Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
littp://www.archive.org/details/bool<ofhistoryliis13bryciala
^^l^-
RECESSIONAL
'l^od of our fathers known of old
.
i^A
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The Book of History
H Ibistot^ of all Bations
FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE PRESENT
CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS
Volume XIII
EUROPEAN POWERS TODAY
Russia The Balkan Wars
.
Russia .....
Plan of the Seventh Division
Germany .....
Austria-Hungary
Spain
Portugal
.....
The Republic of Andorra
.....
.
5398
5399
5404
The Scandinavian States .
541
United Kingdom 5417
Types of British Battleships 5425
5441
S440
•
5465
5473
.
•
•
5479
5483
5497
Britain's Contests in Africa • 5509
Fighting Forces of the British Empire • 5525
Outposts of Empire • 5537
Composition of the Empire • 5545
Great Britain's Inner Empire . • 5557
Parliaments of the Outer Empire • 5573
The Sinews of Empire . 558r
British Expansion in Europe • 5599
British Expansion in America
King Edward VII .... . . .
AMERICA
THE ATLANTIC OCEAN
Map of Atlantic Ocean ...........
.......... 5656
The
The ..........
Atlantic before Columbus
Atlantic after Columbus
5657
5663
National or Constituent Assembly. July 14th : and (ireat Britain French occupy Hanover. ;
Fall of Bastille. Aug. Abolition of Feudal : 1804 Feb.: Royalist Plot of Pichegru and Cadoudal
privileges. Oct. Insurrection of Women. : Moreau exiled. March Murder of Due :
Brunswick's proclamation. Aug. Mob attack : Confederation of the Rhine. Oct. Prussia :
" National Convention " meets Republic pro- ; Slave Trade. Feb. Eylau. March Port- : :
claimed. Oct. and Nov. Success of Repub- : land Ministry. Canning Foreign Secretary.
lican armies. Dec. Trial of Louis XVI. opens. :
April Treaty of Bartenstein. June
: Fried- :
1793 Jan. : Second partition of Poland. Louis be- land. July Treaty of Tilsit. Jerome Bona-
:
Revolt of Girondist dei)artments. Death of 1808 March Abdication of Charles IV. of Spain. May
: :
:
Danton Robespierre supreme. Pichegru in
:
retreat of Sir John Moore. Napoleon leaves
Netherlands. June Ist, Howe's victory :
Spain.
26th, Jourdan's victory at Fleurus ; 28th,
Therm idorian reaction. Fall of Robespierre 1809 Jan. Moore at Corunna. Feb.
: Fall of Sara- :
end of Reign of Terror. Oct. : Pichegru over- gossa. April Wellesley at Lisbon. Austria
:
1795 Jan. :Third partition of Poland. April : Peace forced to evacuate Portugal. JULY Wagrani :
of Basle with Prussia. July
;
Peace of Basle :
Talavera. Walcheren Expedition. Oct. Peace :
with Spain. Emigres crushed at Quiberon. of Vienna. Bernadotte becomes Crown Prince
Oct. : Insurrection of Vend6miaire suppressed.
of Sweden.
Directory established.
May : Bonaparte in Italy. Lodi. Sept. : Archduke 1810 March Napoleon marries Marie Louise. July
: :
Leoben. Repression of Venice. Cisalpine and Moscow Expedition starts. Liverpool Ministry.
Ligiu-ian Republics constituted. Sept. Coup :
July Salamanca. Sept. Borodino. Burning
: :
5279
GREAT DATES FROM THE FRENCH REVOLU-
TION TO OUR OWN TIME
A.D. A.D.
1821 Death of Napoleon. Suppression of Italian revolts. 1853 Turkey declares war against Russia.
Greek insurrection against Turkey. 1854 Crimean war. Battles of Alma, Balaclava, and
1822 Canning, Foreign
Secretary. Indei)endence of Inkerman.
South American colonies recognised. Congress 1855 Palmerston Ministry. Fall of Sebastopol. Alex-
of Vienna. Greek successes. ander II. Tsar.
1823 Ferdinand VTI. of Spain re-establishes absolutism 1856 End ofWar. Persian and Chinese wars. Lord
by French help. Reaction in Portugal. Huskis Canning in India.
son's commercial policy in England. 1867 Indian Mutiny revolt broken.
;
1824 Accession of Charles X. in Blanco. 1858 Orsini's bomb. Derby Administration. Mutiny
1825 Ibrahim Pasha in Greece. Nicholas I. Tsar of suppressed India transferred to the Crown.
;
1826 Canning prevents Spanish intervention in Portugal Magenta and Solferino. Peace of Villafranca.
Fall of Miss<jlonghi. Palmerston 's return.
1827 Canning, Prime Minister. Anglo-Russian Treaty of
1860 Union Savoy and Nice to France. Garibaldi in
of
London. Death of Canning. Battle of Navarino.
Sicily. The Commons, the Peers, and the
Paper Duty.
1828 Wellington, Prime Minister. Test and Corporation 1861 Victor Emmanuel King of Itily. Death of Cavour.
Acta repealed. Clare election. Usurpation of Abd ul-Aziz Sultan. William I. in Prussia.
Dom Miguel in Portugal. War between Russia Emancipation of Russian serfs. North American
and Turkey. CivilWar.
1829 Catholic emancipation. Treaty of Adrianople. 1862 Battle of Aspromonte. King Otto expelled from
Greek independence recognised. Greece. Bismarck Prussian Minister. Cotton
1830 Accession of William IV. in Ensland. Grey I^ime famine.
Minister. The July Revolution. Louis Philippe 1863 Schleswig-Holstein war. Suppression of Poland.
King of the French. Risings in Belgium, Poland, The Alabama.
and Sicily. Accession of Ferdinand II. in Naples. 1864 Death of Palmerston.
1831 Belgium recognised as an independent kingdom. 1865 Russell Ministry. Gastein Convention.
Polish revolt suppressed. English Reform Bill 1866 Seven Weeks' War of Prussia and Austria.
rejected. Sadowa. Venetla ceded to Victor Emmanuel.
1882 Reform Act passed. French in Rome. Dual Government of Austria-
1833 Otto of Bavaria King of the Hellenes. Isabella Hungary.
succeeds in Spain. Miguel expelled from 1867 Disraeli's Reform Bill. B.N.A. Consolidation Act,
Portugal. Slavery abolished in the British Abyssinian War.
Empire. 1868 Isabella expelled from Spain. Fenian outrages.
1834 Melbourne Ministry. Poor Law Reform. On Abolition of Church rates.
Melbourne's dismissal by the king, Peel attempts 1869 Gladstone Administration. Irish Land BUI and
to form Ministry. Disestablishment.
1835 Melbourne Ministry returns. Palmerston in control 1870 Franco-German War; Sedan: Third Republic.
of Foreign Affairs. Ferdinand I. Austrian Italy unified. English Education Act.
Emperor. 1871 Surrender of Paris. German Empire proclaimed.
Black Sea Conference.
US? Accession of Victoria. Hanover separated from
1872 Alabama award.
Great Britain. Paplneau's revolt in Canada.
1838 Lord Durham In Canada. Development of
1873 MacMahon President In France.
Chartism. 1874 Alfonso XII. in Spain. Disraeli Administration.
1839 Mehemet All in Syria. Abd ul-Mejid sultan. 1875 Purchase of Suez Canal shares.
Peel and the Bedchamber question. Anti-Corn
1876 Bulgarian atrocities. Abd ul-Hamid Sultan.
Law League.
1840 Mehemet All checked. Marriage of Queen 1877 Russo-Turkish War. Annexation of Transvaal.
Victoria. Canadian Act of Reunion. Chinese 1878 Treaty of San Stefano. Berlin Congress. Afghan
" Opium " War. wars ended In 1880.
;
1841 Kabul disaster. Peel, Prime Minister. 1879 Zulu War : Isandlhwana.
1842 Dost Mohammed restored. Peel's sliding scale. 1880 Gladstone Administration.
The Disruption in Scotland.
1843 1881 Majuba. Retrocession of Transvaal.
Anuexatk)n of Sindh. Owalior Campaign.
1845 First Sikh War ended next year.
;
1882 Bombardment of Alexandria. Tel-el-Keblr.
1846 Repeal of the Com Laws. Plus IX. Pope. Russell 1884 Franchise and Redistribution Acts.
adnilnlgtration. 1885 Death of C. G. Gordon. Penjdeh Incident.
1847 Fielden's Factory Act. 1886 First Home Rule Bill. Salisbury Ministry.
1848 February Revolution ; Second French Republic.
1888 Pamell Commi-slon.
Risings in Sicily and Naples. March Revolu-
tion in Germany. Revolt of Schleswig-Holstein 1889 Annexation of Burmah.
from Denmark. Revolts of Ix)mbardy and 1895 Salisbury's Unionist Administration. Jameson
Venice against Austria. Frankfort Parliament.
raid.
Radetzk-y defeats Charles Albert of Sardinia
at Custozza. Accession of Frederic VII. in 1898 Conquest of Sudan.
Denmark, Francis Joseph in Austria Louis ;
1899 Boxer rising in China. South African War begins.
Napoleon President of French Republic. Dal- 1900 .\ustralian Commonwealth.
housie in India. Collapse of Chartist move- 1901
ment in England. Reaction victorious in
Accession of Edward VII.
Germany and Austria. Second Sikh War. 1902 End of Boer War.
1849 Hungarian 1903 Russo-Japanese War.
revolt suppressed. Victor Em-
manuel King of Sardinia. Dissolution of 1904 Separation of Norway and Sweden.
Frankfort Parliament. Reaction in Central 1905 (Dec.) Cainpl)eU-Bannerni:in (Lil).), Prime Minister.
Italy. Annexation of Punjab. 1906 Grant of resjwnslble government in S. Africa.
1850 North Gennan Confederation. Convention of
Olmutz. 1909 Union of S. Africa.
Australian Constitution Bill. The
Queen's memorandum to Palmerston. 1010 Accession of (ieorge V.
1851 Coup d'ftat in France. Palmerston dismissed, 1011 Republic in Portugal.
(ireat Exhibition. 1912 Manchu dynasty expelled, and republic declared
1852 Schleswig-Holstein question. Cavour Minister. In China.
Death of Duke of Wellington. Napoleon III.
Emperor. 1912
\ Balkan States defeat Turkey.
1913
5280
GLIMPSESfEUROPES
CAPITAL CITIES
S2gt
TRAFALGAR SQUARE AND THE NELSON COLUMN .\> SEEN FROM THE WEST SIDE
ANOTHER VIEW FROM THE MONUMENT, SHOWING ST. PAUL'S IN THE DISTANCE
LONDON, THE CAPITAL OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
5282
PANuKAiVllL. VlhW. SHOWING LlGHl OK THE BRIDGES ACROSS THE RIVER SEINE
1
1
HRPH
i
1 ' ,-
*''i»w-'-
-^^*:y'..
''
. .1 1 ^ ^'
J
-
- )
'
y -^m
"*;
r V^iNiL ;v ^ '^
\L >i
1. 'f^*''^'tK A^ ^--
'i -%^ u W^h^^l:. \\ - ^^
^
_-
% < • ih^ '
1 '; ^ /
> rA '^
.'
^-ijX^^ ^
%.
A GENERAL VIEW, SHOWING THE IMPERIAL PALACE AND THE CATHEDRAL
1
I,
THE OLD ADMIRALTY BUILDING FROM ONE OF THE BRIDGES SPANNING THE NEVA
PETROGRAD. THE MODERN CAPITAL OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE
5285
OF THE FRANZENSRING, THE PRINCIPAL BOULEVARD OF VIENNA
Pliotochrorae
::^:'\«7t.'
B
^^^^B
.
' 1' I
ssa^:^^
»?C^'^l9^4!««Pil3Bp
Photochrome
THE EUROPEAN
POWERS TO-DAY
AND A SURVEY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
As concerns our present great geographical division
—
Europe we have now reached the last historical phase. It
remains for us to take the states into which that division is
now split up, to give an account of their present-day
characteristics, and to relate the present with the past and the
immediate future. For it is not the historian's part to
prophesy, though he has provided the data for prophetic
inductions, within very circumscribed limits.
At this stage, therefore, we give a picture of the political
and social conditions prevailing, first of all, in every Continental
state, large or small, from Russia to Andorra, dwelling on
those features which appear to be of the strongest interest in
each individual case.
Finally, we turn to Great Britain, and thence digress to an
account of her world-empire, which needs to be treated as a
unity, although such treatment of it has been impossible to
fit into our continuous narrative of world-history built up on a
RUSSIA
By Dr. E. J. Dillon
TURKEY. GREECE AND THE BALKANS
By F. A. McKenzie
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY
By Henry W. Nevinson
GERMANY
By Charles Lowe, M.A.
BELGIUM. HOLLAND, LUXEMBURG. SWITZERLAND
By Robert Machray, B.A.
ITALY AND SAN MARINO
By William Durban, B.A.. and Robert Machray. B.A.
FRANCE. MONACO, AND ANDORRA
By Richard Whiteing and Robert Machray. B.A.
SPAIN AND PORTUGAL
By Martin Hume, M.A.
SCANDINAVIA
By William Durban. B.A.
THE UNITED KINGDOM
By Arthur D. Innes. M.A.
THE BRITISH EMPIRE
By Sir Harry H. Johnston, K.C.B
5293
FROM MAY lOTH TILL JULY
THE FIRST DUMA, WHICH SATdrawing
-2m., V.
THE SECOND DUMA. WHICH LASTED FROM MARCH 5tu TILL JUNR ir.ni, 1007_
5295
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
—
in all classes of society being indus- true Democrats who could gauge the
triously spread by village schools and tendency of the time and estimate the speed
popular literature, as well as by the and the trend of the main social and polit-
teachings of professional revolutionists ical currents of semi-articulate Russia.
the names of Alexander Herzen, Nicholas Since the partial revolution of 1905-6,
Dobroliuboff, and Leo Tolstoy have been which rendered many weighty problems
closely associated. Most of the active acute without starting practical solutions
leaders of the reform movement, saturated for any of them, Russia has been passing
to the heart's core with those through a transitional phase, the duration
Russia's
of which it is impossible to predict. That
War with subversive ideas, were unwill-
ing to make allowances for extraordinary upheaval, which may be
Japan
Russian ways of thought, aptly characterised as the result of a
modes of living, religious feeling, and struggle not so much between two forces
secular customs. Midway between these as between two weaknesses, between an
two camps stood the ruling oligarchs epileptic and a paralytic organism, began
planless, listless, resourceless. in truly characteristic fashion. Whole
The war with Japan revealed and inten- sections of the Statute Book and State Law
sified the astounding weakness of the were abrogated by implication. Customs
established political and social fabric, and traditions, hallowed by ages, were
hastened the downfall of the regime, and informally but effectively abolished, and
offered the reform party a golden oppor- nothing whatever was put in their places.
tunity to put their fanciful projects to the In short, a sponge was passed over the
test of realisation. When the tsar, giving slate, on which the mob was allowed to
way to what seemed the wishes of his write its conflicting demands, and almost
people, had laid down his prerogative everybody was surprised to see that
of absolutism and promised far-reaching anarchy ensued. Some of the worst
political and social reforms, the ground, effects of the confusion which was thus
cleared oi ancient encumbrances, pre- V ""_'
't
produced continue to make
still
sented a unique site for the erection of a °r themselves felt in the principal
stable democratic fabric. .
.^ departmentsof public life.
jj
Guided by ordinary common-sense and Many of
the political and social
commanded by an unflinching will, the re- questions then formulated are still pressing
form party might have successfully infused for answers. Between the theory and
into the nation all the democratic current practice of the present administration
it was capable of absorbing. The leverage many a chasm is still unbridged.
it had acquired was enormous. Some few Thus it would tax the ingenuity of a
discerned then what the many can plainly Montesquieu to determine the type of
—
see to-day that that party by first accept- monarchy which in Russia has succeeded
ing the power, without responsibility, which absolutism, and the courtly Almanach de
was well within its reach, might have soon Gotha has illustrated the difficulty by
afterwards obtained the reins of govern- offering a definition of the regime in terms
ment, and begun its grandiose and perilous which contradict each other. One may
experiment upon the nation. take it that the government is still an
But, confident of an easy victory, dis- autocracy, tempered, as the rule of the first
dainful of help, impatient of advice, and Romanofts was, by the wishes of the people
chafed by delay, the Democrats violently but with this difference, that in the seven-
opposed, in lieu of steadily supporting, teenth century public opinion was focussed
Count Witte's administration. fitfully in the Zemsky Councils, whereas
Democrats
In quest of allies, they made a to-day it is permanently embodied in the
in Quest
of Allies
high bid for the support of the Duma and the Council of the Empire.
Jews, the peasants, the working One of the most momentous changes
man, the lower clergy, and the troops by brought about by the revolution of 1905
promising reforms which it would have affects the legislative machinery of the
taken a century of continuous effort and tsardom. Formerly the monarch was
unsold sums of money to realise. At the the sole fountain head of law, and although
best of times Russian reformers lack the he invariably availed himself of the ser-
saving sense of measure, but now they vices of the Council of the Empire and the
broke loose from all restraints and ended Senate, which drafted Bills and inter-
by alienating the sympathies of many preted statutes, his influence upon law-
5296
RUSSIA IN OUR OWN TIME
making was paramount and unchallenged. however illogical, unfair, and indefens-
But the charter which he bestowed upon ible they may be on theoretic grounds,
his people in 19*5 contains a promise that attained the end in view. The third
henceforth no measure shall be inscribed Duma accordingly met, passed laws,
upon the Statute Book without the assent discussed Bills, increased the pay of its
of the two representative Chambers. own members to an extent that was
That is now become one of the funda- deemed exorbitant, and accustomed the
mental maxims of the Russian Constitu- nation to the working of a legislative
tion. But, like all such principles, it is assembly. The responsibility
The ^
•r^ •..
Cabinet
..
u-
4.4. ^i
j. ^ j
applicable and absolute only in normal attachmg to that course and
times. During periods of public trouble the credit for these results
exceptions are provided for. For ex-
i Members
Its \M i.
, ,
....
belong prmcipally, if not
.^
5297
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
use — ^is extensive enough to enable him to say that of late these quarrels have
indirectly to temper or annul a penal law. increased. On the whole, however, that
The tsar is the one connecting link between is in our character. I^t four men come
the Russian nation and all the foreign together, and the very first thing they do is
members of the international community. to rummage each other's souls in quest
He also the war-lord of Russia, to whom
is of each other's defects. About the good
the land and sea forces owe obedience, points nobody cares, but they infallibly
and he is the sole judge of the acts of rake up the delinquencies."
his Ministers, who are respon- It is almost impo^ible to watch the
Disappointed
sible to no other institution working of the administrative mechanism
Liberal
- in the empire. What dis- of to-day without seeing that the Duma
P e ormers
appointed Liberal reformers has lost the fascination for Russia which
most complain of is the Duma's
bitterly it possessed in the year 1906. It was then
impotence even in financial matters. And looked up to as a sort of brazen serpent
in truth its influence is chiefly negative. in the Desert of Bureaucracy, created in
The Lower Chamber may criticise, order to heal. To-day it is but one of the
but cannot reform. If its members pass a many state departments of which there
Bill obnoxious to the Government, the were then too many, whose privileged
Upper House is virtually certain to throw members are paid high salaries by the
it out. A Chamber of Reconciliation is starving people for doing little or nothing.
then convoked, composed of a number of It has ceased to be a fountain of good, and is
members of both legislatures. If these fail looked upon as a source of malignant evils.
to agree, everything remains as it was It has no hold whatever on the country,
before, and if a money vote is in question, and therefore cannot act as a breakwater
the Minister continues to receive the sum against the heavy rollers of the revolu-
allotted to him by the estimates of the tionary sea which threatens to sweep away
preceding year. That the Duma should be the djTiasty and the monarchical regime.
thus restricted to the role of censor is —^ _
e
.
reeping
And as the Duma is the only
deemed to be one of the worst defects of j-g^j^pg^j-^
^ which the monarchy
Paralysis -',
Squa hbi e»
^
changed in some way. I liberately, methodically, and perseveringly,
j,^j^j^q|. indicate how this is to be to set it rolling while most of the officials
;
the D
done . . . but
easy to see it is who have undertaken the task of thwarting
that if on J ily ist this year these, are either listless, negligent, or else
there remained 222 Bills untouched, and by secretly in the service of the enemy.
November ist of the seme year 290 more Evidently, then, change is a necessity.
were laid before the House, well, there is The sole question is, who shall have the
something to think about. . But all . shaping of it ? At present the dynasty
that would be nothing if the members of has the opportunity, and, to a limited
the Duma hit it off together, more or less. extent, the ways and means, but apparently
But they are eternally squabbling, etern- lacks the right men or else the will to
ally fighting. With regret I am obliged appoint them. Even of the Bureaucrats,
5298
RUSSIA IN OUR OWN TIME
who at present wear the Hvery and receive tection to the regime, but to all elements
the pay of the Crown, a large percentage of peaceful progress in the nation. In
are desirous of ulterior and far-reaching 1905 vigilant observers confidently pre-
changes. A new political and social dicted the saturation of the army with
revolution is what they ardently hope for. anarchistic or socialistic views within three
And they would not only welcome its years, that being the period necessary
advent but would work actively to hasten lor a complete renovation of the troops.
it if they could take this step with im- But although the efforts of the revolutionary
punity. Some of them indeed do, but . party are concentrated on the
.
contmually i i
to
i.
undertook to supply hand grenades to the
about 4,000, the work that falls to those —
army the artillery and the engineers'
who are in the service is doubled and —
corps but as they have been unable to
sometimes trebled. Every year the agree how to set about it, the step has not
military schools send out about 2,500 yet been taken. The utility and necessity
young officers to the army, which is of siege artillery is another of the practical
annually losing about 4,000. The deiicit conclusions which were drawn from the
is therefore growing instead of diminishing, experience obtained during the Manchu-
and most of those who leave the service rian campaign. But the Russian army,
are said to be the best educated and the which was not supplied with siege guns in
most highly qualified. 1904, is not supplied with them yet.
From January, 1909, the pay of the Again, about half of the divisions are still
Russian officers was increased, but only without quick-firing guns, because there i?
slightly. Lack of funds keeps them from no money to buy them, the sum needed
receiving their due, for gold is one of the being computed at $100,000. Yet for the
chief forces that move the steel of armies, new and uncouth headgear which has
and Russia is poor. Still, much larger sums ^ ,. . recently been introduced, a
Essential
might have been made available for the sum ofr r>$7,000,000 was as-
troops by intelligent thrift. The hundreds ""hesitatingly. The
"rPo'mict.-g-''
of miUions assigned in 1908 to the building police, too, which is one of the
of the Amoor railway line would, in the least efficient in the world, is manifestly
opinion of experts and patriots, have been undergoing a process of slow reorganisa-
much better invested in raising the tion. Here, however, the work of improve-
material and moral level of the soldiers and ment is more difficult owing to the exiguity
officers. Men of talent whom a military of qualified men, for in Russia no one can
career was wont to attract under the first become a good policeman who is not a man
Nicholas and the second Alexander now of nerve and a citizen of more than average
seek at the Bar, in trade, commerce and moral worth. And individuals endowed
industry, or in various departments of the with such ethical and physical equipments
civil service, a suitable field for their have no motives for becoming social
activity and adequate remuneration for pariahs by donning a livery which renders
their time and labour. them in the eyes of Russian society what
In Russia, garrison service is marked the publicans were in the eyes of the Jews.
by sameness, and the efforts put forth In order to be and to remain an honest
to vary its monotony too often demoralise and incorruptible member of the police
those who make them. Hence the force in Russia, a man must be heroically
morale of the officers' corps virtuous, wholly temptation proof. Doubt-
/° * . stand in quite as much need less, every department of the administra-
of Garrison ^-
r
bemg improvedj as xi_
1 • •
constitute the finest fighting material in antipathy of the public is intense and
the world, will lack efficient instructors, ruthless, and if a member is dismissed by
without whom the raw stuff cannot be his superiors, he is virtually an outcast.
fashioned into a living organism. In a During the discharge of his duties money
country like Russia, the barracks could, is thrust upon him at every hand's turn,
and should, be turned into a kind of sometimes for what he does, at other times
5300
RUSSIA'S FINEST INFANTRY: THE SEMINOVSKY BEING REVIEWED BY THE TSAR
jj
. easy
. to see how these bodies feasible. On
the other hand, without
might unintentionally baulk purifying reform the diseased organism
each other's schemes but that, moved by
; cannot be healed nor the enfeebled financial
spite, hatred, or other base motives, they forces reinvigorated. We are apparently
should deliberately play into the hands of face to face with a vicious circle.
the revolutionists is more difficult for On the finances in the first instance, and
foreigners to understand. To Russians, on the economic condition of the country
however, it seems not only probable, but in last analysis, the future of the nation
true. And among the instances they bring very largely depends. For the longer
forward in support of this grave accusation needful reforms are delayed, the more
the following is the most striking. intense and widespread will disaffec-
While the cleverest Russian revolutionist, tion become, and the slighter will be
Gershuni, was hving in a tailor's family in the influence of the conservative ele-
Kieff, planning the assassination of the ments in the country. These elements
Governor of Ufa, his every deed and word are at present almost entirely confined to
were revealed to the chief of the Kieff secret the higher classes. Formerly, indeed, the
police. The traitors were two zealous peasantry, too, were included among them,
revolutionists, the tailor and his daughter but erroneously because the Russian
;
337 5303
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
politics, but was ready to join any party, engenders, the country would be ruined.
legal or illegal, that wovild give or promise But his way was blocked with many
him gratmtously the land belonging to the obstacles. Seemingly, the peasantry had
squires, the Crown, or the Church. already thrown in their lot with the enemies
Intellectually little better than the of the empire. Revolutionary groups had
French or British peasant of the eleventh bribed them with the promise of free land,
century, the mooshik lazily tills the land rightly feeling that to be successful the
which he occupies but does not own. He anti-monarchical movement must have
is but a member of the village community the active support of the masses. And
in which the ownership is vested. Hence it was because having won they failed to
he lacks the sharp-cut notion of personal keep that support, and the movement
property, which to European peoples is consequently remained a mere urban
almost an innate idea. He sees no moral revolution, that Russia is still an autocracy.
wrong in sequestrating by force the land Of the lyopoo.ooo who now inhabit the
that belongs to another, especially if that tsardom, only i2-8 per cent,
Russi&'s
other is of a different class; nor can dwell in cities, the other 87*2
Peasant
he discern any danger to himself in that per cent, live in the country,
Population
course, although underlying it is a prin- and of these 74* 2 per cent, are
ciple which, if logically applied, would re- tillers of the soil. The entire peasant
duce him to utter poverty. On the be- class of the empire amounts to 6y2 per
nighted condition of the vast agricultural cent., or two-thirds of the population.
class which thus constitutes a formidable These figures enable one to understand
and proximate danger to the well-being the importance of the peasantry to the
of the nation, the third Prime Minister, revolutionist leaders and the recklessness
M. Stolypin, concentrated his attention. with which they made their bid for its
Among a set of urgent problems all support. Brutal anarchism was the form
pressing for instant solution, he singled which the subversive movement assumed
out the agrarian question as the most among the tillers of the soil.
momentous. Soon after he had accepted M. Stolypin's mode of warring against
he acquired the conviction that unless
office this violent outburst was to smash the
he could win over the peasantry to such last of the three idols of the Slavophiles
conservatism as enlightened selfishness —
the village commune to divide among
But the efforts made by the Government government to the noblemen who are
wece praiseworthy. The domain lands of selling their land, and that the deficit
the Imperial family and extensive estates must one day be covered by the State,
bought from wealthy noblemen seems to many a foregone conclusion.
Emigration
^^^^ parcelled into lots by the But the total cost of the transfer
3. Peasants' Bank, and are will probably not be limited to this loss.
E
Encouraged
^^^ divided among the farmers For the peasant, who already lives from
who undertake to refund the cost price hand to mouth, will be unable, from
to the State. The continuous migration lack of ready money, to till the land as
of landless husbandmen to Siberia is also the noblemen tilled it. He must there-
being directed and fostered by the Govern- fore obtain credit or sell out. Yet, in lieu
ment, which further proposes to invite the of receiving the wherewithal to keep his
same land-seeking class to colonise certain new farm on its old level of productivity
districts of Central Asia. The number of he has to saddle himself from the outset
families that migrated to Siberia during with debts which will cripple him and
the year 1908 was computed by the damage the community. The system of
central authorities at 74,500, or, say cultivation that still obtains in Russia
between 370,000 and 450,000 individuals of may be tersely described as plunder of the
both sexes. The extent of land parcelled out soil. Much is taken, and little or nothing
among these is estimated at 3,000,000 des- is given back. The three-field system,
siatines, a dessiatine being equal to 13,067 which involves enormous work, the lack
square yaids, or approximately 2f acres; of variety of crops, and the absence of
5305
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
artificialmanures, contribute to exhaust of professional revolutionists. In other
the fertihty of the land. But it is difficult words, M. Stolypin's experiment, if there
to see how any Minister, situated as were funds to ensure to it the highes\
M. Stolypin was, could have provided degree of success, could not bring forth
funds enough for the agrarian revolution good fruits before a couple of generations.
which he courageously inaugurated. It —
But realised only in part and plainly in
is worth noting that, contrary to expec- its subversive part — owing to the dearth
tation, the peasants do not readily of funds to carry out the whole, and relied
purchase the land which the upon as an immediate remedy for the
for
Agrarian Bank acquired at its pressing political evils of to-day, it strikes
p* own risk from the landlords most Russian observers as a superlatively
and divided into lots suited for mischievous scheme, which, however, does
farms. And yet the terms on which the credit to the heart of M. Stolypin.
bank offers them are very advantageous That the peasantry is as sorely in need
to the purchaser. Between November, of culture as the land will be taken as a self-
1905, and November, 1908, the bank evident proposition by all who have lived
thus bought 3,682,000 dessiatines from among them. Crass ignorance, mediaeval
noblemen who had either actually suffered superstition, paralysing fatalism, and a
or were afraid of suffering from the vio- propensity to thriftlessness and laziness,
lence of the peasantry. are among their negative characteristics,
Yet, of all this land, only 656,000 dessia- and also among the active causes of the
tines have been bought by the would-be poverty from which they constantly
tenant farmers, or, say, 18 per cent, of the suffer. Indeed, such is the character
whole. The remainder, amounting to more of the Russian agricultural class that,
than 3,000,000 dessiatines, remains on the according to a competent, but one
hands of the bank, which has been author- hopes a mistaken, judge, M. Obraztsoff,
ised to make further purchases amounting the introduction of personal property
to 2,000,000 dessiatines. In this way among them will in three years
Idleness
5,000,000 dessiatines are in a transitional cause about 20,000,000 of them
state —
a result which must have a mis-
in Rural
Russia
to be landless. " The owners
chievous effect on the material well-being will exchange their farms for
of the community. alcohol, just as they now exchange their
In the Budget this dead loss figures as a carts and their garments for drink. There
minus, for the former owners of these are families who have drunk their unsold
estates have already been remunerated in land for twenty years in advance."
government bonds, bearing interest at 5 It is interesting in this connection to
and 6 per cent. And the interest on this note the views of another authority,
debt has to be paid with regularity. The A. J. Savenko, who affirms that the
result is that the Government, in order to fundamental impressions which rural
make good the loss of the bank, draws Russia makes on the observer are the
upon the taxpayer, and having assigned laziness, listlessness, and ignorance of its
7,000,000 roubles to the peasants' bonds in inhabitants. " The indolence of the
1908, gave a subsidy of 17,500,000 in 1909. majority of the peasants transcends all
But a more scathing criticism than bounds. For dwellers in cities, who
could be based upon the probable financial live in an atmosphere of steady toil, it is
consequence of the measure lies in the positively bewildering. The peasants are
grounded fear that by its limitations it averse to doing anything. Work of any
demoralise the village com-
^^'^ sort is distasteful to them, and they shirk
M St I
•
'1'"'*
*
munity, which
it cannot wholly
' it by every means in their power. Old and
D htf
_ . abolish, will ruin the bulk of
Experiment .,
. young are characterised by sloth, but
r
the peasant farmers, whom it
1 . ,.
m
course of rustic existence. I do not her infected huts and cabins. . . .
know wherein the spiritual side of it Nor is the food of the pejasant any better.
consists. The bulk of them are not Compared with what it was, there is a
conscious of any bond between themselves certain change for the worse. It ...
and the nation or the State. Religion consists mainly of bread and potatoes.
no longer plays the part that it once did Even such vegetables as cabbage, onions,
in the life of the people. In a fairly large and cucumber are disappearing from the
village there is no church, and none of table of the bulk of the peasants."
the villagers are in the least put out by The wealth-creating power of the
the lack of one. Only one necessity is Russian husbandman is what the personal
everywhere felt in the gloomy existence of characteristics and the social conditions
—
the peasantry ^the necessity of vodka — enumerated above would lead one to
and that thirst is stilled abundantly." expect. Take the five principal cereals
A correlate to the laziness of the of the country— rye, wheat, oats, barley,
peasant is the large number of days of —
Indian corn and we find that in the year
^^^\^^ ^"Joys even during the 1900 the total produce was but 3,269
The Peasants
p
busiest months of the year when million poods —
a pood is 36 pounds there ;
thriftlessness, and it may well be doubted and occasionally dies of hunger." During
whether in any other country in Euru'pe the year 1904 the American citizen
the material exi&tence of the j:)easants consumed 54*3 poods of corn; the Ger-
leaves so much to be desired as in Russia. man, 28-0; Austro - Hungarian, 23*3;
" The peasant's dwelling is a wooden French, 23*3; British, 23*0; Russian, 18*3.
or mudhut, more suited for cattle than The melancholy significance of these
for human beings. The peasants, with- figures will become more clear when we
5307
. . ;
should it be forgotten that Russia exports in Finland, 2,000,000. But although the
about 15 per cent, of the entire harvest of absolute total in that year was undoubt-
cereals, which amounts to about 3 to 4 edly greater than in any of the foregoing
-,. poods a head of the popula- years, the percentage per 1,000 souls of
The Scanty
«s
^^^^ ^^^ following SUggeS- the population had fallen perceptibly. In
F&re of the ,. ,, ° j
n . tive table gives poods >^u
,
the m
•
tion of the five cereals enumerated above eighties, 319 in the nineties, 311.
;
by six nations in 1894 and 1904 : Fires caused by gross neglect or malice
constitute one of the scourges of the
Production Consumption
Countries
per head per head tsardom. It is computed that every
year fire destroys property valued at
1894 1904 1894 1904 400,000,000 roubles, about $210,000,000.
Britain IO-8 8-2 23'9 23-0 Of every thousand roubles' worth insured
Germany . 21-1 26-1 23"7 28-0 by the various companies almost 80 i>er
France 27*2 28-4 27-5 23'3 cent, of the premium is thus consumed.
Austria-Hungary 24-9 23-1 23-1 23-3
United States
.
72-8 42 -8 54"3
Assuming that the value of insured
5i"3
Russia 266 26-3 22-8 18-3 property in the tsardom amounts to
sixty milliards of roubles, the yearly
The sameness and scantiness of the loss suffered by the insurance companies
Russian peasant's repasts are all the more alone through fire is estimated by
surprising that game is abundant in the experts at 336,000,000 roubles. And this
interior and fish plentiful in Russian forms but a portion of the total loss,
seas, rivers and lakes. The amount because a large amount of pro-
Improved
of fish caught in Russian waters every year perty is never insured. Now,
State of the
is computed by the well-known expert, a considerable percentage of
Workers
Borodin, at 1,120 million kilogrammes, of these fires might be easily hin-
which about 19,000,000 kilogrammes are dered by the application of ordinary
caught in the Caspian Sea 35,000,000 in ; prudence on the part of the peasants
the Baltic and White Seas 17,000,000 in ; and by watchfulness on the part of
the Black Sea and Sea of Azov over ; the authorities, who have done little
6,000,000 in the Arctic and Pacific Oceans ; to suppress incendiarism.
and 5,000,000 in the Ural Sea. Among the Sphinx questions of the
Carp and perch contribute about year of the revolution, 1905, the economic
754,000,000 kilogrammes herring about ; condition of the Russian working man was
152,000,000; salmon, about 45,000,000; thrust in the foreground as the most
sturgeon, approximately, 34,000,000 pressing of all. And, considering that
different other kinds, about 40,000.000 ; the changes brought about in the social
not counting 64,000,000 kilos of fresh- and political framework of Russia were
water fish. And it should be borne in due in large part to the strikes organised
mind that this wealth of fish food is by factory hands, the mistake was par-
obtained with a minimum of expenditure donable. And crying evils were redressed.
in money and labour, for fisheries and The Russian workman, having beaten the
pisciculture in Russia are still in a very world's record for strikes, had most
, primitive state. The sea, like
, of his genuine grievances speedily
r^"*"*!,*- 1, the land, is being ruthlessly remedied ; the hours of work have
Great Fish 1 j j 1 1 ; •
g "'*'' ^
. plundered almost; poaching is been shortened, the pay has been
universal, and down to a short raised, the risks have been lessened,
time ago close seasons were openly dis- the metho'^i of terminating his engagement
regarded. Yet Russia supplies three times have been made easy and satisfactory to
as much fish as the United States, five him, and over and above he has dealt a
times as much as Great Britain, and six stunning blow to the employers of labour,
times as much as France. The amount whose profits he has cut down, and whose
of cattle possessed by the peasantry, business he has in many cases wholly
according to the latest statistics, was mined. But parallel witii the rise in
5308
RUSSIA IN OUR OWN TIME
wages went the increase in prices for the dustry, although passing through a pro-
necessaries of Hfe, and some articles are tracted crisis, are seemingly regaining
further out of the workmen's reach to- their buoyancy, and altogether the out-
day than before the revolution. In the look, without being precisely inspiriting,
Moscow district in January, 1897, there is described by observant Russians as less
were 248,500 workmen receiving in wages depressing than might reasonably have
42,500,000 roubles, or, say, 170 roubles been expected. Russia's credit in 1909
a year per man. In 1903 there were may be gauged by the terms on which she
293,000 men in receipt of 56,500,000, _ . concluded her 4^ per cent.
or 192 roubles a head, making a rise ,. . „ . loan in January
Living Beyond ,^, •'.
of that year.
-^
, 111 •
of 12 per cent. But during the same „ j^ ihe conjuncture was highly
period the prices of food rose by unfavourable. War clouds
25 per cent (bread), 36 per cent, (meal), hung over the Balkan Peninsula. It was
and even 50 per cent. (peas). feared that Austria, Turkey, Bulgaria,
In consequence of the strikes of 1905- Servia, and possibly Russia herself, might be
1906 a further great rise took place in drawn into the coming sanguinary struggle.
the prices of bread, foodstuffs generally, The Russian rente stood at yyi, and it
and the necessaries of life. One of the was known that the Finance Minister must
results of the revolution was a further aug- at almost all costs raise funds abroad in
mentation of the wages of workmen without order to pay off the war loan of 300,000,000
any corresponding increase in their produc- roubles contracted in France in 1904. Yet,
tivity. The absorbing power of the home despite these adverse conditions, a loan of
markets was unfavourably affected by this 450,000,000 roubles was raised in January,
perturbation. This was noticed at the 1909, of which the usual price was 89 1, the
fair of Nijni Novgorod in 1908, when the bankers' commission 3|, and the net pro-
turnover fell short of the average of former ceeds received by the Treasury, 85 1. And
years by no less than 15-20 per cent. In considering all the circumstances, these re-
1905, women's wages were sults are considered to be fairly satisfactory.
D ustry s
very low, the average
still At the same time it cannot be gainsaid
g°**. '°^^
. not exceeding 6-8 roubles a that Russia has now reached a point at
—
month about three to four which she must either live by the exertions
dollars. Since then the lot of the working of her own wealth-creating class, without
man and woman has been very sub- the continuous help of foreign capitalists,
stantially bettered. In 1907 a series of or else be content, after a series of financial
far-reaching measures, calculated to im- crushes, to find her normal level. To
prove it still further, and including in- many who are quite unbiassed observers
surance against accidents, was drafted by she appears to be now living beyond her
the late Minister of Trade and Industry, means. The vast sums which have been
M. Philosofoff, and would have been laid expended on the strategic Amoor rail-
before the Duma in the form of a Bill had way at a time when the army and the
it not been for his sudden death at the police have yet to be reorganised, the
close of that year. navy to be rebuilt, the peasants to
The marvellous vitality of Russian be financed in thv.ir new character
finances and the solidity of their economic of tenant farmers, education to be
basis were brought into sharp relief by cheapened and diffused, the v'lole
the revolutionary movement of
1905, system of internal administration to be
which dealt a severe blow to industry, remodelled, fill one with misgivings, not,
commerce and finances. In 1905 the num- indeed, as to Russia's re-
The a ion
ber of strikes totalled 13,110, while the gQ^rces, which are enormous,
number of workmen taking part in them Bankru^tc
rup cy
^^^ respecting the ability of
amounted to no less than 2,709,695. The ^^^ rulers to develop and
damage done was incalculable. This utilise them sufficiently to make the revenue
phenomenon is unprecedented in the cover the expenditure. With reluctance I
economic history of Europe. It may well venture to utter my strong conviction that
be doubted whether in any other country —
unless some genial administrator a states-
the financial and industrial fabrics would —
man as well as a specialist successfully
have successfully borne such a formidable encounters the hero's task of reconstruct-
strain. In Russia the gold standard is ing the financial and economic fabric of the
Still intact ; trade, commerce, and in- Russian Empire, applying freely the drastic
5309
: —
exportation of corn and other foodstuffs milliard and a half has been invested in
fell off to a disquieting extent affecting internal loans during the past five years.
the trade balance correspondingly. The The building of new railways and the
following comparison of the value of the working of old ones generally offer a fair
exports and imports in millions of roubles test of the level of a country's material
for the following four years needs no further l)rosperity. In Russia, since the war,
commentary little has been attempted in the way of
constnicting new lines. Some that had
Value of Value of Excess of
Year exports in exports over been begun before have been completed,
imports in
million roubles million roubles
imports in such as the Moscow girdle line, the
million roubles
Orenburg-Tashkent, the Perm -Ekaterin-
1905 IOI7 583 434 burg lines, and a few others. In 1908
1906 1043*5 650-5 393 the grandiose Amoor railway, which is
1907 IOl6'8 759-8 257
1908 752-8 179-2
expected to cost much and bring in
little, was begun. The second track
Manufactures in Russia, which were, of the Trans-Siberian was commenced, and
so to say, built up by the Finance Minister, a most useful line connecting Northern
Witte, with the money of foreign capit- Russia with the Donetz coal district was
alists, are still suffering from the strikes, undertaken by a priv^ate company. But
the spoliation, and the incendiarism that railways, which create wealth in other
5310
RUSSIA IN OUR OWN TIME
countries, are not profitable in Russia. dollars might easily be made to yield
They are often ruinous, owing to the twice that sum. The naphtha wells in
frauds in countless shapes which turn the Baku and numerous other districts could
immense profits into the pockets of dis- and should be made the sources of a
honest schemers. Millions of passengers splendid annual revenue, whereas, at
travel without tickets every year, and present, they enrich only a few individuals.
many of them lord it over those who pay The fisheries, which are far and away the
their way. The railways are forced to most abundant in the world, are at present
pay enormous damages for the loss of worth no more than $1,000,000 a year.
fictitious consignments. In short, the The State mining industries are carried on
losses needlessly incurred in exploiting at a dead loss. The financial operations
the principal lines are enormous, and it is of the Imperial Russian Bank do not
the peasant, the workman, and the bring in much more than 50,000,000
manufacturer who "s
dollars to the state.
have at last to make In, a word, the
good this deficit. It sources are abun-
is computed that dant, but no one
100,000,000 roubles tries to tap them
are swallowed up properly.Russia
every year by these has her power
it in
colossal frauds. And to pay her way and
in lieu of plucking up prosper. But she
this abuse by the seemingly lacks the
roots, the authori- will. The results are
ties, finding it less all the more deplor-
troublesome to lessen able that they could
the deficit by raising so easily be avoided.
the passenger tariff, One of these re-
have had recourse to sults is the enormous
this expedient, with indebtedness of the
undesirable results. nation. And it is
First-class passengers increasing, not
are either disappear- diminishing. If we
ing altogether from compare the Russian
several lines, or they estimates for 1909
are represented by the with those of pre-
privileged people who vious years, we shall
still travel gratis. find it hard to shake
Experts affirm that of£ the conviction
as the peasants might that the ordinary
easily increase their TWO CELEBRATED RUSSIAN AUTHORS expenditure is grow-
slender Leo Tolstoy and Maxim Gorky, two novelists ing out of all propor-
yearly pit- Count portraits
whose are given above, took the side of the poor
tance by thrift, and endeavoured to bring about better social conditions, tion to the growth of
though the latter has not the religious enthusiasm
sobriety, and sheer which characterises Tolstoy's writings. Tolstoy, the ordinary revenue.
hard work, so the having resigned all privileges of rank, died in 1910. The yearly excess of
Government might convert the sempiternal ordinary revenue over ordinary outlay has
deficit into a handsome surplus by exploit- been in millions of roubles in :
ing on businesslike principles the railways, 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909
woods and forests, the state lands, the 148-8 111-5 99'3 i4S"9 i46"5 74'4 4"8
minerals, and the fisheries of the empire, Between the years 1903 and 1909 the
all which are now being managed with
of annual income of the state went up from
a degree of perfunctoriness which differs 2,031,080,000 roubles to 2,447,000,000,
little from culpable negligence. Clever while the expenditure rose from
railway managers like those whose names 1,883,000,000 to 2,472,020,000. The
are so well known in Great Britain and the total Budget of 1907 showed a deficit of
United States would soon change the 52,770,000 roubles in
; the following
annual loss of 100.000,000 roubles into a year an internal loan of 200,000,000 was
large net profit. The colossal wealth of required to cover the deficit and in 1909 a
;
forests which now bring in but 30,000,000 foreign loan of 450,000,000 was floated.
5311
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Russia's indebtedness is, therefore, appal- council, having heard the report of the
ling. As compared with her potentialities, school inspector of the district, called for
it is not perhaps alarming but con- : further details with a view to the adop-
trasted with her annual revenue, and the tion of repressive measures. (Cf. " No-
slight wealth-creating power of the state, voye Vremya," November loth, 1908.)
it is becoming disquieting. If the business It is,perhaps, hardly to be wondered at
management of the empire abstraction
—^were
— that the peasantry, whose monotonous
made from politics in competent lives consist mainly of an alternation of
. hands, guided by resourceful hardship and oblivion, should seek to
^^^^^' ^^^^^ ^°^^ ^^ nothing vary it by the artificial mirth and tempo-
to her
„ '....^. to fear, for Russia's potenticd rary forgetfulness bestowed by inebriety.
Fosstbilities 1^ 1111-
'.
J J.
wealth is reasonably beheved to Against such vices as this, and the crimes
be immense. But as things now are, and to which it leads, legislation is powerless.
bid fair to continue, the symptoms are Unless the youth of the country can be
not suggestive of impending prosperity. made amenable to moral influences such
Almost one-fourth of the yearly outlay is as will enable it to face and withstand
spent on the service of the debt, which has temptation, the hope of lasting betterment
increased since 1903 by over 40 per cent. is slender indeed. Religion in Orthodox
In the year 1902 it amounted to Russia is doubtlessly still a beneficent
6,664,000,000 roubles. In 1909 it had force, but it seldom moulds the youthful
grown to 9,175,000,000. mind or steels the tender will. And nothing
Andthis enormous total would have has taken its place. Since the revolutionary
been utterly inadequate to the needs of wave passed over the land the latent symp-
the empire were it not for the unpalat- toms of general anarchism, which long lay
able fact that about 28 per cent, of dormant, have been brought into the light
the ordinary income came from the of day. Now, therefore, there is at least
alcohol state monopoly. This was the hope that the hideous disease may
sale of vodka by the Government, which be cured, which would other-
Schools
was conceived with the best intentions by wise induce general paralysis.
that do not
Alexander III., but proved, according to But by whom ? The clergy
Educate
the testimony of the most competent of the Orthodox Church are
authorities, a curse to the Russian nation. badly educated, badly housed, underfed,
The number of million vedros a vedro — and exposed to all kinds of temptations.
is 2704 —
gallons of vodka consumed The ecclesiastical schools where the religious
yearly from 1901 to 1906 was as follows : shepherds are trained have forfeited the
In 1901 49-5 1111904 71*2 character of educational establishments
.f 1902 66-0 ,,1905 75-9 in the good sense of the term. A professor
,. 1903 71 "5 " 1906 85-0 of the Ecclesiastical Academy of St. Peters-
One of the most gifted and best in- burg, Professor Glubokoftsky, gives a
formed Russian publicists, M. Menshikoff, description of their working in terms that
writes "It must not be supposed that
: make Russian patriots shudder. There is
the alcoholic poison has infected the no teaching there, no dociUty, no obedi-
lower classes only. It has tainted in a ence, and the morals are disgusting. Even
like degree the petty tradesfolk, the mer- the celebrated Ober Procuror of the Most
chants, the clergy, the bureaucrats of Holy Synod, K. Pobedonostseff, deliber-
cities, and it numbers many victims ately stated shortly before his death that
among the higher intelligent classes." " the ecclesiastical school has become a
The injury inflicted by drunken- low tavern." If the salt thus loses its
1 esprea
^^^^ ^^ ^^^ physical and moral savour wherewith shall it be salted ?
-^ constitution of the Russian The condition of ordinary secular schools
.
Drunkenness
race is
1111
incalculable, and1 .l
it is
•
f T hi
fear and muttered " Pardon, your those others happened to be
: ».,...,. ^^
excellency, pardon, I — —can — you know
I
Nihilism ,.,.
conservatives
.
m
.
politics or
—^decline — ^refuse —
.to do it." " Oh, well, it religion, were scoffed at as irrational and
doesn't matter. I'll forgive you this time," antiquated. To revealed creeds, to
was the astonishing reply, and, so saying, patriotism, ethics, clean living, no quarter
his excellency walked away majestically. was given by the leading iconoclasts,
And the lad was not even rebuked ! who hypnotised the young generation.
None of the very distressing phenomena Free love was preached and practised
that characterised the Russian revolution by the youth of the intermediate
have challenged such widespread attention schools, who founded " free-love leagues,"
5313
—
HISTORY OF THE "WORLD
drew up by-la%vs which members were by Artsybashefi, cannot be too severely
bound to observe, and utterly ruined condemned, whether we view them
many youths of both sexes. At last the from the ethical angle of vision or
Press drew attention to the evil, and the the aesthetical.
Minister of Public Instruction endeavoured Wrought upon for decades by disinte-
to uproot it. But the mere surgery of grating forces such as those enumerated
administrative measures was unavailing. above, Russia's vital powers could not but
"The roots of the disease must be treated," be seriously impaired. And the present
—. ^. wrote one of the most widely- plight of the nation moves one to pity.
"""**"
spread journals. "And these," An ardent friend of Russia, himself a Slav
, .^ ^ it added, " are to be found in patriot, has put his impressions frankly
ourselves, m
the whole social upon record as follows " What I am going
:
organism, in the decay of the family, in to say has a paradoxical ring about it, but
the depravity of fathers and mothers." it is none the less true. There is no Russian
Whether the cure will be successfully nation. With an Orthodox Russian people
accomplished, it is unhappDy certain that we are indeed acquainted, a people
the young generation will come to the front numbering 88,000,000, whose religious con-
moralJy and intellectually enfeebled by victions offer them a substitute for every-
the ravages of one of the most malignant thing in the nature of national ideas
diseases that can befall the social organism. possessed by other peoples. But we look
The morbid feelings and subversive in vain for a compact Russian nation
notions which are among the symptoms permeated with identical interests. And
of this fell malady are necessarily mirrored the most amazing trait of this phenomenon
in the popular literature, which therefore is the circumstance that this gigantic mass
throws a strong light on latter-day Russia. of people speaks one tongue, cherishes one
But the Russian literature of to-day is faith, and yet in spite of it aU shows so
much more than a mirror. Some sections little understanding for the common ties
of it might, perhaps, be aptly likened to a that bind it to the State.
laboratory where noxious germs are care- •'
It is no satisfactory explana-
o f2^^
ussian ^.^^
fully cultivated which warp the mind, ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^j^ ^^ culture
°*** ^
disfigure the soul, and produce the and geographical conditions
monstrous shapes that excite our disgust. are answerable for this. The fundamental
Characters which Wycherly and Congreve causes lie deeper it
: is that egotism
would have shuddered even to contem- peculiar to all Slav peoples which finds
plate are not only described in latter-day it so hard to make sacrifices for the
novels and stories with artistic talent and common weal, either in the narrow or
undisguised sympathy, but they are the broader sense of the term."
associated with the highest of the new These are some of the solvents of Russian
ideals held up to the Russian nation. To society with the effects of which on con-
say that many of the literary productions crete men and women, and doubtless on
which characterise the revolutionary epoch the whole Russian organism, the rising
are public outrages on morals and religion generation will soon be confronted.
is to put the case with studied moderation. Happily there are also several powerful
The British public knows something of factors on the other side —
religious sec-
Maxim Gorky and Leonid Andre\'eff, but tarianism, partial revivals in the Orthodox
one may doubt whether it has ever Church, strenuous efforts by Russian
read the works of Artsybasheff, whose Lutherans, and even the reforming zeal of
,
" Sanyin " would have been ordinary citizens who, having cultivated
J^?"" ^ J confiscated by the police of the moral sense, would gladly rescue their
^^^^^ ^"*^^''' Austria, or Ger- youthful compatriots from the abyss that
^^ d ala
*
many; of Kuzmin, Sollogub, now threatens to engulf them.
Kamenski, and a host
of others. It From the Orthodox Church, with its
is only fairto add that many of atrophied organs, its demoralised schools,
the works of these writers are quite free and its good-natured, half-starving clergy,
from the taint of immorality. SoUogub's no miracles in the social sphere can yet be
" Little Devils " is a powerful story, and expected. The essence of Russia's religious
Kuzmin's verses are techniccdly perfect. —
creed one of the facets of the trinity of
But such tales, for instance, as " Four," which Panslavism was once composed
or " Leda," by A. Kamenski, or " Sanin," Ues in the life to come, the world beyond
RUSSIA IN OUR OWN TIME
the grave. Death is the starting-point vital ; the moment was critical; the choice
of everything worth knowing, worth of alternatives would be final. But nearly
possessing, and therefore worth striving everything turned out as the Austrian
for. Hence, strange though it may statesman had expected. Russia's defence
seem, death is the central point of the of her kith and kin was verbal. Bound by-
orthodox faith ; Ufe is dull, grey, repel- secret treaties to remain an inactive spec-
lent; it is only the sunset of existence tator of the incorporation of the Slav
that tinges eV3rything, not, indeed, with provinces, she accepted the inevitable.
its own splendour, but with the ineffable She could not well begin a diplo-
Russia's
glory of the world to come. It is matic campaign against a mea-
Doubtful
no exaggeration to assert that of all sure,however far-reaching, to
Future
Christian creeds and churches, there is which she had already deliber-
not one that contributes less to the ately given her assent. And the con-
equipment of its adherents for the stern dition of her army, as well as the state
life struggle here below than the contem- of her finances, agriculture, and industry,
porary Orthodox Russian Church. forced her to eschew a disastrous mili-
Panslavism, of which orthodoxy was one tary conflict, which would have been the
of the three bases, has thus been thrust sole alternative to any attempt at evading
from the foreground of the scene on which her treaty obligations.
Russia is now playing her part. Belief in From whatever angle of vision we con-
her heaven-sent mission among the effete template the Russia of to-day, we are
nations of two continents may still perhaps struck with the contrast between her
linger on in the breasts of the veteran boundless potentialities and the sordid
contemporaries of Khomyakoff and Aksa- reality, and with the vast distance between
koff, but it is no longer a stimulating or an promise and achievement, which are
active force in the community. Had it divided by a seemingly infinite abyss.
been otherwise, it would have aroused the One might aptly liken the Russian nation
nation in 1908. The anti-Slav policy then to a very complex mechanism, forged
struck out by the Austro-Hun- by some latter day Vulcan, and then
Thwarting the g^^.-^^ Foreign taken to pieces.
Secretary for
5*"'*^ . Affairs, Baron von Aehrenthal, Properly put together, set in motion,
Confederation
^j^^^ he annexed Bosnia and and guided by a genial engineer, it
Herzegovina, thwarted the scheme of a might prove one of the main factors m
Balkan Confederation, and buried the last the latter-day history of Europe and the
hopes of the Southern Slavs, would have human race. But of this there is no sign.
unchained an irresistible popular outburst. The pieces still lie scattered about, half
The Government, however firm its reso- corroded with rust, and the most opti-
lution to keep the peace, would have been mistic feeling they arouse in the minds of
driven to resist, and, if needs were, to Russia's friends who contemplate them
fight, as in 1877. For the issues were is a vague hope. E. J Dillon
.
House (the Imperial Council) in 1914 for settlement of peasants on valuable areas
the reduction of the drinking shops, and at present unoccupied, and yielding no
many petitions went up from numerous revenue to the State.
villages for the total closing of these places Although in the matter of elementary
of temptation, and for more aggressive education the percentage of girls in the
action on the part of the Government primary schools is only about 30, the
against the illicit drink traffic. The political and social outlook for women in
trouble is that the sale of spirits is a Russia has steadily widened with the
Government monopoly, and an important growth of the twentieth century. Women
source of imperial revenue. Moreover, the have been allowed to graduate in medicine
production of spirits is a powerful vested in Russia, and to practise as fully qualified
interest. Enormous sums are invested physicians since the Russo-Turkish War
in the cultivation of potatoes and rye for of 1876-77 but in 1914 they were still
;
the distilling trade, and in Russia, as else- excluded from the higher Civil Service and
where, this trade is not prepared to accept from the Bar, though permitted to study
legislation that will mean heavy losses to law and pass all the examinations that
those concerned in its maintenance. qualify for the legal profession. Teaching,
Hope lies in the possibility of fostering and employment in the lower branches of
and developing the use of spirits for heating the Civil Service and under the municipal
and lighting purposes, and the fact that councils, are the occupations of many
the production of mineral oil is insufficient women in Russia, while others find employ-
for these purposes, is some justification ment as trained chemists, architects, civil
for such a hope. The Tsar in his letter to engineers, surveyors, and electricians.
5316
II
EUROPEAN TURKEY.
POWERS GREECE AND
TO-DAY THE BALKANS
^M:
5317
—
Bulgaria feared that the nominal suzerainty might be made a real one. To this she was unwilling to
consent, and in October, at Tirnovo, Prince Ferdinand solemnly proclaimed Bulgaria an
independent
kingdom, taking for himself the title of king.
no avail, that his army had failed him, and Mohammedans. Macedonia remained in
that without his army he was powerless, anarchy, whilst the efforts to bring
accepted the situation philosophically. He Albania into subjection resulted in the
gave in to the Committee of Union and devastation of that country. Abdul was
Progress, regranted the constitution he had formally deposed in May, 1909, and
cancelled, and allowed himself to become Mehmed V. proclaimed Sultan, but the
subject to the men who had planned and weakness and incapacity of the Govern-
carried out the revolt. ment were unlessened.
For a few happy days the highest hopes In the meanwhile, the Balkan States,
for a new spirit in Turkey were enter- Bulgaria, Servia and Montenegro, and
tained. In the fervour of the revolution, Greece were already beginning to make
universal brotherhood became the order preparations for the dismemberment of
of the day in Constantinople and in Turkey, for considerable alterations in the
Salonika, to vanish all too soon when map of Europe, and for the enlargement
disillusionment set in. The Committee of of their territories.
llnion and Progress had come from Paris The and economic progress made
civil
Balca
Bulgaria free and her neigh- these regions be established. ABritish
bour Macedonia, inhabited so naval mission, invited by the Greek
extensively by her kinsmen, under the rule Government, did much for the re-organisa-
of the Turks, was always present to the tion of the Greek navy, and French naval
Bulgarians. And there was still one drop officers gave valuable assistance. As for
of bitterness in the Bulgarian cup —
the the army, in a little more than ten years its
suzerainty of the Sultan. To end this character was changed as the war was to
suzerainty and release Macedonia, the prove. But the old, long-standing feud
Bulgarians gradually built up a strong with Bulgaria had to be ended before
—
modern army with an available fighting Greece could enter with any hope of
force of 380,000 men out of a total popula- success on a war for the liberation of
tion of 5,000,000. Epirus and Macedonia.
Servia was under a cloud for some years The revolution of the Young Turks with
after the murder of King Alexander and their Committeeof l^nion and Progress at
his queen in the royal palace, and the Constantinople, so far from bringing new
placing of King Peter on the throne by the health and strength to Turkey, simply
regicides in 1903. But the rural life of the hastened the break up of the Ottoman
nation was healthy and the peasantry Empire Europe, and brought
in
The New
prosperous, each man owning his own land curtailment of its dominions
Spirit
and each household free from famine and in Greece
in Africa. No sooner had
want. The one great ambition of the Abdul Hamid given his ap-
Servian people had been, since its liberation proval to the revolution than Austria-
in 1878, to make Servia a great kingdom Hungary formally annexed Bosnia and
by an alliance with Montenegro, and by Herzegovina, despite the Berlin Treaty of
absorbing the old Serb provinces of Bosnia 1878, and Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria
and Herzegovina, and the province of proclaimed himself Tsar of his dominions,
—
Novi-Bazar a strip of land between and declared his country an independent
Montenegro and Servia. Austria de- kingdom. In 1910, Prince Nicholas of
stroyed these hopes, as far as Bosnia and Montenegro followed the example of
Herzegovina were concerned, but the rest Ferdinand, and also proclaimed himself
of Old Servia, including part of Macedonia, king. In the same year that remarkably
were still under Turkish rule, to be con- able man, M. Venizelos, the Prime Minister
quered by Servian arms, when Servia was of Greece, sounded Bulgaria as to a joint
strong enough to take the field. alUance for the pacification of Macedonia,
Montenegro was always a nation of and for the ending of the old hatred
warriors, from the time when an old between Greek and Bulgar. The weak-
remnant of the Servian nobility established ness of Turkey was demonstrated to all the
itself there in 1389 to escape world in 1911, when Italy seized Tripoli,
*
. the Turkish yoke. Prince and by March, 1912, Servia and Bulgaria
. g ' .Nicholas, its ruler, had never had formed an alliance, which was speedily
yielded to the Sultan, and his followed by the much needed alliance
daughters, married in the royal families between Greece and Bulgaria. Servia not
of Russia, Italy and Germany, helped to only wanted to bring the Serb population
maintain the goodwill of Europe to this in the district of Novi-Bazar and in
tiny state of 500,000 people. Macedonia under its authority, but it was
Greece had failed so lamentably in the also anxious to gain an opening on the
war of 1897, that few realised the advance Adriatic. Bulgaria, apart from the libera-
it had made, and the re-awakening of tion of Macedonia, was determined to win
national spirit within its borders in the Thrace and extend its borders to Salonika.
5320
KING FERDINAND JOINING HIS ARMY AT THE SIEGE OF ADRIANOPLE
Turkey, having made peace with Italy, surrendered to the Greek arms, to be
withdrew her representatives from the claimed by Bulgaria as her property on
Balkan States, and the dogs of war were the following day. At the end of Novem-
loosed. ber Adrianople was closely invested and
As far as can be told, the military the Bulgarians had defeated the Turks at
strength of each country at the outset was Lule Burgas and were at Chatalja.
—
as follows : ^Turney had 198,000 men in But the Bulgarians were now over 200
Macedonia and 170,000 in Thrace. miles from their base, and were, owing to
5322
KING NICHOLAS OF MONTENEGRO WITH THE CROWN PRINCE OF SERVIA
^i_^. i
i^^^^p^^^^^^^K
^Hw^BP 3H
^^^H
y^^^ their preparations for a grand to 10,000 men, but the Powers, decisive
assault on the city. The attack and agreed for once, insisted that the town
began early on February 24th, the must ijelong to Albania, about to be made
Servians pressing forward on the west, the an independent country, and on May 6th,
Burgarians on the north-east. The Turks King Nicholas withdrew his troops.
fought fiercely, but were hopelessly over- Before Scutari fell a second armistice
matched, and before nightfall on the next had been made between Turkey and the
day Adrianople capitulated. Shukri, the Allies, and on April 7th, the peace dele-
Turkish commander, with 50,000 men and gates again met in London, as they had
600 guns, surrendered, and Adrianople was done in the early truce in December.
5324
WILLIAM, THE FIRST MPRET OF KING FERDINAND OF BULGARIA
ALBANIA
5325
—
Southern Macedonia, and Salonika Monte- ; would give way before a fierce onslaught,
negro, an extension of territory on the east and that this second war would quickly
and south-east. Albania from Scutariato end in victory for Bulgaria.
Chimara was declared an autonomous Speedy success was of the utmost im-
state —to the disappointment of Greece portance to Bulgaria. For Roumania had
and Montenegro, who had hoped to divide formulated demands for a rectification of
that country between them. The exact frontier between Silistria and the Black
delineation of frontiers on the east Sea, the Turks might at any time take up
between the Allies was not conclusive, and arms for the recovery of Adrianople, and
but a few weeks elapsed after the signing the Powers might intervene as they had
of this Treaty of London before war had done at Scutaria. If Bulgaria's claim to
again broken out in the Balkans, and now possess Salonika was the merest expression
the recent allies, but ancient enemies, of confidence in the power to take and hold
were at each other's throats, Bulgaria that city against Greece, the intervention
threatened by Roumania on the north, of Roumania for the enlargement of its
engaging with Greece and Servia for the borders at the expense of Bul-
territorial spoils of Turkey. _ ^ garia had no higher ground of
,
was evident that Bulgaria was making no Treaty of London, had calmly re-occupied
headway against her enemies. Adrianople and the surrounding country.
It was of the utmost importance there- Bulgaria had no armies to withstand
fore to Bulgaria, at the outset, to prove either Roumanians or Turks. Her ruler had
her superiority over Servia and Greece staked all on the hasty overthrow of Servia
before Roumania could come to their and Greece, and lost. A last attempt was
assistance and no less before the Powers
;
made on July 25th to defeat the Greeks at
should intervene. For, with the exception Semitli, and when, after two days' hard
of Scutari, the Powers had sanctioned spoils fighting, this failed the Bulgarians with-
to the victor. But when, on June 30th, the drew across the frontier. The Roumanians
Bulgarians under Dimitriev (Savoff had were now at Philippipolis on the south east,
retired from the the Turks were
command owing at Adrianople,
to differences Servia and
with the Govern- Greece were on
ment) attacked the west and
the outposts of south-west fron-
the Servians and tiers. Bulgaria
Greeks in Mace- invaded by
donia, they only Roumania, and
succeeded in surrounded on
driving them all sides, was
back to the compelled to
main armies, seek peace, and
and two days on 31st July an
later itwas the armistice was
Bulgarians who signed. Peace
were on the delegates met
defence. The at Bucharest,
Servians under and there, on
Marshal Putnik, August loth,
and the Greeks 1913, the Treaty
u nder King of Bucharest
Constantine, ended the war.
steadily ad- By this treaty
vanced, and the Bulgaria ceded
Bulgarians no additional terri-
longer fought tory to Rou-
with the spirit mania, south of
they had dis- Silistria, and re-
played against tained a portion
the Turks. In of Thrace with
vain the Bulgar- a coastline on
ians attempted the ^^gean Sea.
an invasion of
Sebah & Joailler
Turkey reso-
Servia, and MEHMED v., SULTAN OF TURKEY lutely declined
strove for some "to give up
signal victory that would give them Adrianople and adjoining country,
the
influence when peace was made. Servia in spite of the remonstrances of the Powers,
and Greece were too strong to be over- and Bulgaria was in no condition to begin
powered. a third war to regain her former conquests.
On July 4th the Roumanians were in No difficulties arose over the frontiers of
Bulgaria, and a week later had occupied Servia and Greece, both of whom had
Varna. By the 20th of July, Servians added substantial territories to their
and Roumanians were converging on Sofia, dominions. Bulgaria, to whom in the first
the Bulgarian capital. To make matters place had been all the glory of the war
worse for Tsar Ferdinand, the Turks had against Turkey, and who at one time
taken the opportunity of reasserting them- threatened, it seemed, Constantinople
selves, and in complete defiance of the itself, emerged from this second conflict
5327
—
5328
EUROPEAN III
POWERS AUSTRIA-
TO-DAY HUNGARY
to such a part as that, and the memory of and though this also affords the traveller
an obsolete grandeur which could not be a further interest and charm, it adds con-
maintained has prevented the country siderably to the problem of government.
hitherto from developing along fresh lines In fact, it is the problem of government,
of progress. and without realising the diversity of race,
We can, indeed, hardly speak of Austria- it is impossible to understand what the
ments. Almost every kind of scenery may nationalist, and from time to time display
be found within its boundaries. In the violent hostility towards one or all of the
south-west are the Alpine peaks of the other races with whom they are supposed
Tyrol ; in the south-east the great ranges to share the glory and government of the
and forests of the Carpathians. North, same empire. That is the worst of an
in Bohemia, and south, in Bosnia, are empire which has not grown by natural
regions of pleasant hills energy from the inside, but has been thrown
Austri&'s
and valleys, interspersed with together bit by bit as occasion served, often
Varied
plains. The Alford, or central by the accident of dynasty or marriage. One
Scenery
flat through which the great remembers the well-known ironic line :
rivers of Hungary run, is one of the Bella gerant alii ; tu, felix Austria, nube.
largest plains of Europe, and the out- Or, in English :
Advanced ''
—
yars and they number some
u iL- j
lians, in turn or together. It is partly a
religious quarrel, and the cry of " Freedom
i.
0,000,000, or about a third
-J
.-,..,. .
and Civilised r a j. i-
• »
that Bohemia made the thing impossible. Croat is used among the Southern Slavs
Probably an equal obstacle lies also in for Catholic just as the name of Servian
the very different nature of the South signifies Orthodox or Greek Church. They
German from the Prussian. For the South _ boast a fine history, claiming to
German of Austria, if less painfully edu- "
C h° a ^® ^^^ °"^^ Southern Slavs,
cated and disciplined to a certain kind of except the Montenegrins, never
Q^^
capacity, has far more freedom and charm subdued by the Turks. Indeed,
of nature, and far more imaginative power. they are the only Slavs in Austria- Hungary
Nor does his neighbour, the South German who have established some right to
of Bavaria, find life under Prussian leader- nationality, except -the Czechs of Bohemia,
ship exactly enjoyable. and, in quite recent years, perhaps the Rou-
So the Pan-German of Austria is now manians of Transylvania, who have become
standing in opposition to the chief forces an even more painful thorn in the side of the
at work in his country. Perhaps the Magyars, because there is always a danger
strongest, as well as the most recent, of thatRoumania may adopt their cause.
these forces is Pan-Slavism. It is a similar But of all the Slavs in the empire, the
movement, but less conscious, less wealthy, Czechs are by far the strongest and most
and devoid of organisation and practical advanced. Their civilisation is historic,
aim. It is a dream of distant unity, like and their nations long held a high place
the Russian movement of the same name in Europe. But the Germans have been
a feeling of common brotherhood rather their foes from the beginning, and the feud
than a policy with a programme. Cer- continues with violence to the present day.
tainly it has the strength of Till some thirty years ago there seemed
Th SI ^
numbers, for, taking the every chance that their nationality would
-1,
Weakened by
, . .
... ^V
Austria-Hungary monarchy asi
become absorbed under German language
Division
a whole, the Slavs probably and manners. The national movement
outnumber all other races by at least two began with the revival of the national
millions. But, as usually happens among language, as also happened in Hungary,
Slavs, they are weakened by division. The and is happening in Ireland now. It is
Czechs of Bohemia, the Croats, the Serbs, strange that a literary and academic
the Ruthenians, the Slovenes, the Slovaks, beginning should have taken so deep a
the Dalmatians, and the Poles, though all hold on the populace that German is now
of Slav origin, now in many cases form a language under a ban and the contest
separate nationalities, and even in lan- between the peoples is perpetual.
guage they are often unintelligible to each As long ago as 1886 Bohemia won the
other, though their languages are akin. privilege of special law courts and uni-
They are also divided by religion. The versities, together with the recognition of
great majority, such as the Czechs, the her language as official, though this right
Croats, and the Poles, are Catholic while; was again withdrawn in 1899, when the
the Serbs and many of the Southern Slavs Czechs were endeavouring to introduce
remain Orthodox, following the same rites Czech words of command into the army.
and doctrines as the Greek and Russian This feud against the Pan-Germans has,
Church. The Pan-Slavist ideal in Austria- .in fact, continued ever since,
Bohemia
Hungary is the formation of the empire into breaking out with especial fury
Demands a u
a kind of confederacy of states in which the ^. .
Ktngship
. m
•
1902, when
agam m ,
1904,
Slav would predominate. At one time, like ^^^ Vienna University was
all Pan-Slavists, they looked forward to a closed on account of it and the Germans
Slav empire under the suzerainty of Russia. retaliated by smashing up Kubelik's
But this ideal has been dimmed by concert-hall at Linz and again towards
;
the overwhelming defeat of Russia in the end of 1908, when martial law was
the East and by the cruel reaction proclaimed in Prague at the very time of
of her own government against liberty. the emperor's Diamond Jubilee. The
At the present time the Slav claims are Czechs now demand a restoration of
for separate nationalities. The Croats, the old separate kingship for Bohemia
5331
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
on the same terms as Hungary's king-
serious question, and on the questions
ship, and it is very probable the con-
of the tariff and the army the deadlock
cession will be granted by the coronation
lasted year after year. In 1900 the
at Prague either of the present old
emperor threatened to suspend the
emperor or of his successor. The esti-
constitution. In 1902 Kossuth, son
mated number of Czechs in the Empire
of the famous Hungarian liberator of
is about six million, or nearly
.
a distinct Hungarian Parliament of a all males over twenty- four. This was
House of Magnates, chiefly hereditary, carried largely by the emperor's personal
and a House of elected representatives, in influence, acting through the premier.
which the Magyars have hitherto secured a Baron von Beck, an honourable statesman,
majority, though they are not a majority who also succeeded in ending the ten years'
of the population. Both Parliaments send quarrel over the tariff by a commercial
" Delegations " of sixty members each treaty with Hungary, in 1907. Under this
to sit alternately at Vienna or Buda- _ treaty, each state was granted a
pest, for the arrangement of the common ° * separate tariff; but Hungary
j^
financial burdens. The Delegations may was to pay 36 per cent, of the
Q J
vote together but they sit separately,
; expenses for war, defence, and
and do not debate together. The emperor- foreign affairs. A court of arbitration
king can personally veto all Bills passed for future disputes was also instituted.
by either Parliament and he appoints The question of the word of command
;
the Ministers himself, apart from the will in the army was held over, and was
of the majority. Such a system may not definitely settled till a later time.
obviously lead to a deadlock on any The Magyars are, in part, very much
5332
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY IN OUR OWN TIME
occupied by the Slav movements directed they were not intended to work. Nothing
against them in Croatia and Transylvania, was further from the thoughts of the two
and by their own endeavours to retain a most interested Powers than a reformed
majority in their Parliament by one device and resuscitated Turkey. They were
or another under manhood suffrage. With only waiting for Turkey to rot till she
this object they framed a Bill in 1908 by dropped, and in the meantime they
which a fairly rich Magyar's vote will opposed any genuine reform on the
count as about thirty to one against the ground that the integrity of the Turkish
Slav peasant's. It is significant that in Empire must never be infringed.
the Austrian Reichsrath ^v^^^vvvm.
ft^'^--^'^^'^^ >vv^^^T
the first appeal to the
people under manhood
suffrage produced a Par-
hament of twenty-six
groups, the two largest
being the Social Demo-
in
—
crats 90, largely Jewish
tendency, and the
Christian Socialists — 65,
largely anti-Semites.
The year 1908 was for
many reasons one of the
most remarkable in Aus-
tria's history, and much
future history is likely to
spring from it. For some
years past Austria had
lacsssssss ,H.4^^ '>'^^g^^....^^»&'^^'^'^'>*^.» ms%sssm. m>^^^^^^H
5334
;
' "^m
'
fl iiiltiMKSgiiiiiliiMi
provmces
^ •,
for twenty
'
years
emperor ;
Fr.nz Joseph
^^^ ,
-
. a deep gloom over his private
-J
. life, while the loss of nearly nationalities.
Ij.
all his Italian possessions, the Patriotic as Czechs and Magyars and
annihilation of his forces by Prussia, and Serbs and Germans may be, when it
the collapse of Austria's old leadership came to the point they might very
among the German States, were public likely prefer to hang together rather
disasters that few dynasties could survive. than enjoy a short-hved separation at the
Yet neither grief nor disaster turned him cost of ultimate and perpetual absorption
from the fulfilment of duties which under the grinding imperialism of one o*"
destiny laid upon him, and long ex- other of their powerful neighbours.
perience had endowed him with a kind of Henry W. Nevinson
W^6
LATER EVENTS IN AUSTRIA-HUNGARY
IN' spite of much internal agitation over Czechs, Independent Czechs, Clericals,
^ the question of the franchise in Slavonians, and Serbo-Croats, Bohemian
Hungary, and of repeated turmoil m the Conservative Feudalists, Moravian Central
Hungarian Chamber, the dual monarchy party, Italians, and Roumanians the —
in later years had enjoyed an era of peace, main conflict for years raging between the
and the Emperor Francis Joseph I., Czechs and the Germans. Hungary, with
whose reign began in that year of revolu- its Reichstag (Upper House of Magnates
tions, 1848, had long outhved the troubles and Lower House of Representatives) has
that once beset his throne. In 1914 the also its own racial difficulties. Croatia
Emperor, then in his 84th year, had to and Slavonia, though part of the kingdom
suffer the loss of the heir apparent, Prince of Hungary, have their own Diet, presided
Franz Ferdinand, who, with his Consort, was over by a Ban, or Lord-Lieutenant, and
shot dead by a Servian assassin at Sarajevo 43 members of this Diet are
on June 28th. This crime was associated „ . sent to the Hungarian Reich-
ungarian
with the unrest prevailing amongst the stag, where, invariably, they sit
various races and kingdoms that made up in opposition. Another group
the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary. in permanent opposition was the Independ-
How wide and numerous were these ence party, led by the late M. Francis
differences of race may easily be under- —
Kossuth a son of the revolutionary leader
stood when some statistics of 1914 are of 1848 —
whose death took place in May,
grasped. According to these statistics, 1914. These national parliaments have
the people of the dual monarchy included the fullest powers in internal matters, but on
in Austria 9,000,000 Germans, 6,000,000 questions of foreign policy and for the
Bohemians and Moravians, 4,250,000 organisation of the army and navy, the
Poles, 3,380,000 Ruthenians, 1,200,000 Delegations, or Joint Committee, of Austria-
Slovenes, besides smaller numbers of Hungary, consisting of 60 members, are
Italians, Croats, and Servians ; while in alone responsible. Three executive de-
Hungary there lived 10,000,000 Magyars partments are concerned exclusively with
(Hungarians), 3,000,000 Roumanians, the foreign affairs and finance of the
2,000,000 Germans, 2,000,000 Slovaks, dual monarchy and with the War Office.
1,500,000 Croats, and 1,000,000 Servians ;
Each state makes its own separate pro-
besides a certain number of Italians. vision for the imperial expenses, and the
With so mixed a population there is naturally proportion to be contributed is fixed by
considerable variety in religion. While mutual agreement, renewable every ten
the Roman Catholic Church embraces years. A Customs and Commercial Treaty
about 80 per cent, of the people of Austria, between Austria and Hungary, signed in
and just over half of the people of Hungary, 1907, and ratified by the ParUaments of
and its numbers are estimated at more both states in 1908,- renewed and confirmed
than 37,000,000, there are also 3,500,000 the agreement first made in 1867, whereby
of the Greek Church, over 4,300,000 the two states are a common territory for
Lutherans, Calvinists, and other Pro- commercial and Customs purposes, and
testants, more than 2,000,000 Jews, and in possess the same system of coinage,
Bosnia - Herzegovina 500,000 weights and measures. A Court of Arbi-
Kaeial Mohammedans. To a large tration for the settlement of differences
Differences extent the electoral districts for between the two states was also estab-
the return of members to the lished by this treaty. In spite of exten-
Lower House of the Reichsrath at Vienna sive emigration to America from the rural
are formed on the basis of race and as
; districts, the population of Austria in-
the franchise was extended in 1907 to creased from 27,496,712 in 1906 to
every male citizen who has resided for a 28,826,00 in 191 1, while that of Hungary
year in his district, and is not disqualified increased from 19,254,559 in 1900 to
by crime or poverty, the number of 21,030,000 in 1911. The total population
parhamentary giroups, in addition to the in 1910 was estimated at 51,340,603.
