Problems of Greater Britain

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British North America

Australia .

3 ih Africa

India

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INTBODUCTION

The British Empire, with its protectorates, and even without counting its less defined spheres of influence, has an area of some nine million square miles, or, very roughly speaking, of nearly three Europes ; revenues amounting to some two hundred and ten millions sterling ; and half the sea-borne commerce of the world. This empire, lying in all latitudes, produces every requirement of life and trade. We possess the greatest wheat granaries, wool markets, timber forests, and diamond fields of the world. In tea we are rapidly reaching the first place, and in coal, iron, and copper at present hold our own with all mankind. In sugar we stand well ; in tobacco India and Jamaica produce fine qualities which occupy the third place, after those of Havana and Manilla, and are beginning to compete with them ; and our coffee, though the produce is small in bulk by the side of that of Brazil and Java, is now the finest that there is. As regards food supply, it is certain that we might, if we pleased, be entirely independent of any foreign source. TThe states of Greater Britain thus scattered over the best portions of the globe vary infinitely in their forms of government, between the absolutism which prevails in India and the democracy of South Australia or Ontario.

The dominant force in bringing that empire together and in maintaining it as one body has been the eminence among the races of the world of our own well-mixed people. As to the ultimate result of their high deeds there can be no doubt. The greatest nations of the old world, apart from us, are limited in territory situate in temperate climes, and France and Germany and the others can hope to play but little part in the later politics of the next century, while the future seems to lie between our own people — in the present British Empire and in the United States, — and the Russians, who alone among the continental nations of Europe are in possession of unbounded regions of fertile lands, outside Europe, but in climates in which white men can work upon the soil. Towards the middle of the last century France appeared at one moment to be the colonising power of the future. Her Canada and Louisiana together gave £> B her the whole west-centre of North America, and India seemed already hers. But now the English-speaking people have conquered India, almost the whole of North America, the greater part of Polynesia with Australasia, and most of the opened parts of Africa. Their position, however, at the present is a mere index to their probable position in the future. The increase of the race, and the increase of that larger body who speak its tongue, are both keeping pace with the figures suggested in the dreams and speculations of half a century ago. More than a hundred million people speak English as their chief tongue, and vastly more than that number as one of two languages ; while four hundred millions of people are, more or less directly, under English rule.

In the future conflict of rivalry between our own and the Great-Russian people, we, have upon our side the advantage of combining in our race the best qualities of the foremost races of the old world, with the result that in our daughter-countries there are present courage, national integrity, steady good sense, and energy in work such as are perhaps unknown elsewhere. Considerable as is the power of assimilation of subject races possessed by the Russians, our own people seem, to judge from American and Australian experience, even better able to swallow up Germans, Scandinavians, and the other less numerous emigrants from Europe : and while we have in the point of bravery in fighting against obstacles no advantage over the Russians, who are our equals in that respect, we do possess in the greater hopefulness of our national character a point in our favour which is perhaps rather a cause than a result of the very different political circumstances under which the English and the Russians live. While it is probable that neither the democratic autocracy of Russia nor the constitutional and parliamentary democracy of Great and Greater Britain may be a permanent political form, it is possible that those institutions which we have invented for ourselves will develop more easily, and with less revolutionary shock, into the ultimate political forms of society than is the case with the institutions of our Russian rivals — the only rivals worth considering so far as our race-history goes, if we ignore for a moment the immediate dangers that grow out of the temporary military position of the United Kingdom itself.

