BRITISH COLUMBIA. 



BULGARIA. 



105 



province were irritated at the action of the 

 Dominion Parliament in treating the Chinese 

 question as a Federal one, pure and simple. 

 Practically, the alleged grievance is one that 

 affects British Columbia only. In Ontario and 

 Quebec, for instance, there are but twenty-nine 

 Chinese out of a population of over three mill- 

 ions and a quarter. But, if the presence of the 

 Chinese is a source of discontent in British Co- 

 lumbia only, the exclusion of the Chinese from 

 that province might affect the whole Dominion, 

 and even the empire, in their foreign relations. 

 Huang Sic Chen, of the Chinese consulate at 

 San Francisco, in a letter to the Canadian Com- 

 missioners appointed to investigate the Chinese 

 question, urged that it was unjust in principle 

 for Europeans to insist upon the right of unre- 

 stricted commercial relations with China, and 

 at the same time enforce unequal restrictions 

 upon Chinese merchants and laborers. He 

 then went on to argue that the opium-traffic 

 fostered by the British Government consti- 

 tuted a grievance to China that sunk the im- 

 aginary complaints of British Columbians into 

 insignificance. Furthermore, one of the main 

 sources of revenue for the Canadian Pacific 

 Railway is expected to be the trade with China 

 and Japan, and this might be seriously affected 

 by the exclusion of the Chinese from British 

 Columbia. The legal grounds for treating the 

 Chinese question as a Federal one, there could 

 be no mistake about, as the Canadian Consti- 

 tution reserves to the Dominion Parliament 

 the right to legislate on all matters affecting 

 immigration, foreign nations, trade, and com- 

 merce, or Dominion or imperial interests. 

 Under any one of these heads the Chinese 

 question might be classed. The Legislature 

 of British Columbia passed a series of resolu- 

 tions denouncing the Chinese, and, when it be- 

 came apparent that the Provincial Legislature 

 had no power to do more than express its 

 opinion, it was expected by the anti-Chinese 

 party that the Dominion Parliament would 

 legislate in the spirit of the resolutions. The 

 Dominion Government, however, would not 

 admit that the question was a provincial one, 

 and appointed a commission to inquire into 

 the whole subject of Chinese immigration, in- 

 cluding its trade relations, and the social and 

 moral objections taken to it. The commis- 

 sioners were the Hon. J. A. Chapleau, Secre- 

 tary of State of Canada, and the Hon. Judge 

 Gray, of the Supreme Court of British Colum- 

 bia. The commission met at Victoria, B. C., 

 on Aug. 9, 1884. Evidence was collected not 

 only from British Columbia but from San Fran- 

 cisco, Washington, Australia, and China. The 

 commissioners themselves visited Nanaino, 

 New Westminster, and Yale, in British Co- 

 lumbia, and also San Francisco and Portland. 

 The commission presented a voluminous re- 

 port to Parliament this year, recommending 

 legislation regulating and restricting Chinese 

 immigration, but not excluding it. Mr. Chap- 

 leau concludes that Chinese labor is a most 



efficient aid in the development of a country, 

 and a great means to wealth ; that, as the Chi- 

 nese are a non-assimilable race, their presence 

 has its disadvantages ; that they lower wages, 

 and largely engross domestic service ; but that 

 a sufficient supply of white girls for domestic 

 service is not obtainable ; that the morality of 

 the Chinese is not lower than that of the cor- 

 responding classes of other nationalities ; that 

 their custom of living in quarters of their own, 

 " China-towns/ 1 is attended with evils, which, 

 however, might be dealt with by police super- 

 vision ; that they do not burden charities, nor 

 unduly swell the calendar of crime ; that they 

 show no desire to meddle with politics ; that 

 the Chinaman in Victoria, B. 0., and in Port- 

 land, where the hostility to him is not so great 

 as in San Francisco, is of a superior type to the 

 Chinaman of the latter place, and the inference 

 is that he improves according as he is treated 

 well. Judge Gray reports that he found three 

 phases of public opinion on the Chinese ques- 

 tion in British Columbia: first, of a well-mean- 

 ing but strongly prejudiced minority, whom 

 nothing but absolute exclusion will satisfy; 

 second, of an intelligent minority, who con- 

 ceive that no legislation whatever is necessary 

 that, as in all business transactions, the rule 

 of supply and demand will apply, and the 

 matter will regulate itself in the ordinary 

 course of events; third, of a large majority 

 who think that there should be a moderate 

 restriction based upon police, financial, and 

 sanitary principles, sustained and enforced by 

 stringent local regulations for cleanliness and 

 the preservation of health. 



A summary of the bill passed by the Federal 

 Parliament, based upon this report, will be 

 found in the article CANADA. 



BULGARIA, a principality in eastern Europe, 

 tributary to Turkey. The Constitution of 1879 

 vests the legislative authority in a single cham- 

 ber, called the National Assembly, elected by 

 universal suffrage for three years. In 1883 the 

 Assembly assented to the creation of a second 

 chamber. The executive power is vested in 

 the Prince, subject to the advice of a responsi- 

 ble ministry. In accordance with the Treaty 

 of Berlin, by which the principality was cre- 

 ated, Prince Alexander of Hesse, cousin of the 

 present Czar of Russia, born April 5, 1857, was 

 elected hereditary Prince by the Constituent 

 Assembly, April 29, 1879, and confirmed by the 

 Porte with the assent of the powers. In case 

 of a vacancy, the Constitution prescribes that 

 a Prince shall be elected in the same manner. 



Prince Alexander, at the instigation, it was 

 supposed, of his Russian advisers, suspended 

 the Constitution in May, 1881, after a breach 

 with the National or Radical party, which at 

 that time demanded the union of the two Bul- 

 garias, and objected to Russian dictation. In 

 1883 the anti-Russian feeling gained ground 

 after the formation of a nominally Radical min- 

 istry under the Russian General Soboleff. The 

 Conservatives united with the Liberals to re- 