Social Democrats, who admit no racial Next to Russia, Austria-Hungary, with
distinctions and are international, includes its area of 675,887 square kilometres, is
German Liberals, National Liberals, the largest empire in Europe, though in
German Conservatives, Anti - Semites, point of population it is beaten by Ger-
Poles, Ruthenians, Young Czechs, Old many with its 65,000,000 people.
5337
THE KAISER AND KAISERIN RHVIEWING PRUbSlAN STAFF OFFICERS AT POTSUAM
GERMAN ARTILLERY ; n' ihh m AJ^n.\ <\/k' v. < on THE FRENCH FRONTIER, OCTOBER, I90S
EUROPEAN
POWERS IV
TO-DAY GERMANY
, J
of imperial German citizen-
i i.-
On the contrary, the duke became
p°'''*
ship. Another point to be just as much of an independent sovereign
noted is that the kaiser does in Germany as the King of Prussia
not receive from the empire a single himself, who is only " primus inter pares "
penny of his Civil List about $4,000,000 — among his fellow sovereigns in the Reich.
— which is exclusively Prussian, and aU. Outside of his own particular kingdom of
the ceremonial expenses entailed upon Prussia, William II., as German Kaiser,
him as emperor are drawn from his has no more power of interference in the
copious stipend as King of Prussia. The civil affairs, say, of Saxony, Bavaria,
imperial dignity is an honorary title in the or Baden, than the Khan of Tartary.
strict sense of the term, but the cost of Even in the Free Cities of Hamburg,
maintaining it is cheerfully borne by the Liibeck, and Bremen, the emperor cannot
kaiser- king's special Prussian subjects for step in to exercise the prerogative of mercy,
the honour of the family, so to speak, "et one of the symbols of sovereignty.
pour beaux yeux du roi de Prusse."
les To talk about the kaiser as a despot,
ignorance of these and other facts
It is an autocrat, an absolute ruler, an irrespon-
essential to a clear comprehension of the sible monarch, is not quite correct. The
subject that has caused the German truth is that both as King of Prussia and
Emperor to be represented as a kind of
Th e I united^ as
• • German Emperor WiUiam II.
Frankenstein monster, bearing no resem- -^ ^ constitutional sovereign
blance to any man or monarch in the ,J-T."' °»»
William II.
if of a peculiar kind. When
T- 1- 1 X << i.-
universe. It cannot be truthfully main-
1
Englishmen speak of consti-
tained that William II. is an absolutely tutional "government they mean govern-
autocratic ruler without any check upon ment by party, whereas the German
his powers. The best way of realis- conception of the same thing is govern-
ing his character as a sovereign is to ment according to a written constitution,
remember that the German Empire is but whether includes party see-saw or not.
it
the European analogue of the United The trouble with England's " glorious con-
States of America, a confederation of stitution" is that it is in the nature of a
twenty-five sovereign states of which — " lex non scripta," so that they never
three, the Free Cities of Hamburg, Lubeck, really know where they are whereas, the
;
and Bremen, are republics under the title — Germans always enjoy the immense ad-
of " Deutsches Reich," with the King of vantage of knowing, so that in cases of
Prussia, ex-ofiicio, as its perpetual execu- dubiety or dispute they simply have to
tive chief or president. Just as each State turn to the " Reichsveriassung." And
in the American Union enjoys its own the same remark applies to the Prussian
legislature for the transaction of purely constitution, the outcome of the revolu-
state affairs, so a similar system prevails tion of '48, when the respective powers
Germany, where each federal of crown and crowd were very carefully
Q many s in ,
g^^^.^ ^i^.^ its own bicameral defined though, on the whole, the balance
;
5.340
, ;
j xu ui
.
dissolve Parliament, but so can England's not, without tlie consent of his fellow
king on the advice of his premier; and to sovereigns in the Union, declare an
dissolve a Parliament is not to dragoon it. aggressive war, and these sovereigns,
Dissolutions of the German Parlia- perhaps, might be expected to forbid their
ment have always taken the form of a executive president to precipitate the
plebiscite,a referendum, a direct appeal nation into a wanton struggle. Well,
from the party-torn representatives of the then, but what is the nature of the power
German people to the people themselves, that the kaiser so palpably
The Kaiser
and in nearly all such cases the reply has exercises ? The answer is
Master of
been decidedly in favour of the Govern- that he the representa-
is
Many Legions
ment. Power of purse is exercised as tive and spokesman of the
absolutely by the German Reichstag as by German people to other countries
the House of Commons, and the kaiser above all, that he is commander-in-chief
cannot put a new warship on the sea, or of the army and navy; and that this
add a single man to the German Army " Kaiserliche Herr " also claims to be a
without the sanction of the German people. " Kriegsherr," war-lord, or master of
The list of measures which have been many mighty legions. It is the flashing of
rejected both by the Imperial and Prussian the emperor's helmet more than of his
Parliaments is a very long one, but the crown which sometimes tends to dazzle
5341
—
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
the eyes and bewilder the German nation, the manufacture of soldiers, and in this
and other nations as well. It is in his respect she easily surpasses all her rivals.
administrative capacity as " Kriegs- Of these soldiers she keeps a standing
herr " that the kaiser wields most personal army of about 600,000, which is just about
power within the empire ; while abroad double the strength of what it was a year
he is comparatively untrammelled
also or two after the Franco-Prussian war; and
in the domain of foreign policy. In both in time of war this force is raised to a first
fields the emperor is entitled by the fighting line of about two millions.
constitution to wield great personal When needed, Germany can put into
power, but he has strongly denied that he the field, from her reserves of various
sought to throw his sword into the scale kinds, a host of over five millions of highly
either against the civil rights of his own trained fighting men. Her standing army is
people or the general rights of man as divided into twenty-three army corps, all
involved in the peace of the world. _. _ as like each other as two pins
The Germans
Andthe sword of the German Emperor m respect of composition
•
, -i-
j-
andj
is 3. mighty one — .none more so. The J^ ' . ^.
Conscription
eihciencv, so that after a
,
•'
., ,
" German Michael," with his " mailed {_
stranger has seen the march-
fist," is perhaps the most formidable past of one of those superb bodies of men,
fighting man the world has ever seen ;and he may be said to have seen the whole
yet it must be admitted that he did not German army. It is, of course, a conscript
bare his blade for well-nigh forty years army, though its size is fixed by budget
following his last great set-to with the law, and hence it follows that, though all
Gauls beyond the Rhine. Whatever else Germans capable of beanng arms are liable
may be said about Germany, it must to serve, it is only the fittest who are
at least be conceded to her credit tha+, taken to the colours, seeing that the
with all her tremendous armed strength, number of available recruits always ex-
she was for years a bulwark of the Euro- ceeds that of the time-expired men.
pean peace. It would be outside the scope of a sketch
After her war with France, Germany may like this to detail the organisation of the
be said to have become an industrial state German arm.y suffice to say that it is a
;
as compared with the almost purely agri- machine which represents more brain-
cultural country which she was before; work than any other machine ever devised
yet her greatest industry is militarism by the wit of man, and that it is just as
the Germans had this peculiar, this the army is composed of contingents from
—
unique result that they may be said to the various states of the Union, each with
have put the French navy entirely out its own peculiarities and privileges, the
To the 260 war-ships of various kinds many's ruler nothing must happen in any
5344
—
GERMANY IN OUR OWN TIME
part of the world " ;
"
may our Father- increase the navy. The large naval pro-
land be as powerful, as closely united, and gramme of 1898, providing for seventeen
as authoritative as was the Roman new battleships, coincided
Germany's
Empire of old, in order that the phrase ^j^j^ ^^le Spanish-American
rea ui ^^s-\^^j.
'
Civis Romanus sum may be replaced by
' .
^j^ile soon after the
Frogramme
'
I a German citizen "
am " Neptune
'
; outbreak of the Boer War
with the trident is a symbol for us that we the Reichstag again voted, in 1900, some-
have new tasks to fulfil since the empire thing hke $500,000,000 for the carrying
has been welded together. Everywhere we out of a naval programme extending over
have to protect German citizens, every- sixteen years ; though on two subsequent
where we have to mdntain German occasions, 1906 and 1907, supplementary
honour that trident must be in our
; Bills in the direction always of bigger
fist." battleships were presented to Parliament.
and other utterances of his
These There was the less opposition to the
clearly showed that William II. had been immense Government demands in 1900,
bitten by the new-born pas- as the German public had been highly
The Kaiser's gj^j^ j^j. sea-power, though in irritated by the seizure of several of their
Passion for
this respect he was but acting mail steamers, and the unloading of them
Sea Power
as the spokesman of the vast at Durban in search of contraband an —
majority of his people. The voice of that incident to which the emperor thus alluded
people found vent in the creation of a in a telegram to the King of Wiirtemberg :
Flottenverein, or Navy League, which " I hope the events of the last few days
now numbers almost a milhon subscribing will have convinced ever widening circles
members, and which has an annual that not only Germany's interest, but
income of about $250,000 for the purpose also Germany's honour must be protected
of agitating in favour of an ever stronger in distant seas, and that to this end
navy. But even previous to the form- Germany must be strong and powerful
ation of that league the Reichstag, in on the sea also." At the same time it was
response to the same popular voice, had stated, not in the preamble, but in the
willingly voted 40,000,000 dollars for the memorandum of motives attached to the
construction of a sixty-mile long and Bill of 1900, that " Germany must have
twenty-nine feet deep canal between a fleet so strong that even for the greatest
Kiel Harbour and the mouth of the Elbe naval Power a war with it would have
a work which, begun in 1886 and inaugu- such risks as to imperil its sea supremacy."
rated in 1895, practically doubled the And then the fat was on the British
value of the German fleet by enabling it fire. For these words were regarded as a
to concentrate in either the North Sea clear warning, if not a threat, to England,
or the Baltic without incurring the various and there were many who then prophesied
risks of going round by Denmark. that a war between the two countries was
A few years later it was decided to only a question of time. For over a
deepen and broaden this Kaiser Wilhelm —
quarter of a century or from 1884-85,
Canal to admit of the passage of battle- when Germany, in spite of
Britain's
ships of the Dreadnought type. More- much irritating obstruction
Relations with^j.^^^
over, the Reichstag voted 7,500,000 England, first started on
ermany
dollars for the fortification of Heligo- ^^^ career as an oversea Power
land, which England surrendered to Ger- — the relations between the two peoples
many in 1890 in exchange for Zanzibar. had been anything but cordial, and during
Otherwise the Flottenverein under the — the Boer War their estrangement reached a
patronage of some of the' highest person- climax. But, truth to tell, there were
ages in Germany, including the emperor's faults and jealousies on both sides.
sailor-brother, Prince Henry played a — The German Empire was a poUtical fact
prominent part in preparing the public to which Enghshmen were long in recon-
mind for successive demands of money to ciling themselves, and there were but
5345
— ;
Imperial Germany shot ahead and became while his chancellor, Prince von Biilow,
her most formidable rival in the world of was still more emphatic. Replying to the
commerce. " That England," so Bismarck charge of some Socialist speakers in the
once said, " looks on in some surprise when Reichstag, that the increase in the German
, we, her landlubberly cousins, navy was rightly regarded as directed
Germany s
su(j(jgnly take to the water too against Great Britain, the chancellor said,
is not to be wondered at." But December, 1905 " That we are pursuing
:
on °theXa
c ea
^^^ Germans had not merely no aggressive plans against Great Britain
taken to the water. In the opinion of I have said a hundred times. I have said
the Teutophobe alarmists, it was also a hundred times that it is nonsense to
their aim to wrest from England the trident father such schemes on us."
of Neptune and destroy her tyrannical To a Press interviewer some little time
supremacy on the sea. As one writer after, the prince said: "I admit that we
said : "A mighty longing for larger have made great strides in shipbuilding
sea power, a determination to brook for, likeother nations, we require a fleet in
no longer the overwhelming and resist- proportion to the extent of our commercial
less supremacy of England on the main, interests all over the water. But, as a
has seized upon the soul." matter of fact, our navy is still very small
But while thus striving to make en- in proportion to our oversea commerce
croachments on the sea, the Germans at the judging their relative dimensions by those
same time had not been neglecting the air, of other nations. To argue, however, that
and in the latter respect their most success- Germany thinks of ever competing with
ful inventor, Count Zeppelin, was hailed England for the mastery of the sea is
by the emperor as " the foremost man of tantamount to accusing us of
,
crmany s
his century." For his conquest of South ^jgj^ij^g ^q build a railway to
Africa, Lord Roberts received $500,000 the moon, including rolling-
g p
from a grateful country, and that is pre- stock, sleeping-cars, etc. It is
cisely the sum which was also voted to sheer nonsense, and I for one deplore that
Count Zeppelin by the German people for anybody should deem me capable of
his conquest of the air. The degrees of entertaining such a fantastic idea."
these two acts of victory were very differ- In the Reichstag also the chancellor
ent, but still the Germans were entitled to said : "In our construction of a fleet we
claim that they had advanced further on are not pursuing aggressive aims. We
the path of air-conquest than any other only desire to defend our own German
nation. Heine had sneered at them as a coasts, and to uphold German interests
nation of dreamers, whose thoughts were abroad. It is, moreover, the wish of by
always in the air, but his words had now far the greater portion of the German
acquired a wonderfully new significance :
people that we should not be defenceless
The F"rench and the Britons now lord it on land. on the sea. . . The saying, Our future
.
'
Con u St f when the most hot-headed and world as other nations have. That right
visionary among the Germans the Hansa had centuries ago, and that right
GrrrBrit°ain
began to regard their partial the new German Empire also possesses."
conquest of the long step in the
air as a Apart from all question of England and
direction of the possible conquest of Great her sea supremacy, it must be owned that
Britain, which would thus no longer enjoy Germany had reasons enough for justifying
the advantages of being an island if the herself in the eyes of other nations in the
sky could be darkened with aerial navies. building of a navy commensurate with her
But it is a far cry from Lake Con- population (63,000,000), the extent of her
stance to the chffs of England and, on the
; coast-line, the size and number of her
other hand, in a country like Germany, colonies, the volume of her marine trade
5346
—
I'attaque, il se defend."
Since the year 1848 Ger-
many has seen her coast
blockaded on three separate
occasions, including the war
of 1870, when she was
practically powerless at sea.
Again, in 1907, the value of
her sea-borne trade was
1,860,000,000 dollars. Of
this total, $1,470,000,000
was carried by German
merchant vessels of over
3,000,000 tons register, valued at over expansion. For several years after the
$200,000,000, and manned by 60,000 sea- establishment of the empire, Bismarck
men. Ten per cent, of the world's com- and others worked hard at its internal
merce and 79 per cent, of German sea- consolidation —
witness, among other
borne trade was carried in. German things, the codification of all the con-
bottoms, while the hners of the Hamburg flicting laws of Germany, a gigantic work
and Bremen companies were the finest that lasting nearly thirty years, to which
crossed the sea, and had even taken from only German heads were equal. And no
5347
:
They were all sub-tropical, and fitted many first in the world " And, saying
!
only to be plantation, not agricultural, so, he pretty well expressed the creed of
colonies. Very small was the total number the Pan-Germanists. The emperor, too,
of Germans who went to seek their for- on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the
tunes in Germany's " colonies," and even Reich, delighted their hearts by declaring :
of these a large proportion were govem- " Out of the German Empire a world-
5348
— ; , '
—
America " became the greatest in the Germany "—to be at " present by far the
Germany
world, far surpassing the nearest of its wealthiest state in Europe.
British rivals in the extent of its opera- and the individual states composing it
tions and the number and tonnage of have a very large national debt, but against
its ships. The capital of the company that debt they possess very considerable
exceeds $50,000,000, its employees exceed assets. Of these the Prussian state railways
18,000, and its ocean-going fleet numbers alone, which earn a profit of from seven to
5350
— —
GERMANY IN OUR OWN TIME
eight percent., would suffice to pay off the proper, but here at least it may be said
whole of the indebtedness of the empire and —
that its members formerly, in 1903,
of all the individual states." Another in- nearly a third of the whole electorate
dication of national wealth and prosperity are the men whom the emperor has re-
is the fact that between 1885 and 1905 peatedly denounced as "a band of fellows
the German state insurance societies paid not worthy to bear the name of Ger-
to about ig,ooo,ooo workers, male and mans," and " enemies to the divine order
female, about $1,280,000,000 on account of of things; men without a Fatherland."
illness, accident, infirmity, and old age. It was with the help of these
Socialists " Vaterlandslose Gesellen " that
In this connection be it remarked that
Routed at
no other country has attempted by legis- the Clericals, in 1907, threw
the Polls
lation so much for the welfare of her out a demand for $2,000,000
working classes as Germany. Under the for the perfection and development of
old emperor she took the lead in the Sputh-West Africa, and on this issue the
attempt to solve modern social problems Government appealed to the German
by means of state legislation, thus in- people, who were told that the new
augurating a sort of state Socialism in General Election was to decide whether
some beneficiary fields while William II.
; Germany was to remain merely a Great
also hastened to make his mark as a Power in Europe, or whether she was also
saviour of society by summoning an inter- to become a World-Power. The reply of
national labour conference, and in Ger- the people was decisive, and the Govern-
many itself full effect was given to its ment got a working majority. The
recommendations by a measure for the Socialists suffered a sort of debacle. They
amendment of the Industrial Code. returned to the Reichstag shorn of about
All this is true. Under Protection half their strength —
^with 43 seats instead
in consequence of it, as some maintain in ; of 82, although, out of a total of 11,262,800
spite of it, as others aver — Germany has —
votes the highest number ever yet given
c» t
Stronghold u grownto be the wealthiest in the empire — they had polled 3,259,000,
country in Europe. In the or only about 29 per cent., instead of
of Soci&l
opmion ofX many she
• • 1- • 1
_ is also their previous 32 per cent.
the best governed country in Nevertheless, the election was held to
Europe, in the sense that she enjoys a furnish clear evidence that the ambition
government best adapted to her special to make Germany a " Weltmacht " and
needs and circumstances yet one is con-
; an oversea Power was no longer confined
fronted by the puzzling facts that for every to the emperor, the " Fiottenverein,"
Socialist in England there are four in and the Pan-German League, but that it
Germany, and that social democracy, the had also permeated the great mass of the
party of extreme discontent, is stronger in German people. It was held to show that
Germany than anywhere else in the world. the working population of Germany had
At the election to the first Reichstag deliberately and emphatically endorsed the
in 1871 only three per cent, of the total economic policy which benefits the producer.
votes had been given to the Socialists, It was further held to prove that,
and by 1881 this percentage had risen however bad the general state of agri-
to 6-12 with a poll of 312,000. By 1890 culture in Germany, it was at least
the percentage had further bounded up decidedly better than in Free-Trade Eng-
to 1974 with a poll of 1,427,300 while ; land. The German people had begun
at the election of 1903 the percentage was to grow tired of a party which was in the
3171, or well on to a third of the whole „. ^ .
main one of mere opposition
—the having secured 3,010,771
Socialists
The Greed . ^-
—
and negation a party t
as in-
out of a total poll of 9,495,586 a per- — o . ,. ^
Socialists
nocuous as it was
c •i
noisy. The
J _ xu
Socialists now appeared in the
1
centage of 3771. Numerically, they were
thus by far the strongest of the eight or light of those who, the more they get, the
"
ten parties among which the 397 i^eats in more they want. "What do they want ?
the Reichstag are divided. Of these seats inquired the Birmingham brassworkers,
they only secured 82, but according to the when they went over to inquire into the
law of strict proportional representation condition of the German workman. " They
they ought to have had about 130. seem to have everything cheap, and we
The development of social democracy don't know what they are agitating for."
belongs to the history of the empire It was seen that the poor in Germany
140 5351
—
best energies of the nation, and left it thus securely smile at the clumsy efforts of the
comparatively poor and unproductive in other to add to the oak-leaves of a frowning
the various intellectual walks of life. Mars the laurels of an effulgent Apollo.
An American writer of German origin, Imperial Germany has now become a
Wolf von Schierbrand, is pretty near the " Weltmacht," but it has not yet produced
mark when he says :
" There is an a " Weltliteratur," or anything like it.
astonishing uniformity of mediocre ideas During the last thirty years the
.
ermany in
in modern Germany, with little of that j^^j^^^gj. qJ j^g^ books published
^
the Field of
daring flight of thought, that love of , .^
Literature
^ m Germany has,
• --
j
m round num-
, • j
being one exclusively of political pamph- them have sought their inspiration from
lets by a " Paradise Lost." But the the mysticism of Tolstoi, the pessimism of
5352
— .
hitherto denied to the British people. It shows that the Berlin school
What has been said of the drama must of sculptors can hardly have been excelled
also be applied to fiction in general, and in the time of the Renaissance." But
also to poetry, of which the quality is if we take the emperor as our critical
almost in inverse ratio to the volume of its guide through the present realms of
output. History has always been a con- German pictorial art, the judgment is
genial subject in Germany, but few of her much less favourable.
historical writers have a style and of them
; The newest tendency is towards realism,
in general —
though there are some excep- as represented by the "Secessionists"
—
tions it may be remarked what Macaulay from routine and the old regime, from the
said of Niebuhr, that he was " a man who old and accepted schools of painting in
would have been the finest writer of his Germany. Drawing their inspiration from
time if his talent for communicating truths Arnold Boecklin, a Swiss by birth, these
had borne any proportion to his talent —
"Secessionists" who point to Lenbach as
for investigating them." In the field of an exponent of their principles in the domain
theology, Germany is far ahead of England of portraiture —
have aimed at creating a
, with its criticism and its de- new and distinctive school of German art,
' velopment of dogma in the light freed from the mannerism of the past
Pla!^**"'
of science, while the religious serious, sincere, truthful.
in Germany
of the nation might be
life This they aim at, and yet to the kaiser
summed up by saying that in no country they are an odious, degenerate race, whose
of Europe is there so much natural piety productions merit only proscription at
and belief in God, combined with so little the hands the Government.
of " If
church-going, as in Germany, especially civilisation," said the emperor, " is
among the educated classes. It is true going to fulfil its entire mission, it must
that the kaiser himself sets an example penetrate down to the lowest classes
of the straitest Lutheran faith but then; of the people. This it can only do when
his Majesty has, on countless occasions, art bears a hand, when art elevates,
committed himself to the doctrine of instead of herself descending into the
divine right, of his being the German gutter." As gutter- artists, the kaiser, in
vice-regent of the Almighty, " our Ally at his capacity of " Kunstherr," denounces
Rossbach," and he has had to live up to it. the " Secessionists." What his Majesty
Asserting himself to be intimate with wants is not realism, but idealism — as well
the counsels of the Almighty, the emperor in art as in literature, and even the present
claims to be no less acquainted with the tendency of the latter is in a direction fatal
canons of art, and hence it is interesting to reverence for traditional ideals, divine
to learn from him, in his capacity as _ right claims, and all the rest of
" Kunstherr," ermany
as distinguished from ^^ German literature is at
irs in
" Kriegsherr," that German sculpture is pj.gggj^^ jj^ 3^ ygj-y troubled,
ahead of the rest of Europe. Perhaps the transitional state, and there-
greatest museum of plastic art in Berlin fore it bulks not largely before the eyes of
is the open-air Siegesallee, in the Thier- Europe. But it is otherwise in the field
garten, which is now lined on both sides of science, where Germany easily holds
with two and thirty marble statues of his foremost rank. From their very nature
Majesty's heroic Hohenzollern ancestors, and mental composition the Germans are
as chiselled by the leading German far more fitted to shine as scientists than
sculptors under the general direction of —
as litterateurs ^their very language being
their chief, Reinhold Begas. This imposing against them in the latter respect and —
5353
! ; —
HISTORY OF THE VORLD
even their soldiering draws its strength difference between wissen and wollen,
and brilliancy from the fact that it is of between kennen and konnen. The general
the scientific kind. Scientific students tendency of education, military training,
from all countries, who used to crowd for etc., in Germany is to make machines of
illumination to France, now flock to men, and the thinking power of machines
Germany, where a world-wide reputation is not high.
was won for her by sons like Helmholz, Germany is far ahead of England in
Haeckel, Virchow, Buelow, Koch, Lan- technical education and yet, says an
;
genbeck, Tirkel, Czermat, expert : " It is not without cause that the
"mans
ggj-gmann, Bunsen, and a host best engineers in the world
J
'"^ Where Great ^^^
,°^f- .* of others. In fact, it may be ^^^ practically trained
of Thinkers -j j.i j ij- •
j.
said that science and soldier- Enghsh engineers, although
GermTn
ermany
ing are the only two things that a Briton their theoretical knowledge
may study better in Germany than in his is small as compared with their inferior
—
own country those two subjects, and also German competitor." According to the
music, in respect of which the Germans same authority " the chief practical value
retain their proud pre-eminence both as of the German schools consists, not in the
creators and performers, though Imperial knowledge disseminated, but in the dis-
Germany has not yet produced another cipline instilled. ... It cannot be too often
Wagner, whose genius was rooted in the and too loudly asserted that Germany has
period preceding the rise of the Reich. —
become great and powerful not through
As for the Press it may truly be de- her education as synonymous with know-
scribed as poor and paltry by comparison ledge, but through her discipline. National
with that of other nations lacking in inde- — co-operation, the co-ordination of all the
pendence, influence, enlightenment, and national forces, which is developed to
political power. A daily newspaper is by no a greater extent in Germany than in any
means so necessary to a German as it is to other country, has proved stronger than
a Briton, a Frenchman, or an American. individualism, which squanders the na-
In no country of Europe are there so tional forces in constant internecine
. few illiterates or so much book-learning warfare."
as in Germany, and yet the average War is anything but a civilising agency,
_ Englishman or American may
, and the Germans hitherto may be said to
ermany s
^^ ^^.^ ^^ ^^ ^ better educated have always been at war. The Germans
Educational ,,
man than ,i ^
the average German. have generally had to submit to the
o- - .
standard r\ £ r^
On a peace footing Germany s j.- >
devastation and depopulation of their
standing army is about 600,000 men ;
own country. It was a frequent remark
while the standing army of German educa- of Bismarck that Germany had not yet
tionalists of all kinds numbers no less than recovered from the effects of the Thirty
300,000. Germany has now twenty-two Years' War, which is said to have reduced
universities, which teach about 40,000 her population from 16,000,000 to less
students, or more than three times the than 5,000,000. And then her other
number of thirty years ago, so that she principal war waged within her own
is now suffering from academic over- —
borders the Seven Years' War the wars —
—
production what the emperor deplored with the French kings and Napoleon, and
as an ever-increasing and useless " pro- the campaigns with Denmark and Austria,
letariat of passmen." And all their pro- only afford us matter for astonishment
fessors are so omniscient. that the civilisation of Germany should
Gott weiss viel, be so high as it is. But her years' period
Doch mehr der Herr Professor of peace and material prosperity since
Gott weiss AUes, her great struggle with France has already
Doch er —Alles besser done wonders for her. The German race
Whileit may be owned that Germany is still almost original in its vigour;
is the most educated nation in the world, the Germans declare that the race is
it is, nevertheless, a long way from unique and say that its good qualities
being the same as best educated. To its bravery, piety, sincerity, intelligence,
cram the head does not carry with it that perseverance, energy, and idealism, only
development of character which is perhaps require the setting of a higher civilisation,
the primary, and certainly the higher, aim resulting from circumstances of a kindlier
of Enghsh education. It all lies in the and more emollient sort than ever
5354
—
GERMANY IN OUR OWN TIME
blessed it before, to make it the leading" and of making them see only the side of
nation on the Continent of Europe, and his nature he desires. Naturally different
the one most devoted to the arts of peace. men disagree concerning him. He claims
So far, the highest expression of the to be a lover of peace, and yet speaks of
German character, since the disappear- the " mailed fist " and of the bloody deeds
ance of Bismarck, is to be found in the which Germany will do. He glories in
man who had the tremendous courage to being a soldier and yet dabbles in art,
sign the warrant for his dismissal literature and music and claims to be an
William II., one of the most puzzling authority on all three. He is a realist and
individuals in his country's history. No an idealist in turn a realist in every-
;
two students of his character agree in all day affairs, but an idealist in art and
points. He has great power of fascinat- religion.
ing those with whom he comes in contact. Charles Lowe.
5355
LATER EVENTS IN GERMANY
THEexpressed,
expectation,
that
so fully and
the decrease of the
freely however, affected the general adhesion to
Protestantism. For out of a total popula-
Socialist vote in 1907 was the beginning of a tion close upon 65,000,000 in 1910,
Socialist debacle, to be followed by the Protestants claimed nearly 40,000,000, as
disappearance of the followers of Marx against 35,600,000 in 1905, out of a total
from German politics was soon seen to be population of 60,000,000. The Roman
without any real foundation. In 1912 the Catholic Church in Germany in the same
General Election brought the Socialists period enlarged its membership from
back to the Reichstag in larger 20,327,913 to 23,721,453.
- *. numbers than ever. In that The steady and continuous increase in
ocia IS
year, for the first time, the the expenditure on armaments was empha-
Socialists, with no members, sised by the Defence Bills of 191 3. While
were the largest party in the Reichstag, and the Navy Estimates for that year showed
at by-elections in the years that followed, no startling advance, the Army Bills
additional victories were won, not only in raised the peace strength from 544,211 to
the Imperial Parliament, but in the 661,176, and added 4,000 officers, 15,000
Parliaments of Prussia, Bavaria, Baden, non-commissioned officers, and 117,000
Saxony, and Wurtemberg. In fact, the men to the Imperial Army. The changes
Social Democratic Party, with its multi- in organisation were to be completed in
tude of daily and weekly newspapers, 1915, and involved the huge expenditure
throughout Germany, and its perfect of between $260,000,000 and $265,000,000
organisation, continues to grow at the non-recurring, and $45,000,000 recurring.
expense of the Radicals and Liberals, and Altogether, the Budget for 1914 demanded
its only serious rival in the State is the $300,000,000 for the Army. No less than
Catholic Centre Party, which returned 5,400,000 fully trained men are available
90 members to the Reichstag in 1912, as for the field in 1915. An ugly feature of the
against 105 in 1907. The failure of expenditure on armaments in Germany
Bismarck's policy of repression is seen in was the charge made in the Reichstag in
both these cases, for the " Iron " Chancel- 1913, that Krupp's and other
Expenditure
lor did his best to crush the organisation of ^^^^ ^^^ ^j^^-^. ^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^
on
the Catholics as he exerted himself later whose business it was to bribe
Armaments
to destroy the rising power of the Socialists. officials in the EnglishAdmiralty
It yet remains to be seen, however, and the War Office in order to obtain secret
whether the Socialists could preserve their documents, and thereby gain advantage
unity should the Reichstag become a in competition over rival firms by the
governing body, for with the responsibility anticipation of orders. The charge was
of legislative power has gone discussion met by the appointment of a committee
and schism amongst the Socialists in most of inquiry, and following the report of this
European countries of importance. committee, a number of officers were
The large falling off in the membership brought to trial and convicted. Amongst
of the established Lutheran churches in those thus convicted were the Secretary-
Germany has been a remarkable fact for Superintendent of the Ministry of War,
many years. This decline has been most and two directors of the firm of Krupp.
noted in Berlin and in the chief cities of the The advance in manufactures in Ger-
empire, and has occasioned much com- many in recent years must not be over-
ment and discussion. Several reasons are looked. In 1905 the total value of exports
. alleged in explanation of the was nearly 1,500 million dollars, and of ex-
u eranism
j^^j^^gj. Qf persons who each ports to the United Kingdom 250 millions.
Q*V^\ year decline any longer to regis- In 1912 the exports were of the value of
ter themselves as members of $2,500,000,000 and the exports to the
the Lutheran Church, and the main grounds United Kingdom $350,000,000. When
seem to be (i) to avoid payment of a tax
: the growth of population in those years is
required of all such members (2) the
; considered, it is also to be noted that the
spread of rationahsm encouraged by the growth has been in the urban districts.
" higher criticism " of the German Pro- The number oftowns with more than
testant theologians. This decrease of 100,000 inhabitants went up from 41 to
membership in the State Church has not, 48 between 1905 and 1910.
5356.
m
EUROPEAN V
POWERS HOLLAND
TO-DAY AND
ii BELGIUM
I
but symptomatic of a deep, widespread, said if they had remained united. The
pervasive feeling of dissatisfaction with religious antagonism would alone, in all
existing conditions, brought about in 1830 probability, have prevented it. Holland
a movement which, assuming a national is a country with a history of which any
aspect, resulted in the forcible dissolution „ „ ., „ nation might well be ^
proud.
Holland s Brave j, •t?,i ^ , ,
j^gg their divorce has been which dominates their national life, and
followed by real good to both, and this is equally inspires the two parties, Liberals
what has happened with respect to Holland and Anti-Liberals or Anti- Revolutionists,
and Belgium. They are small states, yet which divide its political life. They have
they can show, area and population con- good reason for cherishing this ideal, and
sidered, a prosperity, a condition of general never more so than at the present time.
well-being, which can hardly be matched For, from the international point ol view,
5357
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
the position of Holland was not a happy unprovoked armed annexation of their
one. There was the interesting question country by Germany, they dread the
of the succession to the throne— interesting employment of subtler methods, commer-
rather than difficult, for even if Queen cial and diplomatic, which would bring
Wilhelmina had had no child a successor about gradual Germanisation.
its And
to the throne could have been found in a again, a crisis in European history,
at
prince, with the blood of the glorious when the sacredness of treaties has been
House of Orange in his veins, who might shown to be a fiction, and a war has broken
be in sympathy with Dutch out between Britain and Germany, what
anger o
aspirations. The danger to guarantee has Holland that her territory
Independence
the independence of Holland might not suddenly be seized by Germany
goes much deeper than this. as a base for operations against Britain ?
The most marked feature of the history It is questions like this, arising out of the
of these first years of the century was the present international situation, that disturb
growing antagonism between Britain and Holland and cause great searchings of heart.
Germany. However much or little the The Dutch were never more determined
fact may be realised, the fact remained, than at the present time to preserve their
deplorable, menacing, incalculable as to identity as a people, and apart from the
result upon the world. The hope of all menace which hangs over them they go
men of good will was that a struggle might about their business at home and abroad
be averted. No one can regard the in their easy, immemorial
quiet, way.
question without the deepest anxiety ; but They remain, as they have been for many
the Dutch have special reason for fearing generations, great men of business ; their
its results for Holland stands between
; wealth and commerce now grow from
England and Germany. But it is not year to year they have got their vast
;
Britain that Holland has any need to fear. colonial empire well in hand, but their
The irritation produced in Great Britain money flows into many lands it was the —
by the expression of the pro-Boer sym- capital they supplied that in
Holland
pathies of the Dutch during the South large measure built the railways
the
African War has passed away, most fair- of the United States. Amster-
Peaceful
minded Britons feeling that the Dutch dam
is one of the banking
could hardly have acted otherwise than centres the world, besides being its
of
they did in supporting to some extent their diamond mart. The country, with its 2,000
kin. Britain has no wish that Holland miles of canals and 1,800 miles of railways,
should be other than independent for ever. presents a pleasing spectacle of well-ordered
But the same cannot be said with equal life, its own which differen-
with features of
truth of Germany. Holland holds the tiate from that of every other land.
it
mouth of the Rhine, the greatest German There is a spirit of peace, of rest, of
river
—
" the Rhine, the Rhine, the German quiet about it, especially in the interior,
Rhine," as the song puts it. There has long that is looked for in vain elsewhere. The
been a school of German political thought old order changes in Holland as in other
which maintains that the possession of the countries, but with a measured tran-
whole particularly of its outlets,
river, quillity all its own. Its windmills, its
is necessary to Germany, and never ceases level, highly cultivated fields, its dreamy
to urge that, seeing also that the Dutch homesteads, the picturesque dress of its
are of Germanic stock, Holland should be slow-moving, much-smoking peasants still
occupied by Germany. Holland, too, —
endure the delight of the contemplative
„ holds the great ports of Am- and such as love not the fret and fuss and
.
_"" sterdam and Rotterdam, argu-
- hurry of these times of ours, and the joy
' ° In its great cities, such as
Q erm&ny ments that further reinforce of the artist.
^.^^ German claim. With this The Hague, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam,
extended sea front, what might not the old-world atmosphere is scarce to be
Germany become Does not " manifest
! found save in some old houses and in the
destiny " point this way ? The bulk of churches in them the modern spirit pre-
;
Germans, it should be said, listen to these vails, as might be expected. Yet, speaking
flattering voices as if they heard them not, generally, the peace of the land is so great
but the Dutch are hearing them always, that nothing could have been more appro-
and are haunted by them. If they have no priate than the building of the world's
serious fears, for the time being, of an Palace of Peace, where arbitration takes
5358
EW IN LEYDEN, WHICH STANDS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE OLD RHINE
5360
. ;
able property to the value of $400, or have strength mainly from the Flemish pro-
a corresponding income, or for two years vinces, while the parties forming the
have received $20 a year from Belgian " Left " derive theirs from the Walloon
State funds or from the national savings provinces. The Catholics support
bank. But the Belgian can have yet religious education in the schools and
another vote if, being twenty-five years old, _. . universities, and the Church,
he possesses a diploma of higher education, pa-id by the State, is yet outside
Q ^ 1
f
or has filled some public or even private ^^^ Control. The Liberals be-
Education
position which implies this higher education long to the middle class and
No Belgian can have more than three the industrial portion of the community,
votes. Both Houses of Parliament are and are, as it were, between two stools.
chosen by this electorate. Senators are- The Socialists preach and uphold the
elected for eight years, most of them being doctrine of collectivism, and are strongest
elected by the general body of voters, and among the working classes. All parties
the rest by the provincial councils. The of the Left unite against the Clerical
Deputies are elected for four years, in the control of education. But the battle
proportion of one member to every 40,000 wages most fiercely, as for many years
of the population, and number 116, one- past, round the franchise. In 1904 M.
half of whom retire every two years. The Feron, the leader of the Left, moved the
members of Parliament are paid indemni- abolition of " plural " voting in favour
ties, and get free passes over the railways. of universal suffrage, but was defeated.
Though Belgium has of recent years In 1906 all sections of the Left combined
become an intensely democratic country, on a common programme, the two chief
it is still, as will have been seen, a long " planks " in it being reform of the fran-
_ . way from the " one man, one chise and compulsory education free from
^*^^^ " P'^'^ciple. Its present Church control. And the end is not yet.
^"*K o Id o f
St*rong
fj-a,nchise is the result of along Perhaps it should be said that almost
Socialism , ,• ,-., 9
and sometimes embittered the entire population of Belgium belongs
struggle which, apart from the Congo, to the Roman Catholic faith, but full
practically includes the whole political religious liberty prevails, all denomina-
history of the coimtry. For a lengthy tions receiving grants from the national
period after the foundation of the king- funds. The two racial divisions, Flemish
dom under Leopold I., power was held and Walloon, continue to be marked by a
alternately by the Clericgds, or Catholics, difference of language. Nearly 3,000,000
and the Liberals, or Anti-Catholics it was; in the north, the country of Flanders,
much the same during the first twenty speak Flemish only ; while rather more
years of the late king, Leopold IL But than 2,500,000 in the south, the Walloon
1886 saw the rise of a new party, that area, speak French only. About 1,000,000
of the Socialists, and it is this party which Belgians speak both languages.
has made Belgium democratic ; though it But it is the South chiefly that is indus-
did not become formidable much before trial, that has the greatest wealth, that has
1893, it has since become a great power in made, and is making, Belgium what it is,
the land. The state of parties may be and in the end it can hardly fail to establish
best shown by quoting the election returns its influence as supreme over the nationzd
for 1912, when the Chamber was increased Belgium life. In Southern Belgium the
from 166 to 186 members. The Socialists won A standard of education is, on
three seats and numbered 38, the Liberals Catholic the whole, higher than in the
lost two seats and numbered 43, while the Country North, as might be expected
Clericals came back with loi instead of 87 from the pressure of industrial competition.
seats. One Christian Democrat was returned The higher branches of education are well
as before. In the elections to the Upper provided for throughout the country
House, in 1908, the Liberals lost five seats, it is with respect to the primary schools
of which the Socialists gained three, leaving that the trouble comes. Primary school
the Catholics with 63 votes against the 47 education is compulsory in a way, but it is
combined opposition, or " Left." In
of the too much in the hands of the priests, who,
1895 the CathoUcs had two-thirds of the naturally, are more or less reactionary.
5361
—
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
But the chief fact in the contemporary 30,000,000. The Congo State was consti-
history of Belgium is its wonderful tuted a sovereign country under Leopold
industrial development ; this has been II. in 1885 by the BerUn Conference. It
helped by technical education, which is in was declared neutral, with free trade, and
an advanced state. the natives were protected under special
Belgium has now taken upon itself the rules — rules which, there is only too much
responsibilities of a great colonial empire. reason to believe, were not observed in
In 1908 the Congo Free State ceased to be actual practice.
independent, the sovereignty over it being As the Congo has been thrown open to
transferred from the King of the Belgians all the world, there is little ground now to
to the country. The area of the Congo suppose that there will be a continuance of
is estimated at 802,000 square miles, and the atrocities perpetrated on the natives
its population at from 14,000,000 to which shocked the conscience of mankind.
whom Prussia had taken the Duchy of country, for its inhabitants, now that the
Nassau, became Grand Duke of Luxem- German spectre is laid, are well content
burg. His son, William, was the reigning with their lot ;it is a beautiful
oun ry
sovereign from 1905 till his death in jj^^jg country, especially the
appy an
February, 1912. A nice point arose as to northern half of it, which
**
the succession to the throne, for the Grand forms the south-east portion of
Duke's children Were all daughters, and. that lovely land known as the Ardennes.
according to the Salic Law, the Grand There is no more interesting or romantic
Duchy should pass away from his family city than the capital, also called Luxem-
at his death. It was by this law that burg, which is remarkable alike for its
Luxemburg had ceased to belong to the natural beauty and strategic importance.
5363 RoepRT Machray
—
Reform proposals on the part of the Con- chiefly because the Catholic trade union-
servatives. The result of the election ists declined to take part. The Government,
showed a quite definite opinion in favour however, so far recognised the significance
of retaining Free Trade, the Conservative of the strike by appointing a general
Ministry was defeated, and the new commission to consider the whole ques-
Second Chamber con- tion of electoral
sisted of 37 Liberals, reform.
18 Socialists, and 45 The reorganisation
Conservatives. Dr. of the army on the
Bos, the leader of the basis of universal com-
Liberals,was at once pulsory service, com-
invited by the Queen menced in 1909, and
to form a Ministry, was carried a step fur-
and he offered three ther by the law of
portfolios to the June, 1913. This law
Socialists. But the put the peace footing
latter, after consider- at 57,886 men, and the
ation, refused to war footing at 340,000.
accept any posts in Compulsory training
a Liberal Ministry, Was fixed at fifteen
on the ground com- months or two years,
monly taken by the according to the
Socialists through-- branch of the service,
out Europe, viz., with two later periods
that Social Demo- of training, each one
cracy cannot be month, and five years
identified w'ith any in the reserve. The
government alien or total expenditure on
opposed to collec- the Army for 1913-14,
tivism, and must ALBERT I.. KING OF THE BELGIANS
Was estimated at
wait till itself be- $14,000,000. In 1909-
comes a government. Dr. Bos, there- 10 it stood at $13,500,000. But it yet re-
fore,being unable to count on the sup- mains to be seen whether this increase of
port of the Socialists, felt constrained expenditurewill suffice to meet the demands
to give up the idea of forming a ministry, that follow universal military trainmg.
and M. Cort van der Linden became The prosperity of Belgium up to the
Prime Minister with a Cabinet of Civil beginning of the great war, ascribed to the
Servants. industry of its people and the high standard
of technical education, is evidenced not
BELGIUM —
only by the population seven and a half
KING ALBEFT succeeded to the crown milUons on 11,373 square miles but by —
of Belgium on the death of his uncle, the trade returns. In 1907 the impc«-ts
Leopold IL, December 17th, 1909. were valued at $755,000,000, the exports at
Politically the campaign for universal $570,000,000. In 1912 the imports were
suffrage — or, rather, for an amendment of $950,000,000, and theexports, $800,000000.
5363
THE HANDSOME PLACE NEUVE, WITH EQUESTRIAN STATUE OF GENERAL DUFOUR
fact that it stands for much more. This *_ the charming tour, of the de-
urope
outside point of view, largely based in lightful holiday, rather than
England on such beguiling announcements as the country of the Swiss, one of the most
as " A Week in Lovely Lucerne for Five interesting peoples in the world, with a
Guineas, or a Fortnight for Nine," is civilisation more highly developed, from
scarcely, if at all, modified when the the political standpoint, than that of any
tourist finds himself actually on the lake other nation on the planet. With the
and sees its beautiful mountains around Swiss, business is business, and business
him or mirrored in its blue waters. with them takes on the form of the
Satisfied with his excursion and his admirable exploitation of that marvellous
experiences, he returns home, nor stops beauty with which Nature has so richly
to think of, far less ponder, the story that and abundantly endowed their land. So
lies behind all this enchantment. they give the casual observer the impres-
He has heard of Tell and the tyrant sion that they are a nation of innkeepers
Gessler, and the apple placed on the boy's and waiters who understand the art of
head and pierced by the shaft from the " running " hotels in the most perfect
father's bow he has heard, probably, of one
; manner possible, and that their sole aim
or two incidents in Swiss history of a rom- in to act as showmen to the wondrous
life is
antic sort but he catches scarce a glimpse
; natural attractions of their country.
of the truth that the smoothly gliding life In one of the most amusing books
of this land, no matter what aspect of it be of pure humour ever written, " Tartarin
—
considered social, educational, political, sur les Alpes," Alphonse Daudet makes
religious, racial or commercial is the— his hero, the inimitable Tartarin of
result of some seven centuries of conflict Tarascon, come to the conclusion that
and change. Indeed, it is a life so well the whole of Switzerland is the concession,
ordered, so sweet in the working of all so to speak, of a gigantic and enormously
parts of the machinery that goes to clever and capable catering company who,
complete it, so easy in its touch the — commercially, take the utmost advantage
—
expression " pressure" in this of everything at their disposal ^the rosy
What the ^^gg .g quite inapplicable on — peaks of the great mountains, the white
*^^ individual, whether citizen calm of the glaciers, the green slopes of the
no
n Tl-ear
eara
^^ ^^^ republic or stranger upland pastures, the deep blue of lakes,
within its gates, that our tourist is as the rolhng masses of cloud, the grandeurs
serenely unconscious of it as he is of the of sunrise and sunset, the pretty chalets
" gentle influence " of a star. —
and picturesque peasants all " worked
"
The be charged altogether
fault is not to to perfection, apparently for the benefit
to the tourist it must be laid, in large
; of the sightseer, but in reality in the
measure, at the door of the Swiss interests of the concessionaires, who
5365
—"1
The Swiss are highly intelligent, par- more than primus inter pares, and his head-
ticularly as to getting the most ship, such as it is, endures for a year only.
money out of anything ; they have As has been well pointed out, the dread
a keen eye to the main chance. This of the supremacy of any single man is one
is especially true of their hotel-keeping. of the governing factors in the Swiss
As an example of this, there may be character. This is a country in which
noticed what has taken place with regard every man has as good a chance as another,
to their winter resorts, such as Davos, and though, to be sure, natural ability tells
other places of the same kind. Originally here as everjAvhere. All this has only
they were introduced to the world as come about gradually, and after long
specially suitable spots for the residence struggles, both external and internal.
of consumptives, and great numbers of But it remains nothing less than the most
those suffering from lung affections did extraordinary thing in the political history
_ . live in them with beneficial of mankind that this small state, with
Ah*r^*'*f
^'^s^^ts. But such
places are its mixture of rival races and religions,
. *i^.° no longer the exclusive abodes perched upon the mountains of Central
of such people. On the contrary, Europe, hemmed in on all sides by great
many hotels now announce that they will nations, should have become both in
not admit consumptives. So soon as the ideals and in fact the freest community
Swiss grasped the fact that Davos, and in the world. Something of this it owes
resorts like it, could be made extraordi- to the neutrality of the country, as in-
narily attractive as a field for winter dispensable to the general interest of
sports, such as skating, tobogganing, Europe, having been guaranteed by the
skiing, and so on, to the strong and Treaty of Vienna, 1815, something, also,
the hale, they turned their attention to the high state of education everywhere
5366
; — ;
they win, consolidating all the while their in fact, which the Civil War settled in the
national character, which was based on United States.
patriotism, and fusing themselves inci- From 1848 to 1872, the main political
dentally more and more into one people. preoccupation of the Swiss was the
They were, and long were, great establishment of a federal state which yet
soldiers, and not in Switzerland only; left a large amount of self-government
as has been finely said, they were to the cantons, a problem which was
willing to sell their swords, but never their satisfactorily solved. The Federal State
freedom. The Helvetic Republic of 1798 is supreme in matters of peace and war,
_ . grew out of the old defensive
,
in the making of treaties, in army affairs,
™ league of the cantons, as posts and telegraphs, money issues, weights
-
P .. . oak from acorn. Present- and measures, revenue, public works,
day Switzerland, however, patents, and other matters that affect the
begins in that year of European unrest, country as a whole no canton can break
;
1848; but this beginning included all away from the rest, but still each canton
that had gone before in Swiss history. retains the power of making its own laws,
In that year the Swiss Confederation, apart from such subjects as appertain to
then consisting of nineteen entire and six the domain of the Federal government.
half cantons, was united for federal From 1872 to the the
present time,
purposes under a constitution. A re- dominant note in Swiss the politics is
vised constitution came into force in direct rule of the people as distinguished
1874, and continues, with little change, from government by elected representa-
in force at the present time. In 1900, and as expressed by what are styled
tives,
when the principle in elections known as the " Referendum " and the " Initiative."
" proportional representation " was before Under the Constitution of 1874, supreme
the country, the nation decided against it. legislative authority in the confederation
Since the close of the Napoleonic epoch is vested in two Chambers a State Council:
lics, and caused the dissolution of the 167 deputies or delegates chosen by the
Catholic league known as the Sonderbund whole Swiss people by manhood suffrage,
and, forty years later, there was a fight one representative for every 20,000 of
between the rival Churches in the Italian the population ; these deputies are elected
—
canton of Ticino Tessin. But these are for three years. The two Ch ambers united
merely noted in this article to bring out form the Federal Assembly, which elects
the point that to-day Protestant and a Federal Council of seven members, who
Catholic live at peace there being— are not members of either Chamber, to
341 5367
;
... lajge majority, but their power pulsory, though each canton makes laws
^ has been tempered by the voice for itself with respect to the way in which
of the people as given through the media education is imparted. All schools make
of the Referendum and the Initiative. gymnastics an integral part of their curri-
One of the astonishing things about culum, having in view the fact that the
Switzerland is that, though the Radicals gymnasium is the nursery of the soldier ;
are always in the majority at the elections, the schools teach manual labour and
yet the people have often rejected Radical industries girls are taught dressmaking.
;
5368
EUROPEAN
POWERS VII
TO-DAY ITALY
Europe, increasing even more rapidly than nestling in hundreds of nooks in the
the population of Russia, and pouring forth Apennine chain of hundreds of miles the ;
such streams of emigrants that in Brooklyn Lombardian plains, sheeted with blue-
alone is a colony of 60,000 ItaUans, with a blossoming flax and intersected by lines of
great quarter to themselves, while Argen- mulberry trees on which silkworms thrive
tina is rapidly becoming a South American by millions the Riviera, with its semi-
;
Italy. In every age Italy has renewed tropical vegetation the Venetian larch
;
its youth, but never with anything like forest of St. Mark, and the groves of
the splendid vigour displayed Vallombrosa the classic scenes of Baiae
;
_* ^ * during the present generation. and Capri, and the insular paradise of Sicily.
Y
* No other land so thoroughly With her head crowned with a diadem of
captivates the imagination with Alpine snow, Italy bathes her feet in the
a multitude of monuments grey with central waters of the blue Mediterranean,
age, but surrounded by all the evidences and her citizens draw an ever-growing
of youthful and irrepressible life in its revenue from crowds of seekers after health
most eager and strenuous demonstrations. and pleasure from lands near and far.
Though this favoured peninsula has been When, in the middle of the nineteenth
the subject of elaborate cultivation through century, Italy was welded into one nation-
all historic ages, and has from time im- ality, she was steeped in poverty. But, to
memorial supported teeming populations, give a quaint little illustration of the
5369
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
financial revolution that has been accom- as they call electricity, as shall help them
plished, whereas the English Christmas to reduce the import of coal from England.
markets used to be stocked with immense The electricity derived from the Alpine and
numbers of delicious little Italian maize- Apennine streams will, in time, yield enor-
fed turkeys, these are now missing, for mous wealth, for the number of useful falls
the simple reason that " the people are rich in Italy is 34,837. Electrical estabhshments
enough to afford to consume their own have turned many dull and idle towns into
poultry." That simple fact speaks volumes busy hives of industry, with rapidly in-
. of the change that has come creasing populations. This is the case at
g ^* °. about in material conditions. Maniago, near the fall of the River CeUina,
„ .. There is still much poverty, whose waters are now being used to carry
Regeneration •,.•,- ^ j
but it IS no longer general and i
torrents of life and light to Venice and to
deplorable. Italy has declared war on the other cities on the way to the beautiful
slum, and the change effected is marvellous. " Bride of the Sea." This colossal work
The social regeneration that began in cost 10,000,000 francs ($2,000,000) and
Piedmont has spread over the whole land. occupied 3,000 labourers in its installation.
At Turin a beggar is rarely seen, and The first trial of the great discovery of
in Naples, where, when Victor Emmanuel Ferraris was made in Rome by engineer
was proclaimed king, he found 90,000 Mangarini, who conveyed the force of the
professed lazzaroni, including criminals famous fall of the River Aniene at Tivoli,
of every grade, with thieves, loafers, and a classic spot, over the Campagna to the
drunkards, both beggary and squalor city. The magic light that at evening
have been drastically dealt with. Fifty illumines the streets and houses of Rome,
years ago the common people wer6 almost and the force that impels trams and
wholly unable to read. The new regime mechanism of all kinds, come from the
has reduced illiteracy, until now less than lovely cascade so admired by travellers,
one-third of the adult males, and one-half near which Augustus held his tribunal,
of the adult females are illiterate. Maecenas had the villa where
*
Notwithstanding that Italy lacks two j^* ^ he used to entertain Horace,
agni icen
indispensable elements, coal and iron, and is ^^^ ^^^ Emperor Hadrian built
ineyar s
compelled to spend every year $40,000,000 j^.^ magnificent rural palace.
on coal, so sturdy is her modern enterprise Italy is a land of agriculture, but this
that her native industrial companies have industry has passed through a crucial
1300,000,000 of paid-up capital, while crisis at the close of the nineteenth and
foreign companies have about half that beginning of the twentieth centuries.
amount. The manufacturing expansion in Methods were miserably bad, and a train
the north has been marvellously rapid. of diseases struck one ciop after another.
The output of the paper-mills has more The magnificent vineyards were terribly
than doubled in twenty years. One of the damaged by the peronospera and the
phenomenal advances has been in applied phylloxera, those parasites which passed
electricity. From Volta down to Marconi, into Italy from France, which in twenty
Italy has had a leading part in great years lost thus $2,000,000,000.
discoveries in electricity. It was an The silkworm disease, the orange-tree
Italian patriot, Antonio Meucci, who really bhght, and the fly that fatally perforates
invented the telephone Pacinotti con- ; the olives have simultaneously during the
structed the first machine for the applica- present generation inflicted immense mis-
tion of electro-magnetism and Ferraris ; chief. Men like Signor Solari and Signor
. achieved the magnificent dis- Bizzozero have revolutionised Italian farm-
/l"™? * covery of electric dynamic ing, as thoroughly as England's was revolu-
of Italian ,•'
.
^ aju
rotation, generated by means tionised in the eighteenth century. And as
In to s
of alternate currents. Pro- Italian emigrants love to return home after
fessor Righi, by his wonderful experiments a long absence, many of these have come
on electric waves, paved the way for Mar- back with the jirogressive ideas they have
coni's introduction of wireless telegraphy, acquired in America, France, or Switzer-
the most marvellous victory over time and land. In 1898 over 30,000 agricultural
space ever celebrated by science. And labourers returned and landed at Genoa
gradually the Italians are utilising the alone, and hundreds every year cross
immense hydraulic forces of their country the Atlantic for the great Argentine
for producing so much of the " white coal," harvest, where they are highly paid, and
5370
TWO VIEWS OF THE DESTRUCTION IN THE CORSO VITTORIO EMANUELE
IMPROVISED HOSPITAL IN THE OPEN AIR RUINS IN THE FINE VIA GARIBALDI
the beautiful straw produced in the alarm was caused amongst the peaceful
5372
ITALY IN OUR OWN TIME
inhabitants. Martial law was proclaimed, Premiers who have succeeded each other
the province was placed under the rule of since this century began Saracco, Pelloux,
:
General Huesch, and the wanton in- Zanardelli, Sonnino, Fortis, and GioUotti,
surrection was speedily quelled. Great are fresh in European recollection.
improvements have of late effectually In Italy, as the seat of the venerable
ameliorated the lot of the toilers, and the Papacy, religion and politics have for ages
Employers' Liability Bill has had an been inevitably entangled. But the separ-
excellent effect. It should be noted that ation of Church and State under Cavour's
_^ Italian s the Italian is a born engineer.
, administration, and the dissolution of the
The
jj^ inherits the Roman faculty vast number of convents, wrought a most
Genius for , - .x •
i-i-
_, . .
ngmeermg
for construction oi public radical revolution. The quarrel with the
^^j-j^g^ ^^^ many of the Vatican is still in process. The late Pope,
great Continental railways, the marveUous when he was Archbishop Sarto, of Venice,
Alpine tunnels, and our own Forth was esteemed for his simplicity of life
Bridge, were mainly made by operatives and his pastoral assiduity. But as Pius
from Italy. It is computed that there X. he was constrained by the Catholic
are always about 500,000 of these frugal Curia to assume the same attitude of
Italian workers scattered about Europe. intransigent Ultramontanism which was
There is an Italian quarter in every maintained by his predecessor, Leo XIII.,
great city in Europe whenever important and before him by Pius IX. But the
public works are being executed. struggle of late years has been not so much
Amongst this fascinatingly interesting between the Vatican and the monarchy as
people political problems are perpetually between the College of Cardinals and the
challenging solution. The typical Italian Modernists within the Catholic Church.
delights in litigation, and in these new days These ecclesiastical Liberals within Cathol-
of genuine constitutionalism he becomes icism had their head-centre in France ;
an ardent political partisan. The Italians but in Italy the famous Abbate Murri was
are a nation of orators, and their parlia- long engaged in a dispute with the Curia,
mentarians revel in rhetorical declamation. before Modernism was form-
Manhood suffrage was established by the '"J^"* **°
. ally condemned by the Pope.
Electoral Reform Act of 1912 only those — CK *h
Protestantism is compara-
who at the age of thirty have neither tively feeble in Italy. It is
performed military service nor learnt mainly represented in modern growth
to read and write being disqualified from by the young Chiesa Evvangelica, founded
voting. By this same act each member by the eloquent Padre Gavazzi in the
of the Lower House receives an annual middle of the last century, but in more
salary of $1,200. Parliamentary institu- ancient phase by the denomination which
tions are peculiar, for the Senate, or is the oldest Protestant communion in
Upper Chamber, is composed of members the world, the famous Waldensian Church,
nominated by the king for life on the which was born in the romantic valleys
advice of the Premier. Thus the legislation of the Cottian Alps, their home being
is exceedingly democratic, yet the people called by Michelet " that incomparable
feel that in emergency the Senate might flower hidden amid the sources of the Po."
be relied on to prevent reckless enactments. The missions of the Waldenses are
In the Lower House the proportion of dotted about all over Italy and Sicily, and
professional men amongst the deputies is of late years they have steadily multiplied.
extraordinary, for these constitute two- Monsignor Merry del Val, who was born in
thirds of the deputies. Only London of Spanish parents in 1865, and
Middle-class r i ^ •'
5373
—
visers being naturally quite impotent to eminently undesirable to the Italian Gov-
deal with grievances in a province so far ernment that this last remnant of the
otf as Tripoli, since they could not even once mighty Turkish Empire should be
5374
ITALY IN Oim. OWN TIME
swallowed up by France, and as Italy led by Baruni Bey, who had been Tripoli's
had long wanted a strip of African terri- representative in the first Turkish Parlia-
tory on the Mediterranean, the best and ment at Constantinople, were in open
only plan appeared to be a war of con- revolt in 1913, and, though defeated in
quest. The war was long and costly in battle by the Italian troops, their resist-
human casualties and money expenditure, ance had been a heavy stumbling block
but it was approved generally in Italy, to the pacification of Cyrenaica.
only a section of the Socialists dissenting While the conquest of Tripoli has been
from the national verdict, and it had the the chief event in the history of Italy in
merit of bringing together, at least tem- recent years, it has also laid a heavy tax
porarily, old political antagonists divided on the conquerors. Italy looks for recom-
on the question of Church and State. pense for the drain of life and treasure
The Papacy and the Crown were never in a new and fertile province, a land
nearer together since the Union of Italy largely peopled by Italians, who with
than they were at the close of 1911. their characteristic industry and patience
Even when the Sultan had formally ceded may rebuild in Tripoli and on the shores
the last of his African dominions to the of the Mediterranean the civilisation long
King of Italy and war between the two destroyed. There is no reason in the
countries was officially at an end, peace nature of things why Italy should not
was by no means guaranteed to the con- populate Tripoli and make of that land
querors. The Arab tribes of the desert, a valuable and important territory.
preceded this settlement, as in the treaty these representatives are drawn from its
itself, the republic, which has only an nobles, twenty from its townsmen, and
area of 33 square miles, and a population twenty from its peasantry ; two of them
well under 12,000, appeared as a sovereign are appointed every six months as Regent-
and independent state, although its Captains with executive power. There is,
separate existence is maintained solely by besides, a smaller council, which regulates
'
the benevolent protection of its big friend, all matters pertaining to finance, law,
Italy. Of all the numerous independent education and war ; its duties must be
states into which the Italy of the Middle tolerably light, for San Marino has no
Ages was divided, San Marino alone debt ; and, of course, it cannot go to war,
survives to the present day ; and as long though it has an army of about a thousand
as Italy, by a sort of good-humoured officers and men. Its capital, also called
forbearance, permits it to remain as it is, San Marino, has a population of 1,500,
so long, and no longer, will its name be and is situated on the top of Mount
seen on the roll-call of the nations. It is Titano, a termination in that direction of
situated some ten miles or so from the the Apennines. The government Palace,
historic Italian town of Rimini, and is to rebuilt here in 1894, is a fine edifice.
all intents and purposes as Italian as any There is much that is interesting and
part of the country. But it claims to be the picturesque about the town, and, indeed,
oldest state of Europe, dating its preten- about the whole of this small republic.
sions as far back as 855, though its inde- The meetings of the Council, with
pendence is of a much later date From the
. the " Noble Guard" in their fanciful
point of view of age, it regards the modern uniforms in attendance, partake of some-
kingdom as something of an upstart. thing of the character of a pageant instinct
It undoubtedly can boast of being the with the suggestion of old-world romance
smallest republic in the world. When the and charm. But it need hardly be added
devastating presence of Napoleon passed that nobody regards this little repubUc
over Italy in blood and flame, San Marino very seriously ; there is, in fact, a good
was spared. " Let it remain," said the deal about it which smacks of a Gilbertian
great conqueror, "as a model of a opera. Robert Machray
5375
"
The "Entente Cordiale " between France and England, so strongly fostered by the late King Edward VII.,
has been further encouraged by King George V., who, in April, 1914, visited Paris, and, with Queen Mary,
was the guest of President Poincare. The presence of their majesties at the Opera in Paris tu company with
the President and Madame Poincarg is the subject of the above picture.
5376
;
EUROPEAN VIIl
POWERS TRANCE
TO-DAY
ic
Conservative name, u
i.-
m
•
harps on
system is free from the liability to error ^ string of military glory, and
^j^^
epresen.s
and to great economic and social change, keeps a kind of sentimental
^^^^
but simply that a reversion to either of hold on a section of the peasantry, and
the earlier forms, of monarchy or empire, makes some figure in the social life of Paris.
is unthinkable. For good or ill the old But the peasant proprietors in the mass
parties have, and can have, no hope of a are for the Republic, because they believe
governing majority. The monarchy is that it is for order and stability, and that
associated with the tradition of misery they have nothing to fear from it, and a
the empire with that of defeat and good deal to hope.
humiliation. The disasters of 1 870-1 had The urban masses, again, are bound to
precious results on the temperament of give ittheir support as the progressive
the people it is unhkely that the war
; movement in being, though the workmen
drum will ever throb again in France in any as a whole are overwhelmingly Socialist and
cause but the defence of her territory, or un- anti-capitaUstic. In the decisive election of
less, as in the case of the great European 1906, of some 9,000,000 voters who went
War, her obligations to an ally compel her. to the poll, nearly 6,250,000 cast their
The new political ideal is the welfare of votes for Republican or Socialist candi-
the nation as a whole, the making life dates, without counting another million
better worth living for every unit of the or so who represented Liberals well affected
mass of population. In his latest survey to the existing system. The poor remainder
of the whole situation, M. Jaures boasts stood for all the forces of reaction. The
that the country is now in full poUtical majority were all Republicans of one shade
_ democracy. In other words, the or other, whatever else they were not, and
^^ French people are at last in sole were ready to coalesce for the defence of
p y .
5377
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
It was a system on the one hand, and, on Dresden. Bebel triumphed by carrying a
the other, a dehrium of utter self-sacrifice. resolution to the effect that Socialism
Its members died by thousands for a social should have a policy strictly independent
millennium. The outbreak would have of all other political parties, and should
ruined the democratic cause for ages in take no part in a " capitahst ". govern-
any other country in France it only gave
; ment. Jaures frankly accepted the vote,
the cause a set-back that has already and, by his submission to the idea of party
become but an incident of its career. discipline, did much to maintain his
The darkest hour found a man position, and to lead his very antagonists
"^^
capable of stemming the cur- to more practical courses. His followers
n'^^^- rent of disaster, and effecting are not a solid phalanx ;it is his proud,
the salvage of the proletarian though perhaps rather premature, boast
idea. This was Jules Guesde. He had that " outside of the united party" there
laid the causes of failure to heart, and he is none deserving of the Socialist name.
gradually taught his countrymen to aban- Jaures is still strictly a party man, and
don the old methods of sterile insurrec- he constantly uses his energies as a spur
tionary agitation, and to rely on organised to prick the sides of ministerial intent.
propaganda to a definite end. In the summer of 1906 he held another
He opposed the desperate measure of the Titanic debate with M. Clemenceau, as
general strike, and in due course achieved the head of the Government, on the great
the miracle of sending forty deputies to the question of the rate of progress in demo-
Chamber pledged to a Collectivist pro- cratic reform that still separates the
gramme, and to the saving idea of unity of labouring class of France from the middle
all sections of the advanced party in the class. There had been serious strike riots,
common cause. They were not, however, and the Government had been compelled
to co-operate with the Government ; they to intervene to preserve the peace. " Order
were to convert it to Socialism, and his is the Republic's first law," M. Clemenceau
union of parties was still to be only a union seemed to say. " Give us the
among the elect. The thought of common ' " f opportunity to be your friends.
Republic s
action with men who were Republicans, and ^^^ ^^^^ you want will come, if
First Law ,
•',
,, ,• ,
nothing else, was repugnant to his soul. only you have the patience to
Then came Jaures with the wider out- wait for it." He carried the point by a
look of a scheme for union among all the vote that expressed the confidence of the
supporters of the Republic. He was, and Chamber. " You are not the Almighty,"
is still, a professor of philosophy, and, as cried the defeated champion in a moment
such, a distinguished member of the aca- of petulance. "You are not even the
demic body and a servant of the State. Devil," was the retort.
A man holding that position in France In the elections of 1906 over 26 per cent,
must be deeply versed in the history of of those who went to the poll cast a
nations and the history of thought, and Socialist vote, yet this was regarded as a
the studies of Jaures had taught him that Socialist defeat. Socialism is powerful
practical persons with a sense of give and enough to influence legislation, though
take always win in the long run. He urged not to control it. It now elects mayors by
his brother Socialists to spread their doc- the hundred, and municipal councillors by
trines among the people in the old way, the thousand. Its chief supporters are
but meanwhile to work with the consti- found among the workmen, and the
tuted authorities, and in Parliament for " intellectuals " of the professorial group.
all that Parliament was worth. Trade Unionism in France, as such, is
The Butcher
^^ entered warmly into the rather " on the fence " in being not
^ * Dreyfus agitation, on the side frankly Socialist though in strong sym-
that ultimately triumphed, and pathy with the movement. It has long
he finally sent one of his lieutenants into been political and speculative in its
the government as member of a Ministry tendencies, and for a simple reason. Many
that contained the hated De Gallifet, of the benefits in higher wages and the
" the butcher of the Commune." like, which in England were the exclusive
This proceeding scandalised the Social- concern of such organisations, are, in
ists of Europe, and it led to a Titanic France, secured by the personal thrift of
debate between Jaures and the German the workman, and by the help of the
Bebel, at the International Congress of State. The French Unionists often prefer
5378
—
life abounds in the solid and substantial by the peasantry, whose large
comfort of the neat and cleanly dwelling, share of the ownership of the land
the well-filled clothes-press and larder, gives them little liking for Socialism, and
the well-cooked meal, and the well- no taste for farming under the State.
stocked market as its source of supply. These are the more potent as a check,
For most of these blessings, no doubt, because they have all but completely
he has to thank his admirable wife, herself Republican idea. Successive
rallied to the
a product of the most careful cultures, Governments have wooed and won them
domestic, educational, and religious. He by standing firmly for the security of
5.379
;;
Among the workmen, for instance, the and the nation will be one. At present
sense of brotherhood is a positive affection the middle class, with its backing of the
of the soul, only to be realised by those moderates of all shades, is as strong as
who have lived in close touch with them ever in affairs and in knowledge.
and witnessed countless manifestations
its In all times the vast majority of the
of courtesy, charity, and active help. governed, as distinct often enough from
It is the same among the professional their governors of the moment, have
and the other classes who are the brain constituted a sort of natural force of
and nerve of France, and here fraternity conservation. They are at once eager
finds its strongest manifestation in the for change and fearful of its effects
strength of the family tie. The family and very inconsistencies serve to
their
constitutes a vast insurance society for determine the pace for progress, and to
the mutual guarantee of all its members compel a due regard to the
.
against the ills of life. Few fail to respond adjustments between old in-
p['f^°^^
to the appeal, even when the claim extends . *n'*i*i-
in Polities
terests and new claims. It may
r
the force oft
,
to cousinships of the remoter degrees. than j-x,
be no more J.I.
The whole scheme of collective well-being habit, but a force it is, for their mass
is that in emergencies no single member makes them the predominant partner in
of the " clan " shall have to stand quite politics. No party, however advanced,
alone. The uncle who looks after his can touch the actual experience of ad-
graceless nephew as a matter of duty, and ministration without swaying to the side
almost without expectation of gratitude, of this moderate norm, which represents
is a familiar figure of French comedy. the working mean between movement
This, in itself, with the obligations it and stagnation, and which exists by no
entails, involves a certain sacrifice of accident but by a law. When that central
liberty, since you can hardly have it both and all-powerful body swerves in momen-
ways^-dependence, and a perfectly free tary aberration to either extreme, pro-
course. Liberty, therefore, while it has gressive or reactionary, it begins to
made huge progress under the Republic, diminish in numbers, and to lose control.
is still hampered by intolerance. The A government of abstract justice and of
Press is free to the point of licence but ; revolutionary upheaval, if it could be
personal freedom, especially that of public established to-morrow, would pass like
-„ meeting, still leaves much to the dream of a night. The chronic in-
Weaknesses
,
j i j t^i•
r^
be desired. The Government, firmities of human nature would still
,
. .
way there is an automatic check on the was- now intent on a return to the pro-
growth of large fortunes, and a constant prieties. This mood ran its course until he
diffusion of wealth, which irrigates the made holiday again with the Romantics.
whole field of national well-being with a " Tempted of the Devil," wrote the wrath-
fertilising stream. ful Nisard, of Hugo the leader of the band,
There are few French citizens,, men or " he is begetting new schools every day."
women, who are without " expectations " It was not to last for ever. The rebels
of a kind. Consequently there is no huge in their turn came to repentance with
landless, moneyless class, filthy, feckless the Parnassian group. The poetic mind
and answering to the abject poor.
forlorn, is now once more in a state of lawlessness,
The flower and product of this system is or, at any rate, of unrest, which bodes
the national habit of thrift, which is an another return to the righteousness of form.
effect of wise legislation rather than a mere Banville, who succeeded Hugo as the
peculiarity of the national temperament. master poet of his day, was
Banville
Opportunity has made the French the still the Romantic movement,
the Successor
thriftiestpeople in the world. Having the - „ "*° but that movement chastened
means of saving, they naturally save. by its sense of the need of
This, and this alone, accounts for the flawless workmanship and of spiritual
enormous recuperative power of the nation restraint. His " Petit Traite de la
as a whole. " Whereas Great Britain," Poesie " was merciless in its insistence
says Mr. W. L. George, in his " France on the clearness, precision, and minute
in the Twentieth Century," " has but finish of detail so dear to the French
just recovered from the depression follow- mind. Leconte de Lisle was classic in
ing on the South African War, a com- spirit, call him what else you will, though
paratively cheap contest which did not a classic with a wider outlook on life
entail the destruction of a single English than the men of the grand period.
home, France, within four years of 1870, Sully Prudhomme, the next great name,
had regained her position, after paying has been called, and not unhappily, a
an indemnity nearly equal to our total' French Matthew Arnold in his sense of
Transvaal expenditure, and enduring six the good breeding of an Augustan ideal,
months' devastation of her soil." French and sometimes a Lucretius, or even a
literature is naturally best understood Darwin, of poetry. Coppee was the same
by a study of the French character, sort of man working in a medium of scenes
t
,
marked m i • .
m!aker, not as one of themselves, but as
contrast. In one he is the Puritan of a rigorous law of art.
the child of the joy of life^all impulse, Sully Prudhomme died but the other
whim, and go-as-you-please in the-otlier, ; —
day. Where is he now at any rate, in
he is the most staid, orderly, respectable regard to his status in this world ?
being in the universe. In the first he Before the breath went out of his body
follows the wayward law of his moods and an advanced school had come to regard
his intuitions in the other he is almost
; him as a fogey. It has yet to wreak its
the victim of a rigorous logic which com- vengeance on Heredia, the last of the
pels him to keep his mind as tidy as his Parnassians, for the crime of popularity.
5382
FRANCE IN OUR OWN TIME
but no doubt he, too, will have his hour of Naturalist school of Zola, as a school, is
the wrong sort. His goldsmith's art in gone, but it has left abiding traces, most
the fine chiselling of the phrase has carried of them for good. The good ones are in the
their system to perfection and perfection
; direction of respect for the facts and of a
palls, tosay nothing of the fact that the faithful rendering of detail the bad, in
;
younger men are waiting, and that youth sheer pornography, though this is not
will have its day. the founder's fault. Bourget, though no
We are still with the Decadents, though Naturalist, in regard to the observation of
in new manifestations. Beaudelaire rules _ . the things of the flesh, follows
our spirits from his urn
so does Verlaine,
; ^^^^ method in regard to the
Fictio f
and it is estimated that at least a hundred Y jj *^ things of the spirit. There is
of his pages may reach posterity. They another trace of Zola in the fact
should do so, for he at least restored the that the new school is overwhelmingly
personal and the human note which had purposeful. In no former time has French
no place in the baggage of the Parnassian fiction been so much occupied with the
band. Mallarme, sometimes coupled with study of social facts. This is the main line
him as a neo-Decadent, is far inferior. of the new departure. Even the revived
It is now a riot of schools, if the word is study of local manners and customs,
not inappropriate to systems that are local types, is not free from the laudable
little more than exaggerations of the suspicion of a purpose of natural regenera-
personal note. Some sing the all-import- tion. If some still write in the old way,
ance of the ego, others the emptiness of for the pure love of story as story, and of
life. They pass across the illuminated character in and for itself, they form but
disc of popularity, from nothing into a minority, though a minority with a
nothingness again, like the figures in the right to their welcome.
cinematograph. The Polychromists, who The revival of religion has its apostles,
hold that the word is not merely the symbol but every one of them takes care to l.et
of colour, but the thing itself, are still to you see that he is a patriot rather than a
be found, though you have to saint. The wide, wide world is not for-
The Modern
look for them. The Realists gotten, and it has a school to itself, with
Poetic
yet honour Jean Richepin for Loti as its master. His work has the study
Movement
his "Chanson des Gueux," of foreign race types and exotic peculiari-
and another composition in which he has ties for its means, and a suggestion of the
written with much appreciation of the greater glory of France for its end and
Devil and all his works. Maupassant aim. That perfectly equipped writer has
shaped well in this school of verse at ever been the best of patriots and when
;
the outset of his career. he writes of " India without the EngUsh,"
Foreigners have largely influenced the we may easily divine his regret that Pro-
modern poetic movement. Maeterlinck vidence did not vouchsafe the blessing of
is perhaps the most distinguished case its being " with the French."
in point. But there is now a promising cult, The social studies embrace every variety
which places Whitman at the head, of of the genre. Most of them have this
Poe, Emerson and Thoreau as the four peculiarity, that they deal with groups
men of universal genius that America rather than with individuals, in the older
has given to the world. way. Where they are historic in their
The general result is that the old French setting, we have no longer the splendid
prosody, the result of centuries of critical personalities of the past, the heroes of the
labour, has gone all to pieces, and that its world movement through the
chief law — one word, one vote for signi- „ ** . ages, but, instead, the masses of
fication —has been repealed. Even the Studies in
Novels
'^ -
fth
between Church and State, on the problem Ki o L
New School I
writers who are most read stand
r ,r , . ,
of the lost provinces. The last, a mixture tor a sort of reaction against
of history, patriotism, and philosophy, the ideals of the popular party. It is
aspires to the dignity of a national romance, easier to get a hearing in that way, among
and as such it has been acclaimed by the —
the select few still large enough to make
most educated readers in France. But a considerable public of themselves.
their suffrages are not enough for this Maurice Barres is perhaps the most
writer. He has studied provincial life in widely read of the three. He writes, often
all its aspects with a success that has with a strong conservative bias, in all the
enabled him to realise the sane and sound genres, and he has identified them with
ambition of a wide popularity. Bordeaux is successive stages of his own development.
another remarkable writer of the same class. He is a patriot, an ardent " regionalist,"
The writers who are most read in France in his love of the character and colour of
are Paul Bourget and Anatole France, of provincial life, an historical novelist of the
the earlier school, and Maurice Barres of new school, in his keen sense of the nations
the new. Paul Bourget is now, whatever as makers of history, and his comparative
he was not in the past, the eloquent indifference to their masters of court or
apologist of marriage, of the authority of camp. He is also a psychologist of the
the family as a social organism, first order, with a deep insight into the
France's
of monarchy and aristocracy, souls of races, as distinct from the merely
Popular
and, above of religion.
all, individual growths. The newer tendencies
Authors
He brings to their support a of cultivated thought are to be found in his
delicacy and a suppleness of mind, and a pages, and especially in his strong insist-
perfectly equipped literary talent, which ence on the belief that no people can
compel the attention of many who have afford to forget its past. " Our individual
no sympathy with his views. conscience comes from the love of our
These, however, have their antidote country and of its dead."
ready to hand in Anatole France, that Is there no place, then, for the novelists
"august Nihilist pamphleteer," as some- who write merely for the love of character
body has called him, who stands supreme and of incident, and especially for the love
5384
PANORAMIC VIEW OF LVONS FROM THE PLACE BELLECOUR
L"t t
^^ want of sense. The late In philosophy and science proper the
Madame
Bentzon, thougli French are for the moment largely de-
woman to the finger-tips and a chanipion —
pendent on the foreigner exception made
of women, had in perfection the qualities of such names of the illustrious dead as
that must always go to the making of Pasteur and Claude Bernard. Darwin,
good literature, and especially reser^. Spencer, Buckner, Haeckel, Schopenhauer,
Imaginative work is not the all in all Hartmann, and Nietzsche call the tune.
of a literature. There are thinkers who The French drama shows precisely the
work for thinking's sake, as there are artists same tendencies as French literature. It
who work only for the sake of art. But the is given over almost wholly to the problem
5386
— ;;
there was another variety of choice * The French move faster. In the
Hugo, with the alternative of Augier, art of acting, for instance, while we are yet
Dumas, or Sardou. To-day, in the drama agitating for a school on the old lines of
as in the novel, writers are pushing out in the Conservatoire, M. le Bargy is well on
every direction in search of the spiritual his way with a new method of rendering
interests and preoccupations of their time. the passions of the scene, which is founded
In the new comedy of manners, the lawyers, more directly on the study of nature.
the doctors, the financiers sit to the artist, The Theatre Libre and the Theatre
and not merely as individuals, but as Antoine are striking examples of the
—
members of a social group the " world " present methods of writing pieces, of
of Bench and Bar, the world of medicine, mounting, and of playing them, all im-
and so on. What playgoer of us all can mediately from the life. The less ambi-
"
have forgotten the "Business is Business tious Grand Guignol, and even the ama-
of Mirbeau in its English dress ? The teurish Theatre Social, must be mentioned
French stage, usually in advance, has in this connection, if only as signs of the
not been so closely in touch with the times. The French stage is, in some
realities of life for many a instances, gradually leaving the realism,
^^^^^ It is the spirit of Moliere, to which ours is yet but gradually working
thTFrench
jj
.. .who dared to plunge right into its way, for a symbolism which is still
the realities of his day, in bold true to the spirit of the universal quest
disregard of the conventions of the old in being a symbolism of the real. The
Italian comedy which then ruled the stage. names of Curel, of Portoriche, of Brieux,
There no more intrigue for intrigue's
is and of Donnay have yet to become house-
sake. The modern French dramatist has hold words on our side of the water
simply opened his eyes to what is going on but we shall hear more of them, no doubt,
around him, and has reaped his reward in in the course of the next quarter of a
no longer being reduced to " faire du century. M. Lemaitre, M. Lavedan, and
Scribe " or even " du Sardou " for a living. M. Rostand, in the higher ranks, have
The Enghsh are still, or were but yester- already been brought to our notice, and, no
day, in the old rut and, though they have
; doubt, aU the rest will come in good time.
escaped from Scribe, they are still hardly M. Rostand apart, no aspect of our
out of the toils of Sardou, with " The Scrap modern life is indifferent to the newer
of Paper " and " Diplomacy " as their most writers. They seek their subjects on the
successful pieces of the immediate past. stock exchange and the racecouise, in
When that truly eminent hand in stage- the religious conflict and the decay of
craft died, it was but as a writer who in faith, in the home, in public life, and in
his own country had survived his own Socialism as in all the reactions
school.But Mr. Shaw and Mr. Galsworthy, ff* J* — in fact,wherever men's hearts
with others of their band, have shown us the ^^^^ ^^^^ *^^ passions of
way n ers
Writ°rs™
to better things, especially now that their age. Criticism follows
the younger men have improved on one of them, as always does a bold and success-
it
their leaders by leaving themselves and ful lead and, where it still ventures to
;
their own personal idiosyncrasies of theory disagree, it has to find some less hack-
"
out of the cast, and by working purely in neyed term of derision than " problem
a medium of the actual concerns of their and " tract." The big battalions of the
day. Mr. Pinero, the only one of the playgoer are now with the problem and ;
veterans who is always marching on, caught naturally all is changed. The passion
up with at least the rear-guard of the for experiment, for the eternally new,
5387
—
.