A comparison between the three great growing powers, of which two are mainly Anglo-Saxon, shows that the British Empire exceeds the Russian Empire slightly in size and vastly in population, and has treble the area of the United States ; that its revenue is more than double that of Russia, and nearly three times that of the United States ; while its foreign trade greatly exceeds that of the American Union and vastly exceeds that of Russia, although no exact comparison between the British Empire and the United States in trade can be made, inasmuch as it is impossible accurately to distinguish, in all cases, trade between the Empire and foreign countries, from

INTRODUCTION 3

trade which is really carried on between various portions of the Empire itself and is similar to the local trade of the United States. In shipping the British Empire surpasses the whole world, but the manufactures of the United States have gained rapidly upon our own, and already perhaps equal ours, although it is difficult to make a precise comparison, on account of differences of classification. In coal production the British Empire still stands far before the United States, while Russia hardly appears upon the list, and we not only stand second in the extent of our coal measures for future use, but first as regards the possibilities of the supply of coal to shipping for the North Atlantic and for the whole of the Pacific. In the production of gold the British Empire and the United States stand upon a fairly equal footing, and each of them produces nearly double as much as Russia. In silver the United States possesses an overwhelming preponderance. In iron the British Empire and the United States are running a race in which the latter must in the long run win, while Russia is all behindhand. In wheat production our empire exceeds the production of the United States, and each of them produces nearly double as much wheat as Russia ; but in maize the United States is far ahead. In wool the British Empire stands first of the three, and has nearly double the production of Russia, which itself exceeds by more than a third that of the United States. In cattle the United States stands first, the British Empire second, and Russia third ; while in horses Russia stands first, the American Union second, and the British Empire third. In sheep, as in wool production, the British Empire is predominant, and Russia occupies the second place ; but in pigs the order is reversed. In railway mileage the United States stands altogether first, having more than double the mileage of the British Empire, and Russia is nowhere in the race. On the whole, then, we may consider that for the present the British Empire holds her own against the competition of her great daughter, although the United States is somewhat gaining on her. Both are leaving Russia far astern, and it is possible that the growth of Canada and Australia may enable the British Empire not only to continue to rival the United States, but even to reassert her supremacy in most points.

In spite of my having entered on this brief examination of the relative positions of the three great powers of the future, it will be remarked that in the course of some of my speculations I once more put out of sight, as I put out of sight in Greater Britain, the political separation that exists between England and the United States. In these introductory words I desire to call attention chiefly to the imperial position of our race as compared with the situation of the other peoples, and, although the official positions of the British Empire and of the United States may be so distinct as to be sometimes antagonistic, the peoples themselves are — not only in race and language, but in laws and religion and in many matters of feeling — essentially one.

i PROBLEMS OF GREATER BRITAIN

There is another point of view from which the present and future of the British Empire are full of interest : our ollshoots or daughter -countries are trying for us political and social experiments of every kind. While Germany with her Sta,te- Socialism and Switzerland with her Referendum are initiating experimental legislation which is full of interest, the action of our own colonies and of the United States in the social and political field lias this vastly greater importance for us — that it is taken among our people and under circumstances which more closely touch us here at home. One reason why little attempt has yet been made to promote the methodic discussion of colonial experiments is that there is a great deal of ignorance in the colonies about each other, and they are only now beginning to overcome an apparent reluctance to study one another's institutions. The very fact of the newness of the ground in this respect makes the comparative study of Australian and Canadian institutions one of the most interesting possible, and one specially and peculiarly important for ourselves. I

While, however, we have so much of which to b£ proud in the development of our tongue, our trade, our literature, and our institutions, there is a corresponding present and temporary weakness to which it will be necessary in due place to call attention. The danger in our path is that the enormous forces of European militarism may crush the old country and destroy the integrity of our Empire before the growth of the newer communities that it contains has made it too strong for the attack. It is conceivable that within the next few years Great Britain might be drawn into war, and receive in that war, at the hands of a coalition, a blow from which she would not recover, and one of the consequences of which would be the loss of Canada and of India, and the proclamation of Australian independence. Enormous as are our military resources for a prolonged conflict, they are inadequate to meet the unprecedented necessities of a sudden war. We import half our food ; we import the immense masses of raw material which are essential to our industry. The vulnerability of the United Kingdom has become greater with the extension of her trade, and, by the universal admission of the naval authorities, it would be either difficult or impossible to defend that trade against sudden attack by France, aided by another considerable naval power. Our enormous resources would be almost useless in the case of such a sudden attack, because we should not have time to call them forth.

