant of £20,000 to Lady Darling, as well as about payment of members, tariff, and other matters. For two years running the Council had re- jected the Appropriation Bill on account of the practice of " tacking." The public servants were being paid with- out any Appropriation Act by the simple process of brinoino; suits against the Government which were not defended, obtaining judgment, and drawing the money from the Treasury. In 1878 there was another dead- lock over payment of members, the rejection of the reform bill for the Council, and Mr. Berry's visit to England. Deadlocks are now at an end, and the plu- tocratic has learned to give way to the popular House in great matters, but in small ones it still, although reformed in its constitution, sometimes shows its teeth. Since I first wrote about Victoria the land system of free selection by agricultural settlers has received immense development, and payment of members for the Lower House has now long been law, and has met with a success which has astounded some of its former opponents, since become supporters of payment. The members of the Upper House are not paid, though the Lower House wished that they should be, and though the Senators of the Canadian Dominion receive pay. The common school VICTORIA 185 system since 1872, when it received its present form, has braved continual attack by a well-organised Roman Catholic minority, consisting of a quarter of the popula- tion, and supported in this matter by the influence of many of the clergy of the Church of England, and the coalitions which have been formed from time to time to maintain free, compulsory, secular education, without aid to denominational schools, have brought together Conservatives and Radicals, free traders and protectionists. That bitter social and political class feeling, that hatred between the squatter aristocracy and the farming and town democracies, which was once of singular in- tensity in Victoria, has all but disappeared. While democracy and State - socialism have completely tri- umphed, the conservatism of those who have much to lose has been quieted by the practical proof that their interests are safer in Victoria than they are in many older countries, that socialism in the French and English sense is less developed in Victoria than even in the United States, and that a considerable body of small proprietors, and of house-owning workmen, have be- come sturdy supporters of the present order of society. I have treated of the colony of Victoria first among victoriathe . t 1 1 most iuter- the Australian colonies because it has long been the estingofthe most interesting of the group. At the present moment C oiomes. an its opinions are perhaps of less immediate importance than are those of Queensland, which happens to be making itself disagreeable to the Government of the mother- country ; but Victoria has been the leader in the demo- cratic and State - socialistic movements which render Australia a pioneer for England's good. Australia tries for us experiments, and we have the advantage of being able to note their success or failure before we imitate or vary them at home. Although New South Wales is vol. 1 ° 1 86 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n slightly the superior of Victoria in present commercial importance, and, having vastly larger territory, will outstrip it in the race, Victoria, from the character of its people, the nature of its history, and the situation of its lands, is the most attractive as well as the most energetic of the southern colonies. Prosperity In the very beginning of its career as a settlement, ' when Port Phillip was a district of New South Wales, its grassy parks, lightly timbered, and prepared by nature, as it were, for sheep, attracted a good class of settlers, who brought in capital. Their flocks and herds increased, and before the discovery of gold the possessions of each true settler averaged something like 10,000 sheep and 1000 cattle. The gold discoveries pushed Victoria rapidly along the road of progress, and squatters and diggers together speedily became men of means. Victoria soon attained among all countries the first place in one particular. It was the district of the world in which the average proportion of wealth to inhabitants was greatest ; California standing second. Victorian Victoria has not advanced so rapidly in wool produc- Protection. tion as have some of the other Australian colonies, and her annual gold production has dwindled to little over two millions sterling ; but, while her staple industries are no longer proportionately what they were, Victoria has immense capital and a great number of various resources upon which to rely. Her wheat exports are considerable, and her export of manufactures large. It is this last point which is the wonder of some of the local free traders, but a partial explanation may be found in that plethora of capital which has just been named. Victoria now manufactures or makes up almost all the articles of every-day use that she requires, and, in spite of the protective duties of all the other Australasian chap, i VICTORIA 187 colonies save one, exports such articles to those states. I shall examine into the advance of Victorian manufac- tures when I come to discuss, in my second volume, colonial Protection. It is well, however, to at once put in a word to guard against that exasperation which is prevalent as regards Victorian Protection ; the average duty upon the total value of the Victorian importations has until lately been low as compared with the average in many of our Crown Colonies, and in such self-govern- ing colonies as New Zealand, the Canadian Dominion, and Queensland. No doubt a large proportion of the Victorian imports consists of goods imported to be re- exported, and especially the wool from the back districts of New South Wales, for which Melbourne is the most convenient port ; but the average Victorian duties were up to the end of the session of 1889 only 11 per cent. Victoria, in spite of her Protection, stands extraordinarily high in the list of countries which form the markets for goods manufactured in the United Kingdom. With- out dealing at this moment fully with Victorian Protec- tion, we may nevertheless fittingly consider some ques- tions, in a sense connected with it, concerning movement of capital and of population. Victoria has almost from her very birth been at the head of all countries in statistics, and the Year-Book of the Government statist and the other productions of his office are as nearly perfect as such works can be. Yet in spite of the care with which Victorian statistics are compiled it is not easy to get at the exact facts that bear upon the condition of the people ; as, for example, those with regard to the movement of population between the colonies. As far as I can under- waves of stand the figures, they point to waves of prosperity and S" y depression affecting some and not the whole of the pr< ression. PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN colonies, and causing ebb and flow. For instance, in 1888 there had been some depression in New South Wales, as it is said — that is, upon the coast of New South Wales and in the best known portions of the colony. There had been also some depression in South Australia and New Zealand, and there had been a wave of pros- perity in Victoria. But, while immigrants had come from the South Australian and New Zealand coasts to Melbourne, there had been at the same time a move- ment from A^ictoria into the back country. In other words, the immigration of one class of people was counterbalanced by the emigration of another. The western half of New South Wales and the greater part of Queensland have been utilised by capitalists from Victoria, who have found in the domains of these vast colonies room which was wanting in Victoria. A large share of the Riverina country of New South Wales is held by Melbourne squatters and Melbourne syndicates, and all up the course of the Darling river the land is mainly owned by Victorians ; hence the hands upon these stations are also often sent up from Melbourne, and, as the stations grow and thrive they provide for the surplus labour of Victoria. Then, again, many of the sugar plantations of Queens- land are owned by Victorians, and some of the cattle runs of that country are in the like case. There is a constant stream of labour from Melbourne to these places. All the boys in Victoria who want to " rough it," find Melbourne men who own " runs " in Queensland or in the back country of New South Wales, and go off to the wilder portion of those colonies. Again, with the capital that goes out from Melbourne there goes also a supply of bank managers and bank clerks, along with the squatters, and the stock-riders, and the cattle-drovers, VICTORIA 189 and the hotel-keepers and store-keepers who accompany them. Capital and labour stream northward from Melbourne and share with those of Sydney in the development of the resources of the interior. The arrivals in and departures from Victoria are both high. A large number of people come there in a state of poverty, anxious to make their way in a colony in which rumour states that all are prosperous. After they reach the promised land they find that wages in some unskilled employments are higher in New South Wales, and many go across the border, while another and a different stream, composed of people of more substance, as has been shown, keeps also flowing northward to the neigh- bouring and sparsely peopled colonies. No very weighty argument for or against free trade can be founded upon the emigration or population figures of the two great neighbouring Australian colonies. The passing of Victoria by New South Wales in total population was to be expected, looking to the vastly greater extent of land comprised in the older colony. There can be no doubt that during the last few English years, in spite of the enormous amount of local capital victoria, in Victoria, a tide of British capital also has flowed into that colony. A high rate of interest combined with safety has naturally tempted capital from Europe, and while the money of Melbourne has gone off into the backhands of Australia, outside the limits of the colony, drawn thither by a still higher rate of interest, English capital has not competed with it in these fields because of the want of knowledge with regard to them which prevailed at home, but British capital has replaced Melbourne capital in Melbourne itself. There has been a great deal of investment of capital from Europe in that purchase and repurchase of city pro- i 9 o PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN perties in the great town which was in 1888 growing at Melbourne, a most extraordinary rate. Sydney people used to speak contemptuously of Melbourne as a "mushroom city," but it continues to be the chief town of the Aus- tralian continent, and to increase more rapidly than the older capital. Unless its growth be checked, of which there is as yet no sign, for the depression of 1889 was but temporary, half the people of the colony will soon be found living in the city and its suburbs. There are some who predict that under a more complete Australian Federation than now exists Melbourne will be at once the New York and the Washington of Australia — the federal capital as well as the centre of colonial com- merce ; but even without the selection of Melbourne as the capital, which will be prevented by the jealousies of the rival cities, the situation of Port Phillip makes it un- likely that Melbourne will decline. Fabulous prices are paid for blocks of land in the business portion of the town, and buildings are erected as high as those at Knights- bridge or at Queen Anne's Gate, and yield a handsome rate of interest to the investor. The population of the city and immediate suburbs increases on the average at the rate of something like 15,000 people a year : from three to seven thousand new houses are run up in the year, so that the building trades are busy, and money has been rapidly made by contractors, owners of brick- yards, small iron foundries, establishments for providing plumbers, plasterers, and so forth. Money has been saved steadily by the journeymen employed, and there has been a large consequent increase in the savings bank deposits. The "land boom" of 1888 brought in from neighbouring colonies many persons with a little capital who transferred their concerns to Mel- bourne and set up in business there. The influx VICTORIA I9 1 of capital has been assisted by agricultural prosperity. As a result of her land legislation, in which Victoria took a lead through having adopted democratic views upon the land question more rapidly and fully than they prevailed in New South Wales, the former colony has been able of late not only to supply her own food-stuffs, but to export wheat largely and also to beat New South Wales in wine growing, in which the larger colony had a start. The price of land throughout the colony has gone The price up fast (though there was a temporary fall in 1889),° suburban lands rising in value in a most amazing way, and villas now dot the landscape for a great distance all round Melbourne. Some land near Mel- bourne has risen in value in six or seven years from £10 to £500 the acre. So far as past experience may be relied upon, this extraordinary rise in the value of suburban land is a natural process and not an artificial inflation of prices, and the prices reached in most districts are permanent — stationary or increasing, and seldom goino- back at all. The land sales in Melbourne and its neighbourhood had reached, in 1888, fabulous amounts, the sales by public auction attaining a figure of thirteen million pounds worth of property in a year — a portion of this sum representing, however, land sold several times over. In 1889 the exaggerated hopeful- ness of the time of the " land boom " was followed by an equally exaggerated panic. The value of shares in public companies in Victoria, judged by selling price, fell two millions sterling in twelve months, but there were comparatively few insolvencies, and only some feeble com- panies disappeared. The revenue continued to pour in, and while the colony suffered, in common with all the others, from drought, the manner in which the financial 192 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n shock was sustained by Victoria was a marvellous testi- mony to the soundness of her position. Speculators suffered, but building societies and savings banks con- tinued to flourish and increase. Landiegis- The experience of the land question in Victoria shows that settlers are slow to occupy land for farming on rental. From 1865 and 1869, when the system of allowing the selection of land at easy rates with a view to the ultimate acquirement of the freehold was introduced and extended, an immense number of farms were " taken up " in Victoria in the course of a few years. The Land Act of 1869 practically embodied "free selection before survey " over the entire territory, and was successful ; but it was not until 1883 that the leasing; system was fairly introduced, and very little good land easily accessible was then left for occupation. There is now a tendency to discourage the sale of the unalienated portion of the colonial public estate, and to rather bring into the market, for agricultural settlement, lands which have already been purchased and are held in large estates. Taxation There exist in Victoria two forms of taxation which against are directed against great estates — the succession estates. duty, graduated from 1 to 10 per cent according to the extent of the property which passes, and a land-tax which, although not graduated like the succes- sion duty, is a tax with considerable exemptions, the classes of exemption being so constructed that the tax is clearly intended to bring land into the market. The tax is \\ per cent a year on the taxable value, that is, after deduction of the exempted amount, and the whole tax falls upon under three hundred persons. Sir Graham Berry, the author of the tax, attempted to amend the classifications in 1880-81, but although his Bill VICTORIA 193 would have removed some admitted anomalies, the net effect of his proposed changes would have been to increase the amount received from the tax by £70,000 a year, for which reason the Legislative Council or Upper House threw out the Bill. In the meantime the tax, although not important, has satisfied the public mind. Its principle is certain to be extended whenever the colony is in want of money, but at present the country is too prosperous to feel any such need. The ultra- radical party in Victoria desire a progressive land-tax, increasing; with the increase of area ; but their view is the view of a minority, and it is generally felt that before estates are broken up in Victoria by taxation or by any kind of legislation many will have been divided by the democratic effects of irrigation, which, as we shall see farther on, makes small farms pay better than large properties. The democratic party in Victoria have for their land Land maxim : " The settlement of men upon the land, instead democratic of its sale to the highest bidder," but are not, as a body, party " land nationalises. There was at one time in Victoria a Land Reform League, afterwards called the Land Tenure Reform League, established in Melbourne by a Mr. Gresham, who tried to get into the Victorian Assembly as a land nationaliser but did not succeed. The earth-hunger of the artisans, which had overthrown the Crown tenants, was too strong for Mr. Gresham. He set forth his principles when standing for an agricul- tural district in 1868, and the League was active from 1870 to 1872, upholding the doctrine that the State should be the sole landlord and should never alienate land. The League circulated largely a reprint of portions of the Social Statics of Mr. Herbert Spencer, and also reprinted from the Westminster Review an article on 194 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n the laud question by Mr. Syme, proprietor of the Melbourne Age, sometimes called " the apostle of Pro- tection." Mr. Higinbotham, the present Chief Justice, and Mr. Syme both supported the League with their purse. Mr. Gresham afterwards stood for an urban constituency, and again failed. The practical programme of the League was the cessation of the sale of Crown lands, and the leasing of the public domain for thirty years, with security of tenure and revision of rents on the expiration of the lease. I believe that Mr. Hioinbotham on one occasion made an attempt in the Assembly to stop the further alienation of the public estate, and Mr. Syme through the Age has often preached the same doctrine, but without the effect, in the one case, of obtaining a vote of the Assembly, or, in the other case, of converting the Victorian people. In a very able article in the Melbourne JRevieiv, in 1879, Mr. Syme showed how great had been the loss of the community in the neighbourhood of Melbourne by the out-and-out sale of the public domain, and he then proposed as a remedy a tax upon land which would secure to society the further increment. He supported his argument from the protectionist point of view, showing that the revenue from customs ought to decrease in proportion to the success of the Victorian fiscal policy, and that, as resort must be had to direct taxation to cover the deficiency, it would be well to make the owners of town and suburban land contribute their full share. He therefore suggested a land tax, to be periodically increased as unearned increment accrued, but to be on the land alone and not on improvements. The whole movement produced but little result, for the Victorian artisan would not listen to State landlordism ; but the rich of all classes have VICTORIA 195 been readied by the graduated progressive succession duty and by the tax on lands worth more than £2500. Although there is this strong disinclination in Vic- No objec- toria to State ownership of the soil, there is no objection victoria to to State interference generally. Indeed the strongest ^rence. disposition exists in Victoria, and, though in a less degree, throughout Australia generally, to think that the State is able to influence the prosperity of a country to a larger extent than is believed possible by us in Great Britain, or by our descendants in Canada and the United States. It is almost impossible to deny assent to Victorian views in favour of State -socialism in young countries. Lord Bramwell himself would become a State- socialist if he inhabited Victoria. In the rich young colonies the climate and soil offer wealth in return for population, but there are no people to construct the public works that are needed before the wealth can be won, and Government alone can do so, but can do it either upon the Australian or upon the American system. In the United States and Canada companies are brought into existence by enormous prospective gifts of land in return for the performance of certain opera- tions, and most of the various Pacific railroads were made rapidly upon this plan. The companies were bribed to make them, or, if the phrase is preferred, largely paid in land to make them. The Australians have more logically, and there is reason to think some- what more economically, decided to keep public works mainly in the hands of the colonial Governments. There is, in short, as I have already suggested by my reference to State- socialism, a considerable tendency noticeable in Victoria, towards Government interference with regard to matters in which the State does not interfere at home. In Australia generally the railways are the property of 196 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN meut rail ways the State, but in Victoria a similar policy is being pushed very far in many — as, for example, in agricultural and horticultural — matters. The Victorian Government not only help to support hospitals and charities and mechanics' institutes, but also spend money more freely in proportion than do European Governments on elementary and university education, botany, astronomy, schools of mines and design, and on parks. Govern- The consequences of the State control of railways in the colonies have been such that the majority of the few private lines which had been made have been bought up by the colonial Governments. Most of the lines were from the first constructed, managed, and owned by the State, and the results of the system in Australia have been apparently at least as good as the result of the opposite system in North America. The Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway, which was in private hands, was bought by Victoria in 1878, and in Tasmania, where the initiation of railway schemes had been left to private enterprise, the State has now bought out most of the companies. Board of It is generally admitted in Victoria that there were many blots on the system of State control of railways until the appointment of a board of three Commissioners independent of political influence. It is confessed that the management of a large department, spending a vast amount of money upon labour, when in the hands of political ministers, is often worked for political ends. " Log-rolling," in the construction of railways for private advantage, admittedly existed. It was sometimes found in Victoria that weak ministries, clutching at straws to save themselves from drowning, were willing to risk the future prosperity of the system for a little temporary help in the hour of trouble. Yet even under political Commis- sioners chap, i VICTORIA 197 management the railways of Victoria seem not to have been badly managed on the whole, and to have given a fair amount of satisfaction to the people. They were worked at a slight loss, but railways were constantly being pushed out into sparsely peopled districts, and the State was willing to look forward to the time when, the population having followed the railroads, the land near them would be well settled, and the railroads no longer a charge upon the State. That time has come. The Commissioners are now working the lines upon a commercial basis, and the railway system of Victoria is self-supporting, the average rate of profit on capital expended having reached 4^ per cent. The railways could have been made to pay a better return upon the capital invested, but the object of the State in the colonies has never been to make money directly from the rail- roads, but rather to encourage industry and to render service to the people. Fares and freights have been constantly lowered, so as to keep the revenue at a figure which would just pay all expenses. The profit that would elsewhere have gone into the pockets of share- holders, with no check save that supplied by the com- petition of other lines — a competition which in itself implies the creation of unnecessary lines and the sinking of unnecessary capital — has in Victoria been converted into a means of lightening the load upon the farmers, and permitting graziers at great distances from Melbourne to supply that city with beef at moderate prices. The Government of the democratic colony has not failed to have regard to the desirability of lessening the obstacles that parted friends residing at long distances from each other, and of permitting city men, without greatly increased expenditure, to live far from the town in which they work. Railway fares in Victoria compare PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN favourably with those of other communities, and we must in addition make allowance for the difference in the purchasing power of money. Very similar rates prevail in the other colonies, and in all of them the railways are worked less to pay interest upon capital than as subser- vient to the common weal. Persons engaged, or sup- posed to be engaged, on missions of importance to the State are granted free passes over the colonial lines. The railways are used for the spread of education, and in New South Wales and some other colonies the school children are carried free of charge. In Victoria remis- sions of fares are made in the case of students in the schools of mines and in the schools of design. Specially low rates exist in all the colonies for suburban traffic. The fares in the neighbourhood of Melbourne, for a district nearly 30 miles across, are for single journeys Id. a mile first-class, and |d. a mile second-class; and return tickets are given at f d. a mile first-class, and Jd. a mile second-class ; while monthly, quarterly, half- yearly, and yearly tickets are granted at great reduc- tions, even upon these low rates. The result is a wonderful spread of suburban railroad travelling, and the custom in Victoria is so developed that out of the large number of persons working in Melbourne who come in by train every day, a considerable pro- portion come to the town a second time in the evening to visit the theatres. The lowness of railway fares in Victoria is the more striking when we re- member that wages are twice as high for shorter hours as they are in England, and that coal costs nearly twice as much. No one in Victoria now advocates private ownership of railways. Mileage The Victorian system of managing the State railways theAustrai- by a non-political Commission has been recently imitated VICTORIA 199 by most of the other colonies in the South Seas. The asian rail- extent of railroads now in the hands of the colonial Governments is very large. The railways of our Austral- asian colonies have a mileage equal to half the rail- way mileage of the United Kingdom. The new railways that are being made in all the colonies are costing the colonial Governments, in spite of the dearness of labour and of machinery, only about one-tenth as much per mile as the English railways cost, although the earliest railways constructed in Victoria cost as much as English lines. At the same time the colonial lines, on the whole, are of a more substantial type than the lines of the United States, where trestle bridges of wood are used instead of solid embankments. The Queensland lines are of a narrow gauge, but the Victorian lines are of the broadest. We have become familiar in England of late years Govem- with the owning of telegraphs by the State, but we have telegraphs. unfortunately not become acquainted with low rates. Our rates in England are heavier than those which pre- vail in some parts of the Continent of Europe ; but the average telegraph rates of our colonies, in spite of the difference in the value of money, are lower in proportion to distance than are those of the old world. Not only have the State railways of Victoria been Public de- placed under non- political management, but this has S^d^non- been the case with the public departments generally. jjjjjj**} The Commissioners appointed to free the public service nient - from the former incubus of political patronage are as well paid as the judges, and as free from pressure of any kind. The Civil Service Commissioners of Victoria, who are three in number, began their work some five years ago by visiting every place in the colony where public officers were stationed, learning the nature of PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN their duties, determining their relative importance, and classifying the officers accordingly. Salaries were systematised and made uniform in all departments, and appointments and promotions are now determined by the Board. Heads of departments are allowed to make recommendations as to promotion, but the Commission is alone responsible, and, although the Commissioners are much guided by the advice of the heads of depart- ments, that advice does not relieve them from any share of responsibility. They are bound to satisfy themselves that the promotions recommended are right, however much they may go to the officials for evidence and information. While the officials of the Education Department are under the Commissioners, the mere teachers are not included in the ordinary Civil Service, and their promotions are determined by a different Board, partly appointed by Government and partly elected by the teachers. Success of The Victorian Civil Service Commission has met Service 11 with success, and on the rare occasions when members Commis- £ Parliament have hinted at a desire to revert to their sion. old practices the voice of the community has at once drowned the whisper of such a suggestion. The Civil Service, which was at one time a byword, is now a credit to the colony, and nothing can exceed the average capacity, industry, and trustworthiness of its public Payment of servants. A British admiral not long ago made a speech mem ers. -^ ^^ j ie asser ted that the Victorian Parliament can be bought or bribed ; but he had been wholly misin- formed, and his speech not only did great harm but was untrue. In reading the comments on it in the colonial newspapers I was struck by one which I found in an agricultural paper, not over friendly to either the Government or the Parliament of Victoria, VICTORIA which almost unwillingly paid a tribute to the honesty of the Victorian legislature in the following words : " Our members are bad enough at striving for office, and wasting time over it, but our legislature is one of the purest in the world. Bribery and corruption are absolutely unknown in our politics, bad and all as they are." The newspaper in question proceeded to explain that the admiral had received his information from an " absentee squatter," and then went on : " The old squatter was probably here when the large estates were being formed and there was no payment of members. The poorest members now would despise both him and his money." A remarkable testimony to the political honour prevalent in the highest places in the Australian colonies is the fact that two of the leading statesmen, belong- ing to different colonies, who have notoriously been in financial straits throughout their lives, although they have for long periods been all powerful, have not only remained scrupulously honest, which is nothing, but have never been charged with or suspected of dishonesty by their most savage political opponents, which is much. The Argus is a Melbourne Conser- vative newspaper, but the Argus is as proud of the financial purity of the Victorian Assembly as is the democratic Age, and it is a fact that since payment of members was introduced parliamentary money scandals have been all but unknown. Not only were complaints once made of political Local gov- influence in appointments to and promotions in the tr public service in the colonies generally, and in Victoria among the others, but similar complaints were also at one time directed against the system that obtained in local government. Just as in France, so in Victoria, it VOL. 1 P PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN was said that the wishes of the administration with regard to elections had much to do with State aid to public works that should have been regarded as being of a purely local nature. When I wrote upon Victoria in ]868, and again later in the Cobden Club volume on Local Government and Taxation published in 1875, I described the local government system of the colony. There never has been much trouble in Victoria about the towns ; the difficulty arose with regard to the outlying- rural districts, with respect to which applications used to be made to Government through members of the Assembly for assistance. The present system is that in the out-of-the-way parts of the country Government contributes, within certain restrictions, £2 for every £1 raised by the rates. The local bodies, of course, know the local needs, and a practical test of the urgency of these needs is provided by the requirement that these sparsely populated localities shall find at least one-third of the cost, and the plan has proved to be a fair system for obtaining the advantages of decentralisation along with those of the opposite system. The roads and bridges which are initiated by the sparse populations of new districts are, of course, often works of general utility; just as are the main roads of England, towards which the county contributes as a whole, and to which, from 1881 up to April 1889, the State con- tributed. The State in Victoria does not absolutely confine its contributions to the rural districts, but the contributions in large towns are small, and are based upon a different system. Generally speaking it may be said that, while in the thinly populated "shires" the Victorian Government contributes, for the purpose of assisting the population in providing conveniences which are national as well as local, double the sum that VICTORIA 203 is locally raised, in wealthier and more populous districts the State contribution declines until it about equals the local contribution, and in the great cities falls to a con- tribution of one-tenth. The principle of Government co-operation with Tramways localities has been carried into a large number of differ- munici- ent fields in the colony of Victoria : tramways, for pa ! example, are constructed by municipalities on Govern- ment loans, the State borrowing money for the municipalities on the best terms which the colony can command in the market, but the municipalities ulti- mately becoming the owners of the lines. The legis- lature, in establishing the tramway system of Victoria, gave the municipalities the choice of whether they would construct the lines themselves or leave the construction to the Government, which was willing to undertake it as a portion of its railroad system. The whole of the municipalities, however, twelve in number, decided to use the privilege conferred upon them. In Sydney, on the other hand; the tramway system has been kept in the hands of the Government of New South Wales, and has been treated as a part of the railway system of the colony. In Victoria the municipalities will become the owners of the tramway lines without purchase and without payment. The tramway com- panies, in the meantime, are forced to repair the adjoin- ing roads, and the municipalities have not merely the reversion of the lines themselves, but in Melbourne alone have obtained from the companies nearly forty miles of excellent wood pavement, while the companies are paying a large dividend upon their shares. The secretary of one tramway line receives from his company a salary of £3000 a year, and is considered cheap at the price, so enormous is the tramway traffic. The cars are 204 PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part ii worked upon the cable system, with perfect smoothness, at an average rate of eight miles an hour, including stoppages ; and they stop with the greatest ease to pick up and set down whenever hailed. Sandhurst has started its tramways upon the electric system. irrigation. The most notable instance in Victoria of the charac- teristically Victorian effort to unite central action with local knowledge and local control is seen in the irrigation system, the credit of which is due almost entirely to the present Colonial Secretary, Mr. Deakin. The irriga- tion system of Victoria, which will change the whole physical aspect of the country as well as affect its political future, and which is likely, if transported to New South Wales and South Australia, to be of even greater moment to those dry countries than it will be to the colony of its origin, is one of recent date. Al- though Victoria has a fair average rainfall, there are parts of the colony which often suffer from persistent want of rain. On the inland side of the low dividing- range the climate is not only drier as a whole than on the coast, but it has also the unhappy habit of baulking the farmer's hopes. The wheat-growing land of Victoria which lies in this district, where the rain is apt to fall when it is not wanted, and to fail to come in the short period when it is, consists of tertiary deposits near the Murray. There, in ages now long past, when the Murray, instead of being a sickly dried-up stream, w r as a kind of southern Nile, bearing upon its wide waters the same annual gift of fertilising mud, there were stored the elements of an inexhaustible fertility. There are districts near the coast which are richly favoured as grazing lands ; other tracts of disintegrated volcanic SO o rock where potato -farming is carried on with extra- ordinary success ; but the best wheat-growing portion of chap, i VICTORIA 205 the colony is that which I have described, and it is badly off for rain. Other fertile districts are those that lie in the western part of the colony, in plains which are well watered in winter by the Wimmera, the Avoca, and the Avon ; but in summer the beds of these streams may be crossed without any suspicion of the existence of a river in the neighbourhood. Farmers sow wheat seed in the depth of winter; and the soft spring sunshine and frequent showers of August, and the stronger sun of September, see it high ; but November burns it up, and a crop of abundant promise is apt ultimately, through want of moisture, to yield nothing for the farmer's pains. In 1884 a Victorian Royal Commission was appointed Mr. to examine into the best methods of conserving the Ration supply of water and dealing it out to the farmer when schemes " in need. Mr. Deakin was chairman of the Commission, and went to America, according to his instructions, to study the Californian irrigation system. Mr. Deakin recommended that the State should exercise supreme control over the sources of water supply. He pointed out the great difference between Victoria, and even the British colonies generally, on the one hand, and the United States upon the other, as regarded the attitude of the State towards every form of enterprise, including the construction and management of railways, tele- graphs, and water undertakings. He showed how in Victoria all these were in the hands generally of the State, but sometimes, as regards water supply, of municipal bodies acting with money borrowed from the State. In America, railways, telegraphs, and water supply were almost invariably in private hands. The State Governments in the United States had done little in the way of undertaking or assisting in the construe- 2o6 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN tion of irrigation works, while the Federal Government of the United States maintained an attitude of indiffer- ence. The large irrigation works of America had been constructed by private persons or by companies. Colorado and California had each procured a report by the State engineer upon irrigation, but that was almost all that had been done in that direction by any public authority in the country. On the other hand, Mr. Deakin pointed out that there has been an immense deal of irrigation in America in places with a very similar climate to that of Victoria and where the crops produced are crops which could be produced in Victoria under irrigation. Mr. Deakin showed how, in Southern California, in Utah, and in New Mexico, he had gained experience which went to prove that lucerne could be grown under irrigation in Victoria with extra- ordinary success. Four, or even more, crops of lucerne can be raised in the course of a single year, and a yield of twelve tons to the acre attained ; and lucerne improves by keeping, and can be stored for three years. Mr. Deakin also pointed out the marvellous future which, with irrigation, lies before the dry districts of Victoria in fruit growing, and especially orange cultiva- tion. Believing as he does in the advantages of the State possession of railroads, Mr. Deakin was able to point out that, by the low freights of Victoria, the farmers in the irrigated districts would be able to successfully compete with the farmers of the west- centre of the United States, who are crippled by the heavy railway freights upon their produce. The future that lies before Victoria in the production of olive oil, of currants, and of wine, was also pointed out, and the report concluded with the recommendations upon wdiich subsequent legislation has been based. VICTORIA 207 The boundless possibilities which, under a system of water storage and irrigation, belong to the flat or river dis- trict of New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia, where now in summer the land yawns in deep fissures beneath a brazen sky, form a subject which gives full scope to Mr. Deakin's oratorical powers. At the present moment the Australian colonists lose stock by the million head every few years through drought; but with water storage, with irrigation of artificial grass- lands, and with resort to ensilage, these losses could be entirely prevented, while irrigation proper will bring into existence fruit and dairy industries, enabling what used to be thought the worst portions of Australia to maintain a dense population in comfort with steady employment and sure profits. The drawback to Australia in the present is the cessation of productive- ness about one year in three ; and certainty in itself would make an extraordinary difference to the prosperity of the country ; but when to certainty, as regards sheep and cattle, are added the possibilities of oil, orange, wine, and other small farming under an irrigation system, it becomes clear that the future of the colonies lies this way. When the time came for legislation Mr. Deakin state proposed that the Colonial Government should dispose SgaUnn 1 " of the water to local " trusts " appointed to provide for works ' local needs, and that the State should at once gather and publish full information as to the suitability of various districts of the colony for irrigation. In June 1886 Mr. Deakin introduced a Bill embodying these principles. Part X of the Bill provided that certain classes of works should from time to time be declared national works by Parliament itself ; these being such as are connected with the sources of rivers in mountainous 2o8 PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part ii districts, for over these no one trust could exercise control without the danger of undue interference with the rights of others. Works which, though necessary, lie outside the sphere of action of any local trust were to be undertaken by the State. The chief engineer of the Water Supply Department has, however, to certify to his belief that the return from the local trusts interested in any works undertaken as national will pay interest on the money expended by the State upon these works. The Bill became law in December 1886. Six districts had already applied to be allowed to form trusts, two-thirds of the landowners in these dis- tricts, that is to say, generally speaking, the farmers, being parties to the application. State money was granted in these cases at 4^ per cent, the loan being at 4 per cent, and the \ per cent covering the cost of borrowing and of the relations between the Water Supply Department and the trust. The largest scheme was one to water 800,000 acres, the national works re- quired by it costing about one and a half millions ster- ling. The total schemes involved a national expenditure of between three and four millions sterling. In 1889 the irrigation schemes were being rapidly pushed on, and some thirty irrigation trusts had been formed. A granite weir 900 feet long was constructed across the chief internal river, diverting streams on either side into the rich plains of the north, the larger of them flowing into the biggest storage basin in the world. It is ex- pected that in five or six years cultivation will be revolutionised in the large area affected by this scheme. There has been some appearance of delay with regard to actual irrigation, but it must be remembered that much work was necessary to conserve and direct the water upon a scientific system of storage and supply VICTORIA 209 before irrigation could take place. In the Australian summer of 1889-90 irrigation is really beginning in Victoria, but even now only upon a comparatively small scale, though there will soon be 50,000 acres watered under the new schemes. Time is necessary to train farmers to make good use of the irrigation, and before its full results are reaped some years of practical experience will be needed. The fruit orchards require, moreover, from four to six years before they come into bearing. There is much to be learnt as regards the handling of fruit, and the conquest of markets for it : it will, however, pay from the first, and the paying of the system will ensure its further development. The water has first to be stored and taken to the land, and by the summer of 1890-91 the Goulburn river will be pouring life into the dry plains, and progress will be made on a great scale with State aid. The principle of the Victorian irrigation scheme is, The prin- then, that combination of central action with local action, ^J^on' 6 that plan of helping districts to help themselves, which scheme - we have noticed in Victorian rural local government generally. The State does that which must be done by the State if it is to be done at all, but what can be done locally is left to the locality with State aid. In addition to the Government and municipal works, Private one private firm has started irrigation works upon w"^. 101 a large scale in a tract so dry that, when some leases in it were put up to auction not long before these gentlemen began their operations, the highest rental offered was a penny a year for 14 acres, although the principal river of Australia, the Murray, winds round the district. There is a good deal of the Mallee scrubland in the north-west of Victoria which is let by the State for pasture in large blocks at a penny PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN for 20 acres, and Mildura was looked upon as almost as poor a place. The owners of the Mildura property gained their experience of the productiveness of an irrigation system in California, where they had previously started one of those great estates upon which Mr. Deakin, in his visit to California for the benefit of Victoria, was able to see the magnificent results of irrigation. Besides their Mildura lands they own also a property not far off, but situate in the colony of South Australia, for both properties are near the meeting of the three colonies which divide the river tract. I once visited this district in the summer, and, with the thermometer at 116° in the shade, was not able to discover for myself its charms. At the same time I ventured then to pro- wine phesy, in Greater Britain, a development of the grape- production. g rowm g industry, which since those days has progressed indeed with marvellous rapidity. I thought that New South Wales, which had the start in wine production in its Riverina district, would keep the lead, with South Australia for a second. But it looks at the present time as though Victoria would be the first Australian wine-growing colony, run hard by the two others. The fact is that all three possess about the same advantages for grape culture, and together ought to be, with the Cape and California, the future wine-growing districts of the world. I have still to say, as I said before, that the colonies suffer by trying to imitate the wines of foreign countries, instead of being willing frankly to produce their own. It is a curious fact with regard to Victorian wine production that the part of the colony which is most likely ultimately to grow fine wines is not as yet in favour for the purpose. Gippsland will probably in the long-run produce the finest wines of all Australia, VICTORIA and very possibly the finest wines of all the world. If the growing prohibitionist party should ever get its w T ay in Victoria the strange spectacle will be presented of one of the chief wine-producing countries beino- under the control of an electorate which is opposed to the manufacture and sale of wine. What is called "Prohibition" in Victoria is State-prohibi- tion, and even the more extreme members of the local option party dislike the name "prohibitionist." The first State-prohibitionist candidate ever seen in Victoria appeared at the general election in 1889, and he lost the £50 deposit exacted from candidates as a test of serious intention, for he only polled about 70 votes in a consti- tuency with nearly 3000 voters. The party that desires local prohibition has, however, increased in strength. But irrigation offers advantages wdiich are sufficient to secure its progress even if the teetotallers put down the use of wine. In the Mildura district the land with water produces success of such heavy crops that the farms there will probably be 1 very small and the agricultural population extremely dense. Every kind of fruit that can be grown in England can be raised, as well as the productions of the south of Italy. The crops of grapes, of almonds, of olives, and of oranoes are magnificent throughout the river counties when w The Irish in Victoria, although they VICTORIA 215 may not all be good Eoman Catholics from a religious point of view, are staunch Eoman Catholics politically, and, constituting as they do a quarter of the population, are a great political force, against which, however, of late the other parties have, and not for the first time, to some extent combined. The Irish Roman Catholic party up to 1889 appeared to have set themselves the task of obtaining State grants in support of denomina- tional schools, and, in furtherance of this aim, had acted with every opposition against every Ministry that would not promise the concession. When party feeling ran high between the Conservatives and the Liberals upon the questions of reform of the Upper House, Protection, and payment of members, the Irish party assisted to put out first the Liberals under the present Sir Graham Berry, in February 1880, and in the succeeding July the Conservatives under Mr. Service. In 1881 the Irish leader, Sir Bryan O'Loghlen (an Irish baronet), moved a vote of want of confidence in the Berry Government and defeated it by obtaining the support of the Conservatives, who afterwards, however, refused to join with him. He, nevertheless, obtained the help of a late Conservative whip, and. with the aid of that gentleman, composed an administration which was expected at the time to last only a few weeks. But the Conservatives, rather than consent to the return to power of the Berry party, unwillingly kept the Irish party in office. Progress in legislation under these circumstances was of course diffi- cult, and at the next general election the O'Loghlen Government, supported by the Irish Roman Catholics, was utterly routed. Liberals and Conservatives were returned in about coaiitio equal numbers, and a coalition Ministry was formed meuts. under the leadership of Mr. Service, with Mr. Berry as 216 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n Chief Secretary. In this Government Mr. Gillies held the portfolios of Railways and Education, and Mr. Deakin was Minister of Public Works and Water Supply, and afterwards Solicitor- General. This particular form of the coalition Ministry lasted three years, during which it put the railways under the management of the non- political Board I have described, and placed the civil service out of the reach of politics. It was replaced in 1886 by another coalition, headed by two members of the outgoing Ministry — Mr. Gillies as Prime Minister and Treasurer, and Mr. Deakin as Chief Secretary and Minister of Water Supply. This coalition has continued the work of the previous coalition, has established the irrigation system, and carried the Naval Defence Bill, and an Electoral Bill redistributing seats. The two great rival papers — the conservative and free-trade Argus and the protectionist and democratic Age — have both given their general support to the coalition. The Argus supports the coalition because, through it, the Conservative party remains sufficiently influential to prevent violent change ; but the Argus opposes the Liberal legislation of the coalition, and sides with the Upper House against the Lower when there is a difference of opinion. On the other hand, the Age supports the Liberal legislation of the coalition, but grudges seats in the Cabinet to the Conservatives, and growls at the " undue influence of the Conser- vatives " in proportion to their numbers. The Age, as a democratic paper, prefers excitement and strong measures, does not shrink from conflict, and some- what dislikes prolonged quietude and placidity. The support of such papers is of moment, for the capital plays a great part in Victoria. Melbourne contains a larger proportion of the population of its State than does chap, i VICTORIA 217 any other capital in the world, and Melbourne opinion and the Melbourne press have enormous influence in politics. In neither of the two last Governments — that is to say, at no time since the fall of Sir Bryan O'Loghlen, which is a very long period for possession of power by one set of men in a colony — has any Irish Roman Catholic, I believe, held office; and the Victorian Government has for all these years strenuously resisted every attempt headed by either Anglican or Roman Catholic bishops to touch the education system. The colony is proud of its common schools, and of The school standing high in school attendance among the Australian sy colonies. At the general election of 1889 the Age suddenly came out with a fierce denunciation of the Roman Catholic candidates. It was a curious fact that, while at every previous election every Roman Catholic candidate had declared himself opposed to the secular system of education, at the general election of 1889 every single one declared himself favourable to it. The new policy was not to attack the existing system, but to be free to support a capitation grant to all private schools, most of which are Roman Catholic schools, and the throwing open of all scholarships and exhibitions offered by the State to the pupils of such schools as well as to those trained in the State schools. This policy was opposed by the Government party as strongly as had been the earlier policy of the Roman Catholic Church, on the ground that it was destructive of the national character of the school system, and calculated to intensify distinctions which it was their desire to sweep away. The Age denounced an alleged alliance between the Roman Catholics and the publicans, and with such effect that several Roman Catholic candidates vol. 1 Q PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN in Melbourne lost seats which they had had some chance of winning. Of the 60 thoroughgoing sup- porters of the Government returned in a House of 95 only 3 were Eoman Catholics. By the operation of the coalition the feeling of hostility between Liberals and Conservatives has been for a time suppressed, although a severance is certain to come and may come soon. Each party has kept its machinery in working order, and parties are well organised in Victoria. For the moment the coalition stands, and the opposition itself is a coalition of all those various sections who do not like the Ministers or the Ministry. Substantially the coalition represents a Pro- testant alliance against the Eoman Catholics, while the opposition includes nearly all the Roman Catholics in the House. After what I have said it will be easily understood how, when Sir Bryan O'Loghlen moved his resolution in 1888, supporting the action of the Queens- land Government against the Colonial Office and Sir Henry Blake, it was accepted as an Irish movement, many of his own followers deserted him, and he only mustered 3 votes to 59. Mr. Gillies. The Prime Minister, Mr. Duncan Gillies, is of Scotch birth, — a short, stout, ruddy man, of few words, save when he speaks in jmblic. He was a digger in early days, was returned to Parliament by his mates, and kept by them on liberal wages. He soon joined the Conservative or Constitutional party, and followed their fortunes for many years. Although now almost the oldest member of the Victorian House in point of length of service, he is still in the full vigour of health and ability, and his sturdy frame and fresh -coloured clean-shaven face show no trace of age. He is at once the highest authority upon parliamentary practice and VICTORIA 219 the ablest debater in the House, of which he is, by know- ledge and talent, the natural leader. Perfect lucidity and extreme incisiveness are the characteristics of his speech. He has nothing of the power of rousing enthusiasm which belongs to the late Prime Minister, Mr. Service, none of the passionate popular sympathies of the late Liberal leader, Sir Graham Berry. Mr. Gillies is ex- tremely reticent in private ; his friends complain that they are never in his confidence, and his enemies accuse him of contemptuous coldness and indifference. He is a man of remarkable intellectual power, and one who regards all questions in the light of pure reason ; an unsparing destroyer of shams, sophisms, and pretences. Without being popular, he is universally respected in the House, while people outside are a little puzzled to understand the nature of his influence. Mr. Gillies is a man too cool, too little moved by sentiment to make mistakes, save when his mantle has been pierced by criticism. In these cases he displays a dogged persistency which procures for him enemies, or causes friends to owe him a grudge which may turn them into enemies one day. Mr. Gillies is wanting in the power to sally forth and do deeds of enterprise and daring 011 his own account, but he has the even more useful gifts of sticking to his post with courage, and, by dint of following one path, achieving eventual success. Without possessing the talent of originating, and without the faculty of stirring human hearts, he manages his own and the public affairs in the style of a good man of business, making bargains on every side, never risking much, and always gaining something. His reserved and unsym- pathetic manner does not prevent him from keeping a close following of men, bound to him by little love but all sharing the belief that those who do as Mr. PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN Gillies does will do right in the end. Mr. Gillies is not a man who loves work for its own sake ; he is not eager to do to-day what can be done as well to-morrow. Cautious, circumspect, and deliberate, he is, nevertheless, capable of an immense amount of work when necessary. He has great powers of administra- tion, though disposed to be somewhat indifferent and procrastinating. Now the leader of the Conservatives by sheer force of natural superiority, he has only gradu- ally won the place and wrung from his party the tardy and almost unwilling acknowledgment of his supremacy. Mr.Deakin. The partner of Mr. Duncan Gillies in the coalition Ministry is Mr. Deakin, the leader of the Liberal party. Elected to Parliament some eleven or twelve years ago as a Radical, and having had to fight, in his first eighteen months in Parliament, four of the fiercest elections that ever took place in the colony, he is one of the youngest members of the House, and time is upon his side, as the future will show. Remarkable for his oratorical power, of which Lord Salisbury has reason to remember the force at the Colonial Conference, he is one of the few statesmen in any country who combine energy in speech with great power of work and high administrative skill. He is a certain future Prim e Minister of Victoria, if not of a federated Australasian Dominiou, and it may safely be predicted that his administration, when it comes, will not be the least remarkable of those that the colony has seen. Mr. Service. Mr. Service, a former Prime Minister of Victoria, and first President of the Federal Council of Australasia, is now a member of the Upper House, of which he is practically, and will soon be professedly, the leader. He supports the Gillies-Deakin coalition. His age has begun to affect his physical powers, but he is still the VICTORIA eloquent speaker and the subtle leader who created the Conservative party of the present time in the face of desperate odds, and who led the Government and the House during three most brilliant years. Without the fervid oratory, the power of managing men, and the clever conciliatory policy of Mr. Service, Mr. Gillies would not have inherited the lead of an influential section of the House ; for in all these attributes Mr. Gillies is far less potent than was Mr. Service. The old Conservative leader may claim to have created the foreign policy of Victoria, and even of Australia itself. The agitations for saving the New Hebrides from France, for obtaining New Guinea for ourselves, and for creating Australian Federation, all took their shape from him, and in these movements Victoria and Queensland, which took the lead, were backed by general Australian opinion. Mr. Gillies, Mr. Deakin, and Mr. Service are all of them Australian Federationists ; but Mr. Service is, in addition, an ardent Imperial Federationist, as is Mr. Gillies in a more cautious way ; while Mr. Deakin prefers imperial co-operation, and looks upon Imperial Federation as remote, though he is strongly opposed to separation from the mother-country. Sir Graham Berry, the present Agent-General of sir Graham Victoria in London, has to a very large extent, in the past, controlled the domestic policy of Victoria. His Protection, local - option, and land - settlement views are now the established policy of the colony, most unlikely to be disturbed. With Mr. Service, he was the most considerable figure of Victorian politics — first during the contests of the two men, and then during their alliance. In the earlier years Mr. Service was always analysing and refuting Mr. Berry's fiery harangues, while Mr. Berry was Prime Minister and the PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN popular idol, the best platform speaker outside Parlia- ment, and the equal of Mr. Service within its walls. Mr. Service and the then Mr. Berry were the first representatives of Victoria on the Federal Council. Sir Graham Berry still possesses the confidence of the thoroughgoing protectionists in a higher degree than do the newer men. Mr. Bent. The leader of the Opposition until June 1889, Mr. Bent, who was Minister of Railways in the O'Loghlen Administration, is a man of great energy and enterprise, acuteness and readiness of mind — a man with much knowledge of men and power of management, with a fund of natural good humour, and a kindliness which makes him many friends. He was an excellent whip in the days when he was a whip, but was perhaps a better whip than leader. He sits, I believe, as a Conservative, but was driven by his alliances into a somewhat varying policy as Opposition chief. sir Bryan On the other hand, Mr. Bent's colleague in Opposi- o'LogWen. ^^ g^ jj r y an O'Loghlen, is a sincere Liberal, a con- vinced Home Ruler, but known even by his political enemies to be perfectly loyal to the British connection. He is a man of education — in former days one of the best Crown prosecutors — a good, but too frequent, and somewhat prolix speaker. With much sober judgment at most times, he is occasionally guilty of blunders in tactics which lead his followers into great difficulty. He is an upright man, and a fair opponent when con- sidered from the Government point of view. A devout Roman Catholic, he would sacrifice much for his Church. As an administrator, when tried as such, he was slow and timid. As a Parliamentarian he is somewhat want- ing in quickness, — is loyal to his friends, but not infre- quently injures them by a not very discreet persistency. VICTORIA 223 The most considerable man in the colony, making Mr. Higin- every allowance for the immense promise of Mr. Deakin, is the Chief Justice, Mr. Higinbotham, who was already one of the most prominent politicians in Australia when I made a long stay at Melbourne twenty -two years ago. The Chief Justice is a man of lofty character, enjoying the highest possible reputation for political integrity — an integrity so scrupulous, colonial statesmen complain, as to make him occasionally impracticable. He breathed into the Victorian Assembly in its earlier days its deference to constitutional principle and procedure, which have become a portion of its very being. He was in his time the greatest orator that Australia has heard, and no man in Australia is more revered by the whole body of the people. In 1889 he became once more a prominent figure in colonial affairs. Strongly at- views of tached to the imperial connection, he nevertheless holds ShSfon that governors should not even communicate with the the Go Z' ° ernorship Colonial Office upon the ordinary events of local politics, question. but should act as constitutional sovereigns upon the advice of their responsible Ministers, without even recollecting that there is a Colonial Office that may take a certain interest in colonial proceedings. Mr. Higinbotham has always condemned the instructions to governors issued by the Colonial Office, and he has lately got them altered, but even this victory did not soften his heart towards Downing; Street. Mr. Higin- botham thinks that the colonial Ministry and not the governor should communicate with the Colonial Office upon local affairs, and wishes governors to decline to write to England upon those topics upon which under his system colonial Ministers would write to English Ministers. The warrant of Sir Henry Loch provided that 224 PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part ii in the event of the incapacity of the Governor the Lieutenant-Governor should take his place, and on the failure of the Lieutenant-Governor, the Chief Justice. The Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria up to March 1889 was the former Chief Justice, Sir William Stawell, who was not in a fit state to discharge the duties of the office, and who died in the month I name. Sir Henry Loch had left the colony, and Mr. Higinbotham would have become Acting-Governor had not a special step been taken to prevent this. Moreover, he ought him- self to have been already named Lieutenant-Governor, according to precedent. Sir William Eobinson, the outgoing Governor of South Australia, was sent to Victoria to administer the Government for a time, and the correspondence which had passed between Sir Henry Loch, the Chief Justice, and the Secretary of State for the Colonies, was at once published in Victoria by the Chief Justice. It must be remembered that there had been a warm discussion when Sir William Stawell had been originally appointed Lieutenant-Governor, inas- much as this had beeu construed into a slight to Mr. Higinbotham ; and by again passing him over the Colonial Office provoked a revival of the Governorship question, in a former stage of which Victoria had so warmly taken their side. The sending of Sir William Robinson as locum tenens was ill advised, because aimed directly against Mr. Higinbotham. The Colonial Office were, however, it is fair to say, supported by the Argus, and Mr. Higinbotham put himself in the wrong by some apparent loss of temper. It should, neverthe- less, be remembered, that if the most loyal of our colonies, Victoria, were called upon to choose her own Governor, there can be little doubt that Mr. Higinbotham would be that choice, whether the election were by both VICTORIA 225 Houses or by a popular vote. Yet the Secretary of State is advised by the Colonial Office that he is not fit to be left in charge of the colony, according to almost unbroken recent Australian precedent, in the absence of the Governor, because he will not write a number of very useless despatches. The Colonial Office cannot really interfere against a Victorian majority, and the more fully that fact is recognised the better. When it is remembered that Mr. Higinbotham is not a separatist, but a strong supporter of the imperial connection, and even of Imperial Federation, the unwisdom of angering him will appear. Mr. Higinbotham was formerly a reporter on the Morning Chronicle, who had been called to the English bar, and he went out to Victoria as the editor of the Argus on a three years' engagement, but at the end of the three years gave up newspaper work, went into Parliament, and soon became Attorney General. He then codified the Victorian statutes, while he was conducting the protracted struggle with the Victorian Upper House and with Downing Street, and his high forehead and intellectual face wear traces of the labour of a terrible five years. Mr. Higinbotham is regarded in Victoria as the most distinguished of all our living colonists, and the greatest of Australian statesmen. He shares with his fellow Victorians, Mr. Deakin, Mr. Service, " and Mr. Gillies, together with Mr. Hofmeyr of the Cape, and many others, the colonial distinction of having declined a knight-commandership of our colonial order. Colonial statesmen often, how- ever, look on titles of knighthood as meant as a parting gift upon their retirement. In almost every colony and dependency of Great Success of Britain the Scotch and Irish seem to form a larger 226 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN and Irish and more successful portion of the whole than ought coIohL. to be the case if the various parts of the United Kingdom were proportionately represented in our daughter - lands. Mr. Higinbotham and Sir Bryan O'Loghlen are Irish-born ; Mr. Gillies and Mr. Service, Scotch ; Mr. Deakin and Mr. Bent are Australian- born ; and Sir Graham Berry alone of those Victorians whom I have specially named is English. The colony seems, as is only natural, about to pass under the rule of the native-born. victoria In Victoria the young Australian party has not the idea of taken up a definite position upon the question of separation. j m p er ial Federation, or generally of relations with the mother-country. The tie with the mother-country is stronger in Victoria than in some of the other colonies, and the Victorian press is more generally opposed to separation than is the case with the press of New South Wales. It will be noticed from what I have said that of recent years there has been in Victoria a marked tend- ency towards the formation of coalition administrations. Something of this kind has been seen in other colonies, as, for instance, the union of Sir H. Parkes and Sir J. Robertson in New South Wales, and of Sir R. Stout conserva- and Sir J. Vogel in New Zealand. The Conservative tive pohcy. p art y i n Victoria has almost necessarily to change its tactics from time to time, being gradually driven from one position after another. It was at first an anti- digger party ; then a party opposing the "free selectors" upon the land question ; then a free-trade party oppos- ing the manufacturers upon Protection. It opposed manhood suffrage and the extension of the franchise for the Upper House. Half the party opposed State educa- tion, and more than half the party opposed the local- VICTORIA 227 option changes made in the colonial liquor law ; while the Conservative party as it now exists accepts these reforms. Most of the Victorian Conservatives, including the Prime Minister, privately retain free-trade opinions which they do not express, just as many English Con- servatives, including the Prime Minister, retain fair- trade opinions to which they seldom give expression. The Victorian Liberal party has carried all before it — Liberal diggers' rights ; land to settlers ; Protection (for the Liberal party in Victoria is almost entirely protectionist) ; manhood suffrage ; the extension of the franchise for the Council ; free, secular, and compulsory education ; and local option. The present policy of the Victorian Liberal party is the maintenance of the Education Act against the Eoman Catholics, maintenance of Protection, exten- sion of the principle of local option (existing in Victoria at present only with regard to the numbers of licensed houses in a district, and subject to the payment of compensation), and the enactment of the one-man-one- vote limitation upon plural suffrage. The total dissolu- tion of the Council is in view, as is also woman suffrage. The future leaders of the next Liberal administration are, I believe, in favour of a single chamber and of the political emancipation of women. The chief legislative peculiarities of Victoria have been Legislative its graduated progressive succession duty, existing since jtles. lM 1870 (in which it has been followed by Queensland, New Zealand, Tasmania, and New South Wales) ; its non- political boards for managing the public service and the railways, in which points, also, its example is being widely followed ; its early closing law, which I will presently describe ; its payment of members by a per- manent law, in which it also took the lead ; and its policy of encouraging mining by a large annual expendi- 228 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN ture to help prospectors — a policy which is now extended to horticultural and agricultural experimental work. Reaction There is little disposition shown in Victoria to meddle vSrian^with the results of political changes, even although politics. fa e y ma y h ave \)een hotly opposed in the first instance. Nothing like reaction has been known in this colony, given though her Parliament is to the trial of experi- ments. Since graduated succession duties, increasing in percentage with the increase of the sums on which they are levied, were established, there has been no agita- tion to abolish them ; in fact, their very existence seems forgotten by colonial politicians, although Mr. Goschen has now commenced an elementary imitation of them in the mother-country, and although a slight application of the principle of graduation has also been lately intro- duced into the Indian income-tax. The State control of railways has not been challenged ; payment of members is supported by the great majority of the community ; Protection, as against the mother- country and Europe, is looked upon as a matter that is settled, so that a platonic opinion in favour of free trade does not now stand in a politician's way in a protectionist constituency ; and although the Anglican and the Koman Catholic bishops at one time joined forces, as I have said, to attack the system of free secular education, they have not been able to carry the whole of their flocks and, still less, the country with them in their crusade. The Church of England is now, in several of the colonies, disposed to adopt a less hostile attitude towards the secular schools than was formerly the case. With the possible exception of Protection, as to which a new issue has sprung up in the question whether an Australian, or a merely Victorian, nation should be formed, there is more probability that all the principles I have named will be extended than VICTORIA 229 that they will be curtailed. The principles of the Education Act, for example, are now being applied to secondary education, and are ultimately to be applied to the universities ; already the boys who distinguish themselves in the common schools receive free secondary education. The graduated succession duties are likely one day to develop into a graduated property-tax. As it is, in 1887 the Land Tax Act provided that landowners are to pay a heavy duty on valuation of capital value over £2500, a tax evidently intended, as I have said, to break up large estates, though it has not had much effect in this direction. At the same time the land-tax may check the further accumulation of property in the same hands, and has perhaps already limited the growth of large estates. The tax is unpopular with the rich, and is denounced as a " Class-Tax," but the league for its abolition has not as yet received much general support. State control is being extended from railways to every description of public work, and the radical land legislation of the colony is also now regarded as one of the settled institutions of Victoria. The general election of 1889 turned upon the side The general pi . -, ■ r, -p, . election of issue, growing out 01 the mam policy 01 rrotection, 01 1889. the answer to be given to the question, " Australian or Victorian Protection ? " The present coalition Government put forward this principle: — To haveno fresh border duties upon Australian products, and to gradually abolish those now in force ; the aim being to obtain a common tariff on the seaboard of Australia, and free trade within the limits of the Australian continent. The provincialists, who seemed at first to make great way upon this question, were at one time expected to defeat the Government, who nevertheless came back with a two to one majority. The difficulties in the way of the Opposition after a 230 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n success would have been considerable. If they in- creased the border duties, reprisals from New South AVales would have been sure to follow, for Sir Henry Parkes, run hard by the protectionists, would have been glad to trump his opponents' policy by intro- ducing Protection under the guise of retaliation : while if the protectionists had replaced him they would have acted fully upon their principles as against that neighbouring colony of which they are jealous. The federal instinct, which is strong in Victoria, has hitherto seemed weak in New South Wales. The Victorian Government, however, staked its life on the Australian federation cause, and saved it, thus avoiding, at all events for a short time, the opening of a new and of a stormy era of reprisals. Australian The Victorian Government is one of the strongest Fe eration. SU pp 0r t ers f the Federal Council, and has succeeded, through the Council, in isolating New South Wales. In the meantime the Protection question and that of colonial federation are, of course, closely connected. The Vic- torian stock-tax is supposed to have been a considerable cause of annoyance and irritation to New South Wales, and the declaration of a desire to abolish it was intended to some extent as an overture to New South Wales by the dominant party in Victoria. It was argued that the one difficulty in the way of federation was the difference of opinion in the colonies upon Protection ; that, while Victoria was protectionist, the neighbouring colony of New South Wales was a free-trade colony ; and that, as South Australia had been increasing her duties until they rivalled the duties of Victoria, and as the people of New South Wales seemed about to turn in the same protectionist direction, it would be a mistake for Victoria to take any step towards still higher duties, and so VICTORIA to put herself away from those with whom she hoped to coalesce on the lines of a customs union. It will easily be seen that such a question was likely to divide both parties, and it did as a fact divide the two parties in Victoria. The question of the stock-tax, that is, of taxing Australian products as a part of the protective system, divides both Liberals and Conservatives, and divides even Liberal protectionists from Liberal protec- tionists. The probability seemed that if the Government had proposed the increase of the stock-tax and of the duty upon oats and barley they would have won ; but they deliberately preferred to risk their popularity and to divide their party in support of a policy which they be- lieved to be Australian and patriotic, and, in my opinion, they deserved high honour for the course they took with a view of putting an end to the unhappy exasperation against Victoria existing in New South Wales. They have, however, as will be seen, since yielded in some measure to the ideas which they had defeated at the poll. The Government frankly told their supporters at the general election that they must be prepared to make a sacrifice, but that they were determined that an intercolonial war of tariffs, if it was to come, should not begin with them. So far as they repre- sented the protectionists of Australia, they declared that Australian Protection had been instituted with a view of developing Australian industries ; that there had been no thought of attacking the neighbouring colonies by duties, but only of defending Australian industries against the competition of the old world. The colonies were, at the time when Protection was set up, isolated communities, not bound together as now by railways and commercial intercourse. The Government held that the protectionist system had a 232 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n national object — the creation of a national feeling. They thought that Victoria was now at the parting of the ways — that, if she adopted a simply Victorian protective system, she would be building up from year to year a stronger and stronger local Victorian feeling, which would become an obstacle to any larger union to be proposed in the future ; whereas if, on the contrary, the customs duties were Australian, or Australasian, the feeling built up would be Australian, or Australasian . Programme The Gillies -Deakin Government did not think lfes-Deakin themselves strong enough simply to reject an increase party. £ ^e stock-tax, proposed by some, and an export bounty upon wheat, suggested by others of their oppo- nents. They crowded their budget with small doles to agriculture. They proposed to give money to provide shed accommodation, refrigerating trucks, and cool- storage facilities ; money for increased contributions to- wards local rates ; money for agricultural schools ; money for boring operations where surface water was unobtain- able, and money for bonuses for improved farming, the exportation of dairy produce and fresh fruit, the estab- lishment of factories for fruit -canning, fruit -drying, and butter and cheese making, as well as for pre- paring flax and silk. Prizes are in fact now to be given by the State not only for the articles named, including raisins and currants, but for hemp, manufactures from paper plants, drug plants, and dye plants, nuts, almonds, tobacco, cigars, olive and other oils, perfumes, and a great number of other products. Although the Ministry attempted in this manner to mitigate the opposition of the agricultural interest, the members of the Government in their speeches in the House appealed to far higher motives. Mr. Deakin, in most eloquent terms, asked the protectionists of the VICTORIA 233 Assembly whether they wished Victoria to be for the future a country by itself, without relations, except those of commercial hostility, with all outside it ; whether Vic- torians could ignore the fact that the line which divides them from the other colonies is an imaginary line, and that those beyond it are of the same race ; and whether they should build up a national feeling which should be Victorian, or a national feeling which should be Australian. He refused to treat the inhabitants of New South Wales and of South Australia as foreigners : he hoped, on the contrary, to unite with them in one common bond of a customs union with a common tariff, and by every possible means to nourish and develop the federal feeling. The Government desired federation and union, making the Australian continent one nation, and maintained that the policy of the Opposition would build up higher barriers, or dig deeper gulfs, between the colonies, so that, while the stock-tax was nominally the question at issue, the real question was that of union or separation of the Australian colonies. It might almost be paradoxically asserted that the virtual Victorian protectionists under Mr. Deakin had at this ground by moment become free traders without knowing it. They tSfoSs. argued in favour of that intercolonial free trade which is the only kind of free trade that is now of very much practical importance in Australia ; while those who were opposed to them were the practical protectionists in desiring intercolonial Protection. The hitherto free- trade colonies, moreover, so far as they are becoming protectionist, are adopting protective duties with the view of protecting themselves against the protectionists of Victoria. The use of free-trade arguments by the Victorian use of protectionist leader, Mr. Deakin, produced a certain arguments vol. 1 R 234 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n by the pro- coldness towards him on the part of the Age, and he leader!" 