1^ in their methods and aims as
. Nature plays in all her moods.
he was from Gluck and they ; No wonder such a composer should
have come to regard both as follies of the ignore melody, with its beginning, middle,
past. "That animal Gluck!" cries De- and end its story, in a word.
;
" I have
bussy, "I know only one other composer been reproached," he says, " because in
as insupportable, and that is Wagner. my score the melodic phrase is always
Yes this Wagnei who has inflicted on us
; , found in the orchestra, never in the voice.
"
the majestic, vacuous, insipid Wotan ! Melody is almost anti-lyric, and powerless
"And what do you think of our Berlioz ? to express the constant change of emotion
He is an exception, a monster. He is not or life. It is suitable only for the song
at all a musician he gives one but the ; which confirms a fixed sentiment."
illusion of music, with his methods Debussy visited London in 1909, and
borrowed from and painting."
literature conducted several performances of his
The new school borrows from literature, own music. Vincent d'Indy, a French-
too, but only for the spirit, not for the man, but a pupil of the Belgian com-
method. Its art is sensuous, not to say poser Franck, visited New York, and
sensual, and dreamy, and it aims at the expounded similar views in a lecture at
rendering of states of emotion rather than . Harvard University. He met
Revolntion
of the emotions themselves. Debussy, for ^^^^ ^^ interested though not
instance, after learning his accidence at the enthusiastic reception
^'^ but
F h A t
;
-j-",
i-
the same subiective
r
m
•
538S
SOLDIERS OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC
W8q
—a
HISTORY Ob THE WORLD
brings the colour in its train. Objects he seeks. Hence, when we are near them,
are of no colour or, rather, of all
; his pictures are apt to look quite un-
colours, as they absorb or reflect these intelligible, as an assortment of primitive
from light. The academic system starts colour stains without aim or purpose.
from the heresy that colour is some- But see them at the right distance, and
thing that can be laid on in compact this confusion subsides into a perfectly
masses, mixed for the purpose on the ordered work flooded with light, and
palette. Nothing of the sort it is ; therefore with colour, and abounding in
but an effect of far more art- true form and drawing everywhere
^^^ adjustments. The earher not in the drawing of outline, of
tUAlir
•
*p'*^f
masters had some instinctive which Nature knows nothing, but in
ain ing
pgj-cgption of this great truth, the drawing of colour, than which she
though they had not reduced it to a knows of nothing else. The revolution,
science. There are traces of it in Watteau, both in aims and methods, is extraordi-
in Ruisdael, in Poussin, and especially in nary, and is not to be made intelligible
Turner, Constable, and Delacroix. The by any description it has to be seen.
;
but truth in one of its forms. If you turn ; and there again " on " in their
paint man, let it be man as he is, not as he fairyland of scenery, gauze, and coloured
should be in some fantastic theory of the rays. He is quite pitiless in his passion
ideal. Courbet must be mentioned here for truth. Sometimes his nymphs look
as a precursor, though the principle has hungry, sometimes even quite ugly —
been carried far beyond him by later men. lower depth, no doubt, in the professional
Claude Monet leads them all. His way —
inferno as they squat for repose, or
of painting a landscape is to take, say, a writhe in the tortures of the gymnastics
dozen canvases, and to devote each to one of their trade. But by-and-by we shall
particular aspect of the scene as the light see them in their appropriate setting,
marks the true hours of the painter's and then all defects of detail will be lost
day. So the one landscape, after the in the illusion of the perfect scene, as their
patient labour of many days, comes out tremulous contours play hide-and-seek
as twelve quite different scenes, accord- with the light from which they spring.
ing to their degrees of illumination. To Renoir, another great painter of the
plant yourself with but one Impressionist school, finds his favourite
^
°?* * canvas
. before a constantly contrasts not so much in light and shade
•'
Artistic ,
•
effects together, is but the childishness of shadow itself, as artists know it, is not
art. Monet uses only the so-called jjrim- blackness, but only another degree of light
aries,though he is not very strict in the The school is a large one now. It has
definition of them, and he never mixes the passed its apprenticeship of calumny,
pigments on his palette to get a special poverty, neglect, and it influences all the
combination. He simply lays them on French painting of the day. It has pro-
in such a way as to produce by optical —
duced great illustrators ^Raffaelli, Forain,
suggestion the effect of the combination Renouard, and Cheret, who has done such
5390
FRANCE IN OUR OWN TIME
wonders for the art of the poster. It is sincerities, ridiculous in its suggestion
now on its way to the nirvana of absorp- of the utter absence of the sense of effect.
tion into the light of its origin, to make The " Burghers of Calais " came later,
room for the incarnation of neo- Impres- as another revolt. The revolt might have
sionism in the artists of the PointilHst counted for little with the general
group. With these, the effects of hght, beholder, but the note of sincerity was
instead of being rendered as in Claude manifest to all. The mythical child of
Monet's work by irregularly disposed Nature might have judged the work and
blobs of colour, if one may use the phrase, . _ —
found it good the burghers
are obtained by a sort of mosaic of it, . ij"*iT**^ defiant in their dejection, de-
composed of small touches of equal size,
and of spherical form. This, in a way,
andj „ ^^
jected in their defiance, with
Bronze 1, , c
the hangmg lips of scorn and ot
ir
is an attempt to paint the very atoms despair. Think how such a subject might
whose vibrations produce the light itself. have fared in a studio of the Beaux Arts,
Rodin is Impressionism in sculpture ;
and we shall realise the immense advance.
and he, too, like the painters, works With the Balzac that came long after,
mainly for effects of light, and for cha- Rodin reached his present manner, which
racter, and so is in full revolt against the is but the old one perfected in the sense
academy. Yet he still proclaims his of character and freedom of handling, in
allegiance to the Greeks, who, he declares, the deeper leaiTiing of the relation of
managed their statuary on precisely the masses, and withal in the profound sense
same principles as his own. He is for new of the symbol, and of the majesty and the
truth in one word, and his new truth is greatness of life. He is now a sort of
that we do wrong to treat sculpture as a mystic sketching with the chisel as others
mere glorified study of still life. It is sketch with the crayon, a Dante, a Blake,
emphatically, even in its most statuesque a Maeterlinck, dreaming in marble or in
pose, a thing vibrating with movement, bronze. He loses himself now and then,
a movement that comes from but such misadventure is inseparable
o in s
^j^^ r
j
^j light on its differ
,
fairly well until our time. Then it was the war was transferred from politics to
found that the Church was in a way to literature. M. Rod has given us an in-
become as rich as ever by the offerings of teresting history of this new clerical
the faithful, and to take itself seriously reaction in his " Idees Morales du Temps
once more as the censor of thought. She Present." The movement found " the
was at the same time suspicious of popular classes " very much under the sway of that
government, and was held to be a secret genial sceptic, M. Renan it left them
;
agent of reaction. Hence came a revival largely in the hands of M. Brunetiere, the
of the old and ominous cry of " the Catholic devotee. Renan was scepticism
Republic in danger," and with it a absolute and self-satisfied, scepticism as a
determination to destroy the concordat, dogma, and sufficient to all the needs of
^ ™ to reduce Catholicism to the
status of a mere pious opinion,
the intelligence, if not exactly of the soul.
When his disciples began to look for some-
^ .
Reli * ion
^^^ ^° deprive that and the thing more, they found it in the pessimism
other faiths of all official of Schopenhauer. The reaction against
support. This policy was found to unite this doctrine, with its revolutionary im-
all the discordant elements of the Re- plications, led straight to the reverence of
publican majority. The popular party tradition as the convenient depository of
as its strength was measured by votes the results of human experience and the
was opposed to all religion, as such only sure guide. M. Brunetiere, a sort of
the professorial and the middle class pontiff of criticism and literature, boldly
generally were scandalised by the claims proclaimed Catholicism as at once a polity
of the Church to the censorship of ideas. and a system of faith. With this, the
5392
—
FRANCE IN OUR OWN TIME
more cultivated thought of France reached by the Church to lay down his pen, or tn
its positive current and at the present
; write only in defence of ecclesiastical tra-
time of writing it has irresistible attractioii dition. The Abbe long protested against
for many minds. M. Bourget, as a thinker, the deliberate opposition of Rome to the
is of that school. M. Jules Lemaitre has whole rationalist and scientific movement
made a new departure and, while in-
; of the age. " Suppress," he says, " this
sisting on the necessity of the religious policy of ideas, and cease to attempt the
idea, has found its true source and its impossible." In saying this, however, he
authority in our " most distinguished ,
claimed to be a true son of the
sentiments." It reads like the end of a „ ?* * ..^ Church. So did the late Fr.
Methods ^ith
letter; it is meant for a
confession of
its Critics
J
,.-'
gii ^hose name is men-
J . ,, . ,. ,
belief. But the Uterary reaction is nothing tioned in this connection only
as compared with the solid force of custom to show that the movement of modernism
that makes for the old cult. The rnother was by no means confined to priests of
of the family in France is, as a rule, French nationality. He demanded not a
Catholic and pious, whatever the father brand new Catholic theology, but simply
may be and this in all classes, and in
;
one under the progressive influence of that
town and country alike. There are two to " spirit " of Christianity which was the
reckon with in marriage, and when one of original principle of life and growth.
them insists on the blessing of the Church, Rome, however, has dealt as roundly with
the other has generally to give way. these individuals as it dealt in the past
The children thus get their Catholic with the Galilean and all the other Churches
teaching, no matter who gives it to them claiming an organic life of their own.
the mother or the priest and they make— The philosophers, of course, have not
their first communion with all the modest been able to keep out of the melee. M.
pomp and ceremony that attend the rite. Goutroux, a member of the Institute, has
Many of the boys, no doubt, will grow up made an attempt at reconciliation in his
forgetful of it as they pass " Science et Religion." He tries to show
^ J^k" u through the workshop; with that the conflicting forces are not so much
the Church ^j^g .^jg -^g
g^g^^g ^^g ^^. concretes as tendencies, and that each is
of Rome 1 A J ^u
lost.
J.
And even among the- a complement of the other. They do
urban masses and the politicians, the very wrong to strive for victory; they should
ultras of infidelity often consent to have strive for harmony. He is entitled to be
their daughters brought up in the Catholic heard, if only for the breadth and range of
faith. One other tribute to the force of his survey, which includes Comte, Spencer,
custom must not be forgotten the : Haeckel, Ritschel, and William James.
churches are open still and as thronged as But the greatest of all the apologists of
ever, just as though nothing had happened. free thought is M. Guyau, who, in a series
Probably, if Rome could be induced to of brilliant works recently brought to a
abate half her claims to the absolute close by his death, has tried to sketch a
direction of the human spirit, her oppo- " morality without obligation or sanc-
nents would abate more than half their tion " —
to translate the title of his most
hostility. The conflict in its acute stage famous book. This, like much else that
is the result of a natural intolerance and appears in France nowadays, is an im-
of an incapacity for give and take, of plicit abandonment of all attempts to find
which neither side has the monopoly. a common understanding with revealed
All sorts of attempts were made, both religion in of its forms, and an effort
any
within the Church and without, to esta- to discover the basis of a new
blish a basis of agreement between the .
^'^. . faith in the nature of man.
gnos icism
disputants. The
French bishops, or 'pj^gj^j^own defect of agnosticism
many of them, lent a favourable ear to is its want of the categorical
schemes of compromise, but were over- imperative for conduct and for life. It is
ruled from Rome. The Liberal, or modern- negative at the best and a positive con-
;
ising Catholic party, represented not if cept is the only one that can afford a
exactly led by the Abbe Loisy, pleaded foundational base.
eloquently for a reconciliation with modern M. Guyau accordingly offers a formula
thought, and for an abatement of the for morals which asks no support from
Papcd claim to supremacy in this domain. revelation, from tradition, or from
But this writer was peremptorily ordered ecclesiastical authority, and which derives
5393
;
.XI r- ij its expansive and dynamic The conflict now belongs, not so much
the D
*v
Bftttlefteld • ^
, , . ,, . ,
•'
5394
—;
ment than even France, and, with them, measure declared that no one belonging
religion is as free as the air. No doubt to a " non-authorised " religious congrega-
they are happily exempt from some of the s °"* I St t "* ^^°^
• should take part in the
peculiar difficulties of the sister polity. * management of public or free
France has had to disestablish a Church » «! education. At that time, the
Frenchwoman
1.
,,-
they never made the mistake of establish-
i
public schools were
i .t_
m
•
the
ing one. Confiscation, would seem to be an hands of over 30,000 members of a teaching
indispensable agency of government,. since brotherhood of the Church entirely free from
it has gone on all through history but it
; secular supervision. The new law brought
is still a two-edged sword whose cut is apt the lay teachers into the work, and estab-
to be quite as deadly in the swing as in the lished training colleges in each department.
"
stroke. There would be sound policy in France has not escaped a " feminist
sending the Church on her way contented, question, though her difficulties have not
even at the cost of pecuniary sacrifice, and reached the same acute stage as our own.
thenceforth in leaving her severely alone. One reason is that socially the French
In education the Republic has made woman holds a position with which she is
immense strides. The best teaching is now fairly satisfied. She keeps much more in
accessible to every citizen, high or low, her class, and shares the class sentiment,
according to the measure of his powers. and the class ideals. She is fully occupied,
The communal school has become a sort and with the substantial aid she gives her
of starting-point of social equality ;there —
husband in business and is expected to
France's
is no great distinction of classes —
give she escapes all risk of becoming
under its roof, and the humblest the inhabitant of a doll's house.
Educational
pass with little pecuniary diffi- This state of things can hardly be said
Strides
culty to the higher grades. to apply to the purely industrial classes.
The " Lycee," corresponding roughly to our Here we find that, while the women count
grammar and high schools, is incomparably something more than as one to two of the
superior to these in regard to its cost and men in numbers, they are paid something
to the technical quality of the instruction. less than as two to one. It was a pro-
Here, too, all classes study side by side. fessional humorist rather than a strict
Beyond these are the schools for the logician who pleaded that, although he
army, navy, engineering, and other speci- came to business later, he invariably went
alised callings. Beyond them, again, is away earlier than his brother clerks.
the university, equally accessible to all, The most satisfactory note of progress
but in practice mainly reserved for for the foreign observer is that the country
students of law and of the teaching pro- is now wedded to the idea of peace. It
fession, since the other estabUshments has not lost the old spirit of resistance to
provide for all ordinary needs. aggression, but it has unquestionably
The whole system has but one defect parted with the old love of fighting for
it still leaves a good deal to be desired in fighting's sake. The embarrassments of
regard to the culture of character. It is far the French Government in Morocco have
better than the English as a preparation reallybeen due far less to
for careers ;not so good as a preparation
w*^d% German diplomacy than to the
for life. But it is greatly improving in the * * °
extraordinary unwillingness of
p
sense of the educational value of sports the French people to enter
and games, though, in that respect, its into a war of adventure. The yearning
faults have been exaggerated. The British for peace is shown by the very excesses
system still aims at training a select class of the demand for it, for some fanatics
for the work of government and administra- would abolish the army altogether.
tion the French, with its strong equali-
; M. Jaures, however, who best represents
tarian bias, insists on giving a chance to all. the entire French democracy, has
Here, again, the religious difficulty has declared that a war in defence of the
been the lion in the path. France has been country would unite all Frenchmen able
5395
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
to bear arms. He draws the line at Enough has been said to show that
aggression, and he would go so far as to France is strong, prosperous, bold in
compel all governments to submit dis- experiment in literature, science and the
putes to arbitration, at the peril of being arts, alive in every sense.
regarded as enemies of the human race. Richard Whiteing.
way, the concession eventually passing into to $450,000, and in 1937 to $500,000.
the hands of a joint -stock company, taking Besides these sums, the company paid a
care at the same time to do everything that bonus to the prince in 1899 of $2,000,000,
was possible to add to the great natural and another bonus of the amount of
attractiveness of the site ; for there is no $3,000,000 in 1913. The company has a
doubt that Monte Carlo is one of the most capital of $6,000,000, and its shares are
charming and delightful spots in Europe, valuable. These facts are eloquent testi-
with an almost perfect winter climate. The mony that the " tables " pay their pro-
company, which is called the Society prietors, but nobody else, save the prince
Anonyme des Bains de Mer et du Cercle and a few others yet there is little or no
;
des Etrangers de Monaco, was given an diminution in the volume of gambling from
extension of its privileges in 1898, and this year to year. The truth is that the princi-
new contract does not expire until 1947. pality is a vast gambling hell, and it is
Practically the whole cost of the govern- this, and not its beauty, that mainly
ment of the principaHty is borne by this attracts to it many thousands of visitors
organisation, which, in addition, pays every year. Robert Machray
a fact which finds no parallel in history years the children of the better classes are
save in the somewhat similar instance of being sent to France for their education.
the Republic of San Marino, in Italy. It The postal and telegraphic arrangements,
is a patriarchal and even primitive little too, are under French control. On the
country, with only one good road through other hand, the money in circulation is
it, and that available only in fine weather, Spanish, and the language is Catalan.
the other means of communication being The people themselves are a cheerful
mere hill tracks more suitable for goats and sturdy race of mountaineers, chiefly
than human beings. The most exciting concerned with their flocks and herds
event which has occurred in Andorra when they do not happen to be engaged
since the days of Charlemagne, who is in smuggling, for which Andorra affords
said to have given it its first charter of unique opportunities. Taxation is, to
freedom, was its connection with France all intents, nil ; but a sum of $200 is
by a line of telegraph in 1893, an innova- paid for " protection " each year to both
tion to which not a few of its inhabitants France and the Bishop of Urgel, and the
were bitterly opposed. raising of this sum constitutes the main
Though independent, Andorra is under feature of the Andorran Budget. Perhaps
a sort of joint suzerainty of France, whose nothing could more clearly show just what
influence is steadily increasing in the the country is than to say that while the
country, and of the Bishop of Urgel, a first floor of its Palacio is occupied by the
Spanish ecclesiastic, in whose diocese it Council Chamber, the centre of its govern-
was once included ;the frontier of ment, the ground floor is a stable for the
Andorra is some sixteen miles from the horses of its executive and members
town of Urgel, in Spain, The republic of Parliament. Robert Machray
5398
EUROPEAN
IX
POWERS
TO-DAY SPAIN
SPAIN
IN OUR OWN TIME
THE NATION'S NEW ERA OF PROGRESS
By Martin Hume, M.A.
THEfound
revolution of 1868 in Spain, pro-
and disintegrating as looked it
postponing its convictions, both on reli-
gious and social problems, to the need
for a time, was almost purely political in for consolidating the throne of the child-
its direct results. The already recognised king by the support of Spaniards of all
right of private judgment in religion was, opinions. The attitude of the official
it is true, slightly extended, but in every Liberal party led finally to the formation
other respect the national life was barely of a strong new group of Democrats
affected by the violent outburst which pledged to far-reaching social reforms and
expelled Isabella II. from her throne and . . to antagonism to the influence
country. There was no radical change . of the clergy, but on each
J,.
effected in social relations, in the organisa- ^,, '"^vi.w occasion that this Democratic
tion and compensation of labour, in the
Alfonso XIII. ,
—
party led with J.1
i .
conspicuous
—
basis of taxation, or in the relations ability by Seiior Canalejas -coalesced with
between Church and State. the traditional Liberals under Senor Moret
The entire rearrangement of political for the purpose of forming a government,
parties, which was the principal outcome the coalition was unable to withstand
of the revolution, prepared the way for the strain imposed by divergent opinions,
far-reaching changes which are now mainly on the question of the Church and
operative or impending. The accession the conventual orders.
to the revolutionary ranks of the " Union The accession to effective kingship of
Liberal," or Moderate Liberals, ensured Alfonso XIIL, amidst the universal good-
the success of the revolt, but it also will of his people, did not to any con-
involved the disappearance of the party siderable extent alter the situation
itself as a separate entity and on the
; created and fixed by his wise and prudent
restoration of Alfonso XII., in 1875, a new mother during her long regency. The
division of political parties was prac- political parties alternate in power as
tically complete. The old purely Con- before, the real differences between their
servative party had disappeared as a respective policies in office being extremely
governing factor, and the new Conserva- slight, however democratic may be the
tives, who had brought about the restora- professions of the Liberal party when in
tion, were evolved as a separate political opposition, since both groups of politicians
group from the moderate elements of the have agreed to rule constitutionally and
revolution itself. Thus Spain turned her accept the principle of popular government.
back upon the past, and since then has Both parties, it is true, are equally
been governed by parties, which, whether ready to manipulate the elections in the
they call themselves Liberals, most unblushing manner in order to
Queen
Conservatives, or Democrats, secure power and office for themselves ;
Christina as
are all essentially Liberal in but to the people at large it matters little
Regent
their dependence upon popular which political combination rules them,
sentiment and their acknowledgment of since the effect in either case is practically
the supremacy of the national will. For the same. The main aspirations of the
many years of the long regency of country, indeed, are less towards political
Queen Christina, 1885-1901, politicians of than towards social change, as the people
both parties chivalrously abstained from have already lost faith, as a result of
action likely to disturb or excite the experience, in the efficiency of political
public mind, the Liberal party especially convulsions to remedy the ills of which
343 5399
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
they complain. In the meanwhile the and Ceuta. Unfortunately for her, when the
Socialist party in the country has in- Anglo-French agreement was signed on April
creased enormously, especially in Cata- 8th, 1904, recognising on the part of Great
lonia and Biscay, where the manufacturing Britain the future preponderating influence
activity is most marked and, as a
; of France in Morocco, Spain was unready
consequence, projected legislation, under and badly served diplomatically, and her
the guidance of either of the two great traditional interests were to a great extent
political parties, has mainly taken the ignored, as indeed were those of England.
..... form of Factory Acts, the limi- But the subsequent Act of Algeciras to
EsUbhshing ^^^.^^
^f ^^^ j^Q^j.g Qf labour, some slight extent recognised Spain's
^^^ restriction of the industrial right to take part in the civilisation of the
D *^ ° ftu** t Moslem country, by con-
employment of children, and neighbouring
other measures directed towards the social upon her jointly with France the
ferring
amelioration of the working classes. A mandate of the Powers to police the ports
remarkable instance of this is given by in the interests of the world generally.
the Act for the compulsory Sunday closing Spain has therefore had to sacrifice many
of all business establishments, except of her hopes and dreams in this direction ;
those devoted to the sale of prepared food, but it is evident that however much
and the legal enforcement of a weekly day French dominion may in time extend over
of rest in all trades. Morocco, the proximity and long-standing
In this both Socialists and Clericals have intercommunication between the latter
co-operated, although it forms a revolution country and Spain will ensure that the
in the traditional habits of the people, and predominating ethnological and civilising
has only been rendered operative at the cost element will be Spanish. Nor has the
of considerable friction. Another demand sacrifice been entirely without compensa-
persistently made by working-class politi- tion. The cordial friendship both with
cians, but hitherto unattained, owmg to Britain and France, cemented in the former
party dissensions, is the regulation of the . case by the auspicious mar-
monastic establishments with the object riage of King Alfonso XIII.
Sh^'buildrn^*
ip ui ing
of suppressing the unfair industrial com- ^j^jj g^^ English princess, not
Progr&mme r •
had caused a great increase of activity in whilst in 1905 no less than 126,000
Spanish manufactures for home and Spaniards abandoned their homes in
colonial consumption ; but it also resulted search of better conditions of life abroad,
in a restriction of foreign trade and heavy and in a recent voyage the present writer
liquidations, causing a depletion of" cur- saw sixty Spanish stowaways on a single
rency with the issue of quantities of small steamer. This poverty amongst the
paper money, the international exchange peasantry is contrasted sadly with the
being thereby raised to the ruinous rate enormous increase of luxury and expendi-
of thirty-three pesetas (;^i 6s. i^d.) to the ture of the higher classes in the towns, and
pound sterling, instead of twenty-five, especially in Madrid, owing in great
which was the par value. ^^^^P""""^-- measure to the return to
Although this entailed -^ Spain of rich colonials
.^^^^^K
great hardship upon .^^^^^^^K _^ when Spain lost her de-
those, including the ^^^H^B
Government, who had to ^^^^^^^^^^ ^n^ ,|^^^
*iiP pendencies, and also to
the large fortunes made
pay sums of money ^^^V jti^^S^Stl^^ by the manufacturers and
abroad, or who consumed ^^^^ '*-• '
/a ^^^^S^^ capitalists since the pro-
foreign goods, and it
|^ j^^^ibimmL^KL J M '^ tective tariffs were re-
made the cost of living ^^ ^^^^fcj^faigl^^ J imposed in 1892.
'
with their foreign gold value. In 1899, for was in times past the principal support
the first time in fifty years, the balance of upon which the hopes of the clerical Don
trade turned shghtly in favour of Spain Carlos depended; but in the last few
;
and in 1906 the exports considerably ex- years the cause of provincial home rule
ceeded the imports, the former having been for Catalonia, Biscay, Galicia, etc., has
1,018,387,000 pesetas (over $200,000,000) turned from Carlism, which is recognised
in value, and the latter 884,800,000 as a dying force, and has largely allied
( $180,000,000). Though this has produced itself to the advanced Socialist party. In
an improved exchange, and a return to Catalonia, where the demand for complete
the long projected rehabilitation of the autonomy has always been strongest, the
gold currency and equalisation of inter- cry for home rule, now almost unanimous,
national exchange, it tends in the near is bound up with the powerful provincial
future to bring its own antidote in a interest in maintaining a protective
restriction of exports as money values in policy for the whole of Spain.
Spain and abroad are the same. The Catalan party in the Cortes are
In the meanwhile, the purchasing united, active, and able, but they have
power of wages being much reduced, naturally against them the whole ol the
and the demand for the commoner representatives of the poorer agricultural
—
wines being diminished by the French provinces the greater part of Spain.
protective duties, the condition of the In the direction of literary activity
5401
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Spain has shown a remarkable change of stilllags behind that of other European
tendency in the last few years. The nations, although compulsory education
more serious writers are directing their was decreed as far back as 1857.
attention almost entirely to studies of The schoolmasters have always been
sociology in its various forms, with a view, wretchedly underpaid, and too often not
apparently, to discovering the causes and paid at all, by the provincial and town
remedies of Spain's continued adversity. councils, upon whom they depended, and
This constant introspection on the part of the compulsory clauses have been almost
Spaniards at the present time entirely disregarded. Recently, however,
^
f s pani"sh
^^ some extent provides a solu- a distinctly better spirit is being mani-
^.^^ ^^ ^j^^ problem they set fested in this respect, a special Ministry of
themselves. Whilst they are Public Instruction having been formed,
minutely discussing their national short- and the State having assumed authority
comings and peculiarities, other nations are over the schools. The present percentage
working whilst they are doubting and
; of total illiterates is about 65 per cent, of
despairing, other peoples are pushing ahead the population, as against 75 per cent,
in hope whilst they are waiting upon
; fifty years ago. The total cost of primary
Providence, others are forcing Providence education is not less than $5,000,000
to wait upon them. The national charac- dollars per annum, mostly falling upon
ter is a strange mixture of exalted idealism the local authorities, the whole country
and utilitarian worldliness, and it has being divided into ten educational dis-
become so much afraid of its own ideality, tricts for purposes of inspection and con-
which it calls Quixotism, as to shrink trol of the 25,340 primary schools, the
from enterprises that demand a measure number of scholars upon the books being
of imagination and faith in the fufure. 1,620,000, whilst the whole population of
A great deal of the listlessness which the country is approximately 19,500,000.
characterises Spanish life springs from this Spain still suffers from the lamentable
national lack of faith in action, unless the lack of enterprise of its rural
Madrid's
result to be attained is visible and imme- and provincial populations out-
Rapid
diate and although the sociological experts,
; side of the great industrial
Advance
who for the last few years have written centres of Catalonia and Biscay.
of little else in Spain, formulate many The land is still cultivated listlessly and
diagnoses of the maladies of their country, on methods long since obsolete elsewhere.
there is a general consensus of opinion that The area planted with vines is about
the main evil that afflicts the body politic 3,600,000 acres, the produce of which, in
is Spain's want of that ardent belief in her 1905, was 3,079,925 tons of grapes, yielding
own destiny which in the days of her 389,482,116 gallons of wine. The area
greatness constituted the secret of her under olive trees is about 3,250,000 acres,
success amongst nations. The introspec- producing on an average 39,500,000 gallons
tive note is manifested as much in the of oil; these two products, with mineral
works of the modern writers of fiction in ores and fruit, form the bulk of Spain's
Spain as in those of the professed sociolo- exports to foreign countries, England
gists. The school of romantic writing being now by far the largest consumer of
which flourished in the mid-nineteenth Spanish produce, and the largest supplier
century and drew its inspiration from of merchandise to Spain.
France and England has now disappeared, The change that within the last few years
and the modern Spanish novel deals almost has brought Spain once more into the
_ . , invariably, in an analytical and family of European nations of the first class
pam s
psychological spirit, with the has also profoundly affected the social life
Activity
contrast between the fervent of the capital. Madrid has grown enor-
religious belief of old Spain and mously both in size and population, the
the rationalistic tendencies of to-day, inhabitants now numbering nearly 600,000,
between the proud Spanish traditions of and some of the thoroughfares and trading
grave deliberation and the bustling establishments are as handsome as any
activity of the present age, between the in Europe. The attachment of the present
patriarchal conservatism of the soil and king for everything English, and the
.
monks and 40,000 nuns in the cloisters. invariable corruption of the elections, and
The relations between Rome and the the apathy of all those who are not
Spanish Church are still those settled by politicians, place in the hands of the
the concordat of 1851, and all attempts executive almost unrestrained power.
to rearrange them in a more liberal spirit That, as a rule, they do not abuse it
have before the strong Catholic
failed greatly to the detriment of the governed
feeling prevalent in the country and
still is due mainly to the tolerant democratic
Parliament Similarly, the scanty concession
. spirit which pervades all classes of
granted to Protestants and other non- Spaniards, and so long as the members of
Catholic religious bodies after the revolu- each political party can in alternation
tion of 1868 is still the largest measure of enjoy the privileges and profits of power
Uberty granted, non-orthodox worship there is no danger of any attempt at
being licit, but no outward sign or an- oppression of the people who pay. On the
nouncement of it being allowed. other hand, the mass of the
The constitution which rules the country t
*
» k
population go their way with
Lot of the
is still in substance that which was adopted j^.^^jg x&g-^s^ for poUticians of
paniar s
in 1876, after the restoration of Alfonso gj|.j^gj- persuasion, content if
XII., with some modifications of secondary the powers that be will improve the well-
importance. The main principle of this being of those whose hard lot it is to live
charter is contained in the formula : for ever on the brink of want, forming the
" The power to make laws resides in the great majority of the nation, ill-housed,
Cortes and the king," the Cortes consisting ill-paid, ill-fed, ill-taught, a patient, hope-
of two co-legislative bodies of equal power. ful and long-suffering people, who deserve a
The popular Chamber, or Congress of De- better fate than misgovernment in the past
puties, consists at present of 406 unpaid has brought to them. Martin Hume
5403
EUROPEAN
POWERS X
PORTUGAL
TO-DAY
J J.U- _•
. p sovereign, and this in conjunc- strict limitation, and provisions for the
tion with the operative right of eventual extinction of, hereditary legisla-
veto by the king gave to the latter prac- tive peerages ; but, unlike other constitu-
tically uncontrolled power over legislation, tional sovereigns, he found the political
no matter how democratic the Lower House parties unwilling to present a bulwark
might be. The constitutional struggle between him and the popular discontent
therefore turned for many years past aroused by oppressive taxation and ad-
upon the attempts of Democrats to reduce ministrative corruption, for which he was
the royal prerogative over legislation, not responsible. Upon the king, most un-
administration, and &nance, the last justly, was cast the onus of unpopularity
5404
PORTUGAL IN OUR 0"^7N TIME
caused by the inevitable submission of unholy gains. Protest was met by prosecu-
Portugal to the British ultimatum with tion and further measures of repression,
regard to the encroachments in East Africa and the country was deprived of all pre-
in 1890. The accusation was levelled tence of representative government, both
against him that he had allowed his Anglo- in national and local affairs. The avowed
phil tendencies to override the interests of policy of Senhor Franco and the king was
his own country and when, as a sequel to
; to purify the administration and establish
this agitation, a dangerous Republican economy of the national resources, and
revolt was suppressed in Oporto early in j^. . the new broom swept with de-
1891, the king was again held personally T»'w
/** vastating effect into the dark
Debt to °j. ,, ,
r*-?' ^ A ^^^ directed. The. Civil List poverty and backwardness under which
^.riticiscd
amounted to about $560,000 they suffered the king personally was
;
per annum, and although this was com- genial, kindly, and popular, and, although
paratively modest for a nation whose politicians of all shades denounced the
annual revenue was some $65,000,000, it dictatorship in unmeasured terms, the
formed the basis for constant attacks upon country at large went on its laborious way
the sovereign and his family, who found without audible or visible protest against
it quite insufficient for their needs, and the deprivation of its liberties —
.liberties
the king had consequently incurred heavy which they recognised had not to any
indebtedness to the State. extent remedied the hard conditions under
The position had thus become intolerable. which the majority of the people lived.
The elective Chamber of Parliament was Attempts were made by the regular
unblushingly manipulated by both parties dynastic parliamentary parties to use for
in succession, and was representative only their ends the heir apparent, an amiable
in name, notwithstanding the existence of young prince, called after his great graud-
universal manhood suffrage limited only by father, the King of the French, Luis Philip,
the ability to read and write. The public and in his name to form a parliamentary
offices were crowded by idle parasites of cabal against King Carlos. The queen,
politicians, and the pension list was full also, a gifted and popular lady of singu-
of scandalous abuses. In these circum- larly noble character, was
Intrigues
stances a coup d'etat v/as effected by the understood to be opposed to
Agamst
Prime Minister, Senhor Joao Franco at ^j^g dictatorship, which she con-
* "^*
the end of 1906, with the co-operation of sidered endangered the stability
the king. Representative institutions were of the throne and the life of her husband.
suspended, and the king and his dictator The young Crown Prince Luis Philip was
declared that until an uncorrupted and in- removed for a time from the intrigues of
dependent parliament could be summoned the constitutional parties by sending
they would govern Portugal by royal decree. him upon an extensive tour of the Portu-
The bold step naturally aroused the guese African colonies, and after his
violent opposition and protest of all classes return to Portugal he stood aloof from all
of politicians, thus deprived of their attempts to estrange him from his father.
5405
HISTORY O? THE WORLD
Thus matters stood in January, 1908, apathetic, knowing, as they did, that the
when the royal family passed a few weeks king meant well by the nation, and that the
at the ancient Braganza possession of evils that he and Senhor Franco were
Villa Vi^osa, in the Alem-Tejo, east of endeavouring to remedy by unconstitu-
Lisboa " In their absence from the capital tional means were real and great.
the opposition to the dictatorship became It was in the waning light of early
more pronounced and active, especially evening when the king and queen, with
amongst the Republican party, always their two sons, Luis Phihp and Manuel,
ready to profit by the dissensions amongst landed at the quay on the Fra^a de Com-
the dynastic groups. --^The Press organs of mercio at Lisbon from the railway station
Senhor Franco, the 'dictator, announced on the other side of the Tagus and in an ;
that a widespread republican conspiracy open carriage they traversed the great
had been discovered, and a great number . . . square at a foot pace between
Assassination .it t- r xr j
of arrests of political opponents of the
1
lines of respectful and
o f K*^'^s *^ A
dictatorship were effected as a precau- loyal people assembled to
Crown Prince -^ .K
tionary measure on the eve of the king's The way ofx ^u
'ru
.
5406
Dom Carlos King Manuel
The Crown Prince
THE MURDERED KING AND CROWN PRINCE OF PORTUGAL, AND THE EX-KING MANUEL
detestation of so dastardly an act, were
the king in the neck, whilst another shot,
him the spine, deaf to all appeals to them to rise against
which was mortal, struck in
and Dom Carlos sank bathed in blood upon the new king, a young sailor lad
of eighteen,
the floor of the vehicle. The queen, stand- whose unaffected geniality had already
ing and striking at the murderers, sought made him popular. But when it was said
to protect her husband and elder son at in Lisbon, the day after the crime, that
the risk of her own hfe, and, although the the shots that had killed Dom Carlos had
target of many bullets, she miraculously killed the repubhc, too, the prediction was
escaped. The heir-apparent, a youth of not fulfilled.
twenty-one, was mortally wounded by two coahtion Cabinet, chosen from mode-
A
shots, and died within a few minutes when rate men of all parties, was formed.
the carriage had been driven for shelter Franco for a single day only endeavoured
into the gates of the arsenal near by. A to stand firm by the aid of the armed
forces he had
conciliated but, finding
cry of horror and grief went ;
were cut to pieces by the police and the placed him abrogated most of the decrees
onlookers. The dynastic opposition of his dictatorship, and provided for a
parties, which had led the protest against prompt return to a constitutional govern-
the dictatorship of Franco, were as much rnent. Time alone would show whether the
dismayed as his friends at the turn of spirited but rash attempt of the lamented
affairs, since the agitation which they Dom Carlos and his minister to remedy
had stirred up had thus gone far beyond by unconstitutional means a great con-
their calculations or desires, and they at stitutional evil would bear fruit, notwith-
once raUied unanimously to the throne, standing the terrible crime that cut short
now to be occupied by Prince Manuel, the the experiment.
younger son of the murdered king. Portugal could hardly, after what had
The Republican party, the extreme passed, revert entirely to the bad old
members of which were generally accused system of party alternation of political
of the regicide, found no public support plunder ; but it was to be feared that,
to the crime. The populace, struck with as in the case of Spain, no great
5407
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
and permanent improvement could be were disquahfied unless they possessed a
expected by legislative action alone. In small minimum private income. The
each case the statute books contain most of country, which covers an area on the
the enactments needed for the prosperity continent of 90,000 square kilometres
and happiness of a progressive state. — —
34,254 square miles with a growing
It is not the laws that are in faidt population of over 5,500,000, is divided
so much as the general lack of a sense for local government purposes into twenty-
of responsible citizenship and the lament- one districts, of which seventeen are in
able prevalence of illiteracy Portugal proper and three in the islands.
or uga s
^j^j(,]^ render possible a lax ad- These are subdivided into 306 arrondisse-
*
_ "^
ministration and corrupt eva- ments, and again into 3,961 parishes. A
esources
^-^^ ^^ laws of themselves good governor appointed by the Ministry presides
and sufficient. Portugal, though naturally over each district ;the arrondissements
a poor country, has nevertheless ample being also presided over by an administrator
resources to ensure the comfort and pros- appointed by the central government,
perity of its citizens, if the government aided in each case by elected councils.
were economical and honest. The people, Both in national and local administra-
especially in the north, where the land is tion the principal evil is the multiplicity
mostly held by peasant proprietors, live of underpaid and often corrupt officials
hardly, it is true, but not miserably. appointed in turn by rival political
They are laborious, frugal, honest and parties ; and the lower ranks of the
sober, and it is safe to say that when the judiciary are similarly afflicted, there
present proportion of complete illiterates being no less than 142 juizes de dereiio,
— 78 per cent, of the population, notwith- civil magistrates, besides the judges of
standing so-called compulsory education the high courts and court of appeal, in
— ^is reduced, as it might be consider- _^ ^, ,.
The
, additionto 809 elected justices
Nation s r j.i ^ -i, u •
ably, no peasants in Europe will have -jy. . of the peace, thus brmgmg
more of the elements of happiness at their ...gncu ure
up the number of judicial
command than the Portuguese. authorities to nearly a thou-
The revenue of the country steadily sand for a population not much larger
increased from $14,000,000 per annum in than that of London.
1889 to $28,000,000 in 1907 ; but the Possessing a climate unsurpassed in
wasteful finance and political corruption Europe for beauty and salubrity, and a
cause the expenditure to exceed the soil in many districts of great richness,
revenue in each recurring year. The the future wealth of the country must
funded debt grew with depressing regu- depend principally upon agriculture. The
larity from about $300,000,000 in 1896 methods of cultivation are still almost as
to $320,000,000 in 1905 ; and after primitive as in the times of the Romans,
a declared suspension of the payment of especially in the south, which is more
interest in 1892, an arrangement was backward than the north in all respects ;
arrived at with the Council of Foreign and the great need of the population is
Bondholders in London by which the that the national resources, instead of
service of the debt was to be managed being squandered, as at present, upon
by a council sitting in Lisbon, to whom unnecessary armaments and useless tcnc-
special funds were allocated to cover the tionaries, should be employed in promot-
three per cent, then being paid. The ing national education, improving means
poHtical constitution of the State before of communication, and lifting the burdens
the king was dethroned consisted of the from industries now sorely oppressed.
sovereign, whose veto upon legislative Of purely intellectual movement there
enactments was fully operative if notice is little of native Portuguese origin since
was given on his behalf within thirty the death of Herculano the historian and
days of the submission of a Bill, of a Almeida Garrett the poet. The novels
House of Peers consisting of a strictly of E9a de Queiros, which promised much,
limited number of nominated peers alone, have unfortunately ceased with his prema-
with a few hereditary survivals, the ture death, and beyond a few historical
elective element having been eliminated, and sociological studies there is now little
and a Congress of Deputies elected on produced by the Portuguese presses but
practically universal manhood literate translations of foreign works.
suffrage. The deputies were unpaid, but Martin Hume
5408
THE REPUBLIC OF PORTUGAL
FALL OF THE MONARCHY AND
REPUBLICANISM ON ITS TRIAL
THEpleaded
youth of King Manuel IL be may selected Senhor Braga for their mouth-
dehver
for his inability to piece, but the promised justice and
Portugal from a corrupt Government, morality were quickly seen to be as far off
but it did not save him the throne. In the as ever under the new regime as they had
two short years of his reign the Repubhcan been under the monarchy. The Provisional
movement became increasingly powerful, Government arranged for a general elec-
till in 1910 it was strong enough to over- tion in 191 1, and the formal endorsement
turn the Crown. The revolution of 1910 of the Republican Constitution. The
was accomplished with comparatively electors duly returned a republican
little bloodshed. The Army and Navy maj ority Senhor Braga retired into private
.
had their own reasons for discontent, and, life, having done the part allotted to him ;
led by the majority of their officers, and Dr. Manoel Arriaga, also a man of
went over to the Republic without letters, of the University of Coimbra, and
making any fight for the Monarchy. a gifted writer and eloquent speaker, was
The King, deserted by his troops, chose elected, August 191 1, first President of
flight in preference to the assassination the Portuguese Republic. Under the new
that probably awaited him, and thus Constitution of 191 1, two Legislative
exchanged the doom of his father for —
Chambers a National Council and a
a pleasant residence in England. The —
Senate were set up. All men over twenty-
Republican leaders then sought out Senhor one years of age who could read and write,
Theophi le or who main-
Braga, an ac- tained parents
complished and or relatives,
h i g h-m i n d e d were entitled to
man of letters, vote. But as
with the nearly three-
opinions of a quarters of the
French P o s i- population were
tivist, forprovi- illiterate, and
sional President; this in spite of
and Senhor the fact that
Braga accepted education is by
the post, and in law compulsory,
exalted speech the electorate is
promised a reign a good deal
of justice and Vasques smaller than in
an "austere THfeOPHILE BRAGA Dr. MANOEL ARRIAGA most European
Provisional President, 1910-11 Elected First President in 1911
morality " for countries where
the new republic. (It is remarkable that manhood suffrage prevails. And it is stiU
both the revolution of the Young Turks further narrowed by the exclusion of all
at Constantinople in 1908, and that in soldiers on the active hst, all resident
Portugal in 1910, were the work of men foreigners, naturalised Portuguese, bank-
inspired by the free-thought of Paris, rupts, and proscribed persons. The
and largely influenced by the political 'vholesale proscriptions of royalists which
freemasons of France.) President Braga's followed the revolution got rid of
sincerity has not been questioned, but a anj^ political danger at the election
literary philosopher with distinguished from the supporters King Manuel.
of
university attainments could be but the The payment of members of the
merest figure head of republican Portugal. National Council is 17s. for each sitting,
The- managers of the revolution in and magistrates, soldiers, priests and
possession of the Government, and with government contractors are not eligible
the authority of the army to enforce their for membership. The Senate is elected by
rule, impressed favourably the constitu- the Municipal Councils, and half its
tional governments of Europe when they members retire every three years. The
5409
—
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Senate and National Council together 1913, and provoked remonstrances from
form the Congress of the Republic which friends of Portugal in Great Britain.
elects the President, whose term of office At the end of its first three years of
is limited to four years. The President existence the Portuguese Republic was
must be thirty-five years of age thus — still threatened by the followers of King
making it impossible for fourteen years for Manuel II., but the menace of revolu-
King Manuel II. to seek election, as tionary socialism, and of anarchist propa-
Napoleon III. did in France after 1848 ganda by bomb and assassination, was a
and cannot be re-elected to the presidency a far greater danger. But with the army
second time. He chooses his ^linisters, at its back, the Portuguese Government
though the Ministry is responsible to cotild count on beating down all enemies
Parliament but he is forbidden to be
; within its borders, and the electorate could
present at debates in the National Council be —
so managed as it is managed in
or Senate. The Civil List of the President certain South American Republics that a —
is fixed at £3,900. Republican majority was returned to the
Onthe establishment of the Republic, National Council and the Senate. The
the Governmentat once directed its need for a stable and honest Government
activities against the Roman Catholic was strongly felt in Portugal in 1914,
Church, and in 191 1 a law was passed for especially the face of an increasing
in
the separation of Church and State. national expenditure and grave working-
Under this law the Government claimed class discontent. But political rivalries
all the property of parish churches and amongst various sections of repubhcans
religious orders, but allowed the use of have hindered the establishment of such
the churches to the clergy, and undertook a government, and time alone can show
to pay salaries to all beneficed priests, whether the Republic is capable of pro-
while all religious orders were to be ducing the public men the service of the
expelled. The enforcement of this law State demands.
was attended with grave disorders, and For the Republic is on its trial. It is
Catholic Royalists from time to time in in vain for its political champions to utter
1912 and 1913 attempted risings near glowing rhetoric concerning justice and
the Spanish frontier. The fact that the noble sentiments in favour of freedom
political leaders who were associated with while the prisons are overcrowded with
the corruption under the monarchy untried persons suspected of political
quickly hastened to profess adherence to offences. If the great mass of the working
the Republic was evidence that the class suffered under the corrupt and
Royalist cause could count on scanty arbitrary regime of the Monarchy, and
support amongst those who arranged the consented without a munnur to its over-
elections. On the other hand, it gave throw, they will be equally ready to
little hope that a new and better era had allow a restoration of monarchy on find-
been inaugurated in public affairs in ing the Republican Government no less
Portugal. The workmen in the towns, tyrannical.
organised in trade unions largely Syndi- Next to the problems of good govern-
calist and social-revolutionist in character, ment and wise social legislation, the
supported the political republicans at the problem of emigration has to be faced
first, but finding no improvement in by the Republic. The stream of emigra-
industrial conditions, soon went into tion fromPortugal, mainly to Brazil,
opposition to the Government, and in is a terrible drain on the industrial
1913 organised big demonstrations in resources of the country, and the Govern-
protest against Government policy. But ment in 191 3 expressed its concern at
the Government, by the aid of the army, what was taking place.
was able to put down these demonstra- But the best prevention of emigra-
tions, and the disturbances that accom- tion from a country not over populated
panied them, as it put down the attempted is good government, security of Ufe,
monarchist risings, and the prisons soon an assurance of personal liberty, and
held as many disaffected republicans as a sure means of livelihood. It is these
royalists. The horrible overcrowding in things the Portuguese people still
the prisons, and the large number of sought in 1914, as they had sought
prisoners arrested on suspicion and never them before the RepubUc displaced the
brought to trial became a grave scandal in Monarchy.
^10
1
XI
EUROPEAN
SCANDINA-
POWERS
VIAN
TO-DAY
STATES
rivers, its elk, wild reindeer, lynxes, bears, of scattered villages, dotted along the feet
wolves, foxes, grouse, and ptarmigan. of the fjords, or on the lonely wilderness
" Beautiful everywhere " is the frequent
! jelds, or in the clearings of the immense
exclamation of enchanted visitors. Roman- forests.
tic " dalen," or valleys, pine-clad moun- Norway has only 740 square miles of
tain slopes, and immense juniper-covered ploughed land, so that the actual agricul-
plateaux, like the wild Dovre Fjeld, are ture is comparatively insignificant. But
elements of indescribable beauty in the immense quantities of valuable hay are
whole landscape right up to the North cropped during the brief, summer on
hot
Cape. The grandeur of aspect of the great " saeters," or meadow farms
the Lofoten Isles cannot be surpassed. on the broad slopes. The Norwegian
—
The gigantic falls the Voringfoss, the landscape is two varieties slopes and
of —
Rjukanfoss, the Skejgedalfoss, the Vettis- precipices, and most ingeniously the people
a ura
foss, etc. — are tremendous adapt their pursuits to natural conditions.
torrents leaping
r &
from immense The greatest of all industries is, as might
Features of
heights into the grand fjords, be supposed, fishing for Norway has a
;
Norway
and some of these sublime coast of 3,000 miles, and the fishermen are
gorges run up into the interior between perhaps the sturdiest on earth.
the mountain precipices to distances of But the backbone of the population is
from 200 to 300 miles, carrying Atlantic bucolic, consisting of the splendid rustics
tides right into the far centre of the land. known as the " Bonder," or peasant
The beautiful Hardanger, the grand and farmers. Domesticity and social life in
gloomy Geiranger, the sublime Sor, and this wildest north are delightful, and the
541
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
people are as happy as any in the world. gratif5dng the national sentiment of his
The nights of the very protracted winter adopted subjects by honouring the vener-
are spent in study, in courtship by the able Norse traditions. On July 22nd, 1896,
young folk, in wood carving, in tending the he had married Princess Maud Alexandra,
sheltered cattle, in hunting game, in daughter of King Edward VII., so that
visiting, in sledging, and in the glorious the British and Norwegian royal houses
sports of racing on snow-shoes and of ski- are closely allied. The heir to the throne
jumping, in which recreation the athletic is Prince Alexander, born July 2nd, 1903,
, young Norsemen are the finest whose name was, on his father's accession^
j^
I t '^lT*'t
*
1
^^P^^ts existing. Many a fear- changed to Olaf.
^^^^ ^^^P °^ ^^^^ ^^ achieved It was a remarkable fact that though
Sta d d
from a height of 150 feet. The Nansen and Bjornson are Republicans in
social life of the people intimately mingles principle, as all the nation well understood,
with their fervent religious cult. As in they exerted a leading influence, through
all Scandinavia, the national Church is their speeches and letters during the
Lutheran, and the quaint and pretty separation and plebiscite campaigns, in
wooden churches are always filled, the favour of a King of Norway. Norway being
country sanctuaries on Sundays along the a land of peasants, the town life is not so
Hardanger and other fjords presenting a interesting as that of the country. Chris-
singular spectacle, for the costumes are tiania is a quiet and even dull metropolis,
truly picturesque. There are compara- but it is beautifully built, stands at the
tively few dissenters and though theo-
; head of its own lovely fjord, and is the
logical controversies are of course not centre of intellectual culture, being the
unknown, they are not acute. seat of a great university. By far the most
The intellectualism of Norway stands important town is Bergen, which is also
high. Indeed, the people proudly claim that the prettiest, a rare thing foi a busy
in proportion to the population they have commercial city. And Trondhjem, the
in our time produced more geniuses than ancient historic capital, is attrac-
The Drink
has any other nation. The names of Grieg, tive with its curious quaintness.
Trade
Nanser, Ibsen, Bjornson certainly suggest Vt"^ Deeply interesting is the opera-
orway ^-^^
influences that have of late years potently ^^ ^j^^ famous Norwegian
affected the thought of the world in poetry, company system for controlling the liquor
music, and geographical research. Ele- which is very similar to the Gothen-
traffic,
mentary education is universal in Norway. burg system in Sweden. Licences for the
The political conditions in Norway are sale of ardent spirits are entrusted to a
altogether unique, and have, since the dawn company formed, not for profit, but for
of the twentieth century, been cast by an the benefit ofthe citizens. The latest
abrupt and startling revolution into a legislation on the principle of local option
shape which has marvellously materialised gives all men and women over twenty-
the democratic aspirations of the people. five years of age the right to vote for the
Since the union with Sweden never exclusion of retail bar traffic in spirits
really satisfied the patriotic sentiments from the community in which they reside.
of the Norwegians, a constant agitation The profits of the companies, after the
was sustained for separation. The disso- shareholders have received five per cent,
lution took place by decree of the Stor- dividend, are distributed amongst objects
ting at Christiania on June 7th, 1905. of public utility, such as planting parks,
The overt cause of the rupture was a pro- sanitary improvement, industrial educa-
_ . tracted dispute between the tion, waterworks, sewers, libraries, theatres
epara ion
^^^ nations as to their foreign and other amusements, charities, and re-
^ip^o^^^tic representation. The ligious institutions. High duties are im-
and Sweden
late King Oscar of Sweden posed on the high-grade liquors imported,
refused to entertain the offer of the Nor- and has become very difficult for foreign
it
wegian crown to one of his own family, commodities. For-
distillers to sell theii
but the details for the repeal of the Union merly, in Norway and Sweden, all owners
were amicably settled by the Karlsbad of the soil had liberty to brew and distil,
Convention. A plebiscite was held, after and the result was that these countries
which the crown was offered to Prince had a per capita rate of consumption of
Charles of Denmark, who accepted it than that of any other nation.
spirits higher
under the title of Haakon VII., thus greatly Sweden, with its 173,000 square miles.
;
intersected by huge
u
German Kaiser. The union was very
VI *i.i
Northland J °,'
, c, j•
j
canals and doing a fine trade, popular, because she is a descendant of
reminds the visitor of a Dutch port, except- the old and revered family of Vasa. In
ing that its quays are boulevarded with June, 1905, the king's eldest son, Prince
trees. With her immense forests Sweden Gustavus Adolphus, married Princess Mar-
is the greatest timber exporting country in garet of Connaught. There are two other
the world. Having nearly fifty million acres sons, one of whom. Prince William, mairied
of forest area, covering close on half of the the Tsar's cousin, the Grand Duchess
and, she can and does contribute enor- Marie, in May, 1908. Sweden and Denmark
mously to the needs of other nations in took a very prominent part in arranging
this respect. But the most valuable re- with Russia and Germany the momentous
cent development is the manufacture of Baltic and North Sea agreements for the
paper from wood pulp. A great factory, preservation of the status quo in the
worked by the lovely Trollhattan Falls, Baltic, Britain and the Netherlands also
makes paper from pulp. The other chief sending delegates to the convention at
export is the famous Swedish iron. Most St. Petersburg. The Baltic Agreement
of the estates consist half of forest land, was signed at the Russian capital on
and saw-mills are ever at work in every April 23rd, 1908, and a parallel North Sea
section of the country. Through these Agreement afterwards at Ber-
TTie Land
grand woodlands of oak, pine, beech, and ^.^ ^^^ documents declared
birch run fine rivers, which are one secret ^. ^ that the nations concerned
g "**'
of the activity of the lumber trade, for were firmly resolved to pre-
they facilitate the floating in summer serve intact the respective rights of those
of the timber felled in the winter. countries over their continental and insular
The Swedes are fortunate in inhabiting possessions in the regions in question.
the healthiest country on earth, the death- Denmark, so often called by foreigners
rate being only i6*49 P^^ 1,000, the who have learned to love the country and
lowest in the whole world, and longevity its people " dear httle Denmark," has
is a national characteristic. Sanitation is special interest for England, because of the
assiduously attended to by the municipali- close affinity of the people of the two
5413
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
countries and the intimate alliance of their Three modest animals have mainly
royal families; A celebrated*letter written founded the modern prosperity of this
by Lord Nelson is enshrined in the interesting kingdom —the cow, the pig, and
archives of the Foreign Office at Copen- the hen. Denmark produces an immense
hagen. This missive is addressed to " The quantity of butter and cheese, bacon and
Brothers of Englishmen, the Danes." hams, and sells them with countless dozens
"
Naturally, the " Land of the Sea Kings of eggs to Britain and other neighbours.
must appeal to Anglo-Saxon hearts. Pro- Many of the Jutlanders, from starting as
verbially the little nations are swineherds, have become large dealers and
Denmark
the happiest, and Denmark, merchants. The nation has set the pace for
Rich and
one of the smallest, is one of the modern world in agricultural co-opera-
Contented
the happiest of all. Though tion. This applies specially to dairying.
she has been shorn of much of her out- There are over a thousand co-operative
lying territory, she has never lost her dairies in Denmark, with nearly 150,000
integrity, never having known subjuga- members, receiving milk from nearly a
tion, and so high a place does she hold in million cows. The State has done e vei y thing
the esteem of other nationalities, that the possible to promote the system. The aim has
representatives of mighty dynasties have been to secure a high degree of perfection in
been proud to enter into matrimonial the system of handling milk so as to ensure
union with the Danish royal family. cleanliness and a properly controlled supply.
A late King, the octogenarian christian This system is one of the romances of
IX., who passed away on January 29th, modern industry. And now, as a result of
1906, was often alluded to as "father- the encouragement given to the creation oi
in-law of half Europe." Denmark is a small holdings by the famous Act of 1899,
notable example of the way in which a there are fully 100,000 of these farms. The
little kingdom, surrounded by powerful Danish " small holdings men " are singu-
rivals, can be equally prosperous in her and
larly well-trained, capable,
p
smaller way. Her progress in our own c.^ ,. . and are steadily
enlightened,
Situation in 1 " * xv
time is a phenomenon which has astonished r» , becoming more so. Another
Denmark \^ n °. j
the world. This cold and bleak peninsula beneficent measure, passed
jutting into the North Sea, with its group shortly before the close of the last century,
of insular satellites, is the home of a was the Old Age Pension Act, received
people who have shown the world that a now by 2^ per cent, of the population.
little nation can become rich, contented, The present pofitical position in Den-
happy, and progressive. Year by year the mark is that of a broad, genial, practical
sturdy Dane is taking greater advantage of democracy, of which the king is the
the opportunities afforded by a fertile soil. popular figurehead. King Fredeiic VIII.
Copenhagen, the " Athens of the North," died in May, 1912, and was succeeded by
is a metropolis of which any nation might his son, Christian X., who fulfils his promise
be justly proud. Its population of over to reign in accordance with his father's
500,000 is year by year increasing, and the example. Political conflicts in Denmark
city grows in importance. Much of the are restrained by the moderation and
old town has passed away, and the aspect sturdy common-sense of the people, reforms
for the most part is modem. It is a city to being promoted in a democratic, progres-
linger in, and its very atmosphere enchants sive spirit, in spite of the efforts of the
the visitor, while its people are amongst Social Democrats to expedite extreme
the most courteous on earth. The famous radical measures. The fine system of
—
Vor Frue Kirke Our Saviour's Church is — national education is sustained under
_. _ , one of the sights of Europe, the joint influence of State, Church, and
The Country » j^^. j^
contains Thorwald- municipality, under the special super-
Pre-eminence
sen's majestic statue of the vision of the Minister for Church and
in Agriculture
Risen Saviour, with the Education, through local committees, in
marble statues of the twelve Apostles by which the clergy and magistrates play the
the same consummate artist. Copenhagen, chief parts. Education is elaborately and
being not on the mainland but on the perfectly organised. The municipal sch'^ols,
island of Sjaelland, on the Sound, pos- the Latin schools, and the high schools
sesses a unique charm from its wild and cover the whole land with a complete
romantic outlook on the northern sea. The network, and the opportunities are appre-
beautiful city is filled with treasures of art. ciated by all classes.
5414
2
;
evidence of the important pare that „ ^ 1912 the vote had risen to
agriculture plays in the national life. . .
Advanee 128,455 and returned 23 mem-
, 'Vl -vt •
1 •
in recent years, and in no European 1912 the total population was only
country is there greater political and 2,428,500, and in Christiania in that year
social equality between the sexes than in the inhabitants were 250,000.
Norway. The first Act in the direction In Sweden also the increase of popula-
of this equality was passed in 1888 when tion has not been startling. In 1905 the
the wife was given equal rights total population was estimated at 5,337,055
^^ex-equa y 1
^^j^ ^^^ husband as to their and in 1910 at 5,521,943. Nearly one-
Norway
common property, the right to half of this population was engaged in
own her own property separ- agriculture in 1914, and this figure includes
ately, and to have a separate income. The 298,000 owners and 50,000 tenants. Pro-
following year women were made eligible portional representation and manhood
for school boards. In 1894 they were suffrage were established in 1909 and
given the right to vote on the question of an Old Age Pensions Act was passed in
licensed liquor shops. In 1900 they 1913-
became eligible for juries. In 1904 they The reorganisation of the Swedish Army,
were admitted to full practice as lawyers, which began in 1901, has been steadily
and in 1907 they received a limited effected, but the great increase in military
parliamentary vote. In 1910 full muni- expenditure involved encountered strong
cipal suffrage was granted, and in 1913 an protests from the Socialists in 1914. The
Act was passed unanimously and without King of Sweden, in whom considerable
debate giving the parliamentary vote to executive power is lodged, has insisted
women on exactly the same terms as it on the importance of an armed nation, and
was given to men. So that in Norway the majority of his people have supported
every man and women over 25, not being him. The menace of Russia
a pauper, a bankrupt, or an ex-convict, * . has driven Sweden to tliis course
ussian
and having resided not less than five ^^^ ^j^^ Russians have not only
years in the country can vote at parliament- placed huge forces in Finland
ary elections and is eligible for a seat in and constructed military lines to the
the Storting or Norwegian Parliament. north of Finland, by depriving Finland
This Storting is divided after every of its old constitutional self-govern-
election into two bodies, the Odelsting ment, they have abolished the safeguard
—
and the Lagting the latter, chosen in the that existed when Finland was a free and
full Storting and consisting of one quarter friendly state. The Swedish Navy in 191
of the members, forming a sort of Second —
consisted of 92 vessels of war ^438 guns
Chamber. Any bill rejected twice by the — ^including 23 ironclads.
344
5415
5416
;: ;
EUROPEAN XII
POWERS THE UNITED
TO-DAY KINGDOM
yikMik^
of almost every conceivable type of polity himself chose commerce as the field in
absolute monarchies in India, where the which he would come to death-grips with
'
British raj itself is that of a racial the British, with the result that, after
aristocracy ; while all the greater colonies Waterloo, there was no competitor within
are democracies. Or, if we follow the measurable distance of them, and the lead
territorial method of classification, the thus gained was increased progressively
empire will supply England at one end with during the nineteenth century. During
federated countries in Canada that century, also, the colonial expansion
th^B^Vh ^^^ Australia, and at the continued the whole of one continent
;
„* ."' other with something not far was appropriated. In India the British
°^^"^
removed from the Greek idea passed from being merely the dominant
of the city-state in the Isle of Man power to being lords of the whole land
and in the Channel Islands. In the between the mountains and the sea and ;
course of this work we have watched finally the most valuable portions of the
England developing politically far in Dark Continent fell also under their domi-
advance of all Continental states, while nion. The expansion was accompanied by
Ireland remained a subordinate, half- a change in the internal polity. The supre-
controlled province, and Scotland held fast macy of parliament was unchallenged
to a somewhat lawless independence but the gradual extension of the electoral
5417
; ;
Record of the tt
Hence hilabour
u >» j.
energies of her enemies she did not fight „....,,
British Isles
movements,
,,,, ^ , •
^
them on land, but helped her neighbours all the movements which are
to do so. For her own hand she fought apt to be labelled " Sociahstic " by those
them on the sea. who disapprove of them, are accompanied
It was only in the Peninsular War among the proletariat by a much less
that she took rank as a military power, virulent antagonism to the well-to-do than
and there she was only enabled to do so is frequently the case in other lands.
because Napoleon wanted the bulk of his In the intellectual field, the British Isles
legions for Moscow. Moreover, in the claim great names in science, both in its
same connection it has to be observed theoretic realms, such as Bacon, Newton,
that, with the possible exception of 1793, and Darwin, and in its practical application.
Continental interests have never been the In pure literature it is somewhat curious
motive of her wars. In nearly every case to remark that the greatest achievements
she has fought because the interests of of a people which prides itself on practical
France collided with her own in extra- common sense have been in the region of
European regions. With hardly a variation, imagination, of poetry, where it is not only
her rulers have systematically declined to insular prejudice that claims a supreme
intervene in foreign quarrels otherwise than position for Shakespeare. Like the Shake-
through diplomatic channels. spearian period, the hundred years which
,°n •!"? That rule has been broken, or is
. opened with the period of the French
of Britain s
jj.. m , ri • 1
serious danger 01 bemg broken,
i
Revolution were rich in great literary
* ^"^
only in one corner of Europe : names but it cannot be said that either
;
istics are an immense transmarine colonial we are concerned with the British Isles.
5418
^
'
because they devastated Europe and more and it is by no means clear that
;
drained off the best human material for the country will not attempt to recover it
fighting, instead of manufacturing while ; by a reversion to pre-Cobdenite methods.
the people of these islands were, compara- It is curious to observe that Germany's'
tively speaking, able to devote a much commercial advance in the last forty years
supremely difficult for any other nation cuckoo-land into practical politics by the
to enter into competition. The develop- action of a single individual- -that but for
ment of the Free Trade programme by Mr. Chamberlain the merits of Protection
Sir Robert Peel and by Mr. Gladstone was would probably receive to-day as little
attended by so marked an expansion of public recognition as they did in that
5419
THE ROYAL IRISH VOLUNTEERS AT CAMP Gale and Poliicn
lenging the mistress of the seas single- probable that the recent reorganisa-
harided on her own element, though there tion — with modifications which experi-
is one which is popularly credited with ence of its working will suggest
having inherited Napoleon's pre-Trafalgar will produce the maximum of efficiency
programme. attainable under the purely voluntary
Have the conditions, then, so changed system.
that what Napoleon found to be imprac- As regards the security of Great Britain,
ticable —
a century ago what had been then, the historic position appears to be
almost unthinkable since the destruction of unchanged. But the United Kingdom is
the Spanish Armada— is practicable to- responsible for the defence of the empire,
day ? Fortresses reputed impregnable and here we must note that the conditions
have been captured through an unsus- to-day are not quite what they have been
pected entry before Wolfe scaled the
; in the past. The frontiers are not, as they
Heights of Abraham, Quebec seemed were, exclusively oceanic. In the eigh-
secure against any possible attack. The teenth century, the possession of America
chances that an attempt to invade Great and India depended entirely upon sea-
Britain would result only in the annihila- power when English supremacy on the
;
tion of the invader appear to be no less sea was decisively established, her rivals'
overwhelming than in the past but the ; successes in either continent could only be
condition of security is vigilance, as temporary.
the condition of successful attack is But now the advance of Russia in
secrecy. Central Asia has made possible a conflict
It can only be said that there is no which would have to be fought out on
present sign either that vigilance is lacking land ;and although the idea of a war
or that the secret concentration of an with the United States is scarcely less
invading force The historic
is possible. unnatural than that of a civil
Britain's ^g^j.^ ^j^g possibility, howevet
position is Now, as always, it
unaltered.
Place among 1 ,ii_ • j.-
is the fleet which makes invasion impos- remote, mvolves the question
the Powers
sible. Now, as always, a Continental of the defence of the Canadian
army operating in the country would not frontier. The conditions of British rule
5422
THE UNITED KINGDOM IN OUR OWN TIME
in India demand the presence, under all Kingdom was cleared, in the eyes of its
circumstances, of a large white garrison neighbours, of the charge of fluctuating
within the peninsula. At the present time, between peace-at-any-price and blatant
indeed, nothing is less likely than a war jingoism. The Japanese War deprived
with Russia, except a war with the United Russian aggression of its immediate terrors,
States ; but either contingency would and the political reformation of Turkey
seem to call for military operations, as which astonished the world in igo8 mini-
distinct from naval, on a much larger mised the danger of an Anglo-Rusgian
scale than Britain has ever been involved quarrel over the Eastern Question. Hence
in previous to the great European War. English relations with the great Slav
As concerns Europe itself, as with the Power became most cordial. With France
defence of England herself, the historic England has reached a happy stage in
position holds. Any conceivable com- which the respective spheres of interest
bination Powers would hesitate to
of of thetwo nations have become so
challenge her by sea combined fleets ; definitely dehmited that no rational
have always proved even more difficult cause of quarrel arising is imagin-
to handle successfully than combined able, and a friendliness of feeling has
armies. But no Power would be greatly been developed which is . the best
perturbed by the prospect of a British possible safeguard against a sentimental
invasion. explosion.
The British alliance to-day, as in the Within its own United
borders, the
past, would be coveted where British Kingdom presents complex
a singular
subsidies would be desirable the aid of ; of nationalities. The Englishman,
British fleets would be useful, or the the Irishman, the Scot, and the Welsh-
hostility of British fleets would be feared ;
man, are each of them emphatic in
not for the sake of the battalions that asserting their distinct nationahty, though
could take the field. It is to be re- the Englishman is somewhat apt to over-
marked, however, that the mere fact of look the claim on the part of the other
British naval ascendancy is, and always has three when they are acting in conjun-
been, a source of irritation it is probable ;
tion with him,and credits their vices
that all Europe would regard any perma- to themselves, and their virtues to their
nent enlargement of her military organi- Enghsh connection. Except in the case of
sation as indicating not a defensive, but Wales, the distinction is historical rather
an aggressive intent, precisely as she than racial, for is not more
the Irish Kelt
was disposed to interpret the expansion emphatically Irish than are the descen-
of the German Navy. Britain is so dants of Norman, English, or
Britain's
free from aggressive desires that she
Complex
Scottish Settlers ; and the Scot
can hardly believe such charges to be Nationalities of the as much a
Lowlands is
was maintained without regard to party historic relations with the three remains
for a quarter of a century, the United apparent at the present day. Scotland,
5423
;
Q^t the assent of the majority by the Irish democracy, not by the English.
of her representatives in the Commons. The abstract justice of this claim appeals
Wales, treated to some extent as a the more readily to the foreign spectator,
subject province from the conquest by because under the existing conditions it
Edward I. till the accession to the English appears that, unlike the position of Scot-
throne of a Welshman in the person of land and Wales, the wishes of the Irish
Henry Tudor, in 1485, has formed an —
democracy that is, of the majority of
integral part of England since her admis- their parliamentary representatives — are
sion to full parliamentary representation apt to influence the judgment of the
in the reign of Henry VHI., but of recent majority at Westminster in inverse pro-
years has been claiming distinctive treat- —
portion to their intensity unless the Irish
ment on the ground that her people are happen to hold the balance between the
distinct from the English in race, customs, two great parliamentary parties. The
predilections, and to some extent language, process, however, of extending large
the Welsh tongue being still in popular use. powers of self-government to local bodies
The Irish position differs from that of the has recently been applied, in the hope that
Scots or Welsh. Nominally subject to the _ - . it may remove the urgency of
English Crown since the reign of Henry U., * demands for a separate legisla-
D "d f
It may be affirmed with
"^
Ireland was treated for centuries as a „ p 1
ture.
subject province in which English law was satisfaction that the virulence of
more or less enforced spasmodically, and popular Irish hostility to the Government
English government could hardly be has greatly abated, though the same can
described as definitely established till the probably not be said of the persistence of
beginning of the seventeenth century. the demand for Home Rule just as the per-
;
Before that time, and still more afterwards, sonal hostility between English and Irish
large appropriations of the soil to Protestant Members of Parliament has disappeared.
English and Scottish settlers, coupled with In any case, it seems certain that the
the political disabilities attaching to Roman increasing congestion of work in the
—
Catholicism the creed of four- fifths of the Imperial Parliament will make it more and
—
population kept the bulk of the people in more necessary for parts of that work to
constant hostility to the Government be delegated to local bodies, and it is not
which was intensified by the tyrannical use improbable that a solution of this difficulty
of their power by the Protestant oligarchy will ultimately be found in the recognition
through the greater part of the eighteenth of Nationalist — —
not Separatist aspirations
century. The Act of Union in 1800 by the establishment of Nationalist legisla-
theoretically placed Ireland on an equal tures with limited powers, insubordination
footing with England and Scot- to the Imperial Parliament. The practical
Ireland's
land in the United Kingdom, difficulties of evolving such a scheme are,
Place in
but the maintenance of the however, so great that there is no present
the Union
Catholic disabilities for another prospect of such a change being introduced.
quarter of a century intensified the hostility The political party in the Imperial
between the Catholic peasantry and the Parliament, which, under the leadership
Protestant landlord class. Hence English of Mr. Gladstone, committed itself to
and Irish agree in recognising the necessity approval of the abstract principle of
of distinctive treatment for Ireland, but Home Rule for Ireland, was retarded from
from fundamentally different points of view. taking active steps towards its realisation
For the securing of justice as between by the consciousness that such plans as
landlord and tenant the economic conditions had hitherto been formulated might create
54«4
TYPES OF BRITISH BATTLESHIPS
In this and the following pages we give a series of drawings illustrating
the leading types of vessels which constitute the strength of the British
Navy, including those of the much discussed " Dreadnought " class.
5425
5426
>-
>
<
X
o
Z
<
d
z
D
O
OS
O
UJ
Q£
O
u.
^ CO
i CO
'
UJ
I
^
5
> U
^
I
CO
5427
IMPROVED TYPE OF SUBMARINE, SHOWING FULL HEIGHT OUT OF THE WATER
5428
—
THE UNITED KINGDOM IN OUR OWN TIME
fresh causes of friction no less serious than even the king in Parliament can alter the
those they were designed to remove ;
course of the succession. The constitutional
while the demand for "Home Rule all struggles have been fought round the
round " had not hitherto been expressed question how far the Crown can act in-
by any portion of the electorate. The dependently of Parliament, by prerogative,
conception of the empire as a congeries of and sometimes how far Parliament can act
self-governing states, associated into feder- independently of the Crown.
ated groups according to their geographical —
The king in Parliament the Crown and
^i
The .T .. position, having as their apex
United. ^ r r j x iu
—
the two Houses of Parliament are the ulti-
j,. .
i
.or formal bond union the
of mate authority. For the sake of brevity we
^^^^n and the Imperial Parlia- shall use the term " Parliament " for this
the^Future*
ment, in which all shall be complete body, speaking of the Crown and
—
represented this conception has not yet the Houses when its component parts are
passed from the theorists to the practical referred to distinctively. The Houses would
politicians. If ever it does so, it may be be fully described as the House of Peers
assumed that the United Kingdom will be and the House of the Representatives of
transformed into one of the federated the Commons, the latter being alterna-
groups, like the Dominion of Canada or the tively spoken of as "the Representative
Commonwealth of Australia. House," or " the Commons." While
At the present day, however, the United Parliament is the ultimate authority, it
Kingdom has one Parliament only and ; discharges directly only a part of the
the Parliament of the United Kingdom sovereign functions. Moreovei, Parliament
is also the Imperial Parliament—that is to itself is subjected to a certain degree ot
say, that in conjunction with the Crown external control, partly because the mem-
—
not independently of it it is legally recog- bers of the Representative Chamber are
nised as the ultimate sovereign authority, dependent on the electorate for the con-
not only in the United Kingdom, but tinuity of their membership, partly from
throughout the empire. Whatsoever is done _ ^ . the influence of a pubHc
or ordained by the authority of the king »""""" opinion which may be ex-
/l
of the House ,
, i.u -i j.
in Parliament is lawfully done, and is legally , _
j.
ternal even to the electorate.
i.
the empire has received its present con- demand for the franchise by a solid body of
stitution, and might lawfully be deprived persons excluded from the electorate is toler-
of it, just as by the same authority ably certain to be met if its existence is really
murder might be legalised and playing indubitable. Of the three powers v^fhich,
bridge be elevated into a capital offence. united, makeup Parliament, the Commons' '
was the Saxon Witan, the not cdtogether correspond with the facts.
