380 



GEEAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



planters. At length, in October, negotiations 

 were opened at Washington for a treaty of 

 reciprocity between the United States and the 

 West India colonies. The aim was to induce 

 the United States Government to reduce 50 

 per cent, the duties on raw sugar in considera- 

 tion of the abolition of the import duties on 

 flour, lumber, corn, kerosene, lard, etc. The 

 import trade of the West India Islands, not only 

 in these peculiarly American products, but in 

 many manufactured articles, has long been 

 mainly with the United States, while the United 

 States long ago supplanted Great Britain as the 

 chief customer for West Indian sugar. The 

 American Government demanded a wider basis 

 for the treaty, and the exclusion of the recipro- 

 city arrangements from the most-favored-na- 

 tion clause in treaties with other nations. On 

 December 4 a draft of a treaty was forwarded 

 to Lord Granville. Sir John Lubbock esti- 

 mated that the Colonial Government would lose 

 $900,000 revenue to $12,500,000 sacrificed by 

 the United States. Yet the English Govern- 

 ment refused to entertain the proposal, declar- 

 ing that the concessions were more apparent 

 than real. 



Commercial Treaty with Mexico. After a long 

 interruption of diplomatic relations with Mexi- 

 co, they were resumed after protracted negotia- 

 tions, and a preliminary agreement for a treaty 

 of commerce was signed. Pending the conclu- 

 sion of a new treaty of commerce and naviga- 

 tion, this convention secures the most-favored- 

 nation treatment for six years. The formal 

 reopening of diplomatic intercourse was pro- 

 posed in a letter of Loro Granville's, dated 

 April 19, 1883, and the agreement was signed 

 Aug. 6, 1884. 



The Colonies. The British colonial posses- 

 sions cover about one seventh of the land-sur- 

 face of the globe. They are grouped in forty 

 administrative divisions, and are divided into 

 three general classes. The colonies, with rep- 

 resentative institutions, possess self-govern- 

 ment in all matters except such as are deemed 

 to be of imperial concern, over which the 

 Crown retains the right of veto. The colo- 

 nies possessing representative government are 

 controlled in their administrative affairs by 

 the Colonial Office. India and the Crown 

 colonies have no effective representative in- 

 stitutions, but are under the absolute authori- 

 ty of the British Government and its repre- 

 sentatives. The Crown colonies are Heligo- 

 land, Gibraltar, Malta, Falkland Islands, Gui- 

 ana, Trinidad, Ascension, Mauritius, St. He- 

 lena, Sierra Leone, Aden and Perim, Cyprus, 

 Hong-Kong, Labuan, the Straits Settlements, 

 the Feejee Islands, Rotuinah, Jamaica and 

 Turks Islands, Gambia, the Gold Coast, and 

 Lagos. Those possessing representative gov- 

 ernment are Western Australia, Natal, Ceylon, 

 and the Bahamas, Bermuda, Windward, and 

 Leeward islands. The other colonies control 

 their own legislative and administrative affairs. 

 The table on page 381 gives the area and 



population of the colonies, dependencies, and 

 military and naval stations composing the Brit- 

 ish colonial empire, with the statistics of com- 

 merce and finance in most of the colonies for 

 1882. 



The railroad mileage in operation in British 

 colonies at the end of 1882 was as follows : 



COLONIES. Miles. 



British India 10.144 



Canada 7,530 



Australia, etc 6,071 



Cape Colony 969 



Ceylon 178 



Natal 98* 



COLONIES. 



Mauritius 



Trinidad 



Jamaica 



Guiana 



Milei. 



92 

 4S| 

 25 

 21 



Total 25,172* 



The telegraph lines of India, Ceylon, Austral- 

 asia, and Cape Colony, had an aggregate length 

 of 55,953 miles. 



Annexations. After the declaration of a Ger- 

 man protectorate over the Cameroons and Lit- 

 tle Popo, Consul-General Hewitt proclaimed a 

 British protectorate, in August, over the lower 

 Niger basin, which act was confirmed by the 

 Government. At the Congo Conference, Eng- 

 land agreed to make the Niger an international 

 stream, but insisted on retaining the adminis- 

 tration of the police and supervision, to which 

 the powers finally acceded. The trade of the 

 Niger delta is entirely in English hands, as one 

 of the large French companies, recently estab- 

 lished, was in 1884 consolidated with the Eng- 

 lish company in possession of the field, while 

 the other has retired from the lower Niger. 

 In the river and its mouths British gunboats 

 have maintained order, the slave-trade has 

 been abated by British efforts, and the English 

 consul has concluded numerous treaties with 

 the tribes on the Niger and Binue. In South 

 Africa a protectorate was declared over Bechu- 

 analand (see CAPE COLONY), and in Novem- 

 ber the English Government yielded to the 

 desires of the Australians, to the extent of 

 proclaiming the annexation of the southern 

 shore of Papua (see PAPTTA). 



Imperial Federation. The movement for a fed- 

 eral union between Great Britain and the 

 colonies gains force among Englishmen and 

 colonists alike. A conference to consider the 

 question of imperial federation, which met in 

 London July 29, included many of the promi- 

 nent English statesmen of both political par- 

 ties, as well as representatives, official and non- 

 official, of the principal colonies. Englishmen 

 who look into the future feel that, if the colo- 

 nies separate from the mother-country, Great 

 Britain, with France and Germany, will fall 

 back into the second rank of nation*, while the 

 United States and Russia will take the lead in 

 power and importance. The difficulties in the 

 way of federation lie principally in the separa- 

 tion of imperial from domestic concerns. The 

 colonies are willing and desirous now to bear 

 their fair share of the cost of the defense of 

 the empire, and of all expenditures incurred 

 for the common benefit, provided that they 

 have a voice in determining questions of im- 

 perial policy. The colonists have felt aggrieved 

 at the selfish indifference shown by the Eng- 