Such is the one danger which threatens the fabric of that splendid Empire which I now attempt to describe.

I omliHi M-ii mil hi n X- I

NORTH AMERICA

Chapter I Newfoundland

The nearest to Great Britain of those of her colonies which Newfoundpossess responsible government is also the colony which claims land, to be the oldest English settlement in connection with the British Crown. Newfoundland has a history which has been full of interest ever since the first colonisation by Sir Humphrey Gilbert in 1583, when a number of ships sailed for St. John's with a view of peopling the island with inhabitants of all kinds. Although the project proved a failure, shortly after this time Newfoundland became the resting-place of English fishermen, who were joined by a resident Irish population. The Calvert family established themselves in one corner of the island ; but it was not until near the end of the seventeenth century that any attempt by England for the government of the settlement was made, while our rights were disputed by the French, and our young colony was continually harried by them. A division of rights in Newfoundland between Great Britain and France has unfortunately continued in some degree up to the present time, with evil consequences which 1 shall have presently to trace. Newfoundland now includes a large part of Labrador, which continental territory of the colony is three times as large as Newfoundland proper, but almost uninhabited, having but 4000 people in its vast solitudes. The colony itself being outside the confederation of the Canadian Dominion, has to be dealt with separately in that consideration of' the present position of the North American colonies upon which I now embark.

Not only is Newfoundland peculiar in her situation and con- Roman spicuous as a colony for her great age, but also worthy of notice Catholiin another marked respect. The colony is one in which the cism- Roman Catholic community is somewhat more numerous than are the members of the Church of England, and in which the bodies representing British Nonconformity or Scotch Presbyterianism are small, with the exception of the Wesleyan, lately merged in the united "Methodist Church of Canada." In Canada itself we shall find that the Roman Catholics more completely outnumber the Church of England, while in the Dominion the Methodists are, next after the Roman Catholics, the most numerous religious body. But in Canada the Presbyterians are very nearly as numerous as the Methodists, and far more numerous than the Churchmen ; moreover, the Roman Catholics predominate in one Province and the Protestants in the others, while in Newfoundland there is no such geographical separation. The effect of the religious position of Newfoundland was brought markedly before the world at the time when, the Irish population in Queensland having objected to receive Sir Henry Blake as Governor, and their view having been approved by the Queensland Government, it was pointed out that he during his governorship of Newfoundland had ruled successfully the most Irish of our colonies and the most Roman Catholic of our self-governing colonies, except Canada. The Irish, however, of Newfoundland are Newfoundland-born ; and the descendants of those who went thither in the seventeenth century, and of those who joined them in 1798, do not possess the fulness of Australian knowledge as to the doings of Dublin Castle officials, or the writings of "Terence M'Grath."

The Roman Catholic clergy and the educated portion of their flocks were anxious to adopt a conciliatory policy, and carefully abstained from rousing the feeling which might easily have been excited after the objection which had been previously taken by the Protestants to the nomination of a Roman Catholic I Jovernor. St. John's itself is the centre of the Roman Catholic population of Newfoundland, and out of 37,000 people in the two districts of St. John's, East and West, over 23,000 are Roman Catholics. As a result of the state of things which has been described, education in Newfoundland is strictly denominational ; its administration in chief is vested in three persons, who represent the three leading denominations — Roman ( latholic, Anglican, and Methodist ; and the schools of each Church are managed and inspected by the representatives of these bodies respectively. The education grants come out of the general revenue of the colony, and pass through the hands of the Superintendents of Education, nominated each of them by one of the three principal denominations. To them the inspection of schools is entirely confided, and the Boards of Education in the various districts are also nominated by the three Churches and are entrusted with the appropriation of the grants. There is no Government superintendence, and the whole power is left to the independent jurisdiction of the denominational superintendents and Boards. The system therefore is peculiar, and stands at the opposite pole from the school system of most of our other self-governing colonies. In practice the Roman Catholics manage their own schools exclusively themselves, and the Government grant goes to the Bishop, who can virtually dispose of it as he pleases. The Church of England and the Methodist Church to some extent act together, for in the outlying districts, distant from the towns, the Anglican and Methodist inspectors alternately inspect the schools of both denominations. There is in Newfoundland one Congregational chap, i NEWFOUNDLAND 9