Magnum Concilium of the Normans and In theory, again, the British Constitu-
early Plantagenets, or the Parliament in tion has these two leading characteristics :
5429
LORD CHARLES BERESFORD SIR WILLIAM MAY
LEADING ADMIRALS OF THE BRITISH NAVY Ifi OUR OWN TIME
Photos: RuHcU. Dinham, Gale and Polden, and Russell, Soathsea
5430
— ;
run to dominate the Crown and the has a majority in the Commons, it has to
aristocracy, and the legislature to dominate reckon on the consistent antagonism of
the Executive and the Judiciary, The the great majority of peers to its projects.
people, it must be observed, means in At the same time, the House of Com-
any case only that portion, large or mons has lost its preponderance in Parlia-
small, of the whole community which ment. That preponderance was won
composes the electorate. from the Crown in virtue of the power of
The relative political weight of the Crown, the people it was assured as
;
e ower
the aristocracy, and the people, has varied peers so long as it
j^^g^jj^g^ ^j^g
of the House ° n-• ui 2.
very greatly with a general tendency to ^^^ practically possible to
f L
;
d
reduce first the preponderance of the Crown, bring pressure on the Crown for
which the Normans established, then the the creation of a sufficient number of peers
preponderance of the aristocracy, and then to convert a party minority into a party
to acquire a preponderance for the Com- majority. The mere threat to do so was
mons. It maybe said that for two hundred effective when the peers were a sufficiently
years the Crown has exercised not control, patrician body to feel that their social,
but only influence, greater or less according even more than their political, character
to the monarch's personality. The actual would be lost by the creation of forty
control vanished when a German king new peers. The creation of forty peers
of Great Britain found that his position would hardly affect the character of the
depended on the good will of a party over —
House to-day neither would it affect the
whose discussions his linguistic deficiencies party majority. To swamp the majority
made it impossible for him to preside. The would involve swamping the House, and
preponderance remained with the aris- would make the constitution of the Second
tocracy, because a large proportion of seats Chamber an absurdity. Hence, that
in the representative chamber was virtually method of compulsion could only be
in the gift of peers, although applied by a party determined either to
Relations of
^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ Commons abolish the second chamber or to construct
''^^"^'^ "'"'"^ "^^^^^^ *^^" it de novo on a basis already specified and
o fVrrn"menr
ar lamea
^^^ House of Lords. This accepted. On the other hand, the still older
ascendancy of the aristocracy disappeared method by which the House of Commons
with the Reform Act of 1832, which created —
enforced its will ^the refusal of supplies
a new antagonism between the Houses was efficacious only when the Commons
which has continually been intensified with were in opposition to the administration.
the democratising of the Commons. The effect is that the House of Lords can
The character, h9wever, of both Houses refuse to pass any measures distasteful to
has been so materially modified since that it, however emphatically endorsed by the
date that our conceptions of the character Commons, until it feels that its refusal will
of Parliament —
^largely derived from Burke ensure the decisive support of the electorate
— ^require readjustment. Exponents of to a specific measure for its abolition or
the constitution, so recent even as Walter reconstruction. Whereas it can always
Bagehot, wrote before the democratic count on the existence of a very strong
forces called into play by the second predisposition, in the electorate, in favour
Reform Act had had time to show how of a Second Chamber of some sort, a con-
they would operate. Until then the weight servative preference for the maintenance
of the electorate had still been controlled therein at least of an aristrocratic or
by the propertied classes, and though the hereditary element, and a dis-
peers had lost their pocket boroughs, a 5° *" tracting° division of opinion
of the House . .
- reconstructors as to a
p
accord with the advanced party in the practicable basis of reconstruc-
House of Commons. But that Reform Act, tion. Human ingenuity would never have
that " leap in the dark," has made that deliberately devised such a second chamber
advanced party much more advanced than as the House of Peers but it has the
;
T e eers a
they can set the legislative peachments, or by refusing supplies —
desires of the Commons at double-edged weapon at the best of times.
Check on Hasty
^^f^ ^^ j ^3 ^j^g ^O The problem was to secure harmony
Legislation ^ -i i_ iu 1
not thereby rouse the elec- between Parliament and the administra-
torate to an overwhelming determination tion ; which, in effect, meant the majority
to be rid of them at any price. They fulfil of the House of Commons and the admin-
the theoretical function of a Second istration. The solution was found in the
Chamber as a check on hasty legislation, selection of Ministers exclusively from the
but only when the legislation is democratic, party which had a majority in the
not when it is reactionary. Whether, and Commons and the actual selection was
;
when, the democracy will discover a satis- very soon transferred, on the accession
factory solution of the problem thus pre- of the Hanoverians, from, the Crown to
sented is becoming a somewhat acute the chief of the dominant party. The
question but it can only be said that no
; Crown, indeed, continued to exercise, on
solution hitherto propounded has com- occasion, the technical right of declining
manded anything more than the doubtful the services of cHstasteful Ministers and
acquiescence of any large body of reformers. of placing the selection in the hands of
In the legislative capacity of Parliament someone who was not the recognised
which we have had under consideration, leader of the majority but in practice that
;
the third element, the Crown, has ceased technical right was gradually
o ectiye
to have more than a formal importance. eUminated. The principle had
esponsi^i 1 y
The technical right of veto remains in the ^jj-g^^^^y j^gg^^ established that
of the Cabinet .,. •
.-'
,, ,
background, but no one imagines that it Mimsters themselves were
will ever be exercised, unless conceivably personally responsible for their acts,
in the case of some flagrant violation of and could not take shelter behind orders
constitutional practice by the Houses ^in — from the Crown and the further prin-
;
itself a sufficiently improbable event. ciple was gradually established that the
We come now to the relations between whole group of Ministers are responsible
Parliament, the Judiciary, and the Execu- for the acts of each individual Minister, a
tive. The Judiciary need not detain us system expressed by the phrase "collective
long. The judges became independent two responsibility of the Cabinet."
hundred years ago. A general guarantee of It became the practice that Ministers
fitness is provided by the fact that they are should be selected from members of one or
removable on an address to the Crown by other of the Houses of ParUament, in which
both Houses, but their independence is connection it is curious to note that there
secured by the corresponding fact that it was for a long time a dislike to their ap-
is only on such an address that they are pointment from among the Commons, on
removable. Their appointment rests the ground that, as the king's servants,
nominally with the Crown, actually with they would exercise a dangerous monarch-
„ , the Crown's legal advisers, and ical influence in the House. It required
How Jtiuff£s.
such a demand formulated by the House of which all minor groups will attach them-
Lords would either be ignored or met by selves with some consistency. It is pos-
an appeal to the Commons for a vote of sible under the system for a Ministry to
confidence. It has not hitherto been carry a series of measures, no one of which
admitted that a Ministry supported by has the actual approval of an actual
the representative Chamber can be dis- majority of members. If one of those
missed by the peers but it could not
; measures is defeated, the Ministry will
venture to defy an adverse vote in the resign, and the Opposition will assume
Commons, since, inter alia, Ministers are the government. A group of members
human enough not to be anxious to retain who dislike one measure but are bent on
office they are deprived of salaries. On
if a second, will give their support to the
the other hand, the Crown, though having first rather than have the second shelved
the .technical authority to dismiss a by the resignation of the Cabinet. Another
Minister or a whole Ministry, would not group will reverse the process and the ;
Resigns
the electorate. In practice. ment had given their votes exclusively on
therefore, it is to the Commons the merits of the particular measure.
that Ministers are responsible, and the What is true of the House of Commons
Commons have the power of dismissal. Up is still more true of the electorate. The
to a certain point it is the Commons, also, electorate chooses its party, not its specific
that have the power of appointment. An measures. Trie prospect of Tariff Reform
adverse yote in the Commons on a funda- or of Local Option, of Land Reform or of
mental question will compel Ministers an Education Bill, may decide which party
either to resign or to advise a dissolution. shall predominate in Parliament but the ;
In the former case the retiring chief electorate does not endorse beforehand all
recommends the Crown to " send for " the measures which that party may see fit
the official leader of the Opposition, to adopt before another General Election.
who holds that position by the choice of Different projects may be the decisive
his party, which now is presumably factors in the choice of different constitu-
on the hypothesis that the House is com- encies which unite to bring the same party
—
posed of two parties in a majority, or can into power and it is possible that neither
;
command at least the provisional support project has the direct approval of a majority
of a majority. In the second case, the of constituencies, or of a majority of mem-
Ministry remains in office till it meets
•
_. , . bers, and may yet both be part of
ecisive
with an adverse vote in the new Parlia- ^j^g avowed programme of the
ac ors a
ment, when it will resign, and a new Ministers whom the victorious
Elections n j. •
and this will be further emphasised by two the machinery has never been brought to
considerations. The first of these is the a standstill, nor have the works been kept
structure of the Cabinet, which conducts going by destroying the old machinery to
administration. The logician replace it with a brand-new article. It
Paradoxes
would set an expert at the head Has always been found possible to adapt
in the State
^ . . of each Department of state
Departments ,, ^ the old machinery to the new work it had
, j
the system provides m
• i
each a to do and we may confidently expect
;
board of expert advisers, but sets at the that the process of adaptation will con-
head someone who, as often as not, is tinue, the machinery will still work with
entirely without experience in the work out revolutionary reconstruction, and the
of that department. There may be a population of these islands will not cease
bookseller at the Admiralty, a meta- yet awhile to hold a foremost place among
physician at the War Office, a war- the free nations of the world, of which
correspondent at the Board of Trade, a nations not a few will be the brothers of
country gentleman in charge of Finance, the British Empire. A. D. Innes
5436
The Prime Minister, Mr. H. H. Asquith, introducing tlu- Home Rule Bill in the Session of 1914,
5438
LATER EVENTS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
the Irish question. For in 1912 that spend a portion of their funds
ditions, to
section of the Ulster population which is on —
purposes an expenditure
political
aggressively Protestant and violently hos- deemed illegal by certain judges a few
tile to the Roman Catholicism of the years earlier.
majority of the rest of Ireland began a The question of Parliamentary votes
vigorous campaign against Home Rule. for women, which had been discussed from
Led by Sir Edward Carson, M.P., a dis- time to time with academic interest since
tinguished lawyer, the Ulster Unionists John Stuart Mill's advocacy in 1870,
signed a covenant, of September 28, 1912, suddenly became acute shortly
that they would not recognise an Irish ** ** after the return of the Liberals
.
\
5440
—
probably entered England when Great latter may have gradually accustomed
Britain, and even Ireland, were eccentric- themselves to the cold and have survived
ally shaped peninsulas attached to more genial conditions.
The First
by isthmuses one to the other Or the Palaeolithic people, with their
Inhabitants
and to the north of France projecting brows, retreating foreheads,
of Britain
and Belgium. A calvarium long arms and shambling legs, were per-
—
upper part of the skull has been exhumed haps exterminated not by climatic changes,
in Sligo, North-west Ireland, and is now but by the inrush of the fiist definitely
in the British Museum of Natural History, " white " people of the Caucasian stock.
which offers some resemblance to the These, it is surmised, were more or
Neanderthaloid crania found in Belgium, less akin to the Iberian people of Medi-
the Rhine Valley, and the Carpathians. terranean Europe, Western (and far
5441
—
—
people had left its traces) to the popula-
Britain from the north-east tion of Eastern England, Eastern and
across the ice sheet, and have penetrated to Northern Scotland, the Isle of Man, and
Ireland. The Iberians of prehistoric days all the coast regions of Ireland.
probably spoke a language allied to modern The Norman Conquest brought in its
Basque or to the Berber tongues of North train and as its results several thousands
Africa. Some three or four thousand years of Frenchmen —
tinged with Norse blood.
ago the islands were conquered and over- The French kings of England, the
run from the East by the first Aryans Plantagenets, planted many colonies of
long-headed Northern Europeans, with red Flemings from Belgium, or Germans
or blond hair and blue eyes; early Kelts, from the lower Rhine also occasional
;
in fact, who grafted their Aryan speech settlers from South-west France. A few
on to the Iberian stock, and so brought into Spaniards came and remained with Philip
existence the Keltic languages of the two II. of Spain, or were stranded on these
very distinct modern branches Scoto-Irish — shores as prisoners during the wars of the
(Goidhehc), and Welsh (Brythonic). sixteenth century. Gipsies had crossed
This amalgam of people the earlier — over to England at the close of the fifteenth
tribes of which resembled very much, no century and had rapidly pene-
ri am s
. ,
been reached by Phoenician trading ships, reached maturity, was ready to send
who later brought back some news of its superfluous and, above all, its ad-
Britain and even Ireland to the Greek geo- venturous sons to seek new homes and
graphers of Alexander's day and kingdom. found new nations. It is true that in
Then came
the extension of the the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
Roman Empire, the invasion of England there came a few thousand French
—
by Caesar because the Brythonic Kelts refugees from religious persecution in- —
made common cause with their Gallo- valuable as individuals and that in
—
;
_, , Belgian kinsmen and the the nineteenth century there has been
t>eginning of the historical an immigration of Germans, of Jews
Invasion of
. . period in Britain. Still, the from Eastern and Northern Europe, and
J, '^^ ***
islands continued to receive, of Italians. —
These aliens ^most of them
and not to export, humanity. In the desirable, a few undesirable though not —
centuries that followed the Roman Con- reaching to the sum
total of a million,
quest a few Irish missionaries, or British still have made and will make their mark
refugees, found their way into Northern on the future type of the British popula-
France, where the Bretons constituted tion, especially in the towns. But for
the first of British colonies. But the the purposes of our survey it may be
islands of Great Britain, Ireland and Man stated that the colonisation of Great
still attracted colonists from the outer Britain and Ireland ceased at the end of
5442
— —
ea anng
British Islands has been necessary in ^^^ ^j^^^ linked on with
Pioneers t,^ ... ,.
order that we may arrive at some appre- Norse maritime discovery so ;
ciation of the type of humanity, which that from Ireland came one of the first
has conquered and colonised the British mysterious hints of a New World beyond
Empire. It is a breed retaining strains the Atlantic. It is doubtful whether
of the Iberian, even of the earliest of the the seafaring monks or fishermen of
prehistoric peoples of Northern Europe, Western Ireland ever reached the North
but is nevertheless an amalgam in which American continent, even by following
the blond Aryan type predominates; the the Norse route to the Faroes, Iceland,
type which is chiefly associated at the Greenland and Newfoundland but it ;
present day with the speaking of Low does seem possible that the Irish may
German dialects. To this group English have sailed south-westwards past the
belongs. The people who founded the coasts of Portugal to the Azores or Madeira,
British Empire in the days of the Tudors or even as far to the north-west as the
and Stuarts were mainly Teutonic and once larger island of Rockall. Their
Scandinavian in descent, though tinged more than half legendary adventures
with the Iberian in the seamen of Devon deserve mention, since they became the
and Cornwall. The British germ that inspired the English and
Founders
colonisers and adventurers Welsh raiders of the Plantagenet centuries
of the British
Empire
of the fifteenth, sixteenth, with the idea of oversea discovery.
seventeenth, and eighteenth The Danish and Norwegian invaders
centuries were almost entirely drawn from of England were colonisers of the most
Southern Scotland, England and Wales. successful type. They were looking for
Ireland during these centuries was itself a homes beyond the inclement lands of
" champ d'exploitation " on the part of the —
Scandinavia inclement under ancient
ruthless ancestors of the larger island, —
conditions and they brought to the
though occasionally in the seventeenth Anglo-Saxon civilisation of Alfred much
century some hundreds of rebellious Irish knowledge of Northern geography.
were deported to the West Indies. Through these, and through the civilised
It was not until the nineteenth century Franks of France, Alfred, the Saxon king
that the union of Ireland with England of Southern England, was linked up
however unjustly it was brought about (Rome helping) with the Byzantine Em-
threw open to the sons of Ireland all the pire and there is an actual tradition of
;
advantages of the British Empire. Since Alfred having despatched, in 883, Sighelm
then, during the nineteenth and the of Sherborne as a pilgrim, via Rome, to
first few years of the twentieth centuries, the shrine of St. Thomas, in " India."
the Irish, proportionately, have done Though Sighelm may have got no further
more in colonising the daughter states of than the Nestorian churches
ng an s
the empire and in administering India ^^ Mesopotamia, still even a
Commerce j- :i^
and the Crown colonies than the people journey xto tIndia was quite
wi•th V enic •
To the court of Henry VII. came an E "^ r * h T ^ d ^^ Africa. The earlier dealt
adventurous but disappointed Venetian with Morocco; the second
mariner, John Cabot, whose famous with the region between the Senegal and
son, Sebastian, was probably born at the Gambia. A third charter, or patent,
Bristol. In the minds of this and other issued in 1592, covered the Guinea coast
Venetian navigators may have lingered the between the River Nunez and, approxi-
semi- legendary voyages of Nicola and mately, the Sherbro district.
Antonio Zeno in the fourteenth century The transportation of negro slaves
perhaps founded on Norse traditions from West Africa to the West Indies
which led them to habitable lands on the —
and Spanish America first undertaken
other side of the North Atlantic to the by Captain (afterwards Sir John)
Vineland (Rhode Island), where grew wild —
Hawkins in 1562 initiated the British
grapes in profusion. Henry Tudor com- into the wonders, the wealth, and the
mitted himself as grudgingly to maritime attractiveness of these lands of the Gulf
discovery as did the father-in-law of his son, of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.
Ferdinand of Aragon. John and Sebastian Though they never lost their grip on, or
Cabot, however, led British crews to the their interest in, the West African coast,
discovery of Newfoundland and other the national enterprise of England during
_ points of North America, with the last third of the sixteenth century and
*' *'.
„oyages o
no very immediate results. But the hundred years that followed was mainly
^^^^^ ^^le Englishmen of Devon directed to the New World. Whilst Eliza-
iscovery
^^^ Cornwall, of London, beth was on the throne they snatched at
Bristol, Pembroke, Cardiff, Swansea, many an isolated city, here and there at a
Poole, Southampton, Tilbury, Lowestoft, promontory or an islet. But though they
and Yarmouth built better and bigger possessed inconceivable daring and cour-
ships in imitation of, or under the teach- age, they had not the means or the national
—
ing of, the Norman French who, in all force with which to hold on to their con-
probability, had sailed to West Africa as quests. Elizabeth, before the unsuccessful
early as the middle of the fourteenth cen- attack of the Armada, feared to take any
—
tury the Dutch, Venetians, Genoese, and direct government action for the founding
5444
THE ACQUISITION OF NEWFOUNDLAND BY SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT, IN 1583
In 1578, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a soldier and navigator, received from Queen Elizabeth a charter for discovery, to plant
a colony, and be governor ; but, owing to the difKculties which beset him. it was not till 1583 that he achieved his
Eurpose, taking possession, in the queen's name, of the harbour of St. John's, and two hundred leagues every way for
imselC, his heirs and assigns for ever. The illustration shows Sir Humphrey among the rough fishermen and sailors.
From the drawing by R. Caton Weodville
5443
" ;
The defection of Knollys crippled the ex- ous that they could only be continued on
pedition, which, though it reached the coast a grand scale and at great profit by taking
of Virginia, left behind a poorly equipped the all-sea route of the Portuguese round
little colony to be starved out or killed by the West Coast of Africa, the
Indians in the course of twelve months. Sir
th^E. *^*I
C^P^ of Good Hope, and
d*
Humphrey Gilbert made a fresh attempt in Q Madagascar. The Dutch
1583, on the return from which he was mariners led the way in 1596,
drowned at sea, his vessel foundering during and from 1601 onwards the great sea route
a gale. In the interval between the two was followed in preference to that of the
expeditions Raleigh, with his characteristic Mediterranean and Red Sea. The Dutch,
optimism, concluded that his brother would after three years' undisturbed mono-
found a great state which, in anticipation, poly of, the Indian trade, 1596-9, had
he named Virginia, a name which was raised the price of pepper against us
to be revived and permanently affixed from three shillings to six, or even eight,
to the map twenty-four years later. shillings a pound. This was the immediate
.
As a matter of fact. Sir Humphrey cause of the foundation of the first (and
Gilbert was an unsuccessful Columbus. chartered) East India Company.
Like Columbus, he had great ideas, Although the Stuarts have been much
but he was no coloniser or administrator. and justly censured by historians for the
Gilbert was really bent on discovering defects of their home policy and the deceit
a trans-American route to India. India, which characterised their foreign dealings,
as I shall show later, was behind most they cannot be accused of indifference
men's ventures at this period as the to the creation of an empire abroad
_ ultimate goal in all oversea indeed, in this respect they showed them-
_"* adventure. The idea of a selves mucli more im})erial than the
- .chartered company to deal vaunted Elizabeth, cautious and mean as
with the trade of India arose she was in her dealings and ventures. It
at the end of the sixteenth century, born was really under James I., the be header
of Elizabeth's notion of monopolies. Com- of Raleigh, that the transmarine empire
panies had been formed to trade with the of the British Crown was actually founded.
Levant and Turkey that Turkey which
; The first and oldest colony, so far as con-
had opened up friendly relations with the tinuous possession goes, is the West Indian
Virgin Queen, to the great, and perhaps island of Barbados, taken by an expedi-
legitimate, disgust of the Catholics of tion in the ship Olive Blossom, in 1605,
Southern and Western Europe, who felt, though not really occupied till 1625.
5446
THE BRITISH IN BERMUDAS: SIR GEORGE SOMERS WRECKED ON THE ISLANDS IN 1609
One South Virginian Company, Sir George Somers sailed in 1609, with a body of
of the chief promoters of the
settlers, and was wrecked on the then little known islands m South America called after Juan Bermudez._ In the
name of King James I., he took possession of the islands, which he at once colonised, and died there in 1610.
From the drawinsr hy R. Caton Wood%'il!c
346 5447
—
the regions
turers between i.
Asiatic enterprise of the British people under
34° and 38° N. Lat. to the Plymouth ; thesame monarch was simply marvellous.
Company of Devonshire, the area bounded In 1603 a factory had been founded at
north and south by the 45° and 41° of Bantam in Java, near the exit from the
N. Lat. while the intervening space was
;
Sunda Straits. By the following j^ear, the
to be open to the operations of either British had got possession of the Banda
company. It was this hesitancy about the and Amboina Islands on the very verge
fate of the North American coast between of New Guinea, a foothold from which they
38° and 41° which made it easier for the were dislodged by the Dutch in 1623
Duiigh to come in a little later 1609-1621 — by that " Amboina massacre " which so
— and create a colony on the site of New long rankled in the minds of the Enghsh,
York. A portion of Newfoundland was and was only atoned for under the reign
first settled in 1623 in that year, also, was
; of Cromwell. In 1606, James granted a
first occupied the httle Leeward island of licence to a company of merchants to
St. Christopher, which was to be the point of trade with Cathay, China, Japan, Korea,
departure and the rallying place of so much
British colonising enterprise in the West
—
and Cambaya probably the first time
that Japan and Korea were ever
p
Indies during the seventeenth century. „°, "f "?*f mentioned in any British official
In 1610, Henry Hudson, a navigator document. Ihis China com-
the British
who, two years previously in the Dutch pany came to grief very rapidly
service, had sought vainly for a direct through its leading commander. Sir Edward
sea-passage to China round Siberia or Michelborne, turning pirate in the Chinese
across North America, was despatched seas. In 1612 the East India Company
by a strong joint-stock company, in which founded by Elizabeth had established a
Prince Henry of Wales interested himself, post and fort at Surat, near the coast of
to search for the China passage and inci- Western India.
dentally to annex territories of value. The Portuguese objected violently to
Hudson penetrated through the Hudson this infringement of their monopoly
Straits —
really discovered twenty years they had already fought with a British
earlierby John Davis into Hudson's Bay. — fleet in 161 1 and been worsted —
and at-
A
mutiny on board his ship on his return tacked the British trading fleet off Swally,
caused him to be cast adrift by his crew at the mouth of the Tapti River in 1615.
in the Hudson Straits, and he was never The result of a terrific naval battle was
more heard of. But his work of explora- an absolute victory for the British, whose
tion was continued by William Baffin and right to navigate the Eastern seas was never
other EngUsh seamen-adventurers in the afterwards seriously contested by the
_^ „ , of, three succeeding years. The Portuguese. This victory, coupled with
The Fate j u- m.
_ Q ,,
marvellous energy and ubiquity the diplomatic mission despatched by
-^.
Discoverers
of Ehzabethan and Jacobean James I. under Sir Thomas Roe, 1615-
i-^ j ,, •
seamen are exemplified in the 1618, to the court of the Mogul em-
fate of John Davis the great Arctic — peror, Jehangir, obtained for the British
explorer and discoverer of the Falkland company a special and an officially
—
Islands and William Baffin, the discoverer recognised position in the dominions of the
of Baffin's Bay and Western Greenland. principal ruler of the Indian peninsula.
Davis was one of the officers serving under In 1609 the right to trade at Aden had
the piratical Sir Edward Michelborne in been obtained from the Arab sultan of that
the Malay Archipelago (China Chartered place, and thenceforth British ships entered
Company), and was himself killed by Malay the Red Sea, and in 1618 established a
5448
ADRIFT IN li . Ml uSON STRAITS: THE FATE OF A FAMOUS NAVIGATOR
"^"y nudson, a famous English navigator, who had in vain sought for a direct sea-passage
to China round Siberia or across North America, was despatched, in 1610, by a joint-stock
company to search for the China passage his crew rising against him in mutiny, he was cast adrift
;
with his son in a small boat in the Hudson Straits, named after him, and never heard of again.
T
—
less grasping in their ambitions, and, at Calcutta, in 1642 and an attempt, after-
;
any rate, as a rod with which to chastise wards abandoned, was made in 1647 to
the overbearing Lusitanian. British and establish a rival East India Company's
Persian forces combined, and Ormuz was depot on the coast of Madagascar.
taken from the Portuguese. The British Jamaica had been eyed for half a century
received as a reward the right to levy by British adventurers as a prize which
customs and to trade at the port of might be one day snatched from Spain.
Gombrun, near Bandar Abbas, in 1622. They had become familiar with some of its
In 161 1, the East India Company conditions by carrying thither negro slaves
founded a post at Masulipatam, near the for sale they realised that the Spaniards
;
mouth of the Kistna on the east coast of had practically exterminated the native
India, and shortly afterwards a similar inhabitants, that not having found
post at Vizagapatam. Agencies, com- minerals they had lost interest in the
mercial and political, were founded at island, and further that many of their
Agra and Patna in 1620. Relations with negro slaves had rebelled and taken to the
—
Siam there was an English post at the -,.
Charles . „
mountains. Accordingly, two
II.
tu ,,j >> j •
be in some aspects, was., the lina (North and South), Virginia, Mary-
founder of the British land, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, New
Founder' of'the '^^^
Empire. Under his unhappy Jersey, Delaware, New York, Connec-
British Empire
successor, despite home ticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New
—
troubles i^artly because of them empire — Hampshire. In 1670, however, Charles II.
building still went on. The State of Massa- laid the foundations of a much vaster
chusetts, in North America, was founded expanse of empire by granting a charter
in 1620, and Maryland in 1632. The to Prince Rupert and seventeen others,
charter of the London company had incorjiorating them as the " governor and
been surrendered to the Crown in 1624, com])any of adventurers of England
that of the Plymouth company in 1635. trading into I^iidson's Bay." This was
These surrenders made it easier for tj*e« the outcome of the voyages of Davis,
5450
ORIGIN
To Francis Ddy, an officer of the East India Company, belongs the honour of founding Madras. In 16;?8he was sent to
India by that company to select a better site for their headquarters, and from the Raiah of Chandragiri he purchased a
tract of land five miles long near the settlement of St. Thome, and thereon he built a factory and a fort, which he
called Fort St. George, by which name Madras, which sprang from this small beginning, is still officially named.
From the drawing by R C^ton Woodville
5451
;
of Gibraltar —
was made to snatch the Cape forces were withdrawn, just as the cat
of Good Hope from the Dutch. The islands allows the crippled mouse a
of Ascension and St. Helena —
Ascension was
Estlui'shed
s a I e in
^^^^^^ ^f illusory freedom,
not definitely occupied till 1815 St. Helena
; s -^^1806 they made another
South Africa j ^ u . j
has been permanently in British possession descent on these regions, and
since 1673 —
discovered by the Portuguese, came there to stay. The eighteenth cen-
and held intermittently by the Dutch, had tury, however, not only saw at its close the
been intermittently occupied by the establishment of the British at the south
British Navy or the East India Company. —
end of Africa an establishment which
To the latter, in fact, St. Helena was of the inspired the great Portuguese traveller-
highest importance as the resting place of administrator of Mozambique, Dr. Lacerda,
its during the eighteenth century,
fieets in 1796, with the remarkable prophecy of
and longing eyes were cast on the French the ultimate Cape-to-Cairo ambitions of
islands of xMauritius and Reunion, which —
the British people but in its early years
to some extent lay midway between the witnessed the effectual foundation of
Cape of Good Hope and India. Anglo-Saxon North America, by the
During the last half of the seventeenth extension of the British colonies from the
century, the greed of territorial acquisition North Atlantic seaboard to the Missis-
in West Africa, Eastern Asia, the South sippi, by maritime explorations of Van-
Atlantic and the West Indies, had brought couver Island and Oregon, which sufficed
Great Britain into violent con- to stop Russian descent from Alaska, and
_ * **^. flict with the equally rapacious Spanish ascent from California, and finally
Possessions , , ^ •
f H II d ^^
^*^ ' ^^ enterprise-com- by the conclusion of the great stniggle
pared - to - means goes, more between France and Britain for predomi-
wonderful country of Holland. The nance in North America.
British secured a hard-won victory over Newfoundland, the first aim of British
the Dutch in the long run, not because aspirations across the Atlantic, became
they were braver or more skilled as fight- definitely a British colony in 1728, though
ing- seamen,but because they had a by previous settlement it was more justly
largerand richer motherland from which French. The French colonies of Canada
to draw their supplies. Holland, however, Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick,
had previously plundered the Portuguese which then bore the prettier name of New
to a magnificent degree, and, even with —
France ^were ceded in 1763 Nova Scotia ;
what she had to give up to the British in had been acquired in its entirety in 1758,
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, together with Prince Edward's Island ;
was still mistress of possessions in the Vancouver Island was not settled till 1843.
West Indies, South America, the southern Vancouver Island having been redis-
extremity of Africa, Ceylon, Bengal, covered by Captain Cook, and ear-marked
Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula, Java, and as a future British foothold on the Amer-
Borneo, with a kind of lien over the ican Pacific, the close of the eighteenth
scarcely known continent of Australia. - ,,. , century saw the main out-
Outlines of t j.l /- j-<•
t\
During the latter part of the eighteenth ^. _ .. lines of the Canadian Domi-
tne Canadian j 1 1 t^i
-
tt 1 >
century circumstances forced Holland into _ . . nion laid down. The Hudson s
llomimon
Bay ^,
r, ^ j t> j- /^
a position of quasi- alliance with France, Chartered Trading Com-
some of the circumstances being the terri- pany, with its four forts on the shores
torial ambitions of Great Britain. Putting of Hudson's Bay and its far-reaching
forward the plea that the Dutch settle- explorations, had established a prescrip-
ment of the Cape of Good Hope served as tive claim to all Arctic and sub-Arctic
a refuge and a rallying-point for hostile America except the coast of Alaska. Sir
French ships, the British Government Alexander Mackenzie, the Stanley of
attempted by two surprise attacks in 1781 North America and a servant of the
to seize Caps Town. But they were beaten Hudson's Bay Company, travelled overland
5453
BRITISH SEIZURE OF JAMAICA IN 1655 AND THE SINKING OF TUl S
With sealed orders from Cromwell, in 1654, a fleet of sixty ships, commanded by
Adnmal 1'' ,t
4,000men under General Venables, left Portsmouth on an expedition, and, sailing for
West ladies, captured Jamaica
the
But havmg failed to carry out their orders, Penn and Venables were committed to the Tower on their return.
From the drawing by K. Caton Woodrille
5454
>;<: I , IslTION OF GIBRALTAR: SPANISH TROOPS MARCHING OUT
T ;: > ii;i! ;• Ilia 1 inring: theWar of the Spanish Succession, Gibraltar was taken, On July 24th, 1704, by
a combined English and Dutch by Sir George Rooke, who raised the British flag and claimed the town
fleet, commanded
in thename of Queen Anne. The above picture shows the Marquis de Salines marching out with the Spanish troops.
From the drawing by R. Caton WoodviUe
5455
,HISTORY OF THE WORLD
to the Pacific coast in 1789-1793, first some of the unfortunate dispossessed
sighting the Pacific Ocean at Cape Menzies, —
Acadians of Nova Scotia and, finally, the
opposite Queen Charlotte's Islands. attempt to seize Buenos Ayres during the
Vancouver Island is supposed to have French alliance with Spain, the existence
been sighted by Sir Francis Drake just of the struggling American Republic of the
two hundred years before Cook, in sixteen united states must have seemed
1578. It or the opposite coast of to the Britain of the eighteenth century a
Oregon was christened by Drake " New factor of merely local importance, not
Albion." The island was more more serious in a project of universal
definitelyplaced on the map American Empire than the intermittent
"Vuniud
by Juan de Fuca, a Greek sea- independence of the Transvaal was in the
States
captain in Spanish employ, scheme of South African dominion.
in 1592. Cook's exploration of its coasts During the eighteenth century England,
led to no immediate settlement. It was in her colonial enterprise, had been power-
Captain George Vancouver, R.N., in fully reinforced by the sister kingdom of
1792-1794, who really laid the founda- Scotland. the union of the two
Since
tion of British political rights to this crowns, Scotland of the Lowlands had
important island. The Hudson's Bay thrown herself energetically into oversea
Company did the rest, 1821-1843. adventure. It is true that the English
The revolt of the United States in 1777 Government spitefully enough had baulked
did not perhaps make such a great impres- the attempt of the Scots —
in 1698-1699
sion at the time on the British mind, be- — ^to on the Isthmus
establish themselves
cause it seemed the mere alienation of a of Darien, there perhaps to found a
portion of the Atlantic coast lands it had ; Central American State but the bitter-
;
the immediate effect of making the British ness resulting from this was soon for-
still more rapacious and energetic as gotten, and Scots and English, without
regards Canada. Had this revolt not much national distinction, flung them-
occurred and been successful, it is quite . selves energetically into the
possible that British energy might have t>uilding up of a great British
th^'fi'vIS h
languished and France have been allowed,
e
mpire
n (jon^ij^ion in the West Indies and
from her tiny footholds of St. Pierre and Northern South America. At
Miquelon, and from her great possessions the close of the seventeenth century Britain
of Louisiana and New Orleans, to build up had only possessed in the West Indies
once again a French empire in North Jamaica, the Bahamas, Barbados, and
America. What Britain lost in the New three small islands of the Leeward group.
England States she more than regained by But by the end of the eighteenth
founding the Dominion of Canada, which, century Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent,
in her intentions and aspirations, even Grenada, Tobago, and Trinidad were
before the expiry of the eighteenth cen- added by conquest from France or Spain,
tury, extended from the Atlantic to the while intermittently Cuba was held, at-
Pacific, and dwarfed the contemporaneous tempts were made to take the great island
ambitions of the United States, baulked as of Hispaniola, the foundations of a British
they were by a Spanish Florida, Texas and interest in Honduras and on the Nicar-
California, and a French Mississippi. aguan coast were laid, and a swoop was at
With their thoughts bent on the dis- last made on Guiana, with perhaps a
covery of a north-west passage which notion of extending that dominion later
would establish an all-British route across on over the adjoining Spanish province of
. ,America to China, and the Venezuela. So, far from the eighteenth
menca s
intention to seize the analogous century marking the defeat and retro-
rugg inx
southern maritime route from gression of the British in the New World,
epu ic
Atlantic to Pacific marked by — it might more fitly be styled the American
the British exploration of the Straits of century, the second of the four great
Magellan, the occupation of the Malouines, eras of the British Empire, three finished
or Falkland Islands, in 1765, already half- and the fourth commencing. The nine-
occupied and settled by France in 1763, teenth century has been par excellence the
when the celebrated Bougainville, the age of Asian Dominion. It is quite
great French navigator of the Pacific possible that the Asiatic Empire has
whose name is for ever commemorated by reached its apogee in extent, if not in
a lovely flower, settled on West Falkland population or power. The twentieth
5156
—
Russians were beginning to encroach from rw. AiTla? paid two visits to the North-
Cook did for
Eastern Siberia, while the power of Spain west coast of New Holland,
the Empire
was obviously waning, led the British and brought back some ac-
Government to send out Captain Cook to count of its peculiar peoples and products.
the Pacific Ocean via the Cape of Good But nothing like systematic exploration
Hope and the Malay Archipelago, and or definite discovery was accomplished in
thus led to the definite discovery of these directions until the three voyages
Australia, New Zealand, and most of the of Captain James Cook, 1769-1777, re-
Pacific archipelagoes, and, finally, at the vealed the actual coast of South-eastern
end of the eighteenth century, in 1788, to Australia, and the definite outline of New
the establishment of a British settlement Zealand. Cook also placed on the map
on the coast of New South Wales a. settle- such archipelagoes of the Pacific as had
ment which was to be the germ of a vast not been already made known to the
Australian Commonwealth, destined to civilised world by the Spanish, Portuguese,
grow some day into mighty nationalities and Dutch navigators of the sixteenth
of Anglo-Saxon stock. Spanish, French, and seventeenth centuries.
and Dutch navigators of the sixteenth and British exploring enterprise in these
seventeenth centuries had surmised the regions between the Western Pacific and
jj.iscovery
existence to the south of New the Indian Ocean had been bafiled during
o
Qufnea and the Malay Archi- the early eighteenth century by the
thc Australian , j. •
j
Q .
i
pelago of an island-con- rivalry of the Dutch and French. They had
tinent, variously named in been obliged to fight France- for pre-
imagination Greater Java or even " Terra dominance and a fierce though
in India,
"
Australis." The actual name " Australia unofficial warfarehad been waged with
was applied in the first instance to the Holland to keep the Dutch out of Bengal.
largest island of the New Hebrides group by By the middle of the eighteenth century
Quiros in 1606, in the belief that it was the the French had completely lost any
promontory of a great southern continent. chance of building up a great Indian
Luiz Vaez de Torres, second in com- empire, but the Dutch, defeated in Hindu-
mand of the Spanish exploiing expedi- stan, still clung to Ceylon, and successfully
tion led by De Quiros, the discoverer competed with the British in Java, Suma-
of the New Hebrides, as they were tra, Borneo, and the Moluccas.
afterwards named, had passed through The eighteenth century decided the
the "Torres Straits," discovered, and fate of India, possibly for several
aptly named, New Guinea, and had centuries to come; but, compared to the
" felt " the proximity of the real " Terra present Asiatic dominions, British rule
Australis." His indications were followed in Hindustan was by no means universal,
up ten, seventeen, and twenty-two years and it had but a slight foothold on
later by the Dutch navigators Hertoge ... the Malay Peninsula (Island of
Britain s
and Carstenz, who actually located points pj^^^^g, acquired 1786), and in
and named features of the North and .
J.. the Malay Archipelago, Natal,
in India
West Australian coasts. p^^^ Marlborough, or Bencoolen,
In 1642, the Dutch navigator, Abel in Sumatra, and a doubtful tenancy of one
Janszen Tasman, skirting the western or two islets of£ the coast of Borneo. But
coast of Australia, penetrated so far south at the end of the eighteenth century,
that he actually discovered Tasmania, which, for a logical sequence, one must
which he called Van Diemen's Land, after place at the Peace of Amiens, in 1802,
the then governor of Java; and New the British Empire, scattered and patchy
—
.Zealand " Staaten Land." Tasman, on as it was, had almost the outline —
the
his return to the eastward of Australia, —
skeleton of the empire of to-day, and was
5457
BRITISH TROOPS MARCHING THROUGH THE SWAMPS OF BRITISH GUIANA
This colony, on the north coast of South America, once a Dutch trading outpost, was held by the British from
1781 till 1783; they agrain held it from 1796 till 1802, and from 1803 till 1814, when the present colony was formed.
From tbedraarlng by R Caton Woodville
5458
SIR GEORGE siM^bUN hblABLISHING HIS FIRST COUNCIL OF SETTLERS IN 1835
architects of the present Canadian Dominion, Sir George Simpson had the
ment of the Hudson s Bay Company in Canada, and the rise of British
menlnf?h".^Hn!rfc'in-'^^R°=^^r^ entire manage-
Columbia was contemporary with his administration.
From the drawing by R. Caton Woodville
5459
—
^" clumsy writmg across the to the Pacific besides the West India
200
Avv Years Aeo /^
1 ears ^^|£i7 * 1 1 111
;
Caribbean seas would have Islands already owned, she had seized and
reminded him that James I. had given has since retained Dominica, St. Lucia,
a charter for the Bermudas, that Charles I. St. Vincent, Grenada, Tobago, and Trini-
had permitted the settlement ol Barbados, dad, and had established a lien on the
that Cromwell had annexed Jamaica, coasts of Honduras and Nicaragua.
and that under Charles II. most of the British Honduras began in the seven-
British Leeward Islands had been acquired. teenth century as the fortified establish-
In Southern Asia he would have noted the ments of piratical British traders and
—
Island of Bombay an undoubted British timber — mahogany — cutters. Though
possession. There should also have been frequently attacked by Spain, and fre-
marked on the map factories and forts quently ceded to Spain by England, the
more or less identical with political foot- British settlers held on steadfastly till,
holds^-at some point on the coast of in 1786, a definitely British administration
Sind, at Surat, Broach, and Ahmedabad, was established. She had occupied
in Western India at Calcutta, Tegna-
; British, French, and Dutch Guiana. Far
patam, Vizagapatam, Madras, and Masuli- away towards the southern extremity of that
patam, on the eastern side of the Indian continent the British Govern-
The French
Peninsula while in the interior there were
;
Ousted
ment had already earmarked
agencies at Agra and Patna. Along the the Falkland Islands, but had
from Egypt
shores of the Persian Gulf there were been repulsed in its attempt to
factories at Basra, Bandar Abbas, and seize Buenos Ayres. In the Mediterranean
Jask and,
; despite Dutch hostility, we held, legally or illegally, Gibraltar,
the East India Company still held on Malta, Sicily, and the Ionian Islands,
to trading posts at Bantam, in Java ;
while British naval and military action
Macassar, in Celebes and Achin, in
; had just turned the French out of Egypt.
Sumatra. On the West African coast Here an almost unconscious intimation
the Royal African Company possessed had been given of. an intention some
forts at the mouth of the Gambia, and day to occupy that halfway station
along the Gold Coast, from Dixcove to towards the growing Indian Empire. In
Accra, and at Whyda, on the coast of East Africa, Britain had opened up rela-
Dahomeh. The East India Company, more- tions with Abyssinia and Zanzibar, as
over, had seized the island of St. Helena. also with the tribes of South Arabia and
That was the extent of the British the Persian Gulf. In West Africa her
Empire in 1702, at which time Ireland still forces had occupied the French colony of
lay a depopulated, desolate, half -conquered Senegal, and strengthened the hold over
country which was being settled on the the mouth of the Gambia. As the first
Tu VI -1 63.st and on the north by Pro- result of British anti-slavery enthusiasm,
^""^^^"^^ English, Welsh, and the colony of Sierra Leone had been
Surrrnder"
urren r
gcotch Settlers. Scotland her- founded. The forts along the Gold Coast,
Cape Colony ,, j •
rule of William III. The Isle of Man Company. Even at the close of the
was a feudal kingdom under a British eighteenth century Great Britain was
noble the Channel Islands were semi-
; beginning to think about the Niger, the
independent piratical settlements. At upper course of which river had, in 1796,
the Peace of Amiens, in 1802, Great been discovered by the Scottish explorer,
Britain, it is true, had nominally sur- Mungo Park, in the direct service of the
rendered Cape Colony to the Dutch, but British Crown. British trade with West
5460
THE STORY OF BRITISH EXPANSION
Africa at that time had extended to the the Pacific and right up to the Arctic
rivers which form the delta of the Niger, Circle and the eastern limits of Alaska ;
and even to the mouth of the Congo. while the political dominion of Canada
In 1796, as already mentioned, the great (British North America) reaches to the
Portuguese traveller. Dr. Jose Lacerda, had Polar regions, and comprises nearly half
predicted that the British would attempt the North American Continent. In the
to found an empire stretching from the warmer regions of the New World, vague
Cape of Good Hope to Egypt. If Mungo British rights on the coast of Central
Park discovered the main course of the _ . . America at Belize have grown
River Niger, another equally distinguished ^^^^ ^^^ definite colony of
U d th
Scot, an explorer of really advanced British Honduras, while the
British F1&
scientific attainments, James Bruce, had, Colony of Demerara, taken
in 1768-1773. rediscovered and definitely over from the Dutch, has become the large
mapped the course of the Blue Nile from State of British Guiana, 90,260 square
Abyssinia to Egypt. He was despatched miles in extent. In the far south, the
on this aim by a British Secretary of State, Falkland Islands have been definitely
Lord Halifax, and there is little doubt organised as a crown colony, and the
that this journey provoked a special British aegis has been thrown over the
British interest in the affairs of Egypt. large island of South Georgia, annexed by
In Asia the British possessions in 1802 Captain Cook in 1775. These possessions
included a general sway over Hindustan were definitely occupied and administered
between the Himalayas on the north in 1833, because of their importance to
and Cape Comorin on the south, between the whaling industry in the South Atlantic.
the Bay of Bengal on the east and the Indus Within the limits of Europe, though
River on the west. The actual posses- they have given up the islet of Heligoland
sions in India of the Honourable East off the German coast, they have acquired,
India Company at this date over which for all practical purposes, the large island
. it ruled directly were Bengal of Cyprus in the Eastern Mediterranean.
J. xpans ft
^^^ ^^^ Bombay J and Madras
The Ionian Islands, which France snatched
of one .
r ,1
Century
provinces; a portion 01 the from the dying Republic of Venice, en-
Central and North-west Pro- joyed a British Protectorate in every
vinces; parts of Rajputana. Indirectly the sense of the word for sixty odd years,
company controlled the affairs of Oudh, and were then made over to the King-
Haidarabad, and Mysore. They had even dom of Greece. Malta, already occupied
during the eighteenth century taken the in 1802, and had been definitely ceded to
first political step towards establishing the British Crown in 1815.
British influence over Tibet ; their political On the continent of x^sia, the large red
explorers had penetrated through patches of British dominion (through a
Afghanistan to Bokhara, and had chartered company), which gave to Great
acquired some influence at the court Britain the practical control of the
of Persia. In the Malay Archipelago they peninsula of Hindustan, have grown in a
replaced the Dutch in Java and Sumatra, hundred years to the existing Indian and
as also at various points on the Malay colonial empire in Southern Asia. This
Peninsula. In North Africa, though there begins almost in Africa, on the far west,
was no actual foothold, nevertheless, by with the port of Aden, the islet of Perim
Nelson's victories and the British occupa- at the mouth of the Red Sea, and the
tion of Malta, they were so predominant in island of Socotra off the North-east
Tunis and Tripoli as to exercise a kind of African coast. It extends
suzerainty over those Turkish feudalities. v!- .K
eastwards through the British
Rule in the
At present the British dominions have protectorate over the Aden
"*"
attained an enormous area, even com- hinterland and protectorate, or
pared to what they were in 1802. In —
sphere of influence ^established by treaty
North America the small colonised areas — ^over the whole south coast of Arabia to
of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New the vicinity of the Persian Gulf. The
Brunswick, Upper and Lower Canada, south-west coasts of that inlet and the
Ontario, and the few forts of the Hudson's Bahrein Islands are a British protectorate,
Bay Company, have grown into a belt of and in common with the Arabian regions
continuous colonisation and cultivation already referred to are attached to the
extending from the coast of Labrador to vast Indian dominions, which begin on
5461
5462
347 5463
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
the west at Baluchistan, near the entrance other European Power on the African
to the Persian Gulf. By the recent continent, and include the occupation of
agreement with Russia, the South-east Egypt, the administration of the vast
Persian coast commanding the entrance Egyptian Sudan, the protectorates or
into the Persian Gulf is a British sphere colonies of Uganda, East Africa, Somali-
of influence. From Baluchistan the land, and Zanzibar, the protectorate or
Indian Empire extends continuously sphere of influence of British Central
eastwards to the frontier of French Indo- Africa between the Great Lakes and the
China, and northwards to Zambesi, and all British South Africa
World-Wide
—
Tibet a portion of which is from the Zambesi to the Cape of Good
nauKc u.
RftQge of
actually British
British Power . r i x
—
/-j.
and to
i* •
Hope, and from the outskirts of Damara-
Afghanistan, a Central Asian land to the Portuguese province of
state in very close relations with the Mozambique. In West Africa there are
British Empire. Ceylon has been acquired the territories of Nigeria, which extend
from the Dutch, 1796-1815, and British from the delta of that river to Lake Chad
influence now reigns supreme, directly and the borders of the Sahara Desert ^a —
or indirectly, over the whole Malay much enlarged colony and protectorate of
Peninsula from Burma to Singapore. —
the Gold Coast ^some 82,000 square miles
The northern third of the island of in area —a protectorate over the hinter-
Borneo is also under British protection. land of Sierra Leone, and both banks of
In Australasia, and in the archipelagoes the lower course of the Gambia River.
of the Pacific, the gains have also been The British Empire may not even in
—
enormous a third part of the vast island our time touch its apogee of extent,
of New Guinea with the adjacent archi- and indeed if it be wisely governed and
pelagoes of the Louisiade and the Solomon directed so as to enlist with it, and not
Islands, the whole inland continent of against it, the sentiments of the backward
Australia, the large islands of New races, it may develop into a league of
Zealand, the clusters of Fij i and of Tonga, . peace and mutual co-opera-
the Gilbert, Santa Cruz, Ellice, Phoenix, o *x.. °™'f*^ tion of still more surprising
South African ta *
Union, Fanning, Maiden, and Hervey It mav come to
j.
^ - . ..
Confederation
vastness.
1 1 i- , 1
group, and a lien over the New Hebrides. include an educational pro-
The last quarter of the nineteenth tectorate over Southern Arabia and the
century witnessed enormous accretions shores of the Persian Gulf, an alliance,
to the British dominions in Africa. Up to almost feudal, with Abyssinia, Afghanistan.
1875 the British had possessed and built Tibet, and Siam it may assist Australia
;
up, since 1806, the colony of the Cape of to arrange with France and Holland on
Good Hope about as far north as Kim- equitable terms for extended sway over a
berley, and the then small colony of Natal, small portion of Dutch New Guinea and
founded 1824-18 42. There remained of the New Hebrides archipelago. In
unclaimed areas between Natal and Cape Africa, the coming South African con-
Colony, and there was no hold over federation of Boer and Briton may eventu-
Zululand, the Orange Free State, or the ally include the cognate German state
Transvaal. On the West Coast of Africa of South-west Africa and it may also,
;
there was a patch at the mouth of the by arrangement with Germany, link
Gambia, and a few patches on the coast of up the Uganda protectorate with the
Sierra Leone, a strip of coast country north end of Tanganyika, and thus
between the Volta River and Assinie on the establish the last link in the Cape-to-
Gold Coast, and the little island Cairo route.
^^ Lagos, once a great head- Or, if it increases in such directions as
f B "f K
quarters of the slave trade. In these, it may shrink in others, yielding
Africa
the Atlantic Ocean we possessed here and there a little to France in Western
the islets of Ascension and St. Helena ;
Africa, to Germany an islet or two in the
in the Indian Ocean, Mauritius and the West Indies, or an establishment on the
Seychelles. That, in 1875, was the utmost Persian Gulf. But for the most part it is
extent of British Africa. more likely that these extensions or round-
By 1909 these patches and strips have ings off of the British Empire will be
grown into colonies, protectorates and balanced by their standing out of the way
spheres of influence which now in their of other ambitions in Eastern Europe
united bulk exceed the possessions of any and Nearer Asia, or in the Congo basin.
5464
THE CONQUEROR'S GIFT TO LONDON
THE BY SIR
BRITISH HARRY
EMPIRE JOHNSTON,
II G.C.M.G.
superadded the desire to flee from religious century Britain seized important vantage
or political oppression; in the seventeenth points, annexed orprotected enormous areas
century real colonisation took place. in order to suppress the trade in. slaves.
—
But'in that which followed the eighteenth The eagerness of commerce to go in
— the dominant impulse once again was front of the hampering restrictions of a
commerce and the rapid making of wealth regular government led to the creation of
in exploitable lands. This was the centiu^y —
chartered companies and chartered com-
of the slave trade's greatest development. panies have always ended in the foundation
Emigration
The first familiar instance of of colonies, dominions or empires —
in the
emigration for religious free- seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth
for Religious
Freedom
dom is that of the 102 centuries. Greed of gain was coincident
dissidents from the Church of with the glamour of India. India has been
England who emigrated in the Mayflower, in the mainspring of the empire, the magnet
1620, and founded Plymouth, U.S.A. The which has drawn men by such strangely
first Quakers arriving in North America, devious routes that the pioneers have
1652-1666. were hanged, flogged, or halted by the way, have started off at a
expelled but from 1671 to 1681 hundreds
;
tangent on other quests, or have become
came to America and colonised New involved in the solution of other problems
5465
—
Failing to find an easy way across the p. . Eastern Equatorial Africa. By 1898
North Atlantic to the marvels of Cathay Afrfca*
^^^ -^9^^ ^^^ fortified harbour
and the Middle East, the diplomacy of of Aden had grown
into a protec-
Queen Elizabeth was directed to an over- torate or sphere of influence over the whole
land route through the Turkish dominions. of the south Arabian coastlands, including
As this proved insecure and uncertain, the Kuriya-Muriyan Islands, from the
attention was turned towards the sea Straits of Bab-el- Man deb on the west and
route round Africa. This led in time to the frontiers of Oman on the east. From
the acquisition of Tangiers as a calUng- similar motives also has arisen the British
place, to the settlement of St. Helena, protectorate over the Bahrein Islands in
the seizure of Gibraltar as an alternative the Persian Gulf. In South Africa she
to Tangiers, the occupation of the Cape of could not occupy Cape Town and remain
Good Hope, and of Mauritius. indifferent to questions of European colo-
Bonaparte, thinking to strike at Britain nisation and to the welfare of the natives
in India, where she was wealthiest and within three hundred miles of the Cape
weakest, landed in Egypt, and may be said Peninsula. So, in time the British flag crept
to have opened the overland route. From along the south-east coast till it conflicted
the days when the French capitulated and with Portuguese claims at Delagoa Bay.
quitted Egypt, England could not take The Mediterranean route to Egypt,
her eyes or thoughts off that moreover, required other calling stations
„"*. country. The splendid private
. than (iihraltar. Minorca had once been
Britain in
gj^^gj-pj-isg of Lieutenant Wag- British, but it lay rather off the direct
^^^ horn having started the overland route to Egypt moreover, it belonged to
;
route in 1837-47, ^^ connection with the Spain, and Spain had become her ally.
newly introduced steamer traffic, Great Sicily would have been too large to retain
Britain found herself compelled to occupy and control. Napoleon had indicated just
Aden, in 1839, at the soutliern exit of the what was required then in seizing Malta.
Red Sea, and ultimately also Perim Island. It was easy to succeed him, for the Maltese,
Bonaparte's action in Egypt, indeed, had who had little or no affection for the
far-reaching results he could never have corrupt rule of the Knights of St. John,
foreseen it brought Great Britain as a
: voluntarily offered the sovereignty of their
5466
BRITISH OFFICIALS INSPECTING THE CISTERNS A BUILT IN
The story of how Aden came
1700 bc
into possession of the British
is one of s^ st. In l^:i7 a British sliio was
passengers being severely maltreated by the Arabs. On the Bombay
^'^^":- t''^,.<^'-«^,^a"d
d^m^nnlf Y Governm^nf
burfhe ^"'^'"^*'
fhi place
^1,
T!,rW?,h ri;^rfc°"' '^^°
i"'^7u^°"'
*Hf '!i'*^"-
^^'-^i'Jt" '"al'e compensation and to sell the town and port to
administered the government, declined to implement the bargain, and in BrS
conseouence
the was reduced bv a naval and military force on January Kith, KS:!9. Aden, which then
portion of the Bombay I^residency, was fortified and garrisoned, became an outlthi^
and its ancient wTter tanks were partialty reftS
From the drawing by R. Caton WoodriUe
5467
— —
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
little archipelago to the King of Great desire which arose for spiced food, and
Britain. Beaconsfield believed he was especially the strenuous demand for pepper.
completing the chain of naval stations and It was the desire to obtain unrestricted
military halting places on the Mediter- quantities of pepper which not only
ranean route to India by adding Cyprus, founded the East India Company —and
with the intention that a British dominion thereby the British Indian Empire —but
over Syria and a railway thence to the which first drew Britishers to West Africa :
Euphrates valley and India should follow. first pepper, then slaves, then gold.
„ .^ . Whether his successors were
, Cinnamon, cloves, ginger, sandal-wood,
Britain s •
r ii_ •
'^i^r ^^ preferrmg the sea silks, muslins, indigo, ivory, pearls, gums,
Ex and"
Toute, Via the Suez Canal and carpets, and precious stones, were among
Emoirc"**
the Red Sea, time alone can the other principal Indian products which
show. The affairs of India involved us, attracted the attention of European mer-
commercially first, and then politically, in chants from the fifteenth to the eighteenth
those of China. This necessitated military century. The rock formations of India were
and naval stations in Chinese waters. believed to be excessively rich in precious
Hence the acquisition of Hong Kong and stones down to quite recent times. But
eventually of Wei-hai-wei. From the this natural wealth was exaggerated by
desire to prevent a Russian descent into Arab writers and credulous Europeans.
Tibet and Mongolia, and thence a march Golconda, little more than a suburb of the
towards the Himalayas in fact, a Russian — modern Haidarabad, whose Mohammedan
dominion over the Chinese government ruler was one of the first Indian princes to
arose the Japanese alliance, with all that give the British company a trading con-
it may yet entail. Singapore was required cession, was not so much a place that
to safeguard the sea route between China produced diamonds as a centre for
and India the occupation of the Straits
; diamond- cutting, such as Amsterdam has
Settlements has led to a sphere of exclusive since become. The sandstone region of
influence over all the Malay Peninsula and ,
the Northern Deccan certainly
J
a protectorate over the northern coastlands produced diamonds indeed, in
V St ;
derived from distant parts of the Malay of the most potent attractions to Portu-
^ Archipelago or from Ceylon, guese, Dutchman, Englishman, and
Commerce A ^ ,
5469
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
and Italy. Rubies and teak forests pre- at war with the Boers, but his colleagues
vailed to decide the immediate political must have found it difficult to preserve
fate of Burma. The location of gold in solemn faces as he uttered those memor-
Australia and New Zealand came too late able and rather pathetic words of a weary
to be a provocative cause in the annexa- statesman of lofty ideals, aloof from the
tion of those islands, a deed already vulgar rush for wealth and a little ashamed
accomplished from other motives ; though of his yoke-fellows' greedy jingoism.
it is quite possible that the early discovery Yet to Continental critics never must
of copper in Australia may British hypocrisy have seemed so need-
Gold the
have rendered the Imperial lessly patent. Of course she wanted the
Creator of
Government more determined gold-fields, and the territory too but
;
Colonies
to secure for Great Britain the for the gold, would Jew and Gentile,
exclusive political hegemony over Austral- Briton and German, American and French-
asia. Gold, however, was the creator of man, Indian, Greek and Portuguese have
British Columbia, which otherwise might flocked into the prematurely named
have slid from the feeble hold of the South African Republic, or have decided
Hudson's Bay Company into the possession — —
rapidly ^and truly ^that the unadul-
of the United States. Conversely, gold in terated government of uneducated and
the Yukon valley and sealskins from greedy Boers and a few peevish reactionary
Alaska have been the principal reasons why Hollanders was not good enough for very
the American Government has taken the modern, clever, hard-working settlers,
attitude it has in the settlement of the who wanted the best type and the least
North-western frontier of the Canadian obstructive of existing governments that—
Dominion, so resolved not to allow of Great Britain ?
Canada to achieve her natural destiny —
But for gold and diamonds and mis-
and extend to Bering Strait an event — sionaries, of whom more anon —
the hinter-
which I predict will some day come to land of South Africa might still be the
pass by friendly arrangement. undisputed appanage of Boer
^"
Diamonds in South Africa, discovered J
. and Zulu there would be no
;
'" no
amid the sterility of the Orange Free railway to the Zambesi ;
s" th'Af
State borderlands, suddenly changed the British Central Africa but ;
attitude of tolerant indifference towards there might also be, by this time, the
the fate of the South African hinterland outline of a great German colonial empire.
into one of eager unscrupulousness. Ad- Possibly Afrikander children now born
vantage was taken of the uncertain nature and getting ready for school may, in their
of the Orange State boundary [and of old age, say it was lucky lor the fate of
native claims, which were assigned to the great South African nation that the
Great Britain, to extend the British aegis passing wealth in precious metals and
over all the known diamondiferous terri- ——
precious stones perhaps by that time no
longer precious induced Great Britain
tory. This opened up the route to Bechu-
analand and thenceforth to the Zambesi. as a government, but more through a few
Britain let the Transvaal go back to in- British individuals, to lay her hands on
dependence in 1881, and even waived her South Africa from the Vaal and the
suzerainty in 1884. In 1886 the Johannes- Orange rivers to the Zambesi and Tan-
burg and Barberton districts were found ganyika. Her intervention, though it may
to be rich in gold. The attitude of the have been influenced by temporary greed
British Government towards the Transvaal of gain, has moulded a great nationality,
« •• », . immediately changed, or.
. the future united states of South Africa,
South Africa s x ^i •
1
•
people of Northern Spain and South- palm oil and other vegetable fats for
west France seem to have been the candle-making had not yet entered the
5471
—
John Davis, the Arctic explorer who was tine authority. American war vesselsseem
killed on the coast of Malacca in 1592, to have intervened in the quarrel, and
and again by Sir Richard Hawkins two between them the Argentine settlement was
years later. In 1598 the indefatigable destroyed. Then the British Government
—
Dutchmen ^led by Sebald de Wert awoke to the importance of this forgotten
paid them a \nsit and named them the outpost, with the result that the British
Sebald Islands. In 1690, or a little after, flag was again hoisted in 1833.
they received the name of Falkland The whaling industry flagged some twenty
Islands from Strong, a British captain. years afterwards, and was succeeded by
In 1763 the French attempted to found a the pursuit of the fur-bearing sea-lion. But
colony on Berkeley Sound. But by this for many years subsequently the Falkland
time the Spaniards of South America Islands have been valued, not as a resort
considered that these islands came within for whaling or sealing-ships, but as a wool,
their jurisdiction, and they expelled the tallow, and mutton producing colony, in
French by force. In 1761 they had been which a very vigorous white race is
annexed by Commodore Byron on behalf springing up which may some day play a
of England on the ground of their having part in the -politics of South America.
been discovered by Davis, Hawkins and The whaling industry also
Whaling's
Strong ; but the Spanish Government caused the annexation by Cap-
Service to
contested the British claim as vehemently tain Cook in 1775 of Soxith
as the French attempt, and prepared to
the Empire
—
Georgia, a large island the size
go to war on the subject. Nevertheless, of Cheshire —in the South Atlantic, about
in 1771, the British claim to the islands 950 miles to the E.S.E. of the Falkland
was recognised by Spain in a formal con- group. Whalers have also caused the an-
vention. Either they proved to be of less nexation, or the retention, of numerous tiny
importance to the whaling industry than archipelagoes in the Pacific, and of Tristan
was cxixTtcd. (ir the distractions of the d'Acunha in the South-east Atlantic.
5473
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
freedom by offering to show the Portu- America, Imperial or Viceregal, for the
guese where they might obtain slaves supply of cargoes of West African slaves,
of the material required by them or Moors, as they were still called.
As soon as the British seamen of Bristol, The ventures proved profitable to the
Devon, London, and East Anglia began to English, and so satisfactory to the
venture far afield in sailing ventures under Spaniards in the West Indies that the
the instigation of Venetian navigators, supply continued to be carried on even
they were very curious as to the regions during periods when Spain and Britain
from which the Portuguese
. were officially at war. Hawkins, having
iscovc
obtained spices and muscular enriched himself over a business in which
.. , black servants and even in the ; he saw no more iniquity than has been
Advenlurers ,. , r t-
j j
discouragmg days oi Edward felt by many a nineteenth century pur-
VI. and Mary L, when much of English veyor of Kanaka, or negro contract
capital and enterprise were fettered by labourers, was knighted by Queen
religious troubles and the throttling hand Elizabeth, and assumed as his crest a
of Spanish diplomacy, merchant adven- " demi-Moor in bondage."
turers set forth to discover West Africa The British trade in slaves from the
for themselves. West African coast might have progressed
At first seamen shipped with the much more rapidly and prosperously be-
Portuguese and kept their own counsel till tween 1560 and 1660 had it not been for
they returned or, later, some Portuguese
; the rivalry and ambition of the Dutch,
commander, unfairly treated at home, The inhabitants of Holland and Friesland
would come to England to find a market for are so near akin to English in blood and
his knowledge. The excessive jealousy and language, have so many of their virtues
hostihty of the Portuguese towards any and faults that we need not affect sur-
other adventurers in the West African prise that a country, small indeed, but
field were somewhat tempered where the nearly as large as the England that counted
English were concerned by Portuguese in the days of Elizabeth, when
J. arvc us
rivalry with Spain, and the feeling that in Wales and much that lay to the
Achievements ,, < t
• 1
the struggle that was coming, Portugal, to riorth of Lmcoln were savage
f H 11 d
avoid absorption by the power of Spain, and sparsely populated, should
might find assistance in an alliance with have achieved the marvellous things it
the Moreover, in spite of re-
English. did in the seas of Africa, Asia, and America
ligious differences, which did not really during the time when its people were
arise until the reign of Elizabeth, and of fighting on their very thresholds against
a dog-in-the-manger policy as regards over- all the power of Spain and Austria. Such
sea adventure, there had been from the surprise at the achievements of big-
twelfth century onwards the growing up minded men out of a tiny country savours
of an unwritten alliance, even of written of a complete ignorance of history. What
pacts, between Angevin England and Holland did is as wonderful, but not more
Burgundian Portugal. so, than the staggering first successes of
It may even be said that prior to Portugal or the civilisation of Greece.
the sixteenth century the rulers and the The Dutch, finding that they were
aristocracy of Portugal and England twice as good at ship-building, ship-
were much more nearly akin in blood, sailing, and ship-fighting as the Portu-
ambitions, and even speech, than they guese, who had become the subjects of
are to-day. The influence of Portugal —
Spain the Spaniards, except the small
^ . on the historical development
. Basque population in the north, were
W t Af
^^ ^^^ British Empire has been indifferent navigators —
grasped at trans-
Slaves
^° important as to excuse this marine empire everywhere with a greed
disquisition. By the beginning admirable in its stupendous character.
of Elizabeth's reign, though the Portuguese They intended to conquer the whole of
did not like the entry of British seamen into Brazil, and wished to supplant Spain in
the West African trade, they did not treat Venezuela and the West Indies. At one
this intervention with such hostility time they took nearly all Angola from
as might have nipped it in the bud. the Portuguese, and even made an attempt
Consequently, Sir John Hawkins, as he at the subjugation of the Congo kingdom.
subsequently became, was in a position They usurped the place of the Portuguese
in 1562 to tender to the Spanish rulers of in Senegambia—'the island of Goree in the
5474
SLAVERY AND COLONIAL EXPANSION
haxbour of Dakar to this day bears the to put it more fairly, as soon as Dutch
name of a small island off the Friesland enterprise slackened, the British turned
coast, and on the Gold Coast. They the temporary trading stations estab-
occupied the island of St. Helena, dis- lished at the mouth of the Gambia, in
covered and named by the Portuguese, the estuary of Sierra Leone, and on the
and probably by their maritime attacks Gold Coast, into permanent fortified posts.
checked any intentions on the part of In fact, under Charles II., James II., and
poor paralysed Lusitania to occupy the William III., the British Empire in West
Cape of Good Hope. They several times „ Africa began mainly with the
took away the island of Mozambique intention of supplying black
in SI*
from the Portuguese, occupied and named .
J.
slaves to the sugar-growing
Mauritius, and exterminated the Dodo. West Indies, where, under
They conquered the coasts of Ceylon, Cromwell, Britain had obtained a splendid
established themselves in Eastern India installation by the conquest of Jamaica.
and ousted the Portuguese flag from By 1670, she not only desired to obtain
almost every part of the Malay Pen- contracts for supplying Spanish America
insula and archipelago, where it had with negro labourers, but she required
been so proudly hoisted and so cruelly them in thousands for her own American
maintained by the almost superhuman possessions. Sugar was bemg planted
valour of the great conquistadores. everywhere in the more tropical of the
Imitation has constantly been the West India islands, and tobacco in Virginia.
sincerest, if most unconscious, form of There was a growing demand for rum
flattery on the part of the British. made from sugar. We were approaching
During the Saxon period they copied the two centuries, the eighteenth and
the religion, arts, manners, customs, and nineteenth, which, amongst a thousand
costume of the Prankish Roman Empire. other remarkable characteristics, good and
From before the Norman Conquest they bad, will probably be known in the
had begun to watch and perspective of history as the centuries of
Brit&in the
imitate the Flemings, Picards, distilled alcohol :the two hundred odd •
Pupil of
^r^" Nations
VI *• and Bretons. Every fashion years in which civilised and uncivilised
Other
m
. , .1 < t^
dress that came from Italy
. 1
man attempted to poison himself and his
ran with a rapidity, astonishing without progeny, body and mind, with rum, gin,
a coach or carriageable road, through brandy, arrack, kirsch, absinthe, schnapps,
England up to Edinburgh. and whisky. Rum, the aguardiente of the
From the middle of the fifteenth to the Spaniard, got a good start in the infamous
end of the sixteenth century British sea- race, and vastly promoted the cultivation
men sedulously copied in shipbuilding, in of the sugar-cane, thus causing the British
the art of navigation, and in the use of to establish at least fourteen slave-trading
nautical terms the maritime enterprise of depots on the West Coast of Africa during
Italy, Portugal, and Spain, while during the eighteenth century, and Liverpool,
the seventeenth century they devoted the London, Bristol, and Lancaster to
same spirit of assimilation to all they maintain between them a fleet of nearly
could learn from the Dutch. Indeed, it two hundred slave-ships.
was not until the second half of the In 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht imposed
eighteenth century that England began on Spain the transference from Dutch to
to teach other nations. —
British merchants in the syndicate or
Therefore, where Venice, Genoa, combine, as it would now be called, Queen
Portugal, and Holland led in matters of ,
ri ain s
—
Anne had a fourth share of the
maritime discovery, and later in the slave contract for the annual supply
trade, Britain followed unquestioningly. .
" ry
of 4,800 negro slaves to the
In the last-named pursuit she had gp^j^jgj-^ Indies. This privilege
anticipated the Dutch, but towards the was to last for thirty years but for some
;
close of the sixteenth century the Dutch good reasons the Spaniards repudiated
took the lead, and kept it for some it when it had only run for twenty-six.
fifty years. It was a Dutch ship that For this and other "wrongs" the British
brought the fkst supply of negro slaves Government declared war on Spain. The
to British North America, Virginia, in 1619. long War of the Austrian Succession that
As soon as she began to get the upper —
followed ^and later, the Wars of the Family
hand of the Dutch in maritime warfare, or. Compact and of the American revolt—
5475
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
stood in the way of the resumption of the supplies needed by the modest manu-
purveying of slaves to Spanish America factories of cotton goods at London,
in British ships. The Spaniards obtained Nottingham, and in Lancashire were
them through the French and Portuguese, obtained from Cyprus, Asia Minor, and
and finally made arrangements with Por- the West India Islands of Barbados,
tugal for the cession of the West African Anguilla, and St. Christopher. But a
.
"-• It M
5477
HISTORY OF THE ^^ORLD
in the British West Indies in 1791, but it stronghold of the slave trade. British
required annual drafts of about 30,000 intervention in the affairs of Nyassaland
to maintain the labour force at its sufficient was largely the outcome of Livingstone's
quota. In 1780 there were about 600,000 denunciation of the Arab slave trade.
negroes in the Southern United States. British missionary propaganda was in the
This figure had risen in 1790, under the first place the only motive in Bechuana-
stimulus of cotton-planting and increased land and Central Zambesia.
—
demand for slave labour perhaps also
to a more careful census —
The same may be said for the be-
ginning of British interest in Uganda,
e- X « ., . . to
g .. .. . 757,000. By 1000 it exceeded in all probability antedating the anxiety
for the Negroa million, of whom, however, concerning the sources of the Nile
more
than 100,000 were water-supply and the irrigation of the
already free. By 1820 there were 233,000 Northern Sudan and Egypt. Philan-
free negroes in the United States, to whom — —
thropy of a rather sickly kind started
the ordinary franchise of free citizens the creation of British commercial and
was practically denied. The embarrass- political claims over the Lower Niger, and
ment thus caused was met by the ranged public opinion behind the vacillat-
foundation in 1822 of Liberia, on the ing British Government of the 'nineties
West Coast of Africa, to receive back in — it would equally have stood behind them
Africa the descendants of freed slaves in the 'eighties —
in the last century, when
whom America rejected as voting citizens. Lord Kitchener was allowed to under-
Great Britain had already felt this take the reconquest and resettlement
difficulty of conceding political rights to of the Egyptian Sudan. In no region
the freed slaves of the West India Islands, of the British Empire was philanthropy
and further had to find homes for the more justified in urging on a conquest
loyalist negroes who had fought on the than in these regions of the Central
British side during the American War of Nile valley. The uprising of the bastard
1777-1783. These had first been moved Arab element in this region
British
to Nova Scotia then they were con-
; was in all truth a revolt in
Influence in
veyed to London, and finally to the favour of the reinstitution oi
the Sudan
Sierra Leone peninsula, which had been the slave trade in its most
acquired by a philanthropist chartered extravagantly cruel and infamous aspects.
company for the repatriation of negroes. The Mahdi's revolt had blasted and
The foundation of the future Colony and depopulated a region of the earth's
Protectorate of Sierra Leone, in 1787- 1792, surface which, under proper administra-
was the first episode in a new order of empire tion, should have been the home of popu-
building sentiment or sentimentality was
; lous tribes of dark-skinned people engaged
henceforth to rank with other more prac- in rearing large herds of camels, cattle,
tical reasons for annexing countries, large asses, horses, goats, and sheep, and in
and small, to the British Crown. cultivating millions of acres of wheat or of
The alleged philanthropic origin of date palms.
some of her possessions is an explanation, Its previous government by Egypt
which, down to a few years ago, would had been undertaken first of allon
have called forth the snort or the sneer a purely slave-trade basis, and secondly
from home or foreign critics of the empire. as a sjxjculation very much on the
But although Great Britain is rightly lines of King Leopold's rubber empire
famed for keeping an eye on the main on the Congo. The British conquest,
g . chance in her Imperial policy, occupation, and reorganisation of the
it is a fact that several of Sudan has been a very great gain
in Imperial
her investments in Africa and to civihsation and human happiness.
Policy
Asia in their origin have been Whether such a verdict shall be pro-
undertaken for motives of sincere philan- nounced on all other extensions of British
thropy, and not with the immediate rule is discussed in greater detail in this
prospect of gain. Thus, Sierra Leone was survey. But it is noteworthy that many
first started as a chartered company, and a British conquest, in order to excite the
then grew inevitably into a crown colony. philanthropic motive in the British people,
Lagos was conquered and annexed in has been preceded by a blackening of the
186 1 because it remained obstinately a character of those about to be conquered.
5478
—
THE
Hv^m
^^^fllli'll"'^
3ii^i^^j BY SIR
BRITISH
if i^^^^^^H ^^^^^^^1 HARRY
^^^HBI'-^^^%h^ ^^^^H ^P^)
EMPIRE
IV ^mmm
^Q Ho JOHNSTON,
G.C.M.G.
^ j r social disqualmca-
hopeless cesspools of iniquity." But the ex-convicts
m Empire 01
. -. .
.. ^^ ^
from mcessant temp- and ticket-of-leave men became prosperous
BuildinK ' ^
tation to run counter to local and outspoken citizens it has been stated
:
sons " should be sent to Virginia. In 1660 ^^^^ ^^^ reputable section of
and 1670, Acts of Charles II. prescribed the Australian society against the
transportation of offenders against the principle of transporting thither the
laws, which then included many who were criminals of Great Britain. There had
merely " lewd, disorderly, or lawless always been alongside the deported prisoner
persons," or who were dissidents in of the State a steady influx of free colonists.
rehgion and from this time onwards men
; Some of these came to Australia with a
and women were regularly drafted to the view to farm, by means of cheap convict
plantations in New England. labour and no doubt by this association
;
In 1718, an Act of George I. ordained that of white and black sheep, not a few among
criminals guilty of grave offences, who the latter regained their former s]:)otless-
escaped the death penalty, were to be ness of fleece. It is at any rate certain,
farmed out to labour-contractors for trans- though enough emphasis has never been
port to the American colonies. The con- placed on this happy fact, that a propor-
tractors were thus enabled to sell the labour tion of nearly, if not quite, half the convicts
of these white slaves — men at about $50 a sent out to Austraha found their way back
—
head and women at $40 or $45 for what- into the life of decent, self-respecting men
Fatc of
^^^^ ^^'^"^ ^^^ judge had and women.
attached to their transportation, It must also be remembered that be-
th Wh*t
Slaves ^^y ^^^^ seven to fourteen years.
'
tween 1800 and 1820 a large number of
At the end of that period the the prisoners were political Irish rebels
:
labourer became free, theoretically, and or English rioters, fighters for freedom
although in many instances, no doubt, a merely, and often high-minded, pure-
wicked master kept his " convict " at work minded men. On the other hand, after
beyond the term of his sentence, in many the first reform of the terrible English
others he became a free colonist Ion? before criminal code in 1826 and 1832, the persons
or settled the question himself by running deemed to have merited transportation
away to the backwoods, or joining the were more certainly thorough -going law-
Indians and becoming the father of breakers than under the former and harsher
5480
—
COLONIES GROWN FROM CONVICT SETTLEMENTS
laws. So it came about that all the the sending out annually of a limited
respectable elements of Australian society number of British convicts. The proposal
— from whatever source recruited matters was eagerly accepted by the British
not, for their lives and exploits were Government in 1849, 3-t a time when they
sufficient testimony to their character were placed in a very awkward dilemma
struck at the dumping of any more con- by the outbreak in Cape Town against the
victed criminals on Australian soil. Their landing of convicts. Accordingly, trans-
protests were endorsed by their judiciary, portation of criminals was resumed
and after 1840 no more state prisoners Australia-wards, and the
e ys em
were sent to the eastern half of Australia. prisoners, released on
A good many of the irreclaimable
of Transportation
.....
iij.fi
ticket-of -leave
t
for
.1
the
AbolishedJ
convicts of New South Wales and Queens-
, . .
in
_ .
