GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. (TiiE COLONIES.) 



459 



The Cobnies. The Gladstone ministry, which 

 took office with the professed objects of cur- 

 tailing the foreign and colonial responsibilities 

 of the British Government and retrenching 

 the expenditures incident to an imperial policy, 

 did far more than the Disraeli administration 

 to multiply colonial interests and expand the 

 empire, and left to its successors the task of 

 balancing a budget swelled to 100,000,000 by 

 its foreign adventures. Lord Derby, a con- 

 vinced advocate of the Liberal idea of colonial 

 independence, was, during his direction of the 

 ministry of colonial affairs, repeatedly driven 

 to reverse his decisions and assume new impe- 

 rial liabilities. The Colonial Council, composed 

 of the Agents-General of the Colonies, has 

 grown into a consultative body on which the 

 Colonial Office depends for advice in all im- 

 portant matters, and goes far to realize the idea 

 of imperial federation. The Liberal Cabinet 

 added to the empire the whole of the native 

 territories of South Africa, excepting the strip 

 on the west coast which they were compelled 

 to concede to Germany. The new British 

 possessions in this quarter include Bechuana- 

 land and the Kalihari region, Basutoland, Pon- 

 doland, Zululand, and Amatongaland. On the 

 west coast of Africa the whole lower Niger 

 valley was taken under British protection. In 

 the Pacific a colony started in North Borneo, 

 by a company of British adventurers, was first 

 taken under British protection. After allow- 

 ing Germany to establish herself in Papua and 

 neighboring islands and annexing 60,000 square 

 miles of the island to the British Empire, the 

 Government yielded to the clamor of the Aus- 

 tralians and raised the British flag over Huon 

 Gulf and the small islands directly opposite 

 the new German possessions, an act that in- 

 tensified the distrust and dislike of Germany 

 toward England, ami raised a new diplomatic 

 issue after the discomfitures of the Angra Pe- 

 quefla, the Cameroons, and the Fiji affairs. 

 The continuation of the railroad over the Bo- 

 Ian Pass completes the absorption of the Quet- 

 tah and Pishin districts and neighboring terri- 

 tories on the border of Afghanistan. During 

 the Russian dispute Port Hamilton, an island 

 belonging to Corea, was occupied without the 

 permission of the Corean or the Chinese Gov- 

 ernment, and has been permanently fitted up 

 as a naval coaling-station. It has an area of 

 5| square miles. The conquest and annexation 

 of independent Burmah was left to be accom- 

 plished by the succeeding ministry. 



The Tories were disappointed in the results 

 of the fair-trade agitation, and were unable to 

 make that question, on which their own party 

 was still divided, a prominent issue in the 

 electoral canvass. The latest protectionist 

 scheme is that of a tariff union with the colo- 

 nies, combining the idea of retaliation against 

 foreign tariffs and protection of British agri- 

 culture and manufactures, embraced in the 

 programme of fair trade, with that of a closer 

 political union with the colonies. Its advo- 



cates argue that, while foreign countries have 

 closed their doors against British products and 

 import less and less of them every year, the 

 colonies can, and, notwithstanding their own 

 protective tariffs, do consume increasing quan- 

 tities of British manufactured goods. They 

 can produce the food and raw materials re- 

 quired in Great Britain, and possess millions 

 of square miles of undeveloped soil for the em- 

 ployment of British emigrants who can no 

 longer find occupation at home. If reciprocity 

 with the colonies were established, it is thought 

 that the great and growing colonial trade 

 would reach a magnitude that would render 

 the commerce of Europe and the United States 

 almost indifferent to British manufacturers. 

 The total imports from British colonial pos- 

 sessions in 1883 amounted to 98,681,505; 

 from foreign countries, 328,210,074 ; the ex- 

 ports to British possessions, 90,400,921 ; to 

 foreign countries, 215,036,149. The exports 

 to foreign countries have decreased, since 1873, 

 24,820,909, and the exports of British and 

 Irish products to foreign countries 32,514,- 

 211. During this period the exports to British 

 colonies and possessions have increased 19,- 

 253,214, and of the increase 17,149,081 was 

 in British and Irish products. The largest 

 trade is with the great Australian, American, 

 and South African colonies, with a total popu- 

 lation of about 10,000,000, mainly of British 

 extraction. The imports from this group of 

 colonies amounted in 1883 to 49,003,425, the 

 exports to them to 45,701,882; the imports 

 from the minor colonies and possessions to 

 8,622,515, the exports to them to 10,557,- 

 174; the imports from India and Ceylon to 

 41,055,565, the exports to the latter to 34,- 

 141,865. Of 150,763,140 cwt. of grain im- 

 ported into Great Britain in 1883, India fur- 

 nished 11,248,988, Canada 5,228,066, and Aus- 

 tralasia 2,790,152, together 19.267,206 cwt., 

 or 12-1 per cent, of the total. Of 1,734,333,552 

 Ibs. of raw cotton, India sent 260,698,480 Ibs., 

 and the British West Indies and Guiana 462,- 

 784 Ibs., together 15 per cent, of the whole. 

 Of the 495,946,779 Ibs. of wool imported, 85'7 

 per cent, came from British possessions, Aus- 

 tralia supplying 351,685,606 Ibs., Cape Colony 

 48,870,981 Ibs., and India 24,822,130 Ibs. Of 

 the total imports of sugar, amounting to 20,- 

 366,627 cwt., 3,382,757 cwt., or 16'6 per 

 cent., came from the British East and West 

 Indies, Mauritius, and Natal. Of 6,609,942 

 loads of wood, 1,534,565, or 23'2 per cent., 

 came from British North America. Of 222,- 

 262,431 Ibs. of tea, India supplied 59,252,438, 

 or 21'1 per cent. 



The cost of the colonies to Great Britain is 

 about 2,000,000 a year, more than half of 

 which is expended on the nine general naval 

 and military stations. 



The extent, population, revenue, expendi- 

 ture, commerce, and navigation of the colo- 

 nies and dependencies of Great Britain, as far 

 as reported, are given in the following table: 