school, and this I believe is inspected by the Church of England and the Methodist inspectors alternately, in the same way.

Denominational feeling, especially as between Protestant and Roman Catholic, runs high in Newfoundland. Elections often turn upon it, and have sometimes been accompanied by riot and loss of life. When a distinguished local politician, Sir Ambrose Shea — for a long time Speaker of the Assembly, who had been the delegate to Quebec at the time of the Confederation negotiations, and the delegate of the colony to Washington for the Fishery Treaty — was proposed by the Colonial Office for Governor, he being a Eoruan Catholic, all the Protestants in the island were against the nomination, and an exchange was effected between Sir Ambrose Shea and Mr. Henry Blake, at that time the Governor of Bahamas. The most curious feature of the hot party feeling which exists is that no great principle appears to be at stake in the controversy. Protestants are not anxious to upset the denominational system of education, and most of their leaders are pledged to it as strongly as are the Roman Catholics. The struggles which I have mentioned seem to take place upon the question of nominal ascendency, and a Roman Catholic majority appears, when elected, to pursue much the same policy as an administration supported by Protestant votes ; but as a fact the Prime Minister has been almost invariably Protestant. The Roman Catholic objection to the interference of a Protestant State in matters in any way connected with religion is in Newfoundland so strong that the colony has no system for the registration of births or deaths, and this owing, it is said, to the opposition of the priests, who would have to make the returns, and who do not desire to be under the control of the State ; but, on the other hand, the objection is not pressed against a religious census, which is very completely carried out, and which iorms to some extent the basis for the distribution of the education grant. If a registration system should be introduced, it will be because some amateur statisticians have lately been declaring St. John's to be the most unhealthy town in the civilised world, and stating that the death-rate over the whole city is 35 in the thousand — a statement which can only be effectually disproved by the introduction of a proper system of registration.

As is the case also in Canada, the revenue of the colony is Taxes. drawn chiefly from customs duties, more than half the receipts coming directly from customs, and, also as in Canada, so far as Dominion taxation is concerned, there is no direct taxation, although there are in some cases local rates, as, for example, the water-rate in the city of St. John's, which curiously enough is mentioned as a franchise base in the acts relating to the representation of the people. The customs tariff is mainly a revenue tariff, and there being few manufacturers other than those connected with the fishing interest, with the exception of some tanneries and small iron foundries, it has not at present the effect of incidental Protection except in the case of rope.

Whatever may ultimately be the case in the settled parts of the colony, the present distribution of the population upon the island, and the sparseness of population in the Labrador district of the colony, would make the collection of direct taxation cost more than the revenue to be collected. The whole population is barely 200,000 ; although the total area, with Labrador, is twice as great as that of the young colony of Victoria, or, without Labrador, half as great as Victoria. The area of the island is considerably larger than that of Ireland, and the area of the whole colony greatly larger than that of the United Kingdom. The most populous part is the peninsula of Avalon, — once the first Lord Baltimore's, — on which stands the city of St. John's. On several of the bays, not included in what is unhappily still known as the " French Shore," of which presently, there is a considerable population ; but otherwise the inhabitants of Newfound land are sparsely scattered, and a large part of the interior of the island can hardly be said to have been thoroughly explored. The collection of direct taxation under such circumstances would indeed be costly, and, moreover, the fishing people of the island are for the most part almost without money, and in the habit of carrying on their business transactions by the exchange of goods in kind. The colony, although old, is backward. The municipality of St. John's, now lately brought into existence, constitutes almost the first attempt at true local government in the country, and it is a municipality created with small powers, which, however, will probably be soon increased.

