THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES THE BRITISH EMPIRE. THE British Empire BY SIR GEORGE CAMPBELL, M.P. r . - J » o « i J J CASSELL & COMPANY,^ Limited LONDON, PARIS, NEIV YORK &' ^U/^LJiOC/RNE. ;ALI. RIGHTS RESERVED.] 1887. ..\ /O^ DtUI^ 'Utioa^-'^ C « 4 < < » « C C I : ■'• ••• V- n I. CONTENTS CflAPTER T. INTRODUCTORY. page Our Position compared to other Nations— Need to take Stock of the Empire -Baron Hiibner — Drawbacks of Parliamentary System — Deficiency of Farmer-Colonists— Too great Haste to be Rich -Immense Variety of Races— Difficulties in Mixed Colonies— Localisation of Free Government— Possibility of Federation... ... ... .. ... ... . j CPIAPTER II. FREE SELF-GOVERNING COLONIES. How far they are Part of the Empire— The Aborigines of these Colonies — Arguments for Federation — Advantages to Colonies of Present Position— Drawbacks of Position to Us— Diplomatic Difficulties — Difficulties in the way of Federation —Imposs- ibility of Customs Union or Common Revenue — Arguments for Letting Alone so much as is Well— What is Really Necessary — Comparison of Great Britain with the Free Colonies — Colonial Federations inter se — Pressing Need of a United Diplomacy — How to Attain — Immigration to Free Colonies— Chinese, Pacific Islanders, and Indians— White Immigration— State-directed Colonisation— Free Trade in Population... ... ... ... ... ... ... 13 CHAPTER IH. POSSESSIONS AND SETTLEMENTS NOT SELF-GOVERNING. Situation compared to Free Colonies— Our Fitness for Enterprise in a Superior Capacity— But Difficulty of Controlling Adven- turers — Our Resources, and the Danger of taking too much- Recent Extensions 36 i^>Hv.24 vi Contents. CHAPTER IV. INDIA. PAGE Character of the People — ^And of our Rule — Our Military Forces — Armies of Native Princes — Affghanistan — Burmah ; Political and Military Position there — Employment of Native Soldiers Abroad — Advantages of India to Us — Advantages to the Natives — Education and its Effects — The so-called Tribute — Our Rule a Paternal Despotism — Recent Demands for more Free Institutions — The Free Press and Free Speech — The Educated Natives — -Local Government — Government of Native States — The Filling of Civil Offices — Effect of Use of English on those who have not that Language — Claims of Natives to Higher Offices — The Civil Service — -The Indian Mahom- medans — Their Position — Are they a Political Danger ? — The Question of European Settlement in India — The Government of India and Parliament — Need of a Buffer ... ... ... 43 CHAPTER V. CROWN COLONIES. What Crown Colonies are — Unsatisfactory Position — Majority of Coloured Races — Former Self-Government of Whites — Re- collections of Slavery — Importation of Labour — Forms of Government — Colonial Officials — Difficulty of Protecting Natives — Defiance of Free-Trade Principles — Oligarchy in Natal — Attempts to Establish a General Franchise — Com- parison with Southern States in America — And with Cape Colony — Jamaica — Mauritius — British Guiana — Paternal Administrations ... ... ... ... ... ... ... loi CHAPTER VI. TERRITORIAL COMPANIES. The North Borneo Company — The National African Company — Questions of PoHcy Involved ... ... .. ... ... 114 Contents. vii CHAPTER VII. PROTECTORATES. PAGE Variety of Forms — Protectorates in Africa — In the Malay Peninsula — In Oceania — New Guinea — Missionary Influences — Action of Traders and Adventurers — Trade in Arms — Trade in Strong Drinks 117 CHAPTER VIII. RECAPITULATION OF CROWN COLONIES AND PROTECTORATES. Size and Resources of these Territories — Cost to Britain — Ceylon, Straits Settlements, and Mauritius — West Indian Colonies — South African Colonies and Protectorates — The Basutos — The Zulus — Relations with Boer Republics — Bechuanaland — Temptations to Further Advance — West African Settlements — Borneo and New Guinea — Fiji — Hong-Kong and Port Hamilton — Mediterranean Possessions — Aden, Perim, and Socotra — Summary of these Possessions ... ... ... 129 CHAPTER IX. IMMIGRATION TO TROPICAL TERRITORIES. Under-Population and Over-Population — Importation of Labour from Africa — Immigration from India — Its Possibilities, Uses, and Abuses — Conditions Necessary to its Success — Chinese Immigration — The Polynesian Labour-Traffic — Naval Re- prisals ... ... ... ... ... ... 150 CHAPTER X. EXTENSION OR RETROGRESSION. Limit of Room for Extension — Division of Ground with Germans and French — Question of turning over Native Races to Greater Colonies — Future of New Guinea — And of Pacific Islands — South Africa : a Compact South-Eastern Dominion there — Questions Involved in the Rule of Territories not Self- Governing ... ... ... ... ... ... .. ... 161 viii Contents. CHAPTER XI. AFRICA. PACK Size and Character of African Continent— Our Portion in South Africa and elsewhere — Suakim — Possessions of Foreign Powers — Character of the Interior and its Condition — Character of the People — Indian Empire forbids African Empire — Need of a Limit to our Possessions there — The Congo Treaty and Slate — Possible German, French, and Italian Extensions — Egypt, and our Position there ... ... ... ... ... 169 CHAPTER XII. CONCLUSION. Our Empire and our Duties — The Roads to India — The Politics of the Mediterranean— Of the Suez Canal — Of Egypt — And of Western Asia — Summary of the whole Empire ... ... 180 The British Empire, CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. I THINK there is no people whose lot one feels more inclined to envy than the Swiss. It is not only that they are comfortable and content in their own democratic w^ay, but with no great wealth, moderate taxation, and a small revenue, more seems to be done for the people than else- where. In respect of roads and railways, they are behind none ; nor in hospitals and other public institutions. In an efficient system of public education they are far ahead of us, and in most modern improvements — postal arrange- ments, telegraphs, and telephones, and all the rest of it — they seem (for popular use at any rate) to be ahead of almost any other people — certainly very far indeed ahead of us. Compulsory military service, no doubt, they have, and handsome barracks are conspicuous ; but these are mere militia depots. The required periodical service is rendered in the immediate neighbourhood of their own villages, and, combined with constant popular rifle practice, suffices to make them very efficient soldiers for purely defensive pur- poses — a form of militarism which I believe to be by no means disadvantageous. It does not appear to detract from their industrial efficiency. Altogether, they seem happy in their own homes, and, when they are too crowded there, 2 The British Empire. their character and their education make them welcome as earners and emigrants abroad. Yet I would not attribute this happy result too ex- clusively to their position as a well-regulated federation of small self-governing communities in secure mountains, and free from the cares of empire. Something of the same kind may be seen in New England, and some other of the older States of the American Union, where a good distri- bution of the soil and local self-government by and for the people are combined with a share and active part in one of the greatest States in the world. The constitutions of the United States and of the component parts are more fixed than ours — they are, in a sense, much more conservative : their vast territory is all contiguous in one Continent, and their foreign anxieties are not great. In these respects they have a very advantageous position. We are not so fortunate. At home it is our boast that our constitution is elastic ; but it is an elasticity that gives no rest ; it is always stretching, and never settled. Abroad our Empire is scattered all over the earth with no con- stitution in particular to bind it together. And, in spite of our enormous wealth and great revenue, so much seems to be absorbed by debts, and naval and military armaments, and wars, and operations, and compUcations of all kinds, that we are almost niggardly in expenditure for the benefit of our own people at home — compared to the Swiss, for instance; and while we spend vast sums on occasion of political excitement, we are timid in the extreme in regard to any comparatively small normal expenditure for Im- perial purposes, which requires an annual parliamentary vote. In truth, our Empire is attended with many cares and anxieties, alarms and troubles, and a heavy expenditure. Yet we cannot shake off these responsibilities if we would. Citizens of a great Empire we are and must be. But we Intr od uctory. 3 are getting uneasy ; we feel that things are not on an altogether safe footing; there is a disposition to examine, and see if improved arrangements are not possible. It is towards that examination that I seek to make a humble contribution. As to qualification for such a task, I can only say that at various times I have seen something of Asia, Africa (North and South), America, and the countries of Eastern Europe — that I have had a somewhat exceptionally wide experience of different parts of India, and that for the last dozen years as a Member of Parliament, with no other avocations, I have both paid special attention to debates and blue-books, and have, during the recess, travelled very much, and taken notes of things political. I have never visited Australasia, and had some desire to go there, but it so happens that we have just had, from two most excellent pens, the result of such a tour — from Mr. Froude and Baron Hubner. The former may be suspected of some political proclivities, but the latter is certainly thoroughly impartial ; so I am very well content to take vicariously a tour, which brings out all that could be learned by a mere traveller much better than I could do it. Baron Hubner is certainly a wonderfully acute observer, and much that follows has reference to a recent perusal of his "Through the British Empire." Besides the very scattered position and miscellaneous character of the British dominions we labour under some special disadvantages for the management of a great Empire. First and chiefest is our parliamentary system. All free countries must be at a disadvantage in the manage- ment of dominions beyond the seas, but we are in some respects especially so. To a great extent this has always been felt. Our extreme party system, under which it is the everlasting function of the outs to find fault with everything that is done by the ins, drives our i)ublic men to study the 4 The British Empire. parliamentary game, rather than to do boldly and con- tinuously what is right. And the congestion of Parliament resulting from the attempt to concentrate both the domestic affairs of a great country — or perhaps it would be more correct to say three or four countries — and also the affairs of a great Empire in one chamber, is an evil which has long been growing. It has come to a crisis since I have been in Parliament. The Irish Parliamentary difficulty has brought things to that pass that the aim and object of all Ministerial tactics is by hook or by crook to avoid all inconvenient discussions, and get the most necessary work through in some way or other. In no department is this more manifest than in that charged with our Colonial relations. There never was much method in our Colonial system ; we have always managed from hand to mouth, as it were, in the case of each Colony ; but of late there seems to be such a dread of troublesome questions that there is one settled purpose of a negative character, and that is to get rid of everything involving responsibility as much as possible, by every means to cast responsibility on some one beyond the ocean, to keep it out of parliamentary atmo- sphere. This has not only taken the shape of the most liberal concessions of self-government, but also in more recent times of attempts to shift the management of unfree dependencies and the relations with uncivilised tribes on to the shoulders of self-governing Colonies. That involves great questions, which I will come to later. Another difficulty is of quite another kind, and one not generally realised, but, nevertheless, I think a very practical difficulty. I mean the character of British colonists. Owing to our modern system of agriculture we produce, but very little, the true colonist, in the proper sense of the word, the man who is content to settle down as a farmer, working with his hands and laboriously to develop new countries. Our own farmers are now employers of Intr od uc tor y. 5 labour, not hand-workers, and neither their sons nor those of other classes above mere labourers much care to come down to hand labour. Those who have the energy to go abroad want to become traders and speculators and em- ployers of labour rather than small farmers. Farm labourers and artisans of all sorts have not the capital and the apti- tude to start as small farmers. When we look to the Irish small farmers and Highland crofters we find that they again are for the most part in too low a grade of farming to take to that trade successfully in new Colonies without special assistance. It is notorious that the Irish emigrants mostly take to day labour and not to farming. The Ulster men, called Scotch-Irish, and a few Scotch, are almost the only Britishers who are at all prominent in that way. Wherever you go in America you find most of the successful farmers to be Americans, Germans, Scandinavians, and other races — anything but Britishers — the Scotch, Scotch-Irish, and Ontario men excepted. All over the world the tendency is too much for the British to divide themselves into em- ployers of labour and labourers, rather than independent colonists. Then, trading country as we are, it is very natural that a large proportion of British fortune-seekers should be traders. But more than that, we have been demoralised by the prosperity of the last fifty years. Those of us who have lived so long can well remember the innumerable instances in which from small beginnings fortunes have been made - the evidences of wealth and luxury are all around us. Hence, among all who are enterprising and conscious of their powers, there is now too great haste to be rich ; an idea that wealth is to be obtained by short cuts, a disposition to speculation and high-pressure ad- vance, which will not be satisfied with common hard-work- ing gradual advance. This disposition is shared to the full by the numerous joint-stock companies which seek to 6 The British Empire. explore new lands. Such a boom as we have had in the last generation is not likely to recur, but it influences the spirit of the age. To these causes it is due that wherever there is a British Colony, or wherever British adventure penetrates, there is land-jobbing. In these days of immense rail- road extensions and great developments the United States have not been free from land-jobbing. The great concessions to railways and other enterprises have given opportunities for the acquisition of great tracts by capi- talists, and the homestead laws have been much evaded and abused. But for several generations the Americans, wisely I think, set themselves very strongly against the accumulation of land in few hands, and insisted on the very wide distribution of homesteads. Hence it is that, recent developments apart, the States are in the main a land of small farmers. And even where colossal properties have been acquired, the set of habit and public opinion is such that the proprietors rather look to profit by selling to farmers than to maintain great estates. A large proportion of the rented farms are those of Africans in the southern States. It is otherwise in British Colonies, The older Canadian provinces were settled on American principles, but in Mani- toba and the North- West land speculation largely prevails — the most accessible lands are taken up before the true colonist arrives. Mr. Froude and Baron Hubner both entirely agree in exposing and denouncing the extent to which, in the Australasian colony most fitted for colonisa- tion and agriculture. New Zealand, land monopoly has been carried. And in the greater part of Australia proper, free selection and all the rest of it notwithstanding, it would seem that most of the land is in the hands of big men. Despite a certain proportion of genuine farmers, society there is too much divided into plutocrats and labourers for high wages claiming monopoly and protection. Even I NT ROD UC TOR Y. 7 the great landholders are now surpassed by the great land- speculators. As Baron Hubner puts it : " The principal source of the large fortunes which have been and are still being made lies in the sale and purchase of land. There are men who make a trade of it, and sometimes amass colossal wealth." And again, referring to the cry for ex- tensions in the Western Pacific and elsewhere, he quotes one of his informants as saying : " It is a craze which is accounted for by the wants of speculators continually in quest of lands to buy and sell." In the case again of our traders in search of new markets and rapid riches, our Consuls say that they study foreign tastes and manners too little, and trust to political influences and gunboats too much. Pushing and successful pioneers and bold energetic adventurers we are. But all this energy and push make it the more difficult for not very efficient offices at home to keep peace and order all over the world, to follow and, when necessary, restrain adventurous British subjects. The greatest difficulty of all is, the immense variety of races of which the British Empire is composed. Even in the Colonies proper — the temperate regions settled by white men — we have not only great settlements mainly British, but also considerable territories acquired by conquest, and still possessed by French, Dutch, and other colonists ; yet now so intertwined with British settlements that we could not get rid of them if we would. Then in all our foreign possessions we have, more or less, the aboriginal races still subsisting — in the warmer countries we have them in great numbers. Most difficult of all are those Colonies in which we have at the same time white settlements, and a native population who cannot be despised. To reconcile the conflicting interests of these two classes is a very hard task. To white colonists we have conceded an ample self-government, which is, one 8 The British Empire. may say, their birthright. In other territories, and especially in the great dominion of India, we have sought to govern by what may be called a benevolent despotism — a form of government which may indeed be very good for the progress and happiness of mankind, if we can ensure that the des- potism is really benevolent and good, and the people are not so saturated with a love of independence as to revolt from an administration, however good, which is not their own. It is in countries where the white colonists claiming self-government are so numerous that their claims cannot be ignored ; while the coloured people are a large and important population, that the form of government is so difilicult to setde. Above all things it is desirable to avoid the risk that either what purports to be a crown govern- ment for the benefit of all, or free institutions conceded to a white minority, should in either case degenerate into an oligarchy — that is, the Avorst of all governments. I fear that in some of our Colonies the tendency is too much that way. I think all history shows that free governments only succeed when the unit of government is small — when communes, self-governing in much, make up small States ; and great free nations are only successful when they are composed of a federation of smaller States. Ancient Greece, and modern Switzerland and America, are examples, while too centralised France shows the evil of the opposite system. On consideration, we may well see why it should be so. When power rests with the people, we must take them as they are ; they cannot all be political philosophers and diplomatists. The " vox populi," that is, the average con- sensus of many minds, will generally be the right thing in matters which the " populus " understands, in matters which they see and know, and in respect of which they can really judge what is good for their own and their neighbours' interests. Dut when we come to greater and wider matters. 1ntroductor\\ 9 beyond the average ken of the elector, he cannot be expected to exercise a very independent judgment ; he is too apt to be led by newspapers and politicians. The representative, too, whom he would choose to regulate his immediate domestic concerns, may not be the best to deal with larger matters. And if we attempt to deal with too much in one assembly, that leads to trouble, as we know to our cost. I have, then, long been a strong advocate for the decentralisation of the British legislature, and rejoice that, among all parties, the belief in the necessity for a re-arrangement of that kind is coming to the front. But I do not propose to enter on that here. I am rather dealing with Greater Britain, and I only mention the subject in this connection because it affects the question of Imperial administration in two ways : first, because, if a large part of our domestic affairs were relegated to local assemblies, we might hope to obtain a more efficient Imperial admini- stration \ and second, because the idea of a federated administration at home has, as it were, dove-tailed with the idea of a federal constitution to include the Colonies. This latter idea has of late begun to excite a good deal of attention — even, I may say, a good deal of enthusiasm with some people. Perhaps it would be too much to say that it has already received Imperial recognition, but, in cautious language, Her Majesty's Government have formally pro- pounded the question whether some means may not be found of drawing closer the connection with our great self-governing Colonies. And so, in that shape at least, the question has come within the region of practical politics, and must be examined. CHAPTER II. FREE SELF-GOVERNING COLONIES. Before going to other questions I will then deal with the subject of our free self-governing Colonies. The first thing to be said of these Colonies is, that it is at present almost a misnomer to speak of them as part of the British Empire at all. We certainly do not exercise any real authority whatever over them, nor is there any common authority that does to any considerable extent— for in these days the golden link of the Crown is little more than a nominal and sentimental link. They are rather friendly allied States. They are complete and absolute masters of their own internal affairs, and will brook no interference. The Colonists being for the most part people of our own race and habits, prosperous and rich, and with few manufac- tures of their own, are very good customers for our goods, but in matters of commerce and trade they show us no favour whatever; on the contrary, they have established heavy protective duties in direct conflict with our free-trade system. Of late years the Governors — the constitutional vice- kings — have even ceased to be the sole channels of com- munication with the Colonies ; the Colonial Governments have set up diplomatic agents in London, under the title of "Agents-General," who communicate direct with the British Ministry. It has sometimes been thought that it would have been better if, following the example of the United States, we had made some reservations when self-government was granted to the Colonies ; if we had, like the States, treated Free Self-governing Colonies. 