SECTION 2._History for ready reference, Volume 6

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MAIN SUBJECT TITLE IN UPPER CASE

Subheading one.

Subheading two.

Subject text.

See CROSS REFERENCE ONE.

See also (in this volume),

NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1891-1900.

AUSTRALIA: Western Australia:

The Outlander problem in Australia.

"Here we have a problem in many respects similar to that which

has distracted South Africa. In several particulars the

resemblance is startlingly close. … Many of the elements of

disorder in the two continents are the same. In Western

Australia, as in the Transvaal, there is a large population of

mining residents, who complain that they are treated like

'helots'—to use Sir Alfred Milner's term—by the privileged

agricultural burghers. They urge that they are denied fair

representation, so that the burghers monopolise political

power; that the administration is in the hands of a knot of

politicians and place-hunters at Perth—I had almost written

Pretoria; that they have made the colony wealthy by their

enterprise and capital, only to see a large part of the fruits

of their industry drawn from them by excessive taxation, which

is expended mainly outside their own district; that they are

burdened by oppressive railway rates and denied access to the

port which is the natural outlet to the Goldfields, and so on.

The Kalgoorlie 'Uitlanders,' like the Johannesburgers, have

sent a petition to the Queen, signed by a larger number of

persons than those who forwarded the famous memorial which set

the ball rolling in South Africa and led to the Bloemfontein

Conference. The case is fully and temperately set forth in

this petition, and in the Manifesto of the Eastern Goldfields

Reform League of Western Australia, both of which documents

are in the last Bluebook relating to Australian Federation.

The same official compilation contains a statement to Mr.

Chamberlain from Dr. Paget Thurston, in which the parallel

between West Australia and the Transvaal is asserted with the

most uncompromising directness. 'We have here,' says the

writer, 'a Boer and Outlander question almost parallel to that

in the Transvaal. As an Outlander I appeal to you.' Dr.

Thurston adds: 'The old West Australians openly speak as if

the colony was theirs, and we were interlopers who have no

course open to us but to leave the colony if we are

dissatisfied.' This has a very familiar sound, and so has the

following: 'The great bulk of the taxation is levied through

duties on food and drink. As the Boer party includes all the

agricultural producers, and the Outlanders include the great

bulk of the consumers, this acts injuriously on us in two

ways. It puts a frightful load on the Outlander taxpayer, and

enables the Boer producer to command a very high price for his

food-stuffs. Owing to the limitation of the market by

excessive protection, many articles of common use reach famine

prices at times. In the three years I have been here, for

instance, potatoes have been £22 10s. a ton; apples, 2s. 6d. a

pound; oranges, 5s. a dozen; new-laid eggs, 4s. a dozen (at

the time of writing, 3s. 6d.). Fresh butter is practically

unobtainable for ten months in the year, and common country

wine (such as I used to buy for 3d. and 4d. a bottle in the

Canary Islands) is here 2s. a bottle. I ask you, Sir, whether

any other place in Her Majesty's Empire (not physically

inaccessible) can show prices one half as high during the past

three years?'

"Nor does the ominous kind of hint that preceded the Jameson

Raid fail to be uttered. Only three terminations, according to

Dr. Thurston, are possible if Sir John Forrest does not modify

his Krugerite policy towards the mining settlers:

'(1) Separation of the goldfields.—This would be only fair to

the goldfields; but thousands of Outlanders have settled in

the other parts of the colony, and this step would not redress

their wrongs. The practical result of this step would be

prosperity for the goldfields, but almost ruin for the rest of

the colony.

(2) Revolution.—I fear this is much more probable than is

generally thought. Unless a material change takes place

quickly there will be bloodshed in this colony.

(3) General depression, practically equivalent to bankruptcy.'

Separation, however, and the creation of a new colony, which

would include the Goldfields district and come down to the

sea, and would immediately join the Australian Federation, is

the remedy officially proposed by the representatives of the

Outlanders. …

{30}

"The Colonial Secretary has deferred his final answer to the

Goldfields Petition until the comments of the Perth Ministry

upon that document have been received and considered. But he

has sent a provisional reply to the representatives of the

petitioners in London. He sees the solution of the matter in

getting Western Australia somehow into the new Commonwealth.

In a communication to Mr. Walter Griffiths, one of the

Goldfields delegates, the Colonial Secretary says: 'The

decision of the Government of Western Australia to summon

Parliament immediately with the view to the passing of a

measure for the submission of the Commonwealth Bill to the

electors of the colony has removed the chief of the grievances

put forward in the petition and has opened up an early

prospect of obtaining the object which the petitioners had in

view. An answer will be returned to the petition after a

careful consideration of its terms and of the comments of the

Government of the colony thereon, but Mr. Chamberlain trusts

that before an answer can be returned the people of the colony

will have decided to join the Commonwealth, for the government of

which, in that event, it will be to deal with the grievances

alleged in the petition in so far as they are not exclusively

within the province of the Parliament and Government of

Western Australia.' In other words, let the Federation dispose

of the matter. But the delegates point out that this might not

remove their grievances. The Federal Parliament would have no

power to compel the dominant party in the Perth Assembly

either to redistribute seats fairly, or divide the colony, so

as to create 'Home Rule for the Rand.' True, we should have

washed our hands of the affair, and could tell the malcontent

Uitlanders that it was none of our business. But if Perth

still remained obstinate, and Coolgardie in consequence began

to carry out some of those ugly projects hinted at by Dr.

Thurston, it might become our business in an embarrassing

fashion. At any rate, it does not seem quite fair to the new

Commonwealth to start it in life with this grave question,

still unsettled, upon its hands."

_S. Low,

Enigmas of Empire

(Nineteenth Century, June, 1900)._

AUSTRALIA: New South Wales: A. D. 1894-1895.

Defeat of the Protectionist policy.

Adoption of a liberal tariff.

At the general elections of July, 1894, in New South Wales,

the tariff issue was sharply defined. "'Protection' was

inscribed on the banners of the ministerial party, led by the

then Premier, Sir George Dibbs, while the aggressive

opposition, led by Mr. Reid, … fought under the banner of

'free trade.' The Free Traders won the battle in that

election, as there were 63 Free Traders, 40 Protectionists,

and 22 labor members, mostly with free-trade leanings,

returned. On the reassembling of Parliament, Sir George Dibbs

was confronted with a large majority, and Mr. George H. Reid

was called to form a government on the lines suggested by the

issues of the campaign. The Council or 'upper house,'

consisting of Crown nominees for life, rejected the measures

suggested by Mr. Reid and passed by the Assembly by an

overwhelming majority, and Mr. Reid dissolved Parliament on

July 6, 1895, and appealed to the country. The election was

held on July 24, and again the issues, as set forth in the

measures, were fought out vigorously. The great leader of

protection, Sir George Dibbs, with several of his ablest

followers, was defeated, and the so-called Free Trade party

came back, much stronger than before. Thus, it was claimed

that the mandate of the people, declaring for free trade and

direct taxation, had been reaffirmed, and on the reassembling

of Parliament, on August 13, the same measure, as passed by

the Assembly and rejected by the Council, was again presented

and passed by the Assembly by a majority of 50 to 26, and

again went to the upper house. Again it was met with great

hostility, but the Government party in that chamber, having

been augmented by ten new appointments, the temper of the

house was softened and the bill was passed with some two

hundred and fifty amendments. As, the Assembly could only

accept some eighty of these without, yielding material points

… a conference was suggested, which, after several days of

discussion, agreed to a modified measure, embracing the

principle of free trade, as interpreted in this colony, and

direct taxation, and the new law goes into effect as above

stated, on January 1, 1896.

"It may be well here to remark that there are a few articles,

notably raw sugar, glucose, molasses, and treacle, upon which

the duty will be removed gradually, so as not to wantonly

disturb vested interests, but, with these exceptions, the

change is a very sweeping one."

_United States Consular Reports,

June, 1896, page 299._

AUSTRALIA: New South Wales: A. D. 1896.

Change in the government of Norfolk Island.

Its re-annexation to New South Wales.

A change in the government of Norfolk Island was proclaimed in

November, 1896, by the Governor of New South Wales, who came

to the island, acting under directions from the British

Colonial Office, and announced that "Her Majesty's Government

has decided to appoint a resident magistrate. The object

sought is to secure the impartial administration of justice,

while leaving the local and municipal affairs of the island to

be conducted by a council representing the inhabitants. In

consideration of the fact that the Norfolk Island settlement

originally formed part of the administrative colony of New

South Wales, and that the legal business of the island and the

registration of all land titles and transfers have uniformly

been conducted by the Government departments at Sydney, Her

Majesty's Government has decided to transfer the

administration of the island to the Government of New South

Wales. The Government of New South Wales has accepted the

charge and as soon as the necessary arrangements have been

completed Norfolk Island will be administered by the governor

of New South Wales in council." "It will thus be seen that the

Pitcairn community, which, for more than one hundred years,

has governed itself by its own laws, is now abolished and that

a new era has begun. The governor's legal right to annul the

constitution given by the Queen when the community emigrated

from Pitcairn was questioned. A deputation was appointed to

wait on the governor, but he refused

to discuss the subject further."

_United States Consular Reports,

May, 1897, page 37._

AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1897.

Conference of colonial premiers with

the British Colonial Secretary.

See (in this volume)

ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (JUNE-JULY).

[Image: Map of Australia and Islands of the Pacific.]

{31}

AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1900.

Federation of the Australian Colonies.

The steps by which the Union was accomplished.

Passage of the "Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act" by

the Imperial Parliament.

"The first indication of a plan for united action among the

colonies is to be found in a proposal of Earl Grey in 1850.

The main object of the proposal was to bring about uniformity

in colonial tariffs; but, though partially adopted, it came to

nothing. From 1850 to 1860 the project of federation was

discussed from time to time in several of the colonial

legislatures, and committees on the subject were appointed.

But there seems to have been little general interest in the

question, and up to 1860 all efforts in the direction of

federation met with complete failure. Shortly after, however,

a new form of united action, less ambitious but more likely of

success, was suggested and adopted. From 1863 to 1883

conferences of colonial ministers were held at various times

to discuss certain specified topics, with a view to

introducing identical proposals in the separate colonial

legislatures. Six of these conferences were held at Melbourne

and three at Sydney; and one also was held at Hobart in 1895,

though the period of the real activity of the conference

scheme practically closed in 1883. The scheme proved a

failure, because it was found impossible to carry out the

measures concerted in the conferences. But material events

were doing more than could any public agitation to draw

attention to the advantages of closer union. The colonies were

growing in population and wealth, railroads were building and

commerce was extending. The inconveniences of border customs

duties suggested attempts at something like commercial

reciprocity between two or more colonies. New political

problems also helped to arouse public interest. Heretofore

there had been little fear of foreign aggression and, hence,

no feeling of the need of united action for common defense;

nor had there been any thought of the extension of Australian

power and interests beyond the immediate boundaries of the

different colonies. But the period from 1880 to 1890 witnessed

a change in this respect. It was during this period that much

feeling was aroused against the influx of French criminals,

escaped from the penal settlements in New Caledonia. The

difficulties in regard to New Guinea belong also to this

decade. Suspicion of the designs of Germany upon that part of

the island of New Guinea nearest the Dutch boundary led to the

annexation of its eastern portion by the Queensland

government. This action was disavowed by the British

government under Gladstone, and the fears of the colonists

were ridiculed; but almost immediately after the northern half

of New Guinea was forcibly taken possession of by Germany. The

indignation of Australians was extreme, and the opinion was

freely expressed that the colonies would have to unite to

protect their own interests. Finally, this was the time of the

French designs on the New Hebrides Islands and of German

movements with reference to Samoa. These conditions, economic

and political, affected all the colonies more or less

intimately and resulted in the first real, though loose, form

of federal union. At the instigation of the Honorable James

Service, premier of Victoria, a convention met at Sydney,

November, 1883, composed of delegates from all the colonial

governments. This convention adopted a bill providing for the

establishment of a Federal Council, with power to deal with

certain specified subjects and with such other matters as

might be referred to it by two or more colonies. … New South

Wales and New Zealand refused to agree to the bill, but it was

adopted by the other colonies; and the Imperial Parliament, in

1885, passed an act permitting such a Council to be called

into existence at the request of any three colonies, to be

joined by other colonies as they saw fit. Meetings of the

Council took place in 1886, 1888, 1889 and 1891, but very

little was accomplished. That the Federal Council was a very

weak affair is obvious. … Meanwhile, interest in a more

adequate form of federation was growing. In 1890 Sir Henry

Parkes proposed a plan for federal union of a real and

vigorous sort. At his suggestion, a conference met at

Melbourne, February 6, 1890, to decide on the best method of

getting the question into definite shape for consideration. …

Provision was made … for the calling of a convention to draw

up a constitution. … In accordance with the decision of the

conference, delegates from the several colonies convened at

Sydney, March 2, 1891; and with the work of this convention

began the third and final stage in the federation movement.

The Sydney convention formulated a bill, embodying a draft of

a federal constitution, and then resolved that provision

should be made by the several parliaments to submit it to the

people in such manner as each colony should see fit. … But

there was no sufficient external pressure to bring about an

immediate discussion and an early settlement. … The result was

that nothing was done. … Meanwhile, federation leagues had

been organized in different colonies, and in 1893 delegates

from a number of these leagues met at Bendigo, Victoria. …

After adopting the bill of 1891 as a basis of discussion, the

Bendigo conference resolved to urge the colonial governments

to pass uniform enabling acts for a new convention—its members

to be elected by popular vote—to frame a constitution which

should be submitted to the people for approval. This proposal

met with general favor and resulted in the calling of a

meeting of the premiers of all the colonies at Hobart in

January, 1895. There an enabling bill was drafted which five

premiers agreed to lay before their respective parliaments. …

It took two years to get this machinery into working order. At

length, however, the requisite authority was granted by five

colonies: New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Western

Australia and Tasmania, Queensland and New Zealand declining

to participate. On March 22, 1897, the second constitutional

convention assembled at Adelaide. This convention drew up a

new federal constitution, based upon the draft of 1891.

Between May 5 and September 2 the constitution was discussed

in each of the parliaments. When the convention reassembled at

Sydney on March 2, as many as 75 amendments were reported as

suggested by the different colonies. Many were of an

insignificant character and many were practically identical.

The constitution and proposed amendments were discussed in two

sessions of the convention, which finally adjourned March 16,

1898, its work then being ready to submit to the people.

{32}

In June a popular vote resulted in the acceptance of the

constitution by Victoria, Tasmania, and South Australia; but

the failure of the parent colony, New South Wales, to adopt it

blocked all hope of federal union for the moment. Recently,

however, at a conference of colonial premiers certain

amendments demanded by New South Wales were agreed to in part,

and upon a second vote the constitution, as amended, was

accepted by that colony."

_W. G. Beach,

The Australian Federal Constitution

(Political Science Quarterly, December, 1899)._

In August, 1899, the draft of a Constitution thus agreed upon

was transmitted to England, with addresses from the provincial

legislatures, praying that it be passed into law by the

Imperial Parliament. Early in the following year delegates

from the several colonies were sent to England to discuss with

the Colonial Office certain questions that had arisen, and to

assist in procuring the passage by Parliament of the necessary

Act. Looked at from the Imperial standpoint, a number of

objections to the draft Constitution were found, but all of

them were finally waived excepting one. That one related to a

provision touching appeals from the High Court of the

Australian Commonwealth to the Queen in Council. As framed and

adopted in Australia, the provision in question was as

follows:

"74. No appeal shall be permitted to the Queen in Council in

any matter involving the interpretation of this Constitution

or of the Constitution of a State, unless the public interests

of some part of Her Majesty's Dominions, other than the

Commonwealth or a State, are involved. Except as provided in

this section, this Constitution shall not impair any right

which the Queen may be pleased to exercise, by virtue of Her

Royal Prerogative, to grant special leave of appeal from the

High Court to Her Majesty in Council. But The Parliament may

make laws limiting the matters in which such leave may be

asked."

This was objected to on several grounds, but mainly for the

reasons thus stated by Mr. Chamberlain: "Proposals are under

consideration for securing a permanent and effective

representation of the great Colonies on the Judicial

Committee, and for amalgamating the Judicial Committee with

the House of Lords, so as to constitute a Court of Appeal from

the whole British Empire. It would be very unfortunate if

Australia should choose this moment to take from the Imperial

Tribunal the cognizance of the class of cases of greatest

importance, and often of greatest difficulty. Article 74

proposes to withdraw from the Queen in Council matters

involving the interpretation of the Constitution. It is

precisely on questions of this kind that the Queen in Council

has been able to render most valuable service to the

administration of law in the Colonies, and questions of this

kind, which may sometimes involve a good deal of local

feeling, are the last that should be withdrawn from a Tribunal

of appeal with regard to which there could not be even a

suspicion of prepossession. Questions as to the constitution

of the Commonwealth or of a State may be such as to raise a

great deal of public excitement as to the definition of the

boundaries between the powers of the Commonwealth Parliament

and the powers of the State Parliaments. It can hardly be

satisfactory to the people of Australia that in such cases,

however important and far-reaching in their consequences, the

decision of the High Court should be absolutely final. Before

long the necessity for altering the Constitution in this

respect would be felt, and it is better that the Constitution

should be enacted in such a form as to render unnecessary the

somewhat elaborate proceedings which would be required to

amend it."

_Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications

(Papers by Command, April and May, 1900,

Australia—Cd. 124 and 158)._

In reply, the Australian delegates maintained that they had no

authority to amend, in any particular, the instrument which

the people of the several colonies had ratified by their

votes; but the Imperial authorities were inflexible, and the

article 74 was modified in the Act which passed Parliament, on

the 7th of July, 1900, "to constitute the Commonwealth of

Australia," as may be seen by reference to the text, published

elsewhere.

See (in this volume)

CONSTITUTION OF AUSTRALIA.

AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1900.

The question of the Federal Capital.

By the Constitution of the Commonwealth, it is required that

the seat of government "shall be determined by the Parliament,

and shall be within territory which shall have been granted to

or acquired by the Commonwealth, and shall be vested in and

belong to the Commonwealth, and shall be in the State of New

South Wales, and be distant not less than one hundred miles

from Sydney;" and "such territory shall contain an area of not

less than one hundred square miles." "New South Wales," says a

correspondent, writing from Sydney, "is naturally anxious to

get the question decided as quickly as possible; but Victoria

will equally be inclined to procrastinate, and the new

Parliament—which cannot be more comfortable than it will be

at Melbourne—will not be in a hurry to shift. The necessity

for a new and artificial capital arises entirely out of our

provincial jealousies, and it would have been a great saving

of initial expense and a great diminution of inconvenience if

we could have used one of the old capitals for a quarter of a

century." To remove preliminary difficulties and avoid delay,

the government of New South Wales appointed a commissioner to

visit and report on the most likely places. The report of this

commissioner, made early in October, "reduces the possible

positions to three—one near Bombala in the south-east corner

of the colony at the foot of the Australian Alps, one near

Yass on the line of the railway between Sydney and Melbourne,

and one near Orange on our western line. On the whole he gives

the preference to the first named."

AUSTRALIA: New South Wales: A. D. 1900.

Old-Age Pension Act.

A letter from Sydney, November 29, 1900, announced: "The

question of the establishment of an old age pension system,

similar to that now in successful operation in New Zealand

[see (in this volume) NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1899], has been

agitating New South Wales for several months, and to-day the

bill for that purpose became a law. There has been a desire on

the part of some members of the Legislature to hold over the

bill until the convening of the Federal Parliament, in the

hope that the measure would become universal throughout the

continent, but the majority, including the Premier, wished the

bill to be pushed through without loss of time. There is no

opposition worth mentioning. … At a mass meeting in favor of

the bill representatives of every political party, of every

Church and of every profession and trade in the community were

present.

{33}

The sentiment of the colony has never been more unanimous. …

The estimated cost of the scheme is something like £250,000 or

£300,000 a year, but this does not take into consideration the

amount which will be saved by doing away with the charitable

institutions now draining the pockets alike of the state and

of the individual. Private contributions alone amount to

£600,000 a year; all this will be saved, together with a part

of the Government's annual expenditure—about £400,000—for

public institutions. Not all pauper institutions can be

abolished, for many of the aged and friendless poor are ailing

or slightly feeble minded, and will continue to need medical

attention."

AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1900 (March).

New Zealand looking toward federation with the Australian

Commonwealth.

See (in this volume)

NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1900 (MARCH).

AUSTRALIA: West Australia: A. D. 1900 (August).

Vote to join the Commonwealth.

The question of union with the other colonies in the

Commonwealth, from which the West Australians had previously

held aloof, was submitted to them in August (women voting for

the first time), and decided affirmatively by 44,704 against

19,691. Adding the West Australian totals to the aggregate

vote at the decisive referendum in each of the other

federating colonies, the following is the reported result:

For federation. 422,647

Against federation. 161,024

Majority. 261,623

AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1900 (September-December).

The Queen's Proclamation of the Australian Commonwealth.

Contemplated visit of the Duke and Duchess of York

to open the first session of the Federal Parliament.

Appointment of Lord Hopetoun to be Governor-General.

The first Federal Cabinet.

On the 17th of September the following proclamation of the

Australian Commonwealth was issued by the Queen:

"Whereas by an Act of Parliament passed in the sixty-third and

sixty-fourth years of Our reign, intituled 'An Act to

constitute the Commonwealth of Australia,' it is enacted that

it shall be lawful for the Queen, with the advice of the Privy

Council, to declare by Proclamation that, on and after a day

therein appointed, not being later than one year after the

passing of this Act, the people of New South Wales, Victoria,

South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, and also, if Her

Majesty is satisfied that the people of Western Australia have

agreed thereto, of Western Australia, shall be united in a

Federal Commonwealth, under the name of the Commonwealth of

Australia. And whereas We are satisfied that the people of

Western Australia have agreed thereto accordingly. We

therefore, by and with the advice of Our Privy Council, have

thought fit to issue this Our Royal Proclamation, and We do

hereby declare that on and after the first day of January, one

thousand nine hundred and one, the people of New South Wales,

Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, Tasmania, and Western

Australia shall be united in a Federal Commonwealth under the

name of the Commonwealth of Australia. Given at Our Court at

Balmoral, this seventeenth day of September, in the year of

our Lord one thousand nine hundred, and in the sixty-fourth

year of Our reign. God save the Queen."

At the same time, the following announcement, which caused

extreme delight in Australia, was published officially from

the Colonial Office:

"Her Majesty the Queen has been graciously pleased to assent,

on the recommendation of the Marquis of Salisbury, to the

visit of their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of York

to the colonies of Australasia in the spring of next year. His

Royal Highness the Duke of York will be commissioned by her

Majesty to open the first Session of the Parliament of the

Australian Commonwealth in her name. Although the Queen

naturally shrinks from parting with her grandson for so long a

period, her Majesty fully recognizes the greatness of the

occasion which will bring her colonies of Australia into

federal union, and desires to give this special proof of her

interest in all that concerns the welfare of her Australian

subjects. Her Majesty at the same time wishes to signify her

sense of the loyalty and devotion which have prompted the

spontaneous aid so liberally offered by all the colonies in

the South African war, and of the splendid gallantry of her

colonial troops. Her Majesty's assent to this visit is, of

course, given on the assumption that at the time fixed for the

Duke of York's departure the circumstances are as generally

favourable as at present and that no national interests call

for his Royal Highness's presence in this country."

To manifest still further the interest taken by the British

government in the event, it was made known in October that

"when the Duke of York opens the new Commonwealth Parliament,

the guard of honour, it is directed, shall be so made up as to

be representative of every arm of the British Army, including

the Volunteers. To the Victoria and St. George's Rifles has

fallen the honour of being selected to represent the entire

Volunteer force of the country. A detachment of the regiment,

between 50 and 60 strong, will accordingly leave for Australia

in about a month and will be absent three or four months."

The honor of the appointment to be the first Governor-General

of the new Commonwealth fell to a Scottish nobleman, John

Adrian Louis Hope, seventh Earl of Hopetoun, who had been

Governor of Victoria from 1889 to 1895, and had held high

offices at home, including that of Lord Chamberlain in the

household of the Queen. Lord Hopetoun landed at Sydney on the

15th of December and received a great welcome. On the 30th,

his Cabinet was formed, and announced, as follows:

Mr. Barton, Prime Minister and Minister for External Affairs;

Mr. Deakin, Attorney-General;

Sir William Lyne, Minister for Home Affairs;

Sir George Turner, Treasurer;

Mr. Kingston, Minister of Trade and Commerce;

Mr. Dickson, Minister of Defence;

Sir John Forrest, Postmaster-General.

AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1901 (January).

Inauguration of the Federal Government.

The government of the Commonwealth was inaugurated with

splendid ceremonies on the first day of the New Year and the

New Century, when the Governor-General and the members of the

Federal Cabinet were sworn and assumed office. Two messages

from the British Secretary of State for the Colonies were

read, as follows:

{34}

"The Queen commands me to express through you to the people of

Australia her Majesty's heartfelt interest in the inauguration

of the Commonwealth, and her earnest wish that, under divine

Providence, it may ensure the increased prosperity and

well-being of her loyal and beloved subjects in Australia."

"Her Majesty's Government send cordial greetings to the

Commonwealth of Australia. They welcome her to her place among

the nations united under her Majesty's sovereignty, and

confidently anticipate for the new Federation a future of

ever-increasing prosperity and influence. They recognize in

the long-desired consummation of the hopes of patriotic

Australians a further step in the direction of the permanent

unity of the British Empire, and they are satisfied that the

wider powers and responsibilities henceforth secured to

Australia will give fresh opportunity for the display of that

generous loyalty and devotion to the Throne and Empire which

has always characterized the action in the past of its several

States."

AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1901 (May).

Opening of the first Parliament of the Commonwealth

by the heir to the British crown.

The programme of the Federal Government.

The Duke of Cornwall and York, heir to the British crown (but

not yet created Prince of Wales), sailed, with his wife, from

England in March, to be present at the opening of the first

Parliament of the federated Commonwealth of Australia, which

is arranged to take place early in May. He makes the voyage in

royal state, on a steamer specially fitted and converted for

the occasion into a royal yacht, with an escort of two

cruisers.

Preliminary to the election and meeting of Parliament, the new

federal government has much organizing work to do, and much

preparation of measures for Parliament to discuss. The

Premier, Mr. Barton, in a speech made on the 17th of January,

announced that the Customs were taken over from the several

States on January 1, and the defences and post-offices would

be transferred as soon as possible. " Probably the railways

would be acquired by the Commonwealth at an early date.

Whether the debts of the several States would be taken over

before the railways was a matter which had to be decided, and

was now engaging the attention of the Treasurer. The Ministry

would not consider the appointment of a Chief Justice of the

High Court until Parliament had established that tribunal." In

the same speech, the main features of the programme and policy

of the federal government were indicated. "The Commonwealth,"

said the Premier, "would have the exclusive power of imposing

Customs and excise duties, and it would, therefore, be

necessary to preserve the States' power of direct taxation.

There must be no direct taxation by the Commonwealth except

under very great pressure. Free trade under the Constitution

was practically impossible; there must be a very large Customs

revenue. … The policy of the Government would be protective, not

prohibitive, because it must be revenue-producing. No one

colony could lay claim to the adoption of its tariff, whether

high or low. The first tariff of Australia ought to be

considerate of existing industries. The policy of the

Government could be summed up in a dozen words. It would give

Australia a tariff that would be Australian. Regarding a

preferential duty on British goods, he would be glad to

reciprocate where possible, but the question would have to

receive very serious consideration before final action could

be taken. Among the legislation to be introduced at an early

date, Mr. Barton continued, were a Conciliation and

Arbitration Bill in labour disputes, and a Bill for a

transcontinental railway, which would be of great value from

the defence point of view. He was in favour of womanhood

suffrage. Legislation to exclude Asiatics would be taken in

hand as a matter of course."

----------AUSTRALIA: End--------

----------AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: Start--------

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:

Financial relations of the two countries

forming the dual Empire.

"The financial relations of Austria and Hungary fall under

three main heads. Firstly, the Quota, or proportionate

contribution to joint expenditure. The Quota is an integral

portion of the compact of 1867 [see—in volume 1—AUSTRIA: A. D.

1866-1867], but is revised every ten years. Failing an

agreement on the proportion to be paid by each half of the

monarchy, the Quota is fixed from year to year by the Emperor

till an agreement is arrived at. Secondly, the so-called

commercial 'Ausgleich' treaty, which provides for a customs

union, postal and telegraphic union, commercial equality of

citizens of one state in the other, identical excise duties,

&c. Thirdly, the Bank Union, by which Austria and Hungary have

a common Austro-Hungarian bank, and common paper money. The

Ausgleich and Bank Union are not essential parts of the 1867

compact; they are really only treaties renewable every ten

years, and if no agreement is come to, they simply lapse, and

each state makes its own arrangements, which seems very likely

to be the fate of the Ausgleich unless the present crisis can

be got over. The proceeds of the joint customs are applied

directly to common expenses, and only the difference is made

up by Quota. But if the Ausgleich falls through, the whole of

the joint expenditure will have to be settled by quota

payments. The joint expenditure goes almost wholly to the

up-keep of the army, navy, and consular and diplomatic

services. It amounts on an average to about 150 million

florins or 12½ million £, falling as low as 124½ million

florins in 1885 and rising to nearly 167 million in 1888. Of

this total the customs revenues have, in the last few years,

accounted for nearly a third, usually about 31 per cent. The

Quota was fixed in 1867 at 70 per cent. for Austria and 30 per

cent. for Hungary, based on a very rough calculation from the

yield of common taxation in the years 1860-1865, the last few

years preceding the restoration of Hungarian independence. On

the incorporation of the so-called Military Frontier in

Hungary, the Hungarian proportion was increased to 31.4.

Hitherto the Hungarians have resisted any attempt to increase

their quota. This 'non possumus' attitude has provoked great

resentment in Austria, especially when it is compared with the

self-complacent tone with which the Magyars dwell on the enormous

progress made by Hungary since 1867. That progress is

indubitable. Hungary has not only developed as an agricultural

state, but is in a very fair way of becoming an industrial and

manufacturing state as well. …

{35}

"On all these grounds the Austrians declare that they can no

longer go on paying the old Quota of 68.6 per cent. The

Hungarians admit the great progress made by Hungary, but with

some qualifications. In spite of the growth of Budapest,

Fiume, and a few other towns, Hungary is still, on the whole,

very backward when compared with Austria. The total volume of

her manufactures is very small, in spite of the rapid increase

of recent years. Hungary is still, to all intents and

purposes, an agricultural country, and as such, has suffered

largely from the fall in prices."

_L. S. Amery,

Austro-Hungarian Financial Relations

(Economic Journal, September, 1898)._

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1894-1895.

The Hungarian Ecclesiastical Laws.

Conflict with the Church.

Resignation of Count Kalnoky.

In the last month of 1894 royal assent was given to three

bills, known as the Ecclesiastical Laws, which marked an

extraordinary departure from the old subserviency of the State

to the Church. The first was a civil marriage law, which made

civil marriage compulsory, leaving religious ceremonies

optional with the parties, and which modified the law of

divorce; the second annulled a former law by which the sons of

mixed marriages were required to follow the father's religion,

and the daughters to follow that of the mother; the third

established an uniform State registration of births, deaths

and marriages, in place of a former registration of different

creeds, and legalized marriages between Christians and Jews

without change of faith. These very radical measures, after

passing the lower house of the Hungarian legislature, were

carried with great difficulty through the aristocratic and

clerical upper house, and only by a strong pressure of

influence from the emperor-king himself. They were exceedingly

obnoxious to the Church, and the Papal Nuncio became active in

a hostility which the Hungarian premier, Baron Banffy, deemed

offensive to the State. He called upon the Imperial Minister

of Foreign Affairs, Count Kalnoky, to address a complaint on

the subject to the Vatican. This led to disagreements between

the two ministers which the Emperor strove without success to

reconcile, and Count Kalnoky, in the end, was forced to retire

from office. The Pope was requested to recall the offending

Nuncio, and declined to do so.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1895-1896.

Race-jealousies and conflicts.

The position of Bohemia in the part of the dual Empire

called Austria.

Anti-Semitic agitation in Vienna.

Austrian Ministry of Count Badeni.

Enlarged parliamentary franchise.

In the constitutional reconstruction of the Empire after the

war of 1866, almost everything was conceded to the Magyars of

Hungary, who acquired independence in matters of internal

administration, and ascendancy over the other races subject to

the Hungarian crown. "On the other hand, absolute equality was

established between the different countries that are not

connected with Hungary. No greater privileges were granted to

an ancient historical kingdom such as Bohemia than were given,

for instance, to the small Alpine district situated between

the Tyrol and the Boden See (Lake of Constance) known as

Vorarlberg. … The representatives of these countries were to

meet at Vienna, and a ministry for 'Cisleithania' was

appointed. That these measures were injudicious is now the

opinion of almost all Austrians. Beust [the Saxon statesman

who was called in to conduct the political reconstruction of

1867—see, in volume 1, AUSTRIA: A. D. 1866-1867; and

1866-1887], created a new agglomeration of smaller and larger

countries, entirely different as regards race, history, and

culture. It is characteristic of the artificiality of Count

Beust's new creation that up to the present day no real and

generally accepted name for it has been found. The usual

designation of Cisleithania is an obvious absurdity. A glance

at the map will suffice to show how senseless such a name is

when applied, for instance, to Dalmatia, one of the countries

ruled from Vienna. The word 'Austria' also can correctly be

applied only either to all the countries ruled by the house of

Habsburg-Lorraine or to the archduchies of Upper and Lower

Austria, which are the cradle of the dynasty. The official

designation of the non-Hungarian parts of the empire is 'the

kingdoms and lands represented in the parliament' (of

Vienna)—'Die im Reichsrathe vertretenen Königreiche und

Länder.'

"Though the Germans willingly took part in the deliberations

of the Parliament of 'Cisleithania,' the Slavs of Bohemia and

Poland were at first violently opposed to the new institution.

They might perhaps have willingly consented to take part in a

Vienna parliament that would have consisted of representatives

of the whole empire. But when the ancient historical rights of

Hungary were fully recognized, countries such as Bohemia and

Poland … naturally felt offended. Count Beust dealt

differently with these two divisions of the empire. The partly

true, partly imaginary, grievances of the Poles were more

recent and better known thirty years ago than they are now.

Beust was impressed by them and considered it advisable to

make large concessions to the Poles of Galicia with regard to

autonomy, local government, and the use of the national

language. The Poles, who did not fail to contrast their fate

with that of their countrymen who were under Russian or

Prussian rule, gratefully accepted these concessions, and

attended the meetings of the representative assembly at

Vienna. Other motives also contributed to this decision of the

Galician Poles. Galicia is a very poor country, and the Germans

who then ruled at Vienna, naturally welcoming the

representatives of a large Slav country in their Parliament,

proved most generous in their votes in favour of the Galician

railways. Matters stood differently in Bohemia, and the

attitude of Count Beust and the new 'Cisleithanian' ministers

was also here quite different. They seem to have thought that

they could break the resistance of the Bohemians by military

force, and with the aid of the German minority of the

population. A long struggle ensued. … Bohemia is … the

'cockpit' of Austrian political warfare, and almost every

political crisis has been closely connected with events that

occurred in Bohemia. The Bohemian representatives in 1867

refused to take part in the deliberations of the Vienna

Parliament, the existence of which they considered contrary to

the ancient constitution of their country.

{36}

In 1879 they finally decided to take part in the deliberations

of the Vienna assembly. … The Bohemians, indeed, entered the

Vienna Parliament under protest, and declared that their

appearance there was by no means to be considered as a

resignation of the special rights that Bohemia had formerly

possessed. The Bohemian deputies, however, continued

henceforth to take part in the deliberations of the

Cisleithanian Parliament and loyally supported those of the

many Austrian ministers who were not entirely deaf to their

demands. Some of these demands, such as that of the foundation

of a national university at Prague, were indeed granted by the

Vienna ministers. Though a German university continued to exist

at Prague, this concession was vehemently opposed by the

Germans, as indeed every concession to appease the Bohemian

people was."

_Francis Count Lutzow,

Austria at the End of the Century

(Nineteenth Century Review, December, 1899)._

During recent years, government in the dual empire has been

made increasingly difficult, especially on the Austrian side,

by the jealousy, which grows constantly more bitter, between

the German and Slavic elements of the mixed population, and by

the rising heat of the Anti-Semitic agitation. The latter was

brought to a serious crisis in Vienna during 1895 by the

election of Dr. Lueger, a violent leader of Anti-Semitism, to

the office of First Vice-Burgomaster, which caused the

resignation of the Burgomaster, and led to such disorders in

the municipal council that the government was forced to

intervene. The council was dissolved and an imperial

commissioner appointed to conduct the city administration

provisionally; but similar disorders, still more serious,

recurred in October, when elections were held and the

Anti-Semites won a majority in the council. Dr. Lueger was

then elected Burgomaster. The government, supported by a

majority in the Austrian Reichsrath, refused to confirm the

election. A second time Dr. Lueger was elected; whereupon the

municipal council was again dissolved and the municipal

administration transferred to an imperial commissioner. This

measure was followed by scenes of scandalous turbulence in the

Reichsrath and riotous demonstrations in the streets, which

latter were vigorously suppressed by the police. Some

considerable part of the temper in these demonstrations was

directed against the Austrian premier, Count Badeni, and still

more against the Polish race, to which he belonged. Count

Badeni, who had been Governor of Galicia, had just been called

to the head of affairs, and gave promise of an administration

that would be strong; but several other members of his cabinet

were Poles, and that fact was a cause of offense. He gave an

early assurance that the demand for an enlargement of the

parliamentary franchise should be satisfactorily met, and that

other liberal measures should be promptly taken in hand. These

promises, with the show of firmness in the conduct of the

government, produced a wide feeling in its favor. The promise

of an enlargement of the parliamentary franchise in Austria

was redeemed the following February (1896), by the

introduction and speedy passage of a parliamentary reform

bill, which embodied an important revision of the Austrian

constitution. Seventy-two new members were added to the 353

which formerly constituted the lower or Abgeordneten House of

the Austrian Reichsrath. The original body of 353 remained as

it had been, made up in four sections, elected by four classes

in the community, namely: owners of large estates, electing 85

members; doctors of the universities and town taxpayers who

pay five florins of direct taxation yearly, these together

electing 115; chambers of commerce and industry, electing 22;

country taxpayers who pay five florins of direct taxation

yearly, electing 131. The number of voters in these four

privileged classes were said to number 1,732,000 when the

Reform Bill passed. The new voters added by the bill were

estimated to number about 3,600,000. But the latter would

elect only the 72 new members added to the House, while the

former continued to be exclusively represented by the 353

members of its former constitution. In other words, though the

suffrage was now extended to all male adults, it was not with

equality of value to all. For about one-third of the political

community, the franchise was given five times the weight and

force that it possessed for the remaining two-thirds.

Nevertheless, the bill seems to have been accepted and passed

with no great opposition. In Vienna, the Anti-Semitic

agitation was kept up with violence, Dr. Lueger being elected

four times to the chief-burgomastership of the city, in

defiance of the imperial refusal to sanction his election.

Finally the conflict was ended by a compromise. Lueger

resigned and was permitted to take the office of Vice

Burgomaster, while one of his followers was chosen to the

Chief Burgomaster's seat.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1896.

Celebration of the Millennium of the Kingdom of Hungary.

The millennial anniversary of the Kingdom of Hungary was

celebrated by the holding of a great national exposition and

festival at Buda-Pesth, from the 2d of May until the end of

October, 1896. Preparations were begun as early as 1893, and

were carried forward with great national enthusiasm and

liberality, the government contributing nearly two millions of

dollars to the expense of the undertaking. The spirit of the

movement was expressed at the beginning by the Minister of

Commerce, Bela Lukács, by whose department it was specially

promoted. "The government," he said, "will take care that the

national work be exhibited in a worthy frame, so as to further

the interests of the exhibitors. May everyone of you, its

subjects, therefore show what he is able to attain by his

diligence, his taste, and his inventive faculty. Let us all,

in fact, compete—we who are working, some with our brains,

others with our hands, and others with our machines—like one

man for the father-land. Thus the living generation will be

able to see what its fore-fathers have made in the midst of

hard circumstances, and to realize what tasks are awaiting us

and the new generations in the path which has been smoothed by

the sweat, labor, and pain of our ancestors. This will be a

rare family festival, the equal of which has not been granted

to many nations. Let the people gather, then, round our august

ruler, who has guided our country with fatherly care and

wisdom in the benevolent ways of peace to the heights which

mark the progress of to-day, and who—a faithful keeper of the

glorious past of a thousand years—has led the Hungarian people

to the threshold of a still more splendid thousand years to

come!"

{37}

Writing shortly before the opening, the United States Consul

at Buda-Pesth, Mr. Hammond, gave the following description of

the plans and preparations then nearly complete: "The series

of official festivities will be diversified by those of a

social and popular character. These will be the

interparliamentary conference for international courts of

arbitration; the congress of journalists, with the view to

constitute an international journalistic union; international

congresses of art and history, of actors, tourists, athletes,

etc.; numerous national congresses embracing every

intellectual and material interest of the country, in which

the leading personages of all groups and branches of national

production, the highest authorities in the field of commerce,

industry, communication, etc., as well as those who are in the

forefront of the literary, spiritual, and philanthropic

movements of the country will take part.

"There is activity in all classes of Hungarian society, with a

view to carrying out the ingenious project of the artist Paul

Vágó—the great historical pageant. Several municipal bodies

have already promised their cooperation, while scores of men

and women, bearers of historic names, have declared their

readiness to take part at their own expense. All the costumes

of all the races and social classes who have inhabited this

country during ten centuries will pass before our eyes in this

beautiful cortege. The genius of the artist will call into life

in their descendants the warriors who conquered Pannonia under

Arpad, and, during the reign of Louis the Great, annexed to

this realm all the neighboring countries; all the dignitaries,

both civil and ecclesiastical, who, under Stephen the Saint, King

Kálman, and Mathias Corvinus, spread Christianity,

enlightenment, liberty, and wealth to the extreme confines of

this part of Europe; all the crusaders of Joannes Hunyady, who

drove back the Crescent for a century and thus defended

western civilization against eastern fanaticism; all the

kings, princes, noblemen, and poets of modern times who have

led the nation in her struggle for modern ideas. These

historical figures will be followed by their retainers or

surrounded by the popular types of the respective epochs. To

judge by the sketches of the artist, this pageant promises to

surpass anything that has hitherto been offered on similar

occasions.

"All these festivals will move, as it were, within the fixed

frame of the Millennial National Exhibition, which will cover

an area of 500,000 square meters (5,382,100 square feet) and

consist of 169 buildings and pavilions, erected at a total

cost (including private expenses) of 10,000,000 florins

($4,020,000). This exhibition is divided into two sections,

viz:

(1) The historical section, containing art treasures, relics,

and antiquities of the past, which will illustrate the

political, religious, military, and private life of each

principal period in the history of the nation. …

(2) The section of modern times will embrace everything offered

by similar exhibitions.

Nevertheless, the visitor's mind will here, too, be impressed

with the solemnity of the millennium and the enthusiasm

inspiring the nation at this momentous period of its history.

The programme embraces the national life in all its

manifestations. Not only will the present condition of Hungary

be laid open to general view, but the world will also be

impressed with the great progress Hungary has made since the

reestablishment of her constitution in 1867."

_United States Consular Reports,

April, 1896._

By every possible arrangement of facilitation and cheapening,

a visit to the Exposition was placed within the means of all

the inhabitants of the kingdom; and especial provision was

made for bringing schools and teachers to receive the

object-lessons which it taught.

Among the ceremonies which attended the ending of the great

national festival, was the formal opening, at Orsova, of a

ship channel through the rocky obstructions that have been

known since the days when they troubled the Romans as the

"Iron Gates of the Danube."

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897.

Industrial combinations.

See (in this volume)

TRUSTS: IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897.

The forces of feudalism and clericalism in Austria.

Austrian parties in the Reichsrath.

Their aims, character and relative strength.

Count Badeni's language decrees for Bohemia.

"In no European country have the forces of feudalism and

clericalism such an enormous influence as they have in

Austria. The Austrian nobility is supreme at Court and in the

upper branches of the Administration. In Hungary the small

nobility and landed gentry exercise a preponderating

influence, but they are a wide class and filled with the

national spirit. The Austrian nobility forms a narrow,

intensely exclusive and bigoted caste, whose only political

interest is the maintenance of its own class supremacy. The

large Protestant element in Hungary has in no small degree

contributed to the success of the Magyars, both in its effect

on the national character and by the secondary position to

which the mixture of creeds has relegated the Church. In

Austria the Church of Rome is all-powerful. The House of

Habsburg has always been bigotedly Catholic: Francis Joseph

himself was a pupil of the Jesuits. The triumph of the

reaction after 1848 was the establishment in 1855 of that

'written Canossa' the Concordat, which made the Church

absolute in all matters relating to education and marriage.

And even though the Concordat was got rid of in 1870, the

energies of the clerical party have been but little weakened.

The real explanation of the whole course of Austrian politics

lies in the interaction of the two conflicts—of reaction,

clerical or aristocratic, against liberalism, and of Slav

against German. …

"In March 1897 came the general elections, to which a special

interest was lent by the first appearance of the fifth class

of voters. The most striking feature of the elections was the

complete and final break up of the German Liberal party. … The

history of the German Liberal party has been one of a

continuous decline both in numbers and importance. It counted

200 members in 1873, 170 in 1879, 114 in 1885-1891, and only

77 out of a total of 425 in 1897. … Their political theories

are those of moderate constitutional liberalism as understood

on the Continent in the middle of the century—i. e. belief in

the efficacy of parliamentary government, in commercial and

industrial freedom, hostility to military bureaucracy and

clericalism. … The most radical group among them, the

Progressists, an offshoot of the last election, is about as

radical as the ordinary English Conservative of to-day. The

views of the Verfassungstreue Grossgrundbesitz are those of

the English Tory of fifty years ago.

{38}

"Of the fractions into which the Liberal party is now divided

the most important is the Deutsch Fortschrittliche, or

Progressive, which split off from the main body in November

1896. Its chief object was to direct a stronger opposition on

national and liberal lines to Count Badeni. Its 35 members are

almost exclusively recruited from Bohemia and Moravia. They

differ from the German 'Volkspartei' mainly in their refusal

to accept anti-Semitism, which would be both against their

liberal professions and their economic convictions as

representatives of the commercial and manufacturing classes.

The constitutional landowners (Verfassungstreue

Grossgrundbesitz, 30 seats) represent the most conservative

element of the old Liberal party. … The 12 members of the Free

German Union (Freie Deutsche Vereinigung) may perhaps consider

themselves the most authentic remnant of the great Liberal

party—it is their chief claim to distinction. The German

National or People's party (Deutsche Volkspartei, 43 seats)

first made its appearance at the elections of 1885. It

rejected the old idea of the Liberals that the Germans were

meant, as defenders of the State, to look to State interests

alone without regard to the fate of their own nationality, and

took up a more strictly national as well as a more democratic

attitude. It has also of late years included anti-Semitism in

its programme. Its main strength lies in the Alpine provinces,

where it heads the German national and Liberal opposition to

the Slovenes on the one side, and the German clericals on the

other. It is at present the largest of the German parties. …

"Least but not last of the German parties comes the little

group of five led by Schönerer and Wolf. Noisy, turbulent, and

reckless, this little body of extremists headed the

obstruction in the Reichsrath, the disorganised larger German

parties simply following in its wake. The object these men aim

at is the incorporation of German Austria in the German

Empire, the non-German parts being left to take care of

themselves. Both the German National party and Schönerer's

followers are anti-Semitic, but anti-Semitism only plays a

secondary part in their programme. The party that more

specially claims the title of anti-Semite is the Christian

Social (Christlich-Soziale, 27 seats). The growth of this

party in the last few years has been extraordinarily rapid. In

Dr. Lueger and Prince Alois Liechtenstein it has found leaders

who thoroughly understand the arts of exciting or humouring

the Viennese populace. … The characteristic feature of

Austrian anti-Semitism, besides the reaction against the

predominance of the ubiquitous Jew in commerce, journalism,

and the liberal professions, is that it represents the

opposition of the small tradesman or handicraftsman to the

increasing pressure of competition from the large Jewish shops

and the sweating system so frequently connected with them. The

economic theories of the party are of the crudest and most

mediæval kind; compulsory apprenticeship, restricted trade

guilds, penalties on stock exchange speculation, &c., form the

chief items of its programme. …

"The German Clericals and the Clerical Conservatives

(Katholische Volkspartei and Centrum) number some 37 votes

together; but their importance has always been increased by

the skilful and unscrupulous parliamentary tactics of the

party. The strength of the Clerical party lies in the ignorant

and devotedly pious peasantry of Upper Austria and the Alpine

provinces. The defence of agrarian interests is included in

its programme; but its only real object is the maintenance of

the moral and material power of the Church. Its policy looks

solely to the interests of the Vatican. …

"The best organised of the national parties is the Polish Club

(59 seats). It represents the national and social interests of

the Polish nobility and landed gentry. … Standing outside of

Austrian interests, they exercise a controlling voice in

Austrian affairs. The three-score well-drilled Polish votes

have helped the Government again and again to ride roughshod

over constitutional opposition. The partition of Poland has

thus avenged itself on one at least of its spoilers. The

Germans have long resented this outside interference which

permanently keeps them in a minority. … The Czechs are a party

of 60, and together with the 19 representatives of the Czech

landed aristocracy, form the largest group in the Reichsrath.

The Young Czech party began in the seventies as a reaction

against the Old Czech policy of passive resistance. In

contra-distinction to the Old Czechs, they also professed

radical and anti-clerical views in politics generally. … In

1897 the Old Czechs finally withdrew from the contest or were

merged in the victorious party. … Of the other nationalist

parties the most important is the Slav National Christian

Union (35 seats), comprising the Slovenes, Croatians, and some

of the more moderate Ruthenians from Galicia. Their programme

is mainly national, though tinged with clericalism; equality

of the Slav languages with German and Italian in mixed

districts; and ultimately a union of the southern Slavs in an

autonomous national province. The Italians are divided into 5

Clerical Italians from the Tirol and 14 Liberals from Trieste,

Istria, &c. The Tirolese Italians desire a division of the

Tirol into a German and an Italian part. …

"The most interesting, and in some ways the most respectable,

of all Austrian parties is the Socialist or Social Democratic

party (15 seats). It is the only one that fights for a living

political theory—German liberalism being to all intents and

purposes defunct—and not for mere national aggression. The

Social Democrats hold the whole national agitation to be an

hysterical dispute got up by professors, advocates, and other

ne'er-do-weels of the unemployed upper classes. … Their

support is derived from the working classes in the industrial

districts, and not least from the poorer Jews, who supply

socialism with many of its keenest apostles. …

"Altogether a most hopeless jumble of incoherent atoms is this

Austrian Reichsrath. The chariots driving four-ways on the

roof of the Houses of Parliament are a true symbol of the

nature of Austrian politics. To add to the confusion, all the

parties are headless. Able men and men of culture, there are a

good many in the House; but political leaders there are none.

The general tone of the House is undignified, and has been so

for some time. …

{39}

"On April 5, 1897, Count Badeni published the notorious

language decrees for Bohemia. This ordinance placed the Czech

language on an absolute equality with the German in all

governmental departments and in the law courts all over

Bohemia. … After 1901 all officials in every part of Bohemia

were to be obliged to know both languages. The refusal of the

Germans to admit the language spoken by 62 per cent. of the

population of Bohemia to an equality with their own is not

quite so preposterous as would at first sight appear. Without

subscribing to Professor Mommsen's somewhat insolent dicta

about 'inferior races,' one must admit that the Czech and

German languages do not stand on altogether the same footing.

German is a language spoken by some 60,000,000 of people, the

language of a great literature and a great commerce. Czech is

difficult, unpronounceable, and spoken by some 5,000,000 in

all. It must be remembered, too, that the two nations do not

really live together in Bohemia, but that the Germans live in

a broad belt all round the country, while the Czechs inhabit

the central plain. There is no more reason for a German

Bohemian to acquire Czech than there is for a citizen of

Edinburgh to make himself master of Gaelic. On the other hand,

every educated Czech naturally learns German, even in a purely

Czech-speaking district. … It must also be remembered that the

decrees, as such, were of doubtful constitutionality; the

language question was really a matter for the Legislature to

settle. The decrees at once produced a violent agitation among

the Germans, which rapidly spread from Bohemia over the whole

Empire."

_The Internal Crisis in Austria-Hungary

(Edinburgh Review, July, 1898)._

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897 (October-December).

Scenes in the Austrian Reichsrath described by Mark Twain.

"Here in Vienna in these closing days of 1897 one's blood gets

no chance to stagnate. The atmosphere is brimful of political

electricity. All conversation is political; every man is a

battery, with brushes overworn, and gives out blue sparks when

you set him going on the common topic. … Things have happened

here recently which would set any country but Austria on fire

from end to end, and upset the government to a certainty; but

no one feels confident that such results will follow here.

Here, apparently, one must wait and see what will happen, then

he will know, and not before; guessing is idle; guessing

cannot help the matter. This is what the wise tell you; they

all say it; they say it every day, and it is the sole detail

upon which they all agree. There is some approach to agreement

upon another point: that there will be no revolution. … Nearly

every day some one explains to me that a revolution would not

succeed here. 'It couldn't, you know. Broadly speaking, all

the nations in the empire hate the government—but they all

hate each other too, and with devoted and enthusiastic

bitterness; no two of them can combine; the nation that rises

must rise alone; then the others would joyfully join the

government against her, and she would have just a fly's chance

against a combination of spiders. This government is entirely

independent. It can go its own road, and do as it pleases; it

has nothing to fear. In countries like England and America,

where there is one tongue and the public interests are common,

the government must take account of public opinion; but in

Austria-Hungary there are nineteen public opinions—one for

each state. No—two or three for each state, since there are

two or three nationalities in each. A government cannot

satisfy all these public opinions; it can only go through the

motions of trying. This government does that. It goes through

the motions, and they do not succeed; but that does not worry

the government much.' …

"The recent troubles have grown out of Count Badeni's

necessities. He could not carry on his government without a

majority vote in the House at his back, and in order to secure

it he had to make a trade of some sort. He made it with the

Czechs—the Bohemians. The terms were not easy for him: he must

pass a bill making the Czech tongue the official language in

Bohemia in place of the German. This created a storm. All the

Germans in Austria' were incensed. In numbers they form but a

fourth part of the empire's population, but they urge that the

country's public business should be conducted in one common

tongue, and that tongue a world language—which German is.

However, Badeni secured his majority. The German element was

apparently become helpless. The Czech deputies were exultant.

Then the music began. Badeni's voyage, instead of being

smooth, was disappointingly rough from the start. The

government must get the 'Ausgleich' through. It must not fail.

Badeni's majority was ready to carry it through; but the

minority was determined to obstruct it and delay it until the

obnoxious Czech-language measure should be shelved.

"The 'Ausgleich' is an Adjustment, Arrangement, Settlement,

which holds Austria and Hungary together [see above; also, in

volume 1, AUSTRIA: A. D. 1866-1867]. It dates from 1867, and

has to be renewed every ten years. It establishes the share

which Hungary must pay toward the expenses of the imperial

government. Hungary is a kingdom (the Emperor of Austria is

its King), and has its own parliament and governmental

machinery. But it has no foreign office, and it has no army—at

least its army is a part of the imperial army, is paid out of

the imperial treasury, and is under the control of the

imperial war office. The ten-year rearrangement was due a year

ago, but failed to connect. At least completely. A year's

compromise was arranged. A new arrangement must be effected

before the last day of this year. Otherwise the two countries

become separate entities. The Emperor would still be King of

Hungary—that is, King of an independent foreign country. There

would be Hungarian custom-houses on the Austrian frontier, and

there would be a Hungarian army and a Hungarian foreign

office. Both countries would be weakened by this, both would

suffer damage. The Opposition in the House, although in the

minority, had a good weapon to fight with in the pending

'Ausgleich.' If it could delay the 'Ausgleich' a few weeks,

the government would doubtless have to withdraw the hated

language bill or lose Hungary.

"The Opposition began its fight. Its arms were the Rules of

the House. It was soon manifest that by applying these Rules

ingeniously, it could make the majority helpless, and keep it

so as long as it pleased. It could shut off business every now

and then with a motion to adjourn. It could require the ayes

and noes on the motion, and use up thirty minutes on that

detail. It could call for the reading and verification of the

minutes of the preceding meeting, and use up half a day in

that way.

{40}

It could require that several of its members be entered upon

the list of permitted speakers previously to the opening of a

sitting; and as there is no time limit, further delays could

thus be accomplished. These were all lawful weapons, and the

men of the Opposition (technically called the Left) were

within their rights in using them. They used them to such dire

purpose that all parliamentary business was paralyzed. The

Right (the government side) could accomplish nothing. Then it

had a saving idea. This idea was a curious one. It was to have

the President and the Vice-Presidents of the parliament

trample the Rules under foot upon occasion! …

"And now took place that memorable sitting of the House which

broke two records. It lasted the best part of two days and a

night, surpassing by half an hour the longest sitting known to

the world's previous parliamentary history, and breaking the

long-speech record with Dr. Lecher's twelve-hour effort, the

longest flow of unbroken talk that ever came out of one mouth

since the world began. At 8.45, on the evening of the 28th of

October, when the House had been sitting a few minutes short

of ten hours, Dr. Lecher was granted the floor. … Then burst

out such another wild and frantic and deafening clamor as has

not been heard on this planet since the last time the

Comanches surprised a white settlement at midnight. Yells from

the Left, counter-yells from the Right, explosions of yells

from all sides at once, and all the air sawed and pawed and

clawed and cloven by a writhing confusion of gesturing arms

and hands. Out of the midst of this thunder and turmoil and

tempest rose Dr. Lecher, serene and collected, and the

providential length of him enabled his head to show out above

it. He began his twelve-hour speech. At any rate, his lips

could be seen to move, and that was evidence. On high sat the

President imploring order, with his long hands put together as

in prayer, and his lips visibly but not hearably speaking. At

intervals he grasped his bell and swung it up and down with

vigor, adding its keen clamor to the storm weltering there

below. Dr. Lecher went on with his pantomime speech,

contented, untroubled. … One of the interrupters who made

himself heard was a young fellow of slight build and neat

dress, who stood a little apart from the solid crowd and

leaned negligently, with folded arms and feet crossed, against

a desk. Trim and handsome; strong face and thin features;

black hair roughed up; parsimonious mustache; resonant great

voice, of good tone and pitch. It is Wolf, capable and

hospitable with sword and pistol. … Out of him came early this

thundering peal, audible above the storm:

"'I demand the floor. I wish to offer a motion.'

"In the sudden lull which followed, the President answered,

'Dr. Lecher has the floor.'

"_Wolf._ 'I move the close of the sitting!'

"_President._ 'Representative Lecher has the floor.'

[Stormy outburst from the Left—that is, the Opposition.]

"_Wolf._ 'I demand the floor for the introduction of a

formal motion. [Pause.] Mr. President, are you going to grant

it, or not? [Crash of approval from the Left.] I will keep on

demanding the floor till I get it.'

"_President._ 'I call Representative Wolf to order. Dr.

Lecher has the floor.' …

"'Which was true; and he was speaking, too, calmly, earnestly,

and argumentatively; and the official stenographers had left

their places and were at his elbows taking down his words, he

leaning and orating into their ears—a most curious and

interesting scene. … At this point a new and most effective

noisemaker was pressed into service. Each desk has an

extension, consisting of a removable board eighteen inches

long, six wide, and a half-inch thick. A member pulled one of

these out and began to belabor the top of his desk with it.

Instantly other members followed suit, and perhaps you can

imagine the result. Of all conceivable rackets it is the most

ear-splitting, intolerable, and altogether fiendish. … Wolf

went on with his noise and with his demands that he be granted

the floor, resting his board at intervals to discharge

criticisms and epithets at the Chair. … By-and-by he struck

the idea of beating out a tune with his board. Later he

decided to stop asking for the floor, and to confer it upon

himself. And so he and Dr. Lecher now spoke at the same time,

and mingled their speeches with the other noises, and nobody

heard either of them. Wolf rested himself now and then from

speech-making by reading, in his clarion voice, from a

pamphlet.

"I will explain that Dr. Lecher was not making a twelve-hour

speech for pastime, but for an important purpose. It was the

government's intention to push the 'Ausgleich' through its

preliminary stages in this one sitting (for which it was the

Order of the Day), and then by vote refer it to a select

committee. It was the Majority's scheme—as charged by the

Opposition—to drown debate upon the bill by pure noise—drown

it out and stop it. The debate being thus ended, the vote upon

the reference would follow—with victory for the government.

But into the government's calculations had not entered the

possibility of a single-barrelled speech which should occupy

the entire time-limit of the sitting, and also get itself

delivered in spite of all the noise. … In the English House an

obstructionist has held the floor with Bible-readings and

other outside matters; but Dr. Lecher could not have that

restful and recuperative privilege—he must confine himself

strictly to the subject before the House. More than once, when

the President could not hear him because of the general

tumult, he sent persons to listen and report as to whether the

orator was speaking to the subject or not.

"The subject was a peculiarly difficult one, and it would have

troubled any other deputy to stick to it three hours without

exhausting his ammunition, because it required a vast and

intimate knowledge—detailed and particularized knowledge—of

the commercial, railroading, financial, and international

banking relations existing between two great sovereignties,

Hungary and the Empire. But Dr. Lecher is President of the

Board of Trade of his city of Brünn, and was master of the

situation. … He went steadily on with his speech; and always

it was strong, virile, felicitous, and to the point. He was

earning applause, and this enabled his party to turn that fact

to account. Now and then they applauded him a couple of

minutes on a stretch, and during that time he could stop

speaking and rest his voice without having the floor taken

from him. …

{41}

"The Minority staid loyally by their champion. Some

distinguished deputies of the Majority staid by him too,

compelled thereto by admiration of his great performance. When

a man has been speaking eight hours, is it conceivable that he

can still be interesting, still fascinating? When Dr. Lecher had

been speaking eight hours he was still compactly surrounded by

friends who would not leave him and by foes (of all parties)

who could not; and all hung enchanted and wondering upon his

words, and all testified their admiration with constant and

cordial outbursts of applause. Surely this was a triumph

without precedent in history. …

"In consequence of Dr. Lecher's twelve-hour speech and the

other obstructions furnished by the Minority, the famous

thirty-three-hour sitting of the House accomplished nothing. …

Parliament was adjourned for a week—to let the members cool

off, perhaps—a sacrifice of precious time, for but two months

remained in which to carry the all-important 'Ausgleich' to a

consummation. …

"During the whole of November things went from bad to worse.

The all-important 'Ausgleich' remained hard aground, and could

not be sparred off. Badeni's government could not withdraw the

Language Ordinance and keep its majority, and the Opposition

could not be placated on easier terms. One night, while the

customary pandemonium was crashing and thundering along at its

best, a fight broke out. … On Thanksgiving day the sitting was

a history-making one. On that day the harried, bedeviled and

despairing government went insane. In order to free itself

from the thraldom of the Opposition it committed this

curiously juvenile crime: it moved an important change of the

Rules of the House, forbade debate upon the motion, put it to

a stand-up vote instead of ayes and noes, and then gravely

claimed that it had been adopted. … The House was already

standing up; had been standing for an hour; and before a third

of it had found out what the President had been saying, he had

proclaimed the adoption of the motion! And only a few heard

that. In fact, when that House is legislating you can't tell

it from artillery-practice. You will realize what a happy idea

it was to sidetrack the lawful ayes and noes and substitute a

stand-up vote by this fact: that a little later, when a

deputation of deputies waited upon the President and asked him

if he was actually willing to claim that that measure had been

passed, he answered, 'Yes—and unanimously.' …

"The 'Lex Falkenhayn,' thus strangely born, gave the President

power to suspend for three days any deputy who should continue

to be disorderly after being called to order twice, and it

also placed at his disposal such force as might be necessary

to make the suspension effective. So the House had a

sergeant-at-arms at last, and a more formidable one, as to

power, than any other legislature in Christendom had ever

possessed. The Lex Falkenhayn also gave the House itself

authority to suspend members for thirty days. On these terms

the 'Ausgleich' could be put through in an hour—apparently.

The Opposition would have to sit meek and quiet, and stop

obstructing, or be turned into the street, deputy after

deputy, leaving the Majority an unvexed field for its work.

"Certainly the thing looked well. … [But next day, when the

President attempted to open the session, a band of the

Socialist members made a sudden charge upon him, drove him and

the Vice President from the House, took possession of the

tribune, and brought even the semblance of legislative

proceedings to an end. Then a body of sixty policemen was

brought in to clear the House.] Some of the results of this

wild freak followed instantly. The Badeni government came down

with a crash; there was a popular outbreak or two in Vienna;

there were three or four days of furious rioting in Prague,

followed by the establishing there of martial law; the Jews

and Germans were harried and plundered, and their houses

destroyed; in other Bohemian towns there was rioting—in some

cases the Germans being the rioters, in others the Czechs—and

in all cases the Jew had to roast, no matter which side he was

on. We are well along in December now; the new

Minister-President has not been able to patch up a peace among

the warring factions of the parliament, therefore there is no

use in calling it together again for the present; public

opinion believes that parliamentary government and the

Constitution are actually threatened with extinction, and that

the permanency of the monarchy itself is a not absolutely

certain thing!

"Yes, the Lex Falkenhayn was a great invention, and did what

was claimed for it—it got the government out of the

frying-pan."

_S. L. Clemens (Mark Twain),

Stirring Times in Austria

(Harper's Magazine, March, 1898)._

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897 (December).

Imperial action.

On the last day of the year the Emperor closed the sittings of

the Austrian Reichsrath by proclamation and issued a rescript

continuing the "Ausgleich" provisionally for six months.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1898.

Prolongation of factious disorders.

Paralysis of constitutional government.

Though scenes in the Austrian Chamber were not quite so

violent, perhaps, as they had become near the close of 1897,

the state of factious disorder continued much the same

throughout the year, and legislation was completely stopped.

The work of government could be carried on only by imperial

decrees. The ministry of Baron von Gautsch, which had

succeeded that of Count Badeni, attempted a compromise on the

language question in Bohemia by dividing the country into

three districts, according to the distribution of the several

races, in one of which German was to be the official tongue,

in another Czech, while both languages were to be used in the

third. But the Germans of the empire would accept no such

compromise. In March, Baron von Gautsch retired, and Count

Thun Hohenstein formed a Ministry made up to represent the

principal factions in the Reichsrath; but, the scheme brought

no peace. Nor did appeals by Count Thun, "in the name of

Austria," to the patriotism and the reason of all parties, to

suspend their warfare long enough for a little of the

necessary work of the state to be done, have any effect. The

turbulence in the legislature infected the whole community,

and especially, it would seem, the students in the schools,

whose disorder caused many lectures to be stopped. In Hungary,

too, there was an increase of violence in political agitation.

A party, led by the son of Louis Kossuth, struggled to improve

what seemed to be an opportunity for breaking the political

union of Hungary with Austria, and realizing the old ambition

for an independent Hungarian state.

{42}

The ministry of Baron Banffy had this party against him, as

well as that of the clericals, who resented the civil marriage

laws, and legislation came to a deadlock nearly as complete in

the Hungarian as in the Austrian Parliament. There, as well as

in Austria, the extension of the Ausgleich, provisionally for

another year, had to be imposed by imperial decree.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1898 (April).

Withdrawal from the blockade of Crete and

the "Concert of Europe."

See (in this volume)

TURKEY: A. D. 1897-1899.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1898 (June).

The Sugar Conference at Brussels.

See (in this volume)

SUGAR BOUNTIES.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1898 (September).

Assassination of the Empress.

Jubilee of the Emperor's reign.

On the 10th of September, Elizabeth, Empress of Austria and

Queen of Hungary, was assassinated at Geneva by an Italian

anarchist, named Luigi Luccheni, who stabbed her with a small

stiletto, exceedingly thin and narrow in the blade. The

murderer rushed upon her and struck her, as she was walking,

with a single attendant, on the quay, towards a lake steamer

on which she intended to travel to Montreux. She fell, but

arose, with some assistance, and walked forward to the

steamer, evidently unaware that she had suffered worse than a

blow. On the steamer, however, she lost consciousness, and

then, for the first time, the wound was discovered. It had

been made by so fine a weapon that it showed little external

sign, and it is probable that the Empress felt little pain.

She lived nearly half an hour after the blow was struck. The

assassin attempted to escape, but was caught. As Swiss law

forbids capital punishment, he could be only condemned to

solitary confinement for life. This terrible tragedy came soon

after the festivities in Austria which had celebrated the

jubilee year of the Emperor Francis Joseph's reign. The

Emperor's marriage had been one of love: he had suffered many

afflictions in his later life; the state of his realm was such

as could hardly be contemplated without despair; men wondered

if he could bear this crowning sorrow and live. But he had the

undoubted affection of his subjects, much as they troubled him

with their miserably factious quarrels, and that consciousness

seems to have been his one support.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1899 (May-July).

Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.

See (in this volume)

PEACE CONFERENCE.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1899-1900.

Continued obstruction by the German parties in Austria.

Extensive secession of German Catholics from their

Church, and its significance.

Withdrawal of the Bohemian language decrees.

Obstruction taken up by the Czechs.

During most of the year the German parties in the Austrian

Reichsrath continued to make legislation impossible by

disorderly obstruction, with the avowed purpose of compelling

the government to withdraw the language decrees in Bohemia. A

still more significant demonstration of German feeling and

policy appeared, in a wide-spread and organized movement to

detach German Roman Catholics from their church, partly, it

would seem, as a proceeding of hostility to the Clerical

party, and partly as a means of recommending the Germans of

the Austrian states to the sympathy of the German Empire, and

smoothing the approach to an ultimate union of some of those

states with the Germanic federation. The agitation against the

Catholic Church is called "Los von Rom," and is said to have

had remarkable results. "Those acquainted with the situation

in Austria," says a writer in the "Quarterly Review," "do not

wonder that in various parts of the Empire there is a marked

tendency among the German Catholics to join Christian

communions separated from Rome. Many thousand Roman Catholics

have recently renounced their allegiance to the Holy See.

Further secessions are announced as about to take place. The

movement is especially strong in great centres like Eger,

Asch, and Saatz, but has made itself felt also in Carinthia,

and even in coast districts. This is a grave political fact,

for it is a marked indication of serious discontent, and a

sure sign that some arrangement under which certain districts

of Austria might be joined to Germany would not be unwelcome

to a section of the people."

_Quarterly Review,

January, 1899._

In September the Austrian Ministry of Count Thun resigned, and

was succeeded by one formed under Count Clary-Aldingen. The

new premier withdrew the language decrees, which quieted the

German obstructionists, but provoked the Czechs to take up the

same rôle. Count Clary-Aldingen resigned in December, and a

provisional Ministry was formed under Dr. Wettek, which lasted

only until the 10th of January, 1900, when a new Cabinet was

formed by Dr. von Körber. In Hungary, Baron Banffy was driven

from power in February, 1899, by a state of things in the

Hungarian Parliament much like that in the Austrian. M.

Koloman Szell, who succeeded him, effected a compromise with

the opposition which enabled him to carry a measure extending

the Ausgleich to 1907. This brought one serious difficulty of

the situation to an end.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1899-1901.

Attitude towards impending revolt in Macedonia.

See (in this volume)

TURKEY: A. D. 1899-1901;

and BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1900.

Military and naval expenditure.

See (in this volume)

WAR BUDGETS.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1900 (February).

Attempted pacification of German and Czech parties by a

Conciliation Board.

"On Monday last [February 5] the German and Czech Conciliation

Board met for the first time in Vienna, under the presidency of

the Austrian Premier, Dr. von Körber, and conferred for two

hours. … Dr. von Körber is at the head of what may be called a

'business' Ministry, composed largely of those who had filled

subordinate offices in previous Ministries. It was hoped,

perhaps, that, since the leading politicians with a political

'past' could apparently do nothing to bring about a

settlement, men with no past, but with a capacity for

business, and in no way committed on the racial question,

might do better in effecting a working arrangement. The

appointment of this Conciliation Board seemed a promising way

of attempting such a settlement. Dr. von Körber opened

Monday's proceedings with a strong appeal to both sides,

saying: 'Gentlemen, the Empire looks to you to restore its

happiness and tranquillity.' It cannot be said that the Empire

is likely to find its wishes fulfilled, for when the Board came

down to hard business, the old troubles instantly revealed

themselves.

{43}

The Premier recommended a committee for Bohemia of twenty-two

members, and one for Moravia of fifteen members, the two

sitting in joint session in certain cases. Dr. Engel then set

forth the historical claims of the Czechs, which immediately

called forth a demand from Dr. Funke, of the German party,

that German should be declared the official language

throughout Austria. Each speaker seems to have been supported

by his own party, and so no progress was made, and matters

remain in 'statu quo ante.' The singularly deficient

constitution of this Board makes against success, for it seems

that the German Nationalists and Anti-Semites have only one

delegate apiece, the Social Democrats were not invited at all,

while the extreme Germans and extreme Czechs, apparently

regarding the Board as a farce, declined to nominate delegates

to its sittings. … There is unhappily little reason for

believing that the Board of Conciliation will effect what the

Emperor himself has failed to accomplish."

_Spectator (London),

February 10, 1900._

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1900 (June-December).

Co-operation with the Powers in China.

See (in this volume)

CHINA.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1900 (September-December).

Warnings by the Emperor.

Clerical interference in politics.

The attitude of Hungary.

Economic decline of Austria.

Pessimistic views in Vienna.

The pending elections.

The Vienna correspondence of the "London Times" seems to be

the best source of information concerning the critical

conditions that are prevailing in the composite Empire, as the

Nineteenth Century closes, and the events by which those

conditions are from time to time revealed. The writer, whose

reports we shall quote, is evidently well placed for

observation, and well prepared for understanding what he sees.

In a dispatch of September 14, he notes the significance of a

reprimand which the Emperor had caused to be administered to

the Archbishop of Sarajevo, for interference in political

affairs:

"The chief of the Emperor's Cabinet called the Archbishop's

attention to newspaper reports of a speech made by him at the

close of the Catholic Congress recently held at Agram, in

which he was represented to have expressed the hope that

Bosnia would be incorporated with Croatia at the earliest

possible date. As that question was a purely political one and

foreign to the sacred vocation of the Archbishop, and as its

solution fell exclusively within the jurisdiction of certain

lay factors, and more especially within the Sovereign

prerogatives of his Majesty, the chief of the Cabinet was

instructed, in case the reports were correct, to communicate

to his Grace the serious warning and firm expectation of the

Emperor that his Grace would abstain in future, both in word

and deed, from interference in political questions. As was to

be expected, this sharp reprimand to an ecclesiastic of such

high position and repute has made a great sensation. It meets

with warm approval from the entire Hungarian Press. … There

is, on the other hand, bitter mortification in Clerical

circles. It is evidently felt that the warning to abstain from

politics may be of more than mere local and individual

significance."

In another dispatch on the same day the correspondent reported

a still more significant imperial utterance, this time from

the Emperor's own lips: "Yesterday the Emperor, who is

attending the manœuvres in Galicia, received the Polish

Parliamentary Deputation and, addressing their president,

informed him that the dissolution of the Reichsrath and the

coming elections were the last constitutional means which

would be employed by his Government. That implies that, if the

new Parliament will not work, the Constitution will be

suspended. … The dissolution of the Reichsrath takes place in

opposition to the wish of the moderate element of all parties,

who did their utmost to dissuade the Prime Minister from

taking such a drastic measure. The opinion of those who did

not approve of dissolution is that in the absence of a new

suffrage the next Parliament will prove more unruly than the

last. … Yesterday's Imperial warning requires no comment.

It means no more than it says—namely, an eventual suspension

of the Constitution. It does not point to any alternative

regime in case the Parliamentary system should break down.

Indeed, there is nothing to show that any such alternative has

been under the consideration of the Emperor and his Ministers. No

less an authority than Dr. Lueger, the Anti-Semitic

burgomaster of Vienna, has just expressed his opinion on the

subject to a local journalist in the following words:

'I am firmly convinced that nobody, not a single man in

Austria, including all statesmen and Parliamentary

politicians, has the faintest idea of how the situation will

develop.'"

A few days later (September 25) the "Times" correspondence

summarized an important speech by the Hungarian statesman,

Count Apponyi, to his constituents, in which the same forecast

of a political catastrophe in Austria was intimated. Count

Apponyi,—"after dwelling upon the importance of maintaining

the Ausgleich, remarked that affairs in Austria might take a

turn which would render its revision indispensable owing

either to a complete suspension of the constitutional system

in Austria, the maintenance of which was one of the conditions

of the arrangement of 1867, or such modifications thereof as

would make the existing form of union between the two

countries technically untenable or politically questionable.

In either case the revision could only confirm the

independence of Hungary. But even then Count Apponyi believed

that by fallowing the traditions of Francis Deák it would be

possible to harmonize the necessary revision with the

fundamental principles of the Dual Monarchy. It would,

however, be a great mistake to raise that question unless

forced to do so by circumstances. Count Apponyi went on to say

that the importance of Hungary, not only in the Monarchy but

throughout the civilized world, was enormously increased by

the fact that it secured the maintenance of Austria-Hungary,

threatened by the destructive influence of the Austrian chaos,

and thus constituted one of the principal guarantees of

European tranquillity. The peace-abiding nations recognized

that this service to the dynasty, the Monarchy, and the

European State system was only possible while the

constitutional independence and national unity of Hungary was

maintained. It was clear to every unprejudiced mind that

Hungarian national independence and unity was the backbone of

the Dual Monarchy and one of the most important guarantees of

European peace. But the imposing position attained by Hungary

through the European sanction of her national ideal would be

imperilled if they were of their own initiative to raise the

question of the union of the two countries and thus convert

the Austrian crisis into one affecting the whole Monarchy."

{44}

An article in the "Neue Freie Presse," of Vienna, on the

hostility of the Vatican to Austria and Hungary was partially

communicated in a despatch of October 11. The Vienna journal

ascribes this hostility in part to resentment engendered by

the alliance of Catholic Austria with Italy, and in part to

the Hungarian ecclesiastical laws.

See above: A. D. 1894-1895.

It remarked: "Never has clericalism been so influential in the

legislation and administration of this Empire. The most

powerful party is the one that takes its 'mot d'ordre' from

the Papal Nunciature. It guides the feudal nobility, it is the

thorn in the flesh of the German population, it has provoked a

20 years' reaction in Austria, and, unhindered and protected,

it scatters in Hungary that seed which has thriven so well in

this half of the Monarchy that nothing is done in Austria

without first considering what will be said about it in Rome."

A day or two later some evidence of a growing resentment in

Austria at the interference of the clergy in politics was

adduced: "Thus the Czech organ, inspired by the well-known

leader of the party, Dr. Stransky, states that a deputation of

tradespeople called on the editor and expressed great

indignation at the unprecedented manner in which the priests

were joining in electoral agitation. They added that they

'could no longer remain members of a Church whose clergy took

advantage of religious sentiment for political purposes.' The

Peasants' Electoral Association for Upper Austria has just

issued a manifesto in which the following occurs:—'We have for

more than 20 years invariably elected the candidates proposed by

the Clerical party. What has been done during that long period

for us peasants and small tradespeople? What have the Clerical

party and the Clerical members of Parliament done for us? How

have they rewarded our long fidelity? By treason. … We have

been imposed upon long enough. It is due to our self-respect

and honour to emancipate ourselves thoroughly from the

mamelukes put forward by the Clerical wirepullers. We must

show that we can get on without Clerical leadingstrings.'"

On the 26th of October the writer summarized a report that day

published by the Vienna Stock Exchange Committee, as

furnishing "fresh evidence of the disastrous effects of the

prolonged internal political crisis." "The report begins by

stating that the Vienna Stock Exchange, formerly the leading

and most important one in Europe, and which, in consequence of

the geographical situation of the town, was called upon to be

the centre of financial operations with the Near East, has for

years past been steadily declining. Every year the number of

those frequenting the Bourse diminishes, and there has been an

annual decrease in the amount of capital that has changed

hands. Of late years, and particularly within the last few

months, this has assumed such dimensions that it has become an

imperative duty for the competent authorities to investigate the

causes of the evil and to seek a remedy. It is recognized that

the deplorable domestic situation has largely contributed to

the decline of the Bourse. The deadlock in the Legislative

Assembly has occasioned stagnation in industry and commerce,

whereas outside the Monarchy there has been an unprecedented

development of trade. Further prejudice has been caused by

what is called in the report the anti-capitalist tendencies,

which represent all gains and profits to be ill-gotten. The

profession of merchant has been held up by unprincipled

demagogues as disreputable. The authorities are reproached

with having encouraged those tendencies by undue tolerance."

