vention of corruption, prohibiting the taking of secret commissions in trade or the professions, as by buying or selling agents who place orders, mechanics who recommend goods to their employers, clergymen who induce parents to send their children to certain schools, physicians who send their patients to particular apothecaries. A bill to raise the flash point of petroleum was rejected by a majority of 244 to 159, because the effect would be, and the probable object was, to shut out American kerosene from the British market for the benefit of the Russian monopoly and the Scotch refiners. In 1871 Parliament prohibited the storing in populous places of oil giving off an inflammable vapor at 100° F. In 1879 the law was changed and a new and more certain test was applied. Instead of testing by bringing a flame close to the surface of oil in an open vessel raised to the temperature of 100°, the new law prescribed the testing of oil in a closed vessel, and decreed that any oil flashing under 73° should be subject to storage regula tions. This was intended to be equivalent to the open test; but the bill that was offered in Parliament, after the subject had been considered by committees in previous sessions, raised the close test to 100°, and prohibited the use of oil having a lower flash point in lamps, whereas in previous legislation Parliament had merely prescribed regulations for the storage of oil in bulk. A bill to compel shopkeepers to provide seats behind the counter for their female assistants was introduced in the House of Commons by Sir John Lubbock and in the House of Lords by the Duke of Westminster, supported by the Bishop of Winchester, the subject having been under public discussion for several years. The bill was not approved by the Government, but it passed through the lower house with very little discussion. In the upper house the Prime Minister argued against the measure that it would be likely to injure rather than benefit the class that it was intended to help, that shopkeepers who might be induced by public opinion to provide the seats would consider it a vexatious infringement on their liberty, especially because it subjected their places of business to the visits of inspectors, and would be likely to dismiss their saleswomen and employ men. He consented, however, to its being sent to a committee, and on the recommendation of this committee it passed the House of Lords in the teeth of Lord Salisbury's protests by a vote of 73 to 28. The University of London act of 1898 was supplemented by some amendments. A bill for taking under the direct administration of the Crown the vast territories embraced in the protectorate previously acquired and administered by the Royal Niger Company was opposed by Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, and the financial provisions for reimbursing or rewarding the chartered company were much criticised. The naval works bill and the military works bill were warmly discussed from both the political and the financial point of view. A colonial loans bill enables colonies that are under the administrative control of the Colonial Office to wit, the Gold Coast, Lagos, the Niger Coast Protectorate, Sierra Leone, Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbadoes, St. Vincent, Mauritius, the Seychelles, the Malay states, and Cyprus-to raise with an imperial guarantee certain specified loans for particular purposes. The situation in South Africa was the subject of many attempts to extract information from Mr. Chamberlain, but as it grew graver the leaders of the Liberal party evinced practical accord with the demands of Sir Alfred Milner and the stand taken by the Government. Only Mr. Courtney, some of the advanced Radicals, and the Irish Nationalists dissented vigorously from Mr. Chamberlain's policy, though Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman expressed the view that there was no sufficient ground for war. The departure of the Government from the policy of the open door in China to the extent of adopting a sphere of influence coextensive with the Yangtse basin was the subject of strictures from Lord Charles Beresford as well as from the Radical politicians, who, under the lead of John Morley, condemned also British policy in the Soudan and denounced as barbarous the desecration and destruction of the Mahdi's tomb, which Lord Kitchener had ordered as a political and military measure. There were 98 bills that passed both houses. Parliament was prorogued on Aug. 9. In the Queen's speech the results of the peace