1 1 the great public lands as the domain of the nation and not of the early Colonists, made some stipulations for freedom of commerce, and protected the natives. If our system at headquarters had been very efficient, perhaps this might have been attempted with advantage ; but, situated as we were, perhaps matters were arranged for the best. What- ever drawbacks there may be, the system has at least produced great contentment and a spirit of friendliness in the Colonies. It may not improbably be that under the Colonial Office land-jobbing would have been at least as rampant as under Colonial administration. We did attempt to reserve the management of the natives, but with singular want of success. As it is, in all the great Colonies where the natives are few and sparse, there is no longer a native question for us— we have made them completely over to the Colonial Governments, and if we interfere at all it can only be by the moral force of public opinion. In Canada we' do not think of interfering in questions between the Canadian Government and half-breeds or Red Indians. From Australia come stories, with or without founda- tion, of occasions on which the wild aborigines are shot down like vermin or practically enslaved. But we can only join our own public opinion to the better public opinion of Australia to deprecate the possibility of such things ; the interference of our Government is impossible. In New Zealand, the Maoris had treaties Avith the British Government, reserving to them large rights and privileges, but these obligations have been transferred to the Colonists. In case of non-fulfilment we might have a ground for, and perhaps an obligation to, a sort of diplo matic remonstrance. But it may be doubted if it would have much practical effect, and whether, by rousing Colonial jealousies, we might not do the Maoris more harm than good. Baron Hubner is evidently very much inclined to doubt the maintenance of Maori privileges. According B 2 12 The British Empire. to him, the Colonial feeUng in regard to the native reserves at present closed against the whites is, " At whatever cost, it must be opened to civilisation, to culture, and, above all, to speculation." And he sums up: "The white has nothing to fear from the Maori ; the Maori has nothing to hope for from the white. There is no longer any Maori question." We must trust that this is a somewhat pessimist view, and that the Maori remnant will survive. But be that as it may, it may be really said that neither in Canada nor in the free Australasian Colonies, public opinion apart, is there any native question for us — we have made over the natives to the Colonists for weal or for woe. Only in Western Australia we may remember that the executive is still in the hands of the Crown, and we are so far responsible for the treatment of the aborigines there, regarding which there have lately been some unpleasant statements. In South Africa the native question is in our hands only because there the natives have proved themselves too strong for the Colonists. We made over the native terri- tories beyond the Kei to the Cape Government, but it was only by British regiments and British money that the dominion of the whites was established. And when the Colonibts themselves tried to conquer the Basutos they were beaten, and obliged to render back that Trojan gift to the long-suffering British Government. The handful of Europeans in Natal wisely declined to avail themselves of the gift of complete self-government, coupled with the obligation to defend themselves. The native question in South Africa must be reserved till we come to the question of dealing with coloured races, in which it forms the most difficult problem. To revert to the general question of the self-governing Colonies — while they are practically independent of us in most things, their connection with us involves to us Free Self-governing Colonies. 13 several serious responsibilities and risks, and questions in regard to which no recognised and legitimised mode of solution has been provided. From our point of view, then, some federal arrangement under which these things might be provided for seems very tempting. But there are very great, perhaps insuperable, difficulties in the way of any large scheme of this kind. What strikes me forcibly is, that those who are almost enthusiasts in the matter, and have inquired into, and examined the question very anxiously — Mr. Froude, for instance — confess that they have been unable to see their way to any practical solution, or even to find any likely suggestions for its solution. The only suggestion that seems in some quarters to have taken a somewhat practical shape is, that the Colonies should contribute towards the cost of the British Navy in propor- tion as it is used for their defence. That seems in itself a very desirable arrangement, and voluntary contributions towards the great armaments for which we pay would be very welcome. But I confess I am a little sus- Ijicious. Whence this new-born zeal to pay for our ar- maments ? If Colonists pay for a squadron of the British Navy, will they not want to have some control over that squadron ? Self-defence is of all things most highly to be encouraged, but when, going beyond mere coast defence — - floating batteries and stationary torpedo boats — Australian Colonists come in some sort to control sea-going vessels of war, whether their own flying the British Naval flag, or a squadron of the British Navy, may not the desire for such things be connected with the desire for acquisitions in the Pacific, beyond their own borders, at which some of them aim, and for a sort of independent foreign policy in those regions ? That would raise very serious questions. I confess that if I were a Colonist, apart from trans- marine ambitions, such as those to which I have alluded, I should be very much inclined to let well alone. The 14 The British Empire. Colonists seem to have everything they can desire — most complete self-government at home ; at the same time all the privileges and proiits of the British Empire, and of all the British Services ; the run of the London money market on the most favourable terms, and an immense influx of British capital ; a full share of the honours bestowed by the Crown ; a very welcome reception into British society for those who choose to bring back their wealth — a disposition, in fact, to pet Colonists in London, which may well be very pleasant to prosperous men after the troubles and the ups and downs of somewhat tempestuous and democratic Colonial situations. Then, in all difficulties, they have the whole force of the British Empire behind them ; and in any questions which may arise with us they are pretty sure, under present con- ditions, to have the best of it. Baron Hubner makes even his optimist say, somewhat cynically, " We are strongly attached to the old country, but we are spoiled children, and our mother can refuse us nothing. When she seems about to thwart us we get angry. She then ends by giving way ; and on these terms we shall always be well-behaved and affectionate children." I suspect there is much truth in that. The Baron instances the case of New Guinea. Queensland proclaimed the annexation of New Guinea; the annexation was annulled by the English Government. " Urgent requests made again and again were at first categorically refused by Lord Derby, then gently put aside, and ultimately admitted in principle. This fact," he goes on, " which is extremely significant, exemplifies the nature of the relations between the Colonies and the Imperial Government." It has been suggested that the Colonies might suffer in case of the British Em})ire being involved in war. Let us look at that. There is one special case in which the risk cannot be palliated — the possible, though, we may hope, very improbable, case of war with the United States, in its Free Self-governing Colonies. 15 effects on Canada. It is ten to one that, if such a war unhappily did occur, it would be on account of some Canadian quarrel. But, in any case, we must recognise that, great as Canada may look on our maps, and largely as its square miles may bulk in our statistics, habitable Canada is but, comparatively speaking, a strip, thousands of miles long, running along the frontier of the United States, without any natural boundary whatever in almost any part of this immense line.. It seems hardly possible that in the event of war such a line could be throughout defended against the great power and great population of the United States ; the line must inevitably be broken, the Canadian Pacific interrupted, and the Canadian Dominion cut into separate pieces. If Canada could not defend such a frontier with our assistance, still less could she do so without aid. One can only say that such contingencies are the inevitable result of the separate existence of Canada on the American continent. But in every other case of any other war with any other people, it seems hardly possible that any Power could send expeditions across the great intervening oceans that would very seriously affect the position of Canada or Australia. To say nothing of the British Navy, those countries are quite strong enough to defend themselves against any such expedition that could be thus sent out and might (very improbably) reach its destination. One can hardly imagine a Power at war with Britain expending its forces in such a way. As regards the mercantile marine, the trade of the Colonies is chiefly British trade. It would be just as liable to interruption by a British war if the Colonies were independent. And, meantime, being British trade as well as Colonial trade, we are bound to protect it in our own interests, whether the Colonies assist us to do so or not. On the whole, I think we may safely say that the i6 The British Empire. Colonies gain very much and are liable to lose very little by the present form of connection. Besides these general considerations, the several self- governing Colonies have separate reasons of their own for loyalty to the British connection. Canada, during a hund- red years of separation, has established a sort of national feeling adverse to the idea of being merged in the United States, to which may be added a certain commercial and industrial jealousy. Naturally, then, as she is situated, face to face, along all that long frontier, with a people more than ten times as numerous, and more than ten times as powerful, she clings to the support of the British connec- tion. The French difficulty in Lower Canada has been happily settled by Hberal Provincial self-government. Separated from PYance before modern France was created, the French Canadians have no proclivities towards France ; they are content with the present situation. Altogether, then, the Americans frankly admit that the Canadians are loyal to Britain. As Baron Hubner puts it, " Their loyalty is based on interest, and is consequently firm and genuine." I will not say more in this place of the desire of some of the Australasians to establish for themselves a kind of " Monroe doctrine " in the Pacific by the aid of the British power; but apart from that, we may say this — that the Aus- tralian Colonies are too young to have got up any separate national feeling ; the Colonists are our brothers, and sons, and cousins, not only figuratively, but in the most literal sense. Several of our own present statesmen and Ministers have been Australasian Colonists at earlier periods of their lives. At this day it is the leading Australasians more than any other Colonists who find themselves at home in the Mother Country, and who appreciate the honours and atten- tions which are showered on them. However jealous, there- fore, they be of their Colonial rights and privileges, and Free Self-governing Colonies. 17 however possible it be that another day these distant Colonies may prefer independence, at present they have no serious aspirations of the kind. In South Africa the position is different. The whites are there face to face with the black millions who press southwards from the interior of Africa. The Dutch of the Cape Colony, who have tasted the comfort and the profit both of British peace and British wars, might or might not be willing to risk independence and to make common cause with the Dutch beyond their borders. But the English of South Africa, in addition to anxiety about the natives, have a strong jealousy of Dutch ascendency ; there is an English Imperial party just as there is in Ireland, and they are just as unwilling to submit to separation. They are afraid even of any Colonial federation which might give a preponderance to the Dutch element. Altogether, then, so far as the Colonists are concerned, everywhere interest as well as sentiment very much tends to maintain the present connection with the British Empire ; and it is always a question whether any large change might not be for the worse. When we look at the question from a British stand- point, the matter is not quite so clear. Allusion has already been made to several disadvantages to us in present arrangements. The cost of all common concerns is borne by us. In questions between ourselves and the Colonists we are, as has been said, generally obliged to give way. More serious is the constant risk of complications with foreign Powers which results from the action or the susceptibilities of almost independent Colonies scattered over the world. Between Canada and the States there are those everlasting fishery questions, and other matters of com- paratively small importance, which we might more easily settle if these affairs were our own, but in respect of which it is much more difficult to satisfy Canadians and i8 • The British Empire. Newfoundlanders. At first sight one might have expected that AustraUa, divided from the whole world, would be free from such complications \ but it is very much the contrary. Since the Australians have cast their eyes beyond their own shores, we have in those regions very burning foreign questions indeed. We know what a strong feeling there is in regard to French dealings with the New Hebrides, and Mr. Froude gave an alarming account of the danger- ous state of excitement of Australians on the subject of German extensions. If, he says, the Australians had then had a sea-going fleet of their own, they might have brought about the most serious collision. His view seems to be that, on the part of the best men among the Colonists, the suggestion to substitute for war-ships of their own, the plan of a naval subsidiary force supplied by Britain, was de- signed to avert dangers of this kind. As Mr. Froude truly says, " No State can preserve its unity with two executives." Those are words to be seriously borne in mind. And then he adds, "As matters stood, the anger was directed as much at England as at Germany." There lies our peculiar difficulty : if the Colonists don't get their way, they blame us. It must be said that the same character of spoiled children, which leads them to expect the Mother Country to give way in questions affecting herself, also leads them to be somewhat exacting in questions between themselves and foreign Powers ; and the difficulty is immensely en- hanced by this — that their foreign relations and negotia- tions with foreign Powers are not in their own hands and on their own responsibility, but in those of a British Minister responsible to the British Parliament. They do not readily accept the decisions and the diplomatic bar- gains of a Minister not their own, when the arrangements do not wholly please them. The unfortunate British Minister must not only do the best he can in a give-and- take way, to come to terms with foreign Powers, but must Free Self-governing Colonies. 19 satisfy as well Colonists jealous and disposed to stand to the utmost on their rights. As a matter of fact, we have no means whatever of enforcing diplomatic decisions upon self-governing Colonies who do not like them, as some recent cases have shown. It is not long ago that, in a comparatively small fishery dispute between Newfound- landers and the United States fishermen, a certain com- pensation for damages was awarded to the latter, as part of a settlement. But the Newfoundland Legislature flady refused to pay. All remonstrances were vain — there was no getting out of the decision, and at the same time it could not be enforced ; so, as the only means of solving the difficulty, a vote for the amount was smuggled through the British Parliament late one night, at the fag end of the Session — and the British taxpayer paid the money, for an affair with which he had nothing on earth to do. It was but a small matter, but it raises a very large question ; the same thing might occur on a much greater scale ; some- thing will have to be settled. Foreign affairs may involve tremendous issues — great storms may come of small clouds. One scarcely dares to allude to the gravity, one might almost say the impossibility, of the situation if we had to back Canada in a serious quarrel with the United States. The entente cordiale with France is already sufficiently strained without the added risk of Colonial quarrels. For the present we seem to have settled most questions with Germany by effusively offering to let the Germans have what they want in Africa, and dividing the Pacific with them into two happy hunting grounds ; but there are still burning questions in Samoa and elsewhere, in whicli the Colonists take an interest, and questions between Ger- man and British adventurers may yet crop up in distant parts. No doubt, then, the idea of a great federated Empire on the principle of the United States is a tempting one. Or 20 The British Empire. if not so mucli as that, there is great need of some mode of regulating common action. If there is to be one Empire, there cannot be in any part of the Empire two foreign poHcies, or two executives for Imperial purposes. For so much there must be supreme power somewhere. But when we come to look more closely at the idea of an organised federation, the difficulties become immediately evident, and it has already been said that the most ardent advocates of the idea admit that they are unable to devise a practical plan. In the first place, geography and mere distance stand in the way, and make impossible any union similar to that of the United States, who own the bulk of a great continent cut oft" from the rest of the world, and have for neighbours, north and south, only confederacies on a much smaller scale than themselves. They make it a fixed policy to accept no foreign possessions. Canada is separated from us by a great ocean, and its geographical and political position have been already dealt with. Australia is literally at the Antipodes, as far from us as is possible in this round globe. South Africa is both distant and has many compli- cations, of which we will say more later. Then there can be no doubt that the Anglo-Saxon spirit is localising and independent rather than centralising. We are proud of our country, but we look more to our imme- diate surroundings. British Colonies, small and great, have always had a tendency to claim and exercise a very complete control over their own aftairs, and to resent interference. Even the man who has emigrated but a few years is often the loudest assertor of local rights and claims, and the most violent denouncer of a tyrannical British Government, in the making of which he has ceased to have an immediate part. \x\ deference to this disposition we have already conceded to the greater Colonies a self- government infinitely exceeding that of any one of the Free Self-governing Colonies. 21 States which compose the United States, and amounting, as has been said, to a practical independence in all domestic matters. In political affairs it is almost impossible to go back ; what has been given can hardly be withdrawn. It is difficult to imagine any means by which any common revenue could be established for common Imperial purposes. A Customs Zollverein seems quite beyond the region of practical politics. One can hardly suppose such an arrangement, between countries so distant, to be practicable under any circumstances ; but in our case free trade at once bars the way. We do not levy duty on any considerable product of the self-governing Colonies ; they have in our ports the same freedom as the rest of the world. The duty on their nascent wine-product is very much less in proportion than that levied on our native spirits. It must be admitted that in free trade, as in other things, we must take the drawbacks with the advantages, and if it be a draw- back, it is no doubt the case that, practising free trade as good in itself, we have no longer anything to offer to others in exchange for concessions on their part. We cannot, in this shape, offer any bribe to the Colonists to induce them to admit our goods on more favourable terms than at present ; and at j)resent they generally affect high pro- tectionist tariffs. To make any mutual arrangements possible, we must not only abandon the general principles of free trade, but we must establish differential duties in favour of the Colonies. And more than that, we must put our duties on food and raw materials. No duty on foreign manufactures would benefit the Colonies, for the day is not within measurable distance when there can be any question of their exporting manufactures to England on any con- siderable scale. The only possible plan at which the most extreme Protectionists could point would be one under which we should tax food and raw products, making a difference in favour of the Colonies — a heavy tax on those 22 The British Empire. things imported from foreign countries, a ligliter one on those imported from the Colonies. If there be wild dreamers who have imagined such a thing, I am sure all sensible men, be they Liberals or Conservatives, be they Free-traders or Protectionists, see that such a taxation is impossible. We may dismiss it as out of the question. A close union with the Colonies, and a common revenue, cannot be obtained on those terms. If there is no available source of a common revenue, any arrangement for common armaments could only be effected by a cash contribution from the different portions of the Empire. It need hardly be said that any plan of that kind would involve very delicate and difificult questions. We have removed our troops from the free Colonies (a few naval and Imperial depots excepted), and we give them free permission to raise troops of their own. Canada has, in fact, a large popular army on the United States system, and the other Colonies have troops of their own. Sugges- tion has hardly been made of a combined army. Besides the question of pecuniary contributions, there would be many difficulties on the subject of recruiting and pay, and especially of distribution and the needs of the various parts of the Empire in times of common danger. If we cannot have a thorough Union like that of the United States, there seem to be many reasons for not disturbing present mili- tary arrangements rashly or hastily. Even if arrangements for a common navy could really be made, there would still be some of the same difficulties as in regard to a common army. In time of danger, who is to decide on the distribution of our navy? Would there not be risk that we might be obliged to divide it among the extremities of the Empire at a time when there might be possible danger of a blow at the heart? There is another point of view from which a too in- timate relation with the Colonies might be embarrassing. ( Free Self-governing Colonies. 2^ One cannot read the concurrent statements of Mr. Froude and Baron Hubner, and observe the questions surging up between labour delegates and representatives of the Colonial Governments, without feeling that there are very grave social questions in Australasia, which may some day assume a very serious form. In all countries where the Constitution is very democratic, and yet there is a powerful plutocracy, holding its own by the methods known to plutocrats in such communities, the situation is apt to be very strained, and there is danger of a capsize, unless the vessel of the State is steadied by a very large class inter- mediate between the plutocrats and the labourers for hire. In America this latter function is fulfilled by the preponde- rating mass of small farmers, and in England by the great middle class. But in Australasia the small farmers seem to be by no means so numerous and so powerful as in Amer- ica, nor the middle class so preponderating as in England. If that be so, there is much more danger. And if there were serious civil differences it would be a very hard and invidious task for us to intervene, and to make use of British soldiers and sailors for tlie suppression of local broils. It would be like interfering between a man and his wife. I must say, I think we shall do well to avoid any such obligation. With the comparatively close union they have in America any interference of Federal troops in civil disturbances is a very difficult matter. It would be much more so in the case of a looser union with more distant self-governing Colonies. I would revert, then, to a great degree, to the maxim "Let well alone." Let us take care lest attempts to better matters should disturb the excellent harmony now prevailing. Let us be careful how we attempt too close a union, which might lead to quarrels and difficulties. One might well sympathise with the idea of a great confederation of all the English-speaking races — of Britain willi all her children. 