2l8 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIX. No. 480 



tinued until English ships controlled the carrying trade of the 

 world, and were not finally repealed until 1854. 



The meclianical devices of Watt, Arkn-right, and other great 

 inventors gave to England that supremacy in manufactures which 

 she has ever since retained. The French revolution a little later 

 aroused the fear of the statesmen, merchants, and capitalists of 

 England that the energy of the new republic would be as omnip- 

 otent in mercantile affairs as on the field of battle. They believed 

 that France might regain the colonies and with them the 

 commerce she had lost, and therefore England declared war 

 against Napoleon, which was carried on almost continuously 

 from 1793 to 1815. The shipping of the continent disappeared 

 or was captured by the fleets of England ; the colonies, and with 

 them the commerce, of Spain and Portugal, Holland and France, 

 passed to England ; and though she is still burdened with the 

 debt then created, she has never lost the commerce and carrying 

 trade she then obtained. 



The population of the colonies of Great Britain is about one- 

 sixth of the entire population of the globe ; and their territory 

 comprises eighty per cent of the available temperate regions of 

 the earth belonging to the Anglo-Saxon race. 



The commerce of England has given wealth to her bankers 

 and merchants, and employment to her artisans, ship-builders, 

 iron-workers, miners and manufacturers. Her exports of pro- 

 duce and manufactures have increased five hundred per cent in 

 fifty years, or from $356,000,000 in 1840 to $1,577,000,000 in 1890, 

 and are carried by her ships to every quarter of the globe. 

 Though dependent on America for her food supplies, these are 

 moved in British ships. The commerce of the world pays tribute 

 to the bankers of London and makes that city the money centre 

 of the world. Her best market is India, and from India comes 

 her largest imports; next to these from the United States. 



^ India. 



Egypt, Nineveh and Babylon in prehistoric times, Tyre and 

 Sidon and Greece under Alexander, Carthage and Rome under 

 the Caesars, Venice and Genoa in the middle ages, Portugal and 

 Holland, and lastly England, have drawn great stores of wealth 

 from India. 



From India science and literature were handed on to Europe, 

 and from India has come the religion of more than half of the 

 human race. For India the Spanish sailed westward ; for India 

 the Portuguese sailed eastward ; Portugal was the first to reach 

 the goal and obtain the prize. Greater riches have been drawn 

 from India than from the gold and silver mines of America, since 

 for all ages it has been the storehouse from which treasures were 

 derived. Portugal held India from about 1500 to 1600. Ships 

 brought the silks and precious stones of India to Lisbon, where 

 they were sold to the Dutch and distributed by them through 

 Europe. Spain conquered Portugal, and to avenge herself on 

 Holland excluded her merchants from Lisbon. Then they sailed 

 directly for India, dispossessed the Portuguese, and the commerce 

 of India was for the next hundred years controlled by Holland. 



Then for a short time India was divided between France and 

 England, but under Lord Clive and Warren Hastings the pos- 

 sessions of France passed to the East India company, and when 

 their charter expired it was made a province of the crown and 

 the Queen of England became Empress of India. 



Unlike Rome and Spain in their dealings with conquered 

 nations, England gives a fair exchange for all she takes, and 

 rules in India for India, giving a more stable and equitable gov- 

 ernment than India ever before enjoyed. 



To-day Tyre, Sidon, and Carthage are known only by their 

 ruins ; the glory of Greece and Rome, of Venice and Genoa, has 

 passed; the power of Spain and Portugal has waned, while India 

 is developing a social, moral, and political prosperity, with wealth 

 and commerce unknown in any former period of her history. 



Suez Canal. 



Much of the trade of India in ancient times passed through a 

 canal connecting the Red Sea with the Mediterranean, the remains 

 of which still exist, and efforts to reopen it have been made at 

 different times by Egypt without success. In 1856 de Lesseps 



obtained concessions from the khedive for the Suez Canal, and 

 commenced the work under the direction of the best engineers of 

 Europe. De Lesseps applied to English capitalists for help, but 

 they were deterred by Lord Palmerston, who said he " Would 

 oppose the work to the very end." Mr. Stevenson, the engineer, 

 supported Lord Palmerston, declaring that "The scheme was 

 impracticable, except at an expense too great to warrant any 

 expectation of returns." The emperor of France lent his name 

 to the company, and large sums of money were raised in France; 

 but the canal was constructed mainly by the money and laborers 

 of Egypt. It was opened in 1869, and immediately English 

 steamers began to sail through the canal, and the route around 

 the Cape of Good Hope was almost abandoned. Other flags 

 soon followed, and the commerce with India and the east, so long 

 lost to Venice and the ports of the Mediterranean, was revived. 



In 1875 Lord Beaconsfield purchased for England a control- 

 ling interest in the Suez Canal, and England now rules both 

 Egypt and the canal. The vessels of all the maritime nations of 

 the world are constantly passing through the canal, with the 

 single exception of those of the United States. 



Colonies. 



The commerce of the great nations of the world has been princi- 

 pally with their colonies or dependencies, and from this com- 

 merce they have derived their wealth. The mother country in 

 return for its real or nominal protection, and for its own aggran- 

 dizement, has restricted the commerce of her colonies. 



The European nations adopted four classes of restrictions: — • 



1. Restricting the exportation of goods from the colony except 

 to the mother country. 



2. Restricting the importation of goods from foreign countries 

 into the colonies. 



3. Restricting the exportation or importation of goods except 

 ing in ships of the mother country. 



4. Restricting the manufacture even of their own raw products 

 by the colonies. So strong was this feeling in England that even 

 Lord Chatham declared in Parliament, "The British colonies of 

 North America have no right to manufacture even a nail or a 

 horseshoe." 



Most of these restrictions have been removed, though the re- 

 sult still remains. 



The Phoenicians, Carthaginians, and Greeks had colonies on 

 the Mediterranean. The Romans conquered, and held as sub- 

 jects, nations and empires. Venice and Genoa had colonies on 

 the Black and Mediterranean seas. Spain and Portugal held as 

 dependencies all Central America, South America, Africa, India, 

 and the islands of the Paciflc. The Dutch Republic and France 

 planted colonies in India and America. England has colonies 

 in every part of the world, and on her dominion the sun never 

 sets. 



Germany, France, Portugal, and Russia, appreciating the neces- 

 sity of colonies for the extension of their commerce and for open- 

 ing new markets for their manufactures, are planting colonies, 

 France in Cochin China, Germany on the eastern and western 

 coasts of Africa and the islands of the Pacific. Portugal, aroused 

 to a new life, is determined to hold her remaining possessions in 

 Africa; Russia is steadily adding to her dominion in Asia, and 

 her railway from the Caspian Sea to Samarcand has opened 

 in western and a part of central Asia a market for her manufact- 

 ures and commerce hitherto supplied by Great Britain. 



United States. 



The United States is the only nation that has become great 

 without colonies and without foreign commerce and shipping. 

 Its vast extent of territory, where the east and west, the north 

 and south, are separated more widely than the colonies of Tyre 

 and Sidon or of Carthage and Rome from the mother countries; 

 the great variety of climate, the fertile soil, its varied occupa- 

 tions and manufactures, and a widely distributed population, 

 have created an enormous inland commerce and given that trade 

 and wealth which other countries find in commerce and exchange 

 with their colonies. Our population, wealth, internal commerce, 

 exports and imports have increased at a more rapid rate than 



