316 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



money-lenders, recommended that the courts should 

 have absolute and unfettered discretion to review 

 the transactions of professional money-lenders, to 

 hear such cases in private, and to grant whatever 

 relief they deem equitable. It is also proposed that 

 money-lenders shall be registered, paying a fee of 

 5 a year. The discussion of foreign, colonial, and 

 Indian questions took up more of the time of Par- 

 liament than in any previous session. The Liberals 

 pursued the polemic advantage they derived from 

 attacking the forward policy in India, and attrib- 

 uting the frontier war to the reversal of their de- 

 cision to evacuate Chitral. On the charge of breach 

 of faith to the Afridis the Government was sustained 

 by 311 votes against 208. Samuel Smith's proposal 

 that the cost of the frontier war should be paid by 

 the BritMi (iovernment was met by the explanation 

 that the Indian Government had declined to accept 

 aid. being capable of dealing with the financial 

 situation and unwilling to admit what might lead 

 to further interference by Parliament. The debt 

 of the Kgypiinn Government to the British ex- 

 chequer of 798,802, being the advance made to 

 defray expenses of the Dongola expedition when the 

 Cai>-i"- ill- la 1'ette refused to allow the reserve fund 

 to be diverted for this purpose, was remitted by a 

 vote of 155 to 81 on the representation that the 

 Egyptian Government would be able to pay for the 

 Khartoum expedition. The Irish Nationalists were 

 iis disunited as ever and unable to settle the rival 

 claims of Mr. Dillon, Mr. Ilealy, and Mr. Redmond 

 to the mantle of Charles Stewart Parnell. In the 

 Liberal party a serious division arose over the ques- 

 tions of Imperial expansion, increased armaments, 

 and an aggressive foreign policy, which became ir- 

 reconcilable toward the end of the year when Lord* 

 Rosebery and Mr. Asquith praised the attitude of the 

 Government in the Fashoda dispute (see FRANCE), 

 and led to the resignation of the leadership in the 

 House of Commons by Sir William Harcourt in 

 December. Dissensions in the Conservative party 

 showed themselves earlier, owing chiefly to dissatis- 

 faction with Lord Salisbury's Chinese policy, and 

 the opposite views enunciated by him and Joseph 

 Chamberlain afforded to the Opposition opportuni- 

 ties for satirical comment. The firm position that 

 the Prime Minister took in regard to the Nile valley 

 went far toward healing the breach. 



Colonies and Dependencies. The estimated 

 area of the British Empire is 11,371,301 square 

 miles, with an aggregate population of 383,883,685. 

 Thi* includes British India, with an area of 1,068,- 

 314 square miles and 221,172,952 inhabitants, and 

 the feudatory states of India, with an area of 731,944 

 square miles and 66,050,479 inhabitants. The area 

 and estimated population of the British colonies 

 arc given in the following table : 



The protectorates and spheres of influence in 

 Africa have an area estimated at 2,120,000 square 

 miles, with 35,000,000 population, and in Asia there 

 are protectorates covering 120,400 square miles, 

 with 1,200,000 population, and about 10,000 inhab- 

 itants on the protected islands in the Pacific Ocean, 

 making the total area of protectorates 2,240,400 

 square miles and their population 36,210,000. 



Most of the inhabitants of Gibraltar are descend- 

 ants of the early Genoese settlers. The local reve- 

 nue in 1896 was 1,581,785 pesetas, and expenditure 

 1,508,705 pesetas. The military expenditure of the 

 Imperial Government was 261,338. The tonnage 

 of vessels entered was 4,334,582, of which 3,361.273 

 was British. The Governor is Gen. Sir Robert Bid- 

 dulph. 



The population of Malta is divided into 172,334 

 Maltese, 2,092 English, and 1,805 others. The reve- 

 nue for 1896 was 313,680, and expenditure 308,- 

 902. The imports were valued at 10,472,139, and 

 exports at 11,886,149. The number of vessels 

 entered was 3,786, of 3,293,200 tons ; cleared, 3,767, 

 of 3,291,148 tons. There are 7-J miles of railroad. 

 The Governor is Sir Arthur James Lyon Fremantle. 



Cyprus is a Turkish island in the Mediterranean 

 which was transferred to British administration by 

 a convention made with the Porte on June 4, 1878. 

 It has an area of 3,584 square miles and a popula- 

 tion of 209,286, consisting of 47,926 Mohammedans 

 and 161,360 Greek Catholics and others. The reve- 

 nue in 1897 was 188,658, and the expenditure 

 129,494. An annual tribute of 92,800 is paid to 

 the Porte. The British Government makes an an- 

 nual grant in aid, amounting in 1897 to 46,000. 

 The imports in 1896 were valued at 240,051 ; ex- 

 ports, 297,142. The vessels entered and cleared 

 had an aggregate tonnage of 887,997. There are 

 240 miles of telegraph lines. 



Aden, a peninsula on the coast of Arabia, is an 

 important coaling station on the route to India or 

 Australia. The imports in 1897 were 41,030,908 

 rupees by sea and 3,027,706 rupees by land ; the ex- 

 ports, consisting of coffee, gums, hides, and tobacco 

 from Arabia and the neighboring districts of Africa, 

 were 32,603,265 rupees by sea and 2,084,123 rupees 

 by land. The number of vessels entered was 1,256, 

 of 2,416,266 tons. Subordinated to Aden is the op- 

 posite Somali coast, also the African island of So- 

 kotra, having an area of 1.382 square miles and 12,- 

 000 population, and the KuriaMuria guano islands. 

 The Bahrein Islands, whose inhabitants number 

 about 25,000, largely engaged in the pearl fishery, 

 are in the Persian Gulf. The imports in 1895 were 

 valued at 387,010, and exports at 389.258. 



British North Borneo is a protectorate in which 

 tobacco similar to the Sumatra leaf is planted on a 

 large scale, also coffee and pepper, 1,000.000 acres 

 having been taken up by planters. The area is 

 31,106 square miles, with 175.000 inhabitants. The 

 revenue in 1896 was $411,699, and the expenditure 

 $300,559. Imports were valued at $1.882,188, and 

 exports at $2.473,753. The tobacco exports were 

 $1,372,277. The tonnage, nearly all of it British 

 that was entered in 1895 was 54,321 ; cleared, 5:i,r.!)li 

 tons. There is a military force of 350 natives under 

 English officers. A protectorate has been extended 

 over the sultanates of Brunei, area -3,000 square 

 miles, and Sarawak, area 50,000 square miles. The 

 Rajah of Sarawak is Sir Charles Johnson Brooko, 

 nephew of the Englishman who founded a state 

 there composed of Malays and the native DyaUs, 

 and other races. The population is about 300,000. 

 The revenue is 1896 was $508,771, and the expend- 

 iture $565,796. The imports were valued at $3,- 

 701,394, and exports at $3.557,868. The colony of 

 Labuan was placed in 1889 under the administra- 

 tion of the British North Borneo Company, the 