8 himself was forced to somewhat draw back from the position he had taken up. The really consistent pro- tectionists do not view with any pleasure the Victorian export trade in manufactures, which Mr. Deakin is anxious to preserve. They say, " What have protec- tionists to do with export trade ? We desire to keep our local markets for our own manufacturers and our own artisans — that is all." At the elections, neither the Age nor the Argus was a very keen supporter of Mr. Deakin, for the Age suspected the purity of his protectionist principles, while the Argus, although supporting the Government of which he is a member, naturally supported its Conservative and not its Liberal wing. Election The proceedings at the Victorian election of 1889 were, as has been seen, of much interest. The Liberal wing of the Ministry pledged themselves to make representations to the Colonial Office requesting the further amendment of instructions issued to the governors of colonies enjoying responsible government ; but the main question before the electorate was that of the Australian " national " principle, as against the purely Victorian position taken up by the supporters of the stock-tax. The old free traders explained that not only must any general raising of the free -trade flag upon their part be a hopeless undertaking, but that in their opinion the vested interests which had been created by Protection had become so large that it would be dangerous to sweep away the tariff; and the strong protectionists of the Deakin school and strong free traders supporting the Ministry went to the country upon precisely the same programme. The Trades of Melbourne discussed the Protection question in connection with the elections. maiiifes toe VICTORIA 235 After they had, as usual, expressed an opinion in favour of the maintenance and extension of the policy of Pro- tection of local industries, the question was raised whether the stock-tax should be supported. Some of the members pointed out that it would raise the price of meat, while others replied that the denial of Pro- tection to the farmers would cause them to join hands with the free traders and upset the whole policy. Meetings of "Liberals" and of "Radicals" were held during the election campaign to denounce Mr. Deakin, but the result of the polls was a triumph for himself and his coalition. The " Radical programme " that was put forward at Opposition meetings in many points virtually favoured Mr. Deakin' s policy, but differed from it in supporting the stock-tax, and went beyond it in supporting an absentee-tax. Absentee taxes are theo- retically popular throughout the colonies, but difficulty is found in devising them in such form as not to interfere with the influx of "foreign" capital. The line taken with regard to the stock-tax by the dissentient Radicals was that the coalition Ministry, while professing to be pro- tectionist, were destroying Protection by injustice to- wards the farmer. The supporters of this programme complained that Mr. Deakin had ceased to be a Liberal, and had been converted by the Conservatives in the coalition Government. Besides the anti-Deakin Radical programme there "Mr. was also a Radical programme of supporters of the dream." Government, drawn up by a caucus including the whole of the Radical supporters of the Government, and held almost under official auspices, Mr. Deakin himself being in the chair. Many of the planks were similar to those of the other platform, but the " country members " warmly condemned the Government's attitude towards the stock- 236 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n tax. The Radical supporters of the Government appear, however, to still greatly outnumber and outweigh the anti-coalition Radicals. The former naturally did their best to make the stock -tax difficulty easy to their country friends by encouraging them to treat the tax as though it were an open question, while the anti-coalition Radicals were able to enter fiercely upon its defence. The chief item in the programme of the coalition Government was federal unity, which was put forward as the indispensable preliminary to the creation of an Australian national sentiment. This was denounced by their Radical opponents as " Mr. Deakin's dream," and even the country portion of the supporters of the Government called it " chimeri- cal " ; but, owing no doubt largely to the overwhelming- importance of the urban community, it carried the elections, as against the stock-tax, and the two or three known Liberals who associated themselves with the anti- coalition movement did not stand well at the polls. The Argus pointed out with regard to the election manifestoes of the various parties that the greater portion of the Gillies-Deakin programme consisted of principles which are the common property of all sensible citizens ; but the Argus admitted that a national party was in process of formation which united old friends and old foes, and which had for its object Australian unity, to be brought about by free intercolonial inter- change. It seemed clear that this struggle was likely to last for many years, and the Argus (which, although the free-trade paper, had for the moment put free trade somewhat aside) strongly supported the view that the policy of isolation from the rest of Australia must be destructive to Victoria. The view taken in Australia generally of the pro- VICTORIA 237 ceedings at this Victorian election of 1889 is that inter- inter- colonial free trade would now indeed suit the Victorians, f re e trade. who by Protection have placed their own manufactures in a flourishing condition. Intercolonial free trade would mean that Victorian soap, candles, rope, biscuits, and other articles would obtain an excellent market. But, it is argued, South Australia and Queensland and Tasmania have now to protect their own manufactures against those of Victoria, while if New South Wales should abandon her free- trade policy it would be for the very purpose of keeping out Victorian goods, and of giving the factories of Sydney a better chance in the trade of New South Wales than those of Melbourne. It was admitted by the more impartial politicians in the other colonies that Victorian action in the direction of intercolonial free trade was prompted by mixed motives, and that there was a real growth of federal and Australian sentiment, but it was also believed that the growth of Protection in Tasmania, South Australia, Queensland, and New Zealand, and the rapid increase in strength of the protectionist party in New South Wales, had had their effect upon the Victorians, who had already lost a certain portion of what had become a very promising export trade, and feared to lose the whole. On the other hand, it was pointed out that the stock-tax was not really needed by the Victorian rura] districts, and being directed offensively against Queens- land and New South Wales, had the effect of alienating these colonies, and making intercolonial free trade more difficult of attainment. The Australian view of the new Victorian policy is that Victoria wishes to make of the colonies a protectionist flock isolated from the world, but mixing freely within Australian boundaries, and that if all had had the same fiscal legislation all PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN along the scheme might have been feasible, whereas now it is somewhat late for the adoption of a policy which the other colonies are inclined to look upon as a trifle " smart " in the American sense. Some of the graziers who came to press the stock-tax upon the Government were coining gold. One, for ex- ample, never sold less than a thousand fat cattle every year, for each of which he obtained never less than £10, having paid for them as store cattle an average of £4, and incurred costs amounting to £2 : 10s. a head, leaving £3 : 10s. per head of profit, or £3500 a year from a thousand acres of land. The gentleman taken as an example had been a workman who ' had acquired his land by paying a shilling an acre for twenty years. He had paid in all, in " deferred payment " (if indeed he could be said to have paid anything, for the shilling an acre was not an unfair rent for the use of the land), £1000, out of which he was making £3500 a year of profit; his 1000 acres having in the meantime become worth £30,000 — a sum which he had refused for them. Now when the deputation, consisting of this gentleman and others in a similar position, asked that cattle fattened in Queensland should be kept out of the colony, they did not find the view popular with the electorate, who very naturally said that the graziers had done sufficiently well not to need a monopoly. The granting of this monopoly it was thought would have the result of closing colonial ports to the goods manufactured by the Victorian artisan. Result of At the general election, after a redistribution of seats, ei?ct?oTof the Ministry came back with sixty-four nominal sup- 1889. porters in the House against the opposition of thirty, and with a large number of new members among its men. The stock-tax, which the Opposition had desired chap, i VICTORIA 239 to see increased, found less support than it had before the election, when the House had been evenly divided with regard to it, for sixty- one candidates were pledged to oppose its increase against thirty-three in its favour. The young Australians, returned in considerable numbers, voted against it by a large majority on account of their preference for the idea of Australian unity, and seemed for a time determined that if there was to be an intercolonial war of tariffs it should not be begun by Victoria. The reaction against the Imperial Federation idea, which was noticeable in 1889 throughout Australia, was marked among these younger men. The feeling in the country upon secondary questions at the 1889 election showed itself in the rejection of four or five of the worst parliamentary obstructives, and a demand for the reform of parliamentary procedure. But the main question before the country had been, as I have shown, that of intercolonial free trade, upon which Victoria pronounced in favour of Mr. Deakin's policy. Although, however, the coalition Ministry had a large majority, it began in the latter part of the session of 1889 to show signs of . approaching dissolution. Parliamentary procedure was reformed, but not in so drastic a fashion as the Government had proposed. Personal difficulties were faced by the ejection of one member of the Ministry, but the reconstruction was not sufficient to please those who had demanded it. Above all, it was found that the Government had lived so long that there was a growing feeling in favour of a change in spite of the existence of that consolidating force between Governments and their majorities — a surplus. The coalition maintained itself by somewhat unworthy promises to place fresh duties upon several articles coming from other colonies, an action entirely 240 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n inconsistent with the programme upon which they had carried the election. The position of the Government now is that they are opposed to all fresh intercolonial duties, but have been driven into some concessions to the ultra-protectionists in order to avoid others — a sad falling off from the heroic position assumed immediately before, during, and just after the general election. Even the high stock-tax, defeated as it was, has again become a possibility of the future ; and threats are heard among candidates, who were pledged against it, that if New South Wales insists upon excluding Victoria from the use, for irrigation purposes, of the water of the Murray river, an increased stock-tax must be put on to punish her. As irrigation extends throughout the dry districts of Victoria, the agricultural holders will become stock- raisers upon a small scale, and a greater number of persons will become interested in the Protection of Victorian stock. Kesuits of In the event of a future war of tariffs between tariffs. Victoria and New South Wales, it is possible that the coalowners of the latter colony may be once more threatened with an export duty upon coal. Some think that the Victorian coal-fields in Gippsland will ultimately produce coal good enough for the use of the Victorian manufacturers ; but railway freights are too heavy to compete with sea carriage for such an article as coal, and as long as New South Wales does not put an export duty upon coal, Victoria will continue to use New South Wales coal in manufactures as freely as New South Wales makes use of it herself. The Victorian pro- tectionists did not raise an outcry when New South Wales proposed to put on an export duty some years ago, but believed that its effect would be beneficial to their views by causing a development of the local coal- chap, i VICTORIA 241 winning industry. An outcry was raised in New South Wales itself, however, and the proposal was dropped, but it will probably be revived unless the protectionists of New South Wales should come to power, and the adoption of moderate Protection should give New South Wales a larger revenue than she knows how to spend. Australian federal feeling has begun to have Financial . ° •/»■¥-» federation not only an influence upon the question of Protec- tion or free trade, but also a connection with that of Australian debts and loans. The late Mr. Westgarth re- cently made a proposal that the Australian colonies should confederate for the purpose of issuing a joint guarantee of their total debt. The proposal was not received with much favour in Mr. Westgarth's own colony — Victoria. Some of the most powerful organs of the press have asserted that it would be unfair to ask a colony like Tasmania, whose national indebtedness is small, to assist in guaranteeing the debt of New Zealand, or of Queens- land, which is large. There does not seem to be much in the objection, for all the colonies, with the single exception perhaps of New Zealand, are possessed of governmental assets which equal or nearly equal the amount of their indebtedness, and New Zealand is likely soon to become one of the most prosperous colonies of the whole group. Queensland, for example, it has been estimated, would bring into the common stock £52 sterling per head of State property against £60 a head of indebtedness ; and Tasmania £25 a head of assets against £29 of indebtedness. As far as Australia is concerned, consolidation of loans will no doubt come with political federation. Mr. Westgarth, favourable as he was to federation, would have tried to make financial federation come even earlier, and the attempt debts. 242 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part 11 was laudable. Mr. Westgarth showed that the colonies would get as much money as they want, on a joint guarantee, for 3 per cent ; whereas, as long as they continue to be comparatively small and isolated borrowers in the market, some of them will have to pay a good deal above that price. The idea has not been widely taken up, as New South Wales and Victoria object to "guarantee Queensland and New Zealand" without having any control over their expenditure. Colonial A distinguished economist has lately published a paper in which he speaks of the colonies as borrowing recklessly, but New Zealand is the only colony that has done so. In " the Britain of the South " a costly native war was succeeded by a large public works expenditure, but New Zealand is rapidly recovering her financial equilibrium, and her position will soon be thoroughly sound. No other Australasian colony has a war debt, and the whole of the Australian borrowings have been expended on public works, which pay directly much of the interest upon the sums invested. The resources of the continent are being rapidly developed by the public works upon which the loans are spent, and, although the taxation of some colonies, measured by a European standard, looks high indeed, measured by the price of labour and the returns of capital it is small. The colonies contend that in a European sense they have no debt, for all the outlay is reproductive ; while the railways not only pay interest out of their earnings, but now begin to make profit towards revenue, besides enabling further national development to take place through extraordinary reductions of freights and fares. If Victoria chose to part with her railways at the present time she could obtain for them an amount equal to her total debt. chap, i VICTORIA 243 Colonial debts are of special importance to us in the The United Kingdom, because we invest largely in them, thoroughly They do something to create the idea of imperial unity so ven ' and to knit the Empire together. Our home income- tax figures go to show that, as regards investments that are known, our colonial investments are increasing with extraordinary rapidity, while our home and Indian investments are stationary, and our foreign Government investments falling off. It is probable that New Zealand and Victoria will soon each yield more income to English investors in Government stocks than does any other country in the world, outside of England. It is very natural that this should be the case, for there is confidence in the stability of the colonial Govern- ments. We understand the way in which they float their loans, and their system of book-keeping : we believe in the honesty and ability of their statesmen, and we are well informed as to the objects on which their debts are spent. There has never been any form of repudiation so much as talked of in our Australian colonies, and, the colonies having no wars, the weakest point of Continental finance is not met with in their case. The colonies instead of being forced to spend their money upon armaments are able to place it in reproductive public works. The colonies too, we feel, are far richer than we are at home, and yet their real debt is much lighter in proportion to their income than is ours, and a mere trifle by the side of the debt of France or Russia. The colonies have not only assets in the shape of railways and other works upon which the borrowed money has been expended, but also, as they assert, other assets in the shape of their unsold public lands. This consideration might, however, be turned the other way, for New South Wales has carried a revenue 244 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n from somewhat improvident land sales into her ordinary accounts, a practice which Victoria avoids. By an order of the Supreme Court made in London at the end of 1888 we learn what are at the present time considered to be legitimate investments for trustees. Indian securities are included in the order, but colonial securities are not. No doubt it is possible to argue that while the stock of Victoria and New South Wales may be excellent, that of New Zealand, and possibly of Queensland, cannot at the moment be looked upon as a first-class security, and that it might be invidious to pick out particular colonial stocks, and therefore difficult to include them in the order ; but if this were true, which it is not — for New Zealand is financially more " sound " than India — it would be an additional argument in favour of Mr. Westgarth's proposals. A Treasury Committee, which sat in November and December 1889, has recently investigated the question of the power to invest trust funds in colonial securities, to which it was believed that Mr. Goschen was unfa- vourable. The Committee has reported in favour of the admissibility of colonial stocks, provided that the colonies will agree to legislation to give a power of suing Colonial Governments, which, according to the Treasury, at present does not exist, and which certainly can affect only moneys in the hands of the colonial agents in this country. It is possible that stipulations for the maintenance of the standard of credit may be inserted in the Imperial Act, so that the investment shall cease when the 4 per cents in the case of any colony fall below a certain price. Railways Victoria can show in railways and waterworks alone and water- J works more than the full value of her total indebtedness, and the whole she has a surplus of revenue over expenditure almost VICTORIA 245 every year. It has been contended with regard to debt of Victoria that the great decline in the productiveness Victoria - of the Victorian gold-fields is likely to involve that colony in difficulties; but the profits to the com- munity from gold -mining as an industry have for some time been small, and the gold -mining industry in Victoria for many years past, except as an em- ployer of labour on a not very considerable scale, has been of little utility to the colony. It is pos- sible, however, that gold-mining itself may yet recover; the rudest appliances only have as yet been made use of for the extraction of the gold, and in deep- sinking the colonists have everything to learn ; while silver, tin, and copper may yield profits. The real gold-mine of the future for Victoria will lie, how- ever, in the growth, by irrigation, of fruit crops — using the phrase in its widest sense, and including wine and every kind of vegetable oil. Other financial discussions which have taken place other in the colony of late have been less worthy of attention. quSions. There has been an agitation for a national bank, which would practically be the State lending money to settlers at rates too low to offer guarantees of soundness, and issuing inconvertible notes. The scheme did not arouse those workmen to whom it was addressed, and it is to the credit of the Victorian population that they should have rejected it as they did. There are great numbers of good settlers who arrive year by year, who have everything but money, and who reach for the first time a country where the almost immediate acquisition of wealth by them seems to depend upon their obtaining a small capital. These men feel in them the energy and strength to win wealth for themselves, if only a little capital could be theirs to make a start. A whole 246 PROBLEMS OF ORE A TER BRITAIN part ii continent lies ready, waiting to be adequately stocked and fenced, and provided with tanks and homesteads. Day by day country that was but lately looked upon as useless to mankind is becoming open to occupation and to settlement. At the same time workmen who save their wages soon become capitalists in the colonies. The man who earns £3 a week, and spends but £2, has plenty of bidders for the £1 that he saves. Banks, building societies, investment trusts, and in- surance companies, providing funds for pioneer settle- ment, compete actively for the possession of the work- man's savings. Up to two years ago 8 per cent was obtained in safe investments in the interior, and 12 per cent where a little risk was taken. Those who made a business of lending to squatters, with the chance of drought, could readily get 15 per cent a year ; and many of the wealthiest men in Victoria have made their money by lending to squatters at 20 per cent a year, though taking an amount of risk which made them virtual partners in the " runs." Although from time to time they lost in bad seasons a large proportion of what they had lent, the high rates in a few years of favourable weather left them too strong to suffer more than temporary depres- sion when bad seasons came. There has been a keen demand for capital to be spent on the edges of civilisa- tion where man was reclaiming the wilds, and those who saved doubled, at compound interest, their savings in nine or ten years without risk. Victoria has borrowed largely on account of her very prosperity. All her own capital was so fully and so profitably employed that it could not be used for the making of railways, because in this solid and safe form of investment the British public at home was willing to embark its money at far less than the usual colonial rate. It was for these reasons VICTORIA 247 that the borrowing of money by Australian Governments began at a moment when Australia was rolling in wealth. New South Wales commenced the process in 1858, and was followed by Victoria in 1859, although Victoria had just raised, in eight years' work, gold to the value of eighty -eight millions sterling. It was in the midst of the full flush of gold prosperity that the railways were begun, but not with colonial capital. Every shilling that the colonies had was in eager demand, earning 10 per cent with safety where lent on loan, and 20 per cent where utilised by owners in their own enterprises. It would have been a waste of resources, the Australians thought, to have used their capital for railways, when the British public was willing to advance the requisite funds at 5 or 6 per cent. It was shown just now with what caution the Experi- Australian workmen abstained from jumping at the bait Svictoril held out by the proposers of an inconvertible currency. In general I think it must be said that the electorate of Victoria have shown much prudence in the new ideas that they have taken up, and in the manner in which they have pressed them forward. The questions discussed at the meetings of 1889 were almost "humdrum," with the exception of that of intercolonial free trade. Sanitation, the free breakfast-table, and the reconstruc- tion of the Ministry, on lines which would make its anti-Irish and its federal elements even more marked, were among the chief subjects of debate; and the colony seemed more proud of having lived for six years under virtually the same Ministry, while New South Wales had had six or seven Ministries in the same time, and of having had surpluses amounting to over a million in all, to set against New South Wales deficiencies amounting 248 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part ji to more than two and a half millions, than anxious to enter upon any revolutionary course. Early Q ne f ^he experiments which in the past Victoria closing. x L has tried for us is that of early-closing legislation, and, as this has been named as a case of legislative failure, it is worth some notice. In the early days of the colony it was seen with regret that the long hours prevailing in the old country were being imported into Victoria with- out change, and in 1855 an early-closing association was formed. The same difficulties were found in relying upon voluntary agreement as have been met with in the mother-country, and the same devices of appealing to the public, after partial failure with the shoj)keepers, were resorted to by the association. In 1882 the agitation of the shopkeepers' assistants for early closing had been started, and through their efforts a Koyal Commission was appointed to make inquiry into the question, which ultimately recommended legislation. In 1885 the association abandoned the moral suasion posi- tion, and, by a large majority, resolved that only an Act of Parliament could set matters right ; after which it dissolved itself and left the field to law. The eight- There is no general disbelief in the colony in the principle of interfering with individual liberty for the purpose of obtaining such a reform of hours as would be suitable to the great majority of the people. For many years the custom of Victoria has imposed with the force of law the eight-hour limitation upon the labour of artisans — 8 hours a day or 48 hours a week ; for as a rule a Saturday half-holiday is taken, and met by an extra half-hour on other clays. There is a tendency now to apply the eight-hour day to the five days a week, and the five-hour day to Saturday, without making up for the short day by longer labour upon the others. The well- VICTORIA 249 organised trades, such as the carpenters, plasterers, and masons, have taken steps in this direction, one trade offering to submit to a slight decrease of pay for the Saturday, while in most cases, however, the demand is for full pay for the Saturday although for three hours less of work, and some Victorian artisans now enjoy the forty- five-hour week. The agitation with regard to shops had been started, as was seen, in 1855, and had ceased, in a re- quest for legislation, in 1885. The artisans did not begin their agitation until 1856 ; but they won all they wanted in twelve days. It was in April 1856 that the stonemasons held the first public meeting upon the subject, at a time when ten hours a day was the rule for their trade. The other Unions followed their example ; a meeting of the united Trades was held, an eight -hour league formed, and notice given that after the 21st April they would only work eight hours a day. So complete was the triumph that the anniversary of the next day, the 22d of April, has ever since been kept as a holiday among the Melbourne artisans, and it is now a public holiday, under the title of " Eight-hours Day." Some of the contractors made a stand against the workmen, but all except two gave in at the end of the first day, the men agreeing in some cases to a reduction of wages until existing contracts were complete, after which eight hours a day, at the old rates, was to be the rule. Wages have slightly fallen since the eight-hour day was introduced, but there is no reason to suppose that the fall, which was natural under the circumstances of the colony, has been a result of the reduction in hours. It is a general opinion in the colony that the cheerfulness arising from leisure and comfort gives to the colonial artisan a spirit and vigour which enable him to do in eight hours as much work as artisans at home can do in ten. The rate of wages is so high o o VOL. I S 250 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n that it is not easy to see how Victoria manages, in spite of her protective system, to manufacture articles upon which freights from abroad are light. The Melbourne employer apparently pays double the wages for 15 or 20 per cent less time than is the case at home, and, in trades where the labour is a large portion of the cost of the article produced, it is difficult to discover how the manufactures of Victoria manage to exist. The duties have, until the recent increase, amounted only to from 17 to 25 per cent on the articles taxed, or 11 per cent upon the total imports. There are now forty-eight trades in Victoria which have the eight-hour day, and take part in the annual celebration, with banners, some of which cost as much as £200 apiece. The tramway company of Melbourne, which is a great power in the town, is forced to bow to the dictates of the Anniversary Committee, and to wholly stop running for two hours. The eight-hour movement spread from Victoria to other colonies. In New South Wales and elsewhere the leading- trades have obtained the eight hours, but the system is not so absolutely universal as in Victoria. In Victoria an abstract proposition has been adopted in Parliament making eight hours a legal day, but this has no real effect, and the system depends wholly upon opinion. Early- The success of the eight-hour movement among legisia- workmen has naturally encouraged the idea of legisla- tion for early closing for the benefit of shopkeepers and their assistants. In 1884 there also came before the Victorian Parliament a cognate question ; for a Royal Commission on the local Factory Acts, which already for ten years had regulated the employment of women in factories and limited to eight hours their working day, reported that the Act should be extended to other forms of female occupation. It had been discovered that CHAP. I VICTORIA 251 hundreds of young girls were employed in shops and restaurants for such long hours, and under such insanitary conditions, that their health was undermined. The Royal Commission had also recommended legislation ao-ainst overtime. In November 1884 Mr. Deakin brought in a new Bill with regard to workrooms and factories, in which the factory provisions were to some extent made to apply to shops ; and a second part of the Bill provided for early closing. All shops, except certain classes specially exempted, were to be closed not later than 7 p.m. on five out of the six week-nights, and at 10 p.m. on Saturdays, unless two-thirds of the shop- keepers in any one trade petitioned the Town Council for exemption. The penalties were left to the munici- palities. The Bill was dropped in 1884 and reintroduced in 1885. It was opposed by some who disliked the principle, and by others who wished it to go farther, and who pressed for the introduction of a clause against overtime ; but it was passed, with no substantial modi- fication, in December 1885, and came into operation on the 1st March 1886. Complaint was soon made that the municipal councils were not friendly to the closing movement, and were using the powers entrusted to them to defeat the Act. The Melbourne Council fixed the fines at Is. for the first offence and 3s. for any sub- sequent offence ; but, in spite of the lowness of the fines, the Act has brought about a revolution in public habits, and the light fines have been a success, for the publica- tion in the newspapers of the names of the offenders has been sufficient. Where exemption has been granted by town councils large crowds have collected, and, by the expression of disapprobation, have forced the shops to close, all purchasers being hooted until purchase ceased. Mr. Deakin has now proposed certain amendments of PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN the law, but it is now each year less and less evaded, and the shop -hands may be said to have won short hours, although hours not so short as those of the colonial artisans. High Victorian workers of all classes, and in some degree ami cheap the workers of all the Australian colonies, now possess advantages which make Australia a workers' paradise. High wages are there combined with cheap food and leisure for culture or amusement. On the other hand, the return from the labour of highly-skilled professional men is not so great in the colonies as it is in England. The Chief Justice of A 7 ictoria has £3500 a year, and would certainly have been a pecuniary gainer by coming home. It is estimated that on the average the cost of living in Victoria is to the cost of living in England in the ratio of about five to four. That accommodation for a bachelor's board and lodging which is obtainable in London for £1 a week costs 25s. a week in Melbourne. Kent is sup- posed to be much higher in Melbourne, and the other costs of living about the same. Coals, servants, and gas are dearer ; good food cheaper. Eents, though higher, are perhaps not higher for the same accom- modation, as more space is usually given in Melbourne than in London, and Melbourne covers an area as great as that of Paris. Wages being, on the whole, nearly double what they are at home, and the cost of living not necessarily much greater, every man has clearly a good chance to save, and the majority do save considerably, with the result of a widespread prosperity. out-aoor The general diffusion of sufficient wealth and the existence of a pleasant climate cause Victorian life to be more cheerful than life in the United Kingdom, and exercises VICTORIA 253 produce a readiness to be amused that is characteristic of the colonist as compared with the home -staying Briton. A larger proportion of Victorians take part in and take an interest in out -door sport than is the case at home, and games such as football, cricket, and lawn-tennis are carried on under more favourable con- ditions. The climate tempts people to be out of doors, and the days when practice is impossible are few. The people have the leisure and they have the money to maintain their sports, while they possess in a high degree the inclination for amusement. Every suburb of Melbourne has large " cricketing reserves," every suburban house has its lawn -tennis court, and, while the Victorian climate makes the colony the first in many forms of sport, there is an almost equal attach- ment to sport and to amusement in the other Australian colonies. At the present moment the colonial mind is turned towards football, which, it is asserted by its devotees, has assumed in our South -Sea colonies a character of greater science than in England. The most lively interest is taken in Melbourne in the returns of the Football Association, which makes up the matches between the various local clubs and publishes the results of the competitions, and, ultimately, of that for the championship of the colony. The excitement of u Madrid crowd about a bull-fight is hardly greater than that of the workshops, offices, and warehouses of Melbourne on the eventful Saturday afternoon which decides for the year the football championship. To see the crowds streaming to the ground one would fancy that the city itself was to be the victors' prize. An American gentleman, Mr. Royce, who, under the title of " Reflections after a Wandering Life in Australasia," has published in 1889 two little papers which form the best 254 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN tart n view of Australia yet placed before the public, finds the prominence of public sports by far the most noteworthy of all the social features of the colonies, and of all the differences between colonists and inhabitants of the United States. He tells us that the popularity of sports in the American Commonwealth dates back but a short distance, and that until lately the Americans were too pious or too busy to play, were ashamed to seem amused, and not only took few holidays, but " were bored " by these. He goes on to explain that the apparent change which has recently occurred still leaves the United States far behind Australia in the field of sport; and that the most jDopular athletes of America are professional gladiators, whereas in Australia it is the people them- selves who carry on the contest. Life in the colonies, according to Mr. Royce, is free from the elements of strain and worry that press upon America, and competition is less merciless towards the individual. As life becomes harder he thinks that the colonists will have two safe- guards to fall back upon — the one their love of healths- exercise and of every form of sport, and the other their tendency to a high organisation of social life ; in marked contrast to the individualism of the United States. Horse- Horse- racing is, if possible, even more popular in Victoria than football, and it is a curious fact that the racing club of Melbourne was founded before the town itself. When not an acre of land had yet been sold, and while the settlers were inhabiting sod-huts and waiting for the arrival of the officer who was to survey the site of the proposed township, a race club was formed, five prizes were subscribed, and a racecourse chosen. From that day to this the Victorian racing calendar has been unbroken. Four times a year the club gives itself up racm VICTORIA 255 to a week of racing, but the most important of these events is the spring meeting, when, on the first Tuesday in November, is held the racing carnival, called Cup Day, which is a holiday of the strictest kind. Those who object to horse -racing make use of the holiday for other purposes : the Sunday Schools take Cup Day for their picnics ; the Young Men's Christian Association goes out to sea in steamers ; and the Salvation Army o-athers its forces for a review in the Eoyal Park, and sometimes marches as many as 20,000 people under its " blood and fire " flags. The people of Melbourne spend more on amusements than do those of the other Australian capitals ; but, while Sydney, Ballarat, and even conservative Hobart, open their public libraries and picture galleries on Sundays, Melbourne keeps hers closed. In Sydney the racing fever, though not unknown, is not so strong as it is in Melbourne ; but in Adelaide it was at one moment almost as highly developed in proportion. Then the legislature made a determined attempt to suppress gambling, and the racing people of South Australia transferred their meetings bodily to Mel- bourne, until their legislature gave way to local pressure. Rowing and sculling are not forgotten, and the other latter is pursued in the Australian colonies with success. sp01 as we know in the old country to our cost. Cycling is as popular in Victoria as in England. Holler skating has reached the same pitch of popularity in Australia that it has in India ; Melbourne has eight large places devoted to this amusement — some of them of vast size. and all of them extremely remunerative to their pro- prietors. Any novelty in the way of sport, however, is, if duly advertised, certain of success in the Australian colonies. 256 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part 11 Music. Music is also popular in the colonies to a greater extent than is the case at home. At the Melbourne Centennial Exhibition the visit of Mr. Cowen produced an extraordinary gathering of musical people from all parts of the colonies. The Oratorio of "Elijah" was performed three times in succession, and each time the great hall, which holds over 3000 people, was densely crammed. The recent reception of Wagner's music in the colonies, and especially at the Melbourne Exhibition, has been remarkable, as until lately the older musicians reigned supreme in the colonial musical world. An in- spection of the Melbourne newspapers for any Saturday reveals the existence of a surprising number of musical performances for a city of 300,000 people. During the Centennial Exhibition every Saturday would show about eleven thousand persons in Melbourne alone attending performances of high-class music, without counting a considerable number of suburban concerts and five music halls giving music of a less elevating kind. Music is much taught in the Australian schools. The Fine Arts are largely practised, as I shall have to show in the next chapter, and are aided in Victoria by an astonishing number of State-aided schools of design. Literature. Just as Victoria has not hitherto produced much original music, in spite of the great development of musical taste, so too with letters. The colonists, in Victoria as in Canada, have developed a large reading- class, but have not up till now succeeded in producing a colonial school of literature. Their leading literary men have as yet been English-born. Dr. Hearn was Professor of Greek at Queen's College, Galway, and, having been exported for the use of the University of Melbourne, could hardly be looked upon as a more specially Victorian product than is Dr. Pearson, the able VICTORIA 257 and cultivated Minister of Education, who went out from Oxford. Still, Dr. Hearn, having left the United Kingdom for Australia at the age of twenty-eight, and having lived some thirty -three years in the colony, producing some excellent books in his Plutology and his constitutional works, was a source of pride to the young Victorian State, although there is nothing specially Australian about his books. Mr. A. Patchett Martin is an excellent all-round writer who, like Mr. Philip Mennell, has come home to us, and there are also many brilliant journalists left in Victoria. Australia has found some literary talent among Bohemians who have been shipped off to the colonies as ne'er-do-weels. Adam Lindsay Gordon was the most Adam remarkable of these, and is best remembered in Victoria Gordon. and South Australia. His earlier poems are singularly feeble, and hardly up to the mark of those which appear in the humblest of English provincial newspapers. After some years of a rough life he developed a real poetic vein, which he utilised in the description of life in the saddle. In his latest work there is a good deal of strong feeling, with some revelations of that anger with circum- stances that led Gordon finally, by self-destruction, to put an end to his own career. He is at his best when he writes of horses and of riding, and has no equal as the poet of the steeplechase. Another writer who was connected with Victoria is, Marcus ' Clarke. on the whole, the ablest Australian prose writer that there has yet been — Marcus Clarke, the son of a London barrister, sent out after his father's death, when he was just grown-up, to the care, if I mistake not, of his cousin, now General Sir Andrew Clarke. Clarke's best work was done in leader writing, but before he died, a worn- out man at thirty-four, he had shown, in some brilliant 258 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n essays and excellent fiction, that he possessed con- siderable literary power. He is known in England by a story of early Tasmanian days, His Natural Life, founded upon the Transportation Blue-books ; but in Australia he is equally well remembered as the author of Pretty Dick, an immortal story of only fourteen pages, and several other charmiugly told tales of Austra- lian life and scenery. Marcus Clarke was often coarse in his satire of the Melbourne democracy and Mel- bourne plutocracy of his time, but Pretty Dick and others of his stories would redeem worse vulgarity than that of his journalistic sketches, and his description of the desolation of the landscape of the Australian continent given in his preface to the poems of Gordon is fine, and has been quoted in almost every work upon Australia. • News- On the whole, the best Victorian literature, like papers. ^^ \wgfc Canadian, is at present to be found in the colonial newspapers. Each of the chief newspaper offices issues a weekly journal of the highest class, intended for up-country use — heavier and larger even than our Field — and containing all the features of a sporting and country gentleman's paper, combined with those of a literary and political journal. The daily papers them- selves are excellent, and the Melbourne Argus and Melbourne Age are a credit to the colony, as are some of the other papers of the capital and the daily papers of the smaller towns. Colonial The native-born Australians, as we shall see, can hardly yet be said to have brought forth a great literary man. They may fairly rest content at present although this be so : may be satisfied to have produced of late, in the field of general literature, even better books than those to which Canada has given birth, though none equal to the great novel which I shall mention in my VICTORIA 259 chapter on the Cape, and to have trained up among themselves the builders of the new State, and statesmen and orators such as Mr. Deakin. Local literature is pretty- sure to follow in due time, and, when it comes, to have that distinctive Australian mark which already clearly pertains to most things Australian, and which may even one day revivify the literature of England. It is gratifying to an Englishman to discover how Loyalty completely the essentially British nationality of Victoria Victorians. has survived the experience of the last twenty years. In 1868 the population was British-born; a third of it was of Australian birth, but almost all this section of the community consisted of mere children. At the present time the Australian - born have come to the front, and provide a large part of the energy, the enterprise, and the promise of the community. The veterans are dying off — the pioneers whose sturdy labour and whose good sense built up the colony on sure foundations, and who have been able in their declining years to contemplate with pride the prosperity which they had created in what had been a lonely waste. Twenty years ago the Victorian love for England was the love of those who knew it : at the great distance to which they had gone imagination cast a peculiar bright- ness upon the old home that they had left, and they turned towards it with a natural longing. Many had the hope of a return : after a few years passed in Victoria they would go back rich, and make their permanent home in England. A stream of elderly well-to-do colonists has in the past few years come steadily home, but the vast majority merely visit Europe, and nineteen out of twenty go back again to once more settle down in a sunshine far better for old age than the English climate, and amidst surroundings that they have grown 260 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN fart n to love. Still, colonists of this kind — the British- born — are almost all friends of the connection with the mother -country, and would vote nearly to a man against a separation. As these die out, and as there arises a majority who have no home traditions about the United Kingdom, and none of that affection for the mother- country which springs from early association, there doubtless may come a change. At the same time, many of the younger men obtain from their parents the advantage of a trip to the old country ; they take a pride in the name of Englishmen, and feel satisfaction in identification with a people that has held so great a position in the past. The younger colonists as a rule, however, return to Australia with relief, and with them the political tendency is to put Australia first, England second. If ever Australian and British interests should clash, the colonists of the new generation would cast their votes for their own home. But without strong causes of dissension the Victorians will be inclined to uphold the maintenance of the imperial connection. It is probably the practical and businesslike tendency of Melbourne which holds in check those separatist views which are more pronounced in Sydney and in Brisbane. The Victorians say that they feel no burden in the relation, and that they realise its benefits, so that the energy and intensity of life, of w r hich they are proud, can find better exercise than in girding at the mother -country. In Victoria there is hardly a tendency towards separation, and thousands of men who are Australian -born, and who never were in Great Britain, still call the old country home. The continual perusal of the masterpieces of English literature strengthens these associations, and in A^ictoria, whatever may be the case in other VICTORIA 261 colonies, they do not appear to rapidly decline. Those in Victoria who would at the present moment vote for separation from the mother- country are an obscure and unimportant fraction, and this although the Australian Natives' Association is there a powerful body. The great majority of the people are loyal to the connection, and those who think that separation is inevitable jDlace the event far off in the future. There is in Victoria a general feeling that the colony derives dignity and importance from its connection with the Empire, and that its interests are on the whole bound up with those of the United Kingdom. The existence of any substantial grievance would soon break down this public sentiment ; but there seems no reason why any such grievance should be permitted to arise. In the old days it sometimes happened that governors, fixing their eyes on the London office whence they held their appointments, and from which they looked for their promotion in the future, tried to please their superiors by running counter to the wishes of the Victorian people. But in the long run the popular will prevailed, and the imperial Government never fought against it after it was unmistakably declared. The Victorians are an almost exclusively British or Birthplaces Irish people. A few Chinese are obvious aliens who Victorian remain apart ; the rest of the foreign -born (if we deduct people " the Americans, who are not noticeably different from other persons of English race when domiciled in Australia) are mostly Germans, who, however, are far less numerous in proportion than in Canada, and who soon become patriotic Victorians, while in the second generation nothing foreign is left to them except the family name. The Victorian population is well mixed together. The English, Scotch, and Irish elements are 262 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n much more thoroughly welded into one nationality than is the case in any portion of the mother-country or of the Canadian Dominion. There is no specially Scotch part of Victoria, and no specially Irish part. Wherever you take a hundred people you may be pretty certain that from 20 to 25 per cent will be Irish Roman Catholics, that about 15 to 20 per cent will be Scotch Presbyterians, and the remainder almost entirely English Protestants ; and that any such small foreign addition as there is to the population sprung from the United Kingdom will exhibit a tendency to rapid incorporation, leaving; no foreign trace behind. The Victorian census displays the same birthplaces for the population as are shown by the present emigration returns of the United Kingdom. Defence. The Victorians have always shown a proper spirit with regard to the defence of those liberties which they won at an early date in the history of their colony, and which have never been seriously threatened. Victoria has not been backward in undertaking her share of re- sponsibility for imperial defence, and her local defence is amply provided for. The natural situation of Mel- bourne makes it easy to guard against a hostile fleet, and art has been called in to the aid of nature. Heavy guns, submarine mines, and local floating defence have all been attended to, a Zalinski dynamite gun has been ordered from New York, and for some time past there has been a Defence Minister in the Victorian Cabinet. The armoured ship Cerberus has four 10-inch guns, and the steel gunboat Victoria one 10-inch 25 ton breechloading gun ; while there are several other steamers armed with heavy guns, and several defence torpedo boats, well manned. The Victorian land forces consist normally of over 5000 men, and are commanded VICTORIA 263 by an efficient staff of imperial officers, that is to say, officers belonging to the British army, and serving temporarily with the colonial forces. In addition to the 5000, there are over 4000 sworn members of rifle clubs, and a considerable militia reserve which can be called out by proclamation. There is a Defence Council consisting of the Defence Minister, the naval and military commandants, and three or four of the senior local officers. The permanent element in the force, besides the staff, consists of 200 garrison artillery and a small section of engineers, with non-commissioned officers and drill instructors. There is a large force of mounted police, who would be available for defence purposes in case of attack. The remainder of the troops are chiefly " partially paid," to use the Australian phrase. There is a volunteer submarine torpedo company, as well as a Nor- denfelt battery, some field batteries, and some volunteer garrison artillery ; and the infantry consists of four bat- talions, with four companies to each battalion. The men are reported to be most intelligent, and thoroughly respectful to the imperial officers ; and there is good feeling between the imperial and the local officers, who, although busy men, give much time to their army work. There is a military club in Melbourne — the United Service Club — where the imperial and the local officers meet. The privates, although paid, do not look like regular troops, but like the very best of our volunteer regiments in the old country. They are taller and more intelligent than the average of our regular troops, but less wide and deep in the chest. The terms of enlistment of the men of the permanent force are somewhat similar to those of our army, while the militia or " partially paid " troops are less disciplined. These Victorian soldiers are not dependent on the service for a living, and do not 264 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n reside in barracks ; but they are paid for each parade that they attend, and punishments take the form of fines. The Victorians, as has been shown by Colonel Elias, who has written about their soldiering, possess a great advan- tage over volunteers in Great Britain in the vast amount of open space available for ranges, and with these ad- vantages the Victorian soldier naturally shoots well. The three batteries of field guns labour under the draw- back of possessing no regular artillery horses. They have harness, and standing arrangements are made with civilians for supplying the horses when needed. The same horses are, as far as possible, kept for the work, and obtain a considerable amount of training. It is less difficult to sret good drivers in Australia than in most countries, as a large proportion of the population are accustomed to rough driving in every form. There is ample private transport in Melbourne for any such force as would be likely to be required in the colony. There is an admirable cadet corps of 3000 boys, who are dressed in military uniform, and armed with a miniature Martini-Henry rifle, manufactured on purpose for them. In the Christmas holidays they camp out, and their rations are supplied from Melbourne by railway ; their company, battalion, and brigade drill and outpost system have been pronounced excellent by the imperial officers. Every year at Easter the general military arrangements of Victoria are well tested. The gar- rison artillery take up their allotted positions for the defence of Melbourne. The militia and the mounted rifles go into camp ; and the submarine miners are at their stations ready for work, with the electric light and position-finders fitted. The Victorian Government have spent money freely in order to secure the absolute readiness for war of all their defensive preparations. VICTORIA 265 The Victorian army is a model army for colonial defence, and an admirable nucleus for the Australian federal defence army of the future. An imperial officer is now, from time to time, to inspect the whole of the Australian forces which in the event of war, subject to the permis- sion of each colony, he will command. Major-General Edwards, in his recent " report on the military forces and defences of the colony of Victoria," and " memo- randum on the proposed organisation of the military forces of the Australian colonies," has highly praised Victoria, and has given the full approval of the War Office to the "partially paid" militia system. It is understood that whether the conference on Federation fixed for January 1891, does or does not lead to im- mediate and complete federal union, military federation will take place. Victoria will propose that the per- manent force shall be increased, and that Australian "foreign- service -garrison batteries" shall be sent to Thursday Island and King George's Sound. vol. 1 t CHAPTER II NEW SOUTH WALES Sydney. The position of Sydney on the east coast of Australia bears a certain resemblance to that of New York on the east coast of the United States, and to that of San Francisco on the west. A perfect harbour, placed by nature opposite to Southern Polynesia, and exactly where it would seem most wanted for the convenience of the Australian continental trade with America North and South, gives hopes of a future for Sydney equal to the present if not to the future of New York. Sydney indeed has a situation. as beautiful to the eye as it is convenient for trade. From near the city one can see the open ocean breaking at the Heads, while on the land side the Parramatta river flows down through orange groves into a still and lakelike bay, which is so divided into little sheltered nooks that its size is lost. Sydney covers an enormous extent of ground, and, it might be said, a still larger extent of water, for the inhabitants in great numbers cross various portions of the bay to reach their work. They live in their own houses at some distance from where they labour, and this habit is as widely spread among the workmen as it is among the merchants or the clerks. The head and port of an extraordinary development of railway lines, Sydney believes that in a few years she chap, ii NEW SOUTH WALES 267 will beat Melbourne, and become once more in fact that which she has sometimes claimed to be in history and in name — the Queen City of the South. New South Wales bears to Victoria a certain statis- Compari- tical resemblance. The two colonies have about the south same pojDulation, and, roughly speaking, about the same victoria" X revenues, expenditure, debt, and trade. In each, a great capital collects in one neighbourhood more than a third of the total population ; in each, life is bright and cheerful ; but while there are resemblances in climate, scenery, and legislation, as well as in other present condi- tions, considerable differences lie behind and are likely to develop in the future. New South Wales, in the opinion of her enemies, is less enterprising than Victoria, and has less of the go-ahead spirit which distinguishes the Melbourne people. On the other hand she possesses a larger territory, abundant supplies of coal, and will have probably, in consequence, a greater future. Although New South Wales is three and a half times as large as Victoria, and has the area of the German Empire and of Italy combined, she is of course much smaller than the three other but as yet less important colonies of the Australian continent. As the country was in a large degree settled by assisted immigrants, of whom some- thing like half altogether have been Irish, while the English section was largely composed of Chartists (Sir Henry Parkes himself having been a prominent man among them), the legislation of New South Wales has naturally shown signs of its origin. Manhood suffrage was carried in 1858 ; the abolition of primogeniture in 1862; safe and easy transfer of land through the machinery of a Torrens Act in the same year ; and also the abolition of State aid to religion. A public system of education was introduced, with other measures 268 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n of democratic legislation. Graduated progressive suc- cession duty, which in Victoria dates from 1870, but has been made heavier upon large property by subsequent legislation, was imitated in 1886 by New South Wales, but in the earlier, not in the later form. New South Wales had previously possessed graduation of the English kind, in which the rates depend on the nearness of relationship to the deceased. Public education, which in Victoria is free, is still paid for by fees in New South Wales, though children going to or returning from school are allowed to travel free by railway. In general it may be said that New South Wales legislation in recent times has not been so bold as the legislation of Victoria. The two most important Acts passed in New South Wales of late years have been the Public Instruction Act of 1880 and the Crown Lands Act of 1884. Education. The Public Instruction Act took complete charge of the compulsory education of the people, and recognised the teacher as a civil servant. The object, as expressed by Sir Henry Parkes, was the converting of a population, certain in any case to be large in numbers, into a popu- lation of the best material, and, in his words, the Bill was to enable " the child of the poorest man to attain to the highest place, if the stuff is in the child himself." As, however, the chief effect of this Act was to sweep away State aid to denominational schools, while there had already been a system of public education in the colony, the Public Instruction Act, important as it was, was of less moment than the Crown Lands Act of 1884. By this measure the land policy of the colony was remodelled. Land In the days of the early settlement the Crown lands were in the hands of the representatives of the imperial system. chap, ii NEW SOUTH WALES 269 Government, who made grants ; but these were abolished from 1831 and auction sales substituted. In 1839 the " Squatting Act " was passed, which settled the pastoral tenants on the lands. In 1845 the greater portion of the available lands was in, the hands of the squatters, less than 2000 in number, and no provision having been made for the settlement of small holders, there was a virtual monopoly of land by the rich. At that time there arose the struggle between the pastoral tenants and the small settlers. Mr. Robertson, now Sir John Robertson, mentioned in Greater Britain, came to the front as champion of land reform, and in 1861 carried his Bill for "Free Selection before Survey." "Jack Robertson, the tribune of the people," has now retired from Parliament on account of bodily infirmity, and has received a public present or vote of £10,000 for his political services to the colony ; but his long silvery locks, and, still more, the wonderful stories that are told of him, make him a noteworthy figure in the colony, and in its comic journals. The object of the framer of the Land Bill, the establishment of a yeo- manry, was only partly realised, and his measure became in some degree an instrument in the hands of the squatter to still further secure his hold upon the land. Under Robertson's Act the system of fraud known in the colony as "dummying" arose; the "dummy" being the squatter's agent, who, representing himself as a bond fide settler, would select the best portion of a " run " and establish himself there until he had met the required payments (always, however, provided by the squatter) and secured the freehold ; this done, he sold the property to the squatter. Thus squatters secured the freehold of immense tracts of the best land in the colony. 270 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n A coercive system was adopted in the rural districts against the genuine free selector, and his life in the heart of a wealthy squatter's run was far from pleasant. If his sheep or cattle strayed beyond the boundaries of his selection they were impounded, and a feud grew up between the two classes settled on the land until the squatter and the free selector became sworn enemies. Up to this point the history of the land question in Victoria and in New South Wales was the same, but the democratic Victorian land legislation of 1865 and 1869 was not completely followed in the older colony. In 1884 the task of land legislation was once more attempted in New South Wales, the proposals for land reform submitted by the Parkes Government having been previously defeated. Under the new system all the squatters' runs in the colony were divided into two fairly equal parts, the Government determining which part should be let to the tenant then in occupation and which part should be resumed for the benefit of the State. The lessee was, however, given a preferential right of obtain- ing an annual occupation-license for the resumed area, which entitled him to use the land for grazing purposes, although not to the exclusion of any person who might be in a position to acquire a better tenure. The land of New South Wales has to a large extent come into the hands of wealthy persons who are becoming a territorial aristocracy. This has been the effect firstly of grants and of squatting legislation, then of the perversion of the Act of 1861 to the use of those against whom it had been aimed, and finally of natural causes, — soil, climate, and the lack of water. The urban population is increas- ing out of proportion to the population depending upon agricultural pursuits, and the present growth of Sydney and its suburbs is as great as the total increase in the rest chap, ii NEW SOUTH WALES 271 of the country, although this remainder of the country includes towns like Newcastle (which depends upon the coal supply) and other centres of population depending upon mining industries of a different kind. One result has been the necessity, during three bad years, for the construction of national works by the surplus labour of the city, and a growing demand for a measure of Protection to native industry. The occupiers of land of at least an acre each, excluding the pastoral tenants, are only about one in twenty-three of the population, and it cannot be regarded as satisfactory that a young colony in a tem- perate climate should show only 4 or 4^ per cent of its population as holding land. Of the nearly two hundred million acres of land in the colony, about twenty-five millions have been sold or granted out and out, and about sixteen millions are in process of alienation under a system of " deferred payments," leaving one hundred and fifty-five million acres unalienated ; but, of the one- fourth of the public estate which has been alienated, the greater part has gone into large estates. Only about one million acres are under cultivation, out of immense tracts of land fit for farming. There is thrice as much land under cultivation in the younger settlement of South Australia, and two and a half times as much in the youngest and smallest Australian colony — Victoria. In New South Wales agricultural settlement of land has been almost standing still, while the large hold- ings have been increasing to a great extent. The discontent which naturally arose from the facts I have mentioned has been mitigated by a policy of public works and of local grants, but is still rising, and can be permanently allayed only by radical land legislation very different from that carried by Sir Henry Parkes in 1889. PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN Public Public works are indeed looked upon in many of the colonies as a safety valve for the workmen's discontent. The Australian colonies have, as we know, from what has been seen of Victoria, not the same jealousy as to the extent of the functions of Government as exists in the United States and with ourselves at home. Govern- ment in the Australian colonies generally undertakes, besides works which elsewhere would be included in the category of national, many others which in Great Britain or the United States would be left to private enterprise, and in New South Wales it has in the past often under- taken them for the sake of help to labour. The State also interferes in New South Wales more largely in local o;overnment than we should think desirable. In the parts of the country which possess a true local govern- ment, that is, the towns and the more settled districts, Government frequently assists poor boroughs — a plan which leads both in New South Wales and in Queens- land to some corruption. Government also itself under- takes to rule the outlying population. The Government of New South Wales spends much money from the public treasury on roads and bridges, and it is obvious that such a system has hitherto left in the hands of the Ministry a considerable power of influencing votes. The expenditure in New South Wales on public works greatly exceeds in proportion the already too liberal expenditure of a similar kind undertaken by France in connection with M. de Freycinet's schemes. Members from the sparsely populated districts of New South Wales have in the past often been elected to the Assembly almost solely on account of their ability to pilot proposals for local works through both Houses, and were often called " Roads and Bridges members." There nevertheless exists in New South Wales a widespread chap, ii NEW SOUTH WALES 273 desire to nationalise all large enterprises, and the adop- tion of the policy is being rendered safer than it was by a gradual imitation at Sydney of the non-political system, already named in the last chapter. The most considerable existing public works of the Railways. colony are the railways. The first railway was started with a Government guarantee, but the difficulties in the way of the company proved so great that Government advanced a loan and imported 500 railway labourers from England. Even after this help the company failed to make a profit, and the property was transferred to Government, by whom the construction and manage- ment of the railways of the colony have ever since been carried on. It has now become an axiom of Australian policy that the State should own all railways. The Government defrays in whole or part from public funds the cost of two classes of public works — those which are national, and those which are local ; the national including railways, telegraphs, and some harbour and navigation works, as well as certain roads and bridges, and other works having a use that is wider than that of the districts in which they are situate, as well, of course, as fortification ; while the local works undertaken by the Government include the metropolitan water supply, tramways, and a large number of roads, bridges, and water supplies for merely local use. In New South Wales, as in Canada, the enemies of objects in the public works system contend that the undertaking by Government of works of a nature which it is asserted do not properly fall within its functions, unduly burdens the public revenue, corrupts public life, and causes a feeling of dependence upon the Government rather than upon individual effort. But these evils have been guarded against in Victoria by means which New South 274 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n Wales, as I have said, is copying, and it is impossible to assert that, large as has been her expenditure, New South Wales is not in a solvent state. The money expended on railways in New South Wales, and that expended on other reproductive works, comes within four millions of her real indebtedness, deducting the balance of loan money not yet expended. The rail- ways of New South Wales lately, for some little time, yielded only 3 per cent upon their cost, which did not pay the interest on the loans ; but this failure was mainly due to the fact that the Government had aimed at rendering the railway service cheap to the travelling and trading public. It had used the system for the purpose of encouraging up - country settlement, and making the cost of transport from the far interior to the ports small enough to allow the interior to compete with the coast districts. There had also been a desire to win back the Riverina from Victorian competition. There can be no doubt that, if the railways of New South Wales were worked upon strictly commercial principles, the returns from them would be, at all times, more than sufficient to pay all the interest on the loans. In the meantime New South Wales has, in proportion to its population, a far greater length of railways than any country in the old world. New South Wales stood at a disadvantage as compared with Victoria in railway building, and com- parison of results is difficult, for in Victoria an equal population is concentrated in an altogether inferior area ; yet New South Wales has a mileage slightly superior to that of the neighbouring colony. Some re- It was no doubt the early circumstances of the young public country, similar to those described in the last chapter, J°stem. which forced upon the people of New South Wales, as chap, ii NEW SOUTH WALES 275 on the people of the other Australian colonies, the principle of the Government entering upon tasks which in England and in the United States would be left to the enterprise of private individuals or to corporate bodies. Some of the evil results which had been foreseen else- where came, however, to pass in New South Wales, though it probably was necessary to face them. The construction of lines of railway into the interior of the colony necessitated the employment of a large number of labourers, and a great portion of the emigration of recent years has been absorbed in these works, instead of being settled on the land. The loans raised for the railways and other public works have seemed to some to promote, by circulating large sums of borrowed money throughout the colony, a sham prosperity. The public never gained the habit of regarding the season of railway construction as one of temporary and artificial inflation, and as soon as the policy of "easing off" the public works began toTheun- r J o -l _ employed. prevail, the colony was somewhat astonished at tne natural but unpleasant result in the existence of large numbers of " unemployed," and of a general depression of trade. Public works were started to relieve the pinch in the labourers' condition. The unemployed were housed and fed by the State while works were being devised upon which their services could be utilised. The Government of New South Wales has indeed not only frequently precipitated the construction of public works in order that occupation should be found for the unemployed, but has created work in order to provide employment. Sir Henry Parkes, however, in 1889 severely condemned the system. The keen busi- ness men who manage manufactories in the colonies are o-ood at picking out the best workmen, and the unem- ployed consist largely of those who are unable to do 276 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN good work. The disposal of these men, to the benefit of themselves and of the State, is almost as difficult in the colonies as at home. ie civil Given the prevalence of the policy which I have described, it may be imagined that the Civil Service of New South Wales is large in proportion to the population. State education, State railways and tramways, and, I fear, some past exercise of political influence in appointments, account for the large numbers. Warned by the un- popularity of the wholesale dismissals from the Civil Service of Victoria, by a gazette known as that of "Black Wednesday," with all the distress and bitter feeling which resulted from the sending away from office of several hundred men, the Ministers of New South Wales have been chary of dealing with the reduction of the Civil Service. An attempt was made by Sir Patrick Jennings to reduce the staff, but with no appreciable effect. Some members of the next or Parkes Government on taking office attempted to re- duce the staffs of their several departments, but nothing in the way of a comprehensive system of reduction was adopted. Troublesome members of the Opposition are occasionally silenced in all countries by berths in the Civil Service ; but while New South Wales, which until lately has had no payment of members of Parliament, had resorted to this practice, the colonies which have long paid their members have perhaps a somewhat higher standard in this respect. In the freedom of its civil servants from dependence on political opinion the old country still stands before several of its older colonies and its great daughter-country of the United States. immigra- It is natural that, in face of the poverty of some tionsTtTu colonial workmen, immigration operations should have been suspended by Victoria and New South Wales ; and end chap, ii NEW SOUTH WALES 277 it is safe to say that they will never be resumed. The bulk of the assisted immigrants of late years have gone to swell the urban population, and have done but little to benefit the country. City workmen and clerks have flocked into Sydney and choked the channels of employ- ment. On the other hand, the men who have been thus brought in join with the more substantial people, who object to the increase of a partly idle class, in raising the cry of " Australia for the Australians," and in preventing aid to fresh immigrants. No doubt the surplus labour that exists in the colony is surplus labour of the wrong kind, and while there is an oversupply of some, there is a continuing demand for other labour. "Wages are high — higher on the whole even than in Victoria, where the cost of some imported commodities is, owing to Protec- tion, higher than in New South Wales. While the unem- ployed were being fed by the State in Sydney, farmers were crying out for labour. The experiment was made of sending batches of the unemployed into the country districts, but, unused to the work, and discontented with the life, they drifted back again. Moreover, pastoral employment in the country districts of New South Wales, as contrasted with the agricultural interest rapidly growing up in Victoria and South Australia, gives New South Wales a special difficulty to deal with, for the shearers form a floating rural population who make good wages during the wool-cutting period of the year, but during the rest of the year fall back upon the city. New South Wales has hitherto been looked upon Free Trade as being a free - trade colony, although there are tection. duties on some few articles which are protective in their effect. Taxation is unpopular everywhere, but seems specially unpopular in New South Wales, where all forms of direct taxation are rejected when they are 278 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n proposed, and where there is an agitation against even the tax upon tobacco. The colony ought to raise more money by taxation, and to cease to use the revenue from land sales as ordinary revenue, and should keep this land revenue separate from the taxes. It was the partial cessation of the wholesale alienation of lands which first caused a deficit in the accounts of New South Wales, and it has lately been proposed, by the free-trade party, to revert to sales of city and suburban land for the purpose of wiping out j)ast deficits. This, however, is an unwise policy ; in the first place, because such sales cannot go on for ever, and fresh taxation will have sooner or later to be resorted to ; and in the second place, because some of the most valu- able sites for public purposes are thus improvidently sold, and when they are needed for public use they have to be bought back at enhanced prices — the benefit going to private owners. After the general election of 1889, the House, contain- ing a small free-trade majority, instead of jDutting on fresh taxation, merely tried to remove the protective duties on butter, bacon, and cheese, as well as the duty upon kerosene. Their removal was suggested by the protectionist party with a view of embarrassing; the incoming; Treasurer. At the same time the need for taxation cannot in the long--run be escaped, and, as the least unpopular of new taxes in New South Wales will probably be found to be customs duties upon goods, the true protectionists will be rein- forced by a large number of those who really only desire that the colony should pay her way, and, among them, even by some merchants. A free-trade confer- ence held at Sydney at the close of the session of 1889 committed the party to direct taxation in the form of a tax on the unimproved value of land. The t chap, n NEW SOUTH WALES 279 strength of the protectionist party in New South Wales is partly caused by the jealousy with which New South Wales regards the tiny colony of Victoria, bearing an equal population, with an overflowing treasury, under a system of Protection, while New South Wales supports far less population in proportion to her territory (although her population must soon begin to increase faster than that of Victoria), and has till lately had a deficit in her accounts. The explanation of the recent stagnation of New South Wales as compared with the recent prosperity of Victoria is, I myself believe, chiefly to be found in the democratic land legislation of Victoria, and in the inability of New South Wales to devise a land system which will enable agriculture to compete with pastoral pursuits, and will place the people upon the land ; but on the other hand, I fancy that the protectionist policy will in the long-run beat down resistance, and that, instead of the remedy of radical land legislation, the expedient of Protection will be tried. The protectionist movement in New South Wales was originally a movement by the greater part of the artisans and by some of the manufacturers, and the protectionist party there resembled the protectionist party in Pennsyl- vania and many other manufacturing communities, while the pastoral tenants of the Crown, and inhabitants of the rural districts generally, were free traders. There has been of late a remarkable change in the composition of the protectionist party of New South Wales. Before February 1889 two-thirds of the members of the Assembly were free traders ; but when in that month the House returned from the general election with sixty-six protec- tionists to seventy-one free traders, the protectionists came chiefly from the country districts. The Government soon lost a seat at a bye-election, and the balance of parties 280 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n became closer still. Of forty-one members sitting for the metropolitan districts only five were protectionists, and yet these districts contain a very large proportion of the artisans. On the other hand, the protectionists had gained immensely in the agricultural and pastoral inland districts, and it is clear that the rural population had been bitten with the desire to retaliate upon Victoria, while rich people generally had largely supported the protec- tionists to avoid a land-tax or a property-tax which would fall mainly upon them. Customs duties, the rich rightly think, will bear more heavily upon other classes. New south It is a curious fact that New South Wales should be in the W moving towards Protection, when, at the same time, it vfctarir 88 ^ s argued that statistics prove that it is through her free- trade policy, as compared with the protective policy of Victoria, that New South Wales has in some points " passed Victoria in the race " between them that has gone on for many years. The vital statistics, no doubt, go to show that there has been a movement of workmen from Victoria to New South Wales. Merely to state, without further examination, that New South Wales had gained on Victoria would not be enough. New South Wales is by far the larger country. Victoria was rapidly peopled on account of the gold discoveries, and, as always happens in gold countries, the easy and cheap production of gold has fallen off, and these causes would account for the recent greater rapidity of growth of the population of New South Wales. But the falling- off of people of the working age in Victoria, and the peculiar increase of people of the same age in New South Wales, goes to show that the condition of New South Wales has been of a nature to attract workmen from Victoria, although doubtless many of the immigrants have been of the class to which I have referred in writing chap, ii NEW SOUTH WALES 281 of Victoria. As regards local manufacturing, New South Wales, under her free-trade policy, is slightly ahead of Victoria, and if the older colony had adopted a land law more calculated to promote agriculture than the system to which she is wedded, Victoria would have lost her chief advantage. New South Wales exports a larger amount of her own produce than does Victoria, and already raises considerably over a pound's worth of coal per head of her population every year. Whether New South Wales becomes permanently protectionist, or continues on the whole free trading, it is certain that in the long-run her larger territory and her coal will enable her to beat Victoria. Her great want is a settled agri- cultural population — a want which matters not so much from the purely commercial point of view (for possibly her exports would be larger if she continued to attend chiefly to wool production from large properties) as because, without a settled population upon the land, New South Wales will never attain to the permanency and equability of policy which are necessary for real prosperity. Protection is certainly not now needed to enable manufactures to grow up on the Australian con- tinent ; it has fostered manufactures in Victoria, but the cheap coal of New South Wales has brought them thither without Protection, and manufactories are springing up in great numbers between Sydney and the coal-mines. The protectionists are aware of the fact that two Two classes of remedies are offered for the evils which exist ^"present in New South Wales — their own remedy, and that of evils - the land reformers — and the two parties have lately almost come to blows at Sydney meetings. The settle- ment of land need not, of course, necessarily be by purchase, and there is in New South Wales a land nationalisation party, some of whom hold extreme land vol. 1 u 282 PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part ii nationalisation views, but others of whom would appa- rently be content if the State retained possession of the land she at present holds, and supplied all her necessities by means of the Henry George " single tax." It cer- tainly seems a strange thing that the public estate of New South Wales has been sold so rapidly for low prices when high prices for land were beginning to prevail in other parts of the colony, and when but a few years were needed to show how large an amount of unearned increment the colony would lose by sales. There seems, however, but little prospect of land being largely kept back for the future use of the nation as a whole. Many of the ablest workmen are freeholders of houses in the towns, through the operation of the build- ing societies, and they become interested on the side of the existing state of things, and somewhat careless about land reform. Moreover, the revenue from sales is, as we have seen, used in diminution of taxation. We gave to our Australian colonies a noble dowry in handing over to them all their lands, but they have somewhat wasted this gift, which many regret was not in part retained as an inheritance for the future. Fertility of When I express the wish to see the population seated New south on the land, and agriculture partly replacing pastoral pursuits, it must not be supposed that I wish to de- preciate the value to Australia of her unrivalled wool production, and especially the value of it to New South Wales, which, with a comparatively small territory, has many more sheep than all the other Australian mainland colonies put together. But while the develojDment of the railroads of New South Wales has allowed the inferior country to be rapidly occupied with sheep and in some small degree with cattle, it must be remembered that, in the valleys north of Sydney, New South Wales chap, ii NEW SOUTH WALES 283 possesses some of the most fertile land in the world, and that even across the mountains she is able to produce magnificent wines, and that wine production is almost invariably a result of small estates. New South Wales is one of the most favoured among countries in the production of fruit and vegetables for preserving, and her climate is such as to allow her to grow, at the same time, excellent oranges, and English fruits in the most perfect condition. The colonial wine production has been less developed than it might have been, because the people of New South Wales, like those of California and of the Cape, try to imitate the wines of the Bordelais and of the Khine, instead of developing their own wine after its own fashion. Fine claret canoot be imitated, and the natural wines of New South Wales are wines of the Cote du Rhone and Hermitage type, and magnificent of their kind. New South Wales should not allow Victoria and South Australia to beat her in a wine production on which she was the first to enter. With all her splendid prospects and her magnificent Lack of x . interest in wealth, New South Wales is not coming to the front so pontics. rapidly as she should do, not on account of the absence of Protection, but because of the absence of well- considered measures for the agricultural settlement of the land. At the same time it is noticeable that there is not that amount of interest in politics in New South Wales which might be expected. There are a good many wilful abstentions from the exercise of the suffrage, and there has till lately been a still more objectionable form of abstention in the refusal of many of the leading men of the colony to take part in public affairs. There are not in the colonies clearly marked party lines, and there is support and opposition to each measure under 284 PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part ii discussion as it comes up, but little permanence in party. The Roman Catholics and the Orangemen generally take opposite sides, as do the supporters of local option and the licensed victuallers ; but if free trade and Protection should, as some think they will, create regular parties for the future in New South Wales, this will be a new departure. Party is more highly organised in Victoria than in New South Wales, and a greater stability of Government is the result. One reason why in New South Wales some of the best men have stood aloof from politics is because the Parliament of New South Wales was reputed not to be above a little jobbery, and it was supposed that a class of poor men offered themselves for election with the view of getting money out of the interference by Government with commercial enterprise. There has, indeed, long been a growing disposition amoug all parties in New South Wales to adopt the system of payment of members in force in the neiodibourino- colonies, and Bills and resolutions in favour of payment of members have been carried by large majorities in the representative Assembly, and rejected only in the nominated Upper House, which, at last, in the winter of 1889 reluctantly passed the Bill for