24 The British Empire. But it is too late to hope for that in regard to our earliest Colonies. If that were possible, it might have involved the eventual transfer of the centre of gravity from London to Washington, which we would not have liked. Those Colonies which we now protect are, as has been already said, too scattered for a very close union. By all means let us establish and maintain the most friendly links, and try to put matters on such a footing that those links shall be lasting. Let us maintain the closest alliance compatible with complete self-government ; but in making any changes, let us not be carried away by too large ideas. Let us rather confine ourselves to remedying the real practical difficulties which are found to exist under the present system. With respect to the cost of common affairs, and especially the army and navy, I do incline to think that we shall do better to bear our present burden than to seek to obtain contributions from the Colonies. We can afford a good deal, and it is better to keep ourselves free from incon- venient obligations. Rather let us follow out the present course of insisting on the duty of self defence. The great communities acioss the seas have already accepted that obligation, and to that we must adhere. We shall, of course, be expected to assist them in difficulties so far as we are able to do so, and we should equally look to them to assist us when they can. But there would be no definite and binding obligation on either side. The amount and form of assistance must be regulated by circumstances, and the position and necessities of each party. The aid which we should get from the Colonies would be the friendly and voluntary aid of an allied brotherhood. Already they have shown a disposition to render such aid. I cannot but think that the Soudan expedition was not the most fortunate occasion which could have been chosen for the initiation of Colonial assistance to the Mother Country, but it was the occasion of showing much friendly sentiment. Free Self-governing Colonies. 25 If, then, the result of examination be that neither in regard to civil, commercial, and revenue affairs, nor in regard to a combined army and navy, can we have such a union with the free Colonies as that of the United States, there only remains to arrange the mode by which questions arising between ourselves and the Colonics may be settled, and especially questions relating to foreign Powers and the dealings with savage or comparatively uncivilised tribes and peoples beyond the Colonial limits. Indeed, distance and complete self-government render it almost impossible that any very serious questions should arise directly between ourselves and the Colonies. It is only in regard to foreign and extra-Colonial native affairs that difficulties arise. In dealing with these limited matters, I think it must be said at the outset that we must not be too timid — not seem so nervously anxious about the so-called Empire on which the sun never sets, that we are afraid to hold our own, and are liable to be sat upon, not only in matters which concern ourselves alone, but in those which may embarrass us with foreign Powers or involve injustice to native races whom we are bound to protect. Petting is all very well up to a certain point ; but there is a point beyond which it is bad for all parties. Indulgence begets the demand for more and more indulgence. The overpetted child becomes a source of trouble and unfriendliness. I will not conceal my view that, as we are situated, a friendly separation would be better than an unequal partnership on terms unfair to the Mother Country, and which might lead to bickerings and unpleasantnesses. • Now that the old jealousies due to the mode of our separation from the United States have died away there seems a hai)py prospect that we may re establish a close intimacy with them, almost as great as if we were formally united, and such as may render war between two friendly peoples of the same kith and kin almost impossible. "^Ve emigrate or seek our fortunes in the United States just c 26 The British Empire. as freely as if they were still British. Facilities of communi- cation have almost bridged the Atlantic. The interchange of ideas by means of a common literature, and the inter- change of wives by more and more frequent intermarriage, are making us again one people. Only some established and recognised system of tribunals and international arbi- tration seems wanting to smooth over all difficulties. So, if for any reason it came to political separation, it might be in the case of Canada, and that would undoubtedly relieve us of great trans-Atlantic responsibilities. Australia is so distant that it may be that when generations grow up which are Australasian rather than British, and the Australasian Colonies have greatly increased in numbers and strength, they may desire a separation which shall not interfere with most intimate and friendly relations. If these things did happen, I think we should still have ample scope for our energies in Asia, Africa, and the islands of the tropical seas. But I say so much merely by way of insisting that the union shall be on terms fair to the Mother Country, and not on terms under which we must continually concede everything. So long as union can be continued on fair terms, I quite agree that it is desirable to continue it — that it is not for us prematurely to cut oft' children who wish to stay with us. The free Colonies are already considerable countries, but we must not exaggerate their present position in regard to the Mother Country. According to the last returns, Canada and Newfoundland number a population of about 4,500,000 ; Australia (including Western Australia), Tas- mania, and New Zealand, a little over 3,000,000 ; or say, in all, seven and three-quarter millions, as compared to over thirty-six millions in the Mother Country — say a little over one-fifth. A few years hence, adding in the Cape Colony, the proportion may reach one-fourth of our popu- lation. But it must be remembered that these Colonies are Free Self-governing Colonies. 27 not increasing so rapidly as the United States, while we also, notwithstanding emigration, have still a considerable annual increase. The Cape Colony, too, can hardly be included in the comparison, as so large a part of the population are Africans. We must consider, too, whether we are to deal with single Colonies or with groups of Colonies. The federation of Canada seems to be a great success, both as regards internal politics and as making Canada an independent, self-supporting nation. I should think the sooner New- foundland is joined to the rest the better. In Australia, too, it seems an absurd anomaly that adjoining territories, like New South Wales and Victoria, should be walled out from one another by Customs barriers. The sooner they can settle such matters the better for them. But when it comes to the Mother Country taking an active part in suggesting and promoting federation in Africa or Australia, I cannot help thinking that such movements have been a good deal prompted by the desire to get rid of responsi- bilities, and to turn over to federated Colonies trouble- some external relations, the control over native territories, and the conduct of native wars. That may be all very well if the object is to prepare the way for eventual Colonial independence ; but if it is carried too far, it must, I think, tend in that direction. For instance, I think that a very great mistake was made when, in the scheme for a per- missive Australian federation, one of the common subjects was declared to be the relations of Australasia with the islands of the Pacific, a concession which really seems to involve a separate foreign policy. I will discuss later the general question of the advisability of turning over to the Colonies the dominion over territories not free. In this place I only desire again to point out that this relation of the Australians with places beyond the seas must raise the difficult and dangerous question of a sea-going Colonial c 2 28 The British Empire. navy. A federated Australia or Australasia, managing its own relations with the islands of the Pacific, must have a navy, small or great. Naval officers in their ships are nowadays a sort of armed diplomats ; and it is im- possible that we should have in the same seas two British navies under different commanders and a different control. The day may come when we may withdraw ourselves alto- gether from the South Pacific, and leave that region entirely to the Colonists. But, except in the improbable event of all foreign European Powers consenting to withdraw also, I think that must lead to independence. We could not remain responsible for foreign relations which we did not control. Meantime, we must insist on unity of naval con- trol on the high seas, as well as on a single diplomacy for the whole Empire. But how to get that single diplomacy — that is the ques- tion, and a very difficult question it is to solve. At present, the Agents of each Colony are present in London, and no doubt the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs consults them in all matters affecting the interests of those whom they represent ; but still the difficulty remains — if the Colonies are not satisfied with the results of our diplomatic action, we are put in the dilemma that we must either give in to them, or offend them ; and if we give in to them, we may offend foreign Powers. It has been suggested that to deal with such matters there should be a sort of council of the Empire, in which delegates from the Colonies should meet British represen- tatives. But those who have made such suggestions have also pointed out the difficulties which might arise. The only case at all parallel seems to be that of Austro-Hungary. But there you have only two countries to settle matters between them, and the personal authority of the sovereign, still great, forms an important connecting link. And after all, matters go on very indifferently As regards the Free Self-governing Colonies. 29 external affairs of the dual Empire, there is often a great deal of friction and much dissatisfaction on one side or the other. In a general council of the British Empire the interests represented would be much more numerous and sometimes quite as conflicting. In any such council the population, importance, and weight of the Mother Country would entitle her to a preponderating representation ; she could not consent to be ruled by her Colonies. Each Colony, on the other hand, might be little satisfied with the decision of a body in which its representatives would be but a very small minority. They would probably be as little as now inclined to accept as final and binding the decisions of the representatives of the Mother Country, and just as little inclined to defer to the decision of the other Colonies and possessions of the Crown ; for the circumstances of these British possessions vary so greatly that one has but little in common with the other. The view of practical men seems to be that the decision by a mere majority of such a body as we have been describing would not settle our difficulties and insure general ac- quiescence and content. It is evident, too, that such a body would be much too large directly to conduct diplomatic negotiations. That function must necessarily be delegated ; and how to obtain a delegation whose action would be accepted by all? What is to be done then ? Can we go on as now and trust to the chapter of accidents and expedients of the moment to settle each case as it arises ? I think not ; \\'t cannot be always running the risk of friction and bad understandings. Something must be settled. What we want is by some means or other to reUcve ourselves of the odium and risk of deciding for the Colonies on our own responsibihty, and to get over the difficulty of enforcing our decisions. The solution to which I inch'ne is the estabhshment of some sort of standing tribuuvil of 30 The British Empire. reference and arbitration of so judicial a character that all must bow to its decisions. If we could obtain such a body whose authority should be recognised by all the subjects of the Crown, its decisions might well be final and binding in all questions which might arise directly between ourselves and the Colonists. And as regards questions with foreign Powers, the same tribunal might decide as between us and the Colonies what it is right to give or accept in the general interest. If such a system were established on our side we might hope that foreign Powers might on their part meet us in a similar spirit, and that the result might be some recognised system of national arbitration which would do much to promote the peace of the world. Already in America proposals for a tribunal of international arbitration have been made and have found much favour. It would be a very great blessing if we could have a tribunal of that character, to whom could be re- ferred at once, without more ado, fishery and other disputes. It is, it seems to me, certain that if we are to have a united Empire we must have some means of dealing as one Empire with external affairs and obtaining decisions bind- ing on all. Perhaps something may come of the ofiicial references which have now been made. The subject is far too difficult to dogmatise ; by all means let us have all the advice and assistance which we can get towards settling it, whether at home or from the Colonies. Since the above was written the circular of the Colonial Office to the Colonies has been published, and proves to be as cautious as I could possibly desire — in fact, even more cautious than I have been, for, confining the dis- cussion to defence and communication, it distinctly bars the question of Colonial Federation, and does not touch that of a common diplomacy. So far as it goes it seems quite on the lines which I have suggested, and I cannot but approve of it. Free Self-governing Colonies. 31 It must be said, however, that a large proportion of the cases in which we have difficulty in maintaining Imperial authority, fulfilling our obligations, and at the same time satisfying the more adventurous of the Colonists, are those dealings with indigenous tribes, to which the term "foreign affairs," in the dignified sense, is hardly applied \ and I have already said that I propose to reserve that subject for separate examination. There is, however, one matter, involving questions of internal self-government of the Colonies, of which something must here be said. Both Australia and Western Canada are so situated that much of the Chinese outflow tends in those directions. If things were allowed to take their course, it seems very likely that the Chinese populations might dispute the occupation of those countries with the white race. Without going into motives, it is enough to say that the whites object to share the country with the Chinamen ; and if the Colonies are wholly self-governing, one can hardly say that they are not entitled to decide for themselves that Australasia and Columbia shall be regions of whites rather than of mixed populations. At any rate, the Royal Assent has not been refused to Australian laws of a highly restric- tive character directed against the Chinese. We cannot go back from that. It seems hardly consistent with our treaties, and the liberty which we claim for British subjects in China ; but I suppose we must just tell the Chinese that we can no more answer for the Colonies in the way of free trade in emigration, than we can in the way of commercial free trade. But beyond this, it happens that parts of Australin, its northern coasts, are really tropical in ( limate ; the low- lying regions there are not well suited for white labour ; the enterprisers there, sugar-planters, etc., are anxious enough to get coloured labour. They do not seem to be satisfied with free Chinese immigration, for the Chinese are too 32 The British Empire. independent, troublesome, and expensive ; they have set themselves to obtain coloured labour of another kind, pro- cured not by mere voluntary free immigration, but imported under what is called the " indenture " system, which means compulsory service for a term of years. So long as this labour is strictly confined to the lower class of work in the completely tropical low-lying regions of the north, the free populations have not wholly objected ; but they have in- sisted that it shall not go beyond this. The consequence is, that these coloured labourers are not only bound to labour for the term of their indentures, but cannot at any time gain a footing as completely free men. They are forbidden certain parts of the country, and certain callings. This rule applies to labourers imported under indenture from India or Ceylon, as well as to the South Sea islanders called Kanakas. I will not here enter upon the abuses of the labour importation from the islands ; but on general grounds I have always strongly objected, and do object, to any emigration fostered and aided or protected by our Government, if the emigrants are not (when, at least, their indentures are completed), to be entirely free, and entitled to all the privileges of free men. The Indian Government has always insisted on security for good and fair treatment before they facilitated the emigration of indentured labourers from India; and in Crown Colonies the Crown is supposed to have the means of insuring the fulfilment of these obhga- tions. But in self-governing Colonies it is not so. I doubt whether it is good for white Colonies that there should be a part of their territory in the position of the Southern States of the American Union. If the main portion of Australia is to be a white man's country, it will probably be better that it should all be so, and that the best should be made that under the circumstances can be made of the smaller portion that is tropical. But, at any rate, I think we should have neither art nor part in the introduction of a population Iajority of the coloured people, whose incomes and wages are much smaller. Thus in Natal, where there are 7,596 white voters to a population of only 35,000 whites, there must be something approaching to universal suffrage for the whites. The system is yet only in the exi)erimental stage, and the result can hardly be known. We have seen how it has been evaded in Natal. In the Cape Colony (which I men- tion in this connection, though it is not now classed as a Crown Colony) the law has for some years given the vote to coloured people, under a not illiberal franchise which IT2 The British Empire. would enable many of them to vote. In fact the Malays of Cape Town and some others have become effective citizens, and so far the system has worked well. Its effect, indeed, seems to be visible in an improved liberality and fairness in dealing with the affairs of the coloured people within the Colony proper. But there seems to be no doubt that the great mass of the black population of the interior districts of the Colony have not come to understand or to attempt to exercise their rights. The effect of a large native vote has not been seen ; so far that vote is very local and on a comparatively small scale. In the Crown Colonies the construction and working of a system of representation to include the coloured people seems to depend very much on the temper and action of the Governors and Colonial authorities of each Colony. In Jamaica the thing seems to have been started on a far more liberal footing than in Natal. The population of Jamaica is stated to be 580,000, consisting of 14,000 whites, 110,000 coloured (that is, people of mixed blood), some 10,000 East Indians, and 444,000 blacks. The voters are 7,443, of whom 3,579 are of white or mixed blood, 98 Indians, and 3,766 Africans. But the constitution has but very recently been set up, and we have not yet any information as to its working. Mauritius too has lately received a new constitution, but there the concession of the vote to the coloured people seems to have been much evaded, though not as success- fully as in Natal. The population is stated to be 8,000 Protestants and 108,000 Roman Catholics, figures which may be taken roughly to represent the proportion of British and people of French origin — say 116,000 of European blood; about 254,000 Indians; and a few of other races. The voters under the new system are: Whites, 3,750; Indian, 295; Chinese, 15; so that the Indians, who form fully two-thirds of the population, have less than one- fourteenth of the electorate. Crown Colonies. i 1 3 Of anything that is going on towards introducing any general elective system in the smaller West Indian and other Colonies we have as yet very little information. In British Guiana the Legislature still consists of the old Court of Policy, the elected members of which practically represent the planters only. Ceylon, and the Straits Settlements, and some other Colonies are on the Indian system, the Legislature consist- ing of ofificial and nominated members only, without elective representation in the central Government ; though Ceylon, at any rate, seems to have well-developed local institutions. It is really more favourable to a coloured population that the Councils should be wholly nominated than that they should be partly elected, if the elected members practically represent the whites only. CHAPTER YI. TERRITORIAL CHARTERED COMPANIES. To the Crown Colonies must now be added a new or renewed development — territorial extensions by Joint Stock Companies. After all, the East India Company's dominion was a sort of accident. The Company was incorporated by charter for commercial, not for territorial purposes. But our Government does not seem to have had the same objection to territorial acquisitions at the risk of Companies (though under the British flag and protection) as to direct extensions immediately under the Crown. A little time ago the world was somewhat surprised by the grant of a charter to the British North Borneo Company, with direct licence to take and hold territory in Borneo and to add to their possessions when they could. And that Company lias since continued to hold a dominion nominally large, and to govern the settlements they really possess with all the attributes of sovereign power, after the manner of the East India Company. The Germans seem to have followed the example, and to seek to acquire Colonies in the same way. And now, again, a British charter has been granted to the " National African Company, Limited," which is understood to have acquired large territories in West Africa, in the region of the Niger. Whatever has been done, it has been done very quietly, and we have curiously little information about it. But there seems no doubt that great British extensions and developments have recently taken place in that part of Africa, as, in fact, the charter of the company in general Territorial Chartered Companies. 