conference summoned by the Emperor of Russia were described as falling short of its lofty aims, yet calculated to diminish the frequency of war by the institution of a permanent tribunal of arbitration and to mitigate its horrors by the extension of the Geneva convention. The Anglo-French African agreement was alluded to as having become necessary in respect to the Nile valley after the success of the Anglo-Egyptian army. The railroad agreement with Russia in respect to China was also mentioned. In regard to the South African question, it was declared that the position of British subjects in the South African Republic was inconsistent with the promises of equal treatment on which the grant of internal independence to that republic was founded, and that the unrest caused thereby was a constant source of danger to the peace and prosperity of British dominions in South Africa. Colonies and Dependencies.-The area of the British Empire was estimated in 1898 at 11,712,170 square miles, with an aggregate population of 385,280,140. This includes India and the feudatory states, having an area of 1,800,258 square miles and 287,223,431 population, and also protectorates and spheres of influence in Africa and Asia with an estimated area of 2,240,000 square miles and 36,210,000 population. The area and estimated population of British colonies are given in the table on the next page. The colonial empire of Great Britain comprises 40 distinct governments, of which 11 have elective assemblies and responsible government; 16 have a legislative council nominated by the Crown, with the power reserved to the Crown, save in the case of British Honduras, of legislating by orders in Council; 9 have legislative councils partly elected and partly appointed; and 4 are pure Crown colonies, in which the legislative power is delegated to the officer administering the government when measures are not dictated from the Colonial Office in London. The governor of a British colony or the governor in chief or governor general whose jurisdiction embraces several colonies is appointed during the pleasure of the Crown, but by custom the term of office is usually six years. Where there is no representative assembly the initiation of laws belongs in general to him, and in all cases he has the power to veto legislation, which is exercised when the rights of the Crown or imperial interests are affected injuriously. During the century the colonial empire has been increased sixfold in area and the united population is three and a third times greater. The trade of the mother country, which was insignificant in 1800, amounts to about £94,000,000 of imports and £87,000,000 of ex Gibraltar Malta and Gozo.. 26,203 177,745 41,910 3,391 443 248,710 5,853 430 1,766,100 250,000 50,000 Population. 2 117 100,000 250,000 4,116 5,185,990 frequented ports of call in the world. The use of English as the language of instruction in the schools, alternatively with Italian, was enacted about 1880. Since 1898 the British Government has endeavored to obtain the consent of the elected members of the Council of Government to a law prescribing the optional use of English or 512,342 Italian in judicial proceedings, and making English the sole language of the courts after a period of fifteen years. The elected members protested 828,500 against this measure as degrading the whole popu 377,856 lation and reducing the people to slavery, and 1,473,882 they feared that it would result in flooding the island with British immigrants and supplanting the present professional classes with Englishmen. After they had repeatedly refused to pass the 208,000 obnoxious ordinances, Mr. Chamberlain on March 285,315 15, 1899, enacted them by an order in Council. 34,277 Cyprus, a Turkish island in the Mediterranean 2,050 52,316 transferred to British administration by a con721,072 vention with the Porte concluded on June 4, 1878, 190,000 has an area of 3,584 square miles and a popula127,800 155,000 tion of 209,286. The British High Commissioner 268,957 is Sir William F. Haynes Smith. The principal 1,335,800 products are wheat, barley, cotton, carobs, lin1,169,434 493,704 seed, olives, silk, raisins, fruits, vegetables, silk, 358,224 cheese, wool, hides, and wine. The imports of merchandise in 1897 were £263,346 in value; ex121,798 ports, £264,802. The tonnage entered and cleared was 702,510. There are 240 miles of telegraphs. The revenue in 1898 was £190,525; expenditure, £132,130. The tribute paid to the Sublime Porte is £92,800 per annum. The British Government contributed £33,000 in aid of revenue in 1898. In 1899 Parliament in the colonial loans bill guaranteed a debt of £314,000 to be raised for the purpose of making a harbor at Famagusta, connecting it by 37 miles of railroad with Nicosia, the capital town, and building an irrigation reservoir not only sufficient to mitigate the effects of periodical droughts in the central grain-growing district, the Mesaoria, but to permit the introduction of many new products for which the quality of the soil is suitable. 