796 EEPOKT - 1887. 



desire to quarrel, but from the fault of the system which overlaps duties as well as 

 boundaries, and often gives one and the same duty to be performed by distinct 

 departments. Perhaps, in some instances, this friction may call out latent energy, 

 but it at least most successfully prevents departmental superiors from looking into 

 their own departmental affairs, and developing and perfecting the local administra- 

 tion, and keeping up to the times. 



With regard to international boundaries, too little attention is usually paid to 

 the changes which are caused by the advance of civilisation. For example, a 

 natural boundary may, in time, become merely conventional owing to development 

 of communications. 



At one time the Rhine was a natural boundary, but it has now become a channel 

 of communication. Again, the Zambesi is at present a natural boundary, com- 

 pletely separating distinct tribes ; the time may come when it also will be a 

 great channel of communication. The usual natural international boundaries are 

 broad or rapid rivers and arms of the sea, mountain ranges, deserts, and swamps ; 

 but the highlands and lowlands of a country are also naturally separated, as they 

 usually are inhabited by people of different uationalit}'. 



In Europe we find natural boundaries gradually losing their efficiency as 

 political boundaries. The Rhine, for example, throughout a great portion of its 

 length has ceased altogether to be a political boundary, for though it is still a 

 military line of great strength, each large town on either bank has its suburb on 

 the opposite side, and the population has become so assimilated that the river has 

 ceased to be a practical political line. Consequently the line of the Vosges is 

 deemed by many to have become the natural boundary between France and 

 Germany, on account of its coinciding with the linguistic barrier. But, again, 

 linguistic boundaries are no test,s of the limits of nationalities or national feel- 

 ing. When a foreign language is forced upon an unwilling people, they may for 

 many generations be acutely opposed to the nation whose language they have 

 adopted. On the Lower Danube, however, the physical, linguistic, and political 

 divisions all coincide, and the river has become neutralised and is a natural 

 boundaiy. 



In central Europe we find the highlands of the Alps forming the natm-al and 

 political boundary, though the people spealc three different languages ; but in these 

 cases the people probably will not be found to be of the same race as those speaking 

 the same language in the plains below. 



Again, in the Pyrenees we find a natural, political, and linguistic barrier coin- 

 ciding, assisted by the fact that the mountain people are a different race from those 

 in the plains to the north and south. 



In our own country we have a curious instance of language being no proof of 

 the nationality of the people, as the Iberians in AVales speak Celtic, and the Celts 

 in western Britain speak Anglo-Saxon. Again, in South Africa we have the people 

 of French extraction speaking Dutch and still feeling resentment to the government 

 on account of its having forced a foreign language upon them, although the British 

 have succeeded the Dutch. 



Among Asiatic and African territories boundaries are often very ill-defined 

 and uncertain. Frequently it happens that between two powerful states there is a 

 large tract of country which owes a double allegiance, paying tribute to each, and 

 yet in some respects remaining independent, probably consisting of lauds which 

 are easily ravaged and are comparatively speaking unprotected by nature. 



When we look into the subject of boundaries among pastoral tribes, we find 

 curious anomalies. The land belongs in many instances to the tribe and not to the 

 individual, and cannot be alienated. In the desert of Arabia a tribe in one part will 

 have an interest in the date palms or corn lands of a tribe in another part, and this 

 system is rather fostered than discountenanced, so that when evil befalls an indi- 

 vidual in one part he may go and live with his tribal friends elsewhere. It is a 

 knowledge of the intricate connections of these tribes and the topographic divisions 

 of their lands which admits of any control being kept over these warlike people. A 

 mistake arising out of a misunderstanding of this Bedouin system nearly led to a 

 disastrous result iu the Egyptian campaign of 1882, owing to an outlying branch 