Early in November, the Vienna letters began accounts of the

electioneering campaign then opening, though elections for the

new House were not to take place until the following January:

"Every day," wrote the correspondent, "brings its contingent

of electoral manifestos, and all parties have already had

their say. Unfortunately, nothing could be less edifying. It

may be said of them all that they have profited little by

experience, and it is vain to search for any indication of a

conciliatory disposition among Czechs or Germans, Liberals or

Clericals. One and all are as uncompromising as ever, and

neither the leaders nor the rank and file are prepared to

reckon with the real exigencies of the situation, even to save

their own Parliamentary existence. The feudal nobility, who

stand aloof from Parliamentary strife, have alone lost nothing

of their position and influence. They disdainfully refuse to

take either the requirements of the State or the legitimate

wishes of the Crown into account. They are preparing in

alliance with Ultramontanism to hold their own against the

coming storm. Their action in the pending electrical campaign

is of an occult nature; their proceedings are seldom reported

by the newspapers, and when they meet it is by groups and

privately.

"The political speeches which have hitherto been delivered in

various parts of the country are bewildering. The Germans are

split up into several fractions, and even on the other side

there have been separate manifestos from the Young Czechs and

also from the Old Czechs, who have long ceased to play a part

in the Reichsrath. It is confusion worse confounded, in fact

complete chaos. The prospect of a rallying of the

heterogeneous and mutually antagonistic groups on the basis of

resistance to Hungarian exigencies, though possible, is not

yet at hand, whatever the future may reserve. … The words of

warning that came from the Crown as to this being the last

attempt that would be made to rule by constitutional methods

has clearly failed to produce that impression among

Parliamentary politicians which might justly have been

anticipated. Not even the most experienced and best informed

among the former members of the Reichsrath are disposed to

make any prophecy as to what will follow the dissolution of

the next Chamber."

{45}

In the following month, a significant speech in the Reichsrath

at Buda-Pesth, by the very able Hungarian Prime Minister, M.

Szell, WIIS reported. "He foreshadowed the possibility of a

situation in which Austria would not be able to fulfil the

conditions prescribed in the Ausgleich Act of 1867 with regard

to the manner of dealing with the affairs common to both halves

of the Monarchy. He himself had, however, made up his mind on

the subject, and was convinced that even in those

circumstances the Hungarians would by means of provisional

measures regulate the common affairs and interests of the two

States, 'while specially asserting the rights of Hungary and

its independence.' Another version of this somewhat oracular

statement runs as follows:—'Hungary, without infringing the

Ausgleich law, will find ways and means of regulating those

affairs which, in virtue of the Pragmatic sanction, are common

to both States, while at the same time protecting her own

interests and giving greater emphasis to her independence.'

Dr. Szell added:—'When the right time comes I shall explain my

views, and eventually submit proposals to the House.

Meanwhile, let us husband our strength and keep our powder

dry.' The self-confident and almost defiant tone of this

forecast, coming from a responsible statesman accustomed to

display such prudence and moderation of language as M. Szell,

has made a profound impression in Austria. It assumes the

breakdown of the Austrian Parliamentary system to be a

certainty, and anticipates the adoption by Hungary of

one-sided measures which, according to M. Szell, will afford

more effective protection to its interests and confirm its

independence. This seems to be interpreted in Vienna as an

indication that the Hungarian Premier has a cut and dry scheme

ready for the revision of the Ausgleich in a direction which

bodes ill for Austria. The gravity of the Ministerial

statement is recognized by journals of such divergent views as

the semi-official 'Fremdenblatt,' the pan-Germanic and

Anti-Semitic 'Deutsche Zeitung,' and the 'Neues Wiener

Tagblatt,' which is the organ of the moderate German element.

The 'Neues Wiener Tagblatt' frankly acknowledges that, in

addition to all her other cares, Austria has now to consider

the crucial question of the form which her relations with

Hungary will assume at no distant date. Commercial severance

and declarations of independence are, it says, being discussed

by the initiated sections of the community in both countries,

as if it were a matter of merely economic concern, instead of

the greatest and most perilous political problem that the

Monarchy has been called upon to solve since the establishment

of the Dual system, which, in spite of its complexity, has

worked well for such a long period. The 'Neues Wiener

Tagblatt,' nevertheless, admits that things have now reached a

stage at which economic severance is no longer impossible." In

a subsequent speech on New Year's Day, M. Szell declared that

it "would be a fatal mistake to sever the ties which had so

long connected the two countries, as the objects for which

they were called into existence still remained and their

fundamental basis was not shaken."

The Vienna journals, on that New Year's Day of 1901, reviewed

the past and surveyed the prospects of the future in gloomy

and pessimistic tones. Heading its article "Progress

Backward," the "Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung" said: "It is true

that Austria has at her disposal a larger and more efficiently

trained army than ever. The natural resources of the country

have been better developed than in the past. The progress of

the century has not been without influence upon ourselves.

But, whereas other nations are more vigorous, greater, and

mightier, we have become weaker, smaller, and less important.

The history of the world during the second half of the past

century has been made at our expense. … In the new partition

of the world no room has been reserved for Austria. The most

important events which will perhaps give the world a new

physiognomy are taking place without Austria's being able to

exercise the slightest influence thereon. We are living upon

our old reputation, but in the long run that capital will

prove insufficient."

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1900 (December).

Census of Vienna.

See (in this volume)

VIENNA: A. D. 1900.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1901.

Parliamentary elections.

Weakening of the Clerical and Anti-Semitic parties.

Gains for the ultra-radical German parties.

Disorderly opening of the Reichsrath.

Speech of the Emperor from the throne.

From the parliamentary elections held in January the Clerical

and Anti-Semitic parties came back to the Reichsrath shorn of

about one-third of their strength, while the various radical

factions, especially those among the Germans, appear to have

made considerable gains. Even in the Tyrol, one of the

strongest of the Clerical leaders, Baron Di Pauli, was

defeated, and in Vienna the Anti-Semitic majority was cut to

less than one-fourth of what it had been three years before.

"The Pan-Germanic group," writes "The Times" correspondent

from Vienna, "which only numbered five in the last Parliament,

now musters 21. It will be remembered that it openly advocates

incorporation with the German Empire, and as a preparatory

measure the wholesale conversion of the German population of

Austria to Protestantism. It has hitherto been to a certain

extent boycotted by the other German parties, being excluded

from their so-called union for mutual defence and joint

action." "But the programme which had thus been boycotted by

the bulk of the German members has been the most successful of

all in the recent general election. The position of its

leading representative, Herr Schönerer, has been so

strengthened that he has been able to impose upon the whole

group the title of Pan-Germanic Union, and to enforce the

acceptance of the principle of 'emancipation from Rome.' The

latter demand caused a certain hesitation on the part of some

of his new followers, who, however, ultimately decided to

adopt it, although not to the full extent of renouncing the

Roman Catholic faith, as Herr Schönerer and his principal

lieutenant, Herr Wolf, themselves had done. At a conference of

the party its programme was declared to be the promotion of

such a federal connexion of the German provinces of Austria

with the German Empire as would furnish a permanent guarantee

for the maintenance of the German nationality in this country.

The party would oppose every Government that resisted the

realization of that object, and it could not participate in

any manifestations of loyalty while such a Government policy

was maintained. At the same time, the party regarded it as

their obvious duty to emancipate themselves from Rome in a

political but not religious sense—that is to say, to free

themselves from the influence of the Roman Curia in affairs of

State.

{46}

"This boycotted party and programme now threatens to win the

voluntary or enforced adherence of the advanced section of the

other German groups which had hitherto declined to commit

themselves to such an extreme policy. The most moderate of all

the German parties, that of the constitutional landed

proprietors, has felt called upon to enter an energetic and

indignant protest against the foregoing Pan-Germanic

programme. While they are convinced supporters of the

Austro-German alliance, they unconditionally reject

aspirations which they hold to be totally inconsistent with

the tried and reliable basis of that agreement, and which

would constitute an undignified sacrifice of the independence

of the Monarchy. They further decline to make their

manifestations of loyalty to the Sovereign dependent upon any

condition; and they strongly condemn the emancipation from

Rome movement as a culpable confusion of the spheres of

religion and politics, and an infringement of the liberty of

conscience which is calculated to sow dissension among the

German nationality in Austria.

"It now remains to be seen to which side the bulk of the

German representatives will rally; to that of the Moderates,

who have re-affirmed their devotion to the Dynasty and the

existing Constitution, or to that of the Pan-Germanic

revolutionaries, who have decided to make their manifestations

of loyalty dependent upon the adoption by the Crown of their

programme.

"The outlook has thus undergone, if anything, a change for the

worse since the last Reichsrath was dissolved. The only

reassuring feature of the situation is that the fall of the

Ministry is not a primary end with any of the parties in the

Reichsrath. Dr. von Körber, who is a politician of great tact

and experience, has avoided friction on all sides."

The opening session of the newly elected Reichsrath was held

on the 31st of January, and the disorderly temper in it was

manifested upon a reference by the President to the death of

Queen Victoria, which called out cries of hostility to England

from both Germans and Czechs.

"In the course of the proceedings some of the members of the

Extreme Czech fraction warned the Prime Minister in

threatening terms against introducing a single word hostile to

the Czech nation in the coming Speech from the Throne. They

also announced their intention of squaring accounts with him

so soon as the Speech from the Throne should be delivered. The

whole sitting did not last an hour, but … what happened

suffices to show that not only the Pan-Germanic Union, but

also the Extreme section of the German People's party and a

couple of Radical Czechs, are ready at a moment's notice to

transform the Reichsrath into a bear garden."

On the 4th of February the two Houses of the Reichsrath were

assembled at the Palace and addressed by the Emperor, in a

speech from the throne of which the following is a partial

report: "His Majesty referred to various features of

legislation, including the Budget, the revision of the Customs

tariff, the promotion of trade, industry, and navigation, the

protection of the working classes and the regulation of the

hours of labour, the Government railway projects and the

Bosnian lines, and Bills for the regulation of emigration, the

construction of dwellings for the lower classes, the

repression of drunkenness, the development of the University

system and other educational reforms, and a revision of the

Press laws—in fact a whole inventory of the important

legislative arrears consequent upon the breakdown of

Parliament.

"The following passage occurs in the further course of the

speech: 'The Constitution which I bestowed upon my dominions

in the exercise of my free will ought to be an adequate

guarantee for the development of my people. The finances of

the State have been put in order in exemplary fashion and its

credit has been raised to a high level. The freedom of the

subject reposes upon a firm foundation, and thanks to the

scholastic organization and the extraordinary increase of

educational establishments general culture has reached a

gratifying standard, which has more especially contributed to

the efficiency and intelligence of my army. The Provincial

Diets have been able to do much within the limits of their

jurisdiction. The beneficial influence of the constitutional

system has penetrated as far as the communal administrations.

I am thus justified in saying that the fundamental laws of the

State are a precious possession of my loyal people.

Notwithstanding the autonomy enjoyed by certain kingdoms and

provinces, they constitute for foreigners the symbol of the

strength and unity of the State. I was, therefore, all the

more grieved that the last sessions of the Legislature should

have had no result, even if I am prepared to acknowledge that

such business as affected the position of the Monarchy was

satisfactorily transacted by all parties.'

"The Emperor then expressed his regret that other matters of

equal importance affecting the interests of Austria had not

been disposed of. His Majesty made an appeal to the

representatives of the Reichsrath to devote their efforts to

the necessary and urgent work awaiting them, and assured them

that they might count upon the Government. All attempts at the

moral and material development of the Empire were, he said,

stultified by the nationality strife. Experience had shown

that the efforts of the Government to bring about a settlement

of the principal questions involved therein had led to no

result and that it was preferable to deal with the matter in

the Legislature. The Government regarded a generally

satisfactory solution of the pending language question as

being both an act of justice and a necessity of State.

Trusting in the good will manifested by all parties, the

Ministry would do its utmost to promote a settlement which

would relieve the country of its greatest evil. At the same

time, the Cabinet was under the obligation of maintaining

intact the unity of language in certain departments of the

Administration, in which it constituted an old and well-tested

institution. Success must never again be sought through

paralysing the popular representation. The hindrance of

Parliamentary work could only postpone or render quite

impossible the realization of such aspirations as most deeply

affected the public mind. The Sovereign then referred to the

damage done to the interests of the Empire by the obstacles

placed in the way of the regular working of the Constitution,

and pointed to the indispensable necessity of the vigorous

co-operation of Parliament in the approaching settlement of

the commercial relations between the two halves of the

Monarchy. The speech concluded with a warmly-worded appeal to

the representatives to establish a peace which would

correspond to the requirements of the time and to defend as

their fathers had defended 'this venerable State which accords

equal protection to all its peoples.'"

{47}

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1901 (March).

Continued turbulence of the factions

in the Austrian Reichsrath.

Outspoken aim of the Pan-Germans.

At this writing (late in March), the disgraceful and

destructive conflict of reckless factions is still raging in

the Austrian Reichsrath, and the parties have come to blows

several times. The hope of the German extremists for a

dissolution of the Empire seems to be more and more openly

avowed. On one occasion, "a Czech member, Dr. Sieleny, having

accused the Pan-Germans of wistfully glancing across the

frontier, Herr Stein, a member of the Pan-Germanic group,

replied, 'We do not glance, we gaze.' Being reproached with

looking towards Germany with an ulterior motive, the same

gentleman answered, 'You Czechs want to go to Russia, and we

Germans want to go to Germany.' Again, on being told that he

would like to become a Prussian, he exclaimed, 'I declare

openly that we want to go to the German Empire.' Finally, in

reply to another remark, Herr Stein observed that everybody in

the country who was an Austrian patriot was stupid."

----------AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: End--------

AUTONOMY, Constitutional:

Granted by Spain to Cuba and Porto Rico.

See (in this volume)

CUBA: A. D. 1897 (NOVEMBER);

and 1897-1898 (NOVEMBER-FEBRUARY).

AYUNTAMIENTOS.

Town councillors in Spain and in the Spanish American states.

See (in this volume)

CUBA: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY).

BABYLON: Exploration of the ruins of the city.

See (in this volume)

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH:

BABYLONIA: GERMAN EXPLORATION.

BABYLON: Railway to the ruins.

See (in this volume)

TURKEY: A. D. 1899 (NOVEMBER).

BABYLONIA: Archæological Exploration in.

See (in this volume)

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA: AMERICAN EXPLORATION.

BACHI,

BASHEE ISLANDS, The American acquisition of.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-DECEMBER).

BACTERIAL SCIENCE, Recent.

See (in this volume)

SCIENCE, RECENT: MEDICAL AND SURGICAL.

BADENI, Count: Austrian ministry.

See (in this volume)

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1895-1896.

BADEN-POWELL, General R. S. S.: Defense of Mafeking.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):

A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-NOVEMBER); and 1900 (MARCH-MAY).

BAGDAD, Railways to.

See (in this volume)

TURKEY: A. D. 1899 (NOVEMBER); and JEWS: A. D. 1899.

BAJAUR.

See (in this volume)

INDIA: A.D. 1895 (MARCH-SEPTEMBER).

BALFOUR, Arthur J.:

First Lord of the Treasury in the British Cabinet.

See (in this volume)

ENGLAND: A. D. 1894-1895; and 1900 (NOVEMBER-DECEMBER).

BALFOUR, Arthur J.:

Tribute to Queen Victoria.

See (in this volume)

ENGLAND: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY).

BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES, The.

"The States of the Balkan Peninsula, ever since the practical

disruption of European Turkey after the war of 1877-78, have

been in a condition of chronic restlessness. Those who desire

the repose of Europe have hoped against hope that the new

communities which were founded or extended on the ruins of the

Ottoman dominion in Europe would be able and willing to keep

the peace among themselves and to combine in resisting the

intrusion of foreign influences. These expectations have been

too frequently disappointed. The lawlessness of Bulgaria and

the unsettled state of Servia, more especially, continue to

constitute a periodical cause of anxiety to the diplomacy of

Europe. The recent murder at Bukharest of Professor

Mihaileano, a Macedonian by birth and a Rumanian by

extraction, appears to be a shocking example of the teaching

of a school of political conspirators who have their centre of

operations at Sofia. These persons had already combined to

blackmail and terrorise the leading Rumanian residents in the

capital of Bulgaria, where the most abominable outrages are

stated to have been committed with impunity. Apparently, they

have now carried the war, with surprising audacity, into the

Rumanian capital itself. Two persons marked out for vengeance

by the terrorists of Sofia had previously been murdered in

Bukharest, according to our Vienna Correspondent, but these

were Bulgarians by birth. It is a further step in this

mischievous propaganda that a Rumanian subject, the occupant

of an official position at the seat of the Rumanian

government, should be done to death by emissaries from the

secret society at Sofia. His crime was that, born of Rumanian

parents in Macedonia, he had the boldness to controvert in the

Press the claims of the Bulgarians to obtain the upper hand in

a Turkish province, where Greeks, Turks, Bulgarians,

Albanians, and Serbs are inextricably mixed up. Professor

Mihaileano had probably very good reasons for coming to the

conclusion that, whatever may be the evils of Ottoman rule,

they are less than those which would follow a free fight in

the Balkans, ending, it may be, in the ascendency of Bulgarian

ruffianism.

"It is for this offence that M. Mihaileano suffered the

penalty of death by the decree of a secret tribunal, and at

the hands of assassins sent out to do their deadly work by

political intriguers who sit in safety at Sofia. The most

serious aspect of the matter, however, is the careless and

almost contemptuous attitude of the Bulgarian Government. The

reign of terror at Sofia and the too successful attempts to

extend it to Rumania have provoked remonstrances not only from

the government at Bukharest, but from some of the Great

Powers, including Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Italy. … There

is only too much reason to fear, even now, that both the

Bulgarian Government and the ruler of the Principality are

afraid to break with the terrorists of Sofia.

{48}

Political assassination is unfortunately among the traditions

of the Bulgarian State, but it has never been practised with

such frequency and impunity as under the rule of Prince

Ferdinand. … His own conduct as a ruler, coupled with the

lamentable decline of the spirit of Bulgarian independence,

which seemed to be vigorous and unflinching before the

kidnapping of Prince Alexander, has steadily lowered his

position. The Bulgarian agitation—to a large extent a sham

one—for the 'redemption,' as it is called, of Macedonia is a

safety-valve that relieves Prince Ferdinand and those who

surround him from much unpleasant criticism. …

"The situation in the Balkans is in many respects disquieting.

The Bulgarian agitation for the absorption of Macedonia is not

discouraged in high quarters. The hostility of the Sofia

conspirators to the Koutzo-Wallachs, the Rumanians of

Macedonia, is due to the fact that the latter, being a small

minority of the population, are ready to take their chance of

equal treatment under Turkish rule, subject to the supervision

of Europe, rather than to be swallowed up in an enlarged

Bulgaria, dominated by the passions that now prevail in the

Principality and that have been cultivated for obvious

reasons. Russia, it is believed, has no wish to see Bulgarian

aspirations realized, and would much rather keep the

Principality in a state of expectant dependence. Servia and

Greece would be as much embarrassed as Rumania by the success

of the Bulgarian propaganda, and Austria-Hungary would regard

it as a grave menace. Of course the Turkish government could

not be expected to acquiesce in what would, in fact, be its

knell of doom. … In Greece, the insubordination in certain

sections of the army is a symptom not very alarming in itself,

but unpleasantly significant of latent discontent. In Turkey,

of course, the recrudescence of the fanaticism which

periodically breaks out in the massacres of the Armenians

cannot be overlooked. A more unfortunate time could not be

chosen for endeavouring to reopen the Eastern question by

pressing forward the Bulgarian claim to Macedonia. Nor could a

more unfortunate method be adopted of presenting that claim than

that of the terrorists who appear to be sheltered or screened

at Sofia."

_London Times, August 23, 1900._

See, also (in this volume),

TURKEY: A. D. 1899-1901.

BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES:

Bulgaria.

On the 15th of July, 1895, M. Stambouloff, lately the powerful

chief minister in the Bulgarian government, but now overthrown

and out of favor, was attacked by four assassins, in the

streets of Sofia, and received wounds from which he died three

days afterwards.

The increasing influence of Russia in Bulgaria was manifested

unmistakably on the 14th of February, 1896, when Prince Boris,

the infant son and heir of the reigning Prince Ferdinand, was

solemnly baptised into the Orthodox Greek Church, the Tzar of

Russia, represented by proxy at the ceremony, acting as

sponsor. This is understood to have been done in opposition to

the most earnest remonstrances of the mother of the child, who is

an ardent Roman Catholic, the father being nominally the same.

BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: Montenegro:

Recent changes.

"The accession of territory obtained under the Berlin Treaty

has already begun to alter the character of the country. The

area of the Principality has been almost doubled, and fertile

valleys, tracts of rich woodland and a strip of sea-coast have

been added to the realm of Prince Nikolas. Montenegro is now

something more than the rocky eyrie of a warlike clan, and the

problem of its commercial development constantly occupies the

mind of its ruler. The state of transition is reflected in the

aspect of the capital. A tiny hamlet in 1878, Tzetinye now

bears witness to the growth of civilisation and to the

beneficent influence of a paternal despotism. … Nikolas I.,

'Prince and Gospodar of free Tzrnagora and the Berda,' is the

most picturesque and remarkable figure in the South Slavonic

world. Descended from a long line of heroes, the heir of the

Vladikas, he has, like them, distinguished himself in many a

hard-fought conflict with the hereditary foe. In the field of

poetry he has also won his triumphs; like his father Mirko,

'the Sword of Montenegro,' he has written lyric odes and

ballads; like his ancestor, the Vladika Petar II., he has

composed historical dramas, and his poems and plays hold a

recognised place in contemporary Slavonic literature. The

inheritor of a splendid tradition, a warrior and a bard,

gifted by nature with a fine physique and a commanding

presence, he forms the impersonation and embodiment of all

that appeals most to the imagination of a romantic and

impressionable race, to its martial instinct, its poetic

temperament, and its strange—and to us

incomprehensible—yearning after long-vanished glories. … Any

attempt to describe Prince Nikolas' work as an administrator

and a reformer would lead me too far. The codification of the

law, which was begun by his ancestors, Danilo I. and Petar I.,

has been almost completed under his supervision. … The

suppression of the vendetta is one of the greatest of the

Prince's achievements. … Crime is now rare in the

Principality, except in the frontier districts, where acts of

homicide are regarded as justifiable, and indeed laudable, if

perpetrated in payment of old scores, or if the victim is an

Albanian from over the border. Primary education has been made

universal, schools have arisen in every village, and lecturers

have been appointed to explain to the peasants the advantages

of learning. Communications are being opened up, and the

Principality, which a few years since possessed nothing but

mule-tracks, can now boast of 138 miles of excellent

carriage-road, better engineered and maintained than any I

have seen in the Peninsula. The construction of roads is

viewed with some apprehension by the more conservative

Montenegrins, who fear that their mountain stronghold may lose

its inaccessible character. But the Prince is determined to

keep abreast of the march of civilisation. Nine post-offices

and thirteen telegraph stations have been established. The

latter, which are much used by the people, will play an

important part in the next mobilization of the Montenegrin

army. Hitherto the forces of the Principality have been called

together by stentorian couriers who shouted from the tops of

the mountains. A great reform, however, still remains to be

attempted—the conversion of a clan of warriors into an

industrial nation. The change has been rendered inevitable by

the enlargement of the bounds of the Principality, and its

necessity is fully recognised by the Prince.

{49}

Once the future of the country is assured, his order will be

'à bas les armes.' He is aware that such an edict would be

intensely unpopular, but he will not flinch when the time for

issuing it arrives. Every Montenegrin has been taught from his

cradle to regard warfare as his sole vocation in life, and to

despise industrial pursuits. The tradition of five hundred

years has remained unbroken, but the Prince will not hesitate

to destroy it. So enormous is his influence over the people,

that he feels confident in his ability to carry out this

sweeping reform."

_J. D. Bourchier,

Montenegro and her Prince

(Fortnightly Review, December, 1898)._

BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: Montenegro:

New title of the Prince.

On the 19th of December, 1900, at Tzetinye, or Cettigne, "the

President of the Council of State, in the presence of the

other Ministers and dignitaries and of the members of the

Diplomatic Corps, presented an address to the Prince of

Montenegro praying him, in token of the gratitude of the

Montenegrin people for the benefits which he had conferred on

them during his 40 years' reign, to take the title of Royal

Highness. The Prince acceded to the request, and, replying to

the President, thanked all the European rulers who on this

occasion had given him a fresh proof of their friendship by

their recognition of his new title. After the ceremony a Te

Deum was celebrated in the Cathedral, and the Prince

subsequently reviewed the troops, receiving a great welcome

from the people."

_Telegram,

Reuter's Agency._

BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES:

Servia.

In January, 1894, the young king, Alexander, called his

father, the ex-king, Milan (abdicated in 1889—see, in volume

1. BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: A. D. 1879-1889), to Belgrade

to give him help against his Radical ministers, who had been

taking, the latter thought, too much into their own hands. The

first result was a change of ministry, soon followed by a

decision from the synod of Servian bishops annulling the

divorce of ex-King Milan and Queen Natalie; by a public

announcement of their reconciliation, and by an ukase from

King Alexander, cancelling all laws and resolutions which

touched his parents and restoring to them their rights and

privileges as members of the royal house. This, again, was

followed, on the 21st of May, by a royal proclamation which

abolished the constitution of December, 1888, and restored the

old constitution of 1869. This was a tremendous step backward, to

a state of things in which almost no protection against

arbitrary kingship could be found.

For some years the ex-king exercised considerable influence

over his son, and was again an uncertain and much distrusted

factor in the troubled politics of southeastern Europe. In

1898 the son appointed him commander-in-chief of the Servian

army, and he is said to have ably and energetically improved

its efficiency during the brief period of his command. A

breach between father and son was brought about before long,

however, by the determination of the latter to marry a lady,

Madame Draga Maschin, considerably older than himself, who had

been lady-in-waiting to his mother; while the father was

arranging a political marriage for him with a German princess.

The young king married his chosen bride in August, 1900, and

guarded his frontier with troops to bar the return of his

father, then sojourning at a German watering place, to the

kingdom. It was a final exile for the ex-king. He visited

Paris for a time; then went to Vienna, and there, on the 11th

of February, 1901, he died, at the age of 47.

BALLOONS, Declaration against explosives from.

See (in this volume)

PEACE CONFERENCE.

BALTIC and NORTH SEA CANALS.

See (in this volume)

GERMANY: A. D. 1895 (JUNE); and 1900 (JUNE).

BANK OF FRANCE: Renewal of privileges.

See (in this volume)

MONETARY QUESTIONS: A. D. 1897.

BANKING: Its effect on the Nineteenth Century.

See (in this volume)

NINETEENTH CENTURY: THE TREND.

BANKRUPTCY LAW, National.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY 1).

BARBADOS: Condition and relief measures.

See (in this volume)

WEST INDIES, THE BRITISH: A. D. 1897.

BARCELONA: A. D. 1895.

Student riots.

See (in this volume)

SPAIN: A. D. 1895-1896.

BAROTSILAND:

British Protectorate proclaimed.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (RHODESIA): A. D. 1900 (SEPTEMBER).

BARRAGE WORKS, Nile.

See (in this volume)

EGYPT: A. D. 1898-1901.

BARRIOS, President: Assassination.

See (in this volume)

CENTRAL AMERICA (GUATEMALA): A. D. 1897-1898.

BARTON, Miss Clara, and the Red Cross Society.

Relief work in Armenia and Cuba.

See (in this volume)

ARMENIA: A. D. 1896 (JANUARY-MARCH);

and CUBA: A. D. 1896-1897.

BASHEE,

BACHI ISLANDS, The American acquisition of.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-DECEMBER).

BECHUANALAND, British:

Annexation to Cape Colony.

See (in this volume)

AFRICA: A. D. 1895 (CAPE COLONY).

BECHUANALAND, British:

Partial conveyance to the British South Africa Company.

See (in this volume)

AFRICA: A. D. 1895 (BECHUANALAND).

BEEF INVESTIGATION, The American Army.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898-1899.

BEET SUGAR.

See (in this volume)

GERMANY: A. D. 1896 (MAY);

and SUGAR BOUNTIES.

BEHRING SEA.

See (in this volume)

BERING SEA.

BÊL, Temple of:

Exploration of its ruins at Nippur.

See (in this volume)

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA: AMERICAN EXPLORATION.

BELGIAN ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION.

See (in this volume)

POLAR EXPLORATION, 1897-1899.

{50}

BELGIUM: A. D. 1894-1895.

The first election under the new constitution.

Victory of the Catholics and surprising Socialist gains.

Elsewhere in this work the full text of the Belgian

constitution as it was revised in 1893;

See in volume 1

CONSTITUTION OF BELGIUM).

The peculiar features of the new constitution, especially in

its provision of a system of cumulative or plural voting, are

described.

See in volume 3

NETHERLANDS (BELGIUM): A. D. 1892-1893)

The singularity of the experiment thus introduced caused the

elections that were held in Belgium in 1894 and 1895 to be

watched with an interest widely felt. Elections for the

Chamber of Representatives and the Senate occurred on the same

day, October 14, 1894. Previously the Belgian suffrage had

been limited to about 130,000 electors. Under the new

constitution the electors numbered no less than 1,370,000, and

the working of the plural system gave them 2, 111,000 votes.

The result was a more crushing victory for the Catholics than

they had ever won before. Of 152 Representatives they elected

no less than 104. The Liberal party was almost annihilated,

securing but 20 seats in the Chamber; while the Socialists

rose to political importance, winning 28 seats. This

representation is said to be not at all proportioned to the

votes cast by the several parties, and it lent force to the

demand for a system of proportional representation, as the

needed accompaniment of plural voting, which had been urged

when the constitution was revised. In the Senate the

Conservatives obtained 52 seats and the Liberals 24. In the

next year an electoral law relating to communal councils was

passed. In this law, the principle of proportional

representation was introduced, along with that of cumulative

or plural voting. Compulsory voting, enforced by penalties

more or less severe, was also a feature of the law. In

November, the first election under it was held, and again the

Socialists made surprising gains, at the expense of the

Radical party, the Catholics and Liberals generally holding

their ground.

BELGIUM: A. D. 1895.

New School Law.

Compulsory religious teaching restored.

See (in this volume)

EDUCATION: A. D. 1895 (BELGIUM).

BELGIUM: A. D. 1897.

Industrial combinations.

See (in this volume)

TRUSTS: IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.

BELGIUM: A. D. 1897 (July).

British notice to terminate existing commercial treaties.

See (in this volume)

ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (JUNE-JULY).

BELGIUM: A. D. 1898 (June).

The Sugar Conference at Brussels.

See (in this volume)

SUGAR BOUNTIES.

BELGIUM: A. D. 1898 (July-December).

In the Chinese "battle of concessions."

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY-DECEMBER).

BELGIUM: A. D. 1899 (May-July).

Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.

See (in this volume)

PEACE CONFERENCE.

BELGIUM: A. D. 1899-1900.

Threatened revolution.

An explosion of discontent with the working of the electoral

provisions of the new constitution (see above) occurred in

June, and created for a time an exceedingly dangerous

situation. It was precipitated by an attempt on the part of

the government to pass a bill providing for proportional

representation in certain districts, which was expected to

increase the advantage already possessed by the Clerical or

Catholic party. Excitement in the Chamber of Deputies reached

such a height on the 28th of June that fighting among the

members occurred, and soldiers were called in. That night and

the next day there was serious rioting in Brussels; barricades

were built; sharp battles between citizens and soldiers were

fought, and a general strike of working men was proposed. On

the 30th, the government arranged a compromise with the

Socialist and Liberal leaders which referred the question of

proportional representation to a committee in which all

parties were represented. This quieted the disorder. In due

time the committee reported against the measure which the

government had proposed; whereupon a change of ministry was

made, the new ministry being expected to bring forward a more

satisfactory plan of proportional representation. It produced

a bill for that purpose, the provisions of which failed to

give satisfaction, but which was passed, nevertheless, near

the end of the year.

Commenting, in July, on the disturbances then just quieted in

Belgium, the "Spectator," of London, remarked: "The recent

explosion of political feeling in Belgium was a much more

serious event than was quite understood in this country. It

might have involved all Europe, as, indeed, it may even yet.

There was revolution in the air, and a revolution in Belgium

would gravely affect the military position both of France and

Germany, would rouse keen suspicions and apprehensions in this

country, and would perturb all the dynasties with fears of

coming change. The new electoral bill drove the Liberals and

Socialists of the little kingdom into one another's arms—both

believing that it would give the Clericals a permanent hold on

power—and whenever these two parties are united they control

the majority of the Belgian people. That majority is a most

dangerous one. It controls all the cities, and it includes

hundreds of thousands of men who resent their economic

condition with justifiable bitterness, and who are penetrated

with a tradition of victories achieved by insurrection. At the

same time they have no pacific vent for their discontents, for

the suffrage gives double votes to the well-to-do, and secures

to both Liberals and laborers on all economic or religious

questions a certainty of defeat. With the inhabitants of the

cities all rioting and killing the officials, the government

would have been compelled to resort to force, and it is by no

means clear that force was decidedly on their side. The

Belgian army is not a caste widely separated in feeling from

the people; it has no instinctive devotion to the Clerical

party, and it has no great soldier whom it admires or to whom

it is attached. The king is distrusted and disliked both

personally and politically; and the dynasty, which has no

historic connection with Belgium, has never taken root in the

soil as the Bernadottes, for example, have done in Sweden. If

the revolutionists had been beaten, they would have appealed

to France, where Belgium is regarded as a reversionary estate;

while if they had been victorious, they might—in our judgment,

they certainly would—have proclaimed a republic. … The danger

has, we suppose, for the moment been smoothed away; but it has

not been removed, probably can not be removed, while the

conditions which produce it continue to exist. The Belgians,

who are commonly supposed to be so prosperous and pacific, are

divided by differences of race, creed, and social condition

more violent than exists in Ireland, where at all events, all

alike, with insignificant exceptions, speak one tongue.

{51}

The French-speaking Belgians despise the Flemish-speaking

Belgians, and the Flemish speaking Belgians detest the

French-speaking Belgians, with a rancor only concealed by the

long habit of living and acting together,—a habit which,

remember, has not prevented the same contempts and aversions

from continuing to exist in Ireland. The Clericals and the

Secularists hate each other as only religious parties can

hate; far more than Catholics and Protestants in any of the

countries where the two creeds stand side by side. The

Secularist seems to the Clerical a blasphemer, against whom

almost all devices are justifiable, while the Clerical is held

by the Secularist to be a kind of evil fool, from whom nothing is

to be expected except cunningly concealed malignity. The

possessors of property expect that the 'ugly rush' which used

to be talked of in England will occur tomorrow, while the wage

receivers declare that they are worked to death for the

benefit of others, who will not leave them so much as a living

wage. All display when excited to a noteworthy fierceness of

temper, a readiness to shed blood, and a disposition to push

every quarrel into a sort of war,—tendencies visible

throughout the history of the country."

At the parliamentary election in June, 1900, under the new law

providing for proportional representation, the Socialists

gained seventeen seats from the Clerical party.

BELGIUM: A. D. 1900.

Relations with the Congo State.

See (in this volume)

CONGO FREE STATE: A. D. 1900.

BELL TELEPHONE SYSTEM, Recent development of.

See (in this volume)

SCIENCE, RECENT: ELECTRICAL.

BELMONT, Battle of.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):

A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).

BENIN:

Massacre of British officials.

Capture of the town.

See (in this volume)

NIGERIA: A. D. 1897.

BERGENDAL FARM, Battle of.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR): A. D. 1900 (JUNE-DECEMBER).

BERING SEA QUESTIONS.

"Several vexatious questions were left undetermined by the

decision of the Bering Sea Arbitration Tribunal.

See, in volume 5,

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1886-1893.

The application of the principles laid down by that august

body has not been followed by the results they were intended

to accomplish, either because the principles themselves lacked

in breadth and definiteness or because their execution has

been more or less imperfect. Much correspondence has been

exchanged between the two Governments [of Great Britain and

the United States] on the subject of preventing the

exterminating slaughter of seals. The insufficiency of the

British patrol of Bering Sea under the regulations agreed on

by the two Governments has been pointed out, and yet only two

British ships have been on police duty during this season in

those waters. The need of a more effective enforcement of

existing regulations as well as the adoption of such

additional regulations as experience has shown to be

absolutely necessary to carry out the intent of the award have

been earnestly urged upon the British Government, but thus far

without effective results. In the meantime the depletion of

the seal herds by means of pelagic hunting [that is, in the

open sea] has so alarmingly progressed that unless their

slaughter is at once effectively checked their extinction

within a few years seems to be a matter of absolute certainty.

The understanding by which the United States was to pay and Great

Britain to receive a lump sum of $425,000 in full settlement

of all British claims for damages arising from our seizure of

British sealing vessels unauthorized under the award of the

Paris Tribunal of Arbitration was not confirmed by the last

Congress, which declined to make the necessary appropriation.

I am still of the opinion that this arrangement was a

judicious and advantageous one for the Government, and I

earnestly recommend that it be again considered and

sanctioned. If, however, this does not meet with the favor of

Congress, it certainly will hardly dissent from the

proposition that the Government is bound by every

consideration of honor and good faith to provide for the

speedy adjustment of these claims by arbitration as the only

other alternative. A treaty of arbitration has therefore been

agreed upon, and will be immediately laid before the Senate,

so that in one of the modes suggested a final settlement may

be reached."

_Message of the President of the United States to Congress,

December, 1895._

The treaty thus referred to by the President was signed at

Washington, February 8, 1896, and ratifications were exchanged

at London on the 3d of June following. Its preamble set forth

that, whereas the two governments had submitted certain

questions to a tribunal of arbitration, and "whereas the High

Contracting Parties having found themselves unable to agree

upon a reference which should include the question of the

liability of each for the injuries alleged to have been

sustained by the other, or by its citizens, in connection with

the claims presented and urged by it, did, by Article VIII of

the said Treaty, agree that either party might submit to the

Arbitrators any questions of fact involved in said claims, and

ask for a finding thereon, the question of the liability of

either Government on the facts found to be the subject of

further negotiation: And whereas the Agent of Great Britain

did, in accordance with the provisions of said Article VIII,

submit to the Tribunal of Arbitration certain findings of fact

which were agreed to as proved by the Agent of the United

States, and the Arbitrators did unanimously find the facts so

set forth to be true, as appears by the Award of the Tribunal

rendered on the 15th day of August, 1893: And whereas, in view

of the said findings of fact and of the decision of the

Tribunal of Arbitration concerning the jurisdictional rights

of the United States in Behring Sea, and the right of

protection of property of the United States in the fur-seals

frequenting the islands of the United States in Behring Sea,

the Government of the United States is desirous that, in so

far as its liability is not already fixed and determined by

the findings of fact and the decision of said Tribunal of

Arbitration, the question of such liability should be

definitely and fully settled and determined, and compensation

made, for any injuries for which, in the contemplation of the

Treaty aforesaid, and the Award and findings of the Tribunal

of Arbitration, compensation may be due to Great Britain from

the United States: And whereas it is claimed by Great Britain,

though not admitted by the United States, that prior to the

said Award certain other claims against the United States

accrued in favour of Great Britain on account of seizures of

or interference with the following named British

sealing-vessels, to wit: the 'Wanderer,' the 'Winifred,' the

'Henrietta,' and the 'Oscar and Hattie,' and it is for the

mutual interest and convenience of both the High Contracting

Parties that the liability of the United States, if any, and

the amount of compensation to be paid, if any, in respect to

such claims, and each of them should also be determined under

the provisions of this Convention—all claims by Great Britain

under Article V of the modus vivendi of the 18th April, 1892,

for the abstention from fishing of British sealers during the

pendency of said arbitration having been definitely waived

before the Tribunal of Arbitration"—therefore the two nations

have concluded the Convention referred to, which provides that

"all claims on account of injuries sustained by persons in

whose behalf Great Britain is entitled to claim compensation

from the United States, and arising by virtue of the Treaty

aforesaid, the Award and the findings of the said Tribunal of

Arbitration, as also the additional claims specified in the

5th paragraph of the preamble hereto, shall be referred to two

Commissioners, one of whom shall be appointed by Her Britannic

Majesty, and the other by the President of the United States,

and each of whom shall be learned in the law."

_Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications

(Papers by Command: Treaty Series, Number 10, 1896)._

{52}

Judges William L. Putnam, of the United States, and George E.

King, of Canada, were subsequently appointed to be the two

commissioners provided for in the treaty. Meantime each

government had appointed a number of men of science to

investigate the condition of the herds of fur-seals on

Pribilof Islands, President David S. Jordan, of Leland

Stanford Junior University being director of the American

investigation and Professor D'Arcy W. Thompson having charge

of the British. The two bodies of investigators reached quite

different conclusions. Professor Jordan, in a preliminary

statement, announced; "There is still a vast body of fur seals

on the islands, more than the commissioners were at first led

to expect, but the number is steadily declining. The only

cause of this decline is the killing of females through

pelagic sealing. The females are never molested on the

islands, but three-fourths of those killed in Bering sea are

nursing females. The death of the mother causes the death of

the young on shore, so that for every four fur seals killed at

sea three pups starve to death on shore. As each of those

females is also pregnant, a like number of unborn pups is

likewise destroyed." His formal report, made in January, 1897,

was to the same effect, and led to the following conclusion:

"The ultimate end in view should be an international

arrangement whereby all skins of female fur seals should be

seized and destroyed by the customs authorities of civilized

nations, whether taken on land or sea, from the Pribilof herd,

the Asiatic herds, or in the lawless raiding of the Antarctic

rookeries. In the destruction of the fur seal rookeries of the

Antarctic, as well as those of the Japanese islands and of

Bering sea, American enterprise has taken a leading part. It

would be well for America to lead the way in stopping pelagic

sealing by restraining her own citizens without waiting for

the other nations. We can ask for protection with better grace

when we have accorded, unasked, protection to others." The

report of Professor Thompson, made three months later, agreed

but partially with that of the American experts. He admitted

the extensive starving of the young seals, caused by the

killing of the mothers, but contended that the herd was

diminishing slightly, if at all, and he did not favor drastic

measures for the suppression of pelagic sealing.

The government of the United States adopted measures in

accordance with the views of Professor Jordan, looking to an

international regulation of the killing of seals. Hon. John W.

Foster was appointed a special ambassador to negotiate

arrangements to that effect. Through the efforts of Mr.

Foster, an international conference on the subject was agreed

to on the part of Russia and Japan, but Great Britain declined

to take part. While these arrangements were pending, the

American Secretary of State, Mr. Sherman, addressed a letter

to the American Ambassador at London, Mr. Hay, criticising the

conduct of the British government and its agents in terms that

are not usual among diplomats, and which excited much feeling

when the letter was published in July. This called out a reply

from the British Colonial Secretary, Mr. Chamberlain, in which

he wrote: "When Her Majesty's government sent their agents to

inquire into the actual facts in 1896, it was found that, in

spite of the large catch of 1895, the herd actually numbered

more than twice as many cows as it had been officially

asserted to contain in 1895. The result of these

investigations, as pointed out in Lord Salisbury's dispatch of

May 7, has further been to show that pelagic sealing is much

less injurious than the practice pursued by the United States'

lessees of killing on land every male whose skin was worth

taking. If the seal herd to-day is, as Professor Jordan

estimates, but one-fifth of what it was in 1872-74, that

result must be, in great measure, due to the fact that, while

the islands were under the control of Russia, that power was

satisfied with an average catch of 33,000 seals; subsequently

under the United States' control more than three times that

number have been taken every year, until the catch was,

perforce, reduced because that number of males could no longer

be found.

"Last year, while the United States government were pressing

Her Majesty's government to place further restrictions on

pelagic sealing, they found it possible to kill 30,000 seals

on the islands, of which Professor Jordan says (in one place

in his report) 22,000 were, to the best of his information,

three-year-olds, though (in another place) he estimated the

total number of three-year-old males on the islands as 15,000

to 20,000. If such exhaustive slaughter is continued, it will,

in the light of the past history of the herd, very quickly bring

about that commercial extermination which has been declared in

the United States to be imminent every year for the last

twelve years. Enough has perhaps been said to justify the

refusal of Her Majesty's government to enter on a precipitate

revision of the regulations."

{53}

The two countries were thus being carried into serious

opposition, on a matter that looks contemptible when compared

with the great common interests which ought to bind them in

firm friendship together. But, while the government of Great

Britain declined to enter into conference with those of

Russia, Japan and the United States, on general questions

relating to the seals, it assented at length to a new

conference with the United States and Canada, relative to the

carrying out of the regulations prescribed by the Paris

tribunal of 1893. Both conferences were held at Washington in

October and November of 1897. The first resulted in a treaty

(November 6) between Russia, Japan, and the United States,

providing for a suspension of pelagic sealing during such time

as might be determined by experts. The other conference led,

after some interval, to the creation of a Joint High

Commission for the settlement of all questions in dispute

between the United States and Canada, the sealing question

included.

See (in this volume)

CANADA: A. D. 1898-1899.

So far as concerned its own citizens, the American government

adopted vigorous measures for the suppression of pelagic

sealing. An Act of Congress, approved by the President on the

29th December, 1897, forbade the killing of seals, by any

citizen of the United States, in any part of the Pacific Ocean

north of 35 degrees north latitude. The same act prohibited

the importation into the United States of sealskins taken

elsewhere than in the Pribilof Islands, and very strict

regulations for its enforcement were issued by the Treasury

Department. No sealskins, either in the raw or the

manufactured state, might be admitted to the country, even

among the personal effects of a traveller, unless accompanied

by an invoice, signed by an United States Consul, certifying

that they were not from seals killed at sea. Skins not thus

certified were seized and destroyed.

In his annual report for 1898, the United States Secretary of

the Treasury stated that no pelagic sealing whatever had been

carried on by citizens of the United States during the season

past; but that 30 British vessels had been engaged in the

work, against 32 in the previous year, and that their total

catch had been 10,581, against 6,100 taken by the same fleet

in 1897. The number of seals found on the Islands was reported

to be greatly reduced.

BERLIN: A. D. 1895.

Census.

See (in this volume)

GERMANY: A. D. 1895 (JUNE-DECEMBER).

BERLIN: A. D. 1896.

Industrial exposition.

An exposition of German industries and products was opened at

Berlin on the 1st of May, 1896. which excited wide interest

and had an important stimulating effect in Germany.

BERLIN: A. D. 1900.

Growth shown by the latest census.

See (in this volume)

GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (DECEMBER).

BERLIN: A. D. 1901.

The Berlin and Stettin Ship Canal.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY).

BETHLEHEM, Capture of.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR): A. D. 1900 (JUNE-DECEMBER).

BIAC-NA-BATO, Treaty of.

See (in this volume)

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1896-1898.

BIBLE LANDS, Archæological exploration in.

See (in this volume)

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA: AMERICAN EXPLORATION.

BICOLS, The.

See (in this volume)

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: THE NATIVE INHABITANTS.

BIDA, British subjugation of.

See (in this volume)

AFRICA: A. D. 1897 (NIGERIA).

BIG SWORD,

BIG KNIFE SOCIETY.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY-MARCH).

BISMARCK, Prince Otto von: Death.

See (in this volume)

GERMANY: A. D. 1898 (JULY).

BLACK FLAG REBELLION.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-JULY).

BLANCO, General Ramon, Captain-General of Cuba.

See (in this volume)

CUBA: A. D. 1896-1897.

BLANCOS.

See (in this volume)

URUGUAY: A. D. 1896-1899.

BLOEMFONTEIN:

Taken by the British.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR): A. D. 1900 (MARCH—MAY).

BLOEMFONTEIN CONFERENCE, The.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1899 (MAY-JUNE).

BLUEFIELDS INCIDENT, The.

See (in this volume)

CENTRAL AMERICA (NICARAGUA): A. D. 1894-1895.

BOARD SCHOOLS, English.

See (in this volume)

ENGLAND: A. D. 1896-1897.

BOERS.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL).

BOHEMIA:

Recent situation in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

See (in this volume)

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1895-1896, and after.

BOHEMIA: A. D. 1897.

The language decrees.

See (in this volume)

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897; and 1898.

BOLIVIA: A. D. 1894-1900.

The dispute with Chile concerning Atacama.

See (in this volume) CHILE: A. D. 1894-1900.

BOLIVIA: A. D. 1899.

Revolution.

The government of President Alonzo (elected in 1896) was

overthrown in April, 1899, by a revolutionary movement

conducted by General José Manuel Pando, who was elected

President by the legislative chambers in the following

October.

BOMBAY: A. D. 1896-1901.

The Bubonic Plague.

See (in this volume)

PLAGUE.

BOMBAY: A. D. 1901.

Census returns.

Decrease of population.

A telegram from Bombay, March 6, 1901, reports that "the

census returns show the city of Bombay has 770,000

inhabitants, a decrease of over fifty thousand in ten years,

mainly due to the exodus of the last two months on account of

the plague. Partial returns from the rural districts show

terrible decreases in population through famine."

BORDA, President: Assassination.

See (in this volume)

URUGUAY: A. D. 1896-1899.

BORIS, Prince: Conversion.

See (in this volume)

BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES (BULGARIA).

{54}

BOSTON: A. D. 1895-1899.

The municipal experiments of Mayor Quincy.

First elected Mayor of Boston in 1895, and reelected in 1897,

the two terms of the administration of Mayor Josiah Quincy

were made remarkable by the number, the originality and the

boldness of the experiments which he introduced in extension

of the functions of municipal government. They consisted on

the one hand in the substitution, in certain branches of

public work, of direct labor for the contract system, and on

the other in the provision of new facilities for promoting

popular health, recreation, and instruction. He established a

municipal printing office, a municipal department of

electrical construction, and another municipal department

which conducts every kind of repairing work that the city

requires; all of these to supersede the old system of

contracts and jobs. He instituted a great number and variety

of public baths,—floating baths, beach baths, river baths and

swimming pools. He opened playgrounds and gymnasiums, both

outdoor and indoor. He carried the city into the work of the

fresh air missions for poor children. He reorganized the

administration of public charities. He placed the artistic

undertakings of the city under the supervision of a competent

board. He instituted cheap concerts of a high order, as well

as popular lectures. Boston at length took alarm at the extent

of the ventures of Mayor Quincy, complained of the cost, and

refused him reelection for a third term. But the Boston

correspondent of a New York journal opposed in politics to

Mayor Quincy, writing on the 15th of December, 1900, testifies

that "most of the experiments are working well, and a study of

them cannot fail to be beneficial to those who have the

government of other cities in their hands. … The madness of

Mayor Quincy had evidently a method. It seems to have made

permanent a good many excellent institutions. Some good

citizens say that things were done too quickly, that they cost

too much money, that the Mayor was always robbing Peter to pay

Paul, as it were. But, after all, it seems cause for

thankfulness that they were done at all."

BOSTON: A. D. 1899.

Completion of the Subway.

In this year the city of Boston completed a very important

public improvement, undertaken in 1895, and carried out under

the direction of a commission appointed that year. This was

the construction of a Subway under Boylston and Tremont

streets, and under various streets in the northern district,

for the transit of electric cars through the crowded central

parts of the city. The section of Subway from Park Square to

Park Street was finished in the fall of 1897; the remainder in

1899. The entire length of underground road is one and

two-thirds miles. The cost of work done was $4,686,000: cost

of real estate taken, $1,100,000. The legislative Act

authorizing the work provided further for the construction of

a tunnel to East Boston, and for the purchase of rights of way

for an elevated road to Franklin Park, with new bridges to

Charlestown and West Boston.

BOWER, Sir Graham:

Testimony before British Parliamentary Committee on

the Jameson Raid.

See (in this volume))

SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1897 (FEBRUARY-JULY).

BOXERS, The Chinese:

The secret society and the meaning of its name.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY-MARCH), and after.

BRADFORD'S HISTORY:

Return of the manuscript to Massachusetts.

See (in this volume)

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1897.

BRAZIL: A. D. 1897.

Conflict with the "Fanatics."

A religious enthusiast, called Conselheiro (Counsellor), who

had made his appearance in the State of Bahia and gathered a

great number of followers, began in 1897 to become dangerous

to the government, which he denounced as atheistic; his

following grew disorderly, and political malcontents were

taking advantage of the disturbance which he caused. Attempts

on the part of the government to stop the disorder were

fiercely resisted, and its conflict with "the Fanatics," as

Conselheiro and his followers were known, soon became a very

serious war, demanding many thousands of troops, and spreading

over wide regions of the country. Amazonian bands of women

fought with "the Fanatics," and were among the most dreaded

forces on their side. The headquarters and stronghold of the

movement were finally taken in July, after an obstinate

defense, and in October Conselheiro was killed; after which

the rebellion came to an end.

BRAZIL: A. D. 1898.

Election of Dr. Campos Salles to the Presidency.

The nomination and election of Dr. M. F. de Campos Salles, who

was inaugurated President of the United States of Brazil on

the 15th of November, 1898, "marks the decided distinction of

parties in Brazil. Previously, there had been various

divergencies among the Republicans, but no distinct party

differences. But at that time there arose a party advocating

the selection of a candidate who would favor the national

against the foreign (naturalized) element; one who would have

influence with the few remaining advocates of the monarchical

government; who would give preference to a military over a

civil government; finally, one who would introduce into the

government the system called 'Jacobinism,' a designation which

the new party did not refuse to accept. Dr. Campos Salles was

the candidate of the moderate Republicans or Conservatives,

who were organized under the name of the Republican party,

with a platform demanding respect for the constitution and

declaring for the institution of such reforms as only reason

and time should dictate. The sympathies of the conservative

element and of foreigners who had interests in the country

were with the candidate of this party and gave him their

support. The election of Dr. Campos Salles inspired renewed

confidence in the stability of Brazil, a confidence which was

at once manifested by the higher quotation of the national

bonds, by an advance in the rate of exchange, and by greater

activity in business throughout the country. Brazil, in spite

of all hindrances, has prospered since 1889."

_Bulletin of the Bureau of American Republics,

December, 1898._

{55}

BRAZIL: A. D. 1900.

Arbitration of the French Guiana boundary dispute.

Award of the Swiss Government.

A dispute with France concerning the boundary of the French

possessions in Guiana, which Brazil inherited from Portugal,

and which dates back to the 17th century, was submitted at

last to the Swiss Federal Council, as a tribunal of

arbitration, and settled by the award of the Council on

December 1, 1900. The decision fixes the River Oyapok and the

watershed of the Tumuc Humac Mountains as the boundary. It is

practically in favor of Brazil, for France had claimed, a year

before, a territory of not less than 400,000 square

kilomètres, ten times the area of Switzerland itself. Even

after a large abatement had been made, the claim was still for

260,000 square kilometres, or 100,000 square miles, much more

than the area of Great Britain. The actual territory allotted

to France by the Federal Government of Switzerland is about

3,000 square miles. The arbitrators had no excuse for saying

that the case was not brought before them in all its length

and breadth. The documents presented by France formed four

large volumes, supplemented by an atlas of 35 maps, while

Brazil, not to be outdone, put in 13 volumes of documents and

three atlases, with about 200 maps.

BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA PROTECTORATE:

Administrative separation from British

South Africa Company's territory.

Conflicts with natives.

Resources and prospects of the country.

Until 1894, the territory north of the Zambezi over which the

British South Africa Company claimed a "sphere of influence,"

and the region covered by the British Protectorate that was

declared in 1889-1890 over Nyassaland and the Shiré Highlands,

were administered together by Sir Harry Johnston. But in that

year the South Africa Company undertook the administration of

its own portion of British Central Africa, and Commissioner

Johnston became the Administrator of the remaining "British

Central Africa Protectorate." In his report for 1895-1896

(April to April) the Commissioner estimated the native

population of the Protectorate at 844,420; British subjects,

259; other Europeans, 30; Indians, 263; half-castes, 23. Of

hostilities with the natives, Commissioner Johnston gave the

following report:

"In the autumn of 1895, … a campaign lasting four months was

commenced and carried to a successful conclusion against all

the independent Yao Chiefs who dwelt on the south-eastern

border of the Protectorate, and who continued to raid our

territories for slaves. This campaign culminated in the

complete defeat and death or expulsion of those Arabs who had

created an independent power in the North Nyasa district.

Action was also taken against the Angoni Chief, Mwasi Kazungu,

in the interior of the Marimba district, who had made common

cause with the Arabs, and was attempting to form against us a

league of the Angoni-Zulus. … The only people likely now to

give trouble in any way are the Angoni-Zulus, who are to the

west of the Protectorate what the Yaos and Arabs have been to

the north. For the past 40 years the western portions of the

Protectorate have been the happy hunting-ground of the

descendants of the Zulu bands who quitted Matabeleland at

various periods during the last 70 years, and who penetrated

into Central Africa as far as the eastern part of Tanganyika

and the south shores of the Victoria Nyanza. They established

themselves strongly as a ruling caste on the high plateaux to

the west and to the north-east of Lake Nyasa. From these

plateaux they raided perseveringly for slaves, chiefly in the

regions of the Great Luangwa valley, but also to some extent

the coast lands of Lake Nyasa.

"Not a few of the Angoni Chiefs are friendly and well disposed

towards the British, and seem likely to settle down quietly as

they appreciate the futility of continued defiance of our

power; but we may have yet a little trouble from the Western

Angoni, and also from an ill-conditioned young Chief

ordinarily known by his father's name, Chikusi, but whose

private appellation is Gomanikwenda. Chikusi lives on the

wedge of Portuguese territory which penetrates the

southwestern part of the Protectorate. Secure in the knowledge

that our forces cannot infringe the Portuguese border, he

occasionally makes raids for slaves into the Upper Shire and

Central Angoniland districts."

_Sir Harry Johnston,

Report

(Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications:

Papers by Command, Africa, Number 5, 1896),

pages 12-13._

In the autumn of 1896, Chikusi raided one of the mission

stations at Ntonda, killing many native Christians. An

expedition was then sent against him, which pursued him to his

chief kraal, and took him prisoner. He was tried for murder,

condemned and shot.

"Nyasaland, or British Central Africa as it is officially

called, is now [1898] in a fair way of becoming one of the

richest coffee and tobacco growing districts of the world. It

enjoys the immense advantage of direct water communication

with the coast and, with the exception of a stretch of one

hundred miles, the River Shiré, which runs out of Lake Nyasa,

is navigable along its whole course. Before long the Upper and

Lower Shiré will be connected by a railway line, and goods

will then be landed at the northern extremity of Lake Nyasa—a

distance of 700 miles from the mouth of the Zambezi—at a

trifling cost. At present the journey can already be

accomplished in a week. Ten steamers navigate Lake Nyasa, and

double that number run on the Zambezi and the Shiré Rivers.

This mighty task—accomplished, we must not forget it, without

the cost of a single penny to the British tax-payer—did not

benefit Great Britain alone. The Portuguese, who, for the last

three centuries were slumbering in their East African

possessions, were aroused by the extraordinary activity which

was displayed at their door. At first they raised objections,

but they soon understood what advantages they would derive

from the situation, and gave their hearty co-operation to

Great Britain. It brought more wealth than they had ever

dreamt of to their Zambezi provinces, now a busy centre of

trade, in telegraphic communication with the Cape in the South

and Lake Nyasa in the North. The Portuguese port of Beira, a

sandbank some years ago, has become the most important harbour

between Zanzibar and Delagoa Bay, and owes its present

position to the railway line which runs to Mashonaland."

_L. Decle,

The Fashoda Question

(Fortnightly Review, November, 1898)._

BRITISH COLUMBIA.

See (in this volume)

CANADA.

BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE, The: A. D. 1895.

Territory transferred to the British Government.

See (in this volume)

AFRICA: A. D. 1895 (BRITISH EAST AFRICA).

{56}

BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE, The: A. D. 1895-1897.

Its creation and extent.

Existence of slavery.

War in the Province of Seyyidieh.

Report of the commissioner.

"The British East Africa Protectorate is bounded on the east

by the Indian Ocean, on the west by the Uganda Protectorate,

and on the south-west by the Anglo-German frontier, which,

starting from the mouth of the River Umba, runs in a generally

north-west direction till it strikes the eastern shore of Lake

Victoria Nyanza at the point at which it is intersected by the

1st parallel of south latitude. To the north and north-east it

is bounded by the Italian sphere of influence from which it is

divided by the River Juba up to parallel 6° of north latitude,

and thence by a line running along that parallel until it

reaches the Blue Nile. The frontier between the East Africa

and Uganda Protectorates is only partially defined: starting

from the German frontier, it follows the Guaso Masai River as

far as Sosian, thence strikes north-cast to the Kedong River,

which it follows to its source, and thence runs in a northerly

direction along the Likipia escarpment or eastern lip of the

great 'meridional rift.' It is, however, still undecided

whether or not it should be deflected, for greater convenience

in dealing with the Uganda Masai, so as to leave to Uganda the

region between the southern portion of the Likipia escarpment

and the so-called Aberdare range. In view of the uncertainty

existing as to the inland boundaries, it is impossible to give

the exact area of the territory, though it may be estimated

roughly at 280,000 square miles. It will be sufficient here to

state that its coast-line, including in the term the Islands

of Lamu, Manda, and Patta, which are separated from the

mainland by narrow channels, is 405 miles long, whilst its

greatest breadth, measured from the centre of the district of

Gosha on the Juba, to the Likipia escarpment, is 460 miles.

"The Protectorate in its present form was constituted on the

1st July, 1895. Previous to that date a Protectorate had been

declared on the 4th November, 1890, over those portions of the

territory which formed part of the Zanzibar Sultanate, and on

the 19th November of the same year over Witu and the whole of

the coast between the Tana and Juba Rivers. The administration

of this second Protectorate was confided in 1893, with the

exception of those portions of the coast between the Tana and

Juba which belonged to the Zanzibar Sultanate and were rented

by the Imperial British East Africa Company from him, to the

Sultan of Zanzibar, but without being fused in or united to

the Sultanate. In September, 1894, a Protectorate was

established under an independent Commissioner over Uganda, and

was subsequently defined as extending over the whole of the

intervening territory from which the Imperial British East

Africa Company had withdrawn its effective control, that is,

as far as the western limits of its district of Kikuyu, which

still constitutes the frontier between the East Africa and

Uganda Protectorates. The remainder of the British sphere

between the Zanzibar and Uganda boundaries and the Tana River

and German frontier was placed under Her Majesty's protection

on the 1st July, 1895, and the whole of the above-described

territories to the east of the Uganda Protectorate were at the

same time fused into one administrative whole under the title

of the' East Africa Protectorate.'

"British East Africa includes three district sovereignties, i.

e.: 1. The mainland territories of the Sultan of Zanzibar. 2.

The Sultanate of Witu. 3. The remainder of the Protectorate

consisting of the old 'chartered territory' of the Imperial

British East Africa Company and of the region between the Tana

and the Juba not included either in Zanzibar or Witu. This

division, which I propose for the sake of convenience to style

British East Africa proper, is not, of course, technically

under Her Majesty's sovereignty, and is divided among a number

of tribes and races under our Protectorate, but it differs from

Zanzibar and Witu in that the status of the Chiefs exercising

authority there is not recognized by international law or at

least by any international engagement.

"The mainland dominions of the Sultan of Zanzibar included in

the Protectorate (for he possesses certain coast ports to the

north of it now leased to Italy) consist—(1.) Of a strip of

coast 10 miles deep from high-water mark, extending from the

mouth of the River Umba on the south to Kipini on the Ozi on

the north; and (2.) Of a series of islands off the coast

between the Ozi and the Juba and of the mainland town of

Kismayu with a radius of 10 miles around it. … The State of

Witu extends along the coast from Kipini to Kwyhoo, its

northern boundary being a straight line drawn in 1887 by

Commissioners representing the German and Zanzibar Governments

due west from Kwyhoo to a point a few miles east of the Ozi

River. It was founded, or rather gradually grew up, in the

years from 1860 to 1885, round a colony of outlaws. … When the

German Government first interested itself, about a decade ago,

in East African affairs, it recognized the little colony of

outlaws and refugees from the coast towns which had grown up

in Witu, as an independent State. … Accordingly, on

transferring this Protectorate by the Treaty of 1890 to Great

Britain, it stipulated by Article II of that Agreement, that

the sovereignty of the Sultan of Witu over the territory

formally defined as his in 1887 should be recognized by the

new Protecting Power. …

"Beyond the Zanzibar and Witu limits, the territories

comprised in the Protectorate are ruled directly under Her

Majesty by the British officers in charge of them. All the

various tribes, Mahommedan and heathen, retain, however, their

respective native Rulers and institutions. … For a period of ten

months from the transfer from the Imperial British East Africa

Company to Her Majesty's Government, the country now forming

the Province of Seyyidieh, was the theatre of disturbances,

which for a time retarded the development of the territory,

and diverted the attention of the Administration from useful

schemes of improvement that might otherwise have been

immediately set on foot. These disturbances began under the

Administration of the Imperial British East Africa Company,

their immediate cause being a dispute over the succession to

the Chieftainship of Takaungu between Rashid-bin-Salim, the

son, and Mubarak-bin-Rashid, the nephew of the former Chief. …

The Company supported Rashid, who, though younger in years

than Mubarak, was friendly to the English. … Though the

rebellion of the Mazrui Chiefs retarded to some extent the

development of the province, and entailed in its suppression

considerable expense, its occurrence, under the special

circumstances which attended it, has not been an unmixed evil.

We have broken once for all the power of several influential

Arab potentates, who were never thoroughly subjugated either

by the Sultans or the Company, and whose ambitions and

semi-independent position would sooner or later have involved

us in trouble with them had we attempted to make the authority

of our Administration effective, and to interfere with the

slavery, and even Slave Trade, which flourished under their

protection."

_Sir A. Hardinge,

Report

(Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications:

Papers by Command, Africa, Number 7, 1897),

page 1-3, and 65._

{57}

BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE, The: A. D. 1900-1901.

Rising of Ogaden Somalis.

In the later part of November, 1900, news reached Zanzibar of

a rising of the Somali tribe called Ogadens in the Jubaland

province of the British East Africa Protectorate, and that the

British Sub-Commissioner, Mr. Jenner, had probably been killed.

The Somalis are a very war-like race, supposed to be Gallas by

descent, with an admixture of Arab blood. In the following

February it was announced that Aff-Madu, the headquarters of

the Ogaden Somalis, had been occupied without opposition by

the British punitive expedition sent to exact reparation for

the murder of Mr. Jenner, and that the Ogaden Sultan was a

prisoner.

BRITISH EMPIRE, Penny postage in.

See (in this volume)

ENGLAND: A. D. 1898 (DECEMBER).

BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY: A. D. 1889.

The founding of the Company.

See (in volume 4)

SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1885-1893.

BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE, The: A. D. 1894-1895.

Extended charter and enlarged powers.

Its master spirit, Mr. Rhodes.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY):

A. D. 1894-1895.

BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE, The: A. D. 1895.

Arrangements in Bechuanaland.

See (in this volume)

AFRICA: A. D. 1895 (BECHUANALAND).

BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE, The: A. D. 1896.

Revocation of the Company's charter called for

by President Kruger.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL):

A. D. 1896 (JANUARY-APRIL).

BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE, The: A. D. 1896.

Resignation of Mr. Rhodes.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY):

A. D. 1896 (JUNE).

BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE, The: A. D. 1896.

Parliamentary investigation of its administration.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY):

A. D. 1896 (JULY).

BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE, The: A. D. 1896.

Complicity of officials in the Jameson Raid.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (CAPE COLONY): A. D. 1896 (JULY).

BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE, The: A. D. 1896-1897.

Demands from President Kruger for proceedings

against the Directors.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1896-1897 (MAY-APRIL).

BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE, The: A. D. 1897.

Convicted of subjecting natives to forced labor.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY):

A. D. 1897 (JANUARY).

BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE, The: A. D. 1898.

Reorganization.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA

(RHODESIA AND THE BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY):

A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY).

BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE, The: A. D. 1900.

Administration extended over Barotsiland.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (RHODESIA): A. D. 1900 (SEPTEMBER).

BRONX, The Borough of the.

See (in this volume)

NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1896-1897.

BROOKE, General John R.: Military Governor of Cuba.

Report.

See (in this volume)

CUBA: A. D. 1898-1899 (DECEMBER-OCTOBER).

Commanding in Porto Rico.

See (in this volume)

PORTO RICO: A. D. 1898-1899 (OCTOBER-OCTOBER).

BROOKLYN:

Absorption in Greater New York.

See (in this volume) NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1896-1897.

Tunnel from New York.

See (in this volume)

NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY-SEPTEMBER).

BRUGES: A. D. 1900.

The new canal from the city to the sea.

"On the 25th day of February, the inauguration of the new

canal was celebrated at Bruges. … The canal runs from

Zeebrugge, a port on the North Sea 14.29 miles north of

Ostend, to the city of Bruges, a total distance of 7.46 miles.

The work is now so far completed that vessels of a draft of 25

feet can enter and pass to the port of Bruges. The locks are

fully completed, as well as three-fifths of the wharf wall at

Bruges; when finished, the wharf wall will have a total length

of 1,575 feet. The canal has a width of 72 feet 6 inches at

the bottom and 229 feet 4 inches at the water level and will

have, when completed, a depth of 26 feet 3 inches; this will

also be the depth of the interior port and of the great basin

of Bruges. Bruges is an old, inland deep-water port, having

connection with the sea by canal from Ostend, but this only

for vessels of very light draft."

_United States Consular Reports,

July, 1900, page 346._

BRUSSELS: A. D. 1898.

Sugar Conference.

See (in this volume)

SUGAR BOUNTIES.

BRUSSELS:

The General Act of.

See (in this volume)

AFRICA: A. D. 1899 (JUNE).

BRYAN, William J.:

Candidacy for the American Presidency.

His speech of acceptance, 1900.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER);

and 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).

BUBONIC PLAGUE, The.

See (in this volume)

PLAGUE.

BUDA-PESTH: A. D. 1896.

Celebration of the Hungarian Millennium.

See (in this volume)

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1896.

BUDDHA, Gautama:

Discovery of his birthplace and his tomb, with personal relics.

"Mr. Vincent Smith, of the Bengal Civil Service, a learned

antiquary, has published in the Allahabad 'Pioneer' a

statement as to the nature and significance of recent

discoveries of Buddhist antiquities in India. The first of

these is the home of Gautama Buddha, who lived about 500 B.

C., and who is known to have been the son of the Raja of

Kapilavastu, a small state in the Nepal Terai, bordering on

the modern Oudh. The site of Kapilavastu has long been eagerly

sought for, and it is only within the past three years that

the accidental discovery of an inscribed pillar erected by the

Emperor Asoka, in the third century B. C., fixed with

certainty the site of the city. The ruins, which were lately

visited by Mr. Smith, are, so far as is yet known, all of

brick; they are for the most part buried in jungle, and are so

extensive that many years would be required for their

exploration. The city was destroyed during the lifetime of

Gautama, and when the first of the famous Chinese pilgrims

visited the place, in 410 A. D., it was a mass of desolate

ruins, and there is no indication that it has since been

occupied. This fact gives exceptional interest to the

excavations now in progress, for they are bringing to light

buildings more ancient than any previously known in India.

{58}

More interesting even than Kapilavastu is the discovery of the

Lumbini Garden, the traditional birthplace of Gautama. The

sacred spot has been found marked by another of Asoka's

pillars, on which the inscription is perfect. This is also in

Nepalese territory, five miles from the British frontier. The

pillar stands on the western edge of a mound of ruins, about a

hundred yards in diameter, and on the south side of the mound

is the tank in which the child's mother bathed after his

birth. Another discovery which was made in a stupa, or brick

tumulus, close to the British frontier, is that of relics of

Buddha himself. These consist only of fragments of bone, which

were deposited in a wooden vessel that stood on the bottom of

a massive coffer, more than four feet long and two feet deep,

cut out of a solid block of fine sandstone. This coffer was

buried under eighteen feet of masonry, composed of huge

bricks, each sixteen inches long. The wooden vessel was

decayed, and with it was an exquisitely finished bowl of rock

crystal, the largest yet discovered in India, and also five

small vases of soapstone. All these vessels were partially

filled, in honor of the relics, with a marvellous collection

of gold stars, pearls, topazes, beryls, and other jewels, and

of various objects delicately wrought in crystal, agate, and

other substances. An inscription on the lid of one of the

soapstone vases declares the relics to be those of Buddha

himself, and the characters in which the inscription is

written are substantially the same as those of the Asoka

inscriptions, and indicate that the tumulus was constructed

between 300 and 250 B. C."

_London Times,

May, 1898._

The relies discovered, as described above, were presented by

the Indian government to the King of Siam, he being the only

existing Buddhist monarch, with the proviso that he offer a

portion of them to Buddhists of Ceylon and Burmah.

BUENOS AYRES: A. D. 1895.

Population.

See (in this volume)

ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: A. D. 1895.

BUFFALO: A. D. 1896.

First reception of electric power from Niagara Falls.

See (in this volume)

SCIENCE, RECENT: ELECTRICAL.

BUFFALO: A. D. 1901.

The Pan-American Exposition.

As this volume goes to press, the preparations are about

completed for holding a great Exposition at Buffalo, which

promises to be second in importance only to the Columbian

Exposition at Chicago, in 1893, so far as concerns

undertakings of like character in America. The Columbian

Exposition was a "World's Fair"; this at Buffalo is

"Pan-American,"—an exhibition, that is, of the arts, the

industries, and all the achievements in civilization of the

peoples of the Western hemisphere, from Bering Strait to Cape

Horn. Very nearly every country in North, South and Central

America has taken a warmly interested part in the preparations

for the Exposition, and many have erected special buildings

for their exhibits. The States of the Union have likewise been

active, and few of them will be unrepresented in the numerous

buildings on the grounds. Cuba, Porto Rico, and the West

Indies generally, as well as Hawaii and the Philippine

Islands, in their new character as dependencies of the United

States, are brought importantly into the scheme.

The enterprise received official endorsement from the Federal

Government when Congress in July, 1898, by resolution declared

that "A Pan-American Exposition will undoubtedly be of vast

benefit to the commercial interests of the countries of North,

South and Central America, and it merits the approval of

Congress, and of the people of the United States." In March,

1899, Congress appropriated $500,000, and declared that "it is

desirable to encourage the holding of a Pan-American Exposition

on the Niagara Frontier in the City of Buffalo, in the year

1901, fittingly to illustrate the marvelous development of the

Western Hemisphere during the Nineteenth Century, by a display

of the arts, industries, manufactures and the products of the

soil, mine and sea," and also declared that "the proposed

Pan-American Exposition being confined to the Western

Hemisphere, and being held in the near vicinity of the great

Niagara Cataract, within a day's journey of which reside forty

million people, would unquestionably be of vast benefit to the

commercial interests, not only of this country, but of the

entire hemisphere, and should therefore have the sanction of

the Congress of the United States."

The grounds of the Exposition are in the northern part of the

city of Buffalo, taking in a portion of its most beautiful

public park. They extend about one mile in length, from north

to south, and about half a mile in width, containing 350

acres. A general plan of landscape and building architecture,

with which every detail of form and color should be made to

harmonize, was worked out at the beginning by a board of the

leading architects of the United States, and has been adhered

to with beautifully harmonious effects.

In one of the circular announcements of the Exposition it is

said: "In planning the Exposition the management early decided

upon giving to electricity special homage. The progress of the

electrical science has been so marked in recent years as to

excite the wonderment of the scientific world. Buffalo is,

perhaps, more than any other city on the globe, interested in

this science, owing to the nearness of Niagara Falls, where

the greatest electric power plants known to this class of

engineering have been installed. In fact the electrical

displays here contemplated would be impossible except where a

large volume of power is available, such as Buffalo receives

from the great Falls of Niagara. … The Pan-American Exposition

will far surpass former enterprises of this kind in six

important features:

First, the electrical effects:

second, the hydraulic and fountain effects;

third, the horticultural, floral and garden effects;

fourth, the original sculptural ornamentation;

fifth, the color decorations;

sixth, the court settings.

Particular attention has been given by the designers in the

arrangement of its court settings, to provide unusually large

vistas, both for the purpose of providing a memorable picture

and for the utility reason of accommodating large crowds of

people."

The Pan-American Exposition is under the management of a

strong company of professional and business men in Buffalo,

with Mr. John G. Milburn for its President. The

Director-General is Honorable William I. Buchanan, former

United States Minister to the Argentine Republic.

{59}

BULGARIA: A. D. 1895-1900.

Condition.

See (in this volume)

BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES;

and TURKEY: A. D. 1899-1901.

BULGARIA: A. D. 1899(May-July).

Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.

See (in this volume)

PEACE CONFERENCE.

BULLER, General Sir Redvers:

In the South African War.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):

A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER), and after.

BULLETS, Declaration against certain.

See (in this volume)

PEACE CONFERENCE.

BULLETS, Dum-dum.

See (in this volume)

DUM-DUM BULLET.

BUREAU OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLICS.

See (in this volume)

AMERICAN REPUBLICS, BUREAU OF THE.

BURMAH: A. D. 1897.

Raised in status as a British dependency.

Burmah was raised in status as a British dependency, under the

government of India, by royal proclamation in 1897. The chief

commissioner became lieutenant-governor, and a local

legislative council was to be created.

CAGAYAN,

KAGAYAN: The American acquisition.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-DECEMBER).

CAGAYANS, The.

See (in this volume)

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: THE NATIVE INHABITANTS.

CALCIUM CARBIDE, The production of.

See (in this volume)

SCIENCE, RECENT: CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS.

CALNEH, The ancient city of:

Its identity with Nippur.

Exploration of its ruins.

See (in this volume)

ARCHÆOLOGICAL, RESEARCH:

BABYLONIA: AMERICAN EXPLORATION.

CAMBON, M. Jules:

Action for Spain in making overtures for peace

with the United States.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-DECEMBER).

CAMEROONS,

KAMERUNS, The:

Cost of maintenance.

See (in this volume)

GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (JUNE).

----------CANADA: Start--------

CANADA: A. D. 1890-1896.

The Manitoba School Question.

"When Manitoba in 1870 passed from the position of a Crown

territory, managed by the Hudson's Bay Company, into that of a

province of Canada, its area, which is considerably greater than

that of England and Wales, was peopled by about 12,000

persons, whites and half-breeds. In religion this population

was about equally divided into Catholics and Protestants.

Previous to the Union there was no State system of education.

A number of elementary schools existed, but they owed their

foundation entirely to voluntary effort, and were supported

exclusively by private contributions, either in the form of

fees paid by some of the parents or of funds supplied by the

Churches. In every case these schools were conducted and

managed on strictly denominational lines. When the Act of

Union was passed it was sought to secure the continuance of

this state of things, and to safeguard the rights of whichever

Church should in the hereafter be in the minority by the

following sub-sections in the 22nd section, which gave to the

legislature of the province the power to make laws in relation

to education: '(1) Nothing in any such law shall prejudicially

affect any right or privilege with respect to denominational

schools which any class of persons have by law or practice in

the province at the Union. (2) An appeal shall lie to the

Governor-General in Council from any act or decision of the

legislature of the province, or of any provincial authority,

affecting any right or privilege of the Protestant or Roman

Catholic minority of the Queen's subjects in relation to

education.' Those two clauses of the Manitoba Act, 1870,

govern the whole situation.

"The attention of the new provincial legislature was at once

directed to the condition of the elementary schools. The

Government decided to supersede the old voluntary system by

one of State-aided schools, which, however, were still to be

scrupulously denominational in character. The legislature

simply took the educational system as it found it and improved

it by assistance from public funds. Thus it was arranged that

the annual public grant for common school education was to be

appropriated equally between the Protestant and the Catholic

schools. … The only important amendment to this Act was passed

in 1875, and provided that the legislative grant, instead of

being divided between the Protestant and Catholic schools as

heretofore, should in future be distributed in proportion to

the number of children of school age in the Catholic and

Protestant districts. Already immigration had begun to upset

the balance of numbers and power, and as the years went on it

became evident that the Catholics were destined to be in a

permanent minority in Manitoba. This trend of immigration,

which in 1875 made legislation necessary, has continued ever

since; and to-day the Catholics of the province number only

20,000 out of a total population of 204,000. No further change

was made in the educational system of Manitoba until the

memorable year of 1890. In that year the provincial

legislature boldly broke all moorings with the past, and,

abolishing the separate denominational schools, introduced a

system of free compulsory and unsectarian schools, for the

support of which the whole community was to be taxed. … To

test the legality of the change, what is known as Barrett's

case was begun in Winnipeg. It was carried to the Supreme

Court of Canada, and the Canadian judges by a unanimous

decision declared that the Act of 1890 was ultra vires and

void.