161,924 171,719 743,214 21,657,782 ports. Excluding India, the revenue of the colonies has risen from £3,600,000 in 1850 to £54,000,000, and their indebtedness from £5,500,000 to £334,000,000, mostly held by English bondholders, and representing 36,000 miles of railroads, improved harbors, bridges, water supply and irrigation works, the reclamation of waste lands, coast-defense works, Government buildings, and other means of increased wealth and commerce. The fortress of Gibraltar and the island of Malta are the naval bases of Great Britain in the Mediterranean. The strength of Gibraltar is being increased by extending the mole and building an additional one and a deep harbor. The people living in the port are descendants of early Genoese settlers. The tonnage entered in 1897 was 4,371,126 tons, of which 3,331,477 tons were British. The British garrison in 1898 was 5,505 officers and men. The revenue for 1897 was 1,652,781 pesetas; expenditure, 1,531,784 pesetas. The military expenditure of the British Government was £275,016. The Governor is Gen. Sir Robert Biddulph. Malta lies 58 miles from the coast of Sicily, and is peopled by a mixed race, part Greek, speaking Italian. The Governor is Lieut.-Gen. Sir Francis Wallace Grenfell. The island produces cotton, potatoes, oranges, and figs. The imports for domestic consumption in 1897 were £824,439 in value, but the total imports were £10,895,639 in value; exports, £10,088,760. The number of vessels entered was 4,111, of 3,637,426 tons; cleared, 4,079, of 3,607,042 tons. There are 8 miles of railroad, 65 miles of telegraph, and 350 miles of telephones. The number of internal letters and postal cards that passed through the post office in 1897 was 1,641,255; newspapers, 669,107; of foreign letters, 1,975,870; postal cards, 118.576; newspapers, 1,022,437. The revenue in 1897 was £323,787; expenditure, £324,673. Malta has an excellent harbor, which is the base for repair, provisioning, and refitting the British fleet in the Mediterranean, and is one of the most Aden, a rocky peninsula on the Arabian coast, is a fortified harbor, coaling station, and naval base at the entrance of the Red Sea. The colony includes the island of Perim, and the protected island of Sokotra and the Kuria Muria Isles are dependencies. Aden has a large transit trade in Arabian and African products, such as coffee, gum, hides, skins, and tobacco. The imports in 1898 were 36,347,980 rupees by sea and 3,310,478 by land, besides 4,408,407 rupees of treasure; exports, 31,329,756 rupees by sea, 1,272,430 rupees by land, and 4,878,196 rupees of treasure. There were 1,079 vessels, of 2,123,339 tons, entered, besides 1,407 local craft, of 48,138 tons. Aden is administered under the direction of the Governor of Bombay. The Bahrein Islands, off the coast of Arabia, in the Persian Gulf, are ruled by a sheik under British protection. They have a population of 22,000, and export pearls worth £244,000 a year. Labuan is an island off the coast of Borneo, formerly a Crown colony, which in 1889 was placed under the administration of the North Borneo Company. British North Borneo, a protectorate placed under the jurisdiction of the same company by a royal charter, occupies territories ceded by the Sultan of Brunei and the Sultan of Sarawak. The area is 31,106 square miles and the population 175,000, including the Mohammedan settlers on the coast, the Chinese traders and workmen, and the aboriginal tribes of the forests and mountains. About 1,000,000 acres have been sold to 13 private individuals and companies for the growing of tobacco of the Sumatra variety, and to 30 others for coffee, cocoanuts, ramie, and gutta-percha. The total value of imports in 1897 was $1,887,498; of exports, $2,942,293. The revenue is derived from opium, spirits, an export duty on birds' nests, law-court fees, stamps, trading licenses, import duties, and sales of land. Besides the cultivated products, pearls, trepang, and other sea products are exported, and forest and jungle products, such as timber, sago, gums, pepper, gambier, and