115 terms states. That charter, after reciting the original com- mercial character of the Joint Stock Company, and the assertion made by them that they have bought up the interests of all European traders in this region of the Niger, and are " now the sole European traders there," further states that the kings, chiefs, and peoples of various territories in the basin of the Niger, recognising the virtues of the Company, have ceded the whole of their respective territories to the said Company. And Her Majesty then authorises the Company to hold and retain the said terri- tories, with all the rights, authorities, and powers necessary for the purposes of government, preservation of public order, "or otherwise;" also to acquire by all lawful means other territories in the same regions. They are to fly a British flag, to administer justice, and to exercise sovereign powers as defined, or rather left wholly undefined and unlimited. It is a very large order indeed. I doubt if the poor old East India Company, in its palmiest day, ever had such unrestrained and unlimited powers and such a carte blanche, by direct permission of the Crown, to acquire as mucli territory as they could. Then the East India Company had for a time a complete monopoly of trade, and when that came to an end they ceased to trade in India, whereas the new companies combine trade and government. In spite of the assertion of the African Company that they are now the sole European traders, there is in their charter a provision against monopoly. The North Borneo Company's territory seems to have little to tempt rival traders. That Company seems to seek rather to develop their territory by their operations than to find large resources ready-made. But in the case of a trading company occupying and governing large terri- tories on a great artery of commerce like the Niger, leading to most important countries and great populations in the interior of Africa, it is hard to see how their character of ii6 The British Ei\rriKE. absolute rulers is very compatible with equal freedom to rival traders, especially when they formally assert that they have bought out all other traders. Accordingly, it is not surprising that complaints are already heard that the Com- pany use their powders to establish a practical monopoly. I must say I think these recent new developments in the way of Chartered Territorial Companies are a very serious matter requiring much consideration. And I greatly doubt whether it is justifiable that such a step as the estab- lishment of this African Company should have been taken by the Executive Government on its own authority without any sanction of Parliament, and without even any communi- cation to, or the vouchsafing any information whatever to Parliament. We might find ourselves some day with an African Empire on our hands, for which, or the suffering the growth of which, our representatives are in no way responsible — an Empire, perhaps, as complicated as India, without the resources of India, and without the isolation from other Powers which so long facilitated our rule in India. At any rate, if we are to establish a great rule in Africa, we should know it and regulate it. CHAPTER VII. PROTECTORATES. In addition to the recognised British Colonies, we have what are now called " Protectorates," though the meaning of that term is very undefined and elastic. The primary meaning seems to be that some chief or tribe formally accepts a sort of British suzerainty (but, again, what is suzerainty?) on condition of protection from external aggression, as in the case of some " Protected States " in India ; with this difference, that, whereas in India the pro- tection afforded was generally against aggressive native powers, our Oceanic protections are generally against the aggressions of enterprising Europeans. In a good many cases we seem to impose our protection without any formal consent of the natives asked or given. And we still in these days assume the right technically to annex to the dominions of the British Crown, by the mere planting of a flag (and that without even the authority of the Pope), new and unexplored countries, assumed to be uncivilised and savage. This is done partly to forestall other European Powers and establish our prior claims, and partly to give us jurisdiction over British and other European adventurers on the coast. This last is the main justification of these pro- ceedings. It is often a very difficult question whether it is the least evil to leave these people to themselves — to let them fight it out with the natives, and let the natives defend them- selves in their own way — or to let ourselves be dragged by ir- responsible adventurers into annexations and responsibiHties which we have not voluntarily and deliberately undertaken. The so-called Protectorates vary infinitely, from almost ii8 The British Empire. complete British dominion to the most shadowy claims, founded on the planting of a flag on the shores of wholly unknown regions ; but they have a general tendency to mature and ripen towards annexation. In South Africa we have a good many Protectorates. Beyond the proper eastern boundary of the Cape Colony the various tribes of Kaffraria are nearly reduced to the position of British subjects, and are for the most part made over to the dominion of the Cape Colony. So were the Basutos till it turned out that the Colony could not control them, and we had to take them back. Beyond Natal we have the Zulu reserve territory — -a sort of nondescript dominion, and there is still question whether beyond that we are to protect Zulus and Swazis. In the centre of South Africa we have lately made 'an immense extension, not only wholly annexing a large territory in Bechuanaland, the administration and finance of which are still very diffi- cult questions, but formally taking under our protection some considerable potentates beyond, while our agents have coquetted with others beyond that. On the West African coasts it seems hard to draw the line between British possessions and those of chiefs over whom we have established or claim some sort of Protectorate. On the East coast of the same continent our relations with the Arab Sultan of Zanzibar and some of the cognate Arab chiefs on the Arabian coast, and perhaps with some of the Somaulee tribes near Aden, w^ere becoming so close that they seemed to be approximating to the character of a Protectorate ; but since the appearance of the Germans in those parts we have been obliged to disclaim any actual responsibility for Zanzibar; while farther north the abandon- ment of the Soudan, the handing over of Massowah to the Itahans, and the establishment of the French at Obok, &c., seem to have checked the tendency to advance in that direction on our part. Protector A tes. i i 9 The territorial extension of the Straits Settlements is still in the form of a Protectorate, but it seems to be one in which British authority is pretty completely dominant. In Oceania, among the islands of the Indian Archipelago and the Pacific, the question of protection has lately assumed a very difficult and debatable form. In those quarters, undoubtedly, there is very much need of protection against European rovers and " beach-combers " of all sorts. Those seas seem to be specially affected by adventurers of doubtful character; in addition to bona fide traders and enterprisers, we have there much of the scum of other lands and of the high seas — deserters from ships, and what not. We have not only to deal with British subjects proper. A very large proportion of the British subjects there hail from the Australian Colonies, and own but a sort of secondary allegiance to British authority. The best of them are apt to be jealous of that authority whenever it is exercised in restraint of their enterprise rather than to promote it. The worst of the English-speakers may claim to be Americans, and we cannot prove the contrary. And then there are many real foreigners — French, and German, and the rest — over whom we have no authority whatever, in territories not formally recognised to be British, while the representatives of foreign Powers have equally little authority over our subjects. All these things go far to supply arguments in favour of Protectorates or nominal annexations ; and in some of the islands something of the kind has been established by us and by others. One peculiar form of semi-protectorate has been at- tempted on a large scale by the establishment of the High Commission for the Western Pacific, with a staff of deputies and courts of justice to give effect to the "Pacific Islanders' Protection Acts " of the British Parliament. But the diffi- culty has been that, where we have not actually annexed the islands, we have no jurisdiction at all over white men I20 The Brit/sh Empire. who are, or assume to be, foreigners ; while the function of deciding judicially between British subjects and the natives, we assume, involves the necessity of regular proof against individuals, which it is very difficult to obtain or adequately to sift. The Europeans complain that, in the case of offences committed by the natives, the judicial authority is a wholly insufficient substitute for the tribal responsibilities formerly enforced by the operations of naval officers. To judge from the last papers presented to Parlia- ment, it would seem as if we had gone back, and thrown the responsibility on naval officers proceeding by " act of war." And both civil and naval officers being scrupulous men, there has been a kind of negative conflict of jurisdiction, each disclaiming it. The Dia/nond seems to have gone about destroying villages by way of retaliation ; but where a murderer was surrendered, the civil and naval officers equally disclaimed the responsibility of dealing with him. The most notable recent instance of a Protectorate, which has now become technically, as far as our law is concerned, an annexation, is New Guinea, where, by an arrangement with Germany, we have divided with them the whole of that very great island not already claimed by the Dutch, somewhat in the way in which masters of fox-hounds divide a hunting country between themselves. Certainly there was less immediate justification for this step than in almost any other case. Scarcely any portion of our nominal dominion is known to us at all. Even geographers and ethnologists have not yet succeeded in much penetrating into the interior. So far as we do know anything of the fringes of the country, it would appear that the people of New Guinea (or some of them) are comi^aratively civilised, with institutions, an effective agriculture, and recognised property. Captain Cyprian Bridge, R.N., who has had almost better opportunities of judging than any one else, says :- — " Throughout the parts of New Guinea with which I Pro TEC TOR A TES. 121 am acquainted the inliabitants are ingenious and indus- trious agriculturists, and carefully fence in their plantations. Their houses are large and well built. They make very fine fishing-nets. Their canoes are of enormous size, and the trees are procured a long way off. Pottery is made in large quantities for export." The consent of these people to any protectorate or annexation was neither asked nor given ; the vast majority of them are utterly ignorant that anything of the kind has taken place. The necessity arising from un- authorised European settlements, and the risk of consequent oppression of the natives, was less there than anywhere in Oceania. So far the natives had held their own. Europeans had gained scarcely any footing there ; and the objectionable "labour traffic" (that is, traffic in labourers) had not largely extended to New Guinea. There is no doubt that so far as our own immediate aims and interests were concerned, we should not have thought of such an annexation. Our hands were forced by the Australian Colonists. The Australian demand for the annexation was due to two causes — First, the jealousy of possible foreign occupation, and a tendency to a " Monroe Doctrine," on the part of an influential class at least, in all the Australian Colonies ; and, second, a hankering to exploit New Guinea, of which, as a new El Dorado, unknown and magnificent, many reports were cur- rent among the Colonists of Northern Queensland and elsewhere. It was more immediately Queensland alone which forced our hands by its action in annexing New Guinea on its own account the day after the departure of the British mail, an action which, though utterly disowned at the moment, we ended by practically accepting, as has been before said. It was certainly unfortunate and inap- propriate that it should be Queensland which thus forced our hands, for that was the Colony very deeply implicated in thiC iniquities of the "labour trafiic," to which I must afterwards revert. It is yet imperfectly understood how. I 122 The British Empire. completely we have, in fact, given in to Queensland in this matter. The Queensland Government wanted to annex New Guinea, and to administer it on behalf of Australia. Even when, under pressure of German advances, we consented to annex, we would not hear of that ; we must send an inde- pendent British High Commissioner, who would exercise whatever authority was to be exercised as a high inter- national officer, bound to protect the natives against any injustice on the part of British Colonists as well as anyone else. Yet we haggled about the paltry sum required to defray the expense of the British Commissioner and his staff, which would require a Parliamentary vote, and we sought to get contributions from the Australian Colonies to defray that charge. We might have anticipated that if the Australians paid, they would seek in some degree to control. Then that clause in the permissive Australian Federation Act which enabled a Council of the Colonies (or some of them) to deal with their relations to the islands of the Paciiic might be construed to include New Guinea. Still, the public were led to believe that the New Guinea executive was in the hands of a purely British officer; and so it was for a short time. But when, unfortunately, a vacancy in the office very soon occurred, it turns out that, quietly, and without any public attention being drawn to the matter, it has been filled by a late Queensland Minister. I have no doubt that this gentleman is quite free from any part in, or sympathy with, the iniquities of the labour traffic. He would not have been selected were it other- wise ; in fact, the party to a great degree responsible for those iniquities has fallen from power in Queensland. But still we cannot forget that it was that party who originally attempted the annexation which has now actually taken place. And we are informed that the present Queens- land Premier "has drawn up a memorandum for sub- mission to the Governments of the other Colonies, Pr o tec tor a tes. 123 suggesting a scheme for the administration of New Guinea. He proposes that Queensland should administer the territory," &:c. &c. The latest news is that the present Queensland Assembly has formally endorsed this plan, and that Her Majesty's Government have shown some dis- position to accept it if the Colonies bear the expense. Evidently we are within measurable distance of a possible transfer of New Guinea to Queensland after all, if we allow matters to drift in that direction. We must make up our minds to a policy one way or other. The progression of British influences, which leads to the establishment of Protectorates and the ripening of Pro- tectorates into annexations, is promoted and hastened by two very different agencies, acting in very different degree. It has been said that the missionary goes first and the trader and enterpriser follow, and that is a good deal the case. The missionaries go out into remote regions without Government aid ; in quarters where the natives have little tangible religion of their own, they are often highly suc- cessful, and their influence is generally wholly for good. They are not too prone to seek Government aid ; indeed, they have not unfrequently established a kind of rule of their own, becoming the advisers and ministers of converted chiefs, like churchmen in Europe in early days, yet without the corruptions and centralised ambition of the mediaeval Church. But when their converts suffer greatly from the aggression of barbarian tyrants, they sometimes do not carry to an excess the doctrine of turning the other cheek, and may occasionally be induced to favour British intervention. At any rate, when they incline to such views they are not unfrequently utilised by others who have other objects. In determining the last great annexation in South Africa missionary arguments bore a considerable part. A mis- sionary was in fact the British agent chosen to decide the matter, and who actually made the annexation. I 2 124 The British Empire. There are also considerable complications due to the inevitable rivalries of Protestant and Catholic missionaries, particularly in our relations with France in foreign parts ; since the French, while repressing ecclesiasticism at home, are the special patrons of Catholic missionaries abroad. Our people naturally favour the cause of the Protestant missionaries. I think it must be said that, for instance, a great part of the difficulty of coming to any settlement with France about the New Hebrides is due to the fear of allowing the Protestant work to be overridden and outdone by Catholics under French patronage. And the British jealousy of the French Protectorate of Madagascar is founded not only on commercial and national grounds, but also very much on Protestant influence in Madagascar as opposed to Catholic influence. Much of this religious zeal is very genuine and even praiseworthy. No doubt the Presbyterians of Melbourne are perfectly sincere in their zeal for their missions in the New Hebrides. But when the representatives of Queensland, among other Colonies, go into transports of virtuous indignation on the wrong and impropriety of leaving unprotected natives to the mercy of the wicked French, one thinks they must be forgetful, or expect us to be forgetful, of the labour traffic dis- closures so lately officially made in regard to transactions in which Queenslanders bore so large a part. The traders and speculators are much more aggressive than the missionaries, and though, as long as things go well, they are well enough content to be free from Govern- ment supervision, when they get into trouble they are also much more prone to call for Government assistance, and to expect that their grievances should be redressed by ships of war. The best of the traders are apt to haste to be rich. And a large proportion of real or pretended traders and speculators are adventurers of the bad and doubtful charac- ter already mentioned. Wherever these men are strong Protector A tes. 125 enough they are apt to oppress the natives, and where they are not strong enough they get massacred, and cause a cry for British vengeance. If Protectorates did no more than keep such people in order they would be amply justified. But once any sort of British interference commences, British ideas, regarding commerce, and contracts, and property in land, creep in. Natives whose ways are not our ways are apt to be judged by our standards ; people are found to sell, for a little " trade," rights of which they may, or more probably may not, be possessed. British subjects and others establish claims to commercial products, to privileges, to lands, and gradually a set of claims and counter claims are built up which it is very difficult to sift till complete British jurisdiction is established. It was somewhat in this way that an irregular settlement of Europeans in Fiji led to the complete annexation of the islands which go by that name, and where, under native- protecting Governors, an eftective administration has been established, which many highly praise, but which planters loudly condemn. At any rate, there we have a complete government for which we are responsible. It is likely enough that in other places we and other Powers may by similar steps come to a like result in the shape of annexation. A very important subject connected with outlying Colonies and Protectorates among savage or semi-civilised races is the extent to which we are to permit free-trade of a kind very injurious to the natives — a question which principally arises in regard to the trade in arms and strong drinks. The question of the trade in arms is a very diffi- cult one. There can be no doubt that it is often a very great injury to simple savages to supply them with death- dealing arms, by which their intertribal wars are made much more deadly than ever they were before. Also whenever we are in contact with these tribes they become much more formidable and troublesome enemies when they 126 The British Empire. are provided with firearms and ammunition. Yet it seems hard to debar tliem from the use of the weapons which may be used for defensive purposes, unless we are prepared to defend and protect them. Be this as it may, the poUcy of allowing or prohibiting the sale of arms is not usually regulated by any broad lines of deliberate policy, but rather with reference to the difficulty of restraining British free- traders and others from selling arms if they find it profitable to do so. In that case sell them they will. In truth, out of India we very seldom have the courage to interfere effect- ively ; and if we did, we would not prohibit white men from possessing (for their own use, of course) arms which they will sell at an enhanced price to natives. And so in Africa and Oceania the trade in cheap arms goes merrily on. The drink question is still more serious. Many simple savages have not learned the art of providing themselves with drinks of the strongest character. The white trader finds, however, that the craze for strong drink is there, or at least is easily developed, and that no trade is more profitable than that founded on the supply of drink. Drink he accordingly supplies. There is no doubt of the desolation worked by this new supply of spirits to races unaccustomed to them, and who have neither the moral nor the physical stamina to resist them. Many of our officers, keenly alive to the evil, have sought to stop it, but it is not easy to do so. In places where exclusive British authority has not been established the Germans are said to be much given to the liquor traffic, and them we cannot touch. But also within our territories or Protectorates traders and grape-growers will not be wholly controlled. In some districts we have got so far as, in a way, to prohibit the supply of spirits to ordinary natives. Many of the chiefs in consideration of being allowed freely to get drunk themselves, have been willing and anxious to protect the people from the evil. But the inalienable right of the Protectorates. 127 British Christian to his Hquor is one which no Government has ventured to contravene wherever he goes — so chiefs and white men are exempted from the prohibition. History repeats itself. When two or three hundred years ago whisky was becoming far too common in Scotland, and it was determined to save the Highlanders (then hardly considered civilised Christians) from its effects, it was prohibited, but chiefs, lairds, and gentlemen of good degree were exempted from the prohibition. So it is when we attempt prohibition in Africa. And when whites are allowed to obtain liquor freely, and their neighbours the blacks are anxious to have it and willing to pay handsomely for a supply, it goes without saying that there is a good deal of neighbourly accommodation, and the prohibition is by no means very effectual. Even so much prohibition seems hardly to be maintained when neighbouring Colonists are producers of spirits and influential traders are engaged in the business. Some British officers loudly complain of our failure to protect the natives in this respect. The question is indeed a sad and a serious one. CHAPTER Vni. RECAPITULATION OF CROWN COLONIES AND PROTECTORATES. The Crown Colonies and other British territories and Protectorates (outside tlie free Colonies and India), though very numerous, and in the aggregate very important, are none of them, taken singly, countries of the first magnitude and importance, that is, so far as they have been reduced into possession — we do not know what South Africa and New Guinea may be some day. In the aggregate (thus limited) they do not yet approacli in area the great terri- tories of the free Colonies, nor in population to the great Indian populations ; but their distinguishing feature is that they are always growing, while in the other classes of British territory we seem to have reached a sort of natural limits. While the Crown Colonies have, speaking generally, a fair and, in some instances, a large amount of prosperity, taken as a whole it cannot be said that they are excessively prosperous and i>rofitable, as will be seen when we roughly enumerate them. Speaking generally, we may say that most of them nearly pay their way so far as regards the cost of civil administration, and do not, in that shape, involve direct expense to the Mother Country. It is only in certain special cases that Parliamentary grants in aid are made. And no doubt we bear a good deal of indirect cost involved by these possessions, including the naval protection towards which they contribute nothing. Some of them contribute towards the cost of the military garrisons maintained within their Hmits, but at most they pay only the direct charge in Recapitulation of Crown Territories. 129 the Colony, and many of them do not pay that. By the last account the total of all Colonial contributions to the gross cost of British troops, was no more than ^^i 39,000. For the considerable military posts the Mother Country pays entirely, as also the cost of the Protectorates which we have chosen to assume. I will now mention the various possessions. Ceylon has the largest population, and is, perhaps, in some respects, the most important of the Crown Colonies. It is practic- ally an outlying part of India, and is managed very much on Indian principles. It has an area of 25,000 square miles, a little less than Ireland (but the area includes some considerable mountains), and a population approaching three millions. The Ceylonese are a distinct people of Indian origin, who have retained the Buddhist religion, but a large part of the island is occupied by Tamils — Hindus from the neighbouring districts of India — who also swarm over in large numbers, in a purely voluntary way, to labour on the Ceylon plantations. The island is fairly prosperous and progressive. It does not grow enough food for its own wants, but still produces some spices, &c., and is an important field for British planters. Unfortunately, their original industry — coffee planting— has fallen through, owing to a disease in the plants, and they have taken to tea and cinchona, in which they seem again to have good prospects of success. Ceylon, however, has not been, and probably never will be, the source of revenue and profit to the Mother Country that some of the Dutch planting Colo- nies used to be. The revenue does not more than suffice for the administration, and only suffices be- cause Ceylon is so placed in regard to India as to be able to rely on India for military aid in case of need, and therefore it can reduce its military expentliture to a minimum. Even the very small payment which it makes to the British Exchequer for troops, it was lately obliged 130 The British Emtire. to beg off during the depression caused by the failure of coffee. The duties on food apart, the administration appears to be fairly good and successful. We hear very little about it, and that is a good sign. The people have been long in contact with Arabs, and Dutch, and Portuguese ; there are a good many Christians among them. We have now given them much English education, and they seem to be fully as advanced as any of our Indian peoples. The Straits Settlements were originally, as has been already stated, under the Government of India, and still retain a good deal of the Indian character in their admini- stration ; but, a few immigrants apart, the population is not Indian. The natives are chiefly Malay ; but the most important part of the population are the Chinese settlers, who are there not only as mere labourers and servants, but also as merchants and enterprisers rivalling the Europeans in business, and greatly exceeding them in numbers. In this part of the world, more than in any other, some of the Chinese are really settlers, rather than mere birds of passage ; in some cases they bring their wives and families, in other cases intermarry with the people of the country. Most re- markable of all, they consent to be buried in the country. Even in the protected Malay States (the population of which is but small) Chinamen, attracted by the mines, sometimes exceed in number the native population ; and the necessity of controlling the Chinese was the excuse for our interven- tion. The total population of the Colony is given as 423,000, of whom five-sixths are Malays and Chinese in about equal numbers, and the remainder a melee of various nationalities. The revenue suffices for the administration. Territorially the country is not of great importance ; but commercially Singapore, and in a less degree Penang, are important places. The great rise and prosperity of Singa- pore as an entrejiot and place of trade are well known ; Recapitulation of Crown Territories. 