354 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



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 em- 

 ployers, 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 pro- 

 hibited the storing in populous places of oil giv- 

 ing 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 

 cfose test to 100, and prohibited the use of oil 

 having a lower flash point in lamps, w r hereas in 

 previous legislation Parliament had merely pre- 

 scribed 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 Min- 

 ister 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 pro- 

 vide the seats would consider it a vexatious in- 

 fringement 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 con- 

 sented, however, to its being sent to a commit- 

 tee, and on the recommendation of this com- 

 mittee 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 administra- 

 tion of the Crown the vast territories embraced in 

 the protectorate previously acquired and admin- 

 istered by the Royal Niger Company was opposed 

 by Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, and the finan- 

 cial provisions for reimbursing or rewarding the 

 chartered company were much criticised. The 

 nava) 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 administra- 

 tive 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 ac- 

 cord 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 

 Moiiey, condemned also British policy in the 

 Soudan and denounced as barbarous the desecra- 

 tion 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 w T as prorogued on Aug. 9. In the 

 Queen's speech the results of the peace conference 

 summoned by the Emperor of Russia were de- 

 scribed as falling short of its lofty aims, yet cal- 

 culated 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 neces- 

 sary in respect to the Nile valley after the suc- 

 cess 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 treat- 

 ment 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 popula- 

 tion 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 elec- 

 tive 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 legislat- 

 ing by orders in Council ; 9 have legislative coun- 

 cils 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 repre- 

 sentative 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- 