Labrador. Labrador is still Arctic and uncivilised. The small immigrant population is mainly French from the St. Lawrence and from the formerly French parts of Nova Scotia. Eider-duck, silverfox, and black-fox, with seals and fish, rather than wheat, are the products of Labrador ; but the climate is healthy, and in the long run Labrador may rival Xorway as a health resort. Newfound- The backward nature of even the island part of the colony land Fish- is illustrated by the prevalence of the truck system, or payment erie>. of wages in goods, and the condition of the fishermen is described

by the opponents of that system as abject servitude. The codfishing industry is carried on by the poor population, who catch the fish either from schooners on the banks that lie off the coast, or by means of traps and engines at the harbours. For the bank-fishing various kinds of bait have to be secured according to the season of the year — herring, squid, and caplin. The cod-fish are brought to establishments upon the coast where are erected what are known as " stands " ; they are cut open by a class of men called, in the trade, " cut-throats " ; the livers are set aside for the best oil, other portions of the entrails for cod oil for machinery, and the fish are split, salted, and left to dry. For all the processes, especially for catching the cod and bait, expensive gear is needed, and the cost is advanced to the fishermen by merchants upon the mortgage of the catch. The maintenance of the fishermen during the fishing season is provided chap. I NEWFOUNDLAND 11

for by the merchants, who supply them with clothing and flour at, it is said by opponents of the system, an exorbitant rate of interest. At the end of the fishing season the fishermen have sometimes to balance their accounts upon the wrong side, and some of them are said to go on year by year in debt, and seldom to be able to make a fresh start even on the profits of a good season. The merchants contend that they run great risks, and that frequently they get no return from the supply of boats and gear. They were till October 1889 strong in the House of Assembly, and they made out a fair case with regard to their profits. The fishing folk seemed to accept their situation as a part of their somewhat primitive existence, but in the recent elections made a considerable demonstration of their power and turned out the merchants. They spend the fishing months in hardship and peril upon the banks, and the cold months in inactivity ; and in the long and trying winters the distress is great. For some years past the Government has periodically relieved the wants of those who have been unable to support themselves, but a stand was lately made against the granting of Government relief to able-bodied men, to the destruction of the self-reliance and independence of the population, and in 1888 it was decided that relief from public funds should be confined to the infirm, the widows, and the orphans. Large sums have been from time to time expended upon relief works, and with a disastrous effect upon the finances of the colony, for road -making cannot be carried out to advantage in such a climate at the period of the year when distress is at its height.

In 1886 the expenditure upon the poor amounted to nearly a quarter of the total expenditure, and to more than a third of the total revenue apart from loans, but the state of things was somewhat better in 1887 and 1888. It has been charged against the system that members of the Assembly have obtained grants for the poor in the interior by reporting that the people in their districts were dying of starvation, and have used the grants as instruments of political corruption. Generally speaking the condition of the working population must be looked upon as backward. The societies of Foresters and Oddfellows, and the trade unions, which flourish as greatly in most of the colonies as at home, have little strength in Newfoundland, where they are represented only \>y a few benevolent societies among the Roman Catholics and by a shipwrights' union at St. John's. The colony is loyal to the imperial connection, in spite of a general belief that the Americans would extinguish French claims to which we submit. The Irish Roman Catholic inhabitants place the crown above the harp on the flag that floats upon St. Patrick's Hall, and the Protestant population when it wants to grumble at supposed disloyalty has to point to the drinking of the immortal memory of St. Patrick on one occasion on St. Patrick's Day before the toast of the Queen's health — a question of etiquette as to the respective precedence of deceased saints and living sovereigns on which much might be said on either side. Confederation with the Dominion of Canada seemed possible in 1888.