rattan. Timber is exported to China. The exports of leaf tobacco were $1,686,173 in 1897. The tonnage entered was 95,300; cleared, 94,168 tons, mostly British. There is a military force of 350 men, composed of natives with British officers. The revenue for 1897 was $436,062, besides $964 from land sales; expenditure, $341,124. Brunei, a protected country bordering on British Borneo, produces tobacco, etc., as far as cultivation has been introduced. The area is about 15,000 square miles, with 45,000 inhabitants. Sarawak, the other neighboring sultanate, has an area of 50,000 square miles, with 500,000 inhabitants, part Malays, part Dyaks, Kayans, and Muruts, with Chinese immigrants as the tradesmen and merchants. Coal is mined, and was exported in 1896 to the amount of $114,347. Gold, silver, antimony, quicksilver, and diamonds are found. Tobacco, sago, gambier, pepper, dried fish, rattan, gutta-percha, India rubber, camphor, beeswax, tea, coffee, and cutch are exported. The Tambunans, who are the most numerous and warlike tribe in the interior of North Borneo, as the result of the influence of Mat Salleh, the notorious rebel who submitted to the Government in 1898, petitioned the British North Borneo Company to annex their country, and accordingly a resident European officer was appointed in 1899 to take charge of the district, which has an area of 500 square miles and 25,000 inhabitants. Ceylon formerly produced excellent coffee, but now is one of the greatest tea-growing countries in the world. The planters are Englishmen, who use the latest mechanical appliances in curing and preparing tea for the European and American markets. The laborers on the plantations are Tamils, imported on time contracts from southern India. The total population in 1897 comprised 6,545 Europeans, 23,663 burghers or descendants from European settlers, 2,174,200 Singhalese, 10,980 Malays, 800 Veddahs, 205,588 Moors or Mohammedans of aboriginal races, 960,745 Tamils, and 8,862 others. The birth rate is 36.9, the death rate 23.2 per thousand. The number of agricultural laborers arriving in 1897 was 153,075; departures, 109,213. The public revenue for 1897 was 24,006,522 rupees; expenditure, 21,634,378 rupees. The revenue from customs was 5,973,785 rupees; from land sales, 498,970 rupees; from spirits, 2,812,324 rupees; from stamps, 2,075,876 rupees; from Government timber and salt, 1,553,110 rupees; from harbor dues, 971,429 rupees; from Government railroads, 7,318,683 rupees. The expenditure on civil establishment, etc., was 5,696,234 rupees; military contribution, including the cost of the volunteer force, 1,824,602 rupees, of which 1,702,165 rupees were paid over to the Imperial Government; pensions and retir ing allowances, 1,013,966 rupees; interest on debt, 2,860,295 rupees; public works, 2,872,921 rupees. The public debt amounted to £3,494,905, not including a rupee debt of 3,278,672 rupees, all of it incurred for public works. The strength of the British garrison in 1898 was 1,663; of the volunteer force, 1,074. The port of Colombo, which has 127,836 inhabitants, is protected by modern forts erected at the expense of the colony. Of a total area of 16,233,000 acres in the island, only 2,159,698 acres are tilled and 763,850 acres pasture. Rice and cereals were grown on 728,112 acres in 1897, coffee on 19,477 acres, tea on 404,574 acres, cinchona on 891 acres, cocoanuts on 878,909 acres, cinnamon on 42,289 acres, tobacco on 10,122 acres, and cacao on 32,354 acres. There were 4,007 horses and 1,289,536 cattle. The most important mineral product is plumbago, 584 mines of which were in operation in 1894. The total value of imports in 1897 was 98,027,474 rupees; of exports, 85,099,603 rupees. The exports of tea were valued at 46,931,190 rupees; cocoanuts and coir, 13,142,622 rupees; plumbago, 3,670,846 rupees; coffee, 1,472,346 rupees; areca nuts, 1,316,595 rupees; cinchona, 32,512 rupees. The export of cacao was 35,121 hundredweight. Disease among the coffee plants has reduced the export of coffee from 824,509 hundredweight in 1879 to 18,605 hundredweight in 1897; meanwhile that of tea has grown from 2,392,975 pounds in 1884 to 98,581,060 pounds in 1895, 110,095,193 pounds in 1896, and 114,466,318 pounds in 1897. The ton nage entered and cleared during 1897 was 6,704,747 tons. The merchant shipping of the colony in 1898 comprised 187 sailing vessels, of 13,458 tons, and 4 steamers, of 629 tons. There were tion. Land ordinances recently enacted denying the communal rights of the natives in wild lands