Tasmania
The mdentured or assigned region beyond the limits of Great Britain
who were subjectedj
. . , , i
crimmals,
.l
and Ireland,came to an end for ever.
to but little supervision, frequently There nothing to gird at in this
is
escaped into the bush, and between 1804 record. Transportation was a plan which
and 1830 the island was terrorised by in the circumstances of the time, of home
bushrangers. This precipitated trouble institutions, and colonial needs, served a
with the black indigenes, whose treat- purpose that in the main was beneficent.
ment, active and passive, at the hands At any rate, whether or not unpleasing to
of British officialdom will always be one British pride, it must be ranked among
of the blots on the empire's record, from the principal causes which led to the
the point of view of science as well as colonisation of North and South Carolina,
philanthropy. The worst type of convicts Virginia, and Massachusetts of Jamaica,
;
were herded at the penal settlement of the Bahamas, and the Leeward Islands ;
Port Arthur, on Tasman Peninsula, under of Australia and Tasmania.
conditions graphically described by the But for the need to find a dumping-
late Marcus Clarke in his powerful novel, ground for offenders against the criminal
" His Natural Life." laws or for political prisoners, Australia and
Western Australia had been founded as _ . . Tasmania would have be-
Colonies
a colony in 1829, but for many years it . , come t->
. French1.
possessions no
;
5482
BY SIR
HARRY
JOHNSTON,
G.C.M.G.
moters of these colonial schemes had only Admiral Penn the father of the founder
to bribe James's favourites to get what
Jamaica
of Pennsylvania —
and General
charter they desired. James's own colonial Seized by the
Venables to Barbados. At this
or Mediterranean wars were unfortunate, island they opened their sealed
English
and resulted in no advantage. He be- orders, and found they were
headed Raleigh to please Spain, and to attack and occupy the large island
because Raleigh had discovered no gold of Hispaniola. Besides the 4,000 soldiers
or silver mines in Guiana. they had on board, they were to recruit a
Cromwell's first colonial war was with further force from among what we should
Holland. The effect of the massacre at nowadays call the convict settlers of
Amboina in 1623 of a number of English- Barbados, and were further to take up
—
men and their followers nine Englishmen, more fighting men at St. Christopher,
one Portuguese, nine Japanese, and about With 10,200 men they proceeded to
—
ninety Malays in order that the Dutch attack the port of San Domingo in a most
might retain the monopoly of the spice blundering fashion, and at length were
trade, had taken some time to reach beaten off by the Spaniards and the
England, but had never been forgiven or results of great sickness among their men.
forgotten. Internal troubles had prevented Ashamed —
or, rather, afraid —
to face Crom-
the exaction of any indemnity until the well with no better results than this
establishment of Cromwell's power in 1652. repulse, they proceeded to Jamaica, never
very strongly garrisoned by Spain. Their
^ romwe s The Dutch had taken full ad-
,
5485
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
by Spain, British historians would never nations were at peace with Europe.
have ceased denouncing. As it is, I cannot This went on until the latter part of the
find a word of disapproval in the work of eighteenth century, and had for its
any British historian only expressions
; general purpose the expulsion of the
of regret that the drunken squabbles of Dutch from Bengal and the driving away
the leaders of the expedition caused it to of the English from Ceylon and the
fail humiliatingly in the original purpose Malay Archipelago. An example of one
entertained by Cromwell —the conquest of these local wars was the arrival in 1759
V ^^ Hispaniola. After this out- of a Dutch flotilla in the Hugh to assist
\ A
rage Spain declared war. Crom- Mir J afar to turn out the victorious
Tw**^
Clive and Colonel Forde turned
W'th S i ^^^^ ^^^
already (1655-6) English.
despatched a British fleet to fiercely on the Dutch and captured or
the Mediterranean under Blake simultan- destroyed the whole flotilla. During the
eously with the expedition under Penn and eighteenth century it was France rather
Venables to the West Indies. Blake was to than Holland that had to be fought for
punish the Barbary rovers for their attacks the extension of the British Empire in
on British shipping, and to strike terror into America, the Mediterranean, and India.
the courts of Tuscany and Rome for their Use was made of the War of the Spanish
having given harbourage to the recusant Succession at the beginning of the
English war vessels, the remains of Charles eighteenth century to seize Gibraltar and
I.'s navy, under Prince Rupert. Minorca. The holding of Gibraltar had
Blake threatened to bombard Leghorn, been once or twice suggested as the alter-
but finally agreed to accept from Rome and native to the surrender of Tangier in
Tuscany an indemnity of £60,000. He 1684, and the question of a secure harbour
then proceeded to Algiers, but the Turkish of refuge at the outlet of the Mediterranean
dey of that country promised reparation. had become more urgent to British naval
The dey of Tunis refused satisfaction, so policy after the defeat of Sir George
the castles of Goletta and Porto Farina _. Rooke by the French oft Cape
were battered by Blake's artillery and the ^* ^'' Vincent in 1693, and the
c' *ab
shipping they protected was destroyed. .*'y'!j. .
^ capture of the British merchant
Tripoli was afterwards threatened, but fleet from Turkey, and, later,
submitted. Blake followed up the during the subsequent operations of
Spanish declaration of war in 1656 by Admiral Russell off Cadiz. But the
blockading Cadiz and burning a Spanish actual capture of Gibraltar was effected
treasure fleet at Santa Cruz (Teneriffe, rather as a side issue, and not entirely by
Canary Islands). The alliance with
. British valour.
France which followed the outbreak of In the third year, 1704, of the war. Sir
war with Spain led to the capture and George Rooke was despatched with a
retention of Dunkirk by the English. force ofGerman and English soldiers
Dunkirk was then a town of the Spanish under the Prince of Hesse Darmstadt to
Netherlands. In 1658 Charles II. sold seize Barcelona. Here, however, they
the place to Louis XIV. for £200,000, were repulsed by the Spaniards, who
which he spent on his mistresses. held the place for the Bourbon King
In 1664-1667 the war with Holland was Philip. They, therefore, sailed back to-
renewed, owing in part to Charles II. reviv- wards England, but on their return sur-
ing the Navigation Act of the Common- prised Gibraltar, which was not expecting
wealth. But hostilities were further any attack. The importance of Gibraltar
provoked by the unfriendly was, at all events, not yet fully realised,
Unofflcial
attitude of the Dutch towards though at the Peace of Utrecht, signed
Warfare in the
the newly founded Royal on April nth, 1713, it was, together with
Far East
African Chartered Company, Minorca, ceded to Great Britain by King
which was attempting to establish itself on Philip of Spain. Five years afterwards,
the Gold Coast in order to take a share in the Prime Minister, Lord Stanhope,
the slave traffic and in the export of gold. thought Gibraltar of no consequence,
Out in the Far East, indeed, there was and proposed to retrocede it to Spain
constant bickering between Dutch and in order to pacify Cardinal Alberoni.
"
English, and many a spell of " unofficial Minorca, the second largest of the
warfare between their land or naval Balearic Islands, had been captured by an
forces occurred sometimes when the two English force under General and Admiral
5486
IRST FOOTING IN EBEC
Making his fusL
C
5487
:
Spain, Cardinal Alberoni, had no inten- naval combats and raids between British
tions of allowing this misreading of the and French naval forces off the coasts of
rights obtained under the Asiento. His Newfoundland and in the
esu s o
hostility was accentuated by the inter- British Channel. In those pre-
the Seven j
ference of George I., in 1718-1721, with the
Y w . , i
telegraph days an unacknow-
i
disputes between Spain and Austria as to ledged state of war could con-
the division and allotment of Italian tinue, in a condition strongly resembling
territories. The ill-feeling smouldered for piracy, for more than a year before it was
years, breaking out in 1727 into a four thought necessary to issue a formal
months' Spanish siege of Gibraltar, a declaration of belligerency.
siege which led to assistance being afforded This war, declared in 1756, lasted until
to the British by Morocco, and to the it involved Spain, besides Prussia, Russia,
beginning* of friendly relations with that and Austria, and became the " Seven
empire never since interrupted. Years War " of the " Family Compact."
In 1739 war was definitely declared on Its results, ratified by the Peace of
Spain, the war of " Jenkins's ear," over FOntainebleau, or Paris, on February loth,
the interpretation of the Asiento, and was 1763, led to most momentous issues
not brought to a close until 1748. During to the establishment of a vast Anglo-
this war —
largely concerned as it was Saxon —
North America France only
with the defence of the Netherlands and retained the two little islands of^ the New-
Rhineland against the ambitions of foundland coast and a small portion of
France, and the counter attempts of Western Louisiana, and Spain gave up
_
, France to restore the Stuart
Famous
all territory east of the Mississippi to —
Anson
V
s
R a
dynasty
, .
— no additions were
j j-i-
the empire of British India through the
»J*^^ "."f made to the British Empire; victories of Clive and Eyre Coote to the
;
attention to the possibilities of the Pacific British acquisition of Senegal, which first
containing unexplored lands of value. turned her thoughts towards the Niger ;
was done at
^^ British fighting France joined in this unhappy war in
Wars on Sea x ^17 j •
, , Warfare
sea. was carried on 1778, after the capitulation of Burgoyne's
and, Land a
m
•
Sweden in the League of Armed Neutrality. Catherine II., was establishing fur- trading
Holland went farther and declared war. stations in Alaska. Alaska was discovered
At this period the Dutch were much under in 1721 by the Danish navigator Behring,
French influence, and were bitterly jealous in the employ of the Russian Government.
of the British successes in India. The Emperor Paul, in 1799, issued a
The reply to the Dutch declaration of charter to a Russian fur-trading company
hostilities, besides the destruction of to occupy Alaska. Spain was desirous of
Dutch shipping in home waters, was the extending northwards along the Pacific
despatch in 178 1 of a powerful squadron coast until she met the Russian flag.
under Commodore Johnstone to seize She dreaded the proximity of the English.
the Cape of Good Hope. Owing to the The expeditions of Cook in 1778, and of
treacherous communication of the British Vancouver in 1791-1792 excited her appre-
plans by a spy the French Government hensions, and perhaps for this reason as
was enabled to forestall Johnstone. He much as others she was willing, as soon as
was attacked at the Cape de Verde . ...^. the first horror of the French
Additions T-> i- 1 X • •
r .1 •
1
Suffren, and his squadron was seriously jj
. . France in 1790 in the renewed
crippled. Suffren then went on to South war against Great Britain.
Africa, and landed men at Cape Town to In 1793 was the beginning of those
assist in driving off the British, whose long Napoleonic wars which lasted, with the
second attempt, in 1782, likewise failed. very brief interval of the Peace of Amiens,
After Lord Cornwallis had capitulated till 1815, and which enabled Great Britain
Elliot (Lord Heathfield), and that Rodney were restored at the Peace of Amiens or
had smashed the French fleet under De at the Congress of Vienna.
Grasse in the West Indies but this war of ; Attempts to capture the Canary
the American revolt nevertheless imposed Islands, Uruguay and Buenos Ayres had
severe losses and humiliations failed, last-named, undertaken in
the
' *.
. on the British Empire, and it
. . 1806-1808. causing much disappointment
_.
""''
.
''
is difficult to understand why in England. The value of temperate South
the settlement at the Peace of America as a horse and cattle-breeding
Versailles is alluded to by British his- country had already been appreciated.
torians with complacency. As a matter of The monopolist policy of Spain had for
fact, it has been so far the most serious generations disgusted and alienated the
set-back that the empire has sustained. Spanish and Portuguese colonists, and it
Besides the recognition of the independence was believed that the road lay open for the
of the thirteen states of New England, creation, through Uruguay and Buenos
she retroceded the Floridas to Spain. Ayres, of a j^ossible British empire over the
She gave up Minorca ; restored Senegal to non- Portuguese part of South America,
5490
THE SURRENDER OF MAURITIUS TO THE BRITISH IN IMO
Formerly called the Isle of was discovered by the Portuguese in 1507, it being at that time without
France, Mauritius
inhabitants and unknown to Europeans. name was changed on coming into the possession of the Dutch in 1598;
Its
they abandoned it about a hundred years later to the French. The British captured it from the French in 1810, and
when hostilities ceased, in 1814, the nolding of the island by Britain was one of the provisions of the Treaty of Paris.
From the drawing by R. Calon WoodviUe
5491
" —
with France
.
5494
THE VARS OF THE EMPIRE, JUST AND UNJUST
marked disfavour the unavowed German might have preferred to indemnify her-
scheme, the Drang nach Osten. France was self by the occupation of Tibet and a
the pivot of this new alHance for the protectorate over Central China rather
temporary preservation of the Turkish than by going to war with Russia. It was
Empire. France was the easiest hit at. Germany, to a very great extent, that
Thence arose the emperor's visit to nipped in the bud her plans in regard
Tangier, the open threat to France, and to Tibet, and perhaps most of all as re-
the nearest approach until then to an gards Central China.
armed conflict by land and sea between It was by no means certain whether, in
the forces of Great Britain and those of spite of her benevolent neutrality during
the German Empire, allied certainly with the Spanish War, the United States would
Austria-Hungary. This happily averted have given England any backing in Jegatd
struggle would have been a colonial to Chinese protectorates or spheres of in-
war, for it would have originated in the fluence. Consequently, finding this policy
Egyptian question. led to danger, the British Government
As regards Russia, it is doubtful whether revived the idea already suggested by
Britain has ever been on the verge of war Lord Rosebery of an alliance with Japan
with her over Imperial interests since the as a means of holding Russia in check and
Afghan settlement of 1885. She was preserving the balance of power in China.
annoyed, exasperated, bothered by the The outcome of the Japanese alliance
Russian designs on Northern and Western may have momentous results, not, per-
China. But had those designs been pushed haps, in all directions palatable to Great
to annexation of Chinese territory, and had Britain. These, however, are best dis-
Japan been powerless to resist, England cussed under another hradintr.
The power of this dynasty over the whole seized the French post of Chandamagar.
Mahratta confederation passed, early in the This action led to Suraj-ud-Daulah and
eighteenth century, into the hands of a the French making common cause. At
—
Brahman prime minister the Peshwa the Battle of Plassey, in 1757, Clive,
and became hereditary in this form. with 1,000 British troops, 2,000 sepoys,
The French, under Dumas and Dupleix, and eight guns, defeated the army
governors of the French settlement of of the nawab, which consisted of 35,000
Pondichery on the coast of South-east infantry, 15,000 cavalry, and 50 cannon.
India, had started the idea of interfering Moreover, Suraj-ud-Daulah had with him
in the internalwars of nizams and nawabs, some fifty French artillerymen.
rajahs and wazirs. This had been carried This victory founded the British empire
on with such success by Dupleix himself, over India. After several other fights with
and by the Marquess de Bussy, that a con- the French and Dutch, and a series of
siderable tract of Eastern India between battles with the nawab's forces, terminat-
Bengal and Madras had been made over to int( with the decisive victory of Sir Hector
the French by the Nizam of Haidarabad, Munro at Baxar in 1794, Clive was able to
. .. p and the French had become bring a good deal less than a quarter of
. the dominant power in Deccan India under British control, direct or in-
Southern India. But by direct. In 1765 he became governor of
tirFrench ^"f
1701, m consequence of the Bengal, and took the Mogul emperor under
brilliant military operations of Robert the chartered company's protection.
Clive, Colonel Forde, and Sir Eyre Coote, Warren Hastings, who succeeded Clive
and the extraordinary lack of support as governor-general, lent British troops
afforded to their agents by the French to a British ally, the wazir of Oudh, in
Government, there was scarcely a French order to check the invasions of the
fla? flying over any portion of India. Rohilla Afghans, who were attempting
Although at the Peace of Fontainebleau to intrigue with the Mahrattas against
(1763) the sites of Pondichery, Chanderna- the Mogul emperor and his feudatories.
5498
BRITISH CONQUESTS IN THE EAST
British interference from Bombay in Wellington) at Assaye and Argaum, in
Mahratta affairs —the promotion of a the Deccan, and those of Lord Lake at
British candidate for the throne of the Aligarh and Laswari, in the removal of the
Peshwa —
precipitated the first struggle
with the Mahrattas. This began in 1778
Mogul emperor from the control of the
Mahratta confederation to that of the East
with Goddard's brilhant march across India Company, in the British control over
India from Bengal to Gujerat, which Delhi and the North-west Provinces, and
province, the last home of the lion, he con- in enormous territorial gains in Eastern
quered almost without fighting. One of . India.
, Unfortunately, it was
atn s
his subordinate officers, Captain Popham, followed by a disastrous retreat
captured brilliantly the rock fortress of ^^ ^^^ British forces and a re-
in Indi
Gwalior, which was restored finally to the pulse of Lord Lake at Bhartpur,
native prince, Sindhia, in 1886. In the .
during the war with Holkar, a member of
following year, 1779, the British forces the Mahratta confederacy, in 1804-1805.
were defeated at Wargaon, and the first The Ghurka or Nepalese Wars of 1814-1815
Mahratta War ended with the mutual ended by a peace being signed, after the
restoration of all conquests, except Salsette victories of General Ochterlony, near the
and Elephanta Island, both near Bombay, capital, Khatmandu, the terms of which
which were retained by the British. confined the Ghurkas to their present
The two powerful Mohammedan states territory, recognised the British control
Df the Deccan and Southern India, over Sikkim, and secured for the Indian
Haidarabad and Mysore, next assumed a administration the hill stations of Simla
towards the aggressive
hostile attitude and other Himalayan tracts, and the
British. Warren Hastings managed to faithful alliance of the Nepalese people.
detach the Nizam Haidarabad and
of In Central India robber bands, rising
minor Hindu princes from this league, and here and there to the dignity of predatory
the British strength was mainly directed states and known as the Pindaris, were
, against Haidar Ali of Mysore, ruining settled commerce and agriculture
apo eon s
^j^Qgg ^q^^ Tippu Sahib, was by their raids. They were partly formed
c cmc o
^^ prove one of her most for- by the debris of the Mogul Empire, and
gyp were to some extent supported by the
jjjj(jg^|^jg enemies in India. The
Mysore army had conquered nearly all the Mahratta confederacy in their guerrilla
British establishments in South-eastern warfare. They were finally crushed, and
India, except the actual town of Madras ;
their leaders killed, imprisoned, or won
but by persistent fighting all these posses- over to allegiance by an army of 120,000
sions were won back by 1784. The second men wisely collected by the Governor-
Mysore War began in 1790, conducted by General, Lord Moira, Marquess of Hastings.
Lord Cornwallis. By this time diplomacy The reason for this overpowering force
had arrayed on the side of the British was the threatening aspect of the Mahratta
the important forces of the nizam and of confederacy. This attitude resolved itself
the Mahratta confederation. Tippu Sahib, into a rising —
the third and last Mahratta
therefore, was partially conquered, and his War— in 18 17. The Battle of Mehidpur
kingdom was reduced by one-half. (1817) and the magnificent defence of the
He was also made to pay a war indemnity sepoy garrison of Sitabaldi enabled the
of £3,000,000. Enraged at this, he com- British administration to break up, once
menced a correspondence with the French and for all, the Mahratta confederacy,
Government, and his letters inspired and to make territorial arrangements
Napoleon with the idea of seizing Egypt in the Bombay
Presidency
Mahratta ^^^ -^
and attacking the British in India. The Central India, which
Croniederacy , j xi.- j T>t.
have lasted to this day. The
i j. j.
naval exploits of Nelson ruined that „
Broken up
,
, j i r .. •
scheme, and in 1799 the British, under the peshwa, or president, of this
Governor-General, Lord Mornington (Mar- great Hindu league surrendered and went
quess Wellesley) and General (Lord) to live near Cawnpore on a pension of
Harris, fell on the isolated Tippu and cap- £80,000 a year. His adopted son was
tured his last fortress, Seringapatam, in the notorious Nana Sahib, who, in the
the defence of which Tippu was killed. Indian Mutiny of 1857, avenged on the
The second Mahratta War. of 1802-1804, bodies of English women and children
resulted, through the victories of Sir the rage and disappointment he felt at
Arthur Wellesley (afterwards the Duke of not being allowed to succeed to all the
5499
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
emoluments and privileges of his patron This disaster was avenged by the re-
and adoptive father. Coincidently with markable marches across Afghanistan of
the rise of the British power in India Generals Pollock, Nott, and England.
proper, the Indian or Burmese states Coming respectively from Jellalabad and
of Assam, Chittagong, Ava, Bhamma, Kandahar, they met at Kabul, and there
Arakan, Pegu, and Tenasserim had come blew up the bazaar and recovered the
under the supreme control of the new prisoners. They afterwards left Afghani-
Burmese dynasty of the Alaung-paya stan to its own devices and the rule of
(Alompra). Elated with his Dost Mohammed. In the following year,
c wo
y^Q^Qj-igg over quasi-Hindu states 1843, Sind was conquered by Sir Charles
urmes
j-j^^ Assam and Tipperah, the Napier, the crucial battle being that
Burmese monarch of Mandalay of Miani, in which a British force of 2,600
permitted or encouraged his soldiers or men defeated 22,000 Baluchis. The battle
subsidiary chiefs to raid into territories of Miani was a glory to the British arms
more distinctly British. The eventual and the discipline of the Indian army.
results were the first Burmese War of The little force under Sir Charles Napier
1824-1826, followed by the annexation —
consisted of 400 British soldiers mainly
—
of Assam, Chittagong, Arakan, Tavoy, Irish ^of the 22nd Regiment under Colonel
Mergui, and Tenasserim and the second
; Pennefather. The 2,200 Indian troops
Burmese War, of 1852, which further added included some Bengal cavalry. The bayo-
to the Indian Empire the delta of the net in the strong arms of the Irish, the
Irawadi, leaving only to native rule two magnificent ride of the Indian cavalry
provinces of the short-lived Burmese against the cannon of the Sindi army, the
Empire — Upper and Lower Burma. accuracy of the British artillery, and Sir
In 1839 took place the first invasion of Charles Napier won the day against an
Afghanistan. On the face of it this action enemy of almost dauntless bravery.
on the part of Lord Auckland might seem In 1845, the Sikhs, governed by a com-
foolhardy and a reckless courting of need- mittee of generals since the death of Ranj it
less difficulties, except that Britain, ever ^, _ Singh, annoyed at the British
The Great \t r c j j
since she became responsible for the main- annexation of Sind, crossed
M f ffh
tenance of peace in India, has been forced
I d'^^^A rmy
* ^^^ Sutlej and invaded
at intervals to oppose the Afghans, from gj.j^jgj^ India. They were
Warren Hastings' loan of British troops defeated in the bloody battles of Mudki,
to attack the Rohillas in 1773 to the Firozshah, Aliwal, and finally Sobraon.
Mohammed border warfare of 1908. Lord A British protectorate over the Punjab
Auckland endeavoured to place a prince followed. But, two years later, the Sikhs
, — —
Shah Shuj a friendly to the British on rose again, and the second Sikh War began
the throne of Afghanistan, because the with the terrible Battle of Chillianwalla, in
usurping ruler of that country. Dost which the British lost 2,400 officers and
Mohammed, was endeavouring to regain men, the colours of three regiments,
Peshawar, then in the power of the Sikhs, and four guns. But less than a month
and was entertaining suspicious relations later the conclusive victory of Gujerat
with Russia and Persia. destroyed the Sikh army and made it
The installation of Shah Shuj a in 1839, possible to annex the Punjab.
after several battles, in which the British In 1857 broke out the great mutiny of
were successful, meant the garrisoning of the Indian army. In 1806 a mutiny of
Jellalabad, Kabul, and Kandahar by the native troops had occurred at VeUore
_. British troops. Two years in the Madras Presidency, which had
. *lf'
..*'.
to British
later two of the principal British commenced with a terrible slaughter
I-.- 1 a-
political olncers were assas- of British soldiers, had been suppressed
P
sinated, the Kabul garrison with the sternest reprisals, while dis-
attempted to retreat, and 4,000 British content was afterwards appeased by
and Indian soldiers with 12,000 camp- concessions. The effects of this rising
followers perished. had been to some extent neutralised
Only one survived to reach the by disbanding the more tainted portions
garrison of Jellalabad. The British women of the Madras army. In 1824 another
and children and a few sick officers mutiny nearly broke out in Bengal over
had been detained as hostages by the the first Burmese War. The Hindu
Afghans, and, on the whole, well treated. soldiers declared it would break their caste
5500
'
5502
BRITISH CONQUESTS IN THE EAST
giving some recognition to British rights that Herat was believed to be the key of
over the Chumbi valley, which projects India, and Persia was regarded as being
into British India as a wedge between merely the stalking horse of Russia. All
Bhutan and Sikkim. The British Govern- these anxieties have been set at rest by
ment decided to submit this treaty to the the Anglo- Russian Convention the British
;
East India Company, whose commercial actions of the Cantonese officials were insup-
relations with China, though very limited, portable. Accordingly they sent a British
were not much troubled by unfriendli- fleet to China and a small military force.
ness till the advent to power of the War was declared in 1840, and in
warlike Emperor Kin-lung. This monarch that year the Chusan Archipelago, to the
strengthened the Chinese hold over Tibet, south-east of the mouth of the Yang-tse-
and marched an army of 70,000 men into kiang was occupied. In 1841 the forts
Nepal in 1792, the Chinese penetrating to guarding the entrance to the Canton
within sixty miles of the British outposts. River were stormed and captured, and
At the same time the emperor allowed the the island of Hong Kong was seized.
agents of the East India Company to be The Canton viceroy then agreed to
badly treated by the viceroy and other _^ _ cede Hong Kong and to pay
officials Canton.
at Consequently, it
The Opium
™
.
° •, , r r^
an indemnity of £1,200,000, ^
was deemed wise to send a special envoy . . -,. . These terms were, however,
to open up diplomatic relations with repudiated by the Imperial
China, and Lord Macartney was despatched Government at Peking. The war there-
with a special mission to Peking, arriving fore continued. Sir Hugh Gough occu-
there in 1793. But neither he nor his pied Canton, Amoy, Ningpo, Chapu,
successor, Lord Amherst, in 1816, could Shanghai, and two other coast towns.
obtain any alleviation of the severe He was about to take Nanking when the
disabilities imposed on European traders. Chinese emperor sent commissioners to
In 1834, the East India Company's make peace. The treaty concluded by
monopoly of the Chinese trade came to an Sir Henry Pottinger in 1842 provided not
5505
—
——
The original cause of the war the claim for its suppression, and the renewed fixing
to be able to trade in opium ^was an in- on the necks of the Chinese people of that
defensible one, of which Britain has since Manchu yoke from which the more Intel
_ „
TheFohcy
felt ashamed ; but the results ligent were trying to free themselves.
^^ ^-^^^ forcible opening of In 1856, the Chinese viceroy or com-
€.* rM.- China to European commerce missioner at Canton seized, on an accusa-
SavedJ China xl u
have, on the whole, been the tion of piracy, a sloop or " lorcha " from
, i 1 i.u
salvation of that vast empire from falling Macao whose captain was a British sub-
into complete senile decrepitude. But ject. It is very probable that the Arrow,
the Imperial Government at Peking as this vessel was called, was up to no good,
for two centuries the curse of China but the Chinese commissioner, Yeh, seems
did not appreciate the cruel kindness of to have been technically in the wrong.
Britain. It had yielded to urgent force ;
Sir John Bowring was then administering
now it wished to have as little as pos- the government of Hong Kong and in
sible to do with the red-haired barbarians charge of British interests in China. He
and their Indian subjects. Russia was a decided to deal energetically with the
different matter; the frontiers of Russia incident of the Arrow, and requested
began westwards and northwards where the British admiral on the station to bom-
those of China left off. Russia, therefore, bard Canton. This took place in 1857.
was entitled to have a diplomatic repre- Lord Elgin was despatched to China with
sentative at Peking. As to France and a strong force to act as British plenipo-
England, they were small nations of sea- „ tentiary. He was diverted
n ain an
.
revenge for the Crimean War, encouraged mutiny in India. The troops
this attitude of disdain. he brought with him proved a most welcome
On the other hand, a great revolt had reinforcement to the British in Bengal.
taken place in Central China, which was Lord Elgin, however, reached Canton
eventually headed by Hung-Siu-tsewen, towards the close of 1857, and succeeded
who proclaimed himself as Tin Wang, in capturing the commissioner or viceroy,
first emperor of the Tai-ping dynasty. Yeh, whom he sent as a prisoner to Cal-
This was an uprising which, one would cutta, where he eventually died. In 1858:
have thought, might have appealed to all France joined Great Britain in demanding
the generous instincts of Britain as the redress from China for injuries suffered
champion of hberty and reform. The by French subjects and in requiring that
recent Chinese emperors had been so a French representative should be accepted
shockingly licentious that their moral at Peking. At the close of 1858 the Treaty
depravity had affected the tone of public of Tientsin was negotiated. This treaty
morality. The Tai-ping revolt was greatly was to have been ratified by the emperor
a protest at the iniquities of the imperial early in 1859 ; but when, in June of that
court. Then, too, Hung-Siu-tsewen was year, the British and French representa-
a Christian, to all intents and purposes. tives attempted to proceed to Peking under
U
The behaviour of himself and a strong escort, their expedition was
.
^ .
, his followers was admirable. stopped before it could land, and the
liberal-mmded measures British lost three gunboats and 400 men
China
vastly encouraged foreign com- in the action which followed at the
merce at Nanking and Su-chau. Above mouth of the Peiho.
all, the movement was a Chinese one, and Lord Elgin and Baron Gros returned in
might have led to the re-establishment i860, and at the head of a very strong
of a national Chinese dynasty in the place force occupied Peking. Here the cele-
of the Manchu Tartars, whose rule has, brated summer palace was destroyed by
latterly, at any rate, done so much Lord Elgin's orders, an action which has
to arrest the growth of Chinese intellectual been deplored as an offence against the
development and friendly, mutually-pro- canons of art. Lord Elgin, however.
5506
—
native Christians, and finally in orders to was another potentate acting indepen-
the foreign representatives at Peking to —
dently what time the titular Emperor of
leave the country. Japan lived sequestered in his huge harem
Not wishing to trust themselves to the at Kioto —
and firing indiscriminately
tender mercies of the Boxers, as the on foreign shipping passing through the
unofficial allies of the reactionary party straits of Shimonoseki. This was the
were called, the foreign legations prepared Daimiyo, or Lord of Cho-shu or Nagato.
to stand a siege in their " town- within- a- After a preliminary chastisement at the
town" in Peking. The British, Japanese, hands of the United States, France and
Russian, American, and French authorities . Holland, he, as he still declined
P
from their various Asiatic possessions foreign shipping to
In°e3urse ^° ^^^^^
despatched an urgency relief expedition, ... , enter the inland Sea of Japan,
with Japan ^^ j i
i .
5507
o -fart a
Ifl C c t/1
o oo:>
THE BY SIR
BRITISH HARRY
EMPIRE JOHNSTON,
VM G.C.M.G.
pretext, to land in Egypt, with the obvious " C " in Cetewayo (Ketshwayo) is a click.
intention of never withdrawing. But The present writer prefers to render all
their landing was opposed by these words with the gutturals, K, G, or
Britain in
the self-made governor, Mo- Qj. For some reason the Cape Government
Conflict with
the Negro
hammed with such spirit
Ali, sent soldiers to enforce the claims of the
that the attempt was baulked defeated rival, Gaika. The British force
and not renewed till seventy-four years crossed the Great Fish River, and then, in
later. England came into serious conflict revenge, the Kosa warriors under Ndiambe
with negro oVer South African
the entered the colony and besieged Grahams-
questions. Petty skirmishes no doubt haa
•
War- ath ^^^^ "^^^ away altogether by the eastern border districts of Cape Colony,
attacking in force, 12,000 of and was marked by not a few disasters.
them crossed the eastern frontier of the One of these was not directly con-
colony in December, 1834, ^^^ ^or a fort- nected with the Kaffirs, though it added
night carried all before them, killing the to the. general uneasiness and dislike with
white colonists, burning and destroying which the war was regarded at home.
their homesteads and farms, and turning the The troopship Birkenhead foundered in a
district between Somerset East and Algoa gale off Simon's Bay, and sank with 400
Bay into a desert. The raid had from the soldiers and many seamen on board. By
white settlers' point of view been abso- 1853, General Cathcart had captured all
lutely unprovoked, and there were loud the Gaika strongholds in the Amatola
cries for vengeance from Boer, German, Mountains, and had deported the Kosa
and British colonists alike, nor did the Kaffirs from that district, which was after-
missionaries attempt to defend the action wards settled by Hottentot half-breeds,
of the invading Kaffirs. Colonel Smith, and became known as Grikwaland East.
afterwards to be known as Sir Harry In 1856 a terrible delusion seized on the
Smith, drove the Kaffirs back beyond the Kosa Kaffirs through the crazy teaching of
Keiskamma, and then beyond the Kei «•
Kosa «- « a " wizard " who had
Kaffirs r
received
/-i •
_.,...
,
55II
350
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
king, Moshesh, to come to terms, the to intervene, either to save the trekking
Basuto having been attacking the Griqua Boers from extermination by the enraged
Hottentots and Boer trekkers. The Basuto, or later to save the Basuto from
issue was not a defeat to the Basuto, but being wiped out by the land-hungry Boers.
Moshesh wisely came in and agreed to a Between 1836 and 1840 the emigrant
peace which has never since been broken, Boers, whom Lord Glenelg's foolish policy
so far as the Imperial Government is con- — —
among other causes had driven out of
cerned, though the Basuto had somewhat the eastern parts of Cape Colony, had
^1. e iv serious conflicts with the brushed aside the Northern Basuto, de-
The Seventh ^
. ,
/- i /^•
limit of the recognised Zulu kingdom Cetewayo, was captured and sent into
then, on the west, was the Tugela River. temporary retirement. Sekukuni, of the
Of course, the colony of Natal contained Northern Transvaal, was then tackled and
hundreds of thousands of Zulu-speaking finally disposed of, while the Swazis were
natives, but these, for the most part, had also brought under control. Between
been long dissociated from Zulu rule. 1879 and 1893 there was peace, except
In the North-west of Natal, however, mere police operations, between the
there was the Hlubi clan, originally Britishand the natives of
In Contact
refugees from Zulu and Basuto lands. South Africa. British atten-
with the
These people, under their chief, Langali- tion was concentrated on a
Matabele
balele, began to show themselves turbulent struggle for supremacy with
in 1873, and had to be brought to. order the Dutch-speaking section of the white
by the despatch of a small military force. community. A British advance towards
The operations against the Gaika and the Zambesi began in 1887-1888, a
Galeka clans of the Kosa Kaffirs in 1877- movement which brought her into con-
78 sent a thrill of racial sympathy and tact with the Matabele power.
disturbance through Natal and Zululand, The Matabele were a section of the Zulus
and probably decided the ill-informed whom internecine quarrels had driven from
king of the Zulus to make a determined Zululand and Natal into the Southern
fight for Kaffir independence and dominion Transvaal. From this territory, where they
before the white man grew too strong. It had supplanted the Bechuana stock of the
must be remembered that there is very Bantu, the Matabele were driven by the
little linguistic difference between Kaffirs Boers beyond the Limpopo. The Matabele
and Zulus. Kaffir is an entirely artificial in their turn, from 1840 onwards, became a
name. simply an Arab term meaning
It is predatory people, and made themselves
" unbeliever," which was applied to the masters of the lands between the Limpopo
pagan Bantu along the South- and the Zambesi. They enslaved more or
"""^
east African coast by the Arabs,
. less the pre-existing Makaranga, Mashona
Z°M** d ^^^ ^y them transmitted to the and kindred tribes of Nyanza stock, and
Portuguese, Dutch and English. were a sore affliction to the more peaceable
Sir Bartle Frere saw the coming danger Bechuana on their western flank.
to Natal, and resolved to forestall it by Cecil Rhodes and his pioneers, however,
calling on Cetewayo to disarm, after had to deal with the Matabele as the
giving him full satisfaction in regard to effective masters of the country between
territories in dispute between the Zulus the Kalahari Desert and the Eastern
and the former Republic of the Transvaal. Portuguese dominions. Various far-reach-
No answer was received to the ulti- ing concessions were purchased from the
matum. On January 22nd, 1879, the greedy Matabele king, Lobengula, who was
British troops under Lord Chelmsford not very particular as to what he sold,
entered Zululand. The opening of the because in his own mind he had determined
campaign was marked by two striking exactly what the white men should do and
incidents. The capture of the British what he would withhold from their scope.
camp at Isandlhwana, the " Hill of the But in Dr. Jameson he had a masterful
Little Hand," with a loss to the British person to deal with. Jameson had accu-
of 800 white and 500 negro soldiers and
; rately gauged the Matabele strength, and,
the defence of Rorke's Drift, on the Buffalo in a short but very brilliant campaign, con-
River, under Lieutenants Chard and ducted by himself and Major
,
Bromhead, and 120 British and Colonials Forbes, and by Colonel Goold
*
Adams — on
Brilliart"""
against 4,000 Zulus, flushed with the *
. behalf of the
J, ampaign
victory of Isandlhwana. Another episode —
Imperial Government Bulu-
of this war, which has raised it in the wayo was captured, and Lobengula driven
interest of world-history far above towards the Zambesi, where he afterwards
other Kaffir wars, was the death of the died. Out of a force sent in pursuit of
Prince Imperial on a reconnoitring expe- Lobengula, a party of thirty mounted
dition. This sad event materially altered men under Captain Allan Wilson was cut
the course of modern French history. off from the main body and killed by the
Zululand was conquered finally by Matabele after a heroic resistance. The
August. 1879, ^^ th^ battles of Gingihlovo, Chartered Company's administration,
5513
—
Natal Kaffirs at the alleged filching of their the mighty power of the Zulus had been
land lastly, the abundance and cheapness
; first broken by Boer valour. After the
of rifles and ammunition during and after emigrant farmers had made themselves
the Boer War; all these were reasons, masters of the country now known as
apart from a general awakening of the Natal, the intolerable shilly-shally of the
negro, why movements towards turbu- home Ministers began. This was the
lence and independence necessitated much cause in the past of many a war, large and
vigorous police work in 1906-1908 small, and was the result of the old prin-
almost amounting to warfare .on the part — ciples of party government and the placing
of British and Colonial troops in Western of incompetent or ill-educated men for
Bechuanaland, Natal, and Zululand. short and shifting periods at the head of
Amongst " native " powers which the great departments of state. Slowly, im-
British Empire has had to fight in South perceptibly, this system has changed in
Africa must be enumerated the Boers of —
favour of a trained bureaucracy a rule
Cape Colony, Natal, the Orange State, and of the permanent official, who shapes the
—. _ the Transvaal.
, This was a policy which his temporary parliamentary
"
vigorous, emphatically "white chief endorses and adopts as his own.
Dislike *f*
the BrUUh
^^^^ °^ splendid physique, The Natal " War " of 1842 resolved
compounded for the most part itself into a night attack by the English-
of men of Flemish or Dutch descent, men of Durban on the Boer position
mingled with some proportion of French (which failed), and a siege of Durban by
Huguenots and German immigrants. the Boers. This siege was raised by the
The resident Boers, as distinct from the arrival of a British expeditionary force. The
officials of the Dutch East India Company, Boers retired, and, a commissioner arriving
never liked the British intrusion from the from England in 1843, terms were arranged
day of the first landing of British troops at by which the Boers had a free hand to
Simonstown on July 14th, 1795, down to the north of the Drakensberg, whither
5514
5515
;
great difficulties over its conflict with the ,j,. ^^ ^^^ British to sounding
-J t
natives, had been somewhat summarily -jy.
.^ France,Russia, Portugal, Italy,
annexed by Sir Theophilus Shepstone on America, and perhaps Germany
•
S th Af
behalf of the British Government. This as to their attitude in the
measure was most unpalatable to the event of a South African War. The
mass of the Boer farmers under the leader- outbreak of this long contemplated
ship of Kriiger, Pretorius, and Joubert and
; struggle was precipitated by the two
they never ceased petitioning against it. allied Boer States delivering an ultimatum
At length, encouraged by the British on October 9th, 1899. It is not necessary
lassitude which had followed the Zulu here to recount the incidents and fluctua-
War, they rose in rebellion, and after tions of this great and lengthy contest
the British defeats at Bronker's Spruit, it is sufficient to record that the war began
Lang's Nek, and Majuba Hill, obtained with a series of British defeats, retreats, and
eventually the recognition of the inde- besiegements in fortified cities or camps.
pendence of their republic, with only Then came Lords Roberts and Kitchener,
slight modifications, modifications which and their march right into the heart of the
were pared away to a transparency by the Orange Free State, and thence by a series
Convention of London in 1884. Though of successes, which went far to damp any
this convention established more or thought of European intervention, to
less clearly the boundaries of the Trans- Pretoria, Lydenburg, Komatipoort.
m
•
.
.1
. .
?,
the southern
.
,,
The Chartered Company's war against
prolongation of Africa than the bastard Zulus of Lobengula, the
it has shown itself elsewhere in the lands descendants of the hordes led northwards
of Black and Yellow. In the first place, by Umsilikazi or Mosilikatse, has been
South Africa during two-thirds of the arraigned as unjust, except when argued on
nineteenth century was not regarded as the basis of the Parable of the Talents.
an extraordinarily valuable acquisition. Lobengula and his Amandebele indunas
The Dutch colonists, it is true, were desired to keep the white man out of the
perfectly ruthless in regard to displacing, country as much as they could, except as
dispossessing, killing or enslaving the an ivory hunter or purchaser, or possibly
black races that had preceded them. as one who should find minerals at his own
They were no more scrupulous in this risk and expense and hand over a handsome
respect than the English who settled on royalty to the king and his courtiers, who
the Atlantic coast of the United States, would spend it on the purchase of more
the Spaniards in South America, the oxen, more wives, and more guns and
Portuguese in India, or the Dutch in gunpowder, with which to carry out more
Malaya. They, the Boers, were " God's extensive slave-raids to the north. The
chosen people" the yellow or black Hot-
; Chartered Company had not interfered
tentot-Bushman, or Kaffir, was a heathen, with the natives' rights over
ar ere
with no more claims to consideration than ^^^ land, nor had they at-
Company and ,j - j.- e
the beasts of the field, and both alike .
21 tempted any assumption of
were shot down by the deadly accu- governing rights. They were
racy of the Boer marksman. But British —
genuinely anxious ^the present writer can
missionary enterprise was early afoot in testify —
to avoid any quarrels with the
South Africa, and, as I have said before, Matabele, partly, to cite no higher motive,
the country was not thought particularly because they had greatly over-estimated the
worth taking away from its black in- fighting strength and capabilities of the
habitants. No
minerals of importance Matabele. The quarrel really arose over the
had been discovered prior to the diamond position of the indigenous tribes, Mashona
revelation in 1869. In many districts and Makaranga, who were treated by the
5517
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Matabele as their slaves. The Matabele responsibility for the West African settle-
theory was that if the white men wished ments, though these were amongst the
the Mashona or other of subject
their earliest attempts at empire beyond the
tribes to work for them as porters, British Channel. The forts and settle-
labourers, or guides, their services must ments were held somewhat intermittently
first be purchased from the Matabele by chartered companies. But in 1824 thi.
chiefs. The Mashona and their congeners —
governor of Sierra Leone the Gold Coast
had been waiting for the white man's ports were brought under the Sierra Leone
Wars with
advent to shake off the Zulu government from 1821 to 1850 Sir —
yoke which had lain so heavily Charles Macarthy, was forced into a
the
Matabele
on them since about 1845. conflict with the Ashanti people in order
Often, when pursued or plagued to defend the coast tribes who were under
by the Matabele, they would fly for refuge British protection. He was killed in war-
to one or other of the white men's forts, fare (Ensimankao, January 14th, 1824),
and they were frequently followed by the and the British Government was obliged
Matabele and brought back. One or two to avenge his death and re-establish
episodes of this kind, though ending in British authority; this was the first
bloodshed, were smoothed over by the Ashanti War between 1827 and 1831.
company's officials the Matabele warriors
; A short war with Lagos in 1851 was
became more and more daring, and at last the result of an attempt to put down the
a stand had to be made. In July, 1893, slave trade. On this pretext, and also to
a Matabele army entered the township avenge wrongs done to British merchants,
of Victoria, and attacked the Mashonas the Dahomeh coast was frequently block-
residing there, slaughtering many before aded or bombarded during the third
the company's police could intervene. A quarter of the nineteenth century, and
fight between the Matabele warriors and punitive expeditions were undertaken in
the mounted police ensued, resulting in the Niger delta, 1886-1906. and the Congo
considerable loss of life to the Matabele, „ . estuary, 1875. The transfer of
and inan open war with Lobengula's yf * ". .the Dutch possessions on the
forces, which ended in the Chartered Com- ... Gold Coast to Great Britain en-
pany becoming the government of the land tailed another war with Ashanti
in the place of these raiding Zulus who in 1873-1874. This was the first occasion
had preceded them by forty or fifty years. on which West African warfare was taken
In the second Matabele War, which seriously. Sir Garnet Wolseley, who had
followed in 1896, it is true that the Mashona distinguished himself as the commander
joined hands with their former oppressors, of the Red River expedition in Central
but the discontent which provoked this Canada, commanded a British force of
war was largely caused by the company about 10,000 men, 2,400 British, and the
having employed an oppressive Matabele remainder negro soldiers, which, together
police, which, in a different uniform and with native auxiliaries under Sir John
with a new authority, continue to plunder Glover, entered Kumasi and imposed a war
the unfortunate tillers of the soil. indemnity which was never completely
The foundation of the colony of Sierra paid. Ashanti was only finally conquered
Leone, in 1787-1807, for the purpose of after two more expeditions (1896-1900).
repatriating liberated slaves led to very It is now directly administered by the
little trouble with the natives till Sierra British Government, and has consequently
Leone had been about eighty years in increased very considerably in prosperity.
_ existence as a British colony, The action of France about the sources
'°l1 ^ ij mainly because little attempt
on the Gold j -o x- V of the Niger, beginnine in the early
Q was made j.
to exercise British 'eighties of the last century, obliged the
authority beyond the Sierra British Government to concern itself about
Leone Peninsula and certain islands on the hinterland of Sierra Leone ; and the
the coast duly purchased from the native various attempts to impose British influence
owners. The same may be said in regard over the warlike Temne and Mende peoples
to the Gambia. But as early as 1824 entailed a number of armed expeditions or
trouble arose on the Gold Coast with the small wars, such as the Yonni war in 1886,
powerful native kingdom of Ashanti. in what is now the rather considerable
As related elsewhere, the British Crown territory of the Sierra Leone Protectorate.
had shirked as much as possible any direct These culminated in a regular rising of the
5518
CONTESTS IN AFRICA AND THE PACIHC
Temne and Mende peoples, owing to the the Nigerian Sudanese the Mohammedan —
imposition of a hut tax, in 1898. The Nupe, Fulbe, Hausa peoples under a general
complete subjugation of the colony —
Fulbe suzerainty hordes of cavalry per-
which followed, coupled with the build- meated with Mohammedan bravery. These
ing of a railway across a portion of the peoples in those days were possibly egged
hinterland, brought about the most on to try conclusions with the British
extraordinary changes in the prosperity company by its French and German rivals,
of the natives. Sierra Leone is now one who, in the first place, resented the British
of the best governed, most prosperous, •• appropriation of Eastern Ni-
B h
and generally successful of the British ^eria, and in the second, disUked
Rule in the
possessions in tropical Africa. Similar
Sudan most of all that the govern-
attempts to open up the hinterland ment of the country should be
of the Gambia, and to protect commerce entrusted to a commercial company.
along the British banks of that river, The company had to face the situation,
likewise occasioned a few armed expedi- conquer the amir of Nupe, and impose peace
tions against the Mandingo or Fulbe sultans by a show of force on the Fulbe sultan of
of the interior. The last of these was the Sokoto. The expedition of 1897, practically
expedition against Fodi Kabba in 1900. led by George Goldie, was to all intents
Sir
In the hinterland of Lagos, in the Ibo and purposes organised by the British
territories of the Niger Delta, there were Government, and was commanded by
punitive expeditions, enforced conquests Imperial officers. It achieved its object
of natives who would not let the Britisher after one or two pitched battles, but ran
or his native subjects alone. These occurred the narrowest risks of failure and disaster
mainly between 1885 and 1905, including owing to the difficulties of transport once
the expedition in 1897, wliich rapidly it quitted the navigable waterway.
the banks of the Niger had failed through turning their thoughts to better things,
the frightful mortality which attacked the the cheapest way of maintaining the
naval expeditions. The Lower Niger was hold over this important region of Africa,
justly regarded then as a region so is by the building of railways. As re-
impossibly unhealthy that it could not gards wars in North-east Africa within
profit the British Government as a means the memory of living men, the first
of reaching the Nigerian Sudan. to record is the somewhat
The Quixotic
As related elsewhere, the foundations Abyssinian
quixotic Abyssinian expedi-
of modern British Nigeria were laid ^^°" ^^ 1864-1868. Of all the
Exxpeedition
1
ion
by Captain Goldie Taubman. afterwards episodes in the history of the
Sir George T. Goldie. The Royal Niger British Empire, this will seem the most
Company, which he founded, soon experi- difficult to explain. Its analogue in its
enced, however, enormous difficulties in wars of the first class with European
carrying their charter into effect. It was Powers is the Crimean War. Some well-
relatively easy to keep order amongst the meaning but over-zealous missionaries had
savage cannibal negroes along the banks offended the usurping monarch of Abys-
of the Niger and navigable Benue but;
sinia, Theodore. This curious personality,
immediately beyond these regions were who, like his immediate predecessors for
5519
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
about seventy years back, had begun to khedive. The motive was absolutely not
get into touch with the civihsation of the any desire to acquire more territory, but
outer world by commerce carried on in reality to save the Suez Canal from
through Indian traders, had invited to his falling under the exclusive control of
court mechanics or industrial missionaries, France, of Turkey, or of a new Moham-
and then, if he were capriciously displeased medan nationality, fanatical and successful,
with them, would hold them as his which might be arising under the some-
captives. A British consul of Levantine what stupid colonel of artillery, Ahmad
or Armenian extraction, Arabi. Britain had seen between 1835
Theodore, the
ggig^^^ed for his knowledge of and 1840 a great military power arise
/.^ '"5. Arabic and Amharic, was in Egypt, which had conquered nearly
of Abyssinta , , > .1 .
•
Somali coast. There had been British thorny deserts over an area as
envoys to Ethiopia and Shoa as far back large as England, in attempts, that were
as the closing years of the eighteenth to a great extent vain, to grasp the
century. The coastlands and a good mobile enemy by the throat. Troubles
deal of the interior of the Somali country began in Somaliland in 1898. The opera-
produced sheep, goats, camels, and even tions against Sayyid Mohammed, the
oxen, besides other commodities which " Mad " mullah, now no longer regarded
were required to feed the British garrison as mad, commenced in 1901 and did not
at Aden, and also the ever-increasing terminate until 1904. In 1905 Sayyid
5521
i
actionary forces for the attack, there tious settlement of their land questions.
_ could be no rest for the British
onquerors
No colonial war of recent years has
governor at Khartoum. Con- taken place in any British American
p * c J sequetly, the third and last possession but in 1865 there was a serious
Eastern Sudan ^ ^ j
;
campaign xi
• •
j.i
that regamed the danger of a wide-spreading negro revolt
Sudan for civilisation was entered upon by in the island of Jamaica. The somewhat
Sir Reginald Wingate, to the great anxiety panic-stricken and illegal actions taken by
of those who were watching afar off. A Governor Eyre and the officers under his
success, in its way as triumphant as that command cost that otherwise excellent
of Kitchener, settled the question once and colonial official his career.
for all. In the battle of Om
Dubreikat The revolt in Upper and Lower Canada
on November 25th, 1899, the khalifa between 1835 and 1838 entailed a good
Abdallah and all his emirs were killed. deal of stiff fighting. It was finally ex-
Colonel Hunter and Colonel Parsons, tinguished by the evident determination
between them, had conquered the whole of the British Government, through the
Eastern Sudan, from the Blue Nile to work of such able administrators as the
Kassala, in September, 189S but this ; Earl of Durham and Lord Sydenham, to
region required a small punitive expedition endow the Canadas with a complete and
as late as 1908. The great cattle-breeding popular form of constitutional govern-
tribe of the Dinkas has elicited more than ment. In 1870 the revolt of the French
one display of Anglo-Egyptian force, and half-breeds in the Red River district, under
the N am-Niams of the Western Bahr el Louis Riel, entailed a military expedition
Ghazal likewise. commanded by the present Viscount
The only " native " wars in Polynesia Wolseley, then a young colonel. But
sufficiently important to be chronicled Louis Riel reappeared fifteen years later,
have been those which took place in New and defeated a body of Canadian
Zealand in two periods, from 1845 to * * mounted police and volunteers.
jj*
J**
1848, and from i860 to 1870. The ,
* f _. This success rallied round him
.
±% QQ!^4^4&^^- ^
~i
r
i
^itii
{
i
M
n
5524
BRITISH HAUSA TROOPS STATIONED ON THE GOLD COAST
mi 2m^
THE BY SIR
BRITISH HARRY
EMPIRE JOHNSTON.
VIII G.C.M.G.
the end of founding a great empire be- p. .of which he attacked and plun-
.
yond the seas it only began in the ge .. dered the Spanish settlements
J
time of Elizabeth. Even then there were of Santo Domingo, Florida,
" Queen's ships " and the vessels of Cuba, and, most wonderful of aU, Peru.
private adventurers whose proceedings He sailed round South America, attacked
were either licensed or winked at by the the Spaniards on the undefended Pacific
sovereign, and who were only to be dis- coast, and then, first of all leaders of men,
tinguished from common pirates in that so far as we know, completed the circum-
their hostile actions were usually limited navigation of the globe. Magellan, the
to the property of such nations as were Portuguese navigator, died in the Spice
at war or on bad terms with England. Islands after discovering the Magellan
The first of such sea-fights under the Straits. His ships, not he, completed the
national flag was the battle of an English first voyage round the world. In 1585,
fleet under Sir John Hawkins and Sir when Spain and England were at last at
Francis Drake against the ships of the open war, followed Drake's Carthagena
Spanish viceroy off San Juan de Ulua, expedition, and in 1587 was the raid on
on the coast of Mexico, in 1567. This Cadiz, in which he destroyed or captured
ended in a decisive victory for the British, eighty Spanish ships which were employed
and was the beginning of the long series of in preparing for the great Armada.
attacks on Spanish America, which con- The exploits or outrages of Drake were
tinued down to 1808, and even found their among provocative causes of the dis-
echo in the United States' war against Spain patch of the great Armada which was
En "^ d'
1
°" account of Cuba and Porto effectually to subdue this nation of Pro-
£j^i.j
Rico. This particular fight at testant pirates in the Northern seas.
Sea Fiehts ^^^ Juan de Ulua arose over The resistance offered to this mighty
the desire of the English to Spanish fleet may be justly regarded as
carr5, on a trade in African slaves between one of the earhest glories of the Enghsh
Guinea and America in defiance of Spanish Navy, but we should also not forget
monopolies of commerce and privileges. that it was equally Dutch valour which
Sir John Hawkins had begun the slave rendered the purposes of the Armada
—
trade under the indirect permit a sub- impossible and saved England from ex-
concession from Genoese and Portuguese periencing at the hands of Spain woes
—
concessionaries of Spain in 1562, and it such as England herself had inflicted on
had proved so profitable that Queen Ireland. Frobisher, Howard of Effingham^
5525
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Drake and Hawkins, tackled this enormous was confined pretty much to home waters
and clumsy fleet of sixty magnificent —to the shores of Scandinavia, Holland,
vessels as soon as it had entered the France, Spain, and Portugal during the —
British Channel, and followed it resolutely Middle Ages, and the first great swoops
to the Straits of Dover. Here, whilst the of discovery and conquest under the early
Spanish naval commander-in-chief was Tudors were made at the instigation
awaiting the arrival of the Duke of Parma's of Venetian, Genoese and Portuguese
army for England, which was to sally out pilots or captains just as under the later
;
_ from the Flemish and Dutch Plantagenet kings the English marine
• seaports in shallow vessels, learnt much from the Flemings and the
th S h
Dutch mariners Dieppois. But by the time of Elizabeth's
ArmaT*^" the brave
blockaded the coasts and —
accession the English equally with the
deltas of the Netherlands, and prevented —
Dutch were the hardiest navigators and
the Spanish soldiers from putting out to the boldest sea-fighters in the world.
sea. During this hesitancy an English Thenceforth, though they were not too
sea-captain, probably Winter, thought of proud to learn new methods of naval
—
the splendid idea really originated some construction or of maritime warfare from
years earlier by an Italian engineer, Giam- Holland, Spain, France, Genoa, or from the
—
belli of sending fireships to drift with Algerine pirates, the English needed no one
wind and tide into the midst of the to show them the way into strange seas,
huddled and anchored Armada. This for Yior, in the long run, could any other navy
the first time scattered the Armada. The prevail against them. They fought and
decisive engagement and the complete rout beat the Portuguese off the coasts of Africa,
of the fleet took place next day. though the India, and the Persian Gulf they ;
chase was continued on the part of the Eng- withstood the mighty ships of Spain in
lish to as far north as the latitude of 56°. English and Irish waters, off the coasts of
The next great naval exploit was the Spain and of the Mediterranean, in the
capture of Cadiz in 1596, by Essex, Raleigh, Gulf of Mexico and the Carib-
Effingham, and Howard, followed by a _ . j^* bean Sea along the Pacific
raid on Spanish shipping in the Azores
/e™i a
c<^3.sts of South America, amid
Archipelago. Then for a time Spain and ^ ^ the Spice Islands, and the archi-
England were at peace. The next enemy pelago of the Philippines. They won
to be encountered on the sea was Holland. final victories over the Dutch at the close
An English fleet under Monk, commissioned of the seventeenth and eighteenth cen-
by the Lord Protector Cromwell, defeated turies —
since when, for unexplained causes,
the Dutch off the North Foreland in* Holland has ceased to be a first-class
1653, and destroyed much Dutch shipping —
naval power and closed their chequered
in the Texel. but generally successful duel with the
All this warfare with Holland, like that French Navy by the battle of Trafalgar.
with Spain, arose over the question of America fought with equal valour and
commercial monopolies in the Colonies address, but with infinitely smaller re-
and the Eastern seas. Admiral Blake sources, in the war of 1812-1814, and since
proceeded to the Mediterranean in 1656 then, happily, has been at peace with us.
and bombarded Porto Farina and Goletta Turkey received an occasional drubbing in
on the coast of Tunis, to punish the the Eastern Mediterranean or the Red
dey of that Turkish principality for Sea between the seventeenth and the early
attacks on British shipping. In 1657 nineteenth centuries. The Barbary rovers
Blake's fleet won a victory were finally settled by Lord Exmouth's
England's
Glory in
x^.wj, .u
over the Spaniards at Cadiz.
rj.^^
bombardment of Algiers in 1816. Since
glory of the navy has been 1806 Great Britain has held the world's
a peculiarly English one, and championship on the open sea. And the
perhaps accounts for the predominance of glory till that date lay chiefly, though
England over Ireland and Scotland. The not entirely, with men of English birth.
Scandinavians, who colonised the coasts In 1692, Admiral Russell defeated the
of Ireland and Scotland, did not implant French in a great naval battle off LaHogue,
there as strong a lust for a seafaring life as and thus baulked a most serious attempt
they did all round maritime England, from on the pflrt of Louis XIV. to restore the
Berwick to Penzance, and from Dungeness Stuart dynasty under conditions which
to Lancaster. Of course, English navigation would have materially crippled the British
5526
THE FIGHTING FORCES OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Empire beyond the seas. The British Navy 1794, upset the plans of the French Republic
co-operated with an Anglo-German force in for the invasion of maltreated, disaffected
the capture of Gibraltar in 1704. In 1718, Ireland. In the battle of Camperdown, in
as a consequence of the War of the Spanish 1797, Admiral Duncan destroyed the effi-
Succession and the disputes over Italy, Sir ciency of the Dutch fleet, which was then
George Byng fought a successful battle under French orders, and in the same year
which practically destroyed the Spanish Admiral Jervis rendered a similar service
fleet off the coast of Sicily. in regard to the naval force of Spain off
In 1747 Admiral (Lord) Anson, Com- TV D •*• Cape St. Vincent. The year
The British
1.
^o xt ^
1 >
modore Fox, and Admiral (Lord) Hawke, M rk
• ^79° s^-^ Nelson s marvel-
1,
power. The British naval supremacy was readiness for action have been the chief
never so seriously threatened as between mainsta}^ of the imperial forces. Without
1770 and 1892. Lord Howe's victory off this overwhelming fleet she could never
Ushant on the " Glorious First of June," have restrained France from fresh descents
3S> 5527
FLAGSHIP OF THE ENGLISH FLEET AT THE TIME OF THE SPANISH ARMADA
55aS
THE ROYAL GEORGE: TIME OF GEORGE II. II CbNTURY MAN-OF-WAR
1. !
1'
.^ '
#/
v^
1
/'
'*'<<-^^>
'
N
**>^- 1
^^^^
H.M.S.
1^^^^
^
""immui^miSt
' . «„
}
t)^
Fj
^
.ri-
'
SPI
bRJTlSH NAVY
'^
FAMOUS FIGHTING SHIPS, WITH THE VICTORY IN RIGHT FOREGROUND, OFF SPITHEAD
^^^ water was studied nor was national army came into being and this
Rese h ; ;
the ethnology of the Pacific growth was to some extent checked after
Islands overlooked, and the ornithology the Restoration. But under Charles II,
the petrels, gulls, and pelicans of the — two of the regiments of Lifeguards (Cold-
ocean wastes, or of oceanic rocks and atolls. —
streams the Coldstreams were the last
The Imperial army in its personnel and vestige of Cromwell's and Monk's standing
recruitment has not always been as —
army and ist Lifeguards) began, which
English or as British as the navy. For have been extended and continued as a
example, the Foreign Legion recruited by corps d'61ite to the present day and in
;
the British Government for service during this reign the first regiments for foreign
5534
—
Crown, and
some time after
for his . landed an army near Calais
coronation kept his Dutch Guards in 1346 which consisted of
in
London.
m England
.
r- A
I
'i 1 t- i- 1
In he really conquered
fact, about 25,000 English, 4,450
Ireland — and thereby retained England .Welsh, and 1,100 Irish. Their daily pay
with foreign soldiers. ranged from Sr.6o for the officers of
I. and George II. brought Ger-
George highest rank to six cents for the English
man regular soldiers to England, and, soldiers. The Welsh, being less skilled in
although these were eventually sent back archery, received only four cents a day. This
to Hanover, the principle of recruiting was the force which won the battleof Crecy.
German, mainly West German, merce- But, except for companies of archers,
naries for service as, and with, the British halberdiers, and showy men-at-arms, who
Army abroad continued until 1857, having formed part of the sovereign's household
commenced under Queen Anne. To these and were a guard about the palace, there
German legions, their most faithful, un- was no standing army in England until the
complaining service, their unswerving time of Cromwell's protectorship. Then
loyalty and unstinted bravery, the British there was a public force of 80,000 men.
Empire owes much. As elsewhere related, WTien Charles II. came to the throne
they became in many individual instances this had become in the main the army
„. . the salt of her early colonial under Monk which practically suppressed
* *•
*•'*'
^^orts in America, South the Rump Parliament and gave the throne
T A
.V T J Africa, and Australia. There to Charles. Nevertheless, the king made
the Tudors ,.'
,
^
was no standmg or profes- haste to disband it, only retaining out of
sional army in England for home or foreign all this force the Coldstream regiment,
service until the middle of the seventeenth which became the Coldstream Guards, the
century. There was a militia, and in oldest regiment in the British Army. He
feudal days and under the Tudors nearly also received back to English service the
all the vigorous males of the community Scottish soldiers who had migrated abroad
of all ranks of life were trained to arms of after the downfall of Charles I.
some kind instead of wasting their time on After Charles II. 's marriage, however,
fruitless athletic sports, the survival in it became necessary to raise a limited body
some cases of actual crude efforts to attack of troops for the occupation and garrison-
or defend. The serfs, peasantry, and ing of Bombay and Tangier. Men were
mechanics learnt to use the bow, wield the recruited, therefore, from the wilder and
pike, sling the stone, discharge the rude more reckless remainder of Cromwell's
musket. They were the infantry. The army to form the Bombay Fusiliers after- —
gentry, successors of the knights, were the wards known as the 103rd Regiment the —
cavalry, who wielded sword or battle-axe. first regular troops of the Crown main-
This cavalry came in time to include tained in India, and the two Tangier regi-
the enfranchised yeomanry, "the upper
The Army
—
ments one of cavalry (the ist
middle class " of to-day. When a war, Royal Dragoons of to-day) and
of
internecine or foreign, was toward, the king the other infantry (Queen
Charles II
called on his barons, and they in their turn Catherine's Regiment, after-
on the lesser authorities below them, to wards the Queen's or the Royal West
furnish from out of their serfs or tenantry Surrey). When Tangier was restored to the
the requisite number of " men-at-arms." Moors these regiments were brought to
And thus an army was gathered together. England, and formed part of the regular
But it was less easy to do this for foreign standing army, which at the end of
service. Men would have come forward Charles II. 's reign amounted to a total of
readily enough to fight within a few days' 16,500 men. James II. raised this figure
or even weeks' march of their own homes ; to 20,000. Much of this army went over
5535
HISTORY OP THE WOtlLO
to AVilliam TIL after his landing, but for 78,000 militia, and 347,000 volunteers.
a long time he preferred to surround his In 1822 the standing army, home and
person with Danish or Dutch soldiers, foreign service, was only 72,000 in strength.
whose fidelity he could trust, and Ireland By 1866 this total had risen to 203,500.
was conquered by him in 1689 by an army At the present day the regular army of
composed of Dutch, Danish, and English the United Kingdom consists of about
regiments, besides contingents from the 252,400 officers. and men, of whom some
Ulster Irish. Twenty British regiments 20,000 are non-combatants. Of this total
-, .accompanied Marlborough to about 126,000 are stationed in India (which
- Flanders on the outset of his has 80,000), and in the crown colonies,
^ *^™Z. marvellous campaigns, cam- protectorates, and in South Africa.
has Grown u- u '
paigns which won colonies
i •
5536
pUTPOSTS^EAiPIRE
Being a series of photographs taken in
widely distant parts of the British Empire,
selected for the purpose oT illustrating
the diversity of the countries and climes
over which the British flag is flying.
35a 5537
IN THE SEYCHELLES; SCENE IN THE ISLAND OF MAHE
THE BY SIR
BRITISH HARRY
EMPIRE JOHNSTON,
IX G.C.M.G.
••
into two distinct sections —
that which Atlantic islands of Ascension, St. Helena,
is governed from London, and that which and Tristan d'Acunha British Central ;
governs itself. The first is the special Africa, including Nyassaland the island ;
appanage of Great Britain and Ireland, of Mauritius and its dependencies, the
and the second is rapidly differentiating Seychelles Archipelago the protectorates
;
use of the same language, the same the Maldive Archipelago the Malay ;
irrational weights and measures, the same Peninsula from Burma to Singapore (the
literature and art, the same religious beliefs Nicobar and Andaman Islands belong to
and prejudices, and by the acceptance of India) and the northern third of Borneo
the same sovereign head. The the island and peninsulas of Hong Kong,
Britain's
countries of the first section, the leasehold of Wei-hai-wei, in Northern
Vast Inner
Empire
outside Great Britain, Ireland, China the Solomon Islands, the Fiji
;
Man, the Channel Islands, and Archipelago, the Tonga group, and numer-
the small Mediterranean possessions, are ous other islands and islets in the Pacific.
inhabited in the main by yellow, brown, or In the New World, Jamaica, the Ber-
black men, essentially non- European in mudas, Bahamas, Turks, and Caicos
race, religion, civihsation, and languages ;
islands British Honduras, the Leeward
;
lands," where the preponderating mass of Trinidad, and the large colony of British
the population is in origin of the white Guiana and the Falkland Islands.
;
5545
a
5546
, ;
-.f A I
of Colonial
appointments
^^ ,, shall
u j^n j r , •
for their public purposes far more cheaply nUed up on the advice of
Appointments
in the world's financial markets because of the Royal Society, the Crown
their connection with the United King- Agents, the Royal College of Surgeons or
dom, which not only controls such incur- Physicians, or the Army Medical Depart-
ring of indebtedness, but stands as the ment that the curators of museums, or
;
army for foreign service, and a Diplomatic chaplains from the Anglican Church
and Consular Corps. It is true that customs controllers from the British
Australia, New Zealand, Cape Colony and Customs Service commandants of police
;
Natal contribute small subsidies to the from the British Army, and port officers
cost of the navy, but at present these from the British Navy.
subsidies are so small that they make no In this way, and in spite of local
appreciable difference to the annual patriotism and that natural local clannish-
financial burden. No country outside Great ness which, unchecked, leads to the evolu-
_^ e „ eep Britain and Ireland, except tion of separate nationahty, the veins of
p ^^^ Indian Empire, makes —
the empire its principal arteries, at any
n •»• k A
Brihsh Army
any
^.
contribution towards the
r , r ,,
rate —are kept flowing with British blood.
cost oi the army or oi the Perhaps, however, it would be a happier
Diplomatic and Consular Service. The simile to say that as yet a British brain
Indian Empire pays for the 80,000 British directs the trunk and members of the
soldiers serving in India, for the Indian British Empire.
Council sitting in London, and for a The total land area under the aegis of
proportion of the cost of diplomatic —
the British Empire including the Siamese
and consular representation in Turkey, portion of the Malay Peninsula, the British
Persia, Siam, etc. sphere in Persia and in South Arabia, also
In the states of the first category no Egypt and the Egyptian Sudan is approxi- —
commissioned appointment of any im- mately 13,138,900 square miles; without
portance is made except from London, these last additions the area is 11,437,486
and by the sovereign acting through the square miles. Of this sum about 3,140,900
officers ofthe British Government. In the square miles belong to the Inner Empire,
states of the second category all appoint- and 9,998,000 to the outer or mainly self-
ments to the public services arc made by governing division 6,058,669 square
;
the sovereign through his local repre- miles lie within the temperate or Arctic
sentative, as advised by the local respon- regions, and 7,080,231 within the tropics.
sible government. Therefore, although the , About 1,700,000 square miles
,
Colonial Office and Crown Agents, the r," u\\ of land in British North
Foreign Oifice, India Office, War Office, -, .
K.
Uninhabit&ble . v x xto suchu
America are subject
ry
Admiralty, Board of Trade, Trinity House, arctic conditions as at present
Office of Works, and other government these regions are either uninhabited, or
departments may possess the power of merely maintain a few thousand Eskimo.
filling all posts of any authority or emolu- About 150,000 square miles of British
ment held by Europeans in India, Tropical Arabia, 100,000 square miles of British
Africa and America, Malaya, China, India, 200,000 square miles of British South
Ceylon, and the Mediterranean, they Africa, 600,000 square miles of Egypt and
possess of right no such patronage over the Sudan, and one-third of the area of
AustraUa, New Zealand, Canada, or South —
AustraUa say 1,000,000 square miles are —
5547
;;
;
which the energy and works of man can (Malay Peninsula and Andaman Islands) ;
abate, and even eventually cause to dis- 66,000 Black Australians 550,000 Papuans;
grapple with the remains of the last Glacial 120,000 American Indians and 15,000 ;
Period —
holding North America and
still Eskimo. In British America there are
„.,,-. Northern Asia in its clutches 1,901,000 Negroes and Negroids, and in
British Areas
.
^u j
than *to draw —
up j.u
the rain
•
attracts and precipitates the fickle rain. are Negroid (Arab hybrids, Hamites, Somali,
Roundly speaking, when all deductions Gala, Fulbe, Mandingo, Hima, Creole half-
for present uninhabitability are made, we castes) and 30,000 areHottentot-Bushmen.
;
are left with 9,400,000 square miles of land Under the British flag somewhat im- —
under the British flag, which at present sup- perfectly protected thereby in some cases
ports a population of about 405,000,000. — are the lowliest in development of all
The proportion of population to area existing human races, and consequently
varies greatly. That of the United the most interesting to students of an-
Kingdom (area, 121,390 square miles —
thropology Veddahs in Ceylon, Australo-
population, 44,100,000) is 342*5 to the Papuans, Andaman and Malayan Negritoes,
square mile that of Malta and Gozo
; South African Bushmen, and Equatorial
(area, 117 square miles; population, Pygmies. The same flag covers what
206,690) is i,766'8 to the square mile
of India, from Baluchistan to Siam (area,
i>766,5i7 square miles population, about;
;
-in
some believe to be the handsomest oeople
ypes o
Beauty m the
the world to-day English
^^^
i i_
Irish
•
^
—
—who seem to have -
i.'*-**'^ D
British Rale
Coast, 12 ; and New Zealand,
1 physical development. On the other
hand, in North-western India may be
, ,
nearly 9 (area, 104,750 square
miles population in 1906, 936,309). Of the
;
seen some of the handsomest human
total 405,000,000, 62,350,000 belong to the beings in the world, women as well as
white or Caucasian race (say, 56,464,000 men, if the monotony of the yellow-
Germano-Kelt, and 5,886,000 Mediter- brown skin and the sleek black hair can
ranean, Iberian, Greek, Arab, Jew, be accepted in lieu of the blue-grey iris,
Persian, Eurasian and Quadroon peoples) the golden-brown hair, and ivory-white,
282,000,000 to the dark Dravidio-Caucasic pink-tinted skin of the better-looking
stock about 14,500,000 to the Mongol type
; types of England, Ireland and Scotland.
5548
;
the British verge of the Congo forest, or lously shaved or pulled out with tweezers.
in the southern basin of the Benue, whose Some, like the old and dying generation
ideas of preparing food by cooking are of France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal,
mainly limited to partial putrefaction. grow long finger-nails (Gibraltarese, Mal-
Cannibalism still prevails in parts of tese, and Chinese), to show,
Malays
British Africa, Australasia, British Guiana like the unconscious snobs they are, that
but the eating of human flesh, though they have never done manual labour.
repulsive to our modern ideas and extinct in Others wear their nails down to the quick.
England since, let us say, 500 B.C., and in Two hundred millions at least of British
Ireland since 100 A.D., is not necessarily a Indians, British Africans and British
sign of low mental development. Never- Arabs keep their nails and hands and feet
theless, Great Britain is the political exquisitely manicured and pedicured, nails
guardian of at least a million professing clipped and clean, toes cornless ; others,
cannibals at the present day. She is also like a proportion of the middle and lower
the tutrix of another million Africans, per- classes of the metropolitan state, say
«... .^ haps a few Negritoes, Austral- 20,000,000 of English, Irish, Scottish,
Britaia the •
j n a •
^ ,. asians, and Guiana Amerm- live all their lives long with dirty nails,
,-, ...
of C&nnibals
dians,
^ '
who are
^ .
absolutely
J filthy and deformed feet, and hands not
naked, no knowmg
more fitto be grasped by a squeamish person.
shame in lack of body-covering than the Ninety-two millions of British subjects,
beasts of the field. Another 20,000,000 or or wards of the empire, practise circum-
so, in Africa, America, Malaya, Australia cision as a religious or a mystic rite about ;
and Oceania, take little interest in clothes 1,000,000 of British Africans and some
as a source of aesthetic delight, but adorn 50,000 black Australians pass beyond this
and vary the monotony of an exposed harmless custom to elaborate mutilations de-
skin by the arts of cicatrisation, tattooing, scribed in works of technical anthropology.
plastering, rouging and dyeing. Some push About 10,000,000 out of the 44,000,000
the predilection for ear-rings to such an population of men, women, and children
extent that the ear-lobes hang down in in the British Isles are scrupulously clean
great loops of leather to the shoulders. as to their persons about 250,000,000 are
;
Others ring the septum of the nose or the same in India ; personal cleanliness
insert large discs of wood or shell or ivory is the prevailing characteristic of the
into the upper or lower lip. Quite 20,000,000 negro, of some Arabs, and of the Malays
also think it more comely and convenient and Polynesians. It is fortunately a
to knock out the upper or lower incisor strong point with the Neo-British in
teeth or to file the teeth to a sharp point. Canada above all, in AustraUa,
Nearly a hundred million stain their teeth . „ . . . New Zealand, and some parts
orange-brown with
nut. Aboutbetel
g " llj"gl*
of South Africa. As regards
^^^ '
ten million women and men in Scotland of Hindus,
food, 223,000,000
and England prefer to lose their front Burmese, and Tamils,
Shans, Singhalese,
teeth or have them permanently blackened are mainly vegetarian and subsist on
with premature decay sooner than appeal sorghum, millet, and wheat flour, rice,
to the resources of modem dentistry. butter, sugar, pulse of many kinds, pumpr
A million women in the Eastern and kins, melons and European vegetables, the
Equatorial regions of British Africa think egg plant, cucumbers, onions, coco-nuts,
it womanly and becoming to live bald- dates, mangoes, and other tropical fruits.
pated, their heads continually shaved, A million and a half of British Chinese live
5549
'
^^^^r
m™
AN AFRICAN ZULU GIRL
P
" ;.'^ —
V
- ^1'
AN ENGLISH BEAUTY
^K ^H
1
1 1 r
H J 1 fa
A FRENCH-CANADIAN GENTLEMAN A CENTRAL AFRICAN DANDY
Photos Valentine.
5550
A NUBIAN NEGRESS SUDANESE OF UPPER NILE WOMAN OF EASTERN SUDAN
I'lioto of Vcddah by Drs. Fritz and Sarasin
* *^^ horror of touching the sacred meal the staples of the Scottish peasantry
the O
* ^^* ^^^ British, Neo-British, milk, pancakes of wheaten flour, pork, pota-
Sacred
Malays (substituting buffalo toes, cheese, cream, whisky and cider nourish
for ox), Masai, and other tribes of Equa- the sturdy Welsh countryfolk; bread,
torial East Africa, and to a certain extent cheese, beer, tea, cider, beef, bacon and fish
the South African negroes also, are very form the average sustenance of the English
fond of beef. Throughout the Moham- peasantry, a wholesome diet varied in the
medan Mediterranean, African and Ara- towns with an endless variety of tinned
bian regions subject to Britain, the sheep stuff. The Maltese live chiefly on fish,
is the most common meat provider ; and, pork, goat's flesh, stirabout made of wheat
of course, mutton is almost the staple of or maize flour, olives and olive oil, fruit,
the Falkland Islands, England, Scotland, onions, cheese and wine. The diet of the
Wales, New Zealand, Australia, and parts Cjrpriote consists of much the same as the
of white South Africa. Goat's flesh is foods of the Maltese, less pork.
much eaten at Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus, The Egyptian fellahin use bread or
and throughout tropical Africa. Camel's porridge made from the flour or groats of
fiesh is a favourite meat in Somaliland, sorghum, wheat, maize and millet as the
British Arabia, and Baluchistan. groundwork of their daily food. They also
Pork is not only eaten rapturously by eat mutton, goat's flesh, pigeons,
Varieties
the refined and lordly Sikh, but by many butter from buffalo and cow
of
low-caste or pagan tribes in India. It p. p . milk, dates, rice, vegetables of
is said even to be indulged in by the many kinds, and coarse sweet-
Sennaar Arabs, who have in the Eastern meats made of honey or molasses, flour
Sudan an indigenous type of wild boar. and olive oil. The grains and vegetables
Wild and domesticated pigs are also eaten cultivated are wheat, rice, maize, sorghum
in the non-Mohammedan parts of North- and millet ;
pulse of several kinds,
central and West Africa. The pig, as we cucumbers, gourds, melons and onions.
know, is almost the national animal of Their principal drink besides water is
Ireland it is a good deal favoured by the
; coffee, and for the Christians or the lax
Maltese. Jambon d'York was at one Mohammedans, arrack, a spirit made
time a compliment paid by the French from rice, and the less heady " palm
cuisine to the pigs of the English Mid- wine," the sap of the date palm.
lands. And, again, in the Malay Archipe- Rice, of 250 varieties, is the staple of
lago, Papua, and all the Oceanic Pacific all coastwise India, Burma and the Malay
islands, pork is the people's favourite States, also of British China. But wheat
meat. Here, also, they eat dried shark, is largely grown over all North-west India
and the hundred and one edible sea-fish also barley (upper valley of the Ganges),
of the coral-reefs and blue lagoons. Dogs sorghum or great millet ever5rwhere below
are eaten in Hong Kong and the mountains, spiked millet (pennisetum),
p J
" ragi "
^6i-hai-wei, in some of the (eleusine), in Southern India,
Wh'^F* d
Pacific islands, and in Equatorial and paspalum and two kinds of genuine
P
Africa. The Eskimo subjects
of the British Empire live on walrus and many
—
or Italian millet panicum. There are also
oil-seeds used for food —sesamum,
seal meat, and whale blubber ; those of rape and linseed, and ten or eleven kinds
—
Tristan d'Acunha on amongst other of peas and beans (cicer, phaseolus,
—
things the eggs of penguins and petrels. dolichos, cajanus, ervum, lathyrus and
The Indians of British Guiana will eat pisum). Many of these Indian grains
jaguar, if they can succeed in killing and pulses are of ancient introduction into
the American leopard, besides all the tropical Africa, where, with maize, they
other wild animals of the woods. Ter- form the sta,ple of the peoples' vegetable
5552
— ;;
t» i
from New Guinea to New Zealand, by
, j.