the payment of members of the Assembly. The Council altered the Bill from one to provide for the payment of members of the present and of future Parliaments, by limiting its operation to the two next Parliaments, but on the motion of the Prime Minister the Bill on its return to the Assembly was laid aside — although Sir Henry Parkes himself had opposed the original proposition — he taking the view that the question must be settled upon the lines proposed by the majority of the Assembly. The Speaker gave a formal opinion upon the right of the Council to touch NEW SOUTH WALES 285 Bills which the Assembly considered to be money Bills, and curiously enough alluded at length to New Zealand and to Queensland precedents upon the subject without quoting the far more important Victorian precedent. Sir Henry Parkes closed the debate by giving notice of a Bill to provide for popular election of the Council. The Bill was again passed by the Legislative Assembly in such form as to provide for the payment of members from the date of its becoming law, and the Council took advantage of a slight change, by the omission of all retrospective effect, to give way, so that the Parkes Council Bill did not see the light. The New South Wales Parliament has not hitherto payment of had so high a standing in the colony as have the 111 Parliaments of some others of the Australian States. There is much disrespectful reference in colonial news- papers to " the bear-garden in Macquarie Street " ; and New South Wales can hardly be said to be so proud of her Parliament as she is of her development in other respects. It is to my mind doubtful whether the character of the New South Wales Assembly has been affected one way or the other by the non-payment of members. It is the case in the colonies where there has for some time existed the system of the payment of members that wealthy local magnates are often defeated by men with no means, who have to live upon their salary as members, and who yet make excellent and self-respecting members of the Assemblies. It is found that the local magnate, though often a success in politics, is not more certainly a success than the man who is drawn by his abilities from the crowd, and, without money, secures the vote of his fellows. Many of the best men in the paid legislatures would never have ventured to leave their calling and to embark upon 286 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n political life without some small assured income as ballast. Some young business men and some pro- fessional men, who have found their businesses suffer severely from their taking to politics, and who are among the most accomplished and scholarly men that the paid Assemblies contain, would, through the loss of practice or business, be unable to live without pay- ment. The present Prime Minister of New South Wales would have been less open to attack had he been able to draw, when out of office, his salary as a member. On the other hand, payment of members occasionally places in the House demagogues that the colonies would sooner be without ; but, as it yields at the same time a large number of quiet, modest, sensible members, terribly in earnest about doing the work that they are sent to the capital to do, the colonies that have made trial of payment prefer that system. They find that the paid members, as a rule, think and read and under- stand, and that the well-to-do business men who, on their retirement from their own business, seek seats in Parliament, do not make, on the average, equally good members. They maintain that the will of the people is more effectively and speedily carried into execution when the want of an income is not an obstacle to a candidature. New South Wales has till very lately remained without the system, and as her Assembly is generally reputed to have been the least good among the chief colonial Assemblies, the example of New South Wales has been quoted in the other colonies in favour of continuing the system of payment. Difference There is a curious difference noticeable between the between politics of politics of New South Wales and those of Victoria. Victoria and of New In New South Wales there is much more tendency to Wales. general considerations, or to what Victorians would call chap, ii NEW SOUTH WALES 287 vague professions and appeals to feeling. In Victoria, Ministers deal with facts, figures, and Bills, and there is close and keen criticism of expenditure, of appoint- ments, and of administrative acts. Her politicians appear to be masters of detail, but it is possible that Protection has had the effect of making the people more Victorian and less citizens of the world than the inhabitants of New South Wales have been as compared with them in the past. The tone of the Legislative Assembly of New South Decentrai- -1 • r> c i isation Wales is democratic, and if some 01 the richest traders needed. of the colony have lately been standing for election it is probably through their dread of the introduction of Protection. It is certain that the fear either of Protec- tion or of a property-tax and of a tax on absentees, one or other of which must be expected, will arouse a greater interest from year to year in the politics of New South Wales on the part of the moneyed classes. Fresh taxes of one kind or another will certainly be needed as, in bad years when there has not been a deficit, the revenue has been largely derived from land sales, which are falling off. Government interfering not only in railways, bridges, tramways, and sewage disposal, but also in other matters, which outside Australia are' left to private enterprise, members are apt to claim, as the condition of their allegiance, the disbursal of a sum of public money in their constituency proportionate with that spent in neighbouring constituencies. If a Ministry restrict its expenditure to that which is necessary, it may be beaten. If, on the other hand, it proposes unnecessary expenditure to obtain the votes of members interested, the whole of them stand by any one of their class who may be threatened, and the expenditure is carried. There is a certain feeling that 288 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n the loans come from England, which for financial purposes may be looked upon as coming from abroad ; and although, as I have said, a large proportion of the debt represents railroads, still it must be remembered that some of these do not pay interest, and that a portion of this expenditure has been upon public works which were hardly necessary, or not necessary in the degree in which money was spent upon them. The advocates of the expenditure maintain, however, that the railways were not made primarily for revenue ; that it is not to be expected that they should all pay interest ; and that the contingent advantages to the colony are a sufficient return in cases where the profit is small. There is this great fact upon their side that the railways of New South Wales could be sold at any time for a price about equal to her debt. It has been too often found that, in the rural districts, elections are determined by the question of which of the two candidates appears likely to be able to cause the larger amount of Government money to be expended in the district. The importance of what is known as the policy of " New-Bridge-across-Gum-Tree- Creek " is of course due in some decree to the isolation •of the up-country constituencies; for, cut off as they are from connection with the larger towns, small things of local life become magnified into matters of State importance. But the members of Parliament elected from the back country come down to Sydney charged with statistics and indignation as to the neglect which their constituencies have suffered in the past, and they are too apt to make the " New-Bridge " the price of their vote upon the measures before the House. The only possible cure for this state of things lies in decentralisation, and decentralisation has been NEW SOUTH WALES 289 promised by the free -trade leaders. An Act of June 1888 established for large public works a standing joint committee of the two houses of the legislature, with considerable powers, and as the Kailway Commissioners have a check on new railroads, and the joint committee on other great new works, reckless expenditure has been checked, and jobbery has become less rife. Sir Henry Parkes, who has something of the »& Henry aspect of Mr. Punch's Father Thames, but with a clean beard, is the patriarch among colonial politicians. His career has been described by his enemies as a closely-knit tissue of successful artifice, and it is characteristic of the man that, a number of copies of the publication in which that statement was made having been purchased by a previous administra- tion, on coming into office he caused them to be burnt at a bonfire at the Government printing-office. Sir Henry Parkes is not only one of the oldest Parlia- mentarians in Australia, but one of its most experienced administrators and best political tacticians. The average ability of the leading politicians is not so high, I think, in New South Wales as in Victoria, but Sir Henry Parkes in New South Wales stands head and shoulders above his rivals. In England he had been a mechanic, but he began colonial life as a toy-shop keeper and a poet, and after a stormy career he is, with intervals, the supreme ruler of the colony. He is now by far its ablest speaker, and in his best efforts displays a rough eloquence which puts him on a level with the more cultivated Mr. Higinbotham of Victoria ; with Bishop Moorhouse of Manchester, who has left a great reputa- tion in the colonies ; and with Mr. Dalley, now no more. It is not often that Sir Henry Parkes reaches those heights, but he is at all times a powerful and 290 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n suggestive speaker. He is not really popular, but only followed or admired, which is a different thing, and, while he has few old friends, has many foes. He is capable of large ideas, and is often the author of far-reaching proposals, but is wanting in grasp of detail. He is in his element in a popular assembly, reigning and rejoicing in the storms of debate with marvellous physical power. He has a tendency to be jealous of his neighbours, and in a colony which as a whole is jealous of Victoria he is the person who is most jealous. When in the Chinese matter the Victorian Government, fearing a popular tumult, took strong measures to prevent the landing of Chinese immigrants, Sir Henry Parkes, who was unable through popular pressure to take the opposite course, outbid the Victorian Govern- ment in the same line, pressed forward a violent Bill, and publicly declared his indifference with regard to the feelings of the Governor or the guns of the British warships in the harbour. When Victoria declared against the doctrine of a The Gov- colonial nomination of Governors, Sir Henry Parkes seized ernorship . J . question, the opportunity to isolate her from the other colonies, in the same way in which New South Wales herself is isolated by the Federal Council, to which she is not a party ; and he instantly supported Queensland, and ostentatiously joined with the other colonies to leave Victoria "in the cold." It is interesting to remark that the press of New South Wales supported Sir Henry's action as unanimously as did the Assembly, so that colonial feeling appeared to be unanimous in opposite directions in neighbouring colonies. It is hardly likely that on the merits of the Governorship question this should have been the case, and it would really seem that intercolonial jealousy was the chief factor in producing chap, ii NEW SOUTH WALES 291 unanimity on each side. In the latter part of the Australian winter of 1889 Sir Henry Parkes entered into negotiations with the other colonies with a view to Federation on the Canadian plan, but insisted on a new departure, and declined to promote the represen- tation of New South Wales on the existing Federal Council of Australasia. The ultimate issue of these negotiations is well known, and I shall return to the matter later on. With the exception of the Sydney Morning Herald Attitude of (the wealthiest journal of the colonial world), the press of New South Wales is somewhat less English in its general tone than the Victorian press. There are news- papers in Sydney which openly advocate separation from Great Britain. The Eepublican and protectionist Bulletin, which has a considerable circulation, though it is largely a circulation outside New South AVales, is dis- tinctly hostile to the mother-country's interference ; and the free-trade Daily Telegraph, which is the organ of the new National party, gives an occasional support to anti- English proposals, but in the most thoughtful manner. Looking to the jealousies between Victoria and New The South Wales, it is a pity that the Murray river, where JJ^ y it forms, as in a great part of its course, the boundary q uestiou - between those colonies, is by law all in the territory of New South Wales. There are likely to be difficult questions arising from the desire of settlers on both banks to use the water, and as the trade from the Riverina district partly goes to Melbourne, the Govern- ment of New South Wales may not be yielding with regard to them. The Victorians hold that they put nine-tenths of the water into the Murray river, and are equitably entitled to take a good deal of water out again. Their Government is promoting irrigation schemes 292 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n which depend upon the supply of Murray water for success, and their representatives declare that they will not yield upon the question or surrender what they think their rights, even if they have to dig an artificial river across Victoria to carry their own streams. There was a conference between Victoria and New South Wales upon the subject not long ago, Victoria asking that delegates from South Australia might attend, but being refused by New South Wales, and some kind of agreement was arrived at, to which effect has not been given. Victoria is now pressing for a joint commis- sion, upon which South Australia should be represented as well as New South Wales, to settle the whole ques- tion ; but I believe that this commission has been refused by Sir Henry Parkes. The Prime Minister of New South Wales has lately stated that the works of Chaffey Brothers, in the Murray near Mildura, are erected on the soil of New South Wales, and that the firm are tres- passers who must be turned out, and the New South Wales Government have prepared returns which show that something like a million and a half of acres in Victoria will soon be irrigated from the Murray, with the effect, as they put it, of draining the river dry. On the other hand, at the very time of the preparation of this report there was such a flood upon the Murray that the Government of Victoria were asked by Sir Henry Parkes, and acceded to the request, to send a special train with boats to the Murray in order to remove inhabitants to higher ground, and Echuca itself was under water. Such are the Australian rivers — so dry one day that they can hardly be found by the investigator, and raging floods the next. The question is a dangerous one in the hands of politicians so self-confident and so strong as Mr. Gillies and Mr. NEW SOUTH WALES 293 Deakin for Victoria and Sir Henry Parkes for New South Wales. Sir Henry Parkes lias retired from public life more sir Henry J ii Parkes's in- often than a popular actor from the stage, and the fiuence and occasional raffles of his effects have not lessened the pov number of his political admirers. Sir Henry Parkes believes in himself, and that deep self-belief undoubtedly impresses many of those about him and makes them too believe. He is one of those to whom age is useful. His years protect him from the assaults of the young lions, and when he closes his speeches by reference to the whiteness of beard and hair which has come upon him in the service of his adopted country, the people are apt to go and vote for the " poor old man." When Sir H. Parkes wrote in " The Strong Man " — " Like a rock that breasts the sea, Firm he stood, in front of foes ; To his friends a sheltering tree That in changeless beauty grows," he may have been thinking of himself ; but in person he has been as little favoured by nature with good looks as Socrates or Darwin. For all that, there is an assurance of strength in the massy features, and a consciousness in the eyes that their owner is not an ordinary man. The fact is that, with all his faults and all his weaknesses, Sir Henry Parkes is the only great political power in New South Wales. His sympathy with the democratic ideas which are uppermost in Australia, and his devotion to the colony and broad grasp of affairs, give him a oreater hold upon the people than any other Australian public man. His debts, his poetry, are powerless to sink him, and as a man who knows how to use, like so many chess-men, the sections which take the place of parties in colonial politics, he is undoubtedly one of the 294 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n ablest of colonial politicians, in this respect almost ranking with Sir John Macdonald. The late The next ablest in New South Wales was Mr. Dalley, a ey. ^ ^^ ^ gome ^[ me before his death, in retirement in the Council or so-called Upper House, composed of nominated members, and regarded with little interest by the community. Mr. Dalley it was who, being at the time still a leading politician, carried into execution the de- spatch of the New South Wales expedition to the Soudan. Dalley was a Roman Catholic, of Irish descent, but born in New South Wales. In his early days he was a democratic Catholic, upon whom his religion sat but lightly; in his later days he came under the in- fluence of Archbishop Vaughan, and grew more rigid in his religious views. He was, in consequence, at one time of his life a supporter, and at another time an opponent, of the public school system. He was a finished orator, but always read his speeches for the Assembly. As an after-dinner impromptu speaker he was most humorous, and when I knew him he was the witty Editor of the Sydney Punch. Dalley's style was florid and old-fashioned, but he had a fine rich voice, with a mellow Dublin brogue inherited from his progenitors ; and as he rolled out his big words and rounded phrases, with here and there a sly allusion, and with frequent quotations of the prehistoric kind, he pleased the public, which liked to remember that all this culture had been acquired in New South Wales. He was no politician. He despised parties, loved the quiet atmosphere of his library, was well off, and had a lovely house in an exquisite situation. To read and saunter, read and trot upon a quiet horse, read and go to bed, was the life that suited him; and the fact that for a time he guided the des- tinies of New South Wales was an accident in his career. chap, ii NEW SOUTH WALES 295 The sending of the Soudan contingent was almost The Soudan personal on Dalley's part, but all the colonies were carried away by the enthusiasm of the moment. There has been a serious reaction since throughout Australia, but espe- cially in New South Wales, and Sir Henry Parkes, who opposed the expedition, has gained strength through this reaction. It would require a real and grave cata- strophe before any colony in the future would venture to offer direct aid to the home Government, and it may safely be asserted that, when such offers come, New South Wales is not likely to take the lead. Dalley's per- sonal popularity has survived his life ; statues are being put up to him, and his place is still warm in Australian hearts ; but his abettors in the Soudan Expedition have not been forgiven by the public, and are continually branded as "Soudan men" by a portion of the press. As Mr. Dalley is dead, the Governor has become, after Sir Henry Parkes, the best-known person in the colony. Lord Carrington has been as popular in New Lord South Wales as was Sir Henry Loch in Victoria. He has, indeed, this advantage over Sir Henry Loch, that he is freer or less guarded in his manner; familiar and friendly with all classes of the people. He spends much more than his salary in entertainment, and is a great lover of sport and sportsmen, both of which points are in his favour in Australia. He is a better speaker than Sir Henry Loch, and has shown himself almost as good a governor even in purely official matters. Indeed, he accepted his constitutional position more willingly — too willingly for the high authorities. Lord Carrington has apparently laid down the doctrine that a governor can have no knowledge of the position of his advisers in the Assembly or in the country, and is bound 296 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n to accept their advice without question so loug as they remain in office, even though they may be obviously near their doom. Now this doctrine is not looked upon as sound if pushed to extreme limits, although the acceptance of it, in most cases, simplifies a governor's course. Lady Carrington with her charming manners has greatly aided her husband in his social duties, and they have established the reputation of being the demo- cratic ideal of a governor and his wife. Lord Carrina;ton has been singularly independent of the Colonial Office, and has discharged his duties exactly in the way that he thought best, without the smallest reference to the wishes of that Office. In several difficult cases he has displayed much wisdom. His lot has in political matters hardly fallen in such pleasant places as Sir Henry Loch's, because there is more anti-English feeling in New South Wales than in Victoria. In the recent conflict between the home Government and Queensland upon the colonial governorship question, New South Wales, as I have said, supported Queensland, as did South Australia. But the reasons were in the several cases different. A Parkes Ministry which was in office at the time in New South Wales was independent of the Irish Roman Catholics; the colony was well satisfied with its governor. On the other hand, the reaction from the fervid loyalty of the Soudan contingent episode was in full force, and although the Naval Defence Bill was, from regard to Australian interests, passed in New South Wales, as in South Australia and Victoria, the policy pursued both in the matter of Chinese immigration, and in reference to colonial Governors, has been tinged by a spirit of dis- regard for imperial interests. Public In the Assembly there are, besides Sir Henry Parkes, no very prominent men, and no men easy to chap, ii NEW SOUTH WALES 297 pick out and distinguish the one from the other. Among the colleagues of Sir Henry Parkes in his Government of 1887-88 was Mr. Inglis, an out-and-out free trader, a fluent witty speaker, a popular lecturer, and an educated man, the author of some excellent books of travel, and of some of the stiffest Indian " tiger stories " upon record. Prominent in the free-trade party was Mr. Wise, the son of a colonial judge — an Australian educated at Oxford, and a well-known speaker at his Union, of which he had been President ; an enthusiastic free trader, too fond of teaching the working classes out of books. Mr. Wise is inexperienced as a politician, and sat only for a short time in the colonial Parliament ; but possessing, as he does, confidence and the power of speech, he is likely to be one of the men of the future. Having at once become Sir Henry Parkes's Attorney- General, he sj)eedily resigned his office — for what reason is not well known, as he stated only that he found that his duties as a minister interfered with his profession as a barrister, which is hardly the experience of those who had gone before him. No doubt, however, while he had a large practice as a junior, his private work fell off when he was Attorney- General, because as Attorney- General he was forced to lead. He lost his seat in South Sydney in 1889, and has since written some rather bitter attacks upon the Roman Catholic Church, to which I shall allude in the second volume. Mr. Reid, a more experienced politician, is another free-trade pam- phleteer and champion, and a finished speaker ; and Mr. Bruce Smith is also one of the free-trade leaders — a popular speaker, and a man who has a future before him if he cares for Parliament, of which he has not been con- tinuously a member. He is just now looked on as " the coming man," although Mr. Brunker, who is an old Par- vol. 1 x 298 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n liament man, a great authority on the land question, and a strong free trader, is called the "future leader." Mr. John Sutherland, who died in the Australian winter of 1889, Sir Henry Parkes's former Minister of Public Works — "Honest John" — whose speeches generally re- solved themselves into the assertion that he intended to " vote square," was treated when in office by his fellow- ministers as an elderly baby, and not allowed to receive deputations except in company. The former Parke s Minister for Mines, who had the rabbit question oddly enough handed over to him for settlement, was sup- posed to be an authority on bootlaces, but hardly to know mica from gold, although in colonies technical knowledge is thought more necessary in ministers than at home. The present When Sir Henry Parkes came into office in March trationT 1889, after the general election, he brought in many new men, and Mr. Brunker, his Minister of Lands, Mr. Bruce Smith, his Minister of Works, and Mr. M c Millan, his Colonial Treasurer, came to be looked on as the free -trade leaders. The fact is, that the colony was tired of its previous men. Mr. Bruce Smith, however, soon commenced a brief resort to relief works for the unemployed, which shook his credit with steady-going people, and which conflicted with the views against State interference expressed by him in his book on Liberty and Liberalism. Sir Henry Parkes's former Ministry had by its bitterest opponents been accused of jobbery in many points, and especially in the purchase of property from companies supposed by them to be creditors of the Prime Minister. On the other hand, Sir John Robertson had retired, with the epitaph in the columns of the Bulletin, which is notorious for strong language — "Jack Falstaff without the wit"; and the chap, ii NEW SOUTH WALES 299 same persons who held these views about the leaders of the one party, were in the habit of describing the leader of the other (unjustly, in my opinion) as a blundering adventurer who took up politics after failing in trade. The scenes in the Assembly damaged the rank and file of the members as much as the leaders had been damaged by the attacks on them in the press, and the colony was thoroughly ready for a change. At the same time there were many signs of improvement, and the newspapers and cheap travelling were rapidly bringing the means of comparison with other legislatures within the reach of the whole people. The result has been recent marked improvement in the ministerial calibre. On the other side, that is, among the protectionists, Protection- ist ltinltrs. Mr. Abbott used to lead the Opposition — a tall, powerful solicitor, with a clear and incisive style of speech ; a better critic than an advocate, and a somewhat luke- warm politician, easy-going, unless stung into action by the bitter words of an opponent. Then he replies with a force and vigour all the stronger, because, once a free trader, he has carried a considerable knowledge of the free-trade arguments into the ranks of the protectionists. His main line in debate is that the future of the empire depends upon federation ; that federation is only possible through Protection, and impossible so long as New South Wales stands aloof from the fiscal union policy rapidly growing up among the colonies. Mr. Abbott was offered office when Mr. Dibbs formed a Ministry in 1889, but he refused it. One of the most influential of the protectionist members is Mr. Garvan, an experienced politician, who has held office in the past, who also repre- sents to some extent the Irish and Roman Catholic element, and who is deservedly respected by his fellow- members. He was the Finance Minister of the recent 300 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n shortlived Dibbs Administration. Mr. Copeland is one of the strongest men on the Protection side. Originally a Victorian resident, he came to New South Wales with a bias towards Protection, and soon found his way to Parliament, where he became one of the first to advocate the imposition of protective duties. He is a useful man in many ways, and his knowledge of mines and general experience of the colonies and of colonial life stand him in good stead. He is a forcible but not a polished speaker, and is trusted by the protectionist working man. Mr. Copeland also refused office in 1889. Mr. Dibbs. Mr. Dibbs, who is, I think, Australian -born, was Colonial Treasurer in the administration previous to that of Sir Henry Parkes, and Prime Minister for a short time in 1889. He was until 1887, I believe, professedly a free trader, though he had acquiesced in the imposition of ad valorem duties. He then went over publicly to the protectionists, and became known among free traders as " the oue-year-old apostle of Protection." Being an experienced politician and an able man, he obtained the lead of the protectionists, but his protectionist views are as little believed in by the real protectionists as are the corresponding opinions of Sir Henry Parkes by the real free traders. There are a good many people in the colony who sympathise with the Bulletin in its attempt to get rid of what it calls the " rival syndicates," which it continually asserts are " played out " — the syndicates being Sir Henry Parkes and his friends, and Mr. Dibbs and his friends. One thing against the latter group, in the eyes of the new Australian party, is that they helped to pass the Defence Bill, which is now almost as unpopular as the " Dalley Expedition." Mr. Dibbs, however, has lately given hostages to the " national " party, and his Ministry of 1889 was praised for containing only NEW SOUTH WALES two members who were not Dative -born Australians. The Dibbs party is becoming a party supported by all Irish Roman Catholics, all protectionists, and all publicans, and is somewhat similar in composition to the ruling party in Queensland and to the Victorian Opposition, although in Victoria the Government and the Opposition are alike protectionist. The Roman Catholic objectors to the public school system, and the publicans threatened by developments of local option, are the chief strength of the Opposition in Victoria and of the Government party in Queensland ; but Protection in New South Wales, and not in the other two colonies, differentiates the party supported by these classes from their opponents. Mr. Dibbs is credited with a hasty temper, and its existence is indicated by the fact that, like Mr. Pickwick, he went to gaol rather than pay the costs of an action in which he was defeated, but which he thought ought to have gone in his favour. He preferred to take a year's imprisonment rather than comply with the order of the Court, but finally a friend paid for him, and he was liberated against his will, having learnt wood- carving at Government expense. Sir Patrick Jennings, other although a squatter, and a representative man of that p° htlcums - section of the community, is claimed by protectionists as well as by free traders. Until recent years he was better known as a patron of letters and of art than as a politician. He was not a signal success in politics, and the announcement of a deficit of two millions drove him to the polls, with the result that he was dismissed from office in 1885. He perhaps preferred this fate to success, as he is supposed to regard a life of leisured refinement as more agreeable than that of a colonial Minister ; and it is perhaps hardly likely that he will 302 PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part ii ao-ain lead a Government. Mr. Melville is a well-known o member, and a useful member for his party, though looked upon as eccentric by his opponents. By calling he is an undertaker, and in the morning superintends the interment of his clients, and in the evening becomes the Bernal Osborne of the Assembly, though now charged with semi-official functions which interfere with the free exercise of his wit. Mr. O'Sullivan, a working- man representative and enthusiastic protectionist, one of the younger men of the House, is respected by his colleagues, though looked upon by his opponents in the country as a demagogue. Mr. M°Millan, the repre- sentative of the importers, a good speaker — one of the men whom fear of the triumph of Protection has brought into the Assembly — is a man of ability, of fluent speech, and of business capacity, who became Sir Henry Parkes's Colonial Treasurer in the Ministry of March 1889, although it was popularly supposed that he had had a good deal to do with Sir Henry Parkes's upset in January of the same year. Mr. M c Millan is the leader of the commercial class, and one of the most highly respected members of the Assembly ; an out-and-out free trader, who said not lone; as^o that he believed that the present relations with the mother -country might last twenty years, and would be succeeded, to his regret, by independence ; but no doubt he hopes for better things. It is hardly necessary to mention the well-known member who has been out since the late elections, and who represented that rapidly vanishing race of men, distinct from all others — the bullock drivers ; the firebrand of the Assembly, who challenges all who differ from him to " have it out " upon the floor. His speeches fossilise early colonial life. Mr. Barton, once Speaker, is credited with ability, and has now been elected leader chap, ii NEW SOUTH WALES 303 of the protectionists. The Dibbs Cabinet of 1889 was not made to last. Sir Henry Parkes, who had a large majority, apparently went out of office in order to show that the Opposition could do no better than he had done ; and they are in fact a miscellaneous crowd who would naturally fall to pieces when they tried to work harmoniously. Sir Henry Parkes had no trouble in beating them in March 1889, though he had had but a majority of one at the elections, and has since lost that one, and carried on the Government without a real majority. Mr. Dibbs, besides consolidating the alliance between sir Henry the protectionists, the Eoman Catholics, and the publi- free-trade cans, has lately secured a good deal of support from the f™ mme pastoral interest ; while, on the other hand, Sir Henry Parkes has found, as has been seen, a set of colleagues and supporters much abler than his former friends, and is warmly backed by the free traders, the local optionists and the Orange Lodges. Mr. M c Millan shows by his speeches that he believes that, while Protection is fast growing, Protection alone cannot carry New South Wales, and thinks that, if Sir Henry Parkes has luck, the Pro- testant temperance free-trade union will yet win at an elec- tion which cannot be far distant. The active free traders are forming a league with branches all through the country, and a general platform as attractive as possible in the shape of its land, irrigation, and direct taxation planks ; and it is clear that both parties are becoming consolidated to the advantage of the community at large. Both parties are closely watching the electoral rolls, and are preparing for a fresh election in which the farmers and graziers will probably turn the scale. Sir Henry Parkes hopes to detach the pastoral interest from the Opposition by his land legislation and by careful tenure. 304 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part 11 finance, although his suggestion of Federation " upon the Canadian plan " looks as though he intends shortly to throw free trade to the winds. Land legis- The further amendment of the land laws made in timid. 1889 is timid. Compensation to the squatter for any improvement he may have made upon the land is right, but the Bill of 1888 did not take from the Minister that power which has been the source of much complaint, and which may be made the instrument of corruption — the fixing of the rent of pastoral holdings ; and the Act of 1889 is also far from being a sweeping measure, although it professes to establish a non-political board. Freehold The dominant colonial feeling is in favour of free- hold tenure for householders and agriculturists, and so general is this view that rich land, or land that is for any purpose specially valuable, will not fetch fair interest by way of rent. The Australians object to put up fencing, to clear, and, above all, to build on other people's land. They find a satisfaction, that is beyond that of money, in making the place on which they live to their taste ; and they will not do it with the possibility that they may be turned out. They maintain that land can only be worked profitably under the immediate care of the interested person, with the stimulus of sole proprietorship ; and the result is that purchasers will often offer more than the land is really worth to buy, while leaseholders offer less by way of rent. People in Australia attach importance to un- earned increment, but they want, as a rule, to get the unearned increment for themselves, rather than to secure it for the community. There is, of course, no law of primogeniture and 110 entail ; custom forbids the leaving of a man's property to one child alone ; equal division among all the children is general, and this tends more chap, ii NEW SOUTH WALES 3°5 and more to bring large estates of good land into the market. The choicest parts of New South Wales are held by selectors whose properties have been purchased out and out on easy terms, and have risen steadily in value. The proprietors have thus become men of sub- stance, and are strong Conservatives in all land questions, but there are in New South Wales, as I have shown, but few of them. Although, however, the leasehold system is most unpopular in Australia it exists in Sydney, though not by choice. A great deal of the land on which Sydney stands had been " granted" in far distant times, with the old-world idea of founding families on a pro- perty basis of unalienable land ; and the suburbs of Sydney are held by magnates who will only part with the land on building leases. Sir Daniel Cooper is a large holder of land near Sydney, and I believe that on his estates there is a good deal of leasehold villa- building ; but many of the magnificent sites in the neighbourhood of Sydney have proved comparatively useless, and the houses built are inferior, on account of the leasehold tenure, to those that are erected in the neighbourhood of Melbourne in situations of far less natural beauty. The graduated or progressive death duties, which are Graduated only 5 per cent in New South Wales on the largest pro- perties, will probably be one day increased to the 10 per cent of Victoria or the 13 per cent of New Zealand. This, combined with a land or property tax, will tend to break up the remaining great estates. Many of the rich men who are not merchants are joining the protectionists because they prefer customs duties to taxation of the kind proposed by the free traders. The Property Tax Bill of 1888 was rejected, but Mr. Dibbs, then leader of the Opposition, in speaking against it took the line that 306 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n an income tax would be better, and one or the other, or a heavy land tax, is sure to come. In spite of such prospects, Sydney freeholds form a favourite investment, and Lords Carnarvon, Rosebery, and Sherbrooke are on the East Sydney electoral roll, irrigation It would seem then, on the whole, that New South Wales is growing much in great city and little in agri- cultural settlement ; that the emigrants who have flowed of late years into the colony have been of the wrong class ; that land legislation has been too timid, and that large estates have been encouraged, to the detriment of the small agricultural settler ; that, with a view to promote agricultural settlement, a comprehensive scheme of irrigation is necessary in order that lands now only used for pastoral purposes may be opened up to the agriculturist. Irrigation indeed is quite as important as railway-making. How, for example, can a New South Wales line which runs for 500 miles through country for the most part carrying only one sheep to three acres, and having no long-distance through traffic, pay in the present condition of the land ? Yet there is country on the line which with irrigation works would feed and keep millions of human beings. The protectionist view, that, the market of New South Wales not being secured to the farmers of New South Wales, they are exposed to a competition against which they cannot fight, I will con- sider in my chapter on Protection. Victorian Some grumblers in New South Wales point out that a men inNew great number of the most successful businesses in Sydney Waks. are m ^ ne nanc ^ s of persons from the other colonies. In shipping, they say, New South Wales is less well pro- vided with ocean-going steamship lines of her own than are the other colonies. Even the trade between Tas- mania and Sydney is chiefly in Tasmanian hands ; and chap, ii NEW SOUTH WALES 307 New South Wales cannot be said to have an ocean-going steamship line in the same sense in which Victoria has two at least, and Queensland, South Australia, and New Zealand have each one. Sydney is, however, the final port of every line between Australia and the outside world except one — the British India, which stops at Brisbane ; and all the others (viz. the Orient Company, the Messageries, the Peninsular and Oriental, and the San Francisco lines) make Sydney their headquarters. It is true that a large portion of the territory of New South Wales and a vast proportion of the territory of Queensland have been virtually taken away from New South Wales by Victorian capital. In Sydney itself a large number of insurance companies are managed by gentlemen from Melbourne, from New Zealand, and from England. Some of the best mining companies in New South Wales are owned by Victorians and South Aus- tralians, who have made fortunes in them. Melbourne people have invested millions sterling in a single year in city property in Sydney, and these operations are carried on with British money, which passes through Melbourne when it might more easily pass through Sydney hands. The wool trade is very largely in the hands of three companies, which are as a fact Victorian firms, borrowing money at 4 per cent, and lending it out at 8. But such are the climate and soil of New South Wales, its mineral wealth, and the room that it affords, that there is, in my mind, no doubt as to the certainty of its recovery from trouble or depression. The land laws of New South Wales will doubtless one other -1 remedies day be radically reformed, and a property-tax imposed suggested. in order that the colony may continuously pay her way. If more money is needed than a property-tax can easily produce, an export duty upon coal would seem applicable 308 PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part ii to the circumstances of New South Wales. The colony has of the best coal perfectly situated for sea carriage a virtual monopoly in its own part of the world, and it exports more coal than it as yet needs for its own con- sumption. The coal-owners have made large fortunes upon estates but recently alienated, and the alienation of which by the Government at the rates at which they passed was improvident. An export duty might be looked upon as being in the nature of a royalty raised on owners who are making fortunes rapidly by chance ; the State stepping in to secure a portion of the unearned incre- ment. There is an export duty upon gold in New South Wales, and there was formerly a heavier one ; but in gold the colony has no monopoly. In coal Queensland, New Zealand, and Gippsland cannot, as yet, compete with her on equal terms, as their coal is not equally well placed for manufactures and for trade. Legislative There is only one legislative peculiarity in New South pecu iar- \y a i eSj which i s an electoral law providing for an automatic increase of the number of representatives, by a machinery known as the " expansive clauses." These do not work well, and the House of Assembly is supposed to be growing too fast, by the admission of too large a number of representatives. The New South Wales " Expansive clauses " are less well devised than the self-acting Redis- tribution machinery of the Dominion of Canada. Fine arts. To turn for a moment to lighter topics, Sydney compares, on the whole, favourably with Melbourne as regards its fine art galleries. Throughout the colonies there is an activity as regards the fine arts which promises good results in the future. Sydney and Melbourne contain strong; art societies, holding exhibitions twice a year, in which about half the contributions are from native artists and about half from British artists who chap, ii NEW SOUTH WALES 309 have gone to live in Australia. A great deal is being done for art training ; travelling scholarships exist for sending students to Europe, and much originality and power are beginning to be shown by a small band of colonial artists who are thoroughly in earnest. They are excelled in technique by the imported artists, but they seem to have, at all events in Victoria and South Australia, a good deal of vigour. If Sydney is a little behind Melbourne in schools of design, it stands first in the real, though not in the commercial, value of its national gallery, which contains a strong representation of French art in de Neuville's " Rorke's Drift " and other excellent pictures. There are also at Sydney two Menzlers as w T ell as a good many other specimens of Continental schools. Leio;hton's " Wedded " is in the Sydney collection, as well as Fildes's " The Widower " and Vicat Cole's " Arundel." The collection at Mel- bourne is the more interesting to the general public, and contains Turner's " Dunstanborough Castle," " Love and Death," by Watts, Tadema's " Vintage Festival," Long's " Esther," and a fine Alfred Hunt ; but that at Sydney is, though less well-housed, more valuable to artists. Both these galleries are generally thronged with visitors. In Victoria the State is giving assistance to provincial museums. Sydney opens her national gallery on Sundays, although Melbourne follows, as has been said, the example of the old country in closing the national library and galleries on that day. The Victorian Presbyterian and Wesleyan congregations are strongly opposed to any change ; but in Sydney the galleries are thronged on Sunday afternoons by quiet, orderly, and earnest visitors. All the cities of Australia have botanic gardens, Botanic and, as a general rule, gardens laid out both as land- "' 3 io PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n scape gardens, or " recreation reserves," and as botanic o-ardens proper. The present taste lies in the direction of the formation of out-door ferneries, many of the smaller towns having gardens in which there are acres upon acres of tree-ferns from five to thirty feet in height. While the Melbourne gardens are the most scientific in the colonies, and as mere gardens also perhaps the best, the Sydney gardens have the advantage of an exquisite situation on a gentle slope leading down to a lovely bay. The Brisbane gardens, with their magni- ficent tropical effects of wild luxuriousness, stand comparison with either of the others. It is the belief of the more cultured colonists that the taste for the beautiful in gardens is having; a considerable effect on national character, and is producing a tendency towards refine- ment ; but the learned side of gardening is not forgotten, and the names of the Government botanists at Melbourne and at Adelaide have long been famous among botanists throughout the world. The gardening fervour of Australia exceeds that of any other English-speaking country, and it would have been impossible to pass over without this notice such examples of it as either the superb but old- fashioned Sydney gardens or the natural parks of the newer towns. The fondness of the Sydney people for their botanic gardens and the " inner domain " that leads to them, and the fact that in their warm climate full advantage is taken by the population of the beauty of the spot, must bring out the more poetic side of human nature in the inhabitants. Throughout the towns private gardening is universal : immediately out- side the business portion of the cities pretty gardens surround the houses, and the inhabitants almost uni- versally compete at shows. Water is dear in Sydney, and in the dry weather of the summer it is not easy to NEW SOUTH WALES 3^ keep lawns in order, as they have often to be soaked in water ; yet the number of fathers of families who not only pay a heavy water-rate, but water their lawns twice a day, and themselves mow them three times a week, is amazing to those not Australian-born. The immense amount of space devoted by the weekly papers to horticultural matters bears witness to the interest taken in them. The prevalence of gardening among the tradespeople and the mechanics of Australia is striking to Americans who have visited the colonies ; but when we contrast the American winter with mid- winter in Australia, the pall of snow, with the blue sky and the rich earth full of narcissus and of hyacinths, one cannot wonder at the difference. In the very depth of winter, in the greater portion of non- tropical Australia, besides the bulbs and the anemones, the geraniums and the camellias — pansies, violets, and roses continue to bloom. In America, as in England, gardening is an amusement for six months ; in Australia a long procession of beauties, changing from season to season, but un- broken as regards continuance, gives zest to the delight The sale of cut flowers in Sydney is carried on to a much larger extent than in the old world, and the fashion of giving flowers is as developed there as among the wealthy classes in the United States. Not only does the State throughout Australia do much for botany and much for fine art, but the colonial Governments take everywhere an intelligent interest in science, and make great sacrifices of money on behalf of astronomy, zoology, and statistics. If it were possible for the State to do much intelli- Literature. gently to assist letters, I believe that the Australian colonies would be willing to make that attempt. Offices, as nearly sinecures as colonial life can furnish, have twice 3 i2 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN been oiven in New South Wales to Australian literary men. There is an uneasy feeling in Australia that, except in journalism, which has been excellent all along, there is a want of first-class native literature. When we speak of Australian literature we must remember that it is natural that, if we exclude from view the journalistic field, a new country should be behindhand in its number of literary men and its fruitfulness of literary production, and that this must be specially the case in a country reading the English language and having the whole supply of English literature ready to its hand. But although the true literary class in Australia is far smaller in proportion than in Great Britain, the mass of the people are more of a reading people than the English. They buy more books ; they possess more libraries in proportion. London, however, is the natural fountain whence flows their supply of books. A man writing in London, with the English public, and the American public, and the colonial public all open to him, is at an advantage as compared with a man writing in a colony, unless the colonial writer writes something peculiarly necessary to the place. On the other hand, literary fashion in the colonies is not pro- tectionist, and gives an almost undue preference to the productions of the old country, so that colonial letters have an uphill fight for life. Works published in Australia have as yet no access to the world at large, and no privilege even in Australia. In the case of specialists there is no sufficient public in the colonies, and they cannot publish unless it is in the mother- country. There is no case as yet on record of a large demand out of Australia for any book pub- lished in Australia. The Australian writer who has anything important to say, or thinks he has, which for chap, ii NEW SOUTH WALES 3' 3 this purpose conies to the same thing, will at present continue to carry his book to London. I once in Sydney came across a gentleman who had published there a work on mathematics, of a slightly eccentric type, but interesting to mathematicians. I was allowed to write a review of it in the Sydney Morning Herald by the kindness of the proprietors ; but I doubt whether there were many people in the colonies who read that review, and I believe that there was nobody in the colonies who bought the book. Such a book in England would have been certain of a sale sufficient to encourage the author to persevere. A mathematical writer in the colonies, therefore, prefers to see his papers published in the scientific journals of the mother-country, even though, at such a distance, he cannot correct his proofs, and must take his chance of errors, because in this way alone can he obtain access to all the people, not only in Europe but in Australia itself, who are devoted to the same studies. There is not a population large enough in Australia to back up Australian writers, who must necessarily wish as yet to produce their works in England, and who are not unlikely to take up their residence where they produce their works, and Australia is still exporting to England many of her young literary men. Most of the eminent men of letters who have written in Australia have been of English birth, because the number of Australian-born people who have attained to the age of the best literary production is still com- paratively small. The Australian writers are to be found as yet chiefly in the older colony of New South Wales, and no one of them can be said to have made a real impression upon the world. Dalley is known rather as a politician, through the accident of the Soudan con- tingent business, than as a writer — good writer as he was. vol. i Y 314 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n As regards imported writers, Australia has not yet offered a sufficient field to tempt good men, as a rule, unless they were driven to Australia by considerations of health, or went there as professors, or journalists. Some of the University professors both at Melbourne and at Sydney have been distinguished men. Professor Woolley of Sydney University, who was drowned in the London, and Professor Badham of the same University, enjoyed locally a high standing. Dr. Hearn and Dr. Pearson have been mentioned in the Victorian chapter. The colonies have also imported much talent among the clergy and ministers of various denominations, many of whom have been men of culture and ability, whose work has taken a more or less literary form. Of the writers of New South Wales the best known perhaps are the late Henry Kendall, a smooth and musical poet, some of whose sonnets remind one of Keats, and Mr. Haddon Chambers, who (after serving as a journalist in Australia) came to London as a correspondent, has written some interesting tales of colonial adventure, and made a name by a successful play. Some persons in this country admire a recent novel, Robbery under Arms, by " Rolf Boldrewood " — the name under which Mr. Thomas Alexander Browne, one of the pioneer Victorian squatters who went out from England, and afterwards lived in New South Wales, has long written sketches of colonial life. Mr. Browne is a man of more than sixty, whose stories refer to a colonial society which has wholly disappeared. Old Melbourne Memories contains his best work, but he is now engaged on a story which is appearing at Sydney in the Centennial Magazine. Music. Sydney occupies as high a position in the musical world as Melbourne. A Good Friday or Christmas Day never passes without the performance of an excellent chap, ii NEW SOUTH WALES 3*5 Oratorio. There are two good singing clubs, with about a hundred singing members each, and many hundreds of ordinary members : the great Alfred Exhibition Hall in Sydney is inadequate to hold those who desire to attend their concerts. They have an orchestra of seventy performers, and an audience of about 3000, and performing as they uniformly do, high-class music, these clubs must have an excellent influence upon the public taste. The best actors, singers, and scene painters still come The stage. from Europe. The appearance on the boards of native- born actors of genuine ability is hailed with general delight ; and such native-born or Australian -trained singers as there are in the colonies cannot complain of want of appreciation. The supply as yet is not equal to the demand. Australia used to import her best barristers and attorneys, but she now supplies a native article ; and doubtless it will be the same soon with the dramatic and operatic stage. One well-known Australian woman singer met indeed recently with an immense success, which she is now continuing in Europe. As regards sports, New South Wales takes the lead Athletics. over Victoria in yachting and in shooting, but is some- what behind the rival colony in cricket, football, and racing. In sculling, New South Wales has an advantage given to her by the character of her rivers, but both colonies beat England, although the mother -country possesses streams far more suitable for wager boats than are those of the Australian continent. The traces of the convict element in New South Composi- Wales have become very slight in the national character, people. The prevailing cheerfulness, running into fickleness and frivolity, with a great deal more vivacity than exists in 3 i6 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN England, does not suggest in the least the intermixture of convict blood. It is a natural creation of the climate, and of the full and varied life led by colonists in a young country, while the absence of winter accounts for the difference between the Australians and the inhabit- ants of the American Western States. The farmers of Australia are not mere farmers. They are mostly people who, before taking to farming, have seen a good deal of the world, and are of a quickness and smartness that are incompatible with the general idea of farming life. They have a far wider horizon, and are vastly better read than the corresponding class in England. The type of the ordinary rustic population of England, farmers and labourers alike, is invisible in the colonies. The colonial farmer is a man who has had to push his way and to contrive his own devices for himself. Neither the English farmer nor the English labourer is well suited for colonial life, and the successful Australian farmer as a rule is a man who has taken to farming for the first time in the southern hemisphere. The Australian farmer has been buffeted about the world before he becomes comfortably situated upon his property ; and where he has remained for a good many years in the same place he is almost invariably a man of substance. If we may judge from the appearance and manners of the rising generation in Australia, although they will not be so well travelled as their fathers, or called upon to the same extent to display original faculties in the combat of the pioneer with nature, their class will still be distinguished for the prevalence of a cheerful and self-reliant fulness of life. These are points in which it is to be hoped that they merely mark out, as in politics, the path which their fellow-workmen in England will tread after them, although Australian climate is an chap, ii NEW SOUTH WALES 317 advantage which cannot be transferred to us at home. So far, however, from representing a population sprung from the convict element, the population of New South Wales, like the rest of the Australian population, on the whole represents the descendants of the middle and working classes of the United Kingdom. A population of an excellent type has swallowed up not only the convict element, but also the unstable and thriftless element shipped by friends in Britain to Sydney or to Melbourne. The ne'er-do-weels were either some- what above the average in brains, as was often the case with those who recovered themselves and started life afresh, or people who drank themselves to death and disappeared and left no descendants. The convicts were also of various classes ; some of them were men in whom crime was the outcome of restless energy, as, for instance, in many of those transported for treason and for manslaughter ; while some were people of average morality ruined through companions, wives, or sudden temptation, and some persons of an essentially depraved and criminal life. The better classes of convicts, in a new country, away from their old companions and old temptations, turned over a new leaf, and their abilities and their strong vitality, which in some cases had wrought their ruin in the old world, found healthful scope in subduing to man a new one. Crime in their case was an accident, and would not be transmitted to the children that they left behind them. On the other hand, the genuine criminals, and also the drunken ne'er-do-weels, left no children. Drink and vice among the "assigned servants" class of convicts, and an absence of all facilities for marriage, worked them off the face of the earth, and those who had not been killed before the gold discovery generally drank 3 i8 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part ir themselves to death upon the diggings. There are a few sons of convicts who have become leading citizens in various colonies, but very few, and in these cases generally the descendants of convicts not belonging to the criminal class. The convict element may now be absolutely neglected in a survey of Australian society. On the other hand, the colonies undoubtedly suffer from the ne'er-do-weels, not so much through their permanent effect upon the race as from the manner in which they crowd the hospitals and asylums, and in one way or another become burdens upon the State purse. Govern- There are societies in the colonies which have for Iributions object the amelioration of the position of the im- tocharities. p rov i c l e nt, but it is found that they have not steadfast- ness of purpose to continue at any one pursuit for any length of time, and that they drift steadily downwards. The New South Wales Government contribute towards such charities pound for pound. Temperance societies have been started among the thriftless drunkards, which are said to contain the champion pi edge- takers of the world. These are often highly intelligent and educated men, nearly all brought to their present position by drink, nearly all anxious to give it up, and ceasing wholly from time to time to indulge their vice, but almost uni- versally given to relapse. Few of them have children, and their bad influence is not permanent, especially as great pains are taken to properly train up such children as they have. Boarding- All the colonies have "State wards" or "State cWkireir r children," and the system of boarding-out these children has become general. A few years ago New South Wales swept away its huge barracks, called orphan- ages, and began to place the " State wards " in respectable homes in the country districts of the NEW SOUTH WALES 319 colony; and the boarding -out system is answering as well as it does at home. There is no difficulty in finding foster-parents. The colonial Governments, as a rule, allow 10s. a week for children under a year old, and reduce this gradually to about 4s. by the time the child is eleven. After the age of twelve the subsidy usually ceases, the child having become absorbed into the family and useful to the household. The children of the improvident sent out from England are so rough that when taken off the streets they have to be kept in a depot till they have learnt cleanly habits and to use decent language, it being almost impossible, as a rule, to send them straight to their country homes. A great number of colonial Acts deal with these vagrant and neglected children, the Victorian Acts being specially admirable. New South Wales has reformatories for the older children brought before the police, and the re- formatories, as established in 1849, and since improved, appear to be better than our similar institutions in being- less like gaols. There are also industrial schools, but of late, chiefly through the example set in this matter by South Australia and Victoria, there has been a general tendency throughout the colonies to deal even with the children brought before the magistrates by means of that boarding-out principle which had at first only been tried with reference to orphan children cast upon the State. It may be said generally that the tendency in all the colonies is now to adopt boarding- out for all the younger children, whether they be orphans, deserted, neglected, unmanageable, or slightly criminal. The juvenile offenders over fourteen are beginning to be dealt with upon what is known as the probationary or American system. It is left to the discretion of the 320 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n magistrates to liberate them with a warning after the first offence, but with watchfulness exercised over them, and a liability to sentence for the original offence in the case of any fresh misconduct. After sentence they go to a reformatory school, in which any signs of good conduct carry the juvenile offenders from a strict dis- cipline to that of an ordinary school. If they pass through their stages successfully, as most of them do, they are apprenticed. Little criminals under fourteen are sent into probationary schools, and are boarded out as soon as they are entirely free from any dis- position to crime or to the use of bad language. Those who are found to be utterly depraved are passed on to the reformatories. The children generally take the name of the foster-parents, and become identified with their new family. The parents of neglected children are made to pay for or towards their maintenance. Experience seems to show in Australia that the great majority of neglected or criminal children who are caught by the State before sixteen are saved, but that those who are left to pass that age are almost hopeless — the girls becoming prostitutes, and the boys thieves and bullies. The rough element among boys of sixteen to twenty, which is noticeable in Liverpool and in some parts of London, is also developed in the Australian cities. A Victorian sergeant of police, now dead, Mr. Dalton of Melbourne, gave this class its name, which is familiar throughout the colonies and is beginning to appear in England. The term "larrikin" is used both for the hobbledehoys in general and also for the specially vicious portion of them. Poor immi- It is noticeable that in Sydney as in Melbourne the average of crime and the average of juvenile crime are both below the average of the United Kingdom, in spite chap, ii NEW SOUTH WALES 321 of the fact that the colonial police are not indulgent. On the other hand, with general education, and high wages and plenty of work for those who really want work and can do it, there ought not in Australia to be much crime. But there is a large class who idle and sometimes starve — mostly, however, immigrants. Along with the stream of men of pluck and energy there comes also from the mother -country a stream of emigrants of a less desirable kind. These, in Australia as in the United States, are attracted by the overgrown cities, and remain in them. One result is that in the large cities - there is virtually a poor law, as we shall find when we examine the matter in the second volume. The Sydney Benevolent Society, besides maintaining an asylum, gives outdoor relief to about six thousand people in the year at a cost of some £5000, and it cannot be said that in Australia such operations are merely in the nature of private and personal benevolence, because charit- able institutions are, generally speaking, assisted by the State. At the same time we at home are re- sponsible for the greater portion of the destitution that exists in the colonies. Mr. Ralph Abercromby, who has well said in his meteorological work that there is not much to look at in Australia except the people, and who carefully studied them, has pointed out that the larrikins are fewer and quieter than our roughs, and that drinking habits, though common, are less prevalent in the colonies than in England. The smaller cities of New South Wales are not, on The smaller the whole, increasing in population. The country dis- standstill, tricts thrive, and the great capital thrives, but the Australian tendency is for the capitals to contain, in themselves and their suburbs, from a third to nearly a half of the inhabitants of the colony, and for the rest to 322 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN be upon the land, so that the smaller towns remain stationary or dwindle. This is a tendency which will possibly prevail more generally in the future. The orowth of the means of locomotion, and the cheapness of fares, when in a democratic state the Government has the railways in its own hands, make it easy to go to the big city, where the best and cheapest things of every description are to be found, and where amusements are plentiful; and the former difficulties about the large size of cities have been brought to an end by low freights. Formerly towns lived upon the district round them. Now they live upon the whole of the lines of railways and the lines of steam -shipping that converge in them ; and food is cheapest where the largest market is to be found. Few Australians like to live in a country town of 5000 people if they can live in the suburbs of a town of 400,000 people. For all social purposes, for amusement, for education, for all business facilities, except those immediately connected with agricultural or pastoral pursuits, the metropolis offers an immense advantage. The colonist who prefers to live in a small country town finds that he has often to go or to send to the great city, and at last comes to think that he had better go and reside there himself. The only town of real importance in New South Wales outside Sydney is Newcastle, which has about 16,000 inhabitants. Its growth and activity are due solely to the coal mines, which are inexhaustible, and supply nearly the whole of the Australian demand. The best steam coal, however, comes not from Newcastle itself, but from the southern mines, to which those of the west coast of New Zealand may ultimately prove a rival. Albury may be chosen as the Federal capital. Towns like Goulburn, Bathurst, and Deniliquin will increase, chap, ii NEW SOUTH WALES 323 because of the presence of a court-bouse, of a Govern- ment office for lands and survey, of tbe district banks, and of the chief schools : such towns are sure to grow in a small way and to gather together a number of people whose trades are connected with the land, but only in a small way, for even from these districts the people go to Sydney for clothes, books, furniture, vehicles, and machinery ; and Sydney naturally increases every year far more than all the other towns put to- gether. New South Wales has resisted all outside attempts Federation. to bring her into Australian Federation, and she is now the only colony, except the far-off New Zealand, that is outside the Federal Council. In New South Wales it is often argued that Imperial Federation is more important than Australian Federation, and that Australian Federa- tion is not a step towards, but a step away from, Imperial Federation, a matter which has been partly dealt with already under Canada, and which I shall have to consider further in the New Zealand chapter and in my second volume. The Imperial Federation League lately sent a capable envoy to Australia, who visited New South Wales in June 1889 under circumstances which I shall describe in my chapter on the future relations between the mother-country and the colonies. He came away completely puzzled as to the ]ocal view, having received the most contradictory opinions, all of them pronounced in the most positive manner, from the leading public men, and he was heard to say that he could make nothing of their attitude towards the Empire, and considered their opinions to be in a state of chaos. Sir Henry Parkes now seems anxious to close his career by proposing a Federation of his own invention ; but the difficulties in the way will be great, unless 324 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN Defence. lie throws over his party and adopts the principles of Protection. The defence of the trade of Sydney in particular, and of the colony and its wealth and liberties in general, is as well provided for as is Victorian defence, and upon a system not dissimilar. Sydney is not so thoroughly protected by nature from attack as is Melbourne, although it also stands upon a harbour which is difficult of access. Sydney, being much nearer to the open sea than Mel- bourne, might conceivably be shelled from the Botany Bay side across the neck of land ; but the colony can be trusted to give a good account of its assailants. Sir Henry Parkes has lately made a speech upon proposals put forward by General Edwards, the general command- ing at Hong Kong, who had been sent to Australia to inspect the colonial defences, and who had suggested a federation of the Australian forces, the establishment of a federal military college, and the introduction for military purposes of a uniform gauge upon the railways. Sir Henry Parkes announced his intention to create a military department, and he explained the understanding which had been come to for a subscription by the various Australian Governments towards the defence of King George's Sound and of Thursday Island — important out- lying stations of Australia. Sir Henry Parkes now asks the other colonies to set aside the existing Federal Council of Australasia in order to come into a close Federation with a common Parliament. They reply that the existing federal system will form the best stepping-stone towards such a Parliament ; so that all agree upon the principle, and differ only as to form. But common command for the army could of course be secured, if it is so greatly needed as Sir Henry Parkes asserts, without any closer connection than the Federal Council supplies. The NEW SOUTH WALES 325 prerogative of the Crown could also be made use of if the colonies wished it for the purpose of unification of military command, as the Queen is commander-in-chief of the forces in all the colonies. The Australian feeling with regard to defence is Colonial . 1 . v r feeling with that the colonies are strong enough to dispose 01 any re gardto land force likely to be disembarked by an enemy upon ^Sns. their soil, and that the fleet which is kept upon the Australian coast is there mainly to protect British interests, the greater portion of the maritime intercourse of the colonies with other countries being carried on in British ships, and British property, to the extent of many millions, being always afloat upon the colonial waters. The colonists point out that our fleet is even less strongly represented in Australia than upon the China coast, and that it is obviously present in force upon the China coast for the protection of our own shipping. At the same time, they, as a rule — with the exception of a strong- minority in New South Wales, and a majority in Queens- land — think that Australia benefits by the recent arrangement as to the Australian squadron, although in their belief it was primarily intended to suit British interests. But they point out that Australia does not expect to be embroiled with any great power on its own account, and that any risk of war is a risk due to Australian connection with England, and a risk against which, therefore, Australia has a claim for British assist- ance. On the other hand, the dominant opinion, except in Queensland, appears to be that Australia, in the event of a popular war, might add considerably to the strength of the old country. For example, it is probable that, in the event of an imminent risk of the loss of India, there would be a disposition in some of the Australian colonies to place in India, as a contribution towards Indian defence, 326 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN an army which, although raw, would be converted by a short term of actual service into a most efficient although a costly force. The colonists believe that the Australian soldier combines the fire, animation, and cheerful activity of the Frenchman with the solid determination of the British private. There are two things, however, to be borne in mind in considering this prospect of Australian assistance. In the first place, the Australian contingent would cost us more money, if we paid it, than would an equal force of British troops, and, in the second place, if we were entering upon a popular war, but one which drew largely upon our resources, and wanted Australian help, we should need to ask for it with more politeness than we generally show in our national acts. In such an event it is still probable that the colonies would feel something of the pride of a boy who is asked by his father for the first time to help him in some manly adventure, and that there would be much enthusiasm found in the response ; but the change of feeling in New South Wales in the last few years, and the growth of separatist opinion in Queensland, forbid us to be too confident. The Australian Natives' Association, which in Victoria is loyal to the British connection, is less friendly in New South Wales ; and in Queensland the " native " feeling is " national," and "national" has begun to mean "inde- pendent." A debate, to which I shall have to allude when I come to write of the future relations between Great Britain and her colonies, took place upon this subject in the New South Wales Assembly in August 1889, when Mr. Dibbs, speaking as leader of the Opposi- tion, in seconding a motion by the Prime Minister, declared in favour of the erection of the British States of Australia into an independent State. Sir Henry Parkes, while professing his adherence to the principle chap, ii NEW SOUTH WALES 327 of " Australia for the Australians," and declaring against separation, and also against Imperial Federation as com- monly understood, expressed a strong opinion in favour of alliance with the mother -country upon an equal base, and thought that the North American, the Aus- tralian, and the South African colonies might group themselves in alliance with the United Kingdom on such a base, without raising any of the insuperable difficulties which he found in all Imperial Federation schemes. Although from a defence point of view the situation conclusion. of Sydney is inferior to that of Melbourne, the former capital is better placed as regards trade — especially if America be one day pierced by a canal — and far superior in natural charm. There are few scenes more lovely in the quieter styles of beauty than that which presents itself from the Botanic Gardens, or iudeed in any of the creeks of Port Jackson. In the sheltered coves of Sydney harbour, and in the fern gullies of the Eange, nature would seem to have made herself attractive that she might lure settlers towards the yellow sun-dried plains of the interior, swept by hot winds in the long summer. There is less feverish activity in Sydney than in Melbourne, and as much enjoyment of life. The people are pleasure - loving, bright and quick, and full of promise of a literary and artistic future. Throughout the colony generally there is the same absence of misery, the same kindliness of disposition between man and man, which form the foundations of that cheerful- ness of life which in the Victorian chapter I have noted as characteristic of Australia. In these respects our South -Sea colonies resemble the better parts of the United States — those in which severity of climate has not marred, nor imported horrors vitiated by the 328 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n infusion of the worst European customs, the frank and natural life of the American people. In the comparative absence of class hatreds, and of the feuds of settled opinion, the Australian colonies also resemble the United States in points in which America is strong. CHAPTER III QUEENSLAND After Victoria and New South Wales, New Zealand is size of as yet the most important of our South Sea colonies, i an d. except in area ; but if we consider the other Australian colonies proper, Queensland first claims our notice. Inferior to South Australia and to Western Australia in size, because these colonies, stretching across the con- tinent, contain, at all events for the present, the greater part of the most northerly districts of Australia, Queens- land is nevertheless so vast that proposals for its division into two colonies have been already made and seriously considered by the Government at home. Queensland is equal in its geographical extent to Progress of Germany, France, and Austria -Hungary united, and is increasing far more rapidly in population than the other colonies. If we except the more advanced colonies of New South Wales and Victoria, the increase of Queensland is the most rapid absolutely of that of all our colonies in the South Seas, and the Queensland increase is altogether the most rapid when considered in proportion to the existing population of each colony. Queensland is progressing fast in spite of labour diffi- culties, in spite of cotton failures, in spite of sugar depression, in spite of the invasion of rabbits from New South Wales against which she is fencing herself in, in spite of drought and of her lurid sun ; and the vol. i z 33o PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n . colony, although mainly tropical, has proved itself to be a healthy home for people of our race. The energy which some think is wanting upon the coast of New South Wales is certainly found in the still warmer Queensland, and that colony already possesses a larger number of miles of railway open to traffic in proportion to popula- tion than any other State in the whole world, except Western Australia. scenery "While the colonies of Victoria and New South climate. Wales, on which we have already dwelt, are marked by a certain uniformity, if not a monotony, of scenery — scenery beautiful where there is water and the gum- trees grow large, with backgrounds of lake and broken hill, and scenery in the dry interior ugly from the flat- ness of the plains and smallness of the trees, but always gum-tree scenery — in the rapidly-advancing colonies to which we have now to turn there is more diversity of appearance. New Zealand is as different in aspect from the Australian colonies as the Maories are different from the Australian aborigines ; but even in Australia there are diversities, for, while the greater part of South Australia is similar to the greater part of Victoria and of New South Whales, Queensland, the whole of the north coast, and Western Australia have a vegetation of a different kind. To the far south of Australia the Tasmanian island resembles Gippsland, from which it would seem to have been broken off. There are the same mountains, the same ravines, the same gum-trees and tree ferns. But in the north, while the southern portion of Queensland is indistinguishable from the northern part of New South Wales, the coast as we run through the tropics and up towards the equator becomes more like that of New Guinea than of what is usually called Australia. Queensland lies largely in the tropics QUEENSLAND 331 and has a tropical vegetation, but it is not so hot a country upon its coast as it would be if it were situate elsewhere than on the Australian continent ; and its tropical swamps, although they look like those of the Malay Archipelago, are healthy. In the cattle stations of the interior of the far north the English immigrants are able to remain the whole day in the saddle, even in the height of summer, and in the long January heats to sit " Galloping the livelong day under a Queensland sun, To head the bullocks gone astray, or stolen off the run." Boat races are rowed at Rockhampton even in the hottest weather, and lawn-tennis and cricket are carried on throughout the colony even in the summer time. Brisbane, the capital, has not only not attained to Brisbane. the position of a Sydney or a Melbourne, but can never do so. It lies, like Adelaide, out of the reach of the largest ships ; and, although it is the port of a large settled district, and still more of a considerable sheep country, the immense length of the Queensland coast, and the fact that metals have been discovered in the north, altogether out of reach of Brisbane, have caused other ports to almost begin to dispute its supremacy. Instead, as in Victoria and New South Wales, of all the lines of railway converging at the capital, in the case of Queensland a number of short lines have been brought, or are being brought, down to the coast at other points, as is the case in Natal and the eastern province of Cape Colony. Brisbane is essentially the harbour of Darling Downs, a magnificent plateau of temperate climate, and although at Brisbane settlers grow the sugar-cane, close behind it there is a country which will bear the produce of England. While Victoria is perhaps the most interesting of the 332 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n separatist colonies from an agreeable point of view, inasmuch as it feeling. ^ given to trying experiments for the mother-country, Queensland is an interesting country from a more melan- choly point of view, inasmuch as there, we have been often told of late, is to be seen the little cloud which is ultimately to cover the whole sky of our colonial empire. Queensland by its rejection of the Naval Defence Bill, by its action with regard to the colonial gover- norship question, and by the fact that the Government in power claims to be "national" and to pay scant regard to ideas of English importation, is supposed to be, of all our colonies, the separatist colony ; and it is neces- sary for us carefully to examine the facts upon which this view is based. If it is possible to induce home politicians to turn for one moment from the discussion of the Irish question to matters which regard the Empire gener- ally, they will perhaps see that the dispute as to the particular form which local elective institutions in Ireland shall assume (for no one believes that it will be possible permanently to avoid the gift of local elective institutions to Ireland) is less important than the dis- cussion which the very mention of Queensland raises as to future relations between England and the Australian colonies, or indeed the colonies at large. The enthusi- astic support of the imperial idea which was strong throughout Australia four years ago is out of fashion there at the present time; and the speeches of Lord Eosebery and the other advocates of Imperial Federa- tion, which but a short time back found their loudest echo in Australia, awaken now a good many expressions of hostility in the press, and receive there but little practical support. English opinion takes small heed of these changes, and when Lord Knutsford nominated QUEENSLAND 333 Sir Henry Blake as Governor of Queensland it was universally assumed in England that the Queenslanders were foolish and wrong-headed in their resistance, although, as a fact, parties in that country were agreed, and were supported in their view by an almost unani- mous legislature in the mother- colony, and by the domi- nant sentiment in all the other colonies except Victoria, and supported even in Victoria privately, as is now seen, by some of those who had their own reasons for express- ing publicly, on that particular occasion, a different opinion. It is sometimes said that Queensland is a colony in The wsh which Irish influence is very strong, and this is given as i au d. a reason for political trouble which has been met with there. It is not, however, the case that Queensland has proportionally of all the colonies the largest Irish- born population ; but at the same time she has a large Irish population in one sense of the word — the " Irish Roman Catholic " population, not Irish-born but colonial- born. Queensland has, too, a much smaller Scotch population than have several of the other colonies. The Roman Catholic population is large in Queensland, beine about two-thirds as larsje as the nominal Church of England population ; but in Newfoundland, from which Sir Henry Blake had come, the Roman Catholic popula- tion is larger than the Church of England population, and the proportion in Queensland is, after all, only about the same as in Victoria and New South Wales. There are about 40,000 Irish-born persons in the colony, and fewer than 20,000 Scotch-born. We may conclude from an examination of her population that Queensland