{60}

The city of Winnipeg appealed to the Privy Council, and that

tribunal in July 1892 reversed the decision of the Canadian

Court and affirmed that the Act was valid and binding. … The

second subsection of the 22nd section of the Manitoba Act

already quoted says: 'An appeal shall lie to the

Governor-General in Council from any Act or decision of the

legislature of the province, or of any provincial authority,

affecting any right or privilege of the Protestant or Roman

Catholic minority of the Queen's subjects in relation to

education.' But if the legislation of 1890 was intra vires,

and expressly declared to be so on the ground that it had not

prejudicially affected the position which the minority held at

the time of the Union, how could there be an appeal from it? …

The Governor-General, however, consented to refer the question

as to his jurisdiction to the courts of justice. What is known

as Brophy's case was begun, and in due course was carried to

the Supreme Court of Canada. The decision of that tribunal,

though not unanimous, was in accord with public expectation.

The majority of the judges felt that the previous judgment of

the Privy Council had settled the matter beforehand. The Act

of 1890 had been declared intra vires on the ground that it

had not interfered with the rights which the minority

possessed before the Union, and therefore there could be no

appeal from it. …

"Still the undaunted Archbishop of St. Boniface went on, and

for a last time appealed to that Judicial Committee of the

Privy Council which two years and a half before had so spoiled

and disappointed the Catholic hopes. In January 1894 the final

decision in Brophy's case was read by the Lord Chancellor. For

a second time the Lords of the Council upset the ruling of the

Supreme Court of Canada, and treated their reasoning as

irrelevant. It will be remembered that both the appellant

prelates and the Canadian judges had assumed that the clause

in the Manitoba Act, which conferred the right of appeal to

the Governor-General, was limited to one contingency, and

could be invoked only if the minority were robbed at any time

of the poor and elementary rights which they had enjoyed

before the Act of Union. But was the clause necessarily so

limited? Could it not be used to justify an appeal from

legislation which affected rights acquired after the Union? …

In the words of the judgment: 'The question arose: Did the

sub-section extend to the rights and privileges acquired by

legislation subsequent to the Union? It extended in terms to

"any" right or privilege of the minority affected by any Act

passed by the legislature, and would therefore seem to embrace

all the rights and privileges existing at the time when such

Act was passed. Their lordships saw no justification for

putting a limitation on language thus unlimited. There was

nothing in the surrounding circumstances or in the apparent

intention of the legislature to warrant any such limitation.'

… In other words, the dispute was referred to a new tribunal,

and one which was free to consider and give effect to the true

equities of the case. The Governor-General and his responsible

advisers, after considering all the facts, found in favour of

the Catholic minority, and at once issued a remedial Order to

the Government of Manitoba, which went far beyond anything

suggested in the judgment in Brophy's case. The province was

called upon to repeal the legislation of 1890, so far as it

interfered with the right of the Catholic minority to build

and maintain their own schools, to share proportionately in

any public grant for the purposes of education, and with the

right of such Catholics as contributed to Catholic schools to

be held exempt from all payments towards the support of any

other schools. In a word, the Governor-General and Sir

Mackenzie Bowell's Administration, exercising, as it were,

appellate jurisdiction, decided that the minority were

entitled to all they claimed. The Government of Manitoba,

however, had hardened their hearts against the minority in the

province, and refused to obey the remedial Order. …

"The refusal of the provincial Government 'to accept the

responsibility of carrying into effect the terms of the

remedial Order' for the first time brought the Parliament of

Canada into the field, and empowered them to pass coercive

legislation. A remedial Bill was accordingly, after an

inexplicable delay, brought into the Federal Parliament to

enforce the remedial Order. … The Cabinet recognised that the

Federal Parliament had no power to spend the money of the

province, and so all they could do was to exempt the minority

from the obligation to contribute to the support of schools

other than their own. The Bill bristled with legal and

constitutional difficulties; it concerned the coercion of a

province; it contained no less than 116 clauses; it was

introduced on the 2nd of March 1896, when all Canada knew that

the life of the Federal Parliament must necessarily expire on

the 24th of April. Some fifteen clauses had been considered

when the Government admitted, what all men saw, the

impossibility of the task, and abandoned the Bill. … While the

fate of the remedial Bill was still undecided, Sir Donald

Smith and two others were commissioned by the Federal

Government to go to Winnipeg and see if by direct negotiations

some sort of tolerable terms could be arranged. … Sir Donald

Smith proposed that the principle of the separate school

should be admitted wherever there were a reasonable number of

Catholic children—thus, wherever in towns and villages there

are twenty-five Catholic children of school age, and in

cities where there are fifty such children, they should have

'a school-house or school-room for their own use,' with a

Catholic teacher. … In the event the negotiations failed; the

baffled Commissioners returned to Ottawa, and on the 24th of

April 1896 Parliament was dissolved. The Government went to

the country upon the policy of the abandoned Bill. On the

other hand, many of the followers of Mr. Laurier in the

province of Quebec pledged themselves to see justice done to

the Catholics of Manitoba, and let it be understood that they

objected to the remedial Bill only because it was not likely

to prove effective in the face of the combined hostility of

the legislature and the municipalities of the province. …

Catholic Quebec gave Mr. Laurier his majority at Ottawa. …

{61}

"When the Liberal party for the first time for eighteen years

found itself in power at Ottawa, Mr. Laurier at once opened

negotiations with Manitoba. The result was a settlement which,

although it might work well in particular districts, could not be

accepted as satisfactory by the Catholic authorities. It arranged

that where in towns and cities the average attendance of

Catholic children was forty or upwards, and in villages and

rural districts the average attendance of such children was

twenty-five or upwards, one Catholic teacher should be

employed. There were various other provisions, but that was

the central concession. … Leo the Thirteenth, recognising the

difficulties which beset Mr. Laurier's path, mindful, perhaps,

also that it is not always easy immediately to resume friendly

conference with those who have just done their best to defeat

you, has sent to Canada an Apostolic Commissioner."

_J. G. Snead Cox,

Mr. Laurier and Manitoba

(Nineteenth Century, April, 1897)._

CANADA: A. D. 1895.

Northern territories formed into provisional districts.

"The unorganized and unnamed portion of the Dominion this year

was set apart into provisional districts. The territory east of

Hudson's Bay, having the province of Quebec on the south and

the Atlantic on the east, was to be hereafter known as Ungava.

The territory embraced in the islands of the Arctic Sea was to

be known as Franklin, the Mackenzie River region as Mackenzie,

and the Pacific coast territory lying north of British

Columbia and west of Mackenzie as Yukon. The extent of Ungava

and Franklin was undefined. Mackenzie would cover 538,600

square miles, and Yukon 225,000 square miles, in addition to

143,500 square miles added to Athabasca and 470,000 to

Keewatin. The total area of the Dominion was estimated at

3,456,383 square miles."

_The Annual Register, 1895,

page 391._

CANADA: A. D. 1895.

Negotiations with Newfoundland.

Negotiations for the entrance of Newfoundland into the

federation of the Dominion of Canada proved ineffectual and

were abandoned in May. The island province refused the terms

proposed.

CANADA: A. D. 1896 (June-July).

Liberal triumph in Parliamentary elections.

Formation of Ministry by Sir Wilfred Laurier.

General elections held in Canada on the 23d of June, 1896,

gave the Liberal Party 113 seats out of 213 in the Dominion

House of Commons; the Conservatives securing 88, and the

Patrons of Industry and other Independents 12. Much to the

general surprise, the scale was turned in favor of the

Liberals by the vote of the province of Quebec,

notwithstanding the Manitoba school question, on which

clerical influence in the Roman church was ranged against that

party. The effect of the election was to call the Liberal

leader, Sir Wilfred Laurier, of Quebec, to the head of the

government, the Conservative Ministry, under Sir Charles

Tupper, retiring on the 8th of July.

CANADA: A. D. 1896-1897.

Policy of the Liberal Government.

Revision of the tariff, with discriminating duties

in favor of Great Britain, and provisions for reciprocity.

"The position of the Canadian Liberals, when they came into

power after the General Election of 1896, was not unlike that

of the English Liberals after the General Election of 1892.

Both Liberal parties had lists of reforms to which they were

committed. The English measures were in the Newcastle

Programme. Those of the Canadian Liberals were embodied in the

Ottawa Programme, which was formulated at a convention held at

the Dominion Capital in 1893. … A large part of the Ottawa

Programme was set out in the speech which the Governor-General

read in the Senate when the session of 1897 commenced. There was

then promised a measure for the revision of the tariff; a bill

providing for the extension of the Intercolonial railway from

Levis to Montreal; a bill repealing the Dominion Franchise Act

and abolishing the costly system of registration which goes

with it; and a measure providing for the plebiscite on the

Prohibition question. Neither of these last two measures was

carried through Parliament. Both had to be postponed to

another session; and the session of 1897 was devoted, so far

as legislation went, chiefly to the tariff, and to bills, none

of which were promised in the Speech from the Throne, in

retaliation for the United States Contract Labor Laws, and the

new United States tariff. …

"The new tariff was a departure from the tariffs of the

Conservative regime in only one important direction.

Protective duties heretofore had been levied on imports from

England, in the same way as on imports from the United States

or any other country. The 'National Policy' had allowed of no

preferences for England; and during the long period of

Conservative rule, when the Conservatives were supported by

the Canadian manufacturers in much the same way as the

Republican party in the United States is supported by the

manufacturing interests, the Canadian manufacturers had been

as insistent for adequate protection against English-made

goods, as against manufactured articles from the United States

or Germany. The Conservative party had continuously claimed a

monopoly of loyalty to England; but in its tariffs had never

dared to make any concession in favour of English goods. In

the new tariff, preferences for England were established; and

with these openings in favour of imports from Great Britain,

there came a specific warning from the Minister of Finance

that Canadian manufacturers must not regard themselves as

possessing a vested interest in the continuance of the

protective system. …

"When the Minister of Finance laid the tariff before the House

of Commons, he declared that the 'National Policy,' as it had

been tried for eighteen years, was a failure; and … claimed

that lowering the tariff wall against England was a step in

the direction of a tariff 'based not upon the protective

system but upon the requirements of the public service.'

During the first fifteen months of the new tariff, the

concession to England consists of a reduction by one-eighth of

the duties chargeable under the general list. At the end of

that time, that is on the last of July, 1898, the reduction

will be one-fourth. The reductions do not apply to wines, malt

liquors, spirits and tobacco, the taxes on which are

essentially for revenue. While England was admitted at once to

the advantages of the reduced tariff, this tariff is not to be

applicable to England alone. In July, it was extended to the

products of New South Wales, the free-trade colony of the

British Australasian group; and any country can come within

its provisions whose government can satisfy the Comptroller of

Customs at Ottawa, that it is offering favourable treatment to

Canadian exports, and is affording them as easy an entrance

through its customs houses as the Canadians give by means of

the reciprocal tariff. It is also possible, under a later

amendment to the Tariff Act, for the Governor in Council to

extend the benefits of the reciprocal tariff to any country

entitled thereto by virtue of a treaty with Great Britain.

{62}

Numerous alterations were made in the general list of import

duties. Some of these involved higher rates; others lowered

the duties. But if the changes in the fiscal system had been

confined to these variations, the new tariff would not have

been noteworthy, and it would have fulfilled few of the

pledges made by the Liberals when they were in Opposition. It

owes its chief importance to the establishment of an inner

tariff in the interests of countries which deal favourably

with Canada."

_E. Porritt,

The New Administration in Canada

(Yale Review, August, 1897)._

CANADA: A. D. 1897 (June-July).

Conference of colonial premiers with

the British Colonial Secretary.

See (in this volume)

ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (JUNE-JULY).

CANADA: A. D. 1897 (October).

Self-government for the Northwestern Territories.

By an Act passed in October, a system of self-government,

going far towards the full powers of a provincial government,

but having some limitations, was provided for the Northwest

Territories.

CANADA: A. D. 1898 (January).

Encyclical Letter of the Pope on the Manitoba School Question.

On the report made by his delegate, Monsignor Merry del Val,

Pope Leo XIII. addressed an encyclical letter to the Roman

Church in Canada, concerning the duty of Catholics in the

matter of the Manitoba schools (see above: A. D. 1890-1896),

which was made public at Quebec on the 9th of January, 1898.

The letter has great general importance, as defining with

precision the attitude of the Church towards all secular

school systems. With a few unessential passages it is given in

what follows:

"It was with extreme solicitude," wrote the Pope, "that we

turned our mind to the unhappy events which in these later

years have marked the history of Catholic education in

Manitoba. … And since many expected that we should make a

pronouncement on the question, and asked that we should trace

a line of conduct and a way to be followed, we did not wish to

decide anything on this subject before our Apostolic delegate

had been on the spot, charged to proceed to a serious

examination of the situation, and to give an account to us of

the state of affairs. He has faithfully and diligently

fulfilled the command which we had given him. The question

agitated is one of great and exceptional importance. We speak

of the decision taken seven years ago by the parliament of

Manitoba on the subject of education. The act of Confederation

had secured to Catholic children the right of education in public

schools in keeping with their conscientious convictions. The

parliament of Manitoba abolished this right by contrary law.

By this latter law a grave injury was inflicted, for it was

not lawful for our children to seek the benefits of education

in schools in which the Catholic religion is ignored or

actively combated, in schools where its doctrine is despised

and its fundamental principles repudiated. If the Church has

anywhere permitted this, it was only with great reluctance and

in self-defense, and after having taken many precautions,

which, however, have too often been found unequal to parrying

the danger. In like manner one must at all cost avoid, as most

pernicious, those schools wherein every form of belief is

indifferently admitted and placed on an equal footing—as if in

what regards God and Divine things, it was of no importance

whether one believed rightly or wrongly, whether one followed

truth or falsehood. You well know, venerable brothers, that

all schools of this kind have been condemned by the Church,

because there can be nothing more pernicious nor more fitted

to injure the integrity of faith and to turn away the tender

minds of youth from the truth. … For the Catholic there is but

one true religion, the Catholic religion; hence in all that

concerns doctrine, or morality, or religion, he cannot accept

or recognize anything which is not drawn from the very sources

of Catholic teaching. Justice and reason demand, then, that

our children have in their schools not only scientific

instruction but also moral teachings in harmony, as we have

already said, with the principles of their religion, teachings

without which all education will be not only fruitless but

absolutely pernicious. Hence the necessity of having Catholic

teachers, reading books, and textbooks approved of by the

bishops, and liberty to organize the schools, that the

teaching therein shall be in full accord with Catholic faith

as well as with all the duties that flow therefrom. For the

rest, to decide in what institutions their children shall be

instructed, who shall be their teachers of morality, is a

right inherent to parental authority. When, then, Catholics

demand, and it is their duty to demand, and to strive to

obtain, that the teaching of the masters shall be in

conformity with the religion of their children, they are only

making use of their right; and there can be nothing more

unjust than to force on them the alternative of allowing their

children to grow up in ignorance, or to expose them to

manifest danger in what concerns the supreme interests of

their souls. It is not right to call in doubt or to abandon in

any way these principles of judging and acting which are

founded on truth and justice, and which are the safe-guards

both of public and private interests. Therefore, when the new

law in Manitoba struck a blow at Catholic education, it was

your duty, venerable brothers, to freely protest against the

injury and disaster inflicted; and the way in which you all

fulfilled that duty is a proof of your common vigilance, and

of a spirit truly worthy of bishops; and, although each one of

you will find on this point a sufficient approbation in the

testimony of his own conscience, learn, nevertheless, that you

have also our conscience and our approbation, for the things

which you sought and still seek to protect and defend are most

sacred. The difficulties created by the law of which we speak by

their very nature showed that an alleviation was to be sought

for in a united effort. For so worthy was the Catholic cause

that all good and upright citizens, without distinction of

party, should have banded themselves together in a close union

to uphold it. Unfortunately for the success of this cause, the

contrary took place. What is more deplorable still, is that

Catholic Canadians themselves failed to unite as they should

in defending those interests which are of such importance to

all—the importance and gravity of which should have stilled

the voice of party politics, which are of much less

importance. We are not unaware that something has been done to

amend that law. The men who are at the head of the federal

government and of the Province of Manitoba have already taken

certain measures with a view to decreasing the difficulties of

which the Catholics of Manitoba complain, and against which

they rightly continue to protest.

{63}

We have no reason to doubt that these measures were taken from

love of justice and from a laudable motive. We cannot, however,

dissimulate the truth; the law which they have passed to

repair the injury is defective, unsuitable, insufficient. The

Catholics ask—and no one can deny that they justly ask—for

much more. Moreover, in the remedial measures that have been

proposed there is this defect, that in changes of local

circumstances they may easily become valueless. In a word, the

rights of Catholics and the education of their children have

not been sufficiently provided for in Manitoba. Everything in

this question demands, and is conformable to justice, that

they should be thoroughly provided for, that is, by placing in

security and surrounding with due safe-guards those

unchangeable and sacred principles of which we have spoken

above. This should be the aim, this the end to be zealously

and prudently sought for. Nothing can be more injurious to the

attainment of this end than discord; unity of spirit and

harmony of action are most necessary. Nevertheless since, as

frequently happens in things of this nature, there is not only

one fixed and determined but various ways of arriving at the

end which is proposed and which should be obtained, it follows

that there may be various opinions equally good and

advantageous. Wherefore let each and all be mindful of the

rules of moderation, and gentleness, and mutual charity; let

no one fail in the respect that is due to another; but let all

resolve in fraternal unanimity, and not without your advice,

to do that which the circumstances require and which appears

best to be done. As regards especially the Catholics of

Manitoba, we have every confidence that with God's help they

will succeed in obtaining full satisfaction. This hope is

founded, in the first place, in the righteousness of the

cause, next in the sense of justice and prudence of the men at

the head of the government, and finally in the good-will of all

upright men in Canada. In the meantime, until they are able to

obtain their full rights, let them not refuse partial

satisfaction. If, therefore, anything is granted by law to

custom, or the good-will of men, which will render the evil

more tolerable and the dangers more remote, it is expedient

and useful to make use of such concessions, and to derive

therefrom as much benefit and advantage as possible. Where,

however, no remedy can be found for the evil, we must exhort

and beseech that it be provided against by the liberality and

munificence of their contributions, for no one can do anything

more salutary for himself or more conducive to the prosperity

of his country, than to contribute, according to his means, to

the maintenance of these schools. There is another point which

appeals to your common solicitude, namely, that by your

authority, and with the assistance of those who direct

educational institutions, an accurate and suitable curriculum

of studies be established, and that it be especially provided

that no one shall be permitted to teach who is not amply

endowed with all the necessary qualities, natural and

acquired, for it is only right that Catholic schools should be

able to compete in bearing, culture, and scholarship with the

best in the country. As concerns intellectual culture and the

progress of civilization, one can only recognize as

praiseworthy and noble the desire of the provinces of Canada

to develop public instruction, and to raise its standard more

and more, in order that it may daily become higher and more

perfect. Now there is no kind of knowledge, no perfection of

learning, which cannot be fully harmonized with Catholic

doctrine."

CANADA: A. D. 1898 (September).

Popular vote on the question of Prohibition.

Pursuant to a law passed by the Dominion Parliament the

previous June, a vote of the people in all the Provinces of

the Dominion was taken, on the 29th of September, 1898, upon

the following question: "Are you in favor of the passing of an

act prohibiting the importation, manufacture or sale of

spirits, wine, ale, beer, cider, and all other alcoholic

liquors for use as beverages?" The submitting of this question

to a direct vote of the people was a proceeding not quite

analogous to the Swiss Referendum, since it decided the fate

of no pending law; nor did it imitate the popular Initiative

of Swiss legislation, since the result carried no mandate to

the government. It was more in the nature of a French

Plébiscite, and many called it by that name; but no Plebiscite

in France ever drew so real an expression of popular opinion

on a question so fully discussed. The result of the voting was

a majority for prohibition in every Province except Quebec,

Ontario pronouncing for it by more than 39,000, Nova Scotia by

more than 29,000, New Brunswick by more than 17,000, Manitoba

by more than 9,000, Prince Edward's Island by more than 8,000,

and the Northwest Territories by more than 3,000, while

British Columbia gave a small majority of less than 600 on the

same side. Quebec, on the other hand, shouted a loud "No" to

the question, by 93,000 majority. The net majority in favor of

Prohibition was 107,000. The total of votes polled on the

question was 540,000. This was less than 44 per cent of the

total registration of voters; hence the vote for Prohibition

represented only about 23 per cent of the electorate, which

the government considered to offer too small a support for the

measure asked for.

CANADA: A. D. 1898-1899.

The Joint High Commission for settlement of all unsettled

questions between Canada and the United States.

As the outcome of negotiations opened at Washington in the

previous autumn by the Canadian Premier, relative to the

seal-killing controversy, an agreement between Great Britain,

Canada and the United States was concluded on the 30th of May,

1898, for the creation of a Joint High Commission to negotiate

a treaty, if possible, by which all existing subjects of

controversy between the United States and Canada should be

settled with finality. Appointments to the Commission by the

three governments were made soon afterwards, Great Britain

being represented by the Lord High Chancellor, Baron

Herschell; Canada by Sir Wilfred Laurier, Premier, Sir Richard

Cartwright, Minister of Trade and Commerce, and Sir Louis

Henry Davies, Minister of Marine and Fisheries; the United

States by Honorable John W. Foster, ex-Secretary of State,

Senator Charles W. Fairbanks, Senator George Gray,

Representative Nelson Dingley, and the Honorable John A.

Kasson, Reciprocity Commissioner. Senator Gray having been

subsequently appointed on the Commission to negotiate peace

with Spain, his place on the Anglo-American Commission was

taken by Senator Faulkner.

{64}

The Joint Commission sat first in Quebec and later in

Washington. Among the questions referred to it were those

relating to the establishment of the boundary between Alaska

and British Columbia; the issues over Bering Sea and the catch

of fur seals; the unmarked boundary between Canada and the

United States near Passamaqnoddy Bay in Maine and at points

between Wisconsin and Minnesota and Canada; the northeast

fisheries question, involving the rights of fishing in the

North Atlantic off Newfoundland and other points; the

regulation of the fishing rights on the Great Lakes;

alien-labor immigration across the Canadian-American border;

commercial reciprocity between the two countries; the

regulation of the bonding system by which goods are carried in

bond across the frontier and also the regulation of traffic by

international railways and canals of the two countries;

reciprocal mining privileges in the Klondyke, British North

America and other points; wrecking and salvage on the ocean

and Great Lakes coasting waters; the modification of the

treaty arrangement under which only one war vessel can be

maintained on the Great Lakes, with a view to allowing

warships to be built on the lakes and then floated out to the

ocean. The sessions of the Joint Commission were continued at

intervals until February, 1899, when it adjourned to meet at

Quebec in the following August, unless further adjournment

should be agreed upon by the several chairmen. Such further

adjournment was made, and the labors of the Joint Commission

were indefinitely suspended, for reasons which the President

of the United States explained in his Message to Congress,

December, 1899, as follows: "Much progress had been made by

the Commission toward the adjustment of many of these

questions, when it became apparent that an irreconcilable

difference of views was entertained respecting the

delimitation of the Alaskan boundary. In the failure of an

agreement as to the meaning of articles 3 and 4 of the treaty

of 1825 between Russia and Great Britain, which defined the

boundary between Alaska and Canada, the American Commissioners

proposed that the subject of the boundary be laid aside and

that the remaining questions of difference be proceeded with,

some of which were so far advanced as to assure the

probability of a settlement. This being declined by the

British Commissioners, an adjournment was taken until the

boundary should be adjusted by the two Governments. The

subject has been receiving the careful attention which its

importance demands, with the result that a modus vivendi for

provisional demarcations in the region about the head of Lynn

Canal has been agreed upon [see (in this volume) ALASKA

BOUNDARY QUESTION] and it is hoped that the negotiations now

in progress between the two Governments will end in an

agreement for the establishment and delimitation of a

permanent boundary."

CANADA: A. D. 1899 (October).

Modus Vivendi, fixing provisional boundary line of Alaska.

See (in this volume)

ALASKA BOUNDARY QUESTION.

CANADA: A. D. 1899-1900.

Troops to reinforce the British army in South Africa.

A proposal from the Canadian government to assist that of the

Empire in its South African War was gratefully accepted in the

early stages of the war, and a regiment of infantry called the

Royal Canadian, numbering a little more than 1,000 men, sailed

from Quebec, October 30. In the following January a second

contingent of more than 1,000 men was sent to the field. This

latter comprised squadrons of mounted rilles and rough-riders,

and three batteries of field artillery. In the same month the

Canadian government accepted an offer from Lord Strathcona to

raise, equip and transport at his own expense a body of 500

mounted men from the Northwest.

CANADA: A. D. 1900 (November).

General election.

The general election of members of the Dominion House of

Commons was held November 7, resulting as follows:

Provinces. Liberal. Conservative. Independent. Total.

Nova Scotia. 15 5 0 20

New-Brunswick. 9 5 0 14

Prince Edward Island. 3 2 0 5

Quebec. 57 8 0 65

Ontario. 33 54 5 92

Manitoba. 2 3 2 7

Northwest Territories. 2 0 2 4

British Columbia. 3 2 1 6

Totals. 124 79 10 213

As in the election of 1896, the Liberal Ministry of Sir

Wilfred Laurier found its strong support in the province of

Quebec. Its party suffered unexpected losses in Ontario. The

slight meaning of the election was summed up by Professor

Goldwin Smith as follows: "The net result of the elections

seems to be a Government resting on French Quebec and an

Opposition resting on British Ontario. The minor provinces

have been carried, as usual, by local interests rather than on

general questions. Apart from the distinction of race between

the two great provinces and the antagonism, before dormant but

somewhat awakened by the war, there was no question of importance

at issue between the parties. Both concurred in sending

contingents to South Africa. The Liberals, though they went in

at first on the platform of free trade—at least, of a tariff

for revenue only—have practically embraced protection under

the name of stability of the tariff, and are believed to have

received from the protected manufacturers contributions to

their large election fund. The other special principles, such

as the reduction of expenditure and discontinuance of the

bonus to railways, proclaimed by Liberals before the last

election, have been dropped. So has reform of the Senate. It

is not likely that the Liberal victory will be followed by any

change either in legislation or government, or by any special

reform. Mr. Bourassa and Monet, of the French-Canadian members

who protested against the contingent, have been re-elected.

Great as may be the extent and warmth of British feeling, the

statement that Canadians were unanimously in favour of

participation in the war must not be taken without

qualification. For myself, I felt that so little principle was

at stake that I voted for two Conservatives on their personal

merits."

{65}

CANAL, The new Bruges.

See (in this volume)

BRUGES: A. D. 1900.

CANAL, The Chicago Drainage.

See (in this volume)

CHICAGO: A. D. 1900.

CANAL, City of Mexico Drainage.

See (in this volume)

MEXICO: A. D. 1898.

CANAL, The Elbe and Trave.

See (in this volume)

GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (JUNE).

CANAL, Interoceanic, The Project of the: A. D. 1581-1892.

The early inception of the project.

Movements towards its realization.

"The thought of uniting the two great oceans by means of a

canal across the American isthmus sprang up, as is known, from

the moment the conviction was reached that the passage which,

from the days of Columbus, was thought to exist towards the

Southern Sea, was not a reality. … Nevertheless the first

survey of the land was not carried out until the year 1581,

when, in obedience to superior instructions, Captain Antonio

Pereira, Governor of Costa Rica, organized an expedition and

explored the route by way of the San Juan river, the lake, and

the rivers emptying into Gulf Nicoya, Costa Rica. Thirty-nine

years later Diego de Mercado submitted to King Philip III his

famous report of January 23, 1620, suggesting the route by the

river and lake, and thence through Costa Rican territory along

the Quebrada or Barranca Honda to Salinas Bay, then called

Puerto del Papagayo. Either because the magnitude of the

undertaking was at that time superior to the necessities of

trade, or, as was said, because Spain considered the canal

antagonistic to her interests, the era of independence arrived

without the execution of the project ever having been entered

upon. After independence the Congress of Central America, in

which Costa Rica and Nicaragua were represented as States of

the Federation which succeeded the Colonial Government,

enacted on June 16, 1825, a decree providing for the

construction of the canal, and in that same year Don Antonio

José Cañas, Diplomatic Representative of Central America in

Washington, addressed the Secretary of State, Mr. Henry Clay,

informing him of this resolution and stating that: 'A company

formed of American citizens of respectability was ready to

undertake the work as soon as a treaty with the United States

insuring the coöperation of the latter was signed; that he was

ready to enter into negotiations for the treaty, and that

nothing would be more pleasant for Central America than to see

the generous people of the United States joining her in the

opening of the canal, sharing the glory of the enterprise, and

enjoying the great advantages to be derived from it.' The

Government of Central America could not carry the undertaking

into effect, notwithstanding that among the means employed to

reach the desired result there figures the arrangement

concluded with the King of Holland in October, 1830. But,

though the hopes centered in the undertaking were frustrated,

to the honor of Central America the declarations of that

Congress, which constitute, like the concession for the canal

itself, one of the loftiest public documents ever issued by

any nation of the earth, have become a matter of record. The

Central American Federation dissolved, this important matter

attached to Nicaragua and Costa Rica directly, and the

boundary line between the two republics having been determined

by the treaty of April 15, 1858, as were also the points

relative to the canal, the two governments jointly granted a

concession on May 1 of that same year to Mr. Felix Belly, a

distinguished French writer, to whom the Emperor Napoleon gave

his support to carry forward the undertaking. This failing of

accomplishment, the two governments, in perfect accord,

concluded the contract known as the Ayon-Chevalier, signed by

Nicaragua on October 16, 1868, and by Costa Rica on June 18,

1869, which, it is unnecessary to say, also failed to produce

any results whatever. Some years after the expiration of this

last contract Nicaragua promoted a discussion as to the

validity of the treaty and the meaning of some of its

stipulations, which Costa Rica upheld in its original form,

and the question was submitted to the decision of the

President of the United States, Mr. Cleveland, who in his

award of March 22, 1888, accepted by both parties, declared

the treaty valid and binding upon each Republic and

interpreted the points which in the opinion of Nicaragua were

doubtful. According to the provisions of both of these

documents, the treaty and award, even in the remote event that

the natural rights of Costa Rica should not be injured, Nicaragua

is bound not to make any grants for canal purposes across her

territory without first asking the opinion of the Republic of

Costa Rica. Three years prior, and while this question was

still pending, Nicaragua concluded the treaty known as the

Zavala-Frelinghuysen, signed in Washington on December 1,

1884, whereby the title to the canal was conveyed to the

United States, and Costa Rica adhered to this treaty under

date of February 23, 1885; but the negotiations remained

without effect, because, ratification having been denied in

the Senate, although a reconsideration of the subject had been

agreed to, President Cleveland, on inaugurating his first

administration, withdrew the document from the Senate. Things

then returned to the status they formerly maintained, and

Nicaragua in April, 1887, and Costa Rica in July, 1888,

respectively granted the concessions pursuant to which the

construction of the American waterway has been pending of late

years. The Congress of the United States has been giving

special attention to this important matter since the year

1892, and commissions have been created charged with the

survey and location of the route, as well as the study of the

influence of the canal in its different aspects. Recently the

investigation is not limited to the route by Nicaragua and

Costa Rica alone, but extends to Panama."

_Speech of Señor Calvo, Costa Rican Minister,

at the International Commercial Congress,

Philadelphia, October 24, 1899._

{66}

CANAL, Interoceanic, The Project of the: A. D. 1889-1899.

The Maritime Canal Company.

Investigation of Nicaragua routes.

"The failure of the Frelinghuysen-Zavala treaty [see above]

was a severe disappointment to the friends of the canal

project, but it did not discourage them. A company of private

citizens, capitalists and promoters, was organized, which at

length took the name of the Maritime Canal Company. Fair and

full concessions were secured from the government of

Nicaragua, while similar articles were also signed with the

Republic of Costa Rica on account of imagined ownership of a

portion of the territory through which the canal was to pass,

though it has been shown subsequently, in the settlement of

the boundary dispute between those two governments, that Costa

Rica's rights in the matter were solely riparian. In due time

Congress was called upon to grant a charter to the Maritime

Company, which asked nothing more than this." The chartering

act was passed by Congress in 1889, with an important

amendment proposed by Judge Holman of Indiana, providing that

"nothing in this act contained shall be so construed as to

commit the United States to any pecuniary liability whatever

for any account of said company, nor shall the United States

be held in any wise liable or responsible in any form or by

any implication for any debt or, liability in any form which

said company may incur, nor as guaranteeing any engagement or

contract of said company." But two years afterwards, the

company having failed to enlist the necessary capital for its

undertaking, an attempt was made to set aside the above

provision and to persuade Congress to guarantee $100,000,000

of bonds, taking $70,000,000 of stock and making the

government a partner in the enterprise. The proposal was

rejected. Congress "did not guarantee the company's bonds. The

company, without such guarantee, was unable to raise the

necessary capital, either in the United States or abroad, and

the financial crisis of 1893 so overwhelmed it that all active

operations on the isthmus were suspended, and they have never

been resumed. The same issue, the guaranteeing of bonds, has

come up from time to time in succeeding Congresses, but not

until the second session of the Fifty-fourth [1897] did it

appear to have much chance of being decided in favor of the

company. The opposition in the Senate, where it was first

considered, was strong, and the arguments advanced against the

bill were clear, sound and forceful. The advocates of the

measure were pressing for a vote, but almost at the supreme

moment a note was received from the State Department,

accompanied by a communication from Minister Rodriguez, the

representative of the Greater Republic of Central America,

setting forth several unassailable objections of his

government to the methods of procedure. This final thrust

determined the fate of the bill, and a vote on it was not

taken. … The material points of Minister Rodriguez's

criticism, which caused the Senate bill in 1897 to be

withdrawn, were that some of the vital provisions of the

cessions under which the Maritime Canal Company had the right

to construct the canal were violated."

_C. M. Stadden,

Latest Aspects of the Nicaragua Canal Project

(North American Review, December, 1898)._

Congress now (June 4, 1897) passed an Act which created a

commission to examine all practicable routes for a canal

through Nicaragua, and report its judgment as to the best,

with an estimate of the cost of the work on such route. The

commissioners appointed were Admiral Walker, Professor Haupt,

and Colonel Hains. Their report, submitted to the President in

May, 1899, unanimously recommended the route described as

follows: "This line, leaving Brito, follows the left bank of

the Rio Grande to near Bueno Retiro, and crosses the western

divide to the valley of the Lajas, which it follows to Lake

Nicaragua. Crossing the lake to the head of the San Juan

river, it follows the upper river to near Boca San Carlos;

thence, in excavation, by the left bank of the river to the

San Juanillo and across the low country to Greytown, passing

to the northward of Lake Silico." But while the commissioners

agreed in finding this route preferable to any others in the

Nicaragua region, they disagreed seriously in their estimates

of cost, Colonel Hains, putting it at nearly $135,000,000,

while Admiral Walker and Professor Haupt placed the cost at

little more than $118,000,000. Before the report of this

Nicaragua Canal Commission was made, however, Congress (March

3, 1899) had directed the appointment of another commission to

examine and report upon all possible routes for an

interoceanic canal, in the Panama region and elsewhere, as

well as through Nicaragua and to determine the cost of

constructing such a canal and "placing it under the control,

management and ownership of the United States." This later

commission, known as the Isthmian Canal Commission, was made

up as follows:

Rear-Admiral John G. Walker, U. S. N.;

Samuel Pasco, of Florida;

Alfred Noble, C. E. of Illinois;

George S. Morrison, C. E., of New York;

Colonel Peter C. Hains, U. S. A.;

Professor William H. Burr, of Connecticut;

Lieutenant-Colonel Oswald H. Ernst, U. S. A.;

Professor Lewis M. Haupt, C. E., of Pennsylvania;

Professor Emory R. Johnston, of Pennsylvania.

In his Message to Congress the next December, President

McKinley stated: "The contract of the Maritime Canal Company

of Nicaragua was declared forfeited by the Nicaraguan

Government on the 10th of October, on the ground of

nonfulfillment within the ten years' term stipulated in the

contract. The Maritime Canal Company has lodged a protest

against this action, alleging rights in the premises which

appear worthy of consideration. This Government expects that

Nicaragua will afford the protestants a full and fair hearing

upon the merits of the case." But another company had been put

into the place of the Maritime Canal Company, by action of

President Zelaya, of Nicaragua, who, in 1898, granted to

Edward Eyre and E. F. Cragin, who represented an American

Syndicate, the right to construct the canal when the contract

with the Maritime should have lapsed. This transaction,

however, lacked confirmation by Costa Rica and the United

States.

CANAL, Interoceanic, A. D. 1893-1900.

The Panama Canal Concession twice extended.

Formation of new company.

See (in this volume)

COLOMBIA: A. D. 1893-1900.

CANAL, Interoceanic, A. D. 1899 (December).

Transfer of the Panama Canal to an American company.

The transfer of the Panama Canal from the later French company

to an American company, chartered in New Jersey, was

accomplished in December, 1899. The new company received all

the property, rights, and powers of its French predecessor,

the consideration to be paid to the latter being mainly in the

form of shares in the American company.

[Image: Map of Central America showing the Isthmian Canal Routes]

{67}

CANAL, Interoceanic, A. D. 1900 (November).

Preliminary report of the Isthmian Canal Commission in

favor of the Nicaragua route.

The preliminary report of the Isthmian Canal Commission,

appointed under the Act of March 3, 1899, was presented to the

President on the 30th November, 1900, and communicated to

Congress at the opening of the session. The Commission

reported in favor of the Nicaragua route, essentially on the

lines laid down by the previous Nicaragua Canal Commission, as

defined above. It found that the choice of routes lies between

this and the route of the partly constructed Panama Canal, and

its discussion of the question presented the following views:

"(a) Between New York and San Francisco, the Nicaragua Canal

route would be 377 nautical miles shorter than the Panama

route. Between New Orleans and San Francisco 579 miles would

be saved, and, in general, the distances between the Atlantic

and Pacific ports of the United States are less by way of

Nicaragua. Between our east coast and Yokohama and Shanghai

the Nicaragua route is somewhat shorter, but for the trade of

our eastern ports with the west coast of South America the

Panama route is not so long as the Nicaragua.

(b) A part of the saving in distance effected by using a

Nicaragua canal instead of one at Panama would be offset by

the longer time of transit at Nicaragua. An average steamer

would require twelve hours to make the passage through the

Panama Canal, and thirty-three through one across Nicaragua.

For a 10-knot steamer this difference of twenty-one hours

would be equivalent to 210 knots difference in distance, and

for a 13-knot steamer, the difference in time of transit would

be equivalent to 273 knots.

sailing vessels because of the uncertain winds in the bay of

Panama. It would not be impossible for sailing vessels to use

the Panama Canal, but for average voyages between the two

seaboards of the United States, a sailing vessel would require

about nine days additional time to make the passage by way of

the Panama Canal. However, neither route would be much used by

sailing vessels, because of their inability to compete with

steamers. They would certainly not be able to compete with

steamers, both using the Panama Canal.

(d) For the promotion of the domestic trade of the United

States, the Nicaragua route would possess advantages over the

Panama route, because the distance between our two seaboards

is less. For our trade with Japan, China, the Philippines, and

Australia, the advantages of the two routes are nearly equal,

the distance by way of the Nicaragua route being slightly

less. For our trade with South America the Panama route is

shorter and more direct.

(e) The industrial changes which the Nicaragua Canal would

produce in the countries through which it will pass would be

great. Nicaragua and Costa Rica comprise a region capable of

producing a large amount of tropical products for which there

is a demand in Europe and the United States. A canal across

their territory would give a great impetus to their economic

development.

"A careful examination has been made of all the rights,

privileges, and franchises held and owned by corporations,

associations, and individuals at the different canal routes.

This necessarily included a study of the treaties relating to

the establishment of an interoceanic communication made by the

Republics, whose territory is to be occupied, and by the

United States, with one another, and also with foreign

governments. The treaties heretofore made exclude all idea of

a relinquishment of sovereignty over any of the proposed

routes. In most of them the right of transit and the innocent

use of the communication, whether by railway or canal, is

granted to the other contracting party, its citizens and

subjects, to be enjoyed upon equal terms with other

governments and people; and the leading commercial nations of

the world have committed themselves to the policy of

neutrality at the different routes, and some of them have

obligated themselves to use their influence to induce other

nations to agree to the same policy. No existing treaties

between the United States and the Republics of Nicaragua and

Costa Rica, or of Colombia, give our Government the right to

excavate and operate a maritime canal through any of these

countries. The concessions granted by the different Republics

through whose territory the lines of the projected canals

extend, in terms, exclude the right of the companies holding

them to transfer them to any foreign government, and further

treaty rights must be acquired to enable the United States to

undertake the excavation of a navigable waterway between the

two oceans in a governmental capacity. The only prior

obligations to corporations, associations, or individuals in

the way of a direct agreement between the United States and

Nicaragua authorizing our Government to construct a canal

across the territory of the latter, to be under its control,

management, and ownership, have been eliminated by the

forfeiture and termination of the contracts with the Maritime

Canal Company of Nicaragua and the Interoceanic Canal Company.

In view of this declaration the Commission has not made any

effort to ascertain the cost at which the concessions of these

companies can be purchased, for if these forfeitures are final

the rights formerly granted to these companies are not in the

way of diplomatic negotiations with the Government interested

to acquire the consent and authority necessary for the

construction of a canal by this route. The situation in Costa

Rica is practically the same.

"The situation at Panama is different. The Republic of

Colombia first granted a concession to the Panama Railroad

Company, giving it exclusive privileges on the Isthmus, which

will continue according to modifications afterwards made for

ninety-nine years from August 16, 1867. A later concession to

the Panama Canal Company required it to enter into some

amicable arrangement with the railroad company under which the

former might occupy the territory along or near its line. The

canal company acquired by purchase a majority of the railroad

stock, and the necessary arrangements were made. This stock is

now under the control of the New Panama Canal Company, which

gives it a directing influence in both organizations. The

canal concession is to continue according to its latest

extension for ninety-nine years from the day on which the

canal shall be wholly or partially opened to public service,

and the date fixed for this in the contract is October 31,

1910. Should it fail and the concession be forfeited the

company will still have exclusive control of the territory

through which its line extends till 1966 under the railroad

concession. The canal company is absolutely prohibited to cede

or mortgage its rights under any consideration whatever to any

nation or foreign government under penalty of forfeiture.

{68}

The contract with the railroad company contains a like

prohibition and declares further that the pain of forfeiture

will be incurred by the mere act of attempting to cede or

transfer its privilege to a foreign government and such an act

is declared absolutely null and of no value or effect. These

concessions, if acquired by the United States, would not give

to the Government the control and ownership evidently

contemplated by the law, that is, an absolute ownership in

perpetuity. The right under the contract with the railroad

company is designated as 'the use and possession' of the

property for ninety-nine years, and it is provided that 'at

the expiration of the term of the privilege' and by the sole

fact of the expiration, the Government of Colombia shall be

substituted in all the rights of the company and shall

immediately enter into the enjoyment of the line of

communication, its fixtures, dependencies and all its

products. The right of the canal company is substantially of

the same character. … An examination of the charter rights of

the New Panama Canal Company under the general incorporation

laws of France and the special legislation in its behalf

resulted in finding an enactment, included in a law passed

June 8, 1888, requiring that all the plant necessary for the

construction of the canal shall be manufactured in France and

that the material must be of French origin. This being the

situation, it was manifest that, even if the privileges of the

companies could be purchased by and transferred to the United

States, they were encumbered with charges and conditions that

would not permit this Government to exercise all the rights of

complete ownership over a canal constructed by it at the

Panama route. A new arrangement is necessary if the United

States is to undertake such a work. The relinquishment by the

canal company, with the consent of Colombia, of the privileges

it has under existing concessions, for a consideration to be

agreed upon with the United States, would leave the way open

for treaty negotiations between the two governments to

ascertain whether Colombia will consent to the occupation of

its territory by the United States for the construction of a

canal to be under Government control, management, and

ownership, and, if so, whether they can agree upon terms

mutually satisfactory. The situation is peculiar, as there are

three parties in interest. The United States can enter into no

agreement with Colombia that does not have the approval of the

company, and the concessions do not permit the company to

transfer or attempt to transfer its rights to a foreign

government.

"The Commission has, however, attempted to ascertain the views

of the New Panama Canal Company with reference to a

disposition and transfer of its rights. Interviews were had

with its president and other officers during the visit to

Paris and on several occasions from time to time since then,

and on the 10th day of April last a formal letter was

addressed to Mr. Maurice Hutin, the president and

director-general, asking whether he was in a position to name

terms upon which the company would dispose of its property and

interests to the United States. At different times since then

the subject has been discussed by the representatives of the

company with the Commission and its committee on rights,

privileges, and franchises, but no formal reply to the letter

was received until this report was being closed. These

conferences and correspondence have resulted in no offer to

dispose of the property and privileges of the company to the

United States upon any terms, even with the consent of the

Colombian Government, nor has the company expressed any desire

or wish to enter into any negotiations with the United States

with reference to such a disposition of its property and

rights. It was proposed by President Hutin that the United

States might obtain control of the canal scheme as a majority

stockholder of a new organization to which the present company

could contribute its concession, plant, unfinished work, and

other property, at a valuation to be determined by

arbitration, and he expressed the opinion that such an

arrangement could be made without violating the concessions.

But this must include some plan for the protection of the

minority stockholders in the financial management, for they

would favor a policy that would realize liberal dividends in

proportion to the commercial value of the canal, while the

policy of this Government might be to reduce tolls and charges

to the cost of maintenance or even below it, if the interests

of the people would be thereby advanced. The plan, however,

which the company prefers is that outlined in its letter of

February 28, 1899, addressed to the President of the United

States, which has been published in Senate Document No. 188,

Fifty-Sixth Congress, first session, pages 41 and 42. This was

to reincorporate under the laws of New York or some other

State, and accord to the United States such representation in

its board of directors and such opportunity to acquire an

interest in its securities as its concessions permitted. And

an assurance was added to the effect that if the United States

should desire to perpetuate or enlarge its existing rights and

privileges acquired under the treaty of 1846, the company

would conform to such supplemental treaty as might be entered

into between the United States and Colombia. The Commission

having no other authority than to make investigations and

obtain information submits this result of its efforts to

ascertain upon what terms the rights and privileges at the

Panama route can be obtained. It is proper to add that the

examination of the title of the present company to the canal

property under the laws of France and Colombia has satisfied

this Commission that the New Panama Canal Company has the

entire control and management of the canal property. …

"The estimated cost of building the Nicaragua Canal is about

$58,000,000 more than that of completing the Panama Canal,

leaving out the cost of acquiring the latter property. This

measures the difference in the magnitude of the obstacles to

be overcome in the actual construction of the two canals, and

covers all physical considerations such as the greater or less

height of dams, the greater or less depth of cuts, the

presence or absence of natural harbors, the presence or

absence of a railroad, the exemption from or liability to

disease, and the amount of work remaining to be done. The New

Panama Canal Company has shown no disposition to sell its

property to the United States. Should that company be able and

willing to sell, there is reason to believe that the price

would not be such as would make the total cost to the United

States less than that of the Nicaragua Canal. … In view of all

the facts, and particularly in view of all the difficulties of

obtaining the necessary rights, privileges, and franchises on

the Panama route, and assuming that Nicaragua and Costa Rica

recognize the value of the canal to themselves and are

prepared to grant concessions on terms which are reasonable

and acceptable to the United States, the Commission is of the

opinion that 'the most practicable and feasible route for' an

isthmian canal to be 'under the control, management, and

ownership of the United States' is that known as the Nicaragua

route."

_United States, 56th Congress,

2d Session, Senate Doc. Number 5._

{69}

CANAL, Interoceanic, A. D. 1900 (December).

The Hay-Pauncefote Treaty between the United States and

Great Britain, to facilitate the construction of the Canal,

as amended by the United States Senate.

In his annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1900, President

McKinley had the following to say on the subject of the

Interoceanic Canal: "The all important matter of an

interoceanic canal has assumed a new phase. Adhering to its

refusal to reopen the question of the forfeiture of the

contract of the Maritime Canal Company, which was terminated

for alleged non-execution in October, 1899, the Government of

Nicaragua has since supplemented that action by declaring the

so-styled Eyre-Cragin option void for non-payment of the

stipulated advance. Protests in relation to these acts have

been filed in the State Department, and are under

consideration. Deeming itself relieved from existing

engagements, the Nicaraguan Government shows a disposition to

deal freely with the canal question either in the way of

negotiations with the United States or by taking measures to

promote the waterway. Overtures for a convention to effect the

building of a canal under the auspices of the United States

are under consideration. In the mean time, the views of the

Congress upon the general subject, in the light of the report

of the Commission appointed to examine the comparative merits

of the various trans-isthmian ship canal projects, may be

awaited. I commend to the early attention of the Senate the

convention with Great Britain to facilitate the construction

of such a canal, and to remove any objection which might arise

out of the convention commonly called the Clayton-Bulwer

Treaty."

On the terms of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty:

See, in volume 4,

NICARAGUA: A. D. 1850.

The Convention thus referred to was negotiated by the

Secretary of State of the United States. Mr. John Hay, with

the British Ambassador to the United States, Lord Pauncefote.

It was signed at Washington on the 5th of February, 1900, and

communicated by the President to the Senate on the same day.

The action of the Senate on the Convention was not taken until

after the opening of the session of Congress in December. It was

then ratified (December 20), but with three amendments which

seriously changed its character. The following is the text of

the Convention as ratified, with the Senate amendments

indicated:

"ARTICLE I.

It is agreed that the canal may be constructed under the

auspices of the Government of the United States, either

directly at its own cost, or by gift or loan of money to

individuals or corporations or through subscription to or

purchase of stock or shares, and that, subject to the

provisions of the present Convention, the said Government

shall have and enjoy all the rights incident to such

construction, as well as the exclusive right of providing for

the regulation and management of the canal.

"ARTICLE II.

The High Contracting Parties, desiring to preserve and

maintain the 'general principle' of neutralization established

in Article VIII of the Clayton-Bulwer Convention, [Added by

the Senate] which convention is hereby superseded, adopt, as

the basis of such neutralization, the following rules,

substantially as embodied in the convention between Great

Britain and certain other Powers, signed at Constantinople,

October 29, 1888, for the Free Navigation of the Suez Maritime

Canal, that is to say:

1. The canal shall be free and open, in time of war as in time

of peace, to the vessels of commerce and of war of all

nations, on terms of entire equality, so that there shall be

no discrimination against any nation or its citizens or

subjects in respect of the conditions or charges of traffic,

or otherwise.

2. The canal shall never be blockaded, nor shall any right of

war be exercised nor any act of hostility be committed within

it.

3. Vessels of war of a belligerent shall not revictual nor

take any stores in the canal except so far as may be strictly

necessary; and the transit of such vessels through the canal

shall be effected with the least possible delay, in accordance

with the regulations in force, and with only such intermission

as may result from the necessities of the service. Prizes

shall be in all respects subject to the same rules as vessels

of war of the belligerents.

4. No belligerent shall embark or disembark troops, munitions

of war or warlike materials in the canal except in case of

accidental hindrance of the transit, and in such case the

transit shall be resumed with all possible despatch.

5. The provisions of this article shall apply to waters

adjacent to the canal, within three marine miles of either

end. Vessels of war of a belligerent shall not remain in such

waters longer than twenty-four hours at any one time except in

case of distress, and in such case shall depart as soon as

possible; but a vessel of war of one belligerent shall not

depart within twenty-four hours from the departure of a vessel

of war of the other belligerent. [Added by the Senate] It is

agreed, however, that none of the immediately foregoing

conditions and stipulations in sections numbered one, two,

three, four and five of this article shall apply to measures

which the United States may find it necessary to take for

securing by its own forces the defense of the United States

and the maintenance of public order.

6. The plant, establishments, buildings, and all works

necessary to the construction, maintenance and operation of

the canal shall be deemed to be part thereof, for the purposes

of this Convention, and in time of war as in time of peace

shall enjoy complete immunity from attack or injury by

belligerents and from acts calculated to impair their

usefulness as part of the canal.

7. No fortifications shall be erected commanding the canal or

the waters adjacent. The United States, however, shall be at

liberty to maintain such military police along the canal as

may be necessary to protect it against lawlessness and

disorder.

"ARTICLE III.

The High Contracting Parties will, immediately upon the

exchange of the ratifications of this Convention, bring it to

the notice of the other Powers [and invite them to adhere to

it].

[Stricken out by the Senate.]

"ARTICLE: IV.

The present Convention shall be ratified by the President of

the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the

Senate thereof, and by Her Britannic Majesty; and the

ratifications shall be exchanged at Washington or at London

within six months from the date hereof, or earlier if

possible."

_United States, 56th Congress, 1st Session,

Senate Document Number 160._

{70}

Anticipating the ratification of the above Treaty with Great

Britain, the President of the United States, in December,

1900, concluded agreements with the governments of Costa Rica

and Nicaragua, both of which were in the following terms:

"It is agreed between the two Governments that when the

President of the United States is authorized by law to acquire

control of such portion of the territory now belonging to [Costa

Rica and Nicaragua] as may be desirable and necessary on which

to construct and protect a canal of depth and capacity

sufficient for the passage of vessels of the greatest tonnage

and draft now in use from a point near San Juan del Norte, on

the Caribbean Sea, via Lake Nicaragua, to Brito, on the

Pacific Ocean, they mutually engage to enter into negotiations

with each other to settle the plan and the agreements, in detail,

found necessary to accomplish the construction and to provide

for the ownership and control of the proposed canal. As

preliminary to such future negotiations it is forthwith agreed

that the course of said canal and the terminals thereof shall

be the same that were stated in a treaty signed by the

plenipotentiaries of the United States and Great Britain on

February 5, 1900, and now pending in the Senate of the United

States for confirmation, and that the provisions of the same

shall be adhered to by the United States and [Costa Rica and

Nicaragua]." No action on these agreements was taken in the

Senate.

CANAL, Interoceanic, A. D. 1901 (March).

Rejection by the British Government of the Hay-Pauncefote

Treaty as amended by the U. S. Senate.

Early in March, soon after the adjournment of Congress, a

communication from Lord Lansdowne, the British Secretary of

State for Foreign Affairs, declining with courtesy and in

friendly terms to accept the Senate amendments to the

Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, was received by Lord Pauncefote, the

British Ambassador at Washington. The objections urged most

strongly are against those amendments which touch the

neutrality of the proposed canal and its unimpeded use in time

of war as well as in time of peace. "The first of them," said

Lord Lansdowne, "which reserves to the United States the right

of taking any measures which they may find necessary to secure by

their own forces the defence of the United States, appears to

His Majesty's government to involve a distinct departure from

the principle which has until now found acceptance with both

governments; the principle, namely, that in time of war, as

well as in time of peace, the passage of the canal is to

remain free and unimpeded, and is to be so maintained by the

power or powers responsible for its control. Were this

amendment added to the convention the United States would, it

is presumed, be within their rights, if, at any moment when it

seemed to them that their safety required it, in view of

warlike preparations not yet commenced, but contemplated or

supposed to be contemplated by another power, they resorted to

warlike acts in or near the canal—acts clearly inconsistent

with the neutral character which it has always been sought to

give it, and which would deny the free use of it to the

commerce and navies of the world. … If the new clause were to

be added, the obligation to respect the neutrality of the

canal in all circumstances would, so far as Great Britain is

concerned, remain in force; the obligation of the United

States, on the other hand, would be essentially modified. The

result would be a onesided arrangement, under which Great

Britain would be debarred from any warlike action in or around

the canal, while the United States would be liable to resort to

such action to whatever extent they might deem necessary to

secure their own safety."

To the contention that there is a specific prohibition in the

Hay-Pauncefote treaty against the erection of fortifications,

and that this would sufficiently insure the free use of the

canal, Lord Lansdowne replies that this "contention is one

which His Majesty's government are quite unable to admit." He

notes the vagueness of language in the amendment, and says:

"Even if it were more precisely worded it would be impossible

to determine what might be the effect if one clause permitting

defensive measures and another forbidding fortifications were

allowed to stand side by side in the convention. To His

Majesty's government it seems, as I have already said, that

the amendment might be construed as leaving it open to the

United States at any moment, not only if war existed, but even

if it were anticipated, to take any measures, however

stringent or far-reaching, which in their own judgment might

be represented as suitable for the purpose of protecting their

national interests. Such an enactment would strike at the very

root of that 'general principle' of neutralization upon which

the Clayton-Bulwer treaty was based, and which was reaffirmed

in the convention as drafted."

As to the third Senate amendment, which struck out the

provision inviting the adherence of other powers, Lord

Lansdowne says: "The amendment not only removes all prospect

of the wider guarantee of the neutrality of the canal, but

places this country in a position of marked disadvantage

compared with other powers which would not be subject to the

self-denying ordinance which Great Britain is desired to

accept. It would follow, were His Majesty's government to

agree to such an arrangement, that while the United States

would have a treaty right to interfere with the canal in time

of war, or apprehended war, and while other powers could with

a clear conscience disregard any of the restrictions imposed

by the convention, Great Britain alone, in spite of her

enormous possessions on the American Continent, in spite of

the extent of her Australasian colonies and her interests in

the East, would be absolutely precluded from resorting to any

such action or from taking measures to secure her interests in

and near the canal."

The British Minister closes his communication to Lord

Pauncefote as follows: "I request that your excellency will

explain to the Secretary of State the reasons, as set forth in

this dispatch, why His Majesty's government feel unable to

accept the convention in the shape presented to them by the

American Ambassador, and why they prefer, as matters stand at

present, to retain unmodified the provisions of the

Clayton-Bulwer Treaty. His Majesty's government have

throughout these negotiations given evidence of their earnest

desire to meet the views of the United States.

{71}

They would on this occasion have been ready to consider in a

friendly spirit any amendments of the convention not

inconsistent with the principles accepted by both governments

which the government of the United States might have desired

to propose, and they would sincerely regret a failure to come

to an amicable understanding in regard to this important

subject."

CANAL, The Kaiser Wilhelm Ship.

See (in this volume)

GERMANY: A. D. 1895 (JUNE).

CANAL, Manchester Ship.

On the 1st of January, 1894, the ship canal from Liverpool to

Manchester, which had been ten years in course of construction

and cost £15,000,000, was formally opened, by a long

procession of steamers, which traversed it in four and a half

hours.

CANAL: The Rhine-Elbe, the Dortmund-Rhine,

and other Prussian projects.

See (in this volume)

GERMANY: A. D. 1890 (AUGUST);

and 1901 (JANUARY).

CANDIA: A. D. 1898 (September).

Fresh outbreak.

See (in this volume)

TURKEY: A. D. 1897-1899.

CANEA: Christian and Moslem conflicts at.

See (in this volume)

TURKEY: A. D. 1897 (FEBRUARY-MARCH).

CANOVAS DEL CASTILLO, Antonio:

Formation of Spanish Cabinet.

See (in this volume)

SPAIN: A. D. 1895-1896.

CANOVAS DEL CASTILLO, Antonio:

Assassination.

See (in this volume)

SPAIN: A. D. 1897 (AUGUST-OCTOBER).

CANTEEN, The Army.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

A. D. 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER), THE PROHIBITION PARTY;

and 1901 (FEBRUARY).

CANTON: A. D. 1894.

The Bubonic Plague.

See (in this volume)

PLAGUE.

CANTON: A. D. 1899.

Increasing piracy in the river.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1899.

CAPE COLONY.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (CAPE COLONY).

CAPE NOME, Gold discovery at.

See (in this volume)

ALASKA: A. D. 1898-1899.

CAPE SAN JUAN, Engagement at.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

A. D. 1898 (JULY-AUGUST: PORTO RICO).

CARNEGIE, Andrew: Gifts and offers to public libraries.

See (in this volume)

LIBRARIES;

and LIBRARY, NEW YORK PUBLIC.

CARNEGIE COMPANY, Sale of the interests of the.

See (in this volume)

TRUSTS: UNITED STATES.

CAROLINE and MARIANNE ISLANDS:

Their sale by Spain to Germany.

By a treaty concluded in February, 1899, the Caroline Islands,

the Western Carolines or Pelew Islands, and the Marianne or

Ladrone Islands (excepting Guam), were sold by Spain to

Germany for 25,000,000 pesetas—the peseta being equivalent to

a fraction less than twenty cents. Spain reserved the right to

establish and maintain naval and mercantile stations in the

islands, and to retain them in case of war. Spanish trade and

privileges for the Spanish religious orders are guaranteed

against interference.

CARROLL, Henry K.:

Report on Porto Rico.

See (in this volume)

PORTO RICO: A. D. 1898-1899 (AUGUST-JULY).

CASSATION, The Court of.

The French Court of Appeals.

See (in this volume)

FRANCE: A. D. 1897-1899.

CASTILLO, Pedro Lopez de:

Letter to the soldiers of the American army.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (AUGUST 21).

CATALOGUE, International, of Scientific Literature.

See (in this volume)

SCIENCE, RECENT: SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.

CATALONIA: Independent aspirations in.

See (in this volume)

SPAIN: A. D. 1900 (OCTOBER-NOVEMBER).

CATASTROPHES, Natural: A. D. 1894.

Late in December, the orange groves of Florida were mostly

destroyed or seriously injured by the severest frost known in

more than half a century.

CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1896.

On January 8, a severe earthquake shock was felt at Meshed,

Kelat and other Persian towns, causing over 1,100 deaths.

CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1896.

In March, the Tigris overflowed its banks, causing

incalculable loss of life and property in Mesopotamia.

CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1896.

A succession of earthquake shocks in March, 1896, did great

damage at Santiago, Valparaiso, and other parts of Chile.

CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1896.

On May 15, a cyclone destroyed part of the town of Sherman, in

Texas, killing more than 120 persons, mostly negroes. The same

day a waterspout burst over the town of Howe in the same state,

killing 8 people.

CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1896.

On May 27, a fierce cyclone swept the city of St. Louis,

Missouri, completely devastating a large part of the city, and

causing great loss of life and property.

CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1896.

A destructive wave swept the Japanese coast in June.

See (in this volume)

JAPAN: A. D. 1896.

CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1896.

On July 26, a tidal wave, 5 miles in width, inundated the

coast of Kiangsu, in China, destroying many villages and more

than 4,000 inhabitants.

CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1896-1897.

A severe famine prevailed in India from the spring of 1896

until the autumn of 1897.

See (in this volume)

INDIA: A. D. 1896-1897.

CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1897.

A severe earthquake occurred at the island of Kishm in the

Persian Gulf, in January, causing great loss of life.

CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1897.

In March and April of this year the floods along the

Mississippi river and its tributaries reached the highest

level ever recorded. In extent of area and loss of property

these floods were the most remarkable in the history of the

continent. The total area under water on April 10 was about

15,800 square miles, containing about 39,500 farms, whose

value was close upon $65,000,000. The loss of life was small.

Congress gave relief to the extent of $200,000, besides

appropriating $2,583,300 for the improvement of the

Mississippi.

CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1897.

Extensive floods occurred in Galatz, Moldavia, in June,

rendering 20,000 people homeless.

CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1897.

The islands of Leyte and Samar, in the Visayas group, were

swept by an immense wave caused by a cyclone, in October,

thousands of natives being killed, and much property

destroyed.

{72}

CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1897.

On October 6, the Philippine Islands were swept by a typhoon,

which destroyed several towns. The loss of life was estimated

at 6,000, of whom 400 were Europeans. This was followed on

October 12 by a cyclone which destroyed several villages and

caused further loss of life.

CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1897.

By an eruption of the Mayon volcano in the island of Luzon,

Philippine Islands, four hundred persons were buried in the

lava, and the large town of Libog completely destroyed.

CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1898.

A series of earthquake shocks in Asia Minor during the month

of January occasioned considerable loss of life and property.

CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1898.

In January, Amboyna, in the Molucca Islands, was almost

destroyed by an earthquake, in which about 50 persons were

killed and 200 injured.

CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1898.

On January 11, a tornado wrecked many buildings in Fort Smith,

Ark. The loss of life was reported as 50, with hundreds

injured.

CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1898.

A disastrous blizzard occurred in New England, January 31 and

February 1. Fifty lives were reported as lost, and the damage

in Boston alone amounted to $2,000,000. Many vessels were

driven ashore or foundered, with further loss of life.

CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1898.

Floods on the Ohio river in March and April caused much loss

of life and property. Shawneetown, Illinois on the Ohio river,

was almost entirely destroyed by the flood, more than 60 lives

being lost.

CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1898.

On the night of September 10, the island of Barbados was swept

by a tornado which destroyed 10,000 houses and damaged 5,000

more. Three-fourths of the inhabitants were left homeless, and

about 100 were killed. The islands of St. Vincent and St.

Lucia also suffered great losses of life and property.

CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1898.

A typhoon swept the central provinces of Japan in September,

causing heavy floods, and destroying 100 lives.

CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1899.

Severe floods on the Brazos river, in Texas, occasioned the

death of about 100 people, and property losses to the extent

of $15,000,000.

CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1899.

A destructive tornado in Northern Missouri, in April, did much

damage in the towns of Kirksville and Newtown. Over fifty

persons were killed.

CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1899.

An almost unprecedented failure of crops in eastern Russia

caused famine, disease and awful destruction of life.

CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1899.

A terrific hurricane visited the West Indies August 7 and 8.

Of the several islands affected, Porto Rico suffered most,

three-fourths of the population being left homeless. The total

loss of life in the West Indies was estimated at 5,000.

See (in this volume)

PORTO RICO: A. D. 1899 (AUGUST).

CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1899.

About 1,500 people lost their lives in an earthquake around

Aidin, Asia Minor, September 2.

CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1899.

The island of Ceram, in the Moluccas, was visited by an

earthquake and tidal wave, November 2. Many towns were

destroyed, and 5,000 people killed.

CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1899-1900.

Recurrence of famine in India.

See (in this volume)

INDIA A. D. 1899-1900.

CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1900.

The city of Galveston, Texas, was overwhelmed and mostly

destroyed, on the 9th of September, by an unprecedented

hurricane, which drove the waters of the Gulf upon the

low-lying town.

See (in this volume)

GALVESTON.

CATASTROPHES, Natural: 1901.

Famine in China.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).

CATHOLICS, Roman:

Protest of British peers against the declaration required from

the sovereign.

See (in this volume)

ENGLAND: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).

CATHOLICS, Roman:

Victory in Belgium.

See (in this volume)

BELGIUM: A. D. 1894-1895.

See, also, PAPACY.

CEBU: The American occupation of the island.

See (in this volume)

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (JANUARY-NOVEMBER).

CENSUS: Of the United States, A. D. 1900.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (MAY-OCTOBER).

CENTRAL AFRICA PROTECTORATE, British.

See (in this volume)

BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA PROTECTORATE.

CENTRAL AMERICA, A. D. 1821-1898.

Unsuccessful attempts to unite the republics.

"In 1821, after numerous revolutions, Central America

succeeded in throwing off the yoke of Spain. A Congress

assembled at Guatemala in March, 1822, and founded the

Republic of Central America, composed of Guatemala, Salvador,

Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. The new Republic had but

a short existence; after numerous civil wars the Union was

dissolved, October 26, 1838, and the five States of the

Republic became so many independent countries. Several

attempts toward a reorganization of the Constitution of the

Republic of Central America remained fruitless and had cost

the lives of certain of their authors, when, through the

influence of Dr. P. Bonilla, President of the Republic of

Honduras, a treaty was concluded between Nicaragua and

Salvador, according to which the three Republics constituted a

federation under the name of the Greater Republic of Central

America. The three Republics became States, and the

sovereignty of the federation was exercised by a Diet composed

of three members, one for each State, and which convened every

year in the capital of the Federal States.

"On the invitation of this Diet, the three States appointed a

delegation which met as a Constituent Assembly at Managua,

Nicaragua, and established a constitution, according to the

terms of which the three States took the name of the United

States of Central America, November 1, 1898. This

Constitution, grand and patriotic, which, in the minds of

those who had elaborated it, meant a complete consolidation of

the three Federal States and a speedy realization of a

reorganization of the Grand Republic of Central America,

dreamed of by Morazan, had a sad ending. The day after the

meeting of the Constituent Assembly a revolutionary movement

hostile to the new federation broke out in Salvador and gave a

new administration to this State. Its first act was to retire

from the Union, and this secession brought about the

dissolution of the United States of Central America; for,

following the example of Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua took

back their absolute sovereignty."

_H. Jalhay,

quoted in Bulletin of American Republics, March, 1899._

{73}

The secession of Salvador was brought about by a revolutionary

movement, which overthrew the constitutional government of

President Gutierrez and placed General Tomas Regolado at the

head of a provisional government, which issued the following

manifesto on the 25th of November, 1898: "Considering—That the

compact of Amapala, celebrated in June, 1895, and all that

proceeds therefrom, has not obtained the legitimate sanction

of the Salvadorean people, and, moreover, has been a violation

of the political constitution of Salvador; That in the

assembled Constituent Assembly of Managua, reunited in June of

the present year, the deputies of Salvador were not directly

elected by the Salvadorean people, and for that reason had no

legal authority to concur to a constituent law that could bind

the Republic; That the union with the Republics of Honduras

and Nicaragua under the contracted terms will seriously injure

the interests of Salvador: Decrees. ART. 1. The Republic of

Salvador is not obliged by the contract of Amapala to

acknowledge any authority in the constitution of Managua of

the 27th August of the current year, and it is released from

the contract of union with the Republics of Honduras and

Nicaragua. ART. 2. The Republic of Salvador assumes in full

its self-government and independence, and will enter the union

with the sister Republics of Central America when same is

convenient to its positive interests and is the express and

free will of the Salvadorean people."

_United States, 55th Congress, 3d Session,

Senate Document Number 50._

CENTRAL AMERICA, A. D. 1884-1900.

Interoceanic Canal measures of later years.

See (in this volume)

CANAL, INTEROCEANIC, with accompanying map.

CENTRAL AMERICA, Nicaragua: A. D. 1894-1895.

Insurrection in the Mosquito Indian Strip.

The Bluefields Incident.

In his Annual Message to Congress, December, 1894, President

Cleveland referred as follows to disturbances which had

occurred during the year at Bluefields, the principal town of

the Mosquito district of Nicaragua, and commonly known as "the

Bluefields Incident:" "By the treaty of 1860 between Great

Britain and Nicaragua, the former Government expressly

recognized the sovereignty of the latter over the strip, and a

limited form of self-government was guaranteed to the Mosquito

Indians, to be exercised according to their customs, for

themselves and other dwellers within its limits. The so-called

native government, which grew to be largely made up of aliens,

for many years disputed the sovereignty of Nicaragua over the

strip and claimed the right to maintain therein a practically

independent municipal government. Early in the past year

efforts of Nicaragua to maintain sovereignty over the Mosquito

territory led to serious disturbances, culminating in the

suppression of the native government and the attempted

substitution of an impracticable composite administration in

which Nicaragua and alien residents were to participate.

Failure was followed by an insurrection, which for a time

subverted Nicaraguan rule, expelling her officers and

restoring the old organization. This in turn gave place to the

existing local government established and upheld by Nicaragua.

Although the alien interests arrayed against Nicaragua in

these transactions have been largely American and the commerce

of that region for some time has been and still is chiefly

controlled by our citizens, we can not for that reason

challenge the rightful sovereignty of Nicaragua over this

important part of her domain."

_United States, Message and Documents

(Abridgment, 1894-1895)._

In his Message of 1895 the President summarized the later

history of the incident as follows: "In last year's message I

narrated at some length the jurisdictional questions then

freshly arisen in the Mosquito Indian Strip of Nicaragua.

Since that time, by the voluntary act of the Mosquito Nation,

the territory reserved to them has been incorporated with

Nicaragua, the Indians formally subjecting themselves to be

governed by the general laws and regulations of the Republic

instead of by their own customs and regulations, and thus

availing themselves of a privilege secured to them by the

treaty between Nicaragua and Great Britain of January 28,

1860. After this extension of uniform Nicaraguan

administration to the Mosquito Strip, the case of the British

vice-consul, Hatch, and of several of his countrymen who had

been summarily expelled from Nicaragua and treated with

considerable indignity, provoked a claim by Great Britain upon

Nicaragua for pecuniary indemnity, which, upon Nicaragua's

refusal to admit liability, was enforced by Great Britain.

While the sovereignty and jurisdiction of Nicaragua was in no

way questioned by Great Britain, the former's arbitrary

conduct in regard to British subjects furnished the ground for

this proceeding. A British naval force occupied without

resistance the Pacific seaport of Corinto, but was soon after

withdrawn upon the promise that the sum demanded would be

paid. Throughout this incident the kindly offices of the

United States were invoked and were employed in favor of as

peaceful a settlement and as much consideration and indulgence

toward Nicaragua as were consistent with the nature of the

case."

_United States,

Message and Documents (Abridgment, 1895-1896)._

CENTRAL AMERICA, Guatemala: A. D. 1895.

Mexican boundary dispute.

See (in this volume)

MEXICO: A. D. 1895.

CENTRAL AMERICA, Nicaragua: A. D. 1896-1898.

Revolutionary conflicts.

Vice President Baca of Nicaragua joined a revolutionary

movement which was set on foot in February, 1896, by the

Clericals, for the overthrow of President Zelaya, and was

declared Provisional President. The rebellion had much support

from exiles and friends in Honduras; but the government of

that State sustained and assisted Zelaya. The insurgents were

defeated in a number of battles, and gave up the contest in

May. During the civil war American and British marines were

landed on occasions at Corinto to protect property there. In

1897, and again in 1898, there were renewed insurrections,

quickly suppressed.

CENTRAL AMERICA, Costa Rica: A. D. 1896-1900.

Boundary dispute with Colombia settled by arbitration.

See (in this volume)

COLOMBIA: A. D. 1893-1900.

{74}

CENTRAL AMERICA, Nicaragua—Costa Rica: A. D. 1897.

A dispute between Nicaragua and Costa Rica, as to the eastern

extremity of their boundary line, was decided by General

Alexander, a referee accepted by the two republics. The

boundary had not been well defined in a treaty negotiated for

its settlement in 1858. According to the terms of the treaty,

the line was to start from the Atlantic at the mouth of the

San Juan river; but changes of current and accumulation of

river drift, etc., gave ground for dispute as to where the

river actually made its exit. President Cleveland in 1888,

acting as arbitrator at the request of the two countries,

decided that the treaty of 1858 was valid, but was not clear

as to which outlet of the delta was the boundary. Finally, in

1896, an agreement was reached for a final survey and marking

of the boundary line, and President Cleveland, on request,

appointed General Alexander as arbitrator in any case of

disagreement between the surveying commissions. The decision

gives to Nicaragua the territory upon which Greytown is

situated, and practical control of the mouth of the canal.

CENTRAL AMERICA, Guatemala: A. D. 1897-1898.

Dictatorship of President Barrios.

His assassination.

In June, 1897, President José M. Reyna Barrios, whose six

years term in the presidency would expire the next March,

fearing defeat in the approaching election, forcibly dissolved

the National Assembly and proclaimed a dictatorship. Three

months later a revolt was organized by General Prospero

Morales; but Barrios crushed it with merciless energy, and a

veritable reign of terror ensued. In February, 1898, the

career of the Dictator was cut short by an assassin, who shot

him to avenge the death of a wealthy citizen, Don Juan

Aparicio, whom Barrios had executed for expressing sympathy

with the objects of the rebellion of the previous year.

Control of the government was then taken by Dr. Cabrera, who

had been at the head of the party which supported Barrios. A

rising under Morales was again attempted, but failed. Morales,

in a dying condition at the time, was betrayed and captured.

Cabrera, with no more opposition, was elected President for

six years.

CENTRAL AMERICA, Nicaragua—Costa Rica: A. D. 1900.

Agreements with the United States respecting the control of

territory for interoceanic canal.

See (in this volume)

CANAL, INTEROCEANIC, A. D. 1900 (DECEMBER).

CENTURY, The Nineteenth:

Date of its ending.

Its character and trend.

Comparison with preceding ages.

Its failures.

See (in this volume)

NINETEENTH CENTURY.

CERVERA, Rear-Admiral,

and the Spanish Squadron at Santiago de Cuba.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-JUNE);

and (JULY 3).

CHAFFEE, General Adna R.:

At Santiago.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE-JULY).

CHAFFEE, General Adna R.:

Commanding American forces in China.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JUNE-AUGUST);

(JULY); and (AUGUST).

CHAFFEE, General Adna R.:

Report of the allied movement to Peking

and the capture of the city.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (AUGUST 4-16).

CHAKDARRA, Defense of.

See (in this volume)

INDIA: A. D. 1897-1898.

CHALDEA, New light on ancient.

See (in this volume)

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA.

CHAMBERLAIN, Joseph:

Appointed British Secretary of State for the Colonies.

See (in this volume)

ENGLAND: A. D. 1894-1895; and 1900 (NOVEMBER-DECEMBER).

CHAMBERLAIN, Joseph:

Conference with Colonial Premiers.

See (in this volume)

ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (JUNE-JULY).

CHAMBERLAIN, Joseph:

Controversies with the government of

the South African Republic.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1896 (JANUARY-APRIL);

1896-1897 (MAY-APRIL), and after.

CHAMBERLAIN, Joseph:

Testimony before British Parliamentary Committee

on the Jameson Raid.

Remarks in Parliament on Mr. Rhodes.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1897 (FEBRUARY-JULY).

CHAMBERLAIN, Joseph:

Instructions to the Governor of Jamaica.

See (in this volume)

JAMAICA: A. D. 1899.

CHAMBERLAIN, Joseph:

Reassertion of British suzerainty over

the South African Republic.

Refusal to arbitrate questions of disagreement.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1897 (MAY-OCTOBER);

and 1898-1899.

CHAMBERLAIN, Joseph:

Declaration of South African policy.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR): A. D. 1901.

CHANG CHIH-TUNG, Viceroy:

Admirable conduct during the Chinese outbreak.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JUNE-DECEMBER).

CHEMICAL SCIENCE, Recent advances in.

See (in this volume)

SCIENCE, RECENT: CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS.

CHEROKEES, United States agreement with the.

See (in this volume)

INDIANS, AMERICAN: A. D. 1893-1899.

CHICAGO: A. D. 1894.

Destruction of the Columbian Exposition buildings.

By a succession of fires, January 9, February 14, most of the

buildings of the Exposition, with valuable exhibits not yet

removed, were destroyed.

CHICAGO: A. D. 1896.

Democratic National Convention.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER).

CHICAGO: A. D. 1899.

Significance of the municipal election.

The municipal election of April 4, 1899, in Chicago, resulted

in the reelection of Mayor Carter H. Harrison, Democrat, by

149,000 votes, against 107,000 cast for Zina R. Carter,

Republican, and 46,000 for Ex-Governor Altgeld, radical

Democrat, running independently. In the opinion of a

correspondent of the "Review of Reviews," "The campaign

disclosed three interesting results—namely: (1) the growth of

independence and of attention to local issues; (2) the

dominance of the street-railroad issue; and (3) the growth of

sentiment in favor of municipal ownership. Nearly two-thirds

of all the votes cast were against the Republican candidate,

and our correspondent regards this as largely due to the

belief that he, more than any of the others, represented the

interests of the street-railroad corporations." This writer

holds that "in all probability any practical proposition for

municipal ownership and operation of the street-railroads

would to-day be approved by a popular vote in Chicago."

{75}

CHICAGO: A. D. 1900.

Opening of the Drainage Canal.

An extraordinary public work was brought into use early in the

year, by the opening of what is known as the Chicago Drainage

Canal. This was constructed for the purpose of turning the

natural flow of water in Chicago River backward, away from

Lake Michigan, its natural embouchure, into the small Des

Plaines River, which runs to the Illinois, and the Illinois to

the Mississippi,—the object being to carry the sewage of

Chicago away from the Lake, where it contaminates the water

supply of the city. Part of the city sewage was already being

sent in that direction by a pumping system which carried it

over the divide; the purpose of the canal is to take the

whole. The work was begun in September, 1892, and practically

finished, so far as concerns the canal, in little more than

seven years, at a cost of about $34,500,000. Changes in the

city sewage system, to fully utilize the object of the canal,

were still to be completed. When the full use is realized,

there is said to be provision in the canal for a maximum

discharge of 600,000 cubic feet of water per minute. Some have

anticipated that such an outflow would seriously lower the

level of the lakes; but there were no signs of that effect in

the season of 1900. Nor did it seem to appear that the sewage

then passing by river flow westward was doing harm to towns on

the Illinois and Mississippi, as they had apprehended; but the

discharge was, as yet, far short of what it is intended to be.

It is possible that ultimately the Chicago Drainage Canal may

become part of a navigable water-way from the lakes to the

Mississippi, realizing an old project of water transportation

in that direction to compete with the rails. The canal has

been constructed upon a scale to suffice for that use; but the

river-improvement called for is one of formidable cost.