131 and it has gone on increasing in size and business, though relatively it is, perhaps, not quite so important as it was before Hong-Kong was created, and other places rose. I imagine, too, that much of the great trade shown in the statistics is due merely to its position as a port of call. Mauritius is a wonderfully successful producer of sugar for its size ; but that is very small, only 700 square miles altogether, and much of that is barren volcanic hills. It is very fully populated, and, in respect of population, may be said to be now, for the most part, an Indian country, the great majority of the inhabitants being immigrants from India — no longer mere indentured labourers, but now chiefly settled Colonists. But the co-existence with these Indians of a large minority (not very far short of one-third) of European blood, who cannot get over their view of them- selves as a superior race^ and of the Indians as an inferior race imported to supply them with labour, make the admini- stration very difficult, and render the experiment of self- government now being initiated specially hazardous. We can only hope for the best ; it must be very closely watched. The revenue is good ; the Colony pays its way well. Though the West Indian Colonies are many, under many separate Governments, they may be here grouped together, including the Colonies on the mainland and all the islands as far north as the Bermudas. None of them are equal in resources to some of the foreign islands, especi- ally Cuba ; but in the aggregate they are very important. The total population is about 1,500,000, of whom the great majority are Africans. Speaking generally, it cannot be said that they are in recent times very prosperous ; and such prosperity as some of them have is in great part due to im- ported East Indian labour. British (iuiana, in particular, seems almost entirely to rely on this labour, by the aid of T32 The British Empire. which it is still a successful sugar Colony. In most of the other West Indian Colonies which have imported East Indians they are still a comparatively small minority of the population, and they are chiefly indentured labourers rather than yet settled Colonists on a considerable scale. They are generally imported only because the planters have failed to come to terms with the emancipated negroes. It is undoubtedly the case that, notwiihstanding all the favour- able circumstances under which emancipation was effected in the West Indies — the ample compensation to the planters, the gradual emancipation, the very paternal care of the British Government and people in this matter — the emanci- pation has not been nearly as successful as in the Southern States of America, where it took place under every con- dition of disaster and irritation — -a great war, in which the Southerners were beaten ; violent emancipation, without a farthing of compensation ; a sort of saturnalia for a time of negro domination under "carpet-bagger" guidance, which might have demoralised any people. In spite of it all, the Southern States have already settled down prosperous and progressive, and raise much more cotton than ever they did ; while the West Indian Colonies have been going down, and are still crying to heaven, abusing a heartless British Go- vernment, and importing coolies in a fragmentary sort of way. It may be that cotton cultivation is better suited to the negro genius than sugar ; but one can hardly believe that the negro of Jamaica is really by nature more wicked and troublesome than the negro of Georgia or South Carolina. If he is, circumstances must have made him so. The truth seems to be that, under the pressure of necessity, the whites of the Southern States have faced the situation bravely and honestly, have fully accepted emancipation, and made the best of it ; while the West Indians never heartily accepted it, have been influenced by a repugnance to accept full equality before the law. Recapitulation of Crown Territories. 133 and have been enabled by their old institutions in some degree successfully to resist complete equality. So they have maintained the struggle and cried for help, when they had better have made the best of the situation, as the Americans have. There is much difference in the different Colonies. The Bermudas are far off, and are, in fact, partly a naval station and partly a market garden for the supply of early vegetables to the United States, with a population of but 15,000. The Bahamas, too, are a large Archipelago near the United States, with a total population under 50,000. Honduras is an undeveloped sort of Colony, of which wood-cutting is the principal industry. Barbadoes is thickly populated, and the blacks there are said to be much better and in a better position than in the other Colonies. Trinidad has a large Indian population, and is understood to be in some respects in better case than most of the Islands. British Guiana has a very large area, but most of it is scarcely known, and the population of the known and cultivated part hardly exceeds a quarter of a million. Everything has been done for the West Indies that could be done consistently with our free- trade principles. Very experienced Governors have been sent and various new industries have been suggested. In some instances, at least, things seem to be looking better. Necessity has at last induced the planters in some of the Islands to abandon their dislike to the acquisition of land by the blacks and their combination in some cases to prevent it. The last accounts from Jamaica (which, with its population of near 600,000, is cjuite the most important of these Colonies) are very encouraging. It appears that there has now sprung up a large class of negro peasant proprietors, and that the desire to own land has very largely developed among the people in a way which is likely to lead to the independence and thrift attending peasant proprietorship. In fact, I understand a 134 The British Empire. . large proportion of the blacks of Jamaica now own or rent land. St. Lucia seems to have a large number of freeholders, and we are told that in Trinidad, Tobago, Grenada, Montserrat, Nevis, and Dominica there are many native cultivators, either as pro]:)netors or as renters on shares — the equivalent of the victayc?- system, which also prevails in the United States. The blacks of the West Indies are Christians, and a good deal seems to have been done to educate and civilise them. With the exception of some Imperial aid to the smaller Islands, the West Indies pay their own way by the aid of the very objectionable food taxes, for which no substitute has yet been found, and the effect of which is to put the weight of taxation on the poorer classes. There was question of substituting a land tax in Jamaica, but whereas in Switzerland they are introducing a progressive taxation, the rate increasing with the amount of property or income, in Jamaica it was proposed to adopt a sort of inversion of this system, the rate to be heavier on the smaller properties, and decreasing as they increased up to the properties of the large planters. That would not be at all tolerable. Evidently there are a good many things to be settled yet under the new constitution of Jamaica. Both administratively and financially the West Indies labour under great disadvantage in the great number of different Governments and the great variety in their consti- tutions, some being proper Crown Colonies, while others have the remains of old constitutions. It would seem to be desirable that they should be re-grouped and re-constituted in a more systematic way, and put under a larger Govern- ment or Governments, as Mr. C. S. Salmon proposes, though whether they are in a position to be entrusted with as much self-government as he would give them is a question. We Recapitulation of Crown Territories. 135 must always remember our duty of protecting the coloured races. We know by a long and sad experience what a terrible trouble and great expense our South African possessions have been to us, and continue so to be to the present day. It would be useless to go through all that dull and dismal story. The settled Colonies are tolerably prosperous, but their development has been nothing at all approaching that of the Australasian and American Colonies. The Cape Colony has been touched on as now one of the free Colonies, and Natal has also been a good deal mentioned as a Crown Colony with a small white popula- tion of large pretensions. In the old Cape Colony proper the coloured population is largely made up of the relics of slavery — the remnants of the old tribes of the region, and the half-breeds called Bastards, most of whom may be said to be more or less tamed, and welded into our system. But in the farther provinces of the Colony, still more beyond the Kei and in the region of the diamond fields, the less-assimilated natives largely prevail. Natal seems to be pretty prosperous as a planting, trading, and speculating Colony ; but of the small white population a part is the remnant of the Dutch settlement which preceded the British Colony, and a large part of the British seem to be yet only birds of passage rather than permanent Colonists. The importation of East Indians has already been mentioned. The natives, who form the vast majority of the population, have not yet undergone any considerable social amalgamation with the whites, and do not labour regularly for them. They are chiefly located in native reserves, and generally preserve their own laws and customs. But, Zulus as they are, they now seem to be peaceable enough. Though the white Colonists decline military responsibility, they are ready enough to under- take the task of governing the natives, and have lately 136 The British Empire. volunteered to undertake the management of Zululand beyond as well. It has been hinted, indeed, that they have already considerable pecuniary and speculative in- terests there. Enclosed between the Cape Colony, the Orange Free State, Natal, and the Indian Ocean is a considerable territory, still mainly native. But the greater part of this we have subjected and handed over to the management of the Cape authorities. There remain only Pondoland and Basutoland. Pondoland is a small territory near the eastern coast. One half, under the name of Xesibeland, we have already annexed and handed over to the Cape by a late Order in Council. Basutoland has a sad history, involving us in difficulties of which we have not yet seen the end. After intervening between the Basutos and the Orange Free State, we took them under our protection, and, left very much to them- selves, they became the best people in South Africa — excellent agriculturists, possessed of flocks, and herds, and horses, independent in their bearing, and comparatively civilised. But, though their engagements were clearly with us, in the desire to be rid of such matters we one day, without in any way consulting them, made them over to the Cape Colony. With the Colony they did not get on so well. Certain transactions, resulting from a quarrel with a sub-section of them, led them to suspect Colonial specu- lators of having an eye to their lands. The Colony, on the other hand, to make sure of their obedience, determined to disarm them, and attempted to do so. The result is well known. It was the act of the Colonists themselves, engage- ments of the British Government notwithstanding. So they tried to carry the measure out themselves. A regular war resulted, and the Colonists, after great efforts and the ex- penditure of very large sums, were thoroughly beaten. Then the long-suffering British Government had to take the Basutos Recapitulation of Crown Territories. 137 in hand. But the war had injured and demoralised them too ] much of their industry was gone ; they had become aggressive, drunken, jealous of one another. We have been trying to deal with them by the moral influence of a British oiricer, under very disadvantageous circumstances^ and seem to be partially successful — more so than might have been expected. Peace, however, in the Basuto territory seems to have been continually hanging by a thread. The drink question is a great trouble. We would much like to keep out drink, but Cape Colonists make brandy, people on the borders of the Free State and elsewhere sell it. White men cannot be altogether excluded, and so we seem unable to control the drink traffic. The future of Basutoland remains to be seen. Our troubles in Zululand, also, are too recent and too little brought to an end to let us forget them. Zululand is, as is to be seen on the map, a comparatively small country abutting on the sea north of Natal. We remember how we attacked the Zulus on very frivolous pretexts ; first got beaten, then beat them; first deposed Cetewayo, then set him up again; when he fell, first made friendly arrange- ments with Usibepu and others, then allowed them to be overturned by the Boers without remonstrance ; first solemnly engaged the Boers of the Transvaal not to overstep their eastern border, then quietly allowed them to take possession of the greater part of Zululand ; finally declared we would not intervene in that country at all, and now, last of all, have announced our readiness to intervene and divide the country with the Boers, in the form, on our side, of a British Protec- torate of the part of the country nearest the sea. That is the very latest, and we can only hope that it may succeed. The declared object is to keep the Boers from the sea and reserve a road to the Swazis and Amatongas, the only other tribes who lie between our borders and the point where the junction of the Transvaal with the Portuguese territory of J 138 The British Empire. Delagoa Bay cuts us off from the rest of Africa in that direction. The history of our transactions with the Boers beyond the Cape Colony is still more painful. Long ago, when they trekked away from us, we declared they should not go free, and followed them. After much trouble and fight- ing we gave it up, and entered into a formal convention with them, by which we bound ourselves to leave them alone beyond the Orange River, and not to cross it. That gave peace for a good many years ; but when diamonds were discovered, we disregarded the convention and appro- priated the diamond region now made over to the Cape Colony. Since then we have wholly set at naught the convention, without particular reason assigned. We took advantage of troubles in the Transvaal to annex it, and sent a military commandant, who administered it in entire disregard of the feelings of the Colonists. When it became too hot for us, we changed our minds, and were quite wilUng practically to surrender it. There was really nothing in dispute. But our Government thought proper to vapour about first establishing the authority of the Queen, and permitted an ofificer of forward proclivities to drag us into a senseless war, in which he was repeatedly beaten, and our disasters were crowned at Majuba Hill. Then we saw the blood-guiltiness of the w'hole affair, and came to terms. But we could not, and have not yet made up our minds what to do. First we stipulated for the protection of the large native tribes in the territory over which the Boers had exercised a nominal rule. Then we surrendered them, but stipulated that the Boers should not extend east or west, while we left them free to do as they liked to the north. Then, in spite of this, they made large aggressions to the east in Zululand, but we took no notice ; but finally, when some Boer adventurers made some aggressions on a smaller scale on two petty native chiefs to the west, we again Recapitulation of Crown Territories. 139 went on the war-path. The Boers were in the wrong, and we were quite entitled to act against them if we chose ; but why we suffered so mucli aggression in Zululand, where we had substantial ground for interference and great facility for doing so, but interfered in Bechuanaland, where we had no need to do so, in a country in the heart of Africa, so far removed from our resources, is and must remain a mystery. We were under no obligation whatever towards the chiefs who had suffered from the Boers. Besides the wish to protect the natives there was the idea of a possible trade- route to the farther interior, and a desire of the Cape English to humble the Transvaal, and so do something to wipe out Majuba. At any rate, Mr. Mackenzie was allowed to go up and annex Bechuanaland, and following that, Sir Charles Warren was sent to march up and march down again with almost as many men as the King of France, and at a cost to the British taxpayer of about a million of money. The result was that by a mere proclamation we annexed a very great territory— everything up to the twenty-second degree of south latitude and twentieth of east longitude — besides entering into some relations with the chiefs beyond. The limit of west longitude had reference to the Ger- mans, then in their first rage for extension, and to whom we were readily offering everything that was not worth having, besides permitting them to take a few better things, and who, in pursuance of this policy, had acquired the desolate West Coast from the mouth of the Orange River to the Portuguese territory far northwards. A curious part of the transaction is, that as the twenty-second parallel of latitude just about cuts across the northern frontier of the Transvaal, it is not known to this day whether it is intended to make another change, and by this annexation to shut in the Trans- vaal on the north. Meantime, most of the invading Boers are left in pos- J 2 140 The British Empire. session of the land claims which they had acquired in some South African sort of way, and we have this great territory on our hands, most of it almost without inhabitants, and cer- tainly without any appreciable revenue. We went into the business with some vague idea that the Cape Colony would take it off our hands ; but now they will do nothing of the kind. We stipulated nothing, not even for freedom of access ; and the consequence is that, wholly cut off from the sea as is Bechuanaland, and having no access except through the free Colony, we must pay their customs dues for all we import, their railway rates for our troops, and be altogether very much at their mercy ; while if ever there is any advantage, they will reap it. Parliament is obliged, and year by year will be obliged, to vote the money to carry on the Bechuanaland administration. The worst of it is that, whereas both in Kafifraria and Zululand we have a natural boundary by which we are separated from further African complications, in Bechuanaland we are in contact with interior Africa. The farther we go the tribes grow thicker ; one engagement leads to another. Where are we to stop ? The last Blue Book (4,839 of 1886) certainly does not supply any satisfactory answer to this question — on the contrary, strongly suggests that we cannot stop, but must go much farther on. Part of the territory formally assumed by the British Crown — viz., the part formerly claimed by Makroane and Montisoia, the chiefs on whose account we interfered — we have absolutely annexed. The natives are provided for by " Native Reserves," as in other Colonies ; but they do not seem to be at all satisfied. Islakroane has but a small share of his old territory, and European settle- ments are being established in that of Montisoia, very much to his disgust. The natives are to pay a hut-tax, as a small contribution towards the expenses of British occupa- tion. In the territory beyond, our Protectorate is of a pretty Recapitulation of Crown Territories. 141 thorough description, involving control by a British mounted police ; and there also the chiefs do not seem at all satisfied with our volunteered protection. One of the principal of them, Sechele, whether of his own motion or under the guidance of the " legal advisers " who swarm in these parts, asks some very pertinent questions. " I hear that myself and other chiefs have been taken under the Protectorate of Her Majesty. I beg to ask what is meant by the Protec- torate of the British Government, For instance, a short time ago the police came and took prisoners some white men who were in my town. Again, the other day, some people came, who, I suppose, were police ; I received no intima- tion whatever from you on the matter. I beg you to tell me what kind of a Protectorate it is that we are under, what its customs are, and what are its laws." Various British officers and others were consulted on the questions raised by our position in these countries. Their opinions were received in Ajjril last ; but the Blue Book does not show what decisions, if any, have been arrived at. There seems to be a general concurrence of opinion among those con- sulted that we must keep on advancing, and cannot stop till at least we get to the Zambesi.' The Protectorate may last for a time, but "numbers of people with nothing to do are waiting to get farther north." " Whether the chiefs sell land or not, white men will gradually force their way into the Protectorate ; by degrees they will lay claim to the soil." " Eventually the country must be annexed." Then, beyond the present Protectorate, a powerful chief, whom we have partly taken under our protection, profusely offers us a great territory beyond our present limit, to which it turns out that another powerful chief lays claim. He is also threatened by a rebel brother now in the Transvaal. If we do not interfere, the chiefs, it is said, will fall out among themselves, and filibusters from our territor)- or the Trans- vaal will appear among them. Foreign Powers, too, may 142 The British Empire. get their fingers in. " The country towards the Zambesi is the richest part of the territory." So they are all agreed that up to the Zambesi we must go, with our Protectorate and whatever else may follow, and that white men must be allowed to go forward under due regulations. The West African settlements are of considerable im- portance. Allusion has already been made to the African Company's possessions, actual or potential, on the Niger, and nothing more need be said on that subject. But we have also the British Settlements, or Colonies, known as Gambia, Sierra Leone, British Sherbro', the Gold Coast, and Lagos, all scattered along the coast between the Senegal on the north-west, and the mouth of the Niger to the south-east. The territories attached to these settlements are very ill- defined, and do not seem to be very populous and im- portant. We seem to be continually adding to them small strips of sea-coast, or small protectorates over chiefs on rivers, and the great object seems to be to secure for the Colonies a Customs revenue all along the coast, and by linking our possessions to one another, and to those of foreign European Powers, to put a stop to what we are pleased to call smuggling and evasion of our Customs system. We, free-traders in principle, seem to consider any bit of coast where trade is free, or at least unrestricted by European Customs regulations, an evil to be suppressed. If we were ourselves in the habit of considering the welfare of the natives in preference to trade at any price, and strictly to keep out spirits and other things injurious to them, there might be justification for this policy. But I fear it is not so. Our relations with the chiefs in the in- terior are very ill-defined indeed ; but we do interfere to some extent. We have to deal with very difficult questions in regard to native laws and customs, especially those which involve questions of slavery, the delivery of refugees, and the procuring of native labour. We have to try to keep the Recapitulation of Crown Territories. 