is inhabited very largely by native-born Australians from . the other colonies. The Irish are more numerous than the Scotch and English, in proportion to their numbers 334 PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part ii in the United Kingdom, and more numerous than the Scotch according to the proportion in the other Austra- lian colonies. There are some German settlers, who indeed are nearly as numerous as the Scotch inhabitants, and who form a thrifty working element, as in South Australia and other colonies. History There is then nothing very special in the composi- cLSi of tion of the Queensland population to account for any entS'i peculiar development of independent and still less of hostile feeling, and it is evident that we must look else- where for the causes of those singular features which have recently been conspicuous. Up to a period still gir g not long ago Sir Samuel Griffith, the present leader of Griffith, thg Queensland Opposition, had been in office, and he had remained in office for a considerable time. He is a barrister, and although in Queensland, as in many of the colonies, the legal professions are amalgamated, practically barristers do not do solicitor's work, so he may be looked upon as being a barrister in our sense of the word. Sir Samuel Griffith, who was a Welsh boy, from Merthyr, trained at Sydney University, was not popular although he was long in power. His enemies declared that men were drawn to him rather by com- munity of interest than by enthusiasm. All were chary of offending him, for Sir Samuel Griffith possesses a power of satire which is used somewhat unsparingly on occasion. He was looked upon as a strong man whose concentration on self was one of the chief elements of his success. In his speeches he was found analytical, conventional in his respect of all the respectabilities, a good administrator, and an untiring worker, ms policy. Sir Samuel Griffith was the leader of the Liberal party, and its policy was declared by him to be that of " Australia for the white man," the land for the people chap, in QUEENSLAND 335 and not for the monopolist, and the improvement of the condition of the wage-earners of the colony. During his tenure of office in the four years which preceded 1888, Acts were passed in Queensland checking the wholesale alienation of land, reorganising; local government, estab- listing an effective defence force, and removing from the colony the blame of carelessness in connection with the " coloured labour " traffic, but also involving the total cessation of the traffic at the end of 1890. As regarded defence, the recommendations of Sir Peter Scratchley as to Queensland were, generally speaking, carried out by the Queensland Government ; but Brisbane is not difficult to defend. It lies up a shallow river, and a few gunboats and submarine mines make it safe. The defence of the capital was, in fact, thoroughly provided for, but, of course, in so immense a country it would be impossible to prevent by local defence descents upon some portions of the coast. The " labour traffic " legislation was supposed by the planter interest to be hypocritical, because, though there undoubtedly had at one time been abuses which it was necessary to suppress, the " Labour party " under Sir Samuel Griffith made use of that fact in order to take steps which were intended to put down what Merivale has called " quasi-servile " labour in the interest of the employment of white men only. The Liberal party, led by Sir Samuel Griffith, was in Queensland, as elsewhere in the colonies, anti-Catholic on the education question. In the meantime there sprang up a grievance against Grievances the mother -country, which caused a certain growth of mother- separatist feeling. Lord Derby was supposed to have country - been too slow in preventing an increase in the transporta- tion of criminals to the neighbourhood of Queensland by the French Government. The home Government 336 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n were supposed also not to be sufficiently earnest upon the Chinese question ; and the loss of a quarter of New Guinea put the finishing touch to Queensland exaspera- tion. The colony had hoisted the British flag in New Guinea, and proclaimed the annexation to Queensland of the non- Dutch half of that island, but had been promptly disavowed from home. There was also an agitation in the northern or tropical territory for separation from the southern or main portion of the country, which was another disturbing cause in Queens- land politics, and which led to a great deal of opposition to Sir Samuel Griffith and to all the measures that he proposed during his administration. Defeat of Sir Thomas M c Ilwraith, who had been hurled from Griffith™ 6 power by Sir Samuel Griffith, and who was the leader of the Conservative party in the colony, began to see his opportunity. Sir Samuel Griffith came to London to the Colonial Conference, and committed Queensland strongly, by his speeches and action in the Conference, to the policy agreed upon with the Admiralty. When he went back the Naval Defence Bill was rejected. It was submitted to the country at a general election, and popular feeling decided against it. Sir Thomas M c Ilwraith had seized his moment. Mere Conservatism had become unpopular, and it was necessary for the party to choose both a new policy and a new name. The name of "National" was cleverly sub- stituted for the name " Conservative." I have already said that Sir Samuel Griffith and the Liberal party were anti- Catholic on the education system, and the alliance of the Roman Catholic and Conservative parties was in Queensland nothing new. The old alliance was only cemented by the new name, and Sir Thomas M c Ilwraith received also the support of the liquor party CHAP. Ill QUEENSLAND 337 and of the party who desire to separate the northern portion of the colony from the south. Sir Thomas M c Ilwraith opposed the Naval Defence Bill upon the "national" ground that it was "a naval tribute" to another country, and that the Australian colonies should man and maintain their own fleets for their own defence. On this policy he not only united his own Conservative friends, the Irish, the northerners, and the liquor men, but gained over a few Liberals to whom fresh taxation for defence purposes was intolerable. The Government of Sir Thomas M c Ilwraith resigned Nomina- in September 1888 in consequence of a dispute with the sir Henry Governor, and resigned with a view of strengthening Blake - the hands of their own party, which was the result. The Governor was a close friend of Sir Samuel Griffith, the late Prime Minister. The action of the Governor against the M c Ilwraith Ministry was represented in the colony as an imperial interposition in Sir Samuel Griffith's interest on account of his attitude at the London Conference, and afterwards in the colony itself with regard to the colonial contribution towards the imperial navy, which had led to his defeat, although as a fact Sir Samuel Griffith had used on the eve of the elections half-hearted language in defence of his own scheme. In one of his speeches Sir Samuel Griffith had protested his vehement opposition to any- thing in the shape of tribute to the Imperial Govern- ment, saying that he was Australian and independent to the backbone, and one who disclaimed anything like imperialistic notions. The Queensland Governor was a Governor of Crown Colony training, who was in the wrong in fighting his ministers when he did, and who naturally was beaten by them. This fact suggested to the Queensland Ministry the desire to 338 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n have a Governor of another type, and hence it was that they made the request for a voice in the appoint- ment of the next Governor, without much expecting it to be granted, and without any strong interest or feeling in the matter. The mistaken action of the Colonial Office in nominating, at such a moment, Sir Henry Blake, able and accomplished as that Governor is, roused the tepid feeling into a fierce heat. A large contingent of the voters of the "national" party in power were the Roman Catholic Irish Home Rulers, and they naturally at once made the nomination of Sir Henry Blake a casus belli, and awoke the anti-British feeling. It must be remembered that in the colonies the Roman Catholic party is, as a rule, the best organised of parties, and the only one which has the advantage of possessing a never -changing policy — the defence of Roman Catholic interests by securing support from the public treasury for the education of Roman Catholic children in Roman Catholic schools under the general direction of priests. The Irish party is the kernel of the Australian "national" party both in New South Wales and Queensland, and it is merely from local causes that this joint Irish and "national" feeling happened first to show itself in Queensland. It is somewhat curious that Protestant opposition in New- foundland, to the appointment of Sir Ambrose Shea as Governor of that colony, gave Bahamas an excellent Governor in the person of that Newfoundland statesman — Sir Henry Blake being called upon at short notice to exchange with him ; just as afterwards Roman Catholic feeling in Queensland prevented the transfer of Sir Henry Blake from Newfoundland to Queensland, and gave Jamaica an equally good Governor in Sir Henry Blake. QUEENSLAND 339 The present Victorian view of Governors used to be Consuita- the general colonial view, namely, that so long as the cSonfes as Governor is strictly confined to his constitutional ^ors'" functions, it does not much matter who he is. There ought, however, to be no difference of opinion with regard to the propriety of ascertaining in advance, whether informally or otherwise, the suitability to the circumstances of a particular colony of a gentleman suggested as Governor. There is no more reason why men like Sir Charles Tupper, Sir Charles Mills, Sir Saul Samuel, Sir Francis Dillon Bell, Mr. Archer, Mr. Braddon, and the other Agents - General should not make confidential inquiries upon such delicate points than exists in the case of ambassadors, who have to make such inquiries with regard to their proposed successors. The larger claim made by Queensland originated, as I have shown, partly in the policy of the new national party, and partly from the contest which had just occurred between the " national " Government and the late Governor. The base of the " national " movement is to be found The in the Australian Natives' Association. In Victoria that NativesTs- association had for some time existed, but there had sociation - been some difficulty in forming branches in other portions of Australia. In New South Wales it was a condition of membership that members should have been born in Australia, or been resident in the colonies from the age of five years and have identified themselves with Australian interests. As regards Victoria, I recently saw a report of the meeting of one of the branches of the Australian Natives' Association " to consider a charge made ... to the effect that . . . the president of the branch was not a native of Victoria." The committee took evidence on each side, and it was shown that the 54o PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN president had on a former occasion signed a certificate that he was born in Ireland ; but, on the other hand, he now produced evidence to show that he was born in Sandhurst. The committee unanimously found that their president was born in Victoria, and the serious charge against him was thus happily dispelled. At the same time a writer in The Colonies and India has since stated that he knew the gentleman, and certainly had never met with so rich a brogue in any other native- born Australian. The One of the main supporters of Australian nationalist ^ ion f t " principles is the Sydney Daily Telegraph, a journal conducted with great ability, and favourable to free trade. Its line of argument is that it is ridiculous to declare o that to stand up against encroachments from home is anti-English ; that, on the contrary, the whole course of English history reveals the same spirit of resistance, to even British imperialism, as animates the native-born population of Australia. There is nothing English, it argues, in unthinking submission to distant rule ; the Englishmen of America, in preferring the hazards of a cruel war rather than submit to the yoke of imperialism, represented the traditions of English freedom better than did England at that time, and, in winning their battle, won it for England as well as for themselves. This journal asserts that if the claims of imperialism are resisted in Australia it is because Australians are too truly English to submit to them, and that it is not to be desired that Englishmen in Australia should be con- tented with a measure of self-government which English- men in England would scorn to accept. The discussion of the question is urged in order that " the more friendly and easy may be the separation when it comes." The Telegraph described Mr. Stanhope's invitation to the QUEENSLAND 341 colonies to attend the Conference as " sinister and most ill-omened"; it has since described the Queensland elections as the answer of the people, and promises the answers of the other colonies in due time. The Conservative party would hardly have followed Sir Thomas M c Ilwraith in this " national " movement, in which they can scarcely have agreed, but for their dislike of Sir Samuel Griffith. The Sydney Bulletin, which possesses, as we have seen, a forcible style of its own, has described the present view of Sir Thomas M C I1 wraith as being that the British Cabinet and the Colonial Office are a pack of old women, and the mother-country " a composite grandmotherly old wreck . . . tottering with a handbag and a cotton umbrella towards an open grave." It is somewhat curious that in 1888 there appeared to be a certain approximation towards a coali- tion between Sir Thomas MTlwraith and Sir Samuel Griffith. Sir Samuel was reappointed a member of the Australasian Federal Council through Sir Thomas M c Ilwraith, and he also acted in concert with Sir Thomas M C I1 wraith in the protests with regard to the Governor question. Queensland has maintained strict party government ever since 1880, but the colonial tendency towards coalition seems to exist even in this colony. In the early part of 1889 Sir Thomas M c Ilwraith took a trip to Japan for the benefit of his health. Mr. Morehead acted in his stead, and Sir Samuel Griffith, who is strong in criticism, destroyed a good deal of the Government prestige. He riddled several Government bills, and was quietly but caustically effective in comments upon the alternately temporising and over-demonstrative policy which the Ministry had to follow to keep its Irish supporters and its northern separatist supporters under control. The tide turned against the Government and 342 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN tart n in favour of Sir Samuel Griffith and the Liberal Opposi- tion, and it began to be felt that the future of the Government depended upon Sir Thomas M c Ilwraith's help —for he is an excellent party leader, admirable at keep- ing his men together. Sir Thomas returned and once more joined the Government, but not as leader, and after a time resigned, and is now in bad health. sir Samuel Sir Samuel Griffith is the ablest lawyer in Queens- Griffith, lam^ anc [ i s f or that reason perhaps less successful as a statesman in office. He is, as his foes declare, cold of temperament — an argumentative rather than a taking- speaker. He is a man of education and of unblemished character, but he lacks sentiment, and is a little inclined to be overbearing. He lost when in power some of his ablest colleagues, who would not submit to his rule, and in his last appeal to the electors was at a dis- advantage not only through the weakness of his leading- supporters, but through the lukewarmness of his friends, as contrasted with the bitterness of his enemies — the planters, the publicans, and the Roman Catholics, all of whom he had hit hard during his term of office. sir Thomas On the first formation of the Ministry of the M C I1- . . J wraiths National party by Sir Thomas M c Ilwraith, his chief and'su/ lieutenants were Mr. Macrossan, the leader of the Irish Roman Catholic party, and Mr. Hume Black, at that time one of the chief men of the northern party. Mr. Macrossan was one of the delegates from Queensland to the Federal Council in 1889 ; the only Roman Catholic, and the only opponent of the Naval Defence Bill, on the Federal Council. Although he was a Minister, and his co-delegate, Sir Samuel Griffith, leader of the Opposition, the latter seemed at Hobart to take the position of the representative of Queensland ; but he had been President of the Federal Council, when Prime Minister cessor. QUEENSLAND 343 of Queensland in January 1888, which gives him great standing on that body. Mr. Macrossan is one of the shrewdest men in the colony, a subtle reasoner, a quiet incisive speaker, and for some time the leader of the northern separation party. Mr. Morehead, who used to lead the Opposition during the time when Sir Thomas M c Ilwraith was in retirement, and who led the Government all through 1889, is the representative of the hotel-keepers as well as of the old Conservative interest, and does not make a strong First Minister, or one likely long to keep out Sir Samuel Griffith. Mr. Maurice Hume Black is a good speaker, a man of sound common sense with an abundance of dry humour. Sir Thomas MTlwraith himself is a man of very sir Thomas different temperament from Sir Samuel Griffith. He and otiSr has large ideas in politics and in business, has made j^r* 1 and fortunes and lost them in bold sacculations, and he was defeated by Sir Samuel Griffith in 1882 principally on account of large business transactions in which his Government engaged, and among which was a consider- able purchase in England of steel rails in which the M c Ilwraith firm were said to be interested. There was also a proposed agreement with a wealthy English syndicate for the construction of railways on the objec- tionable American land-grant principle, and this also did harm to the party. Sir Thomas M c Ilwraith has a good humour and a frankness which have always kept about him troops of friends. His largeness of view and his courage in action were exemplified by his hoisting the British flag in New Guinea when German annexation was expected. During the time of Sir Thomas M c Ilwraith's withdrawal, which was supposed to be a complete retirement from public life, though he afterwards came back to office for a few months, Mr. Morehead, as 344 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN his successor, showed much audacity and energy, while he improved in the matters of tact and self-restraint. Although he was sobered for a time by responsibility, in spite of his fluency of speech and vigour he proved far inferior to Sir Thomas M c Ilwraith, or to Sir Samuel Griffith, and the solid ability of the latter so matured as to make him a considerable political power among the statesmen of Australia. Sir Samuel Griffith, in spite of his own words at one moment, may be claimed by the imperial federationists, and Sir Thomas M C I1- wraith and Mr. Morehead counted as against their views. While Imperial Federation is looked upon in England as a peculiarly Conservative doctrine, the Con- servatives in the colonies are very generally opposed to it, and the Radicals often its supporters. The prevailing sentiment in Queensland is certainly that Australian federation is workable, but implies ultimate separation from the mother-country. Both are looked upon as inevit- able in a more or less distant future. Imperial Federation is regarded as impossible, and there is a general hopeless- ness as to the possibility of maintaining the existing relations with the mother-country, or of establishing closer or better relations for the future, except in the form of an alliance such as that between Germany and Austria. Sir Thomas MTlwraith and Mr. Morehead are, I believe, both of Scotch extraction, while, as has been said, Sir Samuel Griffith is a Welshman, and Mr. Macros- san Irish. It is a curious fact that almost all Australian statesmen are men of unusual height and size. The only well-known men in Australasian politics who are small and slight are Sir Julius Vogel, Mr. Higinbotham, and Mr. Macrossan. Mr. Gillies, though short, is very broad and strong ;' while Sir Thomas MTlwraith, Sir Henry chap, in QUEENSLAND 345 Parkes, Mr. Dibbs, the South Australian statesmen, and almost all the others, are men of considerably more than average stature. The main real difference between the Liberal and Differences n • • • r\ -i-it-111 between Conservative parties in Queensland lies in the land the two question, on which alone the Conservative or National par1 party is Conservative. As a fact the two Queensland statesmen hold much the same views upon almost all questions of public concern. Both are protectionists, the distinction between them being merely a matter of degree. Sir Samuel Griffith is, comparatively speaking, a recent convert to protectionist views, while Sir Thomas M c Ilwraith declares that he has been a protectionist all his life. On the Chinese question they are in complete agree- ment. Ten years ago Sir Samuel Griffith thought that sugar plantations could be cultivated only by coolie labour, but he has long since wholly changed his views, and the restrictions placed by him on the South Sea labour traffic, and his general war against the planters on the question of coloured labour, have gained for him the hatred of the whole of the planter class. It is curious that Sir Thomas M c Il\vraith, although he has taken of late the same line with regard to coolie labour, is never- theless regarded, because he is a Conservative on the land question generally, as in sympathy with the planters. Sir Thomas is himself a large landowner, and possesses, I believe, an interest both in " squattages " and in plantations. Sir Samuel Griffith is strongly in favour of a land-tax, and Sir Thomas MTlwraith opposes it with all his miffht. While Sir Samuel Griffith was in office a proposal was seriously made to adopt Mr. Henry George's scheme of land nationalisation, and though it was never carried into effect, Sir Samuel Griffith has leanings in that direction, and would, I think, be inclined vol. 1 2 a Blake. 346 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN tart 11 to abolish freehold tenure altogether if Queensland public opinion were not opposed to such a step. His position upon the land question is similar, as we shall find, to that of Sir Robert Stout in New Zealand ; Sir Thomas M c Ilwraith, on the other hand, believing that land is turned to better account by a proprietor than by lessees. The Minister for Lands in the last Queensland Ministry before the present was an ardent land nationaliser, and that principle seems to have more life left in it in Queensland than in the other colonies. The con- I have now explained the reasons for the conflict the ap- ° between Sir Thomas MTlwraith and the Colonial Office of°sir Uent on the subject of the appointment of Sir Henry Blake tt eni r at the end of 1888. Some cynics have asserted that Sir Thomas M C I1 wraith would never have taken the view he did had he not been distanced as an imperialist by his rival Sir Samuel Griffith, who had the credit of having proposed at the Colonial Conference the scheme which was adopted. At all events, Sir Thomas upset Sir Samuel's Bill, made Queensland stand out as the only Australian colony which declined to ratify the agree- ment with the British Government, formed a so-called Australian National party, and having been the idol of the imperialists at the time when he annexed New Guinea, became a bye- word with them for objecting to the unpopular appointment of the new Governor. Still when we consider that Sir Thomas M c Ilwraith had not been on the most cordial terms with the previous Governor, which made the appointment of the new one the more delicate, and that he had just won the whole Irish Roman Catholic vote, it seems odd that the Colonial Office should, at such a moment, and in face of such a Prime Minister and such a party, have sent to such a colony a gentleman who was distasteful to Irish nation- QUEENSLAND 347 alist feeling. Although the action of the Secretary of State was approved by Victoria, for the local and special reasons which I have given, it was, as I have said, almost universally condemned throughout the other colonies. Sir Thomas M c Ilwraith is a shrewd Scotchman, who knows thoroughly well what he is about, and who had Queensland behind him in his fight with the Colonial Office. It should be remembered that there are strong imperialists in the colonies who have proposed that the colonies should be given a voice in the selection of their Governors, and they argue, with some force, that to do this. would strengthen the connection between the colonies and England. It has been suggested by that able Victorian writer, Mr. Patchett Martin, who is a strong imperialist, that a colony should submit three names, selected by the two Houses of its legislature meeting in conclave : and there can be no doubt that in the case of some colonies most excellent choice would be made by such a plan. Mr. Patchett Martin declared that if Victoria had been called upon to choose in 1889 she would have named Mr. Higinbotham, Lord Car- narvon, and Sir Henry Loch ; and those who know Victoria will agree that this would have been a probable choice. A difficulty is that there would be moments when colonies would take the bit between their teeth, and send in three names which would be all equally objectionable to the Government at home. Moreover, candidates would be constantly canvassing the legislature. Still, to admit that a formal colonial selection of Governors would be difficult is not to adopt the view that the colonies should in no way be consulted. If Australia should confederate upon the Canadian plan, the Cabinet of the British States of Australia will name the Governors of Provinces — Victoria, 343 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n Queensland, and the rest — and will receive from home a Governor-General only. SirT.M«n- The programme of the National party, created by Sir wraith's Thomas M C I1 wraith, appears to be mainly the cultivation gramme. Q £ an Australian national spirit, the federation of Australia with provision for national defence, the adoption of the principle that laws passed by the future Australian legislature, or present Australian legislatures, should not require the imperial sanction, the Protection of Australian industries, the exclusion from Australia of " the servile races," and preservation of the entire continent as a home for white men, and the exclusion from the islands of the West Pacific of all foreign convicts. The power With regard to the non-requirement of sanction for colonial laws passed by the Australian legislatures, it is no doubt law& most undesirable that Acts should be vetoed because of a mere dislike to their provisions on the part of the Government at home. There is no longer a chance of harmony in legislation between the various parts of the Empire, and that Acts should be vetoed because opposed to the general principles prevailing in the greater portion of the Empire would be now unreasonable. If, however, the Empire is to be kept together at all, and if we are not to be forced by threats of war to repudiate all responsi- bility for portions of it, it is clear that there must be the power of veto to prevent colonial laws from over- riding treaties. Subject to treaty obligations, the exclusion from Queensland of the servile races, to which they would seem to be as necessary as they are to the northern portions of South Australia and Western Australia, is a question for Queensland herself; and as regards the exclusion of foreign convicts from the West Pacific, I am myself in warm sympathy with QUEENSLAND 349 the feeling of the Australians, and have often fought their battle. Some of the members elected as followers of Separatist Sir Thomas M°Ilwraith sound notes of real defiance to the mother- country. One of his supporters has declared " that the Chinese question will never be settled as long as we are part of the British Empire ; " and the same gentleman spoke of the Naval Defence Bill " stifling " the Australian nation. Other supporters of government spoke of the necessity for the Australian fleet being wholly independent, and of Australia making ready for her "manifest destiny." No one who knows the opinion of New South Wales and Queensland of the present day, which is very different from the opinion of New South Wales and Queensland of even three years ago, can doubt that, while the relations between Australia and Great Britain may possibly continue as they are, it would be dangerous to try to tighten them. People are apt to believe too implicitly what they hear from able colonists who have been away for several years from their colonies, or what they hear from colonial governors, especially when it happens to be that which they wish to believe, and to neglect the teachings of the most recent elections and of the press. Let them read the speeches in August 1889 of the Prime Minister and of the leader of the Opposition in New South Wales. The enthusiasm with which the name " National " imperial, was adopted in lieu of the name " Conservative " by sidered out the more powerful party in Queensland was explained cae ' by that influential journal the Brisbane Courier as meaning that, throughout Australia, the spirit of nationality is stirring in the people, who have grasped the idea of an Australian national life. The Brisbane 55 o PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN Courier prophesies the speedy formation of an irresistible public opinion to demand a readjustment of the relations between Australia and the mother-country, by which Australia shall no longer be a dependency to be involved in distant foreign wars for interests in which she has no concern. " Our first duty is to be loyal to our own country, which gives us breath, sustenance, and sheltering homes." The feeling which was so strongly shown in the last Queensland elections has been by no means confined to that colony ; and the Chinese difficulty has greatly intensified the sentiment in the same direction existing in New South Wales. When Mr. Service made a speech in Victoria in opposition to these national views, and denied that separation from the mother -country is the manifest destiny of Australia, the Sydney Daily Telegraph, a paper, as I have said, of large circulation and influence, declared that his speech emphatically stamped him as an Austra- lian statesman of the past, not of the future, permeated with the imperialism of the vanishing generation and wanting in sympathy for the aspirations which have taken possession of young Australia. The Sydney Daily Telegraph thinks that England may be forced, by Russian advance on India, one day to fight, " but once we were separated, Australia and Russia could have no possible cause of quarrel, and when we consider the relation of that Empire to China, Russia might prove our best friend, as we know that she has been a good friend to our kinsmen in America for more than half a century." There can be no doubt that, outside Queens- land, and possibly in Queensland itself, the majority of the people are for the present content with the existing relationship between England and her colonies ; but an increasing number look forward to complete federa- chap, in QUEENSLAND 35 I tion anions the Australian colonies and ultimate in- o dependence. Under the auspices of the present Ministry Queens- Movement .,, ... towards land will probably become gradually more protectionist. Protection. Some mildly free-trade newspapers are supporting the present Queensland Government, but the same thing- happens also in South Australia, and pretty generally in the colonies, and shows to what an extent Protection has become a principle so generally accepted by politicians that a difference with regard to it does not interfere with outside support. Mr. Morehead, although a stock and station agent and a squatters' representative in the House, leans towards Protection. Mr. Donaldson, the Minister for Education and Postmaster-General, although himself a squatter and a cattle breeder, is a protectionist ; and it is not the genial Mr. Macrossan, who is Minister for Mines and Public Works, nor Mr. Black, the northern planters' friend, now Minister for Lands, who will stand in the way of increased Protection. There does not appear to be a real free -trade party in Queensland. Under the present fiscal policy of Queensland . customs duties are levied chiefly for revenue purposes, but there is an indirect Protection which is popular, and the feeling in favour of fostering native industries is a growing one. I fancy that Sir Thomas MTlwraith will probably support Mr. Deakin's policy of intercolonial free trade combined with Protection against the world ; and Sir Samuel Griffith, to judge by his constant attitude as one of the Queensland representatives at the Federal Council, seems unlikely to countenance any other course. It will be seen from what I have said above that Sir r-roposed _. . divisions of Thomas MTlwraith had, in the creation of the dominant territory. party, the support of two separatist parties : those who would virtually separate from England, and those in the 352 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n north who would separate from southern Queensland. In coming into power, the northern people have in some degree dropped their movement, and somewhat less has been heard for the last few months of the separation of the northern territory. There can be no doubt, however, it seems to me, that sooner or later a separation of northern Queensland from Queensland, as well as of the Northern Territory from South Australia, and of north-west Australia from Western Australia, must take place. These three divisions of colonies may strengthen the movement towards federation ; or, on the other hand, federation itself may cause them, for the constitution will give the federal Government power to create new Provinces. A real federation of the Austra- lian colonies, could it be brought about, would reduce friction between the mother- country and Australia, because we should have to deal with an Australian Federal Council only instead of with a number of sepa- rate governments. Many difficulties would be settled before they came to discussion with the mother-country, while others would be presented in a more simple form. On the other hand, Australian federation can hardly be brought about, looking to the jealousies of the various colonies, except on the base of intercolonial free trade and Protection against the world, including the mother- country. Here again we find ourselves face to face with the same difficulty which met us in the case of Canada, namely, that we retain our empire by facilitating the imposition of increased taxes on our goods. ?nd 6e the and When Queensland came into the present imperfect Federal federation she inserted a clause in her " Adopting Act " Council. . , under which she at once referred a number of matters to the Federal Council, with the intent that as soon as the legislature of one other colony should have referred the QUEENSLAND 353 same matters to the Council, the Council should be able to exercise legislative authority in respect of them. One of the chief of these was the question of the trial and punishment in one colony of offenders against the laws of an adjoining colony, and this had to do with the cattle stealing which disgraces the borderland of Queens- land and New South Wales. There is a difficulty at the present moment about dealing with such cases, as the police in one colony cannot act within another colony, and the power of the Federal Council was invoked to meet the case. The present Federation, even as the adoption of the South Australian reforms wdll leave it, is, however, insufficient to deal effectively with matters of the kind, and Queenslanders gener- ally, while not favourable to Imperial Federation, are thoroughly prepared for a fuller form of Australian union. The separatist movement in the Queensland northern J^tSn territory was originally largely based upon the fact that and"serviie J ° J ° J . , . . labour. it is not easy to cultivate sugar plantations by white labour only, while Brisbane opinion made the use of coloured labour difficult. The agitation for the separation of the north has been somewhat checked of late by the promise of decentralisation and of local control of finance; but nothing has been actually done in this direction, and even now it is thought probable by all that separation will ultimately come. The late Queens- land Government, as well as its successor, introduced a Bill dealing with decentralisation, and both were with- drawn ; but it is probable that the last one will pass, in 1890, on reintroduction. The Bills both proposed to divide the country into districts for financial purposes, and to keep separate accounts of revenue and expenditure within those districts — the districts being the north, the centre, and the south, and the Bills being, of course, in- 354 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN tended to weaken or put an end to the agitation for separation. The last Bill proposed to create grand com- mittees for revenue and expenditure for each of the three districts, and in this respect Sir Thomas JVPIlwraith's proposal went farther than that of his predecessor, Sir Samuel Griffith. The leaders of the northern agitation have lately thrown over the planters, and have declared against servile labour. They have given formal promises to their supporters that, even if separation takes place, they will not go back to servile labour, and will allow it to become extinct on the 31st December 1890, the date at which the end of the labour trade is fixed by the Act of 1885. This Act stops trading in Pacific islanders only, while other legislation checks that in Chinese labour. There is not at present direct legislation against the importation of Javanese or Hindoo labour, but India and the Dutch themselves throw difficulties in the way, although there are some Malays from Java work- ing on plantations in the north ; and if there should at any time be an attempt to import servile labour, other than Chinese or Kanaka, upon a large scale, there can be no doubt that it would be at once suppressed. The recent partial boycotting in the Australian colonies of steamship lines employing coloured labour shows how keenly alive to every development of the labour question are the Australian artisans. The Seaman's Union has used its great power and perfect organisation throughout the colonies to prevent the employment of Chinese seamen upon mail steamers, and even the Lascars of the British India line are threatened by a Queensland movement. The Government of New South Wales in making new mail contracts now stipulates for the employment of white labour only on board the ships in respect of which subsidies are given. QUEENSLAND 355 Northern Queensland appears to have passed out of the hands of the planters into those of the cattle-farmers and miners ; and under separation the mine-hands and stock-men would outvote the planters, and continue the exclusion of all coloured labour which could possibly come to compete with their own. At the same time the working classes in Queensland have not so completely stopped aid to the immigration of white labour as has been the case in some other colonies. There is still free emigration, from England to Queensland, of farm-labourers and of women -servants; and those settlers in Queensland who have friends whom they want to bring out may nominate those friends for assisted passages, paying only a trifle towards their fares. " Land orders " continue to be given to intending emigrants to Queensland. So far as northern separation has ceased to be advocated for the purpose of obtaining servile labour, it has become an apparently honest expression of the desire for local self- government. The separation of the northern territories from the rule of Brisbane, of Adelaide, and of Perth would seem to be even more defensible from this point of view than the former separation of Queensland or of Port Phillip, now Victoria, from New South Wales. At the same time there is a practical difficulty in Difficulties bringing about the separation of northern Queensland, ^ r them inasmuch as the colony might resent imperial legislation se P aratlon - not sought by the colonial Parliament. It would un- doubtedly be difficult for the home Government to bring in a Bill for the division of a colony until it had before it some resolution, or address, or Bill passed by the legisla- ture of the colony itself. In the case of the creation of Queensland a special power had been reserved to the Imperial Government to make the separation ; but 356 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN in the present case the home authorities are asked to take a step for which there is no modern precedent, that is, to interfere by Act of Parliament with the administration of a self-governing colony. The diffi- culty is considerable, because the north is raising an enormous amount of gold and becoming of great value, while the south, being more powerful in Parliament, is spending loans chiefly in the southern part of the terri- tory. Sir Samuel Griffith's Financial Districts Bill of 1887 would have partly met the point, but the Bill was, as I have said, withdrawn, and the Decentralisation Bill of 1888 was not passed. The Colonial Office refuse imperial legislation, and the Queensland Parliament will resist the separation of the north as the Parliament of New South Wales resisted the creation of the colonies of Victoria and of Queensland out of the territories of the mother-colony, so that separation is unlikely until Australian federation upon the Canadian plan remits the decision of the question to the representatives of a united Australia. The need It is not easy to discover how the tropical portion of the Queensland coast, and especially the northern part on Torres Straits, is to be cultivated without coloured or Chinese labour. No doubt Indian labour, if the" colonists prefer it, could be secured ; but Chinese labour would probably be cheaper, as is shown by our experience in the Malay Peninsula. The French at Saigon know how difficult it is to attain rapid progress in an Eastern tropical colony to which Indian emigration is forbidden and where the Chinese are not contented, and will not settle in great numbers. The success of our newer protectorates in the Malay'.Peninsula shows, on the other hand, the great results that can be achieved where the Chinese are encouraged to swarm in. The colonial white working classes of the for coloured labour. QUEENSLAND 357 Queensland towns are bitterly opposed to Chinese immi- gration, but the more tropical portions of the colony cannot thrive upon principles which may be applicable to the town of Brisbane or to the plateaus of the interior. It is a general opinion of the Queensland planters that Chinese labour is not the best, While the Chinamen are excellent gardeners, they have, it is said, the habit of drifting into the towns and working as artisans, produc- ing excellent cabinet work and furniture, but competing ao-ainst the trade-union mechanic instead of doing the work for which they were brought in. The dislike of the Australians for the Chinese is so strong and so general that it is like the dislike of terriers for rats ; and as rats fight in a corner, so do the Chinese, and lately on the Clermont gold-field the Chinese entrenched themselves, and kept guard over their entrenchments with rifles and revolvers in the most plucky style. Nothing will so rapidly bring together an Australian crowd as the rumour that Chinamen or rabbits are likely to be landed from a ship, and the one class of intruder is about as popular as the other. Queensland is a colony which has been brought m-treat- ^ J , .,, meut of into some disrepute at home through supposed ill- coloured treatment of natives in the past. Two very distinct in X' past. charges have been made against the Queensland settlers : first, that they used to be in the habit of shooting down the Australian aborigines in the neighbourhood of their stations, sometimes for amusement, sometimes by way of punishment for pilfering and other trifling offences ; in the second place, that they have been sup- porters of a labour traffic in the Pacific which has been a virtual slavery. Queensland required labour other than white labour, and there being the strong prejudice of which I speak against Chinese labour, Queensland 358 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n had to obtain that labour from men either of the Indian- native or the Polynesian race. The emigration of Indian natives is carefully controlled by the Indian Govern- ment, but the obtaining of labourers from the Pacific Islands was subject to less check. During the Griffith Administration a Royal Commission was appointed to inquire into the circumstances under which the Poly- nesian labourers had been employed, and restrictions were placed upon the labour trade. There can be no doubt that at one time a state of things existed upon the northern plantations which was similar to that which we call slavery. The mortality was frightful. The labourers did not understand the conditions under which they were engaged, and gross cruelty was perpetrated at sea. There is now the Griffith Queensland Labour Act, which is good enough, and which is supposed to regulate the traffic ; but it is notorious that this Act used at one time to be much evaded. On the whole, it is difficult to see how more could be done than has been done for the security of the labourers, and, although some of the superintendents first appointed by the Queensland Government to look after Polynesian transport were not well chosen, the abuses have now ceased. With regard to the treatment of the aboriginal Australian blacks, it must be said that they were so extraordinarily backward a race as to make it difficult to help them to hold their own. The Kanakas, who are being exterminated in New Caledonia by the French, were a superior people, and had villages and well - tilled fields, which the French took from them. In New Zealand we have had to deal with such a race, and there our occupation has made them members of both Houses of Parliament, owners of steamships, and large holders of property in the towns, but cannot save them from dying out. In QUEENSLAND 359 New Guinea we have been doing from the first every- thing that can be clone to prevent unjust interference with the native race ; but in Australia the " aboriginals " are rapidly dying out, and it is hard to see how any other fate could be expected for them. In Australia, moreover, the native population was always very small. I doubt whether many blacks were shot down for amusement or for trifling offences. White settlers were often murdered by the aboriginals, and revenge was somewhat indiscriminately taken ; and while there were no doubt at one time gross cases of ill-treatment of blacks on the Queensland frontier, there is reason to believe that this is a matter of the past. As regards that past nothing can be stronger than the language now used by the Queenslanders themselves about it. I have seen in the northern newspapers the strongest pos- sible denunciation of the crimes of Queensland towards the aboriginal population. Mrs. Campbell Praed has, in her Australian Life, written burning words about the horrible cruelties of which she was herself a witness. Mr. Finch-Hatton, who was for several years a Queens- land settler, relates in his Advance Australia many instances of cold-blooded murder of the blacks. An Australian poet has said of the birth of Australia — " With shield unsullied by a single crime ; " but this is not the Queensland account of the matter. At the same time there is Queensland and Queensland. The blacks were shot by some of the pastoral settlers and cattle holders of the interior, and it is the popula- tion of the coast who the most bitterly reproach them with their acts. On the other hand, the cattle holders return the compliment by denouncing the treatment of the Kanakas in the coast plantations. The im- 360 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN partial observer can only deeply regret the past, and gladly admit that the present state of things is much improved. The whole The fact that the former evils have ceased, however, traffiTto in connection with the labour traffic does not satisfy the be stopped. wor k meil f the towns, and there is now, as I have said, an act in force by which the whole labour traffic is shortly to be brought to an end. The policy of the working men has already ruined many of the sugar estates of the north; but the "Australia for the Australians" movement is unchecked, and insists that only white labour shall be made use of in Australia. It is necessary, therefore, to consider the whole policy of the colony with regard to land and labour in order to judge its prospects. Land legis- Queensland is a more varied country as regards pro- duction than are the other Australian colonies. The rich coast lands contain fine forests of timber other than the usual gum trees, such as magnificent pines of several classes ; and these good soils are utilised for agricultural purposes, fruit growing, maize growing, and sugar growing, according to the latitude. Then come the table lands, which are covered with luxuriant grass ; and then rolling plains, which stretch far into the west, and up to the mining districts of the Gulf of Carpentaria, where country is held in large tracts for cattle-grazing purposes. Previously to 1885 the land law in force in Queensland gave pastoral tenants immense tracts at nominal rents, and also allowed selection in a similar manner to that known in New South Wales. Under the complicated land law of 1884, which came into force in 1885, and which in some cases followed the lines of changes made in New South Wales, agricultural selection at low rentals, with the option of purchase, was largely adopted, and also a homestead freehold system QUEENSLAND 361 10 11 needed. somewhat similar to that of the United States. The runs of the squatters were, as in New South Wales, divided into two fairly equal portions, and the conflict between squatter and selector received a check. The land administration in Queensland is placed under a special board, instead of being under the Minister for Lands as in New South Wales. The extent of the leases in Queensland for pastoral purposes may be imagined when I state that the drought in 1886 caused the abandonment of five millions of acres of squatting runs, which, however, constituted scarcely a perceptible decrease in the total amount of land under lease for pastoral purposes. The back country is poorly watered, but, as it is imgat subject in Queensland to occasional heavy falls of rain, it will be possible to carry out water conservation. Boring has also been tried recently with satisfactory results. Some years ago, when the present eloquent Bishop of Manchester was Bishop of Melbourne, he was asked to offer up a special prayer for rain, and, I believe, suggested that it might be wise for the colonies to set about establishing a more comprehensive scheme of water storage and irrigation. Although the plain beyond the table land is subject to frightful droughts, and is known as "Never, Never Country," the table land itself, especially Darling Downs, is one of the finest sheep districts in the world. The distances in Queensland are so great that a herd sometimes take a year to march from the cattle stations in the north before they reach a market near the border of New South Wales. In the agricultural pursuits of the coast the cultivation sugar, a: of sugar, though it is declining, has hitherto taken the labour? foremost place. Since the day when the first Queensland vol. 1 2 b 362 PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part ii sugar-cane was crushed in a copying-press, and the juice then treated in a frying-pan, the industry has taken rank among the chief resources of the colony. It has brought in capital on a large scale, and has dotted the whole coast line with busy communities of workmen. Sugar is more popular with the democracy than is wool, because wool production can only be successfully carried out upon large areas, and involves the employment of little labour, which has been even decreased by the recent introduction of mechanical appliances for sheep-shearing. Sugar, on the other hand, apart from the labour of the field, involves the employment of much skilled and of some unskilled labour. On the coast of southern Queensland the settlers, farming with their own labour and with white supplementary labour, grow sugar on a small scale. In northern Queensland plantations are of great extent, and are held by companies with large capital, costly plant, and coloured labour. In southern Queensland there are, as will be seen, a good many co- operative mills. Northern Queensland, with its tropical climate, its rich coast lands, and its " servile labour," is supposed to resemble the cotton -growing States of the American Union, while the democratic southern part of Queensland, the home of small settlers, artisans, and business men, is supposed to be cast in the likeness of the Northern States. The south protests against the introduction of the Chinese and the employment of Polynesian labour. Moral argu- ments are made use of, but a little for party purposes, I am afraid ; and the southern working men really be- lieve that white labour can be employed, and should be employed, in place of black or yellow. It is, however, I am convinced, the fact that profitable sugar production on a large scale in northern Queensland demands coloured QUEENSLAND 363 labour, and that if the democratic south insists upon ex- cluding such labour from the coast, that coast cannot be largely utilised. It is true that certain lines of railway- have been constructed in the north by white labourers ; but the men, I believe, suffered severely from the heat, and the work was only temporary work and for the most part work in open country. The labour of cane-cutting is much more severe in its conditions, and five minutes in a cane-brake at mid -day in northern Queensland would be sufficient to convince most people that it is not white man's work. The case of the labour party was powerfully stated The argu- by Mr. Griffith when Prime Minister of Queensland the labour in 1885. The spokesmen of the northern district par y ' had in a letter of that year summed up their reasons in favour of separation, of which the third was the " diversity of interests between the inhabitants of tropical and temperate Queensland on the subject of coloured labour ; " and they expanded this head by ex- plaining that the inhabitants of northern Queensland were anxious to obtain coolies from India. Since that time the northerners have more or less withdrawn from this position, but there can be no doubt that it was originally, and very naturally, one of the main grounds for desiring separation. Sir Samuel Griffith based his reply almost wholly upon it. He pointed out with remarkable vigour how large a portion of the northern district was mineral and pastoral, and how small a portion tropical in its nature. He showed that his rjarty desired to substitute a large number of resident owners for a smaller number of absentee pro- prietors, owning large estates managed by agents and worked by gangs of men of the inferior races. He argued that there was no country in which Asiatic and European 364 PROBLEMS OB GREATER BRITAIN tart 11 labourers were found working side by side on terms of equality, and that where Asiatic labourers predominate in numbers, they, by degrees, monopolise all branches of industry, and manual labour becomes regarded as degrading. We shall find that South Africa forms in some degree an exception to this rule. Regulations to punish persons employing servile labour in any occupation except that of tropical agriculture would, the Queensland Minister thought, be inoperative. Sir Samuel Griffith's conclusion was that representative government in which the influence of employers might predominate could not be trusted with the control of inferior races, and that, on the other hand, if the influence of employers did not predominate, the white population could not be trusted to wisely control the destinies of inferior races entering into daily competition with them in various forms of industry. He thought that if it was seriously intended that any parts of the Australian continent should be thrown open to Asiatic immigration they should be marked out as being clearly unfit for European settlement, constituted as separate colonies, and governed as Crown Colonies by imperial officers, who would act with impartial justice between the races. Sir Samuel Griffith urged, however, that the amount of tropical country in Australia requiring servile labour would be found too small to make it worth while setting up these separate Crown Colonies upon the coast. Co-opera- It was probably the hope of Sir Samuel Griffith that mln s ! ng the co-operative system of holding sugar mills in the southern part of Queensland would break down the monopoly of the sugar trade by the wealthy planter companies of the north ; but of late a good many of the co-operative mills have been closed, owing to a depres- sion in the trade. Even State assistance, which has chap, in QUEENSLAND 365 been given in loans to the co-operative sugar mills, and secured by mortgage upon the farms, has not made the system a success. As a general rule the small settlers in Queensland Maize and grow Indian corn, and the acreage under maize to growing. the acreage under sugar is about as three to two. There had long been even more depression in cotton than in sugar, and the cotton industry had lately absolutely died out, but was revived by the formation of a company in June 1889. A protective bonus was granted by Government when the industry was started, and the withdrawal of the bonus had killed it. The cotton plant grows in perfection, but it requires too much labour for the colony to compete against the similar industry of countries with cheap coloured labour. It used to be supposed that the chief difficulties of Future x L , difficulties. the future in Queensland lay m the problem oi northern Queensland, because after separation North Queensland would claim to be allowed to manage its imported coloured labour as it pleased. If we forbade this North Queensland would secede from the imperial connection ; if we allowed the claim, we were told an outcry would, arise at home at the moral responsibility we were under- taking. We have seen, however, in our survey that this difficulty is already a difficulty of the past. Northern Queensland will sooner or later separate from southern Queensland, but will not become a country of coloured labour. There is another direction in which Queensland may give us anxiety. Like Victoria, and like New Zealand, she has aspirations towards a future in the Pacific. Some forms of enterprise which once were in the hands of New South Wales are now largely managed by Queenslanders working with Victorian capital, and 366- PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n it is Queenslanders and Victorians, and in some cases New Zealanders, who are coming into conflict with the French in the New Hebrides and with the Germans in Samoa. I have now described the difficulties with which we Lord meet, and with which we shall have to deal, in Queens- Knuts- ford's i anc [ — difficulties which the excellent choice for Governor choice of ... Governors, of Sir Henry Norman will do much to mitigate. The reception of Sir Henry when on his first tour was excellent, although it is possible that the fact that the colony had got its way about Sir Henry Blake was the chief cause of the enthusiasm so suddenly displayed. As I have criticised Lord Knutsford for his selection of Sir Henry Blake, under the special cir- cumstances of the case, I ought to add that the majority of his appointments have been excellent. There is every reason to hope that Lords Onslow, Kintore, and Hopetoun will make as good colonial Governors as Sir Robert Hamilton, Sir William Jervois, Lord Car- rington, Sir Henry Norman, and Sir Henry Loch. Although Lord Kintore got into some trouble on his arrival in South Australia, owing to a reference to Irish affairs in a speech made by him in England after his appointment, it is a happy thing that at the present critical moment all those who are employed in Australia are popular or fairly popular. A mistake was made in England in treating the Queensland case as though it were an isolated episode. South Australia had virtually refused to receive Lord Normanby almost at the same moment ; but in this case the withdrawal of the name was more quietly asked for and more peace- fully obtained. Some years ago Natal refused to receive Mr. Sendall, an excellent public servant, because he was thought to be appointed as a QUEENSLAND 367 mere subordinate to Sir Hercules Robinson, the Governor of the Cape. Sir Walter Sendall was un- acceptable in Natal because of the policy on the part of the home Government which the fancied consultation of Sir Hercules Robinson appeared to imply. Sir Ambrose Shea had also, as I have said, been refused by Newfoundland. The course of the home Govern- ment in not more frankly consulting privately the colonial Governments on the choice of Governors is almost universally condemned by colonial opinion. It is now several years ago since Sir George Grey brought forward a motion in New Zealand to make the office of Governor elective ; and the question was afterwards taken up by Mr. Playford in South Australia. When Sir Henry Parkes supported the Queensland action his resolutions were carried all but unanimously in the New South Wales Assembly. In fact they were only opposed by two gentlemen, who are in favour of immediate separation from the mother-country, and who thought that the consultation of the colony as to the choice of Governors, advocated by Sir Henry Parkes, would strengthen, not weaken, the tie to England. It is thought by some that Queensland is financially Queensland in a less sound position than are the other southern J^^f 1 ^ colonies except New Zealand. But upon examination it is discovered that, whatever ideas of separation may be abroad in Queensland, there is not the smallest idea of, or risk of, Repudiation. Here, as elsewhere in Australia, loans are not loans at all in the European sense ; the British public possess the railways and waterworks of Queensland just as much as if they had been mortgaged. The payment of interest is guaranteed by a Government which has abundant resources at its back, and which has to the full the British financial pride of paying to 368 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN tart n every man the last penny that is owing. If Queens- land ever separates from England, which the growth of federal feeling in Australia makes unlikely, she will do so in sturdy self-reliance, and she will not accompany the separation by robbery of the British capitalist. Public Queensland has pushed on rapidly with her narrow - locSgov-' 1 g au g e railways, and has now, as I have stated, a larger eminent. numDer f miles of railway in proportion to her population than any other country of equal importance, besides which there are many more miles in course of construction or already authorised. She spends largely upon public- works, but chiefly out of borrowed money ; and she is obliged to spend more freely than the other colonies upon harbours, having an enormous coastline under settlement. Queensland has, on the whole, a better system of local Government than exists in New South Wales. By the Divisional Boards Act the colony is chopped up into a great number of divisions governed by Local Boards, of from three to nine members, which have extensive powers. Government pays to each board an amount equal to twice the sum raised by rates during the first five years of the operation of the Act, and then a sum equal to the rates collected, and the law has inspired the country districts with new life. The The completion of the railway from Brisbane to the Australian New South Wales line, knitting the capital of Queens- capitals » o x -v brought land to the capitals of New South Wales, Victoria, and railways. South Australia, must do something to foster the grow- ing wish for Australian union or federation. Long sea voyages between capital and capital left an impression of isolation upon the traveller's mind, which is removed by the substitution of the overland route. The greatest railway work of Queensland, however, will be the trans- continental railway connecting the capitals I named just QUEENSLAND 369 now with the Gulf of Carpentaria. This, it is expected, will become the colonial route to India — " From Gippsland's hop-lined gardens to Carpentaria's Bay." Population is increasing with great rapidity, although immi- the assisted immigration has been checked by confining ^ it to "eligible" agricultural labourers and women-servants. It. is found that it is very difficult to draw the agricultural population of Great Britain to such a distance, and there used always to be a preponderance among the assisted immigrants of the urban artisan. In the parts of England where wages are low it was found almost impossible to move the men. The small expenditure necessary for their kit, and still more the cost of transit to a port, were too heavy, the absence of savings too complete, and the depression and unwillingness to move too thorough. In the best parts of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire the labourers are more willing, instead of less willing, to emigrate than they are from the poorly paid parts of Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, and Somerset. It is easier to induce small tenant farmers to go to Queens- land than any other class of agriculturists. On the other hand, German labourers have been taken to Queensland in considerable numbers. They form an industrious and hard-working class in the southern portion of the colony, and the German sugar growers utilise the labour of their wives, sons, and daughters in the field, live very closely, save money, and become a considerable factor in the prosperity of the colony. The Germans of Queensland have their own churches, their own newspapers, their own clubs, and their own festive days, but their children speak English and go to the usual schools. The Germans are rooted in Queensland on the border of New South Wales, growing sugar and 37o PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n maize. The English settler, who likes to keep a buggy for his wife, and to send his daughter to a boarding- school in town, is not pleased with the rigid economy and the united family labour of the Germans ; and the German settler, who sends his healthy strong -limbed daughter to strip the sugar-cane, and save the cost of a labourer's wage, is looked upon by some colonists as a sort of monster. Legislative Queensland resembles the other colonies in her ?tieT. iai legislation. She has an education system somewhat similar to that of Victoria. There is a graduated progressive succession duty, varying only from 2 to 5 per cent, according to the amount of property, as in New South "Wales, and introduced also in 1886. The chief peculiarity of Queensland legislation is its local option without compensation — the most stringent liquor law known to our southern colonies, except that of New Zealand. The Act has not been sufficiently long in force for it to be possible to say much with regard to its effect on the drinking habits of the people, but the view seems to exist that local option has not been a great success, and that the temperance party are likely soon to work for total prohibition. Another peculiarity of Queensland is that the colony has not yet actually repealed certain provisions as to the State- regulation of vice, such as have been repealed elsewhere in English-speaking or English-governed countries, and which were not in Queensland based, as in England, on grounds having to do with military or naval stations, but extended to the capital city. The legal professions are, it has been seen, amalgamated in American fashion in Queensland, as they are also in most of the Australian colonies and in New Zealand. The members of the Assembly in Queensland are QUEENSLAND 37 1 paid, as in most other colonies ; and the only electoral peculiarity of Queensland is the special disfranchise- ment of aboriginal natives of Australia, India, China, and the South Sea islands, which may be contrasted with the New Zealand provision that every male aboriginal inhabitant of the colony, as well as every male half - caste of full age not attainted or con- victed of treason, is entitled to vote, under the Maori Representation Act, for a member for the Maori district in which he resides. New Zealand also admits Maori ratepayers to vote where they live outside Maori dis- tricts. Parliaments in Queensland endure for five years, whereas most of the other Australasian colonies, with the exception of Tasmania, which resembles Queens- land in this respect, possess the triennial system. The usual working day in Queensland is eight hours, An dght- and trade unions enforce the limitation under penalties an a early of their owtl. An eight-hour Bill was carried through c osmg ' the Assembly in 1889, but rejected by the Upper House. The new arrivals in the colony, working at gold-mining, earn about 8s. a day, and carpenters and joiners earn about 10s. a day, and they invest their savings in gold-mining on the co-operative plan, which is becoming popular in Queensland, although co-opera- tion does not flourish in the colonies as a rule. Early closing is sometimes forced on shopkeepers by window- smashing — riotous mobs parading Rockhampton, for example, and forcing the shops to close. Queensland has so long a seaboard, and the im- General portance of its cities has so much depended upon their ^^. being seaports, that several distinct centres of trade land - activity have there sprung up ; but the coast cities only hold a quarter of the population among them. Under these circumstances it would be somewhat difri- 372 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n cult to explain the enormous power exercised by the workmen in Queensland as against the planters and squatters, but for the fact that gold-mining employs great numbers of workmen in districts altogether away from towns. The extraordinary richness of Mount Morgan is well known in England, but what is less well known is that there are gold mines in different parts of Queensland, some in the extreme south, some near Kockhampton, some in the far north, and that there is also a fine coal-field, not yet brought into active competition with New South Wales. Gold has lately been found under the cricket-field in the park in the capital itself, and curious complications sprang up in consequence of the conflict between the mining laws and the laws on the subject of the reservation of parks. Queensland by the latest returns is now pro- ducing more gold than any other British colony, and her copper yield is likely soon to be developed, while a good deal of tin and lead is being raised already. The increase of population in the last few years has been much more rapid in the towns than in the rural districts, and more than half the population now lives in urban districts; but "urban" in Queensland does not bear the ordinary sense of the word. Although the whole of Queensland lies north of the colony of New South Wales, and although the sun heat in Queensland is greater than in the mother- colony, Queensland, generally speaking, is not less healthy than New South Wales. The English race shows as much vitality in the younger colony as in the older one, and thrives under whole months of that cruel Australian sun which the Tasmanian authoress "Tasma " well describes as a red-hot copper ball. It is damp, not heat, that kills, and the dry heat of chap, in QUEENSLAND 373 Australia even in its northern parts, except on the immediate coast, does not prevent men of our race working in the open air without loss of energy. The power to continue the race and the health of children seem fairly strong, and if we except a little strip along the coast, the hotter parts of Australia cannot be re- garded as deadly to immigrants from Great Britain and Ireland or from Germany. The debilitating effect of residence in tropical or semi-tropical climate is seen all along the coast from Sydney northwards, but, as there is no malaria, it is not sufficient on the Australian coast to cause serious mischief, although it is perhaps sufficient at Sydney to destroy great activity in work. In Queensland the country rises rapidly from the coast, and even more rapidly on the whole than in New South Wales, and as large a portion of Queensland is thoroughly healthy for Europeans as is the case in the other colony. Generally speaking, Australia may be said to be much more healthy than England for old people, and as healthy for people in the prime of life, but to have in parts a more considerable infantile mortality than ought to be the case where the non- climatic conditions are good, as they are in Australia. Queensland, although young, has been remarkable Literature. for the existence of a school of poets. Lamb in his "Letter to B. F., Esq., at Sydney, New South Wales," said that if the colonists " take it into their heads to be poets, it is odds but they turn out, the greater part of them, vile plagiarists." But there are plenty of colonial poets who are not plagiarists, and Mr. Brunton Stephens — not Australian -born, for he is a Scotchman who only reached Queensland at the age of thirty - one — has written his best poetry in the colonies, and is on the whole the first of colonial 374 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN poets. He writes in every known and conceivable style, but his comic verse is bis best, and is of the highest order. Stephens has a singularly copious voca- bulary, and makes use in his comic poems of a deep knowledge of modern scientific speculation, which lends weight to his light verses. Queensland also claims the only considerable Australian novelist, besides " Tasma," in Mrs. Campbell Praed, who is colonial-born, and whose Australian Life is a vivid autobiographical picture of the early days of Queensland. Mrs. Patchett Martin is a writer also worth the reading. It is somewhat curious that a new colony such as Queensland should have trained a poet not only so good as Mr. Stephens, but so successful. I have said already that colonial writers are not likely to be adequately remunerated for their work ; but in the case of this writer, who was a student at Edinburgh University, forced to leave through want of means, and who, after spending a few years at Greenock, emigrated to Brisbane, where he became a State schoolmaster, the books produced have a considerable sale. Mr. Stephens's " Dominion of Aus- tralia," beginning "She is not yet," has a "national" ring about it, though he is, as I have said, not " native-born." Among journals the Brisbane Courier is an excellent daily paper (opposed to Imperial Federa- tion), as is the Telegraph; while the Queenslander and the Australian are admirable weeklies, and there are several powerful evening papers. The Boomerang, a weekly paper, which advocates an Australian Eepublic and claims " the largest circulation north of Sydney," has some resemblance to the Bulletin already named. Queensland makes the same large sacrifice as does Stable Victoria in aid of charitable institutions, giving, like institu- Victoria, on the average two pounds for every pound tions. ° Govern- QUEENSLAND 375 collected from private sources, instead of the one pound which is given in New South Wales. In some periods of depression there has been a need for the giving of charitable assistance even to people of working age and fair health. The immigrants who at one time poured rapidly into Cost of Queensland year by year found that meat was cheap, but those of them who remained in the towns felt themselves oppressed by the heavy rents and by the cost of clothes. Little things which are not considered in preparing schedules of prices, bore heavily upon them, as, for example, the cost of medical attendance. The workmen who have been for some time in the colony keep chickens, and so obtain variety of food ; they secure good wages and pleasant homes, as well as invest their savings at high interest, and despite the sun the race is vigorous, and the people happy. CHAPTER IV AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND Systems of South Australia and a portion of New Zealand were tionin colonised on a more systematic plan than were our ask!™ 1 " colonies in general, and Australia presents in New South Wales, in Tasmania, and in Western Australia, the results of a colonisation commenced by means of transportation, vastly modified by the subsequent dis- covery of gold in the neighbourhood; while South Australia and the middle or southern island of New Zealand show the results of applications of the Wakefield system. Even, however, in New South Wales the Wakefield system was partially applied in early days, as well as the system of transportation, and a large number of free immigrants were brought in by the money pro- duced by the sale of land. If New South Wales had been left to transportation only, her condition would south have been less happy than it is. South Australia was the chosen land of the advocates of the Wakefield doctrine, and the class of immigrants introduced was excellent. Mr. Gladstone's scheme of 1841 was never fully applied ; but it may be said that through the improvements of the Wakefield system which followed the partial failure in South Australia in 1840, Australia would have been certain of a magnificent development, even without the gold discovery which rather hastened Australia. chap, iv SOUTH AUSTRALIA 377 than caused its recent prosperity. The older settlements of New Zealand were started upon the modified Wake- field plan, and as in South Australia, so in New Zealand, the immigrants introduced were of the most admirable kind. A full-grown society was planted in portions of these colonies, with a representation of all classes from the old world, with capital and with an organised church ; and the condition of South Australia is a testimony to the beneficent results of the system of colonisation there adopted — the most scientific that the world has known. The development of South Australia and New Zealand has been as remarkable in its way as that of Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland ; but Tasmania and Western Australia present different features. In each of them the neighbourhood of gold, outside their bound- aries, and Transportation, seem in the past to have produced for a time blighting consequences, while these colonies had not the wheat -land and copper of South Australia, nor land so well prepared by the hand of nature for sheep as that of Queensland and New Zealand. It is now more than a hundred years since Australia as a community came into being, and the rapidity of the progress in the last thirty-five years of the gold-bearing colonies is easily explained ; but those provinces of New Zealand that have no gold, and South Australia, may be said to be only half the age of New South Wales, and their progress has been at least as wonderful. In South Australia, and in all the pro- vinces of New Zealand, gold-bearing and goldless alike, we see the same development of the appliances of civil- isation as in the more populous of the Australian colonies, and free political institutions yielding in little to those of Victoria herself. Foreign writers are too willing to attribute the prosperity of our South-Sea colonies to a vol. 1 2 c 378 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n kind of chance, and to assert that the accident of a discovery of gold has made them what they are ; but their history shows that the wisdom of our writers and our statesmen, and the vigour of our race, have had vastly more than gold discovery to do with this greatest example of colonial success. It will be the glory of the improved Wakefield system as preached or practised by J. S. Mill, by Mr. Gladstone, by Lord John Russell, and many others, to have purified Australia from the vices of a convict origin, and to have laid the foundations of communities in which the immigration from England of the most industrious and prudent of our working popula- tion has swamped the forced immigration of the most vicious among our people. Governor- South Australia followed the lead of Queensland in difficulties, the question of the selection of colonial governors. The Ministry in power in South Australia, as in Queensland, represented, along with the protectionist interest, the Irish Roman Catholic party, and had even gone so far as to consider the possibility of making concessions to them upon the education question. There were one or two Roman Catholics in the South Australian Ministry. There was also in South Australia a fear that Lord Normanby might be forced upon that colony. The South Australian Government had already been com- municating with the Colonial Office upon that question, and they naturally seized the opportunity offered by the Queensland protest. The claim of South Australia was more moderate than the claim of Queensland, and was confined to a demand to be allowed to privately object to undesirable nominees. The then Governor, Sir William Robinson, the brother of that most popular of colonial governors — Sir Hercules Robinson, was one who had not raised much feeling either for or against chap, iv SOUTH AUSTRALIA 379 himself. A man of distant manners, and who seemed to take only a purely official interest in the colony and its fortunes — he was little heard of at all outside of Adelaide, except by the musicians of Australia, of whom he is, deservedly, the idol. The head of the Government until June 1889, Mr. Souft Australian Thomas Play ford, now leader of the Opposition, was politicians. a market -gardener, and is a man of shrewd practical ability and good -humour, called "honest Tom" as much on account of his pleasant ways as on account of his integrity. He is also when in office styled " King Tom," and South Australia, " King Tom's dominions." Mr. Playford would probably have held the second instead of the first place in the Government had not Mr. Kingston been the subject of personal attacks — whether deserved or not I do not know — which thrust him back into the second place. Mr. Kingston, the Playford Attorney-General, is still a young man, an excellent debater, a good party manager, and a man of quick political insight. In education, parliamentary capacity, and political judgment, he is superior to his chief. The latter is, however, the man of stronger will and more decided character, and is perhaps really the more fitted for the helm. The two together made a strong combination, and practically formed the Government. I have spoken favourably of Mr. Kingston's educa- tion, but it is a curious fact, worth perhaps a word of notice, that in his important addresses to the Federal Council, when he appeared with Mr. Playford to repre- sent South Australia at the session of 1889, Mr. Kingston, according to our English ideas, says " would " for " should." The same peculiarity, as we think it, exists among cultivated Americans, as well as among many well-educated people from Scotland and from Ireland ; 380 PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part ii and if the best people in Australia are going to follow Scotch, Irish, and American example in this matter, we shall be so hopelessly outnumbered upon the question as to be put in the wrong. Like the militiaman, being unable to induce our comrades to change step, we shall have to change our own, or to go to school again until we too write " would " for " should " in places where "should" would at present be the accepted form. Possibly, however, not the speaker but the reporter was in fault, for Mr. Gillies and Mr. Deakin in their speeches at the Federal Council are also made sometimes to put "wills" for "shalls" and "woulds" for " shoulds," although not with the frequency that such changes are attributed to Mr. Kingston. The party who were defeated by Mr. Playford and Mr. Kingston in 1887 were supposed to be led by a gentleman who had not returned to the colony after the Colonial Conference, and the then Ministry was actually headed by Sir John Bray, the present Speaker, the most popular man in the House and a master of tactics, though, like Mr. Kingston, somewhat weak in will. His former leader, Sir John Downer, less nimble of intellect than Sir John Bray, is one of the leaders of the South Australian bar, a man of solid parts and steady persever- ance, and a good set speaker. He is not so popular as Sir J. Bray, but is a man of high character and great good nature, with a tendency towards obstinacy as his failing. Sir J. Downer and Sir J. Bray were themselves the authors, when in power, of a mildly protectionist tariff ; not, however, sufficiently protectionist for the colony ; and it was the Playford Government which carried out the virtual adoption of the Victorian tariff by South Australia. Nevertheless they received a good deal of support from the free-trade portion of the Adelaide SOUTH AUSTRALIA 381 Press. South Australian party lines have never been very distinct, and it may be said that, from some points of view, both the Downer-Bray Governments of 1882-84 and 1885-87 were coalition Governments. I believe that Mr. Playford, and Mr. Kingston (in spite of his " woulds "), are English-born, while Sir J. Downer and Sir J. Bray are Australian -born. Sir John Downer is an imperial federationist, while Mr. Playford and Mr. Kingston cannot be counted in the ranks of that party. The Playford Government quarrelled with the farmers in 1889 by refusing to find them seed wheat after a great drought, and they quarrelled with the City Council of the capital as to the reception of the new Governor, Lord Kintore, and otherwise, like Governments in general, made enemies through some of their wisest acts. In June 1889 they were defeated and turned out by Dr. Cockburn — who formed a Government of new men, still more protectionist, and more advanced on the land question than their predecessors — with the support of Sir John Downer, who would not, however, join the Ministry. The Playford Government had been attacked upon almost every conceivable question : upon the pro- perty-tax ; for pretended injudicious representation of the colony by the Prime Minister and the Attorney- General at the Federal Council ; for arbitrary treatment of selectors, and also for illiberal dealing with squatters by the Commissioner of Crown Lands ; for Mr. Play- ford's refusal to grant seed wheat ; for wasteful expendi- ture in water -conservation works, and, on the other hand, for insufficient energy in the prosecution of the public-works policy ; for charging income-tax on money invested in other colonies and paying taxes there : and for other matters without number. They were defeated by a very small majority, and the new Govern- 382 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part t ment has only two members out of seven who have had any previous experience of official life, and contains no men whose names were known outside the colony. Dr. Cockburn is an able and ambitious Scotchman under forty, a gold medallist of London University, who settled in Australia only fourteen years ago. He is still in search of a sound majority. His Ministry is making a good fight, but is scarcely likely to survive a general election due in a few months' time. south South Australia recently joined the Australasian viets a on an Federal Council for two years, with the avowed object .and 6 .!? 