About the time of the opening of the canal, the State of

Missouri, by its Attorney-General, moved in the Supreme Court

of the United States for leave to file a bill of complaint

against the State of Illinois and the Sanitary District of

Chicago, the purpose of which was to enjoin the defendants

from discharging the sewage and noxious filth of the Sanitary

District of Chicago into the Mississippi River by artificial

methods. The complaint alleged that unless the relief sought

is granted the water of the Mississippi, which is used for

drinking and other domestic purposes by many thousands of

inhabitants of the State, will be polluted, and that the

public health will be endangered. The Court granted leave to

file the bill. The defendants then interposed a demurrer,

claiming that the controversy, not being in reality between

two States, but between two cities, was one over which the

Supreme Court has no jurisdiction. On the 28th of January,

1901, the Court rendered its decision, overruling the demurrer

to its jurisdiction. The effect of the opinion is that the

Drainage Canal attorneys now must answer the complaint that

the sewage and noxious filth of the sanitary district are

contaminating the waters of the Mississippi River at St.

Louis. No evidence of the facts will be taken in court. On the

request of the parties to the suit, a commission will be

appointed to take testimony and make a report.

CHICAGO UNIVERSITY:

Dedication of the Yerkes Observatory.

See (in this volume)

YERKES OBSERVATORY.

CHICKASAWS, United States agreement with the.

See (in this volume)

INDIANS, AMERICAN: A. D. 1893-1899.

CHIH-LI, The "Boxer" outbreak in.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY-MARCH).

CHILE: A. D. 1894-1900.

The questions with Bolivia and Peru concerning Atacama,

Tacna and Arica.

Of the treaties which closed the war of 1879-84 between Chile,

Bolivia and Peru (see, in volume 1, CHILE: A. D. 1833-1884),

that between Chile and Bolivia contained the following curious

provision, of "indefinite truce," as it has been called:

"Until the opportunity presents itself of celebrating a

definite treaty of peace between the Republics of Chile and

Bolivia, both countries duly represented by … have agreed to

adjust a treaty of truce in accordance with the following

bases: First, the Republics of Chile and Bolivia agree to

celebrate an indefinite truce; and, in consequence, declare at

an end the state of war, which will not be renewed unless one

of the contracting parties should inform the other, with at

least a year's notification, of its intention to recommence

hostilities. In this case the notification will be made

directly, or through the diplomatic representative of a

friendly nation. Second, the Republic of Chile, while this

truce is in force, shall continue to rule, in accordance with

the political and administrative system established by Chilian

law, the territories situated between parallel 238 and the

mouth of the Loa in the Pacific, such territories having for

their eastern boundary a straight line." Under this agreement

Chile has held ever since the territory in question (which is

the province of Atacama) and has claimed that her possession

of it should be made conclusive and permanent by such a

"definite treaty" as the "treaty of truce" in 1884

contemplated. In her view it was taken in lieu of a war

indemnity. Bolivia has disputed this view, maintaining that a

permanent cession of the province, which was her only

seaboard, and without which she has no port, was not intended.

The Bolivian government has continually urged claims to the

restoration of a seaport for Bolivian trade, which Chile has

refused.

At the same time when Atacama was taken from Bolivia, the

provinces of Tacna and Arica were taken by Chile from Peru,

with a stipulation in the peace treaty of Ancon (1884) that

she should hold them for ten years, pending the payment by

Peru of a war indemnity, and that the inhabitants should then

decide by vote to which country they would belong. But, down

to the close of the year 1900, the Chilian government had not

allowed the vote to be taken.

In September, 1900, the dispute, as between Chile and Bolivia,

was brought to what seemed to be an ultimate stage by an

incisive note from the Chilian to the Bolivian government,

proposing to grant to the latter "in exchange for a final

cancelling of all claims to the littoral, three compensations,

viz.: First, to pay all obligations contracted by the Bolivian

Government with the mining enterprises at Huaichaca, Corocoro

and Oruro, and the balance of the Bolivian loan contracted in

Chile in 1867: second, an amount of money, to be fixed by

mutual agreement, for the construction of a railroad

connecting any port on the Chilian coast with the interior of

Bolivia, or else to extend the present Oruro Railway; and,

third, to grant free transit for all products and merchandise

passing into and out of Bolivia through the port referred to."

Bolivia has not seemed to be disposed to accept this proposal,

and the situation is likely to become more strained than before.

{76}

CHILI: A. D. 1896.

Presidential election.

An excited but orderly presidential election held in June,

1896, without government interference, resulted in the choice

of Senor Errazuriz, to succeed Admiral Jorge Montt, who had

been at the head of the government since the overthrow and

death of Balmaceda in 1891.

CHILI: A. D. 1898.

Settlement of boundary dispute with Argentine Republic.

See (in this volume)

ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: A. D. 1898.

CHILI: A. D. 1900.

Adoption of compulsory military service.

The "Diario Oficial" of Chile of September 5, 1900, published

a decree of the Chilian Government establishing compulsory

military service in Chile. By the decree all Chileans will be

liable to military service from their 20th to their 45th year.

Every man on completing his 20th year will be liable to be

chosen by lot to serve one year with the colors, after which,

if so chosen, he will pass into the first reserve, where he

will remain for nine years. Those not chosen by lot to serve

one year with the colors will pass directly into the first

reserve. The second reserve will consist of men of from 30 to 45

years of age. Among those who will be exempt from compulsory

military service are the members of the Government, members of

Congress, State and municipal councillors, Judges, the clergy,

including all those who wear the tonsure, or belong to any

religious order, the directors and teachers of public schools

and colleges, and the police. The last, however, will be

liable to military duty if called upon by the President.

Various civil servants and every only son, or every one of two

only sons of a family which he assists to maintain, may be

excused service under certain conditions.

CHILI: A. D. 1900.

Vote against compulsory arbitration at

Spanish-American Congress.

See (in this volume)

SPAIN: A. D. 1900 (NOVEMBER).

----------CHINA: Start--------

CHINA: A. D. 1894-1895.

The war with Japan.

The peace treaty of Shimonoseki.

Recognition of Korean independence.

Cession of part of Fêng-tien, of Formosa,

and of the Pescadores Islands to Japan.

Relinquishment of Fêng-tien by Japan.

In the original edition of this work, the causes of the war of

1894-1895 between China and Japan will be found stated in the

Supplement (volume 5, page 3736), under "COREA." In the new,

revised edition, the same appears in volume 3, under "Korea."

At the close of the year 1894 the Japanese were pressing their

campaign, with little heed to the cold of winter, for which they

seemed to be well prepared. They had won, almost with ease,

every serious engagement of the war. They had half destroyed

the Chinese navy, on the 18th of September, in a great battle

at the mouth of the Yalu River, and, on the 21st-22d of

November, they had captured Port Arthur, the strongest

fortress in China, with costly dockyards and great stores of

the munitions of war. In the first month of the new year the

successes of the Japanese were renewed. Kaiphing was taken on

the 10th; a vigorous Chinese attack was repulsed, near

Niuchuang, on the 16th; a landing of 25,000 troops on the

Shantung Peninsula was effected on the 20th, and a combined

attack by army and navy on the strong forts which protected

the important harbor of Wei-hai-wei, and the Chinese fleet

sheltered in it, was begun on the 30th of the month. The

attack was ended on the 13th of February, when the Chinese

admiral Ting-Ju-chang gave up the remnant of his fleet and

then killed himself. The Chinese general, Tai, had committed

suicide in despair on the third night of the fighting. There

was further fighting around Niuchuang and Yingkow during

February and part of March, while overtures for peace were

being made by the Chinese government. At length the famous

viceroy, Li Hung-chang, was sent to Japan with full powers to

conclude a treaty. Negotiations were interrupted at the outset

by a foul attack on the Chinese ambassador by a Japanese

ruffian, who shot and seriously wounded him in the cheek. But

the Mikado ordered an armistice, and the Treaty of Shimonoseki

was concluded and signed on the 17th of April. The essential

provisions of the treaty are as follows:

"Article I.

China recognizes definitely the full and complete independence

and autonomy of Corea, and, in consequence, the payment of

tribute and the performance of ceremonies and formalities by

Corea to China in derogation of such independence and autonomy

shall wholly cease for the future.

"Article II.

China cedes to Japan in perpetuity and full sovereignty the

following territories, together with all fortifications,

arsenals, and public property thereon:

(a.) The southern portion of the Province of Fêng-tien, within

the following boundaries—The line of demarcation begins at the

mouth of the River Yalu, and ascends that stream to the mouth

of the River An-Ping: from thence the line runs to Fêng Huang;

from thence to Haicheng; from thence to Ying Kow, forming a

line which describes the southern portion of the territory.

The places above named are included in the ceded territory.

When the line reaches the River Liao at Ying Kow it follows

the course of that stream to its mouth, where it terminates.

The mid-channel of the River Liao shall be taken as the line

of demarcation. This cession also includes all islands

appertaining or belonging to the Province of Fêng-tien

situated in the eastern portion of the Bay of Liao Tung, and

in the northern part of the Yellow Sea.

(b.) The Island of Formosa, together with all islands

appertaining or belonging to the said Island of Formosa. (

(c.) The Pescadores Group, that is to say, all islands lying

between the 119th and 120th degrees of longitude east of

Greenwich and the 23rd and 24th degrees of north latitude. …

[Image: China East Coast.]

{77}

"Article IV.

China agrees to pay to Japan as a war indemnity the sum of

200,000,000 Kuping taels. The said sum to be paid in eight

instalments. The first instalment of 50,000,000 taels to be

paid within six months, and the second instalment of

50,000,000 taels to be paid within twelve months after the

exchange of the ratifications of this Act. The remaining sum

to be paid in six equal annual instalments as follows: the

first of such equal annual instalments to be paid within two

years, the second within three years, the third within four

years, the fourth within five years, the fifth within six

years, and the sixth within seven years after the exchange of

the ratifications of this Act. Interest at the rate of 5 per

cent. per annum shall begin to run on all unpaid portions of

the said indemnity from the date the first instalment falls

due. China shall, however, have the right to pay by

anticipation at any time any or all of said instalments. In

case the whole amount of the said indemnity is paid within

three years after the exchange of the ratifications of the

present Act, all interest shall be waived, and the interest

for two years and a half, or for any less period if then

already paid, shall be included as a part of the principal

amount of the indemnity.

"Article V.

The inhabitants of the territories ceded to Japan who wish to

take up their residence outside the ceded districts shall be

at liberty to sell their real property and retire. For this

purpose a period of two years from the date of the exchange of

the ratifications of the present Act shall be granted. At the

expiration of that period those of the inhabitants who shall

not have left such territories shall, at the option of Japan,

be deemed to be Japanese subjects. Each of the two Governments

shall immediately upon the exchange of the ratifications of

the present Act, send one or more Commissioners to Formosa to

effect a final transfer of that province, and within the space

of two months after the exchange of the ratifications of this

Act such transfer shall be completed.

"Article VI.

All Treaties between Japan and China having come to an end in

consequence of war, China engages, immediately upon the

exchange of the ratifications of this Act, to appoint

Plenipotentiaries to conclude with the Japanese

Plenipotentiaries a Treaty of Commerce and Navigation, and a

Convention to regulate frontier intercourse and trade. The

Treaties, Conventions, and Regulations now subsisting between

China and European Powers shall serve as a basis for the said

Treaty and Convention between Japan and China. From the date

of the exchange of the ratifications of this Act until the

said Treaty and Convention are brought into actual operation

the Japanese Government, its officials, commerce, navigation,

frontier intercourse and trade, industries, ships and

subjects, shall in every respect be accorded by China

most-favoured-nation treatment. China makes, in addition, the

following concessions to take effect six months after the date

of the present Act:

1. The following cities, towns, and ports, in addition to

those already opened, shall be opened to the trade, residence,

industries, and manufactures of Japanese subjects under the same

conditions, and with the same privileges and facilities as

exist at the present open cities, towns, and ports of China.

(1.) Shashih, in the Province of Hupeh.

(2.) Chung King, in the Province of Szechuan.

(3.) Suchow, in the Province of Kiang Su.

(4.) Hangchow, in the Province of Chekiang.

The Japanese Government shall have the right to station

Consuls at any or all of the above-named places.

2. Steam navigation for vessels under the Japanese flag for

the conveyance of passengers and cargo shall be extended to

the following places:

(1.) On the Upper Yangtsze River,

from Ichang to Chung King.

(2.) On the Woosung River and the Canal,

from Shanghae to Suchow and Hangchow. The

Rules and Regulations which now govern the

navigation of the inland waters of China by foreign

vessels, shall, so far as applicable, be enforced

in respect of the above-named routes, until

new Rules and Regulations are conjointly agreed to.

3. Japanese subjects purchasing goods or produce in the

interior of China or transporting imported merchandize into

the interior of China, shall have the right temporarily to

rent or hire warehouses for the storage of the articles so

purchased or transported, without the payment of any taxes or

exactions whatever.

4. Japanese subjects shall be free to engage in all kinds of

manufacturing industries in all the open cities, towns, and

ports of China, and shall be at liberty to import into China

all kinds of machinery, paying only the stipulated import

duties thereon. All articles manufactured by Japanese subjects

in China, shall in respect of inland transit and internal taxes,

duties, charges, and exactions of all kinds and also in

respect of warehousing and storage facilities in the interior

of China, stand upon the same footing and enjoy the same

privileges and exemptions as merchandize imported by Japanese

subjects into China. In the event additional Rules and

Regulations are necessary in connection with these

concessions, they shall be embodied in the Treaty of Commerce

and Navigation provided for by this Article.

"Article VII.

Subject to the provisions of the next succeeding Article, the

evacuation of China by the armies of Japan, shall be

completely effected within three months after the exchange of

the ratifications of the present Act.

"Article VIII.

As a guarantee of the faithful performance of the stipulations

of this Act, China consents to the temporary occupation by the

military forces of Japan, of Wei-hai-wei, in the Province of

Shantung. Upon the payment of the first two instalments of the

war indemnity herein stipulated for and the exchange of the

ratifications of the Treaty of Commerce and Navigation, the

said place shall be evacuated by the Japanese forces, provided

the Chinese Government consents to pledge, under suitable and

sufficient arrangements, the Customs Revenue of China as

security for the payment of the principal and interest of the

remaining installments of said indemnity. In the event no such

arrangements are concluded, such evacuation shall only take place

upon the payment of the final instalment of said indemnity. It

is, however, expressly understood that no such evacuation

shall take place until after the exchange of the ratifications

of the Treaty of Commerce and Navigation.

"Article IX.

Immediately upon the exchange of the ratifications of this

Act, all prisoners of war then held shall be restored, and

China undertakes not to ill-treat or punish prisoners of war

so restored to her by Japan. China also engages to at once

release all Japanese subjects accused of being military spies

or charged with any other military offences. China further

engages not to punish in any manner, nor to allow to be

punished, those Chinese subjects who have in any manner been

compromised in their relations with the Japanese army during

the war.

"Article X.

All offensive military operations shall cease upon the

exchange of the ratifications of this Act."

{78}

When the terms of the treaty were made known, Russia, Germany

and France entered such protests against the cession of a

portion of the Fêng-tien peninsula, on the main land, and

brought such pressure to bear on Japan, that the latter was

compelled to yield, and relinquished the districts in question

by the following imperial proclamation, dated May 10, 1895:

"We recently, at the request of the Emperor of China,

appointed Plenipotentiaries for the purpose of conferring with

the Ambassadors sent by China, and of concluding with them a

Treaty of Peace between the two Empires. Since then the

Governments of the two Empires of Russia and Germany and of

the French Republic, considering that the permanent possession

of the ceded districts of the Fêng-tien Peninsula by the

Empire of Japan would be detrimental to the lasting peace of

the Orient, have united in a simultaneous recommendation to

our Government to refrain from holding those districts

permanently.

"Earnestly desirous as we always are for the maintenance of

peace, nevertheless we were forced to commence hostilities

against China for no other reason than our sincere desire to

secure for the Orient an enduring peace. The Governments of

the three Powers are, in offering their friendly

recommendation, similarly actuated by the same desire, and we,

out of our regard for peace, do not hesitate to accept their

advice. Moreover, it is not our wish to cause suffering to our

people, or to impede the progress of the national destiny by

embroiling the Empire in new complications, and thereby

imperilling the situation and retarding the restoration of

peace. "China has already shown, by the conclusion of the

Treaty of Peace, the sincerity of her repentance for her

breach of faith with us, and has made manifest to the world

our reasons and the object we had in view in waging war with

that Empire. Under these circumstances we do not consider that

the honour and dignity of the Empire will be compromised by

resorting to magnanimous measures, and by taking into

consideration the general situation of affairs. We have

therefore accepted the advice of the friendly Powers, and have

commanded our Government to reply to the Governments of the

three Powers to that effect.

"We have specially commanded our Government to negotiate with

the Chinese Government respecting all arrangements for the

return of the peninsular districts. The exchange of the

ratifications of the Treaty of Peace has now been concluded,

the friendly relations between the two Empires have been

restored, and cordial relations with all other Powers have

been strengthened. We therefore command all our subjects to

respect our will, to take into careful consideration the

general situation, to be circumspect in all things, to avoid

erroneous tendencies, and not to impair or thwart the high

aspirations of our Empire."

_Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications:

Papers by Command, Japan, Number 1, 1895._

CHINA: A. D. 1894-1895 (March-July).

Cession of Kiang-Hung to France protested against by

Great Britain.

In March, 1894, the government of China entered into a treaty

with that of Great Britain, for the settlement of boundaries

of Burmah, in which it agreed to make no cession of the

district of Kiang-Hung, or any part of it, to any other Power.

Notwithstanding this agreement, the eastern part of Kiang-Hung

was ceded to France in July, 1895; for which proceeding the

British Government promptly called China to account.

CHINA: A. D. 1895.

Treaty with Russia, giving railway privileges and

other rights in Manchuria.

On the 28th of October, 1896, the "North China Daily News,"

the leading English newspaper in China, published what

purports to be, and is believed to be, the text of a secret

treaty, concluded in the previous year, between Russia and

China, under which the former is extending her Trans-Siberian

railway system through Manchuria, and is practically in

possession of that province. The preamble of the treaty

declares that the Emperor of China has specially appointed the

princes and great officers of the Crown composing the Imperial

Chinese Ministry of War to confer with the Russian Minister

concerning the connecting of the railway system of the Three

Eastern Provinces with the Trans-Siberian Railway, "with the

object of facilitating the transport of goods between the two

empires and strengthening the frontier defences and sea

coasts. And, furthermore, to agree upon certain special

privileges to be conceded by China to Russia as a response to

the loyal aid given by Russia in the retrocession of Liaotung

and its dependencies." The articles of the convention relating

to the route of the railway are as follows:

"I. Owing to the fact that the Russian Great Siberian Railway

is on the point of completion, China consents to allow Russia

to prolong her railway into Chinese territories (a) from the

Russian port of Vladivostok into the Chinese city of Hunch'un,

in the province of Kirin, from thence north-westwards to the

provincial capital of Kirin, and (b) from a railway station of

some city in Siberia to the Chinese town of Aiyun, in

Heilungchiang province, from thence southwestwards to the

provincial capital of Tsitsihar, and from thence to the town

of Petunê, in Kirin province, and from thence south-eastwards

to the provincial capital of Kirin.

"II. All railways built by Russia into the Chinese provinces

of Heilungchiang and Kirin shall be built at the sole expense

of Russia, and the regulations and building thereof shall be

solely on the Russian system, with which China has nothing to

do, and the entire control shall be in the hands of Russia for

the space of thirty years. At the end of the said period China

shall be allowed to prepare the necessary funds wherewith,

after proper estimation of the value of the said railways, she

shall redeem them, the rolling stock, machine shops, and

buildings connected therewith. But as to how China will at

that date redeem these railways shall be left for future

consideration.

"III. China is now in the possession of a railway which she

intends to extend from Shanhai-kuan into the provincial

capital of Fêngtien—namely, Mukden (Shenking), and from

Mukden to the provincial capital of Kirin. If China should

hereafter find it inconvenient to build this road, she shall

allow Russia to provide the funds to build the railway from

the city of Kirin on behalf of China, the redemption of which

road shall be permissible to China at the end of ten years.

With reference to the route to be taken by this railway,

Russia shall follow the surveys already made by China in

connection therewith, from Kirin to Mukden, Newchwang, &c.

{79}

"IV. The railway to be built by China, beginning from

Shanhaikuan, in Fêngtien, to Newchwang, to Kaiping, to

Chinchou, to Lushunk'ou (Port Arthur), and to Talienwan and

their dependencies, shall follow the Russian railway

regulations, in order to facilitate the commercial intercourse

between the respective empires."

Article V authorizes Russia to place special battalions of

horse and foot soldiers at the various important stations for

the better protection of railway property. Article VII

"permits" Russians and Chinese to exploit and open any mines

in the Amur and Kirin provinces, and in the Long White

Mountain range in the north of Korea. Article VIII "permits"

Chinese to engage Russian military officers to reform the

whole army organization of the three Eastern provinces in

accordance with the Western system. The next three Articles

are as follows:

"IX. Russia has never possessed a seaport in Asia which is

free from ice and open all the year round. If, therefore,

there should suddenly arise military operations in this

continent, it will naturally be difficult for the Russian

Eastern seas and Pacific fleets to move about freely and at

pleasure. As China is well aware of this, she is willing to

lease temporarily to Russia the port of Kiaochou (Chiaochou),

in the province of Shantung, the period of such lease being

limited to fifteen years. At the end of this period China

shall buy all the barracks, godowns, machine shops, and docks

built there by Russia (during her occupation of the said

port). But should there be no danger of military operations,

Russia shall not enter immediately into possession of the said

port or hold the important points dominating the port in order

to obviate the chance of exciting the jealousy and suspicions

of other Powers. With reference to the amount of rent and the

way it is to be paid, this shall form the subject of

consideration in a protocol at some future date.

"X. As the Liaotung ports of Lushunk'ou (Port Arthur) and

Talienwan and their dependencies are important strategical

points, it shall be incumbent upon China to properly fortify

them with all haste and to repair all their fortifications,

&c., in order to provide against future dangers. Russia shall

therefore lend all necessary assistance in helping to protect

these two ports, and shall not permit any foreign Power to

encroach upon them. China, on her part, also binds herself

never to cede them to another country; but, if in future the

exigencies of the case require it, and Russia should find

herself suddenly involved in a war, China consents to allow

Russia temporarily to concentrate her land and naval forces

within the said ports in order the better to enable Russia to

attack the enemy or to guard her own position.

"XI. If, however, there be no dangers of military operations

in which Russia is engaged, China shall have entire control

over the administration of the said ports of Lushunk'ou and

Talienwan, nor shall Russia interfere in any way therein. But

as regards the building of the railways in the three Eastern

Provinces and the exploitation and opening of the mines

therein, they shall be permitted to be proceeded with

immediately after the ratification of this convention and at

the pleasure of the people concerned therein. With reference

to the civil and military officers of Russia and Russian

merchants and traders travelling (in any part of the

territories herein mentioned), wherever they shall go, they

shall be given all the privileges of protection and facilities

within the power of the local authorities, nor shall these

officials be allowed to put obstructions in the way or delay

the journeys of the Russian officers and subjects herein

mentioned."

_Henry Norman,

Russia and England

(Contemporary Review, February, 1897)._

CHINA: A. D. 1895 {August).

Massacre of missionaries at Hua Sang.

In the fall of 1894 the English and American missionaries at

Ku Cheng, in the Chinese province of Fu Kien, of which Foochow

is the capital, began to be threatened by a sect or party

called the "Vegetarians" (Siah Chai), who were violently

hostile to foreigners, and said to be revolutionary in their

aims. The hostile demonstrations were repeated in the

following April, and the missionary party started upon a

retreat to Foochow, but were stopped on the way by news that

the Mandarin at Ku Cheng had pacified the Vegetarians and that

they might safely return. They did so and were apparently

secure for some months. In July they retired from the city to

a mountain sanatorium, named Hua Sang, 12 miles from Ku Cheng,

and there, on the 1st day of August, without warning, they

were surrounded by a Vegetarian band of some eighty savage

men, armed with swords and spears, who performed a rapid work

of murder, killing eleven persons, including six women and two

children, and then disappeared. "These men did not belong

either to Hua Sang or Ku Cheng, but came from some villages at

a considerable distance. … The city authorities at Ku Cheng

had no hand in the outrage. It was evidently the work of a

band of marauders, and the district magistrate seems to have

done all that could be done under the circumstances."

_D. M. Berry,

The Sister Martyrs of Ku Cheng._

The British and American governments joined in sending a

consular commission to investigate the crime, and with

difficulty compelled the Chinese government to execute twenty

of the ringleaders of the attack. At Fatshan, near Canton,

there had been mob attacks on the missionary station, with

destruction of buildings, but no murders, during the same

month in which the massacre at Hua Sang occurred.

CHINA: A. D. 1896.

Tour of Li Hung-chang in Europe and America.

"Li Hung Chang, the Chinese statesman, left Shanghai with a

numerous suite, March 28, on board a French mail steamer for

Europe, to represent the Emperor of China at the coronation of

the Czar of Russia, and afterwards to visit other countries.

He declared that his object was to see Europe for himself, in

order to report to the Emperor as to feasible reforms for

China. A great reception was offered to him at Hong-kong, but

he refused to land by the advice of the European physician of

the embassy, who feared lest any member of the suite, by

catching the plague, would render the party liable to

quarantine elsewhere. Proceeding to Singapore, via Saigon, he

visited the Governor of the Straits Settlements. At Colombo he

was received on landing by a guard of honour. After the

Russian Coronation he visited Germany, Holland, Belgium and

France, and arrived in London early in August.

{80}

Wherever he went he was lionised, and he lost no opportunity

of asking questions and informing himself concerning the

manufactures and armaments of the several countries he

visited. He returned to China via New York and the Canadian

Pacific Railway, sailing from Vancouver (September 14) for

Yokohama and Tien-tsin, where he arrived October 3. Thence he

proceeded to Peking (October 20), where he was received by the

Emperor, and appointed a member of the Tsung-li-Yamen. At the

same time for presuming to enter the precincts of the ruined

Summer Palace while visiting the Empress Dowager after his

return home, his enemies took occasion of the slight trespass

to insult him, and proposed that he should be stripped of all

his titles and honours, with the exception of the earldom,

which is confirmed to the Li family for twenty-nine

generations. The case was referred to the Board of Civil

Appointments, and the Controller-General, Chang-chih-wan,

decided that 'according to precedent' the ex-Viceroy should be

cashiered, but on account of his life-long and distinguished

services to the imperial dynasty he should be recommended to

the clemency of the Throne, which took the form of a loss of

one year's salary. He took over his seals of office in the

Tsung-li-Yamen on November 1, but none of his colleagues were

present to welcome him."

_Annual Register, 1896,

pages 349-50._

CHINA: A. D. 1897.

The condition of Manchuria and Mongolia.

See (in this volume)

MANCHURIA AND MONGOLIA.

CHINA: A. D. 1897.

Foreigners resident in China.

Ports open to them.

"In the 'Bulletin de la Société de Géographie Commerciale,'

Paris, Volume XIX, a report is published from which the

following extracts are taken: There are over ten thousand

Europeans and Americans resident in China. The English head

the list with 4,000; the Americans number 1,325; Germans, 882;

French, 875; Portuguese, 805; Spaniards, 461; Norwegians, 375;

Russians, 116; Italians, 108, etc. There are 669 Japanese.

Twenty-two ports are open to foreign residence, that is to

say, that Europeans are allowed to acquire conditional title

to certain lands, on which they live, govern themselves, and

have special privileges in judicial matters. The ports are

Mengtz, Lung Chow, Pakhoi, King Chow, Lappa, Canton, Kowlon,

Swatow, Amoy, Fuchau, Winchow, Ningpo, Shanghai, Chinkiang,

Wuhu, Kiukiang, Hankow, Ichang, Chungking, Chefoo, Tientsin,

and Niuchwang. It is to be noted that Peking does not appear

on this list, although the embassies and legations are

established there. The Chinese who find themselves under

foreign jurisdiction appear more than contented with the

situation, because, although taxes are high, they are fixed.

Two hundred thousand natives live in the European settlements

of Shanghai. Besides the foreign residents of China, a large

number live in ports that have been ceded to other nations.

For instance, Hongkong comprises in its civil population 4,195

Europeans and Americans. With the troops and sailors, this

number is raised to 8,545. Hongkong is the actual capital of

foreign industry in the far East. More than 3,000 vessels,

with a tonnage of nearly 4,000,000 touch there annually. The

same spirit which caused the development of Singapore,

Colombo, and Hongkong is to be found in the foreign

settlements of the open ports of China."

_United States Consular Reports,

October, 1897, page 315._

CHINA: A. D. 1897 (May-June).

Cessions and concessions to England and France.

In May, the Chinese government sanctioned an extension of the

British settlement at Tien-tsin from 65 acres to about 300. In

the next month, it satisfied the complaints of Great Britain

concerning the cession of Kiang-Hung to France (see above: A.

D. 1894-1895, MARCH-JULY), by ceding to that Power the Shan

district of Kokang, about 400 square miles in extent, and

leasing to Great Britain in perpetuity a considerable tract at

the south of the Namwan River. The same treaty opened new

routes to trade across the frontier between Burmah and China,

and admitted British consuls and merchants to two new ports.

At about the same time France secured mining privileges on the

Tonquin frontier and rights for the extension of a railway

into Chinese territory.

CHINA: A. D. 1897 (November).

Germany opens the attack of European Powers on the

integrity of the Chinese Empire.

Seizure of the port of Kiao-Chau.

Concessions obtained as reparation for the murder

of German missionaries.

"Among the recent events that have attracted especial

attention to China is the lease to foreign nations of

important strategic or commercial ports on the coast of the

Empire. While the Portuguese have controlled the island of

Macao, near Canton, since 1537, and the English became owners

of the island of Hongkong, in the same vicinity, by the treaty

of 1842, no other nation had possessions on or near the coast

of China until within a comparatively recent date. One result

of the war between China and Japan was that Japan obtained the

island of Formosa, lying 90 miles off the coast of central

China. By this treaty Japan was also to have certain territory

on the peninsula of Liaotung, which commands from the north

the entrance to the Gulf of Pechili, the gateway to the

capital of China; but on the urgent protest of Russia, France,

and Germany this was abandoned, and the mainland of China up

to that time thus remained intact. On November 4, 1897,

however, the German Government seized the port of Kiao-chau,

on the northeastern coast of China, asserting as the cause of

its action the desire to obtain satisfaction for the murder of

[two] German missionaries by Chinese on November 1 of that

year. This port was held by a German war ship until the

announcement of a treaty with China by which the port of

Kiaochau and adjacent territory were leased to Germany for a

term of ninety-nine years, the German Government being given

the right to land troops, construct fortifications, and

establish a coaling and naval station, while German subjects

were to have the right to construct railways, open mines, and

transact business in the rich mineral and agricultural

province of Shantung, in which Kiaochau is located, Chinese

vessels, however, to have the same privileges in the port of

Kiaochau that the German Government might decide to give to

other nations."

_United States Bureau of Statistics,

Monthly Summary of Commerce and Statistics,

March, 1899._

{81}

The terms of the German acquisition of Kiao-chau, as

officially communicated to the Reichstag by Herr von Bülow,

Foreign Secretary of the German Empire, on the 8th of

February, 1898, were as follows: "The Imperial Chinese

Government, in fulfilment of the legitimate wish of the German

Government to possess, in common with other Powers, a point in

the matters [waters?] of Eastern Asia, where German vessels

may be fitted out and repaired, where the necessary materials

can be deposited, and other arrangements made in connection

with that object, cedes to the German Government in the form

of a lease, to run, as at present fixed, for a period of

ninety-nine years, the territory situated on both sides of the

entrance to the Bay of Kiao-chau, in South Shantung, more

accurately described below, in such a manner that the German

Government will be at liberty to erect all necessary

buildings, &c., within the territory, and take all the

measures required for their defence. According to the English

chart of Kiao-chau Bay of 1863, the district leased to the

German Government consists of the following:

1. The promontory north of the entrance to the bay, bounded on

the north-east by a straight line drawn from the extreme

north-eastern point of Potato Island to the sea-coast in the

direction of Zoshan.

2. The promontory south of the entrance to the bay, bounded on

the south-west by a straight line drawn from the southernmost

point of the inlet situated to the south-west of Tschiposan,

in the direction of the Tolosan Islands (Weber chart), to the

sea-coast.

3. The Island of Tschiposan and Potato Island, as well as all

the islands lying at the entrance to the bay, inclusive of

Tolosan and Seslien. Further, the Chinese Government undertake

not to frame any Regulations within a zone of 50 kilometers

round the bay without the consent of the German Government,

and, in particular, to offer no resistance to any measures

necessary for regulating the course of the rivers. The Chinese

Government also grant to German troops the right of passage

across the zone above described. With the object of avoiding

every possibility of collision, the Chinese Government will

exercise no rights of sovereignty within the leased territory

during the period of the lease, but they cede these rights as

well as those over the entire water-surface of the Bay of

Kiao-chau to the German Government. The German Government will

erect sea-marks on the islands and shallows at the entrance to

the bay.

4. In the event of the territory leased not proving to be

adapted to the requirements of the German Government, the

Government of China will cede to Germany a more suitable

district, and will take back the Bay of Kiao-chau, paying

compensation for any improvements or constructions the Germans

may have made there.

5. A more accurate delimitation of the boundaries of the

district leased will take place in accordance with the local

conditions, and will be carried out by Commissioners from both

Governments."

The Foreign Secretary added the following particulars

respecting the area, &c., of the territory and the character

of the lease:

"The territory leased, the boundaries of which are not yet

accurately determined, will cover an area of 30 to 50 square

kilometers. Consequently, it is materially larger than the

British possession at and opposite Hong Kong. For military

reasons, the northern boundary had been pushed a little

further forward than is shown on the map presented to the

Budget Commission. The number of inhabitants is calculated at

a few thousand. As regards the size of the bay, accurate

details are as yet wanting. It runs about 20 geographical

miles into the mainland. At its narrowest point, the entrance

to the bay is about 3,000 metres broad. Two-thirds of the bay

afford harbour accommodation. The rent payable to China, the

exact amount of which has not yet been determined, is an

unimportant point, as it possesses a nominal character merely

representing the continuation in theory of the proprietorship

of China over the territory ceded. The following stipulations

have been secured respecting railway and mining

concessions:—The Chinese Government have consented to hand

over to a German-Chinese Railway Company, to be formed

hereafter, the construction of a railway from Kiao-chau, which

will run first in a northerly and then in a westerly

direction, to be subsequently connected with the projected

great railway system of China. The railway will serve the

coalfields of Weih-sien and Poshan, situated to the north of

Kiao-chau, which will be exploited by German capital. The

Chinese Government have further pledged themselves to accord

to the Railway Company to be thus formed, conditions at least

as favourable as those granted to any other European Chinese

Railway Company in China."

The Foreign Secretary concluded his speech with an exposition

of the motives which had induced the German Government to

occupy Kiao-chau in preference to other places. Its proximity

to the scene of the massacre had been the first consideration.

Secondly, it was favourably situated from a political point of

view, being removed from the French and British spheres in

Southern China and from the Russian base of operations in the

north. Lastly, the spacious, ice-free harbour, the climate,

which is probably the best to be met with in China, and the

existence of coalfields in the vicinity of the coast, offered

sufficient grounds for the choice of Kiao-chau. Herr von

Billow might have quoted in this connection a candid remark

which had been made not long before by the "Kolonial Zeitung:"

"The principal point is that the Power which possesses Kiao-chau

will control the coal supply in northern Chinese waters."

_Great Britain, Papers by Command:

China, Number 1, 1898._

CHINA: A. D. 1898 (February).

British diplomacy in China.

The tone in which foreign demands were made

on the Tsung-li Yamên.

Agreement not to alienate the Yang-tsze region.

Early in 1898 the Chinese government was in need of money for

the final payment of indemnity to Japan, and opened

negotiations with the British government for the guarantee of

a loan: Her Majesty's Ministers were quite ready to give the

needed financial aid, for a consideration, requiring, in

return, that Ta-lien-wan should be opened to trade as a treaty

port. But Russia was then scheming to secure possession of

Ta-lien-wan, and interfered with the British negotiation so

vigorously that the Chinese were frightened into breaking it

off, even after they had practically accepted the offered

loan. Not daring, however, to take from Russia the financial

guarantee which they rejected at British hands, they thought

to balance themselves between these jealous rivals by

borrowing without help from either. Both the Powers were thus

offended, England especially showing stern resentment on

account of the slight with which she had been treated. The

following report by Sir Claude MacDonald, the British Minister

at Peking, of his interviews with the Tsung-li-Yamên on the

subject, is very interesting, as showing the tone in which the

European Powers were making demands on the government of China

at that time. The despatch of Sir Claude MacDonald is dated at

Peking, February 20, 1898.

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"Since the 4th of February," he wrote. "I have had four

interviews with the Yamên for the purpose of extracting some

concessions in return for the rejection of the offer of a

guaranteed loan from Great Britain after it had in principle

been accepted. At the first of these, on the 5th February, the

Yamên refused to recognize that we had any claim to

compensation, declaring that the refusal of a Russian as well

as a British guarantee left no ground for complaint. I told

them that this argument might have had some plausibility if

the two offers had been equally advantageous, or if the

Chinese Government had not committed themselves to serious

negotiations with us. The British Government had at China's

own request reluctantly agreed to do her a very exceptional

favour, and the Yamên could not suppose that we should accept

with equanimity a brusque intimation that the Chinese

Government had changed its mind.

"The Yamên abounded in protestations of their readiness at

some future date to give proofs of their gratitude to Great

Britain in the shape of encouragement to commerce, but they

insisted that the loan negotiations must first be dismissed,

and all demands for compensation in connection with them

dropped. I refused to telegraph such a suggestion to your

Lordship, and as after long debate they still refused to bind

themselves by any promises, I reminded them that at an earlier

interview they had asked me whether the action threatened by

Great Britain in the event of their accepting a Russian

guarantee would equally be taken if they borrowed from neither

Power. I could not at the time answer the question, but I

could now tell them that Her Majesty's Government had a right

to feel deeply affronted by what had occurred, and I would not

be answerable for the consequences if they declined to make to

Great Britain even such concessions as they had frequently

admitted to be in China's own interests.

"The Yamên begged me to smooth matters for them, to which I

answered that their present attitude made it impossible for me

to do so. Let them permit me to report that China was ready to

open inland navigation to steamers; to establish Treaty ports

at Nanning and Hsiang T'an; and to give reasonable security to

trade by a pledge against alienation of the Yang-tsze region

to another Power, and the rejection of our loan might be

forgiven. All these were matters within the Yamên's power.

"The Ministers did not deny the feasibility of what I had

asked (except as regarded the opening of Nanning), but

objected to these measures being tacked on to the loan, for if

that were done, Russia would at once demand

counter-concessions for the rejection of her loan, and China

would be placed in a very difficult position. On this they

laid much stress. I said I did not insist on the concessions

being formally announced as made to England in connection with

the loan, and should be prepared to move Her Majesty's

Government to treat them as steps taken spontaneously by

China, but that I absolutely refused to treat the loan account

as settled until I had some definite assurance that these

measures would be carried out within a fixed time. The Yamên

again attempted to persuade me to leave the carrying out of

the measures indicated entirely to the Chinese Government, and

it was only after the usual prolonged argument that they

consented to open internal waters to steam navigation within

four months; to let me know at an early date when they would

open a port in Hunan, and to give me a written guarantee

against the alienation of the Yang-tsze region to a foreign

Power."

After reporting conversation on other matters, the Minister

recounted his action on the subject of the Yang-tsze region,

and on that of the opening of inland waterways to steam

navigation, at an interview with the Tsung-li Yamên on the

9th. "I then produced," he said, "a draft of the note I

intended addressing to them with regard to non-alienation of

the Yang-tsze region. This was accepted with little demur,

with the insertion of the words 'now entirely in China's

possession,' which, as recording an undeniable fact, I agreed

to put in. Copies of the notes subsequently exchanged are

inclosed. I have not thought it necessary to narrate the

arguments by which I supported the demand for this pledge at

both these interviews. My chief ground was that we could not

afford to find one morning that by reason of the murder of a

foreign subject, or the refusal of some demand by a foreign

Power, some place on the Yang-tsze had been seized and was to

be retained on a ninety-nine years' lease. I then handed to

the Ministers the despatch … recording their assurance with

regard to steam navigation of inland waterways. They read it

with attention, and accepted it as satisfactory."

Of the notes thus passed between the British Minister and the

Tsung-li Yamên, that of the former, dated February 9, was as

follows: "Your Highnesses and your Excellencies have more than

once intimated to me that the Chinese Government were aware of

the great importance that has always been attached by Great

Britain to the retention in Chinese possession of the

Yang-tsze region, now entirely hers, as providing security for

the free course and development of trade. I shall be glad to

be in a position to communicate to Her Majesty's Government a

definite assurance that China will never alienate any

territory in the provinces adjoining the Yang-tsze to any

other Power, whether under lease, mortgage, or any other

designation. Such an assurance is in full harmony with the

observations made to me by your Highnesses and your

Excellencies."

On the 11th, the Yamên returned the following reply: "The

Yamên have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of the

British Minister's despatch of the 9th February, stating that

the Yamên had more than once intimated to him that the Chinese

Government were aware of the great importance that has always

been attached by Great Britain to the retention in Chinese

possession of the Yang-tsze region, now entirely hers, as

providing security for the free course and development of

trade. The British Minister would be glad to be in a position

to communicate to Her Majesty's Government a definite

assurance that China would never alienate (any territory) in

the provinces adjoining the Yang-tsze to any other Power,

whether under lease, mortgage, or any other designation.

{83}

The Yamên have to observe that the Yang-tsze region is of the

greatest importance as concerning the whole position (or

interests) of China, and it is out of the question that

territory (in it) should be mortgaged, leased, or ceded to

another Power. Since Her Britannic Majesty's Government has

expressed its interest (or anxiety), it is the duty of the

Yamên to address this note to the British Minister for

communication to his Government."

The despatch recording the Chinese concession of steam

navigation on inland waters was in the following terms: "It

was … with great pleasure that I learnt from your Highnesses

and your Excellencies at a recent interview that the Chinese

Government had determined that wherever the use of native

boats is now by Treaty permitted to foreigners, they shall

equally be permitted to employ steamers or steam-launches,

whether Chinese or foreign-owned, or their own boats, and,

further, that this arrangement would come into effect before

the end of the 4th Chinese moon. I shall have great pleasure

in communicating the Chinese Government's decision to my

Government, for it is an indication that China is prepared to

take every step open to her to increase the volume of trade,

and so add to her resources and the wealth of the people."

_Great Britain, Papers by Command:

China, Number 1, 1899, page 13-18._

CHINA: A. D. 1898 (February-December).

The "Battle of Concessions," for railway building and mining.

By summer-time in 1898 the scramble among the Powers for

footholds of territory on the Chinese coast seemed to be

giving way to what Lord Salisbury described as "the battle of

concessions," for the building of railways and the opening of

mines. This newer battle gave his lordship much anxiety. On

the 13th of July he cabled to Sir Claude MacDonald: "It does

not seem that the battle of Concessions is going well for us,

and that the mass of Chinese railways, if they are ever built,

will be in foreign hands is a possibility that we must face.

One evil of this is, that no orders for materials will come to

this country. That we cannot, help. The other evil is, that by

differential rates and privileges the Managers of the railways

may strangle our trade. This we ought to be able to prevent,

by pressing that proper provisions for equal treatment be

inserted in every Concession."

The British Minister at Peking, in reply, dissented warmly

from Lord Salisbury's opinion. "The battle of Concessions is

not, in my opinion," he cabled on the 23d of July, "going

against us. … Up to the present, any concessions granted to

other nationalities are far out-balanced in financial value by

the Shansi and Honan mining and railway concession, with its

possible extensions. I have consistently informed the Chinese

government that, as to differential rates and privileges, we

want none ourselves, and cannot admit that other nationalities

have a claim to them." In due time, as will appear, Sir Claude

was able to furnish very good evidence in support of his

contention that the "battle of concessions" was not going

against Great Britain, by forwarding a list of all the

concessions granted to clamoring capitalists and promoters of

the several nationalities. Meantime, he gave close attention

to the varying fortunes of the battle.

A concession for the Peking-Hankow Railway was the one which

interested the English most. Its line would traverse the rich

and populous provinces of Chi-li, Honan, and Hoa-Pé, and be

connected by another line, for which the Russo-Chinese Bank

held concessions, with the valuable coal-mining basin of

Ping-ting. Early in August, the British found reason to

believe that the pending agreement with a Belgian syndicate

for the building of this road was one that would give control

of it to the Russo-Chinese Bank,—which meant Russian, or

Russian and French control. He promptly remonstrated to the

Yamên, and was assured that the agreement had not yet been

submitted to the throne, and would not be ratified if the

effect were such as he had described. He cabled this assurance

to Lord Salisbury on the 6th of August. On the 13th he had a

very different report to make. "I learnt on the 9th," he says,

"that the Yamên had, under the influence of Li Hung-chang,

abandoned this position [that they would not ratify the

Belgian agreement if its effect was to give control of the

Peking-Hankow line of railway to the Russo-Chinese Bank], and

intended to ratify the agreement immediately. In view of the

urgency of the matter, I addressed a note on the same day to

the Yamên, in which I asked for an interview on the 10th or

11th instant, and informed them that the Chinese text of the

Contract had reached me, warning them at the same time that if

they did not give me another interview before they ratified

the Agreement Her Majesty's Government would look upon their

action as unfriendly, and would probably insist on the same

rights being given to Great Britain in all the provinces

adjoining the Yang-tsze.

"On the evening of the 10th the Yamên answered that they would

appoint a day for an interview when they had received the

Contract, which, they said, had not yet reached Peking for

ratification. On the 11th I replied that I understood from

this communication that they undertook not to ratify until

they had seen me. To this they returned an evasive answer to

the effect that they were all engaged by ceremonies at the

Palace connected with the Emperor's birthday, which would last

some days. I should add that I had already, on the 10th, sent

them a note in which I criticized the Contract in detail,

stating finally that I should have further objections to bring

forward at my interview with them. I now hear on good

authority that the Contract was ratified yesterday, the 12th.

That the ratification has thus been rushed through is

undoubtedly due to the influence of Li Hung-chang, combined

with strong pressure on the part of the Representatives of

Russia, France, and Belgium, and if heavy payment is not

exacted from the Chinese Government for their bad faith, Li

will persuade his colleagues that it is safer to slight

England than any other Power, and any pressure which we may

want to bring to bear in other matters will be without weight.

I therefore think that Her Majesty's Government should insist

either:—

"1. On a written assurance from the Yamên that if British

Syndicates apply for any railway concessions in the Yang-tsze

provinces, they shall be given on the same terms as those

which France, under cover of the Belgian Syndicate, has

received in the Peking-Hankow Contract, and that no mining or

railway concessions will be granted in those provinces unless

they have been previously declined by British Syndicates; or

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"2. On a written assurance that all railways for which British

Syndicates are now in Treaty, that is to say—

(a.) The Shan-hai-Kuan-Niuchwang line;

(b.) The line from Tien-tsin to Chinkiang (the latter, as I

understand, in conjunction with Germans and Americans);

(c.) The line from Shanghae to Nanking with its

continuations and branches;

(d.) The lines in Honan and Shansi should be granted

without any further delay on terms identical with those

contained in the Contract for the Peking-Hankow line. The

latter consist, so far as I can learn, in complete control

over the construction, choice of material, working, and

personnel of the line, together with an Imperial guarantee

for the repayment of the loan.

The second demand seems to me to be preferable on the whole;

it will be impossible to obtain either demand without bringing

great pressure to bear, and I consider that the demand should

be made not as a compensatory concession, but as a punishment

for bad faith."

On the 17th the reply of the British Foreign Office was sent

by Mr. Balfour, as follows:

"With reference to your telegram of the 13th instant, inform

Yamên that they must assent to your proposal Number 2 without

delay, omitting from it the Shankaikuan-Newchwang Railway,

which we must deal with as a separate question. You are

authorized to inform them, if you have any reason to apprehend

that they will delay compliance, that, unless they agree at

once, we shall regard their breach of faith concerning the

Peking-Hankow Railway as an act of deliberate hostility

against this country, and shall act accordingly. After

consultation with the Admiral, you may give them the number of

days or hours you think proper within which to send their

reply. The delay should not be of too long duration. It should

be noted, on face of your demand, that Chingkiang Concession

is for Americans and Germans, if they desire a share, as well

as ourselves. Also make it clear that your ultimatum has

nothing to do with the line to Newchwang."

The tone of these demands made them effectual. On the 4th of

September, Sir Claude MacDonald was able to announce to his

superiors, in London: "At an interview which I had with them

yesterday, the Yamên entered into the following

undertaking:—Within the next few days they will address a

despatch to me, apologising for their action, and consenting

to the construction of the following lines by British

Syndicates:

1. A. line from Shanghae to Nanking with a continuation viâ

Chinkiang to Sui Yang. They said, however, that the latter

route was that followed by the line from Tien-tsin to

Chinkiang, for which they said that a Preliminary Agreement

had been signed between Yung Wing and the Anglo-American

Syndicate; and the continuation in question must be dependent

on the cancellation of that Agreement.

2. A line connecting Hangchow and Soochow with Shanghae, to be

continued if required to Ningpo.

3. A line from Canton to Kowloon.

4. The Peking Syndicate to be entitled to construct a railway

to convey minerals from their mines to the Yang-tsze. The

Yamên have also agreed to send me a Confidential note

embodying a declaration that the terms accorded for the

construction of these lines will not be inferior to those

granted for the construction of any railways in China proper.

The Manchurian lines are excluded from the scope of this

Agreement. I venture to think that this is a satisfactory

settlement. I did not give them an ultimatum, confining myself

to a warning of the grave consequences which would now attend

any failure on their part to keep their word. The fact that

the fleet is concentrating is, of course, known to them."

Before receiving this announcement, Mr. Balfour had cabled, on

the 24th of August:

"Negotiations with Yamên may be facilitated if you informed

them at once that, unless the very moderate terms already

demanded are immediately complied with, we shall, in addition,

require the Concession of another line, on same conditions as

those granted in case of Peking Hankow line of railway, and

that additional demands will be preferred as the result of

further delay. If you think it would conduce to the rapid and

satisfactory termination of the negotiations, you are

authorized to make a communication to them in this sense."

Whether this suggestion was acted upon or not does not appear.

This transaction, connected with the project of a railway from

Peking to Hankow, appears to illustrate, not unfairly, on the

whole, the mode in which speculative concessions were being

wrung from the Chinese government in the busiest year of

oriental speculation, 1898. The outcome of the grand "battle"

was communicated by Sir Claude MacDonald to Lord Charles

Beresford, on the 23d of November, in a full list of the

concessions then granted to British subjects, compared with

the grants to other nationalities. "We do not seem," wrote Sir

Claude, with pardonable complacency, "to have come out second

best. … Not a single bona fide or approximately practical

scheme which has been brought to this Legation has failed to

be put through." The summarized result in railway concessions

was

9 British (2,800 miles);

3 Russian (1,530 miles);

2 German (720 miles);

3 French (420 miles);

1 Belgian (650 miles);

1 American (300 miles).

In detail, the railway and mining concessions were described

in the list as follows:

CHINA:

"Railway and other Concessions obtained by British Companies:

I. Province of Shansi.

The Peking Syndicate have acquired the 'sole right to open and

work coal and iron mines throughout the districts of Yu Hsien

and Ping Ting-chou, and the Prefectures of Lusan Fu, Tsü-chou

Fu, and Ping Yang Fu, and also petroleum, wherever found.'

Under their contract, the Syndicate have also the right to

'construct branch railways to connect with main lines or with

water navigation, to facilitate transport of Shansi coal.'

This has been interpreted officially to include the right of

connecting the mines with Siang-yang in Hupeh, the nearest

head of navigation giving access to the Yang-tsze. This means

a railway of 250 miles. As to the value of this Concession, it

is not amiss to quote the testimony of Baron von Richthofen,

the great authority on the geology of China. He says that, 'in

proportion to its area, Shansi has probably the largest and

most easily workable coalfield of any region on the globe, and

the manufacture of iron is capable of almost unlimited

extension.'

II. Province of Honan.

The Peking Syndicate have also acquired rights similar to

those obtained in Shansi in that part of Honan north of the

Yellow River.

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III. Province of Chihli.

The Hong Kong and Shanghae Bank are financing and controlling

the North China railways from Peking to Tien-tsin, and thence

to Shanhaikuan and Newchwang. The total length of these lines

is about 500 miles, of which 300 miles are completely open to

traffic.

IV. This bank has also acquired a half-interest in the

coal-mines at Nan P'iao, in the Ch'ao-yang district. According

to experts, these mines possess the best and richest coal

seams in North China, and they have the immense advantage of

being close to a line of railway and the sea.

V. Provinces of Chihli and Kiangsu.

The Tsung-li Yamên have undertaken officially that the

construction of the Tien-tsin-Chinkiang line shall be

intrusted to an Anglo-German Syndicate. The British portion of

this Syndicate is represented in China by Messrs. Jardine,

Matheson, and Co., and the Hong Kong and Shanghae Bank. This

will be a trunk line of 600 miles, passing through more

populous country than the Lu-Han Railway (the Belgian line),

with which it is certain to be able to compete successfully.

VI. Province of Kiangsu.

A British Syndicate, represented by Messrs. Jardine, Matheson,

and Co., and the Hong Kong and Shanghae Bank, has obtained the

Concession to finance and construct the Shanghae-Nanking

Railway. There is no more paying district than this for a

railway in China. The length of line will be 170 or 180 miles.

VII. Provinces of Kiangsu, Anhui, and Honan.

The same Syndicate has the right to extend the

Shanghae-Nanking Railway from P'u-k'ou, opposite Nanking, to

Hsin Yang, in Honan, a distance of 270 miles.

VIII. Provinces of Kiangsu and Chekiang.

The same Syndicate has the right to construct a line from

Soochow to Hangchow, with a possible extension to Ningpo. This

line will run through very populous districts for over 200

miles. The last three Concessions all lie within the Yang-tsze

region.

IX. Province of Chêkiang.

The Peking Syndicate have also obtained mining Concessions

similar to the Shansi and Honan in this province.

X. Province of Kwangtung.

The Jardine Syndicate has the right to construct a railway

from Kowloon to Canton. The length of line will be nearly 100

miles.

XI. Provinces of Hupei, Kiangsi, and Kwangtung.

An American Syndicate signed a preliminary Agreement for the

construction of a railway from Hankow to Canton in May last.

Negotiations are now in progress for the amalgamation of this

Concession with Number 10, Kowloon to Canton, and the working

of the whole line from Hankow to Kowloon by an Anglo-American

Company. This will be a trunk line of, approximately, 600

miles long.

XII. Provinces of Yünnan, Kweichow, and Ssuchuan.

The right to extend the Burmah system into China as far as the

Yang-tsze is admitted, and surveys are now in progress. This

involves a possible railway of 700 miles.

See Remarks on French Concessions.

CHINA:

"Concessions other than British. Russian.

The Manchurian Railway Concession dates from 1896. As is well

known, it was obtained as recompense for help given in

securing the retrocession of Liaotung. From Stretensk on the

Shilka, where it leaves the main Siberian line, this railway

will cross the Argun and Hingan Mountains, and reach Kirin viâ

Petuna. The whole length from Stretensk to Vladivostock is

estimated at 1,400 miles, of which about 1,000 will pass

through Chinese territory. The Concession is purely

strategical. The country traversed, though potentially rich,

in great part is, and will be for long, sparsely populated,

and the line cannot, in the near future at any rate, hope to

pay its working expenses.

2. The Port Arthur Agreement of March 1898 arranges for the

conclusion by Russia of a branch from the above line to Port

Arthur or Talienwan. The length of the railway will be about

400 miles. Commercially, this branch is more promising than

the first Concession.

3. The Russo-Chinese Bank has signed a contract for the

construction of a branch line from T'ai-yüan Fu to connect

with the Lu-Han trunk lines near Chêng-tung. Length,

approximately 130 miles. They have, up to date, been unable to

raise money for this line. I think it very possible that it

will eventually be built by an Anglo-Russian Syndicate. I am

trying to arrange this.

"French.—The French possess the right to construct three

lines, but beyond acquiring this right they have done nothing.

1. From Tonquin up the Red River Valley to Yünnan Fu, say 200

miles. The impression in French railway circles is that a

railway through Yünnan will not pay expenses, and if any

serious attempt is made to carry out the extension of the

Tonquin system, it will be merely as a stepping-stone to

Ssü-ch'uan. Yet again, any pretensions that a railway from

Yünnan to the Yang-tsze may have to rank as a commercial

project have been pronounced against by every traveller in

Central China.

2. Langson-Lungchow-Nanning Railway; length, about 100 miles.

(There appears to be an alternative open to the French of

going to Pésé instead of Nanning.) The right to build this

line has been conceded, but the idea is growing amongst the

French of Tonquin that, instead of diverting traffic from the

West River, a line from Langson to Lungchow and Nanning would

prove an additional feeder of the West River route.

3. From Pakhoi inland, presumably to Nanning; length, say 120

miles. The Tonquin press have pointed out that this line will

benefit English commerce more than French. It will never, in

my opinion, be built-by the French.

" German.

1. Kiao-chau-Yichow-Tsinan line; length, 420 miles. Nothing

has been done towards the construction of this line, which

does not promise commercially.

2. Tien-tsin-Chin-kiang line to be built by an Anglo-German

Company.

See Number 5 of the British Concessions.

"Belgian.

The Lu-Han or Peking-Hankow Railway. A Franco-Belgian

Syndicate have secured the Concession for this, a trunk line

of some 650 or 700 miles, passing north and south through

Chihli, Honan, and Hupeh. This railway is an old project born

of Chang-Chih-Tung's objection to building lines near the

coast, 'lest they should facilitate the access of an enemy.'

Its prospects as a commercial enterprise are not considered so

good as those of the rival Tien-tsin-Chinkiang line.

"American.

The only railway in which America is at present interested is

the trunk line projected from Hankow to Canton."

See British Concessions, Number 11.

{86}

On the 18th of December the British Minister announced to Lord

Salisbury: "An Imperial Decree, stating that no more railway

proposals will be for the present entertained by the Chinese

government, has been officially communicated to me by the

Yamên." To which the response from London was: "You should

inform the Chinese Government that Her Majesty's Government

claim, in the event of their revoking their present resolve

not to entertain any more proposals for railways, priority of

consideration by the Chinese Government of all British

applications already made." This notice was given, as

directed, and the Yamên replied to it (December 31) with some

dignity: "We have the honour to observe that the development

of railways in China is the natural right and advantage of the

Chinese Government. If, hereafter, in addition to the lines

already sanctioned, which will be proceeded with in order,

China proposes to construct other railways, she will negotiate

with the nation which she finds suitable. When the time

arrives China must use her own discretion as to her course of

action. The applications of British merchants can, of course,

be kept on record as material for negotiation at that day, but

it is not expedient to treat them as having a prior claim over

all others to a settled agreement."

_Great Britain, Papers by Command:

China, Number 1, 1899, pages 164-69, 190-92, 215-16,

327, 344-47; and Number 1, 1900, page 22._

CHINA: A. D. 1898 (March).

An intelligent Chinese view of the situation of the country.

How well the situation and the dangers of their country were

understood at this period by some, at least, of the Chinese

officials, and how intelligently they considered them, may be

gathered from some passages in a memorial addressed by Viceroy

Chang Chih-tung and another high official, Sheng Hsuan-huai,

Director-General of Railways, to the Emperor, on the subject

of the construction of the Hankow-Kwangtung Railway. A

translation of the document was transmitted to London at the

end of March. The memorialists say: "The original idea was

that the construction of the Hankow-Kwangtung Southern trunk

line should be postponed for a time, but now, owing to the

exigencies of the present situation, this work must not be

delayed. The powerful foreign nations stand around watching

for their opportunity, and, making use of trivial pretexts in

the conduct of international affairs, swiftly dispatch their

war-ships from one end of the Empire to the other. It is

impossible to say when our communication by sea may be

blocked, and the establishment of internal communication by

railways has become a necessity. Kwungtung is a rich province,

and the defence of the southern territory and waterways must

not be neglected, so that the making of the Hankow-Kwangtung

line should be proceeded with at the same time as the northern

road. The original intention was to construct a road from

Kwangtung to Hupeh viâ Chiangsi, but this circuitous route is

longer than the direct route through Hunan Province, and for

many reasons it will be a source of greater prosperity and

strength to the Empire if the latter route is adopted. There

is, moreover, no doubt that the officials and merchants of the

three provinces are in favour of this scheme. The most direct

route will be to proceed viâ Ch'en-chou, Yung-chou, Feng-chou,

and Ch'ang-sha to Wuch'ang, and so to Hankow. … Now Hankow is

the central point to which all the waterways of the eighteen

provinces from north, south, east, and west converge. If

England is allowed to build the Hankow and Kwangtung road,

passing through this important point, afterwards when the

Russian line advances southward, and the English line is

continued to the north, although we shall be in possession of

the Hankow-Lü Kou-chiao line, we shall be stilled and our

profits curtailed, for, being between the other lines, we

shall not be able to defend our own. It is also greatly to be

feared that our own line would pass into either English or

Russian hands. In this case not only is our throat stopped by

the foreigners being in possession of our ports, but our vital

parts are injuriously affected. Should we wish to raise and

drill soldiers, make arms, or obtain funds for the necessities

of the Empire, it will be impossible, and China not only will

not make progress, but we fear she will barely be able to

maintain her independence.

"Your memorialists are distressed when they consider the

extreme danger of the situation, but they think that the best

method of meeting it is to proceed ourselves at once with the

construction of the Hankow-Kwangtung Railway. Should it be

made by degrees, starting from Kwangtung through Hunan to

Hankow, it will be seized forcibly before completion, and we

fear sufficient funds cannot be raised for hurrying forward

its construction. Your memorialist, Sheng, had the intention

of employing American capital for the construction of the Lü

Kou-chaio-Hankow line, but afterwards when the American,

Washburn, came to China, his conditions were found to be too

hard, and consequently negotiations were broken off. Your

servant was thus constrained to approach Belgium. By acting

thus our privileges would not be lost, nor would ill

consequences follow. But Belgium is a small country, and her

strength is inconsiderable, and often she has pointed out that

an unfinished railroad is hardly a sufficient guarantee for

the loan. Consequently she is very undecided, but we have

hopes that by the adoption of some compromise terms may be

arrived at, though the question is extremely difficult. Thus

another scheme must be adopted for raising the capital for the

southern line. There are grave objections to allowing either

England, France, or Germany to undertake the work, and your

memorialists suggest that Wu Ting-fang, the Minister at

Washington, should be communicated with. He is a Cantonese,

and will not fail to do his best to find a scheme."

_Great Britain, Papers by Command:

China, Number 1, 1899,pages 87-89._

CHINA: A. D. 1898 (March-July).

Russian acquisition of Port Arthur and Talienwan.

Ineffectual British opposition.

Consequent British demand for Wei-hai Wei.

Its lease by China.

While the British Minister at Peking was securing these

assurances from the Tsung-li Yamên, concerning the

non-alienation of the Yang-tsze region and the opening of

inland waters to steam navigation, the Russian Minister was

equally busy, extorting a cession or lease of Port Arthur and

Talienwan, with privileges of railway construction through

neighboring territory which gave immense value to those

acquisitions. The probability of his success was soon known to

the British authorities, who made no serious objection to the

leasing of Talienwan, but were strongly opposed to a Russian

occupation of Port Arthur.

{87}

On the 22d of March, 1898, Lord Salisbury wrote to the British

Ambassador at St. Petersburg: "Her Majesty's Government on

their part would not regard with any dissatisfaction the lease

by Russia of an ice-free commercial harbour, connected by

rail with the trans-Siberian Railway which is now under

construction. Questions of an entirely different kind are

opened if Russia obtains control of a military port in the

neighbourhood of Peking. Port Arthur is useless for commercial

purposes, its whole importance being derived solely from its

military strength and strategic position, and its occupation

would inevitably be considered in the East as a standing

menace to Peking and the commencement of the partition of

China."

On the 28th of March he wrote again: "Port Arthur is not a

commercial harbour. It is doubtful whether it could be

converted into one. It is certain that, even if such a project

were possible, it could never be worth while for the owners or

lessees of Talienwan to embark upon it. But though not a

commercial harbour, Port Arthur supplies a naval base, limited

indeed in extent, but possessing great natural and artificial

strength. And this, taken in connection with its strategic

position, gives it an importance in the Gulf of Pechili and

therefore at Peking, upon which, in their representations to

Japan at the close of the war with China, the Russian

Government laid the greatest emphasis. It is from this last

point of view that the occupation of Port Arthur chiefly

concerns Her Majesty's Government. It is not because a

position which can easily be made a naval arsenal of great

strength has been acquired by Russia that they regret its

occupation by that Power. It is because the possession, even

if temporary, of this particular position, is likely to have

political consequences at Peking of great international

importance, and because the acquisition of a Chinese harbour

notoriously useless for commercial purposes by a foreign Power

will be universally interpreted in the Far East as indicating

that the partition of China has begun.

"As regards the second of these reasons nothing further need

be said, inasmuch as Her Majesty's Government understand from

Count Mouravieff's communication to you that this result is as

little desired by the Russian Government as it is by that of

Her Majesty. As regards the first, it may perhaps be proper to

observe that a great military Power which is coterminous for

over 4,000 miles with the land frontier of China, including

the portion lying nearest to its capital, is never likely to

be without its due share of influence on the councils of that

country. Her Majesty's Government regard it as Most

unfortunate that it has been thought necessary in addition to

obtain control of a port which, if the rest of the Gulf of

Pechili remains in hands so helpless as those of the Sovereign

Power, will command the maritime approaches to its capital,

and give to Russia the same strategic advantage by sea which

she already possesses in so ample a measure by land. Her

Majesty's Government have thought it their duty thus to put on

record their grave objections to the occupation of Port Arthur

by Russia."

Before this despatch was written, Lord Salisbury already knew

that his remonstrances had failed and that Russia was to

possess Port Arthur, and he had cabled, March 25, the

following instructions to Sir Claude MacDonald, the British

Minister to Peking: "Balance of power in Gulf of Pechili is

materially altered by surrender of Port Arthur by Yamên to

Russia. It is therefore necessary to obtain, in the manner you

think most efficacious and speedy, the refusal of Wei-hai Wei

on the departure of the Japanese. The terms should be similar

to those granted to Russia for Port Arthur. British fleet is

on its way from Hong Kong to Gulf of Pechili." The day

following, Lord Salisbury advised the British Ambassador at

Berlin by telegram: "Her Majesty's Government have demanded a

reversionary lease of Wei-hai Wei, and it is possible that the

German Government will address you with regard to our

occupying territory which forms part of the Province of

Shantung. Should this be the case, you are authorized to

explain that Wei-hai Wei is not at present, and cannot, we

believe, be made a commercial port by which access can be

obtained to any part of the province. We do not wish to

interfere with the interests of Germany in that region. The

action, in our opinion very regrettable, of Russia with

respect to Port Arthur, has compelled us to take the course we

are now pursuing."

On the 29th of March the completion of the transaction by

which China transferred Port Arthur and Talienwan to Russia

was officially announced at St. Petersburg by the following

publication in the "Official Messenger": "At Peking on the

15th (27th) March a special Agreement was signed by the

Plenipotentiaries of Russia and China, by virtue of which

Ports Arthur and Talienwan, with the corresponding territory

and waters, have been ceded to the Imperial Government for

twenty-five years—which period, by mutual agreement, may be

still further prolonged—and the construction allowed of

branches of railways in order to connect these ports with the

main Great Siberian line. This Agreement is a direct and

natural outcome of the friendly relations between great

neighbouring Empires, all of whose endeavours should be

directed towards the preservation of tranquillity along the

vast extent of their neighbouring possessions for the common

benefit of the people of both of them. The peaceful

occupation, by the diplomatic Agreement of the 15th March, of

the ports and territory of a friendly nation shows, in the

best possible way, that the Government of China truly

appreciates the meaning of the Agreement established between

us.

"Securing the inviolability of the sovereign rights of China,

and satisfying the daily requirements of Russia in her

capacity of a great and neighbouring naval Power, this

Agreement can in no way insure [injure?] the interests of any

other foreign Power; on the contrary, it gives to all nations

of the world the possibility in the near future of entering

into communication with this hitherto closed-up country on the

coast of the Yellow Sea. The opening to the commercial fleets

of all foreign nations of the port of Talienwan creates in the

Pacific Ocean a new and extended centre for the commercial and

trading undertakings of those nations, especially by means of

the Great Siberian line, henceforth to be taken into account,

and which, thanks to the friendly Treaty between Russia and

China, will unite the extreme ends of the Old World. Thus, the

Agreement signed at Peking has for Russia a deep historical

signification, and must be joyfully welcomed by all to whom

happy peace and successes, based on the mutual understandings

of nations, are dear."

{88}

On the 3d of April, Sir Claude MacDonald was able to announce

by cable to Lord Salisbury: "Yamên agreed yesterday to the

following arrangement: China will lease Wei-hai Wei to Great

Britain on the same terms as Port Arthur has been leased to

Russia, but Great Britain agrees not to take possession of the

place until it has been given up by Japan. The lease will

continue until Russia ceases to occupy Liaotung Peninsula.

Details are left for subsequent adjustment." Negotiations

relative to the terms of the lease of Wei-hai Wei were

protracted until the first of July, when the Convention

determining them was signed at Peking. Its provisions were as

follows: "The territory leased shall comprise the Island of

Liu-kung and all islands in the Bay of Wei-hai Wei, and a belt

of land 10 English miles wide along the entire coast line of the

Bay of Wei-hai Wei. Within the above-mentioned territory

leased Great Britain shall have sole jurisdiction. Great

Britain shall have, in addition, the right to erect

fortifications, station troops, or take any other measures

necessary for defensive purposes, at any points on or near the

coast of the region east of the meridian 121° 40' east of

Greenwich, and to acquire on equitable compensation with that

territory such sites as may be necessary for water supply,

communications, and hospitals. Within that zone Chinese

administration will not be interfered with, but no troops

other than Chinese or British shall be allowed therein. It is

also agreed that within the walled city of Wei-hai Wei,

Chinese officials shall continue to exercise jurisdiction

except so far as may be inconsistent with naval and military

requirements for the defence of the territory leased. It is

further agreed that Chinese vessels of war, whether neutral or

otherwise, shall retain the right to use the waters herein

leased to Great Britain. It is further understood that there

will be no expropriation or expulsion of the inhabitants of

the territory herein specified, and that if land is required

for fortifications, public officers, or any official or public

purpose, it shall be bought at a fair price."

_Great Britain, Papers by Command:

China, Number 1, 1898, and Number 1, 1899._

CHINA: A. D. 1898 (April-July).

Charges of corruption against Li Hung-chang and

the Tsung-li Yamên.

"One of the censors of highest rank memorialised the Emperor

early in April, accusing the whole Tsung-li Yamên of being in

Russian pay, and alleging that the sum of 10,000,000 taels was

paid to them. He also stated that Li Hung-chang had secured

from Russia 1,500,000 taels, and he prayed for a full inquiry

and for the decapitation of Li Hung-chang if the accusation

were proved, or if he were found guiltless, he himself should

be decapitated. Li Hung-chang was dismissed on September 6,

but afterwards in November was appointed an imperial

commissioner to report on the inundations of the Yellow River,

an unwelcome post. … A Black Flag rebellion in the southern

province of Kwang-si, in which the secret society called The

Triads was said to be concerned, was giving the Pekin

Government great anxiety in July. The rebels, numbering about

40,000, were for a time victorious and seemed determined to

overthrow the dynasty."

_Annual Register, 1898, pages 333-334._

CHINA: A. D. 1898 (April-August).

France in the field with demands.

New demands from Great Britain.

France had now come forward to seize a place in the attacking

line, preparatory to what seemed to be the impending partition

of China. On the 12th of April, Sir Claude MacDonald cabled to

Lord Salisbury the following despatch: "I had an interview

with the Yamên yesterday, at which they informed me that

China, had acceded to the following demands on the part of

France:

1. Kwangchow Wan [in the Lei-chau peninsula, on the southern

coast, near Tonquin] to be leased as a coaling-station to

France.

2. The right to construct a railway to Yünnan-fu from the

Tonquin frontier.

3. The promise not to alienate any territory in the three

provinces of Kwangtung, Kwangsi, and Yünnan, which border on

the French frontier.

4. The Chinese Government agree that if ever they constitute a

Postal Department independent of the maritime customs, and if

a European is to be appointed as Director thereof, France

shall have an equal right with that of other Powers to

nominate a candidate for the post of Director.

The Chinese Government are willing—

1. To lease us as much additional territory on Kowloon

promontory [opposite Hong Kong], exclusive of Kowloon city, as

is required for military and naval purposes.

2. The Yamên state that China is quite willing to allow the

extension into Yünnan of the Burmah Railway."

On the 13th, Mr. Balfour, in the absence of Lord Salisbury,

cabled from London in reply: "Inform Yamên that, although they

have not followed our advice, we are anxious to maintain, as

far as possible, integrity of China, and will, therefore, not

make new territorial demands upon them. It is, however,

absolutely necessary, if we are to pursue this policy, that

they, on their side, should first immediately conclude

negotiations—

(a) for giving us an the land required for military defences

of Hong Kong;

(b) to fulfil their promise to make Nanning a Treaty port;

(d) an agreement as to the non-alienation of Kuang'tung and

Yünnan.

In connection with condition (d), it is in the interests of

the integrity of China, and is justified by the proximity of

Yünnan to Burmah, and by our commercial preponderance in

Kuang'tung."

On the same day (13th April) the British Minister at Paris

telegraphed to the Foreign Office, London: "It is stated in

to-night's papers that, at the Cabinet Council held this

morning, M. Hanotaux was able to announce to his colleagues

that the French demands on China had been satisfactorily met.

They are stated in the semi-official 'Temps' to be:—

1. Concession of a lease of a bay on the south coast of China.

2. Concession of a railway connecting Tonquin with Yünnan-fu

by the Red River.

3. Engagement on the part of China never to alienate the

territories of the provinces contiguous to Tonquin.

4. Engagement never to cede to any other Power the Island of

Hainan.

5. Arrangement in regard to the constitution of the postal

service."

Thus, for the time being, France was satisfied, and England

would be, before she gave rest to the Tsung-li Yamên. Her

present demands, as above specified by Mr. Balfour, were

pressed without ceasing by the pertinacious Sir Claude. On the

9th of June he obtained from the Yamên a lease for the British

government of about 200 square miles of territory on the

mainland opposite its island crown colony of Hong Kong, and

surrounding the Chinese city of Kowloon, the latter, however,

to remain under Chinese jurisdiction.

{89}

The term of the lease was 90 years. With regard to the opening

of Nanning as a Treaty Port, he received an assurance from the

Yamên in August that it should be done so soon as the Kwang-si

rebellion was crushed. On the other points he had equal

success.

_Great Britain. Papers by Command:

China, Number 1, 1899, pages 12, 19, 98-99, 178._

CHINA: A. D. 1898 (May).

How the murder of a missionary was made the ground of French

demands for a Railway Concession.

On the 17th of May, 1898, the British Minister at Peking

cabled to Lord Salisbury: "Murder of missionary in Kuang-si.

French demands for compensation. … The Yamên … said they were

not certain that the murdered missionary was not a Chinaman,

and that the demands made by the French for compensation

comprise a Concession for a railway to some point on the

sea-coast not specified, a chapel to be built, and a pecuniary

indemnity of 100,000 fr. to be paid. Up to the present they had

refused all these demands." Later, the following particulars

of the murder were received from the British Consul at Canton:

"The occurrence happened about a fortnight ago at

Yun-gan-chou, in the P'ing-lo Prefecture. While walking

through the streets the missionary noticed a placard directed

against the Christian religion. Having discovered the author

of the placard, the missionary, with two converts, proceeded

to his house and attempted to arrest him. Out of this a

disturbance arose in which the passers-by took part, and in

the end the missionary and the two converts lost their lives."

On the 21st of May Sir Claude MacDonald reported to Lord

Salisbury from Peking: "I am very reliably informed that the

demands made at an interview with the Yamên yesterday by M.

Pichon, the French Minister, in connection with this case

were:—

1. A Concession to construct a railway from Pakhoi to Nanning;

2. Construction of a chapel at Pakhoi;

3. A pecuniary indemnity of 100,000 fr.; and

4. The responsible officials to be punished.

In response to these demands, the Yamên suggested that the

Railway Concession should be granted in a document by itself,

apart from the granting of the other demands, and that the

chapel should be built at Yungan-chou, the scene of the

murder, instead of at Pakhoi, and the French Minister

undertook to refer these modifications to his Government for

their favourable consideration."

On the 27th, Sir Claude reported further that he had heard on

very good authority that all the French demands had been

granted, and added: "The Yamên have since denied to me that

they have committed themselves to granting them, but I have

little doubt that they have practically done so. The reason

for making the Railway Concession a separate matter is that

the Chinese are anxious to avoid establishing precedents for

compensation for attacks on missionaries taking the shape of

commercial Concessions, and they hope, rather foolishly, to do

so by nominally closing the missionary case before the other

matter is taken up. They did this in the case of the German

Agreement for the lease of Kiao-chau Bay, which begins by

declaring that the Shantung missionary case has already been

closed. The French demands are not at all excessive. I have

already expressed my belief that the proposed railway will not

injure us commercially, provided, of course, that no

differential rates are allowed, as to which I shall insist on

specific assurances from the Yamên."

_Great Britain, Papers by Command:

China, Number 1, 1899, pages 91, 146, 150._

Alluding to this incident, and to that which the German

government made its pretext for seizing Kiao Chau (see, above,

A. D. 1897-November), a German writer has remarked:

"Never before, perhaps, has so much material value been

attached to ministers of the Gospel in foreign lands, and the

manner in which, after their death, they are used to spread

civilization is somewhat foreign to our older ideas of the

functions of the bearers of spiritual blessings."

CHINA: A. D. 1898 (June-September).

Momentary influence of a reform party in the palace.

Futile attempt of the young emperor to uphold it.

The decaying state of the Empire had now become so desperately

plain, and the predatory swarm of governments and speculators

which gathered to despoil it had grown so greedy and so bold,

that a party which could see that the only hope for its

salvation must be sought in some modernizing reforms, of

education and administration, was able to win a momentary

footing of influence in the palace at Peking. Its leading

spirit appears to have been one Kang Yeu Wei, an extremely

radical reformer who came from Canton. In an article which he

wrote some months later, and which was published in the

"Contemporary Review," Kang Yeu Wei gave this account of

himself, and of the mode in which he was brought into

relations with the young Emperor:

"I was always fond of studying Western learning. After the

French took Foochow in 1885 there was evident danger of

China's end drawing nigh. Consequently, in 1889, I

memorialised about the matter in great grief. I feared

Russia's advance southward, and pointed out the secret

intentions of Japan and the latent danger in Corea. I thought

that China had come to such a pass that if she should devote

these years for the purpose of speedy reform she might become

strong, but if there was delay nothing could save her. At that

time the high Ministers of State were all Conservatives, and

would not present my memorial to the throne. After the loss of

Formosa, Wêng Tung Ho [the Emperor's tutor] was sorry that he

had listened to their advice, and was very cordial to me. Then

I exhorted him to reform, and I wrote a long memorial, signed

by 1,300 provincial graduates, to urge reform again and again,

and a Reform Club was formed in Peking, and the newspaper,

'Chinese Progress,' was started in Shanghai. At this time

(1895) Wêng Tung Ho strongly urged reform on the Emperor, but

was checked by the Empress-Dowager, and almost put aside then,

and the Reform Club was shut up. I then returned to Canton,

and founded the Ethical Society in Canton province and the

Sacred Society in Kwang-Si province. My disciples, Liang Chi

Chao and Tan Tze Tung, formed the Southern Learning Society in

Hunan province; Liu Shio started the Fookien Learning Society

in the Fukien province; Yang Tui the Szechuen Learning

Society, in the province of Szechuen; Yang Shin Sheu and Sung

Peh Luh opened the Pass Learning Society in the provinces of

Shansi and Shensi; I and my brother K'ang Kwang In, with King

Yuen Shen, opened a Chinese girls' school and formed the

Anti-foot-binding Society in Shanghai; and many newspapers

were started. Thus newspapers and new schools flourished in

all the provinces, and all the empire knew of the reform.