143 peace and promote trade. In missionary and other civilising processes we come into rivalry with the Mahom- medan religion and civilisation, which has gained so strong a hold on the northern part of the African continent, and which in the west we meet advancing from the other side. Some recent travellers have indeed compared the Mahom- medan influences with our own, not to the disadvantage of the former. But our position and relations on the west coast of Africa are still very obscure and difficult to under- stand. The last Blue Books on the Gold Coast and Sierra Leone show what I should call a somewhat alarming disposition to demand a more active policy there, and an advance of British influence into the interior among the Ashantees and other tribes, in order to establish peace and commerce by force of arms. The Chambers of Commerce who were so active in demanding the annexation of Burmah, have again been stirred up in regard to West Africa; at any rate the London and Manchester Chambers of Commerce have passed resolutions pointing in the direction which I have mentioned; but the Government have responded only partially and cautiousl}^ It is still in the balance whether we are to establish large dominions in this part of Africa. The Sierra Leone merchants pathetically state that the place is only an entrepot, and that unless we interfere to render the interior fitted for trade and commerce, they may as well shut up shop. In Borneo the British Colony of Labuan is very petty. Raja Brook's territory is not acknowledged as properly British, and the territory of the North liorneo Company, though nominally large, is little reduced into possession. The native population under the rule of the Company seems to be but small, and they trust more to the development of the territory by Chinese immigrants. The Company natur- ally give very hopeful accounts in general terms, but no 144 The British Empire. statistics are available, and I can add nothing more. The development of Borneo lies in the future. Of our paper sovereignty in New Guinea nothing ap- preciable has been occupied, and nothing is known. It remains to be seen on what principle our sovereignty is to be exercised — whether we are merely to protect the natives, or whether v/e might make over another great territory to an enterprising company, or whether we are to administer it or let the Australians administer it, with a view to European settlement and plantation. The Fiji Islands have a considerable area — some 6,000 square miles — but a population of only 127,000, of whom 3,500 are Europeans, 8,000 imported labourers, Polynesians and Indians, and 115,000 natives. But, unhappily, the native population has diminished in consequence of epi- demics, which came in with us. It seems to be the unhappy fate of the Pacific Islanders that they cannot stand contact with our civilisation, and die down rapidly wherever we come. Otherwise the Colony of Fiji seems to be doing well, and, visited by our ships of war, British rule is main- tained without any foreign soldiers whatever. In other Colonies labourers have been imported at the instance of planters. Here it is the other way. Sir Arthur Gordon asked permission to import Indian labourers, be- cause he could not protect the natives from the planters unless he suppHed them with some other labour — a view very consoling to those interested in protecting the Fijians, but not so much so to those interested in the Indians. However, I will not here enter into the disputed questions of Fiji management ; suffice it that no one can doubt the singleness of purpose of Sir Arthur Gordon and his successor. The power given to the chiefs does seem some- what excessive, and the degree to which the lower people are made a sort of adscripti glebce, and required to culti- vate certain staples, might seem open to question ; but Recapitulation of Crown Territories. 145 it may be the only means of saving them from the de- cHning fate which has overtaken so many of the Pacific Islanders. Hong-Kong is an exceedingly flourishing place, but it need hardly be said that it is only a commercial station — not a territorial Colony. We have there, besides a consi derable community of European merchants, a large Chinese population, including a section of that pushing mercantile element which is said to be taking much of the trade and enterprise of the Chinese coasts out of European hands. Of a population approaching 180,000, all but some 10,000 are Chinese. The whites are about 3,000. We are making in Hong-Kong and Singapore a kind of experiment in the government of Chinese, which may be useful if they settle more largely in our Colonies and possessions ; and the experiment is not without its difficulties. The chief diffi- culty, however, in Hong-Kong, is in the relations with the administration of the neighbouring Chinese coast. We are not always very tender of the Customs and other regulations of our neighbours, and we have not unfrequently treated the Chinese with a good deal less consideration than we would European neighbours. Happily, however, the temptation to opium smuggling and the like on the part of Europeans is now past. But Hong-Kong is a free port — in some respects perhaps too free, for freedom there means, or used to mean, no questions asked. At one time it was alleged tliat native pirates sometimes found free quarters there, and it is still very much alleged by the Chinese that native smugglers and contrabanders and breakers of regu- lations find an asylum and base of operations there. They have a free port in which the British interfere with them very little, and where the Chinese may not follow them at all ; and yet so close to China that it is alleged they would break through all rules if special precautions were not taken. Accordingly, the Chinese have established a special cordon 146 The British Empire. immediately outside the limits of the Colony to watch and overhaul all native vessels visiting Hong-Kong, and enforce the Chinese regulations before they can get out. This is called the blockade of Hong-Kong, and is much resented by the Colonial community. It is difficult to see how the matter can be settled when we have a great free port, and a very pushing community impatient of Chinese control so near the Chinese Coast. Of Port Hamilton, to the north of the Chinese seas, very litde is known, and nothing need be here said, except that it is believed to have been a mere naval station for precautionary and strategical purposes, and that it is now, it appears, to be shortly abandoned. In regard to our Mediterranean possessions, it is only necessary to observe that no one would think of desiring to have them merely as Colonies. They are military and naval stations. Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus, and Aden — and Egypt while we hold it — are supposed to form a chain of British posts, by which we may not only maintain our influence in the Mediterranean, but secure and cover the shortest route to India. I say nothing of that view of the case till I come to a more general survey. Meantime, one word regarding these places so far as they are in some sense Colonial pos- sessions. Gibraltar is literally no more than a mere garrison town ; but most of the people of that town (under 20,000 in all, are Spanish, and we have some of the same difficulties with the neighbouring mainland that are experienced in Hong- Kong. Besides a not unnatural jealousy of the British possession of a Spanish rock, the Spanish complained of smuggling, of an asylum for political offenders, and of contra- ventions of Spanish regulations. I believe that our officers are doing their best to put an end to all just ground for these complaints \ indeed, recently, they got into a scrape for over-zeal in this direction in the case of political refugees. Recapitulation of Crown Territories. 147 In Malta, our difficulty is to reconcile the requirements of a great British fortress with the claim to the liberties of free citizens and to self-government such as is granted to other places, on the part of a somewhat exacting native community, who deem themselves a people, and appeal to the circumstances and conditions of our occupation of the island as justifying their claims. We have also to reconcile the claims of a Maltese aristocracy with a sufficient care for the interests of the lower classes, and also the conflicting claims of the Maltese, ItaHan, and English languages, to say nothing of the claims to recognition of the Roman Catholic ecclesiastics. In fact, these difficulties are not easily overcome, and have not been sufficiently overcome. Maltese questions are always cropping up to trouble us. As has been mentioned, we have not succeeded in dealing with the taxes on food, nor have we yet thoroughly recon- ciled military government and precautions with civil and municipal administration. The population a little exceeds 150,000. In Cyprus we are new brooms. The administration seems to go on successfully, an even hand being held between Greeks and Mahommedans. And the higher por- tions of the island seem to prove useful as a sanatorium for troops disabled in Egypt. The difficulty about Cyprus (apart from wider political questions) lies in the tribute we have engaged to pay to the Turks — enormous in proportion to its size and resources. The consequence is that an island, which otherwise would well pay for its internal ad- ministration, cannot do so, and it is necessary to make an annual Parliamentary grant to aid it. The population of Cyprus approaches 200,000, and leaving out a few foreigners and Roman Catholics, they are divided between Greeks and Mahommedans, in the proportion of about two- thirds Greek and one-third Mahommedan. Aden and Perim still belong to the Indian Government. 148 The British Empire. They are but barren rocks, hot and unlovely, and involve a good deal of difficulty in regard to water supply, Arabs, and Somaulees. We certainly should not covet these places for other than strategical purposes. Our latest annexation is the Island of Socotra, outside the Gulf of Aden. It is a barren island, of which nothing is known, and we have as yet no information of the circum- stances under which it has been annexed, and of the grounds for that step. Apparently it is a mere nominal annexation, with no real occupation. I have now, I think, mentioned all the British Colonies and Protectorates Avhich are worth mentioning in a general survey of this kind. The aggregate population of the Crown Colonies and other territories, outside India and the great self-governing Colonies, so far as has yet been ascer- tained, is about eight millions, or, if we include the Cape Colony as mainly an African population, nine millions. Thus : — Mainly Indian — Ceylon and Mauritius ... ... 3,250,000 Largely Chinese — Straits, Hong-Kong, Labuan ... 650,000 Fiji — mainly Pacific Islanders ... ... ... 130,000 West Indies, about ... ... ... ... ... 1,500,000 African Colonies, including the Cape Colony, about 2,000,000 Mediterranean Colonies and Garrisons, about ... 400,000 Unclassed and unenumerated Protectorates — say, about ... ... ... ... ... ... 1,000,000 The total, it will thus be seen, is not exceedingly large. Some of the Colonies are well populated ; but there is no doubt that, even apart from the need of labour for the planters, in very many of our possessions, completed or in progress, there is room for, and a capacity of supporting, a much larger population. The full development of the terri- tories we already occupy, and any further progress, whether in the nominal possessions not really occupied or in further extensions, very much depends on the population question — Recapitulation of Crown Territories. 149 on finding a population fitted to occupy tropical and quasi- tropical countries, and also to afford the labour by which the great supply of British educating and directing energy may be turned to account. Captain Cyprian Bridge, speaking of the Pacific islands, and the decrease of the native population there, says : " Fertile as they may be, they can only be made productive with labour, of which no man can say where it is to be obtained." CHAPTER IX. IMMIGRATION TO TROPICAL TERRITORIES. The want of a labouring population in many of the warmer territories is true. Yet there are great and overflowing populations in the world quite fitted for tropical and sub- tropical climates if they can only be made available. Labourers have already been obtained from several sources — Indian, Chinese, and Polynesian. We must examine a little this population question ; but I fear that we have not yet found very satisfactory means of promoting a large immigration. The world has already had too much of labour-import from Africa, with all its horrors of slave-dealing and slavery. We cannot suffer such things any more ; civilised Europe will not permit any more of that sort of labour import, even if it were carried on in the form of indentured labour. We are too sensitive on that subject to risk the abuses that might result. Besides, populous as Africa seems to have been, there is every reason to believe that the horrible intestine wars, due in great part to slave -dealing and kid- napping for the purposes of slavery, have very greatly reduced those populations. There is room and to spare for all of them in Africa if it were only pacified and de- veloped. Except, then, for our African possessions, towards which forces in the interior still direct a wave of native population, we cannot look to Africa for population and labour in new countries. But in India we have an enormous population rapidly increasing, and threatening soon very much to press on the Immigration to Tropical Territories. 151 means of subsistence in their own country. We have seen enough to know that, under favourable circumstances, these people make excellent Colonists. They are accustomed to agriculture, quiet and law-abiding, industrious, frugal, and very intelligent, and they have also a natural aptitude for commercial pursuits. Yet there are great ditSculties in the way. There is evidence that the Hindus were once, in pre- historic times, a seafaring and colonising people, but for many centuries this has ceased to be so ; Arabs, Malays, and Europeans have ousted them from that function. The modern peoples of India are not only not seafaring, but have a proverbial dread of the "black water," which the vast majority have never seen, and only know as a mys- terious terror. Then the caste system and the social trammels under which Indians live, stand very much in the way of emigration. The better and more enterprising classes do not attempt any voluntary emigration whatever. Those of them who are now educated beyond old supersti- tions are not, as has been already explained, at all prone to rough enterprise. They may go to England to compete for appointments and take degrees, but they will not be the pioneers of colonisation. Hence emigrants can only be sought among the poor and the needy or the casteless, and not many of them are yet willing to go. Those who are willing have not the means. Hence has arisen the indenture system, under which they are sought out, and their expenses are paid by those who desire their labour, on condition that they are bound to labour for a term of years. But this system is very liable to abuses. To begin with, the Colonies and em- ployers of labour who want coolies do not deal direct with possible emigrants in the interior of the country. They employ recruiters, and the remuneration of the recruiters has very generally taken the form of a payment of so much per head to contractors for the supply of 152 The British Empire. labourers, a system not only suggestive of a near analogy to the buying and selling of human beings, but necessarily offering great temptations to abuse. Then sometimes great hardship and much mortality occurred in the passage to distant Colonics in crowded vessels, sometimes inefficiently found. And there was little security that on arrival in remote Colonies the emigrants would be treated as well as those who engaged them had led them to expect. Hence the Indian Government was obliged to step in to protect its subjects, to take full precautions against the abuses of mercenary touts and recruiters, to insist on adequate provision for the voyage, and to limit emigration to those Colonies and territories where they were satisfied that the local laws made adequate provision for the pro- tection of Indian immigrants. But then, all these ])re- cautions cost money, increased the expense of emigration, and in proportion as it is costly the planters insist on long terms of servitude to recoup the expense. The machinery at the disposal of the Indian Govern- ment enables them to put down the abuses of tlie recruiters, and to make reasonable provision for the health and safety of the emigrants on board ship. The mortality from sickness on the way is not now excessive ; but disastrous shipwrecks are still, unfortunately, not uncom- mon, and I am sorry to say that on these occasions British officers and crews have sometimes shown themselves in a light happily rare among British seamen — saving them- selves, and leaving their passengers to perish like so many derelict cattle. Some of the officers and sailors in second- rate ships seem hardly to regard coloured passengers in the same light as those who are white. Not to go back to several cases within my own experience, take the follow- ing very recent case from Baron Hubner's travels. As he arrives at Fiji : " We pass near a large steamer, wrecked a few days before on a coral reef. She had come from Immigration to Tropical Territories. 153 Calcutta with a considerable number of coolies engaged by planters. The captain, officers, and crew, all of them drunk when the catastrophe occurred, were saved, but not one of the poor Hindus escaped death." There may very likely be question as to the sweeping charge of drunkenness, but as to the more material facts, I fear the event was too near for any great mistake on the Baron's part. It is not very long ago that the officers and crew of a pilgrim ship came into Aden and reported the loss of the ship, which they had left in a sinking state. But a few days later another vessel towed the derelict into port, not very much the worse, and with several hundred pilgrims on board. I never heard that those officers were seriously punished for the incident. So far as regards promises and undertakings, the Indian Government secured good treatment for its emigrant sub- jects in the Colonies, but the reports of several Royal Commissions have abundantly shown that in practice these precautions were sometimes by no means effectual. I will take, as an instance, Mauritius, the Colony nearest to India, where the Indians are mostly a settled population, and where one might most have expected that their good treatment would be secured. There had grown up a large Indian popu- lation, free of the indentures by which they were originally bound. The planters were jealous of free Indians, who would not work on estates. They attributed to them all sorts of wickedness and evil designs, which seem really ludicrous to those who know these people. A compliant governor happened to i)reside, and, in spite of the protest of some of the best and most experienced island officers, a law was passed, of extreme severity, which not only led to great abuses in regard to labourers under indenture, but put those whose terms had exi)ired, and who desired to remain free, under such harsh conditions that they were K T54 The British Empire. driven into re-engagements, or if they refused, reduced to an almost servile condition. I will not quote the strong language of the report of the Royal Commission of 1874 regarding the many abuses which they found to prevail in the treatment of indentured labourers^ but I more particularly note those affecting the Indians supposed to be free. If within eight days of expiry of indenture they did not re-indenture, they were subjected to a system of the most harassing supervision, under what was called the " Pass system " — they could not pursue any calling without a police permit, for which they paid heavily, could not move from one place to another without a special permit, were obliged to exhibit a ticket with their photograph to the police, and were charged a heavy sum for the photograph, for the benefit of favoured persons, and were subject to other restrictions. Altogether, the terms of the law were such that when it was received in England, even without the subsequent light thrown by the Royal Commission on the manner of its execution, the Emigration Commissioners were obliged to say that " it subjected the old immigrants not employed on estates to a control which in this country has been applied only to men under tickets of leave." It was observed, however, that " the opinions of those on the spot, with the best means of judging, were decided and unanimous as to the necessity for such a law " — quite an error, for the adverse opinions had not been sent home; and so the law was "allowed to go into operation." The Royal Commissioners, besides reporting on the injustice of the law, say, "We farther find that this law was enforced both by the police and the magistrates in such a reckless and indiscreet manner as to cause cruel hardships to a number of Your Majesty's subjects." After so strong a report in great detail had been made by a Royal Commission of unquestioned impartiality, one Immigration to Tropical Territories. 155 would have expected that not a moment would have been lost in puting an end to such flagrant abuses. But the Colonial Office deal very gently with Colonists, whom they may bring like hornets about their ears. While quite accepting the necessity of acting on the report, they went about the matter very slowly and quietly, with many refer- ences and much hesitation. Many years passed before the obnoxious ordinance was finally repealed. It was repealed at last, and much more equitable laws and rules were substituted, of which there is little to complain, except that I believe to this day free Indians are not placed on complete equality with other races, and are subject to some special restrictions under the name of vagrancy laws. It may be admitted, too, that in other Colonies, conse- quent on the report of the Royal Commissions, particular ■ abuses have been for the most part remedied, and greater care is now exercised. But what has been may be. I have always maintained that, after expiry of indenture, Indian immigrants should be entitled to all the privileges of free British subjects, independent of race and colour. But that ' doctrine has not yet been fully accepted. Emigration from India still goes on, but does not seem to increase, but rather the contrary ; it varies, I think, a little above or below some 20,000 per annum. The people who go are frugal, and sometimes save a good deal of money, though I think there is a good deal of exaggeration about that. We have figures only regarding the minority who return home with their earnings ; and then the considerable capital of successful traders, included in averages, gives a fictitious appearance of large savings so far as mere labourers are concerned. A good many do thus return home ; a good many settle in some of the Colonies ; a great many are unaccounted for, and in one way or other fall out by the way. I cannot hear that in many of the Colonies the Indians are much settled on the land. In Mauritius space K 2 156 The British Empire. is wanting ; in that and other Colonies such settlement has been discouraged. I have heard of something of settlement in Trinidad and one or two other places ; but we have very little information. The whole question of large emigration from India is one which still awaits solution. My own opinion is that we cannot have emigration from India on a large scale, and on satisfactory conditions, till the Indian Government is able more actively to encourage and facilitate it ; and this can hardly be till the British Govern- ment more directly and clearly undertakes the responsibility of protecting the coloured races in British Colonies and possessions not recognised as wholly self-governing. I think emigration from India most desirable for all parties — most desirable as an outlet to overflowing Indian popula- tions, and most desirable as a means of populating warm countries not well suited for white labour. But I think it must be on the condition that the emigrants have at least that complete personal freedom which they have in India, and that they are not in any degree treated as an inferior or servile race. I confess I should not be willing to trust them to a Colonial Governm.ent, under such conditions as those of the new Mauritius Constitution, where the votes of the planting interest will completely monopolise the repre- sentation. I cannot think, too, that emigration on a large scale; can be satisfactory unless facilities for settling on the land are offered to the emigrants in new countries where land is plentiful. The Chinese are a more robust race than the Indians — probably better fitted for Colonists ; especially where hard- ship has to be endured, and rough work has to be done, they are much superior. I cannot understand the viev/ taken by Baron Hubner in this matter ; and no one has had better opportunities of seeing Chinese emigrants in all parts of the world. He is never tired of praising the Chinaman wherever he meets him — "active, sober, of proverbial Immigration to Tropical Territories. 