1,300,000 the Afghan or Pushtu
dialect Sindhi is the speech of over
; 100,000 the Melanesian languages by
;
3,000,000 in the Sind province. The another 200,000, and Papuan by 350,000.
languages or dialects descended from Sans- In the heart of the Malay Peninsula
krit, which have become the vernaculars there may still be lingering isolated Negrito
of two-thirds of India proper are Hindi languages there is certainly a Negrito
;
north and south, down to its confluence Arabia, Zanzibar, and the Persian Gulf.
with the Niger. The Nupe speech is the In British America the Eskimo language
dominant language of Central Nigeria, and is spoken by the sparse inhabitants of the
to the west are the Borgu dialects that are frozen shores of the Arctic Ocean between
related to far-oif Ashanti, In Southern Alaska and Labrador. Of the American
Nigeria there are the languages of the Indian language groups, not much more
and Yoruba
Igara, Igbira, Ibo. Jekri, Ijo, ;
clearly interrelated than the African
and the Efik group and the semi-Bantu languages, the following are represented
languages of the Cross River basin. Dotted on British territory The Thlinkit in
:
over much
of British Nigeria is the Fulbe the north-westernmost part of the coasts
language, the range of which extends', - and islands of British Colum-
with many gaps, for a distance of nearly ^^^
f*B^ v^h'
*^^ Haida of Vancouver
'
2,000 miles across Africa from the Senegal ^. . Island and British Columbia
River to the borders of Wadai and Darfur. the Athabascan, Tinne, or
The dialects of the Gold Coast belong in Dene of all the central and northern parts
the main to four groups, the Chwi or of the Canadian dominion between the
Ashanti, the Ga (Akkra), the Mosi, and Rocky Mountains and the eastern shores
Teme. The languages of Sierra Leone are of Hudson's Bay the Algonkwin, Chip-
;
particularly interesting, and belong to the pewa, or Kri, " Montagnais," of Central
Mandingo family of Western Nigeria, and and Eastern Canada (using Canada
to the prefix and concord-using Temne in its widest sense), also in Labrador,
and Bullom families. The languages of Northern Quebec, and once in New
the Gambia are very little studied by a Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfound-
Britain which has possessed the Gambia land the Huron
; (Iroquois) of On-
for 200 years. They come under the Felup, tario and southernmost Canada; and
_ Wolof, and Mandingo groups. the Dakota, Puan, or Siu, found -still in
V^ *". The Libyo-Hamitic language the southern parts of Saskatchewan and
Dialects
family of North and North- Manitoba. Then there are the Maya-
east Africa is represented by Kiche group on the interior borders of
such wandering Libyans of the Sahara British Honduras the speech of the
;
as find their way into the dominions Caribs still lingering in a somewhat mixed
of the sultan of Sokoto, and by the type on the coast of British Honduras
Libyan-speaking inhabitants of the Siwah and in the West Indian island of Dominica
and other oases on the western outskirts of and existing far more numerously in the
Egypt by the remains of Ancient Egyp-
; maritime regions of British Guiana ; and
tian in the form of Coptic by the dialects
; the Guiana group, divided into the sub-
of the Beja and Bishari. the Danakil and groups of Arawak. VVapiana, and Atorai.
SCENE IN BRANI, IN THE RECENTLY ACQUIRED BRITISH TERRITORY OF THE MALAY STATES
5555
HOUSE OF KEYS ISLE OF MAN : MEETING OF THE TYNWALD COURT
THE BY SIR
BRITISH HARRY
EMPIRE JOHNSTON,
X G.C.M.G.
in the Homeland, so tolerant of institu- of Johor (area, 9,000 square miles). Per-
tions which have outlived their usefulness. haps to these should be added the
The Isle of Man has a Council of Public sultanate of Darfur, in the western part
Affairs, nominated by the Crown, and a of the Egyptian Sudan, with an area of
House of Keys, which is a representative about 50,000 square miles. Afghanistan,
assembly of twenty-four elected members. except in regard to its foreign policy, is
The term of sitting for this House is seven an absolutely independent country, and
years, and the suffrage is based on a pro- none of its statistics are included in this
perty qualification. survey of the British Empire.
The island of Jersey has a lieutenant- The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is divided
governor and a bailiff, who is a kind of into thirteen provinces, the governors of
president of the legislature appointed by which are all British officers of the Egyp-
the Crown. The legislature consists of tian Army the sub-governors of districts
;
twelve jurats and twelve rectors of are Egyptians. The six principal judges
parishes elected by the people for life, are British the kadis, who deal with
;
ci« 4 •
41.
states in the
are under one lieutenant- The governor-general over the whole of
1 J. 1 .
« ...
.
r
British Empire
governer,
° • but have two this vast area, including supervision over
, .
^ ,
, .
, . ,
separate legislatures, which Darfur, is jointly appointed by the British
consist of jurats, rectors, and sheriffs, and Egyptian Governments. He legislates
elected indirectly, and delegates and by proclamation. The sultan of Darfur
deputies elected directly by the ratepayers. is practically independent in the manage-
Within the far-flung net of the British ment of the internal affairs of his country,
Empire are a number of states practically but he is required to pay an annual
independent as regards their home rule. tribute to the Sudan Government. The
5557
DOUGLAS, THE BEAUTIFUL CAPITAL OF THE ISLE OF MAN
Frith
rules through a Ministry composed of southern side of the Persian Gulf, ruled
seven members, plus a British financial by an Arab sheikh under the control of a
adviser. But since 1883 there have British political agent.
been the beginnings of representative There is also the quasi-independent
institutions. These are a legislative imamate of Oman, under a sultan, or
council— which is a consultative body, sayyid, whose dynasty began as a sort of
prince-bishopric at Muskat in the middle
partly elected, partly nominated, quali-
of the eighteenth century. Great Britain
fied to pronounce opinions on the Budget
—
and on all new laws and the General and France are mutually bound to refrain
from an exclusive political control or
Assembly. This last consists of the
annexation of the sultanate of
seven Ministers, the thirty legislative Britain's
Muskat, but force of circum-
councillors, and forty-six popularly elected Kuria Muria
stances has compelled Great
members. Islands
Britain, through the Govern-
The General Assembly, however, has
no power to legislate, but can in a ment of India, to take the leading advisory
part in the direction of the affairs of Oman.
measure control all new taxation of
These are managed almost entirely under
a directly personal character or con-
the advice of a British consul and political
nected with land. The territories of
agent at Muskat. The Kuria Muria Islands,
the Persian Gulf which are within
off the south coast of Oman, actually belong
the British sphere of influence or are
5558
—
order in a general way are maintained in There is, first of all, British. India i.e.,
all these regions of the Persian Gulf, and the districts actually annexed-to'tfie-British
justice is administered to British subjects, Crown, with a total area of 1,097,901
by a British political resident residing square miles, and the following provinces :
at Bushire, on the south coast of Persia. Bengal, Eastern Bengal and Assam,
British Arabia, not connected with the Burma, Madras, the Andamans and
geographical or political systems of the Nicobars, Bombay, Punjab, North-west
Persian Gulf, is managed by the political Frontier Province, British Baluchistan,
resident, the virtual governor and com- United Provinces of Agra and Oudh,
mander-in-chief, at Aden. This official Central Provinces, Berar and Coorg.
depends at present on the Government of A number of small principalities within
Bombay. He supervises the affairs of the these provinces are ruled to a certain
Aden Protectorate and the island of extent by their native rajahs, or by Moham-
Perim ; those of the island of Socotra medan chiefs ; but, for the most part, this
and its adjoining archipelagoes the coast
; vast area is administered directly by
sultanates of Makalla, etc. ;the Kuria British officials in all the principal
Muria Islands, and the Oman coast as and responsible posts, and by native
far east as the island of Masirah. Within officials in all the subordinate positions.
mir and Jamu (area, 80,900 square miles), Bombay Presidency, the largest of which is
ruled by a maharajah Baluchistan (area,
; Cutch, whose ruler is known as the
78,530 square miles), ruled by the khan of rao five .in
; the Madras Presidency,
Khelat and a few small independent of which might be specially mentioned
princes ; Jodhpur of Rajputana (area, Travaniore, the southernmost portion of
34,963 square miles), ruled by a maha- British
India, whose maharajah rules
rajah Mysore (area, 29,433 square miles),
; over 3,000,000 people one in
;
Rule
ruler, a maharajah ; Gwalior (area, 25,041 the Central Province, Bastar
in India
square miles), the largest Mahratta state, (area, 13,000 square miles)
under a maharajah (Sindhia) Bikanir, a
; Kuch Behar, in Bengal Hill Tipura, on
;
Rajputana state (area, 23,311 square miles), the borders of Burma Rampur and
;
both Rajput states (respectively, 16,062 Sikh and three Rajput states in the
and 15,579 square miles), the first ruled by Punjab and the interesting little Tibetan
;
a cable station was once established on Telegraph I s^^^^^ m the place only from November March
till ;
5561
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
part of the world. The members of this with the matters of the province, and are
Council are nominated by the Viceroy subject to the sanction of the Governor-
under the provisions of Viscount Cross's General. None of these legislatures may do
Act of 1892, a clause of which makes it more than discuss the financial statements
possible for the Viceroy to introduce the of the supreme and local governments,
elective principle into the nomination of and ask questions about them. They may
some or all of these legislative councillors. not propose resolutions or call for any
We have here a door already provided, by votes on the subject of finance.
, ... which the new measures of The metropolitan state of Bengal, and
"* representative government will all the other provinces of British India, are
m*1k* a
J J
.. be prudently introduced into under governors, lieutenant-governors, or
India. The Legislative Council, chief commissioners. With the exceptions
which includes the members of the Execu- only of the governors of Bombay and
tive Council, holds its sittings in public, Madras, who are appointed by the king
and the text of the Bills to be discussed on the recommendation of the British
must first be published for general informa- Government, outside the ranks of the
tion through the government " Gazette." ordinary service, all these great executive
Further, no Bill, as ^ rule, is brought posts are filled from the Indian Civil or
before the Viceroy's Legislative Council Political Service. The Viceroy nominates
which has not first been subjected to and the Crown appoints the lieutenant-
the criticism of the several provincial governors, and the Governor- General in
governments. The wide development of council appoints the chief commissioners.
the British Indian and vernacular Press Each Indian province is divided into
ensures the fullest publicity for the text of divisions under commissioners. These,
all new measures, and the national voice of again, are split up into districts, which
India to some extent thus reacts on its form the unit of administration. At the
government, for there is no hole-and- head of each district is an executive
corner legislation, and the Viceroy's _. . officer,
. styled " collector,"
Divisions .<
Council, before placing any new law on inagistrate." or "deputy-
of Indian °. .
,, u > x-
the Statute Book, is well informed as to p commissioner,
. who has entire
its popular reception. control of the district and is
Among the Viceroy's nominated council, responsible to the governor or chief
natives of India probably predominate in Commissioner of the province. Associated
numbers over the unofficial British mem- with or subordinate to the collector are
bers. Of these last there are generally deputy- collectors, other magistrates, or
representatives of commerce, of the Bar, assistants.
and of railways. This supreme Legislative " The main functions of the collector-
Council might undoubtedly be much larger magistrate are twofold," says Sir William
— the maximum of sixteen, as it is, is not Hunter. " He is a fiscal officer, charged
always attained it might include repre-
; with the collection of the revenue from
sentatives of the larger feudatory states, the land and other sources he is also
;
of the principal religions, of native law, a civil and criminal judge, both of first
medicine, commerce, and industry. To instance and in appeal he is the
;
a certain extent, also, the elective principle representative of a paternal, and not of a
might be prudently and gradually intro- constitutional government. Police, gaols,
duced. Since these lines were written, education, municipalities, roads, sanita-
Lord Morley's far-reaching measures for tion, dispensaries, the local taxation, and
representative government in the Imperial revenues of his district are to
Lord> m< .
Morley t j-
. India u
have met most^ ofr ^i_
j.
these him matters of daily concern. He is
ntf i!**^
Difficulties
difficulties and have attempted expected to make himself acquainted with
X 1 .1
A J XL
to solve them. As regards the every phase of the social life of the natives,
great provincial administrations, there and with every natural aspect of the
are legislative councils in Bengal and the country. He should be a lawyer, an
Central Provinces, in Burma, Eastern accountant, a surveyor, and a ready
Bengal, the United Provinces of Agra writer of state papers. He ought to possess
and Oudh, the Punjab, Madras, and no mean
knowledge of agriculture,
Bombay. The acts of these provincial political economy, and engineering."
legislative councils, on which there are There are at present some 260 districts
invariably native members, can only deal in British India administered by these
55O2
, —
THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE INNER EMPIRE
collector-magistrates. In some cases there taxes, enact by-laws, make improve-
is a collector and a magistrate, the two ments, and spend money ; but the sanction
functions being occasionally separate. It of the provincial government is necessary
is scarcely necessary to point out that before new taxes or new by-laws can
these invaluable officials are drawn from be enforced. Very naturally, the vast
the far-famed Indian Civil Service, the majority of the members of these munici-
finest Civil Service in the world, entrance palities are Indians, and this experiment
into which is no longer a matter of in self-government is being watched with
patronage, but through open competition. „ . great interest by those who
xpenmen
The collector is the mainstay of the j^^p^^ little by little, to induct
British Government in India. British
valour won India in the first instance, and
^
bovernment
.
1111^
the natives of India into the
harmonious, capable, and honest
regained it after the mutiny but the wise,
; administration of their home government.
incorruptibly j ust behaviour of the Ci vil.Ser- For rural tracts there are district and
vice, from its reconstruction in 1853-1858 local boards which are in charge of roads,
to the present day, has done more than schools and hospitals. Gibraltar, a Crown
any feat of arms to retain the allegiance colony, is little else than a garrison town
of the masses among the 200,000,000
of directly governed natives of India.
—
nearly two square miles in area governed
autocratically by a military governor and
The people of the feudatory states are a civilian colonial secretary.
governed by their native princes in most Malta, Gozo, and Comino are an archi-
cases, through a machinery of Ministers pelago of three islands and two islets in
and councils, similar in degree to that of the Central Mediterranean (117 square
British India, except, of course, that the miles in area ;
population, 206,690).
employes are all natives of India. In most The governor, always a military officer, is
cases justice between British Indians on assisted by a lieutenant-governor (civilian),
the territories of the feudatory states is an executive council, and a council of
. . administered by the resident or government consisting of eleven official
J..
th^N t' ^S^nt of the Governor-General, members, including the governor, and
Princes
^^^ resides at the court of each eight elected members. The governor has
feudatory prince, and advises a right in case of necessity to legislate
the latter in such of his affairs as call for by order-in-council.
attention. No feudatory prince has the Cyprus is still theoretically a Turkish
ri^t. to make peace or war, to send possession. By agreements concluded
ambassadors to other feudatory princes with the Porte between June and August,
ork;o external states, or tp keep an armed 1878, the island of Cyprus was handed over
foibe above a number agreed upon. to Great Britain to be administered
moreover, no Europeans may reside at entirely free from Turkish control, until
thfeir courts without the sanction of the Russia restored to Turkey the fortress of
supreme government. Chiefs who oppress Kars and other parts of Armenia acquired
or ftiisgovern their subjects, or who waste as the results of the Russo-Turkish War
their revenues, or are unnecessarily absent of 1877-78. At the present time the
from their states, are sharply taken to island is governed by a high commissioner
task but in normal circumstances they
; on the lines of a Crown colony. There is
are very little interfered with, and it is a an executive council consisting of the
matter of no dispute that at the present chief secretary, the king's advocate, and
day several native states are as well the receiver-general ; and a legislature
and more cheaply governed than the parts _ . of eighteen members, which,
of India under direct British government. _" ". besides the above-mentioned
u e in
At the present date there are 760 towns ^j^j.gg officials, comprises the
^''"**
in British India large and important chief medical officer, the regis-
enough to possess municipalities that have, trar-general, the principal forest officer, and
under the Local Self- Government Acts of —
twelve' elected councillors nine Christian
1883-1884, been accorded an elective and three Mohammedan. The voters are
character. The majority of the members all male Turkish or British subjects, or
of committees are elected by the rate- foreigners who have resided at least five
payers. These municipal bodies have the years on the island and are payers of land
charge of roads, water supply, drains, taxes. The council may be dissolved at
markets, and sanitation. They can impose the high commissioner's pleasure, and
5563
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
cannot sit for a longer term than five years. of Singapore and Penang, though their
Ceylon is administered by a governor nomination must be confirmed by the
aided by an executive council of five Crown. The governor of the Straits
and a legislative council of seventeen Settlements is also high commissioner
members, comprising nine officials and for the Federated Malay States, which
eight nominated unofficial members, who fact carries his commission right up to
represent in their personalities the Singha- the confines of India and Siam, and for
lese,Mohammedan, Eurasian and British Brunei, in Central North Borneo and is
;
elements in the population. For purposes also consul-general for the protected
of general administration the island is countries of Sarawak and North Borneo.
divided into nine provinces, presided over —
The Federated Malay States except
by government agents who are the —
Johor are administered by state councils
equivalent of the Indian collector. These composed of the native sultan, a British
in their turn are assisted by subordinate resident, a secretary to the resident, and
British, Eurasian and native officials. selected native (Malay) chiefs and Chinese
The Maldive Islands, 500 miles west of notabilities. A British resident-general
Ceylon, are governed by their own here- under the control of the high commis-
ditary sultan and a cabinet of seven sioner supervises the general affairs of the
ministers. They are under the general Malay Peninsula. The state of Johor
supervision of the Ceylon Government, to remains outside this scheme of adminis-
whom the sultan is tributary. tration. Its sultan governs the territory
—
The Straits Settlements Singapore, of Johor through native ministers and
Malacca, Penang, Labuan Island, Christ- headmen, but entrusts all his foreign
mas Island, and the Cocos Islands are — relations to Great Britain. The same
governed much on the lines of Ceylon by arrangements prevail in Sarawak, a large
a governor, with executive and legisla- Borneo state ruled by an English rajah.
tive councils ; except that of the un-
—
—
In Brunei, the country 3,000 square
members of council two may be
official miles is governed by a British resident
nominated by the chambers of commerce with the co-operation of the sultan and
5564
S. B. Barnard, Cape Town
A SITTING OF THE CAPE PARLIAMENT: THE LATE CECIL RHODES IS INDICATED BY A X
executive and legislative coun- Powers having special treaty relations with
cils but six members out of eighteen are
; the sultan's government. The Somaliland
elected by the non-native settlers, and Protectorate is administered simply by a
two are native representatives nominated commissioner and commander-in-chief.
by the governor. The native population British East Africa (area, 177,100 square
(Fijians) —
over go.ooo in number are — miles) has a governor and commander-in-
accorded a large share of self-government. chief, and a heutenant-governor an exe- ;
This is arranged for by village and cutive and a legislative council. This
district councils, meetings of chiefs, and last consists of eight official members
a native regulation board, which has the and three (nominated) unofficial. The
governor as president and four European territory is divided into seven provinces
and thirteen native members. The under provincial commissioners, who
native legislation of the board must have twenty-six collectors under them.
receive the sanction of the legislative The Uganda Protectorate is ad-
council before becoming law. ministered by a governor and com-
The Fiji Islands are divided into seven- mander-in-chief, but there is at present
teen provinces under the control of , no council. The Uganda
gan a s
European or native commissioners. The Province and portions of the
governor of Fiji is also high commissioner „ ,. Western Province (Toro
. and An-
Parhament ,, ,
^
, ,
•
for the Western Pacific, and as such kole) are under native govern-
controls the native governments of Tonga ments, except as regards jurisdiction over
(which kingdom has a legislative as- non-natives of the province or British or
sembly), the New Hebrides (jointly with foreign subjects. These native govern-
France), the Gilbert Islands, British ments are carried on under British super-
Solomon Islands (area, 8,357 square miles), vision, and the British governor alone has
Santa Cruz Islands, Maiden Island, etc., the power of life and death. There are
etc. He is also assisted by resident five provinces. In the native kingdom of
commissioners and deputy commissioners. Uganda there is a native parliament, or
The Crown Colony of Hong Kong is lukiko, the deliberations of which assist
administered by a governor, an executive the king, or " kabaka," of Uganda (at
council, and a legislative council of the present a minor) and his ministry in their
—
usual type eight official members and government of the kingdom of Uganda,
six unofficial. Of these last, four are a state of great antiquity.
nominated by the Crown, and one is The territory once called British Central
nominated by the chamber of commerce, Africa, north of the Zambesi, is now
one by the justices of the peace. Wei- divided into the protectorate of Nyassa-
-,. . hai-wei, in North China, is ad-
, land and North-east and North-west
,
J
by a commissioner,
ministered Rhjdesia. The first-named is adminis-
by ordinance.
legislates tered by a governor and commander-in-
WeYiri-wei }^,^«
1 he territory is leased by chief, an executive and a legislative
China on an uncertain term, and includes council, the latter consisting of nominated
the walled city of Wei-hai-wei and an and official members whose legislation is
area outside of about 283 miles. Over subject governor's veto.
to the This
this last the administration is mainly virtual colony is divided into thirteen
carried on by native headmen under the districts under the charge of residents,
supervision of the British commissioner. first, second and third class. North-east
The native government of the sultanate and North-west Rhodesia are governed
of Zanzibar, off the east coast of Africa, by administrators and magistrates in the
5566
—
ment, supplies the armed force for the five years, if not dissolved earUer
Y
country's defence.
Colon** ^y *^® governor on the advice
The court of appeal from the courts of ^ of his ministers. Members of
Nyassaland and North-east Rhodesia lies the are paid a maximum
legislature
in Zanzibar that of North-west Rho-
; of annually. The languages of
£300
desian justice in Cape Town. As time goes discussion are English and Dutch, but
on, North-west and Southern Rhodesia the language of record is English. Pro-
will probably take their places in the vision is made in the Transvaal Constitu-
great South African Confederation, while tion for the safeguarding of the landed
North-east Rhodesia and Nyassaland will and other interests of the native negroes,
become once more fused under their which in a great measure atones for the
original British Central Africa,
title of denial to them of the franchise.
and a great negro state
will constitute The constitution and government of the
under direct British management. Orange River Colony resemble very closely
The Seychelles Archipelago is admin- those of the Transvaal. The number of
istered by a governor, and executive members of the legislative assembly is at
and a legislative council, the last con- present thirty-eight, elected by registered
sisting of nominated members, three voters. Basutoland, between the Orange
official and three the governor
unofficial, State and Natal, is a great negro reserva-
_ having an original and a tion, of which the high commissioner of
eprescn a ivc
(,g^g^jj^„ vote. The island of South Africa is governor. The territory is
. ^ ... Mauntms has an area of 705 governed by a resident commissioner
in Mauritius ., ,\ -^
square miles and a popula- under the direction of the high com-
tion of 378,000. The government is missioner, who has exclusive jurisdiction
carried on by a governor, who is assisted over all persons not native Basutos. To
by an executive council composed of the these Europeans, Asiatics, or foreign
commander of H.M. troops, the colonial negroes, numbering in all scarcely more
secretary, the procureur-general, the than 1,000, justice is administered by
receiver-general, the auditor-general, and seven assistant commissioners who are
two elected members of the council of also magistrates. The 347,000 Basutos
government. This last is almost equivalent are ruled by their own chiefs subject to
to a lower house of legislature. appeals to the British magistrate's court.
It consists, besides the governor and Natal, with which the native territories
eight ex-officio members, of nine members of Zululand and Amatongaland and the
nominated by the governor and ten former Transvaal district of Vrijheid are
members elected by the people on now amalgamated, is ruled hy a governor,
a moderate franchise. So that the a responsible ministry, a legislative
—
Mauritians rapidly becoming a people council, and an elective legislative as-
of Hindu, Negro and Chinese race sembly. The members of the
e u mg
possess the beginnings of a representa- legislative council are sum-
tive government. The small island de- °N* t I
nioned to act by the governor-
pendencies of Mauritius are governed by in-council. They sit for ten
magistrates appointed by the governor. years, and at present are thirteen in
The Transvaal is the youngest of the number. No one can be summoned to
self-governing colonies. It has a governor, this " senate " unless he is the proprietor
who, in this instance, is also the high of at least ;f5oo worth of immovable*
commissioner for all South Africa. He property within the colony. The fran-
governs constitutionally through a chise for the election of members of the
legislative council (which is to be ulti- legislative assembly is limited to the
mately an elective senate) and a male sex, is apparently granted without
5567
—
a^ssembly sits for not more than boards) of an elaborate and efficient type
Zuluiand
four years. Members of the is fully developed over Cape Colony and
legislature are not paid, unless they are the included district of British Bechuana-
ministers,but receive a travelling allowance. land. The Bechuanaland Protectorate
The province of Zululand is almost stretches between the northern parts of
entirely occupied by native negroes. Only Cape Colony and the Zambesi, with an
an infinitesimal part of its area one- — area of 275,000 square miles, and a popu-
thirtieth —has been taken up by non- lation of 129,000 negroes and 1,000 whites.
natives. One-fifth of the area of "old" It is governed as regards the natives by
Natal set aside as a native reserve,
is six native chiefs, the most im.portant of
besides large areas that have been bought whom is Khama. As regards Europeans
by negroes from the government. and internal or inter-tribal affairs the ad-
In this and other respects the negroes of ministration is directed by a resident
Natal seem to have been very well treated commissioner, government secretary,
by the Colonial Government but the ; assistant commissioners, magistrates, etc.,
means administering justice among
of under the general direction of the high
them, and the extent to which their commissioner for South Africa. The
interests are represented in the Natal _ area of Southern Rhodesia is
. ,
Rhodesia s
Parliament, seem to require improvement. J48575
,~ '-^'^ s ^are
^ miles, the
Limited ,. ,
„^o '
the eastern side of the Transvaal (area, and the native population,
6,536 square miles population, 85,000
; 639,418. The country is governed by
negroes, 900 whites), is governed by a the British South Africa Chartered
resident commissioner under the direc- Company, through an administrator, an
tion of the high commissioner of South executive council of six, and a legislative
Africa, much on the lines of Basutoland. council sixteen members.
of Seven
Cape Colony is the premier state of members out of these sixteen are elected
South Africa, and by far the oldest self- by registered voters on a franchise which
governing colony in Africa. It has pos- appears to be limited to European resi-
sessed representative institutions since dents. The executive and legislative
1853, but the present form of government councils sit for three years.
through responsible ministers only dates All laws passed must be submitted for
from 1872. The system, of course, starts sanction to the high commissioner of South
with a governor, who receives no less Africa, under whose control is placed the
than ;f8,ooo a year, and who rules with military police. The high commissioner
the advice of six ministers. There is a is represented locally by a resident com-
legislative council of twenty-six elected missioner. For administration Southern
_. „ . members, who sit for seven Rhodesia is divided into two provinces
The Premier ,, ,.^ ,. , •
g J
years, the qualification being and eight districts. Native affairs are
c »u Ainea
*» /2,oooof immovable, or /4,ooo managed (under the administrator) by
South ^r
•
,1
of movable property.
1
The ^^W a department of state and thirty-one or
house of assembly consists of 107 elected thirty-two native commissioners. All legis-
members, and lasts (unless dissolved lation and land questions affecting natives
earlier) for five years. The qualification are especially under the supervision and
for the exercise of the franchise for the control of the high commissioner.
election to both houses, and for sitting The little island of St. Helena, in the
in the house of assembly, is the possession Atlantic, is 47 square miles in area, and
of personal property (not tribal) worth at has a population of about 4,000. Its
least ;^75 (or salary of not less than £50 affairs are managed by a governor and an
5568
ADMINISTERING JUSTICE TO BRITISH SUBJECT PEOPLES
354 5569
—
in Northern
P^ovmces and about twenty There are 360 small islands in the group,
Nigeria
districts, administered by three and only about twenty square miles of
provincial commissioners and a habitable land, with a population of 683
large number of district commissioners. whites and 11,000 blacks or half-castes.
Northern Nigeria is governed by a high com- The governor over this microcosm is the
missioner without any executive or legis- officer in command of the troops, and he
lative councils. The fourteen provinces is assisted by an executive council of six
are supervised by ninety-nine residents members, a legislative assembly of nine
and assistant-residents. A large amount both these are appointed by the Crown
of North Nigerian territory is directly ad- and a house of assembly thirty-six —
ministered, so far as natives are concerned, members —elected by the people. The
by negro or negroid kings and rulers. franchise is dependent on the possession
The colony of the Gold Coast has a of freehold property of not less than £60
governor, an executive council of four, value. Members of the legislature are
and a legislative council of five official paid eight shillings a day for attendance.
and four unofficial nominated members, Representative institutions in the Ber-
of whom one is a negro. There is a depart- mudas date from 1620. The constitution
ment and a secretary for native affairs, of Jamaica, granted in 1662, was, like
and Ashanti and the northern territories that of Bermuda, more suited to a
—
are governed under the Gold Coast . . , large country than a small
—
governor by chief commissioners, pro-
amaica s
n arge
island, though Jamaica has
vincial, and travelling commissioners. ^^ ^^^^ ^^ 4,207 square miles
Sierra Leone, for administrative pur- and a population, mainly
poses, is divided into a colony of about negro, of 830,261. But the ancient con-
4,300 square miles and a protectorate of stitution was surrendered in 1866, and,
28,110 square miles in area. Both are after several changes and enlargements,
under the administration of the same now stands thus :
governor, colonial secretary, and general The governor rules with the assistance of
staff; but as regards the colony along the a privy council of not more than eight in
coast the governor is assisted by an —
number mostly officials —appointed by
executive council of five members and a the Crown a legislative
; council of the
legislative council of five official and four governor, six members, ten
ex-officio
unofficial nominated members, of whom nominated and
fourteen elected. The
two are negroes. The protectorate is legislative council may not sit more than
divided into five districts, which are ad- five years without being dissolved. The
ministered by district commissioners, a franchise on which these fourteen repre-
good deal of power over the natives being sentatives, as well as the members of the
still left in the hands of the native chiefs. parochial boards, are elected is regulated
„ . In the Gambia Colony the by a small property qualification, residence,
Bermudas x 1 << >> 1 1 1
, . actual
. colonial area is only rate-paying, and British nationality.
an Important , . ,- , y 1
about 09 square miles, and is Matters of local administration in
Naval Ba
ruled by a governor, execu- Jamaica are carried out by fifteen elected
tive council (three members), legislative parochial boards of fifteen parishes, into
council (six official, three unofficial nomi- which the whole island is divided. The
nated members, one of them a negro). Turks and Caicos Islands are a de-
—
The protectorate 3,911 square miles is — pendency of Jamaica, with 5,287 inhabi-
administered by the governor through tants, the former group being administered
a number of travelling commissioners. by a commissioner and a legislative
The lovely little archipelago of the board appointed by the Crown. The
Bermudas Wcis really intended by Nature Cayman Islands are likewise administered
5570
THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE INNER EMPIRE
by a commissioner under the supervision As Barbados is exceedingly prosperous,
of the governor of Jamaica. The Bahama this elaborate machinery of government
Islands have a governor, an executive is apparently worth while. Trinidad and
council of nine, a legislative council of Tobago, with an area of 1,868 square
nine, and a representative assembly of miles and a population of about 273,898,
twenty-nine members elected on a small have no representative institutions.
property franchise. The total area of Tobago Island is simply a district of
this group is 5,450 square miles. Trinidad, under a district officer. The
—
The Leeward Islands area, 701 square _,. „
The Prosperous
two islands are under the
miles ;
population, 128,000 have a— ...
Island
, , .,,
rule of a governor, with an
,. ° 1 r •
The island of Barbados has an area of consists of these fifteen members of the
—
only 166 square miles a little larger than Court of Policy (which is a purely legis-
—
the Isle of Wight and a population of lative body), and, in addition, of six elected
under 200,000, but it goes far beyond any financial representatives. Thus the Com-
other West Indian colony in representa- bined Court comprises fourteen elected
tive government. It has a governor all to unofficial members and seven officials. The
itself, an executive of four members functions of this Combined Court are to
besides the governor, an executive com- u »British
•*• t consider the estimate of expen-
fiow J., J u iu
mittee partly elective, a nominated legis- Q. diture prepared by the governor
lative council of nine members, and a . ^ .in executive council and to de-
is Governed .,
•
j
house of assembly of twenty four mem-
.
six months' residence prior to date of East Indian, and Amerindian, 10,000.
THE BY SIR
BRITISH HARRY
EMPIRE JOHNSTON,
XI G.C.M.G.
present into nine provinces and a terri- (2) birth or residence in the province for
tory ( Yukon) . The unorganised remainder which they are appointed (3) the posses-
;
of the far north and east is administered sion of at least $4,000 worth of property.
through the Home Office of the Dominion The members of the House of Commons
Ministry. With the exception of the Yukon need no property qualification. They
^ territory, each province has a must be British subjects, born or natu-
fully-equipped local govern- ralised, and twenty-one years of age or
^^°^^'^"JJf;'^
p
*''* ""^
—
ment 1 ieutenant- governor, upwards. A member cannot sit for both
responsible ministry, elected a provincial legislature and the Dominion
legislature. In the case of Quebec and Parliament. Members are elected by
Nova Scotia the local parliament consists ballot —
on a male suffrage suffrage has
of —
two houses a Legislative Council not been granted to women in Canada
equivalent to a senate, and a Legislative which is very wide, practically manhood
Assembly . All the other provinces have a suffrage in Ontario, Manitoba, British
Legislative Assembly only. Columbia, and Prince Edward's Island,
The Dominion Parliament has much Saskatchewan and Alberta a small ;
greater and more comprehensive powers property limit in Quebec, Nova Scotia, and
than the Senate and Congress of the United New Brunswick. Since 1898, the decision
States. The provincial legislatures deal as to the suffrage for election to the
5573
;:
Council ^who are not paid any salary in at least thirty years of age, and have
theircapacityof legislative councillors can — resided in the state for at least three years,
travel free on all government railways and while the property limit of the council
tramways, and send their letters postage suffrage is shghtly higher, and there is no
5576
I>ARUAMENTS OF THE OUTER EMPIRE
exemption therefrom for the classes of A good deal of the state is divided into
professional men as in Victoria. This shires (rural districts) and municipal areas
suffrage, Hke the others, is conferred (cities, towns) —
670,255 square miles in
equally upon women. The House of As- all —and over theselocal government,
sembly consists of forty- two members imder elected councils, is fully enforced.
elected for not more than three years. Tasmania has a governor, deputy-
Qualifications and suffrage are similar governor, and the same type of executive
to those of Victoria, except that the and legislature as the other Australian
suffrage is also extended to women. states. There is a maximum of eighteen
Members of both houses are paid a members in the Legislative Council. This
salary of ;f200 a year whilst they serve. body is elected for six years. No property
Local government is carried on through qualification is necessary in either house,
thirty-two elective municipal and dis- but there is a very small property quali-
trict councils in the settled regions. fication attached to the Senate franchise,
In Queensland there is apparently no though, as in Victoria, this is not asked for
lieutenant-governor. The members of in the case of university or professional
governor, a Legislative Council of thirty of the elected lower houses are invariably
members, and a Legislative Assembly of limited to three -years, and that there is no
fifty. The councillors are elected for six excluding property qualification attached
years, and the members of the Assembly for to either membership or suffrage for the
three. The quaUfication for a councillor is lower houses of legislature.
(i) to be not less than thirty years old; The federal government of Australia
p ar ..i^men ary (2) a resident in the state consists of the king (represented by a
j^^ ^^ least two years (3)
''^' a governor-general), a Senate, and a House
Qualifications
«, . . ,..
m
-p. •-• 1 1 £ •
dent in the district at the time of their shall have less than six senators
claim. This condition about residence at nor more than any other original state.
the time of claiming the vote is waived The qualifications for senators and
for those who have a small property representatives are identical twenty-
:
vote for the lower house. three years in Australia ;to be a British
Members of both houses are paid ;f200 a subject born, or a naturalised British
year and travel free on government railways. subject of five years' standing. The
Local government in Western Australia federal franchise for election in both
is entrusted to municipal councils elected houses is universal adult suffrage (male
by the ratepayers, and to a number of and female), on the usual terms
public institutions apparently depending twenty-one years of age and upwards,
on the Executive or the Legislature British citizenship, and a minimum of
boards of water supply and sewerage (not twelve months' residence.
a very happy conjuncture !), road boards, The Canadian legislature has been
and local boards of health. The ad- commended because it left practically no
«7t. ».r ministration of Papua con- loophole for dispute as to the competency
Where Women r • i-, _ , ,
J.
. sists of a lieutenant-governor of the Federal Parliament. The subjects
^"^ ^^ Executive Council of on which the provincial parliaments could
the's'^ ff e
six members (officials), and legislate were clearly stipulated, and the
a Legislative Council composed of the Federal Parliament was empowered to deal
Executive and three unofficial members with all else which did not infringe the
appointed by the governor. prerogatives of the British Crown. In the
So much for the provincial administra- Australian Legislature, the case is reversed.
tion of Australia. It will be observed that The scope of the Federal Parliament is
in every state with responsible govern- defined in thirty nine articles, and the
ment, except Victoria, the suffrage is powers of the state governments are
granted on equal terms to men and women not otherwise limited. Disputes on the
5578
J
PARLIAMENTS OF THE OUTER EMPIRE
interpretation of the federal constitution ties andcounties, road districts and town
will have to be referred to the new High Court districts, river drainage, water supply
of Australia, which is to be an appellate, boards, etc. The qualifications for
as well as an original court. An appeal to electors are ratepaying, residence, or the
the final decision of the Judicial Committee possession of property. Municipal fran-
of the Privy Council from the decisions of chise is equally extended to women From
.
the High Court, or from those of the this purview of the forms of government in
Supreme Courts of the federal states, may every part of the British Empire and sphere
only be carried out on a certificate to be of influence, coupled with
Great Britain's
granted by the High Court at its own dis- a knowledge of the institu-
Advanced
cretion. The Federal Parliament under- r» t.L
Daughter KT *•
Nations
tions of the British Islands,
., .,, ,
iu ^ iu
takes to legislate for, and to control, the it will be seen that the
naval and military defence of Australia, countries with the most modern and ideally
its trade, taxation, public debts, loans, perfect type of constitution are Australia
postal service, census, and statistics, and New Zealand next, and only inferior
;
currency, banking, marriage, divorce, old because it still denies the franchise to
age pensions, immigration, emigration, women, is Canada. The states of South
railways, regulations dealing with insol- Africa are not far behind, but some of
vency and corporations, departments of them are fettered by considerations of race
state,foundation of a state capital, etc. etc. questions and restricted franchise. The
The dominion of New Zealand has an Mother Country is still behind the more
area (including all island groups attached advanced daughter nations in the solution
to its administration) of about 105,249 of several social problems and the simpli-
square miles, and a population of nearly fication of administrative machinery.
950,000. Its government consists of a India lacks an admixture of the native
governor and commander-in-chief, an element in her highest councils. Trinidad
Executive Council of Ministers, a Legis- is thought by some to be too purely
lative Council of 45 members, and a House official in its government. Gibraltar,
of Representatives of 80 members, includ- Northern Nigeria, Uganda, and the
ing four Maories. The extreme duration Egyptian Sudan are administered auto-
of membership in the upper house is cratically without executive or legisla-
seven years the House of Representatives
; tive councils. Gibraltar, of course, is little
sits for three years, unless previously else than a garrisoned fort in Uganda
;
r. , one years of age who have despotism of the petty Arab sultans in
resided at least one year m Aden territory, Socotra, the Hadhramaut,
the colony and three months in the Oman, and Bahrein is tempered by the
electoral district. For the election of the advice of British residents. The rest
four Maori members every adult Maori can of the inner British Empire is not with-
vote who resident in the district for
is out some measure of elective or popular
which the Maori candidate is standing. representation in its councils, and the
As regards local government, this also full measure of popular government in
is elective on the part of the ratepayers. Barbados and the Bermudas seems to
Tlie dominion is divided into municipali- have induced quiet and prosperity.
I
—
THE BY SIR
BRITISH HARRY
EMPIRE JOHNSTON.
XII G.C.M.G.
Jamaica, the Cockscomb Mountains of will be obtained from the Egyptian Sudan.
British Honduras, and the Rocky Moun- Tin, once the principal attraction to
tains of Canada, these last unsurpassed in ancient explorers of the British Islands,
splendour of scenery anywhere in the and still much mined in Cornwall, is now
world. Nor as providers of inspiring land- found to be singularly abundant in the
scapes need the mountains of Scotland, Malay Peninsula, and is also obtained from
Ireland and Wales, the hills of Shropshire, Australia and Northern Nigeria. Coal, the
Derbyshire, Gloucester or Monmouth, great product of the United Kingdom itself,
Somerset, Devon, and Sussex be left out ^^ ^^^^ ^°^^ worked profitably
s th Af" •
British Empire are a most important item. Canada, but is now nearly exterminated.
Australia and New Zealand are largely —
Australia and British Arabia later on,
given up to the breeding of sheep for — Somaliland, Nigeria, and parts of the
wool as well as meat. Cape Colony and —
Sudan Ireland and Great Britain will
other parts of South Africa are breeding produce between them sufficient horses for
Merino sheep, and, above all. Angora goats. the needs of the empire and for all climates
The great industry of the Falkland Islands and purposes. If less attention were
is sheep and sheep products — wool, tallow, given to racing as an odious form of
meat. It will probably be found that gambling, mixed up with so much that is
Somaliland and a good deal of the Egyp- disreputable and fraudulent, and greater
tian Sudan will take prominent places in encouragement were given by the state
the future as countries furnishing goats' to honest horse-breeding for honest pur-
hair, sheep's wool, and meat to the rest of poses, Great Britain ought to be able to
5583
—
reserves, where the British sportsman ebony, the incense trees, the khayas of West
(and his American, German, and Russian Africa the junipers and giant yews of the
;
friends) has not as yet succeeded in ex- East African mountains and the sandal-
;
terminating them. The hippopotamus is wood and bamboos of the Malay Penin-
still a nuisance to navigation in most of sula ;the orchids of Burma and British
the African rivers. It is possible that the Guiana, the roses of England and Canada,
5584
CRUDE NATIVE METHOD OF WASHING THE RUBY-LADEN GRAVEL
v" 't'bi * peaches of South Africa, which ing, teaching, etc., and eleven professional
W**lth ^^^ some day going to be colleges (medicine, law, military, veter-
amongst her principal articles inary science, engineering, teaching, etc.).
of export to a fruit-loving world the oil- ; In addition there are also 305 first-class
palm of West Africa the rubber from the ; schools maintained by foreigners, notably
same region, from Ceylon, and from the by Americans. There is the great useless
Malay Peninsula the tea from Assam,
; Moslem university of Al Azhar, near
Ceylon, and Natal coffee from Nyassa- ; Cairo, still wasting human time and
land, Uganda, and Sierra Leone cacao ; marring the intellectual progress of modern
from the Gold Coast, Jamaica, and Trini- Egypt by an antique, fanatical, unscientific,
dad rice from India and West Africa.
; unpractical style of teaching.
These are a few of the items to be recounted Education in Egypt owes a debt to
in the tale of vegetable wealth. It is a Britain mainly on account of its patience
subject for serious consideration that the and energy in pressing on the Egyptian
rule of the British king as directed and Government the need for rescuing know-
advised by his numerous legislatures all ledge from the strangling grasp of Moham-
over the world should control such an medan fanatics. But it also owes much
enormous portion of the world's food recognition to the memory of Mehemet
supplies. In the time to come which no — Th s d "^^ ^^^ great-grandson,
^^^
—
'
living reader of this history may see food ^ ^ Ismail Pasha also equally to :
Government ., , ^,- , •
-^
personal intervention of
Ed t'o
precious metals and precious stones. the late khedive and his father
The educational establishments of the Tewfik. And last, but not least, to
British Empire, besides those of the private Mohammedan generosity and to
United Kingdom and the Channel Islands, the missionary efforts of America.
consist of the following. Gibraltar has In the Anglo- Egyptian Sudan there are
thirteen government-aided elementary fifteen elementary Arabic schools, and six
schools. In Malta there is a university, secondary. These government schools
founded under the rule of the Knights of are practically secular, and Christian as
St. John in 1769, with four faculties, and a well as Moslem children are educated
lyceum, or public school, for boys, besides there. There are two industrial schools,
two government secondary schools for besides that which is attached to the
boys and for girls, 167 Elementary schools, Gordon College, and three training
four technical and art schools, and seventy- colleges for teachers. Gordon College it-
one private educational establishments. self at Khartoum includes a department
In Cyprus there are two Boards of for the education of the Sudanese in law
Education to regulate (a) the Christian and the other subjects required by them
and (b) the Moslem schools of the island. for entry into the civil service and also ;
These consist of four Greek high schools, a high school for boys to be taught
*-j J and a Greek
" gymnasium," or engineering, surveying, English, etc.
ci *
g . university
J
one Moslem high ; Very little seems to be done for the
school, two similar Armenian- education of the Arabs or Somalis at
J Q
Christian establishments (high Aden or in British Somaliland practic- —
schools boys and girls), a third
for ally nothing, in fact nor are missionaries
;
;r loading at the
t
»"» ' ««<y •«•
I
DESOLATE SOUTH AFRICA: TYPICAL KAROO SCENERY
under 900 Europeans, almost all adults. Cyprus 76,155 in India 1,000 in Ceylon
; ;
;
in Fiji 400,000.
t>i i
Their education IS
•
the hands of the London Mis- St. Helena 1,309 at the Bermudas
;
547 ;
sionary Society, the Roman Catholic in Jamaica and about 726 in Mauritius.
;
Society of the Sacred Heart, the Church The total colonial contingent was over
of England Mission, and the Methodist 40,000, but a few years ago there were
Missionary Society of Australasia. 50,000 British soldiers in the colonies.
In the Crown colony of Fiji, the Canada before the war had a military
European population is steadily increasing. force on the footing of active service, in-
It numbers at present about 3,300. cluding military police, of about 3,000, and
Education for this section of the com- an active militia of about 51,000. Australia
5592
DUTCH CHILDREN AT SCHOOL IN BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA
J
EDUCATING THE YOUNG SUBJECTS AND CITIZENS OF GREATER BRITAIN
5593
—
THE SINEWS OF EMPIRE
maintained a tiny permanent army of 1,329 Rhodesia can at short notice put in the field
officers and men, and a partly-paid trained a good fighting force of at least 5,000 volun-
militia of 15,445. Including volunteers, teers, mostly mounted. The Egyptian
rifle-clubmen, cadets, and a reserve of army in Egypt and the Sudan consists of a
officers, the commonwealth has a potential force of 19,010 rank and file, including 121
army of 84,000 men. The six Australian British officers. Egypt pays an approxi-
states, moreover, maintain a force of about mate £150,000 a year towards the cost of
10,000 mounted pohce, first-class irregular the British army of occupation. Malta
soldiers in war time. New Zealand also has maintains a respectable contingent the —
a permanent militia of 341 artillery and en- Royal Malta Artillery (446), the King's
gineers, and a regularly drilled volunteer Own Malta Regiment (war strength, 2,258),
force of not less than 18,000, notwithstand- and the Malta Mihtia Submarine Miners
ing 700 mounted police. Cape Colony (63). The Maltese Government also pays
besides the imperial troops stationed in the £'5,000 to tlie Imperial Government as a
G. R. LdiUUcrt
OPENING OF THE FIRST STATE RAILWAY IN THE MALAY PENINSULA
—
colony maintains a respectable armed military contribution. Ceylon pays about
force : 705 Cape Mounted Rifles, 1,734 £70.000 for its Imperial garrison, and
Mounted Police, and a body of 5,835 volun- maintains in addition an efficient volunteer
teers in regular drill. Natal has an armed force of 2,333 officers and men.
force— mounted police, mounted rifles, India has a magnificent army of 160,000,
—
naval gun corps, and trained militia of including British officers, a military police
about 6,430 men. She also subsidises rifle of 56,887, a volunteer force of 34,000
associations (5,774 officers and men) and Europeans and Eurasians, and contin-
cadet corps (3,471). The Transvaal and gents furnished by the feudatory states
—
Orange State together maintain the South of 20,189, a total force apart from the
African Constabulary, an efficient force of Imperial garrison of 76,155, for which
2,700 officers and men. In addition, the India pays Britain about £1,395,000 annu-
—
Transvaal maintains a well-trained volun- ally of 271,076 officers and men. The
teer force, mostly ex-soldiers of 10,000 men. Straits Settlements, besides their Imperial
5595
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
and Indian garrison, for which they pay, the Gold Coast volunteers (1,056 officers
have a very efficient volunteer force of and men), partly paid, and maintained
about 770 Europeans, Eurasians, and more or less on a war footing.
Chinese. The Federated Malay States The local soldiery or military police in
have a smart little army known as the the West Indies and Tropical America,
Malay States Guides British officers, — apart from the British garrison in
Sikhs, Pathans, and Malays, 2,665 ^^ ^1^- Jamaica, consists of the 2nd battahon of
The local military forces of British the West Indian Regiment in Jamaica
_ South Africa, from North- (500 officers and men), and 800 militia,
° ^^^^ Rhodesia to Cape besides a very efficient constabulary (1,753)
B •f\*'^
'T •
A» Colony, have already been
1 • modelled on that of Ireland, and, as a
Tropical Africa , •'L j 11 -1. r
described likewise those of ; matter of fact, officered and sub-officered
the Egyptian Sudan. Mauritius is garrisoned by officers and men chosen from the Royal
by a small detachment of British troops, Irish Constabulary. In Barbados there is
formerly as many as 1,394, towards the a police force of 315, and measures are
cost of which the colony paid annually being taken to raise and maintain a small
£27,000, but now reduced to about 726. colonial force of mounted infantry.
The rest of British Tropical Africa is In the Bahamas, Leeward and Windward
divided into two great sections. East and Islands there are small forces of civil
West. The Eastern section comprises the police. In Trinidad there is a constabulary
colonies or protectorates of Somaliland, of 652, and a volunteer rifle corps of 352.
Uganda, British East Africa, Zanzibar, British Honduras maintains a constabu-
and British Central Africa Nyassaland — lary of 100, and a volunteer light infantry
and North-east Rhodesia. This section corps (mounted and unmounted) of 260.
is defended by a regiment of negro British Guiana either fears no foe, within
soldiers known as the King's African
' or without, or is very shy of disclosing its
Rifles. *0f this at present there are five arrangements for the maintenance of
battalions. No. i to 6 (No. 5 is at present . ,
public order, for no particulars
mpirc s
non-existent). The ist and 3rd batta- ^j.^ extant as to its mihtary
Fighting „„j ^._ T,!,^ .^
lions are in East Africa and Zanzibar, and police. There are said
Strength
the 2nd in Central Africa, the 4th in to be militia and volunteers
Uganda, and the 6th in Somaliland. to the total number of 240. The Falkland
At present the total number of King's Islands support a volunteer corps of 98.
African Rifles under arms is 2,700. The total of the forces, therefore, for
In East Africa there is, in addition, a offence or defence throughout the empire
military police of 1,800 under 35 British
officers in Uganda a constabulary of
;
—
ready for immediate action professional
army, military constabulary, volunteers
1.060 in Zanzibar, 500 in Nyassaland, or militia in constant training and
—
; ;
200. There is also a corps of 160 Sikh available for immediate service is
soldiers from the Indian Army stationed about 926,300, of whom approximately
in Nyassaland. In the West African 560,000 are white, and 366,000 belong
section the indigenous regiment, so to
- to the coloured races —
Indian, Egyptian,
speak, is the West Africa Frontier Force. Negro, Mulatto, Malay, Chinese and Poly-
This is stationed in the Gambia Protec- nesian.
torate (126 men), the Sierra Leone Behind this force there are as yet
Protectorate (470 men), the Gold Coast undefined potentiaUties which at present
hinterland (2,175 men). Southern and take the place of that actuaUty so neces-
_^ p Northern Nigeria (5,266 men). sary to the safety of the British Empire,
•
B 'r'h*' ^" addition there are the West throughout all parts of which (in the
West Africa A^"^^"
Regiment and the ist opinion of the present writer) compulsory
battalion of the West India military service on the part of all males,
Regiment, besides artillery, engineers, etc., more or less between the ages of 19 and 40,
at Sierra Leone (2,612 officers and men in should be an article of the constitution of
all). The Gambia maintains a military every country under the British flag,
police of 80 men ; Sierra Leone, 240 ; most of all in the Motherland. Compulsory
Gold Coast, 621 Southern Nigeria, 980 ; ; service in the militia is now a law of the
and Northern Nigeria, 1,180. Lastly, state in New Zealand (it is projected in
there should also be counted with the Australia), in Canada, in Natal, and in
effective forces in British West Africa Cape Colony.
5596
5597
THE BY SIR
BRITISH HARRY
EMPIRE JOHNSTON,
XIII G.C.M.G.
England in 1000. ^,
,j ^/- •
,^/ ,
short, down to the time that the other . . The Channel
J
great nations of the White world applied Islands had been peopled
themselves in all seriousness to the from quite a remote antiquity by types
foundation of empires beyond the seas. of the different races that overran the
They then began to adopt many British North of France, with which, indeed,
ideas, words, games, notions in art and Guernsey and Jersey were almost con-
industry, clothes, furniture, and sport. It nected by sandbanks and fords of shallow
is true that in horse-racing, railways, steam- water at the beginning of the historical
ships, the training of children, farming, period. They were taken possession of
and agriculture we had engendered and named from the ninth century
original concepts and inventions expressed onwards by Norse rovers from Norway,
in idiomatic Anglo-Saxon, and these had ami consequently came to form part of the
spread the British influence of jockeys, Duchy of Normandy, of which, politically,
_ engineers, governesses, stock- they are the last remnant.
"
, men, and gardeners throughout These Normans mingled with the pre-
Influence -^ *%,, , ^ °
.. . trance. Western Germany, ceding Iberian and Aryan Romanised
Italy, Russia, Tunis, and Egypt; Kelts. Down, therefore, to about the
also that the success of the constitutional reign of Elizabeth, the Channel Islanders
government had for at least 150 years were scarcely distinguishable, anthropolo-
turned the eyes of all reformers and political gically, from the Normans of Northern
theorists towards England. France. But in the sixteenth and seven-
But down to twenty years ago it was teenth centuries the political troubles in
rather France that set the fashions in all England caused a number of English
departments for all Europe than the to settle in Jerseyand Guernsey, and the
Anglo-Saxon. This "British" influence complete detachment of all the Channel
abroad is at least one quarter Ameri- Islanders from the Church of Rome in the
can. It is so difficult to discriminate middle of the sixteenth century added to
nowadays between what notions and the separation from Norman France. In
ideas are started in the United States ^1. rM. Alderney, Jersey, Guernsey,
1
The Channel ,0
and what have their origin in British, , , c
. J and Sark A, 1L
the people, almost
1 i
Islands Secede ,, . f- , 1 1
55QQ
HISTORY OF THE M^ORLD
Winchester). There are, moreover, the use of the French language ; but all
learned societies in Jersey and Guernsey these parts of the world have retained
which conduct their proceedings in French. the Roman Catholic forrn of Christianity.
From the eighteenth century onwards the So far as language, prejudices, mode of
islands have been garrisoned by detach- life, and all that goes to the making of a
ments of British troops, and not a few of people is concerned, the Channel Islanders
these soldiers or sailors from the British of the present day —
in spite of the hundred
fleet have subsequently married and settled miles of sea that separate them from
down in the Channel Islands, whither —
England are more closely knit up with
also during the last hundred years English her in sympathy than are the people of
families have resorted for permanent half Ireland. They coiild never be made
settlement because of the delightful cli- French citizens except by the continuous
mate, lovely scenery, low cost of living, appUcation of force, just as, in all proba-
and educational advantages. The use of bility, the inhabitants of Northern Lorraine
the English language is spreading year would ever resist the attempt to coerce
by year over a larger area in these islands. them into German citizenship, or the
As it is. Aid"'' • - iilmost entindv Germans of the Baltic provinces willingly
Hi
L^"
*.*'• f
"•'iSm
'^^
r%.
.."^*^.-^1^/^^ ^- ^***i5i|^""'
'^^^^Siis.w
^
.4|B
mm
^^^^^^^^
' -. ^if *
**^-z!^^
^ 1
,
*<,
•^lifefe; '
marked by episodes bad taste that of a same way if the Germans occupied the Isle
seems peculiarly British and yet not an — The Ionian
of Wight. They would prob-
ancient, but quite a modern trait in the ably do a vast deal to im-
—
race the main results of the British occu-
Islands
Under Greece
prove the service on the Isle
pation of Malta have been of enormous of Wight Railway, and carry
benefit to the inhabitants of the two out much needed public works in a
islands. There has been definitely created masterful manner, besides endowing the
a Maltese people, destined to play a very island with better schools than those
notable part in the commercial develop- which are given at present. Yet— illogical
ment of the Mediterranean. and ungrateful though they might be
If England, as the garrisoning race, — the inhabitants of the Isle of Wight
should mend her manners, the Maltese would probably prefer to remain under
might at the same time cause an impartial or to return to the control of the British
history of Malta during the last hundrt-d Government rather than become citizens
years to be drawn up and published, and of the Germ*an Empire.
thereby realise how much indeed they Consequently, Great Britain acted wisely
owe in gratitude to the acceptance in yielding to the wishes of the lonians
by George III. of kingship over Malta. that they might come under the sove-
The British protectorate over the Ionian reignty of Greece. Nevertheless, anyone
Islands did much the same for the Greeks who has visited the island of Corfu, if he
_ ,of Corfu as for the mixed races be of British blood, cannot but admire the
^^ ^^^^' French, and Italian magnificent public works which have been
^Iir
c »s Hsh
«»
origin in Malta. It certainly carried out on that island, and ask himself
spread acquaintance with and whether the material prosperity of that
use of the English language amongst the group might not be far higher than it is
(ireeks of the Levant. Many a Greek at present were the supreme administra-
commercial house now of world-wide im- tion in the hands of honest Anglo-Saxons.
portance arose from the British occupation There is little doubt, however, that the
of this archipelago, which, until the on- continued retention of this protectorate
slaught of Napoleon Bonaparte, had would have involved England in disagree-
belonged to Venice since the time it was able European complications, and cer-
detached from the Byzantine Empire. tainly would have ended by offending the
5606
VENDOR OF GOATS' MILK A MALTESE LADY PRIEST IN CLERICAL ATTIRE
5608
;
toum, who drew thither other explorers and about 4,000,000 acres to 6,500,000 ;
big-game hunters, who in time turned forced labour is abolished the rights of
;
structed great canals, their masterly work enormously advanced canals infinitely
;
permission to build railways and to open and administered to the infinite blessing
the overland route. The Franco-German of its native inhabitants, the enrichment
War weakened French influence, and 1882 of Eg3^pt, and the advantage of European
found Great Britain with an almost pre- and American trade and, finally, the
;
scriptive right to interfere in the Sudan, a people of the khediviate brought within
control of the railway system, a virtual sight ofsound representative institutions.
monopoly of the steamship traffic on the The British occupation of Egypt,
Nile, and a vested right in the Suez Canal. without the slightest doubt, has been the
Egyptian bankruptcy having compelled happiest event, in its results, which has
her intervention, ^gypt since 1882 has ever befallen that country since the
been under the control of the British memorable expulsion of the shepherd kings.
5609
—
THE BY SIR
BRITISH HARRY
EMPIRE JOHNSTON.
XIV G.C.M.G.
_ f "^ already overrun Florida, and where the Esquimau prevailed over the
. . had occupied a good deal of
. Indian, that the Norse colonies of the
Mexico. Otherwise, the ninth and tenth centuries had been
American Continent to the North of the estabhshed (in Nova Scotia and Massa-
Gulf of Mexico was free from the presence chusetts) and had in turn been over-
of the Caucasian. It was at that time thrown, mainly through the attacks of
populated sparsely by Indians, who, as the Esquimaux, or at any rate of some
compared to the races conquered by the race which in default of better kno^^iedge
Spaniards further south, were leading the we identify with the Esquimaux.
life of savages, though there were under- —
The Esquimau the word is derived
lying indigenous civilisations in the tem- from an Indian nick-name meaning " eaters
perate or sub-tropical portions of North of raw flesh," the people's own term
America which had existed and had died for themselves being Innuit —
differs in
away, or had been overthrown by the the main from the Indian stock (which
arrival of nomad savages from, the north. Tiri.
Where ^u
the
is identical with the existmg in-
,• , ,. r a •
that has developed special features of its though the Europeans throve and increased,
own, and which may have absorbed pre- E 1 a' L °^^ ^ Indians decreased in
existing long-headed, Aino-like tribes of a numbers, dying out from the
rugge
St** '"^i for
more generalised type, such Caucasoid extremely savage attacks of
North America , •, ' °. ,
. .
i_ ,i_
tribes having preceded the Mongolian in tribe agamst tribe, both
the occupation of North America. waging that quarrel of the white man
When the British colonists founded the which was not theirs. By the time the
settlement of Virginia, the Amerindians United States were recognised as an inde-
were, from our present point of view, pendent power, and France had definitely
savages, leading an existence more or less abandoned political sway over any part of
nomadic, with a preference for tents or (in the mainland of North America at the —
the West) caves over huts. It is doubtful beginning of the nineteenth century, let us
whether any of them dwelt in stone houses —
say the Amerindians of North America
such as had once existed in the southern had diminished in numbers both in Canada
regions of North America, or in Mexico. and the United States from the hypothet-
They lived largely as hunters, but ical 5,000,000 which were there when the
probably did not number in all more than white man first arrived to possibly not more
5,000,000, if as much, throughout North than 3,000,000, distributed mainly over the
America from the northern frontiers of countries west of the Mississippi and of the
Mexico to the Arctic Ocean. Their relations Canadian Rocky Mountains.
. with the British settlers of The middle of the nineteenth century
Extermmating
^^^ sixteenth and seventeenth saw the United States carrying on many
the
centuries were in the main an Indian war, which had arisen from the
Amerindians
hostile. Tribe after tribe was unchecked rapacity and shameless beha-
gradually exterminated by diseases intro- viour of the white colonists, who were
—
duced by the Europeans, by warfare often pushing determinedly westwards towards
civilwar between tribe and tribe, instigated the Pacific. Locations were set up by
by the European, or by alcohol. which it was hoped to provide a definite
France, late in the race for American territory for one Indian tribe or another.
colonisation, made up for lost time during A few of these locations are still maintained
the seventeenth century by the vigour and (87,237 square miles in 1906), but there is
ability with which she colonised. By the practically now no purely Indian territory on
early part of the eighteenth century she the soil of the United States or in Canada.
had laid the foundations of a Canadian But the decrease of the Indians in the
empire and of a magnificent domain in whole of North America, which may have
what are now the southern states of North brought their total as low as 1,300.000
America. She dominated the Mississippi somewhere about 1875 this estimate —
River from its mouth northwards so far as would include all Northern Mexico,
to bring her colonists of the south almost with about 900,000 Amerindians has —
into touch with her colonists on the Great apparently been checked of late years.
Lakes. Through her missionaries and her In Canada and in the United
Better Times
settlers she obtained a far-reaching influ- States conscientious legislation
for
ence over the Amerindians, with whom has arresied the drink curse,
the Indians
the French " habitants " mingled more and the greed of a European
freely — —
sexually than did the Puritans or education is spreading amongst the Indians
Hollanders of the Anglo-Saxon settlements. together with settled habits. Men and
The results are the French-speaking women of purely Indian blood are slightly
half-breeds of to-day in Canada —a more numerous now than they were
handsome, stalwart race, often so pre- thirty years ago. Including all Mexico,
possessing physically that they have Yucatan and Alaska, as well as the
been reabsorbed into the Caucasian United States of America and the Cana-
community with little or no racial dian Dominion, there are seemingly at
56H
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
the present time 1,474,000 pure-blood undoubted negro women has decreased,
Amerindians in North America. Yet they being now
forbidden by motives of racial
are less and less discernible to the traveller pride — at
any rate, on the side of the
from abroad, inasmuch as they tend to white man. The two races, therefore,
dress and demean themselves increasingly co-exist side by side with far less tendency
more like the Americans of Caucasian race. to intermingle than was the case when
They intermarry, or, at any rate, mix they were respectively master and slave.
sexually with white men, the half-breed But the negro has taken increasingly
being of a comely type so that to the American climate and soil. Were
P ;
"^
will have to be found for the black problem A*4 .• t this problem by the institu-
Attr&ctions for ,
• < t i • •
i ^
in the United States. Within a relatively ..
j^ tion of Liberia eighty years
small geographical area of the United States ago. Liberia has achieved
east of the Mississippi there are at the some results, and may yet be a very valuable
present moment something like 9,500,000 essay in negro self-government but so far ;
negroes. This estimate includes some she has proved a failure as a dumping
2,500,000 persons of mixed negro and Euro- ground for the American negro, for the
pean blood. The tendency of public feeling simple reason that negroes born and bred on
at the present time in the United States American soil find as great a difficulty in
is to lump together as negroes
—
" coloured establishing themselves in Tropical Africa
—
people " all men and women of recognis- as does the European. They are almost
ably negroid appearance and ancestry. equally subject with him to the effects of
In some parts of the United States malaria, and they seem unable, as a general
it very awkward socially for anyone
is rule, to procreate healthy, vigorous chil-
to be born with black hair and brown dren, unless they mingle with the indi-
eyes even if they have a lively pink genous races and thus allow themselves to
complexion. No doubt, many of these be reabsorbed into the savage or semi-
handsome brunettes owe their black hair civilised negro tribes of the Dark Continent.
and brown eyes either to Spanish inter- But the Americanised negro colonist
or to an older strain of clings instinctively, passionately, to Ameri-
Th Bi * k rnixture
p .. Amerindian. These are the can civilisation. He will literally die
. . explanations they strive to put
. rather than give up European clothing
forward, but woe betide them if and "American notions of life, and slip
their complexion is sallow ! During the back into the palaeolithic or neolithic
days when slavery was an institution, the conditions of the African savage. It
planters in the south mixed freely (sexu- seems to the writer of this essay that if
ally) with the negro or half-caste women the cruel injustice of the white man in
whom they kept as their mistresses. But North America is to refuse to the negro
since the great Civil War and the emanci- a portion of the United States which can
pation of the negro, sexual intercourse become his permanent home, his only
between undoubted white men and resort will be the islands of the West
BRITISH EXPANSION IN AMERICA
Indies and the states of Northern South from Uruguay. British interest in the
America. Though in Africa he can scarcely Falkland Islands, and consequently her
withstand malaria better than the Euro- relations with the terminal portion of the
pean, he can resist the sun. In America, South American continent, have, however,
as in Africa, the man of negro blood can done a great deal to mend the lot of the
perform manual labour under circum- miserable inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego,
stances of heat and sun exposure which chiefly through the work of British mission-
are fatal to the white man. A new Africa, aries. The Fuegians, a people of the
therefore, may arise in Tropical America. Amerindian race, were first
Great Britain is concerned with this
AA T1 rtbute
-1. *
,
.
10 , . •
ii
brought prommently to our
J
Missionary
problem, because at the present day the ^^'''^. ^Y the wntmgS of
Enterprise
British West Indies are in the main peopled Darwm, who visited South
by negroes and negroids. In the British America in the Beagle in 1833. At the
West Indies themselves there were very few time of his visit these people were leading a
indigenous inhabitants (Amerindian) when completely savage existence under miser-
Britain took over the different islands, able conditions of chmate. They were
except in St. Vincent, Dominica, and almost entirely nude, and led the simple
perhaps Trinidad. In St. Vincent there existence of the Stone Age, being unac-
were Caribs of more or less mixed type, quainted even with the use of fire, practising
sometimes hybridised with negroes. In hardly any arts, and living the hunter's hfe.
Trinidad the few indigenous people linger- The attention paid to Tierra del Fuego
ing on the west coast belonged more or by the contending nations of Argentina
less to the Carib stock, but they were very and Chili, more especially by the Anglo-
few in number at the time of the British Saxon and Irish pioneers in the nominal
occupation of the island in 1796, and soon service of those governments, led, in
became absorbed in the mixed population the second half of the nineteenth century,
of negroes and Creoles. This island will to the usual introduction of spirituous
eventually become peopled by liquors and syphilis, and from one cause
n"'* . a homogeneous race of mixed and another the Fuegians were rapidly
Races in ,9
-,.... negro, European, andj t- East tIn-
i.
becoming exterminated. But the advent
dian origin. In British Guiana of the South American Missionary
the Amerindian population forms a con- Society has, during the last quarter of
siderable item, perhaps 10,000 to 12,000 ;
a century, not only saved the remnant
though has probably diminished in
it from perishing but has infused into them
numbers rather than increased during the such a degree of reasonable civilisation
hundred years of British occupation. as may enable them to recover their
These people belong to the Arawak, numbers and better their position.
Wapiana, Atorai, and Carib groups, Elsewhere, in Chili or in Patagonia, the
related to South American stocks in the influence of British settlers, captains
adjoining regions of the northern basin of industry or officials in the service of
of the Amazon and to the former in- the Chilian and Argentine Governments,
habitants of the West Indies. They do has stayed any tendency there might have
not seem to take very kindly to civilisa- been to provoke or extend wars between
tion, and are probably destined to be the European settlers and the local
absorbed info a negro or negroid peasantry, Amerindian tribes. But the inevitable
which may be further complicated by tendency of these people in temperate
intermixture with the Indian coolie and South America, as in temperate North
the Portuguese colonist, the resulting _, . America, will lie towards fusion
race emerging as a type very like the
f'th""
^^^^ ^"^ absorption by the
Papuan of New Guinea or the Melanesian -, .. invading Caucasian, from whom
of the Western Pacific. they are not removed so far
In the Falkland Islands there were no physically as the latter is from the negro ;
5613
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
of the Pacific archipelagoes. Both routes Amerindian in North America will be
may have been followed. The summing gradually absorbed, and will improve
up, therefore, of the effect which the rather than spoil the vigour and beauty of
British Empire will have produced on the American race. It will have much the
humanity in the United States and British same racial significance as the Mongolian
North America, in the West Indies and strain which permeates parts of Scan-
in South America, is this •
dinavia, Russia, Germany, Alsace, Brittany
In the English-speaking regions of North and Ireland.
America, north of the hmits of Mexico, The Canadian French and the de-
there will grow up a people which would be scendants of the French colonists of
best represented at the present day by a Louisiana, the Spanish tinge in Texas,
composite photograph of all the races of California, and Florida, the million or so
Europe between Spain and Siberia, Greece Italians settled in America during the
and Scandinavia. The black drop in the last fifty years, the other millions of
blood of this potent race of the future Iberian Irish, the darker types of Hun-
will be no greater than that which has garians, will leaven the blond masses,
infused anciently the populations of Spain, the descendants of the settlers from
Southern France, Sardinia, and Sicily, Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Russia,
or which makes itself noticeable in such Poland, Scandinavia, Iceland, and Ger-
cities as Glasgow, Liverpool, Bristol and many. The most stalwart of the peoples
London, which traded with the West promise to arise in Canada the Canadian
;
Indies and thereby mixed with negro may be the aristocrat of the New World
slaves in the three last centuries. The in the last half of the twentieth century.
/-/Ju.-J i/jf ti. II Misit
IS.1NU tDWAKD Vll.
From the Sutue by Caorge Wade erected at RMdin^
THE BY SIR
BRITISH HARRY
EMPIRE JOHNSTON,
XV G.C.M.G.
of E i^s^<^ d' s
I
of the British Empire in Southern Asia. point, she had too much to
^g^^j^
paci y
An inhabitant of Mars, looking at the ^gj^ ^^ going to war with
outlines of the land surface of our planet, France at sea to interpose a determined
would certainly never have guessed veto on her plundering of China and Siam.
that the people of the southern half of an At such movements, of course, Britain ex-
island off the north-west coast of Europe pressed an unaffected disapproval with a
would have made themselves the masters naivete the more extraordinary as the
of Hindustan. It was virtually England French activities, after all, were merely coin-
that conquered India down to the close of cident with her own conquest of Burma and
the eighteenth century, largely as Ireland the Shan States and her determination to
and Scotland have subsequently com- acquire undisputed political rights over the
pleted and strengthened the achievement. Siamese provinces of the Malay Peninsula.
That a military power uprising in the In the eighteenth century Britain found
Balkan Peninsula should ex- India to be a prey to internecine war.
Britain's
tend its sway continuously over After many invasions from the north-
Indian
Asia Minor, Persia and India west, going far back into prehistoric days,
Empire
is easily conceivable, as also the people of North Central India had been
that India should have fallen a prey to the conquered by a Turkish prince at the head
Russians or the Turks of Central Asia. of an army composed of Moguls, Turks,
Yet, of course, the Indian Empire is not Afghans, and Persians.
much more remarkable as a political Thus in 1526 was founded the Mogul—
achievement of the eighteenth and nine- —
properly spelt Mughal Empire. Prior to
teenth centuries than is the Dutch Empire this, much of Western and South Central
over the Malay Archipelago or what would India had been Mohammedanised and
have been a French overlordship of the Arabised, so that the irruption of Babar
Indian Peninsula. The first two conquests slightly intensified the Mohammedan ele-
are the results of the development of sea ment, and enabled his descendants for
power, and France, in the main, failed the next two centuries to rule with fairly
to take the place now occupied by Great sway over about
undisputed
Britain in Southern Asia because when her *!iT* 120,000,000 people, consider-
° "* "
ably more than two-thirds of
sea power was put to the test it vielded
'
the birthplace of the bovine, antelopine, that here and there in Northern and Central
capricornine ruminants, several groups of India, and perhaps along the east coast,
carnivora, of dogs, deer, and swine. there are Mongolian elements older than
Here, perhaps, arose the true elephant those which penetrated India from Tibet
genus from out of the mastodon. Here was and the Pamirs within the last 2,000 years.
the great radiating centre' of the gallina- At some unknown date, this side of
ceous birds. India ranks with North America 7,000 years ago, occurred one of the great
and North-east Africa as one of the great landmarks in the unwritten history of
evolutionary breeding grounds from which India— the invasion of the Aryans. The
have arisen and dispersed the principal —
name Aryan itself of Indian origin—
forms of animal life. Southern India, j oined has been applied in past times with a
5616
CUTTING A ROAD THROUGH THE JUNGLE IN THE FEDERATED MALAY STATES
357
56^7
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
degree of looseness which led for a while that of Buddha. From them and their
to its falling into disrepute. Its hnguistic intrusion and infusion of superior northern
purpose was confused with a racial desig- blood arose the idea of caste. The origined
nation, which is probably of a far more blond hair and grey eyes of the Aryans
abstruse and limited scope. One may soon disappeared in their physical absorp-
—
perhaps as a not altogether improbable tion into the millions of dark-haired,
—
theory identify the original inventors of brown-eyed, swarthy Dravidians or the
the Aryan tongues with the blond, grey- yellow-skinned, black-haired Mongolians.
eyed Europeans of Russia,
. The traces of this northern physical type
The Ancient
Cg^tral and Northern Europe. still linger in the highlands of Afghanistan
Aryan
g^^ ^^^ several thousand years and of the Hindu Kush. Curiously enough,
nnguages
^j-yg^j^ languages have been these brown- haired, grey-eyed Afghans
spoken by all the types of Caucasian man resemble strikingly the brown-haired, grey-
in Europe and Western Asia, except Lap- eyed Berbers of the Atlas Mountains of
land, Finland, North-east Russia, part of Tunis and Algeria.
Hungary, a small part of Turkey, Syria, The Aryan influence may also have
and the borderlands of France and Spain. penetrated beyond India to the recesses
These languages seem —
from such of Si am and Cochin China ; but at the
knowledge as we now possess to have — present day the mass of the population
arisen somewhere in Eastern Russia or eastwards of Bengal belongs in the main
Western Asia, north of the Caucasus, and to the Mongol type in varying degrees,
to have been the appanage of a white- with an underlying stratum of Negrito.
skinned people of pastoral habits, physi- The people of Bengal the familiar
cal beauty, and of a stage of culture which " Babu " type, no doubt also have an
had reached the age of metals copper, — infusion of the Mongolian in their blood.
bronze, and perhaps iron. Some have These Aryan invaders of prehistoric
maintained that this golden-haired or red- times were reinforced as regards language
haired, grey-eyed people may have deve- and fighting power by subse-
loped in North Africa from the brunette * quent incursions, legendary and
th D
Mediterranean race or from some more - „. historical, from across the Hindu
generalised type of Caucasian man. The " *"^
Kush. Across the lower valley
only clues that we possess at present of the Indus, however, at the dawn of
as to the origin of Aryan languages history, races of Dravidian stock seem-
would seem to lie in the direction of a ingly were pushing westwards through
Finnic or Mongolian stock. Baluchistan and Southern Persia to Meso-
But in prehistoric times, from ^,000 to potamia and Eastern Arabia. Indeed,
5,000 years ago, possibly more than that, it would appear as though there had been
Aryan conquerors had entered India from a strong set of the Dravidian peoples
the north-west, and had produced much towards Arabia at a remote period in the
the same impression on the dark-skinned history of that peninsula, and that there
Dravidians as was made on the pristine may be even a Dravidian element in the
negroes of Africa by the prehistoric in- blood of the Semitic and Hamitic tribes
vasions of Hamites from Egypt. of Arabia and Ethiopia.
The Aryans introduced to the millions Alexander the Great definitely linked
of Northern, Central and Western India a the fortunes of Europe with those of
language of the same family as that to India. From his celebrated invasion on-
which Lithuanian, Slavic, Greek, Latin, wards Europe never completely lost
... and Keltic tongues belong. This touch with the peninsula of Hindustan.
the Buddha
language, represented pretty Even Alfred the Great, King of Wessex,
„ ,.
Keiigion
.
,, -
by
Sanskrit, developed
closely caused inquiries to be made about India.
m
.
r -^ .y
the course of several thou-
^
The invasion of the Greeks 300 years
sand years into the modern dialects of before Christ further strengthened the
India and of Southern Ceylon, leaving Aryan influence over North-western India,
only outside its influence the Dravidian as is testified by the remains of a debased
speech of Southern and South-eastern Greek art in the Northern Punjab and even
India and the tongues of a few aboriginal Greek types of face amongst its people.
tribes. The Aryans brought with them The next great event in the history of
religious ideas which modified the religion this motherland was the invasion of the
of Brahma and eventually gave rise to Mohammedau Arabs, which began m
56l3
SCENES IN MAN'S FIGHT AGAINST NATURE
5619
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
looi A.D., and which, carried on by the conduct the affairs of their kingdoms and
Arabised Turks and Persians, culminated principalities with decorum and justice.
in that Mogul Empire for which the British The wealth of India during the last
Crown was substituted in 1858 and 1876. hundred years, since the British became
England found India in the seventeenth the masters over this region,
effective
century more or less completely under the must have increased tenfold, while the
sway of the Mogul emperors. The India population has nearly doubled.
which they ruled, directly or indirectly, Magnificent public works have been car-
though it included Southern Afghanistan, ried out —
thousands of miles of railways,
scarcely extended to Baluchistan, and canals for communication and irrigation,
certainly stopped in the Far East at the gigantic dams and reservoirs for the storage
mouth of the Ganges. It did not include of water, bridges across rivers that are
Ceylon, which remained more or less wonders of the world, the sounding,
governed internally by an ancient dynasty charting, and buoying of great capricious
of Aryan origin and Buddhistic religion, rivers up which ocean ships may travel
but the coasts of which were controlled . hundreds of miles the British have devel-
;
ever since the sixteenth century first? oped coal-mines that have added enor-
by the Portuguese, then by the Dutch, and mously to the wealth of India gold-mines, ;
Tibet, of the doors, while the picture of a woman above the lettering indicates the harmful wild
purpose of the compartment to those who have not learnt to read.
Indian peninsula beasts and
proper from the Himalayas to Cape poisonous snakes. More important by far-
Comorin, of Burma and the Shan States than this interference with the tiger and
England has given security of life and the viper is the tracking down of the
property to a degree never known by plague, cholera, malaria and syphilis bacilli^
these Asiatic peoples in all their recorded and the war that has recently been waged
history. Equal security has been given on microbe-bearing rats, fleas and mosqui-
to the native dynasties of kings and chiefs toes. The British have fought famine in
who have accepted her suzerainty, and whp those recurring years of scarcity wherein the
5620
;
would have been quicker but for the reasonable Moslems of the Indian Empire.
suspicion, the prejudices, the religious She may in the same way save the
fanaticism of Hindus and Mohammedans. Hindus from themselves by sapping the in-
It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that tolerable nonsense of caste, of the Brahman
only two or three thousand natives of cult the non-hygenic principles that direct
India out of three hundred millions have this and that restriction on wholesome food
as yet grasped sufficiently the principles or drink, of the worship of black goddesses
of natural science to realise the true with two dozen breasts, of
Consequences
causes of disease, and to be convinced that ^j^ ^^^ ghastly rubbish which
O s
sensible people would not allow either "l^'l^ g^jjj j.g^y(>g5 200,000,000 of
Good Rule ^t- j ui
superstition or misapplied religious prin- Hmdus xto a negligible
i-
quan-
ciples, or foolish social customs and preju- tity in the weights of the intellectual
dices, to stand between an enlightened world. England also will have had
government and the elimination of such the privilege of assisting and rendering
diseases as the plague. prosperous and numerous one of the very
The effect of 150 years of British rule few good and noble religions which have
on the peoples of India has been stupen- arisen in the world — the sect of the Jains.
dous. England has put an end to Afghan The effect of the British Empire on the
raids which at intervals since looi Malay Peninsula and in Borneo has been
scattered the accumulated capital de- the abolition of piracy, the stoppage of
stroyed the cities and the public works of internecine wars between one Malay
the industrious races, and punc- sjltan and another, and of the Arab slave
India's
debt to
tuated the annals of India with trade ;and the great recent increase of
holocausts of human victims. population which has resulted from the
Britain
She has done away with abatement of the dense forests and their
Thuggism, widow-burning, and her in- profitable exploitation, the discovery of
fluence is rapidly making child-marriage tin and coal, and the hundredfold increase
an obsolete custom. Under her rule there of human health, happiness, wealth and
is complete religious hberty for all who do intellectual progress in these parts. If
not want to adopt murder or torture as an there is any portion of the British Empire
article of faith. England may not last without a blemish in purpose or achieve-
long enough to make a homogeneous ment, it is the Malay Peninsula, the Straits
undivided people out of the 300,000,000 Settlements, and all their appurtenances.
si
of practical politics ?
westernmost
.