1011 ' °f striving to alter the constitution and to increase the relations p 0W6 rs of that body. Although protectionist, South United Australia seems more friendly to the British connection than is protectionist Queensland or free-trade New South Wales, and she appears to be less jealous of Victoria than is the latter colony, and, except in the matter of the choice of governors, more inclined to shape her policy on that of " the neighbouring colony." The Australian Natives' Association is powerful in South Australia, and it has lately become amalgamated with another body called the National Association. The Association is not in Irish hands in the two southern colonies, and loudly proclaims its desire to avoid interference in questions that would be likely to affect the union between Great Britain and the Australian colonies. As a matter of fact the Australian Association contains 'both Orangemen and Irish Nationalists. General South Australia, as will be seen from what has been South° f already told, is one of those happy communities which Australia. m ^ ^ ga ^ to lmve n0 history. After its foundation, upon the scientific system which Merivale has well described, it prospered as a wheat-growing and copper- producing colony. From 1884 to 1886 it went through chap, iv SOUTH AUSTRALIA 383 one of those periods of heavy depression which attack young countries from time to time, and from which it is now recovering. Its enormous territory is still sparsely populated ; but that is because it stretches right across the continent, and includes the drier portion of the inland region. South Australia is a thoroughly honest and sound colony, which, whether it be left with its Northern Territory or separated from it, has a future of wealth and usefulness before it. South Australia has had its land boom like Victoria ; it has had its deficits like New South Wales ; but all along there has been a steady increase in the number of the farmers who are the backbone of the prosperity of the country. The pastoral interests of the colony have been for some time stationary, and the yield of copper and wine has decreased, for at one time South Australia stood at the head of the wine-producing colonies. But in the meantime the number of depositors in the Savings Banks, and the amount of deposits, has greatly and steadily increased, as has the area under wheat. I wrote just now about the land boom in Australia, Adelaide. but, land boom or no land boom, the size of Adelaide and the value of property in the town are most remark- able. A larger proportion of the population of South Australia lives in the capital than is the case in New South Wales (or even in Victoria, unless we include the Melbourne suburbs), and the proportion is continually on the increase. There are in South Australia no other important towns. Melbourne is the natural centre for a large population besides the population of Victoria, for the Riverina and Tasmania use Melbourne as their pleasure town ; while Adelaide cannot expect to draw population from outside the colony of South Australia, a fact which makes its prosperity the more position. 384 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part ii remarkable. But the town of Adelaide was built on a site that had been chosen upon highly scien- tific principles, although it is, as I have said, out of reach of large ships, and the city was laid out from the first as a block surrounded by a great belt of park lands. Financial Although South Australia has gone through a terrible period of depression, and although its finances are not the finances of Victoria, nevertheless it cannot be said upon any fair examination of its position to be over- burdened with debt. The railways have lately paid only 2 per cent upon the money laid out upon them, or half what the colony is paying for it ; but the rate is now increasing, and, when we consider the rise in the value of Crown lands due to the construction of these railways, we have to admit that the colony is not a loser by them, and still possesses on the whole an asset equivalent to its liability. But South Australia has only some twelve millions out of an expenditure of twenty millions from loans that yield any direct return of interest, while Victoria has thirty millions out of thirty-three that give such a return, and the Victorian works pay a higher interest than the South iVustralian. On the other hand, without roads and railways, land in the interior is worth nothing, while with roads and rail- ways the State possesses vast tracts of land that will fetch a pound an acre. The colony has an immense mileage of railway open, and stands almost as well in this respect as Queensland. She has now followed the example of Queensland and of Victoria in appoint- ing a Board of Commissioners to supervise the working of the railways, and it is probable that the returns in interest will steadily increase, although in so sparsely populated a country they can hardly be brought to such figures as are seen in the case of Victoria. The Com- o chap, iv SOUTH AUSTRALIA 385 mission principle is extending, and an agitation is on foot in South Australia for instituting a Public Service Commission similar to that which Victoria has placed over her civil service. South Australia has led the way in many important Real pro- alterations and simplifications of law. From it came ci^eapTaw the germ of all the real property acts of the colonies, C0lirts * under which it has become possible to transfer land as simply and as cheaply as to transact any other business operation. In this colony the possession of a certificate of transfer constitutes an indefeasible title, without regard to the history of the older title to the property prior to the transfer. As this leaves an opening for fraud, a tax of a halfpenny in the pound is levied on all property transferred, and goes to constitute an insur- ance fund for compensation. This law has been imitated throughout the colonies. South Australia also was one of the earliest colonies to adopt the principle that real property in intestacy should be distributed as personalty is with us. For the purpose of rendering legal proceed- ings less expensive, cheap courts were established, pre- sided over by stipendiary magistrates, and performing the duties of county courts, in cases involving less than £500, by simple and cheap process. Juries of four, taking the verdict of three, and juries of six, taking the verdict of five, have been introduced into these courts, which do almost the whole of the legal business of the country. As early as 1840 South Australia established aLocaigov- complete system of local self-government with the most happy results, and the South Australian system of local government has been largely followed in the other colonies. The municipalities are divided, according to the nature of their district, into corporations or district councils, The rural local authorities consist of boards suffrage. 386 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part 11 of from five to seven members, elected by the rate- payers, which have a large amount of influence over the control of public lands and over public works as well as over the police. The powers of the corporations and districts were increased in 1887. Woman Women possess the municipal vote in South Aus- tralia, as in the mother- country, and in most of our other colonies ; and women also vote in the election of the boards which manage South Australian main roads. In none of the colonies is the political franchise extended to women, although in New South Wales the Prime Minister has introduced a woman suffrage bill ; but there seems some probability of this extension shortly taking place in South Australia. A South Australian woman suffrage bill of 1889 affecting the elections to the Legislative Council was carried through the Assembly by a large majority ; but had to be " laid aside," because there is in the South Australian Constitution a provision that changes in the constitution of Parliament require an absolute majority of the House on the second and third readings of the Bill. The South Australian Register, the mercantile and Conservative organ, answering to the Argus and the Sydney Morning Herald, the next most wealthy newspaper in Australia to the latter, strongly supports women's suffrage, and not only suffrage, but also, its logical outcome, the desirability of women sitting as representatives in Parliament. The remarkable success of women in the colonial universities, since the universities have been thrown open to them, has had much effect in influencing the colonies in what I myself think the right direction ; but the colonies are stuck in the slough of rating qualification, and the larger question of the enfranchise- ment of married women has not been raised. chap, iv SOUTH AUSTRALIA 387 The fact that Victoria was enjoying great prosperity Protection. during the recent depression in South Australia aroused a considerable amount of protectionist feeling in the latter colony, and it may be said that the Protection party has in South Australia won the day. In 1885 the South Australian tariff was assimilated to that of New Zealand by the Bray-Downer combination, and in 1887 to that of Victoria by the Playford- Kingston party. Before the first of these two steps was taken the highest ad valorem duties had been 10 per cent, whereas now almost everything is taxed, and as many as two hundred articles pay a rate of 25 per cent ad valorem. There is now an almost universal belief in South Australia that Protection has been an absolute success in the colony of Victoria, and that in young countries without industries it is necessary to establish Protection in order to create variety of employment. In 1887 the question was distinctly before the country at a dissolution, and the result was the return of a great protectionist majority and an increase of the tariff. The Victorian protectionists are of opinion that the South Australian action comes too late : that Melbourne by taking the first step in the direction of Protection made itself the manufacturing centre of Australia, and that the Australian population is not large enough to support two such centres. As a fact, however, free-trade New South Wales has the advantage in many kinds of goods, and, with her cheap coal, should keep it. The early traditions of South Australia were some- Democratic . r. . /. institu- what opposed to a democratic state of society, for the tions of Wakefield system was slightly aristocratic in tendency, Australia, and in the Christchurch Province of New Zealand pro- duced distinctly aristocratic results. Then, too, there was never any such large influx of a democratic popula- 388 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n tion into South Australia as occurred during the gold rush in New South Wales and Victoria. In spite of these facts, democratic institutions have progressed in South Australia with less conflict than has been the case elsewhere. South Australia, like Victoria, has adopted the elective system for her Upper House. A third of the Council go out every three years, and all owners of £50 freeholds or occupiers to the value of £25 a year have votes for the Upper House. In the Constitution Amendment Act, 1881, South Australia took a decidedly bold step by giving the Governor power to dissolve the Upper House. The original proposal of the Government of the day had been that which had been made pre- viously in Victoria, and was made about the same time in France, that, in the event of disputes between the Houses, the two Chambers should meet in congress and settle the question by a two -thirds majority of the whole ; but the Bill was altered in Parliament, and now it stands as follows : — When a Bill has been passed by the Lower House twice, and twice rejected by the Upper, a general election of the Lower House having taken place between the two occasions, and the Bill in the second instance having been passed by an absolute majority of the Lower House on the second and third readings, it is lawful for, but not obligatory upon, the Governor to dissolve both Houses. The plan, as will be seen, averts those dead-locks which at one time became a formidable difficulty in Jamaica and in Victoria. This provision of the law has never been put in force, but conferences between the two Houses as to their disputes have brought about conciliation. Payment of There had been a good deal of difference between the two Houses in South Australia with regard to pay- ment of members. In 1884, 1885, and 1886 the chap, iv SOUTH AUSTRALIA 389 Assembly passed a measure on this subject, which was rejected in each year by the Council; but finally the Bill became law in 1887, and each member receives there, as in most of the other colonies, about £200 a year for his services, while in this colony the members of the Upper House, as well as those of the Lower, receive payment, which is not the case in all the colonies where members of the Assembly are paid. In South Australia the legislature is remarkably decorous, and members are very sensitive upon the subject of decorum. The South Australian Assembly was presided over, I believe, for twenty years by Sir George Kingston, who was followed by Sir Robert Ross, and both men had so absolute an authority over the Assembly that scenes such as used to be common in Victoria, and are still common in New South Wales, were there unknown. Happily, under the Speakership of Sir J. Bray, the courtesies of debate continue to be observed. When lately it was proposed to equip him and the clerks at the table in wigs like those of the Speaker and clerks of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, it was generally admitted that in his case this aid to law and order was unnecessary. Another peculiarity of South Australia is the posses- closure. sion of a parliamentary closure. All the popular legis- latures but one in the colonies have at one time or another had reason to wish for some means of putting a stop to parliamentary obstruction. South Australia has been the exception, because Sir George Kingston and Mr. Beresford, a generation ago, had inserted a clause in her Standing Orders providing a power of directing the Speaker to put the question. When a motion is made to that effect no discussion is allowed, and if it is carried the question is at once put. The efficacy of the 390 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n measure is chiefly seen in the fact that in South Australia it is seldom required to be put in force. Any attempt at obstruction must speedily collapse, and arouse only angry feeling against the obstructionists ; and the power of closure is never abused, though members given to the reading of long extracts have sometimes thought that it is. Victoria imitated South Australia in adopting at one time what was known as the " iron hand," which was successful during the session when it was in force ; but it was South Australia which set the example which has now been followed by the mother-country. Land-tax There has been since 1884 a land-tax in South come-tax. Australia of Jd. in the pound per annum on unimproved capital value — that is, on what the land would be worth if no buildings had been erected or improvements effected upon it. There has been since 1885 an income-tax of 3d. in the pound on incomes raised by personal exertion, and of 6d. in the pound on incomes derived from pro- perty. All land is valued by public valuers once every three years for the purpose of taxation. In the case of the income-tax the levy is on income arising from or derived from South Australia, and does not include income from any place outside the colony ; but income from bonds or other securities of the South Australian Government is exempt from taxation. How to compute what is income from personal exertion and what is income from property is very difficult, and the decision appears to be left absolutely to the representative of Government. There is not much complaint upon this head, but very loud complaint arising from the fact that some property has to pay tax twice over, namely, both land-tax and income-tax on property. other The only remaining legislative peculiarities of this colony which it is necessary to name are that candidates legislative chap, iv SOUTH AUSTRALIA 391 for either House are forbidden to make any personal pecuUaxi- canvass, and that members of the Upper House who south absent themselves from its sittings for two consecutive Austraha - months without leave by so doing vacate their seats. In Adelaide, as in Melbourne, an "Eight-Hours' Day " The ei ht . is kept by the workmen as a public holiday ; Parliament hour day * adjourns, and all the shops are closed. The concession was obtained by the men without any struggle in 1873. There has in South Australia been an attempt to make the eight-hour day statutory, but as yet without success, although in October 1889 the second reading of the Bill was carried in the Lower House by a majority of one vote. There has been no early -closing legislation similar to that which has been adopted in Victoria, but the shopkeepers in certain trades have agreed to " knock off" half an hour every three months, and so gradually, by agreement, accustom the public to curtail the hours. There is still assisted immigration of domestic servants J™™ lgra " into South Australia. In South Australia, as in Tasmania Education. and New South Wales, education is not free to those who are able to pay, although it is compulsory. It is virtually secular, though there is a power of Bible read- ing, not often used. About one-sixth of the children have their fees remitted. There is in liquor matters a certain amount of local Local option in South Australia in the form that no license ° p u can be granted if two - thirds of the neighbourhood memorialise against the grant ; and in 1889 the incoming Ministry proposed the adoption of a fuller form of local option, but without receiving very large support. No liquor can be supplied to any person whose relatives declare before a magistrate that he is wasting his means or interfering with the happiness of his family by drinking. This extraordinary provision, which exists 392 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n also, although in slightly varied form, in Ontario, Quebec, Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, Tasmania, and New Zealand, as well as in some parts of the United States, would undoubtedly be made use of in England for purposes of annoyance, but, by general admission, it is not so used in South Australia. The communication in writing, or declaration before a magis- trate as to the intemperance of the accused person is, I understand, not a privileged communication, and might, therefore, form the ground of an action for libel, which is no doubt a check upon misuse ; but the law is by no means a dead letter, and there are a considerable number of people in South Australia who are under notice in the terms of this clause. A complete measure of local option is likely to be soon adopted : it is pro- posed each year, but has hitherto failed to pass. There is great difficulty, under partial local option in this and other colonies, in preventing the illicit sale of drink in the sparsely populated districts, where practically everybody sells drink sometimes. Size of the It is hard to induce South Australia to pay much attention to its politics, so greatly is it interested in its agriculture and its droughts. The Times lately, speak- ing of our Australian colonies, said, " In extent they are larger than the Indian Empire," meaning, no doubt, their settled parts. Now, they have three times the area of British India, and South Australia and West Australia are each of them nearly as large as British India. South Australia has an area, roughly speaking, equal to that of New South Wales, Victoria, New Zealand, Germany, and France combined. But of its nearly six hundred million acres only eleven million acres have been sold, only five million acres rented for cultivation, and the enormous territory which is leased chap, iv SOUTH AUSTRALIA 393 for pastoral purposes is barely occupied by sheep in any appreciable sense of the term. If the periodical droughts from which South Australia climate suffers can be dealt with by irrigation and by conserva- Australia. tion of water, or by boring, very different use will be made of this vast territory, and irrigation is already beoinning to tell its story in the parts of South Australia which border on northern Victoria and south-western New South Wales. The country is so dry that its wheat-growing district yields but a small crop. In those districts which can be irrigated, either from the Murray or by boring, the farms will be reduced in size from the grain farms of two or three hundred acres to fruit and vine and vegetable farms of twenty acres, and an enormously increased population, living in comfort, will be the result. There is a strong objection among a minority in South Australia to the out-and-out sale of the colonial lands, and the total cessation of sales is often debated, though sales are not vetoed by the legis- lature. There is a still stronger feeling against " playing into the hands of capitalists " by mere out-and-out sale to the highest bidder. The whole future of the colony will probably be modified by irrigation of the Victorian type, or by boring for water after the plan pursued in New South Wales. The interior of South Australia is at present too like the "never-never" country of northern Queensland. As the gum-trees of the less dry coast tract are left behind, the chattering laughter of the colonial jays is lost, and bird life generally disappears with the woodland and parklike scenery of the south. First there is found a sea of yellow grass with here and there an acacia standing singly upon the plain, and at last a barren waste bleached by a brassy sun and desolate beyond description. The compass is as necessary for a vol. 1 2 D 394 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n journey in dull weather as it is on the sea itself, and the traveller may march for days together without seeing a single sheep. We now know that the heavy occasional rainfall of Australia is stored underneath the soil, and in some spots boring brings whole rivers of water to the surface. Irrigation under such conditions means con- tinual improvement, because, while water will bring trees to the interior, the trees themselves will retain surface moisture, and in course of time develop a more steady rainfall. social view There is little to be said socially of South Australia. colony. It is more quiet and old-fashioned in its ways than the great sfold-minine; colonies, and its steadiness and home- liness are increased by a considerable German population. These immigrants fuse rapidly, here as elsewhere in Australia, with the British population, and they even become patriotic with the peculiar local patriotism of the special colony that they have chosen. In the second generation there is nothing; but a name to mark them off as Germans, and their sons and daughters are as genuinely and as characteristically Australian as are the children of those who have come out from England. They are proud of their gymnastic clubs and of their musical societies, but these do not indicate a separate civilisation any more than do the Caledonian societies of the Scotch, and the Cambrian societies of the Welsh. The Germans are not exclusive with regard to their societies, and from two- thirds to five- sixths of the people who attend their specially German concerts are English or Australian, while the English are admitted as members to their societies. The French and Swiss who have been brought out as wine-growers keep themselves more distinct from the rest of the population ; but they are few in number, and their influence is insignificant. TASMANIA 395 Methodism is strong in South Australia, but Presby- terianism weaker than in Victoria ; and the public picture galleries are open on Sundays as in Sydney, not closed as in the capital of the colony which lies between. South Australian literature is in much the same Literature. condition as that of the other colonies. There is some excellent journalism and a good deal of poetry. The South Australian Register, a free -trade daily paper, has been named, and this, and the Adelaide Observer, a free- trade weekly paper of forty pages, the South Australian Advertiser, and several others, are excellent papers. The Advertiser is the workman's paper, like the Age in Melbourne and the Daily Telegraph in Sydney. Lindsay Gordon, who has been noticed under Victoria, is claimed by South Australia because he lived there when he first came from England. Mrs. Cloud, who writes under the name of Lindsay-Duncan, has composed at least one good poem. Mr. Alfred Chandler, the author of Bush Idylls, a poet and journalist of some merit, though born in Victoria belongs properly to South Australia ; but in my judgment the best two poets of South Australia are two who are known to me not by volumes, but by a poem or two published in Australian papers and reprinted in Australian anthologies — Miss Leane, who writes as "Agnes Neale," and Mr. Pratt, of the Engineers Department of South Australia, who has written the most beautiful and the most charac- teristic of Australian poems — a kind of hymn in praise of "Pain." There remain for notice, of Australian countries Tasmania proper, Western Australia, and the Tasmanian Island which lies almost within sight of the Victorian coast. Tasmania has been somewhat depressed during a large part of her existence. To avoid the memories which 396 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n classed Van Diemen's Land with Botany Bay and Norfolk Island, she gave up the name of Tasman's love to take that of the discoverer ; but even the opening of excellent mines, even the softness of her climate and the loveliness of her scenery, have not been able to secure continuous prosperity. The climate of Devon- shire, coast scenery as perfect as that of Ireland, but combined with a far more beautiful interior, great advantages as a pleasure resort for the summer residence of baked-out Australians, have not yet made the fortune of the little isle — the Emerald Isle indeed of Australian early summer, recalling Ireland as much by its greenness during a great portion of the year as by its size. The Australians marry the lovely Tasmanian ladies as freely as European noblemen marry the Americans, and they carry off their brides, instead of bringing to Tasmania any permanent prosperity. Still, the time of Tasmania may one day come, and she may yet be the Australian District of Columbia, although her rival the Albury district seems to have an even better chance of becoming the site of the Federal capital. Literature. Tasmania has had her novelist in Madame Couvreur, who, though of Flemish descent, and now married to a distinguished man in Belgium, has not forgotten her island home, and still writes pretty Tasmanian stories under the name of "Taenia." Madame Couvreur's Uncle Piper of Piper s Hill, the scene of which is laid in Victoria near Melbourne, is a colonial novel of much The merit. The large population of the towns as compared capital. w ith the sparse population of the rural districts is almost as noticeable in Tasmania as elsewhere in the colonies, Hobart and Launceston with their suburbs having be- tween them a third of the population of the colony. Hobart, with its lovely situation, at the foot of Mount TASMANIA 397 Wellington and on a magnificent sound, seems designed by nature for the meeting of the Federal Council, or of the Parliament of the British States of Australia, the headquarters station of the fleet, and the scene of the intercolonial yachting races. There was started not very long ago a movement in Tariff Tasmania for the annexation of the island to Victoria, que but it was commenced by men of no political responsi- bility, never entered the region of practical politics, and was repudiated by those who were most prominent in Tasmanian public affairs. The agitation died out before the question had been brought to the Parliament of either colony. The movement appears to have been a democratic effort in Tasmania to secure for the working- people of that island the popular advantages possessed by the workers of Victoria. Power in Tasmania is in the long-run held by the Conservative landowners, who look with no favour on the assimilation of the Tasmanian laws to those of the go-ahead colony upon the mainland. Tasmania has, however, followed the lead of Victoria in one respect, and has now a tariff which is substantially protectionist, although professedly free -trade. Tas- manians maintain that theirs is still a free-trade colony, and that their customs duties are imposed for revenue purposes only ; but they tax nearly all goods, and their duties would in England be considered heavy. Almost the only class of article which is now left untaxed in Tasmania is stock, which was formerly taxed, and the protectionist party in Tasmania is now chiefly engaged in trying to reimpose the stock-tax. There is a general disposition among those Tasmanians who deny that they as yet live under a protective system to admit that after Protection has won the day in New South AVales it will carry Tasmania also. As a fact, however, 398 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n equal protective duties will probably be imposed throughout the South-Sea Colonies as a result of con- federation upon the Canadian plan. Tasmania has a legislative peculiarity which is connected with this question of free trade and Protection. The colonial Government is empowered by law to contract inter- colonial-free-trade agreements with any of the other colonies. In spite of the possible loss of revenue under such a system Tasmania has attempted to come to an arrangement of the kind with Victoria, but as yet with- out success, although the matter was discussed in con- ferences between the colonies. Legislation I n addition to the legislative peculiarity already to keep out . . . i \ . indigent mentioned, and to the eccentricity from an Australian foreigners. • . r . i i • r point oi view ot a ratepaymg or property basis tor the parliamentary franchise, Tasmania has another legislative peculiarity which she copied from Victoria, and shares only with that colony and with New Zealand, and which is sufficiently interesting to be dealt with at length in my chapter upon Labour. By an Act to regulate the conveyance of passengers to the colony it is provided that if a passenger arrives in Tasmania who seems from any cause unable to support himself or likely to become a charge upon the public or on charity, the owner or master of the ship is required to execute a bond to pay to the colony all expenses which may be incurred within five years for the support of the passenger in question. On the other hand, Tasmania has not excited herself so much as the other colonies with regard to the imniigra- tion of Chinese. Taxation. The taxes in Tasmania include a graduated succession duty of the mildest possible description, the difference being only between 2 per cent on sums under £500 TASMANIA 399 (which in some colonies are exempted altogether) and 3 per cent over £500 ; so that property which in New Zealand might pay 13 per cent, in Tasmania cannot pay more than 3, and this duty is levied upon personalty only and not on land. It has existed for a great many years. The present Government tried to extend the duty to land, but failed. There is now, however, a duty of Jd. in the pound on the capital value of property, as an annual tax. There used to be a tax of 9d. in the pound on the assured annual value of land and on dividends from companies, but not on incomes from professions, or personal incomes from trade. The Govern- ment introduced a Bill providing for a more complete income-tax than the present ^d. in the pound property- tax which has succeeded the 9d. income-tax on land and companies, but the Bill did not pass, The Jd. in the pound on capital value produces a great deal more from land than used to be produced by the 9d. income- tax on property, for the latter was locally valued and habitually undervalued, whereas now property is valued upon a more scientific plan. The view of the present Government, I believe, is that the taxation of Tasmania is on an unsatisfactory footing. They think that the poor pay nearly all the taxes through the customs duties, and that the rich, through the lightness of the succession duty and the manner in which the property-tax is levied, escape nearly free. They proposed to tax all property, and I believe their Bill was carried through the Assembly, even on its third reading, but was afterwards dropped on account of its unpopularity with the conservative classes. Tasmanian education is compulsory and virtually Education. secular, and there appears to be no probability of the system being modified by changes favourable to denomi- 400 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n national schools. The Church party has, as in some of the other colonies, ceased as a body to make common cause with the Roman Catholics for a modification of the Act. Although education has been compulsory in Tasmania longer, I think, than in any other British possession, it is not yet free, though several members of the present Government are favourable to free schools. Tasmania has scholarships established by Government at the old English universities, although the system is, I believe, to cease at the end of 1890. They have existed for a great number of years ; in fact there was a Tasmanian Government scholar in residence at Cambridge when I was myself an under- graduate. Land There seems little tendency towards nationalisation of the land in Tasmania, but a scheme was lately proposed for " licensing " land in place of immediate sale. The land was to be let gratuitously for five years, and then, on certain improvements having been made, sold at half the present rates. This scheme was intended to check land jobbery, which is rife in the colony, but it was dropped on account of the loss of revenue to which it would have led ; for, although a large share of the revenue from land sales is spent on making roads to develop other lands, a good deal of the money still in fact goes into the governmental purse. Eight- As regards the eight-hour system the colony stands in much the same position as do the others in its neigh- bourhood. The eight -hour rule is observed, but not as yet enforced by law. A proposal to make eight hours a statutory day was rejected in the Tasmanian Parliament. Tasmanian Tasmania has no very marked political parties, and statesmen. . . J *- J - the Ministry, which was in office from 1884 to 1886, TASMANIA 401 was a coalition. While parties and principles are undefined the present Ministry may be said to lean towards Liberalism and free trade, and the Opposition towards the landed interest and Protection. Mr. Fysh, the Prime Minister, is a commercial man of good reputation, a supporter of Imperial Federation, and a personal favourite with all. He sits in the Upper House, and in this respect is peculiar among colonial Prime Ministers, for in the colonies it is almost impossible to lead Parliament from the Upper House. His Treasurer, Mr. Bird, leads the Assembly for him — a business man of good judgment ; and Mr. Andrew Inglis Clark, the Attorney-General, and one of the representatives of the colony on the Federal Council, supplies Liberalism and energy for the Government. Mr. Clark is a well-read man, of a somewdiat nervous temperament, owner of the best private library in the colony and of one of the best in the southern hemisphere, a great admirer of American institutions and litera- ture, and an anti-imperialist in his 0£>inions upon the future relations between the component portions of the Empire. Tasmania is the most conservative and the most English of all the Australian colonies both in its social habits and in its politics, and nothing startling has occurred there since the discovery of that great tin mine which is still the richest and most prosperous tin mine in the world. The new silver and lead mines are also productive, and gold and coal are beginning to be raised from Tasmanian mines. Tasmania has the free circulation of newspapers by Free eircu- post throughout the colony, as have the Dominion of news- Canada, which sends out sixty millions in a year, Queens- papeI land, New South Wales, and Western Australia ; but in railways. 402 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part 11 Tasmania and in Queensland newspapers may be also posted free, with the ordinary restrictions as to date of publication, even to the other Australian colonies, and Tasmania actually allows her newspapers to be sent free to so great a distance as the farthest portions of New Zealand. This is a point in which the colonies have not yet, I think, been imitated by any part of the old world. There is an agitation in Victoria either to follow suit or to make representations to the other colonies to charge postage, inasmuch as the effect of the present variation in practice has been to transfer some newspaper publish- ing offices from Melbourne to the colonies enjoying the absence of postal duty upon newspapers. Tasmanian Tasmania has had considerable difficulties with her railroads, and on various occasions the Tasmanian Main Line Railway Company prevented Tasmanian Govern- ment loans being quoted on the Stock Exchange, to the great indignation of the colony, wdio thought that the Company were asking for blackmail, and that the Stock Exchange was to blame for permitting the credit of the colony to be to some slight extent, if only temporarily, prejudiced at the instance of a joint-stock company, and had acted without hearing both sides. The matter has now been settled by a payment from the Govern- ment to the Company. The whole history of the Company, since its formation in 1870, only shows how much more desirable it is for the colonial Governments to adopt the policy, to which all the Australian colonies have now had resort, of making railways for themselves and managing them themselves, than it is for them to deal with companies, unless they are willing to leave the companies entirely unfettered. Tasmania guaranteed the interest upon the capital of the Main Line Company, and all the consequent trouble has been the result of WESTERN AUSTRALIA 4°3 this middle course. Tasmania has several railway systems. The Laimceston and Western Kailway is managed by Government, but the company retain an interest, inasmuch as they are to receive any profit above a certain income. The line from Emu Bay to Bischoff is a private and unguaranteed work. The Main Line Railway has been until lately, as I have said, in private hands, but guaranteed; and the other lines have been or are being constructed by Government itself. The debt of Tasmania (although recently increased Debt, and i -i • future of by one million) is still lighter per head of the population Tasmania, than that of any other Australasian colony, and Tasmania is still on the whole lightly taxed, while it is possible that there may be shortly a great development of her mineral wealth. The future of Tasmania, however, prob- ably lies in stock and horse raising, and perhaps in fruit, for she has the finest strawberries as she has the noblest thistles of the world. I ought not to pass away from Tasmania without naming the admir- able government of the colony by Sir Robert Hamilton, and the deserved popularity of the Governor and his wife. Although Western Australia might more fitly Dc ^ t i !™. v treated when I come to write on the Crown colonies, yet, as it is represented in the Australasian Federal Council, and as it is likely soon to receive responsible self-government, it must be mentioned here. Western Australia is the largest of the Australian colonies — very nearly the size of British India. It is less occupied by settlers than any other, and is, indeed, but sparsely peopled, while it has alienated up to the present time but a small portion of its lands. The people of New South Wales and Victoria are largely interested in 4 o4 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN Western Australia, having invested a good deal of money there. There is at present a double agitation on foot in this Crown colony : that for the division of the colony into either two or three separate colonies (which is advocated for much the same reasons as those which were originally put forward in Queensland by the northerners), and the agitation for responsible govern- ment As regards the first proposal, we are told that o-reat ignorance as to the Western Australian northern territory prevails at Perth. The northerners desire to continue to employ Asiatic labour, and for that purpose wish to continue to be a Crown colony when the South receives self-government. At the same time north-west Australia is very dry, and is swept both by squalls and hurricanes of such a nature that planting is carried on with difficulty. It would seem to have more future as a pastoral country and a gold country than as a sugar- planting country, and its pearl fisheries are important. The southern part of the colony contains much land suitable for peasant farmers, and is also likely to become a wine-growing district ; but there exists there a poison plant which has limited the use of the country for pastoral purposes. Respon- The colony, through its legislative body, has asked eramfnt!" for responsible government, but it has asked for it as " one and undivided," and has repudiated the cutting off of the northern territory, but under pressure from the Colonial Office consented to go so far as to concede that the new self-governing colony should not have the control of its lands which lie within the tropics. The difficulties in the way of granting responsible government have been, first and foremost, the handing over of such vast lands to so small a population ; secondly, the necessary reservation of power to make a portion of the territory chap, iv WESTERN AUSTRALIA 405 into a separate colony at a future time ; and, thirdly, the protection of the aborigines in the north. It is on the first point that the sharpest difference with the Home Government was manifest in the summer of 1889. The handing over of the lands, even in the degree proposed by the Colonial Office, means that an extremely small community, here as formerly in the other colonies, will obtain the right to sell them at any rates they please, and to go without taxation while they live upon their capital. They may, though it is most improbable, exclude English immigrants ; and this seems a large concession to make when we remember that there are only a little over forty thousand people in Western Australia ; that the colony contains a million square miles, of which a large part is valuable ; and that the country in which British immigrants could live lies in that half which even the Colonial Office proposed to give up to the new colony. As in Tasmania so in Western Australia, about a third of the population lives in two towns. When we consider that a vast amount of the terri- tory is as yet unexplored, there is much to be said for the view that the whole of these enormous land reserves ought not to be at once handed over to the Government of Western Australia. The right course would seem to be to divide the colony into east and west as well as into north and south, and to hand over a large tract of valuable lands to the new self-governing colony (which would contain the great bulk of the popu- lation), and leave the north and centre of the country as a Crown colony for a considerable time. Sir F. Napier Broome, the outgoing: Governor, admits that British immigrants cannot be introduced into the northern terri- tory, which alone the Colonial Office had reserved. The 406 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n difficulty in the way of making Crown colonies in the Australian north is that the democratic colonies, and especially Victoria and New South Wales, will imagine that this is being done for the purpose of giving them a lasting existence based upon a system of servile labour. Addresses will be voted unanimously from the Australian Assemblies, and public meetings will be held, and the doctrine of "Australia for the Australians" put forward as against such a scheme ; and the home Government may well shrink from adopting it, whether in the case of Western Australia, or in that of the Northern Terri- tory of South Australia, or in that of northern Queens- land. If we are not to adopt the policy of confining the colony within the limited area which has as yet to some extent been reached by settlement or exploration, and retaining the rest of the enormous territory of Western Australia for the present as a Crown colony, we have only two other courses before us. The one is to follow the traditions of our colonial policy, and grant to the colony (that is, to the few settlers scattered along the fringe of a territory the size of British India) control of the whole of these unknown lands, and power to exclude settlers without capital who might come from England. The other would be to take the course of hampering Western Australia, as a new self- governing colony, by statutory conditions, placing her under special restrictions not to exclude assisted immi- grants from England, which find no place in the consti- tutions of the other colonies. The earlier of these proposals I think I have shown to be unwise ; and the other is open to the fatal objection that the moment that such a condition had been put into the constitution, the Western Australians would exercise their ingenuity, chap, iv WESTERN AUSTRALIA 407 very soon successfully, to get rid of it. The Perth people already tell us that we are talking " nonsense " at home ; that the colony has attained to such a position as to make it just as impossible for English politicians to deal with it at their pleasure as it would be after responsible government had been granted. " Already they have lost all control over our public finances, and cannot, consequently, force upon us the care of immi- grants whom we do not want." The Western Aus- tralians are determined to have exactly that which the other colonies have obtained, and it is not easy to see how we are to defeat their wishes, as regards the part of Australia where they live, or with which they are acquainted. There is, however, a reasonable probability that, if the Western Australians are not too long thwarted in their wishes by the obstruction of their Bill, they will, warned by experience, avoid the repetition of the mistakes in land legislation which have charac- terised the past action of the other colonies, and especially of New South Wales. On the other hand, the fact that we have now discovered that we made a mistake in what a very able Victorian, Mr. Philip Mennell, has called " prematurely handing over to the other colonies the untrammelled ownership and administration of the local, or rather the imperial public estate," does not necessarily establish the wisdom of reversing our policy in the case of the last Australian Government which asks for respon- sible administration. Western Australia may possibly one of these days prove, under irrigation, to be the most valuable portion of the whole continent. She possesses the noblest forest of the finest class of tree, and she has in large portions of her territory a perfect soil. The climate is as healthy as any in the world, and the mining resources of the colony arc hardly PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN known at all, but geologically speaking seem likely to be great. Spare lands In the older colonies the best land has been sold or Australia™ is in process of alienation by a system of annual pay- fo?sdeuti d nients. In the whole British Empire there is not much fie coioni- i anc [ st £Q [ n t ] ie hands f the Crown except in Bechuana- satiou. x land, at present far out of reach, and in Western Australia. In these two spots alone is there good land in large quantities as yet within the control of the imperial Government, and it is a grave question what should be done with it. Believing as I do that the scientific system of colonisation which was applied in South Australia and in New South Wales and parts of New Zealand in the early days, in the form of modifica- tions of the Wakefield system, was a success, I should like to see some attempt made to plant portions of Western Australia upon a similar plan. In all the colonies there is an enormous margin between the price of the land as sold by Government and the land as resold by "land sharks" to settlers. There is in Western Australia a field for trying to obtain for Government the unearned -increment -value of the land. In giving responsible government to Western Australia we might, for the benefit of the future self-governing colony, survey the probable lines of railway and probable sites of towns, set aside these sites and reserve them, as well as the mineral lands, the forests, and the tracts on each side of the future railways, and then begin to let and sell good land in small blocks at a substantial price to actual cultivators, applying the proceeds to taking out selected emigrants of the most approved agricultural type. A district might be set aside for the creation of a self- governing colony with sufficient territory and resources to enable it to stand alone, and chap, iv WESTERN AUSTRALIA 409 the system which I advocate be applied to the remainder of temperate Western Australia, provided that we retain for the new colony that which Bechuanaland has not — a coast. It is easy to see the reasons for the failures which Land legis- have been made in the various Australian colonies in their dealings with the land, and it would not be difficult now, with the warning of their examples, to construct a better system than that which has prevailed in any, especially if the legislator were not hampered by the existence in the community of general ideas upon the theory of land legislation. It would probably be found impossible in any new community to absolutely refuse to sell land. The cry of " Unlock the land," which carried all before it in eastern Australia at one moment, would be, elsewhere as it was there, too strong to be resisted. The principle of "homestead legislation," such as that of the United States or of Canada, must be admitted, at all events to some extent. Immigrants of the right class and artisans who have made a little money must be allowed to obtain the freehold of blocks of land actually cultivated by them, free, or else by the Australian system of " deferred payments." Out-and- out sale to the highest bidder and alienation of the freehold of land upon a large scale can be resisted any- where, because an almost universal public sentiment comes in to back up the law, and the whole of the Australian colonies now regret the improvidence of their large land alienations. The system of the leasing of land as against that of sale can be applied, except as regards the small blocks parted with to actual cultivators of the soil ; but it will be necessary to introduce stringent measures to prevent the ultimate sale of the small blocks thus acquired. In Victoria, which of all the Australian vol. 1 2 E 410 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n colonies lias done most to facilitate the acquisition of land by agricultural holders, a great number of the holdings have after a while been bought up by capitalists. Leasing There can be little doubt that in the long run the combined .. . . with advantage to the community is all on the side of the system. system of leasing as against that of the sale of public lands. The State retains its national domain as a magnificent asset which increases in value from year to year, and, instead of a few individuals being enriched, the whole community gains. Other taxes become un- necessary in face of the rise of the State rents from lands. As has been ably shown in a work by Dr. Quick upon Victorian land tenure, the vast sums sunk in the purchase of land would under a rental system have been utilised in the employment of labour and the improve- ment of land. The public would have preserved for their use the best of the river and mountain scenery ; and the best of the agricultural land would support a large population instead of being, as is too often the case, given up to pasture only, while the agriculturists are driven on to the inferior lands. After the harm is once done there is no remedy except severe taxation to break up great estates, or laws prohibiting the ownership or transmission of lands of more than a limited area and value, which lead to a war of classes, whereas no one is harmed when the better system has existed from the first. Probably the best system on the whole for colonies is one of compromise, allowing -the sale of town freeholds, but confining freeholds as regards the country to the actual agricultural occupation of small blocks on a homestead system. Land under South Australia, owing to the plan upon which it was hi the' 1 10U originally planted, still has much more land under tillage cifonies! cultivation in proportion to its population than have any chap, iv WESTERN AUSTRALIA 411 of the other Australasian colonies, Tasmania standing next, at a great interval. The colony which stands third, namely, New Zealand, has a " homestead system " competing with those of Canada and of the United States and Queensland, but suffers from the denseness of her bush and the difficulty of clearing land. Fourth upon the list comes Victoria, which has made great legislative efforts to bring land out of pastoral and into agricultural occupation. New South Wales and Queensland have at present virtually no agricultural land, as compared with their pastoral holdings ; but Queensland is fighting hard, by means of a home- stead system, to improve her position ; and as the best land in Queensland becomes "peopled up," Western Australia will have a splendid chance for agricultural development. Like Tasmania, Western Australia now seems to Present have got over the convict blight. It is well governed western by a legislature containing sixteen elected members and A eight nominated by the Crown, and the management of its affairs by those nominated by the Colonial Office has been good. Its finance is sound ; its public works and education system excellent. Sir Napier Broome, the outgoing Governor, himself a colonist, Canadian -born and New Zealand trained, is a man of ability, but has a somewhat unyielding disposition, and he found himself provided with a Chief Justice of a similar temper. Com- plications arose in consequence which are to be deplored, but which are now at an end. Sir Napier Broome has been succeeded by that experienced Governor, Sir William Robinson, mentioned under South Australia, and who now comes to Western Australia for the third time. It is absurd to suppose that the present system can long continue, and it is time that we 412 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part ii completed provident arrangements with a view to the gradual conversion of the Government into a self- governing system, instead of delaying until we have to give up everything, and to transfer the whole territory in dispute, with all its immense natural resources, to a handful of people in order to save the shadow of a connection between the colony and ourselves. When the colony receives self-governing institutions, the Speaker of the Legislative Council, Sir James Lee Steere, and Mr. Forrest, the Surveyor -General, and former commander of the search expedition and of several exploring expeditions into the interior, are likely to be the leading men upon the Conservative side and in the new State itself at first. Sir James Lee Steere was in 1888 and in 1889, although representing a Crown colony, one of the most active and useful members of the Federal Council, and was indeed Chairman of its committees in both of these years. He has lately sug- gested the abandonment of the division of the colony proposed in the Bill of 1889, and substitution of a division by North and South, leaving between two- thirds and three-fourths of the colony, lying between the 120th degree (shown upon my map) and the South Australian boundary, in the charge of the mother- country. Thenegoti- In the negotiations which went on in the winter of ?espon- 0r 1888-89 with regard to the introduction of responsible sibie gov- government into Western Australia, the Secretary of eminent. ° J State argued in favour of the temporary creation of a new legislature consisting of a single elective chamber, and it was the influence of the Governor, Sir Napier Broome, and of his advisers, which caused the Colonial Office to change its mind and agree to the principle of two Houses for the new Constitution. But, on chap, iv WESTERN AUSTRALIA 413 the other hand, the colony suggested the power to pass Bills over the veto of the Council by a two- thirds majority of the Assembly — a proposal the necessity of which has been shown by the conflicts in New South Wales and in Victoria, and by the means taken to avoid them in South Australia, but to which the Government at home refused to assent. When responsible government and a large share Defence of Australian lands are conferred by us upon Western Australia, conditions should be made as to the part of the colony in the fortification and garrisoning of King George's Sound — a magnificent port, not only of ad- vantage to the Australian squadron and to the British fleet in case of war, but capable of being turned against us by an enemy if it were not strongly held. In 1885 two men-of-war had to be detailed for its defence — a complete reversal of the proper duty of a sea-going fleet. The defence of Kino- George's Sound is rather an Aus- tralian than either a British or a Western Australian interest, but hitherto the colonies and mother-country have not come to an arrangement sufficiently satisfactory to secure the certainty of its defence. Lying, as King- George's Sound does, upon the line of trade from Mel- bourne and Adelaide to the Suez Canal, its defence is as important to the southern colonies as is that of Torres Straits to Queensland. The Federal Council of Australasia at its first meetino; advised the immediate provision of local defence for both Torres Straits and King George's Sound. The Colonial Conference dis- cussed the matter, but were unhappily unable to come to a settlement, though it is to be hoped that it is now being privately arranged. The Fiji group, which also forms a Crown colony, Fiji. should be mentioned in this chapter for the same reason Zealand. 414 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part 11 which led me to write here of Western Australia, namely, that the colony is represented upon the Federal Council of Australasia. Some of the planters of Fiji are dis- satisfied with the existing government of the islands, and have made overtures to Victoria for annexation to that colony, to which, however, Victoria does not seem inclined to listen. The importance of the Fiji Islands arid also of British interests in Samoa will be increased after a canal has been made through the American isthmus — an engineeriDg feat which, even though the Panama Company may fail, may be accomplished at no very distant date. New The happy position of Australia, a country virtually without a native race — for the few thousands of savages, living entirely by the chase, and having nothing in the nature of settlements upon the soil, who were alone found in the southern portion of the Australian continent, can hardly be said to have constituted one — makes the greater portion of Australia a colonisation country such as is unknown elsewhere outside America. Australia, by climate, and by absence of a settled native population, falls exactly within the conditions which, in his essay on plantations, Bacon laid down for us speculatively as the best. We now have to consider the condition of another colony in the southern seas, able, if she chooses, to be represented on the Federal Council of Australasia, but widely different from the Australian colonies both in scenery and in the relations of the Government to the indigenous population. New Zealand in her northern island has a large population of the warlike and intelli- gent Maori race, and the serious wars which were carried on against these people have affected the political and financial position of the colony. There were no roads across the north island for a long time. Travel tection. „■;„- , .r<» ^ - ! /Tin. « uOvv. NEW HEBRIDES I? e NEW\ V. ^ --'■.■■■ LOYAWU ff ■ VM I "* is J BI*(SBAJil /* / h KEBMADEC B /ob **« dHowI. *« / r , \&t " ^vy> w - 1 - of Aus- that point. The Australian colonies in any matter in which the interests of Australia and of the far-detached New Zealand were different, would easily out-vote New Zealand on the Federal Council, and New Zealand de- sires to have a general control by her legislature of the applicability or non-applicability of Federal acts to the colony of New Zealand. It is a natural feeling, but one which might be satisfied, and yet New Zealand take part in the Federal Council. There is a good deal of feeling in New Zealand altogether opposed to Australas- ian federation, and favourable to Sir Julius Vogel's view that the only federation which would suit New Zealand interests in the Pacific would be Imperial Federation, and that it was a mistake on the part of England to press forward the Federal Council of Australasia. The Stout- Vogel Ministry pledged themselves at the time to the mistaken view that the Bill would remain a dead letter. The dominant feeling in New Zealand, however, is similar to that in the other colonies, namely, that it is contrary to the interest of colonies so distant from the mother-country to send statesmen to England with a man- date to say " Yes " or " No " for them. They believe that taxation or contribution must lie behind representation ; that the electorate of the United Kingdom would object to colonial interference unless the colonies w T ere to be A US TRA LA SI A 449 taxed. With regard to Australian or Australasian federation, the dominant New Zealand opinion is that customs union will have to be agreed to by New South Wales, with the change from a free-trade to a protective system, before it can become a reality. The Federal Council as it stands is little more than The a periodical conference of some of the leading statesmen ^^ of six out of the eight South-Sea colonies, New Zealand [t stands and the mother-colony standing out. In form it is one of the most dignified assemblies in the world, and when, in its first session, it had only eight members (South Australia having held back at the last moment), it never- theless rejoiced in oaths of allegiance, a Queen's Speech, an Address to the Crown, and an election of President conducted after the model of an election of a Speaker of the Commons of England. It forms a pleasant little Parliament which meets at eleven and generally sits till lunch, for its average sittings are indeed shorter than those of any other legislative assembly with which I am acquainted, except that equally dignified body, our own House of Lords. The Council can legislate directly with regard to the relations of Australasia with the Pacific, the fisheries in Australasian waters, the enforcement of the law by service of process beyond the colony in which it issues, as to extradition, and for preventing the influx of criminals. As regards defences, corporations, and joint- stock companies, the uniformity of weights and measures, as to patents, copyright, and bills of exchange, and all other matters as to which the colonies themselves can legis- late and which are of Australasian interest, the legislation has to be initiated by two colonies, and then the Acts of the Council extend only to the colonies by whose legisla- tures the matters have been referred to it. Some Acts are reserved for the signification of the Queen's pleasure : 45o PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n others are assented to by the governor of the colony in which the Council is held. Fuller It is all but certain that a fuller confederation, federation. , . .,, . , . when it comes, will come with customs union and with Protection at all the ports ; and the adoption of Protection by New South Wales would make the way clear for a customs union as far as Victoria is concerned. The Melbourne manufacturers would then have Australia or Australasia for their field ; but the manufacturers of New South Wales are protectionists of a different kind, and say that Protection against England would be of no great use to them without Protection against Melbourne also. The Victorians, they say, have had too long a start, and New South Wales would be swamped by their competition. It is possible, therefore, that owing to the split in the protectionist party throughout Australia, customs union and full confederation may be farther off in fact than at present would seem to be the case. Should the present negotiations for the formation of a fresh confederation on the Canadian plan break down by the resistance of the New South Wales free traders, and of those Australian protectionists who desire Protection against Victoria, it is difficult to forecast the probable drift of affairs when an enlarged Federal Council (for, as we shall see, it is to be at once enlarged) comes to consider the creation of a Federal Parliament and a Federal Executive. It is in this case probable that in a year or two tentative steps will be taken by the Federal Council pointing towards the creation of such a Parliament and Executive, but, even when a move in this direction is made, three or four years will probably be consumed in negotiation before much comes of it. It will be proposed that the new Par- liament and Executive should deal with trans -conti- AUSTRALASIA 45 1 nental telegraphs, with cables, with defence, and inter- colonial questions. Then will arise the question of common tariff, and the probability, in my opinion, is that a common tariff will gradually be adopted, but with a vague understanding that the federation would be willing to admit New South Wales for other purposes even if she refused to give up her free-trade tariff. It will doubtless be urged that border tariffs should be reduced by degrees until altogether removed. It is not unlikely that New South Wales may be forced by cir- cumstances into the federation, for she will feel a loss of weight and importance if ten times as much Austra- lian soil is under the federation as is under the flag of New South Wales, and obstruction will be thrown in her way upon border questions if she stands out. When in the beginning of 1889 the statesmen of New South Wales made private overtures to the other colonies, pointing in the direction of the creation of a Federal Parliament and Executive, they wished the primacy of New South Wales, as the mother-colony, in some way to be recognised ; a suggestion which was not adopted. At the meeting, when it came, and came at Melbourne, the Prime Minister of Victoria was in the chair. The acquisition of a fuller form of federation in Australasia, difficult as it is of attainment, will, however, be an easy matter as compared with the difficulties which were faced in carrying out the creation of the Dominion of Canada. The difficulty of dealing with Australasia as a number of disunited states is great, and the refusal of Queensland to ratify the compact made at the Colonial Conference of 1887, concerning the Australian naval squadron, undid a portion of the work of the Conference, and prevented much of the benefit which would otherwise have arisen from its labours. The existing union of all the Australian States 452 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n except New South Wales hardly improves matters, because New South Wales objects to that which is done in the name of the other colonies, and vice versa. Sir Henry Parkes has now shown himself conciliatory in form, and although no doubt it is difficult to justify his past upon this question, still it is so much to be wished that the close federation which he proposes should be brought about, that, if Victoria can pocket her feelings as to New South Wales now taking the initiative, it is to be hoped that the overtures of Sir Henry Parkes may be accepted. Whoever may have been in the wrong as regards history, Victoria should not put herself in the wrong as regards the present and future, by holding out upon questions of mere form. Sir Henry Parkes has met her Protectionist Government by declar- ing publicly that the blessings of free trade are small as compared with the advantages of Australian federation upon Canadian lines, though he said in the same speech that tariff questions might possibly be left aside. The work- The actual working of the Federal Council as it resell 116 exists is a matter of some interest. The Federal Council council. wag m 188 9 attended for the first time by representatives from South Australia, and the advocates of Australian federation received the representatives of South Aus- tralia with a warmth that is explained by the high character of Mr. Playford, by sympathy with the South Australian proposals for reform in the constitution of the Federal Council, and by joy at the isolation of New South Wales having become all but complete by the tardy adhesion of South Australia. It is a curious fact that the colonies which were the first to come into the federation— Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania, and Western Australia — were all geographically separate from one another ; but the adhesion of South Australia AUSTRALASIA 455 lias brought in a colony which has a common land frontier with every other colony on the Australian continent. Mr. Playford of South Australia was proposed by Sir Samuel Griffith and seconded by Mr. Gillies, for the Chair. The business of the Council was opened by a Speech from the Governor of Tasmania, as it met at Hobart. and Mr. Deakin moved an address in reply to the Speech, stating in the course of his powerful speech that he looked forward to a Federal Parliament. Mr. Kingston of South Australia and Sir Samuel Griffith, who sup- ported Mr. Deakin's motion, also pointed to a Federal Parliament in their speeches, but Sir Samuel Griffith appeared to object to the introduction of the tariff question, that is, to any opening of the question of a customs union. The leader of the Queensland Opposition indeed contended that Australian federation was possible even though there should continue to be separate customs tariffs for the various states, and maintained that the advantages of union in one dominion, for other purposes of Government, would outweigh the inconveniences of this arrangement. The Bills considered by the Council concerned com- panies and fisheries, but the Bills were not so im- portant as the addresses and the resolutions. A committee of the whole Council was appointed at the instance of South Australia, which had joined the Council with this intention, to consider the subject of its enlargement and reform ; but difference of opinion at once arose as to whether each self-governing colony should send the same number of members or whether representation should be proportional to population. There was also a difference as to the mode of nomination or election of the members. The final decision was that colonies should have representatives according to 454 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n population up to six, and that they should be left to devise their own system of election. The Victorian, Queensland, and Tasmanian legislatures have since agreed to the proposed enlargement of the Federal Council, but South Australia has again drawn back. The Pacific cable was discussed, as was the invest- ment of English trust funds in colonial securities ; and an address was voted to the Queen, in accordance with a suggestion by Mr. Deakin, as to the affairs of the Pacific, he pointing out that it was of vast im- portance to Australasia to save Samoa from annexation by Germany, that it was a station for the Pacific cable and was on the track of commerce in the event of the opening of a canal through the American isthmus. The policy of insisting on the preservation of Samoan inde- pendence and the maintenance of treaties was put for- ward, and an address to the Queen was telegraphed home. A curious constitutional question in reference to the Council was raised when, Mr. Gillies having submitted a motion requesting the President to telegraph to the Secretary of State for the colonies, Sir Samuel Griffith contended that the message should be sent through the Governor of Tasmania. A motion to telegraph direct to the Colonial Secretary was however carried. It was then decided to have the next meeting again in Hobart, although Brisbane had been suggested. Between this third meeting of the Federal Council, presided over by Mr. Playford, and the second, presided over by Sir Samuel Griffith, there had been only one year : but between the second and the first meeting, presided over by Mr. Service, there had been a two years' gap. The Queensland Government sent to the Federal Council members taken from both sides of their Assembly, in the persons of the present Secretary for Works and chap, iv AUSTRALASIA 455 Mines and the late Prime Minister. Although the delegates cany weight, the Council as a whole is crippled by want of powers, and the session of 1889 was the first in which the Council felt a sense of the reality of its existence. In a matter like the Samoan question it can speak with more dignity than could a single colony, and it is showing a tendency to become a useful kind of Court of Appeal in colonial politics, but as yet it is a mere germ. At the last meeting, that of 1889, a motion was carried to the effect that the Council contemplated the early consideration of the question of Australasian parliamentary federation, and it was this action by the Council which led, firstly, to private representations, afterwards to public speeches by Sir Henry Parkes, and finally to the Melbourne meeting of February 1890. The Chambers of Commerce were discussing at their The meeting held at the same city and at the same time f com- 1 " the same questions as those discussed by the Federal merce ' Council. Mr. Service made them a fine speech in favour of a federal legislature, and it was most excellently received. Uniformity of commercial legislation was aimed at by the members ; but there was no such unanimity with regard to tariff legislation, which divided the delegates almost equally. It was urged on the one side that customs union would secure political concord, which was not possible so long as chance majorities could suddenly inq)ose restrictions upon the trade of neighbours, and on the other side little was said ; but the voting, as has been stated, was nearly equal. The congress, however, was more free trade and less protec- tionist than the electorates, representing as it did the mercantile classes and not the working people. The question whether the intercolonial federal move- imperial t r unity. ment is a step towards or a step away from imperial 456 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n unity is a very difficult one. Lord Knutsford is of opinion that it is a step towards union, and that, while we could never deal with the colonies one by one, we can deal with three or four great groups. I am bound to say myself that I do not see a probability of any long step in the direction of imperial unity being taken by the Australasian colonies. So far as there has been a change in the last two years the movement has been the other way, and the younger men are not so favourable to the imperial idea, taking the colonies through, as are their elders. Mr. Deakin's name for the future Federal continent with its islands — "The United States of Australasia " — has a somewhat independent ring. Thepossi- If a real union, with a true Federal Parliament, ISduiln were established among the whole of the Australian trailer" colonies (without New Zealand), I think that, looking to colonies, their varying size and resources, and to the probability that a federal legislature would not be set up without a re-division of some colonies, federation would not rest upon so real a basis as it does in the case of the old states of the United States, or in the case of Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Quebec. Attempts would be made to change federation into a closer union, and the geographical character of Australia undoubtedly makes that closer union easy. Indeed there is no cause which operates against it except the mutual jealousy of Sydney and Melbourne, which might be avoided by fixing the capital at Albury or at Hobart. On the other hand, New Zealand and Fiji are within the scope of the present confederation, and the difficulty of converting that partial federation, or in other words, the federation of an Australasia, from which the representatives of New South Wales and New Zealand are still absent, into a closer union is immense. AUSTRALASIA 457 The term Australasia was formerly often used for Australia with Tasmania and New Zealand, and is now used for these countries with the addition of Fiji, as for example in the proceedings under the Federal Council Act. In popular parlance Austral- asia now includes even British New Guinea, and there is power in the Federal Council Act to include within federal Australasia such colonies and other territories as the Queen may from time to time declare by Order in Council to be within the operation of the Act. Although I retain the objections which I stated in Greater Britain to the word "Australasia," it has now so thoroughly established itself as a con- venient term for the southern colonies of New Zealand, Tasmania, and the Australian continent (not to speak of its official use for these with the addition of Fiji), that it would be affectation on my part to refuse to employ it in this work. The word Australasia suggests, however, the probability of a union never in my opinion likely to be brought about in a close form. The Australian con- tinent is so large that maps which include Melanesia and Polynesia make distances seem small. But New Zealand is at an immense distance from Australia, and Fiji from both. From good harbour to good harbour, from Wellington to Sydney, New Zealand and Australia are separated by as great a distance as divides London from Pskof, or Paris from the Arctic circle. French New Caledonia is much nearer to Australia than is New Zealand ; and the political connection of the various parts of Australasia is hardly closer than the geographical, because New Zealand seems determined not to become " a dependency of Australia." Still, the commercial connection of both Australia and New Zealand with the smaller Polynesian islands is a growing one, and Austral- vol. i 2 H 458 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n asian influence is likely to dominate the South Pacific. There has, indeed, been, as we have seen, of late a movement in the direction of closer union between New Zealand and Australia, and it has been brought about by French and German intrusion in the Pacific ; this action having raised up a conjoint movement in the colonies, and led the New Zealand Agent-General in London to work with his Australian colleagues not merely as the High Commissioner of Canada does, or the Agent- General of the Cape, but as an actual member of the same league. My view, then, is that a close union among the Australian colonies proper is difficult, but probable ; that a loose federal union between Australia and New Zealand is possible ; but that an absolute union or very close confederation of Australia and New Zealand is not possible. imperial While I cannot but doubt if New Zealand will come "' in to the young Australian nation, I have little doubt that such a nation will be brought into existence, and this on the base of an alliance with ourselves, rather than of Imperial Federation. The best friends of the mother-country in the colonies hold that the attempt to create a common imperial Parliament would of itself destroy the empire ; and I agree with them that if we are ever to have a council of the empire it will have to be very unlike a Parliament. Australian opinion generally is, just at present, more apathetic than is even Canadian, with regard to what in England is called Imperial Federation. If it were supposed that it stood the slightest chance of adoption, apathy would be turned into dislike ; but it is impossible to induce people in England to believe this unless they will take a good deal of trouble for themselves. While, however, the only kind of imperial unity possible will be in the AUSTRALASIA 459 nature of a union upon equal terms between self-govern- ing states, it would be difficult to arrange this without a considerable increase in the power of the Crown, and it is somewhat doubtful whether the electors of the United Kingdom would agree to such a scheme. The Australasian colonies are the most democratic communi- ties that the world has seen, and the United Kingdom is very rapidly becoming equally democratic ; and an alliance of democracies is not so easy to handle as an alliance of military German states in which one is far more powerful than the others. Still, with the strong sentimental feeling that prevails, and with the close imitation in the colonies of the ways of the mother- country, and also with the ties of interest that exist, union may confidently be expected to be preserved at present, and until it will have a chance of gradually ripening into alliance upon equal terms. In a few years the Australasian colonies will have nothing to fear even from the greatest military powers. A scheme for military federation of the Australian colonies is already on foot, and its efficiency, as it grows, will be used as a lever to bring New South Wales into the confederation, even if the present negotiations should break down. There is already, in common inspection, a vestige of common command, and this is popular. When the Australian colonies are all confederated, and their population has grown still greater, their combined strength will be able to withstand, even unaided by us, the attack of any expedition which could be sent against them ; but for the moment this is not so, and there is a practical argument for the connection on grounds of safety. When that has gone, when the connection rests mainly upon sentiment, it may still last indefinitely. It is conceivable that, with our growing detachment from 460 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part n Continental affairs, and with a continuation of the reign in Kussia of peaceful emperors, we may escape war for a great period, even until the population of Australasia and her strength exceed the present strength and population of the United States. If facts are fairly faced, the chief Australasian colonies already stand to us in the virtual relation of friendly allied nations speaking our tongue, and the Governor and the Secretary of State for the Colonies have not so much political influence at Melbourne as have Prince Bismarck and the German Ambassador at the Quirinal. The colonies have their own land forces ; protect, when they please, their manufactures against our trade ; we do not inter- fere with them in any way. They obtain in other parts of the world the services of all the diplomatic, consular, and military agents of Great Britain without contributing to their cost, and those are relations which for some time to come will still form an inducement to the colonies to remain with us. In the event of a war they are already too strong to be touched if we were with them, and the argument that they would be harried and plundered in a cause of which they knew nothing, and with regard to which they had not been consulted, is not valid. Austral- Our colonies in the South Seas have known great conclusion, vicissitudes. All of them have suffered from waves of adversity or depression, but there was never a moment, taking the colonies together, when their position as a whole was not better than it had been in previous years. While the eyes of on-lookers have been fixed on droughts, the destruction of flocks, and political dead- locks causing financial stagnation, the people have been placed in increasing numbers upon the land, wages have remained high, the investment of the earnings AUSTRALASIA 461 of the workers in the colonies themselves has steadily increased, and now it may be said that, as compared with the past, political peace reigns in the Australasian colonies, and that financial confidence in their future has returned to the most timid. The external trade of these southern colonies, with their trifling population, already exceeds that of the United Kingdom at the time of the accession of the Queen. In a generation the Australasian population will be greater than was that of the mother - country at that time, and the colonies will be stronger than we are now in potential military strength. They will have discovered the means, by boring, by irrigation, and by water-storage, of making almost all their soil fertile. They may, by that time, have exasperated a small class at home by special and severe legislation directed against capitalists and absentees ; but even this will affect but a small number of persons, and will leave the great public untouched. The funds of the Australasian colonies will advance in price both with federation and with the concession of the privilege of being included in the list for lesral trust investment. The character and ability of the colonial statesmen are already such as to show that, in the affairs they may conduct with us, prudence will be at least as likely to be enlisted on the colonial side as upon that of the mother-country ; and, whatever happens with regard to our relations, we are now certain to find in Australia and New Zealand countries of which our sons will be proud. J ) PAKT III SOUTH AFKICA CHAPTER I THE CAPE Between the Australian colonies and the South African Differences between the colonies of England there are some considerable resem- Cape and blances and two startling differences, political and social. The resemblances are chiefly those of climate, soil, and production. Australia and South Africa are dry, wool- growing, grape -growing, gold-producing countries, in parts of which English consumptive patients, if they avoid exposure to dust, receive new life. The main differences are two. While Australia is a continent settled and almost solely inhabited by natives of the United Kingdom, South Africa is a Dutch colony which we first conquered in the Statholder's name from his soldiers; then conquered a second time, and lastly bought; all three against the will of the local Dutch population. A struggle followed, resulting in actual warfare with the settlers. In the second place, South Africa is a country with an overwhelming- preponderance of black people. In Quebec we have seen a foreign population annexed through conquest, who have become the strongest supporters of our rule ; but in Lower Canada, and indeed throughout the Dominion, as throughout Australia, the native difficulty does not exist. In the Cape we have the double diffi- culty presented by a foreign white population outnum- politician 466 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part 1 11 bering the English, and a so-called " native" population (which, however, consists largely of Kafir black invaders who have helped the Dutch to crush the former people of South Africa — the Bushmen and Hottentots) vastly outnumbering both together. Our difficulties at the Cape and in Natal are in some sense similar to the difficulties of the French in Algeria, but they are at the Cape more formidable. In Algeria the French are the dominant race, as against the Italian and Spanish colonists, as we are dominant in Natal against the Dutch and the Germans ; but in the western province of the Cape our difficulties are those of the French in Algeria combined with those of the Canadian Dominion in Quebec. cape As it is necessary, in considering the present and future of the Cape, first to look towards the Dutch or preponderant white element, it is no wonder that I must notice as the most remarkable and interesting figure among Cape politicians Mr. Hofmeyr, the leader of the Dutch party. Hitherto he has not sought office, although for a few months he was Minister without portfolio in Sir Thomas Scanlen's Cabinet. At the present moment he has the making and the unmaking of Ministries in his hands, and has gained the respect of all parties in the colony. He leads in Parliament a body consisting of about half the Lower House, and is supposed to dictate the policy of the present Government, though in 1889 a rift upon the railway question began to be seen among his Dutch supporters. Under his leadership the Afrikander party has shown loyalty to the British Crown, and Mr. Hofmeyr himself is an imperialist who has even gone so far as to draw up a scheme of his own for a customs union of the British Empire. There are, however, those chap, i THE CAPE 467 who think that Mr. Hofmeyr plays a part. I am not one of them, and I feel sure that so able a politician knows that the United Kingdom must hold Cape Town, and that, if in her days of weakness she should wish to leave it, the Australians would not allow it to pass into the hands of Germany or of an Afrikander power which might become unfriendly to themselves. Sir Thomas Upington is perhaps in England the best known of Cape politicians. An Irish Roman Catholic, he went to South Africa for his health, after having been private secretary to Lord O'Hagan, and at once made his mark, becoming Attorney-General in the first Sprigg Ministry between two and three years after his landing in the colony. Sir Thomas Upington is a brilliant speaker, who pro- fesses strong imperialist opinions. In 1884 he formed a Ministry, but two and a half