157 honesty ; an excellent cultivator, a first-rate gardener ; a born merchant ; a first-class cook ; unsurpassed as a handi- craftsman " — he has every industrial virtue under the sun, and he beats the white man, "not by force, but with the weapons of labour and thrift." Yet he winds up his sum- mary as if he thought Chinese immigration the greatest misfortune ; he speaks of the white river as fertilising the lands through which it runs with the seeds of Christian civilisation, and the yellow river as threatening to destroy them. I must say that, apart from the question of pre- serving the temperate countries as white men's lands, it seems to me that the objection to relying on Chinese as Colonists is not so much their inferiority in religion to the white adventurers who object to their competition, as the fact that, except to the limited extent already mentioned in some places not very far removed from China, they do not come as Colonists, but only as labourers and fortune-seekers — mere birds of passage. They are in a country, but not of it. They remain completely foreigners, whose ways we do not understand. They have their own self-government, of which we know nothing ; their own feuds, of which we are sometimes very painfully made aware ; their own habits and methods. After often inquiring, I have never been able to discover why Chinamen will not bring their wives and families and settle; how far it is a mere social prejudice, or how far the Chinese rulers are unwilling to give up a hold over their subjects. Be this as it may, till the difficulty is got over we must look on the Chinese as foreign labourers, and not as Colonists. We are hardly yet in a position to form an opinion what they would be if they really colonised, and how we should get on with them. But it is a very pregnant (question as regards the fiiture history of the world. The Polynesians cannot possibly be a source of very large supply of immigrants — that source has already been 158 The British Empire. overdone. Very great abuses have occurred, and tlie practice has accelerated the tendency to decUne in the population, already too pronounced. No doubt some ot the islands are more populous than others, but the Avhole population is not large, and is certainly decreasing. Planters, no doubt, think it right that labour should be fetched from islands where there are no planters, to islands where there are ; but the general result of the statements of those who know best is that nowhere in those parts of the world is labour redundant, if there were peace and opportu- nity to exercise it beneficially. The abuses of the Polynesian labour traffic are beyond doubt — there is nothing in modern times more shocking. They are proved not only by a great concurrence of testi- mony, but also by the report of the Commission on the Western Pacific, and by recent trials. There seems no doubt that natives were habitually kidnapped and bought — that even when voluntarily engaged they were misled and deceived as to the terms of the engagement : in short, that every offence that was possible was committed by unscrupu- lous recruiters paid by results, and very insufficiently super- vised by inefficient agents. It is also clear that very great mortality occurred among them on Queensland plantations ; and even when they survived their term of service, the stipulation to return them to their homes was very insuf- ficiently performed, it often happening that the wrong man was landed on the wrong island, and there probably plun- dered and eaten. The supervision, such as it was, mostly was in the hands of the Colonial Government, in which the planters, who profited by the system, were most powerful. Since the conscience of Queensland was awakened, and the labour-traffic party have fallen from power, some trials have taken place in the Colonies. In a recent case it was clearly proved that the master and crew of the labour vessel deliberately intercepted canoes and captured their occupants, Immigration to Tropical Territories. 159 that when they resisted they were run down, and when the natives, in the attempt to escape, jumped into the water, they Avere shot without remorse. More inexcusable and horrid murders could not be imagined, and convicted of murder the perpetrators were ; but they were not executed. No doubt since these disclosures the traffic has been more supervised, and the abuses much abated, but it is a dangerous and doubtful traffic at best. In connection with this question may be mentioned the barbarous system of reprisals by our ships of war, for alleged offences by uncivilised natives, which has largely prevailed both on the coasts of Africa and in the Pacific, and against which some of our best officers have much protested. It has always seemed to me that the British conscience is strangely variable ; sometimes it is much excited — it may be on a matter of secondary importance, or on a very small scale ; but at other times it is very slow to move. And so it is here, though repeated Blue Books have been published showing clearly enough how, on a com- plaint regarding some quarrel or some outrage on a white man, vessels of war have been sent to demand satisfaction or surrender of alleged criminals, and not obtaining that, have, without regard to the criminality of particular indi- viduals, bombarded this and that native town, and landed and destroyed houses and crops and fruit-trees and what- ever they could find, and spread devastation far and wide. It is a most barbarous system. In the Pacific these expe- ditions were generally undertaken on account of the murder of some trader or sailor by the natives ; and they, on their part, in most instances killed the white man in retaliation for offences committed against them by some other white men, who had kidnapped their relations, or committed some other offence against them. As Captain Bridge says, we, acting on old-fashioned notions, punish the tribe for the act or suspected act of the individual, and i6o The British Empire. the natives equally seek to punish members of the limited white tribe with which they are acquainted, for the acts of white men, deeming it much the same thing. But we do not admit that the same measure applies to ourselves and to others. In our own case we insist on exact individual proof and individual justice, which we quite dispense with when we are dealing with weaker tribes or peoples. In the Pacific an attempt has been made, through the Western Pacific Commission, to substitute for the system of reprisals individual responsibility, and some sort of regular trial ; but it is hardly claimed that the result has been very successful. There are great difficulties in the way. We cannot control the action of the ships of foreign Powers. German officers have lately reported exploits such as we used to perpetrate in those regions. In truth, we ourselves seem to have reverted to naval reprisals in the Pacific ; and I do not learn that in Africa our officers have yet been for- bidden that system, though some of their reports show that they do not at all like it. CHAPTER X. EXTENSION OR RETROGRESSION. , We have seen how rapid has been the extension of our territories of late years. The question is, Are we to continue SO to extend ? Well, perhaps we may save a good deal of argument on that point if we consider where we can farther extend. Even the tropical world has its limits. There is nothing more to be got in America, and nothing in Asia that any sane man would touch. We have already in form annexed our share of the great islands Borneo and New Guinea ; and in the latter it is only a question of adminis- tration whether we are merely to protect the natives or to exploit the country. We have divided the Pacific with Germany, and it only remains to come to terms with France. It hardly lies in the mouth of us, who steal so many sheep all over the world, to make virtuous protests if France steals a few lambs. If the French choose to take Tonquin, and establish a Protectorate over Madagascar, it is their affair. They have just as good a right to do it as we have to do the same thing in many other quarters. If we could bring ourselves honestly and frankly to acknowledge that, we might probably settle matters with France — so far, at least, as Oceania is concerned. It would be most desirable to arrange something with France and Germany to get rid of the joint engagements regarding the New Hebrides and one or two smaller places. If the Australians would allow us to come to terms with France about the New Hebrides, we might then probably have the rest of the South Pacific t62 The British Empire. to ourselves, and so satisfy all the reasonable demands of the Australians to be relieved, as far as possible, of the risk of great foreign establishments in their neighbourhood. If so much were arranged, there would remain only the great Continent of Africa. That I reserve to discuss separately. But outside Africa there really are no more worlds to con- quer. We might, if we liked, establish a few more Fijis in the Pacific ; that is about all. Cast about where we will, I do not see room for further extensions out of Africa. And it is perhaps well that it should be so ; we have been going rather fast of late. If the natural limits of the globe check our going for- ward, we are not prepared to go back directly and avowedly. We have not accepted fully Mr. Gladstone's lessons on the danger of too great empire. But we are, I think, as much as ever inclined to shuffle off our responsibilities by turning them over to any one who will take them within the Empire itself, if it can be called an Empire. Now, I think it is a very important question whether it is right, and justifiable, and politic, to turn over native populations whom we have made our subjects, or taken under our protection, to the self-governing Colonies, where these natives are not repre- sented, and by whom they are governed as outlying de- pendencies — to create, as it were, iinpei-ia in imperio. I must say that I am decidedly against this policy. The question practically arises in regard to Australasia and the Pacific, and in South Africa. It seems to me that such a transfer is good for no party ; that it is a shirking on our part of obligations which we have chosen to undertake ; that it is unfair to the natives ; and that it is by no means good for the Colonies. Surely the three millions of white Australians have enough to do, and will for a long time to come (even when they increase to ten times the number), to develop their own magnificent possessions, without insisting that a {qw among them should undertake the Extension or Retrogression. i6 J exploitation of other countries, which Nature has not made to be white men's countries, and the government of subject races — a task which diverts them from their own proper tasks, and wliicli has sometimes a very demoraUsing effect, as in regard to transactions affect- ing the Pacific islanders, to which allusion has been made. It is true enough that in the more settled parts of the Colonies there is much of the same public opinion which, with us, sooner or later, restrains and corrects great excesses, and that when that feeling is aroused we might expect Colonial opinion also to do much to correct abuses. But still, for a very long time to come, the body of impartial people in the Colonies must be smaller in proportion, and the speculative element must be larger in proportion than with us — there is not the same enormous middle class. And at any rate, I come back to this, that the Colonists have enough to do at home ; that they can only operate abroad under the protection of a navy and a foreign diplomacy ; and that while we claim to be one Empire we can have only one navy, and one diplomacy on the high seas. All the Colonies are not equally settled. However it may be in future days when they are more ripe and more settled, I do not think that we can advantageously turn over native populations to them at present, especially when the consent of those natives is neither asked nor given. Yet I am afraid it is in that direction that our policy is tending. The clause in the Australian Federation Act about the Pacific, the inclusion of the Crown Colony of Fiji in that arrangement, the demand for pecuniary contributions from the Colonies for the management of New Guinea, the appointment of a Queenslander to be commissioner for New Guinea, and all we hear of plans for tlie administration of New Guinea by Queensland, on the part of the Australian Colonies — all these things seem to ]:>oint in the same 164 The British Empire. direction. I must say that in my opinion to make over New Guinea to Queensland would be a base and un- justifiable policy. Without reverting more to questions connected with the labour traffic and the Australian aborigines, I must recall Captain Bridge's description of the civilised self-governing character, and agricultural and manufacturing capacities of the natives of New Guinea. These people should not be handed over to the planting Colonists of the opposite coast of Australia. I do hope that Her Majesty's Government will yet show some firm- ness regarding New Guinea — "indignation meetings" at places in Northern Queensland, Cooktown and the rest, notwithstanding. Then, after what we are told of the predominance of plutocrats and speculators in New Zealand, and their failure so to manage their own magnificent country as to lead to its sufficient agricultural development by real farmers, would it be just or reasonable to make over to them the Fiji natives hitherto protected by a paternal Government, or to let them possess themselves of the comparatively civilised Samoan and Tongan groups ? In South Africa again the Cape Colony seems to have enough to do in managing its own affairs and its great territory. The large proportion of natives within the Co- lony proper seems to be about as much as the Colonists can safely deal with ; throwing in large native popula- tions beyond those limits seriously disturbs the balance. Their management of outlying native territories has not been by any means successful. The practice of our conquering and making over to them many such territories ; letting them keep those which they think more or less profitable, so long as they are profitable, and hand them back to us when they seem troublesome and unprofitable, seems a very objectionable one. Apart from the question Extension or Retrogression. 165 of making the Cape Colony and the Boer Republics respon- sible for their own relations with the interior of Africa, which I now reserve, I think that the most of the native territories already subjected or brought under control by us, should be retained by us. It so happens that from the Kei River border all the way to the Portuguese frontier at Delagoa Bay, there is a territory practically native, easily accessible to us from the sea, and cut off from the rest of Africa by self-governing or foreign possessions. It com- prises the Transkei territory, Pondoland and Basutoland, Natal (in which the natives are more than ten to one), Zulu- land and the Swazis and Amatongas, so far as we may have relations with them — not so very large a territory after all. I have long thought that we might well combine all these into one organised dominion under the Crown, con- sisting partly of British territory, and pardy of protected Native States. After all, the handful of whites in Natal whose representatives are always passing resolutions pro- posing to take upon themselves the government of territories extended to any extent (with the support, I presume, of British troops), are not more important than the European settlers in several parts of India. Every- thing cannot be conceded to their desire for domination and speculation. I am very much an economist, but, after all, we are not so poor that we cannot aftbrd to do our duty by people whose administration we have undertaken. If we would but save the millions we are continually spend- ing on unnecessary and injurious wars, or preparations for war, we could afford to spend thousands to keep up a proper Commission for the Pacific and New Guinea, and find a decent government for a corner of South- East Africa. The general question of the best UKxle of administering the Crown Colonies and other territories is a very difficult i66 The British Empire. one — it is mucli easier to see and point out the defects of our present want of system than to find the remedy — and a solution can hardly be suggested till we settle several previous questions which I have left open when previously touching on them. We want to settle first our home affairs, so that our Parliament and Government may be tolerably efficient, and it may be possible to establish an eilficient administration at home for the conduct of Imperial affairs, so far as they must be controlled and regulated there. Then we must make up our minds whether we are really pre- pared to maintain a considerable Colonial dominion in ad- dition to an Indian dominion ; and especially whether we accept and will adhere to the duty of protecting the natives to whom we have promised protection. Where those natives are so sparse and so little fecund, and so little fitted for rough labour that more population is required to cultivate and develop the country, we must settle from what sources that population is to be derived, on what terms and conditions, and how we are to reconcile the respective claims of natives, new settlers, and white enter- prisers. Supposing these questions to be settled, the general principle to which I incline is, that half-and-half systems do not succeed — that you must either have real self-govern- ment or a paternal government. Where there are large native or coloured populations, I wholly distrust self- government in the hands of planters, and much misdoubt government by modern speculative and commercial Joint Stock companies, the memory of the East India Company notwithstanding. I think that in all these cases, either you must really and truly give the coloured people a large share of representation in any elective system, or if that cannot be, you must come to paternal government after all. In the latter case I would fasln'on t!ie government of tropical and other territories mainly populated by coloured Extension or Retrogression. 167 people, on the model of our Indian administration in the main — administering British territories with an equal hand for the benefit of all, and protecting and preserving native rule wherever we find it under conditions in which it is just and politic to maintain it. For instance, if New Guinea turns out in any degree to correspond to the descriptions which 1 have quoted, I would rigorously confine our self- assumed functions to the protection of the natives from external aggression, would not allow European settlement and enterprise to be carried on in a manner which might conflict with native laws, institutions, and ideas, and would uphold the right of the people of New Guinea to New Guinea. It may well be that in some of the islands of the Pacific and elsewhere the people are so savage, so given to internecine war, and so exposed to aggression, that, as in so much of India, it really may be right and beneficial to assume direct rule over them ; but it should be done in such a way that their complete protection should be secured. As in India so in these territories I would encourage and develop all the local self-government that is possible without bringing about a conflict of races or injustice to the weaker race. And as in India I would look to the possi- bility of a future day when institutions might be so de- veloped, and conflicting interests and ideas so far reconciled, that a larger self-government might be introduced, in which white, black, and brown might partake on equal terms, and by means of which we might be in great part relieved of a continually increasing task, growing too heavy for us. But in most of the territories, where the population is mixed, and the European settlers are still divided by broad lines from the people, that day has not yet come. I may add that we must also exercise some restraint on the liberty of British subjects to go where they like and to 1 68 The British Empire. call on their Government to follow and protect them. If they thus go into countries already occupied by natives, they must either do so at their own risk, or submit to such limitations and control as the Government may find it necessary to impose. 1 CHAPTER XI. AFRICA. Africa, in the widest sense, has been left out of the above view, and I now come to it. It is a very large exception indeed from the statement that there are no more worlds to conquer. To realise how large Africa is, com- pare it with India on the map, and see how many Indias could be put into it. Deserts there, no doubt, are, but most of it seems to be a sufficiently watered and habitable country, and though we know little of its resources, we can at least say, in general terms, that very much of it is fertile, and capable of supporting large populations. First as to our own position in Africa. We have seen how we stand in South Africa. The self-governing Cape Colony proper, excluding the unrepresented Transkei, has an area about the size of France. There are no very recent statis- tics of population, but the whites (English and Dutch to- gether) seem to be nearly 300,000 ; the coloured people about 600,000 — total under a million. All the other territories, from the Kei to Delagoa Bay, may be roughly put at little more than half the size of the Cape Colony, with a population of from a million to a million and a half, of whom the whites are certainly not 5 per cent. Bechuana- land, as annexed or formally protected, is again about the size of France, or rather more, with a population very small indeed in proportion to its size, probably under 200,000 in all. The Orange Free State, with an area about the size of England, numbers only about 140,000, of whom one-half are whites. It is the policy there not to allow a L lyo The British Empire. preponderance of blacks. The Transvaal territory is about the size of the United Kingdom, and is estimated to have about 750,000 inhabitants, of whom only about 40,000 or 50,000 are whites, and the rest are Africans in a very indi- genous state, many of them rather tributary tribes than proper subjects. Though Bechuanaland is little fertile and very little popu- lated, we have on that side the way opened to us to the interior of Africa, and to countries larger and, in some degree, better populated in that direction. There is, however, in some sense, a limit to that. The country to the west we have con- ceded to Germany, from the Cape boundary to that of the Portuguese on the west coast. On the east we are shut off by the Transvaal and the Eastern Portuguese territories. And in the regions to the north any idea of trade to Cape Town could hardly be carried much beyond the Zambesi ; beyond that the outlets are evidently to the east and the west. Farther north, too, we come to the watershed of the Congo, consecrated by anticipation to a general international trade. That arrangement seems to extend almost right across the continent. And again the countries about Zanzibar, not possessed by the Sultan of that place, seem to have been pretty well surrendered as a field for German exploration and annexation, so far as the Germans choose to occupy them. South Africa might in general terms be defined as the part of that continent south of about 15'' South Latitude; and in all the interior part between our present frontier and that point, there is, no doubt, room for much extension if we wish for it. It has been said we know little of the claims of the African Company on the Niger, and that the British Colonies, north of that river, are scattered, and have not yet large dominions. On the east, the last partition with Germany seems to have left us a considerable field, but we have not yet availed ourselves of it. For Africa. 