by presuming that all waste land is the property of the Crown until the contrary is proved have been criticised as an enactment for taking the lands away from the natives in order that they may be disposed of to planters. The Government replies that the intention of the ordinances is to check and regulate the sales of forest and other lands, which speculators are in the habit of getting the natives to deed to them for a trifling consideration, and also to provide an easy way of settling disputes as to whether lands belonged to the Government or to native villages. The Ceylon teas, which have long been popular in Great Britain, now find a demand in the United States and Australasia and in Russia and Germany. The disturbance of exchange caused by the interference of the Indian Government with the currency checked the too rapid growth of the tea-planting industry and of other enterprises that were stimulated by the falling rupee, and has even led to the contraction of cultivation by the abandonment of poor fields, so that in Ceylon, as well as in India, there is no immediate prospect of an increase of crops. A graving dock to accommodate first-class battle ships was begun The complete. 297 miles of Government railroads in operation at Colombo in 1899, and will take five years to in 1897, and 215 miles more were authorized. The telegraphs had 1,733 miles of wire. Maldive Islands, west of Ceylon, are ruled by the native fandiari, or chief judge and priest, under British protection. The inhabitants, all Mohammedans, number 30,000, noted as sailors and traders. Expenditure has been authorized in Ceylon to open up new districts by building railroads and to carry out large schemes of irriga The Straits Settlements form a Crown colony embracing Singapore, Penang, with Province Wellesley and the Dingdings, and Malacca. The total population is 512,342, of whom 6,589 are Europeans and Americans, 213,073 Malays, 227,989 Chinese, and 53,927 natives of India. The revenue in 1897 was $4,320,207; expenditure, $4,429,693. The imports were $219,910,296 in value; exports, $193,136,377. The chief exports are tin for $27,524,804, spices for $9,206,289, gums for $8,139,283, gambier for $6,711,822, tapioca and sago for $4,816,486, rattan for $4,337,770, and copra for $3,616,721. Sir C. B. H. Mitchell, the Governor, is also High Commissioner for the federated Malay states of Perak, Selangor, Negri Sembilan, and Pahang, while Sir F. A. Swettenham is Resident General. Perak has an area of 10,000 square miles, a population of 214,254, a revenue in 1897 of $3,837,558, with $4,178,238 of expenditures; Selangor has an area of 3,500 square miles, a population of 81,592, a revenue of $3,688,390, with $3,567,845 of expenditures; Negri Sembilan, with Sungei Ujong, has an area of 3,000 square miles, a population of 65,219, a revenue of $572,546, with $607,313 of expenditures, and a debt of $503,119; Pahang has an area of 10,000 square miles, a population of 57,462, a revenue of $198,193, with $266,491 of expenditures, and a debt of $2,103,739. The Straits Settlements produce gambier, pepper, tapioca, rice, and sugar. These articles are also produced in the protected states, as well as Liberian coffee, and gold is found in several of them, 26,420 ounces having been exported from Pahang alone in 1897; but their chief source of prosperity and of revenue to the native governments and that of the Straits Settlements is the tin mines. The export of tin from Perak in 1897 was 20,702 tons; from Sungei Ujong and Jelebu, 3,522 tons; from Selangor, 20,606 tons. Perak and Selangor have in fifteen years built out of their surplus revenues 175 miles of railroad, at a cost of £850,000. The British Parliament in 1899 authorized a loan of £500,000, and the protected states will provide from their revenues £500,000 more to complete the railroad system by the construction of 200 miles more. The lines already built earn an average profit of 8 per cent. on the capital expenditure. Perak and Selangor have to a great extent been reorganized by English administrators, with a sound system of finance, justice, and administration. In Negri Sembilan the abuses of native misrule still exist, and in Pahang to a still greater extent. Since 1880 the revenue of the federated states has grown from $882,000 to $7,000,000. Hong-Kong, the chief naval and military station of Great Britain in the China seas and a free port, having the largest commerce of any place in the East, is a Crown colony. The present Governor is Sir Henry A. Blake. Besides the island of