{90}

"When Kiaochow was taken by the Germans I went to Peking again

and sent up another memorial strongly urging reform, with the

same motive as Peter the Great, and on the same political

lines as have been adopted by the present Emperor of Japan. I

also presented my books on the history of reform in Japan and

the history of Peter the Great's reforms, and suggested that

all the coast of the empire be open to international trade.

Wêng Tung Ho approved of it, and strongly supported the

measure at Court. But the crowd of Conservatives opposed, and

he could not carry it. Then it was proposed to make an

alliance with England, as was advised in the reform paper of

Macao. The Government was undecided and feared that a great

nation like England would not be willing. But when England

asked that Port Arthur and Ta Lien Wan should be open ports I

hastened to Wêng Tung Ho and said, 'China is saved and will

not perish. You must grant the request. Since God gives us

this opportunity, it should on no account be let slip.' But

the Empress-Dowager and Li Hung Chang had made up their minds

to give them to Russia. Again, England promised to lend China

ten millions at 3 per cent. Russia was forcing China to borrow

from her at 4 per cent. The Foreign Office was in great fear

between these two great nations, and undecided. They then

discussed about borrowing from both, and finally decided not

to borrow from either. I said, 'You should decline Russia's

offer and borrow from England. Russia, though she might

threaten us, will never dare to declare war on this account.'

The Empress-Dowager favoured Russia and was afraid. In the end

they did not borrow from either.

"When Russia was seeking Port Arthur and Ta Lien Wan, I

presented two memorials that they should be refused to Russia

and both made open ports. The Emperor blamed Prince Kung and

Li Hung Chang, and asked, 'What is the use of a secret treaty

with Russia? Not only does Russia not protect us, but she

herself takes away territory from us.' Both the Prince and Li

replied: 'It is by giving Port Arthur and Ta Lien Wan to

Russia that the secret treaty is preserved.' At this the

Emperor was very angry. When the Empress-Dowager decided to

give them to Russia, and Wêng Tung Ho found that all my

prophecies came true, he strongly recommended me to the

Emperor. Kao Hsueh Tseng, the Supervising Censor, Chen Pao

Chen, the Governor of Hunan, Su Chih Ching, of the Hanlin

College, and Li Twan Fên, President of the Board of Rites,

also had recommended me from time to time. When the Emperor

asked the members of the Cabinet, Wêng-Tung Ho recommended me,

saying, 'His abilities are a hundred times superior to my

own,' and prayed the Emperor to listen to me in all matters of

reform. I also presented to the Emperor a record of England,

France, and Germany, a comparative diagram of all nations, and

the Reverend Timothy Richard's 'History of the Nineteenth

Century' and his 'Essays for the Times,' and translations of

Western books. The Emperor then understood something of the

cause of the rise and fall of nations, and made up his mind to

introduce great reforms. Desiring men to help him, he invited

me, and acted on my former suggestions."

But the situation at Peking, as Kang Yeu Wei describes it,—the

weakness of the young Emperor and the strength of the

Empress-Dowager,—made the undertaking of reform hopeless from

the beginning. The Empress-Dowager had professed to resign the

government, but, says Kang Yeu Wei, "she really still held the

reins in her hands. She read the memorials about appointments.

All the Ministers of the first and second rank were her

nominees. The Emperor had no voice. In all matters he had to

inform her first before acting. The Emperor was only an

Emperor in name.

"The Emperor was of a studious disposition. Since the loss of

Formosa he has been greatly distressed about the decline of

the Empire. After this his faithful tutor, Wêng Tung Ho, who

was a learned man, sought foreign books for study, and

presented them, with atlases, to the Emperor. These the

Emperor daily studied, discovered the cause of foreign

prosperity, discovered the reason of China's weakness and

conservatism, and made up his mind to reform. But this was not

in accordance with the view of the Empress-Dowager. At the

beginning of the war with Japan the Emperor and his Ministers

wanted war. The Empress-Dowager and Li Hung Chang wanted

peace. The Empress-Dowager was ready to give up Manchuria and

Formosa. The Emperor could not think of it for a moment

without crying with distress; he wanted to make an alliance

with England and to reform, while the Empress-Dowager was

equally bent on alliance with Russia without reform. Thus

their views diverged more and more, so that when the Emperor

wanted to reform in 1895 the Empress hated him; two of his

favourite Imperial ladies were beaten: the Vice-Presidents,

Chang Lin, Wang Ming Luan, and Tsz Tui, a brother of one of

these Imperial ladies, were driven away: and the Imperial

ladies' tutor, Wên Ting Shih, was stripped of his honours,

never to be employed any more. This was because all these

advised the Emperor to keep the power in his own hands.

"The eunuch Kow Lang Tsai memorialised the Empress-Dowager to

resign the government into the hands of the Emperor. For this

he was put to death. The Emperor himself narrowly escaped

being put aside then. … Chang Lin was a straightforward man in

whom Prince Kung put great confidence. In a memorial to the

Emperor he said: 'The relation of the Empress-Dowager to the

late Emperor Tung Chih was that of his own mother, but her

relation to you is that of the widowed concubine of a former

Emperor.' When the Empress-Dowager came to know this she was

in a great rage. Prince Kung was also in great fear. When the

Emperor issued an edict, by command of the Empress-Dowager, to

degrade Chang Lin, Prince Kung was weeping on his knees. When

asked the reason of it, the Emperor waved his hand and said,

'Don't ask him.' The Emperor and the Prince wept together, and

the Prince wept so bitterly that he had no strength to rise

up. The Emperor commanded the eunuchs to help him up and lead

him away. Wên Ting Shih begged the Emperor to exercise his

rights. The Emperor waved his hand, saying, 'Don't speak,' for

the Emperor knew long ago that when he took the reins of

government into his own hands the Empress hated him."

{91}

Nevertheless, in 1898, the well-meaning but weak young Emperor

was moved to a spasmodic assertion of his authority, in bold

strokes of reform. "Rather than lose his empire like those of

the Chin and the Ming dynasties, and become a by-word of

disgrace for all future generations, he would risk the dangers

of reform. If he succeeded, then he would get power into his

own hands and save his country. If he failed, he would greatly

open the minds of the people and prepare them for the future,

and thus, perhaps, preserve a remnant of China. At this time

the Emperor considered the chief thing was to preserve the

country from being lost to foreign nations, and looked upon

his position on the throne as of little consequence in

comparison—considering the welfare of the people as of

supreme importance, while his own person was of little

importance. He had none to consult with, but decided to risk

all danger and try."

_Kang Yen Wei,

The Reform of China and the Revolution of 1898

(Contemporary Review, August, 1899). _

Read with a knowledge of what came of them, the futile decrees

which the helpless young Emperor issued in June, 1898, seem

pathetic in the extreme. The following is a translation of the

first of his reform edicts, which bears the date, "Kuang Hsu,

24th year, 4th moon, 23d day," corresponding to June 11, 1898:

"For a long time past the condition of Imperial affairs has

been a subject of discussion among the officials of the

Empire, both metropolitan and provincial, with a view to bring

about changes necessary for improvement. Decrees have been

frequently issued by the Emperor, for a special system of

examinations, for doing away with the surplus soldiery, for

the alteration of the military examinations and for the

institution of colleges. In spite of the fact that these

things have so often been carefully thought out, and so many

plans have been formed, there is no general consensus of

opinion, and discussion is still rife as to which plans are

best. There are some among the older officials who affirm that

the old ways are best and need no alteration, and that the new

plans are not required. Such babblings are vain and useless.

"The Emperor puts the question before you thus: In the present

condition of Imperial affairs, with an untrained army, with

limited funds, with ignorant 'literati,' and with artisans

untaught because they have no fit teachers, is there any

difficulty in deciding, when China is compared with foreign

nations, who is the strong and who is the weak? It is easy to

distinguish between the rich and the poor. How can a man armed

with a wooden stick smite his foe encased in a coat of mail?

The Emperor sees that the affairs of the Empire are in an

unsettled condition, and that his various Decrees have availed

nothing, Diversity of opinion, each unlike another as fire

differs from water, is responsible for the spread of the

existing evil. It is the same evil as that which existed in

the Sung and Ming dynasties (circa A. D. 1000 and 1500). Our

present system is not of the slightest use. We cannot in these

modern days adhere to the ways of the five Kings(circa B. C.

2500); even they did not continue exactly after the manner of

their respective predecessors. It is like wearing thick

clothes in summer and thin ones in winter. "Now, therefore,

the Emperor orders all officials, metropolitan and provincial,

from prince down to 'literati,' to give their whole minds to a

real endeavour to improvement. With perseverance, like that of

the saints of old, do your utmost to discover which foreign

country has the best system in any branch of learning and

learn that one. Your great fault is the falseness of your

present knowledge. Make a special effort and determine to

learn the best of everything. Do not merely learn the outside

covers of the books of knowledge, and do not make a loud boast

of your own attainments. The Emperor's wish is to change what

is now useless into something useful, so that proficiency may

be attained and handed on to posterity. The Metropolitan

College will be the chief one, and must be instituted at once.

The Emperor orders the Grand Councillors to consult with the

Tsung-li Yamên on the subject, and to come to a decision as

soon as possible, and then to memorialize the Throne. Any of

the compilers and graduates of the Hanlin College, the

secretaries of the Boards, the officers of the Palace Guards,

expectant Intendants, Prefects, district Magistrates, and

subordinate officials, sons and brothers of officials, the

hereditary officials of the Eight Banners, and the sons of the

military officials of the Empire, can enter the College who wish

to do so. By this means knowledge will be handed down from one

generation to another. It will be strictly forbidden to

members of the College to be careless or dilatory in their

studies, or to introduce as students any of their friends

without regard for the latter's capabilities; for such things

would frustrate the benefit of this excellent plan of His

Imperial Majesty."

A day later he issued the following: "The Tsung-li Yamên have

reported to the Throne that in obedience to instructions they

have considered the requests contained in the memorial of the

Vice-President Jung Hui, for the appointment of special

Ministers of Commerce, and the sending of members of the

Imperial family to visit foreign nations. Commercial matters

are of the highest importance, and the suggestion is one which

deserves to be acted upon. As the result of a former

consultation of the Tsung-li Yamên on the subject, commercial

bureaus have been established at the capitals of the

provinces, and the officials of each province have ordered the

leading gentry and merchants to elect from their numbers managers

of the bureaus, who will then draw up commercial regulations.

It is to be hoped that strict conformity to these Regulations

will lead to a daily improvement in trade; and the Emperor

orders the Viceroys and Governors of the provinces to direct

the gentry and merchants to strictly obey the official

instructions, and to consult together for the most speedy and

satisfactory arrangement of commercial matters; it is to be

hoped that in this way the officials will be kept in touch

with the merchants. We must not adhere blindly to our old

customs. Let the officials of each province memorialize the

Throne, and inform the Emperor how commercial affairs are

managed in their respective provinces.

{92}

With regard to the suggestion that members of the Imperial

Family should go abroad, this is a new departure, but is quite

in accordance with modern custom. The Emperor, therefore,

orders the Court of the Imperial clan to select from the

Princes of the first three ranks any who are well versed in

modern affairs and ideas, and who are on the side of modern

improvement, and to inform the Emperor of their selection. The

selected Princes will then await the Emperor's orders with

regard to their journey."

On the 15th the following imperial mandate was published:

"Wêng T'ung-ho, Assistant Grand Secretary and President of the

Board of Revenue, has of late made many errors in the conduct

of business, and has forfeited all confidence; on several

occasions he has been impeached to the Throne. At his private

audiences of the Emperor he has replied to His Majesty's

questions with no regard for anything except his own personal

feeling and opinion, and he has made no attempt to conceal his

pleasure or displeasure either in his speech or in his

countenance. It has gradually become clear that his ambition

and rebellious feeling have led him to arrogate to himself an

attempt to dictate to the Emperor. It is impossible to permit

him to remain in the responsible position of a Grand

Councillor. In former days a strict inquiry would have been

held, and his crime punished with the utmost rigour of the

law. Taking into consideration, however, his long service as

tutor to the Emperor, His Majesty cannot bring himself to mete

out to him such a severe penalty. Let Wêng T'ung-ho vacate his

posts, and retire into private life, as a warning that he is

preserved (from a worse fate)."

In transmitting this mandate to the British Foreign Office,

Sir Claude MacDonald explained that Wêng T'ung-ho was a

"reactionary," whose "influence was invariably against

innovation and progress," but personally "prepossessing,

courteous, and scholarly—an excellent type of the Conservative

Chinese statesman." But that the dismissal of Wêng T'ung-ho

did not signify the triumph of the reform party was shown the

same day by a decree commanding special honors to the Empress

Dowager, who seemed to be losing no time in reasserting

herself. "In future," said the edict, "whenever officials

receive favours or gifts from the Empress Dowager, or receive

promotion to the highest civil or military rank or to the

Vice-Presidency of a Board, they must (after thanking the

Emperor) present themselves before the Empress Dowager and

thank her; and in similar cases all provincial

Tartar-Generals, Lieutenant-Generals, Viceroys, Governors, and

Commanders-in-chief must write their thanks to the Empress

Dowager (as well as to the Emperor)."

Other radically reforming decrees that were issued by the

Emperor during June and early in July were described by the

British Minister in a despatch dated July 9, as follows:

"To effect a change in the agricultural methods of an ancient

Eastern nation would seem a very hopeless task, but from a

Decree published on the 4th instant, it appears that a censor

has made proposals for the establishment of a school of

agriculture, on which the Tsung-Ii Yamên were asked to report.

The Decree founded on their Report states that agriculture is

the basis of the States' wealth, and that measures for its

revival are urgently needed. The provincial authorities are,

therefore, directed to examine all methods of cultivation,

whether Chinese or foreign, with a view to their adoption by

the people. … The Decree proceeds to promise rewards for

successful treatment of agricultural problems, and to direct

the translation and circulation in provincial Colleges of

foreign works on the subject.

"Two Decrees, published on the 27th June and 5th July, have

reference to reforms in the Chinese army, but they throw no

light on the nature of them, and merely refer certain

suggestions to various Departments for examination. The last

Decree I shall mention, which appeared on the 5th instant,

contains a very frank admission of the need of reforms. It

states that in foreign countries commerce and industry thrive

and progress, while in China, though there is no lack of

ability, it is fettered in the bonds of ancient custom, and

cannot free itself. As one means of assisting in its

liberation it is ordained that any persons producing 'new

books' (presumably books that show originality of thought), or

being the first to use new methods, or to produce new

instruments or appliances suitable for use, are to receive

rewards from the State in the shape either of official

employment, if they are fitted for it, or of some other

distinction. In the case of inventions a certificate will be

given, and the profits secured to the inventor for a fixed

term of years—in fact patent rights will be granted. Rewards

will also be given to those who, with their own resources,

establish colleges, open up mines, or set up arsenals for the

manufacture of rifles and cannon. In conclusion, the Tsung-li

Yamên are directed to draw up Regulations for effecting the

above objects."

The zeal of the reforming movement was kept alive and its

authors held their ground throughout the summer, and nearly to

the end of September. On the 17th of that month, Sir Claude

MacDonald wrote to Lord Salisbury: "Imperial Decrees intended

to launch China on the path of reform continue to appear,

though there are few signs of any of them taking practical

effect. The Emperor is evidently learning that it is one thing

to issue a reform Edict and another to get it obeyed. Not long

ago a Decree was issued, the object of which was to make the

Throne more accessible to the subordinate portion of the

official world. At the beginning of this month a case was

brought to His Majesty's notice, in which the Board of

Ceremonies disobeyed this Decree by refusing to transmit a

Memorial sent in by a Secretary. He was much enraged, and

forthwith cashiered the six head officials of the Board, that

is to say, the two Presidents and four Vice-Presidents.

"On the 12th instant he followed this up by a fresh Decree

dwelling on the circumstances and reiterating his previous

instructions. Memorials were to be presented as they came in,

it being of the highest importance, in the present critical

state of public affairs, that all such communications should

be examined as soon as possible. Obstruction and delay were to

be punished with the utmost rigour, and special commands were

given that the previous Edicts on reform, all of which were

enumerated, were to be hung up in a public place in each Yamên

throughout the Empire, so that no one should be ignorant of

their contents.

{93}

Not satisfied with all this, he issued, also on the 12th

instant, a long and remarkable Decree calling attention to the

advantages of Western methods, and inveighing against

degenerate officials and conservative Ministers, who not only

could not assist him in adopting their methods, but spread

reports instead calculated to disturb the minds of the people.

He wanted his subjects to know that they 'could depend on

their Prince,' and appealed to them to make China powerful by

working for reform with 'united minds.' The previous orders

were amplified, and the privilege of memorializing the Throne,

which formerly stopped at officers of a high rank, is now

extended to practically every soul in the Empire.

"Next day, the 13th September, another Decree repeated the

terms of the above in clearer detail, and laid down precisely

the procedure each class was to observe in making itself

heard. The severest penalties were threatened should there be

any interference with the free exercise of this privilege by

the high officers of Government, who were commanded to report

by telegram the steps they were taking to fulfil the Imperial

wishes. The series of Decrees above quoted are naturally

creating a great commotion in the Chinese official world, and

it will be interesting to note their effect."

_Great Britain, Papers by Command:

China, Number 1, 1899, page 179-279._

The effect was soon known. It was one which brought the

reformers to grief and their reforms to an end.

CHINA: A. D. 1898 (September).

Overthrow of the Reformers.

Subjugation of the Emperor by the Empress-Dowager.

His countermanding decrees.

The Imperial reformer announced the downfall of his own

authority on the 21st of September, in the following

significant decree:

"The affairs of the nation are at present in a difficult

position, and everything awaits reform. I, the Emperor, am

working day and night with all my powers, and every day

arrange a multitude of affairs. But, despite my careful toil,

I constantly fear to be overwhelmed by the press of work. I

reverently recall that Her Majesty the Empress Dowager has on

two occasions since the reign of Tung Chih (1861) assumed the

reins of Government with great success in critical periods. In

all she did Her Majesty showed perfection. Moved by a deep

regard for the welfare of the nation, I have repeatedly

implored Her Majesty to be graciously pleased to advise me in

government, and have received her assent. This is an assurance

of prosperity to the whole nation, officials and people. Her

Majesty will commence to transact business from to-day in the

side Hall. On the 23rd September, I, the Emperor, will lead my

princes and high officials to make obeisance in the Ch'in

Chêng Hall. Let the proper officials reverently and carefully

prepare the fitting programme of the ceremony."

On the 25th he announced: "Since the 4th moon, I, the Emperor,

have been frequently ailing in health, and in spite of

long-continued treatment there is still no great improvement.

Should there be any persons, either in the capital or the

provinces, who are highly skilled in the treatment of disease,

let the officials at once recommend them to the throne and

await our orders. Should such men be in the provinces let them

be sent to the capital without the least delay."

On the 26th the unfortunate Emperor was made to send forth

another decree, countermanding the greater part of the orders

he had been giving, on the pretext that they had been

misunderstood and badly carried out. The obstructive offices

which he had abolished were restored; the permission given to

scholars and people to present memorials was withdrawn. "The

original purpose," said the decree, "was that we should see

with the eyes and hear with the ears of everybody, but the

Court has now opened wide the path of access to the throne,

and if there are useful proposals for reform made in the

statements of any of the different classes of officials they

are bound to be observed at once and set into operation. At

present, careless documents all alike in character pour in.

All are full of frivolous statements, some even touch on the

extravagant, and all are much wanting in order. Hereafter all

officers whose duty it is to speak shall say what they have to

say in fitting language. In accordance with the prescribed

rules, persons or officers who are not competent to

memorialize the throne are not permitted to submit sealed

documents. The 'Times,' official newspaper, is of no benefit

to good government and will vainly disturb men's minds: let it

be abolished at once. The Imperial colleges will be ground for

the cultivation of talent. Apart from those which are already

being gradually established in Peking and the provincial

capitals, let the local officials in all prefectures and

districts where it is proposed to establish minor colleges

consider the local conditions and the convenience of the

people. Let the temples [which were to have been turned into

colleges] in the provinces remain as before; there is no need

to make colleges of them and disturb the feelings of the

people. Over and above the matters above mentioned, there are

others which have been duly considered and put into operation,

and others which are under consideration, such as trade,

agriculture, reorganization of the army, and the development

of resources, all of which are of undoubted consequence to the

State and the people, and must imperatively be introduced

gradually. Those measures which are of no benefit to the

present system of government, and are detrimental to the

Constitution, need not be discussed. Let the six Boards and

the Tsung-li Yamên make an investigation of these matters,

consider them with special care, and submit a report to the

throne so that they may be dealt with."

The events which attended and followed these decrees were

reported by Sir Claude MacDonald on September 28, as follows:

"The Decree [of the 21st] naturally created much excitement in

Peking, and rumours of impending disaster to the most prominent

of the advocates of reform were prevalent. Subsequent

proceedings justified the alarm and assumed the character of a

coup d'etat. The same day the house of Chang Yin-huan was

surrounded by the police in search of one K'ang Yu-wei. This

K'ang Yu-wei is a Chinese scholar of high repute who was,

until lately, editor of a Chinese newspaper in Shanghae known

as 'Progress.' He was a strong advocate of reform, and was

this year recommended to the Emperor, and on his arrival in

Peking was given a position of Secretary in the Board of

Works. He is said to have acquired great influence over the

Emperor, and to have been his adviser in his recent reform

measures. K'ang Yu-wei could not be found, and it has

subsequently transpired that he has escaped and left Shanghae

on the 27th in the English mail for Hong Kong.

{94}

So keen was the hunt for him that on the 22nd all traffic was

stopped on the Tien-tsin Railway line to prevent his passage.

On the 24th instant orders were issued for the arrest of

several officials who had been in relation with him, including

Chang Yin-huan and Hsü Chih-ch'ing. The latter had recommended

K'ang to the throne, and had been recently appointed President of

the Board of Rites. Chang Yin-huan went to the Board of

Punishments and has remained a prisoner since. The precise

charge against K'ang and his friends has not transpired, but

it is supposed to be one of conspiracy against the liberty and

even the life of the Empress Dowager.

"It was reported on the 25th that Chang was to be executed the

same evening or early next morning, and I thought it advisable

to make an appeal on his behalf for at least due consideration

of any charge brought against him. The report reached me late

in the afternoon, and it was therefore necessary to take

prompt measures. It was supposed that Li Hung-chang had been

consulted by the Empress Dowager in the matter. I accordingly

addressed a letter to his Excellency pointing out the horror

with which such sudden executions were regarded by all Western

nations, and the bad effect the secret and hasty condemnation

of an official of Chang's rank, who was so well known in

Europe, would produce, and begged his Excellency to use what

influence he possessed to prevent such hurried action. I

concluded my letter by saying that I appealed to him, Li,

because he was the only Statesman now in Peking who was

conversant with European methods, and would, therefore,

thoroughly realize the disastrous impression which such a

summary execution would produce throughout the Western world.

It is well known that Li Hung-chang and Chang Yin-huan are

deadly enemies, and it was generally reported that Chang's

imprisonment was due to Li. The Grand Secretary replied saying

that he highly respected my generous and humane motives, and

he assured me that no summary action would be taken."

On the 30th Sir Claude reported: "Six of the reformers

referred to in my despatch of the 28th September were executed

on the 28th instant. They included a brother of K'ang Yu-wei,

the chief reformer, and, though subordinates, all were

graduates and men of standing. Chang Yin-huan has been

banished to Chinese Turkestan, where he is to be kept under

rigorous surveillance. No precise crime is charged against

him. The Edict announcing his punishment accuses him vaguely

of being treacherous, fickle, and a sycophant. Last night a

long Decree appeared dealing with the so-called conspiracy.

K'ang Yu-wei is declared to have taken advantage of the

Emperor's leaning towards beneficial reforms to plot a

revolution, which was to be opened by surrounding the Palace

at Wan Shoushan and seizing the Empress-Dowager and the

Emperor. The haste in executing K'ang's chief accomplices, for

it appears that the legal formalities had not been observed,

is admitted to have been caused by Memorials, whose dominant

note was fear of a revolution if punishment was delayed."

_Great Britain,

Papers by Command: China,

Number 1, 1899, pages 291-294._

CHINA: A. D. 1898 (October).

The Empress-Dowager.

Her past career.

Her character.

The Empress-Dowager, so called, who now recovered her

ascendancy over the weak young Emperor, which the reformers

had momentarily overcome, and who became again the real

Sovereign of the Empire, as she had been for the past thirty

years, "was never Empress, not even as imperial consort,

having been but the secondary wife of Hsien-fêng, the Emperor

who fled from his capital on the approach of the Anglo-French

forces in 1860 [see, in volume 1, CHINA: A. D. 1856-1860]. But

she took the title as the mother of that ill-starred monarch's

heir, in which capacity she was allowed to share with the

widow proper the regency during the minority of the Emperor

Tung-Chih (or Che, for there is no agreement as to the

transliteration of Chinese sounds). … The female duumvirate

was not what was intended—was in fact an unforeseen result of

the last will and testament of the Emperor Hsien-fêng, who

died at his hunting lodge at Jêho, whither he himself had been

hunted by the victorious invaders. …

"The fundamental law of the Ta-tsing dynasty is the Salic law.

No woman and no eunuch can ever reign or rule. Conforming to

the laws of his house, the Emperor in his will nominated a

Council of Regency during the minority of his infant son,

afterwards known as the Emperor Tung-Chih. The Council was

composed of two imperial princes and the Minister Sun-che. To

his two wives, the true but childless one and the secondary

one who was mother of the Prince Imperial, he bequeathed the

guardianship of the infant. The Emperor placed his real

confidence in the first, the legal wife; but he was fond of

the other, the mother of his heir. A serious dilemma thus

confronted him, which he thought to evade by placing in the

hands of the Empress a private and personal testament, giving

her absolute authority over her colleague, only to be

exercised, however, in certain emergencies. As a matter of

fact, the power was never called into exercise.

"The Empress-mother was twenty-seven years old, clever,

ambitious, and apparently fearless. … She conceived a scheme

by which the position might be reversed, and confided it to

her brother-in-law, Prince Kung. … The ambition which the

Empress-mother confided to Prince Kung was nothing less than

to suppress the Council of Regency, and set up in its place

the authority of the two Empresses. Inasmuch, however, as they

were ignorant of affairs, and women to boot, the Prince

himself was to be the real executive and de facto ruler of the

empire. Prince Kung yielded to the seduction, and thus became

accessory to the violation of the dynastic law. … The Regents

were returning from the obsequies of the deceased Emperor when

Prince Kung launched trumped-up charges against them of

neglect of certain funeral rites, had them arrested on the

road, and executed. By this summary violence the two Empresses

were securely established as Regents, with Prince Kung as

Chancellor of the empire. For a few years things went

smoothly. … The two Regents seldom met. … From the relative

position of the buildings in which they had their respective

apartments, the ladies were known as the Eastern and Western

Empresses, the former being the title commonly applied to the

one whom we have termed the true Empress. …

{95}

"The 'Eastern Empress' was full of gentleness, meditation, and

widowhood. … She was, therefore, unequally yoked with her

sterner sister, and the pair could never have really worked

together to any practical end. The eclipse of the weaker

luminary was only a question of time. … The life and death of

the young Emperor Tung-Chih, the son of Hsien-fêng and the

present Empress-regnante, seems little more than an episode in

the career of his imperial—and imperious—mother. He died

within two years of his full accession, removed by his own

mother as some would have us believe, but by quite other

agencies as others no less boldly affirm. … With the

disappearance of her son, the last plank in the legal platform

of the Empress-mother disappeared. But her appetite had grown

by what it fed upon. She had now had fourteen years' schooling

in statecraft, and she resolved that, 'per fas et nefas,'

reign who might, she would govern. … The story of her second

coup d'etat of January, 1875, has been often related,—how the

Empress so-called caused her own sister's child to be snatched

out of its warm bed on a bitter night and conveyed into the

Palace, whence he was proclaimed Emperor at daybreak. By this

stroke the Regent at once aggrandised her own family, made a

friend of a younger brother-in-law, the father of the child,

to replace the elder who had become an enemy, and, to sum up

all, secured for herself a new lease of power. For she who

could thus make an emperor could also make a regent."

_The Empress-Regent of China

(Blackwood's Magazine, November 1898)._

CHINA: A. D. 1898. (October-November).

Outbreaks of popular hostility to foreigners.

Guards for the Legations sent to Peking.

Chinese troops removed.

The palace revolution which overthrew the reforming party was

followed quickly by outbreaks of popular hostility to

foreigners. Two messages were cabled to Lord Salisbury from

Peking October 1st. One informed him: "A Chinese mob at a

point between Peking and the railway station yesterday

afternoon violently assaulted several foreigners who had to

pass that way from the train. Among those assaulted was Mr.

Mortimore of this Legation, and an English lady, who were

severely attacked with mud and stones; a member of the United

States' Legation had one of his ribs broken. There is a

decided spirit of disturbance among the Chinese, though the

fact that many bad characters were about yesterday in

consequence of the mid-autumn festival may go some way towards

accounting for these outrages. I have requested Admiral

Seymour by telegraph to despatch a vessel to Taku, in case a

guard should be required for the protection of this Legation,

and I am making strong representations to the Tsung-li Yamên."

In his second despatch the British Minister announced: "I do

not anticipate any danger, but a good and reassuring effect

will be produced, as after the Japanese war, by the presence

of a guard. The foreign Representatives decided this morning

to send for a small guard to protect the respective Legations.

I have asked Admiral Seymour to send me twenty-five marines

with a machine-gun. The German, Russian, Japanese, and Italian

Representatives had previously arranged for their guards."

On the 5th, Sir Claude MacDonald reported: "A meeting of

foreign Representatives yesterday decided to notify the

Chinese Government of the proposed departure from Tien-tsin

for Peking to-morrow of bodies of British, German, and Russian

marines, and to ask that all facilities, including a special

train, should be extended to them by the Chinese authorities;

the French, American, Japanese, and Italian marines to come

straight on to Peking on their arrival at Tien-tsin. The

meeting was held in consequence of the refusal of the Viceroy

of Chihli to permit any foreign soldiers to leave Tien-tsin

for Peking without special permission from the Tsung-li Yamên.

It is very likely that the Chinese Government will make a

protest similar to that of 1895, but it would be very

ill-advised at the present crisis to give way to their

protests, and it is absolutely necessary that the decision of

the foreign Representatives should be put into effect."

The Chinese government did protest, but without effect. The

legation guards were insisted upon, and, as speedily as

possible, they were provided from the war-ships of the several

powers, and quartered in Peking. Then the Chinese authorities

brought troops to the capital, and the sense of danger at the

legations grew. On the 25th of October Minister MacDonald

cabled to London: "A serious menace to the safety of Europeans

is the presence of some 10,000 soldiers, who have come from

the Province of Kansu, and are to be quartered in the hunting

park, two miles south of Peking. A party of these soldiers

made a savage assault on four Europeans (including Mr. C. W.

Campbell, of this Legation), who were last Sunday visiting the

railway line at Lukou Chiao. The foreign Ministers will meet

this morning to protest against these outrages. I shall see

the Yamên to-day, and propose to demand that the force of

soldiers shall be removed to another province, and that the

offenders shall be rigorously dealt with."

On the 29th he telegraphed again: "The Foreign Representatives

met yesterday, and drafted a note to the Yamên demanding that

the Kansu troops should be withdrawn at once. The troops in

question have not been paid for some months, and are in a

semi-mutinous state. They have declared their intention to

drive all Europeans out of the north of China, and have cut

the telegraph wires and destroyed portions of the railway line

between Lukouchiao and Pao-ting Fu. Some disturbances have

been caused by them on the railway to Tien-tsin, but the line

has not been touched, and traffic has not been interrupted. In

the city here all is quiet. The presence of these troops in

the immediate vicinity of Peking undoubtedly constitutes a

serious danger to all Europeans. The Yamên gave me a promise

that the force should be removed, but have not yet carried it

into effect."

On the 6th of November he reported that the Yamên had replied

to the note of the Diplomatic Body, acknowledging that the

troops lacked discipline and were a source of danger, and

again promising their removal, but that nothing had been done.

He added: "It was decided unanimously to address a note to the

Yamên, stating that if the troops in question were not

withdrawn by the 11th instant, our respective Governments

would adopt such measures as they considered necessary for the

protection during the winter months of foreigners in Peking and

Tien-tsin."

{96}

After several more exchanges of notes between the Diplomatic

Body and the Yamên, peremptory on one side, apologetic on the

other, the troops were removed to Chi-chow, about 80 miles

east of Peking, beginning their march November 15. A few days

previously Sir Claude MacDonald had been able to report "That

two of the ringleaders in the attack on Mr. Campbell and other

Europeans at Lu Kow-chiao [announced in despatch of October

25] were brought into Peking and flogged in Mr. Campbell's

presence at the Yamên of the Governor of the city on the 29th

October. The men were sentenced to 1,000 blows each, but Mr.

Campbell, after eighty blows had been inflicted, begged that

the flogging might cease. It turned out that two other

soldiers were struck by bullets from a small revolver, which

was used by one of the railway engineers in self-defence, and,

chiefly for this reason, I did not press for more floggings.

"I attached more importance to the punishment of the officer

in command, who, it appears, had been warned beforehand by the

railway authorities to keep his men away from the railway

bridge, but had refused to do so. I consider him the person

really responsible for what happened, and at an interview on

the 31st October I told the Yamên that I should not be

satisfied, and the incident would not be closed, until I saw

his degradation published in the official Gazette. On the 4th

November an Imperial Decree was issued ordering this officer,

a Colonel named Chu Wan-jung, to be handed over to the Board

of War for punishment. The Ministers inform me that this is

likely to mean his degradation. I have, however, again warned

their Excellencies that nothing short of this punishment will

be satisfactory to Her Majesty's Government."

_Great Britain, Papers by Command:

China, Number 1, 1899, pages 258-279, and 332._

CHINA: A. D. 1898 (December).

Reorganization of Chinese armies.

Reception by the Empress-Dowager to

the ladies of the Legations.

On the 20th of December Sir Claude MacDonald reported: "The

reorganization of the land forces in the north appears to be

occupying the serious attention of the Central Government. In

the early half of this month Edicts were issued by the Empress

Dowager approving proposals made by Jung Lu, who was appointed

Generalissimo of northern armies immediately after the K'ang

Yü-wei conspiracy. The following are the principal features of

these proposals. The armies under the command of Sung Ch'ing

and others, that is to say all the brigaded troops in North

China, are to be organized in four corps—front, rear, right,

and left—to occupy different strategical points. In addition,

Jung Lu will raise a centre corps of 10,000 men, to be

stationed presumably in or about Peking. … The importance of

bringing the other four corps into an efficient state is dwelt

upon, and the Edicts are stern in demanding the production of

sufficient funds for the purpose. The Viceroy of Chihli is

also instructed to closely scrutinize the condition of the

Peiyang drilled troops—formerly Li Hung-chang's army—and bring

them into order. They are to be under the orders of Jung Lu,

instead of the Viceroy.

"The Viceroys responsible for the Arsenals of North and Mid

China are also commanded to see to the immediate construction

of quick-firing guns and Mauser rifles and other war material,

and to the preparation of maps of the coast-line for military

purposes. Jung Lu has done nothing yet towards raising the

centre corps beyond calling in the assistance of a

German-educated officer named Yin Ch'ang, who holds a post in

the Tien-tsin Military Academy. He is reputedly able, and

probably one of the best Chinese available for the work, but I

question whether he will be given sufficient powers of

control. He is now engaged in drawing up a scheme."

Bearing the same date as the above, we find a despatch from

Sir Claude MacDonald descriptive of a reception given by the

Empress-Dowager, on the 13th, to the wives of the foreign

representatives at Peking, "to accept their congratulations on

the occasion of Her Imperial Majesty's birthday." "The

ceremony," said the British Minister, "passed off extremely

well. The Empress Dowager made a most favourable impression by

her courtesy and affability. Those who went to the Palace

under the idea that they would meet a cold and haughty person

of strong imperious manners were agreeably surprised to find

Her Imperial Majesty a kind and courteous hostess, who

displayed both the tact and softness of a womanly

disposition." "Thus ended," writes Sir Claude, in closing his

despatch, "the incident which may be considered to mark

another step in the nearer relations of China and foreign

nations."

_Great Britain, Papers by Command:

China, Number 1, 1900, pages 12-15._

CHINA: A. D. 1898-1899.

Rioting in Shanghai consequent on

French desecration of a cemetery.

French demand for extension of settlement ground in Shanghai.

English and American protests.

The outcome.

On the 18th of July, 1898, the following was reported by the

British Consul-General at Shanghai:

"Serious rioting took place in the French Settlement on the

16th und the morning of 17th instant, in the course of which

some fifteen natives lost their lives. The disturbance was due

to an attempt of the French authorities to take possession of

certain temple land known as the Ningpo Joss-house Cemetery.

The ground is full of graves, and it is also used for

depositing coffins until a favourable opportunity presents

itself for removing them to the native districts of the

deceased. The cemetery is within the limits of the French

Settlement; originally it was far removed from the inhabited

portion of the Settlement, but by degrees new streets have

been laid out, and houses have been built, until the cemetery

is surrounded by dwellings.

"Twenty-four years ago the French Municipality attempted to

make a road through the cemetery, but such serious rioting

broke out that the French Consul thought it prudent to abandon

his claim to the ground, and gave the Ningpo Guild to

understand that they would be left in undisturbed possession.

As years have gone on, the nuisance of having a cemetery in

the midst of a crowded Settlement has made itself more and

more felt, and some months ago the French Municipal Council

decided to expropriate the owners and to pay them

compensation. The Ningpo Guild and the Chinese authorities

were duly apprised of the intention, and they were urged to

make their own arrangements for removing the coffins to some

other site.

{97}

They would not admit that the French had any right to

dispossess them, and they refused to vacate the land. The

French Consuls then gave the Chinese officials notice that the

Municipal Council would take possession on a certain day; and

as the day drew near the Taotai became very uneasy, and

appealed to the Foreign Consuls to interfere in the matter,

giving hints that serious rioting and loss of life, would

result if the French Consul persisted in his intentions.

"On the morning of the 16th, the day appointed for taking

possession of the cemetery, a detachment from the French

cruiser 'Éclaireur' and a strong body of police marched to the

cemetery, and afforded protection to the workmen who were told

off to make a breach in the cemetery wall by way of taking

possession. An angry mob watched these operations, and, as

time went on, the streets filled with crowds of men, who moved

about making hostile demonstrations, but the French showed great

self-restraint, and no serious collision took place on that

day. All night long the crowds filled the streets, and many

lamps were smashed and lamp-posts uprooted.

"Early on Sunday morning a determined attack was made by the

mob on one of the French police-stations, and when the small

body of men within saw that their lives were in danger, they

opened fire. About the same time the police and the

'Éclaireur's' men attacked bands of rioters in other quarters,

with the result that on Sunday morning, as far as can be

ascertained, fifteen men were shot dead or bayoneted, and

about forty were seriously wounded. After that the rioters

seemed to have become intimidated for a time, and the streets

were left to the police. Meanwhile many of the shops in both

Settlements were closed, and orders were sent to all Ningpo

men—and they form 50 per cent. of the population—to go out on

strike.

"Some of the principal Ningpo merchants came forward in the

afternoon, and through the good offices of a peacemaker came

to an understanding with the French Consul, under which it was

agreed that the French should postpone taking possession of the

cemetery for one month, during which time the Ningpo Guild

trust to come to some amicable arrangement. The French Consul

has given them to understand that he will not recede from his

position; the cemetery must be given up, but he is willing

that this should be done in any way that will be most pleasing

to the Ningpo residents."

On the 23d of August it was announced by telegram from

Shanghai that "the dispute arising out of the Ningpo Josshouse

is about to be settled by French withdrawing their claims to

remove the buildings in consideration for an extension of

their concession as far as Si-ca Wei, an addition of 20 square

miles." This raised protests from Great Britain and the United

States, many of whose citizens owned property within the area

thus proposed to be placed under French jurisdiction; and the

distracted Tsung-li Yamên was threatened and pulled about

between the contending parties for months. The final outcome

was an extension of the general Foreign Settlement at Shanghai

(principally British and American) and a limited extension of

that especially controlled by the French. The adjustment of

the question was not reached until near the end of 1899.

_Great Britain, Papers by Command:

China, Number 1, 1899. and Number 1, 1900._

CHINA: A. D. 1898-1899 (June-January).

Anti-missionary insurrection at Shun-ch'ing,

in Central Szechuan.

The following is from a communication addressed by the British

Minister to the Tsung-li Yamên, August 2, 1898:

"At Shun-ch'ing Fu the local officials, with a few of the

gentry, have for years shown themselves determinedly hostile

to foreigners, and have refused to allow houses to be let to

missionaries. British missionaries have in consequence been

forced to quarter themselves in an inn for the last six years,

but even that was apparently objected to; in 1893 there was a

riot, and in 1895 another, in which two missionaries were

treated with brutal violence. In May of this year a house was

finally rented; the District Magistrate was notified, but

neither he nor the Pao-ning Taotai issued proclamations or

gave protection, though requested by the missionaries to do

so. The Shun-ch'ing Prefect, instead of giving protection,

connived at the local opposition, and with the usual results.

On the 15th June three missionaries were attacked and stoned,

and one severely wounded, while passing through the city, and

though protection was asked of the Prefect, he gave none, and

later he and the other officials repeatedly refused to issue a

Proclamation or to take any measures whatever to avert

disturbances. On the 20th the Prefect feigned sickness, and

could not be appealed to, and on the 27th the house leased by

the missionaries was destroyed, with all the property it

contained. The Roman Catholic establishment was also gutted.

"As usual the disturbance did not end at Shun-ch'ing. Later on

a Roman Catholic Chapel at Yung ch'ang Hsien was attacked and

looted, two native Christians killed, 10,000 taels of silver

stolen, and a French priest [Father Fleury] seized and held to

ransom by a band of rioters. I am also informed that other

acts of brigandage have occurred, and that the Protestant

missions at Pao-ning and Shê-Hung are in grave danger. The

Provincial Government appears to absolutely ignore the recent

Imperial Decrees for the prevention of missionary troubles.

All the conditions point to this, or to an utter incapacity on

the part of those officers to exercise satisfactory control. Her

Majesty's Consul, indeed, informs me that there is one band of

brigands, led by an outlaw known as Yü Mau Tzu, which is able

to terrorise two important districts in the centre of Szechuan

and even to overawe the Chêngtu authorities. In connection

with the Shun-ch'ing affair Her Majesty's Consul has made the

following demands:

1. Immediate restoration of their house to the missionaries,

the officers to pay the whole cost of repairs;

2. Punishment of the ring-leaders;

3. The local headmen to give security for future good conduct;

4. Compensation for all property destroyed;

5. Punishment of officials in fault.

I shall look to the Yamên and see that these demands are fully

satisfied and with the least possible delay."

{98}

But urgency from both England and France failed to stimulate

action on the part of the Chinese government, energetic enough

to stop this anti-missionary movement in Central Szechuan. What

seems to have been a riot at first became a formidable revolt.

"The action of the Provincial Government was paralysed by the

fact that Father Fleury was still in Yü's hands, and would be

killed if a move was made against the brigands. On the other

side the Viceroy was informed by M. Haas, the French Consul,

that if anything happened to the Father the consequences to

China would be disagreeable. The Taotai was in consequence

making efforts to secure the release of the prisoners by

paying blackmail." In September it was reported that "Yü's

power was increasing, his emissaries were scattered about in

places beyond his immediate sphere of influence, and were

attempting to stir up Secret Societies, and he had issued a

manifesto. A riot took place at Ho Chou, 60 miles north of

Chungking, on the 14th September, the American mission

hospital being partially looted and a Roman Catholic

establishment destroyed by fire. The Provincial Government was

acting weakly and unprofitably."

Towards the end of September, "Yü marched with about 2,000

uniformed men and took up a position on the Ch'êng-tu road;

thence he moved east to Tung-Liang, pillaging and burning the

houses of Christians, and levying contributions on the rich.

The Viceroy, at the request of the Consuls, was said to have

sent 4,000 troops from Ch'êng-tu, Lu-chou, and Ho-chiang to

converge on Chungking. Twelve of the rebels, who had been

seized at a place only 30 miles south of the port, were

publicly executed with torture in Chungking on the 30th

September." In October the report was that "fresh troops were

arriving, and were taking up positions along the Ch'êng-tu

road, and the passes north of Chungking. Further executions

had taken place. … The Procureur of the French Mission

estimated that up to date the total damage done by Yü Mau-tzu

was twenty persons killed, the houses of 6,000 Christians

burned and their property stolen, and twelve Missions

destroyed."

_Great Britain, Papers by Command: China,

Number 1, 1899, page 249, and Number 1, 1900, page 152._

On the 12th of October the United States Minister, Mr. Conger,

sent to the State Department at Washington the following

translation of a decree issued by the Empress Dowager on the

6th:

"From the opening of ports to foreign trade to the present

time, foreigners and Chinese have been as one family, with

undivided interests, and since missionaries from foreign

countries are living in the interior, we have decreed, not

three or four times, but many times, that the local officials

must protect them; that the gentry and people of all the

provinces must sympathize with our desire for mutual

benevolence; that they must treat them truthfully and

honestly, without dislike or suspicion, with the hope of

lasting peaceful relations.

"Recently, there have been disturbances in the provinces which

it has been impossible to avoid. There have been several cases

of riot in Szechuan, which have not been settled. The stupid

and ignorant people who circulate rumors and stir up strife,

proceeding from light to grave differences, are most truly to

be detested. On the other hand, the officials, who have not

been able at convenient seasons to properly instruct the

people and prevent disturbances, can not be excused from

censure.

"We now especially decree again that all high provincial

officials, wherever there are churches, shall distinctly

instruct the local officials to most respectfully obey our

several decrees, to recognize and protect the foreign

missionaries as they go to and fro, and to treat them with all

courtesy. If lawsuits arise between Chinese and native

Christians, they must be conducted with justice and speedily

concluded. Moreover, they must command and instruct the gentry

and people to fulfill their duties, that there may be no

quarrels or disagreements. Wherever there are foreigners

traveling from place to place, they must surely be protected

and the extreme limit of our hospitality extended. After the

issue of this decree, if there is any lack of preparation and

disturbances should arise, the officials of that locality will

be severely dealt with; whether they be viceroys or governors

or others they shall be punished, and it will not avail to say

we have not informed you."

_United States Consular Reports,

February, 1899, page 299._

On the 1st of November the British Consul at Chungking

announced "an alarming extension of the rebellion. Flourishing

communities of Christians in four districts were destroyed,

and heavy contributions were laid on non-Christians. The

continued inactivity of the Government troops was chiefly

attributable to orders from the Yamên to the effect that the

first and foremost consideration was the rescue of Père

Fleury. Negotiations were being carried on by the Chungking

Taotai and the Chinese Generals for the Father's release; a

ransom of 100,000 taels was offered, presents were sent to Yü

and his mother, and he and his lieutenants were given buttons

of the third rank." The next month, however, brought on the

scene a new Viceroy who really wished to suppress the

insurrection, though he "complained that his hands were tied

by the Yamên's instructions, which urged him to come to terms

with Yü." At last this singularly energetic Viceroy got

permission to fight the rebels. On arriving in front of the

terrible Yü he "found that the troops who had been stationed

there previously were quite untrustworthy, and that the

Generals and local officials were all more or less in league

with the rebels. However, as soon as it was learnt that the

Treasurer meant business, a number of the rebels dispersed.

The main band, under Yü Mau-tzu, about 6,000 in number, was

then surrounded in Ta Tsu Hsien, after a preliminary encounter

in which the rebels lost some 100 men. By the 19th January, a

Maxim was brought to bear on Yü's camp, and the rebels fled

like rabbits. Yü begged Père Fleury to save his life, and next

day released the Father, who found his way to the Treasurer,

after some narrow escapes. Yü then surrendered."

It was said at the time that the French government was

demanding an indemnity in this case to the amount of £150,000.

Later it was understood that the French Minister at Peking

"had taken advantage of the pending missionary ease to revive

an old request for a Mining Concession."

_Great Britain, Papers by Command:

China, Number 1, 1900._

{99}

CHINA: A. D. 1899.

Anti-missionary outbreaks, increasing piracy, and other

signs of growing disorder in the country.

During 1899 there was a notable relaxation of the hard and

ceaseless pressure upon China which governments, capitalists

and speculators had been keeping up of late, in demands more

or less peremptory for harbor leases, settlement grounds,

railway franchises, mining privileges, and naval, military and

commercial advantages of every possible sort. But the irritation

of the country under the bullying and "nagging" of the

treatment it had received from the European nations revealed

itself in increasing outbreaks of popular hostility to

foreigners; and these called out threats and demands, for

indemnity and punishment, which were made, as a rule, in the

truculent tone that had become habitual to western diplomacy

in dealing with the people of the East. It was a tone which

the Chinese provoked, by the childish evasions and treacherous

deceptions with which their officials tried to baffle the

demands made on them; but it gave no less offense, and is no

less plainly to be counted among the causes of what afterwards

occurred.

Throughout most of the year, the British Legation at Peking

and the Consulate at Chungking were busied in obtaining

satisfaction for the murder of Mr. Fleming, a missionary in

the China Inland Mission, stationed at Pang Hai, near

Kwei-Yang. He had been killed and the mission looted in

November, 1898. The Chinese authorities claimed that he had

been killed by a band of rebels. The British Consul

investigated and became convinced that the missionary had been

the victim of a deliberate plot, directed by the headman of the

village of Chung An Chiang, where the murder occurred, and

connived at by the military official Liu. The Chinese

government, yielding to this conviction, caused two of the

murderers to be executed, degraded and exiled all of the local

officials who were involved in the crime, except the headman,

and paid an indemnity of $30,000. But the headman escaped, and

it was claimed by the governor of the province that he could

not be found. The British authorities found evidence that he

was being shielded by the governor, and demanded the dismissal

of the governor, which was persistently refused. Finally, in

October, 1899, the guilty headman was hunted down.

On the 18th of February, the British Minister complained

energetically to the Tsung-li Yamên of the rapid increase of

piracy on the Canton River. "Since November, 1898," he wrote,

"that is in three months, no less than forty-seven cases of

piracy in the Canton waters have been reported in the papers.

In several of these cases life was taken, and it may almost be

said that a reign of terror exists on the waterways of the Two

Kuang. Cargo boats are afraid to travel at night, or to move

about except in company, and trade is becoming to a certain

extent paralysed. The Viceroy is always ailing, and it is

difficult to obtain an interview with him. Her Majesty's

Consul has repeatedly addressed him on the subject of these

piracies in the strongest terms, but can only obtain the

stereotyped reply that stringent instructions have been sent

to the officials concerned. Admiral Ho, the

Commander-in-chief, who should properly be the officer to

inaugurate a vigorous campaign against the pirates, appears

absolutely supine and incapable of dealing with the evil. The

complaints of the Hong Kong Government and Her Majesty's

Consuls show a state of affairs in Canton waters which is

quite intolerable. There is no security for life or property,

and as British subjects are closely concerned, it is my duty

to inform your Highness and your Excellencies that unless

measures are immediately taken to prevent such outrages, I

shall have to report, for the consideration of Her Majesty's

Government, the advisability of taking steps to protect

British lives and property, either by patrolling the waterways

or by placing guards on the steamers, the expense of which

would be the subject of a claim on the Chinese Government."

On the 28th of February, Herr von Billow, the German Imperial

Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, announced in the

Reichstag, at Berlin, the reception of a telegram from

Tien-tsin, reporting that several Germans had been attacked

and insulted in that town on the 24th, and had been compelled

to take refuge in the side streets and narrow alleys. The

Imperial Government, he said, had been already aware for some

weeks past that a considerable feeling of irritation had

manifested itself against foreigners in China, especially in

the southern portion of the Province of Shantung. The Chinese

Government were thereupon warned of the necessity of

maintaining order and securing public safety, and, upon the

receipt of the telegram above referred to, the German Minister

at Peking was instructed to impress upon the Chinese

Government that, if such incidents were permitted to recur, or

the perpetrators allowed to escape unpunished, the

consequences for China would be very serious. "We have," Herr

von Bülow declared, "neither the occasion nor the desire to

interfere in the internal affairs of China. But it is our duty

to watch lest the life and property of our fellow subjects,

whether missionaries or traders, should be made to suffer

through the internal complications in China."

In March, however, the state of things at and near Peking was

so far improved that the Legation guards were being withdrawn.

Sir Claude MacDonald obtained leave of absence and left Peking

on the 23d for a visit to England, and the business of the

Legation was conducted for a time by Mr. Bax-Ironside, the

Charge d'Affaires.

In June there was an anti-missionary riot at Kienning, in the

neighborhood of Foochow, excited by the murder of a boy,

popular rumor ascribing the murder to foreigners. "In all

directions," wrote one of the threatened missionaries, who

gave an account of the occurrence, "murders were said to be

taking place, though no bodies were ever found; that seemed of

no consequence to the people, and the story was current, and

was apparently generally believed, that these murders were

done by men in our employ, and that we used the eyes and legs

to make medicine. There were endless stories of people being

kidnapped, chloroformed in the road by a bottle being held out

to their nose, and the day I arrived it was said that eyes had

been found at Tai-lui, a suburb of Kienning, and as I passed a

crowd was actually on the spot seeking for the said eyes." The

missionaries succeeded in escaping from the mob; but one

native convert was killed, and the mission hospital and other

premises were looted.

The ideas and the state of feeling out of which this attack on

the missionaries and their converts grew are revealed in the

following translation of a placard that was posted in Kienning

in June:

"We of this region have hitherto led a worthy life. All the

four castes (scholars, agriculturists, artizans, traders) have

kept the laws and done their duty. Of late foreigners have

suddenly come among us in a disorderly march and preaching

heretical doctrines. They have had from us indulgent

treatment, but they have repaid us by endangering our lives.

This year, in town and country, people have been hewn in two,

men and women in numbers have fallen upon evil days.

{100}

Everywhere the perpetrators have been seized, and everyone of

them has confessed that it was by the missionary chapels they

were ordered to go forth and slay men and women; to cut out

their brains and marrow to make into medicine. The officials

deliberately refrained from interfering. They garbled the

evidence and screened the malefactors. The whole country side

is filled with wrath; the officials then posted Proclamations,

and arrested spreaders of false reports. The hewing down of

men is hateful; but they issued no Proclamations forbidding

that. Now fortunately the people is of one mind in its wrath.

They have destroyed two chapels. The Ou-ning ruffian has

issued another Proclamation, holding this to be the work of

local rowdies. He little knows that our indignation is

righteous, and that it is a unanimous expression of feeling.

If the officials authorize the police to effect unjust

arrests, the people will unite in a body, in every street

business will be stopped, and the Wu-li missionary chapel will

be destroyed, while the officials themselves will be turned

out of the city, and the converts will be slain and

overthrown. When cutting grass destroy the roots at the same

time. Do not let dead ashes spring again into flame."

A settlement of the Kienning case was arranged locally between

the British Consul at Foochow, Mr. Playfair, and the Viceroy

of the province. The views of the Consul were expressed in a

communication to Mr. Bax-Ironside as follows:

"Since the missionaries established themselves there it is the

sixth attempt made to drive them out of the region. The common

people (from what I can gather) have no animus against the

foreign preacher of the Gospel, and show none. On the

contrary, whether moved to accept Christianity or not, they

appear to recognize that missionaries are in any case there

for benevolent and beneficial objects. Schools and hospitals

are independent of proselytizing, and, even if the

missionaries were never to make another convert, they would be

doing good and useful work in spreading Western knowledge and

healing the sick. In addition to this, the presence of

missionaries in out-of-the-way places in China has one

unquestionable advantage. To use the phrase of Sir Thomas

Wade, they 'multiply the points of contact,' and familiarize

the Chinese with the sight of the European. To the missionary,

either as a preacher of the Gospel or as a dispenser of benefits,

the populace at Kienning does not seem to have shown any

aversion; yet six times this populace has risen and tried to

drive the missionaries from the place. The logical inference

is that the Kienning peasant, though tolerant by nature, is

subject to some outside influence. He is moved, not by what he

sees, but by what he is told exists beyond his range of

vision; and these things are pointed out to him by such as he

believes to be his intellectual superiors, and as have,

therefore, the faculty of perceiving what is hid from himself.

The history of almost every anti-missionary movement in China

points to the same process. Why the educated classes of this

land should be so inveterately hostile to the foreigner is a

difficult question to answer. It has been suggested that the

Chinese of this type have an ineradicable conviction that

every European is at heart a 'land-grabber'; that missionaries

are the advance agents of their Governments; that the Bible is

the certain forerunner of the gun-boat; and that where the

missionary comes as a sojourner he means to stay as a

proprietor; consequently, that the only hope of integrity for

China is that her loyal sons should on every occasion destroy

the baneful germ. Extravagant and (in the instance of

Kienning) far-fetched as these notions may seem, I am

convinced that the literati and gentry have been at the root

not only of the present outbreak, but of the others which have

preceded it. While, therefore, I have insisted throughout that

Kienning must be made a place of safe residence for the

British missionary, I have considered that the only way to

attain that result will be to shackle the hands of the gentry

by making any further breach of the peace a sure precursor of

punishment."

To this end, Mr. Playfair's exactions included, not only the

trial and punishment of those guilty of the riot and the

murder, but the signing of a bond by twenty-four leading

notables of Kienning, binding them, with penalties, to protect

the missionaries. His demand was complied with, and, on the

29th of September, he reported that the required bond had been

given. He added: "Before accepting it, however, I required the

authorities to inform me officially that the terms, which to me

seemed somewhat vague, were understood by the authorities to

extend the responsibility of the gentry to any outbreak of the

populace. I received this intimation and I consider that it

supplements the original wording effectually."

In November the German government made public the substance of

an official telegram received from Peking, reporting a serious

state of disturbance in the German missionary districts of

Shantung: "It appears from this communication that the

followers of the sects of the 'Red Fist' and the 'Great Knife'

are in a state of revolt against the Administration and the

people in that province, and are engaged in plunder and rapine

in many places. The native Christians suffer no less than the

rest of the population by this revolt. Money was usually

extorted from them, and their dwellings were pillaged or

destroyed. The Italian Mission, situated in the adjoining

district, were faring no better, and their chapel had just

been burned down. Owing, however, to the unremitting

representations of the German Minister, the Chinese Government

have caused several of the agitators to be arrested by the local

authorities, and they are taking further steps in this

direction, with the result that order is gradually being

restored. At several places the native Christians, with their

non-Christian fellow-countrymen, repulsed the rebels by force

of arms. The Provincial Governor has promised the authorities

of the Mission a full indemnity for the losses suffered by

them and by the other Christians, and several payments have

already been made."

On the 4th of December, the following despatch was sent to

London from the British Legation at Peking:

"During the delimitation of French leased territory at

Kwang-chou-wan on the 13th November, Chinese villagers seized

two French officers and decapitated them. The execution of a

dignitary—the Prefect concerned in the murder—has been

demanded by the French Minister, as well as the dismissal of

the Canton Viceroy, who is also implicated. The Chinese

Commissioner engaged in the delimitation and the gunboat in

which he travelled are held by the French as hostages."

{101}

CHINA: A. D. 1899 (March).

The Tsung-li Yamên.

Its character and position.

The power of the Empress Dowager.

The Tsung-li Yamên is a small body of Councillors who form a

species of Cabinet, with a special obligation to advise the

Emperor on foreign affairs. "They have no constitutional

position whatever, they have no powers except those derived

from the Emperor, and they are very much afraid for

themselves. He may by mere fiat deprive them of their rank,

which is high; he may 'squeeze' them of their wealth, which is

often great; he may banish them from the delights of Pekin to

very unpleasant places; or he may order them to be quietly

decapitated or cut slowly into little pieces. At such times

their preoccupation is neither their country nor their

immediate business, nor even their own advancement, but to

avoid offending the irritable earthly deity who holds their

lives and fortunes in his hands. Such a time it is just now.

The Empress-Dowager is Emperor in all but name, she has ideas

and a will, and she is suspicious to the last degree. There is

no possibility of opposing her, for she has drawn together

eighty thousand troops round Pekin, who while she pays their

Generals will execute anybody she pleases; there is no

possibility of appeal from her, for she represents a

theocracy; and there is no possibility of overpowering her

mind, for she is that dreadful phenomenon four or five times

revealed in history, an Asiatic woman possessed of absolute

power, and determined to sweep away all who oppose, or whom

she suspects of opposition, from her path. Under her regime

the members of the Tsung-li Yamên are powerless nonentities,

trembling with fear lest, if they make a blunder, they may

awaken the anger of their all-powerful and implacable

Sovereign, whose motives they themselves often fail to

fathom."

_The Spectator (London),

March 18, 1899._

CHINA: A. D. 1899 (March-April).

Agreement between England and Russia concerning

their railway interests in China.

On the 28th of April, 1899, the governments of Great Britain

and Russia exchanged notes, embodying an agreement

(practically arrived at in the previous month) concerning

their respective railway interests in China, in the following

terms:

"Russia and Great Britain, animated by the sincere desire to

avoid in China all cause of conflict on questions where their

interests meet, and taking into consideration the economic and

geographical gravitation of certain parts of that Empire, have

agreed as follows:

1. Russia engages not to seek for her own account, or on

behalf of Russian subjects or of others, any railway

concessions in the basin of the Yang-tsze, and not to

obstruct, directly or indirectly, applications for railway

concessions in that region supported by the British

Government.

2. Great Britain, on her part, engages not to seek for her own

account, or on behalf of British subjects or of others, any

railway concessions to the north of the Great Wall of China,

and not to obstruct, directly or indirectly, applications for

railway concessions in that region supported by the Russian

Government. The two contracting parties, having nowise in view

to infringe in any way the sovereign rights of China or of

existing treaties, will not fail to communicate to the Chinese

Government the present arrangement, which, by averting all

cause of complication between them, is of a nature to

consolidate peace in the far East, and to serve the primordial

interests of China herself."

Second Note. "In order to complete the notes exchanged this

day respecting the partition of spheres for concessions for

the construction and working of railways in China, it has been

agreed to record in the present additional note the

arrangement arrived at with regard to the line

Shanghaikuan-Newchwang, for the construction of which a loan

has been already contracted by the Chinese Government with the

Shanghai-Hongkong Bank, acting on behalf of the British and

Chinese corporation. The general arrangement established by

the above-mentioned notes is not to infringe in any way the

rights acquired under the said loan contract, and the Chinese

Government may appoint both an English engineer and a European

accountant to supervise the construction of the line in

question, and the expenditure of the money appropriated to it.

But it remains understood that this fact can not be taken as

constituting a right of property or foreign control, and that

the line in question is to remain a Chinese line under the

control of the Chinese Government, and can not be mortgaged or

alienated to a non-Chinese Company. As regards the branch line

from Siaoheichan to Sinminting, in addition to the aforesaid

restrictions, it has been agreed that it is to be constructed

by China herself, which may permit European—not necessarily

British—engineers to periodically inspect it, and to verify

and certify that the work is being properly executed. The

present special agreement is naturally not to interfere in any

way with the right of the Russian Government to support, if it

thinks fit, applications of Russian subjects or establishments

for concessions for railways, which, starting from the main

Manchurian line in a southwesterly direction, would traverse

the region in which the Chinese line terminating at Sinminting

and Newchwang is to be constructed."

_Great Britain, Papers by Command,

Treaty Series, Number 11, 1899._

CHINA: A. D. 1899 (April).

Increasing ascendancy of Manchus in the government.

On the 17th of April, Mr. Bax-Ironside reported to Lord

Salisbury: "There has been no change of importance to note in

the political situation. The tendency to replace Chinese by

Manchus in the important political posts of the Empire is

increasing. There are sixty-two Viceroys, Governors,

Treasurers, and Judges of the eighteen provinces and the New

Dominion. Twenty-four of these posts are now held by Manchus,

whereas before the coup d'etat only thirteen of them were so

occupied. So large a percentage of Manchus in the highest

positions tends to indicate a retrograde administration, as

the Manchus are, as a race, very inferior to the Chinese in

intelligence and capacity, and their appointment to important

positions is viewed with disfavour by the Chinese themselves.

The Dowager-Empress has sent special instructions both to

Moukden and Kirin to raise the present standard of the Manchu

schools in those towns to that existing in the ordinary

schools in Peking."-

_Great Britain, Papers by Command,

China, Number 1, 1900, page 129._

{102}

CHINA: A. D. 1899 (May-July).

Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.

See (in this volume)

PEACE CONFERENCE.

CHINA: A. D. 1899 (August).

Talienwan declared a free port.

"The Emperor of Russia in a quaintly worded Imperial Order

issued on Sunday last [August 13] and addressed to the

Minister of Finance, has declared that after the completion of

the railway Talienwan shall be a free port during the whole

duration of the lease from China. In the course of the Order

the Emperor says: 'Thanks to the wise decision of the Chinese

Government, we shall through the railway lines in course of

construction be united with China,—a result which gives to all

nations the immeasurable gain of easy communication and

lightens the operations of the world's trade.' The Emperor

also speaks of 'a rapprochement between the peoples of the

West and East' (brought about apparently by obtaining an

outlet for the great Siberian rail way) as 'our historic

aim.'"

_Spectator (London),

August 19, 1899._

CHINA: A. D. 1899 (December).

Li Hung-chang appointed Acting Viceroy at Canton.

On the 20th of December it was announced that the Viceroy at

Canton had been ordered to Peking and that Li Hung-chang had

been appointed Acting Viceroy of Kwangtung and Kwangsi—the

provinces of which Canton is the Viceroyal seat.

CHINA: A. D. 1899-1900 (September-February).

Pledges of an "open-door" commercial policy in China obtained

by the government of the United States from the governments of

Great Britain, Russia, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.

On the 6th of September, 1899, the American Secretary of

State, Mr. John Hay, despatched to the United States

Ambassador at Berlin the following instructions, copies of

which were forwarded at the same time to the Ambassadors at

London and St. Petersburg, to be communicated to the British

and Russian governments:

"At the time when the Government of the United States was

informed by that of Germany that it had leased from His

Majesty the Emperor of China the port of Kiao-chao and the

adjacent territory in the province of Shantung, assurances

were given to the ambassador of the United States at Berlin by

the Imperial German minister for foreign affairs that the

rights and privileges insured by treaties with China to

citizens of the United States would not thereby suffer or be

in anywise impaired within the area over which Germany had

thus obtained control. More recently, however, the British

Government recognized by a formal agreement with Germany the

exclusive right of the latter country to enjoy in said leased

area and the contiguous 'sphere of influence or interest'

certain privileges, more especially those relating to

railroads and mining enterprises: but, as the exact nature and

extent of the rights thus recognized have not been clearly

defined, it is possible that serious conflicts of interest may

at any time arise, not only between British and German

subjects within said area, but that the interests of our

citizens may also be jeopardized thereby. Earnestly desirous

to remove any cause of irritation and to insure at the same

time to the commerce of all nations in China the undoubted

benefits which should accrue from a formal recognition by the

various powers claiming 'spheres of interest,' that they shall

enjoy perfect equality of treatment for their commerce and

navigation within such 'spheres,' the Government of the United

States would be pleased to see His German Majesty's Government

give formal assurances and lend its cooperation in securing

like assurances from the other interested powers that each

within its respective sphere of whatever influence—

"First. Will in no way interfere with any treaty port or any

vested interest within any so-called 'sphere of interest' or

leased territory it may have in China.

"Second. That the Chinese treaty tariff of the time being

shall apply to all merchandise landed or shipped to all such

ports as are within said 'sphere of interest' (unless they be

'free ports'), no matter to what nationality it may belong,

and that duties so leviable shall be collected by the Chinese

Government.

"Third. That it will levy no higher harbor duties on vessels

of another nationality frequenting any port in such 'sphere'

than shall be levied on vessels of its own nationality' and no

higher railroad charges over lines built, controlled, or

operated within its 'sphere' on merchandise belonging to

citizens or subjects of other nationalities transported

through such 'sphere' than shall be levied on similar

merchandise belonging to its own nationals transported over

equal distances.

"The liberal policy pursued by His Imperial German Majesty in

declaring Kiao-chao a free port and in aiding the Chinese

Government in the establishment there of a custom-house are so

clearly in line with the proposition which this Government is

anxious to see recognized that it entertains the strongest

hope that Germany will give its acceptance and hearty support.

The recent ukase of His Majesty the Emperor of Russia declaring

the port of Ta-lien-wan open during the whole of the lease

under which it is held from China, to the merchant ships of

all nations, coupled with the categorical assurances made to

this Government by His Imperial Majesty's representative at

this capital at the time, and since repeated to me by the

present Russian ambassador, seem to insure the support of the

Emperor to the proposed measure. Our ambassador at the Court

of St. Petersburg has, in consequence, been instructed to

submit it to the Russian Government and to request their early

consideration of it. A copy of my instruction on the subject to

Mr. Tower is herewith inclosed for your confidential

information. The commercial interests of Great Britain and

Japan will be so clearly served by the desired declaration of

intentions, and the views of the Governments of these

countries as to the desirability of the adoption of measures

insuring the benefits of equality of treatment of all foreign

trade throughout China are so similar to those entertained by

the United States, that their acceptance of the propositions

herein outlined and their coöperation in advocating their

adoption by the other powers can be confidently expected. I

inclose herewith copy of the instruction which I have sent to

Mr. Choate on the subject. In view of the present favorable

conditions, you are instructed to submit the above

considerations to His Imperial German Majesty's minister for

foreign affairs, and to request his early consideration of the

subject. Copy of this instruction is sent to our ambassadors

at London and at St. Petersburg for their information."

Subsequently the same proposal was addressed to the

governments of France, Italy and Japan.

{103}

On the 30th of November, Lord Salisbury addressed to

Ambassador Choate the reply of his government, as follows: "I

have the honor to state that I have carefully considered, in

communication with my colleagues, the proposal contained in

your excellency's note of September 22 that a declaration

should be made by foreign powers claiming 'spheres of

interest' in China as to their intentions in regard to the

treatment of foreign trade and interest therein. I have much

pleasure in informing your excellency that Her Majesty's

Government will be prepared to make a declaration in the sense

desired by your Government in regard to the leased territory

of Wei-hai Wei and all territory in China which may hereafter

be acquired by Great Britain by lease or otherwise, and all

spheres of interest now held or that may hereafter be held by

her in China, provided that a similar declaration is made by

other powers concerned."

Ambassador Porter, at Paris, received a prompt reply, December

16, from the French Minister for Foreign Affairs, M. Delcassé,

in the following note:

"The declarations which I made in the Chamber on the 24th of

November last, and which I have had occasion to recall to you

since then, show clearly the sentiments of the Government of

the Republic. It desires throughout the whole of China and,

with the quite natural reservation that all the powers

interested give an assurance of their willingness to act

likewise, is ready to apply in the territories which are

leased to it, equal treatment to the citizens and subjects of

all nations, especially in the matter of customs duties and

navigation dues, as well as transportation tariffs on rail

ways."

Viscount Aoki, Minister for Foreign Affairs, replied for the

government of Japan, December 26, in the following note to

Minister Buck: "I have the happy duty of assuring your

excellency that the Imperial Government will have no

hesitation to give their assent to so just and fair a proposal

of the United States, provided that all the other powers

concerned shall accept the same."

The reply of the Russian government was addressed to

Ambassador Tower by Count Mouravieff, on the 30th of December,

in the following terms:

"In so far as the territory leased by China to Russia is

concerned, the Imperial Government has already demonstrated

its firm intention to follow the policy of 'the open door' by

creating Dalny (Ta-lien-wan) a free port; and if at some

future time that port, although remaining free itself, should

be separated by a customs limit from other portions of the

territory in question, the customs duties would be levied, in

the zone subject to the tariff, upon all foreign merchandise

without distinction as to nationality. As to the ports now

opened or hereafter to be opened to foreign commerce by the

Chinese Government, and which lie beyond the territory leased

to Russia, the settlement of the question of customs duties

belongs to China herself, and the Imperial Government has no

intention whatever of claiming any privileges for its own

subjects to the exclusion of other foreigners. It is to be

understood, however, that this assurance of the Imperial

Government is given upon condition that a similar declaration

shall be made by other Powers having interests in China. With

the conviction that this reply is such as to satisfy the

inquiry made in the aforementioned note, the Imperial

Government is happy to have complied with the wishes of the

American Government, especially as it attaches the highest

value to anything that may strengthen and consolidate the

traditional relations of friendship existing between the two

countries."

On the 7th of January the reply of the Italian government was

addressed to Minister Draper, at Rome, by the Marquis Visconti

Venosta, as follows: "Supplementary to what you had already

done me the honor of communicating to me in your note of

December 9, 1899, your excellency informed me yesterday of the

telegraphic note received from your Government that all the

powers consulted by the cabinet of Washington concerning the

suitability of adopting a line of policy which would insure to

the trade of the whole world equality of treatment in China

have given a favorable reply. Referring to your communications

and to the statements in my note of December 23 last, I take

pleasure in saying that the Government of the King adheres

willingly to the proposals set forth in said note of December

9."

Finally, on the 19th of February, Count von Bülow wrote to

Ambassador White, at Berlin:

"As recognized by the Government of the United States of

America, according to your excellency's note, … the Imperial

Government has from the beginning not only asserted but also

practically carried out to the fullest extent in its Chinese

possessions absolute equality of treatment of all nations with

regard to trade, navigation, and commerce. The Imperial

Government entertains no thought of departing in the future

from this principle, which at once excludes any prejudicial or

disadvantageous commercial treatment of the citizens of the

United States of America, so long as it is not forced to do

so, on account of considerations of reciprocity, by a

divergence from it by other governments. If, therefore, the

other powers interested in the industrial development of the

Chinese Empire are willing to recognize the same principles,

this can only be desired by the Imperial Government, which in

this case upon being requested will gladly be ready to

participate with the United States of America and the other

powers in an agreement made upon these lines, by which the

same rights are reciprocally secured."

Having, now, the assent of all the Powers which hold leased

territory or claim "spheres of interest" in China, Secretary

Hay sent instructions to the Ambassadors and Ministers

representing the government of the United States at the

capital of each, in the following form:

"The —— Government having accepted the declaration suggested

by the United States concerning foreign trade in China, the

terms of which I transmitted to you in my instruction Number

—— of ——, and like action having been taken by all the various

powers having leased territory or so-called 'spheres of

interest' in the Chinese Empire, as shown by the notes which I

herewith transmit to you, you will please inform the

government to which you are accredited that the condition

originally attached to its acceptance—that all other powers

concerned should likewise accept the proposals of the United

States—having been complied with, this Government will

therefore consider the assent given to it by —— as final and

definitive."

_United States, 56th Congress, 1st Session,

House Document Number 547._

{104}

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (January).

Imperial Decree relative to the succession to the Throne.

The following is a translation of an Imperial Decree, "by the

Emperor's own pen," which appeared in the "Peking Gazette,"

January 24, 1900:

"When at a tender age we entered into the succession to the

throne, Her Majesty the Empress-Dowager graciously undertook

the rule of the country as Regent, taught and guided us with

diligence, and managed all things, great and small, with

unremitting care, until we ourself assumed the government.

Thereafter the times again became critical. We bent all our

thoughts and energies to the task of ruling rightly, striving

to requite Her Majesty's loving kindness, that so we might

fulfil the weighty duties intrusted to us by the late Emperor

Mu Tsung Yi (T'ung Chih). But since last year we have suffered

from ill-health, affairs of State have increased in magnitude

and perplexity, and we have lived in constant dread of going

wrong. Reflecting on the supreme importance of the worship of

our ancestors and of the spirits of the land, we therefore

implored the Empress-Dowager to advise us in the government.

This was more than a year ago, but we have never been restored

to health, and we have not the strength to perform in person

the great sacrifices at the altar of Heaven and in the temples

of the spirits of the land. And now the times are full of

difficulties. We see Her Gracious Majesty's anxious toil by

day and by night, never laid aside for rest or leisure, and

with troubled mind we examine ourself, taking no comfort in

sleep or food, but ever dwelling in thought on the labours of

our ancestors in founding the dynasty, and ever fearful lest

our strength be not equal to our task.

"Moreover, we call to mind how, when we first succeeded to the

throne, we reverently received the Empress-Dowager's Decree

that as soon as a Prince should be born to us he should become

the heir by adoption to the late Emperor Mu Tsung Yi (T'ung

Chih). This is known to all the officials and people

throughout the Empire. But we suffer from an incurable

disease, and it is impossible for us to beget a son, so that

the Emperor Mu Tsung Yi has no posterity, and the consequences

to the lines of succession are of the utmost gravity.

Sorrowfully thinking on this, and feeling that there is no

place to hide ourself for shame, how can we look forward to

recovery from all our ailments? We have therefore humbly

implored Her Sacred Majesty carefully to select from among the

near branches of our family a good and worthy member, who

should found a line of posterity for the Emperor Mu Tsung Yi

(T'ung Chih), and to whom the Throne should revert hereafter.

After repeated entreaties, Her Majesty has now deigned to

grant her consent that P'u Chün, son of Tsai Yi, Prince Tuan,

should be adopted as the son of the late Emperor Mu Tsung Yi

(T'ung Chih). We have received Her Majesty's Decree with

unspeakable joy, and in reverent obedience to her gracious

instruction we appoint P'u Chün, son of Tsai Yi, as Prince

Imperial, to carry on the dynastic succession. Let this Decree

be made known to all men."

_Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications

(Papers by Command: China, Number 3, 1900, pages 15-16)._

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (January-March).

First accounts of the secret society of "the Boxers"

and their bloody work.

The murder of Mr. Brooks, the missionary.

Prolonged effort of foreign Ministers to procure an Imperial

Edict for the suppression of the hostile secret societies.

A naval demonstration recommended.

Testimony of Sir Robert Hart as to the causes and the

patriotic inspiration of the Boxer movement.

The year 1900 opened with news of the murder of Mr. Brooks, of

the Church of England Mission in northern Shantung, who was

wounded and captured December 30 and beheaded the day

following, by a band of marauders belonging to a secret

organization which soon became notorious under the name of the

society of "the Boxers." The British Minister at Peking

reported it to London on the 4th of January, and on the 5th he

gave the following account of the state of affairs in northern

Shantung, where the outrage occurred:

"For several months past the northern part of the Province of

Shantung has been disturbed by bands of rebels connected with

various Secret Societies, who have been defying the

authorities and pillaging the people. An organization known as

the 'Boxers' has attained special notoriety, and their ravages

recently spread over a large portion of Southern Chihli, where

the native Christians appear to have suffered even more than

the rest of the inhabitants from the lawlessness of these

marauders. The danger to which, in both provinces, foreign

missionary establishments have been thus exposed, has been the

subject of repeated representations to the Chinese Government

by others of the foreign Representatives—especially the German

and United States' Ministers—and myself. Early last month the

Governor of Shantung, Yü Hsien, was ordered to vacate his post

and come to Peking for audience, and the General Yüan

Shih-K'ai was appointed Acting Governor in his place. In

Southern Chihli the task of dealing with the disturbances was

entrusted to the Viceroy at Tien-tsin. Her Majesty's Consul at

Tien-tsin has had repeatedly to complain to the latter of the

inadequacy of the protection afforded to British life and

property in the districts affected by the rebellion; and in

consequence of these representations and of my own

communications to the Tsung-li Yamên, guards of soldiers have

been stationed for the special protection of the missionary

premises which were endangered. On the 29th ultimo I took

occasion to warn the Yamên by letter that if the disorder were

not vigorously quelled, international complications were

likely to ensue."

After narrating an interview with the Tsung-li Yamên on the

subject of the murder of Mr. Brooks, and repeating the

assurances he had received of vigorous measures to punish the

murderers, Minister MacDonald concluded his despatch by

saying: "In a note which I addressed to the Yamên this morning

I took occasion to remind the Ministers that there were other

British missionaries living in the district where Mr. Brooks

was killed, and to impress upon their Excellencies the

necessity of securing efficient protection to these. I do not,

however, entertain serious apprehensions as to their safety,

because guards of soldiers have been for some time past

stationed to protect the various missionary residences. The

unfortunate man who was murdered was seized when he was

travelling by wheel-barrow, without escort, through the

country infested by the rebels."