The' .
promontories
•
the trade route to China amongst the Malay
Islands did more for mediaeval geography
islands of New Guinea
^^^ and the linking up of the worlds of Europe
I habitants
were included by the Dutch and the Far East than the attempts of
within their sphere of commercial and Greece, Rome, and Constantinople or the
political influence as early as the end of growth of the Chinese Empire.
the sixteenth century but the whole of
; The conversion of the Malays to
the remainder of New Guinea, Australia, Islam definitely attached the coasts of
New Zealand, and the adjacent Pacific the East Indian Islands and promontories
archipelagoes were left to themselves to the civilised world. The plumes of
till the last half of the eighteenth century. New Guinea birds of paradise, the cam-
The reasons for this late development phor of Formosa, the spices and even the
were principally the savage and ferocious cockatoos of the Moluccas may have
nature of the inhabitants, who lay utterly reached the Persian Gulf, the Mameluke
outside Hindu, Malay, and Mohammedan rulers of Egypt, the Greek emperors of
influence, and the existence of the Great _. _ _ Byzantium, the merchants
Barrier Reef, which hindered approach to ^t
of °r.. .?-! of Venice, and the Arab
Australasian
the coast of North-east Australia. rulers of Grenada before the
Aborigines
The extent of this reef southwards was oversea exploits of the
probably over-estimated. But where it Portuguese made these regions of the Far
came to an end the seas were sufficiently East tributary to Western and Northern
far south to be affected by heavy gales. Europe. The culture which prevailed over
It was not until better and bigger ships New Guinea, excepting the small Malay
and rtiore scientific navigators entered these sultanates of the far north-west, over all
waters, with Captain Cook as a pioneer. Australia and Tasmania, was of such a
5623
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
low order that it might be called Palaeo- from the Polynesian archipelagoes. It
lithic. The aborigines of New Guinea, is themain element of the popula-
Australia and Tasmania were, in the main, tion of Fiji, and is traceable in Tonga.
of a more primitive, less differentiated The Papuans of New Guinea are fairly
character than any living races at the abundant, of medium height, and good
present day, except their outlying relations proportions, though some of the tribes
such as the Veddahs and Negritoes. The of the interior tend to a shortness of
lowest Australian types of men bear in legs which recalls the forest negroes of
cranial formation a striking Africa. The skin colour is sooty brown
similarity to the Neanderthal like that of the Australian.
of iYce
^c^ ia
species of the genus Homo which
11^
The dark races of South-eastern Asia differ
Australia •- j t-
from the " black " negroes in that there
i i •
remote period. They are, indeed, the is less red colour in the skin, and in the
nearest living representatives of early case of the Papuans and Australians there
Palaeolithic Man in Europe. Elsewhere is a much greater projection of the brow-
this generalised type of our species has ridges; the nose, moreover, being seldom
been developed, specialised, or exter- absolutely fiat in the bridge, though the
minated. At the present day the Papuan tip is wide and flat at the nostrils, and
race of New
Guinea makes a distinct the lips, though thick and projecting, are
approximation towards the negro, and this not so largely everted as with the average
negroid type penetrates eastward and negro. The hair of the Papuans is black
northward, mixed in varying degrees and frizzly, and grows semi-erect, like
with the Polynesian, till it reaches a mop. That of the Australians is curly
Hawai, Formosa, and Japan. in a large way, but except for its coarse
The theory sometimes advanced to texture grows very much like a European's.
account for the physical attributes of the Like the lower races of Europe and India
extinct Tasmanians is that this negroid the Australian's body, in the male, is very
type migrated southwards along the -,. • hairy. This is one of the
t f
east coast of Australia and crossed thence . / characteristics which points
to Tasmania, being afterwards succeeded „ , . to a basal affinity between
Polynesians ,, * j "^
j x,
on the continent of Australia by races Austraioid and
the
i. i
the
with straighter hair and more prominent Caucasian. The Polynesians seem to be
noses, akin to the Dravidian. a Far Eastern prolongation of Malay in-
In New Zealand there was a different fluence, though in physical characteristics
state of affairs. The first European ex- perhaps nearer akin to the Caucasian.
plorers that landed on its coasts French — They differ from the Western Caucasian
and English, at the close of the eighteenth in the relative absence of body-hair, and
century —
observed two types amongst the a tendency to the straight, coarse head-
aborigines : a short, dark-skinned negroid, hair of the Mongol, Malay, and Amerindian.
and the tall, light-skinned Maori and ; It may be that before the Mongols of China,
the theory was advanced some thirty years Japan, North Asia and the Esquimaux
ago that the arrival of the last named had become differentiated and had reached
from Polynesian archipelagoes had been their present habitat an early Caucasian
preceded by a Tasmanian immigration. But type threw off a smooth-skinned, straight-
it is inconceivable that this low race could haired branch which migrated to North-
have constructed canoes to cross a thousand eastern Asia and thence colonised much of
odd miles of sea between Australia and America, while it made its way also south
New
New Zealand it is difficult
Zealand's
; and east to the Pacific archipelagoes, to
enough to believe that such absorb culture from the more Mongolian
Early
a primitive type could even Malay and mingle his blood with his.
Inhabitants
have crossed on rafts a strait In many of their physical characteristics
of a few miles in width between Wilson the Polynesians recall the Indians of
Promontory and Tasmania and it has ; Western America. In modern times they
been surmised that their colonisation of have mingled with the negroid Melanesians,
this island dates from a time when it was inheriting from them wider noses, undu-
connected by an isthmus with the Aus- lations in the head-hair, and darker skin
tralian continent. Therefore, it is more colour. Yet, when all has been said and
probable that if there was a negroid element done, the best Polynesian type recalls the
in New Zealand, it accompanied the Maories European, and fimdamentadly the two
5624
BRITISH EXPANSION IN AFRICA AND THE PACIFIC
races may be akin, a fact which will " South " Australia. Queensland has had
probably have the Tiappiest effect on the as merciless a record, but here the territory
future status of the Polynesians, inter- was vaster, hotter, and a larger proportion
marriage with whom will no more
be of the indigenes have survived to profit
prejudicial to racial beauty and mental by the development of Queensland public
development than the intermixture with opinion on to a higher plane of thought.
the Amerindian or the Northern Mongol. Their treatment now is vastly improved
The effect of the British Empire on the in this direction. Western Australia in
autochthonous races of Australia and ^^^ back blocks, and above all
Polynesia cannot be described in terms
of such glowing praise as I have applied
The Nati
IT-.!-
Under f-
^ruel
Treatment
I
. ...
in the far north-west, has stiU
"luch scourgmg to receive and
,
When England laid hands on all Austra- riders, trackers, farm servants, and other
lia, from the point of view of keeping other workers of use to the general community
European Powers out, say, in 1800, the at the present day, who are of pure
native population of the entire island Australian blood. It is no longer probable
continent cannot have been less than that this wonderfully interesting race will
200,000 to-day it is computed at 65,000. n ut ^6 exterminated it is less un-
;
AA Brighter
• ;
Pacific until she annexed New Zealand in the fate of this Polynesian race may be
1840, but the unofficial influence of the reabsorption, to form with these other racial
^. . . British on the Polynesian and elements another and stronger Polynesian
Missionaries ,^1 , ', -,,
people, an amalgam, like the predecessors,
as n
...
Builders ,, ^ /„ began
Melanesian peoples
, » ,
With
of Emoir
,
Melanesians should not once more begin remain some seventy or eighty years of
to increase in numbers. Yet in Hawai, previous unofficial British or British
under the Americans, and in Fiji under colonial dealings with the peoples that are
—
the British both governments showing a sorry record of slavery, kidnapping,
the utmost solicitude for their Poly- alcohol-poisoning, debauchery, disease,
—
nesian wards the native race is ceasing ridiculous or even vicious ^vrangles
to have children, is d5ring of white between Christian sects and churches,
5626
BRITISH EXPANSION IN AFRICA AND THE PACIFIC
cannibalistic outbreaks and sanguinary than the nourishment of unintellectual
revenges, farcical governments got up by idleness in cannibalism and sexual orgies
European or American adventurers, and of 2.000,000 brown Polynesians. Such
floated with repudiated paper currencies. fragments of the Earthly Paradise are
These influences combined must have worthier .to be the home of 50,000,000
reduced the total native population of men and women endowed with the finest
Oceania, excluding New Guinea but qualities of mind and body.
including New Zealand, from a possible What has been the effect of the British
2|- milhons to about a million at the Empire on Africa ? In the west, the scene
present day. Of course, it must be remem- of her earliest attempts at settlement as
bered this 2 1 millions had been living traders and rulers, she first encouraged
lives of useless happiness, apart from the to an enormous extent the trade in slaves.
rest of the moving world, aloof from the This has led to much intertribal warfare,
sorrows and struggles of the toiling and even the disappearance of certain
thousand millions in temperate or torrid coast peoples. Between 1560 and i860 the
G. Hughes
THE PRIMITIVE SYSTEM OF LANDING ON THE WEST AFRICAN COAST
continents. Seemingly, a policy of secluded West African slave trade certainly tended to
selfishness does not enter into the scheme the depopulation of parts of Guinea, Daho-
of the Higher Power for the development meh, the Niger Delta, and the Kameruns.
of the human race. Nature insists on a The British from 1815 and the French
unification of the genus, and to attain from about 1835 set to work to suppress
this end extremes meet —the Dutchman the slave trade they had once encouraged.
mingles with the Hottentot, the English- This, of course, led to their increased inter-
man with the Polynesian, Scotsman with ference in West African affairs, and by
West Indian negro, Portuguese with degrees to a widespread use of the English
Dravidian, Arab with Bantu, Frenchman language as a medium of intercommunica-
with Amerindian. The Summer Isles of tion. The trade in palm oil and palm
Eden and the 104,000 square miles of —
kernels said to have been invented in
pasture, meadow, woodland. Alp, lake, —
Liberia was, in its early days, a British
and orchard, which constitute the noble industry ; and so lucrative did it become
patrimony of New Zealand, were meant to natives as well as white men that it
for better things in the destiny of man probably proved a more efficient corrective
5627
—
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
of the slave trade than the vigilance of the territory, and the proceeds or profits
British cruisers. But the palm-oil trade therefrom are publicly accounted for, and
gave rise to incidents and tendencies which form part of the local revenue. In the
—
provoked further and often unwilling administration which controls these sources
interference on the part of the British of public wealth the voice of the real
Government with native chiefs. These last natives of the country will have a larger
would frequently attempt to make a corner and larger part as education increases in
in palm oil, by preventing the interior the native community and fits the people
_, _. natives from coming into con- of the soil for playing a responsible part.
tact with the white traders, Whilst foreign capital is required to
the \xT
on it Westi , ., 11 j a
were thus compelled to fructify industries and to turn the re-
Afric C t
deal with the oil-markets by sources of the country to profitable account,
making use of the coast negroes as inter- that capital must be allowed a fair repre-
mediaries and middlemen. Thus the pro- sentation in the local councils, and receive
ducing peoples of the interior received a guarantees as to its investments
sufficient ;
poor price for their industry, and the otherwise the native community will
European had to pay too dearly for the never obtain money on cheap enough
oil which was becoming so increasingly terms for creating its industries. But
necessary to his home industries. the ambition of all these negro states
Now all these questions are regulated under the British flag in West Africa and
equitably. The coast men share in the Nigeria should be to obtain their working
general advantages of the coast govern- capital in time through their own re-
ment, which is partly supported by the sources and in time to show themselves
customs duties levied on general imports more and more worthy of home rule.
and exports. The
natives of the interior In East Africa, between the Nile Basin and
can dispose of their produce without let or the Zambesi, the chief effect on the native
hindrance for the prices determined by the peoples has been produced by the abroga-
law of supply and demand. But it is in —^ . tion of Arab authority in the
* "^^
the coast regions, above all, that the -. coast lands and the even-
.
Oppression la , r j.i. a u
tual suppression 01 the Arab
.
years ago, and the Hottentots are a decay- placed the quagga and the blaubok on the
ing people to some slight extent. They list of extinct animals, and has brought
seem more likely to exist in a half-caste the white rhinoceros. South African oryx,
type, the original hybrids with the Boers and several other interesting mammalian
— —
Griqua mixing again with the pure types very near the vanishing point.
THE BY SIR
BRITISH HARRY
EMPIRE JOHNSTON.
XVII G.C.M.G.
of the St. Lawrence system, including the services to torestry, agriculture and horti-
port of Chicago, are in direct steamer com- culture in the West Indies. A great deal
munication, for reasonably small steamers, has been done in recent years to open up
with Britain and the rest of the world. —
the asphalt resources the lakes of pitch
Since Canada became a self-governing — in Trinidad and Barbados, the diamond
country, British capital and credit almost and gold mines of British Guiana, together
—
entirely besides British heads and arms with the water power developed by the
— ^have built the Canadian Pacific Railway, cascades that tumble from the edges of
5631
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
the Venezuelan Plateau. Forestry in and the Afghan frontier. Since then, the
British Guiana, British Honduras and railways have been creeping on towards
Trinidad, has received some attention. the Persian Gulf, on the one hand, and
Horticulture has been much and wisely Burma on the other. Before long, no
developed in Jamaica, and the more im- doubt, therQ will be direct railway com-
portant of the West India Islands. From munication from some port on the Persian
Jamaica, indeed, West and Central Africa Gulf, from which again a connection
have received most valuable contribu- across Persia with the Russian railway
_ tions in the shape of improved system is inevitable, to Singapore.
" Some of us who read these lines may
" varieties of cotton, coffee,
.
J
., bananas, oranges and many use- —
yet live still enjoying health and vigour^
ful plants for tropical cultiva- to travel from Calais to Singapore without
tion. In the Falkland Islands, since the changing the carriage, or, if something less
British assumption of authority in 1833, " 1850 " than the present condition of
much has been done to develop the possi- the South- Eastern Railway can be brought
bilities of cattle and sheep breeding. Lat- into existence, we may enter our travelling
terly, sheep have become more important and sleeping compartment at Charing
than anything else, not necessarily for ex- Cross, and enjoy a marvellous panorama
port in the form of mutton and wool, but of the most varied landscapes, races and
for the rearing of good rams for breeding products of the earth's surface before we
purposes. These are exported to South quit our compartment at the southern-
America. Here also has been made an most extremity of the Malay Peninsula.
important coaling and provisioning station The engineering works of India, such
for vessels going round Cape Horn. as the great bridge across the Indus at
The first great public works of Britain Attock, are worthy examples of the
in India were probably trunk roads. These mechanical achievements of the British
were begun as far back as 1790, when the Empire. So is the bridging of the Zambesi
East India Company settled down seriously at the Victoria Falls in South
to taking up the reins of government.
A Series of Central Africa ; so is the
Engineering
The great trunk road from Calcutta and Triumphs
damming of the Nile at
Bengal to Peshawar was first projected Assuan, Esna, Assiut andZifta.
by an Afghan emperor, Sher Shah, and These engineering works, conducted
was more than half completed by the under the auspices of Great Britain in
Mogul rulers. It was continued by the Egypt, have conferred enormous benefits
East India Company, and finished about on the peasantry and the industries of
1830. A great triumph in roadmaking, that country. Water has been brought
achieved early in the nineteenth century, from the foot-hills of Ethiopia to Port
was the road up the Ghats from Bombay Sudan, and also to the town of Suakin.
Island to the interior plateau. The roads The Red Sea has been united with
of British India now run to 193,000 miles Khartoum by a railway, and Khartoum
of metalled and unmetalled surface. with Upper Egypt. Steamers now ply on
Canals in India followed the damming the Nile from Khartoum to the Uganda
—
of streams -especially parallel with the frontier, and right into the heart of Africa
sea-coast of Malabar, where they linked up the tributaries of the Bahr-el-Ghazal
—
one lagoon to another and then came or to the Abyssinian frontier on the Sobat.
the construction of great irrigation On the West African coast the public
works. There are now 4,055 miles of works have not been altogether worthy of
_. _ navigable canals in India and the British Empire until quite recently.
.... about 43,500 miles of irriga- Down to a very few years ago everyone of
^^^ canals bnngmg water to high and low degree who desired to land
Railways
13,606,000 acres. In 1850 began or embark on the Gold Coast had to do so
the era of railways. By the end of the more or less at the peril of his life, in
nineteenth century the Indian Govern- heavy surf-boats, through breakers that
ipent had constructed about 25,000 mUes occasionally capsized the boats and
(at present over 30,000 miles) of rail- drowned the passengers. Even at the
ways, from the hill stations of the Hima- present day, Freetown, the capital of
layas, such as Darjeehng and Simla, Sierra Leone, is very early nineteenth
to Cape Comorin, opposite Ceylon, and century, and compares unfavourably with
from the frontier of Arakan to Quetta the new French cities of North-west
5632
.
called the " white man's grave." that was recorded of it was the death or
There is also a railway advancing from disappearance of explorers. It was not
Lagos to the Niger, and from the Niger uninhabited, though almost uninhabitable
across to the commercial centres of (in its pristine conditions), but the in-
the Hausa country, perhaps linking up digenes were hostile and treacherous.
some day with the railways of Egypt and Yet these difficulties were overcome, and
of French West Africa. No enterprise in a few years. The spanning of Austraha
would be more beneficial to the commerce by this wire deserves to rank among the
and peoples of Africa than a railway from great Imperial achievements.
the Mediterranean to the Gulf of Guinea Although carried out by commercial
across the Sahara Desert for the railway
; companies and not directly by the govern-
causes the desert to blossom as the rose. ment, mention must be made here of the
If only the dread of Germany could be put deep-sea cables which are another source
aside, and Britain and France could turn of gratification to her national pride.
their entente to the magnificent end of Great Britain was long the first to con-
. crossing the Sahara by a rail- struct and lay a deep-sea cable. The
j"* '"* way, they would have achieved whole conception and working out of
a triumph over recalcitrant this feat in all its parts was the work of
Empire
Nature as grand as the attacks British minds. All the great oceans, the
on the Glacial Period which are going narrow connecting seas of the world, are
on in North-western Canada. One of the now spanned by British cables. Africa is
best schemes conceived by Rhodes his — girdled with them, so is South America.
own especial scheme, started and main- Thus England has striven to conquer
tained by his own —
money was the distance and efface time. In the course of
trans-African telegraph, a line which a few hours a message can be sent from
was to run from the Cape to Cairo. London to the heart of Central Africa, to
Thus far, the communication is inter- the watershed of the Arctic Ocean, to the
rupted in several places. Through the hill stations of the Himalayas, and receive
efforts of the British South Africa Company, a reply and the agency principally or
;
Cape Town is linked with Lake Nyassa and wholly employed will have been a British-
the south end of Tanganyika, and even with laid cable or a British-hung land wire. We
Ujiji in German East Africa. The next can travel from Cape Town to the Victoria
gap to fill will be from Ujiji to the tele- Falls in five days where Livingstone fifty
graph system of the Uganda Protectorate. years ago took five months. We can
This extends no further, at present, than traverse India from Baluchistan to the
Lake Albert. Probably by the time these _ ,^ , vicinity of Burma in another
Results of c. J J i X-
•
lines are in print it will have reached „ . . five days or, in a period of time
. ;
Gondokoro. From this point there is scarcely longer, rush from the
E t 'r rise
no further break till Alexandria is reached, snows of the Himalayas to the
near the mouth of the Nile. A land line Equatorial luxuriance of Ceylon. Already
now goes from Lagos to the heart of Egypt, under British guidance, is feeling
British Nigeria, and from Sierra Leone to her way in railway construction towards
the north-west frontier of Liberia. Tripoli and across Arabia.
This last will soon be linked with the If Turkey can be brought to see the
French land lines of Senegambia, and advantages of co-operation, there may be
these again, before many years are past, still within our lifetime a delightful alterna-
will have traversed the Sahara Desert. tive railway route to India, say for the winter
358 5633
—
Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Roumania, In this same year the Pacific Steam
Russia, and Persia is too cold. By the Navigation Company began running
alternative route we may travel via Paris, steamers to South America. The Wilson
Madrid, Algeciras, Tetuan, Algiers, Tunis, Line of Hull was founded in 1845 the ;
really safe, certain and commodious have Line (Indian) and the African Steamship
_ .. made railways only useful for Company in 1852 the Union Steamship ;
**
^*/?,. goods traffic. The present
fts a Civilising ^
. Company (of South Africa) in 1853 the ;
., ,
f ,,. ,
writer would be sorry lor this.
,
Allan in 1854 the British India Steam
, „ !
Influence xt xi_ •
x xi- ^u-
Nothing nothing fertilises, Navigation Company in 1855. Several of
pacifies, nothing a railway.
civilises like these lines of steamships began as associa-
Perhaps, in fairness, something should be tions trading with sailing-ships, so that
said about what Britain has done about some of the great houses with their won-
steam communication at sea. The British derful modern, fleets of passenger and
Empire has given birth to a marvellous cargo steamers have a history beginning
mercantile marine. Being of necessity the with the nineteenth century.
creation and dependent of sea power, British statesmen have left one blot on
this fleet of 9,000 or 10,000 steamships the record of British prescience, in that
has always had a strong navy as its corol- they never believed in or encouraged the
lary. But the triumphs of peace have been cutting of the Suez Canal, nor realised till
those of the mercantile marine, a marine the work was an accomplished fact what
that has grown up and prospered with very a marvellous gain it would be to the
little direct encouragement from the state. shipping industry of the British Empire.
The practicable British steamers
first Ferdinand de Lesseps was one of the
—
paddle-wheelers plied about the west
coast of Scotland from 1812 onwards. In
greatest benefactors of the British Empire.
_ The remembrance of that fact
. ,
*'" *
1833 the first thorough-going steamship jj" should be an additional incite-
i.e., not a sailing vessel with auxiliary _ . ment to an everlasting friend-
—
steam power crossed the Atlantic, the
Frenchman , .
ship with
.-, -r^
1^ ranee.
T^
I^or many
Royal William, of Quebec. This steamer years the British steamship companies held
made the journey from Nova Scotia the field in regard to all long sea journeys.
to Gravesend in twenty-two days. She Then there grew up rivalry in the Mediter-
had been entirely built by Canadians ranean, the Red Sea, and Indian waters
on the St. Lawrence, and was engineered on the part of steamship lines from Mar-
by them across the Atlantic. The return seilles, Trieste, Genoa, and Barcelona to
voyage was first made by an Irish steamer Tropical America Hamburg to the West ;
of the Cork Packet Company. The City Coast of Africa Rotterdam to the Malay
;
of Dublin Steam Packet Company had been Archipelago and, after 1880, that mar-
;
founded in 1823, ^.nd really became the vellous development of German shipping
parent of the great Peninsular and Oriental enterprise, which created first-class steamer
Steam Navigation Company in 1826. communication between the north-eastern
This line originally started by a feeble ports of Germany and almost all parts of
steamship service to Gibraltar, then the world. In speed the British vessels
was extended in 1839-1840 to Alexandria still hold their own, though it is a neck and
to meet the demand for the overland neck race with Germany. In comfort,
route. Others of its steamships modernity of appliances, and food, it is to
^^^ painfully laboured through be feared that the German, French, and
D»*8 ofthe
°. * stormy seas round the Cape,
. Austrian liners are superior to the British.
St*^*
earns ip
^^^ established themselves on The Nobel Prize, however, has yet
the Red Sea side of the Isthmus of Suez. to be awarded to that steamship line
The General Steam Navigation Company which introduces the surest element of
was founded in 1824 the first steam voyage
; civilisation into its passenger traffic one —
to India, round the Cape, was made in passenger, one cabin. It ought to be made
1825 the Aberdeen Line George Thomp-
; — penal to compel two, three, or four unre-
—
son had been founded in 1824 the ; lated strangers to share a single sleeping
Harrison Line in 1830 the Royal Mail; compartment. In forestry and horticulture
—
West Indian Line in 1839 the City Line 5 the British Empire has taken a leading
5634
BRIDGE SPANNING 7 MBESI NEAR THE VICTORIA FALLS
J-
Darwin Darwin, who also qualified as an 1
or who wishes to divorce,
, i
^ ,
Natural ,„. ,
History ,,i_ • j j.!
agent or servant of the empire when he who IS threatened with a
accompanied the Beagle on its famous breach of promise action, or has made an ass
cruise in the interests of science. of himself —
in the phrase of his relations
Sir John Kirk, in a somewhat similar hies to East Africa to wipe out an unpleasant
capacity in connection with Livingstone's little piece of past by big-game shooting.
government expeditions, opened our eyes There are, and have been, of course,
to the wealth and the economic importance important exceptions to this category
of the East African flora. British enter- men who have shot wisely and well, and
prise has introduced the tea-shrub into who have observed and annotated, and
India and Ceylon, cotton into all parts of have thus enriched not only our museums
Africa and the Pacific, cacao into West with important specimens skins, bones, —
Africa, coffee into Ceylon, Nyassaland, —
and pickled corpses but who have given
Jamaica, and Trinidad. us the life history of the animals they
Sir Clements Markham won his eventual pursued. Natural history, a better term
C.B. and his first renown by his splendid in this last respect than biology, owes
attempts to secure the seed of the cin- much to the writings of Livingstone, Sir
chona-tree, jealously guarded as its trans- Samuel Baker, W. C. Oswell, Baldwin,
mission was by American In- Selous, J. G. Millais, R. Crawshay, Alfred
y sings (jja^j^s
.
-J
_.** ^ Capt. Gregory, and others —dis- fore we opened routes this way and that
covered, elucidated, and illus- way across the continent, which conveyed
f M
trated the wonderful extinct disease through insect agencies from one
mammalian fauna of North-west India, the lot of people to another, hitherto separated
strange beast-reptiles of South Africa, the by mutual distrust or l3y pathless forests.
early elephants, Sirenia, hyraces of Eocene On the contrary, before the white man
Egypt, the extraordinary giant mar- arrived on the scene, the population of
supials and birds of Pleiocene Australia. Africa was, I surmise from native legends
These achievements not only led to the and traditions, constantly being wiped out
purest of all joys, the increase of abstract by epidemics, first of one disease, then of
knowledge, but have aided us in our fight another by famines due to unexpected
;
against the real reactionary Nature. droughts, locusts or other insect plagues,
For, in the most part the deadliest foes or by attacks on food crops by herds of
of man are the minutest organisms at the elephants, and the destruction of live-
bottom of the tree of life, simple develop- stock by lions and leopards.
ments of living matter scarcely to be These are all evils which have been or are
classified as animal or vegetable. In being abated by British energies. I confi-
the fight against the bacillus, spiril- dently expect that we shall soon have
lum, amoeba, coccidium, treponema and mastered the mysteries of sleeping sick-
trypanosome, the British Empire has . , ness, blackwater fever, cholera,
—
taken a leading place a dominant place
Saaitation
the Enemy
^^^ many other diseases, and
prevent them or
almost, not forgetting the splendid co- ^^ ^^^^ ^^
of Disease
operation of France, Germany, Italy, and ^^ ^^^^ them with certainty.
America. Sir Patrick Manson, Ronald In India it has been realised for the last
Ross, and others, discovered the whole ten years that sanitation, a cleanlinesswhich
process by which amaeboid spores are would suppress the flea, other precautions
introduced into the human system by which would exterminate the mosquito,
such agencies as the mosquito, tick, and might reduce the mortality from plague,
flea, thereby producing malarial fever cholera, and other dreadful maladies of
and other dread diseases. Sir David the tropics to small dimensions, ever
Bruce elucidated the mystery of the dwindling to cessation and this has been
;
5637
—
;
Australia, New Zealand, and South study of religious beliefs, mythology, and
Africa the camel into Australia
;
the ; folk lore comparative anthropology, and
;
•
m •
Central and East Africa have been ing of legal codes in military and naval ;
have systematised the preservation of the city ;ship construction the invention ;
Indian elephant, his capture and training and improvement of locomotives, steam-
for industrial purposes. engines, bicycles, automobiles, and tur-
When they first took Cyprus in hand, bines in chemistry and
; metallurgy
the forests and the native agriculture were in sanitary engineering in architecture, ;
years. This hateful insect pest is now literature, prose and poetry.
practically extinct in Cyprus, to the very Innumerable works of reference would
great gain of the island's prosperity. They show either the active participation or
are now bracing themselves for an attack the predominance of British citizens in
on the mosquitoes, rats, spar- all the spheres of great intellectual and
.
" rows, flies, fleas, and other small practical achievements. It is to this
^"* significant pests of the em- record I
appeal in maintaining that
Prro ducts'
uc s
p[j.Q jj^g mineral discoveries of with all its imperfections, shortcomings,
the British have already been alluded to in blunders, or episodes of wrongdoing,
the chapters dealing with their economic violence, or injustice fully discounted
aspects. This exploitation of the gold the British Empire has been a greater
of India, British Columbia, Australia, blessing to the world at large and to all
New Zealand, West Africa, South Africa, the countries within its scope than any
Egypt, British Guiana, and the Far North- congeries of states under one head that
west of Canada has added appreciably not has preceded it in history.
5638
THE BY SIR
BRITISH HARKY
EMPIRE JOHNSTON.
XVIII G.C.M.G.
e upreme
foreign or colonial affairs. I am not going ^^^^ been a great burden, an
to deny that there has been misdirected -,. . ..
Christianity
incessant clog
..
° on the upward
j.. ., j . 1
zeal in the past, and that in some cases the progress of humanity, and the
wrong kind of missionary did a great deal only teaching which seems to the present
of harm and put Great Britain to much writer to be in consonance with progress
anxiety and expense. is the teaching of Christ and the words of
Elsewhere I have animadverted on the such of His apostles as caught His spirit.
somewhat crack-brained, uneducated mis- Christ's teaching, like two or three other
sionaries who wandered into Abyssinia to great utterances of humanity, seems the
convert the Abyssinians to a different kind goal of which we are never quite abreast ;
of Christianity to that which they already it is always a little ahead of the ideals of
professed, and who involved Great Britain true Socialism it is a religion which is an
;
and the British taxpayer in a war which expression of the truest Liberalism.
cost quite a thousand lives and several Many versions of Christianity have
„. _ . millions sterling. This is the developed into fetish worship and fatuous
The Good n ito
_„
Work ,
of,
only case T1 can call
,
,
-^
,
mmd
.
J
formalities, mystic rites bordering on
„. . where missionary enterprise sorcery, Judaism run mad; the letter has
Missions -'.,,
, ,. f. 1
was excessively ill - directed, killed the spirit ; the Incarnate Love has
and where it gave just ground for the been lost in fanatical hate. Still, this
animadversions of the i860 type of religion, even in its most violent or foolish
statesman, who would not dream of omit- phases, has never quite left the skirts of
ting attendance at church on a Sunday commonsense, the middle path of sanity
morning, yet was perfectly indifferent along which man advances, with occasional
to the spiritual or moral welfare of the checks and deviations, towards the goal
myriads of black or brown people with of the Millennium.
whose affairs Great Britain was begin- What has, Mohammedanism done for
ning to interfere politically. the world ? What has been accomplished
When our descendants are able to look of permanent good by Buddhism, and by
back on things from the large end of the the wild, raving, nightmare nonsense of
telescope, and the history of the nineteenth Hinduism ? It is true that the
e igions
and twentieth centuries is concentrated g^ century after
^j-g^i^g iggg ^jj^jj
into a single readable volume, I think a . death of Mohammed ab-
^^^
E
very large part of that volume will be sorbed Persian and Byzantine
taken up with the results of mission work, culture, and spread this through Syria,
possibly a larger space than is accorded to Egypt, North Africa, and Spain. It is also
the successful campaigns of great con- true that, to a limited extent, they kept
querors by sea or land. The point of view the lamp of civilisation burning, some of
from which I write is a peculiar one, which the old Greek culture living with them,
will probably please no one set of thinkers. while Roman civilisation in Northern and
I know it is no longer fashionable to Western Europe was overwhelmed by the
5639
—
T^
j-
the Spanish discovery and
A 1
j
5640
THE HANDSOME MISSION CHURCH AT BLANTYRE IN BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA
until the trade in slaves was exterminated. Clive,anything like a Christian propaganda
The Anti-Slavery Society of Great Britain was sternly discouraged by the honourable
and Ireland, which exists to this day, was East India Company from the fear that it
founded and has been mainly supported by would arouse Mohammedan and Hindu
Quakers. In the eighteenth century the — fanaticism ; also because in England itself
unsectarian missionary Society for Pro- interest in religion had very much slack-
moting Christian Knowledge was founded ened, and official Christianity was not
in 1698 the Society for the Propagation
; considered an article d'exportation.
of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, in 1701 The Church of England had no zeal for
— other Nonconformist bodies in the propaganda amongst the heathen as a body,
West Indies and the United States cham- though there were a few notable excep-
pioned the cause of the negro. It was not tions amongst its clergy who went abroad.
until the time of Wesley that any section Bishop Heber (1783-1826) was probably
of the Church of England interested itself the first to arouse the sympathy of the
actively in humanitarian propaganda. The members of the National Church in regard
... . interest that the Quakers, to the deplorable condition of the natives
issionary
ga,ptists,
^ and Wesleyans took, of India. The Church Missionary Society
Interest in n
the Negroes
^^^^
•
especially m
• fi r ^ r
the fate of was founded in 1799. Its first field of
the West Indian and North operations was India. It was supported by
American negro, drew them inevitably to the Low Church rather than the High,
the coasts of Africa, firstly to repatriate and in its early days it drew down a certain
negroes who had attained freedom, and amount of ridicule on mission work by,
who found themselves outcasts in the body possibly, an excess of sentimentalism.
politic of white men's colonies or states In its desire to make up to the negro for
—
and secondly with a much greater en-
;
5641
— —
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
in India at the close of the eighteenth remarkable degree in India, China, and
century, and soon afterwards began to Africa. Along these lines of approach it
work among the West Indian negroes. is not easy to overestimate the sheer good
It laid the foundations of a negro civilisa- that has been effected by Christian
tion in Fernando Po during the middle of missions. This leads me to my plainest
the nineteenth century, which even under speaking and the core of my argument.
the once unfriendly rule of Spain and many The whole of the Christian world itself
other difficulties grew slowly to its modern is far from being in agreement on even
developments. The same thing fundamental dogmas of its religion, and
Livingstone
was done for the coast country so long as each sect, branch, or church
the Great
of the Kameruns, and is being adhered rigidly to the exposition of its
Missionary
done now for the central basin own version of Christian dogma and of
of the Congo. The educational work of that alone, so long much of its work with
the same society in India and China is intelligent non-Christian races was fruitless
als^ being conducted on a gigantic scale. and even baneful, since it revived the dis-
The London Missionary Society came like and distrust of the Christian as an
into existence in 1795, and represented the official or ruler. But when, as has been
aspirations of the Congregationalists and the case almost universally for the last
Wesleyans. One of its first great pioneers thirty years, each mission in its turn
was David Livingstone. It is difficult to thought more of the teaching of Christ as
exaggerate the benefits that the Bechuana a means of beginning, and endeavoured
tribes in South Central Africa and the to deal fraternally rather than paternally
peoples of the Nyassa-Tanganyika Plateau with the people it had come to teach,
and of Madagascar have owed to the agents Christian propaganda began to achieve
of the London Missionary Society. success by leaps and bounds. When
The Universities' Mission was founded some historian of the world sums up its
in i860, after the appeal of Livingstone in results a hundred years or so hence, he
1856, and has since taken a large share
A Testimony will — I say with confidence
in the evangelisation of East Africa and be able to show that the great
to Missionary /--v ,• .•
Nyassaland. The great missions of the » .. / Christian
Achievement r y-
missions emanating
j a •
of the Brahmans, the law which forbids but it is advisable that there should be a
the eating of beef to the Hindus, the brake on the reckless advance of the
Levitical prohibitions of the pig, the hare, Caucasian, and this drag is provided by
and the oyster, the Moslem disapproval both the teaching and the true practice
of pictures and statues, or the fetishistic of the principles of Christianity, There
practices of negro Africa. When Chinese should be a real Christian science, based
women all over China are able to walk upon a clear understanding- of the founda-
about with the ease and comfort intended tion principles of the Christian religion,
by Nature, they should put up some which should apply the prin-
commemorative tablet to the memory of
A Plea for ^iples of Christianity to the wild
the Christian missionaries whose advice ?:?". flora and fauna of the world.
.
Missionaries
and influence abolished this and other ^^^^^ human race and every
preposterous mistakes in the perverted type of animal or plant should be given
culture of the Chinese. a chance to show if it cannot find some
I have ventured in other places to niche in the mosaic of the wide world.
call the missionaries the tribunes of the There should be missionaries of biology as
people. Mission influence created Exeter well as missionaries of Christianity, and
Hall, and all which that now vanished both alike should plead the cause of the
place of meeting portended in the attitude overwhelmed, the backward, the im-
of the British Empire towards indigenous perfect that may yet be made perfect.
5643
THE BY S'R
BRITISH HARRY
EMPIRE JOHNSTON,
XIX G.C.M.G.
The Question
.of Imperial diplomacy, and, and to advocate the restoration of differ-
^^^^^ ^jj^ ^^^^^_ ^^^ ^^^^^_ ential duties, in favour of the colonies and
."''*"* Imperial commerce. When India, at the ports of Great Britain and
F
through such workers on the —
Ireland in short, Protection.
imagination as Lord Beaconsfield and Sir So long as there was any chance of the
Charles Dilke (in his " Greater Britain ") an great raw-material-producing portions of
idea of the majesty, the marvellous scope the empire like India, Australia, and New
of the British Empire began to permeate Zealand and Canada caring nothing about
the minds of educated people, the question the fostering of local industries, but
of Imperial Federation became, and has agreeing to devote all their energies to the
remained, an important political idea. production of raw materials which might
The desire was born in England, and has be manufactured by the looms, forges, and
remained until recently an English aspira- factories of Great Britain and the North of
tion, not as yet warmly espoused in Ireland, there was much to be said in favour
Scotland, and only shared by that small of a commercial union of the
The Colonies
portion of Ireland that is English in whole empire which would
and
sympathies. South Africa in the 'seventies discriminate in all its cus-
Self-Protection
of the last century was so strongly Dutch toms Houses against the
in feeling, and so inherently hostile to goods arriving from countries not belonging
England, that the late Lord Carnarvon to the Imperial pact. Great Britain would
was unable to bring into existence even a then have become a privileged market for
confederation of the South African states, the sale of colonial produce (raw material),
though he had solved that difficulty and the colonies would have absorbed the
between French and English in Canada.
. bulk of the British manufactured goods.
A certain Irish element that prospered in There would have been small local sacrifices,
South-eastern Australia, and by its talent but such a bond as this would have knit the
and influence directed a good deal of the empire together, and the wealth and power
local Press opinion, threw cold water on derived from this close commercial asso-
the Imperial Federation idea so ciation would have made it irresistible by
Proposed
roan s
£^j. g^ ^^ concerned AustraUa. —
land and sea the mistress of the world.
jn^ja at that time possessed no Unhappily, as some think, India,
vehicle for the expression of Australia, New Zealand, and Canada did
Indian opinion. It merely spoke through not share these views. They wished not
the mouths of Anglo-Indian officials. only to produce enormous quantities of raw
Nevertheless, the idea made progress material, but to be equally endowed with
up to a certain point. It was dis- highly organised industries to manufacture
cussed on two lines A commercial union
: that raw material. They wished to protect
and the universal participation of all parts these nascent industries by a relatively
of the empire in the common support high tariff wall which would make it very
5644
—
5645
—
would be sufficient to prevent the hostile in the councils which regulate the finance
action of Asiatic or European Powers in and taxation of their native land. India
the southern seas. The only danger to at the present day is not ripe for com-
Canadian independence is from the United plete self-rule the withdrawal of the
;
States, which, however, is hardly likely to British Civil Service and soldiery would
waste blood and money in an merely lead to devastating warfare
anger to
unprofitable war for the an- between the Mohammedans on the one
ana lan
nexation of Canada. If the side and the Sikhs and Hindus on the
Independenee t i t^ j ±- -j
either or both of these sections
j.
Imperial Federation idea is not other,
revived and carried through to ultimate enslaving and oppressing the unwarlike
success with an Imperial council that will races of Southern India or Burma.
be a real working element, and with some Much the same may be said about the
sacrifices on the part of the component future of Egypt and of British Tropical
daughter nations, the next stage or phase Africa ; the British are only in Egypt as
of the British Empire to be reviewed by educators. But this is a land which by
historians may be its restriction to the climate, even as far as some parts of the
control of India and Southern Asia, Sudan, is as favourable to the settlement
5646
—
America all had their local assemblies Victoria in 1851 and 1855 South
;
without representation in the eighteenth West Australia in 1850 and 1890. The
century, and lost it. This im- enfranchisement of the six colonies cul-
Planted an idea in the minds of minated in the recognition by Great
BrTnd
British subjects beyond the seas Britain of the Australian Commonwealth
th^^S*
that has never been allowed to as a whole in the year 1900. New Zea-
die. The representative institutions of the land received Home Rule in 1882, and
component parts of the empire outside the status of a dominion in 1907.
the British Islands have been described South Africa has presented greater
elsewhere. It only remains to glance at difficulties in the framing of responsible
their past history and at the problems government because of the two rival
they may raise in the immediate future. —
types of European colonists British and
Assemblies of an elective and fully Britannicised Germans speaking English ;
representative character were early brought and Boers, with the descendants of
into existence in the West Indies at Huguenot Frenchmen, speaking Dutch.
various dates from 250 years ago. It is Further, there were the millions of in-
possible that in these instances the idea digenous negroes to be taken into consider-
of Home Rule was premature and carried ation. Cape Colony, which was by far
to extremes. Area, population, and the the " whitest " of the South African
future race-elements of the population states, was erected into the position of a
were not taken into consideration in self-governing colony in 1853 and a
granting these rights and at various
: _ ., ^ .responsible government in
times during the nineteenth century the ^^7^- Natal did not receive
—
representative institutions except in the
Sul'e?°o7""'*'
e *fi* ?, •
South Africa
full responsible powers of self-
Bahamas and Barbados — were abrogated
'
. i-ii o T^u
government till 1893. The
or seriously limited. Orange Free State and the Transvaal were
A constitution and elective lower respectively accorded the position of inde-
houses of parliament were conceded to pendent nations in 1854, and 1852-1858.
the two organised provinces of Canada in When the Transvaal was annexed in
1792 and responsible government for
; 1877, it was the intention of the British
Upper and Lower Canada, New Bruns- Government to bestow on it a few years
wick, Nova Sco.ia, and Prince Edward afterwards much the same powers of
Island was introduced in 1841, after what self-government as were already under
might almost be called a series of rebellions consideration for Natal. This solution of
between 1837 ^^^ 1839. ^^^ for this the difficulty, which would have probably
wise concession, the vast provinces of saved the South African War, was pre-
Canada would long ago have been part of vented by the Boer uprising in 1881.
the United States, to the detriment of Before the Orange River Colony and the
British commerce and British influence on Transvaal could be brought into line
the fate of the North American Continent. with the rest of the colonies in South Africa
A constitution was given to Newfound- they had to be conquered and annexed.
land in 1832, and full Home They were then as speedily as possible
Constitotiont
Rule in 1855. Home Rule was (Transvaal in 1906, Orange River Colony
i& the
accorded also in a reasonable in 1907) re-erected into responsible self-
Colonies
degree to the colony of British governing states, in the same quasi-inde-
Guiana in Northern South America in pendent position as Cape Colony and Natal.
continuation of the Dutch Constitution There still remain subject to a great
already in force in 1803. This was modified extent to the direct administration of
or extended in 1812, 1826, 1831, and 1891. Downing Street, Basutoland, Bechuana-
The provinces or colonies that now land, and the vast Rhodesian territories
compose Australia received constitutions, to the north and south of the Zambesi.
and finally Home Rule, as soon as they Bechuanaland and Basutoland will no
were able to show indications of the doubt remain for a very long time to
5648
I
359 5649
—
also the United States, are alive to this old age and ugliness in the endeavour
difficulty, and seemingly resolved to to be cook, washerwoman, housemaid,
resist it. This movement has done some- governess, nurse and wife in one. These
thing to weaken the Anglo-Japanese are the complaints voiced by many private
Alliance, and it may considerably em- letters, by signed and unsigned contribu-
barrass the Asiatic policy of the British tions in the colonial Press. The population
Government. Yet the problem of Cana- of Canada has not increased proportionately
dian-British Columbian colonisation will by anything like the same ratio as that of
not be solved by our keeping out the the United States, though there is an
Japanese and Chinese. almost equal area of territory suited to
The alternative seems simple " En- : the habitation of the white man.
courage white immigration." But the Japan may also turn her attention
emigration of poor whites, labourers, com- to the colonisation of Australia, but the
petitors with the working men already in lands left open to her here do not offer one
possession, is not encouraged rather ; tithe of the advantages and attractions
the reverse. One can understand the of British Columbia or of North-west
objection of Canadian citizens America generally. They are arid and
*^ having their Motherland extremely hot, and in some parts very
clnadUn
ana lan
j^^de the dumping ground for unhealthy. Possibly Japan may hope for a
white refuse. This they have tropical future. It is a people of extremely
every right to reject. But if they are not mixed elements, as hkely to develop
to admit for menial work, or for the less into a tropical race as into a people of
attractive walks of life, the Oriental races the temperate zones. In that case, Japan
also an exclusion with which we can sym- may accept in return for a promise to leave
—
pathise then something must be done to America severely alone the overlordship
attract large numbers of white settlers of the Philippine Islands, and little by
who will come ready to work, though with little become the mistress of the Dutch,
no more capital than their head and limbs. Grerman, and perhaps a part of the British
5650
THE FUTURE OF THE EMPIRE
Empire in that region of Malaya between the south-west. Speaking, however,
Australia and New Guinea on the south- racially,some sections of the Zulu-Kaffir-
east and Cochin China on the north-west. Bechuana peoples are no earlier colonists
Meantime, if any movement should be of South Africa than the Dutch and even
directed by the Imperial statesmen of the British. Some sections of them have
Great Britain, it should be the direction inherently no better right to the soil of
of British emigration towards British a No-man's-land than we have both alike ;
—
Columbia one of the world's paradises. have entered into the inheritance of a van-
There is a future before Trans-Zam- ishedBushmantype, if onecan
besian Africa, from a white man's point of r' f -^'t^of
t seriously ascribe full territorial
Colonists -^
.
r
, , ,
J •
coast-belt coincident with the planting up nomad, who is a mere hunter. Pastoral
of the interior deserts. The streams pro- peoples should be given reservations in
duced by the heavy tropical or temperate return for the care they have bestowed
^^ rains will be made to supply on domestic animals, and for their having
The ,.rv ..
White
water for iu
r
the irrigation off
, • • 4.-
subdued more or less the wild beasts that
Mans _
-, , ^
Prospects ., , , P
. ... the less favoured regions.
°
would make the keeping of these flocks '
in Africa t,, . , ,
The coexistence of a negro and herds impossible or they may have ;
population of some five or six million within uprooted poisonous herbs, and have miti-
these limits is, together with the general gated marsh or thorny scrub.
question of unskilled labour, one of the To reduce a long argument into as few
problems that the empire has to face and words as possible, the future settlement of
solve before long. About 1,500 years ago, race distribution in Trans-Zambesian Africa
in all probability, there were very few big should follow these lines The existing :
black negroes dwelling in the lands to the agricultural races should be granted defi-
south of the Zambesi. This sub-continent nite areas of land, which would become
then was sparsely peopled by a Hottentot- as much theirs as land similarly taken up
Bushman race of low or arrested physique, by white men but every inducement of
;
education, the same laws, the same social the wisest to adopt. The rights to land,
organisation being made to apply to both. communally and individually, on the part
This consummation is less and less in of the indigenous blacks and browns are
favour. The blacks dislike interbreeding already recognised and have been secured.
with the whites quite as much as the There still remain territories, collectively
reverse is the case, and so far the result as large as Ireland —situated at altitudes
of such intermixture between the absolute between 6,000 and 13,000 feet above sea-
negro and the absolute white man has level, above sunstroke and most tropical
not been happy either in its physical diseases, except malaria, which is a matter
attributes or its political status. of infection —
which are in every way suited
On the other hand, the retention of to European settlement. Owing to former
five, six, ten millions of negroes as a wars between tribe and tribe, and to the
permanently servile force has likewise cold climate, there are no existing native
ceased to be possible. Sufficient educa- inhabitants.
, Will the British
tion has been brought amongst them by promote the colonisation of
'
A^i f
the white man, he has departed sufficiently these still vacant lands by
p^t/*^^"
from the ideas of the seventeenth and homelessBritishers or will they
eighteenth centuries, to have made the let them drift into the possession of Boers,
reinstitution of negro slavery a physical Italians, Greeks, or Russian Jews ? Then
impossibility. The negroes would resist in East Africa is also the Asiatic problem.
it to the death, and the white man has Are they then to encourage, dis-
not the numbers, the strength, or the courage or remain indifferent to the
money to reimpose such a condition on immigration on a large scale of natives
his still slightly inferior brother, whom of India, who will come not merely as
at one time he would, if he could, have employes, merchants or soldiers, but as
reduced once more to the level of a beast. settlers, bringing their women-folk and
Of course, if the white peoples decide determined to find in East Africa that
for a white South Africa they must face America which England is denying them in
and settle the problem of unskilled labour. Natal and the Transvaal? Can she refuse
Either they must consent to work with them this satisfaction ? Are the British as
the pick and shovel, the mason's trowel, Imperialists to shape new homes for white
the bricklayer's hod, the gardener's spade, men only ? Or should they expect the
to perform all the menial functions of do- overplus of India to be content with new
*
mesticity, to police, to be sig- fields of energy nearer home Southern —
"3.1man, pointsman and guard, Arabia, Southern Persia, Malaya, Borneo,
f Wh't
telegraph clerk and messen- Fiji, Northern Australia, Mauritius or in
S *tKAf'* ;
q" 'f became an absolutely inde- or else in the keeping of a state so feeble
pendent kingdom, the British and so disorganised that it was at the
•
E ^^^
would obtain means of defend- mercy of a coup-de-main on the part of
ing the Red Sea route to
India and the Suez any strong Mediterranean nation.
Canal and yet might relieve the administra- With the proviso, however, of the full
tion of Egypt of that admixture of British recognition of Great Britain's supremacy,
officials, which, by its crushing superiority there is no reason whatever why Egypt
of attainments and ideals, galls the rising should not receive in time full representa-
generation of the upper and middle classes tive government under the ruler, who
of the native-born Egyptians. has now been raised to the rank of sultan,
There are other Egyptians who say or and even exercise almost completely
write that they are in no hurry to lose the independent powers in regard to internal
British civilian employes of the Sultan's administration and the foreign affairs of
administration the admirable qualities
; Egypt proper. Perhaps the best arrange-
of these as judges, financiers, engineers, or ment in the long run would be the cession
police officers, are fully recognised. It is to England of the Sinai Peninsula and the
the military officers who, for some reason, Sudan, the British troops being withdrawn
have made themselves disliked through from the sultanate of Egypt, but the sultan
want of tact, consideration, or sympathy. of that country acknowledging the over-
It is the army of occupation rather than lordship of the British Em-
I 1 PI•
forced on all persons in the Imperial that of Britain, but the Egyptian pound
service. But English should be taught is worth about threepence more than the
Ceylon ;and the Chinese syllabary in dollar, say an American dollar the
;
Hong Kong. This leads to a sickening British dollar, value about sixty cents ;
waste of time, and to an obscurantism and the Hong Kong dollar, value about
beloved of schoolmasters, clerics, cranky fifty cents. These are still, with varying
professors, pedantic prigs, sulky bonzes, values, the currency of Hong Kong.
rebellious Hindus, intriguing Arabs, and all In 1902 a committee sat at the Colonial
those who are really opposed to the Office to consider and make recommenda-
enlarged study of languages and their tions regarding the currency question in
rapid acquisition by people in a hurry. . the Straits Settlements. They
No one can accuse me of a narrow nation- """'^r
***
recommended a return to the
'^^
alism in advocating the universal use \
gold standard, but, for some
s*tti
of the so-called Roman inscrutable reason, instead of
because this taking this occasion to introduce the
wtu 'B'.o.n. elegant,
. _. .
^'Ph^^;*.
clear, easily recog- Imperial coinage, they started this great
mpire
nised type was invented in Malayan colony off on a fresh currency of
Italy, and as regards its adaptation to its own, equivalent to the British dollar
the phonetic rendering of all known of an approximate value of fifty-six
languages is a German invention by the —
cents another unit of independent valuf^
great Lepsius. added to the Canadian dollar, the pourd
Besides a uniform alphabet we want a sterling, the rupee, the Hong Kong dollar,
uniform coin of standard value, uniform the five-franc piece (which is much usrd
weights and measures, and postal rates. in British Gambia and in Jersey). H
This last reform is nearly accomplished. is actions like these that stand in the way
5654
—
there are copper coins representing one- like some of the simple great ones gone ;
hundredth part of the fifty-cent dollar for ever and ever by," who will impose
less than half a cent, and one-thousandth unity in essentials and allow liberty of
part of the same
coin, or one-twentieth judgment in what is unessential.
of a cent. On
the other hand, in South Harry Johnston
Africa there is a distressing dearth oi
5655
THE ATLANTIC OCEAN, SHOWING THE ROUTES FOLLOWED BY EARLY VOYAGERS
Separating the Old World from the New, and extending from one Polar circle to the other, the Atlantic Ocean has,
since the sixteenth century, been the chief commercial highway of the world ; but even earlier than that period, hardy
ovagers were bold enough to venture on its waters in their quest for lands unknown. In the above map the routes
tajcen by the various discoverer? are distinctly shown, while the dates of their famous voyages are also given.
5656
;
J.
p .,. more largely dependent upon their efforts.
on the north to the Cape of San Much more important, from a historical
Roque on the south. But when we have point of view, is the influence on character
said this we have exhausted the subject of this trading in the difficult northern
of its historical importance. More im- seas ; for the Teutonic nations of North-
portant it doubtless will be in the future. west Europe and for the French, it was
Up to a short time ago it afforded the sole the best of aU possible schools of seaman-
outlet for the Central and Southern States ship, and largely contributed to the fact
of the American Union but now that ; that these nations were able to play a
the Panama Canal is completed, this sea leading part in the general annexation of
has become the natural high-road between the habitable globe which has taken place
the Atlantic and the Pacific a great factor — during the last three centuries.
in political and economic history. It will be The fisheries are here in closest communi-
what the Eastern Mediterranean was in the cation with that other attempt, which, his-
early days of the Old World. But we are con- torically at least, exercised influence no less
cerned with history and not with prophecy. enduring, to find a passage round North
North of the latitude of Gibraltar the America or round Northern Europe and
two shores of the Atlantic present a Asia to the east shore of Asia.
ng an s
remarkable symmetry. In shape the Gulf Nothing did SO much to promote
upremacy
of St. Lawrence and Hudson's Bay ^j^^ maritime efficiency of the
resemble the North Sea and the Baltic. British nation as the repeated
Labrador, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, attempts that were made to find the North-
and Cape Breton Island may be compared west and North-east passages, which began
with North-western Europe. The chief with the voyage of the elder Cabot, and
difference between the two coast-lines is continued to the middle of the nineteenth
one of scale. Hudson's Bay, for example, century. To the Atlantic as a whole
is considerably larger than the North Sea belongs the high service of having led the
and the Baltic put together. This does civilised peoples of the Old World out to
not detract from the importance of the the open sea from the confines of the
symmetry which we have pointed out. It Mediterranean and other land-locked
is all the more important because it is waters ; from the time of Columbus it
most striking on those lines of latitude hcis been a school of technical skill and
which have been most important in the self-reliance. However, its most northern
history of mankind. part, storm-lashed and ice-bound as it is,
The Northern Atlantic Ocean has is in no way inferior to the whole, in this
influenced the development of our general respect at least, that it gave to one sole
civilisation in two directions —namely, nation not otherwise particularly strong, to
-H.
Thc ^ .by
Ocean s i-
those physical character-
u- u x r • •
the English, the supremacy over the seas
- „ which ongmate from its
istics of the world within a short three centuries.
laflvence on /.j • -x
,
•
i
Civilitati
configuration, and by its situa- The Atlantic Ocean may be regarded
tion with reference to the other as a broad gulf dividing the western and
countries on the globe. The extensive eastern shores of the habitable world,
fishing grounds which it affords have been conceived as a huge band of territory ex-
a source of wealth to European popula- tending from Cape Horn to Smith Sound ;
tions. Even when we take into account this implies a limitation of our ideas
the colossal proportions of modem inter- regarding the age of the human race.
national trade, deep-sea fishing is none the Its share in universal history does not
less an industry of note, and makes a very begin before the moment when the keel
important difference in the profit and loss of the first Norse boat touched the shore
5^8
— ;
the history of evolution and geologically them to brave the dangers of the unknown
but at a much earlier point within the outer sea. However, these two branches
development of the mammals. of the great commercial nations of Western
From a geological and palaeontological Asia did not attain to any great
point of view, however, this conclusion _* ^ * . knowledge of the Atlantic
carries us far beyond the lowest limits ° Ocean. We are reminded of the
th *S
previously stated as the beginnings of reluctance of the towns and re-
mankind. We reach the Tertiary Age, pubhcs of Italy to pass through the
a lengthy period, interesting both for the Straits of Gibraltar, though the high seas
changes which took place within organic had long been sailed by the Portuguese
life and for the extensive alterations that and Spaniards, or the cowardice of the
appeared upon the surface of the earth. Hanseatics, who hardly dared to approach
The nature and extent of these changes the actual gates of the ocean, when we find
must, in so far as the new theory is correct, these two peoples who ruled for so many
have been of decisive importance for the centuries over the Mediterranean, which
5659
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
is itself of no small extent, unable to from the east coast of Spain to the interior of
advance any material distance beyond the the country and thence to its western coast.
Pillars of Hercules. Even as regards the Notwithstanding the activity of Rome in
tin trade, the chief labour was probably colonisation, her supremacy in Iberia led
undertaken by the seafaring coast-dwellers to no enterprises by sea ; nor were any
of separate parts of Western Europe. such undertaken by the Romans until they
How small in reality were the achieve- had established themselves in Gaul, and
ments of both nations upon the Atlantic had thus gained possession of a consider-
—^ e _ ays o is shown by the amount of able seaboard upon the Atlantic Ocean.
pj-^j^g lavished upon the coast- It was in 54 and 55 B.C. that JuUus
j^g ^^y^g^ ^^ ^^7°' ^^ich, Caesar made his voyages to Britain ; a few
CWUisation
however important tor geo- decades later came the advance of Drusus
graphical science, was no great achieve- and of Germanicus into the North Sea.
ment of seamanship. It is a characteristic The nature of these conquests precluded
feature of all landlocked seas to limit not adventure upon the open sea. The Romans
only the view, but also the enterprise of were attempting only to secure their
the maritime peoples upon their shores. natural frontier against the threatened
In Greek civilisation the Atlantic Ocean, encroachments of the Germanic tribes, and
as such, is only of theoretical importance. confined their explorations to the southern
A few explorers did, indeed, advance from portion of the North Sea.
the Mediterranean northwards and south- During the first thousand years after the
wards into the Atlantic. Such were birth of Christ the North Sea is the only
Pytheas of Massiha (about 300 B.C.), who part of the Atlantic Ocean which can be
journeyed beyond Britain to the fabulous demonstrated to have had any enduring
land of Thule ; his compatriot and con- influence upon the history of Western
temporary, Euthymenes, followed by Europe. The Veneti, and other tribes
Eudoxos of Cyzicus (about 150 B.C.) and inhabiting the western coast of Spain,
the historian Polybius (about 205-123 B.C.) Gaul, and Germany, certainly
*" adventured their vessels upon
succeeded in reaching different points Q '^
found in the length of a voyage from the indefinitely retiring from Britain, made
coast of Greece, which was a far more one further advance during the expedition
difficult undertaking for the sailors of those which Cn. Julius Agricola (84 a.d.) under-
days than it now appears. Especially im- took in the seas and bays surrounding
portant, moreover, is the fact that the Great Britain. Of other nations, however,
Greeks, although they were the general we hear nothing during this age which
heirs of the Phoenician colonial policy, would lead us to conclude that they carried
never attempted to overthrow the su- on communication by means of the ocean
premacy of the Carthaginians in the to any important extent.
western half of the Mediterranean Sea. The age preceding the tenth century a.b.
For them, therefore, the great western is entirely wanting in maritime exploits,
ocean remained permanently wrapped in with the exception of the expedition of
the obscurity of distance, a fact which the Norsemen, but is, on the other hand,
enabled them to people its illimitable rich in legends, the locality of which
breadth with creations of fancy, such as is the Atlantic Ocean. These are impor-
^^^ "Atlantis" of Plato; tant to the history of civilisation by reason
Rome's
but distance was too import- of their number they are the most
St *1 WtK ;
C 'tA
" *
^^^ ^^ obstacle to be success- striking proof of that general interest
fully overcome by their in- which was excited, even during the
stinct for colonisation and discovery. The " darkest " century of the Middle Ages,
Atlantic Ocean came into the purview of by the great and mysterious ocean upon
the Romans at the moment when their the west. Historically, too, they are of
struggles with Carthage for the Iberian importance for the influence which their
Peninsula ended definitely in their favour supposed substratum of geographical fact
(210 B.C.) it was not until then that this
; has exercised upon the course of discovery.
rapidly developing Power in the west of This interest appears, comparatively weak
the Mediterranean was able to advance at first, in the "Atlantis" legend. The
5660
THE ATLANTIC OCEAN BEFORE COLUMBUS
legend, together with many other elements fleetupon the North Sea to repulse their
forming the geographical lore of classical attacks, and this was the first step made
Greece, was adopted by the Middle Ages, by the German people in the maritime
but cannot be retraced earlier than the profession though we also see the mer-
;
sixth century. For nearly one thousand chants of Cologne from the year looo
years it disappears, with Cosmas Indi- sending their vessels down the Rhine and
copleustes, that extraordinary traveller over the straits to London, the com-
and student in whose works the attempt to mercial rivalry of Flanders and Northern
bring all human discovery into harmony _ . France following them in the
with the Bible, an attempt characteristic thirteenth century, and about
''^h"'*
of patristic literature, reaches its highest ^^j
^ the same time the fleets of the
point. In the " Atlantis " of Plato, Cosmas Easterlings visiting the great
apparently sees a confirmation of the harbour on the Thames. For the imme-
teachings of Moses, which had there placed diate estimation of existing transmarine
the habitation of the first men it was not
; relations on the Atlantic side of Europe,
until the time of the Deluge that these men these expeditions are useful starting-
were translated to the European continent. points they have, however, nothing to
;
The ten kings of Atlantis were the ten do with the Atlantic Ocean as a highway
generations, from Adam to Noah. between the Eastern and Western Hemi-
The power of legend as a purely theo- spheres. The navigators who opened up
retical force continued after the first the Atlantic for this purpose started from
millennium a.d. only in the north-eastern the point which past history and the
borders of the Atlantic Ocean. The Baltic, commercial policy of civilised peoples
owing to its Mediterranean situation, was indicated as the most suitable ; that is,
at that period the theatre of so much from the Mediterranean.
human activity and progress that it has The sudden expansion of the Moham-
already received special treatment. The medan religion and the Arabian power
^'orth Sea, regarded as a land- over a great portion of the Mediterranean
TK Vk"* "^*^*
. ^. locked ocean, was not so greatly gave a monopoly of the whole of the
N rth Se benefited by its position as it trade passing from east to west to the
has been in the later ages of masters of Egypt and of the Syrian ports ;
^^^'^S *° ^^^*
*^^
Century
Iceland, Greenland, and to that part of economic advance made by
North America which here projects farthest North-west Europe. Almost a generation
into the ocean, are fully intelligible when earlier they had advanced from Gibraltar
we consider the training which the stormy southwards in the direction which should
North-eastern Atlantic Ocean offered to a have brought them into direct communica-
nation naturally adventurous. tion with India, according to the geograph-
The example of the Norsemen was not ical knowledge of that day. This idea is
generally imitated in Europe at that time. the leading motive in the history of dis-
Charles the Great launched, it is true, a covery during the fourteenth and fifteenth
5661
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
centuries, so far as the history was worked band of earth. However,
as a closely united
out upon the sea. We
see it reahsed in the in the scientific treatment of the great
voyage of the brothers Vadino and Guido sea upon the west, views and conceptions of
de Vivaldi of Genoa in 1281, and that of the world as a united whole had made
Ugohno Vivaldi, who in 1291 sailed down their influence felt almost two centuries
the west coast of Africa in a ship of earlier. The fact that elephants are to be
Teodosio Doria with the object of discover- found both in Eastern India and Western
ing the sea route to India it is an idea
; Africa had led Aristotle to suppose that
^pparent in the voyages the two countries were separated by no
Arabs as the
-, . ,
Teachers of J
made by the Italians to Ma- great expanse of ocean.
- /- J i
.
w t
J.1
deira, to the Canaries, and to
J.
After the Patristic Age, the theory
was revived
the Azores, enterprises both by scholasticism upon
of nautical daring and of geographical im- the basis of Asiatic and Greek geo-
portance. Mention must also be made at graphy. As transmitted by the Arabs,
this point of the several advances upon the this theory respecting the configuration
west coast of Africa made by Henry the of the ocean assumed that form which was
Navigator this series of attempts occupied
; bequeathed by Marinus of Tyre about
the whole life of that remarkable prince. 100 A.D. and by Ptolemy to the Caliphs.
It is true that the Portuguese of the The Western Ocean, upon this theory,
fifteenth century, hke the Italians before was not reduced to the narrow canal which
them, proposed to use the Atlantic Ocean Seneca had conceived but, compared
;
quences was their division of the Upper ference of the globe was left for the ocean
—
Nile into three arms one flowing into the lying between. He had thus considerably
Mediterranean from Egypt, one flowing reduced the estimate of his informant
into the Red Sea on the coast of Abyssinia, Marinus, who had assigned 225° longitude
and one flowing into the Atlantic Ocean for the whole extent of land, thus leaving
on the coast of North-west Africa. This only 135° for the ocean.
hydrographical myth, of which a hint Columbus was more inclined to rely upon
had been given long before by Ptolemy, Marinus, as Paolo Toscanelli had estimated
was transmitted to the West immediately the extent of land at very nearly the same
by the Arabs, number of degrees as the Tyrian. Relying
It is to the influence of this strange upon the stupendous journeys of Marco
theory we must ascribe the attempts Polo and the travelling monks of the
made by the Italians and also by thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, he
Prince Henry they hoped to find a
; observed that Marinus had estimated his
short cut to the realm of Prester John 225° of longitude only for that part of
.r* «.• .• and the Elysium of Southern Eastern Asia which was known to him
The Atlantic .
;
_ Asia.
•
Aa common tfeature
^
in whereas the fact was that this continent
^in*^ *t bl
^ ^^ theories of the time extended far beyond the eastern boundary
about the Atlantic Ocean is assumed by Marinus, and should therefore
the tendency to consider it as the illimit- be much nearer the Cape Verde Islands
able western boundary of the habitable than was supposed. This view strength-
world. In the history of discovery, this ened Columbus in that tenacity and en-
mental attitude continues until the time durance which enabled him to continue
of Columbus, whose westward voyage working for his voyage during ten years
cannot for that very reason be compared full of disappointments, and it gave him
with any similar undertaking, because it that prudent confidence which is the most
was based upon the conception of the world distinguishing feature of his character.
5662
THE BY
ATLANTIC
OCEAN DR. KARL
II
WEULE
the globe which has already been described. history even of those peoples
His contemporaries were under the whose power was apparently founded upon
same delusion. This adherence to old pure maritime supremacy has been every-
beliefs regarding the hydrography of the where and invariably conditioned by
globe has produced the characteristic cir- changes and displacements in their respec-
cumstance that, in political history and in tive hinterlands even sea powers so
;
the history of exploration, the Pacific and entirely maritime as the Phoenician and
Atlantic are closely linked, until the year Punic mediaeval Mediterranean powers
1513, when Nuiiez de Balboa descended and the Hanseatics have been invariably
from the heights of Darien to the shore of obliged to accommodate themselves to the
r t w I
•the southern sea. The Pacific overwhelming influence of the Old World.
and Atlantic Oceans were To those peoples their seas appeared, no
Vo^I c o'
^i°^^f\° • considered as forming one doubt, as mighty centres of conflict but ;
the Victoria i •
1 1^ 1 ^1
sea, which lay between the to us, who
are accustomed to remember
western and eastern shores of an enor- the unity underljdng individual geograph-
mous continental island, the Indian Ocean ical phenomena, these centres of historical
being nothing more than an indentation action give an impression of narrow bays,
facilitating communication to the western even of ponds. On and around them a
shore. It was not until the return of the vigorous period of organic action may
Victoria from the voyage of circum- certainly have developed at times, but
navigation undertaken by Magalhaes that their importance to the geographical dis-
Europe learnt that between the western tribution of human life surpasses very
and eastern shores of their own world there little their spatial dimensions.
lay, not the narrow sea they had expected After the age of the great discoveries
to find, but two independent oceans, history loses its continental character,
divided by a double continent, narrower and the main theatre of historical events
and running more nearly north than south, is gradually transferred to the sea. At
and possessing all the characteristics of an the same time, the co-existence of separate
independent quarter of the globe. . historical centres of civilisa-
ThcAUantic ^-^^
An entirely new picture of the world ^^^^^ gradually to a
then arose before the civilisation of the ^^!^^^ close, and history becomes
Ed
—
age new in the influence it was to exert
*f
o uca ion
^orld-wide. The leap, how-
upon the further development of the ever,which the population of Europe was
history of mankind, which had hitherto then forced to make from its own con-
run an almost purely continental course. venient landlocked seas to the unconfined
In every age, from that of the early ocean was too great to be taken without
Accadians to that of Hanseatic ascendancy some previous training. This training the
in the Baltic, the sea has ever been used Atlantic Ocean provided in full in fact,
;
5663
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
during the sixteenth century its historical as a history and as a civilisation. We do
importance begins and ends with the task not see either Venice or Genoa crossing
of educating European nations to capacity the Straits of Gibraltar, or the Hanseatics
for world supremacy. No other sea upon crossing the Skagerrack or the Straits of
the surface of the globe has exercised such Dover, with the object of taking their
an influence, nor was any sea so entirely share in the struggle that was beginning
suited as a training ground by configura- for maritime supremacy. Those powers
tion or position. The Pacific Ocean lies were sufficiently skilled in seamanship to
entirely apart from this ques- maintain their supremacy within their
The Pacific
Greatest of
tion From 1513 the task natu-
: own narrow circles, but their experience
„ -. rally placed before the white was insufficient to enable them to venture
all Oceans -^ ^ .i x r 1 j.
races was that of learning to upon the open seas surrounding the globe.
sail this sea, the greatest of all oceans, and A strict and thorough maritime educa-
apparently the richest in prospects. Its tion has been from the age of discovery
importance is chiefly as a battlefield ; it the fundamental condition for the attain-
has nothing to do with military training. ment of the position of a modern civilised
In this respect the Indian Ocean can power in the hard struggle between
also be omitted particularly for geo- races and peoples. Of the nations whose
graphical reasons, though at the same voices are heard with respect in the
time the chief obstacle to its extensive use councils of peoples, there is none which
by European nations is its lack of some does not consider itself permanently
natural communication with the Mediter- equipped and armed for the wide and
ranean. Compared with these hindrances, mighty political and economic struggle
the political obstacles, varying in strength upon the stage of the world ; for of the
but never wholly absent, raised by the original combatants on the scene those
Moslem powers of Syria and Egypt are of who have obviously remained victorious
very secondary importance. How im- were forced to gain their early experience
portant the first obstacle has ever been is .in the hard school of maritime
The^Atlantic
shown by the results of the piercing of it g^ruggle. These original com-
in modern times by an artificial water- n*^x^ r. 1^ batants were Spain and Port-
Battlefield , f j tt 11 j
way, which is kept open by treaty to the ugal upon one hand, Holland,
ships of every nation. England, and France upon the other, and
Speaking from the standpoint of uni- the scene of struggle was the Atlantic
versal history, we may say that the Ocean. As regards Spain and Portugal, it
Mediterranean has exercised a retrograde is a remarkable fact that this sea con-
influence upon humanity, even more so cerned them only temporarily and within
than the Baltic. Both seas conferred definite limits, thanks to the Papal edict
great benefits upon the inhabitants of of May 6th, 1493, which divided the
their shores, and indeed the Mediterranean world between the two Romance powers
gave so much that we may speak of a at the outset of their career of colonisation
Mediterranean civilisation which had on conditions which placed their bound-
lasted for thousands of years, and did not aries within the Atlantic Ocean itself.
end until the growing economic, political, This line of demarcation was to run from
and intellectual strength of Northern and north to south at a distance of 100 leagues
Southern Europe transferred the historical from the Cape Verde Islands, extended to
centre of gravity from this inlet of the 370 by the Treaty of Tordesillas of June
Atlantic Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean itself. 7th, 1494. Thus, as soon appeared, the
But neither of these two main portion of the New World fell within
Inflaence of the
^^^^ enabled the inhabitants the Spanish half, and only the east of
Mediterranean
on its shores to take the lead South America was given to the Portu-
on Humanity
upon the ocean, when the guese. The importance of their American
fulness of time appeared with the westward possessions was naturally overshadowed
voyage of Columbus, the eastward voyage by the far more important tasks which fell
of Vasco da Gama, and the circumnaviga- to the share of the little Portuguese
tion of the globe by Magalhags. These nation in the Indian Ocean during the
seas renounced the claims which they pre- next 150 years. Brazil served primarily as
ferred before that great decade, if not to a base for the further voyage to India and
be regarded as the transmitters of civili- the Cape of Good Hope. It was impossible
sation and history, yet to be considered to make it a point of departure for further
5664
THE ATLANTIC AFTER COLUMBUS
Portuguese acquisitions, as the Spaniards North Sea and the Northern Atlantic
opposed every step in this direction on the Ocean, the Spaniards and Portuguese were
basis of the treaties of partition. already fully occupied with their own
During the first half of the sixteenth domestic affairs, the Moorish domination.
century other European powers besides Their first advance in the direction of
England and Holland crowded into the nautical skill was not made until a con-
north of the Atlantic Ocean in pursuit siderable time after the liberation of
of the same objects we find not only
; Lisbon from the Moorish yoke (1147), when
French explorers and fishermen, but also _ the magnificent harbour at the
Spaniards and Portuguese, in the Polar - c*
of Spam
•''
andJ
mouth of the Tagus
°
had be-
,
waters of the American Atlantic. How- p come more and more a centre
* J
ever, none of the other nations pursued for Flemish and Mediterranean
their main object with such tenacity as trade even then it was found necessary
;
the two first-named peoples, above all, to call in all kinds of Italian teachers
the English ; the period between 1576 of the nautical art. It was only slowly
and 1632 belongs entirely to them, and and at the cost of great effort that Spain
was occupied without interruption by and Portugal became maritime peoples ;
their constant endeavours to discover and their subjects were never seafarers in
the north-west passage. the sense in which the term is applied to
The reward, however, which the English the English and Dutch of the present day,
people gained from their stern school of to the Norwegians, or even to the Malays.
experience in the northern seas was one of Indeed, the period of their greatness
high importance. England then was gives us rather the impression of an age
unimportant from a geographical point of of ecstasy, a kind of obsession which can
view, and a nonentity in the commercial seize upon a whole nation and inspire them
relations of the world at large but it was
; to brilliant exploits for a century, but
not until the middle of the nineteenth which results in an even greater reaction
century that clear evidence so soon as serious obstacles to their activity
"^ *** * was forthcoming that the com- make themselves felt. Only thus can we
"* °^^' munication by water between explain the fact that these two peoples,
BaffinBay and the Bering once of world-wide power, disappeared with
Straits, though existing, was of no use such extraordinary rapidity and so entirely
for navigation. But the high nautical from the world-wide ocean. The last
skill,the consciousness of strength, and Spanish fleet worthy of consideration was
the resolve to confront any task by sea destroyed off the Downs by the Dutch
—
with adequate science and skill in short, lieutenant-admiral. Marten Harpertzoon
the unseen advantages which the English Tromp, in 1639 about the same period
>
nation gained from these great Arctic the Portuguese were also considered the
expeditions, and from their slighter efforts worst sailors in Europe.
in the first half of the sixteenth century, The Dutch and the French held their
proved of far higher importance than the ground more tenaciously. In both cases
tangible results achieved. It was these Arctic training ran a somewhat different
long decades of struggle against the course than in the case of the English.
unparalleled hostilities of natural obstacles During the sixteenth and seventeenth cen-
that made the English mariners masters turies they certainly took part in the
on every other sea, and taught the English attempt to discover the north-west and
nation what a vast reserve of strength north-east passages with a tenacity
;
represented by the city repubUcs in the in the unusually strong resistance which
Mediterranean and the Northmen in the the two colonial powers in the seventeenth
360 5665
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
and eighteenth centuries were able to offer session of it in that quarter was only
to their most dangerous rival, the rapidly possible by the destruction of the two
growing power of Great Britain. powers that held it. This attempt was
Towards the end of the sixteenth cen- undertaken and carried through in part by
tury the historical character of the Atlantic open war, in part by piracy, which was not
Ocean undergoes a fundamental change. only secretly tolerated but openly sup-
From the beginning of the period of great ported by governments and rulers.
discoveries its special destiny had been to No stronger evidence is forthcoming for
provide a maritime training the value attached to these weapons and the
^"° M lor the nations of North-west free use of them during the last ten years
of, Licensed
r
t- j j.i-
t-urope, and to make these
j. i
We refer to the great epoch of the Eng- had England and Holland become con-
lish and Dutch wars against the " invin- scious of their strength than we find both
cible " fleets of Philip II.
; it was a period, powers in the East Indies, and
too, of that licensed piracy, almost equally
fruitful in political consequences, which
*i.*^*vi *•
the Nations
J,
...
.
1.1
on the west coast of America
in short, wherever it was pos-
•,
;
was carried on in the waters of East sible to deprive the two older
America by representatives of all the powers of the choicest products of their
three northern powers. The North Sea, first and most valuable colonies. So early
the Baltic, and the Mediterranean have all cis 1595 Comelis de Houtman sailed with
been scourged by pirates at one time and four Dutch ships to Java and the neigh-
another and in all three cases the robbers
; bouring islands he was followed shortly
;
plied their trade so vigorously and for so afterwards by the English and Danes.
long a time that the historian must take When the North-west European powers
account of them. began to extend their encroachments
This older form of piracy was undertaken beyond the limits of the Atlantic Ocean,
by ruffians beyond the pale of law, who this latter naturally ceased to be what
were every man's enemy and no man's it had been for a century past the —
friend, and plundered all alike as oppor- main theatre of the naval war not ;
tunity occurred, it being everybody's duty that it became any more peaceful during
to crush and extirpate them when possible. the next two centuries. On the contrary,
But towards the end of the sixteenth cen- the struggles which broke out amongst the
tury a different state of affairs prevailed on victorious adversaries after the expulsion
the Atlantic Ocean. After the of the Portuguese and Spaniards from
p owers
discovery of America as an inde- their dominant position were even more
ee mg a
pendent continent, it became a violent and enduring than those of earlier
question of life and death for days. This conflict, too, was largely
the North-west European powers, which fought out in the Indian Ocean, but it was
had grovm to strength in the last century, waged with no less ferocity on the Atlantic.
to find an exit from the Atlantic Ocean to The great length of the two coast lines
the riches of the eastern countries of the which confine the Atlantic Ocean, and the
Old World. It was possible that this exit general strength and growing capacity of
was to be found only in the south, in view the states of North-west Europe, led to
of the constant ill-success of expeditions the result that, during the course of the
towards the Pole ; and to secure the pos- last three centuries, repeated changes
5666
1 , , ;
quered in 1537 in 1642 Brazil fell into world. Judged by the prize at
;
Land and Sea
the hands of Holland, after eighteen years' stake, this struggle must rank
struggle, though nineteen years later amongst the greatest of modern times.
it was restored to Portugal for an It began in 1688, when Louis XIV. opened
indemnity of $4,000,000; in 1651 the his third war of aggression it continued, ;
Dutch seized and held for 115 years the im- with some cessations of hostilities, until
portant position of the Cape of Good Hope. the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815),
In the West Indies the division of The struggle was carried on at many
the Spanish possessions began from 162 points. A
land war in India (1740-1760)
with the foundation of the Dutch West decided the future of the Indian Ocean.