171 the rest, if Zanzibar (ihough the island has many British subjects from India) is not in any degree under our pro- tection, and Perim and Socotra are not counted African, we have nothing till we come to Suakim on the Red Sea. That place, though nominally Egyptian, is managed by us, and practically garrisoned by us ; for, though happily we have been able to substitute Egyptian for British soldiers, we pay for them. So it is to be presumed that if any interests are subserved by holding Suakim, now that the Soudan is definitively abandoned, they are our interests. But what those interests are no man can explain. If there is any idea of an interest somewhere, it seems to be that after having slaughtered very many of the tribes, we may, by wearing and worrying them, at length make them friendly, and induce them to trade with us when they have nothing left to trade. At any rate, we seem to have been carrying on a little war, blockading the coast, subsidising one set of tribes to fight against another set, and exulting greatly when the so-called friends (that is, those who take our money and our arms) gain any advantage over the other set. There is something very sad in the way in which the Soudan country, so long comparatively peaceful and subject to civilising influences of a sort, and the great waterways of the Upper Nile, have now been given over to anarchy and desolation ; but at all events, if we no longer desire to establish our- selves there, we might leave the people alone, and not con- tinue hostility and enmities. That seems to be the view taken by our own best officers. It is to be gathered from the last Egyptian Blue Book that they, too, are themselves ignorant of the objects which we have in view. We are told that if we wish to keep Suakim and remain on the defensive, that place is quite impregnable to any attack which the natives are capable of making; also that the maritime blockade, however stringent, can have little effect on the real situation in the Soudan. The present L 2 172 The British Empire. Governor, Watson Pasha, very sensibly says (Memo of April 6, 1886)^" If the Government were to declare that the war was at an end, and to re-open trade, it is possible that after a time the country would settle down." Besides the German claims already mentioned, they have a settlement at the Cameroons, south of the Niger mouth. The Portuguese claim long stretches of the coast countries south of the equator, on both east and west coasts ; and the French claim a large territory on one side of the Congo mouth. The French and other countries have Colonies of sorts alternating with ours on the west coast north of the equator. The French and Italians have the ports of Obok, Assab, and Massowah on the east coast adjoining Abyssinia. We know that the French hold North Africa, except Egypt and Tripoli (the last mostly desert) and the dominions of the Sultan of Morocco. For the rest, the whole vast interior, except so far as it is appropriated by the international Congo State, and including the Soudan and equatorial regions once under Egypt, are now, so far as European and civilised Powers are concerned, a no man's land, of only parts of which do we know anything, and of little of which do we know much. This much, however, we do know, from our connection with Egypt and the enterprise of our explorers in the region of the great lakes, that a large part of Africa in that direction is elevated and fertile, and apparently might be suitable for European enterprise and industry. The Moka coffee (the name under which that article first became well known in Europe) is understood to have come from this part of Africa. Of other parts of Africa we have glimpses sufficient to induce us to believe that there are populous countries, with some degree of organised government, especially those in the northern half of the continent, to which the Mahom- raedan religion and some Mahommedan civilisation have in some degree penetrated. Africa. 173 But it may be said in general terms that over a very large proportion of the continent so much anarchy, inter- slaving wars, desolation, and misery prevail, that the inter- vention of any European Power capable of introducing peace, order^ and material comfort would be at least as justifiable as our intervention in India. The people, too, have much capacity for labour and many virtues. We know enough of them in the shape of the mixture of many African races who were the slaves of America, and are now freemen there, to say that they make good Christians and very tolerable citizens when, in spite of generations of the worst kind of slavery, they have at last a chance. Some of those who have come under civilising influences in our own African Colonies also exhibit many good qualities. If they have not the native intelligence and civilisation of the people of India, they have greater physical robustness. I have often thought that, if we had not India on our hands, we might have taken advantage of the opportunities Ave have had, both in the north and in the south of the African Continent, to establish a great empire there ; but, with India and so many other possessions to hold, it may not be — to say nothing of the jealousies of Foreign Powers if we attempt to take everything. The resources in men of our limited islands are already sufficiently strained to supply an army adequate both for home security and for the great garrisons abroad. Whatever opinion may be as to the practicability of moderate extensions, I think it must be generally felt that we could not undertake another large empire. Tempting, then, as, in some respects, Africa may be, we must be cautious and not allow ourselves to be carried too far there, or to drift into complications involving greater advances than we are prepared for. No ; we must limit ourselves in Africa. In South Africa we must, I think, draw a line beyond 174 The British Empire. which we will not go. The way to the interior from the north of Africa we have already surrendered, for we shall hardly march forward from Suakim again. We must warn the African Company on the west not to attempt too much, and look after them if their territorialism turns out to be serious. We must not yield to the seductions of local merchants and Chambers of Commerce in this country seeking to establish large dominions in North-western Africa. As regards South Africa, what we have to do is to make up our minds about Bechuanaland. It is un- doubtedly very difficult to draw an artificial line at the twenty-second parallel with no natural boundary. We m^ct either compensate Makroane and Montisoia, come away, and let the Boers have their will after all ; or we must make up our minds to hold the country, pay for its administration, and risk inevitable extensions ; or we must still try to bribe or coax the Cape Colony to take it off our hands, and either hold it, or come to some confederative arrangement Avith the Boer Republics for holding the interior of South Africa. In the latter case we could not again interfere between them and the natives. It is certainly a very puzzling situation. The worst of it is that, if the Cape Colony did take Bechuanaland, they might afterwards come to grief and cast it back upon us, so that the last state would be worse than the first. If the trade route, which was the principal justification for the advance, is at all a reality, that is entirely for the benefit of the Cape Colony. I think we may at least put our foot down and say we will have none of it unless there is some fair arrangement with the Colony regarding transit from the coast and Customs duties. To tell the truth, if we have not the courage to come away and allow the Cape Colony and the Boer Republics to do as they like in South Africa, and confederate if they can, I fear that the Bechuana expedition and the acts following on it have committed us to a large dominion in the interior Africa. 175 of South Africa, which must probably in the end extend to the Zambesi or thereabouts. But, even if that must be, I hope we may come at length to some frontier where we may stop and avoid an ever-extending dominion, which might become an empire. No doubt a confederation of the Cape Colony and the Boer Republics would probably be strong enough to hold their own in those countries ; but if we accept that arrangement, we must be quite clear that we are not to interfere again. And perhaps it might in that case be difficult to maintain our hold over South Africa as really a British dominion. If we do not desire to establish in Africa any more extensive empire than we can help, and are content with what we have got there or cannot avoid, we need not be jealous of foreign nations who may wish to take what we do not want, but might rather encourage them to expend their energies in Africa wherever they can fairly and legitimately do so in a manner calculated to advance the interests of mankind. The great Congo basin has been (it has been said), by international agreement, consecrated to the common com- merce of all, and cannot be exclusively occupied by par- ticular Powers for their own benefit. The Congo State (so called — a very little in esse and very much in posse) is to be a sort of international guardian of this agreement, and is precluded from exercising territorial jurisdiction in such a way as to conflict with the general right to free-trade in those regions. The benevolent motives and great liberality of the King of the Belgians, as personally the principal pro- moter of this neutral State, are beyond doubt. And if it goes on, we may very heartily wish it well. ^Ve may well hope, too, for the success of the projects for railways to connect the lower Congo with the navigable upper rivers, and for flotillas to navigate that upi)er river, which arc in hand. 176 The British Empire. The Germans have got rather into an impasse on the south-western coast, between the desert and the deep sea. They will not make much of what we have conceded to them there, and it is perhaps as well that they are not very seriously settled so near us in South Africa. But farther north, whether on the east, or west by the Cameroons, if they like to push their possessions we need not object. If they will fairly and honestly undertake African rule and not leave it too exclusively to commercial companies, they may be a great civilising influence. The Italians are a clever people, with some surplus population, considerable resources, no Colonies, and a turn towards Africa. They have a small place called Assab, and have most patiently endured their lot in being presented with that miserable share of African extension — Massowah, where they come into collision with the Abyssinians. Why should we not offer them Suakim and our share of the east coast as now settled with the Germans ? They might then seriously think of obtaining an entrance to the upper Nile, the Victoria Nyanza, and the interior of tropical Africa, and might be more successful than we have been in coming to terms with the Arabs. It would be a good thing that they should share with us anxiety to protect the Suez Canal. And if they succeeded on the upper Nile, that would go far to cover Egypt. Not impossibly they might come to terms with the French so far as to get rid of the small French settlements in that quarter, which we should be very glad of On the other hand, the question of Egypt apart, I do not know why we should be jealous of any French exten- sions in the north and north-west of Africa. The French would be better and perhaps more legitimately occupied there than in some other parts of the world. If we could get rid of that excessive jealousy of any other Power doing what we do so often and so much, I dp t Africa. 177 think that, holding our own in South Africa and in such other African possessions as are worth keeping, we might very well leave the rest to others. Egypt is quite another matter. Of that I shall say but little. I quite believe that if we were in Egypt with the goodwill of other nations, and could stay there and ad- minister it as we administer India, and if we could begin without an overwhelming debt, we might in that case make a very good job of a rich country and a good people. But it is far otherwise. We are in Egypt under circumstances of great disadvantage, and we are solemnly bound neither to stay there permanently nor to turn our occupation to our own selfish advantage. Practically we only hold our present position there on condition of paying the interest of the debt, which we cannot do without great sacrifices on our part. While the revenue goes to pay the bondholders, we defend Egypt, and the British taxpayer pays for that defence. Our administration is so hampered by foreign privileges and other conditions, which foreign Powers, jealous of our position there, will not relax, that it cannot be rendered satisfactory. I have always maintained that to say that we will stay till we establish a good and a stable government, capable of meeting all its obligations, is in effect saying that we will stay till the Greek Kalends. We might possibly establish a government which might administer the country in a tolerable way, judged by an Oriental standard, and which, after a revolution or two, might settle down ; but a native government which shall both satisfy the people of Egypt and, at the same time, satisfy the foreign bondholders, is quite impossible. To say nothing of other difficulties, none of the recent budget schemes make any adequate provision whatever for the defensive armaments so necessary as Egypt is situated. We must look the debt question in the face, for, say what lyS The British Empire. we will of philanthropy and good government, that is the crucial question. We talk as if we had improved the financial position ; we have done nothing of the kind. What we have done is to stop the sinking funds, and so save a large outgoing ; but, by doing so, we have deprived the people of all prospect of ultimate relief. Meantime we have piled debt upon debt ; the last guaranteed nine millions is a clear addition to the debt in a pre-preference form. In addition to all that, the change in the value of gold has enhanced the whole debt, diminished the value of the produce from which it is paid, and made the taxes a heavier burden on the people. When Lord Salisbury says once more that we are not to leave Egypt till our mission is fulfilled, I cannot help thinking that he puts us in the position of the man who has rashly undertaken the hopelessly embarrassed estate of an incapable young friend, very much against the will of the other relations, and vows he will never give it up till he has cured all the faults of the owner, and has insured a thoroughly satisfactory management, and complete solvency. He finds that the young man is not to be taught ; that he can only attain such tolerable management as paid agents can achieve in spite of every drawback and every opposition from the other relations ; and that solvency is farther off than ever. To keep the thing going at all, the guardian is obliged not only to sacrifice much labour, time, trouble, and temper, but to expend very much from his own pocket on ruinous litigations and the defence of the estate, without in any degree gaining his end or contenting the people on the estate. It may be that having once got the management he may obstinately insist on keeping it till things are righted ; and that as things never do come right, that gives him an indefinite tenure. But since he gains nothing and loses much by the position, why should he wish to continue it ? That seems to me to be our position in Egypt. I Africa. it 9 should say that our tenure of that country is so em- barrassing, costly, and unsatisfactory, that we should be only too desirous to get out of it. We should need no urging ; the only question for us should be — how we can get out of it. CHAPTER XII. CONCLUSION. And now to conclude. We certainly have a magnificent Empire which may well satisfy us, and an ample outlet for our people of all classes. We need not grumble that our Em- pire has pretty well reached the limits set by Nature, and that we cannot continue to go forward so fast as in the last few years. We may be well content to improve and fill up what we have ; there is still in that a great task before us, which will give us ample scope for a long time to come, and we need not restlessly ask for more. We may hope that if things go on as they are, with a few necessary adjustments, we may continue to be on the nearest terms of friendly alliance with our greater Colonies, even when they have grown into peoples so considerable that they may hardly occupy the position of children ; while in India and the Crown Colonies, for which we are more directly responsible, the great thing is to try to do our duty by the people, to make them prosperous and contented, and to prepare them for a greater or less amount of self-management, as far as is possible, rather than permit ourselves to be too nervously anxious lest some day some one should want to take them from us. Perhaps some day we may cede our Protectorates or possessions in the Pacific to a great Australian Federation which has occupied its own territories, and has grown up to a full measure of parental capacity; but that is not yet, nor for some time to come. Whatever may be our arrangements for the government of African territories, I contemplate retaining a strong British hold on the southern and south-eastern end of that Conclusion. i8i Continent, and look on the route of whicli that is the half- way house as our true route to India in time of difficulty and danger. The northern route, by the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, I look on as a mercantile and a peace route. I greatly doubt and distrust the possibility, the ex- pediency, and the paying-ness of attempting to maintain and cover that great length of voyage through land-locked seas in case of war with a great Mediterranean Power, and have little trust in the efficiency of the so-called chain of fortresses, with many hundred miles between each link. We should not only have fully to garrison and maintain those posts, but to guard with a superior naval force all the seas between them, besides keeping a large army in Egypt, if we are to hold that link, too, by force. I am very much convinced that even if we could maintain that route in time of war, it would cost us infinitely more tlian it is worth ; that it would be infinitely cheaper to use the Cape route ; and that even in point of time, the ten days (or, at the very most, a fortnight) gained in time of peace by the Medi- terranean route, would be more than lost by the delays inevitable to convoys and precautions in time of war. I confess that, if I had my way, I should like to with- draw our Mediterranean fleet and add it to the Channel fleet, so as to make us thoroughly secure in that vital quarter ; and that we should then appear in the Medi- terranean only as merchants and owners of transports. Leaving the politics of the Mediterranean and the Bos- phorus for the most part to the Powers and j^eoples of the Mediterranean and their immediate allies, I would have it that we should take part only in respect of our share in the comity of European nations, and as interested in Eastern Europe in a very secondary degree. In a much greater degree we should be interested in that internationalisation of the Suez Canal for peaceful purposes to which recent en- gagements tend, and to which sound policy points. If we 1 82 The British Empire. could not use it in the unhappy event of serious war, we might, at least, when occasion may require, put forth our naval strength to block it, and prevent its being used against us by any one else. As regards international arrangements for the canal in peace, I believe the quarantine question is the only one likely to give much trouble — foreigners are so sensitive about that, and it touches us so nearly. Public opinion is probably not yet ripe for giving up our military posts in the Mediterranean, or turning them into mere coaling stations ; but it is becoming more and more evident to all what a serious difficulty and embarrassment our position in Egypt is, and how much it embitters our relations with other Powers, especially with France. Possi- bly there is more smoke than fire in the outcry of the French press, for behind the French press there is another power in France, the Bourse, and that power we are bribing by paying the bondholders their full coupons. The French public is an investing public, and the price of the Funds influences them as much as national sentiment, even in its tenderest places. But, meantime, the British taxpayer is paying for the army which guards and defends Egypt, a function which must always be performed by some army costing much money. After all, why should we be involved in all these diffi- culties on account of the Egyptian bondholders ? Why should they of all foreign bondholders be the only creditors whose debts are to be enforced by foreign armies, any more than Turkish, or Spanish, or South American bondholders ? The French bondholders are, no doubt, a strong power ; but the French sentiment against our holding Egypt is also much excited. If really and truly our only object is to insure the freedom of the Suez Canal, and not to secure the bondholders, surely we had better try to make some ar- rangement by which the former object may be effected. The French Government have repeatedly offered an Conclusion. 183 engagement that if we leave Egypt they will not go there. Why not take advantage of this proposal and try to make an international self-denying treaty regarding Egypt, even if some sacrifice of the bondholders is involved, and they must take their chance of getting from a native Government what the country can fairly pay, like other foreign bondholders ? That seems to be the only hope of getting out of Egypt in a satisfactory way. If no such arrangement is made, then, no doubt, as soon as we come out, the foreign bondholders will seek to re-enter in some other way. We are in a terrible difificulty. To stay is a very severe drain on our army and finance, and ruinous to good-will between ourselves and our European neighbours ; to go away is very difficult. Why did we ever go when the French wished to stay away ? There is no doubt that Egypt is the skeleton at our national feast. Undoubtedly it would be a great relief to us if Egypt could be almost independent, as in fact it was from the time of Mehemet Ali to that of Ismael. And it would greatly tend to our peace of mind if we could concern our- selves less in the politics of Western Asia. We are apt to excite ourselves unnecessarily. At one time we are keen for the necessity of maintaining the Turkish Empire, and accept the ridiculous fiction, of modern invention, that the Indian Mahommedans reverence the Grand Turk as Caliph At another time we are persuaded of the danger of a Ma hommedan revival, which is once more to threaten Christendom. Thinking as I do, that there is a very great amount of good in the Mahommedan religion, and that, Turks, Arabs, Persians, and some other Mahommedans are very fine races with great capabilities, I do not deny that, if it were possible, it would be very desirable to have a great Mahommedan State or federation in Western Asia. Such a Power would have a very steadying and conservative effect. But I fear nothing of the kind is possible. The Ottoman Turks are, no doubt, a particularly fine race, but all told they t84 The British Empire. are not an exceedingly numerous people ; their government is execrable, and effete beyond recovery. Now that they are in decadence the Arab hatred and contempt for them has broken out. Where then is there any possibiUty of any large Mahommedan union ? On the contrary, the various Mahommedan races are antagonistic in the last degree. Arabs hate Turks, Persians and Kurds hate equally Turks and Arabs. There is a bitter antagonism between Affghans and Persians on the one side, and Affghans and Turkomans on the other. The only common bond of all might be a common hatred of invading foreigners. And our best security against any combination hostile to us is the diffi- culty which others must experience in dealing with these peoples, and the antagonism sure to be created by attempts to bring them under control. We had much better be con- tent to regard India as a self-contained possession to which we have always free access by the ocean route, and not vex ourselves too greatly over the politics of the rest of Asia. 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Greenwood, F.C.S., Assoc. M.I.C.E., S;c., 5s. — Spinning Woollen and Worsted, by W. S. Bright McLaren, 4s. 6d. — Design in Te.xtile Fabrics, by T. R. Ashenhurst, 4s. 5d. — Practical Mechanics, by Prof. Perry, M.E., 3s. 5d. — Cutting Tools Worked by Hand and Machine, by Prof. Smith, 3s. 6d. A Prospectus on application. Test Cards, Cassell's Combination. In sets, is. each. CASSELL «i COMPANY, Limited, LudgaU Hill, London. Selections from Cassell URC w 1967, l>^nii L9-25m-9,'47(A5618)444 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES LIBRARY UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA 000 516 122 9