The Electors' Qualification Act, 1889, raised — by a peculiarity, confined to Newfoundland among all British colonies, unless we count the tiny dependency of Norfolk Island — the electoral age to twenty-five, as in Japan and Spain, and in other respects gave manhood suffrage This legislation was supposed to be connected with a local desire to prevent the younger people from casting their votes upon the side of federation. The fishermen of twenty-five are mostly married, while those of twenty -one to twenty -rive who are not yet married are generally intending emigrants. The confederation question has been settled in the negative, and Newfoundland continues to stand apart. The chief matter which was at issue in the discussion of federation was that of taritf', and the Newfoundlanders gave up the idea of joining the Dominion because they did not desire to replace the revenue tariff by a protective tariff. The merchants were against confederation, which would have disturbed their business ; but the lawyers and some of the politicians were in favour of the change, which would have given them a larger field. Great Britain has no reason to complain of Newfoundlanders standing out, for most of the imports (except food) to Newfoundland come from the United Kingdom — food coming to a considerable extent from Canada, although chiefly from the United Mates. The export trade in salt-fish is largely to Brazil. Spain, and Portugal, in which countries the fish is consumed in Lent ; but there is a considerable trade in the inferior classes to our West Indies, where the fish is eaten by the coloured people. Had confederation taken place Canadian capital would have come in to increase the 84 miles of Newfoundland railroads, and the side of the island nearest towards Nova Scotia would have been brought into a closer connection with the mainland, with the result of a development of Newfoundland's mineral resources. Confederation is not, however, now likely to be again mooted for some time, for that shrewd politician Sir William Whiteway appears, on the whole, now to have made up his mind against it. Although the island is regarded as a fishing island, and cod, seals, and lobsters are the staples of Newfoundland trade, there is excellent timber, great mineral wealth, and rich land which, if the Newfoundland summers were always as long and good as that of 1889, would support a considerable population. Some day the country, which is at present known only as having fisheries almost equal to those of the United States, will become celebrated for something besides cod-fish and icebergs, or "cods, dogs, and fogs," as the Bishop of Newfoundland put it at the Lambeth Conference ; and it should not be forgotten that the colony possesses coal.

The French The main difficulty of Newfoundland arises from its relations Shore. with the Government of France, and those of its peculiarities

which I have already mentioned are small as compared with the extraordinary anomaly of a British colony not possessing chap, i NEWFOUNDLAND 13

full rights over the whole of its own soil. By the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713 the struggles between England and France for the possession of the island were brought to an end, and there were reserved to France rights over a portion of the coast which is known as the French Shore. These rights were unfortunately confirmed by all the treaties of the eighteenth century, and by those of 1814 and 1815, although the strip of coast itself was varied in 1783. The people of the United States also possess by treaty the right of landing to dry fish and nets on a small strip of the Newfoundland shore. It is a pity that the termination of the great Napoleonic struggle was not made the occasion of a settlement of the extraordinarily dangerous questions then pending and still pending between the French and ourselves both in Newfoundland and in India ; questions out of which it is not too much to say that, but for an amount of tact upon both sides which cannot be permanently counted upon, war might arise at any time. Disputes have been kept from coming to a head in the case of Newfoundland hitherto, chiefly by the spirit of conciliation displayed by the officers of the British and French navies in command of the respective squadrons upon the station. Attempts have been made to bring our disputes with France to an end by conventions which have been many times agreed upon between the countries, but which have failed to be accepted by the Parliament of Newfoundland. The part of the coast, upon which French rights exist, has been divided by these conventions, but the provisions reserving to the French their establishments upon the portion of the coast which they actually occupy season by season for curing fish, and giving up the rest of the French Shore to settlement, were marked by the same weakness which was found in the Treaty of Utrecht itself.