Hong-Kong, which was ceded to Great Britain in 1841, the opposite peninsula of Kaulung became British territory by a treaty made with China in 1861. On June 9, 1898, an area of nearly 400 square miles was leased to Great Britain for ninety-nine years, running back to Mirs Bay and Deep Bay, including those waters and the island of Lantao. The leased district in cludes the city of Kaulung, where the Chinese authorities continue to exercise jurisdiction in native matters, and contains numerous villages, having a population of about 100,000. Of the population of Hong-Kong in 1898 the estimated number of British and foreigners was 13,700, nearly half of them Portuguese, about one third British, and the rest Germans, Americans, French, Spanish, Italians, Turks, etc. The number of births in 1897 was 1,368; of deaths, 4,688. The Chinese immigration in 1897 was 115,207; emigration to China, 62,831. The British garrison numbers 2,800 officers and men. The colony contributed £476,869 toward imperial defense in 1897, including the cost of the volunteer artil lery, numbering 176 men. The British naval squadron on the China station consists of 34 men-of-war. The police force of Hong-Kong numbers 661 men, of whom 122 are British, 210 Sikhs, and 329 Chinese. The ordinary revenue for 1897 was $3,352,366; ordinary expenditure, $2,513,693. The revenue is derived from lands, taxes, licenses, and the opium monopoly. Hong-Kong is the port where the opium from India is received and shipped to the various ports of China, and is the distributing point for a great part of the European trade with the Chinese Empire. The tea trade and the silk trade are largely controlled by Hong-Kong merchants. Among the commercial staples of which it is the center are raw cotton, cotton manufactures, flour, salt, chinaware, oil, sandalwood, betel, live animals, ivory, and vegetables. The imports are estimated at £4,000,000 sterling, and exports at half that amount. The shipping registered in the colony in 1898 consisted of 25 sailing vessels, of 6,441 tons, and 38 steamers, of 20,705 tons. There were 4,974 vessels, of 6,063,640 tons, entered during 1897, not including 28,989 junks, of 1,718,739 tons. Wei-Hai-Wei, a naval harbor on the peninsula of Shantung, was on July 1, 1898, leased to Great Britain for so long a period as Russia shall remain in possession of Port Arthur. The lease includes the port and bay, with the island of Liu-Kung and all the islands in the bay, and a coast strip 10 miles wide around the bay. In a neutral zone beyond Great Britain has the right to station a military force and erect fortifications, but the jurisdiction remains Chinese. Parliament has voted £130,000 for fortifications, and has authorized the recruiting of a Chinese regiment at Wei-Hai-Wei. Ascension, an island off the coast of Africa, 700 miles northwest of St. Helena, is a coaling station and store depot for the British West African squadron and a sanitarium for officers and seamen debilitated by coast fever. St. Helena, 1,200 miles from the west coast of Africa, is a coaling station for vessels of the British navy and merchantmen going to the Cape of Good Hope. The tonnage entered and cleared in 1897 was 81,948 tons, almost all British. The revenue in 1898 was £9,152; expenditure, £12,349, partly extraordinary. Imports amounted to £62,985, nearly double as much as in the previous year, owing to an increase in the garrison; exports, £4,391. Tristan da Cunha, midway between the Cape of Good Hope and South America, is the home of shipwrecked British sailors and their families, numbering 64 persons in 1897. The Falkland Islands, 300 miles east of the Straits of Magellan, are peopled by British immigrants, who raise sheep and export wool and mutton to England. The number of horses in 1897 was 2,758; of cattle, 7,343; of sheep, 732,010. There are 2,325,000 acres of pasture land. The imports in 1897 were £63,286; exports, £125,123; revenue, £12,970; expenditure, £13,636. The number of vessels that called during the year was 42, of 54,144 tons. The Bermudas, a group of small islands in the North Atlantic, 580 miles from the coast of North Carolina, possess representative government. The Governor is Lieut.-Gen. G. Digby Barker. The number of marriages in 1897 was 124; of births, 572; of deaths, 385. The revenue for 1897 was £35,965; expenditure, £35,704. The British Government contributed £2,200. The public debt is £46,100. The value of imports was £323,148. The islands are a winter resort for Americans, and import most of the food supply from the |