Indian Company, " that band of pirates The contest to secure communications
on the look-out for shares." In the course with that ocean was fought out in
of the next ten years the majority of the Egypt (1798-1801) and at the Cape (1806)
Lesser Antilles were taken from their old but the main conflicts were waged on the
Spanish owners. In 1655 Cromwell took seaboard of the Atlantic or on its waters.
possession of Jamaica. The rest of the Supremacy in the Atlantic meant supre-
Greater Antilles remained Spanish for a con- macy in the world until the age ol
siderably longer period Hayti
; steam began and the Suez Canal opened
Fight for the
held out its eastern part until a new route to the Farther East.
Supremacy
of the Seas
1821, and Cuba and Porto Rico Some events which are otherwise of
remained Spanish until 1898. secondary importance deserve notice be-
The combatants in North-west Europe cause they prove how much the current
are divided into groups, according to their estimate of the Atlantic's importance
respective importance ; on the one hand, changed in the course of the struggle.
the three powers of England, Holland, and Tangier came into the hands of England in
France, each of which has made enormous 1662 as the dowry of Catharine of Braganza,
efforts to secure the supremacy of the the queen of Charles II. it was given up ;
Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and, on the in 1684 on the ground that it cost more
other hand, Denmark, Sweden, and Prussia, than it brought in. Twenty years later
which pursued objects primarily commer- English opinion as to the value of Tangier
cial and on a smaller scale. Their efforts on had been materially modified and ;
the African coast are marks of the rising Gibraltar, on the opposite was
shore,
importance then generally attached to seized in 1704. Since then England has
trans-oceanic enterprise, and form points never relaxed her hold upon this fortress ;
efforts to destroy the Dutch supremacy, at far cis to destroy the church in 1600. But
5667
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
the East India Company, upon acquiring scale, and for the last time under it;
it in 1650, recognised its importance by England for the first time realised the
establishing upon it the fort of St. James. object towards which her policy had been
The island, however, was not appreciated directed for the last two hundred years.
at its full value until the English supremacy This situation, the most remarkable which
in the Indian Ocean and until Australia the Atlantic had witnessed since the days
had been founded ; that is, not before of Columbus, lasted for over thirteen
the beginning of the eighteenth century. years. It was not at once destroyed by the
_ „ The taking over of St. Helena Declaration of Independence (1776), but
.*.
*" by the English Government in the growth of the United States introduced
„ . 181 ^5 was the logical
° r ,1
sequel to a change into the existing conditions.
Possession ., .. ^z-
the occupation of the Cape. England's position was altered for the
Both of these new possessions were worse and the North Atlantic began to
;
intended to serve as calling stations on the play a new part in the history of the
main line of ocean traffic. It was not until world. Hitherto there had been a move-
the opening of the Suez Canal that this ment from east to west this was now ;
line declined in importance. The main reversed by slow degrees. Europe had
route now runs from Gibraltar, by Malta acted upon America America began at
;
^and Cyprus, to Egypt, Perim, and Aden. the open ng of the nineteenth century to
The eastern part of the Atlantic has react upon Europe and now, at the
;
served, like the Indian' Ocean, as an ante- beginning of the twentieth century,
room to the Pacific. The first explorers America has become a factor, sometimes
of the Atlantic, and those powers which a disturbing and unwelcome factor, in
first seized strategic points in it, had the European complications.
Pacific for their ultimate object. The The American War of Independence was
opening of the Suez Canal has taken away a chapter in the confhct for colonial and
this characteristic of the Atlantic, which commercial power between England and
is now important for its own sake alone. g .. France. The United States
The political history of the Atlantic «.". .**« .^. . were largely indebted to
Era in British t^
French support^ rfor xi.
, •
English colonies of North America pro- a long period the French marine was swept
gress was slow, owing to the existence from the seas for a considerable portion
;
KK . r
. 1
the additional advantage of being able it from every country of the
to avail herself of a longer period of time world and, finally, when this new nation
;
to strengthen her position in other had applied its energies to the exploita-
respects precisely as she pleased. Then it tion of the enormous wealth of natural
was that Britain extended her Indian riches in its broad territory.
colonial empire in every direction, founded This highly important point was reached
an equally valuable sphere of rule in considerably earher than any human
Australia, and estabhshed herself in South foresight could have supposed, owing to the
Africa and on the most important points unexampled rapidity of the development
5669
; ;
military and naval insufficiency is chiefly much is plain from the development of
to be ascribed the fact that the trans- circumstances on either side of the
marine efforts of the United States were 'ri. A I
• Atlantic.
' The European
applied first of all to the Pacific Ocean, which ' Mediterranean and Baltic are
Future''
is turned away from Europe, although the jj" J"^ not, perhaps, entirely parallel
.
European side still forms their historical cases, owing to their compara-
coast. Between 1870 and 1880 America tively smaller area yet the history which
;
secured her influence in Hawaii, while at has been worked out upon their respective
the same time she succeeded in establish- shores is in its main features nearly
ing herself in Samoa. It was not until she identical. Whether we consider the
advanced to the position of a leading state Phoenicians and Carthaginians, the Ionic
in respect of population and resources Greeks, or the modem French on the
that she ventured any similar steps upon shores of the Mediterranean, or turn our
the Atlantic side, and even then her attacks attention to the Hanse towns or the
were directed only against the Spaniards, Swedes upon the Baltic, the result is the
who had grown old and weak. same. First of all, we find tentative
The war of 1898 was the first great efforts at occupation of the opposite
transmarine effort on the part of the shores. Phoenicia occupies Carthage
United States. By their action at that Greece colonises Asia Minor ; France,
time they openly broke with their former Algiers and Tunis and Sweden, Finland
;
5670
THE ATLANTIC AFTER COLUMBUS
World seem somewhat doubtful ; even extent than the two former by the new
to-day, many an individual might find means of communication. The advantage
good reason for characterising the once of friendly shores lying beyond its harbours
boundless ocean as a future mare clausum, favoured extensive sailing voyages ever
access to which is to depend upon American since 1492, and this advantage naturally
favour. In any case, the times when the exists in increased extent for steam
European Powers could rightly regard the navigation. The general shortness of the
Atlantic Ocean as their special domain by lines of passage is more than a mere
right of inheritance are past for ever. geographical phenomenon.
Relations of
Probably, now that the Panama Canal l^ohtically and economically,
the Old d
opened, the Pacific Ocean and the
is
New Worlds ^^ brings the countries and
countries upon its shores will become continents into closer relation.
more prominent than hitherto however, ; Britain and North America are not only
the general direction of American life more closely related anthropologically and
will remain as before, directed towards ethnographically, but at the present
Europe and the Atlantic Ocean. day they carry on a larger interchange of
The reasons for this are both historical commercial products than any other two
and geographical. Historically speaking, countries. Improved communication be-
the closest national and political relations tween the harbours of these two countries
conjoin both shores of the Atlantic is certainly not the ultimate cause of the
Ocean. It is true that, when viewed in two phenomena above mentioned.
the light of the rapid growth of modern Upon the west of the Atlantic Ocean the
hfe, the dates of the foundation of the achievements of technical skill in steam
South and North American colonies appear navigation, together with
the political
considerably remote. None the less. Brazil and economic advance the United
of
at the present day considers herself a States, has increased the importance of
daughter of Portugal, and the united pro- this sea to an unforeseen extent so, too,
;
Orleans, 6 per cent, through San Francisco, since 1870 the old lines of steamship
but no less than 8i"5 per cent, through the traffic from Europe to India and the
great harbours of the Atlantic coast. More- Pacific, by way of the Cape, have been
over, notwithstarrding the rapid develop- deserted ; sailing lines carrying heavy
ment of the West, the most populous and cargo to the south and eastern shores of
the most commercially powerful colonies Asia and the steamship lines bringing
and states of North America are to be found Europe into direct communication with
on the Atlantic coast the great towns, the
; the west coast of Africa have remained.
most important centres of political and Notwithstanding the rise of a commercial
intellectual life, are also situated upon movement from west to east and a con-
the shores that look towards Europe. sequent lessening of the importance of the
The indissoluble character of these eastern ocean, the Suez Canal may in a
historical relations is reflected almost certain sense be regarded as the primary
identically in the geographical conditions. cause of the greater value
Soez Canal's
To a modern steamship even the great which has been recently at-
Commercial
breadth of the Pacific is but a comparative tached to the eastern Atlantic
Importance
trifle, and this meanscommuni- of rapid Ocean and its shores. The
cation is proportionately a more powerful opening of this —
canal of no use to
influence in the narrower seas. It was —
sailing-ships through the old isthmus at
not until steam navigation had been the end of the Red Sea was certainly not
developed that the full extent of the the first and only cause of the remarkable
Indian and Pacific Oceans was explored. sudden rise in oceanic communication,
In the case of the Atlantic the date of which is a feature as distinctive of the
exploration is much more remote, but this years 1870 to 1880 as is the decay in com-
ocean has profited to an infinitely greater munication by sail that then began this
;
5671
;
567a
5673
mi^mm'^j&i^^^sii^i^^i2o ^t^ a ^(>0>^33smrdmmf::^^6
la^0'^ii?S=a^OE^/S3.*3P,^i^-^^SJ^SH^(©re^^^45'^^e3
m. AMERICA BEFORE CDLUMBUS^
PRIMITIVE RACES OF THE CONTINENT
By Professor Konrad Haebler
WHERE DID AMERICAN MAN COME FROM?
HTHE problem how the first men may have of a continent between Europe and America
•*•
cometo America has always given in an age when one part of the earth was
much food for reflection to both learned inhabited by peoples whose traces are still
and unlearned. Many could not imagine to be found must in any case have left
that a continent should exist with count- some signs which could not have escaped
less different races for whom no place could the advanced investigation of the earth's
be found in the genealogy of Genesis, and surface. The attempt to trace the out-
for want of a better way out of the diffi- lines of this continent from the cliffs and
culty they assumed that the inhabitants _ _. shoals of the Atlantic Ocean is
of America were the descendants of the ten _ ^ also worthless trifling. On the
lost tribes of Israel. This naive assump- . . . other hand, geologists of note
to America , ,. .•• °j.u
.
tion did direct service to science itself by believe that they can prove
offering occasion to some intelligent ob- that the northern part of the Atlantic
servers to go thoroughly into the manners Ocean was not always covered by water,
and customs of the American Indians, in and they think it was by this way that
the hope of discovering analogies which man came from the Old World to the New^
might serve them as proofs. in times when the climatic conditions ex-
A second hypothesis regarding the origin isting in Europe were still considerably
of the Americans has received a far more different from those of history.
scientific colouring. The fabulous island- Finally, still a third hypothesis exists
world of the Western ocean, the 'oldest for the population of America. It would
evidence of which is the mythical Atlantis be the simplest of all did not the same
of Plato's Tim^eus, exercised an indirect science which admits the possibility of a
influence on the discovery of the New World, North Atlantic land-bridge having existed
in so far as even Columbus was under the dispute the same possibility for this.
spell of belief in it.Whether it was based Nowhere do the continents of the Old
on any historic or prehis- and New World approach nearer to one
Was there a
^^^.-^ j^^^ ^^ ^^^ hitherto another than in North-west America, where
Land-bridge over j td
But^ men
,
^.
*
.^, „ been proved. Bering Strait separates them by only a
the Atlantic ? r •
a ^ •
of science are not wantmg narrow arm of water, and the Aleutian
who answer this question in the affirmative, Islands also make it possible for a navi-
and who see in a land-bridge over the gator provided with but the most primitive
Atlantic Ocean the way by which the first appliances to cross from one to the other.
men came to the American continent. At all times vessels of the inhabitants of
Modern research no longer takes up so the Asiatic coasts have occasionally been
naive a position on this question as the old tossed by wind and weather as far as the
Spaniard who therewith attributed to the shores of Alaska, and that an immigration
Indians a Keltiberian origin. The sinking took place in this direction even in historic
5675
; ;
iu
—
World that its development from the
_ .. andj America
a
in the accounts
a.
times of the mammoth to its discovery by
..... of the land of Fu-schan, and
. Christopher Columbus was continuous and
on the strength of this would was not influenced from without.
boldly claim the Aztec civilisation to have America is also highly interesting to the
been an offshoot of the Chinese. Such student of the early history of the human
inferences, however, have not been able race as well as to the geologist, in that it
to stand the test of strict examination. preserved the witnesses of a past of which
In the ages which we can connect with we find in the Old World only scanty and
even the earliest Chinese epochs America often obliterated traces until a later time.
was certainly not populated by this means This later tin;ae did not, it is true, possess
and if the geologists are right who assert such a developed method of research as
that the far north-west did not rise from the present day, but in its accounts, and
the waves of the Pacific Ocean which — in the memorials that it handed down to
once flowed with a boundless expanse to posterity, it has consigned to us far richer
—
the North Pole until after the Glacial material for research than has the Old
Period, then the first inhabitants of World, and has given us information of
America certainly did not get there in events and conditions in the early history
this way, for by this time the bones of of man which we should otherwise seek in
many generations were already bleaching vain. Even the most highly
e oae
on the soil of the New World. _ j^jy^iggfj races of America were
Since it has been proved that the human .** ^!^ only at the beginning of the
America ^ -^ . P .P
race on American soil can be traced back Copper Age when they were
to the same periods of the earth's history discovered, while most of the inhabitants
asjn the Old World, the question whence of the New World still lived entirely in
the first men came there has lost much of the Age of Stone.
its importance. It is true that the cradle Americans once asserted that they had
of the human race can hardly have been dug human bones out of strata of the
in America to cite one objection, the
; Tertiary Period but, like those who had
;
anthropoid apes, which are indispensable made similar assertions regarding finds in
to the theory of evolution as the connecting the Old World, they failed to give scientific
link between the animal world and man, proof. On the other hand, human relics
have at no time been native here, any have come to they have there,
light here, as
more than they are now, as the fossil finds that belong to the Period
Interglacial
in all American excavations have proved. nor are such relics, although naturally not
But, however, if the first men came very numerous, limited to a small area,
over during periods in which the distribu- but are found both in the mountainous
tion of land and water on the earth's regions of California and in the vast plains
surface was still quite different from that of the Argentine pampas. In America, too,
Problem ^^°^^ ^^ history, then geology man was the contemporary of the mam-
. .
of America s
. will one day, at least, be able
,
, •
-^
, '
moth and other ancient g gantic species of
^^^^ ^^ answer to our ques- animals, and at a later but still prehistoric
First Man
tion. Yet even this negative period the New World even had a popula-
result is of unqualified scientific import- tion which in places was fairly considerable.
ance, for it puts all those in the wrong who That this was the case is evident from the
pretend to see in the customs of the savage considerable number and unusual size of
and civilised races of America the influ- the refuse accumulations of prehistoric
ences of certain ethnographic units familiar man that are known by the name of
to our ideas. If the first man made his " kitchen-middens." These refuse mounds
home in America at the time when his exist in North and South America, on the
fellow in the Old World still vied with the shores of the ocean, on the inland seas,
5676
WHERE DID AMERICAN MAN COME FROM?
and on the banks of the great rivers, and, western foot, with the terraces in which
besides their scientific name, are called these mountains rapidly rise to consider-
" shell -mounds " in the North and "sara- able height, was almost in its whole extent,
baquis " in the South. They consist of from Alaska down to Chili, the seat of
accumulations of the inedible parts of fish civilised and half-civiUsed races ;at any
and other aquatic animals, especially shell- rate, their degree of civilisation was far
fish, and naturally contain among this refuse above the level of that of the population
fragments of objects that were used by the of the vast plains and extensive lowland
men who inhabited their sites. That these p . . , through which, east of the Cor-
objects belong chiefly to the earliest human j^ . dilleras, the mightiest rivers of
culture, the Palaeolithic, was to be antici- ^. the earth roll their waters to the
J.
pated, but it must not be forgotten that sea. Here lay the two great
refuse mounds are also met with, especially centres of civilisation of Peru and Mexico,
in South America, which belong not only the latter of which, it is true, spanned the
to the Neolithic Period, beyond which the American continent from ocean to ocean
wild Indian of Eastern South America has near its narrowest part.
never advanced, but even with certainty In the regions east of the Cordilleras,
to historic times. which probably form three-fourths of the
What number of people and what time whole area of the continent, man was still,
it may have taken to throw up these at the beginning of the sixteenth century,
mounds, which are often hundreds of feet in a primitive stage of civilisation. North
long, and of considerable height, we have America showed him then at best as
as yet no reliable means of determining. beginning to rise from his state of " natural
But it can scarcely be assumed that they man" whereas in the southern continent
;
were formed very slowly, for otherwise the no traces of this are to be discovered.
action of the elements, especially on the The clever paradox that hunger is the
sea-coasts, would scarcely ever have allowed father of all progress, because it forces man
accumulations to be made to fight with his surroundings, has probably
IS ory r m have stood the test of
^^.j^j^^j^ nowhere been more strikingly confirmed
the Ancient j ,, wr
thousands of years. We are.
r
c. ,, . than in South America. The Peruvian of
Shell-mounds ,, , n i ,-
i , .
a ure s
is insufficiently strong. ^ conditions for the develop-
Influence -',
If we now view the American continent J.
r
ment of progress m ,. --rf
culture. 1 he
in its entirety on its appearance in floods which recurred periodic-
historic times, it affords us surprising ally, placing areas of many square miles
confirmation of the extraordinary influence under water for weeks and months, com-
of geographical position on the develop- —
pelled the Indian who had to build his hut
ment of human culture. The compara- close to the banks of the rivers on account
tively narrow strip of coast which accom- —
of the fish that gave him food regularly
panies the mountain-chain of the to abandon his dwelling and leave it to
—
Cordilleras the backbone of America, as destruction. It is no wonder that he
it has been significantly called at its — became an indefatigable swimmer, an
5677
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
excellent boatman, and an expert fisher- much as game, and every man was strange
man ; but his mind became as little to him who was not of his clan. This
associated as his body with the soil he explains the war of " all against all " that
lived on, and the water that washed away existed among most of the Indian tribes.
his light hut effaced also from his mind Whether we have to regard this same
any remembrance of his past history. conception as accounting for the anthro-
Historical research was for a long time pophagy which seems at times to have
helpless as regards these primitive races. existed throughout the whole American
Attempts were first made to continent, from one end to the other, may
" "'**
pick out from the endless mass perhaps be disputed. In any case the
.... of races and tribes the groups
Aborigines ,, , ^,
Indian pursued his human enemy with the
.
\
that were more or less closely same unmercifulness as he pursued his
related to one another ;but even these worst enemies in the animal world, and his
attempts encountered the greatest ob- war was, as far as the male portion of
stacles. The outward appearance of the the hostile tribe was concerned, a war of
aborigines, their complexion, and the form annihilation. But he behaved otherwise
of their skulls and bodies, were first towards the women. In the restless life of
tried as distinctive marks. It proved the nomadic Indian a great share of the
that races of different complexions ex- daily toil and care fell to the female sex,
hibited signs of relationship, whereas the and the Indian knew well how to ap-
same complexion and figure were repeated preciate the faithful services of his women.
in races that were not related at all and
; Thus, when he succeeded in capturing
the skull measurements often gave every the women of a hostile tribe in battle,
gradation from the dolichocephalic to the it was only rarely that he wreaked his
brachycephalic among the individuals of wrath on them far oftener he saw in them
;
South America, the little we know of the an influence tor change upon
history of these races, or rather the little it under certain circumstan(5es, especially
we know in the way of facts. The un- if such adoptions happened repeatedly.
civilised Indian knows nothing of the It must often have come to pass that a
history of his tribe. He rarely knows tribe, whose outward circumstances were
—
more than the names and perhaps, in favourable rapidly increased, so that at
the country not subject to floods, the last all its members could no longer find
—
dwellings of his father and grandfather. room within its circle. It was then
After a few generations the knowledge —
naturally the youngest members those in
of long migrations fades away into a dim —
the first stage of manhood whorn the
tradition, and in his legends the over- uneasy pressure first affected, and whom
growth of mythological fantasies com- must have first migrated. Only a few
pletely stifles clear historical recollection. women, or none at all, would have followed
This also explains how the Indians them on their journey into the unknown,
so easily changed under the influence for their diligent hands could far less be
of new surroundings. Language alone spared at home than the surplus warriors.
followed this process of transformation So that, in order to establish a home,
comparatively slowly, and these warriors would have to resort to
Th * M'"* A
, . contained elements of per- the abduction of women. The nearest
aaguages o
gjg^gjj(,y ^j^jch asserted them- village would then be attacked ;the
the Indians ,
-'
i ,• i -in
selves more lastingly amid all men that could not escape would be
change. But far more importance must be slaughtered ; but with the women the
attached to the influence exercised by mix- band of warriors would combine to form a
ture on the languages of the Indians. It new tribe, which must naturally show in
will seldom have resulted from peaceable every respect the mixture of different
intercourse. The Indian in his natural elements. This formation of new tribes is
state, while looking on the beasts of the not only logically quite admissible, but it
forest almost as his equals, considered is also verified by historical instances
every strange man, on the other hand, among the many races of South America,
5678
PRIMITIVE
AMERICA
BEFORE
RACES
COLUMBUS OF AMERICA
11
follow the example of some of their historic times they were hemmed in on
Indian neighbours and call them the Crens, all sides so that at the time of the Spanish
meaning the " old " or " ancient ones." conquest they ruled practically only the
They have become most popular under hill-country of the interior of Brazil.
the name of Botocudos, from the lip-peg Tribes of them were also drawn into
(botoque), which, however, is worn as the great racial migration which, several
an ornament of distinction not only by centuries before their discovery by the
them but also by most of the other Spaniards, set out from the east to make
primitive races of South America even ; an onset upon the more highly civilised
the warriors of the Chibchas, races of the Andean highlands but the ;
p .
" °" who must be unconditionally Semigaes, who on this occasion pene-
""
apuyas
reckoned among the civilised trated into the region of the upper tribu-
races, stuck as many pegs taries of the Amazon, became differen-
through their lower lips as they had killed tiated in character from their race, and so
" "
enemies in battle. The name Tapuya assimilated themselves with the sur-
recommends most, because in history
itself rounding Tupi and Carib tribes that only
it has been specially applied to the Ges their name and their language still show
tribes, and did not, like all the other names, their old connection.
actually belong only to a small number of There have probably never been any
the tribes that are called by it. The age races of the Tapuya stock on the north
of these tribes is shown by the fact that side of the Amazon. Here, until a few
their neighbours, who have driven them centuries before Columbus, one of the
farther and farther from their former most extensive races of the New World,
abodes, call them " the ancients." the Aruacs, held unlimited sway. They,
The most decisive proof that they too, belong indisputably to the oldest
have lived in the regions of Brazil Wh ii'Ltions of America.
th
Where
from the earliest times, long previous to . their real original abodes may
history, is the circumstance that the palaeo-
H la s
have
been can be only ap-
zoic skulls from Lagoa Santa, which Lund ^ proximately determined. The
brought to light in the caves there, exhibit Aruacs also represent the type of an
all the characteristics peculiar to the inland race. Although in later times many
Tapuya skull. On the other hand, it is of their tribes were quite at home on the
doubtful whether the " sambaquis," or water as navigators and fishermen, their
refuse- mounds, of Brazil are also attri- primitive culture points unconditionally
butable to them, because the Tapuyas to an inland home. And although they
5679
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
were subsequently the undisputed masters much earlier than theirs. There is abun-
of the vast regions north of the Amazon dant proof that the Aruacs were the
from the Andes to the shores of the ocean, teachers of their younger conquerors.
their original abodes cannot have been When the Aruac group may have begun
in the luxuriant, tropical lowlands of the to spread from the hill country of Eastern
great river territories of South America ;
Bolivia to the north-east, east and south-
on the contrary, the characteristics we east, and whether in its advance it found
find common to all their widespread the basins of the Orinoco and Amazon
branches, as the original elements of their and their tributaries still unpeopled or in-
culture, lead us to the conclusion that habited by other races, cannot be ascer-
their home was situated above the region tained even approximately. It is probable
of periodical floods, and yet was still in . that it found these new regions
J,. *°'^*
tropical climes. Now, as we find them on uninhabited, because Aruac
/th*
the eastern slopes of the Cordilleras, D -. races have formed a uniform
A-.-- Kaces
Aru&c
from the peninsula of Goajira in the north ^ , .
substratum over large areas
i
down to the borders of Chili, and in of Northern South America, which sub-
specially large numbers in Eastern Bolivia, stratum of race reappears wherever the
the original home of all these tribes is later conquerors did not completely fill
probably to be sought in this direction. the area. But to judge from its extent,
The tribes of the Aruac group, among and from the great deviations in the
which must also be counted those called language of its various branches, this
the Nu tribes by Karl von den Steinen, group of races took not only hundreds
ranked far higher in civihsation than the but thousands of years for its migrations.
Tapuyas and although Tupis and Caribs
; In spite of this the Aruacs were not a
Subsequently became fully their equals, rude, savage race when this process
the civilisation of the Aruacs was founded began, for even the original race knew an
5680
;
the Tupi tribes were given to cannibalism. thereupon followed the definitely pre-
It was certainly no longer a scarcity scribed dissection of the corpse, and the
of food that made them cannibals, nor distribution of the portions among, the
was it a sacred ceremony springing members of the tribe. The women and
from religious conceptions, such as we even the sick who were prevented from
find among several civilised races of attending the feast also received their
ancient America. The Guarani ate the share. In this form of cannibalism it is
prisoners he made in battle to celebrate his obvious that the characteristic features
victory over his enemies. The custom of different stages of culture come into
observed in this connection is almost a contact. It still contains reminiscences
characteristic of the Tupi tribes. of the time when the flesh of an enemy, like
The prisoners were not put to death im- that of a wild beast, served to appease
mediately upon their captors' return from hunger. But it is already pre-eminently the
the warpath, but were first kept for some expression of proud triumph over the
tirne in by no means severe imprisonment, conquered enemy, for we have special
which became lighter and lighter the nearer testimony that the feast bore the character
the time of their end approached, and of the celebration of a victory. But
terminated with most luxurious living, finally, ceremonial influences also begin to
during which the prisoner was not only show themselves to such an extent that
abundantly provided with the best of food the transition from the cannibalism of the
and drink, but was even married to the Tupis to the human sacrifices of the Aztecs
daughters of the tribe. Meanwhile, with- appears near at hand.
out his being aware of it, preparations were As anthropophagy, in this or in a similar
made for the feast which was to be form, is a common trait of almost all
crowned by his death. In the middle of Tupi tribes, it must have begun in the
the ceremonial dances of his enemies origiucil home of the race. This is a
5685
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
further argument against the Tupis having sufficient water to allow them to remain
come from the highlands of Bohvia. The true to the characteristic of their race.
Tupi tribes which hve nearest to
this Numerous hordes of Tupis may have been
region, and should accordingly present the scattered and destroyed in the network of
most archaic forms, are the only ones the Amazon, and we cannot now ascertain
which have entirely done away with canni- to what circumstance it was due that the
balism, and have generally reached the ancestors of the Omaguas and Cocamas
highest degree of civilisation of any mem- managed to break through the central
_. _, bers of the race : these are the mass of the Nu-Aruac tribes and penetrate
-, ?. *f ^ Omaguas between the Putu- almost to the foot of the Cordilleras. Prob-
^ jj.
mayo and Caqueta, and the ably the report of a rich cultivated land
Cocamas at the confluence of led them up the Amazon and its tribu-
the Maraiion and Ucayali. How these tribes taries, as in later times the legend of the
of the Tupi stock could be cut oft so far Omaguas and of the ever-vanishing Eldo-
from the others is not difficult to explain. rado led the Spaniards down the same way.
The Aruacs coming from the north halted According to the traditions of the Spanish
at the great waterway of the Amazon at chroniclers the remembrance of an inva-
about the same time as the Tupis from sion by the hostile population of the low-
the south reached its other bank. lands had not quite died out even among
So that, to the difficulties that Nature the Indians of the civilised states. Be-
set in the way of a farther advance, tween the immigration of the Omaguas to
was here added the hostility of new and their later abodes and the discovery of
powerful tribes. It was probably this, even America there must in any case have been
more than the river with its innumerable a considerable space of time, for the
—
sluggish arms which is no grave obstacle Omaguas not only rose far above the
to a race familiar with boats that was the— average degree of civilisation of the Tupi
chief reason why the main body of the races under the influence of more highly
Aruacs could not advance any more to the _ civilised peoples, so that they
ari s an
south bank than the main body of the renounced cannibalism, tilled
Tupis could advance to the north bank. Q. ... .. ground,
the and occupied
That attempts could not have been want- permanent dwelling-places in- —
ing on both sides is shown by the small deed, even founded large towns but the —
detached tribes of each nationality that knowledge of all these achievements had
are met with in turn on the hostile bank. even had time to spread abroad among
But, on the whole, the division is sudden their less civilised neighbours, who
and sharp. To the Aruacs it meant the reported the name of the Omaguas to the
end of their onward movement. They seem Spaniards as being a race of fabulous
still to have possessed the power to offer the wealth and extraordinary power.
Tupis an invincible resistance, but not to The youngest of the races of South
continue their advance in a new direction. America is that of the Caribs. It is partly
But the Tupis continued to advance. due to this circumstance, and to good
Their traditions show that they followed fortune in the field of ethnographic re-
the Amazon and its tributaries upward ;
search, that we know its history somewhat
and that the passage up the Amazon did better than that of the other groups. The
not appear an impossibility to these original abodes of the Carib race probably
Indians was proved in the year 1641, when lay near the original home of the Tupi race.
some of them served the Portuguese as As the latter peopled the upper affluents
guides during the first expedi- of the Paraguay, the Caribs peopled the
p ^
° tion of the kind undertaken by
f' upper basin of the Tapajoz and of the
S*Ji'*
thelmazon^he latter. Owing to the rivers flowing in the same direction to the
enormous extent of the Amazon, lower Amazon. The degree of civilisation
it no longer appears possible to follow the attained here by the Caribs must be de-
Tupi migration upward in its basin, but scribed as extraordinarily low their
;
probably even the tribes of the Xingu and language could not count farther than
Tapajoz did not come down from the three, really only to two, and we must
watershed to the Paraguay, but from the imagine that their other conditions of life
Amazon up its tributaries. For, in con- corresponded to this poverty of ideas.
trast to the Aruacs and Tapuyas, traces of Even here mutual intercourse will have
Tupi tribes only occur where there was taken place between them and the Tupis,
5686
;
before the white men appeared. met the Europeans upon their first appear-
At what period they were transformed ance with respectful timidity, which was
from a comparatively harmless race of only changed to fearful flight after they
fishermen, as Karl von den Steinen found had learned by years of suffering what
them in the original home of the race bitter experiences were in store for them
on the Upper Xingu, into the nation of in intercourse with the white man. So
bold and savage water-pirates, spreading that even weak parties of Carib warriors
5687
. — —
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
must often have succeeded in overcoming make their race the prevailing one from
far superior bands of their opponents. the mouth of the Amazon to the lagoon of
But if the Carib on the warpath behaved Maracaibo. Their extreme outposts broke
with ruthless ferocity towards the male through the belt of the Cordilleras,
portion of hostile tribes, he, too, spared presumably at no great distance from the
the women. On the restless expedi- —
northern sea-coast even in the basin of
tions that he undertook, often for con- the river Magdalena there is still a tribe
siderable distances, in his narrow canoe, of Carib origin, although rather as a de-
e ... . women could ,,not accompany tached horde amid nations of other races.
Settlements ,,
-, ... the warrior ; they would t, haveu But, generally speaking, the higher
r ounded by , r •
i j ^
*i. <^ .. been a far °erreater hindrance to civilisation of the races in the mountain
the Caribs ,
. ,, ,, ,
him than on expeditions by regions of the Andes placed an insuper-
land. But as at least the longer expedi- able obstacle in the way of their progress.
tions were not undertaken exclusively for In the basin of the Orinoco, whose
the purpose of spoil and plunder tributaries they navigated in their canoes
although the warlike expeditions of the far into their upper courses, right to the
Caribs are often decidedly distinguishable foot of the mountains, spreading fear
—
from migrations but had for their object and terror among the dwellers on their
the founding of new settlements, the banks, Carib tribes seem to have settled
Caribs probably mixed extensively with only to a limited extent but at its mouth
;
the women of another race. And it is only we find them numerously and almost
owing to the circumstance that the Carib ex- exclusively represented.
peditions were made exclusively on territory That here they established their dominion
inhabited by Aruac races that the inter- on a stratum of Aruac races is unquestion-
mixture did not become more multiform. able, although direct proof of it is not so
The time of the Carib migrations can be clear as in other parts. The last conquest
somewhat more precisely judged than of the Caribs, which had not come to
that of any other similar event. We have an end at the time of the dis-
already indicated that the advance of _ * *** f covery of America, was that of
onques o
the Caribs to the mouth of the Amazon
tne C/ariDS
^^^ Antilles.
..,,
When the Cor-
1 1 j 1 1
seems to have preceded the arrival of the dilleras checked his advance
Tupis at that river. But the Tupi races westward, the Carib, whose continual
must also have been pretty near the roving into new lands for centuries had
same goal at that time. Otherwise it can become to him a necessary of life, looked
scarcely be explained why the Caribs around for new objects. While some
should have extended their conquests made their raids up the Orinoco, others
exclusively in a direction in which they got made their aim the small islands lying
farther and farther from the tribes they off the Venezuelan coast, often within
had left behind, so that finally they lost sight, of whose Aruac population they
all touch with them. The discovery of these presumably had heard from the coast-
almost venerable remains of a people at tribes of the mainland. It was probably
the most primitive stage of development here that they made a further and
on the Xingu is really due to mere chance. for American conditions —
important ad-
From there to the Amazon the Tupi vance in the art of navigation they :
population forms a perfectly continuous learned to use the sail, an art probably
mass in which sprinklings of the Carib known by none of all the other aborigines
stock are nowhere to be found. So that it of the New World except the Maya races,
- . must have been the advance of but by these more perfectly.
i*ft*A
of the Aruac
the Tupis
^
that gave the Carib
° ..i
The circumstance that the conquest of
. ., i j-
Tribes
movement its northerly direc- the islands took place in such recent
tion, and the weak resistance of times is of special importance in judging
the Aruacs must then have enticed the the nature of Indian migrations. On the
Caribs farther and farther, and have allowed large islands of the Antilles the first
them to spread over the north of South Spanish settlers found an almost unmixed
America very much more quickly than we population of the Aruac race a peace- —
can cissume to have been the case with the able, friendly, good-natured people, living
migrations of the Aruacs, or even with on the abundant produce of their agri-
those of the Tupis In spite of this, it was, culture, with a little hunting and fishing
cf course, centuries before the Caribs could added. But even these Aruacs already
5688
:
V ,
Explained
• from that of the men. In early
,.
.
,, . .
-^
parts of the American continent on —
which for thousands of years man had
,
none other than the female portion of contrary, the territory occupied by the
the Aruacs, who had become the wives nations of southern oiigin extends to the
of the conquerors. To the historical primitive sphere of culture
The Line
student of Indian migrations this fact was of Central Ameiiea. Bnt
Between North
of no ordinary significance, for it shows the line is a sharp one
and South
us, in the first place, how slowly the different races do not over-
expansion of one race over the territory lap one another here, as we so frequently
of another proceeded, it having taken find to be the case in the interior of nearly
generations to fill districts so small in every continent. Neither can we trace
extent as the islands of the Antilles. On the slightest influence of any consequence
the other hand, it gives us the key to having been exercised by the inhabitants
the explanation of the extraordinai y of the one half on those of the other.
5669
The Avondale Mounds in Washington County, Mississippi
5690
.
PRIMITIVE
AMERICA RACES
BEFORE
OF AMERICA
COLUMBUS III
has already extended its victorious march „. of their struggles for generations
over almost the whole of the United " °'^ with the white man, their
States, a triumph which has filled the
J,
.. shadowy reminiscences of the
mother civilisation with undivided admira- time when the Indian was still
tion and the daughter with pride. sole lord of wood and prairie have been
This victorious march has swept away almost entirely effaced. Here, too, the
with unusual inconsiderateness the traces most valuable part of our material is, on
left of the ancient civihsation of the the one hand language, and on the other
aboriginal population. Whereas in South hand what the oldest writers were able to
America we still find the Indian master of ascertain from the Indians when they
vast regions, under conditions of life that first met them.
evidently form to a large extent analogies To this are added the results of excava-
to the peculiar aboriginal civilisation found tions, which have been undertaken on a
. by the first Europeans, in larger scale than in South America. But
Driving the
^-^^.^^ America the Indian down to the present day the American
Indian from r , u j. •
torical, but by geological periods and ; must have met with the same hostile
if, perchance, the first man came to reception from the races of Indian blood as
America by way of these most northern met them in the north-west.
lands, this event was certainly followed Such a contact between the races cannot
by thousands of years in which his passage have been of long duration, as otherwise
Wh **"* A'' A^^ sunk in absolute oblivion. ethnographic proofs would have been
Not until times rather later found, as in the extreme west. Those
the Innuits
Come from ? than the decline of the
Roman who regard the Innuits as an Indian tribe,
Empire did a new migration gradually driven toward the Pole, would
take place here, which is of very little find proof of their view in the fact that the
importance in the general history of man- northern sagas which relate the voyages of
kind, but has left some slight traces behind. Eric Rauda to Vinland ascribe the destruc-
The Esquimaux — or, as they call them- tion of the settlements there to the
selves, the Innuits — have been taken Skraelings, a name giv^en by the northern
by many for an American race, or for Greenland to the Esquimaux.
settlers in
descendants of those Indians who had had Now, is
it an undoubted historical
a special development under the influence fact that the Vikings undertook voyages
of Polar nature. If certain resemblances to the north-east coast of America as tar
in build and in mode of life between them back as the year 1000, but owing to
and the most northern Indian tribes of the saga's poetic dress, in which alone the
the Pacific coast, the Haidahs and Thlinkits, little information relating thereto is pre-
are not to be traced to mutual influence, served, we do not know with certainty
we are certainly driven to such a con- where these settlements were, nor the
clusion. But, considering the strikingly character of the population found there.
Mongolian character of the Innuits and the _, . The
difference between the
JLixpansion
' ci
1° ^i xr'i ' '
earthly occupations left no room for doubt several of the older archaeologists thought
that the race of the mound-builders they recognised in it the form of an
believed in a second existence. It even elephant or some other animal with a trunk.
seemed as if religion played an extra- Now, among the pipe-bowls in the form
ordinarily important part among them of animals that have been found in large
in all the concerns of life. Almost every- numbers in excavations in the mound
where that earthworks occurred with any . region, the representation of an
. ,
— •
, /•
firmly beaten clay or clayey earth, which, therefore convinced that the builders of
upon the removal of the overlying masses, that mound must at least have had a tra-
in general proved to be a carefully levelled ditional recollection of the form of an
surface like a floor, rather inclined towards elephant or mastodon. But as the probos-
the middle, in the centre of which the cidians were extinct on American soil
traces of fire were often found. long before historic times, the tradition
The discoverers of this form of mound of the mound-builders must have gone
thought themselves justified in regarding back to the ages to which the mastodon
these floors as sacred places, and the remains skeletons of the Missouri valley belonged.
of fire as affording traces of sacrifices From the arrow-heads that were found
and as human bones were repeatedly found with those skeletons it was assumed that
in ashes, human sacrifices were supposed the animals had been kiUed by man.
to have played an important part in the Although the above view of the
_ ,. . „., mound- builders' religious mound-builders was formerly the pre-
Religious Rites ^v
- .
•,
ntes, as m many other ^
parts dominant one, for a long time scholars
^ J n -ij
Mound-Duilders
of
..
the New World. The have not been wanting who, doubting the
,^ r
discoverers therefore gave existence of a prehistoric civilised race on
these earthworks the name of altar- the soil of North America, are of opinion
mounds, and from their frequency they drew that the ancestors of the same Indians who
the conclusion that the old civilised state inhabit the United States to-day erected
must have possessed a numerous and these mounds in comparatively recent
influential sacerdotal caste, to which pre- times. The more the ancient history of the
sumably the most imposing of the great New World was subjected to methodical
earthworks, the terraced pyramids for investigation, the greater became the
sanctuaries honoured by special worship, number of the mounds. In the course of
owed their origin. the last few years the sytematic examina-
Thus the picture of the race that erected tion of the earthworks in the different
the earthworks was no longer shadowy parts of the Union, which has been under-
and indistinct ; on the basis of these taken on a very extensive scale by the
discoveries, and with the aid of the North American Bureau of Ethnology at
analogies of the civilisations found on Washington, has proved irrefutably that
American soil by the first Europeans, the mounds really possess neither the age
fairly definite ideas had been arrived at. commonly attributed to them nor all the
But it was thought that quite an extra- peculiarities demanded. On
The Mounds
ordinary age must be ascribed to this race, the contrary, they are not
Under
because at the time of the discovery of the work of one race, but are
Examination
America all memory of these peoples had probabl}' the relics of the
cdready vanished, and, from the high different Indian races which inhabited the
stage of civilisation they had occupied, it territory of the United States before and after
was thought that their gradual decline and the discovery of America by Columbus.
the extinction of all their traditions must The inferences as to the age of the
have taken a considerable space of time. mounds drawn from the " elephant
On the other hand, a particularly mound " had not met the approval even
remarkable discovery had been made. of many who still did not doubt that
One of the mounds representing living the builders of this mound intended to
5695
, ; a
the wmd.
presumably meant to represent the bear, progress in the path of their culture
an animal often used as a totem. In a development.
like manner the most recent surveys have The Indian mounds and graves have
done away with other old erroneous ideas. left us evidences of a civilisation that tell
There is, at all events, no denying
an undeniable tale and an impartial
;
that a number of earthworks in the
valley of the Ohio, especially those examination of the oldest accounts of the
of the so-called Newark gi"oup, exhibit first meeting of the white man and the
forms of almost mathematical regularity red man on North American soil confirms
but the circumstance that of all the in numerous particulars what the mound-
circular circumvallations only one or two finds lead us to suppose. Individual re-
are almost perfectly round, while the great searches are certainly not j^et
majority only imperfectly attain this The Light of
f^j- enough advanced for the
evidently desired end, goes to prove that Research on
valuable material of the dis-
they were built experimentally rather than the Dark Ages
coveries to be used wholly
with the help of instruments of precision.
It likewise proves quite erroneous to
and fully. We know too little of the
regard the artificial mounds over the ancient migrations of the pre-Columbian
whole extent of their range as uniform, and Indians to be able with certainty to con-
therefore as the relics of a single race. nect the boundaries that archaeology
Closer investigation shows rather that a traces in certain districts with definite
number of different groups of mounds can racial boundaries. But where this has
be so clearly distinguished by their form become possible the antiquities serve
and contents that in certain districts we materially to clear up historical hypotheses,
are even able to trace the settlements of
and a combination of the different methods
two different mound-building populations
of research will further reduce the un-
at one and the same place.
The hypothesis of a particular ancient investigated area year by year.
civilised race being the mound-builders The whole basin of the Mississippi —
collapses. The mounds remain to us as a broad strip of land beginning at the Great
class of highly important monuments,
Lakes in the north and extending to the
from which we can derive information of
the earlier history of the North American
lowlands of the lower Mississippi was in —
earliest times peopled by tribes comprised
Indians that no other source can give.
Starting from the assumption that the under the common name of Algonquins.
state of Indian civilisation had Of the better known Indian tribes belong-
e ate o
j.gj^a,ined practically the same ing to them are the Chippewas in the north,
^. \'t^ .. since the discovery of America, the Delawares, Mohicans, and Ottawas in
if it had not advanced through the north-east, and the Shawnees in the
intercourse with the white man, the south-east. From their traditions it is
Indians were considered to have been supposed that their original home is to be
almost without exception nomadic races
sought in the north-east, beyond the Great
of hunters, whose unconquerable love of
Lakes, although they had been driven
unrestrained freedom would never and
nowhere have permitted them to form thence before the time of Columbus by
large communities and erect permanent the nations of the Iroquois race. Their
dwellings. This conception is perfectly migrations from the north seem to have
5696
i —
obtains in the cult of the totems, or clan worked copper. It certainly occurred in
tokens, which we meet with not only in such purity in the hills between Lake
the Pueblos but also among many other Superior and Lake Michigan that in the
362 5697
—
tribes are proved to have taken an impor- certain proof that the parti-
tant part in the erection of the earthworks cular localities were at some time occupied
that occur throughout Tennessee and the by members of the Shawnee group of the
neighbouring states on the lower tributaries Algonquin race, whose migrations have
of the Ohio. A
large number of such been going on in this region down to
mounds in this district have been erected and even post-Columbian times.
historic
for burial purposes, sometimes singly, but The Indians who checked the advance
generally in groups, and very often in of the Algonquins in a southerly direction
connection with larger earthworks and belonged, presumably, to the group
circumvallations, and the manner of inter- of the Muskokis, whose best-known
ment has so characteristic a stamp that in representatives were the Creeks and
it we find undoubtedly a racial peculiarity. Chickasaws. Although these Indian tribes
Whereas in other parts of the mound were the first to come in contact with
area the dead were frequently buried in a Europeans at the time of the discoveries
crouching position, like the mummies of the best part of De Soto's adventurous
South America, or in bone-heaps after expedition from Florida to the Mississippi
removal of the flesh, the mode of interment having been made through the territory
_ . practised here reminds one of Indians of the Muskoki race they —
^ " . greatly of that usual in Europe. have hitherto been more neglected by
^^ bottom and four side-walls research than the more northern tribes.
the T "be
of a hole in the earth were lined As descendants of this race have been
with stone slabs, and the corpse was
flat found only on the banks of the rivers
laid in lying full length on its back.
it, flowing into the Gulf of Mexico parallel to
Flat stones served to close the sarcophagus, the Mississippi, and as in this district
and, if there was any fear of the earth they formed a compact body unmingled
falling through the spaces between them, with foreign tribes down to the discovery
these spaces were often covered by a second of America, we must assume that they
layer of smaller slabs. Such graves are were less given to migration than most
repeatedly found, even without mounds of the other Indians. The land occupied
5698
AMERICAN RACES OF THE NORTH AND EAST
by them in the sixteenth century was leads us to infer that they had been a
presumably the ancient home of the race ; sedentary race for a very long time.
we may, perhaps, behold in them descen- Although the ground of the district they
dants of the earliest inhabitants of Eastern occupied did not afford them suitable
North America. In early times their material for massive buildings, yet they,
abodes near the Mississippi undoubtedly almost alone among the Indians of the
extended much further northward, and East, built stronger dwellings than could
possibly even further east so that
; be erected of purely vegetable materials.
there may be some truth in the tradition The most recent investigations
of the Lenapes that they drove the ^^^ excavations have proved
I a^ *B 'It
Muskokis from their more northern settle- _,. „. that some of the mounds that,
Their nouses ii
by reason ofx their .ailoor-like
, j.v
ments on the Mississippi.
The Muskokis were also by no means at layers of clay and the remains of bones
the low level of civilisation that, judging and ashes found in and beneath these,
by modern views, is usually attributed were pronounced by their first discoverers
to the earlier Indian population of the to be altar-mounds, in reality bore the
continent. They tilled the ground on houses of the Muskoki Indians.
the most extensive scale, and their agri- The ruins of these houses, which appear
cultural produce excited the admiration of here and there to have been round, but
De Soto's Spaniards. Their settlements generally square, show that these Indians
were called " towns " by the Spaniards, constructed their dwellings of a framework
and some of them contained a large of wooden posts, between which the ground-
number of inhabitants. They, too, took work for a stucco-like wall-plaster was
a large part in the erection of the artificial formed with cross-beams and interwoven
mounds, and the characteristics of their twigs and branches. The plaster was
work are speaking witnesses to the left rough outside, but inside it was
progress they had made. In the district smoothed and whitewashed, the as in
of the Muskokis are some of the archaic buildings of the Pueblo Indians.
p rac ica
largest mounds that the whole It was applied only to the side-walls,
Uses of the •
r -i j u -u
_ ^. , region of the mound-builders on which it seems to have reached
Earthworks '^ ,,
rather above the height of a man
, t,, ,
can boast.
,
the dwellings of the foremost members of the posts and by pHant staves, and
of the tribe, and formed a place of refuge covered with vegetable matter a remin- —
for the whole tribe when attacked by iscence of the leaf-hut that had been usual
—
enemies are not, like the smaller mounds, among most Indian races, and also in earlier
round or conical in form, but remind one times among the Muskokis. The bones
rather of the terraced erections on which and heaps of ashes in the mounds are
rose the temples and palaces of the civilised explained by the custom of consigning a
races of Central America. The De Soto man's house to the flames when he died.
mound, although it is not absolutely In Le Moyne's description the deceased
proved that it was erected by the Muskokis, seems unquestionably to have been
gives a fair idea of this type. buried outside the village circle, under a
The most imposing erection of this mound which, on account of its smallness,
kind is the Etowah mound in the we may perhaps regard as only the nucleus
south of Georgia, and it can be proved and beginning of the one to be erected.
that it was still inhabited by Muskoki But among the Muskokis the deceased
tribes at the beginning of the six- was generally buried in the
Peculiar
teenth century, being used as a palace house itself, and, as soon as
Burial
and fortress by their chiefs. As it is the fire had so far consumed
Customs
surrounded by a large number of smaller the walls that the building
mounds, which are enclosed by a kind of collapsed, the place was covered up
fortification, partly rampart and partly with earth. This peculiar mode of burial,
moat, we can form from this an idea of of which traces may likewise be found in
old Indian towns which agrees in so many historic times, characterises in its turn,
respects with Le Moyne's description that like the stonegraves of the Shawnees, an
a great degree of reUability may be ethnographic district, and enables us to
accredited to the latter. The Muskokis throw a ray of hght into the darkness that
had acquired a degree of civilisation that almost completely veils the earlier history
5699
;
struggle which must have attended the influence, but also in consequence of
5700
AMERICAN RACES OF THE NORTH AND EAST
continual fighting, the Cherokees in turn of the Cherokee district, and we must
proceeded to build artificial mounds, assume that the cultivation of tobacco
which once more form a special province, played an important part in the
agriculture of the whole
region. But the upper
valley of the Ohio furnishes
not only the most numer-
ous, but also, to judge from
their forms, the oldest
types of the Indian pipe,
and shows the uninter-
rupted course of its further
development so clearly that
we must suppose it to have
been the abode of a race
closely connected with the
history of the tobacco-pipe,
as the Cherokees were.
The mounds furnish the
most remarkable instances
of circumvallations of al-
most mathematical regu-
larity. But as these are not
exclusively Hmited to the
upper course of the Ohio, it
remains doubtful whether
the greater number of them
may not have been erected
by the earlier inhabitants
of the valley for protection
against the advance of the
Cherokees. but have been
restored by the latter, after
the conquest, to serve the
same purpose. Cherokee
graves certainly occur in
connection with many of
these groups of mounds and
,
Thisscene, like that on the opposite page, is drawn from life of the present day, and theV mav liavC taken thcm-
is yet in every sense worthy to be regarded as a scene from prehistoric America,
cpi^pc in ripveloninp" this
within the vast mound region, by their primitive architecture is of course diifi-
ethnographic peculiarities. Two things cult to ascertain. The migration of
are characteristic of the Cherokee the Cherokees through the valley of
mounds in the first place, the dead are
: the Ohio took place practically in pre-
buried in a lying position, but only in a Columbian times, but it had not yet
more or less perishable covering (bark or come to an end when the white man
stuffs), and generally in mounds that entered this district.
served as burial-places for large numbers ;
Only a little farther south, in the valley of
in the second place, pipes, ranging from the small river Tennessee, the agreement
the most archaic to almost modern forms, between the still existing groups of mounds
such as are peculiar to the Indians, occur and the position of the so-called " overhill
in these graves. Pipe-smoking is found in towns " of the Cherokees, as recorded by
the mound region far beyond the borders the earliest visitors, testifies that these
5701
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Indians, having once adopted the custom the races that the first European settlers
of mound-building, remained true to it found on American the Iroquois best
soil
even on their further migrations. represent the type that has erroneously
Yet another large branch seems to have been regarded as characteristic of the
been detached from the Iroquois race in whole Indian population of North America.
the Hurons, who expanded in a westerly In the main the Iroquois were still a
direction along the south bank of the race of hunters, and one that pursued its
River St. Lawrence as far as the lakes. human game with the same cruelty and
«,• , Whether this took place at a ruthlessness as its animal game. As they
Five ^T
..
Natioas of ^•
time prior to j.u
, j. •
south cannot be proved, but economy as it did with the Tupis and
is very probable; for whereas the " Five Caribs, although they constructed excellent
Nations " of the Iroquois and the Tus- canoes of the bark of trees, and possessed
caroras in the far south had so strong a a skill in damming up streams, for the
consciousness of belonging to the same purpose of catching the fish, that told of
stock that at the beginning of the eighteenth long experience. But their element was
century the latter returned to the north and hunting and war. In build the Iroquois
were received into the league as a sixth were superior to most of their neighbours,
nation, even in the time of the first settlers and to their comparatively wild life they
there existed between Iroquois and Hurons owe a development of their physical powers
a bitter enmity which had lasted from such as was no longer possible even at the
time immemorial, and which had a decided beginning of a civilised life.
influence on the settlement of the land by By their strength, and still more by
Europeans in colonial times. their bloodthirstiness and savage cruelty,
As regards civilisation, these Iroquois they had made themselves a terror to all
races were doubtless behind the Chero- their neighbours far and wide. That
kees in most respects. They also were racial relationship did not prevent them
agricultural and sedentary to a small from displaying their warlike
extent. When the first colonists ascended *T*J^* M M propensities is proved by the
and Dreaded ^, ^ 1 -u xi, j
struggles between them and
j.
the River St. Lawrence, Hochelaga was .
J roquois
decidedly a town-like settlement of per- ^-^^ Hurons, in which the
manent character. Nor are earthworks latter, despite their equality in numbers,
entirely wanting in this district that mark on account of their more peaceable dis-
the sites of old Indian settlements. position were forced to retreat farther and
But they do not bespeak the higher civi- farther before their enemies. But the war-
lisation of the more southern districts. like expeditions of the Iroquois extended
They are clearly defensive works, and by no means exclusively, perhaps not
therefore were probably not built until even mainly, westward. Their southern
the real Iroquois undertook the forcible neighbours had also to suffer severely
extension of their dominion over the terri- from their hostility, and in all probability
tory of their neighbours. But this cannot their invasions were the cause of the
have been long before the discovery of latest American migration, which we have
America, as these wars were still going on still to mention, namely, that of the Sioux-
when the first white men began to pene- Dakotas, which must probably have taken
trate from the coast into the interior. place only in the last few centuries
By " Iroquois," in the narrower sense, are before Columbus. It is a characteristic
meant only the tribes that sign of the superiority of the Iroquois in
" irihabited the most northern war that the only bands that pushed
a I'h * h't
* *
A
^ states of the Union and the southward seem to have been small in
neighbouring districts of numbers at any rate they were able only
;
Canada down to the time of early colonisa- to establish tribes of moderate size in
tion. These, too, seem to have occasionally the conquered districts, such as the
—
erected earthworks a proof that even Conestogas, and the Susquehannas on the
they did not lead an entirely unsettled banks of the river of the latter name.
life, although permanent dwellings and What has made the Iroquois specially
—
agriculture these bases of progress in famous is the league in which the five
civilisation —
play a smaller part with them
than with most of the other nations. Of all
tribes that remained in the old home com-
bined with one another for attack and
5702
„• .. .
HIAWATHA, THE GREAT ONONDAGA CHIEF
beeTsent o„"eart\To"feach man'^thrarts o "civiliL'd^S'''?. "^ ^
and taught his people the sciences o^f
^'^
^' "iraculous birth, was supposed to have
the value of Xize as food!
Christianity, Hiawatha exhorted the
na^atioTandm^^^^^
Indians to receive the word^n? l^^H '"^^ "^M '^"i'^'' '" America to preach
land Of the "Hereafter." Lon^feUows ir^.^V:^ h'a^^^t
From the drawing by
t^^llfcr
l^blr.^*^^^^^^^
6 f *•=iTfA^^
iiieraiure.
J. Walter WUson. R.1.
5703
—
the further the examination of Indian rested on so intelligent a basis as the league
tradition with regard to underlying facts of the Iroquois, nor were they destined
has been proceeded with, the more we to last so long or to exercise a similar
have been convinced that all that seemed . influence on the fortunes of the nation.
to appertain to the savage of an infinitely In the case of the Iroquois, the self-deny-
remote past, without history or record, in ing act of their chiefs had as its consequence
reality only applies to a few generations the maintenance of their supremacy among
back. According to the latest calculation, their neighbours until the time when the
the league was probably not made latter,even earlier than they themselves,
until about 1560 this assumption is
; sank into insignificance before the invasion
strengthened by the stories of dissensions of the white man.
between the various Iroquois nations, If the nations of the Iroquois league
which can scarcely belong to so remote a exhibit at the present day the highest
past as would result if the league was percentage of natives who have not suc-
created about 1430. -,. . cumbed to European civili-
J quois
If the alliance came about at so late a g^^JQj^ 1^^^ have been able to
Races at the -1.1 1 -,
^ ,
date, the earliest contact with the white reconcile themselves to it and
Present Da
man must have preceded it whether this
; become good citizens of a
was of a hostile or amicable kind, it must modem state, they owe this mainly to
have exercised a different influence on the the wise foresight of their forefathers,
origin of the idea of an alliance if the latter who, by forming the league, created the
had grown out of purely Indian con- first basis of a political order, from which
ditions. Too much honour has been done accrued to them power over their kind,
to the chiefs who formed the league by and respect and consideration on the part
the conception that has been spread of of the new immigrants.
its purposes. The idea that the league When the races of Iroquois stock began
was intended to do away generally with —
to expand southward a process which, as
the state of war, and bring about per- we have mentioned, belongs to the last
petual peace among all Indians, is in such few centuries before the discovery of
striking contradiction to the whole history America —they not only became involved
of the Iroquois race before and after it in with the Algonquins, but
hostilities
was made, that this interpretation may un- another race was also driven by them
hesitatingly be pronounced an erroneous from its abodes and forced to seek new
one. The exaggerated manner the Indians districts. This was the Sioux or Dakota
have of expressing themselves race, which certainly does not seem to
Hiawatha
in History aad
may certainly be credited have possessed in those times the import-
with having formulated it in ance that it afterwards acquired under the
Literature
such grandiloquent terms, government of the United States. That
although no more was intended by them the original home of these Indians, noted
than to put an end to the dissensions for the resistance they offered to settlers in
between the small Iroquois tribes, which the Far West in the course of the last
had previously been only too frequent. century, was also east of the AUeghanies
Even so, there still remains sufficient —
in Virginia and North Carolina is a dis-
in the League of the Five Nations to covery for which historical research has
assure to the Onondaga chief Hiawatha, to thank linguistics. For, in the language
5704
A SCENE FROM THE PRESENT THAT ILLUSTRAIHS THE PAST
A Pueblo hunter of Katzimo on the look-out*
5705
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
of the long-neglected Indians of the the Ohio valley. But they never seem to
central states, older forms of the same have settled permanently ; for Europeans
linguistic stock have been found whose who followed the Ohio downward came
later dialects are spoken in the vast region across no nations of this race on its banks.
of the Sioux and Dakotas west of the The names given by the Sioux themselves to
_. _. Mississippi. Even in the east the different groups reflect a long separa-
The Sioux ,, .f"^ r ,,
•
_ the nations oi this group were tion between the upper and lower part of
„ almost exclusively restricted the river. But when De Soto crossed the
to hunting; it seems that they American continent he came upon nations
never seriously took to agriculture or of the Sioux race only on the other side
possessed permanent dwelling-places. A of the Mississippi — a proof that the whole
race that grew so Uttle attached to the soil migration of the races from the eastern
as these restless hunters must naturally states to the borders of the region they
have retired more quickly before the still occupied in this century took
energetic advance of an enemy than the place in pre-Columbian times. Prob-
agricultural Algonquins and Cherokees. ably many other races peopled these
Whether they fought with the latter in vast regions when the first white men
the valley of the Ohio we cannot tell from set foot on American soil but what we
;
the obscure tradition of the Sioux tribes know of them is infinitely little.
regarding this migration from the east. Even what has been brought to light, by
The migration certainly belongs to a later laboriously following up scarcely percep-
period than the secession of the Cherokees tible traces, regarding the great races of
from the main race of the Iroquois. But the Algonquins, Muskokis, Iroquois, and
probably the courses of the two races came Sioux, is so scanty that it can scarcely be
but little in contact, as the Sioux, coming called their history. The extensive and
down the Big Sandy, reached the Ohio at a zealous researches that have
point lying on the south-west border of the
R^^u f ^"^y recently been begun on
territory over which the Cherokees expanded.
J.
. American soil will surely bring
As soon, however, as they were beyond to light many other memorials
reach of the hostility of the Iroquois the to which even historical attributes may
migration of the Sioux would also have be given; but unfortunately more than
assumed a slower pace, names of places and a few main features in the pre-history
rivers confirming the tradition that they of the American Indians science will
settled for some time in different parts of scarcely ever be able to trace.
5706
—
PRIMITIVE
AMERICA
BEFORE RACES
COLUMBUS OF AMERICA
iV
have been preserved through all the countless years, during which they had
vicissitudes of colonial wars down to the been split up into several tribes, and
eig ours
neighbours, so that we should finally
j^ggjj stations of the Aztecs. arrive at the result that in the whole mass
But whether any actual facts can be of races, from Alaska nearly to the Isthmus,
proved to underlie this tradition is we have the members of one great family,
doubtful. As regards the direction in which, however, seeing that its linguistic
which a higher civilisation spread, we disunion is so great as almost to deny all
find in the history of the Central American connection, must have been broken up
races facts that are difficult to reconcile into different branches in very early times.
with the Aztec tradition. But the idea Considering how firmly half-civilised
that an indistinct knowledge of a pre- races in particular cling to ever5rthing
historic relationship between the civilised connected with their religious ideas, often
race of the Aztecs and their less civilised even when the original conditions on
northern neighbours may be reflected in which the traditional institutions were
the legend must not be rejected offhand. fowided have long disappeared, it is
5709
EXAMPLES OF DRILL BOWS USED BY THE EARLY INHABITANTS OF AMERICA
certainly noteworthy that in this very original rites, serve their old purposes. If
respect remarkable points of agreement we compare these kivas with those that
have been discovered between the Indians occur in the remains of old Indian towns
of the North-west and the Pueblo races. that have long been in ruins, it appears that
In the whole region of the latter the sacred centuries of intercourse with the white man
hall in which a great part of the religious have made scarcely any change in the kiva.
ceremonies are held, and the others at In the inhabited pueblos, and even in
least prepared for, is the " estufa," many that in all probability have sunk
erroneously so called by the Spaniards into ruins without being trodden by
from its peculiar structure. The Pueblo European foot, the kiva is a rectangular
Indians call it kiva. In structure the kiva hall; on the other hand, the older the
differs very considerably from all the other ruins are the more exclusively do we find
buildings of the Pueblo Indians in the kivas of circular form, although all the
most important points. It always lies dwelling- rooms of the same ruins are
more or less away from the rooms of which J,
rectangular, and circular build-
a pueblo (village) is composed, and j,. irtgs occur only rarely through-
which are built close to and over one Built
^^^ *^^ Pueblo region in the form
another. It has the peculiarity that it is of towers. The circular kivas
at least partly, and often entirely, sunk undoubtedly represent an older type;
below the ground, and is only accessible for whereas the four-sided kivas are lined
by a ladder from an entrance built in the with stone, carefully coated with plaster,
middle of the roof. and neatly whitewashed up to the posts
The kiva is to the Indians of the pueblos forming the roof, the stone wall of the
what their meeting-house is to the eastern round kivas reaches to only three-fourths
Indians ; here the men assemble to discuss of the whole height. This is then com-
common affairs, but especially to prepare pleted by horizontal beams fitting into
for and to perform their religious rites. one another, which approach roundness
Even to-day there exist in the pueblos owing to the number of angles they form,
still inhabited by Indians a large number and are constructed exactly like those
of such underground meeting-houses, of the log-house type of building which
which, so far as missionary activity has the pioneers of the West learned from the
not yet done away with the remains of the Indians. This form of the kiva is certainly
5710
;
th T 'b
which almost all trace has That stone structures of the
the
been lost in their general life. in the almost inaccessible
cliff-dwellers,
Now, it is undoubtedly very remarkable caiions of the rivers that cut their way
that round and square houses, partly dug through the central plateau, are to be
in the ground, lined with stone slabs, and, regarded as dwellings of the same races
at least in some cases, only accessible by whose last now inhabit
remnants the
an opening in the roof, occur as dwellings pueblos of regions of Cibola
the and
among various Indian races of California Tusayan under the name of Zunis and
who are not particularly closely related Moquis, is beyond all doubt. The transi-
to the Pueblo Indians either linguistically tion between the architectural forms is
or ethnographically. Moreover, these same unmistakable, and the connection between
Californian races, like the Pueblo Indians, cliff-dwellings and houses, both on the
STONE ARROWHEADS, KNIVES AXES AND HAMMERS FROM DIFFERENT PARTS OF AMERICA
,
J.
movement, and to such an ex- perceive a further advance, while the
tent that the wanderers returned culmination of their artistic activity was
p'tt r'**'^
to parts they had left long ago reached at Sikyatki, not far from Moqui,
and occupied anew their partly ruined which was destroyed only shortly before
dwellings. Such occurrences are even the arrival of the Spaniards.
related in the traditions of the present We are not without an explanation of
Pueblo Indians of times certainly later this. As is commonly known, the races of
than their first meeting with the Spaniards the west in the latitude of the Californian
about the middle of the sixteenth century. peninsula are divided up by the nations in
But although the most northern evidences the lowest stage of civilisation. Not only
of the Pueblo civilisation, the cave-ruins, do the traces of a struggle with these occur
reveal an architectural development that in the south, in the cave-dwelling and the
is in no respect inferior to that displayed pueblos built on easily blockaded spurs
by the carefully built pueblos of the of the plateaus, but dwelling-places agree-
valleys of the Chaco and Chelley, yet the ing remarkably with the pueblos also
other antiquities show an earlier type in occur in the north as far as the Haidahs,
the north, and furnish evidence of a later a proof that the Pueblo races sought to
development that continued down to the protect themselves from the aggression of
time of those degenerate Pueblo Indians _ . hostile tribes. This first attack
apposing
whom we know to-day. ^y Athabascan or Tinne tribes
•
5713
363
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
certainly said to have supplied in a good must also be assumed in quantity.
year crops sufficient to last for two or For the height of development in culture
three years, did not sufEer any great often comes after the first traces of decline
number of people in one place, owing to in a nation, but it scarcely ever precedes the
the unfavourable climatic conditions. The culmination of the material development.
Pueblo region was certainly more thickly The petty jealousies and feuds of the
populated in earlier times than it is now, small communities with one another had
but when the Spaniards first entered it its a fateful influence on the history of the
period of prosperity seems to have been Pueblo Indians. Occasion for these was
over. For although the earliest accounts incessantly given by outward circum-
give the number of large and small towns —
stances in the limited areas fit for cultiva-
of the Pueblo Indians at seventy or tion, and the insufficient quantity of
seventy-one, these he exclusively in the moisture, the most careful use of which
southern and eastern parts of the Pueblo could alone make the soil productive and
region, the sameas are still partly peopled the land inhabitable. These outward
by the descendants of the old natives, while conditions had an influence on the develop-
the central and northern parts, in which ment of the Pueblo civilisation similar to
the most architecturally perfect buildings the influence they had on the inhabitants
have been found, seem to have been then, of Peru, who had to fight with the same
as they are to-day, forsaken and in ruins. climatic difficulties. We therefore not only
Although it is quite probable that find here, as we do there, surprisingly
many of the southern pueblos may not ingenious and extensive irrigation works,
have existed when the more northern ones but, from the analogy to Peruvian con-
were built and inhabited, the circumstance ditions and from the existing customs of
that the latter are also technically the most the present Pueblo races, we may also
perfect is a certain sign that the southern infer that a water law was carefully made
races already show the beginning of a and enforced among the old Pueblo peoples.
decline which, as it is displayed in quality, A continual struggle with drought is not
5714
THE MESA SUMMIT AT THE TOP OF THE OLD TRAIL
5715
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
indicated solely by the recollections of the northern —
settlements which almost en-
present Indians, or by the ruins of the old tirely lay protected, especially the
works, but dependence on the fertilising numerous and extensive cave-dwellings on
moisture plays so prominent a part in the the Rio Mancos and other northern
whole pronounced religious system of affluents of the San Juan —
were still
these races that we must suppose that the inhabited, and were adapted to form a
climatic conditions were little different barrier against marauding savages.
then from what they are now. According to European ideas we are
Excavations in the ruins have often much inclined to think cave-dwellers
proved the existence of old sources of water men at the lowest stage of culture. But
in or near them, and it has often required the cliff-dwellers of Western North America
only moderate labour in removing sand were not this at all. Sedentary, living
and rubbish to increase considerably the almost solely by agriculture, they had
yield of these springs. That a race whose already reached the stage of rearing
whole existence depended on obtaining water domestic animals, and as basket-
Culture
would have spared no pains to increase it makers, weavers, and potters
of the Cliff-
is testified beyond doubt by the discovery they were superior to almost
Dwellers
of artificial reservoirs and similar works. all neighbours.
their It was
In spite of this it would be wrong to see they who, the Mexicans, produced
like
in variations of the sources of a water those original feather-covered webs that
supply the only reason for the migrations excited the great astonishment of the
of the Pueblo races, because these migra- Europeans. Their pottery is quite equal,
tions were not from the dry districts to the in purity and simplicity of form and decora-
more favoured ones, but exactly the tion, to that of their neighbours.
—
reverse from the woodland farther and But there was one art in which the
farther into the arid sand-steppe. Pueblo Indians were superior to all the
If it were a mere hypothesis that the other races of the northern continent,
southward movement of the Pueblo —
including the Aztecs the Mayas, in part,
Indians was brought about from an —
excepted namely, the art of building. A
invasion of the Central Californian savages, race that was able to erect buildmgs in
there can scarcely be any doubt that caves like the Cliff Palace discovered by
the aggression of similar hostile races Gustaf Nordenskiold [see page 172 J in a
decided the further course of these side valley of the Mancos was no longer
migrations. And rude and primi-
if some of the tive ; it was a
magnificent ruins race which, if
of the valleys of not to be num-
the Chaco and bered among
Chelley are not civilised peoples,
well adapted for was at least well
a prolonged de- on the way to
fence, it only become one. Na-
proves that at ture herself had
the time of their certainly gone a
erection the pres- long way toward
sure of hostile making the in-
races had not habitants of this
yet begun. But district builders.
this easily
is In the sandstone
accounted for by that encloses the
assuming that narrow valleys
the buildings in of most of the
these valleys, waters of the
among which north-western
even cave-build- plateau-land in
ings are fairly layers of vary-
numerous, were ing resistance,
erected at a time the natives were
when the more weapons and utensils of the cliff-men offered a material
57^6
1
that can almost be shaped of itself. This probably learned from the long layers in
Stone broke down to a considerable the stone of their native valleys and —
extent, under the influence of atmospheric mortising the joints, an art not even known
forces, in pieces that required but little by the Maya architects of Chichen-Itza.
working to make them fit for house- Such skill naturally presupposes long
building. The rudest buildings sub- — practice in the art, but we cannot trace
—
structures such as are also to be seen its development. Besides the great
at the Clif^ Palace, were therefore assistance rendered by Nature, the migra-
probably constructed merely by piling tions of the Pueblo Indians undoubtedly
up stones selected for the purpose but ; furthered the development of their archi-
of these simplest beginnings only a tectural knowledge to an extraordinary
few traces have been preserved. The degree, by giving them occasion to use
material is for the most part the experience gained in the course of a
"*»* brought into the proper building period whenever they erected a
»"!i. 11
of the Pueblo 1 ° •- fi
, J.
Indians
shape with great care, the
, ' P
.
,
new settlement.
, ,
5718
v-
Sir
Underwood
A MORNING PROMENADE PLAZA "PUEBLO" OF MISHONGINOVI
5719
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
is by no means explained by a want of to the massive style in which they were
material. Thus there is no alternative built, a larger number of inhabitants
but to assume that the latter buildings would be always threatened at the
were erected at a time when the conditions same time, and therefore could easily
under which the Pueblo Indians lived combine for common defence.
had already changed for the worse. But as Furthermore, the older pueblos are far
even these buildings belong to a period more closely built even than those now
prior to the dicovery by the Spaniards, inhabited, so that outside they show an
we come once more to the
-J
unbroken wall several stories high, while
**
j^ . conclusion
. that the golden inside the stories rise in terraces from a
f D f
^g6 of the Pueblo races was central court. The entrance to this court
already past in the sixteenth was in most cases easily defended fur-;
century. Here we are led to the further ther, the ground floor had no entrances
inference that the migrations of the Pueblo opening on to the court, access being
Indians cannot have been spontaneous. obtained to the rooms of the occupants
Ideas drawn from modern warfare solely from the first platform, which could
have been applied too much to ancient be reached only by ladders.
times, and consequently the defensive The enemy were also educated by the
strength of the Pueblo towns has been continual struggle, and if the danger of
declared so inadequate that the purpose of their attacks and their numbers increased
defence has been positively denied them. in the same measure as the strength of the
But we have only to consider the offensive defenders diminished through unfavour-
and defensive weapons of the Pueblo able outward circumstances, the more
Indians, who were in any case considerably civilised and physically weaker Pueblo
superior to their opponents in social Indians would have eventually to yield
culture, to see at once that very primitive to the more robust and hardy sons of
means of defence must have sufficed. the desert. But this would take place
The war waged by the Indians upon one through circumstances mainly
another has always consisted in surprises ; *T*g* independent of the strength of
I
the idea of a siep;e, if only of days, or of the settlements. So at least
Peoples
the artificial cutting off of indispensable we must imagine the war that
resources, especially of water, which became gradually crushed out the civilisation
a dangerous weapon as the art of war of the Pueblo races over a considerable
advanced, need scarcely be seriously con- part of their ancient territory. They were
sidered in the wars to which the Pueblo surrounded north and east by Indian races
Indians were exposed. The attacks of the that belonged to the most savage and
enemy had for their object plunder that brutal of the whole continent. The
was of immediate use and easy to carry Apaches and Navajoes made themselves a
away, and, if possible, prisoners, especially terror even to the Anglo-Saxon pioneers
women and young persons. of the West in the present century, and
The enemy, moreover, would certainly they were nations of the same stocks that
have tried to damage the crops of the surrounded the Pueblo region on various
Pueblo Indians in these wars ; but to sides. Even when the Spaniards first
gather in the ripe fruit was a com- entered this region they heard of the deadly
paratively long business with the means enmity between the Pueblo Indians and
at the disposal of these primitive races, their neighbours, and were themselves
and so the plundering Apache or Navajo sympathetically drawn into the struggle.
^ . ... would let the Pueblo Indian Just as the peaceable inhabitants of the
Combmation
himself do this first he pre-
; pueblos were at continual war with the
for Defensive
ferred to fetch the stored-up flying robbers of the prairie in historic
Purposes
crop from the house rather times, so, too, did their forefathers fight
than the ripe crop from the field. But even with their enemies' forefathers for their
the pueblos that did not lie in the inacces- existence. From the circumstance that a
sible caves of the cafions or on the easily marked relationship exists in build and in
blockaded spurs or ledges at the edges of various customs between the Navajoes and
the plateau, but on the level ground of the Northern Pueblo Indians at the pre-
the river valleys or in the plains at the sent day some would draw the conclusion
foot of the tableland, afforded sufficient that the former are to be regarded, not
protection from a sudden attack. Owing so much as a tribe hostile to the Pueblo
^720
AMERICAN PEOPLES OF THE WEST
Indians, but rather as a kindred tribe that to south, we have left a whole group of
once itself occupied settlements in the —
Pueblo ruins and that the most southern
Pueblo region, and became a roving race of all —unnoticed. The attention of the
of robbers only through hostile oppression. first Spaniards who entered the Pueblo
Although the fact remains that the Pueblo region from Mexico was attracted by a
civilisation succumbed to the invasion of number of ruins that met their eye in the
hostile neighbours, these must certainly basis of the Gila River, the most southern
have been other than the Navajoes. It affluent of the Colorado. These were
is true that since the last century these remains of settlements which unmistakably
Navajoes have been known as a tribe that bear the character of the Pueblos, although
practises agriculture, though to a limited they constitute a group of themselves.
extent that possesses the largest numbers
; The Gila valley, however, did not
of horses and sheep of any Indians of the offer its inhabitants the suitable building
west and whose squaws weave the finest
; material that had made the Pueblo
coloured cloths of sheep's wool. But all Indians in the upper parts of the table-
these are acquirements that belong to land such excellent builders. The ruins
times subsequent to contact with the of this and the adjacent valleys are there-
white man. Moreover, the social progress fore distinguished by the material used,
This unique picture illustrates an extraordinary discovery near Phoenix, Arizona, where, in recent times, a petrified
forest was unearthed. It is supposed that the tree blocks, some of which are here shown, were chopped
thousands
of years ago by the prehistoric inhabitants of the country, becoming: petrified in the course of the long ages.
possibility that in the very earhest times itself furnishes no creatures as patterns
races lived even as far down as the region for such a form, the snake is often one
of Mexico who exhibited a racial relation- of the most dangerous enemies of man
ship to all the other nations inhabiting the in the legends of American races. Among
Pacific coast of North America. the Pueblo Indians it is also most closely
Besides wide-spread linguistic resem- connected with the deities, of fertilising
blaflces there is the recurrence of reUgious moisture, which to them is the essence of
idea.s and customs, which are too peculiar to all good. Besides these there are a
have been the result of simultaneous inde- whole number of other resemblances.
pendent development in .different places. We
may mention a parallel of a non-
The simultaneous worship Of the sun
. , religious character. Feathers, especially
and fire is certainly in itself an idea so those of the gorgeously coloured tropical
^^^rnilia-r to the primitive racei birds; or of the eagle as the symbol of
Primitive
Reli^'iottt
^^ ^^ ^Ses and all lands that power, have ..played an important part in
Ceremonies ^0^1
its occurrence in different the ornament of all primitive races.
tribes we could not infer that But only in very few parts of the earth has
they were related, even if it were not prac- the atte.mpt been made by primitive races
tised in like manner in other neighbour-' to imitate,, by weaving, the feather coat
ing tribes. On the other hand, it is very that adorns and protects the birds.
remarkable that Fpth among the Pueblo , The races of the Mexican Empire brought
.
Indians and among the civilised races of this art to a perfection that has never
Central America all the fires throughout since been attained, so that it is most
the tribe hatd to be extinguished at regular singular that of all the American races
inter\^als ;and that at one place only, only the Pueblo Indians practised a similar
amid elcCborate. religious
. ceremonies, art, although considerably more primitive,
priests appointed for the purpose, by . and that not. as a comparatively late
rubbing tvvo sticks, obtained the new jfire, acquirement, but where we first found
which was then spread from this one them, on the northern borders of their
centreby speedy messengers. Another territory, farthest from the Mexican
higlily characteristic religious idea common borders, dwelHng in the caves of the
to these same races that of the feathered
is Mancos valley, and producing their
snake. Apart from the fact that Nature characteristic archaic pottery.
5723
MOQUI INDIAN WOMEN BUILDING HOUSES
Among: the Moqui Indians of America the customs of the sexes with regard to the division of labour are different
from those generally prevailing among other tribes, the women performing heavy tasks, such as house-building,
while the men undertake the lighter household duties and engage in such occupations as blanket-weaving.
ml!)
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