years later resigned, on private grounds, the leadership of the Government to Sir Gordon Sprigg, whose Attorney -General he then became for the second time. Sir Gordon Sprigg is an Englishman by birth, the son of an East -Anglian dissenting minister, a politician of probity, whose opponents impute to him not only gross want of tact, but also arrogance and pride of office, although his demeanour appears singularly modest. He may be classed as an opportunist, for he has changed his policy a good deal on Dutch and native questions in the last few years. He is a Parliamentarian, who thinks that Ministries should defer to the majorities by which they are supported, and as feeling in the colony becomes more " Dutch " his policy becomes more Dutch, though his personal sentiments are what are known in South Africa as "English." Another remarkable figure in the colony, as popular in South Africa as he was once popular at Oxford, is that of Mr. Rhodes, of 468 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part in diamond -mine fame. I believe that, though of old English family, he may be said to have sent himself to Oriel College, Oxford, after he had been for some time in Africa. When he first took to politics, in Griqualand West, which was during a pause in his English undergraduate career (afterwards resumed and terminated in the usual way), he belonged to the anti- Dutch party, but he has modified his views with the lapse of time. His wealth in itself makes him a con- siderable power in South Africa, where there have until lately been but few rich men, and although his official experience has been short, he was Treasurer-General of the colony for seven weeks in 1884, and might be a Minister to-day if he cared to be one. " The Diamond King," as this modest strong gentleman hates to be called, is a man of common sense, w T ho loudly proclaims the excellent principle that Dutch and English should work together for the welfare of South Africa. Mr. J. X. Merriman is perhaps the most cultured of Cape politicians, and was till lately the real leader of the anti-Dutch Opposi- tion. The son of Bishop Merriman of Grahamstown, his traditions are thoroughly English, but he is modifying his sentiments in the Dutch direction. His supporters say that this view of his opinions is only based on an "electioneering speech," but in 1889 he was the prime mover in a friendly invitation to the A^olksraad of the Transvaal to visit the gold mines of Johannesburg, an invitation which w T as accepted with the best results, and in October 1889 he supported the annexation of Swaziland to the Transvaal. Both Mr. Merriman and Sir Thomas Scanlen are now interested in Transvaal mines, and the former now supports Dutch influence in Swaziland in return for concessions to the British element in the Transvaal. chap, i THE CAPE 469 In June 1889 Sir Henry Loch was appointed Gov- sir Henry ernor of the Cape in place of Sir Hercules Kobinson, and, Loch " while I shall have later on to discuss the policy of the outgoing Governor, I need say little of his successor after the full description which I have given of his character and personality, and of the reasons of his popularity, in my account of the colony of Victoria, from which he came directly to the Cape. In the colony officially known as the Cape of Good The Dutch Hope, as in Canada, the language of the people that ansuai we conquered is allowed to be used in the legislature. The English party point out, however, that, while in Lower Canada French was always made use of, in the Cape Dutch was not used until lately. Generally speaking, it may be said that there is no portion of the British Empire outside Great Britain in which past history is to a greater extent reflected in the circumstances of the present day than at the Cape. Roman- Dutch law is still in force, and Dutch ideas regulate the decision of most social as well as of most political questions. Indeed no adequate under- standing of South African problems can be arrived at without some knowledge of the course of events which have affected that part of the Dark Continent since the landing of the Dutch at the Cape nearly 240 years ago, and the formation of the Netherlands India Company. Other historical events which have left a deep trace French in the present state of the Cape of Good Hope are the larp-e immigration of the French Huguenot refugees in the seventeenth century, and the arrival of the Moravians in the eighteenth ; while in the present century the migra- tion of Dutch farmers towards the north, some fifty years ago, has been a dominant factor in producing the situation 470 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part in of to-day. The tenacity with which the South African Boers clung to a dialect founded on the Dutch, caused the French language, introduced into South Africa by the Protestant immigrants who settled in the colony after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, to vanish in the course of two generations. Though the large influx of culti- vated people of another race has greatly influenced Cape Colony, the total disappearance of the French language is somewhat remarkable, because the Huguenot refugees were not only of a higher class, socially, intellectually, and industrially speaking, than the Dutch colonists, but were strongly attached to the special forms of faith for holding which they had been forced to leave Europe. This feeling might have been thought sufficient to have preserved the use of the French tongue, at all events in the churches they set up in their new homes ; but strong determination on the part of the Dutch prevented this result. Not only was it ordained by Their Mightinesses the India Company that Dutch was to be the one lan- guage allowed in courts of law or in public transactions, but all religious services were ordered to be conducted in Dutch alone. There are old churches now standing in the vine- growing districts of the Western Province — churches and vines alike planted there by the French immigrants — whose archives may be seen written up to a certain date in French, and subsequently, with extraordinary suddenness and completeness of change, universally entered in Dutch. Nothing now remains of the French tongue in South Africa but family names, and these are often mispronounced. Through- out Cape Colony and the two Dutch republics are constantly met the patronymics of du Plessis, du Toit, Joubert, and de Villiers. Sometimes it is imagined that the French type is displayed in the features of the chap, i THE CAPE 471 descendants of the Huguenots : but the two races are inextricably allied by intermarriage, and there are few indeed, if any, South African Dutch, whether their names be French or Dutch, who have not French Huguenot blood in their veins. In some names the French pro- nunciation and accent are preserved, as in the case of " Joubert." General Piet Joubert, the well-known com- mandant of the Transvaal forces, tells a story of a visit to Paris, when the keeper of the column of the Place Vendome, who for the benefit of tourists speaks English, said to him doubtfully, " There cannot be a Joubert who is not a Frenchman ? " On the other hand, the name of Villiers, which is borne by that most distinguished Afrikander, the Chief Justice of Cape Colony, is com- monly pronounced by the Dutch neither according to the French nor the English mode, but as if it were written "Filjee." The French language has had scarcely any influence at the Cape in modifying the Dutch as regards the incorporation of new words ; but the sudden disuse of their own tongue by a large section of the inhabitants was one of the most powerful causes of the breakdown of the imported Dutch language, and the institution in its place of the dialect which has become the chief medium of communication in South Africa. The question of the use of Cape-Dutch in Cape Colony ^ c ^ e ; is one which has often been brought prominently to the front in recent years. The opponents of Cape-Dutch frequently quote the policy of the Netherlands India Company in the early days of the colony as a precedent to show that the language of the dominant power should be the sole official language of a colony. Questions of this kind, however, are not settled by precedent : the attitude of the early Dutch Govern- 472 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part in merit towards the French tongue cannot determine the expediency of a policy in the present day. One of the causes of the migration northward of Dutch farmers fifty years ago was the substitution of the English for the Dutch language in courts of law. Nowadays, every Bill laid on the table of the House of Assembly is printed in Dutch as well as in English. The sessional Acts have long been published in both languages, for this course had been found necessary for the sake of the Field-Cornets who have to carry out the laws. The votes and proceedings are printed in Dutch as well as English, but the House has not yet recognised the universal use of the two languages. In July 1889 it was proposed by a member of Huguenot name, but of Dutch speech, that the Estimates should be printed in Dutch, and he was supported by the whole Opposition, and a good deal of strong language was used ; another gentleman of Huguenot descent, who pointed out that very few of the papers were read, and that the charge on the revenue would be increased by the proposed change, was called a " Boer-hater," while the advocates of the suowestion were described as "Bondsmen" — a satirical reference to members of the Afrikander Bond. The question was raised whether " Mr. Speaker " was to be called in future "Mynheer Speaker," as at present by Dutch members, or " Mynheer Voorzitter." The curious debate ended by the adoption of an amendment, moved by Mr. Hofmeyr, referring the choice of papers to be printed in Dutch to a committee. The anti-Dutch party have denounced Lord Kimberley's changes as retrograde measures, prejudicial to education and to progress, and it is certain that the use of Dutch in Parliament has allowed a somewhat less cultivated body of Dutch farmers to enter its walls than sat there formerly. It does not chap, i THE CAPE 473 seem likely, to judge from the experience of the last seven years, that the partial use of Dutch in Parliament will oust the English language from debate, or much impede the spread of English culture. It is possible that some of the more backward of the Dutch party supported the use of their tongue in Parliament in the hope that Dutch might again become the paramount language of the colony ; but a concession in this matter is not likely to have any other marked effect than that of conciliating the powerful Afrikander party. It is not in the Cape as in Quebec, where the English element, trifling even a generation ago, daily becomes propor- tionally less. In the Cape the English language seems likely to hold its own, and even the conservative Dutch Church is considering the policy of permitting the use of English in its services. Assisted immigration brings in English people, and while German immigrants come into the colony in large numbers even without assistance, Hollanders, who would be assisted if they would come, decline to do so. It is often said that there are three kinds of Dutch " Kitchen Dutch. spoken in Cape Colony — pure Dutch, kitchen Dutch, and Hottentot Dutch. Except in the pulpit pure Dutch is rarely heard, just as pure French in the Channel Islands is almost confined to ecclesiastical use ; and were it not for the Dutch version of the Holy Scriptures pure Dutch would become extinct in Cape Colony. When leave is given to use a particular tongue in a given place, who is to judge whether that speech is used ? Permission to use Dutch in Parliament already covers a Dutch which Hollanders do not recognise. Would permission to use English at Pekin cover " pigeon " ? Even in the pulpits of the Cape young ministers who have been educated in Holland find that vol. i 2 I The Afrit ander Bond. 474 PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part hi they lose somewhat of their hold upon their congrega- tions if they address their hearers in language which would pass at Leyden. The common speech of the country consists of that wdiich the farmers use in talking to one another — kitchen Dutch — and that in which they speak to their servants — Hottentot Dutch. The Hotten- tots indeed have no other language than Hottentot Dutch ; scarcely any trace of their native tongue exists, and their children speak a Dutch dialect as soon as they speak at all. There is a well-known newspaper published in the colony which claims to be the organ of the Afrikander Bond, and it is written in a dialect which is only with difficulty recognised, I am told, as Dutch in Holland. The Dutch Boers are the most conservative community in existence. The backward portion of them sincerely disbelieve in the advantages of education, and their sluggish temperament adds to their indisposition to learn anything ; but circumstances are too strong all the world over for conservatism of this type. The develop- ment of the railway system and the opening up of the mineral wealth of South Africa are beginning to shake the supremacy of the Dutch language. There are still constituencies in Cape Colony where a candidate who could speak English only would be cut off from all means of communication with the electors ; but, on the other hand, in the Dutch Kepublic of the Transvaal, where Dutch is the only language officially recognised, there are large districts in which the English are in a vast majority over the Dutch. I have two or three times mentioned the Afrikander Bond, which is often spoken of in England as though it were an organisation of disaffection to the British Crown. Its origin, no doubt, dates from a period when the Boers of South Africa, as well within Cape Colony chap, i THE CAPE 475 as beyond the Orange River, were ill-disposed towards British rule ; but the present constitution and aims of the Afrikander Bond are, I think, much misrepresented here at home. It must always be remembered that the South African Dutch are a people of farmers, and that the question of English versus Boer is also a question of urban as against agricultural population. About 1878 a number of organisations were formed throughout Cape Colony, the object of which was exclusively to watch over the interests of the farmers, and for this purpose to take part in Parliamentary elections. In 1879 an organisation was set on foot which professed to have wider aims, in embracing white South Africans of all callings and of all races, the only avowed qualification of membership being a home feeling for South Africa, combined with a determination to unite to secure the prosperity of the country. In 1880 the organisation received the name of the Afrikander Bond, its chief men at that time being a Dutch clergyman, a Dutch judge in Cape Colony, and a German journalist in the Free State. In the early days of the Afrikander Bond a large proportion of the members sympathised warmly with the revolt of the Transvaal against British annexa- tion, but this feeling wore off with peace. Branches were established throughout Cape Colony and the Free State, and in 1882 a congress w T as held of a hundred delegates, which took into consideration anions other © ' © matters the existence of the sister organisation — the Farmers' Protection Association — side by side with the Afrikander Bond. In 1883 a union between the two bodies was effected, and the association has since grown in strength and is said to number 4000 members. The © Bond was influential in procuring the official use of the Dutch language, and at this moment, as I have said, the Boucl. 476 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part in the Dutch party in the Assembly, under Mr. Hofmeyr, sometimes called " the uncrowned King of the Cape," can make and unmake Ministries. The present Cabinet contains only one gentleman of Dutch origin, but it is for all that virtually a Ministry carrying out a " Dutch policy " by the support of Mr. Hofmeyr, and doing so, in my belief, to our advantage. Objects of The object of the Afrikander Bond, as explained in one of the sections of its general constitution, is the formation of a South African nationality, by means of union and co-operation, as a preparation for the ultimate object — a united South Africa. "The Bond tries to attain this object by constitutional means, giving to the respective Governments all the support to which they are entitled." At the Congress of the Bond in 1888 the President declared that its object was a united South Africa under the British flag; but at the meeting of 1889, while " united South Africa " was repeated, nothing was said about the flag. The official programme of the national party professes the desire for the establish- ment of a firm union between the various European nationalities ; proclaims the principle of opposition to outside interference with the domestic concerns of South Africa, and that of religious freedom ; and protests against frivolous interference with the " free influence of the Gospel upon national life," or with the Sunday day of rest, while it insists that in all their actions the Govern- ments shall take account of " the Christian character of " the South African people. It must certainly not be supposed that there is now any sharp conflict between the Dutch Afrikander Bond and the English minority. There are Englishmen who take an active part in the Bond, as there are Englishmen who are elected by Dutch constituencies. There have been from time to chap, i THE CAPE 477 time signs that the Bond is desirous of displaying loyalty to the British Crown. During the celebration of the Queen's Jubilee in Cape Colony, at no place was the day kept more heartily than at The Paarl, the headquarters of the Bond, where its Dutch newspaper, the Patriot, is .published. Every house was illuminated, and a park was presented to the town by public subscription, raised among an almost entirely Boer population. There can, I think, be no doubt that the Afrikander The policy Bond party is more loyal to British rule at the present Hercules time than it was shortly after the annexation of the Robmson - Transvaal. The attitude of Sir Hercules Eobinson — one of the wisest of colonial governors, to whom injustice was done at home in May 1889 by the attention called to a garbled report of his farewell speech on leaving Cape Town for home after a rule of nearly nine years — no doubt conciliated the Dutch, and the recent policy met with the approval of most responsible politicians at the Cape. In so saying I am, as usual, attempting not to indicate my own individual preference, but rather to state colonial facts from a colonial standjDoint. The policy of Sir Hercules Robinson was to act as Governor of the Cape on strictly constitutional lines, that is, on the opinion of the Cape Parliament as expressed to him through the Cape Ministers, and as High Commissioner for South Africa to act with equal justice towards the three races, and to establish on a broad basis British authority as the paramount power in South Africa. While in Australia the coast appears to be more valuable than the far interior, the reverse is the case in Africa, and the high healthy plateau to the north of Cape Colony and to the west of the Transvaal seemed to Sir Hercules Robin- son more important than what he called " the fever- 478 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part in stricken mangrove swamps on the east coast, or the sandy waterless fringe on the west." He was favourable to the extension of British influence to the Zambesi, and to the extension of British influence by direct imperial action, but with the intention of gradually bringing the territories thus annexed under colonial government. Sir Hercules Robinson considers the only possible policy of the future that of handing over the new territories to colonial government so soon as the transfers can be made with justice to the natives. The question of time of such transfer he leaves open, and while he thinks the Cape bound in honour to relieve the United Kingdom of an expenditure in Bechuanaland from which the British tax-payer can never receive direct return, he does not think it the interest of the Cape to press for the assump- tion of responsibility in Bechuanaland so long as the British tax-payer chooses to pay. Sir Hercules Robin- son considers, however, that interference from home strengthens republican and separatist feeling among colonists, English as well as Dutch, and that a prudent continuation of his own policy would cause the past jealousy between the English and the Dutch in South Africa to die away, and South Africa under British rule to prosper. In my own belief the Dutch, under the policy of Sir Hercules Robinson, would probably become as strong supporters of the British connection as are the Canadian French. Sir Henry Loch will doubtless carry out his predecessor s policy, and, if he does so, there can be no doubt that his popularity will be as great. change in The recent conversions to the side of the Dutch the Dutch policy. party have been remarkable. Ihe present fepngg Ministry is, as I have shown, warmly supported by Mr. Hofmeyr's following, but Sir Gordon Sprigg during his first administration held views dissimilar from those chap, i THE CAPE 479 which prevail at the present time ; and Mr. Khocles, the greatest capitalist in South Africa, and Mr. Merriman have adopted a friendly attitude towards the Dutch. Probably the chief reason why the Afrikander Bond has become well disposed to British rule is to be found in the impracticable position taken up by President Paul Kruger of the Transvaal with regard to the railway question, the Transvaal Government being now pledged to the Delagoa Bay route, to the exclusion of all railway communication with the Cape or Natal until the Lorenzo Marques line is complete. The Dutch party in the Cape have been forced by this Transvaal policy to choose between their sentimental feeling for their fellow- Dutchmen in the Transvaal and their commercial interests, and for the first time in the history of South Africa the urban and agricultural populations of Cape Colony find themselves united by a common bond of interest. In South Africa there are many w T ho say that if Lord Separation Carnarvon had not precipitated the annexation of the Governor Transvaal against the wish of the majority of the people, ^ omi lg and if events had been allowed to take their course, the South African Eepublic would have come as a suppliant to the British Power, and that a united South Africa would long ago have grown up under British rule. ( )thers think that the great existing obstacle to South African unity lies in the office of British High Commis- sioner for South Africa being in the same hands as the Governorship of the Cape ; and no doubt the para- mount position which is thus virtually given to the ( !ape Ministry may be a cause of jealousy, although I fear that the existence of an official who would of necessity be a roving inspector without a fixed seat of government would be more likely to set the South African Govern- mis- sioner. 480 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part hi ments at variance than to unite them under one rule. The separation of the two offices would be very difficult to arrange, and would be bitterly resented at the Cape. While the influence of a Dutch Ministry and Parliament on the extra- colonial territories may be sometimes dangerous when the offices are combined, separation seems impracticable. If the offices were distinct it would be necessary to have different officers, one would suppose, for Basutoland and for Bechuanaland, which are separated by vast districts over which a single commissioner would have no power, and not even right of passage, although both are reachable from the Cape. Another plan would be to have w r ell-paid Lieutenant- Governors for Basutoland and for Bechuanaland re- spectively. Free state In the Orange Free State there is a good deal of ee mg ' feeling that is thoroughly friendly to ourselves. During the lifetime of Sir John Brand, long the best friend of England in South Africa, the Orange Free State was more useful to our rule than if it had been directly under our authority. In his time the Government of the Free State were by no means favourable to the action of the Afrikander Bond in their dominions. The President thought it an imperium in imperio which had no reason for existence in a free state, and resented the assumptions of its local leader. Opinion in the Free State, even now, by no means universally approves of the policy of the Transvaal, which has had the effect of postponing the construction of railways through the Orange River territory ; and although a defensive alliance has been concluded, the Free State does not appear greatly to desire that complete union with the South African Republic which the Trans- vaal has often urged upon it, and which would probably chap, i THE CAPE 481 mean the absorption of the smaller republic by the larger. At the Railway and Customs Conference held at the capital of the Free State in March 1889, and attended by the Cape Prime Minister, Sir Gordon Sprigg, a Customs Union between the Cape of Good Hope and the elder Dutch republic was finally arranged ; and at the dinner which followed, Sir Gordon Sprigg declared that the foundation-stone of South African brotherhood had been laid and the first practical step taken towards South African unity. Generally speaking it will be seen that South Africa Railway is in a transition state, and, when we consider the rela- que ' tions of its various parts, we find reason to doubt the possibility of accurate forecasts of its future until we know for certain what direction the ultimate develop- ment of the South African railway system will take. Mr. Rhodes's line northwards from the diamond-fields towards Shoshong will soon be commenced, and will run near the Transvaal frontier. The line from Coles- berg through the Free State to its centre is now de- cided on by the Cape and Free State Governments, and is to be made by the Cape, the Free State having rejected President Kruger's suggestions as to who should construct the line. When the railways have crept on towards the frontier of the Transvaal in the neighbourhood of the gold-fields, the attitude of the English population in the South African Republic will be a most important factor in the solution of the remaining problems connected with the growth of South African unity. If the neighbourhood of the Transvaal should be reached by a Cape line before the Delagoa Bay route is opened it would become doubtful if the latter would be made at all. In the meantime the only possible policy is the conciliation of the Dutch party in 482 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part in the Cape and the Free State, and the conversion of the term " Afrikander," from an epithet virtually meaning Boers, to that wider signification in which it will embrace all the inhabitants of white race. It must be understood, however, that, come what may, we cannot abandon our half-way house to India and Australia at Table Bay and Simon's Bay. Legislative The legislative and political peculiarities of the Cape ities. are not so interesting to ourselves from the experimental point of view as are those of the Canadian Dominion and Australasian colonies. The Cape of Good Hope is timid as regards rural local Government, and repre- sentation on Divisional Councils is confined to owners to the exclusion of occupiers, while Sir Thomas Scanlen and Mr. Orpen do not receive much support in urging that the Cape should legislate, as regards this matter, on the lines which have been followed in our other settlements. The business of irrigation has in Cape Colony been placed under special Boards, and Irrigation Boards can be constituted wherever three or more land- owners combine to carry out water- storage works or irrigation. They obtain borrowing and rating powers, and the Government is authorised to assist them with loans of money. Agricultural land is scarce at present, and only x^o^ P ai *t of the land appropriated in hold- ings is cultivated. As there are, however, irrigated lands within the colony which sell at four thousand times the price which is fetched for pastoral purposes by unirrigated lands in the same immediate neighbour- hood, it is seen that the irrigation question is as important as in the Mallee scrub districts of northern Victoria upon the Murray. The main difficulty in the way of Cape irrigation is that the Dutch system of inheritance divides farms into most inconvenient frac- chap, i THE CAPE 483 tions, and is also productive of litigation regarding water rights and easements among a litigious popula- tion, so that the creation and smooth working of Irrigation Boards is difficult. The Cape has an elective Upper House, and a Lower House elected for quinquennial parliaments, and the cumulative vote exists for all elections to the Council, and, in the case of the capital, to the Assembly. Ministers — by a legislative peculiarity of the Cape, unusual in British colonies, but common on the Continent of Europe, and certain to be one day imitated at home if we retain an Upper House — have audience of both Houses, that is, they are allowed to speak in either House, although they can only vote in the House to which they are elected. The electoral franchise is twelve months' residence in the colony in addition to the occupation of property to the value of £25, or the receipt of salary and wages of not less than £50 a year, or £25 with board and lodging. There is no special exclusion of alien races from the franchise, and there are a good many coloured electors. It is a peculiarity of the Cape that the electorate is precisely the same for the two Houses, although the division of constituencies is different. Three years ago there was a serious controversy over Natives ^^ 111(3. tllG a so-called Registration Bill, now an Act, which has since franchise. had the effect, and was probably intended to have the effect, of excluding a good many coloured people who would otherwise have enjoyed electoral rights in the colony. Sir Gordon Sprigg, in proposing the Bill, estimated the European population at half the coloured population, and argued that if such measures were not passed, the white vote might one day be swamped by an overwhelming mass of barbarism. The official defence of the Bill was, 484 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part in however, that it was intended to put a stop to malprac- tices on the part of election agents, who prompted fraud in registration, and personation at elections, by bringing on to the register large numbers of natives holding only on tribal tenure, and not entitled to the franchise, inas- much as they had no individual holdings. On the other hand it was argued that the coloured men enfranchised under the law are an industrious class, as well qualified to vote as the analogous class of Europeans. There were at the time supposed to be fourteen seats in the colonial Parliament over which the natives had some influence. One objection of the natives and their friends to the Bill was that the Field-Cornets who have to do the registration work are frequently Dutchmen hostile to the right of the coloured men to vote, but no one has suggested the means by which a remedy can be applied to a state of things which is inseparable from the general condition of South Africa. Mr. Hutton, who led the oppo- sition to the Bill, sat for a constituency in which the native vote, which was chiefly recorded in his favour, was a most important factor. His enemies declared, indeed, that he sat by the "blanket vote," or suffrage of the tribesmen. The active and politically minded missionaries are said to have been in the habit of causing the natives to claim the suffrage very freely, even in cases where they were not entitled by the possession of independent property. There was some difficulty in checking illegal registration because of the doubtful nature of native names. There are as many Peters and Pauls in parts of black South Africa as there are John Joneses in some Welsh constituencies, and as to the English eye all these Peters and Pauls are much alike, the natives generally pass by canting appellations. It is somewhat difficult to register a voter as " Brandy chap, i THE CAPE 485 and Soda " or " Lemon squash," names of the character of those by which the natives are ordinarily known. It is believed by the anti-native party that some of the missionaries kept suits of clothes which were handed on from native to native for the purpose of making them presentable as they came up to vote. Mr. Hutton is said to have gone so far as to declare that the Boers of South Africa generally were full of bitter hatred of the native races, and jealous of the immense advance in Christianity and education which the natives had lately made ; and that the Colonial Conference had caused the delegates of the Government of the colony to return with the boast in their mouths that "henceforth the imperial Government was pledged not to interfere with the internal or domes- tic colonial policy." It was the case that some such promise was given, but it is difficult to see how under free responsible institutions it could have been refused, or how the country is to be governed upon the opposite plan. Local opinion in South Africa is hostile to the admission of the natives on a large scale to equal rights. The Dutch majority look upon the natives as the Israelites looked upon the heathen populations with whom they came in contact in the Holy Land, and the Dutch are never tired of quoting the language of the Old Testament with regard to them. A section of the English are almost equally bitter against the class whom they call " white Kafirs," that is, those who have been brought up among the natives and who take their side in every dispute. There is a good deal of feeling against the missionaries among the English party in South Africa, who charge the missionaries with making money out of the natives by trade. Some colour was given to Mr. Hut- ton's charges by the Pass Bill of 1889, forcing all natives, 486 PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part hi however well known, respectable, or wealthy, to obtain passes before they moved about; but the Bill was dropped. The Cape The debt of the Cape is twenty -two and a half ranwayf. millions, which is very high in proportion to the popu- lation, and especially high in proportion to the white population ; but the Cape has 1600 miles of Government railways, in addition to which some subsidised railways are being constructed by companies ; so that both her debt and her railway mileage are upon the Australian rather than upon the Canadian scale. Thirteen and a half millions of the Cape debt have been incurred for Government railway -making. The main line to the diamond-fields is nearly 650 miles long, and will become the main line to the north. It had been decided to make the future line branch off by Colesberg to the centre of the Orange Free State — a policy which would benefit Port Elizabeth at the expense of Cape Town — but now both lines are to be made. Education, The Cape spends less in proportion upon education and im- than do the North American or the Australasian colonies, and education is largely left to sectarian schools. The most powerful of the churches in the colony is the Dutch Reformed Church, which is a presbyterian church taking many of her ministers from Scotland, and which claims about 163,000 people; the Wesleyans coming next with 69,000, and then the Church of England with 58,000. The statistics of the Cape com- pare unfavourably with those of the chief Australian colonies, and the last census was put off when the time for it came with the idea that in 1891 there would be taken a general census of the British Empire, so that there has been no Cape census since 1875. Assisted immigration into the Cape was stopped in 1888 and resumed in 1889, the Government following in migration. chap, i THE CAPE 487 1888 the same policy in this matter as prevails in the Australian colonies, but for very different reasons. The Dutch party began to see that their hold upon the colony was being weakened through British immigration, and to grudge the funds for brinoina; out the British immi- grants. An offer was made to bring out Netherlands 'Dutch as well, but, although an agent of the Cape Government was established in Holland for the purpose, only six families consented to come in the course of a year, of whom four families ended by starting for the United States, and, moreover, the Cape Dutch were not pacified by the proposal inasmuch as they do not like the Hollanders. Finally, however, an English deputation approached Sir Gordon Sprigg and pointed out to him that the Act under which the assisted immigration was carried on had never been repealed, and the result was its resumption for a time. There is a large German population at the Cape, and Germans at if there were any conceivable chance of the abandonment ie ape " of the Cape by the United Kingdom it would be necessary to point out the probability that, but for Australian action, the Germans would take charge of it for us in that event. The soldiers of the German Legion, who were settled by us in South Africa after the Crimean War, have been responsible for a large amount of the German immigration to that country, as they have gradually brought out their friends. The Germans at the Cape act more with the English than with the Dutch ; but this is partly caused by the fact that they go to the Eastern Province, where the language is English, rather than to the Western Province, where the language and population are Dutch. The Germans mostly land at Port Elizabeth and settle about East London or Queen's Town, or in the parts of Kaffraria to PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN which the Legionaries were sent ; but a good many of them make their way towards the diamond-fields. There is a large German population in Natal. Taxation. There is not in South Africa progressive taxation, iation. eS * graduated according to the amount of property be- L ues°tions queathed, such as exists in most of the Australian colonies ; neither are there many direct taxes. There is a house-duty and a hut-tax, but no income-tax, property- tax, or land-tax ; and the Boers are strongly opposed to any such taxation. There is no trace of land nationalisation making way, and lands are let on lease with power of purchase, or sold outright at auction. The Cape forms an exception to one colonial rule : white artisans work there side by side with coloured artisans. The coloured handicraftsmen at Cape Town are principally Malays ; but white artisans are taken out as assisted immigrants, and are, indeed, engaged in this country for the Cape at the rate of 9s. a day for a nine-hour day. The eight-hour day has no existence at the Cape ; but the nine-hour day is even more prevalent than in Ontario, and the rate of wages, as will be seen, is as high as in Australia, so that 9s. for nine hours replaces 8s. for eight hours as the usual tariff. south South Africa is enjoying at the present moment a prosperity, remarkable growth of prosperity, which may prove permanent. Its main cause is the extraordinary in- crease in the productiveness of the diamond -mines in Cape territory, and of the gold-mines in the Transvaal (which for the present benefit Natal, as yet the chief outlet for the Transvaal trade), and in the yield from wool. The improvement in the position of the South African colonies is affecting their wheat production, and must soon call forth a large produc- tion of coal, of which Natal has a magnificeut field. chap, i THE CAPE 489 Wine-growing has not made the progress in the Cape that it should have done. The Cape began to produce wine a long time ago, but the trade has for some time languished. That occurs with regard to Cape wine and Cape diamonds which happens with Australasian meat : the best kinds of New Zealand and Australian meat are sold in England as English, and the inferior kinds as colonial, to the damage of the Australasian name and trade. So, too, the best kinds of Cape wine are sold in England with European names, and the white Cape diamonds are sold in England as Brazilian, and only the inferior stones as "Cape." The Cape offers extraordinary advantages in climate and soil for wine- growing ; and Cape brandy would be good enough, if carefully made, to give at least a chance, looking to the fact that real French brandy is practically not manufac- tured for the present, that the Cape product might take its place. In liqueurs the Cape of Good Hope already stands high, and a kind of Curacoa (made from oranges and Cape brandy) is one of the finest liqueurs in the world. While, however, real, brandy and liqueurs command a certain market at a high price, sweet strong wines are a drug in the English market, and the Cape should endeavour to send us what are known to the trade as "straight, clean" light wines. Cape grapes already reach England in excellent condition in the early spring when good grapes are dear. There is a future for the fruit trade from South Africa to London, as the South African seasons are the opposite of those of the Mediterranean countries which send us our largest import. Other products in which the Cape is strong are ostrich feathers and copper ore, wool and mohair. As Merivale has pointed out, in climate, soil, and situation the Cape is one of the most favoured countries of the world. vol. 1 2 k 49o PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part in inter- The question of intercolonial free trade has as much freetode. significance in South Africa as in Australia, and is, as I have hinted, closely connected with that of trade routes. The policy of the Transvaal is, as it has long been, to adopt the short route to the sea, through Delagoa Bay or Swaziland. On the other hand, Natal struggles, by re- duction of duties, to retain the Transvaal trade, and the Cape struggles, by making new railways, to obtain it. In the time of President Brand the Orange Free State in part dissented from the Transvaal Delagoa Bay policy, and agreed with the imperial Government in favouring railway communication with the Cape and Natal. Even as late as 1888 there was a conference between repre- sentatives of the Governments of the Cape, Natal, and the Free State, and they decided upon a customs union between those states, and invited the Transvaal to come into the agreement, although it was an agree- ment really hostile to the Delagoa route. The cus- toms tariff of the Cape was high, and though it had been intended mainly as a revenue tariff, some of its duties were protective in their operation. The suo-o-estion laid before the conference by Sir Gordon Sprigg was, that the Cape and Natal should establish a uniform tariff of 12 per cent against the outside world, retain a uniform transit charge of 3 per cent on articles passing through either colony, and hand over 9 per cent to the Governments of the inland republics on articles consumed in them, provided that these republics should levy an equivalent duty on articles imported by any other route, the latter proviso being, of course, intended to prevent diversion to Delagoa Bay of the trade of Cape and Natal ports. The same policy was to be applied to British Bechuanaland and to Basutoland as that suggested for the republics. At the conference chap, i THE CAPE 491 one of the Natal delegates, Mr. Seymour Haden, Colonial Secretary, moved that there should be free trade between the colonies and the states included in the customs union, under certain limitations, in respect of all South African products. A tariff, pro- posed by Mr. Hofmeyr, was then agreed to, with an ad valorem duty of 12 per cent upon goods not enumerated in the tariff. It was finally decided that the importing states should pay over three-fourths of the customs to the internal states. The general effect of the customs arrangement would have been to raise the low duties of the Natal tariff, in consequence of the refusal of the Cape to lower theirs. The Orange Free State delegates, after the decision on the tariff had been come to, insisted on the conference on railways being made a separate conference, and they handed in fresh credentials in order to place it on record that the Free State would not undertake any railway construction unless first in receipt of a share of customs duties. The proposals of the Orange Free State with regard to railways were then accepted, as against the alternative scheme submitted by Cape Colony. An Act was passed by the Cape to carry out the agreement, but Natal failed to confirm the action of her representatives, and has since lowered instead of raising duties. The result of the refusal of Natal to come into the customs arrange- ment to which her delegates had agreed is, that the Free State is bound to try to set up custom houses against Natal and to throttle her trade. It is doubtful whether the Free State will be able to maintain such machinery, or really wishes to do so, and it must be remembered in considering this question that there has always been free trade in practice, although not in the eye of the law, upon the South African land frontiers. The cliffi- 492 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN culties of guarding them by custom houses are too great, on frontiers of such vast extent, for the finances and the military and police forces of any of the countries in question. Nevertheless, I fancy that Natal will ultimately come in, and will adopt the higher or Cape scale of duty, though for the moment she is reducing her duties all round. In the meantime the Free State is apparently intending to play false to the Cape by encouraging imports from Natal, for otherwise it is difficult to see why she should have agreed with Natal at a later date in 1889 for the construction of a Natal railway to Harrismith in the Orange State. Position The present position of the republics towards the re tfbiics ^ a P e * s ' tnen ' a ver y cm> i° us one - The republics them- towards selves are united by treaty for defence, and probably for some other purposes by a secret understanding. On the other hand, the Free State has come into customs union with the Cape from 1st July 1889, the Free State gaining money by the arrangement, and the colony gaining the right to make railways as far as Bloem- fontein, the capital and centre of the Free State. The South African Eepublic has, however, bound the Free State not to allow Cape railways to be made through the Free State to the Transvaal frontier, and declares it will keep the gold-mines trade in the hands of the transport riders until the Delagoa Bay line is made. The Transvaal itself will not come into the customs agreement, refusing absolutely, since our un- fortunate annexation of the country, to agree to any British proposals of any kind whatever. Customs The Act upon the subject of the customs union between which passed the Cape legislature was assented to at the Cape h ome but was not at first proclaimed because of a and the # x Free state, difference of opinion between the Foreign Office and CUSTOMS UNIONS 4Q3 the Colonial Office upon the question, the Colonial Office wishing for full assent, and the Foreign Office pointing out that the Act violated the most-favoured- nation clause of our own treaties. There was indeed a kind of precedent in the case of Servia, where Servia had been allowed, but only after remonstrance, to grant to Austria, over a land frontier, a treatment more favourable than that which she accorded to us, though we had a most -favoured -nation clause in our Servian treaty; there was a precedent as between Eussia and China, and there was a partial precedent in the relations at one time between Canada and the United States, besides others to which I shall presently allude. Finally, the Foreign Office and Board of Trade gave way to the Colonial Office and the Act was sanctioned. The Cabinet, I believe, took the view that there is a distinc- tion to be drawn between inland frontiers and sea frontiers in this matter, and that we were hardly justified in the complaints that we had addressed to Russia, Servia, and other powers with regard to special facilities for land-frontier traffic in articles the actual produce of the countries interchanging them. Our Servian treaty of 1880, however, contained a distinct proviso allowing Servia to maintain arrangements with Austria as re- garded local traffic in conterminous districts. There has lately been a constant attempt on the part of various powers to extend the doctrine of the permissibility of special arrangements for local traffic between conter- minous districts in spite of general most-favoured- nation clauses. The word which we render "conter- minous " is the diplomatic word " limitrophe," and it must be noted that Russia has been trying to extend the "limitrophe" doctrine to the trade between Russia and Japan, asserting that the two countries were in 494 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part in this position ; to which our Foreign Office objected, but urged that if indeed Russia and Japan were to be held " limitrophe," then Great Britain and Japan were ; ' limitrophe " owing to the geographical position of Vancouver Island ! Cases in It should also be remembered that, as I have rastoms shown, although the Government at home have allowed unions t j customs union between the Free State and the nave not been . Cape, they prevented some years ago a proposed reciprocity treaty between some of the West -India Islands and the United States. Correspondence was laid before Parliament in 1885 with reference to these discussions which had taken place in 1884, and it shows that the United States began by making or proposing treaties which would have conceded to the Sandwich Islands, to Mexico, to Central America, to the Spanish West Indies, and to San Domingo terms of trade more favourable than those conceded to the British West Indies, and we proceeded to ask for most- favoured-nation treatment for the British W^est Indies. The Americans contended that their treaties named did not affect most-favoured-nation clauses. This was no answer to our request, and it was not true in fact ; but our then Minister at Washington failed to see that it was no answer, and accepted the statement as true — a curious example of diplomatic shortcoming. The Americans in their rejoinder, however, opened the question of a customs union with the West Indies, and they quoted the Canadian Reciprocity Treaty of 1854 as a case in point. The conclusion of a West Indian Treaty was favoured by the Colonial Office, and the Foreign Office at once asked the Colonial Office whether the Colonial Office meant that American goods were to be admitted into the British West Indies on terms more chap, i MOST-FAVOURED-NATION TREATMENT 495 favourable than those granted to British goods. A limited treaty was then suggested, by which West Indian sugar would have gone into America duty free or with a great reduction of duty, the colonies abolishing import duties on a number of articles imported from the United States. This was met by the Americans with a counter -project on a larger scale. In February 1885 Lord Granville declined to accept the American proposals. This was done on the advice of the com- mercial department of the Foreign Office as well as on the advice of the Board of Trade, on the ground that the proposals would constitute an infraction of the most- favoured -nation -clause treaties. The position of the Americans is, as they have shown in the language which they have used to the Government of Hawaii, that con- cessions granted conditionally and for a consideration cannot be claimed under the most-favoured-nation clause. While in the case of the West Indian treaty the Colonial Office was beaten by the Foreign Office and the Board of Trade, in the case of the Cape and Orange Free State treaty the Colonial Office appears to have beaten the Foreign Office and the Board of Trade, and the most- favoured-nation principle has received a shock. It has, however, previously been held that complete freedom of trade rests on a different footing from mere reduction of duties, and there have no doubt been precedents for allow- ing, without protest, countries to abolish custom houses upon their land frontiers, and to permit goods, the pro- duce of other independent countries, to come in free in return for similar facilities. In the case of the Cape of Good Hope and the Free State land frontiers are alone in question, and the goods to be imported from the Free State are the produce of the Free State, except so far as in some degree they may consist of the produce of the 496 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part in Transvaal, or of Natal goods smuggled in as Transvaal produce. The Orange State has no port, and it would be a roundabout course to send products of the Free State to the sea for shipment to the Cape. customs The whole question of the effect of most-favoured- "Mott- nation clauses is a difficult one. The old English view naw^ u P on tne subject was fully stated in the despatch of ,-iauses. t ] ie 1 2th of February 1885 signed by Lord Granville, which was the production of the commercial department of the Foreign Office, on the advice of the Board of Trade, adopted without change and as a matter about which there could be no question. It simply contended for a strict construction of the most-favoured-nation clause as the most valuable part of the whole inter- national system of commercial treaties, carrying in it simplicity of tariff and ever-increasing freedom of trade. These doctrines we urged, as has been seen, with much effect against a narrow view of the meaning of most- favoured-nation clauses put forward in recent times by the United States under the pressure of protectionist opinion, and entirely opposed to their own doctrine of forty or fifty years ago. The exigencies, however, of the position of our own Government in reference to the unfortunate penal clause of the Sugar Bounty Bill forced them to onve an answer in the House of Commons, through the mouth of Sir Michael Beach, which has greatly weakened the effect of our most-favoured-nation clauses by seeming, to careless foreign readers, to imply that we had given up our own view and adopted that put forward by the United States. Much strained and false interpretation of most- favoured-nation clauses has arisen from ill-considered legislation. Bills are drawn by draughtsmen, and assented to by heads of departments, imperfectly ac- chap, i THE CAPE 497 quainted with the treaties of their own country, and after the Bills have been shown it is difficult to induce Governments to confess that they have approved of measures discovered to be in violation of international compacts. Having had myself to conduct the objections raised by us to breaches of the most-favoured-nation principle against our treaties, by Venezuela in 1881 and by Russia in 1882, as well as to obtain the opinion of the law officers upon this subject as regards favours granted by China to Russia in 1882, I may perhaps attach undue importance to a subject to which I have given much time. No doubt Commercial Unions rest upon a different footing from other arrangements with regard to trade. There are customs unions of territories under different sovereigns in a large number of cases, for example between France and Monaco, between British India and Portuguese India, between the Aus- trian Empire and the Italian Kingdom respectively and little states contained within them, as well as the arrangements in Germany under one general sovereignty. Foreign powers do not object in the case of India to the free admission of Portuguese Indian produce into British India, and it has now become usual to admit without question customs unions established on the basis of a common customs frontier as regards foreign nations, and the suppression of the customs frontier as regards the states forming the Union. It is, however, to the interest of this country to support most-favoured-nation clauses in the most binding form, and every proposal to weaken their obligation should be narrowly scrutinised by all who have the commercial prosperity of the country at heart. To return to the relations of the Dutch republics The reia- , , tions of the with each other, and with the Cape, it must be ad- Dutch mitted that the Transvaal always appears to take aSti? Cape. 498 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN singularly blustering line when dealing with the Free State. In the treaty of defensive alliance between the two republics the Transvaal binds itself to make no railroad except the Delagoa Bay railroad unless in consultation with the Free State, — a ridiculous stipu- lation, looking to the fact that the Transvaal had already spent a large sum on subsidies to the Lorenzo Marques route, and was pledged in the strongest terms, under a fine of two millions sterling, not to allow any other railway to be made. On the other hand, the Free State was forced by the South African Republic to bind itself to make no railroad, with the exception of the extension of the Cape lines as far as Bloemfontein, already arranged for, unless in consultation with the Transvaal, — a stipulation of a very different kind, inasmuch as the hands of the Orange State were free but for this stipulation, and her interest lay in constructing railways. The Free State has since, as I have said, encouraged Natal to make a railway as far as Harrismith, and the Trans- vaal already complains that this is a violation of the treaty between the two republics. President Paul Kruffer has gone far indeed in asserting that he will not allow any railway line to be made to the Trans- vaal except that by Delagoa Bay, and it is probable that even the Dutch party which is behind Sir Gordon Sprigg will hesitate to try to prevent, at the dictation of the Transvaal Dutch, Mr. Rhodes, for example, from making the Bechuanaland line towards the Trans- vaal frontier as a private enterprise. Sir Gordon Sprigg himself is now pledged to allow this line to be made. The Deia- The memorandum of agreement between the Delagoa SSway y Bay railway company and two other companies, for question. wor ki n g tne ii ne f rom Delagoa Bay to the Transvaal, chap, i THE CAPE 499 was a curious document. It was dated the 28th March 1889, arid contemplated the construction of a line, in connection with the Delagoa Bay route, across the Transvaal to the gold-fields in twenty -seven months. The whole of the agreement falls to the ground if any other railway shall cross the Transvaal frontier before this line is finished across the country, and the agree- ment s;oes on — " If the Transvaal Government or the Netherlands Railway, or any other company, shall build or allow to be built any railway, tramway, canal, or other line of conveyance in competition with the Lourenco Marques, or Netherlands Kailway, prior to the Nether- lands Kailway being completed to Pretoria or Johannesburg, then this agreement may be declared void by the Lourenco Marques Company. " The Netherlands South African Railway binds itself to pay to the Lourenco Marques Kailway, as liquidated damages, the sum of £2,000,000 sterling, if any railway, tramway, or other mode of conveyance, with or without the sanction of the State, be built during the existence of this agreement to meet any Natal or Bechu- analand Railway or Railways, and this agreement shall not be final until the Government of the South African Republic shall in a proper and legal form guarantee to the Lourenco Marques Rail- way that in default of the Netherlands Railway paying the damages it (the Transvaal Government) will pay the said sum of £2,000,000 to the Lourenco Marques Company if any line of railway be con- structed in the Transvaal, or from any point in the Transvaal, to meet, join, assist, or give entrance to any railway coming from Natal or Bechuanaland." How the Delagoa Bay Company were to get their two millions, if President Kruger should fail to keep his word, did not appear. Supposing that the ruler of the South African Republic should see his interest in com- ing to terms with Mr. Rhodes, and should make a con- nection with the Bechuanaland line, he will simply say to the Delagoa Bay Company that he is very sorry, that politics have their exigencies, and that he must leave 5oo PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN them to their remedy. It is this agreement, extraor- dinary in its nature as will be seen, which the Transvaal Government has been forcing on Sir Gordon Sprigg through the Free State, and it now remains to be seen whether the clear interests of the Cape will guide the Cape Dutch to support the Bechuanaland line against the Transvaal, or whether their political sentiment with regard to their race will overcome their personal interest in the Bechuanaland line towards the gold-fields. It is a case of breeches -pocket versus sentiment, and I doubt the Cape Boers supporting President Kruger against their undoubted interest. Necessity The position of the Cape is interesting for very the^pe^ different reasons from those which make that of Aus- tralia interesting. There is not much probability of South Africa becoming the home of a British population as powerful as that which will inhabit the Australian continent; but, on the other hand, the military position of the Cape is of vital importance to the Empire, and the political problems which the Cape presents are of the highest moment. The Cape is our half-way house, the loss of which would be almost fatal to our Indian Empire and our China trade. In any general war in which France is against us the whole of our Eastern and Australian trade must go round the Cape, inasmuch as even an immense superiority in our fleet and an absolute blockade of the great French ports would not make the Mediterranean safe for trade. As we must hold Table Bay and Simon's Bay, and have a dockyard and a military station there, we must hold some portion of South Africa behind them — that por- tion which in one sense depends upon, and in another sense controls, Cape Town : hence it is impossible for us to adopt the same policy, in a military and naval sense, chap, i THE CAPE 501 with regard to South Africa that we can adopt with regard to the Australian colonies. It is, indeed, im- possible for us to allow the Cape, even if we could conceivably allow Natal and Bechuanaland, to fall into a republican system in which they would be grouped with the Dutch republics as foreign countries, like the Free State, or countries virtually foreign like the Trans- vaal. On the other hand, to say this is not to assume that those are right who would attempt to enter upon the impossible task of overruling and thwarting the Dutch majority. Our statesmanship must be shown, not in retaining the Dutch by force, but in remaining upon good terms with them. One difficulty in the way is the presence of Germany Germany in South Africa. The annexation in an unfriendly spirit, according to Lord Derby's words, of Damara- land and Northern Namaqualand has not closed the questions at issue between the Governments in this part of the continent. There is a strip of 40 miles of desert which runs all along the German South African coast, behind which the land rises, and there is to be found that fine climate which prevails in Bechuanaland, the Orange River Free State, and a portion of the Transvaal. It is in fact a habitable country, rich in minerals, but with a desert fringe along the coast ; and to this country, which Germany wishes to keep, without spend- ing money upon it, against the day when it becomes useful, there is no access except by way of Walfisch Bay (officially spelt Walwich, no one knows why, as " Walfisch " means whale), which is British territory and has been annexed to the Cape. The Germans naturally desire to acquire Walfisch Bay, or at all events a sufficient part of it to allow of the making of a road to the interior. This the Cape Government decline 502 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIA part in to cede. Walfisch Bay is practically the only port on the whole enormous coast which gives access to the interior, and there is a considerable trade in cattle to the coast. In the spring of 1889 the Germans had trouble with the natives, and many of the former were forced to take refuge at Walfisch Bay. Her Majesty's Government wish to give way to Germany in this matter, but the Cape, having spent money at "Walfisch Bay, and knowing that the German territory is useless to Germany without it, will continue to refuse. M. Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, speaking for France, has said that " the planting of the German flag at Angra Pequena ... is a protest against the anglicisation of the whole world." But the people of the Cape naturally do not like having the protest made alongside of and round their territories in South Africa any more than the Queenslanders like a similar German protest in New Guinea, The German chartered company is said to be in a bankrupt condition, and it is a significant fact that the recent charter to the company formed by Mr. Bhodes contains no boundary on the west, so that it is open to him to buy out the Germans if he can. The Mac- While there has been a certain recent growth of pro- policy. Dutch feeling among the English politicians at the Cape, there has been a growth of a somewhat contrary feeling among politicians at home, and the late Mr. W. E. Forster and Mr. Chamberlain, who seldom agreed upon any sub- ject, were for many years in unison in supporting views which have been powerfully put forward by the Rev. John Mackenzie. The base of the opinion of this gentleman is that England alone is able to impose peace upon the Boers and blacks. The sign of the difference between two policies is to be found in the question of the separation or union of the offices of High Commis- sioner and of Governor of the Cape, and still more in the chap, i THE CAPE 5°3 view taken of the proposed cession of British Bechuana- land to the Cape. A meeting was held in London in 1888 at which many Englishmen known in connection with South African affairs gave general support to Mr. Mackenzie's views : but Sir Henry de Villiers, the Chief Justice of the Cape and one of the most dis- tinguished of her politicians, strongly opposed the con- clusions of the lecturer, and quoted against them the opinion of Lord Derby and of Lord Carnarvon. Mr. Chamberlain, who presided, shrank from the decision to separate the High Commissionership from the Governorship of the Cape of Good Hope, and indeed stated it to be his own view that if the posts were to be again combined in the hands of a strong man, the com- bination might be the wisest course, a policy which was followed by the Government in 1889 when they appointed Sir Henry Loch. In all this doubt and difference that which is clear is, that it is of paramount importance to the Empire that our military position at the Cape should be secure, and that to secure it we must be on good terms with the Cape Dutch. With regard to Cape Defences : after a long con- Cape troversy the fortifications have been built by the colony, but here, as elsewhere, the guns which are to come from home have not yet been supplied. There is a volunteer force, chiefly English, and a burgher force, or militia, chiefly Dutch. The men, whatever their wealth or rank, are paid but 4s. 6d. a day when called out for native wars. The law of general compulsory service has fallen into disuse except for native wars ; but in the event of any serious struggle in which the United Kingdom might be engaged, the Governor of the Cape would no doubt be advised by his Ministry to issue the proclama- tion necessary to put the existing Act in force, and in the 504 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part in course of some months a large local army would doubtless be equipped. Unfortunately, however, great wars in future are likely to spring up suddenly, and insufficient time to be given us for such preparation, and it cannot be said that, looking to the importance of the position, the present o-arrison of the southern portion of the colony is sufficient. Theposi- On the whole, when we consider the extraordinary improving difficulties of the South African situation, and the terrible one - perplexities in which South Africa has involved home Governments in the last twelve years, we shall see that the position at the Cape is an improving one, and that there is ground for a sense of relief in the comparison between the present situation and that of a few years ago. Race feeling is quieting down, and if the colony were left to itself, without pressure from home, would soon disappear. I have already indicated my belief — which I am happy to say has now become that of Lord Carnarvon, who certainly at one time was under very different influences — in the prudence and moderation of the dominant party at the Cape. social and There are great divergencies of social features as well fetturl as °f natura l features within the limits of Cape Colony. Divergen- Although that state is small as compared with South tween the Australia, or Western Australia, yet it has much more Australia, variety. In one point indeed there is uniformity through- out the Cape — the climate is beautiful and healthy — but in every other respect Cape Town differs greatly from the Diamond Fields, and the most Dutch parts of the Western Province differ as widely from Grahamstown and from the English parts of the Eastern Province. There is a certain want of life about Cape Colony as compared with Victoria and some others of our young Australian States. The air of smiling prosperity, which, with its vine-clad slopes of Wynberg and Constantia, Cape Town chap, i THE CAPE 505 wears under a cloudless sky of blue, when examined closely has an underlying sense of desolation in the small amount of shipping and of trade as compared with that of Melbourne or of Sydney. The emptiness of Table Bay since the opening of the Suez Canal means, of course, a diversion, not a cessation, of trade, and makes less difference to South Africa itself than it seems to do ; and if Cape Town looks a little dead, Port Elizabeth or Algoa Bay is a bustling roadstead. The social condition of South Africa is full of Social incongruities caused by the remarkable admixture of Literature, races which prevails throughout that land. Large portions of the agricultural districts are wholly Dutch. The seaport towns are chiefly English and Malay, the Malays being employed as artisans. Jubilee taverns, Wesleyan chapels, and Young Men's Christian Associa- tions mingle with Malay and Indian mosques in the towns, while in the country districts, generally speaking, a Dutch farming population is surrounded by South African black and Hottentot servants. The literature of the Cape is mainly of English importation, and the best representative of the imported school is Mr. Rider Hag- gard, who has written both a romance and a political book about the Transvaal and its neighbourhood. The Dutch literature is unimportant : the English newspapers are as able as those of Australia, notably the Cape Times and the Cape Argus. With the exception of Mr. Theale's admirable histories of the Boers, the only great literary work which has proceeded from the Cape is by a lady, who, I believe, is of mixed English Miss and German parentage, and has no Dutch blood Scln ' emer - although connected by marriage with the President of the Free State. The Story of an African Farm has made the name of Olive Schreiner known throughout vol. 1 2 L 5 o6 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN the novel-reading and publishing worlds ; and I believe that the authoress has been wooed by many of those rulers of English men of letters who desire to publish her future books. These, to our loss, she carefully guards, and will neither show nor issue to the public ; but the genius which marks her story cannot but prompt other efforts of a maturer pen. In TJie Story of an African Farm we have one of those works which stand out for ever in the minds of any who have read them. The picture of South African scenery given is not superior to the pictures of Australian scenery given by Mrs. Campbell Praed ; the accuracy and trueness to life of the colonial characters are not superior to those qualities exhibited in " Tasma V Uncle Piper of Piper's Hill; but the insight into the child life of those who have been nurtured only upon the Bible is to my mind one of the greatest efforts in all the field of literature, and this simple story deserves to stand upon the same level as the Mill on the Floss itself. Certainly it is impossible for any one who is acquainted with TJie Story of an African Farm to maintain that the colonies do not send us literature. There is no Cape Dutch litera- ture, and the Puritan French of South Africa have not helped to build up South African letters in the way in which the Catholic French of Canada have assisted in the creation of Canadian literature. Hesem- In some points, of course, there are close resemblances biances to ^ ^ out ^ Africa to the Australian colonies. The " re- mittance men " hang about the banks for their monthly or weekly doles punctually paid by relatives at home on condition that they never revisit their mother-land. The Cape Parliament has one of those handsome buildings, arranged in close imitation of St. Stephen's, which in- terest British politicians on their travels throughout the chap, i THE CAPE 507 British world. Botanical gardens, as beautiful as those of Australia, display magnificent foliage in lovely scenery and remind the traveller of Sydney ; while notice-boards as to Sunday closing and the forbidding of smoking recall Melbourne. Where the prohibition of careless smoking is evaded, bush fires rage in South Africa in the summer mouths as they rage throughout Australia, and the smoke throws a pall over the country as it does in the dry continent of the South Seas. Compared with the British buildings of Cape Town, Government House is au ordinary Dutch homestead, of cramped dimensions as an official residence for the exalted being who is both Governor and High Commissioner, and it forms a singular contrast to the magnificent palace of the Governor of Victoria. Cape Town, like Sydney and Melbourne, in the latter part of a summer's afternoon is a city of the dead, and its inhabitants, merchants and clerks alike, mount the hill to their suburban homes. The Cape Town world lives on the richly wooded slopes at the back of Table Mountain, a mountain which must have been so described only by those who had not seen much of the interior of South Africa, where many of the mountains are table mountains of a very similar type. The suburban district is served by a short line of railway which dates from before the time when railways were taken into Government hands, and such is the popularity of the neighbourhood it serves that the traffic upon this sul turban line resembles in scale that of our Metropolitan Eailway. A complaint is made by the country districts that their members, as soon as they are returned to Parliament, become residents of Claremont or of Wyn- bero- and lose all touch with their constituencies and with the local feeling of their electors. The Governor himself lives in the suburbs during the summer, and 508 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part in comes in by train each day to transact business at Government House. Cape Town society is refined and unpretentious. The villas which line the red roads round Table Mountain are comfortable small houses of a Dutch domestic type, in shape similar to the verandah-sur- rounded houses of Australia, but on a smaller scale. The costly equipages of Australia are wanting, and there are no lavish entertainments given, though there is no place in the world where there is more quiet hospitality appropriate to moderate means. Of large fortunes there are few, for the diamond discoveries have not brought much money into Cape Town, and in the days when fortunes were made in the southern portion of the colony the makers of them did not remain in South Africa to spend them. Some wealthy miners have, however, recently settled at Wynberg. The The contrast, as I have said, between Cape Town and ?iekir d tne Diamond Fields is great. A weekly express with sleeping and dining arrangements is run from the old capital to the diamond city, and all Cape Town turns out to see it start, the names of the passengers being given the next day in the newspaper in the same way as the lists of the passengers by the English mail. The train is leisurely, but more comfortable than the equally slow trains of India. The old Dutch towns of the Western Province are picturesque ; the pass is romantic- ally beautiful, and then the train runs into the Great. Karroo, an apparent desert, really producing wool, exactly like the sheep -bearing solitudes of Australia. The diamond town of Kimberley is still a huge aggregation of shanties traversed by tramways and lit by electric light, but the South African diamond miners and gold winners are by no means a rough community, and con- tain among them many men of cultivation thoroughly chap, i THE CAPE 5°9 alive to the comforts of civilisation, who live well and keep up excellent clubs, although there are no amenities of life, unless we may count race meetings, which are, I fear, chiefly popular because they provide varied forms of gambling twice a year. The diamond-fields and the gold-fields belong in The Western some respects to the ugly side of modern life, whereas province. the old towns of the Western Province and the vine country about Stellenbosch are delightfully and charac- teristically seventeenth -century Dutch. Stellenbosch' derives its name from a combination of that of Governor Van der Stell, who was Governor when the Huguenots came in after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and that of his wife Constantia Bosch, whose Christian name has become celebrated also through the finest sweet wine of the world. Stellenbosch counts as a sort of university town, famed for the magnificent oak-trees which line its streets as they do those of many of the other old Dutch towns. Behind them the windows of the quaint Dutch houses are closed with green shutters in the afternoon hours when everybody is asleep, for the afternoon sleep is a feature of Dutch colonial life in all parts of the world. At the palace of the Governor-General of the Dutch Indies at Buitenzorg in Java one says " good-night " at one o'clock, after a heavy breakfast ; and even the footfall of the sentries ceases to be heard till five, for they pile arms and also go to sleep. As in Java so in South Africa. The Afri- kander race, whether of Dutch, of French, of British, or of German blood, takes life easily, and refuses to regard it as a struggle in which the acquisition of wealth is the chief aim. A competency sufficient to allow the drinking of coffee and the smoking of a pipe in a verandah is often the limit of Afrikander ambition, and the lovely climate 5 io PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN Eastern Province. is possibly in part responsible. When the British have inhabited New South Wales for two centuries, or two centuries and a half, it is possible that some such phenomena may be seen there as are presented by the mixed people — a fine God-fearing people in its way — of the Cape. The The Eastern Province, which contains Port Elizabeth and Grahamstown, with many other noted places, is less Dutch. Port Elizabeth — unfortunate in being- open to the full sweep of the Indian Ocean when the wind is in the wrong quarter — boasts itself to be one of the most English centres of population of South Africa. Some of its public buildings are creditable to it, and its society is that of a prosperous provincial mercantile community. Its friends call it the Liverpool of South Africa, although its physical resemblances to Liverpool do not lie upon the surface. Grahamstown, the city of the British settlers of 1820, is more familiarly known in the colony as the City of the Saints, by reason of the multiplicity of sects to be found in it. After the European peace, and in consequence of the distress which prevailed in England, Parliament voted a large sum of money for carrying a number of emigrants to what was then the frontier between Cape Colony and native territory. About five thousand persons were selected from all classes of society, and to every party of a hundred families was given the virtual right of selecting a minister of any denomination. The immigrants landed at Algoa Bay and founded Bathurst, but the trade of the district gradually centred about Grahamstown, which is the most English town of South Africa and the only town of importance which does not contain a Dutch church. The Eastern Province to some extent retains its English characteristics, but even in chap, i THE CAPE 511 that Province there is a good deal of want of enter- prise. There are, perhaps, more cattle in South Africa in proportion to population than anywhere else in the world, except in the Argentine Kepublic and in Queensland, but there is an import of tinned meat ; and although fruit rots upon the trees, there is an import of jam, while even butter and milk are also brought into the country. Though there is good timber in portions of South Africa, American wood is still imported ; and the Cape certainly stood in great need of the quicken- ing process which has been begun by the discovery of diamonds and of gold. Amid all the political storms which have raged on Good gov the South African continent — both in the old days, and then (after a quarter of a century of comparative peace) in the years which followed the departure for Cape Town of Sir Bartle Frere — the Government of Cape Colony has been steady and good. The Cape has absorbed large districts, and governed them on the whole not ill. We may hope that peace is now secured. We know that race-feeling is subsiding, and we may believe that the railway which is once more being pushed forward will brinor the whole of the South African States into closer friendship. Instead of four separate lines running up into the interior from four separate ports, we shall soon see a junction of the whole of the British railroad system of South Africa. Eailway extension will do much to unify South Africa — linking the older Dutch republic with both the Eastern and Western Provinces of the Cape and with Natal, and giving the Free State people a choice of port. The coal deposits of Natal will be made more available by the junction of the railways, and we shall see a clearer imperial interest in the retention of Natal under all circum- 5 i2 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part in stances than was the case before the discovery of her coal. The horrible failures of South African policy since 1878 will be forgotten like a bad dream, and there will follow a wholesome friendly rivalry between the Dutch republics and the British South African State or States. Coal and One difficulty in the way of all decisions as to the routes. future of various colonies is caused by a doubt as to the permanency of the commercial use of coal. The strides which are being made in electrical discovery, and the possible future use of water-power for the production of the electric force, are disturbing causes of which it is impossible as yet to estimate the probable effect. Commercial supremacy may pass from the coal -pro- ducing countries to the petroleum-producing countries ; it is possible that it may pass to the countries of water-power. In the latter case New South Wales, Queensland, and New Zealand will lose the advantages which they possess over the other portions of Australia ; and the United States will gain at the expense of all our colonies. Time alone can show; but in the event of the outbreak of a general war, before any such great scientific change has occurred, the Natal stores of coal must inevitably affect the value of our principal ocean route and of our half-way house in South Africa. It is certain that British interests in the Cape can never be forgotten ; that while a general hostility to our rule would be sufficient to make us part with almost any other colony, it is impossible for us to give up the military station which we occupy at the extremity of the African continent, and which itself cannot be held unless we hold at all events a portion of the country round it. During the convict troubles the attempt was made by us to hold the Cape peninsula by force, but CHAP. I THE CAPE 513 we were starved out, and it became clear that it was impossible to maintain ourselves upon it without the friendship of the colonists. So it would be again, and it is certain that Simon's Bay and Table Bay cannot be secure by themselves, and must continue to involve us in South African responsibilities. CHAPTEE II SOUTH AFRICA Places in- The phrase " The South African Colonies " includes the phrase not only the old colonies of the Cape and Natal, but African Basutoland, which is now a Crown Colony ; British Colonies." Beclmanaland, which is a Crown Colony ; Zululand, which is a kind of Crown Colony or dependency of Natal ; and more or less defined protectorates over centra] Bechuanaland and part of Pondoland ; the little colony of St. Helena (Ascension being governed by the admiralty, and considered as a man-of-war, and Tristan d'Acunha looking after itself), as well as a " sphere of influence " in Northern Bechuanaland, extending north- wards at least up to the Zambesi. Cape Colony governs the Transkei, which forms the greater portion of that which was formerly known as Kaffraria, and Griqualand "West, which it has annexed. Walfisch Bay, as has been seen, is also governed by the Cape, although situate in the middle of the German protectorate, and much farther north than the Portuguese Delagoa Bay on the other coast. I do not class the South African Republic among colonies, although we shall have to discuss its position later on. Theirforms It is unnecessary to say much of the island of St. ment Vern Helena, which has a curious Government, the Executive Council consisting of the Bishop, the officer command- SOUTH AFRICA 515 ing the troops, and two other members appointed by the Crown, for, as the Queen legislates for the island by Order in Council and the Governor by ordinance, and as the consent of the Council is not necessary to legalise enactments, the constitution of the Council does not much matter to any one. Basutoland is governed by the High Commissioner for South Africa through a Resident Commissioner, the High Commissioner possessing legislative authority, which he exercises by proclama- tion ; and there is a certain shadow of truth in the statement often made that when the Governor at the Cape is also High Commissioner he acts in the Cape on the advice of his Ministers, and outside the Cape on the advice of the leaders of the Opposition. It would probably be of advantage, and be worth the extra cost, to pay such salaries to the resident commissioners through whom the High Commissioner's authority is exerted as would invariably command the services of first-class men. British Bechuanaland is under the Governor of the Cape as Governor of the territory of British Bechuanaland, and this Governor appoints an officer as Administrator and Chief Magistrate as well as president of the Land Com- mission, and under his powers as High Commissioner has appointed the same officer Deputy Commissioner for the Bechuanaland ' and Kalahari protectorate. Legisla- tion is by proclamation. In some parts of British Bechuanaland elective divisional councils have been created, under the provisions of Cape laws, made applicable by proclamation. We shall come presently to Natal, and to Zululand which is under the Governor of Natal. The w T hole of British South Africa, unless it is held to include Lobengula's country and the " sphere of influence " up to the Portuguese settlement on the Zambesi, is small. On the 1st of August 1888 we 516 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part in informed the South African Eepublic that we regarded this Lobengula country as being within the sphere of exclusively British interest, but it is a curious fact that the telegram was wilfully omitted from the Blue-book which came up to 27th August of that year. By a charter of the 29th October 1889 the district was, however, assigned to the British South Africa Company. character South Africa is small when compared with the vast of these % x coionies. areas of Canada and Australia. The Cape, with the Transkei and Gricjualand West, is not much larger than France. British Bechuanaland, Basutoland, and Natal have an area which make them insignificant even as com- pared with the Cape. The Bechuanaland British protec- torate is only about the size of France. The Orange Free State is only half the size of England. The Transvaal, or South African Eepublic, since its recent growth, is somewhat larger than the United Kingdom. The old part of Cape Colony had a white population