{105}

A few days later, Bishop Scott, of the Church of England

Mission, at Peking, received from Mr. Brown, another

missionary in Shantung province, the following telegram:

"Outlook very black; daily marauding; constant danger; Edict

suppressing published; troops present, but useless; officials

complete inaction: T'ai An Prefect blocks; secret orders from

Throne to encourage." On this Sir Claude again called upon the

Yamên, and "spoke to them," he says, "in terms of the gravest

warning. While I could not believe it possible, I said, that

the rumours of secret orders from the Throne were true, the

mere fact of the currency of such rumours showed the

impression which the conduct of the Prefect conveyed to the

public. So much was I impressed by this, that I had come

to-day especially to protest against the behaviour of the

Shantung officials. The whole of the present difficulty could

be traced to the attitude of the late Governor of Shantung, Yü

Hsien, who secretly encouraged the seditious Society known as

'the Boxers.' I had again and again pointed out to the

Ministers that until China dealt with the high authorities in

such cases these outrages would not cease. I asked the

Ministers to telegraph to the new Governor Yüan that I had

called at the Yamên that day to complain of the conduct of the

Prefect of T'ai An. The Ministers attempted to excuse the

inertia of the local officials on the plea that their

difficulties were very great. The primary cause of the trouble

was the bad feeling existing between the converts and the

ordinary natives. This had developed until bands of marauders

had formed, who harassed Christians and other natives alike.

The local officials had hitherto not had sufficient force to

cope with so widespread a rising, but now that Yüan and his

troops had been sent to the province they hoped for the speedy

restoration of order. I impressed upon the Ministers in the

most emphatic manner my view of the gravity of the situation.

The Imperial Edict expressing sorrow for what had occurred and

enjoining strong measures was satisfactory so far as it went; but

Her Majesty's Government required something more than mere

words, and would now await action on the part of the Chinese

Government in conformity with their promises."

On the day of this interview (January 11), an Imperial Decree

was issued by the Chinese government, opening in ambiguous

terms and decreeing nothing. "Of late," it said, "in all the

provinces brigandage has become daily more prevalent, and

missionary cases have recurred with frequency. Most critics

point to seditious Societies as the cause, and ask for

rigorous suppression and punishment of these. But reflection

shows that Societies are of different kinds. When worthless

vagabonds form themselves into bands and sworn confederacies,

and relying on their numbers create disturbances, the law can

show absolutely no leniency to them on the other hand, when

peaceful and law-abiding people practise their skill in

mechanical arts for the self-preservation of themselves and

their families, or when they combine in village communities

for the mutual protection of the rural population, this is in

accordance with the public-spirited principle (enjoined by

Mencius) of 'keeping mutual watch and giving mutual help.'

Some local authorities, when a case arises, do not regard this

distinction, but, listening to false and idle rumours, regard

all alike as seditious Societies, and involve all in one

indiscriminate slaughter. The result is that no distinction

being made between the good and the evil, men's minds are

thrown into fear and doubt. This is, indeed, 'adding fuel to

stop a fire,' 'driving fish to the deep part of the pool to

catch them.' It means, not that the people are disorderly, but

that the administration is bad."

The foreign ministers at Peking soon learned that this

ambiguous decree had given encouragement to the "Boxers," and

the British, American, German, French and Italian

representatives, by agreement, addressed an "identic note" to

the Yamên, dated January 27, in which, referring to the state

of affairs in north Shantung and in the centre and south of

Chihli, each one said: "This state of affairs, which is a

disgrace to any civilized country, has been brought about by

the riotous and lawless behaviour of certain ruffians who have

banded themselves together into two Societies, termed

respectively the 'Fist of Righteous Harmony' and the 'Big

Sword Society,' and by the apathy, and in some instances

actual connivance and encouragement of these Societies by the

local officials. The members of these Societies go about

pillaging the homes of Christian converts, breaking down their

chapels, robbing and ill-treating inoffensive women and

children, and it is a fact, to which I would draw the special

attention of your Highness and your Excellencies, that on the

banners which are carried by these riotous and lawless people

are inscribed the words, 'Exterminate the Foreigners.'

"On the 11th January an Imperial Decree was issued drawing a

distinction between good and bad Societies. The wording of

this Decree has unfortunately given rise to a widespread

impression that such Associations as the 'Fist of Righteous

Harmony' and the 'Big Sword Society' are regarded with favour

by the Chinese Government, and their members have openly

expressed their gratification and have been encouraged by the

Decree to continue to carry on their outrages against the

Christian converts. I cannot for a moment suppose that such

was the intention of this Decree. These Societies are, as I

have shown, of a most pernicious and rebellious character.

"I earnestly beg to draw the serious attention of the Throne

to the circumstances above described: the disorders have not

reached such a stage that they cannot be stamped out by prompt

and energetic action: but if such action be not immediately

taken, the rioters will be encouraged to think that they have

the support of the Government and proceed to graver crimes,

thereby seriously endangering international relations. As a

preliminary measure, and one to which I attach the greatest

importance, I have to beg that an Imperial Decree be published

and promulgated, ordering by name the complete suppression and

abolition of the 'Fist of Righteous Harmony' and the 'Big

Sword Societies,' and I request that it may be distinctly

stated in the Decree that to belong to either of these

Societies, or to harbour any of its members, is a criminal

offence against the laws of China."

{106}

In communicating the above note to Lord Salisbury, Sir Claude

MacDonald explained: "The name of the Society given in the

note as 'The Fist of Righteous Harmony' is the same as the

'Boxers.' The latter name was given in the first instance,

either by missionaries or newspapers, but does not convey the

meaning of the Chinese words. The idea underlying the name is

that the members of the Society will unite to uphold the cause

of righteousness, if necessary by force."

On the 21st of February no reply to the identic note had been

given, and the five foreign Ministers then wrote again. This

brought an answer so evasive that they asked for an interview

with the Yamên, and it was appointed for March 2d. On the

evening of the 1st they received copies of a proclamation

which the Governor-General of Chihli had been commanded to

issue. The proclamation embodied an Imperial Decree,

transmitted to the Governor-General on the 21st of February,

which said: "Last year the Governor of Shantung telegraphed

that the Society known as 'the Fist of Righteous Harmony' in

many of his districts, under the plea of enmity to foreign

religions, were raising disturbances in all directions, and

had extended their operations into the southern part of

Chihli. We have repeatedly ordered the Governor-General of

Chihli and the Governor of Shantung to send soldiers to keep

the peace. But it is to be feared that if stern measures of

suppression of such proceedings as secretly establishing

societies with names and collecting in numbers to raise

disturbances be not taken, the ignorant populace will be

deluded and excited, and as time goes on things will grow

worse, and when some serious case ensues we shall be compelled

to employ troops to extirpate the evil. The sufferers would be

truly many, and the throne cannot bear to slay without

warning. Let the Governor-General of Chihli and the Governor

of Shantung issue the most stringent Proclamations admonishing

the people and strictly prohibiting (the societies) so that

our people may all know that to secretly establish societies

is contrary to prohibition and a breach of the law."

To this the Governor-General of Chihli added, in his own name:

"I (the Governor-General) find it settled by decided cases

that those people of no occupation, busybodies who style

themselves Professors, and practise boxing, and play with

clubs, and teach people their arts; those also who learn from

these men, and those who march about and parade the villages

and marts flourishing tridents, and playing with sticks,

hood-winking the populace to make a profit for themselves, are

strictly forbidden to carry on such practices. Should any

disobey, on arrest the principals will receive 100 blows with

the heavy bamboo, and be banished to a distance of 1,000

miles. The pupils will receive the same beating, and be

banished to another province for three years, and on

expiration of that period and return to their native place be

subjected to strict surveillance. Should any inn, temple or

house harbour these people without report to the officials, or

should the police and others not search them out and arrest

them, the delinquents will be sentenced to eighty blows with

the heavy bamboo for improper conduct in the higher degree.

"From this it appears that teaching or practising boxing and

club play, and deluding the people for private gain are

fundamentally contrary to law. But of late some of the

ignorant populace have been deluded by ruffians from other

parts of the Empire who talk of charms and incantations and

spiritual incarnations which protect from guns and cannon.

They have dared to secretly establish the Society of the Fist

of Righteous Harmony and have practised drill with fists and

clubs. The movement has spread in all directions, and under

the plea of hatred of foreign religions these people have

harried the country. When soldiers and runners came to make

arrests, turbulent ruffians had the audacity to defy them,

relying on their numbers, thereby exhibiting a still greater

contempt for the law. …

"In addition to instructing all the local officials to adopt

strict measures of prohibition and to punish without fail all

offenders, I hereby issue this most stringent admonition and

notify all people in my jurisdiction, gentry and every class

of the population, that you should clearly understand that the

establishment and formation of secret societies for the

practice of boxing and club exercises are contrary to

prohibition and a breach of the law. The assembly of mobs to

create disturbances and all violent outrages are acts which

the law will still less brook. … The converts and the ordinary

people are all the subjects of the throne, and are regarded by

the Government with impartial benevolence. No distinction is

made between them. Should they have lawsuits they must bow to

the judgments of the officials. The ordinary people must not

give way to rage, and by violent acts create feuds and

trouble. The converts on the other hand must not stir up

strife and oppress the people or incite the missionaries to

screen them and help them to obtain the upper hand."

According to appointment, the interview with the Yamên took

place on the 2d of March: "Mr. Conger, United States'

Minister, Baron von Ketteler, German Minister, Marquis

Salvago, Italian Minister, Baron d'Anthoüard, French Charge d'

Affaires, and myself," writes Sir Claude MacDonald, "were

received at the Yamên by Prince Ch'ing and nearly all the

Ministers. On behalf of myself and my colleagues I

recapitulated the circumstances, as detailed above, which had

led to the demand which we now made. My colleagues all

expressed to the Prince and Ministers their entire concurrence

with the language I used, Mr. Conger reminded the Yamên of the

incredulity with which they had listened to his

representations regarding these disturbances over three months

ago, and the promises they had been making ever since, from

which nothing had resulted. Baron von Ketteler laid special

stress on the fact that in the Decree just communicated no

mention was made of the 'Ta Tao Hui,' or 'Big Knife Society,'

the denunciation of which, equally with that of the

'I-Ho-Ch'uan,' or 'Fist of Righteous Harmony,' had been

demanded. The Prince and Ministers protested emphatically that

the Throne was earnest in its determination to put a stop to

the outrages committed by these Societies. They maintained

that the method adopted for promulgating the Imperial Decree,

that of sending it to the Governors of the provinces

concerned, to be embodied in a Proclamation and acted upon,

was much speedier and more effective than that of publishing a

Decree in the 'Peking Gazette,' as suggested by us. With regard

to the omission of the term 'Ta Tao Hui' from the Decree, they

declared that this Society was now the same as the

'I-Ho-Ch'uan.'"

{107}

At the close of the interview the five Ministers presented

identic notes to the Yamên, in which each said: "I request

that an Imperial Decree may be issued and published in the

'Peking Gazette' ordering by name the complete suppression and

abolition of the 'Fist of Righteous Harmony' and 'Big Sword

Societies,' and I request that it may be distinctly stated in

the Decree that to belong to either of these societies or to

harbour any of its members is a criminal offence against the

law of China. Nothing less than this will, I am convinced, put

an end to the outrages against Christians which have lately

been so prevalent in Chihli and Shantung. Should the Chinese

Government refuse this reasonable request I shall be compelled

to report to my Government their failure to take what may be

called only an ordinary precaution against a most pernicious

and anti-foreign organization. The consequences of further

disorder in the districts concerned cannot fail to be

extremely serious to the Chinese Government."

The reply of the Yamên to this "identic note" was a lengthy

argument to show that publication in the "Peking Gazette" of

the Imperial Edict against "Boxers" would be contrary to "an

established rule of public business in China which it is

impossible to alter"; and that, furthermore, it would be

useless, because the common people of the provinces would not

see it. Not satisfied with this reply, the Ministers, on the

10th of March, addressed another identic note to the Yamên, in

the following words: "Acknowledging receipt of your Highness'

and your Excellencies' note of the 7th March, I regret to say

that it is in no way either an adequate or satisfactory reply

to my notes or my verbal requests concerning the suppression

of the two Societies known as the 'Big Sword' and 'Fist of

Righteous Harmony.' I therefore am obliged to repeat the

requests, and because of the rapid spread of these Societies,

proof of which is accumulating every day, and which the

Imperial Decree of the 11th January greatly encouraged, I

insist that an absolute prohibitive Decree for all China,

mentioning these two Societies by name, be forthwith issued

and published in the 'Peking Gazette,' as was done with the

Decree of the 11th January. Should I not receive a favourable

answer without delay, I shall report the matter to my

Government, and urge strongly the advisability of the adoption

of other measures for the protection of the lives and property

of British subjects in China."

On the same day, each of the Ministers cabled the following

recommendation to his government:

"If the Chinese Government should refuse to publish the Decree

we have required, and should the state of affairs not

materially improve, I would respectfully recommend that a few

ships of war of each nationality concerned should make a naval

demonstration in North Chinese waters. Identic recommendations

are being telegraphed home by my four colleagues

above-mentioned."

On the 16th, Sir Claude wrote: "No reply has yet been received

from the Tsung-li Yamên to the note of the 10th March, and it

was with serious misgivings as to the attitude of the Chinese

Government on this question that I read yesterday the official

announcement of the appointment of Yü Hsien, lately Governor

of Shantung, to the post of Governor of Shansi. The growth and

impunity of the anti-Christian Societies in Shantung has been

universally ascribed to the sympathy and encouragement

accorded to them by this high officer, and his conduct has for

some time past formed the subject of strong representations on

the part of several of the foreign Representatives."

_Great Britain, Papers by Command:

China, Number 3, 1900, pages 3-26._

"The foundation of the 'Boxers' can be traced to one man, Yü

Hsien, who, when Prefect of Tsao-chau, in the south-west

corner of Shan-tung, organized a band of men as local militia

or trainbands. For them he revived the ancient appellation of

'I-Ho-Ch'üan,' the Patriotic Harmony Fists. Armed with long

swords, they were known popularly as the Ta-tao-huei, or Big

Knife Society. After the occupation of Kiao-chau Bay the

society grew in force, the professed objects of its members

being to oppose the exactions of native Catholics and to

resist further German aggression. They became anti-Christian

and anti-foreign. They became a religious sect, and underwent

a fantastic kind of spiritual training of weird incantations

and grotesque gymnastics, which they professed to believe

rendered them impervious to the sword and to the bullet of the

white man. Three deities they specially selected as their

own—namely, Kwanti, the God of War and patron deity of the

present dynasty, Kwang Chéng-tze, an incarnation of Laotze,

and the Joyful Buddha of the Falstaffian Belly. They made

Taoist and Buddhist temples their headquarters. Everywhere

they declared that they would drive the foreigner and his

devilish religion from China. To encourage this society its

founder, Yü Hsien, was in March, 1899, appointed by the Throne

Governor of Shan-tung. In four years he had risen from the

comparatively humble post of Prefect to that of the highest

official in the province."

_Peking Correspondence London Times,

October 13, 1900._

Sir Robert Hart, an English gentleman who had been in the

service of the Chinese government at Peking for many years,

administering its maritime customs, is the author of an

account of the causes and the character of the Boxer movement,

written since its violent outbreak, from which the following

passages are taken:

"For ages China had discountenanced the military spirit and

was laughed at by us accordingly, and thus, ever since

intercourse under treaties has gone on, we have been lecturing

the Government from our superior standpoint, telling it that

it must grow strong—must create army and navy—must adopt

foreign drill and foreign weapons—must prepare to hold its own

against all comers—must remember 'Codlin' is its friend, not

'Short': our words did not fall on closed ears—effect was

given to selected bits of advice—and various firms did a very

remarkable and very remunerative trade in arms. But while the

Chinese Government made a note of all the advice its generous

friends placed at its disposal, and adopted some suggestions

because they either suited it or it seemed polite and harmless

to do so, it did not forget its own thirty centuries of

historic teaching, and it looked at affairs abroad through its

own eyes and the eyes of its representatives at foreign

Courts, studied their reports and the printed utterances of

books, magazines, and newspapers, and the teaching thus

received began gradually to crystallise in the belief that a

huge standing army on European lines would be wasteful and

dangerous and that a volunteer association—as suggested by the

way all China ranged itself on the Government side in the

Franco-Chinese affair—covering the whole Empire, offering an

outlet for restless spirits and fostering a united and

patriotic feeling, would be more reliable and effective, an

idea which seemed to receive immediate confirmation from

without in the stand a handful of burghers were making in the

Transvaal: hence the Boxer Association, patriotic in origin,

justifiable in its fundamental idea, and in point of fact the

outcome of either foreign advice or the study of foreign

methods.

{108}

"In the meanwhile the seeds of other growths were being sown

in the soil of the Chinese mind, private and official, and

were producing fruit each after its kind: various commercial

stipulations sanctioned by treaties had not taken into full

account Chinese conditions, difficulties, methods, and

requirements, and their enforcement did not make foreign

commerce more agreeable to the eye of either provincial or

metropolitan officials,—missionary propagandism was at work

all over the country, and its fruits, Chinese Christians, did

not win the esteem or goodwill of their fellows, for, first of

all, they offended public feeling by deserting Chinese for

foreign cults, next they irritated their fellow villagers by

refusing, as Christians, to take part in or share the expenses

of village festivals, and lastly, as Christians again, they

shocked the official mind, and popular opinion also, by

getting their religious teachers, more especially the Roman

Catholics, to interfere on their behalf in litigation, &c., a

state of affairs which became specially talked about in

Shantung, the native province of the Confucius of over 2,000

years ago and now the sphere of influence of one of the

Church's most energetic bishops,—the arrangement by which

missionaries were to ride in green chairs and be recognised as

the equals of Governors and Viceroys had its special

signification and underlined missionary aspiration telling

people and officials in every province what they had to expect

from it: on the top of this came the Kiao Chow affair and the

degradation and cashiering of a really able, popular, and

clean-handed official, the Governor Li Ping Hêng, succeeded by

the cessions of territory at Port Arthur, Wei-Hai-Wei, Kwang

Chow Wan, &c., &c., &c., and these doings, followed by the

successful stand made against the Italian demand for a port on

the Coast of Chekiang, helped to force the Chinese Government

to see that concession had gone far enough and that opposition

to foreign encroachment might now and henceforth be the key-note

of its policy.

"Li Ping Hêng had taken up his private residence in the

southeastern corner of Pecheli, close to the Shantung

frontier, and the Boxer movement, already started in a

tentative way in the latter province, now received an immense

impetus from the occurrences alluded to and was carefully

nurtured and fostered by that cashiered official—more

respected than ever by his countrymen. Other high officials

were known to be in sympathy with the new departure and to

give it their strongest approval and support, such as Hsü

Tung, Kang I, and men of the same stamp and standing, and

their advice to the throne was to try conclusions with

foreigners and yield no more to their demands. However

mistaken may have been their reading of foreigners, and

however wrong their manner of action, these men—eminent in

their own country for their learning and services—were

animated by patriotism, were enraged at foreign dictation, and

had the courage of their convictions: we must do them the

justice of allowing they were actuated by high motives and

love of country—but that does not always or necessarily mean

political ability or highest wisdom. …

"The Chinese, an intelligent, cultivated race, sober,

industrious, and on their own lines civilised, homogeneous in

language, thought, and feeling, which numbers some four

hundred millions, lives in its own ring fence, and covers a

country which—made up of fertile land and teeming waters, with

infinite variety of mountain and plain, hill and dale, and

every kind of climate and condition—on its surface produces

all that a people requires and in its bosom hides untold

virgin wealth that has never yet been disturbed—this race,

after thousands of years of haughty seclusion and

exclusiveness, has been pushed by the force of circumstances

and by the superior strength of assailants into treaty

relations with the rest of the world, but regards that as a

humiliation, sees no benefit accruing from it, and is looking

forward to the day when it in turn will be strong enough to

revert to its old life again and do away with foreign

intercourse, interference, and intrusion: it has slept long,

as we count sleep, but it is awake at last and its every

member is tingling with Chinese feeling—'China for the

Chinese and out with the foreigners!'

"The Boxer movement is doubtless the product of official

inspiration, but it has taken hold of the popular imagination

and will spread like wildfire all over the length and breadth

of the country: it is, in short, a purely patriotic volunteer

movement, and its object is to strengthen China—and for a

Chinese programme. Its first experience has not been

altogether a success as regards the attainment through

strength of proposed ends,—the rooting up of foreign cults and

the ejection of foreigners, but it is not a failure in respect of

the feeler it put out—will volunteering work?—or as an

experiment that would test ways and means and guide future

choice: it has proved how to a man the people will respond to

the call, and it has further demonstrated that the swords and

spears to which the prudent official mind confined the

initiated will not suffice, but must be supplemented or

replaced by Mauser rifles and Krupp guns: the Boxer patriot of

the future will possess the best weapons money can buy, and

then the 'Yellow Peril' will be beyond ignoring."

_Robert Hart,

The Peking Legations

(Fortnightly Review, November, 1900)._

{109}

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (March-April).

Proposed joint naval demonstration of the Powers

in Chinese waters.

On receipt of the telegram from Peking (March 10) recommending

a joint naval demonstration in North Chinese waters, the

British Ambassador at Paris was directed to consult the

Government of France on the subject, and did so. On the 13th,

he reported M. Delcassé, the French Minister for Foreign

Affairs, as saying that "he could not, of course, without

reflection and without consulting his colleagues, say what the

decision of the French Government would be as to taking part

in a naval demonstration, but at first sight it seemed to him

that it would be difficult to avoid acting upon a suggestion

which the Representatives of Five Powers, who ought to be good

judges, considered advisable." On the 16th, he wrote to Lord

Salisbury: "M. Delcassé informed me the day before yesterday

that he had telegraphed to Peking for more precise

information. I told him that I was glad to hear that no

precipitate action was going to be taken by France, and that I

believed that he would find that the United States' Government

would be disinclined to associate themselves with any joint

naval demonstration. I added that, although I had no

instructions to say so, I expected that Her Majesty's

Government would also adhere to their usual policy of

proceeding with great caution, and would be in no hurry to

take a step which only urgent necessity would render

advisable."

On the 23d of March, Sir Claude MacDonald telegraphed to Lord

Salisbury: "I learn that the Government of the United States

have ordered one ship-of-war to go to Taku for the purpose of

protecting American interests, that the Italian Minister has

been given the disposal of two ships, and the German Minister

has the use of the squadron at Kiao-chau for the same purpose.

With a view to protect British missionary as well as other

interests, which are far in excess of those of other Powers, I

would respectfully request that two of Her Majesty's ships be

sent to Taku."

On the 3d of April, the Tsung-li Yamên communicated to the

British Ambassador the following information, as to the

punishment of the murderers of Mr. Brooks, and of the

officials responsible for neglect to protect him: "Of several

arrests that had been made of persons accused of having been

the perpetrators of the crime or otherwise concerned in its

committal, two have been brought to justice and, at a trial at

which a British Consul was present, found guilty and sentenced

to be decapitated—a sentence which has already been carried

into effect. Besides this, the Magistrate of Feichen, and some

of the police authorities of the district, accounted to have

been guilty of culpable negligence in the protection of Mr.

Brooks, have been cashiered, or had other punishments awarded

them of different degrees of severity."

For some weeks after this the Boxer movement appears to have

been under constraint. Further outrages were not reported and

no expressions of anxiety appear in the despatches from

Peking. The proposal of a joint naval demonstration in the

waters of Northern China was not pressed.

_Great Britain, Papers by Command:

China, Number 3, 1900, pages 6-17._

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (May-June).

Renewed activity of the "Boxers" and increasing gravity of

the situation at Peking.

Return of Legation guards.

Call upon the fleets at Taku for reinforcement and rescue.

About the middle of May the activity of the "Boxers" was

renewed, and a state of disorder far more threatening than

before was speedily made known. The rapid succession of

startling events during the next few weeks may be traced in

the following series of telegrams from the British Minister at

Peking to his chief:

"May 17.

The French Minister called to-day to inform me that the Boxers

have destroyed three villages and killed 61 Roman Catholic

Christian converts at a place 90 miles from Peking, near

Paoting-fu. The French Bishop informs me that in that

district, and around Tien-tsin and Peking generally, much

disorder prevails."

"May 18.

There was a report yesterday, which has been confirmed to-day,

that the Boxers have destroyed the London Mission chapel at

Kung-tsun, and killed the Chinese preacher. Kung-tsun is about

40 miles south-west of Peking."

"May 19.

At the Yamên, yesterday, I reminded the Ministers how I had

unceasingly warned them during the last six months how

dangerous it was not to take adequate measures in suppression

of the Boxer Societies. I said that the result of the apathy

of the Chinese Government was that now a Mission chapel, a few

miles distant from the capital, had been destroyed. The

Ministers admitted that the danger of the Boxer movement had

not previously appeared to them so urgent, but that now they

fully saw how serious it was. On the previous day an Imperial

Decree had been issued, whereby specified metropolitan and

provincial authorities were directed to adopt stringent

measures to suppress the Boxers. This, they believed, would

not fail to have the desired effect."

"May 21.

All eleven foreign Representatives attended a meeting of the

Diplomatic Body held yesterday afternoon, at the instance of

the French Minister. The doyen was empowered to write, in the

name of all the foreign Representatives, a note to the Yamên

to the effect that the Diplomatic Body, basing their demands

on the Decrees already issued by the Palace denunciatory of

the Boxers, requested that all persons who should print,

publish, or disseminate placards which menaced foreigners, all

individuals aiding and abetting, all owners of houses or

temples now used as meeting places for Boxers, should be

arrested. They also demanded that those guilty of arson,

murder, outrages, &c., together with those affording support

or direction to Boxers while committing such outrages, should

be executed. Finally, the publication of a Decree in Peking

and the Northern Provinces setting forth the above. The

foreign Representatives decided at their meeting to take

further measures if the disturbances still continued, or if a

favorable answer was not received to their note within five

days. The meeting did not decide what measures should be

taken, but the Representatives were generally averse to

bringing guards to Peking, and, what found most favour, was as

follows:—

With the exception of Holland, which has no ships in Chinese

waters, it was proposed that all the Maritime Powers

represented should make a naval demonstration either at

Shanhaikuan, or at the new port, Ching-wangtao, while, in case

of necessity, guards were to be held ready on board ship. My

colleagues will, I think, send these proposals as they stand

to their governments. As the Chinese Government themselves

seem to be sufficiently alarmed, I do not think that the above

measure will be necessary, but, should the occasion arise, I

trust that Her Majesty's Government will see fit to support

it. … I had a private interview with my Russian colleague, who

came to see me before the matter reached its acute stages. M. de

Giers said that there were only two countries with serious

interests in China: England and Russia. He thought that both

landing guards and naval demonstrations were to be

discouraged, as they give rise to unknown eventualities.

However, since the 18th instant, he admits that matters are

grave, and agreed at once to the joint note."

{110}

"May 24.

Her Majesty's Consul at Tien-tsin reported by telegraph

yesterday that a Colonel in charge of a party of the Viceroy's

cavalry was caught, on the 22nd instant, in an ambuscade near

Lai-shui, which is about 50 miles south-west of Peking. The

party were destroyed."

"May 25.

Tsung-li Yamên have replied to the note sent by the doyen of

the Corps Diplomatique, reported in my telegram of the 21st

May. They state that the main lines of the measures already in

force agree with those required by the foreign

Representatives, and add that a further Decree, which will

direct efficacious action, is being asked for. The above does

not even promise efficacious action, and, in my personal

opinion, is unsatisfactory."

"May 27.

At the meeting of the Corps Diplomatique, which took place

yesterday evening, we were informed by the French Minister

that all his information led him to believe that a serious

outbreak, which would endanger the lives of all European

residents in Peking, was on the point of breaking out. The

Italian Minister confirmed the information received by M.

Pichon. The Russian Minister agreed with his Italian and

French colleagues in considering the latest reply of the Yamên

to be unsatisfactory, adding that, in his opinion, the Chinese

Government was now about to adopt effective measures. That the

danger was imminent he doubted, but said that it was not

possible to disregard the evidence adduced by the French

Minister. We all agreed with this last remark. M. Pichon then

urged that if the Chinese Government did not at once take

action guards should at once be brought up by the foreign

Representatives. Some discussion then ensued, after which it

was determined that a precise statement should be demanded

from the Yamên as to the measures they had taken, also that

the terms of the Edict mentioned by them should be

communicated to the foreign Representatives. Failing a reply

from the Yamên of a satisfactory nature by this afternoon, it

was resolved that guards should be sent for. Baron von

Ketteler, the German Minister, declared that he considered the

Chinese Government was crumbling to pieces, and that he did

not believe that any action based on the assumption of their

stability could be efficacious. The French Minister is, I am

certain, genuinely convinced that the danger is real, and

owing to his means of information he is well qualified to

judge. … I had an interview with Prince Ch'ing and the Yamên

Ministers this afternoon. Energetic measures are now being

taken against the Boxers by the Government, whom the progress

of the Boxer movement has, at last, thoroughly alarmed. The

Corps Diplomatique, who met in the course of the day, have

decided to wait another twenty-four hours for further

developments."

"May 29.

Some stations on the line, among others Yengtai, 6 miles from

Peking, together with machine sheds and European houses, were

burnt yesterday by the Boxers. The line has also been torn up

in places. Trains between this and Tien-tsin have stopped

running, and traffic has not been resumed yet. The situation

here is serious, and so far the Imperial troops have done

nothing. It was unanimously decided, at a meeting of foreign

Representatives yesterday, to send for guards for the

Legations, in view of the apathy of the Chinese Government and

the gravity of the situation. Before the meeting assembled,

the French Minister had already sent for his."

"May 30.

Permission for the guards to come to Peking has been refused

by the Yamên. I think, however, that they may not persist in

their refusal. The situation in the meantime is one of extreme

gravity. The people are very excited, and the soldiers

mutinous. Without doubt it is now a question of European life

and property being in danger here. The French and Russians are

landing 100 men each. French, Russian, and United States'

Ministers, and myself, were deputed to-day at a meeting of the

foreign Representatives to declare to the Tsung-li Yamên that

the foreign Representatives must immediately bring up guards

for the protection of the lives of Europeans in Peking in view

of the serious situation and untrustworthiness of the Chinese

troops. That the number would be small if facilities were

granted, but it must be augmented should they be refused, and

serious consequences might result for the Chinese Government

in the latter event. In reply, the Yamên stated that no

definite reply could be given until to-morrow afternoon, as

the Prince was at the Summer Palace. As the Summer Palace is

within an hour's ride we refused to admit the impossibility of

prompt communication and decision, and repeated the warning

already given of the serious consequences which would result

if the Viceroy at Tien-tsin did not receive instructions this

evening in order that the guards might be enabled to arrive

here to-morrow. The danger will be greatest on Friday, which

is a Chinese festival."

"May 31.

Provided that the number does not exceed that of thirty for

each Legation, as on the last occasion, the Yamên have given

their consent to the guards coming to Peking. … It was decided

this morning, at a meeting of the foreign Representatives, to

at once bring up the guards that are ready. These probably

include the British, American, Italian, and Japanese."

"June 1.

British, American, Italian, Russian, French and Japanese

guards arrived yesterday. Facilities were given, and there

were no disturbances. Our detachment consists of three

officers and seventy-five men, and a machine gun."

"June 2.

The city is comparatively quiet, but murders of Christian

converts and the destruction of missionary property in

outlying districts occur every day, and the situation still

remains serious. The situation at the Palace is, I learn from

a reliable authority, very strained. The Empress-Dowager does

not dare to put down the Boxers, although wishing to do so, on

account of the support given them by Prince Tuan, father of

the hereditary Prince, and other conservative Manchus, and

also because of their numbers. Thirty Europeans, most of whom

were Belgians, fled from Paoting-fu via the river to

Tien-tsin. About 20 miles from Tien-tsin they were attacked by

Boxers.

{111}

A party of Europeans having gone to their rescue from

Tien-tsin severe fighting ensued, in which a large number of

Boxers were killed. Nine of the party are still missing,

including one lady. The rest have been brought into Tien-tsin.

The Russian Minister, who came to see me to-day, said he

thought it most imperative that the foreign Representatives

should be prepared for all eventualities, though he had no

news confirming the above report. He said he had been

authorized by his Government to support any Chinese authority

at Peking which was able and willing to maintain order in case

the Government collapsed."

"June 4.

I am informed by a Chinese courier who arrived to-day from

Yung-Ching, 40 miles south of Peking, that on the 1st June the

Church of England Mission at that place was attacked by the

Boxers. He states that one missionary, Mr. Robinson, was

murdered, and that he saw his body, and that another, Mr.

Norman, was carried off by the Boxers. I am insisting on the

Chinese authorities taking immediate measures to effect his

rescue. Present situation at Peking is such that we may at any

time be besieged here with the railway and telegraph lines

cut. In the event of this occurring, I beg your Lordship will

cause urgent instructions to be sent to Admiral Seymour to

consult with the officers commanding the other foreign

squadrons now at Taku to take concerted measures for our

relief. The above was agreed to at a meeting held to-day by

the foreign Representatives, and a similar telegram was sent

to their respective Governments by the Ministers of Austria,

Italy, Germany, France, Japan, Russia, and the United States,

all of whom have ships at Taku and guards here. The telegram

was proposed by the French Minister and carried unanimously.

It is difficult to say whether the situation is as grave as

the latter supposes, but the apathy of the Chinese Government

makes it very serious."

"June 5.

I went this afternoon to the Yamên to inquire of the Ministers

personally what steps the Chinese Government proposed to take

to effect the punishment of Mr. Robinson's murderers and the

release of Mr. Norman. I was informed by the Ministers that

the Viceroy was the responsible person, that they had

telegraphed to him to send troops to the spot, and that that

was all they were able to do in the matter. They did not

express regret or show the least anxiety to effect the relief

of the imprisoned man, and they displayed the greatest

indifference during the interview. I informed them that the

Chinese Government would be held responsible by Her Majesty's

Government for the criminal apathy which had brought about

this disgraceful state of affairs. I then demanded an

interview with Prince Ching, which is fixed for to-morrow, as

I found it useless to discuss the matter with the Yamên. This

afternoon I had an interview with the Prince and Ministers of

the Yamên. They expressed much regret at the murder of Messrs.

Robinson and Norman, and their tone was fully satisfactory in

this respect. … No attempt was made by the Prince to defend

the Chinese Government, nor to deny what I had said. He could

say nothing to reassure me as to the safety of the city, and

admitted that the Government was reluctant to deal harshly

with the movement, which, owing to its anti-foreign character,

was popular. He stated that they were bringing 6,000 soldiers

from near Tien-tsin for the protection of the railway, but it

was evident that he doubted whether they would be allowed to

fire on the Boxers except in the defence of Government

property, or if authorized whether they would obey. He gave me

to understand, without saying so directly, that he has

entirely failed to induce the Court to accept his own views as

to the danger of inaction. It was clear, in fact, that the Yamên

wished me to understand that the situation was most serious,

and that, owing to the influence of ignorant advisers with the

Empress-Dowager, they were powerless to remedy it."

"June 6.

Since the interview with the Yamên reported in my preceding

telegram I have seen several of my colleagues. I find they all

agree that, owing to the now evident sympathy of the

Empress-Dowager and the more conservative of her advisers with

the anti-foreign movement, the situation is rapidly growing

more serious. Should there be no change in the attitude of the

Empress, a rising in the city, ending in anarchy, which may

produce rebellion in the provinces, will be the result,

'failing an armed occupation of Peking by one or more of the

Powers.' Our ordinary means of pressure on the Chinese

Government fail, as the Yamên is, by general consent, and

their own admission, powerless to persuade the Court to take

serious measures of repression. Direct representations to the

Emperor and Dowager-Empress from the Corps Diplomatique at a

special audience seems to be the only remaining chance of

impressing the Court."

"June 7.

There is a long Decree in the 'Gazette' which ascribes the

recent trouble to the favour shown to converts in law suits

and the admission to their ranks of bad characters. It states

that the Boxers, who are the objects of the Throne's sympathy

equally with the converts, have made use of the anti-Christian

feeling aroused by these causes, and that bad characters among

them have destroyed chapels and railways which are the

property of the State. Unless the ringleaders among such bad

characters are now surrendered by the Boxers they will be

dealt with as disloyal subjects, and will be exterminated.

Authorization will be given to the Generals to effect arrests,

exercising discrimination between leaders and their followers.

It is probable that the above Decree represents a compromise

between the conflicting opinions which exist at Court. The

general tone is most unsatisfactory, though the effect may be

good if severe measures are actually taken. The general

lenient tone, the absence of reference to the murder of

missionaries, and the justification of the proceedings of the

Boxers by the misconduct of Christian converts are all

dangerous factors in the case."

"June 8.

A very bad effect has been produced by the Decree reported in

my immediately preceding telegram. There is no prohibition of

the Boxers drilling, which they now openly do in the houses of

the Manchu nobility and in the temples. This Legation is full

of British refugees, mostly women and children, and the London

and Church of England Missions have been abandoned. I trust

that the instructions requested in my telegrams of the 4th and

5th instant have been sent to the Admiral. I have received the

following telegram, dated noon to-day, from Her Majesty's Consul

at Tien-tsin:

{112}

'By now the Boxers must be near Yang-tsun. Last night the

bridge, which is outside that station, was seen to be on fire.

General Nieh's forces are being withdrawn to Lutai, and 1,500

of them have already passed through by railway. There are now

at Yang-tsun an engine and trucks ready to take 2,000 more

men.' Lutai lies on the other side of Tien-tsin, and at some

distance. Should this information be correct, it means that an

attempt to protect Peking has been abandoned by the only force

on which the Yamên profess to place any reliance. The 6,000

men mentioned in my telegram

of the 5th instant were commanded by General Nieh."

"Tong-ku, June 10.

Vice-Admiral Sir E. Seymour to Admiralty.

Following telegram received from Minister at Peking:

'Situation extremely grave. Unless arrangements are made for

immediate advance to Peking it will be too late.'

"In consequence of above, I am landing at once with all

available men, and have asked foreign officers' co-operation."

_Great Britain, Papers by Command:

China, Number 3, 1900, pages 26-45._

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (June 10-26).

Bombardment and capture of Taku forts by the allied fleets.

Failure of first relief expedition started for Peking.

The following is from an official report by Rear-Admiral

Bruce of the British Navy, dated at Taku June 17, 1900:

"On my arrival here on the 11th inst. I found a large fleet,

consisting of Russian, German, French, Austrian, Italian,

Japanese, and British ships. In consequence of an urgent

telegram from Her Majesty's Minister at Peking, Vice-Admiral

Sir Edward H. Seymour, K. C. B., Commander-in-Chief, had

started at 3 o'clock the previous morning (10th June), taking

with him a force of 1,375 of all ranks, being reinforced by

men from the allied ships as they arrived, until he commanded

not less than 2,000 men. At a distance of some 20 to 30 miles

from Tientsin—but it is very difficult to locate the place, as

no authentic record has come in—he found the railway destroyed

and sleepers burned, &c., and every impediment made by

supposed Boxers to his advance. Then his difficulties began,

and it is supposed that the Boxers, probably assisted by

Chinese troops, closed in on his rear, destroyed

railway-lines, bridges, &c., and nothing since the 13th inst.

has passed from Commander-in-Chief and his relief force and

Tientsin, nor vice versa up to this date. …

"During the night of the 14th inst. news was received that all

railway-carriages and other rolling stock had been ordered to

be sent up the line for the purpose of bringing down a Chinese

army to Tong-ku. On receipt of this serious information a

council of Admirals was summoned by Vice-Admiral Hiltebrandt,

Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Squadron, and the German,

French, United States Admirals, myself, and the Senior

Officers of Italy, Austria, and Japan attended; and it was

decided to send immediate orders to the captains of the allied

vessels in the Peiho River (three Russian, two German, one

United States, one Japanese, one British—'Algerine') to

prevent any railway plant being taken away from Tong-ku, or

the Chinese army reaching that place, which would cut off our

communication with Tientsin; and in the event of either being

attempted they were to use force to prevent it, and to destroy

the Taku Forts. By the evening, and during the night of 15th

inst., information arrived that the mouth of the Peiho River

was being protected by electric mines. On receipt of this,

another council composed of the same naval officers was held

in the forenoon of 16th June on board the 'Rossia,' and in

consequence of the gravity of the situation, and information

having also arrived that the forts were being provisioned and

reinforced, immediate notice was sent to the Viceroy of Chili

at Tientsin and the commandant of the forts that, in

consequence of the danger to our forces up the river, at

Tientsin, and on the march to Peking by the action of the

Chinese authorities, we proposed to temporarily occupy the

Taku Forts, with or without their good will, at 2 a.m. on the

17th inst." Early on Sunday, 17th June, "the Taku Forts opened

fire on the allied ships in the Peiho River, which continued

almost without intermission until 6.30 a.m., when all firing

had practically ceased and the Taku Forts were stormed and in

the hands of the Allied Powers, allowing of free communication

with Tientsin by water, and rail when the latter is repaired."

The American Admiral took no part in this attack on the forts

at Taku, "on the ground that we were not at war with China and

that a hostile demonstration might consolidate the

anti-foreign elements and strengthen the Boxers to oppose the

relieving column."

From the point to which the allied expedition led by Admiral

Seymour fought its way, and at which it was stopped by the

increasing numbers that opposed it, it fell back to a position

near Hsiku, on the right bank of the Peiho. There the allies

drove the Chinese forces from an imperial armory and took

possession of the buildings, which gave them a strong

defensive position, with a large store of rice for food, and

enabled them to hold their ground until help came to them from

Tientsin, on the 25th. They were encumbered with no less than 230

wounded men, which made it impossible for them, in the

circumstances, to fight their way back without aid; though the

distance was so short that the return march was accomplished, on

the 26th, between 3 o'clock and 9 of the same morning. In his

report made the following day Admiral Seymour says: "The

number of enemy engaged against us in the march from Yungtsin

to the Armoury near Hsiku cannot be even estimated; the

country alongside the river banks is quite flat, and consisted

of a succession of villages of mud huts, those on the

out-skirts having enclosures made of dried reeds; outside,

high reeds were generally growing in patches near the village,

and although trees are very scarce away from the River,

alongside it they are very numerous; these with the graves,

embankments for irrigation and against flood, afforded cover

to the enemy from which they seldom exposed themselves,

withdrawing on our near approach. Had their fire not been

generally high it would have been much more destructive than

it was. The number of the enemy certainly increased gradually

until the Armoury near Hsiku was reached, when General Nieh's

troops and the Boxers both joined in the attack. In the early

part of the expedition the Boxers were mostly armed with

swords and spears, and not with many firearms; at the

engagement at Langfang on 18th, and afterwards, they were

armed with rifles of late pattern; this together with banners

captured and uniform worn, shows that they had either the

active or covert support of the Chinese Government, or some of

its high officials."

{113}

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (June 11-29).

Chinese Imperial Edicts.

"On June 11 Mr. Sugiyama, the Chancellor of the Japanese

Legation, was brutally murdered [in Peking] by the soldiers of

General Tung-fuh-siang. Two days later the following Imperial

edict was published in the 'Peking Gazette': 'On June 11 the

Japanese Chancellor was murdered by brigands outside the

Yung-ting Mên. On hearing this intelligence we were

exceedingly grieved. Officials of neighbouring nations

stationed in Peking ought to be protected in every possible

way, and now, especially, extra diligence ought to be

displayed to prevent such occurrences when banditti are as

numerous as bees. We have repeatedly commanded the local

officials to ensure the most efficient protection in their

districts, yet, in spite of our frequent orders, we have this

case of the murder of the Japanese Chancellor occurring in the

very capital of the Empire. The civil and military officials

have assuredly been remiss in not clearing their districts of

bad characters, or immediately arresting such persons, and we

hereby order every Yamên concerned to set a limit of time for

the arrest of the criminals, that they may suffer the extreme

penalty. Should the time expire without any arrest being

effected, the severest punishment will assuredly be inflicted

upon the responsible persons.' It is needless to add that the

'criminals' were never arrested and the 'responsible persons'

were never punished. In the same 'Gazette' another decree

condemns the 'Boxer brigands' who have recently been causing

trouble in the neighbourhood of the capital, who have been

committing arson and murder and revenging themselves upon the

native converts. Soldiers and 'Boxers,' it says, have leagued

together to commit acts of murder and arson, and have vied

with one another in disgraceful acts of looting and robbery.

The 'Boxers' are to disband, desperadoes are to be arrested,

ringleaders are to be seized, but the followers may be allowed

to disband.

"Similar decrees on the 14th and 15th show alarm at the result

of the 'Boxer' agitation and lawlessness within the city.

Nothing so strong against the 'Boxers' had previously been

published. Fires were approaching too Closely to the Imperial

Palace. No steps had been taken by the Court to prevent the

massacre and burning of Christians and their property in the

country, but on the 16th the great Chien Mên gate fronting the

Palace had been burned and the smoke had swept over the

Imperial Courts. Yet even in these decrees leniency is shown

to the 'Boxers,' for they are not to be fired upon, but are,

if guilty, to be arrested and executed. On June 17th the edict

expresses the belief of the Throne that:—'All foreign

Ministers ought to be really protected. If the Ministers and

their families wish to go for a time to Tien-tsin, they must

be protected on the way. But the railroad is not now in

working order. If they go by the cart road it will be

difficult, and there is fear that perfect protection cannot be

offered. They would do better, therefore, to abide here in

peace as heretofore and wait till the railroad is repaired,

and then act as circumstances render expedient.'

"Two days later an ultimatum was sent to the Ministers

ordering them to leave Peking within 24 hours. On the 20th

Baron von Ketteler was murdered and on June 21 China

published, having entered upon war against the whole world,

her Apologia:—

'Ever since the foundation of the Dynasty, foreigners coming

to China have been kindly treated. In the reigns Tao Kuang,

and Hsien Feng, they were allowed to trade and they also asked

leave to propagate their religion, a request that the Throne

reluctantly granted. At first they were amenable to Chinese

control, but for the past 30 years they have taken advantage

of China's forbearance to encroach on China's territory and

trample on Chinese people and to demand China's wealth. Every

concession made by China increased their reliance on violence.

They oppressed peaceful citizens and insulted the gods and

holy men, exciting the most burning indignation among the

people. Hence the burning of chapels and slaughter of converts

by the patriotic braves. The Throne was anxious to avoid war, and

issued edicts enjoining the protection of Legations and pity

to the converts. The decrees declaring 'Boxers' and converts

to be equally the children of the State were issued in the

hope of removing the old feud between people and converts.

Extreme kindness was shown to the strangers from afar. But

these people knew no gratitude and increased their pressure. A

despatch was yesterday sent by Du Chaylard, calling us to

deliver up the Ta-ku Forts into their keeping, otherwise they

would be taken by force. These threats showed their aggressive

intention. In all matters relating to international

intercourse, we have never been wanting in courtesies to them,

but they, while styling themselves civilized States, have acted

without regard for right, relying solely on their military

force. We have now reigned nearly 30 years, and have treated

the people as our children, the people honouring us as their

deity, and in the midst of our reign we have been the

recipients of the gracious favour of the Empress-Dowager.

Furthermore, our ancestors have come to our aid, and the gods

have answered our call, and never has there been so universal

a manifestation of loyalty and patriotism. With tears have we

announced war in the ancestral shrines. Better to enter on the

struggle and do our utmost than seek some measures of

self-preservation involving eternal disgrace. All our

officials, high and low, are of one mind, and there have

assembled without official summons several hundred thousand

patriotic soldiers (I Ping "Boxers"). Even children carrying

spears in the service of the State. Those others relying on

crafty schemes, our trust is in Heaven's justice. They depend

on violence, we on humanity. Not to speak of the righteousness

of our cause, our provinces number more than 20, our people over

400,000,000, and it will not be difficult to vindicate the

dignity of our country.' The decree concludes by promising

heavy rewards to those who distinguish themselves in battle or

subscribe funds, and threatening punishment to those who show

cowardice or act treacherously.

"In the same 'Gazette' Yü Lu reports acts of war on the part

of the foreigners, when, after some days' fighting, he was

victorious. 'Perusal of his memorial has given us great

comfort,' says the Throne. Warm praise is given to the

'Boxers,' 'who have done great service without any assistance

either of men or money from the State. Marked favour will be

shown them later on, and they must continue to show their

devotion.' On the 24th presents of rice are sent to the

'Boxers.' Leaders of the 'Boxers' are appointed by the

Throne—namely, Prince Chuang, and the Assistant Grand

Secretary Kang-Yi to be in chief command, and Ying Nien and

Duke Lan (the brother of Prince Tuan, the father of the Crown

Prince) to act in cooperation with them, while another high

post is given to Wen Jui."

_London Times, October 16, 1900

(Peking Correspondence)._

{114}

Very different in tone to the imperial decree of June 21,

quoted above, was one issued a week later (June 29), and sent

to the diplomatic representatives of the Chinese government in

Europe and America. As published by Minister Wu Ting-fang, at

Washington, on the 11th of July, it was in the following

words:

"The circumstances which led to the commencement of fighting

between Chinese and foreigners were of such a complex,

confusing and unfortunate character as to be entirely

unexpected. Our diplomatic representatives abroad, owing to

their distance from the scene of action, have had no means of

knowing the true state of things, and accordingly cannot lay

the views of the government before the ministers for foreign

affairs of the respective Powers to which they are accredited.

Now we take this opportunity of going fully into the matter

for the information of our representatives aforesaid.

"In the first place there arose in the provinces of Chih Li

and Shantung a kind of rebellious subjects who had been in the

habit of practicing boxing and fencing in their respective

villages, and at the same time clothing their doings with

spiritualistic and strange rites. The local authorities failed

to take due notice of them at the time. Accordingly the

infection spread with astonishing rapidity. Within the space

of a month it seemed to make its appearance everywhere, and

finally even reached the capital itself. Everyone looked upon

the movement as supernatural and strange, and many joined it.

Then there were lawless and treacherous persons who sounded

the cry of 'Down with Christianity!' About the middle of the

fifth moon these persons began to create disturbances without

warning. Churches were burned and converts were killed. The

whole city was in a ferment. A situation was created which

could not be brought under control. At first the foreign

Powers requested that foreign troops be allowed to enter the

capital for the protection of the legations. The imperial

government, having in view the comparative urgency of the

occasion, granted the request as an extraordinary mark of

courtesy beyond the requirements of international intercourse.

Over five hundred foreign troops were sent to Pekin. This

shows clearly how much care China exercised in the maintenance

of friendly relations with other countries.

"The legations at the capital never had much to do with the

people. But from the time foreign troops entered the city the

guards did not devote themselves exclusively to the protection

of their respective legations. They sometimes fired their guns

on top of the city walls and sometimes patrolled the streets

everywhere. There were repeated reports of persons being hit

by stray bullets. Moreover they strolled about the city

without restraint, and even attempted to enter the Tung Hua

gate (the eastern gate of the palace grounds). They only

desisted when admittance was positively forbidden. On this

account, both the soldiers and the people were provoked to

resentment, and voiced their indignation with one accord.

Lawless persons then took advantage of the situation to do

mischief, and became bolder than ever in burning and killing

Christian converts. The Powers thereupon attempted to

reinforce the foreign troops in Pekin, but the reinforcements

encountered resistance and defeat at the hands of the

insurgents on the way and have not yet been able to proceed.

The insurgents of the two provinces of Chih Li and Shantung

had by this time effected a complete union and could not be

separated. The imperial government was by no means reluctant

to issue orders for the entire suppression of this insurgent

element. But as the trouble was so near at hand there was a

great fear that due protection might not be assured to the

legations if the anarchists should be driven to extremities,

thus bringing on a national calamity. There also was a fear

that uprisings might occur in the provinces of Chih Li and

Shantung at the same time, with the result that both foreign

missionaries and Chinese converts in the two provinces might

fall victims to popular fury. It was therefore absolutely

necessary to consider the matter from every point of view.

"As a measure of precaution it was finally decided to request

the foreign ministers to retire temporarily to Tien-Tsin for

safety. It was while the discussion of this proposition was in

progress that the German minister, Baron Von Ketteler, was

assassinated by a riotous mob one morning while on his way to

the Tsung-Li-Yamen. On the previous day the German minister

had written a letter appointing a time for calling at the

Tsung-Li-Yamen. But the Yamen, fearing he might be molested on

the way, did not consent to the appointment as suggested by

the minister. Since this occurrence the anarchists assumed a

more bold and threatening attitude, and consequently 'it was

not deemed wise to carry out the project of sending the

diplomatic corps to Tien-Tsin under an escort. However, orders

were issued to the troops detailed for the protection of the

legations to keep stricter watch and take greater precaution

against any emergency.

"To our surprise, on the 20th of the fifth moon (June 16th),

foreign (naval?) officers at Taku called upon Lo Jung Kwang,

the general commanding, and demanded his surrender of the

forts, notifying him that failing to receive compliance they

would at two o'clock the next day take steps to seize the

forts by force. Lo Jung Kwang, being bound by the duties of

his office to hold the forts, how could he yield to the

demand? On the day named they actually first fired upon the

forts, which responded, and kept up fighting all day and then

surrendered. Thus the conflict of forces began, but certainly

the initiative did not come from our side. Even supposing that

China were not conscious of her true condition, how could she

take such a step as to engage in war with all the Powers

simultaneously? and how could she, relying upon the support of

anarchistic populace, go into war with the Powers?

{115}

"Our position in this matter ought to be clearly understood by

all the Powers. The above is a statement of the wrongs we have

suffered, and how China was driven to the unfortunate position

from which she could not escape. Our several ministers will make

known accurately and in detail the contents of this decree and

the policy of China to the ministers of foreign affairs in

their respective countries, and assure them that military

authorities are still strictly enjoined to afford protection

to the legations as hitherto to the utmost of their power. As

for the anarchists they will be as severely dealt with as

circumstances permit. The several ministers will continue in

the discharge of the duties of their office as hitherto

without hesitation or doubt. This telegraphic decree to be

transmitted for their information. Respect this."

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (June-July).

Failure of attempt to entrust Japan with the rescuing of

the Legations at Peking.

A British Blue Book, issued on the 18th of February, 1901,

contains correspondence that took place between the Powers

late in June and early in July, looking to an arrangement for

the immediate sending of a large force from Japan to the

rescue of the beleaguered Legations in Peking. As summarized

in the "London Times," this correspondence showed that "the

necessity of asking the help of the only Power that was near

enough to intervene promptly was strongly pressed by Lord

Salisbury on the other Powers in the beginning of July. M.

Delcassé fell in entirely with the scheme and insisted on the

need of putting aside all jealousies or afterthoughts which

might hinder unity of action on the spot. The Russian

Government, however, seems to have misunderstood Lord

Salisbury's meaning and to have conceived him to wish Japan to

settle the Chinese crisis by herself and with a view to her

own interests, a misunderstanding which it required a whole

series of despatches to clear up completely. The Japanese

Government itself showed the most commendable readiness to

act, and on July 11 Mr. Whitehead telegraphed from Tokio, in

reply to an appeal from Lord Salisbury to the Japanese

Government, that 'in consequence of the friendly assurances'

given by Lord Salisbury the Japanese Government had decided to

send one or two more divisions to China. To this Lord

Salisbury replied on July 13 that her Majesty's Government

were willing to assist the Japanese Government up to

£1,000,000 if they at once mobilized and despatched an

additional 20,000 men to Peking. But the latter, in the

absence of any definite scheme of operations on the part of

the Powers, showed an unwillingness to accede to this

proposal, which thus fell through."

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (June-August).

The siege of the Foreign Legations at Peking.

The story of two dreadful months as told by one of the besieged.

The most detailed and altogether best account of the dreadful

experience which the foreigners besieged in the quarter of the

Legations at Peking underwent, from the first week in June

until the 14th day of August, when a rescuing army forced its

way into the city, is that furnished to the "London Times" by

its Peking correspondent, who was one of the besieged. His

narrative, forwarded immediately upon the opening of

communication with the outer world, was published in "The

Times" of October 13 and 15. With some abridgment it is given

here under permission from the Manager of "The Times."

"Missionaries in Peking began collecting together into the

larger mission compounds for common protection. Many ladies

went for safety into the British Legation. Railway

communication was now severed and the telegraph communication

threatened. Our isolation was being completed. In the country

disaffection spread to the districts to the east of Peking,

and the position of the American missionaries at Tung-chau

became one of great danger. It was decided to abandon their

great missionary establishments, and with the native

Christians that could follow them to come into Peking. They

asked for an escort, but Mr. Conger felt himself compelled to

decline one, on the ground that he did not venture to send the

small body of men that he could spare from the Legation

through so dangerous a district. Protection must be looked for

from the Chinese Government. What soldiers could not be sent

to do one fearless American missionary succeeded in doing.

Late in the evening of June 7 the Rev. W. S. Ament, of the

Board Mission, left Peking in a cart, and with 20 other carts

journeyed 14 miles to Tung-chau through a country palpitating

with excitement. It was an act of courage and devotion that

seemed to us who knew the country a deed of heroism. His

arrival was most opportune. He brought safely back with him to

Peking the whole missionary body then in Tung-chau—five men,

including the author of 'Chinese Characteristics,' 11 ladies,

and seven children, together with their Christian servants. …

"More troops were sent for to reinforce the Legation guards in

Peking, but they were sent for too late. Already many miles of

the railway had been torn up, and it was hopeless to expect an

early restoration of communication. … The Empress-Dowager and

the Emperor, who had been for some time past at the Summer

Palace, returned to Peking, entering the city at the same hour

by different gates. Large escorts of cavalry and infantry

accompanied them; Manchu bannermen in large numbers were

posted on the walls. It was noticeable that the body-guard of

the Empress was provided by the renegade Mahomedan rabble of

Tung-fuh-siang, who had long been a menace to foreigners in

the province. The return of the Court was expected to have a

tranquillizing effect upon the populace. But this was not the

case. Students were attacked when riding in the country; our

race-course, grand stand, and stables were burnt by 'Boxers'

armed with knives; Europeans could not venture along the

streets outside the foreign quarter without being insulted.

People were saying everywhere, 'The foreigners are to be

ended.' Streets were being patrolled by cavalry, but there was

every fear that the patrols were in league with the 'Boxers,'

who were marching through the streets bearing banners

inscribed 'Fu Ching Mieh Yang.' 'Protect Pure (the Dynasty),

exterminate the foreigner.'

"The London Mission and the Society for the Propagation of the

Gospel handed over their buildings to the Chinese authorities,

holding them responsible for their safe keeping, and all

missionaries and their families went to the British Legation.

The American Board Mission likewise delivered over their

valuable property to the Government and fell back upon the

great Methodist Episcopalian Mission near the Hata Mên Gate,

beyond the foreign quarter. Tung-chau missionaries and their

families and several hundred Christian converts were already

gathered there. Steps were at once taken to fortify the

compound. Under the direction of Mr. F. D. Gamewell deep

trenches were cut, earthworks thrown up, and barbed-wire

entanglements laid down.

{116}

Watch was kept and sentries posted, provisions laid in, and

all preparations made to withstand a siege. Twenty marines and

a captain from the American Legation were sent as a guard, and

some spare rifles were obtained from the British Legation.

Converts were armed with pikes and knives, and a determined

effort was to be made in case of attack. The mission was,

however, absolutely at the mercy of any force holding the high

city wall and Hata Mên Gate. Without the power of reply the

small garrison could have been shot down from the wall, which

is little more than a stone's throw from the nearest point of

the compound. Shell-fire such as was subsequently used against

the Legations would have smashed the buildings into fragments.

All the Maritime Customs staff and their families living in

the East City, a mile or more beyond the foreign quarter, the

professors and teachers of the Tung-wen-Kuan, Dr. Dudgeon, Mr.

Pethick, the secretary of Li Hung Chang, and others, were

forced to abandon their homes and come in for protection.

Preparations for defence went on at all the Legations, for it

was now inevitable that we should have to fight. A 'conseil de

guerre' was held, attended by all the military officers, and a

plan of defence determined. The palace and grounds of Prince

Su, opposite the British Legation, were to be held for the

Christian refugees, and an area was to be defended some half a

mile long by half a mile broad, bounded by the Austrian and

Italian Legations to the east, the street running over the

north bridge of the canal to the north, the British, Russian,

and American Legations to the west, while the southern

boundary was to be the street running at the foot of the great

City Wall from the American Legation on the west, past the

German Legation on the east, to the lane running from the Wall

north past the French Legation, the buildings of the

Inspectorate General of Customs, and the Austrian Legation.

All women and children and non-combatants were to come into

the British Legation. Each position was to be held as long as

possible, and the final stand was to be made at the British

Legation. No question of surrender could ever be entertained,

for surrender meant massacre.

"On the 10th it was announced that reinforcements were on the

way and that they were coming with the approval of the Viceroy

and of the Chinese Government, an approval more readily

accorded since it was known to the Viceroy that the troops

could not come by train. More than one of the Ministers was so

confident that they were coming that carts were sent to await

their arrival at Machia-pu, the terminal railway station at

Peking. … Then Government gave its first public official

recognition of the 'Boxers' by announcing that the notorious

chief of the 'Boxers,' Prince Tuan, had been appointed

President of the Tsung-li-Yamên. Prince Ching was superseded

but was not removed from the Yamên. One harmless old Chinese,

Liao Shou-hêng was sent into retirement while four rabidly

anti-foreign Manchus entirely ignorant of all foreign affairs

were appointed members. The last hope of any wisdom springing

from the Yamên disappeared with the supersession of Prince

Ching by the anti-foreign barbarian who, more than any other

man in China, was responsible for the outbreak. The following

morning most of the Europeans rode to Machia-pu to await the

arrival of the foreign troops. They waited, but no troops

came, and then rode back past the jeering faces of hordes of

Chinese soldiers. Our security was not increased by this

fiasco.

"Soldiers sent to guard the summer residences of the British

Legation in the Western Hills left their posts during the

night. The buildings had been officially placed under the

protection of the Imperial Government. In the pre-arranged

absence of the soldiers the buildings were attacked by

'Boxers' and entirely burnt to the ground; the soldiers

witnessed if they did not assist in the burning. But worse

events were to happen that day. In the afternoon news passed

through Peking that Mr. Sugiyama, the Chancellor of the

Japanese Legation, had been murdered by soldiers. He had been

sent by his Minister a second time to Machia-pu to await the

arrival of the troops. Passing unarmed and alone in his cart

beyond the Yung-ting Mên, the outer gate on the way to the

station, he was seized by the soldiers of Tung-fuh-siang,

dragged from his cart, and done to death in the presence of a

crowd of Chinese who witnessed his struggles with unpitying

interest and unconcealed satisfaction. …

"On the 12th a deputation, consisting of Chi Hsiu, a member of

the Grand Council and newly appointed to the Yamên, Hsu

Ching-chêng, the ex-Minister, the 'Boxer' leader Chao

Shu-chiao, and another Manchu, called upon the British

Minister. Chi Hsiu made a long address, his theme being the

enduring nature of the friendship between China and England

and the duty which China has always recognized as a sacred

obligation to protect the members of the Legations who were

her guests and the strangers within her walls. Chi Hsiu

assured the Minister that the movement was at an end, that all

was now tranquil, and that there was no more reason to fear.

Yet the very next day Baron von Ketteler himself captured a

'Boxer' from amid the crowd in Legation-street. He carried the

consecrated headpiece, and was armed with a sword. Round his

waist he had a belt containing a talisman of yellow paper

smeared with mystic red symbols by which he was rendered

'impermeable to foreign bullets.' And in the afternoon the

'Boxers' came down in force from the north of the city and the

burning of foreign buildings began. The cry arose that the

'Boxers' were coming. Every man ran to his post, a cordon was

established round the foreign quarter and no one was allowed

to pass. Guards were on watch at all the Legations, but their

numbers, spread over so many posts, were very inadequate, and

they were still further reduced by the guards detached for

duty at the Pei-tang Cathedral, where, three miles distant

within the Imperial City, were gathered in the one great

compound Mgr. Favier, the Bishop, his coadjutor, Mgr. Jarlin,

the missionaries and lay brothers, the sisters of charity, and

a vast concourse of Christian refugees, estimated at 2,000,

who had fled from the massacre in the country. A guard of five

Austrians was sent to the Belgian Legation. The Austrians with

their machine gun commanded the Customs-street leading to the

north: the Italians with a one pounder commanded the

Legation-street to the east. The British with their

Nordenfeldt swept the Canal-street to the north and the

North-bridge, the Russians were on the South-bridge, while the

Americans with their Colt machine gun had command of

Legation-street to the west as far as the court facing the

Imperial Palace. The Russians, having no gun, dropped their

heavy ammunition down the well.

{117}

"As darkness came on the most awful cries were heard in the

city, most demoniacal and unforgettable, the cries of the

'Boxers,' 'Sha kweitze'—'Kill the devils'—mingled with the

shrieks of the victims and the groans of the dying. For

'Boxers' were sweeping through the city massacring the native

Christians and burning them alive in their homes. The first

building to be burned was the chapel of the Methodist Mission

in the Hata Mên-street. Then flames sprang up in many quarters

of the city. Amid the most deafening uproar the Tung-tang, or

East Cathedral, shot flames into the sky. The old Greek Church

in the north-east of the city, the London Mission buildings,

the handsome pile of the American Board Mission, and the

entire foreign buildings belonging to the Imperial Maritime

Customs in the East City burned throughout the night. It was

an appalling sight. Late in the night a large party of

'Boxers' bearing torches were seen moving down Customs-street

towards the Austrian Legation. The machine gun mounted was in

waiting for them. They were allowed to come within 150 yards

in the open street near the great cross road, and then the

order was given and the gun rained forth death. It was a

grateful sound. The torches disappeared. They had come within

a restricted space, and none, we thought, could have escaped.

Eagerly we went forth to count the dead, expecting to find

them in heaps. But there was not one dead. The gun had been

aimed very wide of the mark. Two hundred yards north of the

'Boxers' there is a place where 30 ft. above the level road

the telegraph wires crossed to the station. Next morning they

were found to have been cut by the Austrian fire. The only

persons who suffered injury were possible wayfarers two miles

up the street. There can be little doubt that this fiasco

helped to confirm the Boxers in a belief in their

invulnerability.

"The Tung-tang, or East Cathedral, having been burned, it, was

clear that the Nan-tang, the South Cathedral, was in danger.

Père Garrigues, the aged priest of the Tung-tang, had refused

to leave his post and had perished in the flames. But the

fathers and sisters at the Nan-tang might yet be saved. Their

lives were in great peril; it was necessary to act quickly. A

party of French gentlemen, led by M. Fliche of the French

Legation and accompanied by M. and Mme. Chamot, rode out at

night, and early the following morning safely escorted to the

hotel every member of the mission—Père d' Addosio and his two

colleagues, a French brother, five sisters of charity, and

some twenty native nuns of the Order of Josephine. They were

rescued just in time. Scarcely had they reached a place of

safety when the splendid edifice they had forsaken was in

flames. … It continued burning all day, the region round it,

the chief Catholic centre of Peking, being also burnt. Acres

of houses were destroyed and the Christians in thousands put

to the sword. …

"On the 15th rescue parties were sent out by the American and

Russian Legations in the morning, and by the British and

German Legations in the afternoon, to save if possible native

Christians from the burning ruins around the Nan-tang. Awful

sights were witnessed. Women and children hacked to pieces,

men trussed like fowls, with noses and ears cut off and eyes

gouged out. Chinese Christians accompanied the reliefs and ran

about in the labyrinth of network of streets that formed the

quarter, calling upon the Christians to come out from their

hiding-places. All through the night the massacre had

continued, and 'Boxers' were even now shot redhanded at their

bloody work. But their work was still incomplete, and many

hundreds of women and children had escaped. They came out of

their hiding-places crossing themselves and pleading for

mercy. It was a most pitiful sight. Thousands of soldiers on

the wall witnessed the rescue; they had with callous hearts

witnessed the massacre without ever raising a hand to save.

During the awful nights of the 13th and 14th Duke Lan, the

brother of Prince Tuan, and Chao Shu-Chiao, of the

Tsung-li-Yamên, had followed round in their carts to gloat

over the spectacle. Yet the Chinese Government were afterwards

to describe this massacre done under official supervision

under the very walls of the Imperial Palace as the handiwork

of local banditti. More than 1,200 of the poor refugees were

escorted by the 'foreign devils' to a place of safety. Many

were wounded, many were burnt beyond recognition. All had

suffered the loss of every thing they possessed in the world.

They were given quarters in the palace grounds of Prince Su,

opposite the British Legation. Among them was the aged mother

and the nephew of Ching Chang, recently Minister to France,

and now Chinese Commissioner to the Paris Exhibition. The

nephew was cruelly burnt; nearly every other member of the

family was murdered. A Catholic family of much distinction—a

family Catholic for seven generations—was thus almost

exterminated and its property laid in ashes. It was announced

this day that only 'Boxers' might enter the Imperial City. The

Government was rushing headlong to its ruin.

"On June 16 a party of twenty British, ten Americans, and five

Japanese, with some Volunteers, and accompanied by

Lieutenant-Colonel Shiba, the Japanese military attache,

patrolled the East City, visiting the ruins in the hopes that

some Christians might yet be in hiding. But to our calls

everywhere no reply was given. Refugees, however, from the

East City had managed to escape miraculously and find their

way, many of them wounded, to the foreign Legations, seeking

that protection and humanity that was denied them by their own

people. As the patrol was passing a Taoist temple on the way,

a noted 'Boxer' meeting place, cries were heard within. The

temple was forcibly entered. Native Christians were found

there, their hands tied behind their backs, awaiting execution

and torture. Some had already been put to death, and their

bodies were still warm and bleeding. All were shockingly

mutilated. Their fiendish murderers were at their incantations

burning incense before their gods, offering Christians in

sacrifice to their angered deities. They shut themselves

within the temple, but their defence availed them nothing.

Everyone of them, 46 in all, was in 'Boxer' uniform armed with

sword and lance. Retribution was swift; every man was shot to

death without mercy. In the afternoon a fire broke out in the

foreign drug store in the native city outside the great gate

of the Chien Mên.

{118}

It was the work of 'Boxers,' done while the soldiers were

looking on. In order to burn the foreign drug store and do the

foreigners a few pounds worth of damage, they did not hesitate

to jeopardize by fire property worth millions of pounds, and that

is what happened. Adjoining buildings took fire, the flames

spread to the booksellers' street, and the most interesting

street in China, filled with priceless scrolls, manuscripts,

and printed books, was gutted from end to end. Fire licked up

house after house, and soon the conflagration was the most

disastrous ever known in China, reducing to ashes the richest

part of Peking, the pearl and jewel shops, the silk and fur,

the satin and embroidery stores, the great curio shops, the

gold and silver shops, the melting houses, and nearly all that

was of the highest value in the metropolis. Irreparable was

the damage done. …

"During the night the Americans, fearing an attack from the

street at the back of their Legation, kept the street clear

till daybreak. During one of the volleys four of the

Tsung-li-Yamên Ministers called upon the American Minister.

They were blandly assuring him that all was now quiet, that

there was no need for further alarm, that great was the

tenderness of the Throne for men from afar, when a rattle of

musketry was heard which rendered them speechless with fear.

They hurriedly went away. Assurances of the Throne's

tenderness did not deceive us. Our barricades were everywhere

strengthened and defences systematically planned, for rumour

was quick to reach us that the relief forces had been driven

back to Tien-tsin, and this did not add to the security of our

position. Inside the Imperial City wall, within one hundred

yards of the British picket on the north bridge a large

Chinese camp was formed. Peking was in a state of panic, all

the streets near the foreign quarters were empty, and people

were fleeing from the city. There was a run on the banks, and

the Ssu-ta-hêng, the four great banks, the leading banks of

Peking, closed their doors, and paper money was not in

circulation. The Palace of Prince Su was occupied by the

refugees, and its defence, the most important of all and a

vital one to the British Legation, was entrusted to Colonel

Shiba and Japanese marines and volunteers.

"The crisis was approaching. On the morning of June 19 Mr.

Cordes, the Chinese Secretary of the German Legation, was at

the Yamên, when the secretaries told him that the allied

fleets had taken the Ta-ku forts on June 17. This was

remembered when at 4.30 in the afternoon an ultimatum was sent

to the foreign Ministers. It was a bolt from the blue. They

were to leave Peking within 24 hours. 'A despatch,' they

wrote, 'has arrived from the Viceroy Yu Lu, forwarding a note

which he has received from the doyen of the Consular body in

Tien-tsin, the French Comte du Chaylard, to say that, unless

foreign troops are at once permitted to land at Tien-tsin, the

allied fleets will bombard the Ta-ku forts. As this is

equivalent to a declaration of war, the Tsung-li-Yamên

herewith notify the foreign Ministers that they must leave

Peking within 24 hours, otherwise protection cannot be

guaranteed to them. They will be given safe conduct and

transport.' It was quite in accordance with Chinese custom

that a despatch saying that the seizure of the Ta-ku forts had

been threatened should be sent after the seizure had been

effected. What is distasteful to them to say they avoid

saying. A meeting of the diplomatic body was at once held. It

was decided to accept the ultimatum. They had been given their

passports by the Chinese Government; what other course was

open to them? … Word was passed round that preparation had to

be made to leave Peking the following day. Mr. Conger, the

American Minister, asked for 100 carts; and his Legation spent

most of the night making preparations. No packing was done at

the British Legation, for it was there considered

inconceivable that China should insist upon sending the

Ministers their passports. Only two days before, in the

'Peking Gazette' of June 17, it had been officially announced

that the road to Tien-tsin was unsafe. … When the decision of

the Diplomatic Body became known in Peking the most profound

indignation was everywhere expressed at so unworthy a decision

and the most profound astonishment that such a course of

action should have received the support of M. Pichon, the

French Minister 'Protecteur des Missions Catholiques en

Chine,' and of so humane a man as Mr. Conger, the American

Minister; for to leave Peking meant the immediate abandonment

to massacre of the thousands of native Christians who had

trusted the foreigner and believed in his good faith.

"Early on the morning of the 20th a meeting of the Diplomatic

Body was held at the French Legation. No reply had been

received from the Tsung-li-Yamên to the request for an

audience, and the proposition that all the Ministers should go

to the Yamên found no seconder. Had it been carried out, there

would have occurred one of the most appalling massacres on

record. Two chairs later left for the Yamên. In the first was

the German Minister, Baron van Ketteler, who had this

advantage over the other Ministers, that he spoke Chinese

fluently. In the second was the Chinese Secretary of the

German Legation, Mr. Cordes. News travels quickly in Peking.

Not many minutes later my boy burst into my office—'Any man

speakee have makee kill German Minister!' It was true. The

German Minister had been assassinated by an Imperial officer.

The Secretary had been grievously wounded, but, running for

his life, shot at by a hundred rifles, had escaped as if by a

miracle. A patrol of 15 men under Count Soden, the commander,

went out to recover the body. Fired on by Chinese soldiers

from every side, they were forced to retire. … There was no

more question about leaving for Tien-tsin. Later in the day

the Yamên, evidently indifferent to the gravity of the

position created by the Government, sent an impudent despatch

to the German Legation to the effect that two Germans had been

proceeding in chairs along the Hata Mên-street, and at the

mouth of the street leading to the Tsung-li-Yamên one of them

had fired upon the crowd. The Chinese had retaliated and he

had been killed. They wished to know his name. No reply was

sent, for it was felt to be a mockery. Only too well the Yamên

knew whom they had murdered. Weeks passed before the body was

recovered, and it was not until July 18 that any official

reference was made to the murder. In the course of the morning

a despatch was sent to the Diplomatic Body in reply to the

answer they had sent to the ultimatum of yesterday.

{119}

The country, it said, between Peking and Tien-tsin was overrun

with brigands, and it would not be safe for the Ministers to go

there. They should therefore remain in Peking. It is difficult

to write with calmness of the treachery with which the Chinese

were now acting. Four p. m. was the hour given in the ultimatum

for the Ministers to vacate their Legations, but the ultimatum

had been rescinded, and the Ministers invited to remain in

Peking. Thus it was hoped that they would be lulled into a

false security. Chinese soldiers were secretly stationed under

cover at every vantage point commanding the outposts. At 4 p.

m. precisely to the minute, by preconcerted signal, they

opened fire upon the Austrian and French outposts. A French

marine fell shot dead through the forehead. An Austrian was

wounded. The siege had begun.

"At this time (June 20), at the opening of the siege, the

total strength of the combined Legation guards consisted of 18

officers and 389 men, distributed as follows:

"American.

Three officers, Captain Myers in command, Captain Hall,

Surgeon Lippett, and 53 marines from the Newark.

"Austrian.

Five officers, Captain Thomann, the Commander of the Zenta,

Flag-Lieutenant von Winterhalder, Lieutenant Kollar,

two mid-shipmen, and 30 marines from the Zenta.

"British.

Three officers, Captain B. M. Strouts in command,

Captain Halliday, Captain Wray, and 79 men R. M. L. I.

-30 from H. M. S. Orlando and 49 from Wei-hai-wei.

"French.

Two officers, Captain Darcy and Midshipman Herbert, and

45 marines from the D'Entrecasteaux and Descartes.

"German.

Lieutenant Graf Soden and 51 marines of the

3rd Battalion Kiao-chau.

"Italian.

Lieutenant Paolini and 28 blue-jackets from the Elba.

"Japanese.

Lieutenant Hara and 24 marines from the Atago.

"Russian.

Two officers, Lieutenant Baron von Rahden and Lieutenant

von Dehn, and 79 men—72 marines from the Sissoi Veliki and

Navarin and seven Legation Cossacks.

"Total,

18 officers and 389 men.

"In addition the French sent Lieutenant Henry and 30 men to

guard the Pei-tang Cathedral, and the Italians detached one

officer, Lieutenant Cavalieri, and 11 men for the same humane

mission. To this insignificant force of 18 officers and 389

men of eight nationalities the entire foreign quarter had to

trust for its defence. Fortunately several visitors or

residents had received military training, and they at once

went on the active list and rendered invaluable service. … A

volunteer force numbering altogether 75 men, of whom 31 were

Japanese, was enrolled and armed with all available rifles.

They added greatly to the strength of the garrison, taking

watch and watch like the Regulars, fighting behind the

barricades, and never shrinking from any duty imposed upon

them. There was also an irregular force of 50 gentlemen of

many nationalities, who did garrison guard duty in the British

Legation and were most useful. They were known, from the

gentleman who enrolled them, as 'Thornhill's Roughs,' and they

bore themselves as the legitimate successors on foot of

Roosevelt's Roughriders. Armed with a variety of weapons, from

an elephant rifle to the 'fusil de chasse' with a picture of

the Grand Prix, to all of which carving knives had been lashed

as bayonets, they were known as the 'Carving Knife Brigade.' …

Such were the effective forces. They were provided with four

guns, an Italian one-pounder with 120 rounds, an American Colt

with 25,000 rounds, an Austrian machine gun, and a British

five-barrel Nordenfelt, pattern 1887. Rifle ammunition was

very scanty. The Japanese had only 100 rounds apiece, the

Russians 145, and the Italians 120, while the best provided of

the other guards had only 300 rounds per man, none too many

for a siege the duration of which could not be foreseen.

"Punctually, then, at 4 o'clock Chinese soldiers began firing

upon us whom they had requested to remain in peace at Peking.

And immediately after the Austrian Legation was abandoned. No

sufficient reason has been given for its abandonment, which

was done so precipitately that not an article was saved. It

was left to the mercy of the Chinese, and the guard retired to

the corner of Customs-lane, leading west to the Prince's

Palace. This involved the sacrifice of Sir Robert Hart's and

all the Customs buildings, and hastened the advance of the

Chinese westward. As previously arranged, the American mission

buildings had been abandoned in the morning, for they were

quite untenable. All the missionaries, their wives, and

families crossed over to the British Legation. Converts to the

number of several hundreds joined the other refugees. The

captain and 20 American marines returned to the American

Legation. By an error of judgment on the part of the captain

the mission was finally left in a panic. Almost nothing was

saved, and nearly all the stores accumulated for a siege were

lost. The British Legation was now thronged. Rarely has a more

cosmopolitan gathering been gathered together within the limits

of one compound. All the women and children were there, all

the missionaries, American, British, French, and Russian, all

the Customs staff, the French, Belgian, Russian, American,

Spanish, Japanese, and Italian Ministers, and their families,

the entire unofficial foreign community of Peking, with the

exception of M. Chamot, who remained in his hotel throughout,

though it was in the hottest corner of the besieged area. …

French volunteers bravely stood by their own Legation, and the

Austrian Charge d'Affaires and Mme. von Rosthorn remained there

as long as there was a room habitable. Mr. Squiers, the first

Secretary of the American Legation, with Mr. Cheshire, the

Chinese Secretary, and Mr. Pethiek, the well-known private

secretary of Li Hung Chang, stayed by the United States

Legation, and the staff of the German Legation also kept

stanchly to their posts. … At the British Legation

fortification began in real earnest, the refugees working like

coolies. Sand-bags were made by the thousand, and posts

mounted round the Legation. A way was knocked through the

houses to the Russian Legation, so that the Americans, if they

had to fall back, could pass through to the British Legation.

During the day every Legation was exposed to a continuous fire

from surrounding house-tops, and in the case of the British

Legation from the cover in the Imperial Carriage Park. Chinese

put flames to the abandoned buildings, and the Belgian

Legation, the Austrian Legation, the Methodist Mission, and

some private houses were burned.