which was about half the native population ; Bechuanaland, both British and protected, is, of course, chiefly inhabited by blacks. Basutoland is almost entirely populated by natives, as is the Transkei, and as is also Pondoland. The Orange Free State has the largest white propor- tionate population of any part of South Africa, nearly half its inhabitants being white — that is, Dutch, which is the reason why President Paul Kruger wishes by a federal arrangement to add the Free State to the larger and richer South African Republic, in which, otherwise, his "old burghers" will soon be swamped by the English population. The Transvaal has a native population which used to be to the Dutch white population as about fifteen to one, and even since English miners have flowed rapidly into the country the native population still outnumbers the whites by at least ten to one. It CHAP. II SOUTH AFRICA 5*7 will be remembered that Basutoland was at one time governed by the Cape, but was taken back by the imperial Government. It will also be remembered that, while the Orange River Free State is a wholly independent country, the South African Republic is under the nominal suzerainty of the British Crown. All the continental countries which I have named contain some gold, but the Transvaal has proved extraordinarily rich in gold, while rumour has it that the Mashona country between the Transvaal and the Zambesi, m the British sphere of influence (although with some doubt about our exact boundaries), is fabulously rich in the same metal. The products of South Africa generally are similar to the products of the Cape. The country northwards to the Zambesi continues to be a country of gold and wool, and wine and copper. Wheat becomes less plentiful and maize more plentiful as we journey towards the north, and sugar plantations more general upon the coast. The interior is an arid, yellow, burnt- up country, parched by drought during the greater portion of the year, but subject from time to time to rains which make it green and rich. This inlaud country stands high and possesses a fine climate, and is healthy, while the low ground near the coast northward from Natal is subject to malarial fevers. The country is not a no-man's land (as was once the greater portion of Australia), and is throughout its length and breadth inhabited by black tribes ; but the British settlers are accustomed to assert that the blacks are the wealth of the country because they provide cheap labour. The production of mohair from Turkish goats is continuing to spread, and fruit-canning will probably develop with the extension of railways. As we pass up the east coast from the Cape along the 518 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part hi Pondoiami Transkei, and to the St. John's Kiver, which is governed laud. asut0 " by the Cape, we come to Pondoland, where a German annexation was expected some years ago and guarded against by the usual means, namely, the hoisting of our own flag upon the coast. Pondoland has been a virtual protectorate since this step was taken in the time of Mr. Gladstone's second administration, but it is un- fortunately coloured as independent in the official map of South Africa in Command Papers 5524 (Bechuanaland, August 1888), a slip which invites German action. There has been, however, a resident commissioner in Pondoland since July 1888. In the case of Basutoland, which lies at the back of Pondoland and of what is called Kaffraria, and which is now, as I have said, a Crown colony, the Cape of Good Hope contributes towards the cost of government the sum of £20,000 a year, which is, however, I believe, meant as a rebate in respect of customs duties — all goods intended for Basuto- land having to pass through the Cape. Natal. Natal is often said to be the real home of the British flag in South Africa. The shipping of her chief port is British in the proportion of ten to one. There is a larger English population in Natal, in proportion to area and to the general white population, than anywhere else upon the African continent. There are in Natal nearly 40,000 whites, chiefly British, and about 36,000 Indian coolies completely under British influence, to fewer than 500,000 South African blacks ; and the Dutch element is weak. Coolie immigrants are still beino- brought in under indenture, while immigration of Euro- peans has all but ceased. The Natal coast, and a strip of 25 to 30 miles in width, is planted with sugar, coffee, arrowroot, and cotton, and is well watered, as is the middle district of the colony producing Indian corn ; SOUTH AFRICA 519 while the upper district rising towards the mountains and the table lands is chiefly a grazing country, though capable of growing wheat. Natal, like Western Australia, has a curious mixed The Natal constitution, more liberal than that of Crown Colonies in JS£ general, and approaching in practice to those of the self- governing colonies with responsible Ministers. On the expiration of the Wolseley system, which existed between 1875 and 1880, a Bill for the introduction of responsible government was passed in Natal, to which the home Government refused its sanction, and the present arrange- ment was come to in 1883. The Executive Council is nominated by the Crown, but the Legislative Council consists of 30 members, of whom 23 are elected, and 5 others are the Ministers. There is a curious proviso with regard to persons not being capable of being elected unless invited by requisition of at least ten electors of the district, and unless the requisition, with the candi- date's acceptance, be transmitted to the magistrate a fortnight before the date fixed for the election. Two members appointed by the Governor, in addition to the Ministry, have to possess £1000 worth of immovable property in Natal. The elective members sit for four years, and are elected by persons who have immovable property to the value of £50, or who rent such property to the value of £10, or whose income is equal to £8 a month. Natives are disqualified except they show twelve years' residence, the property qualification, and exemption from the operation of native law for seven years, and, in order to vote, have to obtain a certifi- cate from the Governor, who may refuse it at his dis- cretion. Coloured natives practically never fulfil these provisions, but there are a large number of Indians who possess the Natal franchise ; indeed as many as 300 520 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN in Durban alone. There is no direct taxation in Natal in the ordinary sense of the word, and nothing in the nature of direct taxation for general colonial purposes except the hut -tax on the natives. There was, till 1889, nominally a house-tax on the whites, but the law had been left in abeyance, and, the tax never having been raised, the Bill would have had to be virtually passed over again if it had been intended to collect the duty. Dislike of direct taxation is universal in Natal, but there is a general indifference with regard to the extent of customs duties. The unpopularity of the recent proposal of the Government to increase them, with a view of coming into customs union with the Cape, was not caused by dislike of the increase so much as by jealousy of the Cape, which is almost as strong a feeling in Natal as is jealousy of Victoria in New South Wales, but, as I have said, in order to try to keep the Transvaal trade the Natal customs duties have since been diminished. The Natal railways are all in State hands and pay a high rate of interest, indeed the railway receipts yield to the colony far more even than the cus- toms, which stand next, the native hut-tax being third. Labour. The workmen in Durban, at all events, have a more considerable political position, oddly enough, than they possess in the larger and older colony of the Cape under responsible government, and this in spite of the fact that the Unions are not powerful in Natal. The white artisans refuse to work along with the black more generally than is the case in the Cape. There are no skilled native artisans in Natal to compare with the Malay artisans of the Cape, and the skilled artisans in Natal are white, while the blacks do not compete with them in their trades. There has recently been a great demand for skilled artisans in Natal, which has been caused by the SOUTH AFRICA 521 rush to the diggings. At Johannesburg in the Trans- vaal masons in 1888 were as a fact, though it was denied, making at one moment as much as 30s. a da}' at their trade, and it was found impossible in consequence to obtain masons when they were wanted by the Government at Durban at 15s. a day for a nine-hour day, although at the Cape the wages were about 9s. at that time ; but, of course, this irregularity of the rate of wages could be but temporary. In 1889 carpenters were making 22s. 6d. a day at Johannesburg, but living- was either rough or dear. The English retail trader in Natal suffers severely from the competition of the Bombay trader, or so-called Arab, who has now in his hands the entire trade of what is known as "native truck," in iron pots, blankets, beads, and other articles used by the Zulus, and also supplies the towns with vegetables and with fruit. In its education system Natal is somewhat more Education advanced than the Cape, and Natal possesses a national NataL ° system more nearly resembling, though still at a great distance, those of the Australian colonies. The Govern- ment keeps up not only its own primary schools but also high schools in each of the chief towns. The Natal Government has lately entered upon an interest- ing educational experiment. Readers of Miss Olive Schreiner's Story of an African Farm know that even the Boer farmers of South Africa engage tutors for their children, and I believe that the authoress herself was once a governess upon a farm. The Natal Govern- ment has promised to make payments to parents in out- lying districts towards the education of their children if they will send them once a year for examination to convenient centres. When the white population in Natal numbered only 36,000 people it was computed by vol. 1 2 m PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN Government that as many as 2500 white children were under the care of governesses or tutors. The Natal The Natal press is conducted with singular ability. press. rp| ie newS p a p ers are mostly in favour of responsible government, and, if responsible government is carried into effect, its acceptance will be much more the work of the press than the work of the people, for generally speaking the readers of the Natal newspapers would follow their favourite editors even if they went the other way, newspaper opinion on this point being far ahead of the popular feeling, although not contrary to any settled feeling against responsible institutions. The pro- As regards the proposed introduction of responsible traduction government, it must be remembered that Natal with ofrespon- fa strange mixed constitution has what ordinary Crown sible gov- ~ «... ernment. Colonies have not, namely, the power of the purse in its own hands, and by this means possesses already many of the chief advantages of responsible administration. The difficulty about conferring responsible government on Natal is, of course, the enormous and overwhelming strength of the black population both in the colony proper and in Zululand. Moreover, while in the Cape the native population is chiefly on the edge of the colony, and the natives who live in the centre are of a tame description, in Natal there are natives living in the heart of the colony who have the tribal system in full force among them. The Cape, as has been shown, may be said to somewhat resemble Algeria in having a large tract of country which is chiefly inhabited by whites, together with other tracts of country inhabited by coloured natives : but Natal is like no other colony in having a large black population living under the tribal system in the heart of the country and connected by ties of every description with the coloured population outside SOUTH AFRICA 523 the colony. Natal would probably not accept responsible government on the footing now suggested for Western Australia. She would not accept responsible govern- ment, that is, with any permanent control of native affairs by the imperial Government, although she would accept a temporary control fixed to terminate at the end of a definite and short number of years. This she would accept only if the home Government chose to pay a large contribution in money, or to keep at least a regiment of troops for Natal defence. The advocates of the change have, however, always professed themselves willing to receive a nominated Upper House, and they proposed that it should be expressly constituted with a view to the protection of native interests. Natal, again, would not accept responsible government if it were intended that under it Zululand should be permanently excluded from colonial control, and, on the other hand, Zululand would be terribly difficult for Natal to manage under responsible institutions. Another difficulty in the way of responsible government in Natal is that of defence. • One reason why the idea of responsible government is not very popular in Natal is because the inhabitants foresee that, with it, they will have to accept the burgher system of the Cape in its entirety, and regularly levy a colonial militia for service in native wars. The grant of responsible government to Natal had Lord Kim- been strongly asked for by the colony before 1883, but reasons' for from that time the agitation subsided until 1887, when refusing * the discussion was revived. The correspondence which took place upon the subject in 1880 contains arguments which are still applicable to the situation, inasmuch as they are maiuly based upon difficulties arising out of the disproportion of numbers between blacks and whites. The advocates of responsible government have upon 524 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part in their side the success of municipal and other local institutions in the colony, and it is the fact that the relations between the black man and the white man in Natal are marked by a considerable friendliness, and that native levies raised during the Zulu war preferred to be led by colonial rather than by imperial officers, possibly because the former as a rule could, and the latter could not, speak the native languages. When Lord Kimberley refused the prayer of the Legislative Council of the colony he said that the colony would be unequal to meet from its own resources the liability for defence against internal disturbances, while, on the other hand, the home Government could not hold itself responsible for the consequences of a policy over which it would have no control. He insisted that Natal must gain strength by confederation with its neighbours before responsible government could be granted. The Chairman of the select committee of the Legislative Council which considered the despatch from the home Government was the present Sir J. Robinson, member for Durban, at that time a prominent Natal politician, who is editor and part proprietor of the Natal Mercury, and who represented the colony at the Colonial Conference in London in 1887, and, along with Mr. Haden and the Speaker of the Council, represented the colony at the customs and railways conference at the Cape in 1888. The committee put on record its opinion that, while the colony might properly be held responsible for its defence from such aggression as might be caused by the acts or policy of a responsible government, it could not be justly said that there existed any such obligation to meet acts of aggression arising out of circumstances over which the colony had no control — the allusion being, of course, to Zululand. SOUTH AFRICA 5 2 5 When the Legislative Council was dissolved on the question of responsible government it was found that the members were in advance of their con- stituencies. There is in Natal a coast party and an "interior" party. It was discovered that in the coast districts, where in old days the planting interest had been opposed to the movement for responsible government, a considerable change had taken place in its favour, and that in the upper districts, where the movement had originated, a reaction had set in against it. A majority was returned against responsible govern- ment. Mr. Robinson lost his seat for Durban, and an address was voted to the effect that the colony was not in a position to undertake the responsibility suggested, and that the maintenance in the colony of imperial troops was desirable. Sir J. Robinson is now again a member of the Legislative Council, but his place as leader of the advanced party has by degrees been taken by Mr. Escombe, a lawyer, and by Mr. Binns, a sugar- planter — men of high ability, of whom the former has been a great promoter of the harbour-works at Durban, havino- devoted time and money without stint to that undertaking. Meetings have been held in favour of responsible government, and "responsible" candidates have been returned, after hotly contested conflicts, for important constituencies. There is no decided majority either way, and the movement received a check in 1888 by the rejection of an old member who had undertaken the drawing-up of a Constitution Amend- ment Bill, and who was beaten by an " anti-responsible " candidate in the inland constituency of Newcastle, the capital of the coal district, where there is a large coal- field full of thick seams of a fair coal, better than that of the Cape, and already largely used upon the railroads, 526 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part in although Newcastle has only just been reached by the State line. Theoretical difficulties seldom oppress colonists. M. P. Leroy-Beaulieu has laid it down as a principle that where, as in Natal and Algeria, active working colonists live side by side with a vastly larger native population, the mother-country must protect the natives by direct means, and refuse local responsible government, while it may grant imperial representation Zuiuiand, a to both classes ; but, though the colonists attach little Srwayoi importance to this general argument, they attach a great granting ^ ea j ^ ^ ie S p ec i a } difficulties arising out of the condition respon- r ° sibie gov- f Zululand. That Crown Colony is governed by the Natal. Governor of Natal as Governor of Zululand, through a commissioner, and legislation is by proclamation. Natal is frightened by the terror of what it calls "border aggression," and discussions are raised upon the Gover- nor's salary. The imperial Government has agreed that his pay as Governor of Zululand should be charged against the revenues of Zululand, while Natal makes a contribution towards these revenues in respect of the customs duties levied by Natal upon goods intended for Zululand. Military About one-half of the elective members of the Council questions. con ^i nue £ De [ n f avour f responsible government, but are not cheerfully prepared to defend the border. Their policy, I suppose, would be a mere removal of the imperial garrison into Zululand, an arrangement which would be just as costly for the home Government as the present, while it would create local dissatisfaction in portions of Natal in consequence of the loss of trade to certain towns. It is generally acknowledged in Natal that troops of the regular British army are less serviceable for African war- fare than are police or local levies. Eegular infantry have been repeatedly shown to be of little use against SOUTH AFRICA 527 natives. the natives, and cavalry appear to be unwieldy for such warfare when compared with colonial mounted rifles. On the other hand, the mere presence in Natal of the imperial forces is popular in the colony, and some think that the natives attach importance to their presence as an emblem of imperial authority. At this moment we spend considerably more than twice as much for military purposes in the colony as the colony itself disburses, but there is, nevertheless, an efficient volunteer force. Natal is buying her own guns, which are, of course, not yet ready, and Durban — an exposed port when we consider the French movements in Madagascar — is unfortunately open to the shells of an enemy, which might be thrown from the sea across a sandy neck. In spite of the heavy "native hut-tax," the black The population of Natal has greatly increased of late through immigration, a fact which is flattering to the colony, but not altogether agreeable, and the aspects of the native question here are very different from those which it presents in Queensland or in north-west Australia. Both in Australia and in South Africa the mother- country, as a Christian country, having no strong self-interest tending to make it forget its principles in the matter, naturally concerns itself with the protection of the aboriginal population. The colonist everywhere presents towards the native population his rougher side. Among the men upon the frontier are the wildest of the colonists — those upon whom some of the moral obligations of highly civilised peoples have the least binding force. The result is that the colonist who comes into actual contact with the native, and who is exasperated by his pilfering or by an occasional murder, as the case may be, is apt, in Australia, to shoot him as though he were a kangaroo, and where he does not shoot him, desires to 528 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part in be allowed to make a profit out of -him by supplying him with strong drink. The mother-country, directly or indirectly, strives to put down these practices, and the grant of complete self-government has been some- times refused on account of considerations growing out of this native question. It is of more importance in the case of South Africa, owing to the great numbers of the blacks, than in that of any other group of leading colonies. Hence the special powers of High Commissioner in South Africa, and of the Natal Governor in Zululand ; hence the semi-tutelage in which Natal is held ; hence the necessity for British payment of the costs of South African wars. Sale of In Natal, however, there has not been the same natives, cruelty exercised towards the blacks which marred the early days of Queensland, or which is said by the opponents of the Dutch to disgrace the Boer republics. The sale of drink upon and just outside the frontier has been more deadly than the rifle, but less deadly within British territory or British protectorates than in the unprotected countries. Of all South African countries it is in Swaziland, which is unprotected, that drink supplied by white men has done the greatest harm. The Coieu- The absence of responsible government in Natal has versed somewhat prevented the development of remarkable church figures among the colonial politicians. Two names will questions. ° ° i - always be associated with the political history of the country — those of Bishop Colenso, the uncompromising advocate of native rights, and of Sir Theophilus Shep- stone. The latter is still living, though he has retired from active affairs, and until the troubles in the Transvaal he was a most prominent figure in South African politics. Sir Theophilus Shepstone's admirers contend that no man so well understood how to deal personally with the SOUTH AFRICA 529 Dutch, as well as with the Zulus, and that it was the rougher military methods of Sir Owen Lanyon, who succeeded Sir Theophilus Shepstone at Pretoria, which brought about the rising. My own belief is that the rising w T as inevitable from the moment that Lord Carnarvon annexed the country against the popular will, and that nothing but the presence of an overwhelming force, holding down the Transvaal by the severest military means, would have prevented the continued assertion of its independence. At the same time the Boers had grievances against Sir Owen Lanyon, of which one was his alleged unwillingness to shake hands with them — an unpardonable sin amid these sturdy republicans. Sir Theophilus Shepstone, since his retire- ment from political and official life, keeps up a slight connection with public affairs by advocating the cause of the Church of England in Natal against that of the rival Church of South Africa. The Colenso controversy is understood at home, but what is less well known, except by those who specially concern themselves with Church affairs, is that the results of the controversy still exist in a painful form. The remnant of Bishop Colenso's friends, strengthened by a so-called anti-ritualist party, hold the buildings and the property of the Church ; but the bishops who tried to expel Bishop Colenso, and who, when they failed, consecrated a bishop to, as far as possible, take his place, have a Church of their own, which has carried off the greater portion of the congre- gations. Any such difference must be regrettable, of course, but the more so in this case, because in these days Colenso's criticisms of the Old Testament would not have led to so fierce a difference, and it is impossible not to feel that the stiffness of the bishop chiefly con- cerned on the other side has led in a great measure to 53o PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part in the continuance of the difficulty. It has been asserted, but it is untrue, that the one Church represents the High Church party, and the other the Low. Strict Low Churchmen were by no means led to asso- ciate themselves with what they looked upon as the rationalistic views of Dr. Colenso's friends. The other Church has, however, been driven by its position into a general attitude of antagonism to Privy Council judg- ments, and to an assertion of a High Church attitude upon these subjects. It will probably conquer in the long-run, as the influence of the personality of Dr. Colenso becomes weakened by the gradual dying off of his own friends. There is considerable difficulty in dealing with the property and endowments of the " Church of England," that is, of the Colenso division, and of appropriating them for general Church purposes, which would mean to the use of the " Church of South Africa" — the anti-Colenso division. The difficulty is increased by the belief, which is strong in the minds of many of the Colenso party, that the home authorities may yet be induced to consecrate a successor to the late Bishop of Natal. The "Church of England" party refuse to fall into their places in the South African Church so long as the latter denies the supremacy of the English Ecclesiastical Courts, but in many cases this reason is but an excuse for refusing to join a Church the chief dignitaries of which took an active personal part against Dr. Colenso. In fact the feeling of the greater number in the " Church of England " party is rather personal than doctrinal, but there is, no doubt, a real objection on the part of some who are broad Church- men to the His;h Church leanings of the South African Church. When the present bishop and dean are gone, a newly-appointed bishop of liberal tendencies would SOUTH AFRICA 53 1 probably find himself able to fuse the unsympathetic elements, and to make his Church more deserving of the title of the Church of South Africa. The " Church of England " party, although numerically the weaker, in- cludes among its members many of the most important residents in the two chief towns of the colony, and its intellectual force is wholly out of proportion to the numerical support which it receives. Natal is altogether more English than the Cape, and climate one easily understands, in consequence, the desire shown customs by even certain Cape politicians to retain it as a Crown ° Colony, for fear it should in some degree, under respon- sible government, escape from British influence. The climate of Cape Town is, of course, far more English than the climate of the Natal coast. The vegetation of the seaboard of Natal is tropical, yet, in spite of the exotic appearance of its bananas and its sugar-canes, and in spite of the larger proportion of coloured people than in the more temperate colony, Natal has more of the air of a British possession. Durban, notwithstand- ing the swarms of Zulus and of Indians in its streets, looks like an English town, and since the opening of the Natal railways the absence of ox -waggons has deprived Durban of its main South African characteristic. Although the summer on the coast is very hot, the white people affect English customs and costumes. They eat roast-beef in the middle of the day, and wear the coats and hats which Englishmen favour, and live without the punkahs which make life endurable in similar climates elsewhere. Durban is one of the most civilised cities in South Africa. Its picturescpiely situated harbour - works are most creditable to the citizens, and the prosperity of its merchants is shown in the scores of beautiful villas 532 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part in which are scattered among the tropical vegetation of the hill slopes. whites Maritzburg, as Pietermaritzburg is invariably called, numbered is essentially an official town. Society there is almost y natives. con ft ne( j £ p ersons connected with the Government or the garrison. In appearance the capital is singularly English, and the distinguishing feature of its streets is the enormous number of its churches and its chapels. Every British sect is represented, and represented at such close quarters that on Sunday nights the services mingle their sounds. The white population of Natal is found chiefly in the towns, and in the country districts the whites are enormously outnumbered by the Zulu population. In one county in the coal district I find that the population returns show 2000 Europeans to 15,000 Indians and 65,000 natives. In the Lower Tugela Division there are but 734 whites in 56,021 people. One reason why the white population is so much larger in the Orange Kiver Free State than it is in the inland portions of Natal, in addition to the obvious reason that the Dutch originally drove out those natives who did not actually labour for them, is that the Dutch remain in South Africa, while the English largely look to a future at " home," so that a South African Englishman who has made money is always inclined to leave the colony to return to London, whereas to the Boer South Africa is the only home that the earth contains. "Home" to the religiously-minded Boer means first heaven, and next South Africa. There is rather a growing tendency than otherwise in England to act upon the principle laid down by Govern- ment in the case of Ceylon and of the Pacific Islands, that where large bodies of natives for whom we are respon- sible are brought together with small numbers of whites SOUTH AFRICA under one local government, the chief control should be entrusted to an authority directly responsible to the Colonial Office or to Parliament, and able to show impartiality as between conflicting racial interests. The oligarchy of a body of whites in a black country is not believed by the imperial Parliament to be a wise form of government, for such an oligarchy must be influenced by its selfish interests in land and labour questions. The universality of nominal Christianity in British colonies has never led the inhabitants to seriously admit in daily life the equality of man. In some West Indian islands, both of England and France, the negroes are beginning to rule the colonies, but they are themselves an imported race of considerable power of imitation, and have been for some time trained in the practice of local government. The wild Kafirs and the remnants of the persecuted Hottentots of South Africa are, no doubt, far from beins able to exercise with intelligent prudence the government of a colony. To admit natives in small numbers to the Government is a middle course which may be very possible in the case of an outnumbered and a dwindling race such as the Maories of New Zealand, but which is difficult to maintain with a rapidly increasing people such as the Zulus of Natal. It is even doubtful in the minds of some whether Doubts as Natal can permanently stand alone, whatever her ntyof Natal institutions. She is surrounded by a warlike native toTfanci le population increasing more rapidly than the white and alone- overwhelmingly outnumbering it, and while she desires to extend her boundaries and to annex to herself Griqualand East and Pondoland, as well perhaps as Zululand and part of Swaziland, such changes of boundaries, although they might make her commercially 534 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part in more rich, would render her politically less strong. A close confederation or a union with the Cape would seem more wise, and in the long-run these may be the only alternative modes of protecting the white popula- tion against their neighbours. The Orange The relations with Natal of her Dutch neighbours e * have already of necessity been glanced at in the chapter upon the Cape. The Orange Eiver Free State is a re- public which has but half as many people to the square mile as Cape Colony, and but an eighth as many as Natal ; but the white population is in the Dutch Republic nearly half the whole, and the territory is the most completely colonised and settled of all in South Africa. The Cape has run her railways thither from three points — from Cape Town, from Port Elizabeth, and from East London. All these railways will doubtless one day meet the Natal railways at the Orange Eiver capital. Relations To the north of Natal and of the Free State lies the south Transvaal, now known both to its own citizens and to RepuMic our Government as the South African Eepublic. Natal is at the present time living on the Transvaal trade, and is also doing business with the Free State, through the Transvaal, in goods which pass in as Transvaal goods, in spite of the customs union between the Cape and the Free State, to which Natal is not a party. The Transvaal is five times as large as Natal : its white population is more than double, and its British population is now larger than that of Natal. The enormous wealth of the Transvaal, especially in gold, has caused a trade which has been the making of our colony. The trade is at present divided between the Cape and Natal, and Natal is trying to carry it off by lowering her duties — just as New South Wales is trying to carry off the trade of its back country of the Riverina SOUTH AFRICA 535 from Melbourne — and the railway question has in con- sequence vast importance for Natal. The Free State agreed in 1889 to an extension of the Natal railway system to Harrismith in the Free State ; the line to be made, and probably worked, by a Natal staff, just as the Cape line to the Orange capital is to be made by the Cape Government. I believe that Natal, in refusing that customs union to which her delegates had agreed, counts upon the Free State being unable to isolate herself by custom houses, both on account of the difficulty of the frontier and because of the unpopularity of this policy in that portion of the Orange State itself which largely profits by the Natal trade. As regards the Transvaal, popular opinion in Natal disparages Delagoa Bay, and desires a British protectorate of Swaziland. It seems to be thought by the Natal people that Swaziland and Southern Tongaland can be kept out of the clutches of the South African Republic, and that Delagoa Bay is so unhealthy that it is not likely to come into favour as a trade route, so that ulti- mately the Transvaal would have to become reconciled to the use of the Natal railway, which is being rapidly completed from Newcastle to Coldstream on the Trans- vaal border, a distance of 30 miles. There are some wiser heads among: the members of the Natal Govern- ment who see as plainly as do the authorities of the Cape that it is impossible to fight against the obvious facts of geography, and that the Transvaal is certain to obtain an opening to the sea, within its own control. In order not to needlessly complicate the already difficult problem, Mr. Gladstone's second administration hoisted the British flag over the harbour at Santa Lucia Bay and kept the Germans out of Zululand. Germany protested, but in April 1885 withdrew her protest and 536 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part hi engaged to refrain from making acquisitions of territory, or establishing protectorates between Natal and Delagoa Bay ; but as it is impossible to obtain Delagoa Bay from Portugal, and as it is impossible to prevent the Trans- vaal using it for its trade, the best course would seem to be to make our railways to carry off as large a portion of the trade as we can divert by our competition, and by low duties and low freights to do the best we can towards creating in portions of the Transvaal interests in favour of connection with our lines. The part of the Delagoa Bay line which is not yet made is by no means an easy line to make. The extension of the Cape line through British Bechuanaland and across the protec- torate is an easy one, and sooner or later, in spite of Transvaal opposition, will be made by the help of those Cape Dutchmen who put interest before sentiment. The country is healthy and free from mountain ranges, and cheap labour can be obtained. The Natal people, while they would agree with me about the difficulty of the Delagoa Bay line, would add as an argument against the Cape lines their length, and then they point out how short a distance it is from the coast at Durban to the Transvaal ; but they must consent to look facts in the face. The Transvaal has a frontier upon the Bechuana- land side which makes the prevention of smuggling im- possible, and which will put the South African Republic at the mercy of the Cape should she ultimately extend her main line to the north. On the other hand, the Trans- vaal has on the Natal side a mountain frontier which can be defended by custom houses with the greatest ease. As it is, Natal knows what Transvaal Protection means, and Natal is a free-trade colony which has given the Transvaal no provocation. The Natal people argue that they have much to lose, and nothing to gain, by coming SOUTH AFRICA 537 into the customs union, and they say that all they need do is to make their railway to the frontier and then wait. It is possible that the Natal people hope for the gradual substitution of a British for a Dutch Government in the Transvaal. If Transvaal gold-mining goes on as it has begun it is certain that the Dutch-speaking population will be in a decided minority in a short space of time. The Transvaal revenues at the present moment come Transvaal c i • miners chiefly from the pockets of the miners, who are in great have no part English. The Transvaal direct revenue from the SJJJ 611 gold-fields in 1888 was already nearly half a million ster- , ling. The British miners still have no representation, though it is continually being promised to them. At this moment I believe it takes five years' residence to become a voter, and fifteen years more to become eligible for membership of the Volksraad, which is never dissolved, the members retiring in sections, and where also the Dutch language alone is used — conditions which practically wholly shut out the English. At the end of May 1889 President Kruger introduced, not on the responsibility of the Executive, but in his capacity as a member of the Raad, — " a private member" the Transvaal Bismarck playfully described himself on this occasion, — a so-called " Reform Bill " ; an obviously delusive measure, which itself was shelved for one year by a reference to a committee. The Bill itself is a curiosity of primitive drafting. It creates a first Volks- raad and a Second Volksraad, of which the First Volks- raad is to be " the highest power in the State," and shall consist of the present Volksraad ; and the laws and resolutions having reference to the Volksraad and its members are to remain in force and to be applicable in the future to the First Volksraad and its members. The number of members in the Second Volksraad is to VOL. I 2 N 538 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN be the same as that in the First Volksraad, and each member is to take an oath of adherence to the constitution of the Republic. The mode of electing members to the Second Volksraad is to be the same as that to the First. The members of the Second are to be elected for a term of four years, half going out, however, at the end of two years, and after that half the members going out every two years. The members of the First Volksraad are to be chosen by "old burghers" who obtained burgher right by birth, and are sixteen years of age. The members of the Second Volksraad are to be elected by all burghers of the age of sixteen years. No one can be a member of both Volksraden at the same time, and, by another peculiarity of Transvaal legislation, in addition to the extraordinary peculiarity of the choice of the age of sixteen for majority, the members of one Volksraad may not stand to each other in the relation " of father or son or stepson." " No coloured persons nor bastards" can be elected to either Volksraad. Members of the First Volksraad must have been for thirty years members of a Protestant church. Mem- bers of the Second Volksraad must be thirty years of ao-e, and need only have been for the two previous years members of a Protestant church in the Republic. The Second Volksraad shall have the right to regulate matters relating to metals and minerals, roads, posts, telegraphs, inventions, trade -marks, copyright, forests, salt pans, infectious disease, the relations of master and servant, companies, insolvency, civil and criminal procedure, and such other matters as the First Volksraad may refer to the Second. Laws or resolutions passed by the Second Volksraad are to be referred to the President, who may lay the law or resolution before the First for discussion. If he does not, he is bound to publish the law, which SOUTH AFRICA 539 then becomes of force. The voters for the Second Volksraad have to renounce all allegiance to all foreign sovereigns and powers, and in particular to the sovereign to whom or power of which up to naturalisation they have been subjects. On the publication of this draft law the diggers appealed to the British agent at Pretoria to ask whether, by taking the oath of allegiance to the republic, British subjects would lose their status as such, and he at once referred the matter to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, for the opinion of the law officers of the Crown, whose reply has been a Delphic utterance. The Transvaal Advertiser, which represents the British element and advocates a prudent opportunism, argues that the taking; of the oath of allegiance to the Trans- vaal would not involve the loss of British nationality on account of the peculiar connection between the South African Republic and Great Britain, the Queen being suzerain over the republic. Transvaal treaties are submitted to the Queen's Government before they become binding on the contracting parties, and it is, therefore, contended that a British subject taking the oath of allegiance to the republic does so with a neces- sary reservation. Supposing that the Transvaal Govern- ment, it is urged, should declare war against the United Kingdom, a British-born inhabitant taking part against Great Britain would be not a foreign enemy but a rebel. It is, however, certain that President Kruger himself takes a different view, and in his speech on proposing his dual Chamber scheme he urg-ed that the oath which it would impose upon what he admitted was a majority of the inhabitants would prevent the possibility of the imperial flag ever taking the place of that of the republic. Lord Knutsford's answer to his questioners in the Transvaal 540 PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part hi was to the effect that the fact of taking the oath of allegiance to the Government of the South African Republic does not deprive those taking it of their status as British subjects, unless by the law of the Republic their taking the oath of allegiance is sufficient to con- stitute naturalisation, and the persons taking the oath take it with the intent that it should have that effect. Future By some it is supposed that the enormous influx of the J i Transvaal, of Europeans to the Transvaal gold-fields means a speedy overturning of the Transvaal Government and a return to the British connection, still nominally maintained in the suzerainty of the Queen, but reports from Johannesburg are to a different effect. The large European population may not be willing to long- put up with Boer rule in its present form ; the diggers will demand the franchise, and even the use of the Dutch language may after a struggle be abolished in the gold-fields ; but feeling is entirely against annexa- tion to the United Kingdom, and it is hard to say which is the stronger — the distrust of and con- tempt for the Transvaal Government or the dread of being subject to British rule. There is a wide- spread belief at the gold-fields that the Transvaal must remain a republic, but become an English - speaking- republic, though the possible addition of the Free State to the South African Republic may conceivably for a time secure the predominance of the Dutch race. President Paul Kruger has made some concessions to the diggers, but there has been forced upon him of late an extreme policy with regard to the use of the Dutch language which may lead to a fierce struggle. The bad organisation of passenger and postal communication is also a source of difficulty between the diggers and the Boers. It is a curious fact that the English diggers SOUTH AFRICA 541 iii the Transvaal, most of whom are Conservatives in England — from those who have belonged to the Junior Carlton or the Constitutional Club to those who have sung " Rule, Britannia " at peaceful meetings — should become republican in the Transvaal ; and the possible growth of a vigorous English-speaking republic on the stump of a Boer community is worthy of being watched with care. Of course, at any moment the diggings may become less rich and the miners move, or active stupidity on the part of the Transvaal Govern- ment may throw the mining population into the arms of Cape Colony. Although it is most irksome to the diggers that, in The official great centres of commercial activity, the official forms for Dutch all the business connected with the posts and telegraphs anguage - should be in a tongue which nine-tenths of those trans- acting business cannot understand, and although the inconvenience caused by the proceedings of the law courts and of auction sales taking place in Dutch is great, yet there is a good deal of hesitation, for reasons which I will give, about expressing a strong discontent. It sometimes happens in the mining districts that the magistrate is well able to speak English, that to the counsel upon both sides Dutch is a foreign language, and that the plaintiff and the defendant are both English, and the witnesses, as well as the whole or the majority of the jury, English, and yet every word spoken in English has to be interpreted into Dutch for the supposed benefit of a judge and jury who as a fact would come to a speedier and clearer understanding of the case without resort to this process. But when it is proposed to hold indignation meetings somebody whispers that if there is any difference of opinion between the miners and " Uncle Kruger " gold shares may go down, and the meeting is 542 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part hi postponed. There is a great difference between the language held by the miners when they come to see their friends in Natal or at the Cape and that of which they make use when they are in the territory of the South African Republic, and President Kruger, although he does not reign without opposition from his own people, is a dictator towards the English, and — considering who he is and what he is — is not unpopular. References are frequently made to his good sense and to the certainty that when he visits a part of the country where complaint is made grievances will be remedied. It is curious that it should be so, because " Oom Paul's " old Dutch jealousy of the English is so great that mere fear on his part of bringing into his territory in official situations the Dutch trained in Cape Colony, who might be under British influence, has often led him to employ Hollanders in his civil service, for which his own people are seldom sufficiently educated. Now Hollanders are far from popular amid the Afrikander Boers. President President Paul Kruger was in 1880 the soul of the triumvirate which — first by carrying out the advice of the former president, of patience and protest, and then by raising insurrection — drove from the country a British administration which never had received popular support at any time, and which, it must be admitted, had done little to deserve it. With General Joubert, Kruger was the guiding spirit of the Boers throughout the war, and since the war he has been, through his strength, the dictator of the republic. His power comes partly from his character and in part from the fact that he shares the prejudices of his people. " Uncle Paul " is a Conservative even among his conservative Boers ; a leading member and teacher of the Dopper sect which objects to some of the modern ways of the Dutch Church, such as the sub- Kruger. SOUTH AFRICA 543 stitution of hymns for psalms. It is supposed by many that he hopes to scoop out South Africa and, founding a vast Dutch republic in the whole of its inland territories, to leave us only the sea-coast rind, after the manner in which the Arabs have lately been scooping out northern and central Africa. Some think that President Kruger intends shortly not only to conquer Swaziland from the natives, but also to take Bechuanaland from us and Delagoa Bay from Portugal. But to my mind there are vast exaggerations in this talk. After all, the hatred for us even of the most extreme party among the Transvaal Boers is not greater than that of the people of Lower Canada for the British Government in Tocqueville's time. Yet now, as we have seen, the British Empire does not contain more loyal subjects than the present French inhabitants of the Province of Quebec. Many Boers, finding that the Transvaal is o-rowing English through the digger interest, and that, on the other hand, their friends are in power at the Cape, are selling their lands and returning to the Cape, from which their ancestors went northwards fifty years ago. This process is helping the conversion of the South African Republic from a Dutch into an English state. In May 1889 President Kruger took his whole President ■/ ° , Kruger and Parliament to Johannesburg to see the diggers, on the the English invitation of a committee, and really on a suggestion tL by Mr. Merriman ; and after their return, he is re- ported in some Natal papers to have told the Yolksraad that the British diggers might so increase in numbers that the South African Ptepublic would only be able to save its independence by coming into a United South Africa, "either under its own, or under a royal flag," and that the newcomers might prefer the latter, and, if so, had a right to be consulted; but 544 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part in the President must, I think, have been misreported. The Transvaal Advertiser gave a different version of his words used in his two speeches of the 29th and 31st May, and made him argue that Almighty God had preserved the independence of the Transvaal against terrible odds by a direct and miraculous intervention ; that the newcomers, who within five years would be five times as numerous as " the people of the country," would be able, being in a vast majority, to take power into their own hands, and might declare that they did not wish to have a republic any longer. It was his object, by the Bill that he proposed, to prevent this possibility, by forcing upon the miners the oath of allegiance to the republic. If, on the other hand, his opponents, who put forward the danger under his scheme of a rupture between his two Chambers, persisted in their view, the result would be that sooner or later digger representatives would be admitted into the Eaad itself, and then there might come a proposal for the confedera- tion of South Africa under the imperial flag, and the minority would be unable to oppose it. The great difficulty in President Kruger's way is that the voters who are enfranchised for the election of the*Volksraad gain also the right to take part in the Presidential elections, and he fears, not without good reason, that an English digger majority would elect an English President of the Transvaal. Besides the digger grievances as to language and the other matters which I have named, there are difficulties specially affecting their digging trade which would lead them to wish to have their own men in power, even if race feeling did not enter into the account. President Kruger has the old Dutch habit of selling monopolies, which often interfere greatly with digging work ; for SOUTH AFRICA 545 instance, iron work is a monopoly in the Transvaal, and so is dynamite, and the Executive have actually sold the right of making dynamite and of selling dynamite to persons who have been unable to make or to procure it, so that the diggers were left wholly without that which is one of the necessities of their pursuit. It seems certain that President Kruger will have in a few years' time to choose between revolution and a real reform which will lead to his own effacement. His last chance for main- taining his power lies in an arrangement with the Free State for a federal union as a step towards absorption, but while sentiment might lead the Orange Eiver burghers in his direction their plain interest lies the other way. In the Boer towns in the Transvaal, such as Pretoria, increasing which have been affected by recent mining prosperity, English lovers of the picturesque see to their regret old Dutch tongue ' buildings demolished and replaced by unlovely specimens of British architecture. By a sort of irony these hideous edifices bear upon their fronts some uncouth Dutch inscription, which, being interpreted, signifies the Post Office, or the Magistrates' Court. The building and inscription are significant of the last struggle of the Dutch language against the new order of things. The writing on the wall is Dutch, but the style of the building proclaims that British capital and enterprise are peaceably overthrowing Boer rule. With the in- crease of wealth, and with the improved means of communication which the railways on the frontier will supply, the younger generation of the Dutch will surely adopt as the language of their daily life one which will open up to them the civilisation of the world, and the Transvaal inhabitants that are to come will probably regret but little the loss of a dialect which has neither a syntax nor a literature. During the session of 1: 546 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part in petitions were presented to the Transvaal Parliament declaring that the petitioners felt " hurt in their patriotic feeling by the continually increasing use of the English tongue." The making out of mining licenses in English, the use of English at the markets and at the miners' meetings, were special grievances, and a resolution was carried by twenty-seven to six to the effect that Dutch should be the only language used at all markets and public sales and in public offices, and that officials using English should be punished. The old Boers evidently think that the early eighteenth century Cape policy of crushing out the language of the Huguenot refugees can be repeated against the English now. But the members of the Raad have only to walk through the streets of Pretoria to see that in their capital the shop signs are English, business is conducted in English, and English is generally used by the white population. At the very same moment when the farmers' representatives were taking- this retrograde action in the Volksraad the magistrates of the gold-fields were making representations to the effect that they could not perform their duties satisfactorily if they were not allowed to use the English lanouaoe in their courts. The action of the old Dutch party in the Transvaal is calculated to promote South African unity in a manner which they do not contem- plate, and this, President Kruger himself, whatever his wishes, clearly enough sees. The Boers. The general opinion of the English who have lived among the Dutch in the territory of the South African Republic is distinctly favourable to the moral qualities of the Boers, in spite of many obvious reasons why prejudice should come into the account. There is a general admission that they are kindly, honest peoj)le, whose chief faults are a narrowness not unlike that SOUTH AFRKA 547 of our own Fiftli Monarchy men of the Commonwealth times, and a total inability to admit what we look on as the rights of coloured natives. The Transvaal Dutch, however, cannot be formidable to us in them- selves, and can only vex our souls if those of their views which we think wrong are taken up for them by the Dutch within our own borders. Now, while President Paul Kruger may secretly look forward to, or may hope for or dream of, a vast Dutch African Eepublic excluding English influence, Mr. Hofmeyr knows better, and Mr. Hofmeyr by his proposals at the colonial conference in London has clearly shown that he does not believe in the strength of a Dutch republic unable to hold the seas even if it should reach them. I have already mentioned the negotiations between Negotia- the Transvaal and the Free State, as I was forced to J^eVthe do so by my reference to those between the Cape and J™^ 3,1 the Free State. But, going into the matter in more Free state - detail, I may explain that the Transvaal in 1887 offered money to the Free State to refuse to allow railways to be made from the Cape into the Free State, and to come, on the contrary, into connec- tion with the Transvaal lines radiating from Delagoa Bay. This proposal the Orange Free State at that time declined. President Brand in refusing pointed out that the Free State was willing to give up some of its in- terests to please the Transvaal, but could not consent to lose for ever all freedom of action in the railway question. Sir John Brand also declined the defensive war alliance of the two republics which his successor has concluded. It is supposed that President Kruger's fear of a rising of the diggers of the Transvaal against o DO o his authority is the main ground for this alliance. Presi- dent Brand, with his clear understanding of the interests 548 PROBLEMS QF GREATER BRITAIN part in of his state, and with his affection for the English, would never have willingly assented to such an ar- rangement as that recently made for checking the Cape lines at Bloemfontein. He was in favour of railway development on the largest scale, by union both with the Cape lines and with the lines of the South African Republic to be ultimately made from Delagoa Bay. But the Dutch farmers in South Africa are as a body opposed to railways, and the late Chief Justice of the Free State, who has succeeded Sir John Brand, has more accurately represented their views than did that statesman, who was, however, strong enough to impose his own upon them. Railways are now to cease at the centre, if not the edge, of the Free State, the Natal lines at Harrismith, and the Cape lines at Bloemfontein. Swaziland There has been a difficulty between ourselves and Tongaiand. the Transvaal upon the Bechuanaland side, a difficulty which is, however, now happily settled. A more serious matter is the future of Swaziland, which, with Southern Tonealand, lies between the Transvaal and the sea to the south of the outlet through Portuguese territory at Delagoa Bay. Swaziland is inhabited by a branch of the Zulu race (which would form the best portion of it but for the curse of "European" drink), and has a fertile soil and considerable mineral wealth, especially in gold and coal. The Boers pressed the late King to come under their authority, which he constantly refused to do, governing himself by the London Con- vention of 1884, in which the home Government laid down his boundary. Individual Boers have encroached on Swaziland, and the King made in 1886 a formal request for British protection, renewed in 1887, and alluded to by him in 1888, but the British Government are still considering what shall be the future of Swazi- SOUTH AFRICA 549 land. Mr. Gladstone defended Bechuanaland against the Boers by the Warren Expedition, and we are quite as strongly committed, by the promises of Sir Evelyn Wood, to defend Swaziland as was the case with regard to Bechuanaland, or even more strongly. British in- terests seem to be as plainly involved, although there is a party at the Cape and a party among the Government of Natal who think that it is impossible to keep the Transvaal from the sea, and who would be willing to make a virtue of what they think necessity, and give to the Transvaal a slice of Swaziland with a river port. I cannot myself see why the unfortunate Swazis should be sacrificed in this way when Delagoa Bay affords an excellent outlet for the Transvaal Boers, who would have the choice of passing through British territory or through Portuguese, and would be able to play their neighbours off one against the other, and to make, as has been already seen, good terms with either or with both. Our Government have denied that they are able themselves to take a protectorate of Swaziland, pleading the terms of our Convention of 1884 with the South African Republic, but they appear to be contemplating the surrender of Swaziland to the Transvaal, which would be, of course, at least as much opposed to the terms of the Convention as would be its annexation by ourselves. Swaziland is full of gold, and closely adjoins the Bar- berton gold district of the Transvaal, and diggers are beginning to pour into it in great numbers, but diggers who are chiefly of British race. Sir Hercules Robinson was in favour of making it over to the republic, and in the Blue-book on Swaziland published in 1887 there are despatches which point that way. It is the case that by ceding to the South African Republic a strip of territory which had been added to 550 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part hi the Transvaal by us, when the Transvaal was British territory, we have made it very difficult for ourselves to reach Swaziland, and consequently difficult to defend it against aggression. But it seems as though the Govern- ment at home were only trying to shirk responsibility by keeping the question open until it has been settled for them. In the spring of 1887 they declared that the future of Swaziland was engaging their most earnest attention, and in the spring of 1889 they made in the House of Commons precisely the same declaration ; but no step had been taken towards defending, protecting, or giving up Swaziland in the meantime. In 1889 Generals Joubert and Smit, on the part of the Transvaal, were for some time with the Swazi King, while we had an officer, wholly inexperienced in conducting such delicate negotia- tions against such able diplomatists, " on his way " to the same kraal. Even one so opposed to annexation as Sir George Campbell proposed in the House of Commons that we should extend a virtual protectorate over Swazi- land, and pointed out that it was lately ruled by a committee of white traders who had set up a tariff and had resolved that no Asiatic should be allowed to trade in the country. The Colonial Office repudiate direct responsibility for both Swaziland and Southern Tonga- land, but the countries are in the hands of white adventurers who are mostly British subjects, and the Swazi King until his recent death was granting wasteful concessions, which must lead to future war, while his people were being destroyed by drink. Tongaland stands in a slightly more favourable position than Swaziland, because we have concluded a recent treaty with the Amatonga Queen, under which she is pledged not to cede her country to any foreign power. There is something humiliating in the records of the SOUTH AFRICA 551 Swaziland debates in the House of Commons. The question is an old one, for the Transvaal a long time ago endeavoured to obtain Swaziland, Tongaland, and Santa Lucia Bay, and this was one reason why the Swazis joined us in our wars and why we stipulated for their independence. At the same time we afterwards handed over, as I have shown, a strip of territory to the Transvaal Government which shut us off from Swaziland. Although the Colonial Office hold that the Convention with the Transvaal prevents our accepting a protectorate of Swaziland, which, in spite of denials, I must assert was as a fact offered to us by the Swazi King, they cannot but admit that the Convention may very probably be forcibly modified in the opposite sense. The South African Republic have violated the Convention with regard to Swaziland by annexing a strip of Swaziland territory, and, as there are two millions of British capital already invested in Swaziland, it would seem to me to be worth giving some small help to the natives in the form of a skilled adviser, otherwise we shall really be responsible for another war. The Amatonga chiefs have lately visited this country in order to ask us to establish a protectorate on the coast, and they, like the Swazis, are of the same race as the Zulus, and are being destroyed by the liquor traffic. We have a treaty of 1877 by which the Tongas bind themselves to refuse to sell or cede any portion of their country to any other power than our- selves ; but it certainly would seem desirable that, unless we are going to adopt the Swaziland policy of Sir Her- cules Robinson and distinctly invite the Transvaal to come down to the sea through Swaziland and Tongaland, we should ourselves take the control of the coast line as far as the Portuguese territory of Delagoa Bay. If we 552 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part in are to give up Swaziland we should at least obtain some concessions to our views in return for yielding upon this point. The Boers would probably be willing to make internal concessions to the British element in the Trans- vaal, and also concessions as to their northern boundary towards the Bechuanaland sphere of influence, in return for leave to occupy the Swazi country ; and there are many in the Cape who think that we should make such stipulations, and in addition obtain, as they are of opinion we could obtain, permission to make the railway to the gold-fields. The success in Basutoland of a not very costly system of protected native Govern- ment under imperial control, after a failure of Cape Government, shows how easily, at a point much nearer to the sea, we could pacify the country, check the sale of drink, and develop trade. The Basutos are now con- suming large quantities of manufactured goods, and there is no reason why the same policy that has succeeded in Basutoland should not succeed also in Swaziland and Tongaland ; but this question is one that stands apart from mere probabilities of commercial success, inas- much as the prevention of the sale of liquor to natives upon a little strip of coast, such as alone is now open, is a matter which is worth some small trouble. In September last the Government sent SirF. de Winton out to Swaziland to meet the Transvaal Commission, and about the time he left this country Umbandine, the Swazi king, met his death from drink. To judge from a letter signed by Mr. Merriman which appeared in the Times, and from an article by the Rev. John Mackenzie which appeared in the Contemporary Review in Novem- ber 1889, the former opponents of Sir Hercules Robinson in his Swaziland, as in his other, policy have reconciled themselves to the cession of Swaziland to the Boers in SOUTH AFRICA 553 return for such concessions as I have named above. Possibly the influence of Mr. Khodes at the Colonial Office was used upon the same side, inasmuch as to put the Transvaal in thoroughly good humour will smooth the path of the new chartered company, and prevent much Dutch opposition to the making of the railway to Mafeking and towards Shoshong. It is difficult, how- ever, to see why the South African Committee used their influence with the Government to prevent the return to the Cape of Sir Hercules Eobinson as Gover- nor, if they are now prepared to stand by and see the policy of Sir Hercules Robinson carried out by Sir F. de Winton and Sir Henry Loch in the point in which it was least defensible. It is a curious fact that in his Lorenzo Marques Deiagoa arbitration Marshal MacMahon gave Portugal territory to the south of Deiagoa Bay which the Portuguese have never dared to try to hold against the Tongas. The case as presented to the President of the French Eepublic assumed that the country was either British or Portuguese, and that he was to decide to which of these two powers it belonged. As a matter of fact, however, a strip of it belonged to neither, and de facto is Tonga country, although comprised in the Mac- Mahon award. As this brings us to the papers in the matter of this arbitration, it should be pointed out that the Secretary of State at the time contended that the Swazi and Tonga Kings had ceded to us the sovereignty of their countries, although we yielded the point of sovereignty and contended only for trade and settle- ment by factories. The present Government are now, as has been seen, repudiating British rights upon the Tonga coast south of the part declared to be Por- tuguese by Marshal MacMahon, and are even refus- vol. 1 2 554 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part in ins; the protectorate asked for by the inhabitants, although in 1861 we had actually occupied the northernmost portion of their country, that is, the farthest from us, as a dependency of the colony of Natal. There is a party in the Colonies that desires that we should go behind the award and set up a Tonga claim to the Tonga territory south of Delagoa Bay declared by Marshal MacMahon to be Portuguese ; but this, while an excellent position for a Tonga, would in us most certainly constitute a breach of faith. Mr. Mer- Mr. Merriman has been one of the warmest supporters view^sto of the doctrine of the paramount importance to the Delagoa Empire of Delagoa Bay. He has contended for the view that it is the only absolutely secure harbour for large ships on the South African coast to the eastward after leaving Table Bay ; that it is the best outlet for the whole of the tablelands of south-eastern Africa, and especially for a temperate and well-watered country which is almost certain to become one of the greatest gold -producing countries in the world. Mr. Merriman agrees with the Transvaal authorities that the excellent port and shorter mileage must lead Delagoa Bay to beat Natal with the longer mileage and less good port, while the Cape Colony harbours are much farther off again, and the Transvaal has declined to allow direct railway com- munication with them. To the north of Delagoa Bay there is another good port, but this is also Portuguese ; it is hemmed in on the land side by a most warlike tribe, and if we were to go to that neighbourhood the Por- tuguese and natives would combine against us. The Delagoa Bay is a magnificent naval station for Portuguese commanc [i n or the Mozambique Channel, and for either at Delagoa & J- Ba y- striking at, or defending ourselves against, the French possessions in the Indian seas, while we support our SOUTH AFRICA 555 own colony of Mauritius. There is a local coal supply, and there can be no doubt that the power which holds this harbour in any war in which the India and the China trade are forced to make use of the Cape route will have in its hands an unrivalled position, apart from its local value as regards African trade. The port is held by the Portuguese on a good title, but hitherto on the sufferance of the Transvaal, both sides being perfectly aware that the South African Eepublic could in the past easily have dispossessed the holders. In practice the Transvaal dared not attack the Portuguese, because the result of a destruction by them of the Portuguese settlement would have been an occupation by British men-of-war. The Portuguese are now build- ing at Delagoa Bay barracks for 1500 men. There have, however, been intrigues with a view of inducing the German Government to acquire Delagoa Bay, and with it a kind of loose protectorate over the Dutch republics ; and there can be no doubt that some of the more anti-English among the Boers would prefer a nominal German suzerainty to the present unchecked spread of the English tongue and influence, and share the view of that patriotic Frenchman M. P. Leroy- Beaulieu — " better the Germans" than an English uniformity in South Africa. In 1876 the then President of the Transvaal Eepublic, accompanied by a Dutch member of the Cape legislature, visited Berlin, and it has always been supposed that the question of a German protectorate was talked over in their interview with Prince Bismarck. In 1878 a German traveller strongly urged a German annexation of Delagoa Bay, and the matter was possibly mentioned at Berlin to Mr. Kruger during his subsequent visit. Later came the curiously sudden acquisition by Germany of Damaraland and 556 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part in Namaqualand, on the west coast of South Africa, almost valueless except as a foothold. I do not believe, however, that there is the slightest risk of Portugal ceding Delagoa Bay to Germany ; nor do I fear that President Kruger is a party to any proposal for substi- tuting Germany for Portugal. Future of Mr. Memman has, I believe, often said that it is a Bay! s ° a pity that Delagoa Bay was not purchased by us at a time when a comparatively small sum would have bought out the claims of Portugal. Lord Carnarvon has gone farther, and has said : " When I succeeded to office I had reason to think that the offer of a moderate sum might have purchased that which a very large amount now could not compass. Unfortunately the means were not forthcoming, the opportunity was lost, and such opportunities in politics do not often recur." This passage can only mean that the Disraeli Ministry failed to see the value of Delagoa Bay when it was for sale and the price was low, and it is indeed an unhappy fact that we should have lost that most important, after the Cape itself, of all South African positions. In June 1889, behind the financial struggle between the railway company and the Portuguese Government there was evident a desire on the part of some to drive our Govern- ment to take by force that which we had neglected to buy when we were able. Purchase would now be very difficult, if not impossible ; there is a strong patriotic feeling in Portugal which insists on Portugal keeping the whole of her territorial possessions, even though they are, as Portuguese statesmen know they are, larger than she can manage. But another suggestion has been made, that a chartered company, perhaps the company formed for the Bechuanaland sphere of influence (and oddly styled "The British South Africa Company," inasmuch as chap, ii SOUTH AFRICA 557 it intends to work chiefly outside of British South Africa), might negotiate with Portugal for the acquisition of rights, which, while they fell short of sovereignty, would prevent German interference. I am disposed to believe that Portugal will cling to Delagoa Bay, and that neither Germany nor the Transvaal has any very real idea of attempting to acquire it. There is some German money in the Netherlands South Africa Railway, but that is a natural fact enough when we consider the great chance that this railway has of being successful, looking to the fact that it provides a route to Pretoria 350 miles long against a route by the Cape of over 950 miles. There are drawbacks to the Delagoa Bay route. The famous tsetse fly haunts it, and is destructive to horses and oxen. Dogs are killed by it, and it has been cynically said that men and asses alone escape, although as a fact mules, sheep, and goats are equally free from its attacks or from their consequences. The river bottoms are made deadly by fever, and are infested by crocodiles, more formidable than the quiet monsters of Indian, American, and North African rivers. The sub-editor of a Natal paper, who was describing the gold-fields as a correspondent, was eaten by crocodiles while in this neighbourhood ; but neither crocodiles nor fever nor tsetse fly, nor even steep hills, need stop a railway, and there can be little doubt about the ultimate success of the Lorenzo Marques route. In my opinion the Transvaal authorities had far sooner have the Portuguese than the Germans at Delagoa Bay, finding the Portuguese good neighbours, inclined to levy low customs duties, and thinking Portugal a weak power, certain to be locally much under Dutch influence, instead of a strong power with military objects. Neither do I see any general desire on the 558 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part in part of the authorities of the South African Kepublic to adopt the Cape idea, which invites them to seek an outlet to the sea through Swaziland and the Southern Tonga country in preference to that through Dela- goa Bay. They seem to me satisfied with Delagoa Bay as a route, and with the existing political condition of that country. Until the railway is fully made the Lorenzo Marques route is practically impassable, and the fly, the fever, and the absence of roads are diffi- culties, any one of which would be sufficient to prevent the route being made use of to a large extent. The Portuguese, with the strong approval of the majority of our colonists of Natal, who do not wish for a British rival to Durban, will continue to hold Lorenzo Marques, and the railway will be finished and will become the main line of communication with the Transvaal. President It has been computed that it will take from five to theDeiagoa seven years to make the mountain portion of the Delagoa Bay route, j-^ w j ien ^ at sec tion is begun, and in the meantime the Natal railways will have been carried on to Harrismith in spite of engineering difficulties. Natal will then begin to carry off a considerable portion of the internal South African trade. Moreover, in five or six years' time President Kruger's position will not be what it is at the present date. He will have been forced to enfranchise the dioo-ers or to face a revolution, and he will either have disappeared or have come to terms. It is possible that federation may by that time have been brought about, after the Transvaal has gone through an intermediate stage of existence as an English-speaking republic, and that the Bechuanaland line may also have been made ; but, in spite of all these chances, I myself continue to believe that so short is the Delagoa Bay route to a portion SOUTH AFRICA 559 of the gold-fields that it is probable that in any event that line will be completed. The Portuguese have put out maps in which Portuguese Portuguese East Africa is made to include Matabeleland, and to cross the continent on the line of the Zambesi river. This is, as regards Lobengula's country, in direct conflict with a decision of our own Government, which, however, had not been made public, as well as with the recent charter to the British South Africa Company. If we are to help the company to take control of the British sphere of influence in Northern Bechuanaland, we must either keep a route to the north in our own hands or secure a carefully made treaty with the Portuguese as to the passage of our northern trade. In my opinion the precedent of the Congo Treaty, unfortunately upset by the House of Commons, shows that we can make satisfactory terms with the Portuguese ; and the fact that the money of the East African coast is our rupee, and that the traders are our subjects from Bombay, would make it even easier for us to get our own way as regards trade in Portuguese South Africa. The feeling against Portugal in England is, however, now so strong that it would be difficult to secure fair consideration for the merits of a treaty. It is certain that pressure will be brought to bear on Portugal to open the Zambesi and to consent to the British South Africa Company stretching northwards until it unites with other spheres of British influence. The Portuguese map of which I have written, and which is dated 1886, was made to accompany a Portuguese parliamentary paper prepared for presentation to the Portuguese Parliament in connec- tion with the negotiations with Germany with regard to the Portuguese and German spheres of influence in Africa. It was afterwards put forward rather as a suggestion 560 PROBLEMS OF GREA TER BRITAIN part hi than as an absolute claim. The Portuguese said : " This is what Germany was content to leave us. It is only recognised by Germany ; it is not recognised by England, which, as regards its southern part, it mostly concerns. It is for us to settle by negotiation with the English how much of this country, which we colour as Portu- guese, and to which we have a good historic claim, we must, uuder the circumstances, give up." The British claim is to Lobengula's country, and up to the Portu- guese boundary, whatever that may be ; but the Portuguese boundary marked upon the Portuguese map includes most of Lobengula's country. Then arises the doubt also as to what is Lobengula's land. Mr. Selous, the explorer, who knows it well, has proved that Lobengula, the Matabele chief, is a raider who makes forays upon territories which are not properly his own ; and if we claim all the lands that he has harried our claim is a larger one than if we confine ourselves to that which in reality he governs. The Matabeles were driven northward from the Transvaal by the Boers some half -century ago, and since that time have conquered the Mashonas, a large number of whom are now virtually their slaves. The real Portuguese claim is to that portion of Mashonaland which lies eastward of a mountain chain known as the Mashona Mountains, and this they ask for on the ground of first discovery and of constant commercial relations through the sixteenth century. It is probable that if the Portuguese obtain the Mashona Mountains they may obtain also valuable gold-fields, the existence of which is vaguely known ; but it is not certain on which side of the Mashona Mountains the richest gold-fields lie. The fact that the Portuguese are in occupation of Zumbo on the Zambesi, which lies slightly to the westward of the Mashona Mountains, SOUTH AFRICA 561 gives colour to their claim ; and it is to be desired that, whatever is to be the boundary between the British sphere of influence in Northern Bechuanaland and the Portuguese colony of Mozambique, the matter should be settled without delay. Mashonaland is a valuable country. Mr. Selous tells us that there is one single plateau which contains 20,000 miles at an elevation of from four to five thousand feet above the sea, well watered, besides many other plateaus situated at a lower level, but nevertheless capable of producing wheat upon rich soil. This country has been waste since the Matabeles invaded it about 1840 and drove out or killed the Mashona population. In the charter granted to Mr. Khodes's company in The . inn it-i \ r • charter of 1889, although it was modelled upon the .hast Alrican 1889. and North Borneo charters, no exact boundaries were fixed ; and although I have expressed the wish, for the reasons which I have given, that the boundary question between ourselves and Portugal should be settled with- out delay, I am aware that that view was deliberately rejected by our Government in drawing up the charter. No doubt they thought that the boundary question between the adventurers and Portugal would settle itself, and that if alluvial diggings were discovered British diggers would pour in to Mashonaland and would establish a boundary of fact which no Portuguese authority could dispute. But this policy throws Portugal into the arms of Germany, and a close under- standing between the Germans and the Portuguese will place difficulties in our way in the north which might have been avoided by an understanding which could easily have been arrived at with the Cabinet of Lisbon. It is understood that the charter was delayed some months chiefly on account of the desire of some British 562 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part in ministers or advisers of the Ministry to fix the Zambesi as a northern boundary for the British South Africa Company, Mr. Ehodes objecting to have his northern boundary determined for him, and ultimately carrying the day. The result of the delay was that the Portu- guese Government pushed forward their exploring expeditions into the interior, and distributed Portuguese flags among the natives in districts which are claimed by the British South Africa Company. It is a well- known fact that it is the intention of the company to push northward across the Zambesi, and that the Germans have thrown difficulties in the way. As soon as the suggestion was made in the press that the new company would go forward till they reached the Lakes, the German ambassador in London had frequent inter- views with Lord Salisbury, in which he insisted that, although Germany had not named the western limit of her own East African sphere of influence, as a matter of fact that sphere must be considered to stretch west- ward until it joined the Cougo State. Here again we have trusted to the chapter of accidents, and when British prospectors follow the Matabeles across the Zambesi towards the north sharp differences between ourselves and the Germans and Portuguese are likely to arise. Not only has Mr. Rhodes escaped having a boundary forced upon him on the north, but his dominions remain also unbounded, so far as the charter goes, upon the west. The German Government are under- stood to claim the territory as far east as the 20th degree of east longitude, but they have no real possession of Damaraland, and the Damaras are in arms against them, while the German Company which nominally holds the territory has come to an end of its small funds. Circumstances have made Lobengula somewhat of SOUTH AFRICA 563 an ally of the Aborigines' Protection Society, although The present his hands are steeped in blood. But a good deal of Lobenguia. outcry was caused at the Cape both among the Dutch and among many English people by the reported smuggling through the country in the summer of 1889 of a thou- sand rifles and 300,000 rounds of ammunition intended for Lobengula's use, there being an arrangement between the British South Africa Company, from whom the rifles came, and the Matabele chief that he is to make use of them only on the north side of the Zambesi. The Dutch had already been indignant at the fact that the counsellors of Lobenguia had been received by the Queen, who on a former occasion had been advised to refuse to receive President Kruger of the Transvaal Republic, and the gift of rifles increased the irritation. So unusual a departure from the practice as concerns the supply of arms to natives could not take place without raising the fear in the minds of the Transvaal Boers that possibly the rifles might be turned against themselves. It is said that the Matabele king has already begun to use these rifles against the unhappy Mashona natives of the land ; but I believe it is a fact that the influence of Mr. PJiodes has kept Lobenguia quiet since the purchase by the former of the Matabeleland concessions. As we iournev westward from the southern portion British J J , -,-,. 1 -. Bechuana- of the Transvaal, or northward from the Diamond V lelcls landl of Griqualand West, we first come to British Bechuana- land, a Crown colony, north of which lies protected Bechuanaland— a British protectorate— and north of this again, the Bechuanaland sphere of influence. British Bechuanaland is a Crown colony in which the mother-country is paying largely for the privilege of keeping it out of the hands of the Cape, which does not as yet much want the district, provided that it be not company. 