{120}

"June 22 opened disastrously. The evening before, Captain

Thomann, the Austrian commander, announced that as the senior

officer he had taken command in Peking. This morning, hearing

from an irresponsible American that the American Legation was

abandoned, he, without taking steps to verify the information,

ordered the abandonment of all the Legations cast of

Canal-street, the detachments to fall back upon the British

Legation. There had been no casualties to speak of, none of

the Legations had been attacked, and every commander who

received the order to retreat regarded the action as madness.

Peremptory orders were sent to the Japanese to abandon the

Prince's Palace or Fu (as I shall henceforth call it), and

they retired to their Legation. In the British Legation

nothing was known of the order when, to the amazement of all,

the Italians, Austrians, and French came running down

Legation-street, followed a little later by the Japanese, and

subsequently by the Germans, who recalled their post on the

wall and marched without a shot being fired at them down under

the wall to Canal-street. Americans and Russians, learning

that all east of Canal-street had been abandoned, saw

themselves cut off, though their communications had not even

been menaced, and retreated precipitately into the British

Legation. It was a veritable stampede—a panic that might have

been fraught with the gravest disaster. Prompt action was

taken. Captain Thomann was relieved of his command, and Sir

Claude MacDonald, at the urgent instance of the French and

Russian Ministers, subsequently confirmed by all their

colleagues, assumed the chief command. The French and

Austrians reoccupied the French Legation, but the barricade in

Customs-street was lost. One German only was killed and the

position was saved, but the blunder might have been

disastrous.

"It was obvious from the first that the great danger at the

British Legation was not so much from rifle-fire as from

incendiarism, for on three sides the compound was surrounded

by Chinese buildings of a highly inflammable nature. Before

time could be given to clear an open space round the Legation,

the buildings to the rear of Mr. Cockburn's house were set on

fire, and as the wind was blowing strongly towards us it

seemed as if nothing could prevent the fire from bursting into

the Legation. Water had to be used sparingly, for the wells

were lower than they had been for years, yet the flames had to

be fought. Bullets were whistling through the trees. Private

Scadding, the first Englishman to fall, was killed while on

watch on the stables near by. Men and women lined up, and

water passed along in buckets to a small fire engine that was

played upon the fire. Walls were broken through, trees hastily

cut down, and desperate work saved the building. It was the

first experience of intense excitement. Then the men set to

with a will, and till late at night were demolishing the

temple and buildings outside the wall of the Legation. Work

was continued in the morning, but when it was proposed to pull

down an unimportant building in 'the Hanlin Academy that abuts

upon the Legation to the North, the proposition was vetoed.

Such desecration, it was said, would wound the

susceptibilities of the Chinese Government. It was 'the most

sacred building in China.' To lay hands upon it, even to

safeguard the lives of beleaguered women and children, could

not be thought of, for fear of wounding the susceptibilities

of the Chinese Government! So little do the oldest of us

understand the Chinese.

"A strong wind was blowing from the Hanlin into the Legation,

the distance separating the nearest building from the

Minister's residence being only a few feet. Fire the one and

the Minister's residence would have been in danger. Suddenly

there was the alarm of fire. Smoke was rising from the Hanlin.

The most venerated pile in Peking, the great Imperial Academy,

centre of all Chinese learning, with its priceless collection of

books and manuscripts, was in flames. Everyone who was off

duty rushed to the back of the Legation. The Hanlin had been

occupied during the night by Imperial soldiers, who did not

hesitate, in their rage to destroy the foreigners, to set fire

to the buildings. It was first necessary to clear the temple.

A breach was made in the wall, Captain Poole headed a force of

Marines and volunteers who rushed in, divided, searched the

courts, and returned to the main pavilion with its superb

pillars and memorial tablets. Chinese were rushing from other

burning pavilions to the main entrance. They were taken by

surprise and many were killed, but they had done their evil

deed. … To save the Legation it was necessary to continue the

destruction and dismantle the library buildings. With great

difficulty, with inadequate tools, the buildings were pulled

down. Trees endangering our position were felled. An attempt

was made to rescue specimens of the more valuable manuscripts,

but few were saved for the danger was pressing. Sir Claude

MacDonald, as soon as the fire was discovered, despatched a

messenger to the Tsung-li-Yamên, telling them of the fire and

urging them to send some responsible officials to carry away

what volumes could be rescued, but no attention was given to

his courteous communication. The Dutch Legation was burned on

the 22nd, and next day Chinese soldiers set fire to the

Russo-Chinese Bank, and a greater part of the buildings were

destroyed, involving in danger the American Legation. Chinese

volunteers were called for. They responded readily, worked

with much courage exposed to fire from the wall, and the

Legation was saved. All the buildings back from the bank to

the Chien Mên (the main gate between the Chinese and Tartar

cities facing the entrance to the Forbidden City) seemed to be

on fire. Then all the Customs buildings were fired, so that

flames were on every side, and the smoke was tremendous, while

the fusillade was incessant. An Italian and a German died of

their wounds. The first American was killed, shot from the

wall, then a Russian fell. They were dropping off one by one,

and already we were well accustomed to the sight of the

stretcher and the funeral. Wounded were being brought in from

every Legation to the hospital in the British Legation. …

{121}

"Then a new terror was added to the fears of the besieged, for

the Imperial troops mounted a 3 in. Krupp gun on the Chien Mên,

the gate opposite to the Forbidden City, and began throwing

segment shells from a distance of 1,000 yards into the crowded

Legation. The first shell struck the American Legation, others

burst over the British compound, while others crashed into the

upper rooms of the German Legation. It was known that the

Chinese had ten similar guns in Peking, while we had nothing

with which to answer their fire, and no one ever knew where

the next gun might be mounted. Immediately all hands dug

bomb-proof shelters for the women and children. Rifle fire

also played on the Americans from the wall quite close to them

at a distance of a few hundred feet only, whence, safely

sheltered by the parapet of the wall, men could enfilade the

barricade which was held by the Americans on the street

running east and west under the wall. The barricade became

untenable, and to occupy the wall was a paramount necessity

which could no longer be delayed. … Down in the besieged area

the enemy pressed upon every side. Again they attempted to

fire the British Legation from the Mongol market on the west;

but a sortie was made by British Marines and Volunteers, and

the Chinese were driven from house to house out of the market.

The work was dangerous, and Captain Halliday was dangerously

wounded, while Captain Strouts had an extraordinary escape,

the bullet grazing the skin above the carotid artery. The

sortie was entirely successful; some rifles were captured, and

ammunition, which was more precious than silver. The buildings

were then fired by us, the fire being kept under control,

which cleared a long distance round the west of the Legation.

Fortification proceeded without intermission and all the

defences of the besieged area quickly gathered strength. For

the first time in war, art was a feature in the fortification.

Sandbags were of every colour under the sun and of every texture.

Silks and satins, curtains and carpets and embroideries were

ruthlessly cut up into sandbags. In the Prince's Fu the

sandbags were made of the richest silks and satins, the

Imperial gifts and accumulated treasures of one of the eight

princely families of China. In the Prince's Fu the Chinese

made a determined attempt to force their way into the Palace

in their frenzy to slaughter the native Christians. In the

angle of the wall in the northeastern court of the Palace they

made a breach in the wall and rushed wildly in. But the

Japanese were waiting for them and from loopholes they had

made opposite rolled them over like rabbits, driving them

helter-skelter back again. Some 20 were killed, and but for

the unsteadiness of the Italians who were assisting the

Japanese the execution would have been greater. The Chinese

were driven back, but the same evening they threw fireballs of

petroleum over the wall and set fire to the building. Flames

spread to the splendid main pavilion of the Palace. The

Japanese in their turn were driven back, and the Christians

escaping from the burning building overflowed from the Fu into

all that quarter lying between the Palace grounds and

Legation-street.

"On June 25 a truly Oriental method of weakening our defence

was attempted by the Chinese. Up to 4 o'clock in the afternoon

the shooting of rifles and field guns had been continuous,

when suddenly bugles were sounded north, east, south, and

west, and, as if by magic, the firing ceased. It was under

perfect control—Imperial control commanded by responsible

central authority. The silence abruptly following the

fusillade was striking. Then an official of low rank was seen

to affix to the parapet of the north bridge near the British

Legation a board inscribed with 18 Chinese

characters:—'Imperial command to protect Ministers and stop

firing. A despatch will be handed at the Imperial Canal

Bridge.' A placard whereon was written 'Despatch will be

received' was sent by one of the Chinese clerks employed in

the Legation, but when he approached the bridge a hundred

rifles from the Imperial Palace gate were levelled at him. The

despatch was never received. The artifice deceived no one.

Treachery was feared, vigilance was redoubled. Sandbags were

thrown on positions which during fire were untenable. So that

when at midnight the general attack was made upon us we were

prepared, and every man was at his post. The surprise had

failed. As firing had ceased so it began. Horns were sounded,

and then from every quarter a hail of bullets poured over us,

sweeping through the trees and striking with sharp impact the

roofs of the pavilions. No harm was done though the noise was

terrific. Great steadiness was shown by the men. They lay

quietly behind the sandbags and not a shot was fired in reply.

It was suggested as an explanation of this wild firing that

the shots were to kill the guardian spirits which were known

to hover over us. Similar fusillades took place at the

American Legation and at the French Legation, and with the

same result. During the armistice the Chinese had availed

themselves of the quiet to throw up earthworks in the Carriage

Park alongside the British Legation, in the Mongol market

between the British and Russian Legations, and at both ends of

Legation-street facing the Americans on the west and facing

the French Legation corner on the east.

"Our isolation was now complete, and the enemy's cordon was

constantly drawing closer. Every wall beyond the lines was

loopholed. Not only was the besieged area cut off from all

communication with the world outside Peking, but it was cut

off from all communication with the Pei-tang. No messenger

could be induced for love or money to carry a message there.

Bishop Favier and his guards must have been already hard

pressed, for they were exposed to the danger not only of rifle

and cannon, but of fire and starvation. The small garrison

detached from the guards was known to be inadequately supplied

with ammunition. It was known, however, that the danger of the

situation had long been foreseen by Monseigneur Favier, who,

speaking with unequalled authority, had weeks before the siege

vainly urged his Minister to bring troops to Peking. When the

crisis became inevitable and Christian refugees poured into

the city the Bishop endeavoured to buy arms and ammunition, so

that there was a hope, though a faint one, that the Chinese

themselves had assisted in the defence. So with stores. Large

quantities of grain were stored in the Pei-tang, but whether

sufficient for a siege for a garrison of 3,000 souls was not

known. Their condition was a constant source of anxiety to the

Europeans within the Legations, who were powerless to help

them. Watch was kept unceasingly for any sign of the disaster

that seemed inevitable—the massacre and the conflagration.

{122}

"Towards evening of the 28th a Krupp gun was mounted in the

Mongol market, not 300 yards from the British Legation, and

fire was opened upon a storeyed building occupied by marines

in the south court of the Legation. Fired at short range, the

shells crashed through the roof and walls. For an hour the

bombardment continued, but no one was injured, though a crack

racing pony in the stables below was killed, and next day

eaten. It was determined to capture this gun, so in the early

morning a force consisting of 26 British, ten Germans, ten

Russians, five French, and five Italians, and about 20

volunteers made a sortie from the Legation to try and capture

the gun and burn the houses covering it; but the attempt was a

fiasco. The men got tangled up in the lanes so that the reserve

line with the kerosene marched ahead of the firing line; there

was a Babel of voices, no one knew where to go, the captain

lost his head and set fire to the houses in the rear and the

men retreated pell-mell. … The Chinese, however, were alarmed

and removed the gun. Meanwhile both French and German

Legations had suffered heavily. …

"On the 29th the French Legation was hard pressed. One of

their officers, the midshipman Herbert, was shot.

Reinforcements were hastily sent from the Fu, and the attack

was repulsed; but some of the outer buildings of the Legation

were burned, and the French had to retire further into the

Legation. In this siege it was striking what a powerful part

petroleum was made to play. Already the French Legation had

suffered more severely than any other Legation; of their 45

men 16 had been killed or wounded. Krupp guns had been mounted

not 50 yards to the eastward, and the eastern walls of the

pavilions were being gradually and systematically battered

into ruins. All day now and until the cessation of hostilities

shells were pounding into the French Legation, into Chamot's

hotel, and from the Chien Mên on the wall, promiscuously,

everywhere. Much property was destroyed, but, though the

shells burst everywhere and escapes were marvellous, few

people were hit. Bullets whistled in the Legation compounds.

Surgeon Lippett was talking to Mr. Conger in the American

Legation when he was hit by a bullet that smashed the thigh

bone. Had the bullet not struck the surgeon it would have hit

the Minister. Mr. Pethick was sitting at a window of the

American Legation fanning himself when a bullet pierced the

fan. A civilian was wounded in the British Legation, and a

marine, Phillips, was killed while walking in the compound.

A fragment of shell fell on a patient inside the hospital.

"The cordon was drawing closer. In the Fu nearly one-third of

the buildings had been abandoned and the Japanese retired to a

second line of defence. Shells were fired by the hundred. On

the 29th 70 shells were thrown into the British Legation. The

difficulty of holding the American and German barricades on

the city wall was increasing. The positions were very much

exposed. A Krupp gun was brought close to the American

barricade. The Russo-Chinese Bank and all the buildings near

were occupied by Chinese troops, the walls being loopholed and

lanes barricaded. And all were so close that you could not

look through a loop-hole without being shot at. Yet the

American barricade, with its mixed guard of Americans,

Russians, and British, had to be held at all hazards;

otherwise the Krupp gun could be brought down the wall and

play havoc upon the Legations, the furthest of which—the

British—was at its nearest point not 400 yards distant. Still

more exposed than the American barricade was the outpost on

the wall held by the Germans. At first they had been

reinforced by the French and Austrians, but the needs of the

French Legation were equally pressing and the guards were

withdrawn and a small picket of British sent to aid the

Germans. … In the morning of July 1 the Chinese climbed up the

ramp and surprised the guard. The order was hastily given to

retire, and the picket, shaken by its losses of yesterday,

left the wall. The German non-commissioned officer who gave

the order was severely blamed for thus abandoning a position

that he had been ordered to hold. Withdrawal left the

Americans exposed in the rear. They saw the Germans retire,

and in a panic fell back to the Legation, rushing pell-mell

down the ramp. Nothing had occurred at the barricade itself to

justify the retreat, although two men had fallen within a few

hours before. Yet the wall was the key of the position and had

to be maintained. A conference was held at the British

Legation, and as a result orders were given to return to the

post. Captain Myers at once took back a strong detachment of

14 Americans, ten British, and ten Russians, and reoccupied

the barricade as if nothing had happened. The Chinese,

ignorant that the post had been evacuated, lost their

opportunity. Then the guard in the French Legation was driven

a stage further back and M. Wagner, a volunteer, was killed by

the bursting of a shell. …

"It was a day of misfortunes. In the afternoon the most

disastrous sortie of the siege was attempted. A Krupp gun,

firing at short range into the Fu (i. e., the Prince's

Palace), was a serious menace to our communications. Captain

Paolini, the Italian officer, conceived the idea that he could

capture the gun if volunteers could be given him and if the

Japanese could assist. … By this ineffective sortie our small

garrison was reduced by three men killed, one officer and four

men and one volunteer wounded. Fortunately it was no worse.

The gun that was not captured was brought up again next day

into play and continued battering down the Fu walls. The enemy

were working their way ever nearer to the refugee Christians.

Their rage to reach the Christians was appalling. They cursed

them from over the wall, hurled stones at them, and threw

shells to explode overhead. Only after the armistice, when we

received the 'Peking Gazette,' did we find that word to burn

out and slaughter the converts had come from the highest in

the land. The Japanese were driven still further back. Already

they had lost heavily, for upon them had fallen the brunt of a

defence the gallantry of which surpassed all praise. When the

siege was raised it was found that of the entire force of

marines only five men had escaped without wounds; one was

wounded five times. Colonel Shiba early raised a force of

'Christian volunteers,' drilled them, instructed them, and

armed them with rifles captured from the enemy. They made an

effective addition to the Japanese strength. …

{123}

"At daybreak on July 3, the Chinese barricade on the top of

the wall near the American outpost was successfully stormed by

a party of British, Americans, and Russians, under the leadership

of Captain Myers, Captain Vroublevsky, and Mr. Nigel Oliphant.

… The position was intolerable. It was imperative to rush the

barricade and drive out the Chinese; nothing else could be

done. An attack was planned for 3 in the morning, and before

that hour a strong force of British was sent over from the

legation. The combined force assembled for the attack

consisted of 26 British marines under Sergeant Murphy and

Corporal Gregory, with Mr. Nigel Oliphant as volunteer, 15

Russians under Captain Vroublevsky, and 15 Americans, all

being under the command of Captain Myers. When asked if they

came willingly one American begged to be relieved and was sent

below. This left the total force at 56, of whom 14 were

Americans. So close were the Chinese that it was only a couple

of jumps from our barricade to their fort. There was a rush to

be first over, the fort was stormed, and dashing round the

covering wall the 'foreign devils' charged behind the

barricade. Taken by surprise the Chinese fired in the air,

fled incontinently, and were shot down as they ran along the

open surface of the wall. Captain Vroublevsky and his

detachment acted with especial gallantry, for their duty it

was to attack the Chinese barricade in the front, while the

British and Americans took it in the rear. Two banners marked

'General Ma' were captured. Fifteen Chinese soldiers of

Tung-fuh-siang were killed outright and many more must have

been wounded. Some rifles and ammunition were captured. Then

the allied forces, exposed to a heavy fire, retired within

what had been the Chinese barricade and employed it against

the enemy who had built it. Captain Myers was wounded in the

knee by tripping over a fallen spear, two Americans, Turner

and Thomas—one having accidentally jumped on the wrong side of

the barricade—were killed, and Corporal Gregory was wounded in

the foot. News of the successful sortie gave much pleasure to

the community. Chinese coolies were sent on the wall, and a

strongly intrenched redoubt was built there; the camp was made

safe by traverses. Unfortunately, the wound of Captain Myers

proved more serious than was at first suspected, and he was

not again able to return to duty. The services of a brave and

capable officer were lost to the garrison; his post on the

wall was taken most ably by Captain Percy Smith and other

officers in turn.

"Most of the shelling was now directed against the French and

German Legations and Chamot's Hotel. The hotel was struck 91

times and was several times set on fire, but the flame was

extinguished. Work continued there, however hot the shelling,

for food had to be prepared there for half the community in

Peking, Russians, French, Germans, and Austrians. The energy

of Chamot was marvellous. He fed the troops and a crowd of

Christian refugees, killed his own mules and horses, ground

his own wheat, and baked 300 loaves a day. Shelled out of the

kitchen he baked in the parlour. His courage inspired the

Chinese, and they followed him under fire with an amazing

confidence.

"Then suddenly a new attempt was made to reduce the British

Legation. Guns firing round shot, eight-pounders and

four-pounders, were mounted on the Imperial City wall

overlooking from the north the Hanlin and the British

Legation. With glasses—the distance was only 350 yards—one

could clearly see the officers and distinguish their Imperial

Peacock feathers and Mandarin hats. … Three batteries in all,

carrying five guns, were mounted on the Imperial City wall

where the bombardment could be witnessed by the Empress

Dowager and her counsellors, and day after day round shot were

thrown from them into the British Legation, into a compound

crowded with women and children. … On July 5 Mr. David

Oliphant, of the British Legation, was killed. He was felling

a tree by the well in the Hanlin when he was shot by a sniper

concealed in a roof in the Imperial Carriage Park, and died

within an hour. Only 24 years of age, he was a student of

exceptional promise and ability. …

"Day by day the Chinese were pressing us more closely. In the

Fu they were gradually wedging their way in from the

north-east so as to cut the communications between the British

and the Legations to the east. They burned their way from house

to house. Keeping under cover, they set alight the gables

within reach by torches of cloth soaked in kerosene held at

the end of long poles. If the roof were beyond reach they

threw over fireballs of kerosene, or, if still further, shot

into them with arrows freighted with burning cloth. In this

way and with the use of the heavy gun they battered a way

through the houses and courtyards of the Prince's Palace. A

daring attempt made by the Japanese to capture the gun

resulted in failure. Coolies failed them when they were within

four yards of success, and they were forced to retire. Their

gallant leader Captain Ando was shot in the throat while

waving on his men, one marine was seriously wounded, and one

Christian volunteer killed. … By the 8th the position in the

Fu was alarming, for the Japanese force had been reduced to 13

marines and 14 volunteers; yet with decreasing numbers they

were constantly called upon to defend a longer line.

Reinforcements were sent them of half-a-dozen Customs and

student volunteers and of six British marines. Nothing can

give a better indication of the smallness of our garrison than

the fact that throughout the siege reinforcements meant five men

or ten men. Strong reinforcements meant 15 men. Our

reinforcements were counted by ones, not by companies. With

this force a line of intrenchments stretching from the outer

court of the Fu on the east across the grounds to near the

extreme northwest corner was held till the end. … The position

was one of constant solicitude, for the loss of the Fu would

have imperilled the British Legation. A Krupp gun, mounted 50

yards away, had the range and raked the post with shell and

shrapnel. To strengthen the breastwork exposure to rifle fire

was incurred from 20 yards' distance, while to reach the post

required crossing a zone of fire which was perhaps the hottest

in the whole of the defences. Many men were wounded there, and

one Italian had his head blown off. Shell fire finally made it

impossible to live there. The advanced posts were abandoned,

and the sentries fell back to the main picket. No sooner was

the advanced post abandoned than it was occupied by the

Chinese, and the defences we had made were turned against us.

{124}

"Meanwhile, the French and German Legations were being roughly

handled, and men were falling daily. At the German Legation

shells burst through the Minister's drawing-room. Most of the

other buildings conspicuous by their height were

uninhabitable, but every member of the Legation remained at

his post. So, too, in the French Legation, where the Austrians

were, Dr. and Madame von Rosthorn remained by the side of

their men. The French volunteers and Dr. Matignon stood

stanchly by their Legation, although it was fast tumbling into

ruins, their coolness and resolution being in curious contrast

to the despair of their Minister, who, crying, 'Tout est perdu,'

melodramatically burned the French archives in a ditch at the

British Legation. Chinese and French were so close that the

voices of the Chinese officers could be heard encouraging

their men. Chinese were within the Legation itself. Their guns

literally bombarded the Minister's residence 'à bout portant,'

and the noise of the exploding shells was terrific. Yet the men

never flinched. … July 11 was a day of many casualties. One

German was mortally wounded; one Englishman, one Italian, and

one Japanese were seriously wounded. Mr. Nigel Oliphant, a

volunteer, received a bullet wound in the leg, while Mr.

Narahara, the well-known secretary of the Japanese Legation,

wounded by the bursting of a shell, suffered a compound

fracture of the leg, which from the first gave cause for

anxiety. He gradually sank and died on July 24. …

On the 11th 18 prisoners were captured by the French in a

temple near the Legation. They were soldiers, and a Chinese

Christian gave information as to their whereabouts. Everyone

of them was put to death without mercy in the French Legation,

bayoneted by a French corporal to save cartridges. Questioned

before death they gave much information that was obviously

false. One man, however, declared that a mine was being driven

under the French Legation. His story had quick corroboration.

As the afternoon of the 13th was closing a feint attack was

made on the Japanese intrenchments in the Fu. Then the sound

of many bugles was heard from the camps round the French

Legation, to be followed in a few minutes by a terrific

explosion, and in a moment or two by another; and bricks and

debris were hurled into the air. It was a dull roar in the

midst of the devilish cries of hordes of Chinese, shrieking

like spirits in hell, the rattle of musketry, and the boom of

heavy guns. The mine of which the prisoner had warned us had

exploded and burst an entrance into the French Legation. When

the first mine exploded the French Captain Darcy, the Austrian

Charge d'Affaires, two French marines, and Mr. Destelan of the

Customs were standing over the death-trap. Mr. Destelan was

buried up to the neck, but was rescued unhurt, the two marines

were engulfed and their bodies were never recovered, Captain

Darcy and Dr. von Rosthorn escaped miraculously. The latter

was buried by the first explosion and released unhurt a moment

or two later by the second. Driven out of the main buildings,

the small garrison (it consisted only of 17 Austrians with

three officers, 27 French with two officers, and nine

volunteers) fell back a few paces to a line of defence, part

of which had only been completed in the afternoon, and

securely held the position.

"Simultaneously with this attack upon the French Legation the

Chinese made a determined assault upon the German Legation,

the effective strength of whose garrison numbered only one

officer and 31 men. They broke into the Club alongside the

Legation and were on the tennis ground when Count Soden and a

handful of German soldiers gallantly charged them at the point

of the bayonet and drove them out headlong. … Uniforms on the

dead Chinese showed that the attack had been carried out by

the troops of Yung Lu, reinforced by the savages of

Tung-fuh-siang. Some of the dead were armed with the latest

pattern Mauser and the newest German army revolver. Some

ammunition, of which the guards were in much need, was

recovered and distributed among the Japanese and Italians.

Firing continued round the other Legations; every battery

opened fire; the air hissed with bullets. There was momentary

darkness, then flames broke out from the large foreign houses

between the German Legation and Canal-street. It seemed at one

time as if the whole of the quarter would be burned, but the

fire did not spread. Heavy rain came on, and the rest of the

night passed in quiet.

"On July 14, a messenger, sent out on the 10th, with a letter

for the troops, returned to the British Legation. He had been

arrested by the Chinese, cruelly beaten, and taken, he said,

to the yamên of Yung Lu, and there given the following letter,

purporting to be written by Prince Ching 'and others,'

addressed to the British Minister. It was the first

communication of any kind whatsoever that had reached us from

outside for nearly one month. 'For the last ten days the

soldiers and Militia have been fighting, and there has been no

communication between us, to our great anxiety. Some time ago

we hung up a board, expressing our intentions, but no answer

has been received, and contrary to expectation the foreign

soldiers made renewed attacks, causing alarm and suspicion

among soldiers and people. Yesterday the troops captured a

convert named Chin Ssu-hei and learnt from him that all the

foreign Ministers 'were well, which caused us very great

satisfaction. But it is the unexpected which happens. The

reinforcements of foreign troops were long ago stopped and

turned back by the "Boxers," and if, in accordance with

previous agreement, we were to guard your Excellencies out of

the city, there are so many "Boxers" on the road to Tien-tsin

and Ta-ku that we should be apprehensive of misadventure. We

now request your Excellencies to first take your families and

the various members of your staffs, and leave your Legations

in detachments. We should select trustworthy officers to give

close and strict protection, and you should temporarily reside

in the Tsung-li-Yamên, pending future arrangements for your

return home, in order to preserve friendly relations intact

from beginning to end. But at the time of leaving the

Legations there must on no account whatever be taken any

single armed soldier, in order to prevent doubt and fear on

the part of the troops and people, leading to untoward

incidents. If your Excellencies are willing to show this

confidence, we beg you to communicate with all the foreign

Ministers in Peking, to-morrow at noon being the limit of

time, and to let the original messenger deliver the reply in

order that we may settle the day for leaving the Legations.

This is the single way of preserving relations which we have

been able to devise in the face of innumerable difficulties.

If no reply is received by the time fixed, even our affection

will not enable us to help you.

Compliments.

(Signed) Prince Ching and others.

July 14, 1900.'

{125}

"Following as it did immediately after the attack on the

French Legation, which reduced it to ruins, the letter did not

lack for impudence. 'Boxers' had driven back our troops,

'Militia,' not 'Boxers,' had been attacking us in Peking. The

letter was read with derision. It was interpreted as a

guileless attempt to seduce the Ministers away from their

Legations and massacre them at ease. News we heard

subsequently had just reached the Chinese of the taking of

Tien-tsin city. … On the 15th a reply was sent declining on

the part of the foreign representatives the invitation to

proceed to the Tsung-li-Yamên, and pointing out that no

attacks had been made by our troops, who were only defending

the lives and property of foreigners against the attacks of

Chinese Government troops. The reply concluded with a

statement that if the Chinese Government wished to negotiate

they should send a responsible official with a white flag. …

"The morning of the 16th opened with a disaster. Captain

Strouts, the senior British officer, was shot while returning

from the outposts in the Fu. He was struck in the upper part

of the left thigh by an expanding bullet, and died an hour

after being brought into the hospital, to the grief of the

entire community. … While shells were bursting in the trees,

and amid the crack of rifle bullets, the brave young fellow to

whose gallant defence we all owed so much was laid to rest. …

While the service was proceeding a messenger bearing a flag of

truce was approaching the gate. … The letter was from 'Prince

Ching and others.' It explained that the reason for suggesting

the removal of the Legations to the Tsung-li-Yamên was that

the Chinese Government could afford more efficient protection

to the members of the Legations if concentrated than if

scattered as at present. As the foreign Ministers did not

agree, however, the Chinese would as in duty bound do their

utmost to protect the Legations where they were. (While the

latter sentence was being read the translator had to raise his

voice in order that it should be heard above the crack of the

Imperial rifle bullets.) They would bring reinforcements and

continue their endeavours to prevent the 'Boxers' from firing,

and they trusted that the foreign Ministers on their part

would restrain their troops also from firing.

"By the same messenger a cipher message was brought to Mr.

Conger, the American Minister. It said:—'Communicate tidings

bearer.' It was in the State Department cipher and had no date

or indication by whom it had been sent. Mr. Conger replied in the

same cipher:—'For one month we have been besieged in British

Legation under continued shot and shell from Chinese troops.

Quick relief only can prevent general massacre.' When

forwarding his reply he asked that it should be sent to the

address from which the other had come, which address had not

been communicated to him. Next day the Yamên sent him an

answer saying that his message had been forwarded and

explaining that the telegram sent to him had been contained in

a telegram from Wu Ting Fang, the Chinese Minister at

Washington, dated July 11. This telegram read:—'The United

States cheerfully aid China, but it is thinking of Mr.

Minister Conger. The Hon. Secretary of State inquires after

him by telegram, which I beg to be transmitted to him and get

his reply.' From this we could well imagine what specious

assurances had been given to Mr. Hay by Wu Ting Fang's bland

assurances that there had been a most regrettable outbreak on

the part of lawless bands in the north of China which the

Government was vainly struggling to cope with. … From July 17

there was a cessation of hostilities; not that men were not

wounded afterwards and Christian coolies fired upon whenever

they showed themselves, but the organized attacks ceased and

the Krupp guns were muzzled. Fearing treachery, however, we

relaxed none of our vigilance. Trenches were cut where mines

might have been driven. All walls and shelters were so

strengthened as to be practically shell-proof. Our

preparations were purely defensive. On their part the Chinese

also continued work at their barricades. From their barricade

on the top of the wall near the German Legation they advanced

westward so that they could fire directly down into the German

Legation and pick off men going up the steps of the Minister's

house. They built a wall with loop-holes across

Legation-street not 20 yards from the Russian barricade. In

nearly every position the enemy were so close that you could

shoot into the muzzles of their rifles thrust through the

loop-holes. The cordon was still drawn tightly round us, and

we were penned in to prevent our acting in co-operation with

the troops who were coming to our relief. No provisions were

permitted to reach us, but a few eggs for the women and

children were surreptitiously sold us by Chinese soldiers. All

were on reduced rations, the allowance for the 2,750 native

Christians whom we had to provide for being barely sufficient

to save them from starvation. Their sufferings were very

great, the mortality among the children and the aged pitiful.

No one could have foreseen that within the restricted limits

of the besieged area, with the food supply therein obtainable,

473 civilians (of these 414—namely, 191 men, 147 women, 76

children—were inside the British Legation), a garrison of 400

men, 2,750 refugees, and some 400 native servants could have

sustained a siege of two entire months. Providentially in the

very centre of Legation-street there was a mill with a large

quantity of grain which turned out 900 lb. of flour a day

divided between the hotel and the Legation. One day the

Tsung-li-Yamên insultingly sent us a present of 1,000 lb. of

flour and some ice and vegetables, but no one would venture to

eat the flour, fearing that it might be poisoned.

Communications now passed almost daily with the Tsung-li-Yamên

or with the officials whose despatches were signed 'Prince

Ching and others.' On July 17, Sir Claude MacDonald replied to

the suggestion that the Ministers would restrain their troops

from firing upon the Chinese. He said that from the first the

foreign troops had acted entirely in self-defence, and would

continue to do so. But the Chinese must understand that

previous events had led to a want of confidence and that if

barricades were erected or troops moved in the vicinity of the

Legations the foreign guards would be obliged to fire. In the

afternoon the Chinese replied, reviewing the situation and

ascribing the hostilities to the attacks previously made by

the Legation guards. They noted with satisfaction that a

cessation of firing was agreed to on both sides, but suggested

that as foreign soldiers had been firing from the city wall

east of the Chien Mên, they should be removed from that

position.

{126}

Next day, Sir Claude MacDonald replied with a review of the

situation from the foreign point of view. … He hoped that

mutual confidence would gradually be restored, but meanwhile

he again pointed out that cessation of hostile preparations as

well as firing was necessary on the part of the Chinese troops

to secure that the foreign troops should cease firing. As for

the suggestion that the foreign troops should leave the city

wall, it was impossible to accede to it, because a great part

of the attacks on the Legations had been made from the wall.

He concluded by suggesting that sellers of fruit and ice

should be allowed to come in. They were never permitted to

come in. It was clear, however, that events were happening

elsewhere to cause alarm in the Imperial Court. On the

afternoon of the first day of what might be called the

armistice M Pelliot, a French gentleman from Tongking, entered

the Chinese lines and to the great anxiety of all was absent five

hours. He was taken by soldiers to a yamên of one of the big

generals—he knew not which—was plied with questions which,

speaking some Chinese, he could answer, and was sent back

unmolested with an escort of 15 soldiers 'to protect him

against the Boxers.' This unusual clemency was interpreted

favourably. It was clear that the Chinese had sustained a

severe defeat and that relief was coming. Next day direct

communication was for the first time held with an official of

the Tsung-li-Yamên. A secretary named Wen Jui came to the

Legation to see Sir Claude MacDonald and was received by the

Minister outside the gate, not being permitted to enter. He

said that the regrettable occurrences were due to 'local

banditti,' that the Government had great concern to protect

the foreigners, that Baron von Ketteler's body had been

recovered from the hands of the 'local banditti' who had

murdered him and been enclosed in a valuable coffin. He urged

that the maintenance of foreign troops on the city was

unnecessary and that they should be withdrawn. It was pointed

out to him that, as we had been very continuously shelled from

the city wall both from the Ha-ta Mên and the Chien Mên, it

would be inadvisable to retire. Asked to send copies of the

'Peking Gazette,' he hesitated a moment and then stammered

that he really had not himself seen the 'Peking Gazette' for a

long time, but he would inquire and see if they could be

bought. He never came back and never sent a 'Gazette.' His

name was Wen Jui. When we did obtain copies of the 'Gazette'

it was interesting to find two items that must have been

especially unpleasant for him to have us know. On June 24, by

Imperial decree, leaders were appointed to the 'Boxers,' or

'patriotic militia.' Among the chiefs was Wen Jui.

"The visit of Wen Jui was on the 18th. Up to the time of his

visit, though more than four weeks had passed since the

assassination, no allusion of any kind whatever had been made

in any 'Peking Gazette' to the murder of Baron van Ketteler.

Then the Empress-Dowager, yielding to her fears, published an

allusion to the murder. Will the German Emperor rest satisfied

with the tardy official reference to the brutal assassination

of his Minister by an Imperial officer? 'Last month the

Chancellor of the Japanese Legation was killed. This was,

indeed, most unexpected. Before this matter had been settled

the German Minister was killed. Suddenly meeting this affair

caused us deep grief. We ought vigorously to seek the murderer

and punish him.' No more. The date July 18; the murder June

20!

"Yet even in this decree there was a complete 'volte-face.'

Missionaries who were by the decree of July 2 'to be at once

driven away to their own countries' were by the decree of July

18 'to be protected in every province,' 'to be protected

without the least carelessness.' The truculence and

belligerence of the decrees issued when our troops had been

driven back had disappeared; the tone now was one of

justification and conciliation. Only one interpretation was

possible—that the Chinese had been defeated. Confirmation came

the same day. A messenger sent out by the Japanese

successfully passed the enemy's lines and brought us the news

that we had so long awaited. … By the same messenger a letter

was received by the French Minister. … The same messenger also

brought to the Belgian Minister a despatch from his Consul at

Tien-tsin. … Days followed quietly now, though 'sniping' did

not cease. Several casualties occurred among the garrison. A

Russian was killed and an Austrian wounded; an Italian wounded

and also a Japanese. In the Fu it was still dangerous for the

Christian refugees to move about, and several were hit and two

killed. But the Yamên became more and more conciliatory, until

we could gauge the advance of the reliefs by the degree of

apology in their despatches. But all supplies were rigorously

cut off, and the sufferings of the Christians were acute. …

"On the 22nd Sir Robert Hart received a despatch from the

Tsung-li-Yamên. They naïvely remarked that it was now one

month since they had heard from him, and his silence gave them

concern for his welfare. Moreover, a report had just reached them

that his house had been burned, but they expressed the hope

that he and al his staff were well. Another despatch requested

his advice upon a Customs question that had arisen in

Shanghai. Sir Robert Hart wrote a dignified reply. For more

than a month, he said, he had been a refugee in the British

Legation with all his staff, having had to flee from his house

without warning; that all Customs records and papers, and

every paper and letter of value that he had accumulated during

a lifetime, had been destroyed; that not only his house, but

some 19 other buildings in the occupation of his staff had

been burned with all their contents; that the acting postal

secretary had been killed by a shell, and two other members of

his staff—Mr. Richardson and Mr. Macoun—had been wounded by

bullets. …

"Meanwhile, the armistice continued, if armistice it can be

called where true armistice there was none. Desultory firing

continued, and sniping was still the chief pastime at the

Chinese outposts. Friendly relations were, however, opened

with some Chinese soldiers in the Fu. A Japanese Volunteer

established a bureau of intelligence to which the enemy's

soldiers had access. One soldier was especially communicative,

and earned high reward for the valuable information that he

conveyed to us. For a week from July 26 to August 2 daily

bulletins based upon this information of the advance of the

relief column were posted on the bell tower of the British

Legation.

{127}

An unbroken series of victories was attending our relief

forces. … Letters were given to the soldier to take to the

General of the relief column, and a reward offered if an

answer should be brought next day, but no answer was ever

brought. Our informant had brought the armies along too

quickly. He was compelled to send them back. Accordingly on

the 31st he made the Chinese recapture Chang-chia-wan, killing

60 of the foreigners; advancing upon Matou he killed 70

foreigners more, and drove them back to An-ping. Next day he

drove the foreigners disastrously back to Tien-tsin with a

loss of 1,000. The day was equally disastrous to himself. Our

informant had killed the goose that lay the golden egg. For a

messenger arrived on that day with letters from Tien-tsin,

dated July 30, informing us that a large force was on the

point of leaving for our relief. … Meanwhile, while our

informant was marching our relief backwards and forwards to

Tien-tsin, Prince Ching and others were vainly urging the

Ministers to leave Peking, but whether they left Peking or not

they were to hand over the Christian refugees now under the

protection of the Legations to the mercies of the Government,

which had issued a decree commanding that they be exterminated

unless they recanted their errors. In other communications

Prince Ching 'and others' urged that the foreign Ministers

should telegraph to their Government 'en clair' lying reports

of the condition of affairs in Peking.

Two days after the cessation of hostilities Prince Ching 'and

others' sent a despatch to Sir Claude MacDonald to the effect

that it was impossible to protect the Ministers in Peking

because 'Boxers' were gathering from all points of the

compass, and that nothing would satisfy them (the 'Boxers')

but the destruction of the Legations, and that the Ministers

would be given safe conduct to Tien-tsin. Sir Claude, in

reply, asked why it was that protection could be given to the

Ministers on the way to Tien-tsin and yet could not be given

to them while in the Legations in Peking. Prince Ching 'and

others' replied: 'July 25, 1900. … As to the inquiry what

difference there is between giving protection in the city or

on the road, and why it is possible to give it in the latter,

there is only an apparent discrepancy. For the being in the

city is permanent, the being on the road is temporary. If all

the foreign Ministers are willing to temporarily retire we

should propose the route to Tung-chau and thence by boat down

stream to Tien-tsin, which could be reached in only two days.

No matter what difficulties there might be a numerous body of

troops would be sent, half by water to form a close escort,

half by road to keep all safe for a long way on both banks.

Since the time would be short we can guarantee that there

would be no mishap. It is otherwise with a permanent residence

in Peking, where it is impossible to foretell when a disaster

may occur.' … In the envelope which brought this letter were

two other communications of the same guileless nature. 'On

July 24,' said the first, 'we received a telegram from Mr.

Warren, British Consul-General in Shanghai, to the effect that

while China was protecting the Legations no telegram had been

received from the British Minister, and asking the Yamên to

transmit Sir C. M. MacDonald's telegram to Shanghai. As in

duty bound we communicate the above, and beg you to send a

telegram "en clair" to the Yamên for transmission.' Tender

consideration was shown for us in the second letter:—'For the

past month and more military affairs have been very pressing.

Your Excellency and other Ministers ought to telegraph home

that your families are well in order to soothe anxiety, but at

the present moment peace is not yet restored, and your

Legation telegrams must be wholly "en clair," stating that all

is well, without touching on military affairs. Under those

conditions the Yamên can transmit them. The writers beg that

your Excellency will communicate this to the other foreign

Ministers.'

"Evasive replies were given to these communications. … Our

position at this time compelled us to temporize. We knew from

the alteration in tone of the Chinese despatches that they had

suffered defeats and were growing alarmed, but we did not know

how much longer international jealousies or difficulties of

obtaining transport were to delay the departure of the troops

for Tien-tsin. … Though now nominally under the protection of

an armistice sniping still continued, especially in the Fu,

into any exposed portion of the besieged area. … The Chinese

worked on continuously at their fortifications. … Finding that

the Ministers declined to telegraph to their Governments 'en

clair' that all was well with the Legations, the

Tsung-li-Yamên wrote to Sir Robert Hart asking him to send

home a telegram in the sense they suggested. Sir Robert

replied diplomatically, 'If I were to wire the truth about the

Legations I should not be believed.'

"A malevolent attempt was next made by the Chinese to obtain

possession of the refugees who were in our safe keeping. On

July 27 they wrote to Sir Claude MacDonald saying that 'they

hear that there are lodged at the Legations a considerable

number of converts, and that, as 'the space is limited and

weather hot, they suggest that they must be causing the

Legations considerable inconvenience. And now that people's

minds are quieted, these converts can all be sent out and go

about their ordinary avocations. They need not have doubts or

fears. If you concur, an estimate should be made of the

numbers and a date fixed for letting them out. Then all will

be in harmony.' The reply of the diplomatic body was to the

effect that while they were considering the two last

letters—one offering safe conduct to Tien-tsin and the other

declaring that the converts might leave the Legations in

perfect security—heavy firing was heard in the direction of

the Pei-tang, which was evidently being attacked in force;

that yesterday and last night a barricade was built across the

North Bridge, from behind which shots are being continuously

fired into the British Legation. The French and Russian

Legations are also being fired upon. As all this seems

inconsistent with the above letters, an explanation is asked

for before further consideration is given to the offer.

Promptly the Yamên sent its explanation. The Pei-tang

refugees, it seemed, who were starving, had made a sortie to

obtain food. And they had fired upon the people. 'A decree,'

it went on to say, 'has now been requested to the effect that

if the converts do not come out to plunder they are to be

protected and not to be continually attacked, for they also

are the children of the State. This practice (of continually

firing upon the converts) will thus be gradually stopped.'

{128}

Such a callous reply was read with indignation, and there was

not the slightest intention on the part of any Minister to

leave Peking. Yet on the 4th of August a decree was issued

appointing Yung Lu to conduct the foreign Ministers safely to

Tien-tsin 'in order once more to show the tenderness of the

Throne for the men from afar.' …

"On August 10, Friday, a messenger succeeded in passing the

enemy's lines, and brought us letters from General Gaselee and

General Fukushima. A strong relief force was marching to

Peking, and would arrive here if nothing untoward happened on

the 13th or 14th. Our danger then was that the enemy would

make a final effort to rush the Legations before the arrival

of reinforcements. And the expected happened. …

"Yesterday [August 13] passed under a continuous fusillade

which increased during the night. Then at 3 on this morning we

were all awakened by the booming of guns in the east and by

the welcome sound of volley firing. Word flew round that 'the

foreign troops are at the city wall and are shelling the East

Gate.' At daylight most of us went on to the wall, and

witnessed the shelling of the Great East Gate. We knew that

the allies would advance in separate columns, and were on the

qui vive of excitement, knowing that at any moment now the

troops might arrive. Luncheon, the hard luncheon of horse

flesh, came on, and we had just finished when the cry rang

through the Legation, 'The British are coming,' and there was

a rush to the entrance and up Canal-street towards the Water

Gate. The stalwart form of the general and his staff were

entering by the Water Gate, followed by the 1st Regiment of

Sikhs and the 7th Rajputs. They passed down Canal-street, and

amid a scene of indescribable emotion marched to the British

Legation. The siege has been raised.

"Peking, August 15. On reading over my narrative of the siege

I find that in the hurry and confusion of concluding my report

I have omitted one or two things that I had wished to say. In

the first place, I find that I have not in any adequate way

expressed the obligation of all those confined in the British

Legation to the splendid services done by the Reverend F. D.

Gamewell, of the American Episcopal Mission [who was educated

as a civil engineer at Troy and Cornell], to whom was due the

designing and construction of all our defences, and who

carried out in the most admirable manner the ideas and

suggestions of our Minister, Sir Claude MacDonald. To the

Reverend Frank Norris, of the Society for the Propagation of

the Gospel, our thanks are also specially due. He

superintended, often under heavy fire, the construction of

defences in the Prince's Fu and in other exposed places,

working always with a courage and energy worthy of admiration.

He was struck in the neck once by a segment of a shell, but

escaped marvellously from serious injury. He speaks Chinese

well, and Chinese worked under him with a fearlessness that

few men can inspire. In the second place, I noticed that I

have not sufficiently recorded the valuable services rendered

by Mr. H. G. Squiers, the First Secretary of the American

Legation, who on the death of Captain Strouts became Chief of

the Staff to Sir Claude MacDonald. He had been for 15 years in

the United States cavalry, and his knowledge and skill and the

resolution with which he inspired his small body of men will

not readily be forgotten. …

"To-day the Pei-tang Cathedral was relieved. Bishops, priests,

and sisters had survived the siege and, thanks to the

wonderful foresight of Bishop Favier, the Christians had been

spared from starvation. Japanese coming down from the north of

the city relieved the cathedral; French, British, and Russians

from the south arrived as the siege was raised. Mines had been

employed with deadly effect. The guards had lost five French

killed and five Italians. Some 200 of the Christians had

perished."

_London Times, October 13 and 15, 1900._

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (June-December).

Upright conduct of the Chinese Viceroys in

the Yang-tsze provinces.

In his annual message of December 3, 1900, to Congress,

referring to the occurrences in China, the President of the

United States remarked with much justice: "It is a relief to

recall and a pleasure to record the loyal conduct of the

viceroys and local authorities of the southern and eastern

provinces. Their efforts were continuously directed to the

pacific control of the vast populations under their rule and

to the scrupulous observance of foreign treaty rights. At

critical moments they did not hesitate to memorialize the

Throne, urging the protection of the legations, the

restoration of communication, and the assertion of the

Imperial authority against the subversive elements. They

maintained excellent relations with the official

representatives of foreign powers. To their kindly disposition

is largely due the success of the consuls in removing many of

the missionaries from the interior to places of safety." The

viceroys especially referred to in this are Chang Chih-tung

and Liu Kun-yi, often referred to as "the Yang-tsze viceroys."

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (July).

Speech of German Emperor to troops departing to China,

commanding no quarter.

See (in this volume)

GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (OCTOBER 9).

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (July).

American troops sent to co-operate with those of other Powers.

Capture of Tientsin by the allied forces.

Death of Colonel Liscum.

Reported massacre of foreign Ministers and others in Peking.

The long month of dread suspense.

Overtures from Earl Li Hung-chang for negotiation.

"On the 26th of June Major Gen. Adna R Chaffee, U. S. V., was

appointed to the command of the American forces in China. He

embarked from San Francisco on the 1st of July, reached

Nagasaki on the 24th, and Taku, China, on the 28th. … On

reaching Nagasaki he received the following instructions,

dated, … July 19: 'Secretary War directs that you proceed at

once with transport Grant, Sixth Cavalry, and Marines to Taku,

China, and take command of American land forces, which will be

an independent command known as the China relief expedition.

You will find there the Ninth and Fourteenth Infantry, one

battery of the Fifth Artillery, and one battalion of Marines.

Sumner sailed from San Francisco July 17 with Second Battalion

of Fifteenth Infantry and recruits to capacity of vessel.

{129}

Reinforcements will follow to make your force in the immediate

future up to 5,000, and very soon to 10,000. … Reports now

indicate that American Minister with all the legation have

been destroyed in Pekin. Chinese representative here, however,

insists to the contrary, and there is, therefore, a hope which

you will not lose sight of until certainty is absolute. It is

the desire of this Government to maintain its relations of

friendship with the part of Chinese people and Chinese

officials not concerned in outrages on Americans. Among these

we consider Li Hung Chang, just appointed viceroy of Chili.

You will to the extent of your power aid the Government of

China, or any part thereof, in repressing such outrages and in

rescuing Americans, and in protecting American citizens and

interests, and wherever Chinese Government fails to render

such protection you will do all in your power to supply it.

Confer freely with commanders of other national forces, act

concurrently with them, and seek entire harmony of action

along the lines of similar purpose and interest. There

should be full and free conference as to operations before

they are entered upon. You are at liberty to agree with them

from time to time as to a common official direction of the

various forces in their combined operations, preserving,

however, the integrity of your own American division, ready to

be used as a separate and complete organization. Much must be

left to your wise discretion and that of the admiral. At all

times report fully and freely to this Department your wants

and views. The President has to-day appointed you

major-general of volunteers.' …

"In the meantime the Ninth Infantry, from Manila, reached Taku

on the 6th of July. Two battalions of that regiment, under

Colonel Liscum, pressed forward to Tientsin, reaching that

point on the 11th, and on the 13th took part with the British,

French, and Japanese forces in an attack upon the southwest

part of the walled city of Tientsin, which had been rendered

necessary by the persistent shelling of the foreign quarters,

outside of the walls, on the part of the Chinese troops

occupying the city. Colonel Liscum's command formed part of a

brigade under General Dorward, of the British army, and was

assigned to the duty of protecting the flank of the allied

forces. In the performance of that duty it maintained a

position under heavy fire for fifteen hours, with a loss of 18

killed and 77 wounded. Among the killed was the gallant

Colonel Liscum, who thus ended an honorable service of nearly

forty years, commencing in the ranks of the First Vermont

Infantry at the outbreak of the civil war, and distinguished

by unvarying courage, fidelity, and high character. The

regiment was withdrawn from its position on the night of the

13th, and on the morning of the 14th the native city was

captured, and the southeast quarter was assigned to the

American forces for police and protection. …

"At the time of the capture of Tientsin the most positive and

circumstantial accounts of the massacre of all the ministers

and members of the legations in Pekin, coming apparently from

Chinese sources, had been published, and were almost

universally believed. The general view taken by the civilized

world of the duty to be performed in China was not that the

living representatives of the Western powers in Pekin were to

be rescued, but that their murder was to be avenged and their

murderers punished. In the performance of that duty time and

rapidity of movement were not especially important. The

resolution of the commanders of the allied forces,

communicated by Admiral Kempff on the 8th of July, to the

effect that 80,000 men would be required—20,000 to hold the

position from Taku to Tientsin and 60,000 to march to Pekin,

while not more than 40,800 troops were expected to have

arrived by the middle of August, practically abandoned all

expectation of rescuing the ministers and members of the

legations alive, for it proposed that after the middle of

August any forward movement should be still deferred until

40,000 more troops had arrived. On the 11th of July, however,

the American Secretary of State secured, through the Chinese

minister at Washington, the forwarding of a dispatch in the

State Department cipher to the American minister at Pekin, and

on the 20th of July, pursuant to the same arrangement, an

answer in cipher was received from Minister Conger, as

follows: 'For one month we have been besieged in British

legation under continued shot and shell from Chinese troops.

Quick relief only can prevent general massacre.' This dispatch

from Mr. Conger was the first communication received by any

Western power from any representative in Pekin for about a

month, and although it was at first received in Europe with

some incredulity, it presented a situation which plainly

called for the urgency of a relief expedition rather than for

perfection of preparation. It was made the basis of urgent

pressure for an immediate movement upon Pekin, without waiting

for the accumulation of the large force previously proposed."

_United States, Secretary of War,

Annual Report, November 30, 1900,

pages 14-16, 19-20._

As mentioned above, in the instructions of the American

government to General Chaffee, the veteran Chinese statesman

and diplomat, Earl Li Hung-chang, well known in Europe and

America, had now been recalled by the Peking government to the

viceroyalty of Chili, from which he was removed six years

before, and had been given the authority of a plenipotentiary

to negotiate with the allied Powers. He addressed a proposal

to the latter, to the effect that the Ministers in Peking

would be delivered, under safe escort, at Tientsin, if the

allies would refrain from advancing their forces to Peking.

The reply from all the governments concerned was substantially

the same as that made by the United States, in the following

terms: "The government will not enter into any arrangement

regarding disposition or treatment of legations without first

having free communication with Minister Conger. Responsibility

for their protection rests upon Chinese government. Power to

deliver at Tientsin presupposes power to protect and to open

communication. This is insisted on." Earl Li then asked

whether, "if free communication were established, it could be

arranged that the Powers should not advance pending

negotiations," and was told in reply: "Free communication with

our representatives in Peking is demanded as a matter of

absolute right, and not as a favor. Since the Chinese

government admits that it possesses the power to give

communication, it puts itself in an unfriendly attitude by

denying it. No negotiations seem advisable until the Chinese

government shall have put the diplomatic representatives of

the Powers in full and free communication with their

respective governments, and removed all danger to their lives

and liberty."

{130}

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (July-August).

Boxer attack on the Russians in Manchuria,

and Russian retaliation.

See (in this volume)

MANCHURIA: A. D. 1900.

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (August).

Appointment of Count Waldersee to command the allied forces.

Field-Marshal Count von Waldersee, appointed to command the

German forces sent to China, being of higher military rank

than any other of the commanding officers in that country, was

proposed for the general command of the allied armies, and

accepted as such. Before his arrival in China, however, many

of the American, Russian, and some other troops, had been

withdrawn.

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (August 4-16).

The advance of the allied forces on Peking and the capture

of the city.

The following is from the report of General Chaffee,

commanding the American forces in the allied movement from

Tientsin, to rescue the beleaguered Legations at Peking: "On

my arrival at Tientsin I called on the various generals

commanding troops, and on August 1 a conference of generals

was held at the headquarters of Lieutenant-General Linivitch,

of the Russian army. Present at the conference were the

commanding general of the Russian army and his chief of staff;

Lieutenant-General Yamagutchi and his chief of staff;

Major-General Fukushima, of the Japanese army;

Lieutenant-General Gaselee, of the British army, and his chief

of staff, General Barrow; General Frey, of the French army; the

Germans were also represented by an officer of the German

navy; myself and Major Jesse M. Lee, Ninth Infantry, and

Lieutenant Louis M. Little, of the marines, who speaks French.

The purpose of this conference was to decide whether the

armies were ready to make a movement for the relief of Pekin.

It was disclosed in the conference that the Japanese, whose

forces occupied the right bank of the river in and about

Tientsin, where also were located the British and American

forces, had by various patrols determined that the Chinese

were in considerable force in the vicinity of Pei-tsang, about

7 miles distance up the river from Tientsin, and that they

were strengthening their position by earthworks extending from

the right bank of the river westward something like 3 miles,

and from the left bank east to the railroad embankment was

also being strengthened. The forces were variously estimated,

from reports of Chinese, at from 10,000 to 12,000 men in the

vicinity of Pei-tsang, with large bodies to the rearward as

far as Yangtsun, where it was reported their main line of

defenses would be encountered.

"The first question submitted for decision was 'whether a

movement should be made at once,' which was decided in the

affirmative, two Powers only dissenting, and these not

seriously, as their doubt seemed to be that the force we could

put in movement was not sufficiently strong to meet the

opposition that might be expected. The decision was that the

attack should be made on Sunday, August 5, and as the

Japanese, British, and American forces occupied the right bank

of the river, the Russians the left, the attack should be made

without change of situation of the troops, the British to send

four heavy guns to aid the Russian column. The strategy on the

right bank of the river was left to the determination of the

British, American, and Japanese generals. The force reported

to the conference as available for the movement was: Japanese,

about 8,000; Russian, 4,800; British, about 3,000; American,

2,100; French, 800. With special effort on the part of

Captains Byron and Wood, Reilly's battery was gotten to

Tientsin August 3 and assembled. We were also able to make one

pack train available on the 4th, just in time to march with

the column. The marines and Sixth Cavalry were gotten off the

'Grant' and to Tientsin August 3. The presence of the Sixth

Cavalry at Tientsin, dismounted, enabled me to take all

available men of the Ninth and Fourteenth, also all the

marines except one company 100 strong, left to assist the

civil government of the city. By arrangement prior to my

arrival the officers selected to establish a civil government

for Tientsin were to be allowed a military force, of which the

United States should furnish 100. I was compelled, of course,

to leave the Sixth Cavalry, because the horses had not

arrived. … The troops moved out from the city of Tientsin

during the afternoon and night of August 4 and bivouacked in

the vicinity of Si-ku arsenal, the same that was taken by

Admiral Seymour in his retrograde movement."

The Chinese were driven from the Arsenal by the Japanese,

before whom they also fell back from Pei-tsang, and the first

serious battle was fought at Yang-tsun, on the 6th. Having

rested at Yang-tsun and cared for its sick and wounded, on the

7th, the army moved forward on the 8th, encountered slight

resistance at Shang-shia-wan on the 11th, found Tong-chow

abandoned, on the 12th, and reached Pekin on the 14th, having

suffered more from heat, fatigue, and the want of potable

water on the march, than from "Boxers" or imperial troops.

Returning now to the report of General Chaffee, we take from

it his account of the final movement to the walls of Pekin, of

the forcing of the gates and of the clearing of Chinese troops

from the city: "The Japanese when taking possession of

Tong-Chow in the morning [of the 12th] advanced troops toward

Pekin for a distance of 6½ miles. It was finally agreed that

the next day, the 13th, should be devoted to reconnaissance;

the Japanese should reconnoiter on the two roads to the right

or north of the paved road which is just north of the canal;

the Russians on the paved road, if at all; the Americans to

reconnoiter on the road just south of the canal; the British a

parallel road 1½ miles to the left of the road occupied by the

Americans. On the 14th the armies should be concentrated on

the advance line held by the Japanese, and that that evening a

conference should be held to determine what the method of

attack on Pekin should be. On the morning of the 13th I

reconnoitered the road to be occupied by the Americans with

Troop M, Sixth Cavalry, Reilly's battery, and the Fourteenth

Infantry up to the point specified in our agreement, or about

7 miles from Tong-Chow. Finding no opposition, I directed the

remainder of my force to march out and close in on the advance

guard. This force arrived at midnight. The British

reconnoitered their road with some cavalry. The Japanese

reconnoitered their front and also the front which properly

belonged to the Russians.

{131}

"For reasons unknown to me the Russians left their camp at

Tong-Chow about the time that my troops were marching to close

on my advance guard. They followed the road which had been

assigned to them, and about nine o'clock heavy firing was

heard in the vicinity of Pekin. It was the next day

ascertained that they had moved forward during the previous

evening and had attacked the 'Tong-pien-men Gate,' an east

gate of the city near where the Chinese wall joins the Tartar

wall. Very heavy artillery and considerable small-arm firing

was continued throughout the night. At the time of the

occurrence I supposed the firing to be the last efforts of the

Chinese troops to destroy the legations. …

"The 14th being the day decided upon for the concentration on

the line 7 miles from Tong-Chow, I made no preparations for

carrying on any operations beyond a small reconnaissance by a

troop of cavalry to my front, which duty I assigned to Captain

Cabell. … My cavalry had been absent not more than an hour,

when Mr. Lowry, the interpreter who had accompanied it, raced

back and informed me that Captain Cabell was surrounded by

Chinese cavalry. I immediately ordered a battalion of the

Fourteenth Infantry to fall in, and we went forward about a

mile and a half and found Captain Cabell occupying some

houses, firing from the roofs on a village in his front. I

insisted on the French troops giving me the road, which they

reluctantly did. Having joined Cabell, I continued the

reconnaissance to my front, wishing to get as near the wall of

the city as I could, but not expecting to move my whole force,

which was contrary to the agreement at Tong-Chow on the

evening of August 12. Without serious opposition we arrived at

the northeast corner of the Chinese city, having brushed away

some Chinese troops or 'Boxers' that fired from villages to

our left and front. About 10 o'clock I saw the advantage of

holding the ground that I had obtained, and directed all my

force to move forward, as I had then become aware of Russian

troops being in action on my right, and could also hear the

Japanese artillery farther to the right. My left flank at this

time was uncovered, except by a small force of British

cavalry. The British troops did not advance from Tong-Chow

until the 14th, owing to the agreement previously referred to.

On that day they marched for the line of concentration and

found my force advancing on Pekin. At noon a British battery

was at work a mile to my left and rear.

"At 11 a. m. two companies of the Fourteenth Infantry, under

the immediate command of Colonel Daggett, had scaled the wall

of the Chinese city at the northeast corner, and the flag of

that regiment was the first foreign colors unfurled upon the

walls surrounding Pekin. The two companies on the wall, with

the assistance of the troops facing the wall, drove away the

Chinese defenders from the corner to the east gate of the

Chinese city, where the British entered without opposition

later in the day. About noon it was reported to me that the

Russians had battered open 'Tung-pien-men gate' during the

night and had effected an entrance there. I arrived at the

gate soon afterwards and found in the gate some of the

Fourteenth Infantry, followed by Reilly's battery. The Russian

artillery and troops were in great confusion in the passage,

their artillery facing in both directions, and I could see no

effort being made to extricate themselves and give passage

into the city. One company of the Fourteenth Infantry deployed

itself in the buildings to the right of the gate and poured

effective fire onto the Tartar wall. Captain Reilly got two

guns through a very narrow passage to his left, tearing down a

wall to do so, and found a position a few yards to the left of

the road where he could enfilade the Tartar wall, section by

section, with shrapnel. The Fourteenth Infantry crossed the

moat and, taking position paralleling the moat, deployed along

a street facing the Tartar wall, and with the aid of the

artillery swept it of Chinese troops. In this way, gradually

working to the westward, the Tartar wall was cleared of

opposition to the 'Bait-men gate' and beyond.

"Orders were sent to the Ninth to follow up the movement of

the Fourteenth Infantry and Reilly's battery as soon as the

wall was cleared of Chinese; also to follow the movement to

the 'Chien-men' gate of the Tartar city. The marines were to

follow the general movement, but later were ordered to protect

the train. At about 3 o'clock p. m. our advance had arrived

opposite the legations, the fire of the Chinese having

practically ended, and we drew over to the Tartar wall and

entered the legation grounds with the Fourteenth Infantry by

the 'water gate or moat,' Reilly's battery passing through the

'Chien-men' gate, which was opened by the American and Russian

marines of the besieged force. The Fourteenth Infantry was

selected on this occasion in recognition of gallantry at

Yang-tsun and during this day. The British troops entered at

the 'Shahuo' gate of the Chinese city, and following a road

through the center of the city to opposite the legations,

arrived there through the 'water gate or moat' in advance of

the United States troops. Having communicated with Minister

Conger, I withdrew the troops from the legation and camped

just outside near the Tartar wall for the night. My casualties

during the day were 8 enlisted men wounded in the Fourteenth

Infantry, 1 enlisted man wounded of Battery F, Fifth

Artillery, and 1 officer and 2 enlisted men wounded of the

marines. …

"I was informed by Mr. Conger that a portion of the imperial

city directly in front of the Chien-men gate had been used by

Chinese to fire on the legations, and I determined to force

the Chinese troops from this position. On the morning of the

15th I placed four guns of Reilly's battery on the Tartar wall

at Chien-men gate and swept the walls to the westward to the

next gate, there being some slight opposition in that

direction, supported by poor artillery. About 8 o'clock a. m.

the Chinese opened fire on us at Chien-men gate, from the

second gate of the imperial city north of Chien-men gate,

whereupon I directed an attack on the first gate to be made,

and in a short while Lieutenant Charles P. Summerall, of

Reilly's battery, had opened the door of this gate. Our troops

entered, and were met with a severe fire from the next gate,

about 600 yards distant. Fire was directed upon the second

gate with the battery and such of the infantry as could be

elevated on the Tartar wall and side walls of the imperial

city and act effectively. In the course of half an hour the

Chinese fire was silenced, and Colonel Daggett led forward his

regiment to the base of the second gate. Lieutenant Summerall

was directed to open this gate with artillery, which he did.

The course just indicated was pursued for four gates, the

Chinese troops being driven from each gate in succession, the

fourth gate being near what is known as the 'palace grounds,'

which is surrounded by the 'imperial guards.'

{132}

"At a conference that afternoon it was decided not to occupy

the imperial city, and I withdrew my troops into the camp

occupied the night before, maintaining my position on the

Tartar wall at Chien-men gate. The idea of not occupying the

imperial city was not concurred in by the ministers in a

conference held by them the next day. In their opinion the

imperial city should be occupied. It was later decided by the

generals to occupy the imperial grounds, and in consequence of

this decision I reoccupied the grounds we had won on the 15th,

placing the Ninth Infantry within as guard at the gate where

our attack ceased.

"During the 15th and the attack upon the gates referred to our

losses were 2 enlisted men killed and 4 wounded, Ninth

Infantry; 3 enlisted men killed and 14 wounded, Fourteenth

Infantry; 1 enlisted man, Battery F, Fifth Artillery, wounded.

At 8.50 o'clock a. m. of this date Captain Henry J. Reilly,

Fifth Artillery, was struck in the mouth and almost instantly

killed when standing at my left elbow observing the effect of

a shot from one of his guns by his side.

"At a conference of the generals on the afternoon of the 16th

the Chinese and Tartar cities were divided to the various

forces for police and protection of the inhabitants. The

United States troops were assigned to the west half of the

Chinese city and to that section of the Tartar city lying

between the Chien-men gate and Shun-chin gate of the south

wall of the Tartar city and north to the east and west street

through the Tartar city, being bounded upon the east by the

wall of the imperial city."

_United States, Secretary of War,

Annual Report, November 30, 1900,

pages 61-71._

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (August 5-16).

The horrors of the allied invasion.

Barbarity of some divisions of the army in the march

from Tien-tsin to Peking.

Murder, rape, pillage and destruction.

Of the conduct of some divisions of the allied army which

advanced from Tien-tsin, and which represented to "the heathen

Chinee" the civilized and Christian nations of Europe and the

Western world, a writer in "Scribner's Magazine," who

evidently shared the experience and witnessed the scenes of

the march, gives the following account: "The dreary stretches

through which the Pei-ho flows, never attractive to the

Western eye, presented, as the allied armies slowly traversed

them, a scene of indescribable desolation. … In a region which

usually contained a population of many millions, scarcely a

human being, besides those attached to the allied armies, was

to be seen. Towns and villages were completely deserted. In

China an ordinary town will have from one to three hundred

thousand inhabitants, while villages not of sufficient

importance to be designated on the maps, have populations

varying from ten to thirty thousand. These villages line the

banks of the Pei-ho and the main road to Peking by hundreds.

The troops were never entirely clear of them. … So hurried had

been the flight of the inhabitants that hundreds of houses

were left open, such household possessions that could not be

carried away being tousled about in great disorder. Of all

that dense population, only a few scattered hundreds of aged,

decrepit men and women, and some unfortunate cripples and

abandoned children, remained. A great majority of these were

ruthlessly slain. The Russians and Japanese shot or bayoneted

them without compunction. Their prayers for mercy availed not.

If these miserable unfortunates chanced to fall into the hands

of American or British troops they had a chance for their

lives, but even our armies are not free from these wanton

sacrifices. Every town, every village, every peasant's hut in

the path of the troops was first looted and then burned. A

stretch of country fully ten miles in width was thus swept.

Mounted 'flanks in the air' scoured far and wide, keen on the

scent of plunder, dark columns of smoke on the horizon

attesting their labors. In this merry task of chastising the

heathen Chinese, the Cossacks easily excelled. … Like an

avenging Juggernaut the Army of Civilization moved. Terror

strode before it; Death and Desolation sat and brooded in its

path. Through such scenes as these, day after day, the army

glided. A spirit of utter callousness took root, and enveloped

officers and men alike. Pathetic scenes passed without comment or

even notice. Pathos, involved in a riot of more violent

emotions, had lost its power to move."

_T. F. Millard,

A Comparison of the Armies in China

(Scribner's Magazine, January, 1901)._

Another eye witness, writing in the "Contemporary Review,"

tells the same sickening and shameful story, with more

vividness of description and detail: "As a rule," he remarks,

"the heathen Chinee suffers silently, and dies calmly. He has,

it is true, a deep-rooted hatred of war, and sometimes a

paralysing fear of being shot down in battle. But he takes

beheading, hanging, or death by torture with as much

resignation as did Seneca, and a great deal less fuss. And he

bears the loss of those near and dear to him with the same

serenity, heroism, or heartlessness. But he does not often

move to pity, and very seldom yearns for sympathy. The dire

sights which anyone might have witnessed during the months of

August and September in Northern China afforded admirable

illustrations of this aspect of the national character. The

doings of some of the apostles of culture were so heinous that

even the plea of their having been perpetrated upon wild savages

would not free them from the nature of crimes. I myself

remember how profoundly I was impressed when sailing on one

calm summer's day up to the bar of Taku towards the mouth of

the river Pei-ho. Dead bodies of Chinamen were floating

seawards, some with eyes agape and aghast, others with

brainless skulls and eyeless sockets, and nearly all of them

wearing their blue blouses, baggy trousers, and black glossy

pigtails. Many of them looked as if they were merely swimming

on their backs. …

{133}

"The next picture that engraved itself upon my memory had for

its frame the town of Tong-kew. … On the right bank [of the

Pei-ho] naked children were amusing themselves in the infected

water which covered them to the arm-pits, dancing, shouting,

splashing each other, turning somersaults, and intoxicating

themselves with the pure joy of living. A few yards behind

them lay their fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, dead,

unburied, mouldering away. On the left bank, which was also

but a few yards off, was the site of Tongkew: a vast expanse

of smoking rubbish heaps. Not a roof was left standing; hardly

a wall was without a wide breach; formless mounds of baked

mud, charred woodwork, and half-buried clothes were burning or

smouldering still. Here and there a few rootless dwellings

were left, as if to give an idea of what the town had been

before the torch of civilisation set it aflame. Everyone of

these houses, one could see, had been robbed, wrecked, and

wantonly ruined. All the inhabitants who were in the place

when the troops swept through had been swiftly sent to their

last account, but not yet to their final resting-place. Beside

the demolished huts, under the lengthening shadows of the

crumbling walls, on the thresholds of houseless doorways, were

spread out scores, hundreds of mats, pieces of canvas,

fragments of tarpaulin, and wisps of straw, which bulged

suspiciously upwards. At first one wondered what they could

have been put there for. But the clue was soon revealed. In

places where the soldiers had scamped their work, or prey

birds had been busy, a pair of fleshless feet or a plaited

pigtail protruding from the scanty covering satisfied any

curiosity which the passer-by could have felt after having

breathed the nauseating air. Near the motionless plumage of

the tall grass happy children were playing. Hard by an

uncovered corpse a group of Chinamen were carrying out the

orders they had received from the invaders. None of the living

seemed to heed the dead. …

"Feeling that I never know a man until I have been permitted

to see somewhat of his hidden springs of action and gauge the

depth or shallowness of his emotion, I set myself to get a

glance at what lay behind the mask of propriety which a

Chinaman habitually wears in Tongkew as in every other town

and village in the Empire. As soon as the ice seemed broken I

asked one smiling individual: 'Why do you stay here with the

slayers of your relatives and friends?' 'To escape their fate,

if we can,' was the reply. 'We may be killed at any time, but

while we live we must eat, and for food we have to work.'

'Were many of your people killed?' I inquired. 'Look there,'

he answered, pointing to the corpses in the vast over-ground

churchyard, 'and in the river there are many more. The

Russians killed every Chinaman they met. Of them we are in

great fear. They never look whether we have crosses or medals;

they shoot everyone.' 'You are a Christian, then?' I queried.

'Yea, a Christian,' he eagerly answered. 'And I,' 'And I,'

chimed in two others. Ten minutes' further conversation,

however, brought out the fact that they were Christians not

for conscience' sake but for safety, and they were sorely

afraid that they were leaning on a broken reed. The upshot of

what they had to tell me was that the Europeans, mainly the

Russians, looked upon them all as legitimate quarry, and

hounded them down accordingly. They and theirs, they declared,

had been shot in skirmishes, killed in sport, and bayoneted in

play.

"But the ever-recurring refrain of their narrative was the

massacre in cold blood of the three hundred coolies of Taku. …

The story has been often told since then, not merely in the

north but throughout the length and breadth of China. The

leading facts, as narrated on the spot, are these: Some three

hundred hard-working coolies eked out a very cheerless

existence by loading and unloading the steamers of all nations

which touched at Taku. For the convenience of both sides they

all cooped themselves up in one boat, which served them as a

permanent dwelling. When times were slack they were huddled

together there like herrings in a barrel, and when work was

brisk they toiled and moiled like galley slaves. Thus they

managed to get along, doing harm to no man and good to many.

The attack of the foreign troops upon Taku was the beginning

of their end. Hearing one day the sharp reports of rifle

shots, this peaceable and useful community was panic-stricken.

In order to save their dreary lives they determined to go ashore.

Strong in their weakness, and trusting in their character of

working men who abhorred war, they steered their boat

landwards. In an evil hour they were espied by the Russian

troops, who at that time had orders, it is said, to slay every

human being who wore a pigtail. Each of the three hundred

defenceless coolies at once became a target for Muscovite

bullets. It must have been a sickening sight when it was all

done. …

"The river Pei-ho, could it bear witness in words to the

dramas of blood enacted on its banks by Europeans, would have

many a tale to tell as grewsome as that of the slaughter of

the three hundred coolies. … I lived for twelve or thirteen

days on that foul river, and never was I more profoundly

impressed than by what I saw in its waters and on its banks.

The first day after I had left Tientsin I was towed by

untiring coolies through a land thickly studded over with what

had once been human dwellings, but were now high heaps of

smouldering rubbish. … A wave of death and desolation had

swept over the land, washing away the vestiges of Chinese

culture. Men, women, boys, girls, and babes in arms had been

shot, stabbed, and hewn to bits in this labyrinth of streets,

and now, on both banks of the river, reigned the peace

described by Tacitus. …

"Fire and sword had put their marks upon this entire country.

The untrampled corn was rotting in the fields, the pastures

were herdless, rootless the ruins of houses, the hamlets

devoid of inhabitants. In all the villages we passed the

desolation was the same. … The streets and houses of

war-blasted cities were also the scenes of harrowing

tragedies, calculated to sear and scar the memory even of the

average man who is not given to 'sickly sentimentality.' In

war they would have passed unnoticed; in times of peace

(hostilities were definitely over) they ought to have been

stopped by drastic measures, if mild means had proved

ineffectual. I speak as an eye-witness when I say, for

example, that over and over again the gutters of the city of

Tungtschau ran red with blood, and I sometimes found it

impossible to go my way without getting my boots bespattered

with human gore. There were few shops, private houses and

courtyards without dead bodies and pools of dark blood. … The

thirst of blood had made men mad. The pettiest and most

despicable whipper-snapper who happened to have seen the light

of day in Europe or Japan had uncontrolled power over the life

and limbs, the body and soul, of the most highly-cultivated

Chinaman in the city. From his decision there was no appeal. A

Chinaman never knew what might betide him an hour hence, if the

European lost his temper. He might lie down to rest after

having worked like a beast of burden for twelve or fourteen

hours only to be suddenly awakened out of his sleep, marched a

few paces from his hard couch, and shot dead.

{134}

He was never told, and probably seldom guessed, the reason

why. I saw an old man and woman who were thus hurriedly

hustled out of existence. Their day's work done they were

walking home, when a fire broke out on a little barge on the

river. They were the only living beings found out of bed at

the time, and in the pockets of the woman a candle and some

matches were stowed away. Nobody, not even the boat-watchman,

had seen them on or near the boat. They were pounced upon,

taken to the river's edge, shot and buried. It was the work of

fifteen minutes or less. …

"The circumstantial tales told of the dishonouring of wives,

girls, children, in Tientsin, Tungtschau, Pekin, are such as

should in normal beings kindle some sparks of indignation

without the aid of 'sickly sentimentality.' … I knew well a

man whose wife had been dealt with in this manner, and then

killed along with her child. He was one of the 'good and loyal

people' who were on excellent terms with the Christians; but, if

ever he gets a chance of wreaking vengeance upon the

foreigners, he will not lightly let it slip. I knew of others

whose wives and daughters hanged themselves on trees or

drowned themselves in garden-wells in order to escape a much

worse lot. Chinese women honestly believed that no more

terrible fate could overtake them than to fall alive into the

hands of Europeans and Christians. And it is to be feared that

they were right. Buddhism and Confucianism have their martyrs

to chastity, whose heroic feats no martyrology will ever

record. Some of these obscure, but rightminded, girls and

women hurled themselves into the river, and, finding only

three feet of water there, kept their heads under the surface

until death had set his seal on the sacrifice of their life.

This suicidal frenzy was catching. … So far as I have been

able to make out, and I have been at some pains to investigate

the subject, no officers or soldiers of English or

German-speaking nationalities have been guilty of these

abominations against defenceless women."

_E. J. Dillon,

The Chinese Wolf and the European Lamb

(Contemporary Review, January, 1901)._

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (August 15-28).

Occupation of Peking by the allied forces.

International jealousies.

License to some of the soldiery.

Shameful stories of looting and outrage.

Formal march through the "Forbidden City."

"Early on the morning of the 15th [of August]—the day after

the siege of the Legations was raised—General Chaffee [the

American commander] advanced his men from the Chien Mên, which

he had held overnight, and drove the Chinese from gateway to

gateway back along the wide-paved approach to the far-famed

'Forbidden City.' From the wall at the Chien Mên the American

field battery shelled each of the great gateways before the

infantry advanced, and Captain Reilly, who commanded the

battery, was killed while directing the operations—a bullet

striking him full in the face and passing out through the back

of his head. In him was lost a popular and efficient officer. The

movements of the Americans were watched with no little anxiety

by certain of the allies, who evidently feared that General

Chaffee was about to enter and seize the Forbidden City

itself. The French, who had only that morning arrived, were

apparently very keen to establish a claim by joining in the

attack, for they took their mountain guns to the top of the

wall opposite the Legations, and began blazing away in the

direction of the approaches to the Palace. It so happened that

by this time the Americans had penetrated nearly to the

gateway of the Palace itself, and this French fire, so

suddenly opened, was directed upon them, instead of, as the

French General thought, upon the enemy. General Chaffee rode

down himself from the Chien Mên to where the guns were placed

on the wall, and from below conducted a spirited conversation

with the French General and M. Pichon. 'Stop firing those

guns,' the General shouted up from 60 ft. below, 'you are

killing my men.' Not understanding, the French General replied

to the effect that he was firing for the honour of France, and

M. Pichon joined in with similar protestations. General

Chaffee's protests increased in vigour, and the force,

perhaps, rather than the lucidity of them eventually induced

the French General to desist from firing upon the Americans

for the honour and glory of 'la patrie.' The Russians also

displayed a marked desire to participate in the operations in

front of the Palace, coming up after the fighting was

practically finished and attempting to occupy a part of the

position won by the Americans. Again General Chaffee had to

speak forcibly to persuade the Russians to retire. General

Chaffee cleared and occupied the whole length of the

approaches—a series of noble paved courtyards—from the Chien

Mên to the south gate of the Palace, before which he set a

strong guard. His doings were quite evidently being watched

with suspicion, and in the afternoon a conference was held, at

which it was solemnly agreed by the representatives of the

allies that in the meantime, pending the arrangement of some

concerted plan, the Forbidden City should not be entered. In

other parts of the city the work of clearing out the enemy was

meanwhile progressing, the Japanese and Russians operating on the

east and to the north, and the British to the south in the

Chinese city.