564 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part in allowed to pass into foreign hands, but which would take it if we were to urge that it should do so. The large expenditure for Bechuanaland, which has been borne upon the British estimates for the last few years, leads indeed naturally from time to time to the recon- sideration at home of the question whether Bechuana- land should be handed over to Cape Colony. The There is, however, another alternative, which is to hand over Bechuanaland to the British South Africa Company. The friends of that company were willing to make the northern railway from the Dia- mond Fields on the chance of being able to obtain the gold-fields traffic and to open up new gold-fields. A little bit of this northern extension railway will lie within Cape territory, and one of the devices of President Kruger to stop the line being made has been to put up his friends in the Cape Parliament to ask that a Bill should be brought in to forbid private persons making railway lines even through their own lands ; but this seems to have been the last straw as regards foreign Dutch control of Cape interests, and to have divided the supporters of Mr. Hofmeyr. Sir Gordon Sprigg has now pledged himself to allow the northern railway to be made, and the Cape Government will find the money. The rule of Bechu- analand by a company, in the hands of some one popular at the Cape and friendly with the Dutch — in other words, of Mr. Rhodes — might form the best solu- tion of our difficulties. AVe are spending at the present moment some thirty to forty thousand pounds a year more than we receive in British Bechuanaland proper, and nearly forty thousand a year in Khama's country or in the part of the protectorate which lies beyond it. When we went to Bechuanaland Mr. Upington declared that the soil was too barren to invite colonisa- SOUTH AFRICA 565 tion, and the natives too poor to yield the smallest revenue ; that a large garrison would have to be main- tained, and that the English taxpayer would tire in a few years of so costly an acquisition. The British taxpayer is no doubt tired of paying a large sum for Bechuanaland, from which it seems unlikely that he should reap any direct benefit ; but some revenue is already yielded by the natives, a large garrison is not found to be needed, and the Cape Government appear to be willing to take over the southern portion of Bechuanaland, while the company has obtained the north. The British taxpayer thus appears likely to be able, if he wishes it, to hand over his acquisition to others, even though it be true that the southern portion of the territory, or British Bechuanaland, is badly off for water and hardly fit for agricultural settle- ment. The Crown colony of Bechuanaland has not been in all respects so successful as the Crown colony of Basutoland. The sale of liquor to the blacks has not been fully put down, but the difficulty of putting it down is great, as there is virtually no white resident population, and the native police and the other natives will not help us to cut off the supply of drink. I have seen it said that the revenue of British Bechuanaland is increasing through the rise in the sale of stamps, accounted for by their popularity in the collections of the British schoolboy. British Bechuanaland is not large, and it is a curious fact that most of our best books of reference state its area at from three to four times its real amount — an error which is probably caused by confusion between the colony on the one hand and the protectorate and sphere of influence on the other. The present Government at home were supposed at one moment to contemplate the handing over of British 566 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part in Future Bechuanaland to the Cape, a course which was recom- Govern- . mentof mended by Sir Hercules Robinson, whose authority in Bechuana- such matters is very great. One of the Cape Ministers stated in a speech that Government had actually promised to make over the Crown colony to the self-governing- community. If this was so, they backed out of their promise. On the other hand, the Aborigines' Protection Society, the Rev. John Mackenzie, and a large party at home, are strongly convinced of the wisdom of retaining British Bechuanaland under imperial administration. The natives of British Bechuanaland are few in number, but the territory becomes richer as we journey north- ward, and the British sphere of influence contains a denser population than Southern Bechuanaland, and much excellent territory. The natives of British Bechuanaland are undoubtedly in favour of British administration, and opposed to government by the Cape ; but they are, as I say, not numerous, and they are costing the mother-country at the present time a pound a head of actual expenditure each year. The Aborigines' Protection Society, however, go beyond the status quo in their demands, and ask that the ruler of British Bechuanaland should be a separate person from the Governor of the Cape — a contention in which I cannot follow my brother members of the Committee of that Society, because the geographical position of British Bechuanaland (a country without easy access to the sea except through the whole breadth of the territory of the Cape, or through the Transvaal and the Portuguese territory) makes it to my mind certain that in the long- run it also must become Cape territory, even though it be desirable for a time to retain it in our own hands. No doubt there are inconveniences in the Governor of the Cape being also High Commissioner. He has to act SOUTH AFRICA 567 partly as the direct delegate of the imperial Government, and partly as the constitutional representative of colonial Ministers ; and as the interests represented are often op- posed — native interests conflicting with white interests, and questions of cost arising in which most delicate decisions have to be taken — these inconveniences are great ; but on the other hand, looking to the fact that British Bechuanaland is lost in the centre of Africa, and all but unreachable except through the Cape, it would seem impossible to govern it in a sense hostile to colonial wishes. The taking possession of Bechuanaland for the home Government and the Warren expedition to re-establish order there, were acts of Mr. Gladstone's Government upon which great influence was exercised by Mr. Mackenzie through Mr. Chamberlain, to whom the duty of speaking upon South African questions in the House of Commons was generally committed, on account of his interest in them, by Mr. Gladstone. But even Mr. Chamberlain has, as I have pointed out in the last chapter, hesitated to commit himself to the view that British Bechuanaland should be under a different Governor from the Cape ; and he doubtless sees that Bechuanaland, which must be reached through Cape Colony, will in course of time become attached to it. Griqualand West was once a Crown colony in a similar position to that of Bechuanaland, but it was found necessary to annex it to the Cape, and the same thing will probably occur in the long-run in the far north. It is a noticeable fact that the English organ at Pretoria supports the annexation of Bechuanaland to Cape Colony. The Transvaal Advertiser, when the Prime Minister of the Cape, in addressing his constituents at East London, said that the home Government would 568 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part in allow the annexation of Bechuanaland to Cape Colony, pointed out that it was impossible that the imperial Government could permanently retain the management of Bechuanaland, and that while the Warren expedition was necessary to clear the country from Boer filibusterers, the northern extension of the Cape railway system must ultimately be undertaken under the auspices of the Cape Government ; minerals were being discovered in Bechu- analand, and it was impossible to suppose that the home Government could govern the country as the white population increased. There is a party at home which points out that British Bechuanaland has cost the home Government a very large sum of money, chiefly through the Warren expedition, and suggests that the British taxpayer ought to have the lands. The land in British Bechuanaland is not, however, easily reached by immi- grants, and, unless through the assistance of the Cape Government, it is not possible to discover how immi- grants from England are to be placed there without great cost. We could of course stipulate, in handing over territory to the Cape, for conditions favourable to immigration. It is to be hoped, in the interest both of the colonies and of ourselves, that in Bechuanaland and in Western Australia, where alone the Empire still has very large tracts of good unused land in its own hands, sales of land upon a large scale to the highest bidder, or letting of land upon a large scale, without clear powers reserved to the State for re-entry at any moment for the purpose of agricultural settlement, will be pre- vented. The lands should only be parted with, so as to pass out of the control of the State, upon a homestead system to actual settlers. If this principle is secured, even supposing that the lands are handed over by us to colonial Governments, they will not be lost to the people SOUTH AFRICA 569 of the old country, because they will not be rapidly alienated, and there will, for a great number of years, remain good land open for those of our emigrants who desire to remain under the old flag. There is still a danger that in the event of ourBechuana- suffering defeats elsewhere, as for example in Afghanistan, ^ ~ of the Boers of the South African Republic may again {JJJJ^jj! enter upon Bechuanaland and cut off the Cape from all session. extension northward. On the other hand, the interest of the Cape, and therefore of its Dutch population, in the freedom of the northern route by the Diamond Fields to 'the sold -fields is clear, and it is conceivable that their influence will be sufficient to prevent the ultimate annexation of the country by the South African Republic when we are in trouble. Those who desire that we should ourselves hold Bechuanaland must remember how difficult it is for us to reach its northern parts, and how impossible it would be for us to reach them if the Cape as well as the Transvaal Republic were hostile to the enter- prise. The Warren expedition was risky enough and costly enough for the memory of it to make impossible an expedition to the Limpopo against the wishes of the Cape in order to fight Boer squatters. As we go northward to the protectorate we come The into districts where filibustering parties from the Trans- la n d p ro . vaal at one time made attacks upon portions of Khama's Jjj ^ 8 country, but the northern boundary of the protectorate gj^ 8 ^! cuts through the middle of Khama's country, and a great portion of it lies in the sphere of influence. The pro- tectorate has been stated by the Colonial Office repre- sentative in the House of Commons to contain 120,000 square miles, and he said that the sphere of influence contained the same amount ; but if in the sphere of influence is included all the territory so coloured in the vol. 1 - '' 57o PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN map published in the Blue-book of August 1888, then that territory vastly exceeds the figures given, containing as it does the whole of the Matabele country and Mashonaland, and forming a block more than 300 miles from north to south, and some 750 miles from east to west. The Blue-book of 1888, as I have already stated, did not contain the telegram informing the South African Republic that the Lobengula country is within the sphere of exclusively British interest, that is to say, that the sphere of influence extends up to the Zambesi and occu- pies the whole of the country between the German protectorate and the Portuguese colony ; but 'the essential thing is that the statement was made, and is one from which it became impossible to recede. t The most authoritative declaration that has been made public on behalf of the Government, with regard to the boundaries of the sphere of British influence south of the Zambesi, was made in the House of Commons on the 9th Novem- ber 1888. The statement was to the effect that the eastern boundary was fixed in August 1887, and that a paper had been laid before Parliament, and was shortly about to be distributed, defining the territory as con- sisting of the country north of the South African Republic and the Bechuanaland protectorate, south of the Zambesi, east of the twentieth degree of east longi- tude, and west of the Portuguese province of Sofala. This paper never was distributed, and it would indeed not much have helped us, because no one knows what is the western boundary of the Portuguese province of Sofala. Sir Hercules Robinson, in sending to Lord Knutsford, on the 11th June 1888, the map of which I have spoken, said that Matabeleland and Mashonaland might since the recent treaty with Lobengula be considered within the sphere of British influence ; but this, it will be seen, is SOUTH AFRICA 57 1 a somewhat indefinite statement, and it is a pity, as I have said, that Government have never made a formal declaration as to these boundaries which are being dis- puted by the Portuguese. The matter will soon, it is to be hoped, be settled by the practical occupation of the Mashona country by the agents of the British South Africa Company. The country grows progressively more valuable as we Future of . _ . i - . . i the ooiitn journey northward towards and m the tropics, it is rich African in gold, and its great height above the sea (for the table- co land is one of the most elevated in the world) renders it healthy and well suited for colonisation. The height above the sea also causes grand falls upon the rivers, and motive-power will be available in consequence. I shall have to deal with other, spheres of influence when I come to discuss, in my chapter on Crown Colonies, our position to the north of Zanzibar and on the west coast of Africa upon the Niger; but the meaning of our sphere of influence on the Zambesi was defined by the Secretary of State for the Colonies when he said that we should not allow the Portuguese, the Germans, or the South African Republic to annex territory within it. We have in this northern territory of South Africa a double interest : that which arises from the value, and especially the mineral wealth, of the territory itself, and that which comes from our natural desire to keep open the route northward into Central Africa. It must not be supposed that a very large white population could be poured into the sphere of influence without danger. The difficulty is not climate. Although within the tropics, the country is, from the climatic point of view, suited to white settlement; but there is a vast settled and warlike population, and the policy for the future of the territory must contemplate the retention of Khama's people upon 572 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part in their lands. The acting administrator himself has stated that the natives in large parts of the protectorate have already scarcely land enough for their own needs, and they are excellent workmen and good specimens of a dark-coloured people. Future of Lobengula had sent impis across the Zambesi to the influent, northward before the granting of the charter to the British South Africa Company, and they had brought him word that north of the great valley the hills rose again into tablelands, and that there was good country for his cattle if only they could cross the tsetse belt alive. Lobengula is evidently meditating a farther move to the north, away from gold-mines and the white adventurers, and no doubt the chartered company will be glad to see him go, and the 1000 rifles are intended to facilitate his going. As, however, he fears that his cattle will all die in crossing the Zambesi valley, it is possible that he may refuse to move, and in that case it is difficult to be hopeful of a peaceful future for the company. Lord Grey in a series of letters to the Times in 1889 suo-o-ested that the native states in this part of the world should be formed by groups into vassal or protected countries ; but this would mean that, without any direct advantage to ourselves, we should guarantee the chiefs against attack by one another or from the Boers, and against white filibustering in the event of the discovery of those rich gold-fields which undoubtedly exist among them. This would be to take upon ourselves a very onerous responsibility, and there is no probability of Parliament for many years together consenting to bear the cost which would be involved. No doubt we ought to be disinclined to put forward our own commercial interests as the only ground to justify to Parliament the extension of territory or of responsibilities ; but we are SOUTH AFRICA 573 nevertheless bound to look to what is possible, and it would not be possible to induce Parliament to accept the responsibilities contemplated by Lord Grey without some prospect of direct return. On the other hand, for us to leave the northern portions of South Africa, and to con- fine ourselves to the defence of the extreme south for our naval purposes, would be to bring about conflicts between the natives and the settlers, the responsibility for which Parliament would be inclined to visit upon those who had advised the abandonment of the inland country. Mr. Mackenzie thinks that the Crown can continue view of for an almost indefinite period to hold Bechuanaland. kenzieasto It may be admitted that it constitutes a magnificent ^J mana territory, full of gold, and with a fine climate, except in the river bottoms, and that the natives would on the whole prefer a continuance and an extension of our rule. On the other hand, Parliament will find itself forced to deal Avith an increasing white population, and to maintain a large military police to prevent raiding and outrage upon the natives ; while if sale of drink to the natives is to be effectually put down an exclusively white police must be employed at very large cost. Moreover, Mr. Mackenzie would, as I have said, wish to separate the Government of Bechuanaland from the Government of the Cape, and this would require a large increase in salaries. Now this territory, to be thus, according to his wishes, administered under the British Parliament and at British cost, is, as I have said, very distant from the sea, from which it is entirely shut out upon one side by German territory and upon the other side by Republican territory and Portuguese territory, and is open to the coast for British trade only through the Cape. It may be frankly conceded to Mr. Mackenzie that the Cape will put on no great pressure to acquire Bechuanaland for some time to 574 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part in come, but, on the other hand, it will be difficult indeed to induce the imperial Parliament long to continue to spend money upon a country which it cannot directly reach. Mr. Mackenzie himself admits that " in after years " other political arrangements may be come to more desirable than those which he wishes to continue for the present, and that when the European and native popu- lation of Bechuanaland have become a settled community they may wish to be united to Cape Colony, and that in that event it is improbable that any British statesman would raise objection. I am at one with Mr. Mackenzie in thinking that under all the circum- stances of the case it is a moral duty upon our part to protect the native population of Bechuanaland ; but to induce Parliament to adequately protect in all parts of the world native interests for which we are morally responsible has hitherto been found impossible, and there is no reason to think that it will be more easy as time o-oes on. impossible The real question at issue in South Africa, it will be iLlnteHor seen, is that of how far the English democracy will remember its responsibilities towards natives when that policy is costly and when no very direct and obvious return can be looked for. In the case of Bechuanaland a promise of return is indeed held out. Mr. Mackenzie's policy would protect the natives, but it would also open out the country for British settlement, and in my opinion the two branches of his policy are somewhat inconsistent with one another. The middle course, of establishing, under British auspices, a chartered company, closely tied up as regards its dealings with the natives, has been adopted. But it is difficult to suppose that those who would set very high their belief in the claim of the natives to the lands which they more or less completely of South Africa. SOUTH AFRICA 575 occupy will prove to be a majority among the South- African white population, and it is also difficult to see how the home Government can, in the long-run, impose its policy upon a hostile majority in South Africa, I am not one of those who wish to set up local opinion as a standard in questions of right and wrong. But, while all statesmen should consider right and wrong, questions of possibility must also be before them. That which is clear, I think, is that from no point of view can we safely take the course, which some recommend to us, of decid- ing that we have no interest in South Africa beyond the maintenance of a naval station at the Cape. In the con- flicts which would arise in the event of our abandonment of all influence in the interior, the various parties to the conflicts would call in first the blacks and then the Germans. We must conclude our survey of the situation in Difficulties South Africa as we beran, by admitting that the problem south i • -, • • i- • .a -P African is the hardest which arises in connection witn any oi our prob i em . colonies, for the greatest difficulties in the government of dependencies are blended in South Africa, and make the task of ruling it all but impossible. The constitu- tional difficulties of Canada are met with in South Africa side by side with the problems which arise in the administration of vast tracts in which there is no white population, but in which the black subject population is less settled than it is in India; and between the Dutch country under responsible government at the Cape and the wild Matabeleland we have every shade of difference produced by a gradual meeting of the races, and of widely divergent political and social systems, as the white men advance northward. I believe that the 0-reatest of our dangers in South Africa is to be found m the desire of British Governments to shirk respon- 576 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIX part in sibility, and their consequent inability to proclaim a definite policy, and in the difficulty of inducing Parlia- ment to sanction a continuous expenditure without direct return. I do not believe that there exists the danger, to which Sir Charles Warren has often pointed, of a union of the Dutch republics and Cape Colony in an anti- English spirit. But of all the suggestions which have been hinted at for keeping out of South African difficulties Sir Charles Warren is responsible for the most ridiculous, in proposing not only that the High Commissioner should be a different person from the Governor of the Cape of Good Hope, but that he should live within the boundaries of Cape Colony itself. The authors of such suggestions will not trust to the loyalty of the South African Dutch, although they are not supported by those among the Cape authori- ties who best know the Dutch, nor by the best of our residents in the Transvaal under Dutch rule, and although it certainly seems clear that the Dutch have no interest in trying to stand apart as a weak nation, or in calling in, as long as they can avoid it, a German rule which would be less sympathetic to their peculiar views than is that of England. Con- On the whole question of South Africa it will have been seen that I do not completely agree with either side ; that, while I support the policy of Sir Hercules Robinson as to the ultimate future of Bechuanaland (a country without a sea-coast) being necessarily to be found under the Government of the Cape, I do not agree with him in thinking it necessary to cede Swaziland to the Boers. The ground of union between the two views as to Bechuanaland must ultimately be found in the wishes of the white inhabitants. It would be wise to consult the feeling of the natives were it possible to fairly ascertain elusions. SOUTH AFRICA 577 it, as formed upon full knowledge of the facts, but the difficulty of doing this in such a country as Bechuana- land is insuperable. The two great chiefs — Khama and Lobengula — represent tribes which have carried on per- petual wars with one another, while the more northern of them has constantly raided upon the feebler peoples still farther to the north. If we bring peace and settled government, and take steps to see that the natives are left in possession of their lands and are not oppressed, we shall have done our duty towards them better than by attempting to gather from their doubtful and changing fancies of the moment a permanent policy for ourselves. If we permit the South African Republic to swallow Swaziland it will, I think, be chiefly upon the ground that it is so situated that it is almost impossible for us to defend it; and we might make conditions, before allowing the Transvaal to come through Swaziland to the coast, as to the admission of the non-Dutch element in the Transvaal to their fair share in the Government of the republic, as well as bind President Kruger to his oifer of a promise never to interfere in Matabele- land. If the House of Commons chooses for a time to continue to pay for Bechuanaland it will be wise from every point of view that that territory should be retained in imperial hands, although it is in my opinion, for the reasons which I have given, a mistake to ask that the actual exercise of the Government should be through a person distinct from the constitutional Governor of the Cape. It may also be admitted to be possible that, if the House of Commons will consent to pay the cost of the Protectorate police for a few years longer, Bechuanaland may come to yield a revenue which will defray the necessary charges of the Government, It must, however, be clearly understood by the House questions. 578 PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN part hi of Commons that it will be impossible long to maintain the policy of forbidding concessions and of excluding the white man from the country. There is no power on earth capable of keeping diggers out of a large territory where there is gold, and to attempt to do so is to engage upon an impossible task. Let us prepare as thoroughly as we choose for the advent of the whites ; but let us not shut our eyes to facts and imagine that the diggers can be kept out by the police. Defence I must repeat, at the conclusion of my examination of the situation in South Africa, the statement that we cannot sever ourselves, even if we wished to do so, from South African affairs ; that we must hold Table Bay and Simon's Bay as military and naval stations ; that we cannot do so if the southern portion of the continent is in the hands of a hostile power ; and that, even putting- aside the field for British expansion which Bechuanaland affords, we must so direct our policy as to preserve sovereignty in one or another form over Cape Colony. The imperial interest in saving for military purposes our hold upon the Cape is so much clearer than any interest which we possess in the more northern and central portions of South Africa that our Bechuanaland policy must itself be subordinate to this end ; but in my opinion it is not only possible but easy, with prudence, to reconcile the two policies which are offered to us, and by giving to the Dutch that due share of influence which we have neither the moral right nor the power to refuse, to bring the two peoples to co-operate for the development of South Africa under the British flag. INDEX TO VOLUME I Abbott, Mr., 299 Abercromby, Mr. R., 321 Aborigines Protection Society, 563, 566 Acadia, see Nova Scotia Acadie, 40, 41 Adelaide, its size, property, and site, 383, 384 ; referred to, 255, 331, 355, 379, 391, 413 Adelaide Observer, the, 395 Afghanistan, 569 Africa, South, office of British High Commissioner for, 479 ; its railway questions, 481 ; taxation, land legisla- tion, and labour questions, 488 ; pros- perity, ib. ; intercolonial free trade, 490-492 ; Germany in, 501 ; and the Mackenzie policy, 502 ; social condi- tion and literature, 505 ; resemblances of, to Australia, 506 ; its gold and diamond towns, 508 ; Western Pro- vince, 509 ; products, 517 ; Portuguese claims, 559 ; future of the colonies of, 571 ; impossibility of giving up the interior, 574 ; South African problem, difficulties of the, 575 ; conclusions on the whole question of, 576-578 ; de- fence questions, 578 ; referred to, 39, 62, 97, 167, 364, 474, 475, 516 Afrikander Bond, 474 Afrikanders, Dutch, 51 Age, the, see Melbourne Age Agents - General of the colonies, their action as to the Pacific, 438 Alabama, 174 Alaska, 160 Alberta, 35, 130, 133, 134, 137 Albury, 322, 396 Aleutian islands, 35 Alfred Exhibition Hall, Sydney, 315 Algeria, 466, 522, 526 Algoa Bay, 505, 510 Alps, The Southern, 431 Alsace, 60 America, see United States, British North America, Canada, etc. America and Australia, 179 America, British North, its area, climate, and accessibility, 26 ; referred to, 27, 31, 33, 35, 39, 125, 137, 139, 150 Central, 164, 165, 494 North, 2, 39, 105, 165 South, 164, 165 Western States of, 37 American Union, opening up of the Western States of the, 31 War of 1814, 31 Anglican Provincial Synod of Montreal, 86 Angra Pequena, 502 Annual Register, Morgan's, 124 Antigonish, Highlanders at, 44 Arabs, the, and Northern and Central Africa, 543 Archer, Mr., 339 Argentine Republic, 26, 27, 39, 165, 511 Argus, the, see Melbourne Argus Arizona, 34, 135 Art, 126, 308 Ascension, 514 Ashburton Treaty, a monument of ignor- ance and neglect of national interest, 44 ; its consequences, 45 Asia, 35, 42 Central, 70 Assiniboia, 130, 133, 134 Athabasca, 134-136 Atkinson, Sir H., Prime Minister of New Zealand, described, 416 ; re- ferred to, 417, 420, 421, 432 Atlantic, the, 33, 37, 141, 151, 162 Auckland, 141, 142, 415, 426, 432 "Australasia," the word, and Greater Britain, 457 ; 26-28 Australasian colonics, possibility of union of the, 456 ; the author's views as to the, 459 ; hopefulness of their present position and future, 460, 461 Federal Council, see Federal Council of Australasia Naval Defence Bill, 432 Australia, emigration to, 28 ; federation, imperial and local, 100, 230, 241, 323, 5 So INDEX 382, 441, 450 ; compared with Canada, 109, 127 ; its general character, 184 ; protection, 186, 233, 277, 299, 351, 387, 415 ; State control of railways in, its consequences, 196 ; mileage and cost of railways, 198 ; irrigation, 204, 207, 209, 211, 306 ; periodic cessa- tion of productiveness a drawback, 207 ; success of Scotch and Irish in, 226 ; free trade, 233, 236, 277, 303 ; view taken in, of intercolonial free trade, 237 ; financial federation, 241 ; sports, 253-255, 315 ; defence, 262, 324, 325, 327, 413, 431, 432 ; im- migration, 276, 320, 369, 391, 418 ; gardening, etc., 309 ; literature, 256, 258, 311, 373, 396, 428|; the stage, etc., 315; poor immigrants,' 320-323 ; feel- ing in, on defence questions, 325-327 ; dislike in, to Chinese, 357 ; its capitals connected by railways, 368 ; its climate compared with England, 373 ; system of colonisation in, 376 ; size of its colonies, 392 ; land legis- lation, 409 ; leasing and the home- stead system, 410 ; land under culti- vation in different colonies of, 410 ; difference between, and New Zealand, 429 ; divergencies between, and the Cape, 504 ; referred to, 5, 26-28, 30, 39, 70, 100, 101, 107, 109, 110, 119, 120, 122, 127, 128,133, 135, 136, 141- 144, 179, 352, 425, 427, 429, 430, 437, 477, 482, 507, 508, 512, 516, 527, et passim Australian Natives' Association in Vic- toria and New South Wales, 261, 326, 339 ; in South Australia, 382 Australian, the, 374 Austria, 493 Austria-Hungary, 329 Avalon, 16 Avoca River, of Victoria, 205 Avon River, of Victoria, 205 Bacon, 414 Badham, Professor, 314 Baffin Land, Esquimaux of, 118 Bahamas, 338 Governor of, 14 Bait Bill, 1S87, 24 Ballance, Mr., 417 Ballarat, 255 Baltimore, Lord, 16 Baluchistan, 70, 135 Barbados, 168 Barberton, 549 Barker, Lady, 428 Barton, Mr., 302 Basutoland, how governed, 515 ; its size and population, 516 ; government of, and the Cape, 518 ; referred to, 42, 480, 490, 514, 516, 517, 552 Basutos, the, 552 Bathurst (New South Wales), 322 Bathurst (Cape Colony), 510 Bay of Islands, 430 Beach, Sir M., 496 Beaconsfield, The Earl of, 74, 75, 556 Bechuanaland, British, and protector- ate, size and population, 516 ; future government, 565, 569 ; danger of the Boers again possessing, 569 ; the protectorate, and the sphere of influence, ib. ; future of do., 572 ; Mr. Mackenzie's view as to, 573 ; re- ferred to, 42, 408, 409, 478, 480, 498- 501, 503, 514, 515, 548, 549, 552, 556, 559, 566, 576-578 ; and see British South Africa Company Behring Sea, 35, 160, 163 Belgium, 79, 137, 396 ; Conservatives of, 89 Bell, Sir F. Dillon, 339 Belle Isle, Straits of, 37 Bent, Mr., 222, 226 Beresford, Mr., 389 Berlin, 555 Berry, Sir Graham, 184, 192,- 215, (de- scribed) 221, 226 Binns, Mr., 525 Bischoff, 403 Bismarck, Prince, 74, 435, 460, 555 Black, Mr. M. Hume, described, 342, 343 ; referred to, 351 "Black Wednesday," gazette, 276 Black Feet, the, 134 Blake, Mr. Edward, 76 Blake, Sir Henry, opposition to his nomination as Governor of Queensland, 337, 338 ; conflict as to his appoint- ment, 346 ; referred to, 12-14, 218, 333, 338, 366 Bleus, 68 Bloemfontein, 492, 498, 548 Bluff, the, 432 Board of Trade, 167 Boer, the, his idea of " home," 532 Boers, the, and their mother country, 52 ; and taxation, 488 ; leaving the Transvaal, 543 ; the old, and the language of Huguenot refugees, 546 ; English opinion of them, 546 ; their action in Swaziland, 548 Bohemia, 131 "Boldrewood, Rolf," 314 Bombay, 559 Boomerang, The, 374 Bordelais, the, 283 Bosch, Constantia, 509 Boston, 38 Botany Bay, 396 INDEX 581 Bourinot, Dr., 98, 124 Braddon, Mr., 339 Bramwell, Lord, 195 Brand, President Sir John, 480 ; and the railway question in the Orange Free State, 547 ; declines the defensive war alliance, ib. ; favours railway develop- ment, 548 Bray-Downer combination, 387 Bray, Sir John, described, 380, 381 ; 389 Brazd, 1, 20 Breton, Jules, 127 Brillat-Savarin, 123 Brisbane, its botanic gardens, 310 ; cir- cumstances which have affected its importance, 331 ; its position and de- fence, 335 ; referred to, 142, 260, 353, 355, 368, 440, 454 Brisbane Courier, on the relations with the mother-country, 350 ; 374 Telegraph, 374 British and French navies, disputes in Newfoundland prevented by officers of, 21 Columbia, its area, population, mountain scenery, forest land, and climate, 137, 138 ; system of provincial taxation in, 147 ; immigration schemes as to, 147 ; referred to, 31, 32, 34, 35, 43, 44, 70, 104, 122, 133, 135, 139, 143-147 Empire, its area, revenue, pro- ducts, and food supply, 1 ; its rivals, 3-5 ; offshoots, 5 ; present and tem- porary weakness, 6 ; referred to, 1-5, 25, 171, 408, et passim Government, The, 40, 185, 346, 502, 539, 552, 553, 568, 570, etc. India, see India Islands, 31, 35, etc. North America Act, provisions of, as to language used in Federal Houses, journals, and Acts, 53 ; re- ferred to, 32, 42, 116, 134, 145 South Africa Company, 516, 556, 559, 561-564, 571, 572 Broome, Sir F. Napier, described, 411 ; referred to, 405, 412, 428 Browne, Mr. T. A., 314 Browning, Mr. R., 428 Bruuker, Mr., 298 Bryce, Professor, 172, 173 Buitenzorg, 509 Buller, Charles, 51 Bulletin, the, 291, 300, 341, 374 Burnett, Mr. , on British emigrants, 26 Burrard Inlet, 138-140, 142, 144 Bushmen, 466 Caithness, 147 Calgary, 134 California, 27, 210, 2S3, 429 Southern, 206 Calvert family, the, 11 Cambridge, 400, 428 Campbell, Sir G. , his proposal in the House of Commons as to Swaziland, 550 Canada, Dominion of, Roman Catholics outnumber Church of England in, 12 ; religious bodies, ib. ; emigration from United Kingdom to, 26, 27 ; feeling in, as to pauper immigration, 30 ; projects for short routes to Europe from, 35 ; future of, 39 ; provinces, ib. ; coal, 43 ; gold, 44 ; Gaelic, ib. ; French Canadians, 50 ; artificial adoption of French institutions, 53 ; parties, 68 ; a division in the Lower House, 73 ; the Prime Minister, 74 ; duration of Parliaments, 75 ; Opposition, members and leader of the, 76 ; provincial politicians, 77 ; political life in, ib. ; the political press, 78 ; constitution of Opposition and Government, 87 ; lack of experienced politicians, 88 ; Do- minion and provincial politics, illus- trated by Quebec, 90 ; education and expenditure, 92, 93 ; schools and school attendance, ib. ; federalism, what it avoids, 93 ; nationalities, 94 ; repre- sentation of Provinces of, in Lower House, how allotted, 95 ; a federal age, 97 ; Constitution, 99 ; a Cana- dian nation, 101 ; has passed the "birth crisis," ib. ; defence, 102; militia, their training and equipment, 103 ; probable result of war in, with America, 103-105 ; the Opposition of, and commercial union with United States, 106 ; powers of, as to tariff arrangements and commercial treaties, 107 ; trade, area, population, railway mileage, and debt, 109 ; legislative peculiarities and local government, 111 ; its municipal system superior to that of United States, 112 ; labour organisations and trade unions, 113- 115 ; friendly societies, 115 ; feeling in, as to Government insurance, 115 ; Factory Acts and hours of labour, 116 ; truck, 117 ; condition of working-classes, 118 ; labour, pauper and child immi- gration, 119-122 ; whence resist unci' to immigration comes, 122 ; sport, ib. ; sculling, lacrosse, winter games, and literature, 123 ; poets and poetry, 124 ; books, 125 ; the fine arts, 1 ii ♦*> : comparison of, with Australia, 127 ; political union with United States, 154 ; unrestricted reciprocity, 155 ; causes for cheerfulness, 160 ; the 5 8: INDEX Fisheries question, 162 ; pressure of the United States, 164 ; proposals for union between, and Jamaica, 168 ; referred to, 2, 5, 20, 96, 195, 210, 256, 273, 323, 402, 409, 411, 424, 426, 429, 447, 451, 469, 493, 516, et passim Canada. West, the Chinese in, 145 North-West, the development of, 32 ; superiority of soil in, 34 ; wheat, 133 ; coal, 135 ; government of the Territories of, 136 ; coast towns, 138 Canadian Academy of Art, aud Art Gallery, 126 ■ and United States constitutions, difference between the, 99 census, 1881, 94 Overland Route, its advantages and disadvantages, 141-145 Pacific Railway, completion of, 33 ; effect of its construction, 102 ; referred to, 35, 43, 55, 90, 103, 110, 130, 137, 138, 141, 144-146, 155 Canadians, their tendency to look across the Border, and its extent and char- acter, 152-154 ; commercial union and contention of its opponents, 156-158 French, see French Canadians Canterbury (New Zealand), 415, 426 Cape, differences between Australia and the, 465 ; its politicians, 466-468 ; Gov- ernor, 469 ; Dutch language, ib. ; French Huguenots, ib. ; "Cape Dutch," 471- 473 ; kitchen Dutch, 473 ; Afrikander Bund, the, its history and objects, 474-477 ; policy of Sir H. Robinson, 477 ; change in the Dutch policy, 478 ; separation of offices of Governor of, and British High Commissioner for South Africa, 479 ; railway questions, 481 ; legislative peculiarities, 482 ; irrigation boards, powers of, ib. ; natives and the franchise, 483-485 ; its debt and railways, 486 ; Church of England, ib. ; education, religion, and immigration, ib. ; Germans, 487 ; taxation, land legislation, and labour questions, 488 ; advantages of its climate and soil for wine-growing, 489 ; position of the Republics towards the, 492 ; customs union between the Free State and the, 492 - 494 ; cases in which customs unions have not been sanctioned, 494-496 ; "most-favoured nation" clauses, 496 ; the Dutch Re- publics, its relations with the, 497 ; importance of its military position, 500 ; the Mackenzie policy, 502 ; de- fences, 503, 504 ; its position improv- ing, 504 ; social and natural features, ib. ; divergencies between the, and Australia, ib. ; social condition and literature, 505 ; the Western Province, 509 ; the Eastern Province, 510 ; good government, 511; coal, and ocean routes, 512 ; referred to at 210, 259, 283, 331, 367, 477, 502, 504, 514-518, 520-525, 534-536, 541, 542, 547-549, 552, 554, 556, 557, 563, 567, 575, 576 Cape Argus, 505 Times, 505 Breton, coalfields in, 43 ; referred to, 36, 40, 42, 43, 103 Horn, 31 St. John and Cape Ray, the French and exclusive right of fishery between, 22 Ray, 36 Town, its appearance and society, 507 ; contrast between, and the Dia- mond Fields, 508 ; its climate, 531 ; referred to, 486, 505, 534 Carnarvon, The Earl of, and the annexa- tion of the Transvaal, 479 ; and the purchase of Delagoa Bay, 556 ; referred to, 306, 347, 503, 504, 529 Carolina, North, 174 Carolina, South, 173 Caron, Sir Adolphe, 75 Carpentaria, Gulf of, 360, 369 Carrington, Lady, 296 Lord, 295, 296, 366 Cartier, Jacques, 48, 79 Sir George, a strong supporter of a united empire, 50 ; 69 Cartwright, Sir Richard, 76, 108, 109, 155 " Castors," the, 91 Catherine, The Empress, 132 Catholic Times, the, Wellington, 422 Centennial Magazine, 314, 435 Cerberus, armoured ship, 262 Chaffey Brothers, 292 Chamberlain, Mr. , the United States, anil the Behriug Sea question, 162 ; on our policy in South Africa, 502, 503 ; re- ferred to, 162, 567 Chambers, Mr. Haddon, 314 Chambers of Commerce and the Federal Council, 455 Chandler, Mr. A. , author of Bush Idylls, 395 Channel Islands, the, 473 Chapleau, Mr. J. A., 75 Charity Commissioners, England, 419 Chartered Companies, see British South Africa Company Chartists, 267 China, 141, 142, 146, 350, 371, 493, 497 Chinese, their labour in the colonies, 145-147, 354, 357, 362 ; dislike of, by Australians, 357 INDEX 58: Christchurch (New Zealand), 415, 426, 432 Christian Brothers, the, 82 Church of England and denominational schools in the colonies, 416 ; in the Cape, 486 ; in Natal, 530 ; and Methodists in Newfoundland, 14 ; re- ferred to, 12, 14, 185, 228, 333, 416 Claremont (Cape Colony), 507 Clark, Mr. A. Inglis, 401 Clarke, Marcus, his works, 257, 258 ; and Australian scenery, 429 General Sir A., 257 Clement XIV, 83 Cloud, Mrs. (Lindsay Duncan), 39o Coal, 135 Cobden Club, 155, 202 Cockburn, Dr., Prime Minister of South Australia, 381, 382 Colbert, 52, 60 Coldstream (Natal), 535 Colenso controversy, the, in Natal, 528, 530 Colesberg, 486 Cole's (Vicat) "Arundel," 309 Colonial Conference, the, 220, 336, 346, 347, 380, 413, 433, 436, 451, 485, 524 governments and railway-making, 402 laws, power to veto them, 348 Office, plans laid before the, as to emigration, 29 ; and responsible govern- ment in Western Australia, 404-407 ; its action as to Swaziland and Southern Tongaland, 550, 551 ; referred to, 14, 29, 172, 223-225, 234, 378, 404, 405, 412, 493-495, 533, 551, 553 statesmen, 344 Colonies, their debts, 242 ; solvency, 243 wages, food, and leisure in the, 252 organisation of Roman Catholics, 338 consultation of, as to Governors, 339 their verdict on Lord Knutsford's action regarding Sir H. Blake, 347 organisation to prevent Chinese labour 354 ; view in, as to local option, 370 co-operation, 371 ; Church of England and denominational schools in the, 416 action of Agents-General of the, with regard to the Pacific, 438 ; and the New Hebrides question, 446 Colonies and, India, The, 340 Colorado, 34, 135, 206 Columbia, the District of, 396 River, 144 Columbus, landing of, 128 Com/mime of Paris, 52, 439 Congo State, 562 Treaty, 559 Constantia, 504 Contemporary Review, the, 552 Cook, Captain, 439 Cooper, Sir D., 305 Co-operative sugar mills in Queensland, 364 Copeland, Mr., 300 Coteau du Lac, 69 Couvreur, Madame ("Tasma"), 374 : author of Uncle Piper of Piper's II ill, 396, 506 Covenanters of Western Highlands, 51 Cowen, Mr. (the musician), 256 Crees, the, 134 Crimean War, 487 Cromwell, Lord Protector, 41 Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 291, 340,350. 374, 395 Dakota, 161 — North, 34, 135, 151, 156 South, 135 " Dalley Expedition," 300 Dalley, Mr., his policy and characteristics, 294 ; and the Federal Council, 443 ; referred to, 289, 313 Dalton, Mr., of Melbourne, 320 Damaraland, 501, 555, 562 Darling Downs, 331, 361 Darling, Lady, 184 Sir C, 184 Darling River, 188 Darwin, 293 Dawson, Sir W. 124 Deakin, Mr., Colonial Secretary of Vic- toria, 204-207, 210, 213, 216; his irrigation schemes, 205 ; use of Free- trade arguments by,233 ; his "dream," 235 ; his Bill with regard to work- rooms and factories, 251 ; on foreign 1 lowers in the Pacific, 437 ; referred to, 76, 225, 234-236, 239, 259, 351, 380, 453, 454, 456 Defence, see 102, 140, 262, 324, 325-327, 335, 431, 503, 504, 526 Bill, see Naval Defence Bill Delagoa Bay, Mr. Merriman's view as to, 554 ; the Portuguese at, 554-556 ; its future and drawbacks, 556-558 ; President Kruger and the Delagoa route, 558 ; referred to, 479, 481, 490, 498, 514, 535, 536, 543, 547, 548, 549, 551, 553, 557 Railway question, the, 498 Bay Railway, the memorandum of agreement, quoted, 499 De Neuville's " Rorke's Drift," 309 Drniliqilill, 322 Depretis, Signor, 74 Derby, The Earl of, and the Federal Council, 443 ; 438, 501 5 8 4 INDEX Diamond Fields, the, 481, 504, 508 Dibbs Cabinet of 1889, 303 Dibbs, Mr., described, 301 ; referred to, 299, 300, 303, 305, 326, 345, 442 Disraeli, Mr., see Beaconsfield, The Earl of Domett, Mr. A., 428 Dominion Franchise Act, 147 Lower House, analysis of Quebec members in the, 90 Parliament, the Jesuits' Estates Bill in the, 83-85 ; 153 Dominion, Songs of the Great, 124 Donaldson, Mr., 351 Dopper sect, the, 542 Dorsetshire, 369 Downer, Sir J., described, 380, 381 Downing Street, 223, 225 Duft'erin, The Marquis of, 74 Dunedin, 416, 426, 432 Durban, its exposed position, 527 ; ap- pearance, customs, harbour works and prosperity, 531 ; referred to, 521, 525, 527, 531, 558 Durham, The Earl of, 51 Dutch language at the Cape, 469 Reformed Church at do., 486 Republics, the, their relations with the Cape, 497 East London, 487, 534, 567 Echuca, 212, 292 Edward, H.R.H. The Prince, see Kent, Duke of Edwards, Major - General, and the " partially paid " militia system, 265 ; colonial defences, 324 Eight Hour day, the, 248, 371, 424 Electoral Act, Newfoundland, 19 New Zealand, 418 Victoria, 216 Elias, Colonel, 264 " Elijah," at the Melbourne Centennial Exhibition, 256 Elizabeth, Queen, 51 Emigration, a curiosity of, 28 ; Sir A. Gait on, 29 ; feeling against, among English workmen, 29 ; the Canadian Government and French, 50. See also 26, 30, 31, 34, 120, see Immigration Emu Bay, 403 English language, the use of, in the Cape, 473 Scotch, and Irish, in New Zealand, 426 workmen and emigration, 29 Erie, Lake, 38 Escombe, Mr., 525 Esquimalt Harbour, 137, 139, 140, 142, 143 Europe, projects for short routes to, from Canada, discussed and explained, 35- 39 ; referred to, 25, 26, 32-35, 37, 97 Fabrk, Archbishop, 82 Farjeon, Mr., 428 Farmers' Protection Association, 475 Federal Council Act, the, 445, 457 Federal Council of Australasia, Draft Bill to constitute the, 442, 443 ; objections of New Zealanders to the, 444-447 ; its present position, 449 ; working, 452-455 ; Chambers of Commerce and ' the, 455 ; referred to, 403, 413, 414, 442 Federalism, what it avoids, 93 ; victories of the principle of, 97 Federation, Australian, 441 ; fuller, 450- 452 imperial, 344 ; Australian opinion of, 458-460 imperial and local, various opinions on, 100, 101 ; change produced by, in Canada, 106 ; see also 98, 99, 107, 230, 241, 244, 323, 327, 344, 382, 432, 441, 442, 450 Field newspaper, 258 Fiji, planters of, and annexation to Victoria, 414 ; referred to, 432, 438, 440, 442, 443, 456, 457 Fildes's "The Widower," 309 Financial Districts Bill, Queensland, 356 Finch -Hatton, Mr. , his A dva nee A ustralia t 359 Fisheries, Newfoundland, 17 sqq., 162 Florida, 174 Ford, Sir Clare, 23 Foreign Office, 167, 495, 496 Foresters, Ancient Order of, 115, 177 and Oddfellows, 18 Forrest, Mr., 412 Forster, the late Mr. W. E., 502 Fort Churchill, 38 Garry, 129 Fox, Sir W., 422 France, 2, 11-25, 53, 82, 87, 133, 137, 166, 201, 221, 243, 329, 388, 392, 434, 436, 437, 446, 497, 516, 533 Fraser River, 136, 144 Frechette, M., author of "Le Drapeau Anglais," 126 Fredericton, 46, 124 Freeman, Professor, 171 Free State, see Orange Free State trade, see 234,^236, 277, 279, 303, 398, 492 intercolonial, 237, 290 French Canadian books, 125 Canadians, Tocqueville on their INDEX 5»? growth in Quebec, 48 ; increase of, in Canada, 50 ; and Dutch Afrikanders, 51 ; difference between the Boers and, ib. ; and dancing, ib. ; their attitude towards France, 52 ; attempt of private, to introduce French immigrants into Ontario, 56 ; in the United States, their occupations, character, and course of immigration, 57 ; incoming of, into New England, how checked, 59 ; their future, and past, 59, 60 ; reason for their attachment to the Crown, 60 ; feeling of, as to federation, 107 French bounty system a hardship, 24 Government, 20, 24, 433 Huguenots in the Cape, 469 _ in Ontario, 53, 55 ; are becoming Anglicised, 56 ; population in Montreal, 65 ; in Quebec, 67 ; transportation to New Caledonia, 438 ■ Shore, the, 16, 20 sqq. ■ Frere, Sir Bartle, 511 Freycinet, M. de, 272 Fuudy, Bay of, 40 Fysh, Mr., Prime Minister of Tasmania, 401 Gaffarel, M., author of Les Colonies frcmqaises, quoted, 439 Gagnon, Ernest, 125 Gait, Sir A., on colonisation, 29 ; emi- gration, 29, 30 ; his emigration scheme, 30, 31 ; and Canadian goods, 108 Garvan, Mr., 299 Gaspe, French at, 47 Gastown, 139 German Empire, 97, 267 Government, 555, 562 Germans, the, in Canada, 94 ; in South Australia, 394 ; at the Cape, 487 ; and Walfisch Bay, 501 ; and Zululand, 535 Germany, 2, 5, 105, 133, 329, 373, 392, 419, 434, 436, 437, 454, 467, 501, 556, 557, 559, 561 Ultramontane party of, 89 George, Mr., 169, 282, 345, 417 Georgia, 174 Gilbert, Sir H., 11 Gillies, Mr. D., Prime Minister of Vic- toria, his character, power, and policy, 218-220 ; his personal appearance, 344 ; referred to, 216, 221, 225, 226, 292, 380, 451, 454 Gillies-Deakin party in Victoria, their programme, 232 Gippsland, province of, 210, 240, 308, 330, 369 Gladstone, Mr., and Bechuanalaud, 549 ; referred to, 75, 376, 378, 518, 535, 567 Glasgow, 35 Goa, 62 VOL. I Gold, 44 Good Shepherd Reformatory, 82 Gordon, A. Lindsay, 257, 258, 395 Goschen, Mr., 228, 244 Goulburn, 322 River, 209 Graduated taxation, see Succession Grahamstown, 504, 510 Grand Trunk Railway, 45, 115 Granville, 139 Granville, The Earl, and American pro- posals as to duty on West Indian sugar, 495 ; his despatch on the " most- favoured-nation " clauses, 496 Great Britain, 11, 20, 41, 42, 70, 105, 108, 127, 141, 152, 157-160, 162, 179, 195, 225, 260, 264, 291, 312, 317, 349, 369, 373, 439, 460, 469, 494, 539 et iMSsim Circle route, 35 Western Railway, England, 115 "Greater Britain," the term, 170 Greater Britain, 1 Greater Britain, 210, 269, 457 Greater England, 171 Greece, 424, 430 Gresham, Mr., 193 Grey, The Earl, and native states, 572, 573 ; referred to, 367, 432, 433 Griffith, Sir S., 334, 335, 342 ; defeat, 336 ; nationality, 344 ; political views, 345 ; Financial Districts Bill, 356 ; his state- ment of the case of the Democratic Labour Party, 363 ; conclusion thereon, 364 ; his hope as to sugar trade mono- poly, ib. ; referred to, 341, 343, 346 r 351, 354, 417, 453, 454 Griqualand, East, 533 West, 468, 514, 567 "Grits," or Ontario Liberals, 89, 92 Guatemala, 431 Guibord, Mr., excommunicated, 69 Hadex, Mr. Seymour, 491, 524 Haggard, Mr. Rider, 505 Haliburton, 123, 124 Halifax, 42 ; its appearance, 43 ; the winter port of the Dominion, ib. ; referred to, 38, 45, 63, 64, 115, 139- 141, 145, 160 Hamilton, 114, 117 Hamilton, Sir R., 366, 403 Harrismith, 492, 498, 535, 548, 558 Havana, 1, 62 Hawaii, 495 Hawke Bay, 415 Hearn, Dr., 256, 257, 314 Henner's "La Source," 126 Henri IV, 40 Herbert, Sir Robert, his opinion as to colonisation, 29 2 Q 586 INDEX Higinbotham, Chief-Justice, his history, and views on the Governorship ques- tion, 223-225 ; referred to, 194, 226, 289, 344, 347 Hobart, 255, 342, 396, 454-456 Hofmeyr, Mr., leader of Dutch party at the Cape, 466 ; and a Dutch African Republic, 547 ; referred to, 225, 472, 476, 478, 564 Holland, 137, 474, 487 Holyhead, 36 Holy Land, 485 Hopetoun, The Earl of, 366 Hosmer, Professor, 169 Hottentots, 466 Hoar, Senator, 160 Hudson Bay, 37, 38, 133 Company, 32, 96, 129, 131, 133, 135 — ■ Scheme, 37 Hungarv, 131 Hunt, Alfred, P.W.C.S., 309 Hutton, Mr., and opposition to the Cape Registration Bill, 484 ; and the Boers of South Africa, 485 Iceland, 130 Icelanders, 131 Idaho, 34, 161 Illinois, 32 Imbecile Passengers Acts, 418 Immigration, see 30, 57, 119-122, 132, 146, 147, 276, 320, 321, 369, 418, 486, and see Emigration Act (Canada), 1886, 121 — ■ — - Chinese, Commission of Inquiry into, and its findings, 146 Imperial Federation League, 323 India, 1, 21, 105, 354, 363, 369, 371, 392, 403, 406, 482, 497 Company, the, 470 Indiana, 32 Indians and the franchise in Natal, 519 Inglis, Mr., 297 Invercargill, 430, 432 Iowa, 32 Ireland, 16, 79, 130, 332, 340, 373, 380, 396 Irish problem, the, in Victoria, 214 Roman Catholics and grants for denominational schools in Victoria, 215 Irrigation, see Victoria (Australia), and New South Wales Israelites, 485 Italy, 137, 179, 267, 425, 431 Jacques Cartier of St. Malo, and the possession of Gaspe, 48, 79 Jamaica, proposals for union between, and Canada, how received there, 168 ; referred to, 1, 388 James I. of England, 41 Japan, 19, 35, 425, 430, 431, 493, 494 Java, 1, 509 Jennings, Sir P., 276, 301 Jervois, Sir W., 366, 418 Jesuits' Estates Bill, 50, 83, 91 Jesuits, Lower Canadian, 87 Jews, Polish, 130 Johannesburg, wages of masons and car- penters at, 521 ; referred to, 468, 540, 543 Jones, Mr. A. G., 76, 156 Joubert, General Piet, 470, 471, 542, 550 Kafirs, the, 533 Kaffraria, 487, 514, 518 Kalahari protectorate, the, 515 Kanakas, the, 358, 359, 441 Karroo, the South African, 135, 508 Keats, 314 Kendall, Henry, 314 Kent, H.R.H. The Duke of, 51 Kentucky, Bishop of, quoted, 176 Khama's country, 564, 569, 571, 577 Kimberley, The Earl of, and the anti- Dutch party, 472 ; and responsible government in Natal, 523 King George's Sound, 265, 324 ; import- ance of its defence, 413 Kingston (Ontario), 70, 129 Kingston, Mr., described, 379 ; referred to, 380, 453 Kingston, Sir G., 389 Kintore, The Earl of, 366, 381 Knightsbridge, 190 Knights of Labour, 113, 114, 147 Knutsford, Lord, his choice of Governors, 366 ; and imperial unity, 456 ; answer as to status of British subjects taking the oath of allegiance, 539 ; 570 Kroger, President, curiosity of drafting of his "Reform Bill," 537 ; his policy and the oath of allegiance to the Transvaal, 539 ; the Dutch language and, 540, 541 ; his popularity and jealousy of the English, 542 ; power and Conservatism, ib. ; dread of the in- crease of the English diggers, 543, 547 the habit of selling monopolies, 544 choice between revolution and reform 545 ; perception as to South African unity, 546 ; dream of a Dutch African Republic, 547 ; referred to, 479, 481, 498-500, 556, 563, 564, 577 Labour traffic in Queensland, 360 Labrador, its population, products, and climate, 16 ; referred to, 11, 37, 39 431 Lamb on colonial poets, 373 INDEX 587 Lambeth Conference, 20 Land Reform League, Victoria, 193 Lanessan, M. de, his L' expansion colo- nialede la France referred to, 440 Langevin, Sir Hector, 67, 75 Lansdowne, The Marquis of, 74 Lanyon, Sir Owen, and the Boers, 529 " Larrikin," the term, 320 Launceston and Western Railway, 403 Laurier, Mr., 54, 67, 76, 92, 156 Laval University, 84 Leane, Miss ("Agnes Neale"), 395 Leeward, Society Islands, 434 Leighton's (SirF.) "Wedded," 309 Leroy-Beaulieu, M. Paul, quoted, 502 ; and protection of natives by the mother- country, 526 ; referred to, 42, 555 Levis, Chevalier de, 63 Leyden, 474 Liberty and Liberalism, 298 Library Acts in England, 110 Lighthall, Mr., 124 Limpopo, the, 569 Lincolnshire, 369 Lisbon, 61 Literature, 123, 256, 311, 373, 428, 505 Liverpool, 35-38, 141, 320, 510 Lobengula, present of rifles to, 563 ; and the Aborigines' Protection Society, ib. ; the Chartered Company and, 563, 572 ; referred to, 515, 516, 559, 560, 570, 577 Local Government and Taxation, Cobden Club volume on, 202 Loch, Lady, 214 Sir H., Cape Governor, 469 ; referred to, 214, 224, 295, 347, 366, 478, 503, 553 London, 29, 31, 36, 71, 119, 120, 129, 244, 252, 261, 312, 313, 320, 428, 443, 489, 524, 547 Convention of 1884, the, 548, 549 Ontario, 129 London, the, 314 Longfellow and Acadia, 40 Long's "Esther," 309 Lorenzo Marques arbitration, 553 ; and see Delagoa Bay Railway, see Delagoa Bay Lome, The Marquis of, 74, 126 Louis XIV, 87 Louise, H.R.H. The Princess, 126 Louisiana, 2, 173 Lyttelton, 432 Macao, 62 Macdonald Cabinet, 67 Sir J., his position, influence, gene- ral characteristics, and cabinet, 74, 75 ; his Government, 89, 90 ; and women ratepayers, 112 ; commercial situation of Canada under his pro- tective policy, and prescriptions for remedy, 153 ; referred to, 88, 92, 98, 101,153, 154 M«Gill University, the, 124 " M c Grath, Terence," 13 ; and see Sir H. Blake M c Il\vraith, Sir T., his policy and Govern- ment, 336, 337 ; ministry and suc- cessor, 342 ; temperament, ideas, and nationality, 343, 344 ; political views, 345 ; conflict with Colonial Office on Sir H. Blake's appointment, 346 ; pro- gramme, 348 ; referred to, 341, 351, 354 Mackenzie, Mr., 76 ; leading members of his Government, ib. ; its policy before 1878, 155 the Rev. J., his opinion as to English policy in South Africa, 502, 503 ; view as to Bechuanaland, 573, 574 ; referred to, 552, 566, 567 MacMahon, Marshal, his Delagoa Bay award, 553 M c Millan, Mr., 298, 302, 303 Macquarie Street, 285 Macrossan, Mr., 343, 344, 351 Madagascar, 527 Madrid, 108, 253 Mafeking, 553 Magyars, 131 Maine, 44, 63, 64, 135, 151, 161 Malay Archipelago, 331 Peninsula, 356 Malays, the, 488 Mallee scrubland, 209, 482 Manchester Unity of Oddfellows, 115 Manilla, 1 Mailing, Judge, 428 Manitoba, its towns, 128 ; origin of the population of, 130-132 ; its wheat, 132 ; European immigrants of, ib. ; the Provincial Government and the dual-language system in, 133 ; referred to, 28, 32, 37, 55, 62, 70, 92, 96, 104, 111, 122, 128, 129, 158, 161, 392 Maori Representation Act, 371 Maovies, the, 415, 428, 533 Marahuna, 428 Maritime Provinces, 38, 40, 43 Maritzburg, its society and appearance. 532 Martin, Mr. A. Patchett, 257 ; and the election of Colonial Governors, 347 Mrs. A. Patchett, 374 Maryland, 70 Mashonaland and the Portuguese, 560 ; referred to, 570, 571 Mashona Mountains, 560 588 INDEX Matabeleland, 559, 570, 575, 577 Mauritius, 555 May, Erskine, 124 Mediterranean, the, 500 Melanesia, 457 Melbourne, the largest town of Australian continent, 190 ; price of laud, 190, 191 ; railway fares in neighbourhood of, 198 ; municipality of, and tramway lines, 203 ; the trades of, and the Protection cpiestion, 234 ; " Eight Hours Day," 249 ; out-door exercise and football, 253 ; horse-racing, 254 ; roller-skating, 255 ; music, 256 ; daily papers, 258 ; fine arts, 308 ; botanic gardens, 310 ; poor immigrants, 321 ; defence, 324 ; compared with Sydney, 327 ; referred to, 184, 187-191, 193, 197, 198, 203, 216, 217, 237, 250, 252, 258, 263, 264, 267, 307, 308, 314, 317, 331, 383, 387, 391, 396, 402, 413, 418, 450, 456, 460, 505, 507, 535 and Hobson's Bay Railway, 196 Age, 194, 201, 216, 217, 234, 258, 395, 417 Argus, 201, 216, 224, 225, 234, 236, 258, 386 Review, the, 194, 442 Melville, Mr., 302 Menai Strait, 64 Mennell, Mr. Philip, 257, 407 Mennonites, 130, 132 Mercier, Mr. H., Prime Minister of Quebec, summary of his speech of July 1889, on unity among French Canadians, 79-81 ; referred to, 67, 69, 79, 91, 92 Merivale and the advantages of the Cape, 489 ; referred to, 335, 382 Merriman, Bishop, of Grahamstown, 468 — — Mr. J. X., described, 468 ; and Delagoa Bay, 554, 556 ; referred to, 479, 543, 552 Merthyr, 334 Methodist Church, 12, 14, 86 Conference, 86 Mexico, 134, 164, 169, 206, 494 Mildura, 210-212, 292 Mill, Mr. J. S., 378 Mill on the Floss, The, 506 Mills, Sir C, 339 Minnesota, 32, 71, 130, 133, 156 Mississippi valley, 32, 152 Missouri, 173 Monaco, 497 Monroe doctrine, an Australian, 437 Montana, 34, 57, 161 Montreal, the first city of the Dominion, 64 ; contrasted with New York, ib. ; French population in, 65 ; Irish popu- lation of, 66 ; reason of its increasing prosperity, ib. ; cigar - makers, 114 ; Unions, 115 ; referred to, 33, 36, 37, 42, 45, 52, 53, 55, 64-66, 71, 118, 121, 122, 124, 125, 128-130, 144, 145 Moorhouse, Bishop, of Manchester, 289, 361 Moravians, the, 469 Morehead, Mr., Prime Minister of Queensland, 341, 343, 344, 351 Moreton Bay, 141, 448 Mormons, the, 135 Morning Chronicle, 225 Mount Cook, 431 Egmont, 431 Morgan, 372 ■ Royal, 65 Wellington, 397 Mowat, Mr., 77; against annexation, 101 Mozambique Channel, 554 Murray River, 204, 209, 211, 240, 393, 482 water question in Victoria, 291 Namaqualand, 501, 556 Nanaimo, 139, 144 Nantes, Edict of, 470, 509 Napoleon I, 68 Natal, its shipping, population, and coast, 518 ; constitution, 519 ; dislike of direct taxation, 520 ; white and black artisans, ib. ; education system, 521 ; the press of, and responsible govern- ment, 522 ; difficulties of conferring it, 522, 526 ; Lord Kimberley's reasons for its refusal, 523 ; opinion of Select Committee of its Legislative Council as to, 524 ; military questions, 526 ; the natives, 527 ; sale of drink to them, 528 ; Colenso controversy and Church questions, 528-531 ; climate and customs, 531 ; white population, 533 ; doubts as to its being able to stand alone, ib. ; relations with the South African Republic, 534 ; railway question, 535 ; referred to, 70, 331, 366, 466, 479, 488, 491, 492, 498, 501, 511, 514, 515-517, 537, 542, 549, 554, 557 Natal Mercury, the, 524 Naval Defence Bill, 216, 296, 300, 332, 336, 337, 342, 349 Negroes, their growth in the south of the United States, 173 ; their social position, 175; and Christian Churches, 176 ; attempt to disfranchise them, ib. ; the Ancient Order of Foresters and the, 177 ; feeling of a large min- ority in Southern States favourable to, 178 INDEX 5S9 Netherlands India Company, 471 South Africa Railway, 499, 557 Nevada, 34, 135 " Never, Never Country," 361 New Brunswick, its boundary line, 44 ; population, composition of, 45 ; trade, 46 ; referred to, 38, 40, 42, 43, 67, 70, 96, 104, 122, 124, 161 Caledonia, French transportation to, 439 ; its geographical position, 440 ; land, 441 ; referred to, 358, 436, 438 Newcastle (Natal), 525 Newcastle (New South Wales), 3°2 New England, 33, 55, 57, 59, 70, 162 — States, 37, 121 Newfoundland, its history, 11 ; Roman Catholics strong in, 12 ; education, its nature and administration, 13 ; schools, how managed, ib. ; denomi- national feeling and elections, 14 ; registration system, 15 ; taxes, whence drawn, ib. ; population and area, 16 ; fisheries, 17 ; truck system pre- valent, ib. ; fishermen, condition of, 17, 18 ; working population, societies, and trade unions, 18 ; confederation negatived, and why, 19 ; export trade, 20 ; main difficulty of the colony, ib. ; the French Shore, ib. ; Treaty of Utrecht, fishing rights under, and contentions of Newfound- landers, French and English, 21-23 ; bait, 24 ; American rights in, ib. ; its future, 25 ; referred to, 11, 36, 37, 39, 40, 43, 118, 163 New Guinea, 221, 330, 336, 343, 346, 359, 433, 435, 440-442 ■ Hampshire, 152, 161 Hebrides, 221, 366, 433, 434, 436, 446 Jersey, 70 Mexico, 34, 135 Plymouth, 415 South Wales, compared with Vic- toria, 267 ; its legislation, ib. ; edu- cation and land system, 268 ; public works, and relation of the Government to them, 272 ; railways, 273 ; objects aimed at by Government regarding railway service, ib. ; results of public works system, 274 ; the unemployed, 275 ; Civil Service, 276 ; immigration operations suspended, ib. ; free trade, taxation, and protection, 277-280 ; in future, will pass Victoria, 280 ; Pro- tectionists and land reformers — their remedies for present evils, 281 ; ferti- lity of the land, 282 ; past lack of interest in politics, 283 ; payment of Members of Parliament, 285 ; differ- ence between politics of, and Victoria, 286 ; decentralisation needed, 287; Sir H. Parkes, 289, 293, 303 ; the Gover- norship question, 290 ; attitude of the press, 291 ; the Murray water ques- tion, ib. ; Soudan contingent of, 295 ; public men, 296-303 ; present Admin- istration, 298 ; protectionist leaders, 299-301 ; Mr. Dibbs, 300 ; other 23oliticians, 301 ; land legislation and freehold tenure, 304 ; graduated taxa- tion, 305 ; h-rigation, 306 ; Victorian business men in, ib. ; methods sug- gested for raising money, 307 ; a legis- lative peculiarity, 308 ; fine arts, ib. ; botanic gardens, 309 ; literature, 311- 314 ; music, 314 ; the stage, 315 ; athletics, ib. ; composition of the people, ib. ; Government contributions to charities, 318 ; boarding-out of poor children, 318-320 ; poor immigrants, 320 ; condition of the smaller cities, 321-323 ; federation, 323 ; defence, 324 ; feeling as to defence questions, 325; referred to, 62, 104, 137, 185- 189, 191, 198, 203, 204, 207, 210, 226, 227, 230, 231, 237, 240, 241, 243, 244, 247, 250, 265, 329-331, 333, 338, 339, 349, 350, 353, 355, 360, 361, 365, 367-370, 372, 373, 375- 377, 382, 383, 386-389, 391-393, 397, 401, 403, 406-408, 413, 416, 418, 420, 423, 424, 438, 441, 443, 446, 449, 450, 452, 459, 510, 512, 520, 534 New Westminster, 138 York, 33, 35-37, 55, 64, 65, 70, 121, 126, 141, 151, 161, 168, 266 Zealand, causes which have affected its political and financial condition, 414 ; aptitude of the Maories for civil- isation, 415 ; protection, ib. ; the Prime Minister, 416 ; Sir Robert Stout, ib. ; legislative peculiarities, 418 ; taxation, 418, 420 ; pauper im- migration, 418 ; education, 419, 421 : Government insurance, ib. ; other peculiarities, 419 ; land legislation, 421 ; local option, 422 ; railways, 422 - 424 ; unemployed, 424 ; the eight-hour day, 424 ; payment of members, ib. ; financial position and population, 425 ; soil, climate, and chief cities, 426 ; composition of the people, ib. ; products, 427 ; literature, 428 ; national character of the settlers, 429 ; differences between, and Australia, ib. ; scenery, 430 ; de- fence, 431 ; military preparations, 432 ; its interest in the Pacific, and difficulties with the French, 433 ; objections to the Australasian Federal 59o INDEX Council, 444-447 ; view in, as to right and power of a single colony to secede, 447 ; refusal to become a dependency of Australia, 448 ; referred to, 70, 100, 115, 119, 148, 187, 188, 226, 227, 237, 241-244, 285, 305, 307, 308, 323, 329, 330, 346, 358, 365, 367, 370, 371, 377, 387, 392, 398, 399, 402, 408, 411, 420, 423 Neiv Zealand, Station Life in, 428 Niagara, 69 Norfolk Island, 19, 440 Norman, Sir H., 366 Normanby, The Marquis of, 213, 214, 366, 378 Northern Pacific Railroad, 34 Norway, 16, 431 Nova Scotia, its history, population, and reason for its foundation, 40-42 ; coal, 43 ; Scotch Highlanders of, 44 ; re- ferred to, 16, 20, 38, 39, 40, 45, 67, 70, 96, 103, 104, 115, 122, 139, 140, 161, 163 Oddfellows, 18, 115 O'Hagan, Lord, 467 Ohio, 32 Old Melbourne Memories, 314 New Zealand, 428 O'Loghlen, Sir B., 215, 217, 218, 222, 226 Onslow, The Earl of, 366, 418 Ontario (Province), its settlers, size, climate, and products, 69, 70 ; em- ployers of labour in, their dread of the Knights of Labour, 114 ; referred to 1, 32, 37, 38, 45, 73, 80, 89, 92, 93, 95, 98, 106, 110-117, 120, 122, 128, 130-133, 151, 154, 156, 15S, 161, 392, 456 ■ Lake, 129 Liberals, 92 Orangemen, English, 91 ; of Ontario, 62 ; New South Wales, 284 Orange River burghers, the, 545 Free State, friendly feeling in the, towards ourselves, 480 ; size and population, 516 ; white popu- lation, 532, 533 ; and railways from the Cape, 547 ; referred to, 167, 486, 490-492, 494, 495, 498, 501, 535 Oriel College, Oxford, 468 Orkney Islands, 416 Orpen, Mr., 482 O'Sullivan, Mr., 302 Otago, 415, 423, 426, 433 Ottawa, its situation, Parliament Library, and features of the Houses of Parlia- ment, 72 ; society and public men, 73 ; House of Commons, 90 ; referred to, 55, 63, 72, 77, 82, 90, 107, 126, 137, 153-155, 157 Paarl, The, 49, 477 Pacific, French and German action in the, 436-438 ; referred to, 33, 35, 37, 130, 137, 139, 142, 143, 357, 365, 417, 433-435, 437, 438, 454, 458 Great Circle Route, 35 Islands, 358 North, 140, 143 Railroad, 96 South, 436, 437, 458 West, 348 Panama Company, 414 Isthmus of, 31, 143 "Papineau's Rebellion" and Home Rule, 49 Paris, 22, 252 Commune of, 52, 439 Exhibition, 1889, 58 Parkes, Sir H., his government, 270, 276 ; appearance, career, and ability, 289 ; action in the Governorship ques- tion, 290 ; influence and power, 293 ; ministers, 298 ; free trade programme. 303 ; and Federation, 323, 326 ; on colonial defence, 324, 325 ; his stature, 345 ; his "An Australian Nation," 442 ; referred to, 100, 226, 230, 267, 268, 271, 275, 284, 285, 295, 303, 367, 416, 452, 455 Parkin, Mr., 323 Parliaments, Dominion, duration of, 75 Parramatta River, 266 Pass Bill, the, 1S89, 485 Patriot, the, 477 Pauncefote, Sir Julian, 164 Pearson, Dr., 256, 314 Pekin, 473 Pennsylvania, 70, 279 Perth (Western Australia), 355, 404 Piccadilly, 129 Pickwick, Mr., 301 Pictou, 44 Pietermaritzburg, see Maritzburg Place Vendome, 471 Playford-Kingston party, 387 Playford, Mr. T., described, 379 ; referred to, 367, 380, 452-454 Plessis, du, 470 Polynesia, 2, 457 Southern, 266 Pondoland, its history, 518 ; referred to, 514, 516, 533 Portage la Prairie, 134 Port Chalmers, 432 Elizabeth, described, 510 ; referred to, 486, 487, 505 Jackson 327 ; and see Sydney- Portland (Oregon), 34 INDEX 59i Port Xelson, 38 Phillip, 186, 190, 355 ; and see Melbourne, ami Victoria Portugal, 20, 536, 543, 556, 557, 559, 561 Portuguese claims in South Africa, 559 Government, 556, 562 Potomac, 72 Praed, Mrs. Campbell, her Australian Life, 359, 374, 506 Pratt, Mr., author of " Rain," 395 Presbyterian General Assembly, 86 Presbyterians in New Zealand, 427 ; and the reading of the Bible in do., 422 Pretoria, 529, 539, 545, 546, 557 Pretty Dick, 258 Prince Edward Island, its loveliness, 46 ; chief drawback, 47 ; referred to, 40, 392 Progressive Taxation, see Succession Protection, see 15, 153, 157, 277, 281, 299-301, 351, 387, 398, 415, 416 Protestants in Victoria, 262 Puget Sound, 34 Puritans of Elizabeth's reign, 51 Quebec (city), its appearance and archi- tecture, 61 ; rivals Edinburgh, ib. ; causes assigned for comparative decad- ence of, 62 : rivalry of Montreal with, ib. ; referred to, 14, 35, 43, 45, 47, 92, 103, 126 (Province), emigration from, 33 ; its institutions, Legislative Assembly, aud politicians, 67 ; its powers and criminal law, 68 ; Liquor Act, ib. ; Parliament, division of parties in, ib. ; "Reds," 89; analysis of members in the Legislative Assembly, 90-92 ; questions before, 91 ; Liberals, 92 ; referred to, 32, 33, 67-73, 77, 79, 89, 110, 112, 116, 121, 122, 128, 130, 153, 161, 392, 456, 473, 543 Act, 116 Liquor Act, 68 West, 90 Queen Anne's Gate, 190 Queensland, its size and progress, 329 ; scenery and climate, 330 ; capital, 331 ; separatist feeling, 332 ; Irish, Scotch, and English in, 333 ; history of causes of its independent feeling, 334 ; defence, 335 ; grievances against the mother - country, ib. ; the " National " movement, 340-342 ; leaders, 343 ; sentiment as to federa- tion, 344 ; differences between Con- servatives and Liberals, 345 ; conflict regarding appointment of Sir H. Blake, 12, 346; veto, 348; Separatist speakers, 349 ; imperialism, how regarded, ib. ; movement towards protection, 351 ; proposed divisions of territory, ib. ; its attitude as to Federal Council, 352 ; northern separation and servile labour, 353-355 ; difficulties in the way of the former, 355 ; need for coloured labour, 356 ; former ill-treat- ment of coloured labourers, 357-360 ; stoppage of whole labour traffic, 360 ; land legislation, ib. ; irrigation needed, 361 ; sugar and coloured labour, 361-363; arguments of Demo- cratic Labour Party, 363 ; co-operative sugar mills, 364 ; maize and cotton growing, 365 ; future difficulties, ib. ; Lord Knutsford's choice of Governors, 366 ; financial condition, 367 ; public works and local government, 368 ; immigrants, 369 ; legislative peculiari- ties, 370 ; eight-hour day and early closing, 371 ; general view of, ib. ; gold mines, 372 ; social condition and literature, 373 ; Government aid to charitable institutions, 374 ; cost of living, 375; referred to, 12, 102, 119, 185, 187, 214, 221, 227, 237, 241, 242, 244, 272, 285, 296, 301, 307, 308, 325, 326, 372, 378, 382, 384, 393, 402, 404, 406, 411, 413, 416, 417, 420, 422, 423, 424, 427, 429, 433, 438-440, 443, 444, 446, 452, 511, 512, 527, 528 Queenslander, the, 374 Queenstown, 36 Queen's Town (Cape Colony), 487 Quick, Dr., 410 Quirinal, the, 460 Rabbit plague, 212 Raiatea, 434 Rapa Island, 434 Ray, Cape, 22, 36 Reciprocity Treaty, 97, 156, 162-165, 494 Regina, 136 Reid, Mr., 297 Revolution, French, 61 Rhine, the, 283 Rhode Island, 57, 58 Rhodes, Mr., described, 467, 468 ; charter granted to his company, 561, 562 ; referred to, 479, 481, 498, 499, 502, 553, 564 Rideau Hall, 73 Riel, motion auent his execution, 91 ; expedition against, 104 ; rebellion, 130 Rimouski, 38 Riverina, the, 188, 210, 274, 291, 383, 534 Robbery under Arms, 314 59^ INDEX Roberts, Mr. Douglas, extract from his "Canada," 125 Robertson, Sir J., 226, 269, 298 Robinson, Sir H., his policy as Governor of the Cape, 477, 478 ; and the trans- ference of Swaziland, 549, 551-553 ; referred to, 50, 367, 378, 469, 566, 570, 576 Sir J., and responsible government in Natal, 524, 525 Sir W., Governor of Western Aus- tralia, 224, 378, 411 Rockhampton, 331, 371, 372, 440 Rocky Mountains, the, 31, 35,43, 133-136 Roman Campagna, the, 430 Catholic Church outnumbers Church of England in Canada, 12; opponents of, and State aid to religion, 68 ; supported Conservative party in Quebec, 69 ; predominant and privileged in French Canada, 79 ; feeling in .Mont- real against its powers and privileges, 82 ; its powers in Quebec, 83 ; position of, in Canada and the United States, 86 ; and the Knights of Labour, 114 ; in Victoria, 215 Catholics and common school sys- tem in Victoria, 185, 217; percentage of, in do., 262 ; in New South Wales, 284 ; Queensland, 333 ; their organisa- tion in the colonies, 338 ; in South Australia, 378 ; New Zealand, 422, 4-J7 Rosebery, The Earl of, 306, 332, 436 Ross, Mr. , and his coalition ministry, 90 Sir R., 389 Rouges, 68 Roumanians, 131 Royce, Mr., and sport in the colonies, 253, 254 Ruapeha, 428 Rupert's Land Act, 1868, 32 Russell, Lord John, 54, 378 Russia, 3, 4, 130, 132, 140, 143, 164, 243, 350, 460, 493, 494, 497 Southern, 132 Saguenat, 47, 431 Saigon, 356 St. Helena, island of, its government, 514 St. Hyacinthe, 79 "St. John Baptist," 82 St. John (New Brunswick), 44, 46 St. John's, Newfoundland, its first colon- isation, .11 ; the centre of Roman Catholic population of Newfoundland, 13 ; amateur statisticians and death- rate of, 15 ; its municipality, the first attempt at local government, 16 ; re- ferred to, 19, 36 River, 518 St. Lawrence, Gulf of, 36 (lower), ancestors of the inhabitants of, 47 River, 16, 37-39, 43, 61, 63, 65. 67, 103, 104 St. Malo, 48 St. Patrick's Hall and Day, 19 St. Paul, 34 St. Pierre and Miquelon, islands of, 23 St. Stephen's, 506 Salisbury, The Marquis of, 220, 437 Samoa, 366, 414, 433-435, 454 ■ ■ Conference, 437 Sam Slick, 123, 124 Samuel, Sir Saul, 339 Sandhurst, 340 Sandwich Islands, 494 San Domingo, 494 ■ Francisco, 31, 34, 35, 137. 141, 143, 266 ■ Juan Straits, 142 Santa Lucia Bay, 535, 551 Saskatchewan, 35, 96, 130, 136 Scandinavians, 94, 131 Scanlen, Sir T., 466, 468, 482 Schreiner, Olive, authoress of the Story of an African Farm, 505,506,521 Scotch Presbyterians, percentage of, in Victoria, 262 Scotland, 130, 380 ■ Western Highlands and islands of, 25 Scratchley, Sir P., 335 Seaman's Union, the, and Chinese labour on mail steamers, 354 Seattle, 143 Seeley, Professor, and the alien element in Canada, 47, 48 ; quoted, 171 Selkirk Territory, 96 ; settlers, 131 Lord, 135 Selous, Mr., and Lobengula, 560 ; and Mashonaland, 561 Seudall, Sir Walter, 366, 367 Servia, 493 Service, Mr., described, 220 ; and Sydney jealousy of Melbourne, 443 ; on a federal legislature, 455 ; referred to, 215, 219, 221, 225, 226, 454 Shanghai, 141 Shea, Sir Ambrose, opposition to his nomination as Governor, 14 ; referred to, 338, 367 Shepstone, Sir Theophilus, and South African politics, 528 Sherbrooke, Viscount, 306 Sherman, Senator, 160 Ship -labourers' Union, Quebec, ''ty- ranny " of, 114 Shoshong, 481, 553 Simon's Bay, 482, 500, 513, 578 Slavs, 131 INDEX 593 Smit, General, 550 Smith, Mr. Bruce, 297, 298 Mr. Golchvin, and Federalism, 98, 99 ; referred to, 154, 155, 157 Sir Donald, 78, 126 Socrates, 293 Sofala, 570 Somerset, 369 Soudan contingent, the 295, 296 " South African Colonies, " places in- cluded in the phrase, 514 ; their forms of government, ib. ; character, 516 Republic, and the Swaziland Convention, 551 ; referred to, 514, 516, 517, 539, 558, 569, 570, 577, and see Transvaal South Australia, its colonisation, 376 ; the Wakefield system in, 376, 377 ; development, 377 ; Governorship diffi- culties, 378 ; politicians, 379, and their peculiarities, 379, 380 ; views on federation and relations with United Kingdom, 382 ; prosperity after its foundation, 3S3 ; financial position, 384 ; Real Projjerty Acts, cheap law courts, and local government, 385 ; woman suffrage, 386 ; protection, and democratic institutions, 387 ; payment of members, 388 ; closure, 389 ; land and income taxes, 390 ; other legis- lative peculiarities, 391 ; eight- hour day, immigration, education, and local option, ib. ; area, 392 ; climate, 393 ; appearance of its interior, ib. ; social view of, 394 ; literature, 395 ; referred to, 1, 204, 207, 210, 213, 214, 230, 237, 255, 257, 283, 292, 296, 307, 309, 319, 329, 330, 348, 351, 352, 366, 368, 378, 390, 406, 408, 416, 421-424 South A ustralian Advertiser, 395 South Australian Register, the, 386, 395 Sea Colonies, 418 Islands, 371 Southern Pacific Railroad, 34 Spain, 19, 20 Spencer, Herbert, 193 Sport, 252 Sprigg, Sir Gordon, 467 ; and the Cape Registration Bill, 483; referred to, 47 8, 481, 483, 487, 490, 498, 500, 564 Squatting Act, 1839, 269 Stanhope, Mr., 340, 436 Stanlev, Lord, of Preston, 74 Stawefl, Sir W., 224 Steere, Sir J. Lee, 412 Stell, Governor Van der, 509 Stellenbosch, 49 ; its derivation, 509 Stephens, Mr. Brunton, 374 Stout, Sir R., described, 416 ; referred to, 226, 346, 422, 424 Stout- Vogel Government, 417 ; ministry and the Federal Council Bill, 448 Succession duties, graduated, 192, 305, 418, etc. Suez Canal, 141, 142, 413, 505 Sugar Bounty Bill, 496 Sutherland, Mr. J., 29S Swaziland, its inhabitants, soil, and mineral wealth, 548 ; artion of the Boers in, ib. ; attitude of the British Government on the protectorate ques- tion, 549 ; history of the question in, 551 ; South African Republic and the Convention with regard to, ib. ; bear- ing of the success of protected native government in Basutoland on, 552 ; referred to, 468, 490, 528, 533, 535, 543, 558, 576, 577 Switzerland, 95, 97, 99, 102, 104, 13S Sydney, its position, situation, and ex- tent, 266 ; land and suburbs, 305 ; fine arts, 308 ; botanic gardens, 310 ; music, 314 ; poor immigrants, 320 ; defence, 324 ; life and trade, 327 ; referred to, 189, 190, 203, 237, 255, 260, 270, 273, 277, 281, 282, 288, 305, 308, 309, 313, 314, 317, 323, 331, 373, 395, 418, 437, 442, 456, 505, 507 East, 306 South, 297 Benevolent Society, 321 Daily Telegraph, see Daily Mail, 435 Morning Herald, 291, 313, 386 Punch, 294 University, 334 Syme, Mr., 194, 417 Syria, 70 Table Bat, 482, 500, 505, 513, 554, 578 Mountain, 507, 508 Tadema's "Vintage Festival," 309 Tagus, The, 61 Taillon, Mr., 91 ; his Conservative ad- ministration, ib. Talon-Lesperance, M., quoted, 159 Taranaki, 415 Taschereau, Cardinal Archbishop, 53, 77, 85, 87 " Tasma," 374, and see Madame Couvreur Tasmania, its climate, scenery, literature, and capital, 396 ; movement for its annexation to Victoria, 397 ; tariff questions, ib. ; legislative peculiarities as to free trade, protection, and indi- gent foreigners, 398 ; taxation, ib. ; education, 399 ; land legislation and eight-hour day, 400 ; statesmen, ib. ; social habits and politics, 401 ; free circulation of newspapers, 402 ; rail- 594 INDEX ways, Hi. ; its debt arid future, 403 ; referred to, 148, 196, 227, 237, 241, 306, 371, 376, 377, 383, 391, 392, 397, 398, 402, 405, 411, 419, 440, 443, 444, 452, 453, 457 Tasmanian Main Line Railway Company, 402 Taxation in Newfoundland, 15 Tennessee, 174 Texas, 62 Western, 34 Theale, Mr., 505 Thompson, Sir John, 75 Thursday Island, 265, 324 Times, the, 392, 552, 572 Tocqueville and French Canadians, 48, 49 ; referred to, 99, 172, 180, 543 Madame de, 50 Todd, Mr., 98 Toit, du, 470 Tongaland, recent treaty with the Queen of, 550 ; the chiefs of, and a protector- ate, 551 ; treaty of 1877, ib. ; referred to, 535, 552, 553, 558 Tongariro, 428, 431 Toronto, estimate of its population, 71 ; chief architectural feature, 71 ; cause of its prosperity, 72 ; referred to, 64, 118-120, 126, 128 Torrens Act, 267 Torres Straits, 356, 413, 448 Trade Unions, 249 Transkei, the, 514, 516, 518 Transvaal, the, its size, population, and trade, 516, 534 ; frontiers, 536 ; re- venues, 537 ; British miners and re- presentation, ib. ; the Volksraad, 537, 538 ; future of the, 540 ; feeling as to annexation, ib. ; English diggers, curious fact as to their politics, ib. ; official use of Dutch language, 541 ; monopolies, 544 ; Dutch buildings and British architecture, 545 ; increas- ing use of the English tongue, ib. ; negotiations with the Free State, 547 ; referred to, 26, 27, 468, 474, 475, 498, 501, 521, 548-552, 553, 555, 557, 569, 577; and see South African Republic Transvaal Advertiser, and the oath of allegiance, 539; its version of President Kruger's speech, 544 ; and the manage- ment of Bechuanaland, 567 Tricoupis, M., 424 Trinidad, 168 Tristan d'Acunha, 514 Trois Rivieres, 128 Tsechs, 131 Tugela, Lower, whites in the, 532 Tupper, Sir Charles, 44, 100, 108, 339 Turner's " Dunstanborough Castle," 309 "Twain, Mark," 65 Ulster, 94 Umbandine, 552 " Uncle Paul," 542 ; see Kruger Uncle Piper of Piper's Hill, 506 Union, American, opening up of Western States of, 31 ; 34 Union Pacific Railroad, 34 United Empire Loyalists, their descend- ants, 70 ; referred to, 31, 55, 158 Kingdom, its vulnerability, 7 ; emigration from the, to Western Canada, 26-31 ; wheat sent by Canada to, 111 ; Irish pauper emigration from the, to Canada, 120 ; goods manu- factured in the, and the Victorian market, 187 ; importance of colonial debts to the, 243 ; South Australian views on relations with, 382 ; referred to, 16, 20, 27, 29, 37, 103-105, 126, 141, 183, 226, 252, 257,'260-262, 317, 320, 327, 334, 389, 426, 427, 448, 459, 461, 467, 478, 487, 539 States, dissimilarities between the, and Canada, 149-152; negro element in, 150 ; reason of difference between Englishmen aud the Ameri- cans of the, 151 ; result of levying protective duties against the, 157 ; feeling in, as to annexation of Canada, 159 ; the fisheries question and the, 162-164 ; pressure of the, upon Canada, 164 ; difference towards the, of Canada and the West Indies respect- ively, 168 ; future relations of the, and other English-speaking peoples, 169 ; general view of, 172 ; changes in, during the last twenty years, 173 ; growth of the negro population in the South of the, ib. ; attitude of North and South, 174 ; the burden of armaments in, 178 ; referred to, 2-6, 20, 21, 25-27, 29, 31, 32, 34, 35, 37, 38, 39, 44, 45, 49, 54, 55, 57, 58, 64, 76, 77, 88, 95-97, 99, 102-107, 112, 113, 115, 121, 125, 127, 130, 132, 135-137, 142-145, 153, 160, 165, 174, 183, 185, 195, 205, 206, 254, 266, 272, 276, 311, 321, 328, 361, 392, 409, 411, 426, 444, 456, 460, 487, 493- 496, 512 Upington, Sir T. , 467 ; and Bechuana- land, 564 Utah, 34, 135, 206 Utrecht, Treaty of, 21, 22, 42 Vancouver City, the excellence of its laying out and site, 138 ; population, 139 ; referred to, 33, 141, 142 Island, practically unexplored, 139 , inadequacy of its defence, and strategic, importance of its naval station, 140 ; INDEX 595 proposals for its defence, ib. ; referred to, 34, 42, 43, 103, 122, 139, 148, 160, 494 Van Diemen's Land, 396 ; and see Tas- mania Vauglian, Arehljishop, 294 Venezuela, 497 Vermont, 151, 161 Victoria (Australia), its size and soil, 183 ; changes during last twenty years, 184 ; members of Upper House not paid, ib. ; common school system, ib. ; demo- cracy and State-socialism, 185 ; is the most interesting of the Australian colonies, ib. ; its prosperity, 186 ; trade protection, ib. ; waves of pros- perity and depression, 187 - 189 ; English money in, 189-191 ; price of land, 191 ; land legislation, 192 ; taxation directed against great estates, ib. ; democratic party, land views of, 193 ; Land Reform League of, its practical programme, 194 ; no objection in, to State interference, 195 ; Board of Commissioners for control of its railways, 196 ; railway system self- supporting, 197 ; railway fares, ib. ; public departments are managed non- politically, 199 ; Civil Service Com- mission, its success, 200 ; payment of members of Parliament, ib. ; tribute to honesty of Legislature, 201 ; local government, ib. ; tramways are in hands of municipalities, 203 ; irriga- tion system, 204 ; wheat-growing land of, ib. ; Mr. Deakin's irrigation schemes, 205-207 ; irrigation works in, State money for, 207-209 ; irrigation scheme, its principle, 209 ; private irrigation works, ib. ; wine production, 210 ; success of irrigation, 211 ; rabbit plague, 212 ; leading men, 213 ; the Governorship difficulty, ib. ; Irish prob- ' lem, 214 ; Coalition Governments, 215 ; school system, 217 ; Prime Minister, 218; a former Prime Minister, 220 ; Agent-General of, in London, 221; the Opposition leader and his colleague, 222 ; the Chief-Justice and his views on the Governorship question, 223-225 ; success of Scotch and Irish in, 225, 226 ; is opposed to separation, 226 ; Conservative party in, ib, ; Liberal party, its present policy, 227 ; legislative peculiarities, ib. ; politics of, reaction unknown in, 228 ; the Education and Land Tax Acts, 229 ; General Election of 1889, what it turned upon, ib. ; the Stock Tax, 231 ; programme of Gillies- Deakin party, 232 ; virtual change of ground by Protectionists in, 233 ; election manifestoes of 1889, 234 ; result of General Election of 1889, 238 ; result of a war of tariffs between, and New South Wales, 240 ; railways and water-works assets for the whole debt of, 244 ; other financial questions, 245 ; experiments tried, 247 ; early- closing, 248; eight -hour day, ib. ; early-closing legislation, 250 ; high wages and cheap food, 252 ; out-door exercise, ib. ; horse-racing, etc., 254, 255 ; music, 256 ; literature, 256-258 ; newspapers, 258 ; loyalty, 259-261 ; birthplaces, 261 ; forces engaged in the defence of, 262-265 ; compared with New South Wales, 267 ; differ- ence between politics of, and of New South Wales, 286 ; postage, 402 ; free circulation of newspapers, ib. ; Austra- lian federation, 442 ; fuller federation, 450 ; referred to, 16, 29, 104, 267, 268, 270, 272, 273, 276, 277, 279, 280, 281, 283, 286, 287, 291, 292, 296, 301, 305, 307, 309, 315, 319, 329, 330, 331, 333, 339, 340, 347, 365, 368, 370, 374, 377, 383-385, 387, 388, 390-392, 393, 395, 396, 397, 406, 409, 413, 414, 417, 418, 419, 421, 423, 424, 428, 429, 433, 443-446, 450, 452, 469, 482, 504, 520 Victoria Bridge, Montreal, 64 (British Columbia), its judges and advocates, 139 ; referred to, 137, 138, 142, 143 Victoria, steel gunboat, 262 Vignou, M. Louis, his Les Colonies francaises quoted, 440 Villiers, Sir H. de, views on South Africa, 503 ; referred to, 470, 471 Virginia, 70, 174 Vogel, Sir J. , described 417 ; referred to, 344, 418, 419, 432, 446, 448 Volksraad, of Transvaal, 468, 537 Wagner, music of, in the colonies, 256 Wakefield system, the, 376, 377, 387, 408 Wales, 130 Walnsch Bay and the Germans, 501, 502; 514 " Waring," 428 Warren, Sir C, and South African diffi- culties, 576 ; his expedition, 549, 567-569 Washington (D. C), 72, 97, 122, 138, 154, 157, 164, 494 House of Representatives at, 96 President, 152 (State), 34, 138, 147 596 INDEX Washington, Treaty of, 162 "Watson, Mr. Marriott, 428 Watts's " Love and Death," 309 Wellington (British Columbia), 139 (New Zealand), 415, 426, 432 and Manawatu Railway Company, 423 Wesleyans, the, in the Cape, 486 Western Australia, its size, 403 ; features of its -southern part, 404 ; agitation for division and responsible govern- ment, 404, 407 ; soil, and climate, 407 ; its spare lands a field for scien- tific colonisation, 408 ; present posi- tion, 411 ; responsible government, negotiations for, 412 ; defence ques- tions, 413 ; referred to, 329, 330, 348, 352, 376, 377, 392, 395, 401, 403, 406, 420, 519, 523, 568 Westgarth, Mr., and Australian con- federation, 241 ; 244 Westminster, 72 Westminster Review, 193 West Indies, pressure of the United States on the, 165 ; pro]>osed treaty of United States with the, ib. ; its general effect, 166 ; objections to the draft treaty, 167 ; position towards the United States, 168 ; referred to, 20, 44, 178, 494 West India Islands, 441, 494 Whiteway, Sir William, Prime Minister of Newfoundland, 20 Wiltshire, 369 Wimmera River, 205 Winnipeg, increase of its population, 129 ; architecture, ib. ; importance of, as a railway centre, 130 ; referred to, 34, 37, 122, 132-134 Winton, Sir F. de, 552, 553 Wise, Mr., 297 Wolseley system, the, in Natal, 519 Wood, Sir E. , and the defence of Swazi- land, 549 Woolley, Professor, 314 Wynberg, 504, 507, 508 Yokohama, 141, 142 Yorkshire, 369 Zambesi, the, 478, 514, 515, 517, 559, 560, 562, 570-572 Zanzibar, 571 Zululand and responsible government in Natal, 526 ; referred to, 514, 515, 522-524, 528, 533 Zulus, the, 533 Zulu War, the, 524 Zunibo, 560 END OF VOL. I Printed by R. & R. Clark, Edhtliutgh. M v, / THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW. Series 9482