"It was thought that an expedition would have been undertaken

by the French to relieve the besieged in the Pei-tang. Help

could have been obtained for the asking, and it is difficult

to understand why no effort was made to reach the unfortunate

people, who, be it noted, were still being attacked, and whose

position, for all that was known, might have been desperate to

the last degree. The story of the long and weary weeks of

fighting round the stately cathedral pile—alas, now, now

battered and rent!—must be written by no outsider from

hearsay, but first hand by a survivor. As heard from the lips

of Père Favier, it is, indeed, a thrilling narrative in many

respects, surpassing in wonder even its sister story of the

defence of the Legations. … The relief was effected the

following morning by a combined force of French and Russians,

with whom also were the British Marines under Major Luke, R.

M. L. I., the whole under the command of the French general.

When this force arrived it was found that the Japanese had

already practically raised the siege, having started earlier

and worked along on the north-west of the Imperial City,

driving the Chinese before them. However, the Japanese had not

actually penetrated into the Pei-tang defences, and the French

had the satisfaction, after all, of being first in to receive a

joyful welcome from their long-suffering fellow-countrymen.

{135}

The raising of the siege was signalized by the slaughter of a

large number of Chinese who had been rounded up into a cul de

sac and who were killed to a man, the Chinese Christian

converts joining in with the French soldiers of the relieving

force, who lent them bayonets, and abandoning themselves to

the spirit of revenge. Witnesses describe the scene as a

sickening sight, but in judging such acts it is necessary to

remember the provocation, and these people had been sorely

tried. …

"The French general had given orders to Major Luke to remain

with his men to guard a bridge in the rear while the relief of

the Pei-tang was being effected. Afterwards the main body of

the relieving force was pushed on through the Imperial City,

leaving the British contingent behind. After waiting some time

Major Luke came to the conclusion that he must have been

forgotten, and, leaving a guard on the bridge, followed on in

the track of the French troops, to find that they had

penetrated into the Imperial City along the wall of the Palace

as far as the Meishan (Coal Hill), from the pagodas on which

the tri-colour was flying. The Russians had taken up a

position near the North Gate of the Palace, and he was only

just in time to secure the temple building at the foot of the

Meishan, and the camping-ground alongside of it. There was

great enthusiasm between the Russians and French, who cheered

each other as their forces appeared, in marked contrast to the

coolness with which the arrival of Major Luke and his men was

received. … The Russians are camped round the old place and

will permit no one in to see over it; in fact, in this part of

the city French or Russian sentries make it difficult to see most

of the many objects of art or interest. …

"Now that the common bond of interest in the success of the

relief expedition was removed, the points of difference at

once began to appear, and the underlying jealousy and

suspicion with which it seems each nation regards almost every

other manifested itself in various ways, particularly in the

unseemly race for loot and the game of general grab that now

started up, the methods of which were indicated above with

regard to the seizure of the Meishan. The Japanese seized the

Board of Revenue and must have found a huge amount of money

there, to judge by the length of the line of pack mules that

it took to carry it away. Through a mistake, it is said, on

the part of the Americans, the French got possession of the

Palace of Prince Li, said to contain treasure to the extent of

many millions of dollars. The Russians also got some treasure,

seizing on a large bank.

"Inside the Forbidden City, the Chinese say, there is fabulous

wealth in treasure stowed away or buried, and it is

principally lest this should prove true that so much jealousy

exists about the privilege of entering. Of course, the

question is also of great importance politically, and after

several diplomatic conferences it was eventually decided that,

on a date still to be arranged, the Ministers and Generals of

all the Powers should enter at the same time and proceed

together through the Palace, ascertaining the nature and value

of its contents and then sealing the whole place up and

withdrawing to await instructions from the home Governments. …

As regards the larger game of grab, the Russians succeeded in

winning the last large prize, the Wan Shen Shan, or new Summer

Palace, seven miles out near the western hills, racing for it

against a body of Japanese and coming in a quarter of an hour

ahead, having had a long start. So the story goes, but it is

not easy to check such stories, both Japanese and Russians

being very reticent about their relations with each other. One

thing only is certain, that the Russians are in jealous

possession of the Wan Shen Shan. Two British officers who rode

out there a couple of days ago in uniform were refused

admission to the grounds.

"Alongside of this official looting, private looting on the

part of the foreign soldiers was freely permitted during the

first few days; in fact, the city was abandoned for the most

part to the soldiery, and horrible stories of the kind common

in war, but nevertheless and everlastingly revolting, were

current—stories of the ravishing of women in circumstances of

great savagery, particularly by the rough Russian soldiers and

their following of French. The number of Chinese women who

committed suicide rather than submit to dishonour was

considerable. A British officer of standing told me he had

seen seven hanging from the same beam in the house of

apparently a well-to-do Chinaman. These stories, and I heard

of many more, reflect credit upon Chinese womanhood and

something very different upon the armies of Europe, which are

supposed to be the forerunners and upholders of civilization

in this particular campaign. However, this period of licence

was not of long duration. The soldiers having had their fling,

the city was divided, by arrangement, into districts, each

under the control of one of the Powers, proclamations were

issued reassuring the remaining peaceable citizens and

encouraging others to return, and gradually the work of

restoring law and order and confidence is progressing. …

"Where is the Chinese Government? Fled to Je-hol? No one seems

to know for certain. It is only certain that on the morning of

the 14th the Empress-Dowager and her following, and the

Imperial Court, fled by the west gate of the city and

disappeared. This flight took place while the Japanese were

actually engaged in shelling the Tse-kwa Mên and the city

wall. If they had succeeded in their first attempt on the gate

in the morning, the flight of the Court might have been

prevented. The Empress and her advisers had a narrow escape. …

"August 28. After deliberations occupying a full fortnight the

question of what was to be done with the Forbidden City has

been settled, at any rate, for the time being. The main

problem presented was not new; Lord Elgin had to face it forty

years ago. Considerations of immediate political expediency

guided his action then, as they have dictated the course

adopted now. He spared the Imperial Palace, and burnt instead

the Yuen Ming Yuen, or Summer Palace, seven miles from Peking.

As a result the fact that British troops ever entered Peking

does not appear in Chinese history, indeed the idea is

ridiculed by Mandarindom. Remembering this, many people here

thought it would be desirable in the present instance to burn

the Imperial Palace, after carefully removing the art

treasures, and thus, if possible, impress upon the whole

Chinese nation some idea of the enormity of the crime which

their Government has committed against civilization at large.

{136}

On the other hand, it was held that if this were done the

Imperial Court, through loss of 'face,' could never return to

Peking, and this contingency appealed strongly to the

representatives of both Russia and Japan, who conceived that

the interests of their respective countries demanded the

retention of Peking as the capital. What the representatives

of the other Powers thought has not transpired, nor does it

matter much at present, the overwhelming position of Russia

and Japan combined making all opposition to their proposals

futile. Germany may insist upon burning the Palace when he

forces have all arrived, and those who think it ought to be

done hope that she will; but in the meantime the conference of

commanding officers, in consultation with the Ministers,

decided not to do more than march a small force of foreign

troops through the 'sacred precincts' from the South Gate to

the North, after which these were to be again closed, leaving

the Palace intact. There was to be no looting. Everything was

to be done to provide against the idea arising that the place

had been desecrated. The ceremony was merely to be a display

of military power. …

"Arrangements were made for certain Chinese officials to be

present during the ceremony and also for a number of

attendants to open up the various halls through which the

troops would require to pass, and to close the doors behind

the 'barbarians' when they finally withdrew. Yesterday there

were reports of further friction and possible further

postponement of the ceremony, but by evening these had died

away and the programme had assumed at last a definite shape.

According to it the various troops were to parade this morning

between 7 and 8 outside the Tien-an Mên, the Inner Gate of the

Imperial City. There at the time appointed they were drawn up,

and the interest of a great historic event began. The Imperial

Palace, or Forbidden City, is an enclosure about two-thirds of

a mile long from north to south and about half a mile broad

from east to west. It is surrounded by a high wall. Outside

this wall on the west, north, and east lies a broad moat. From

the south it is approached by a series of immense paved

courtyards divided one from the other by high and massive

gateways, above which rise imposing pavilions with

yellow-tiled overhanging roofs, flanked by great towers built

in the same style and similarly roofed with Imperial yellow.

This Forbidden City or Imperial Palace enclosure is situated

within the Imperial City, a larger enclosure, also surrounded

by a high tile-topped wall. It was outside the Inner Gateway

to this Imperial City that the troops were drawn up. The

Russians took up their position on the centre, close to the

stone bridge in front of the Tien-an Mên; the Japanese were

opposite the gateway on the left; the British to the right of

the Russians in a wide paved avenue running east and west

outside the inner wall of the Imperial City. The remainder of

the allies were drawn up to the rear of the Russians and

Japanese in the wide avenue running north and south from the

Outer Gateway (Ta-ching Mên). As a pageant it was not a

success. Soldiers on service do not make a fine show. … Inside

the Tien-an Mên the central stone road continues for about

half a mile down a broad, flagged avenue running between

handsome temple buildings on either hand, until the Wu Mên, or

south gate, of the Forbidden City is reached. It is an

imposing entrance. The gateway itself is high and massive, and

the towers on top are particularly fine. Thus far, on the

morning of the 15th, the American troops fought, driving the

Chinese before them into the city. The self-denial displayed

by General Chaffee on that occasion has not, perhaps, received

proper recognition. There was at that time no agreement to

hold him back, and he might have pressed on and taken the

palace and hoisted the Stars and Stripes over it. It would

have been a fine prize, and the temptation must have been

great, but General Chaffee, acting, possibly, under the advice

of Mr. Conger, the United States Minister, refrained—a

noteworthy act. This gateway has been held by an American

guard ever since, and American troops have been quartered in

the approach to it. …

"After it was over the generals and staff officers and the

Ministers and other privileged persons returned by the way we

had come through the Forbidden City. Tea was provided by the

Chinese officials in the summer-house of the palace garden,

the quaint beauties of which there was now time to appreciate.

Beautiful stone carvings and magnificent bronzes claimed

attention. The march through had occupied about an hour, and

another was spent sauntering back through the various halls

and courtyards. As the halls were cleared the Chinese

attendants hastily closed the doors behind us with evident

relief at our departure. A few jade ornaments were pocketed by

quick-fingered persons desirous of possessing souvenirs, but

on the whole the understanding that there was to be no looting

was carried out. Arrived at the courtyard where their horses had

been left, the generals and staff officers mounted and rode

out of the palace, and the rest of us followed on foot. The

gates were once more closed and guards were stationed outside

to prevent anyone from entering. The Forbidden City resumed

its normal state, inviolate, undesecrated. The honour of the

civilized world, we were told, had been thus vindicated. But

had it?"

_London Times,

Peking Correspondence._

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (August-September).

The flight of the Imperial Court.

The following account of the flight of the Court from Peking

to Tai-yuen-fu was given to a newspaper correspondent, in

October, by Prince Su, who accompanied the fugitive Emperor

and Dowager-Empress, and afterwards returned to Peking:

"The day the Court left Peking they travelled in carts to

Kuan-shi, 20 miles to the north, escorted by 3,000 soldiers of

various commands. This composite army pillaged, murdered, and

outraged along the whole route. At Kuan-shi the Imperial

cortege was supplied with mule litters. The flight then

continued at the rate of 20 miles daily to Hsuan-hua-fu, where

a halt was made for three days. This place is 120 miles from

Peking. Up to this time the flight had been of a most

panic-stricken nature. So little authority was exerted that

the soldiers even stole the meals which had been prepared for

the Emperor and the Dowager-Empress. Some improvement was

effected by the execution of several for murder and pillaging,

and gradually the various constituents of the force were

brought under control.

{137}

Many of the Dowager-Empress's advisers were in favour of

remaining at Hsuan-hua-fu, on account of the comparatively

easy means of communication with the capital. The majority,

however, were in such fear of pursuit by the foreign troops

that the proposition was overruled. The flight was then

resumed towards Tai-yuen-fu. Before leaving Hsuan-hua-fu,

10,000 additional troops under Tung-fuh-siang joined the

escort. The newcomers, however, only added to the discord

already prevailing. The Dowager-Empress did little else but

weep and upbraid those whose advice had brought them into such

a position. The Emperor reviled everyone irrespective of his

opinions. The journey to Tai-yuen-fu took 26 days, the longest

route being taken for fear of pursuit. On arriving there the

formation of some kind of Government was attempted, but owing

to the many elements of discord this was found to be next to

impossible. Though many edicts were issued they could not be

enforced. Neither party cared for an open rupture, and affairs

rapidly assumed a state of chaos. Prince Su further said that

the Emperor did not desire to leave Peking, preferring to

trust himself to the allies, but his objections were not

listened to and he was compelled to accompany the flight."

The final resting-place of the fugitive Imperial Court for

some months was Si-ngan-fu, or Sin-gan Fu, or Segan Fu, or

Sian Fu (as it is variously written), a large city, the

capital of the western province of Shensi.

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (August-December).

Discussions among "the Powers" as to the terms to be made

with the Chinese Government.

Opening of negotiations with Prince Ching and Li Hung-chang.

Immediately upon the capture of Peking, Li Hung-chang

addressed appeals to the Powers for a cessation of

hostilities, for the withdrawal of troops from Peking, and for

the appointment of envoys to negotiate a permanent peace.

Discussion among the governments followed, the first definite

outcome of which appeared in the announcement of an intention

on the part of Russia to withdraw her troops from Peking as

soon as order had been re-established there, and of a

disposition on the part of the United States to act with

Russia in that procedure. This substantial agreement between

the two governments was made public by the printing of the

following dispatch, dated August 29, from Mr. Adee, the

American Acting Secretary of State, to the representatives of

the United States in London, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Rome, and

Tokio:

"The Russian Charge d'Affaires yesterday afternoon made me an

oral statement regarding Russia's purposes in China to the

following effect:—'That, as she has already repeatedly

declared, Russia has no designs of territorial acquisition in

China; that, equally with the other Powers now operating

there, Russia sought the safety of her Legation in Peking and

to help the Chinese Government to repress the troubles that

arose; that incidentally to the necessary defensive measures

on the Russian border, Russia has occupied Niu-chwang for

military purposes, and as soon as order is re-established she

will withdraw her troops from the town if the action of the

other Powers be no obstacle; that the purpose for which the

various Governments have co-operated for the relief of the

Legations in Peking has been accomplished; that taking the

position that as the Chinese Government has left Peking there

is no need for the Russian representative to remain, Russia

has directed her Minister to retire with his official

personnel from China; that the Russian troops will likewise be

withdrawn, and that when the Government of China shall regain the

reins of government and can afford an authority with which the

other Powers can deal, and will express a desire to enter into

negotiations, the Russian Government will also name its

representative.' Holding these views and purposes, Russia has

expressed the hope that the United States will share the same

opinion.

"To this declaration our reply has been made by the following

memorandum:—'The Government of the United States has received

with much satisfaction the reiterated statement that Russia

has no designs of territorial acquisition in China and that,

equally with the other Powers now operating in China, Russia

has sought the safety of her Legation and to help the Chinese

Government to repress the existing troubles. The same purposes

have moved, and will continue to control, the Government of

the United States, and the frank declarations of Russia in

this regard are in accord with those made to the United States

by the other Powers. All the Powers, therefore, having

disclaimed any purpose to acquire any part of China, and now

that the adherence thereto has been renewed since relief

reached Peking, it ought not to be difficult by concurrent

action through negotiations to reach an amicable settlement

with China whereby the treaty rights of all the Powers shall

be secured for the future, the open door assured, the

interests and property of foreign citizens conserved, and full

reparation made for the wrongs and injuries suffered by them.

"So far as we are advised, the greater part of China is at

peace and earnestly desires to protect the life and property

of all foreigners, and in several of the provinces active and

successful efforts to suppress the 'Boxers' have been taken by

the Viceroys, to whom we have extended encouragement through

our Consuls and naval officers. This present good relation

should be promoted for the peace of China. While we agree that

the immediate object for which the military forces of the

Powers have been co-operating—the relief of the Ministers in

Peking—has been accomplished, there still remain other

purposes which all the Powers have in common, which have been

referred to in the communication of the Russian Charge d'

Affaires, and which were specifically enumerated in our Note

to the Powers.

"These are:—To afford all possible protection everywhere in

China to foreign life and property; to guard and protect all

legitimate foreign interests; to aid in preventing the spread

of disorders in the other provinces of the Empire and the

recurrence of such disorders; to seek a solution which may

bring about permanent safety and peace in China; to preserve

the Chinese territorial and administrative entity; to protect

all rights guaranteed by treaty and international law to

friendly Powers; and to safeguard for the world the principle

of equal and impartial trade with all parts of the Chinese

Empire. In our opinion, these purposes could best be attained

by the joint occupation of Peking under a definite

understanding between the Powers until the Chinese Government

shall have been re-established and shall be in a position to

enter into new treaties containing adequate provisions for

reparation and guarantees for future protection.

{138}

"With the establishment and recognition of such authority the

United States would wish to withdraw its military forces from

Peking and remit to the processes of peaceful negotiation our

just demands. We consider, however, that the continued

occupation of Peking would be ineffective to produce the

desired result unless all the Powers unite therein with entire

harmony of purpose. Any Power which determines to withdraw its

troops from Peking will necessarily proceed thereafter to

protect its interests in China by its own method, and we think

this would make a general withdrawal expedient. As to the time

and manner of withdrawal, we think that, in view of the

imperfect knowledge of the military situation resulting from

the interruptions of telegraphic communication, the several

military commanders in Peking should be instructed to confer

and to agree together upon the withdrawal as a concerted

movement, as they agreed upon in advance.

"The result of these considerations is that, unless there is

such a general expression by the Powers in favour of the

continued occupation as to modify the views expressed by the

Russian Government and lead to a general agreement for

continued occupation, we shall give instructions to the

commander of the American forces in China to withdraw our

troops from Peking after due conference with the other

commanders as to the time and manner of withdrawal.

"The Government of the United States is much gratified by the

assurance given by Russia that the occupation of Niu-chwang is

for military purposes incidental to the military steps for the

security of the Russian border provinces menaced by the

Chinese, and that as soon as order is established Russia will

withdraw her troops from those places if the action of the

other Powers is not an obstacle thereto. No obstacle in this

regard can arise through any action of the United States,

whose policy is fixed and has been repeatedly proclaimed."

Even before the communication received from Russia, the

government of the United States had taken steps to withdraw

the greater part of its troops. "On the 25th of August," says

the American Secretary of War, in his annual report, November

30, 1900, "General Chaffee was directed to hold his forces in

readiness for instructions to withdraw, and on the 25th of

September he was instructed to send to Manila all the American

troops in China with the exception of a legation guard, to

consist of a regiment of infantry, a squadron of cavalry, and

one light battery."

The expressions from Russia and the United States in favor of

an early withdrawal of foreign troops from Peking, and the

opening of pacific negotiations with the Chinese government,

were unsatisfactory to several of the concerted Powers, and

were sharply criticised in the British and German press. The

German government, especially, was disposed to insist upon

stern and strenuous measures in dealing with that of China,

and it addressed the following circular note, on the 18th of

September, to all the Powers:

"The Government of the Emperor holds as preliminary to

entering upon diplomatic relations with the Chinese Government

that those persons must be delivered up who have been proved

to be the original and real instigators of the outrages

against international law which have occurred at Peking. The

number of those who were merely instruments in carrying out

the outrages is too great. Wholesale executions would be

contrary to the civilized conscience, and the circumstances of

such a group of leaders cannot be completely ascertained. But

a few whose guilt is notorious should be delivered up and

punished. The representatives of the powers at Peking are in a

position to give or bring forward convincing evidence. Less

importance attaches to the number punished than to their

character as chief instigators or leaders. The Government

believes it can count on the unanimity of all the Cabinets in

regard to this point, insomuch as indifference to the idea of

just atonement would be equivalent to indifference to a

repetition of the crime. The Government proposes, therefore,

that the Cabinets concerned should instruct their

representatives at Peking to indicate those leading Chinese

personages from whose guilt in instigating or perpetrating

outrages all doubt is excluded."

The British government was understood to be not unwilling to

support this demand from Germany, but little encouragement

seems to have been officially given to it from other quarters,

and the government of the United States was most emphatic in

declining to approve it. The reply of the latter to the German

circular note was promptly given, September 21, as follows:

"The government of the United States has, from the outset,

proclaimed its purpose to hold to the uttermost accountability

the responsible authors of any wrongs done in China to

citizens of the United States and their interests, as was

stated in the Government's circular communication to the

Powers of July 3 last. These wrongs have been committed not

alone in Peking, but in many parts of the Empire, and their

punishment is believed to be an essential element of any

effective settlement which shall prevent a recurrence of such

outrages and bring about permanent safety and peace in China.

It is thought, however, that no punitive measures can be so

effective by way of reparation for wrongs suffered and as

deterrent examples for the future as the degradation and

punishment of the responsible authors by the supreme Imperial

authority itself, and it seems only just to China that she

should be afforded in the first instance an opportunity to do

this and thus rehabilitate herself before the world.

"Believing thus, and without abating in anywise its deliberate

purpose to exact the fullest accountability from the

responsible authors of the wrongs we have suffered in China,

the Government of the United States is not disposed, as a

preliminary condition to entering into diplomatic negotiations

with the Chinese Government, to join in a demand that said

Government surrender to the Powers such persons as, according

to the determination of the Powers themselves, may be held to

be the first and real perpetrators of those wrongs. On the

other hand, this Government is disposed to hold that the

punishment of the high responsible authors of these wrongs,

not only in Peking, but throughout China, is essentially a

condition to be embraced and provided for in the negotiations

for a final settlement.

{139}

It is the purpose of this Government, at the earliest

practicable moment, to name its plenipotentiaries for

negotiating a settlement with China, and in the mean time to

authorize its Minister in Peking to enter forthwith into

conference with the duly authorized representatives of the

Chinese Government, with a view of bringing about a

preliminary agreement whereby the full exercise of the

Imperial power for the preservation of order and the

protection of foreign life and property throughout China,

pending final negotiations with the Powers, shall be assured."

On the same day on which the above note was written the

American government announced its recognition of Prince Ching

and Li Hung-chang, as plenipotentiaries appointed to represent

the Emperor of China, in preliminary negotiations for the

restoration of the imperial authority at Peking and for a

settlement with the foreign Powers.

Differences between the Powers acting together in China, as to

the preliminary conditions of negotiation with the Chinese

government, and as to the nature and range of the demands to

be made upon it, were finally adjusted on the lines of a

proposal advanced by the French Foreign Office, in a note

dated October 4, addressed to the several governments, as

follows:

"The intention of the Powers in sending their forces to China

was, above all, to deliver the Legations. Thanks to their

union and the valour of their troops this object has been

attained. The question now is to obtain from the Chinese

Government, which has given Prince Ching and Li Hung-chang

full powers to negotiate and to treat in its name, suitable

reparation for the past and serious guarantees for the future.

Penetrated with the spirit which has evoked the previous

declarations of the different Governments, the Government of

the Republic has summarized its own sentiments in the

following points, which it submits as a basis for the

forthcoming negotiations after the customary verification of

powers:

(1) The punishment of the chief culprits, who will be

designated by the representatives of the Powers in Peking.

(2) The maintenance of the embargo on the importation of arms.

(3) Equitable indemnity for the States and for private

persons.

(4) The establishment in Peking of a permanent guard for the

Legations.

(5) The dismantling of the Ta-ku forts.

(6) The military occupation of two or three points on the

Tien-tsin-Peking route, thus assuring complete liberty of

access for the Legations should they wish to go to the coast

and to forces from the sea-board which might have to go up to

the capital.

It appears impossible to the Government of the Republic that

these so legitimate conditions, if collectively presented by

the representatives of the Powers and supported by the

presence of the international troops, will not shortly be

accepted by the Chinese Government."

On the 17th of October, the French Embassy at Washington

announced to the American government that "all the interested

powers have adhered to the essential principles of the French

note," and added: "The essential thing now is to show the

Chinese Government, which has declared itself ready to

negotiate, that the powers are animated by the same spirit;

that they are decided to respect the integrity of China and

the independence of its Government, but that they are none the

less resolved to obtain the satisfaction to which they have a

right. In this regard it would seem that if the proposition

which has been accepted as the basis of negotiations were

communicated to the Chinese plenipotentiaries by the Ministers

of the powers at Peking, or in their name by their Dean, this

step would be of a nature to have a happy influence upon the

determinations of the Emperor of China and of his Government."

The government of the United States approved of this

suggestion from France, and announced that it had "instructed

its Minister in Peking to concur in presenting to the Chinese

plenipotentiaries the points upon which we are agreed." Other

governments, however, seem to have given different

instructions, and some weeks were spent by the foreign

Ministers at Peking in formulating the joint note in which

their requirements were to be presented to Prince Ching and

Earl Li.

The latter, meantime, had submitted, on their own part, to the

allied plenipotentiaries, a draft of what they conceived to be

the just preliminaries of a definitive treaty. They prefaced

it with a brief review of what had occurred, and some remarks,

confessing that "the throne now realizes that all these

calamities have been caused by the fact that Princes and high

Ministers of State screened the Boxer desperados, and is

accordingly determined to punish severely the Princes and

Ministers concerned in accordance with precedent by handing

them over to their respective Yamêns for the determination of

a penalty." The "draft clauses" then submitted were as

follows:

"The siege of the Legations was a flagrant violation of the

usages of international law and an utterly unpermissible act.

China admits the gravity of her error and undertakes that

there shall be no repetition of the occurrence. China admits

her liability to pay an indemnity, and leaves it to the Powers

to appoint officers who shall investigate the details and make

out a general statement of claims to be dealt with

accordingly.

"With regard to the subsequent trade relations between China

and the foreign Powers, it will be for the latter to make

their own arrangements as to whether former treaties shall be

adhered to in their entirety, modified in details, or

exchanged for new ones. China will take steps to put the

respective proposals into operation accordingly.

"Before drawing up a definitive treaty it will be necessary

for China and the Powers to be agreed as to general

principles. Upon this agreement being arrived at, the

Ministers of the Powers will remove the seals which have been

affixed to the various departments of the Tsung-li-Yamên and

proceed to the Yamên for the despatch of business in matters

relating to international questions exactly as before.

"So soon as a settlement of matters of detail shall have been

agreed upon between China and the various nations concerned in

accordance with the requirements of each particular nation,

and so soon as the question of the payment of an indemnity

shall have been satisfactorily settled, the Powers will

respectively withdraw their troops. The despatch of troops to

China by the Powers was undertaken with the sole object of

protecting the Ministers, and so soon as peace negotiations

between China and the Powers shall have been opened there

shall be a cessation of hostilities.

{140}

"The statement that treaties will be made with each of the

Powers in no way prejudices the fact that with regard to the

trade conventions mentioned the conditions vary in accordance

with the respective powers concerned. With regard to the

headings of a definitive treaty, questions of nomenclature and

precedence affecting each of the Powers which may arise in

framing the treaty can be adjusted at personal conferences."

Great Britain and Germany were now acting in close accord,

having, apparently, been drawn together by a common distrust

of the intentions of Russia. On the 16th of October, Lord

Salisbury and Count Hatzfeldt signed the following agreement,

which was made known at once to the other governments

concerned, and its principles assented to by all:

"Her Britannic Majesty's Government and the Imperial German

Government, being desirous to maintain their interests in

China and their rights under existing treaties, have agreed to

observe the following principles in regard to their mutual policy

in China:—

"1. It is a matter of joint and permanent international

interest that the ports on the rivers and littoral of China

should remain free and open to trade and to every other

legitimate form of economic activity for the nationals of all

countries without distinction; and the two Governments agree

on their part to uphold the same for all Chinese territory as

far as they can exercise influence.

"2. The Imperial German Government and her Britannic Majesty's

Government will not, on their part, make use of the present

complication to obtain for themselves any territorial

advantages in Chinese dominions, and will direct their policy

towards maintaining undiminished the territorial condition of

the Chinese Empire.

"3. In case of another Power making use of the complications

in China in order to obtain under any form whatever such

territorial advantages, the two Contracting Parties reserve to

themselves to come to a preliminary understanding as to the

eventual steps to be taken for the protection of their own

interests in China.

"4. The two Governments will communicate this Agreement to the

other Powers interested, and especially to Austria-Hungary,

France, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the United States of

America, and will invite them to accept the principles

recorded in it."

The assent of Russia was no less positive than that of the

other Powers. It was conveyed in the following words: "The

first point of this Agreement, stipulating that the ports

situated on the rivers and littoral of China, wherever the two

Governments exercise their influence, should remain free and

open to commerce, can be favorably entertained by Russia, as

this stipulation does not infringe in any way the 'status quo'

established in China by existing treaties. The second point

corresponds all the more with the intentions of Russia, seeing

that, from the commencement of the present complications, she

was the first to lay down the maintenance of the integrity of

the Chinese Empire as a fundamental principle of her policy in

China. As regards the third point relating to the eventuality

of an infringement of this fundamental principle, the Imperial

Government, while referring to their Circular of the 12th

(25th) August, can only renew the declaration that such an

infringement would oblige Russia to modify her attitude

according to circumstances."

On the 13th of November, while the foreign plenipotentiaries

at Peking were trying to agree in formulating the demands they

should make, the Chinese imperial government issued a decree

for the punishment of officials held responsible for the Boxer

outrages. As given the Press by the Japanese Legation at

Washington, in translation from the text received there, it

was as follows;

"Orders have been already issued for the punishment of the

officials responsible for opening hostilities upon friendly

Powers and bringing the country into the present critical

condition by neglecting to suppress and even by encouraging

the Boxers. But as Peking and its neighborhood have not yet

been entirely cleared of the Boxers, the innocent people are

still suffering terribly through the devastation of their

fields and the destruction of their houses, a state of affairs

which cannot fail to fill one with the bitterest feelings

against these officials. And if they are not severely

punished, how can the anger of the people be appeased and the

indignation of the foreign Powers allayed?

"Accordingly, Prince Tuan is hereby deprived of his title and

rank, and shall, together with Prince Chwang, who has already

been deprived of his title, be delivered to the Clan Court to

be kept in prison until the restoration of peace, when they

shall be banished to Sheng-King, to be imprisoned for life.

Princes Yi and Tsai Yung, who have both been already deprived

of their titles, are also to be delivered to the Clan Court

for imprisonment, while Prince Tsai Lien, also already

deprived of title and rank, is to be kept confined in his own

house, Duke Tsai Lan shall forfeit his ducal salary, but may

be transferred with the degradation of one rank. Chief Censor

Ying Nien shall be degraded two ranks and transferred. As to

Kang Yi, Minister of the Board of Civil Appointment, upon his

return from the commission on which he had been sent for the

purpose of making inquiries into the Boxer affair he

memorialized the Throne in an audience strongly in their

favor. He should have been severely punished but for his death

from illness, and all penalties are accordingly remitted. Chao

Shuy Yao, Minister of the Board of Punishment, who had been

sent on a mission similar to that of Kang Yi, returned almost

immediately. Though such conduct was a flagrant neglect of his

duties, still he did not make a distorted report to the

Throne, and therefore he shall be deprived of his rank, but

allowed to retain his present office. Finally, Yu Hsien,

ex-Governor of Shan-Se, allowed, while in office, the Boxers

freely to massacre the Christian missionaries and converts.

For this he deserves the severest punishment, and therefore he

is to be banished to the furthermost border of the country, and

there to be kept at hard labor for life.

{141}

"We have a full knowledge of the present trouble from the very

beginning, and therefore, though no impeachment has been brought

by Chinese officials at home or abroad against Princes Yi,

Tsai Lien and Tsai Yung, we order them to be punished in the

same manner as those who have been impeached. All who see this

edict will thus perceive our justice and impartiality in

inflicting condign penalties upon these officials," It was not

until the 20th of December that the joint note of the

plenipotentiaries of the Powers, after having been submitted

in November to the several governments represented, and

amended to remove critical objections, was finally signed and

delivered to the Chinese plenipotentiaries. The following is a

precis of the requirements set forth in it:

"(1) An Imperial Prince is to convey to Berlin the Emperor's

regret for the assassination of Baron von Ketteler, and a

monument is to be erected on the site of the murder, with an

inscription, in Latin, German, and Chinese, expressing the

regret of the Emperor for the murder.

"(2) The most severe punishment fitting their crimes is to be

inflicted on the personages designated in the Imperial decree

of September 21, whose names—not mentioned—are Princes Tuan

and Chuang and two other princes, Duke Lan, Chao Shu-chiao,

Yang-yi, Ying-hien, also others whom the foreign Ministers

shall hereafter designate. Official examinations are to be

suspended for five years in those cities where foreigners have

been assassinated or cruelly treated.

"(3) Honourable reparation is to be made to Japan for the

murder of M. Sugiyama.

"(4) Expiatory monuments are to be erected in all foreign

cemeteries where tombs have been desecrated.

"(5) The importation of arms or 'materiel' and their

manufacture are to be prohibited.

"(6) An equitable indemnity is to be paid to States,

societies, and individuals, also to Chinese who have suffered

injury because of their employment by foreigners. China will

adopt financial measures acceptable to the Powers to guarantee

the payment of the indemnity and the service of the loans.

"(7) Permanent Legation guards are to be maintained, and the

diplomatic quarter is to be fortified.

"(8) The Ta-ku forts and those between Peking and the sea are

to be razed.

"(9) There is to be a military occupation of points necessary

to ensure the safety of the communications between Peking and

the sea.

"(10) Proclamations are to be posted during two years

throughout the Empire threatening death to any person joining

an anti-foreign society and enumerating the punishment

inflicted by China upon the guilty ringleaders of the recent

outrages. An Imperial edict is to be promulgated ordering

Viceroys, Governors, and Provincial officials to be held

responsible for anti-foreign outbreaks or violations of

treaties within their jurisdiction, failure to suppress the

same being visited by the immediate cashiering of the

officials responsible, who shall never hold office again.

"(11) China undertakes to negotiate a revision of the

commercial treaties in order to facilitate commercial

relations.

"(12) The Tsung-li-Yamên is to be reformed, and the Court

ceremonial for the reception of foreign Ministers modified in

the sense indicated by the Powers.

"Until the foregoing conditions are complied with ('se

conformer à') the Powers can hold out no expectation of a

limit of time for the removal of the foreign troops now

occupying Peking and the provinces."

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (November).

Russo-Chinese agreement relating to Manchuria.

See (in this volume)

MANCHURIA.

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (December).

Russo-Chinese agreement concerning the Manchurian

province of Fêng-tien.

See (in this volume)

MANCHURIA: A. D. 1900.

CHINA: A. D. 1900-1901 (November-February).

Seizure of grounds at Peking for a large Legation Quarter.

Extensive plans of fortification.

In February, 1901, the following from a despatch written in

the previous November by Mr. Conger, the American Minister at

Peking, was given to the Press by the State Department at

Washington: "I have the honor to report that in view of the

probability of keeping large legation grounds in the future,

and because of the general desire on the part of all the

European representatives to have extensive legations, all of

the Ministers are taking possession of considerable areas

adjoining their legations—property belonging either to the

Chinese Government or to private citizens, and having been

abandoned by the owners during the siege—with the intention to

claim them as conquest, or possibly credit something for them

on their account for indemnity. I have as yet not taken formal

possession of any ground for this purpose, nor shall I without

instructions, but I shall not for the present permit any of the

owners or other persons to reoccupy any of the property

between this legation and the canal to the east of it. While

this area will be very small in comparison with the other

legations, yet it will be sufficient to make both the legation

personnel and the guard very comfortable, and will better

comport with our traditional simplicity vis-a-vis the usual

magnificence of other representatives.

"It is proposed to designate the boundaries of a legation

quarter, which shall include all the legations, and then

demand the right to put that in a state of defence when

necessary, and to prohibit the residence of Chinese there,

except by permission of the Ministers. If, therefore, these

ideas as to guards, defence, etc:., are to be carried out, a

larger legation will be an absolute necessity. In fact, it is

impossible now to accommodate the legation and staff in our

present quarters without most inconvenient crowding.

"There are no public properties inside the legation quarter

which we could take as a legation. All the proposed property

to be added, as above mentioned, to our legation, is private

ground, except a very small temple in the southeast corner,

and I presume, under our policy, if taken, will be paid for

either to the Chinese owners or credited upon account against

the Chinese Government for indemnity, although I suspect most

of the other Governments will take theirs as a species of

conquest. The plot of ground adjoining and lying to the cast

of the legation to which I have made reference is about the

size of the premises now occupied by us."

Before its adjournment on the 4th of March, 1901, the Congress

of the United States made an appropriation for the purchase of

grounds for its Legation at Peking, and instructions were sent

to make the purchase.

{142}

By telegram from Peking on the 14th of February it was

announced that a formidable plan of fortification for this

Legation Quarter had been drawn up by the Military Council of

the Powers at Peking, and that work upon it was to begin at

once. The correspondent of the "London Times" described the

plan and wrote satirically of it, as follows; "From supreme

contempt for the weakness of China armed we have swayed to

exaggerated fear of the strength of China disarmed. The

international military experts have devised a scheme for

putting the Legation quarter in a state of defence which is

equivalent to the construction of an International fortress

alongside the Imperial Palace. The plan requires the breaching

of the city wall at the Water-gate, the levelling of the Ha-ta

Mên and Chien Mên towers, the demolition of the ramparts

giving access to them, the sweeping clear of a space 150 to

300 yards wide round the entire Legation area, and the

construction of walls, glacis, moats, barbed wire defences,

with siege guns, Maxims, and barracks capable of holding 2,000

troops, with military stores and equipment sufficient to

withstand a siege of three months. All public buildings,

boards, and civil offices between the Legations and the

Imperial walls are to be levelled, while 11,000 foreign troops

are to hold the communications between Peking and the sea, so

that no Chinese can travel to Peking from the sea without the

knowledge of the foreign military authorities.

"The erection of the defences is to begin at once, before the

return of the Court to Peking. They are no doubt devised to

encourage the Court to return to Peking, it being apparently

the belief of the foreign Ministers that an Imperial Court

governing an independent empire are eager to place themselves

under the tutelage of foreign soldiers and within the reach of

foreign Maxims.

"Within the large new Legation area all the private property

of Chinese owners who years before sought the advantages of

vicinity to the Legations has been seized by the foreign

Legations. France and Germany, with a view to subsequent

commercial transactions, have annexed many acres of valuable

private property for which no compensation is contemplated,

while the Italian Legation, which boasts a staff of two

persons, carrying out the scheme of appropriation to a logical

absurdity, has, in addition to other property, grabbed the

Imperial Maritime Customs gardens and buildings occupied for

so many years by Sir Robert Hart and his staff."

CHINA: A. D. 1901 (January-February).

Famine in Shensi.

A Press telegram from Peking, late in January, announced a

fearful famine prevailing in the province of Shensi, where

thousands of natives were dying. The Chinese government was

distributing rice, and there was reported to be discrimination

against native Christians in the distribution. Mr. Conger, Sir

E. Satow, and M. Pichon protested to Prince Ching and Li

Hung-chang against such discrimination. A Court edict was

therefore issued on the 26th instant ordering all relief

officials and Chinese soldiers to treat Christians in exactly

the same way as all other Chinese throughout the Empire, under

penalty of decapitation. Another despatch, early in February,

stated: "Trustworthy reports received here from Singan-fu [the

temporary residence of the fugitive Chinese court] all agree

that the famine in the provinces of Shen-si and Shan-si is one

of the worst in the history of China. It is estimated that

two-thirds of the people are without sufficient food or the

means of obtaining it. They are also suffering from the bitter

cold. As there is little fuel in either province the woodwork

of the houses is being used to supply the want. Oxen, horses,

and dogs have been practically all sacrificed to allay hunger.

Three years of crop failures in both provinces and more or less

of famine in previous seasons had brought the people to

poverty when winter began. This year their condition has

rapidly grown worse. Prince Ching stated to Mr. Conger, the

United States Minister, that the people were reduced to eating

human flesh and to selling their women and children.

Infanticide is alarmingly common."

CHINA: A. D. 1901 (January-February).

Submission to the demands of the Powers

by the Imperial Government.

Punishments inflicted and promised.

A new Reform Edict.

With no great delay, the Chinese plenipotentiaries at Peking

were authorized by the Emperor and Empress to agree to the

demands of the Powers, which they did by formally signing the

Joint Note. Prince Ching gave his signature on the 12th of

January, 1901, and Li Hung-chang, who was seriously ill,

signed on the following day. Discussion of the punishments to

be inflicted on guilty officials was then opened, and went on

for some time. On the 5th of February, the foreign Ministers

submitted the names of twelve leading officials, against whom

formal indictments were framed, and who were considered to be

deserving of death. Three of them, however (Kang Yi, Hsu Tung,

and Li Ping Heng), were found to be already deceased. The

remaining nine were the following: Prince Chuang,

commander-in-chief of the Boxers; Prince Tuan, who was held to

be the principal instigator of the attack on foreigners; Duke

Lan, the Vice-President of Police, who admitted the Boxers to

the city; Yu Hsien, who was the governor of Shan-Si Province,

promoter of the Boxer movement there, and director of the

massacres in that province; General Tung Fu Siang, who led the

attacks on the Legations, Ying Nien, Chao Hsu Kiao, Hsu Cheng

Yu, and Chih Siu, who were variously prominent in the

murderous work. In the cases of Prince Tuan and Duke Lan, who

were related to the Imperial family, and in the case of

General Tung Fu Siang, whose military command gave him power

to be troublesome, the Chinese court pleaded such difficulties

in the way of executing a decree of death that the Ministers

at Peking were persuaded to be satisfied with sentences of

exile, or degradation in rank, or both. On the 21st of

February the Ministers received notice that an imperial edict

had been issued, condemning General Tung Fu Siang to be

degraded and deprived of his rank; Prince Tuan and Duke Lan to

be disgraced and exiled; Prince Chuang, Ying Nien and Chao Hsu

Kiao to commit suicide; Hsu Cheng Yu, Yu Hsien and Chih Siu to

be beheaded. Hsu Cheng Yu and Chih Siu were then prisoners in

the hands of the foreign military authorities at Peking, and

the sentence was executed upon them there, on the 26th of

February, in the presence of Japanese, French, German and

American troops. A despatch from Peking reporting the

execution stated that, while it was being carried out, "the

ministers held a meeting and determined on the part of the

majority to draw a curtain over further demands for blood.

United States Special Commissioner Rockhill sided strongly

with those favoring humane methods, who are Sir Ernest Satow

and MM. Komura, De Cologan and De Giers, respectively British,

Japanese, Spanish and Russian ministers. Others believe that

China has not been sufficiently punished, and that men should

be executed in every city, town and village where foreigners

were injured."

{143}

While the subject of punishments was pending, and with a view,

it was said, of quickening the action of the Chinese

government, Count von Waldersee, the German Field-Marshal

commanding the allied forces in China, ordered preparations to

be made for an extensive military expedition into the

interior. The government of the United States gave prompt

directions that its forces at Peking should not take part in

this movement, and the remonstrances of other Powers more

pacifically inclined than the Germans caused the project to be

given up.

Meantime, three Imperial edicts of importance, if faithfully

carried out, had been issued. One, on the 5th of February,

commanded new undertakings of reform, accounting for the

abandonment of the reform movement of 1898 by declaring that

it was seditionary and would have resulted in anarchy, and

that it was entered upon when the Emperor was in bad health;

for all which reasons he had requested the Empress Dowager to

resume the reins of government. Now, it was declared, since

peace negotiations were in progress, the government should be

formed on a basis for future prosperity. Established good

methods of foreign countries should be introduced to supply

China's deficiencies. "China's greatest difficulty," said the

edict, "is her old customs, which have resulted in the

insincere dispatch of business and the promoting of private

gain. Up to the present time those who have followed the

Western methods have had only superficial knowledge, knowing

only a little of foreign languages and foreign inventions,

without knowing the real basis of the strength of foreign

nations. Such methods are insufficient for real reform."

In order to obtain a true basis, the Emperor commanded a

consultation between the ministers of the privy council, the

six boards, nine officers, the Chinese ministers to foreign

countries and all the viceroys and governors. Those were

instructed to recommend reforms in the seven branches of

government, namely, the central government, ceremonies,

taxation, schools, civil-service examinations, military

affairs and public economies. They were also to recommend what

part of the old system can be used and what part needs changing.

Two months were given them in which to prepare their report.

On the following day, two edicts, in fulfilment of demands

made in the Joint Note of the Powers, were promulgated. The

first provided, in accordance with article 3 of the Joint

Note, for the suspension of official examinations for five

years in places where foreigners are killed. The second edict

forbade anti-foreign societies, recited the punishment of

guilty parties and declared that local officials will be held

responsible for the maintenance of order. If trouble occurs

the officials would be removed without delay and never again

allowed to hold office.

CHINA: A. D. 1901 (March).

The murdered Christian missionaries and native converts.

Varying statements and estimates of their number.

To the time of this writing (March, 1901), no complete

enumeration of the foreign Christian missionaries and members

of missionary families who were killed during the Boxer

outbreak of the past year has been made. Varying estimates

have appeared, from time to time, and it is possible that one

of the latest among these, communicated from Shanghai on the

1st of March, may approach to accuracy. It was published in

the "North China Daily News," and said to be founded on the

missionary records, according to which, said the "News," "a

total of 134 adults and 52 children were killed or died of

injuries in the Boxer rising of 1899 and 1900."

On the 13th of March, the "Lokal Anzeiger," of Berlin,

published a statistical report from its Peking correspondent

of "foreign Christians killed during the troubles, exclusive

of the Peking siege," which enumerated 118 Englishmen, 79

Americans, Swedes and Norwegians, 26 Frenchmen, 11 Belgians,

10 Italians and Swiss, and 1 German. The total of these

figures is largely in excess of those given by the "North

China Daily News," but they cover, not missionaries alone, but

all foreign Christians. It is impossible, however, not to

doubt the accuracy of both these accounts. Of native

Christians, the German writer estimated that 30,000 had

perished. In September, 1900, the United States Consul-General

at Shanghai, Mr. Goodnow, "after making inquiries from every

possible source," placed the number of British and American

missionaries who had probably been killed at 93, taking no

account of a larger number in Chih-li and Shan-si whose fate

was entirely unknown. Of those whose deaths he believed to be

absolutely proved at that time, 34 were British, including 9

men, 15 women and 10 children, and 22 were American, 8 of

these being men, 8 women and 6 children.

In December, 1900, a private letter from the "Association for

the Propagation of the Faith, St. Mary's Seminary," Baltimore,

Maryland, stated that up to the end of September 48 Catholic

missionaries were known to have been murdered. A pastoral

letter issued in December by Cardinal Vaughan, in London,

without stating the numbers killed, declared that all work of

the Catholic church, throughout the most of China, where 942

European and 445 native priests had been engaged, was

practically swept away.

A private letter, written early in January, 1901, by the

Reverend Dr. Judson Smith, one of the corresponding

secretaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign

Missions, contains the following statement: "The American

Board has lost in the recent disturbances in China 13

missionaries, 6 men and 7 women, and 5 children belonging to

the families who perished. The number of native converts

connected with the mission churches of the American Board who

have suffered death during these troubles cannot be stated

with accuracy. It undoubtedly exceeds 1,000; it may reach a

much larger figure; but some facts that have come to light of

late imply that more of those who were supposed to be lost

have been in hiding than was known. If we should reckon along

with native converts members of their families who have

suffered death, the number would probably be doubled."

There seems to be absolutely no basis of real information for

any estimate that has been made of the extent of massacre

among the native Christian converts. Thousands perished,

without doubt, but how many thousands is yet to be learned. As

intimated by Dr. Smith, larger numbers than have been supposed

may have escaped, and it will probably be long before the true

facts are gathered from all parts of the country.

{144}

In any view, the massacre of missionaries and their families

was hideous enough; but fictions of horror were shamefully

added, it seems, in some of the stories which came from the

East. At Pao-Ting Fu, where women were said to have suffered

indescribable brutalities before being slain, investigation by

an American military officer convinced him that "there is no

evidence of any peculiar atrocities committed upon the persons

of those who were slain"; and the American Board of

Commissioners for Foreign Missions has publicly announced:

"While forced to believe that our missionaries in Shan Si and

at Pao Ting Fu were put to death by the Chinese, we have never

credited the published reports concerning atrocities connected

with their slaughter."

CHINA: A. D. 1901 (March).

Withdrawal of American troops, excepting a Legation guard.

The following order was sent by cable from the War Department

at Washington to General Chaffee, commanding the United States

forces in China, on the 15th of March: "In reply to your

telegram Secretary of War directs you complete arrangements

sail for Manila with your command and staff officers by end

April, leaving as legation guard infantry company composed of

150 men having at least one year to serve or those intending

re-enlist, with full complement of officers, medical officer,

sufficient hospital corps men and, if you think best, field

officer especially qualified to command guard. Retain and

instruct officer quartermaster's department proceed to erect

necessary buildings for guard according to plan and estimates

you approve."

CHINA: A. D. 1901 (March-April).

Discussion of the question of indemnity.

Uneasiness concerning rumored secret negotiations of

Russia with the Chinese government relative to Manchuria.

As we write this (early in April), the reckoning of

indemnities to be demanded by the several Powers of the

Concert in China is still under discussion between the

Ministers at Peking, and is found to be very difficult of

settlement. There is understood to be wide differences of

disposition among the governments represented in the

discussion, some being accused of a greed that would endeavor

to wring from the Chinese government far more than the country

can possibly pay; while others are laboring to reduce the

total of exactions within a more reasonable limit. At the

latest accounts from Peking, a special committee of the

Ministers was said to be engaged in a searching investigation

of the resources of China, in order to ascertain what sum the

Empire has ability to pay, and in what manner the payment can

best be secured and best made. It seems to be hoped that when

those facts are made clear there may be possibilities of an

agreement as to the division of the total sum between the

nations whose legations were attacked, whose citizens were

slain, and who sent troops to crush the Boxer rising.

Meantime grave anxieties are being caused by rumors of a

secret treaty concerning Manchuria which Russia is said to be

attempting to extort from the Chinese government [see, in this

volume, MANCHURIA], the whispered terms of which would give

her, in that vast region, a degree of control never likely to

become less. The most positive remonstrance yet known to have

been made, against any concession of that nature, was

addressed, on the 1st of March, by the government of the

United States, to its representatives at St. Petersburg,

Berlin, London, Paris, Vienna, Rome, and Tokio, as follows:

"The following memorandum, which was handed to the Chinese

Minister on February 19, is transmitted to you for your

information and communication to the government to which you

are accredited: "The preservation of the territorial integrity

of China having been recognized by all the powers now engaged in

joint negotiation concerning the injuries recently inflicted

upon their ministers and nationals by certain officials and

subjects of the Chinese Empire, it is evidently advantageous

to China to continue the present international understanding

upon this subject. It would be, therefore, unwise and

dangerous in the extreme for China to make any arrangement or

to consider any proposition of a private nature involving the

surrender of territory or financial obligations by convention

with any particular power; and the government of the United

States, aiming solely at the preservation of China from the

danger indicated and the conservation of the largest and most

beneficial relations between the empire and other countries,

in accordance with the principles set forth in its circular

note of July 3, 1900, and in a purely friendly spirit toward

the Chinese Empire and all the powers now interested in the

negotiations, desires to express its sense of the impropriety,

inexpediency and even extreme danger to the interests of China

of considering any private territorial or financial

arrangements, at least without the full knowledge and approval

of all the powers now engaged in negotiation.

HAY."

----------CHINA: End--------

CHINESE TAXES.

See (in this volume)

LIKIN.

CHING, Prince:

Chinese Plenipotentiary to negotiate with the allied Powers.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (AUGUST-DECEMBER).

CHITRAL: A. D. 1895.

The defense and relief of.

See (in this volume)

INDIA: A. D. 1895 (MARCH-SEPTEMBER).

CHITRAL:A. D. 1901.

Included in a new British Indian province.

See (in this volume)

INDIA: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).

CHOCTAWS, United States agreements with the.

See (in this volume)

INDIANS, AMERICAN: A. D. 1893-1899.

CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR, The Young People's Society of.

The nineteenth annual international convention of Young

People's Societies of Christian Endeavor was held in the

Alexandra Palace, London, England, from the 13th to the 20th

of July, 1900, delegates being present from most countries of

the world. Reports presented to the convention showed a total

membership of about 3,500,000, in 59,712 societies, 43,262 of

which were in the United States, 4,000 in Canada, some 7,000

in Great Britain, 4,000 in Australia, and smaller numbers in

Germany, India, China, Japan, Mexico, and elsewhere.

{145}

The first society, which supplied the germ of organization for

all succeeding ones, was formed in the Williston

Congregational Church of Portland, Maine, on the 2d of

February, 1881, by the Reverend Francis E. Clark, the pastor

of the church. The object, as indicated by the name of the

society, was to organize the religious energies of the young

people of the church for Christian life and work. The idea was

caught and imitated in other churches—Congregational,

Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, and others—very rapidly,

and the organization soon became, not only widely national,

but international. In 1898, it was reported that Russia then

remained the only country in the world without a Christian

Endeavor Society, and the total was 54,191. In the next year's

report Russia was announced to have entered the list of

countries represented, and the number of societies had

advanced to 55,813. In 1900, the numbers had risen to the

height stated above. The Epworth League is a kindred

organization of young people in the Methodist Church.

See (in this volume)

EPWORTH LEAGUE.

CHRISTIANS AND MOSLEMS:

Conflicts in Armenia.

See (in this volume)

TURKEY: A. D. 1895.

CONFLICTS IN CRETE.

See (in this volume)

TURKEY: A. D. 1897 (FEBRUARY-MARCH).

CHUNGKING.

"Chungking, which lies nearly 2,000 miles inland, is, despite

its interior position, one of the most important of the more

recently opened ports of China. Located at practically the

head of navigation on the Yangtze, it is the chief city of the

largest, most populous, and perhaps the most productive

province of China, whose relative position, industries,

population, and diversified products make it quite similar to

the great productive valley of the upper Mississippi. The

province of Szechuan is the largest province of China, having

an area of 166,800 square miles, and a population of

67,000,000, or but little less than that of the entire United

States. Its area and density of population may be more readily

recognized in the fact that its size is about the same as that

of the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky combined,

but that its population is six times as great as that of those

States. Its productions include wheat, tobacco, buckwheat,

hemp, maize, millet, barley, sugar cane, cotton, and silk."

_United States, Bureau of Statistics,

Monthly Summary, March, 1899, page 2196._

CHURCH OF ENGLAND: A. D. 1896.

Papal declaration of the invalidity of its ordinations.

See (in this volume)

PAPACY: A. D. 1896 (SEPTEMBER).

CIVIL CODE: Introduction in Germany.

See (in this volume)

GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY).

-------CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM IN THE UNITED STATES: Start-----

CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM IN THE UNITED STATES: A. D. 1893-1896.

Extensions of the Civil-Service rules by President Cleveland.

"Through the extensions of the Federal classification during

President Cleveland's second administration, the number of

positions covered by the civil-service rules was increased

two-fold. On March 3, 1893, the number classified was 42,928.

By a series of executive orders ranging from March 20, 1894,

to June 25. 1895, 10,000 places were added to the list,

bringing the total, approximately, to 53,000. Meanwhile, the

Civil Service Commission had recommended to the President a

general revision that would correct the imperfections of the

original rules and extend their scope to the full degree

contemplated by the Pendleton Act. After much correspondence

and consultation with department officers, and careful work on

the part of the Commission, the rules of May 6 [1896] were

promulgated. They added to the classification about 29,000

more places, and by transferring to the control of the

Commission the system of Navy Yard employment, established by

Secretary Tracy, brought the total number in the classified

service to 87,117. The positions in the Executive branch

unaffected by these orders included those classes expressly

excluded by the statute—persons nominated for confirmation by

the Senate and those employed 'merely as laborers or

workmen'—together with the fourth-class postmasters, clerks in

post-offices other than free delivery offices and in Customs

districts having less than five employees, persons receiving

less than $300 annual compensation, and about 1,000

miscellaneous positions of minor character, not classified for

reasons having to do with the good of the service—91,600 in

all. Within the classified service, the list of positions

excepted from competitive examination was confined to the

private secretaries and clerks of the President and Cabinet

officers, cashiers in the Customs Service, the Internal

Revenue Service and the principal post-offices, attorneys who

prepare cases for trial, principal Customs deputies and all

assistant postmasters—781 in all. The new rules provided for a

general system of promotion, based on competitive examinations

and efficiency records, and gave the Commission somewhat

larger powers in the matter of removals by providing that no

officer or employee in the classified service, of whatever

station, should be removed for political or religious reasons,

and that in all cases like penalties should be imposed for like

offenses. They created an admirable system, a system founded

on the most sensible rules of business administration, and

likely to work badly only where the Commission might encounter

the opposition of hostile appointing officers. President

Cleveland's revised rules were promulgated before the

Convention of either political party had been held, and before

the results of the election could be foreshadowed. The

extensions were practically approved, however, by the

Republican platform, which was adopted with full knowledge of

the nature of the changes, and which declared that the law

should be 'thoroughly and honestly enforced and extended

wherever practicable.' … Mr. McKinley, in his letter of

acceptance and in his inaugural address, repeated the pledge

of the Republican party to uphold the law, and during the two

months of his administration now past he has consistently done

so. He has been beset by many thousands of place-seekers, by

Senators and Representatives and by members of his own

Cabinet, all urging that he undo the work of his predecessor,

either wholly or in part, and so break his word of honor to

the nation, in order that they may profit. … At least five

bills have been introduced in Congress, providing for the

repeal of the law. … Finally, the Senate has authorized an

investigation, by the Committee on Civil Service and

Retrenchment, with the view of ascertaining whether the law

should be 'continued, amended or repealed,' and sessions of

this Committee are now in progress. … Mr. McKinley, by

maintaining the system against these organized attacks, will

do as great a thing as Mr. Cleveland did in upbuilding it."

_Report of the Executive Committee of the New York

Civil Service Reform Association, 1897._

{146}

In his annual Message to Congress, December, 1896, President

Cleveland remarked on the subject:

"There are now in the competitive classified service upward of

eighty-four thousand places. More than half of these have been

included from time to time since March 4, 1893. … If

fourth-class postmasterships are not included in the

statement, it may be said that practically all positions

contemplated by the civil-service law are now classified.

Abundant reasons exist for including these postmasterships,

based upon economy, improved service, and the peace and quiet

of neighborhoods. If, however, obstacles prevent such action

at present, I earnestly hope that Congress will, without

increasing post-office appropriations, so adjust them as to

permit in proper cases a consolidation of these post-offices,

to the end that through this process the result desired may to

a limited extent be accomplished. The civil-service rules as

amended during the last year provide for a sensible and

uniform method of promotion, basing eligibility to better

positions upon demonstrated efficiency and faithfulness."

_United States, Message and Documents (Abridgment),

1896-1897, page 33._

CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM IN THE UNITED STATES: A. D. 1894.

Constitutional provision in New York.

See (in this volume)

CONSTITUTION OF NEW YORK.

CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM IN THE UNITED STATES: A. D. 1897-1898.

Onslaught of the spoils-men at Washington.

Failure of the Congressional attack.

"During the four months following the inauguration [of

President McKinley] the onslaught of place-seekers was almost

unprecedented. Ninety-nine out of every hundred of them

discovered that the office or position he desired was

classified and subject to competitive examination. The tenure

of the incumbent in each case was virtually at the pleasure of

the department officers; removals might easily be made; but

appointments to the places made vacant could be made only from

the eligible lists, and the lists were fairly well filled. It

is true that the rules permitted the reinstatement without

examination of persons who had been separated from the service

without personal fault within one year, or of veterans who had

been in the service at any time, and that some removals were made

to make room for these. But the appointments in such cases

went but a very little way toward meeting the demand. The

result was that almost the whole pressure of the

office-hunting forces and of their members of Congress was

directed for the while toward one end—the revocation or

material modification of the civil service rules. President

McKinley was asked to break his personal pledges, as well as

those of his party, and to take from the classified service

more than one half of the 87,000 offices and positions it

contained. … But the President yielded substantially nothing.

… The attack of the spoils-seekers was turned at once from the

President to Congress. It was declared loudly that the desired

modifications would be secured through legislation, and that

it might even be difficult to restrain the majority from

voting an absolute repeal. In the House the new movement was

led by General Grosvenor of Ohio; in the Senate by Dr.

Gallinger of New Hampshire. … The first debates of the session

dealt with civil service reform. The House devoted two weeks to

the subject in connection with the consideration of the annual

appropriation for the Civil Service Commission. … The effort

to defeat the appropriation ended in the usual failure. It was

explained, however, that all of this had been mere preparation

for the proposed legislation. A committee was appointed by the

Republican opponents, under the lead of General Grosvenor, to

prepare a bill. The bill appeared on January 6, when it was

introduced by Mr. Evans of Kentucky, and referred to the

Committee on Reform in the Civil Service. It limited the

application of the civil service law to clerical employees at

Washington, letter carriers and mail clerks, and employees in

principal Post Offices and Customs Houses, proposing thus to

take from the present classified service about 55,000

positions. A series of hearings was arranged by the Civil

Service Committee, at which representatives of this and other

Associations, and of the Civil Service Commission, were

present. A sub-committee of seven, composing a majority of the

full committee, shortly afterward voted unanimously to report

the bill adversely. About the same time, the Senate Civil

Service Committee, which had been investigating the operation

of the law since early summer, presented its report. Of the

eight members, three recommended a limited number of

exceptions, amounting in all to probably 11,000; three

recommended a greatly reduced list of exceptions, and two

proposed none whatever. All agreed that the President alone

had authority to act, and that no legislation was needed. …

The collapse of the movement in Congress has turned the

attention of the spoilsmen again toward the President. He is

asked once more to make sweeping exceptions."

_Report of the Executive Committee of the

New York Civil Service Reform Association, 1898._

CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM IN THE UNITED STATES:A. D. 1897-1899.

Temporary check in New York.

Governor Black's law.

Restoration of the merit system under Governor Roosevelt.

"In June [1897]—after the Court of Appeals … had declared that

the constitutional amendment was self-executing, and that

appointments made without competitive examination, where

competitive examinations were practicable, must be held to be

illegal—steps were taken to secure a reduction of the exempt

and non-competitive positions in the State Service. A letter

was addressed to Governor Morton, by the officers of the

Association, on June 8, asking that the service be

reclassified, on a basis competitive as far as practicable.

The Governor replied that he had already given the subject

some thought, and that he would be glad to give our

suggestions careful consideration. On the 4th of August he

instructed the Civil Service Commission to prepare such a

revision of the rules and classification as had been proposed.

On the 11th of November this revision, prepared by

Commissioner Burt, was adopted by the full Commission, and on

the 9th of December the new rules were formally promulgated by

the Governor and placed in immediate operation. … The

Governor, earlier in the year, had reversed his action in the

case of inspectors and other employees of the new Excise

Department, by transferring them from the non-competitive to

the competitive class. … This marked the beginning of a

vigorous movement against the competitive system led by

chairmen of district committees, and other machine

functionaries.

{147}

Governor Morton's sweeping order of December completed the

discomfiture of these people and strengthened their purpose to

make a final desperate effort to break the system down. The

new Governor, of whom little had been known prior to his

unexpected nomination in September, proved to be in full

sympathy with their plan. In his message to the legislature,

Mr. Black, in a paragraph devoted to 'Civil Service,' referred

to the system built up by his predecessor in contemptuous

language, and declared that, in his judgment, 'Civil service

would work better with less starch.' He recommended

legislation that would render the examinations 'more

practical,' and that would permit appointing officers to

select from the whole number on an eligible list and not

confine them to selections 'from among those graded highest.'

Such legislation, he promised; would 'meet with prompt

executive approval.' Each house of the legislature referred

this part of the message to its Judiciary Committee, with

instructions to report a bill embodying the Governor's ideas.

… Within a few days of the close of the legislative session,

the measure currently described as 'Governor Black's bill was

Introduced. … The bill provided that in all examinations for

the State, county or municipal service, not more than 50 per

cent. might be given for 'merit,' to be determined by the

Examining Boards, and that the rest of the rating,

representing 'fitness,' was to be given by the appointing

officer, or by some person or persons designated by him. All

existing eligible lists were to be abolished in 30 days, and

the new scheme was to go into operation at once. … A hearing

was given by the Senate Committee on the following day, and

one by the Assembly Committee a few days later. … The bill,

with some amendments, was passed In the Senate, under

suspension of the rules, and as a party measure. … It was

passed in the Assembly also as a caucus measure."

_Report of the Executive Committee of the

New York Civil Service Reform Association, 1897._

"Early [in 1898] after time had been allowed for the act to

prove its capabilities in practice, steps were taken toward

commencing a suit to test its constitutionality in the courts.

… Pending the bringing of a test suit, a bill was prepared for

the Association and introduced in the Legislature on March

16th, last, one of the features of which was the repeal of the

unsatisfactory law. … The bill … was passed by the Senate on

March 29th. On the 31st, the last day of the session, it was

passed by the Assembly. … On the same date it was signed by

the Governor and became a law. This act has the effect of

exempting the cities from the operation of the act of 1897,

restoring the former competitive system in each of them."

_Report of the Executive Committee of the

New York Civil Service Reform Association, 1898._

"As a result of the confusing legislation of [1897 and 1898]

at least four systems of widely differing character had come

into existence by the first of [1899]. New York city had its

charter rules, … the state departments were conducted under

two adaptations of the Black law, and in the smaller cities

the plan of the original law of 1883 was followed. In his

first annual message, Governor Roosevelt directed the

attention of the Legislature to this anomalous condition and

strongly urged the passage of an act repealing the Black law

and establishing a uniform system, for the state and cities

alike, subject to state control. Such an act was prepared with

the co-operation of a special committee of the Association. …

After some discussion it was determined to recast the measure,

adopting a form amounting to a codification of all previously

existing statutes, and less strict in certain of its general

provisions. … The bill was … passed by the Senate by a

majority of two. … In the Assembly it was passed with slight

amendments. … On the … 19th of April the act was signed by the

Governor, and went into immediate effect. … The passage of

this law will necessitate the complete recasting of the civil

service system in New York, on radically different lines."

CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM IN THE UNITED STATES: A. D. 1899.

Modification of Civil Service Rules by President McKinley.

Severe criticism of the order by the National Civil

Service Reform League.

On the 29th of May, 1899, President McKinley was persuaded to

issue an order greatly modifying the civil service rules,

releasing many offices from their operation and permitting

numerous transfers in the service on a non-competitive

examination. This presidential order was criticised with

severity in a statement promptly issued by the Executive

Committee of the National Civil Service Reform League, which

says: "The National Civil Service Reform League, after mature

consideration, regards the order of President McKinley, of May

29, changing the Civil Service rules, as a backward step of

the most pronounced character. The order follows a long

succession of violations, of both the spirit and the literal

terms of the law and rules, in various branches of the

service, and must be considered in its relations to these. Its

immediate effects, which have been understated, may be set

forth as follows:

(1) It withdraws from the classified service not merely 3,000

or 4,000 offices and positions, but, as nearly as can be now

estimated, 10,109. It removes 3,693 from the class of

positions filled hitherto either through competitive

examination or through an orderly practice of promotion, and

it transfers 6,416 other positions in the War Department,

filled hitherto through a competitive registration system,

under the control of the Civil Service Commission, to a system

to be devised and placed in effect by the present Secretary of

War.

(2) It declares regular at least one thousand additional

appointments made temporarily, without examination—in many

cases in direct disregard of the law—in branches that are not

affected by the exceptions, but that remain nominally

competitive.

(3) It permits the permanent appointment of persons employed

without examination, for emergency purposes during the course

of war with Spain, thus furnishing a standing list of many

thousands which positions in the War Department may be filled,

without tests of fitness, for a long time to come.

(4) It alters the rules to the effect that in future any

person appointed with or without competitive examination, or

without any examination, may be placed by transfer in any

classified position without regard to the character or

similarity of the employments interchanged, and after

non-competitive examination only.

{148}

(5) It permits the reinstatement, within the discretion of the

respective department officers, of persons separated from the

service at any previous time for any stated reason.

The effect of these changes in the body of the rules will be

of a more serious nature than that of the absolute exceptions

made. It will be practicable to fill competitive positions of

every description either through arbitrary reinstatement—or

through original appointment to a lower grade, or to an

excepted position without tests of any sort, or even by

transfer from the great emergency force of the War Department,

to be followed in any such case by a mere 'pass' examination.

As general experience has proven, the 'pass' examinations, in

the course of time, degenerate almost invariably into farce.

It will be practicable also to restore to the service at the

incoming of each new administration those dismissed for any

cause during the period of any administration preceding. That

such a practice will lead to wholesale political reprisals,

and, coupled with the other provisions referred to, to the

re-establishment on a large scale of the spoils system of

rotation and favoritism, cannot be doubted."

In his next succeeding annual Message to Congress the

President used the following language on the subject: "The

Executive order [by President Cleveland] of May 6, 1896,

extending the limits of the classified service, brought within

the operation of the civil-service law and rules nearly all of

the executive civil service not previously classified. Some of

the inclusions were found wholly illogical and unsuited to the

work of the several Departments. The application of the rules to

many of the places so included was found to result in friction

and embarrassment. After long and very careful consideration

it became evident to the heads of the Departments, responsible

for their efficiency, that in order to remove these

difficulties and promote an efficient and harmonious

administration certain amendments were necessary. These

amendments were promulgated by me in Executive order dated May

29, 1899. All of the amendments had for their main object a

more efficient and satisfactory administration of the system

of appointments established by the civil-service law. The

results attained show that under their operation the public

service has improved and that the civil-service system is

relieved of many objectionable features which heretofore

subjected it to just criticism and the administrative officers

to the charge of unbusinesslike methods in the conduct of

public affairs. It is believed that the merit system has been

greatly strengthened and its permanence assured."

_United States, Message and Documents

(Abridgment), 1890-1900, volume 1._

At its next annual meeting, December 14, 1900, in New York,

the National Civil Service Reform League reiterated its

condemnation of the order of President McKinley, declaring:

"The year has shown that the step remains as unjustified in

principle as ever and that it has produced, in practical

result, just the injuries to the service that were feared, as

the reports of our committee of various branches of the

service have proved. The league, therefore, asserts without

hesitancy that the restoration of very nearly all places in

every branch of the service exempted from classification by

this deplorable order is demanded by the public interest and

that the order itself should be substantially revoked."

CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM IN THE UNITED STATES: A. D. 1900.

Civil Service Rules in the Philippine Islands.

"An Act for the establishment and maintenance of an efficient

and honest civil service in the Philippine Islands" was

adopted, on the 19th of September, by the Commission which now

administers the civil government of those islands. The bill is

founded on the principles of the American civil service in

their stricter construction, and its provisions extend to all

the executive branches of the government. The framing of rules

and regulations for the service are left to the Civil Service

Board provided for in the act. A correspondent of the "New

York Tribune," writing from Manila on the day after the

enactment, states: "W. Leon Pepperman, who has long been

connected with the civil service in the United States, and who

has made a personal study of the systems maintained by Great

Britain, France, and Holland in their Eastern colonies, will

be on this board, as will be F. W. Kiggins of the Washington

Civil Service Commission. The third member probably will be a

Filipino. President Taft had selected for this post Dr.

Joaquin Gonzalez, an able man, but that gentleman's untimely

death on the eve of his appointment has forced President Taft

to find another native capable of meeting the necessary

requirements. Mr. Kiggins probably will act as Chief Examiner,

and Mr. Pepperman as Chairman of the board:" According to the

same correspondent: " Examinations for admittance to the

service will be held in Manila, Iloilo, and Cebu, in the

Philippines, and in the United States under the auspices and

control of the Federal Civil Service Commission." At the

annual meeting of the National Civil Service Reform League of

the United States held in New York, December 13, 1900, the

above measure was commended highly in the report of a special

committee appointed to consider the subject of the civil

service in our new dependencies, as being one by which, "if it

be persevered in, the merit system will be established in the

islands of that archipelago, at least as thoroughly and

consistently as in any department of government, Federal,

State or municipal, in the Union. This must be, in any case,

regarded as a gratifying recognition of sound principles of

administration on the part of the commission and justifies the

hope that, within the limits of their jurisdiction at least,

no repetition of the scandals of post-bellum days will be

tolerated. The ruling of the several departments that the

provisions of the Federal offices established in the

dependencies which would be classified if within the United

States is also a matter to be noted with satisfaction by the

friends of good government."

{149}

CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM IN THE UNITED STATES: A. D. 1901.

The "spoils system" of service in the House of Representatives.

The "spoils system" maintained by Congressmen among their own

immediate employees, in the service of the House of

Representatives, was depicted in a report, submitted February

28, 1901, by a special committee which had been appointed to

investigate the pay of the House employees. The report,

presented by Mr. Moody, of Massachusetts, makes the following

general statements, with abundance of illustrative instances,

few of which can be given here: "The four officers elected by

the House, namely, the Clerk, Sergeant-at-Arms, Doorkeeper,

and Postmaster, appoint the employees of the House, except the

clerks and assistant clerks of members and committees, four

elevator men, the stenographers, and those appointed by House

resolutions. The appointments, however, are made on the

recommendation of members of the House, and very largely,

though not entirely, of members of the dominant party in the

House. If a member upon whose recommendation an appointment is

made desires the removal of his appointee and the substitution

of another person, the removal and substitution are made without

regard to the capacity of either person. In case a member upon

whose recommendation an appointment has been made ceases to be

a member of the House, an employee recommended by him

ordinarily loses his place. Thus the officers of the House,

though responsible for the character of the service rendered

by the employees, have in reality little or no voice in their

selection, and, as might reasonably be expected, the results

obtained from the system which we have described are in some

cases extremely unsatisfactory. This method of appointing

House employees has existed for many years, during which the

House has been under the control of each party alternately. We

believe that candor compels us to state at the outset that

some of the faults in administration which we have observed

are attributable to the system and to the persistence of

members of the House in urging upon the officers the

appointment of their constituents and friends to subordinate

places, and that such faults are deeply rooted, of long

standing, and likely to continue under the administration of

any political party as long as such a system is maintained."

The committee found nothing to criticise in the

administration of the offices of the House Postmaster or

Sergeant-at-Arms. With reference to the offices of the Clerk

and the Doorkeeper they say: "We have found in both

departments certain abuses, which may be grouped under three

heads, namely: Transfers of employees from the duties of the

positions to which they were appointed to other duties,

unjustifiable payments of compensation to employees while

absent from their posts of duty, and divisions of salary.

"First. Transfers of employees from the duties to which they

were appointed to other duties.—Some part of this evil is

doubtless attributable to the fact that the annual

appropriation acts have not properly provided for the

necessities of the House service. An illustration of this is

furnished by the case of Guy Underwood, who is carried on the

rolls as a laborer at $720 per annum, while in point of fact

he performs the duty of assistant in the Hall Library of the

House and his compensation is usually increased to $1,800 per

annum by an appropriation of $1,080 in the general deficiency

act. Again, a sufficient number of messengers has not been

provided for the actual necessities of the service, while more

folders have been provided than are required. As a result of

this men have been transferred from the duties of a folder to

those of a messenger, and the compensation of some has been

increased by appropriation in deficiency acts. But evils of

another class result from transfers, some examples of which we

report. They result in part, at least, from an attempt to

adjust salaries so as to satisfy the members that their

appointees obtain a just share of the whole appropriation,

instead of attempting to apportion the compensation to the

merits of the respective employees and the character of the

services which they render. …

"Second. Payments of compensation to employees while

absent.—The duty of many of the employees of the House ceases

with the end of a session, or very soon thereafter. Such is

the case with the reading clerks, messengers, enrolling

clerks, and many others who might be named. Their absence from

Washington after a session of Congress closes and their duties

are finished is as legitimate as the absence of the members

themselves. But many employees who should be at their posts

have been from time to time absent without justification, both

during sessions and between sessions. In the absence of any

record it is impossible for the committee to ascertain with

anything like accuracy the amount of absenteeism, but in our

opinion it is very considerable.

"Some of those employed in the library service have been

absent for long periods between the sessions of Congress,

although the House library is in a condition which demands

constant attention for years to come in order to bring it up

to a proper condition of efficiency. The pay roll of the

librarian, his assistants, and those detailed to the library

service, including deficiency appropriations, amounts to

$9,200 per annum. No one of the employees of the library, with

the exception of a $600 deficiency employee and Guy Underwood,

who in his freshman year at college was librarian part of one

session at the Ohio State University, has ever had any library

experience, although they all appear to be capable,

intelligent men. The House library is said to consist of

300,000 volumes, many of which are duplicates, and is

scattered from the Dome to the basement of the Capitol, in

some instances, until recently, books being piled in unused

rooms, like so much wood or coal. The present librarian

testified as follows:

'Q. It would be difficult to describe a worse condition than

existed?'

'A. It would, for the condition of books. It would be all

right for a barnyard, but for books it was terrible.' It is

just to say that under the present administration of the

library some attempt has been made at improvement, but the

effect of fifty years' neglect can not be remedied in a day.

We can not think that any absenteeism, beyond a reasonable

vacation, on the part of those employed in the library is

justifiable in view of the foregoing facts.

"The folders, taking the orders of members rather than those

of the Doorkeeper, are absent a great deal during the

vacation, and in some cases persons are employed by resolution

to do their work. The Doorkeeper testified as follows:

'I think Mr. Lyon told me where members requested they had

three months at home during this last Congress.'

'Q. Drawing their pay in the meantime?'

'A. Yes, sir; they had three months'.'

'Q. That is not in the interest of your service, is it?'

'A. No, sir.'

'Q. Have you been able to prevent it?'

'A. No, sir.'

'Q. Why?'

'A. They would go to the superintendent of the folding room

and say to him, "My man has got to go home."'

'Q. You mean the members would go?'

'A. Yes, sir. I do not like to criticise members, but that is

the situation. They go and say, "I have got to have my man

home, and he must go home; it is absolutely necessary;" and he

has been permitted to go.'

{150}

"We have been unable to inquire as much into specific

instances of absenteeism as we desired, but it may be said

generally that absenteeism on the folders' force is very

general. …

"Third, division of salaries.—According to the testimony of

Thomas H. McKee, the Journal clerk, the custom of dividing

salaries is an old one and has existed for at least twenty

years. We are satisfied that we are unable to report all the

instances of divisions of salaries which have occurred: but we

submit the following facts, which were clearly proved before

us: On the organization of the House in the Fifty-fourth

Congress it appears that more places, or places with higher

salaries, were promised than the officers of the House were

able to discover under the law. It does not appear by whom

these promises were made. There began at once a system whereby

the employees agreed to contribute greater or less portions of

the salaries they received for the purpose either of paying

persons not on the roll or of increasing the compensation of

persons who were on the roll. Of the latter class, the

increases were not proportioned to the character of the

services rendered or the merit of the employees, but to the

supposed rights of the States or Congressional districts from

which the recipients came. Some of these contributions were

made voluntarily and cheerfully; others we believe to have

been made under a species of moral duress."

_Congressional Record,

February 28, 1901, page 3597._

CLERICAL PARTY: Austria.

See (in this volume)

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897, and after.

CLERICAL PARTY: Belgium.

See (in this volume)

BELGIUM: A. D. 1899-1900.

CLEVELAND, Grover:

President of the United States.

See (in volume 5 and in this volume.)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1893, to 1897.

CLEVELAND, Grover:

Extensions of Civil Service Rules.

See (in this volume)

CIVIL SERVICE REFORM: A. D. 1893-1896.

CLEVELAND, Grover:

Message to Congress on the Boundary Dispute between

Great Britain and Venezuela.

See (in this volume)

VENEZUELA: A. D. 1895 (DECEMBER).

CLEVELAND, Grover:

On Cuban affairs.

See (in this volume)

CUBA: A. D. 1896-1897.

CLEVELAND, OHIO: A. D. 1896.

The centennial anniversary of the founding of the city was

celebrated with appropriate ceremonies on the 22d of July,

1896, and made memorable by a gift to the city, by Mr. John D.

Rockefeller, of 276 acres of land for a public park.

COAL MINERS, Strikes among.

See (in this volume)

INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES.

COAMO, Engagement at.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

A. D. 1898 (JULY-AUGUST: PORTO RICO).

COLENSO, Battle of.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):

A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).

COLLEGES.

See (in this volume)

EDUCATION.

COLOMBIA: A. D. 1893-1900.

Resumption of work on the Panama Canal.

Revolutionary movements.

Prolonged Civil War.

Boundary dispute with Costa Rica.

Panama Canal concession twice extended.

In 1893 the receiver or liquidator of the affairs of the

bankrupt Panama Canal Company of De Lesseps (see, in volume 4,

PANAMA CANAL) obtained from the government of Colombia an

extension of the terms of the concession under which that

company had worked, provided that work on the canal should be

resumed before November 1, 1894. He succeeded in forming in

France a new company which actually made a beginning of work

on the canal before the limit of time expired. But this

attempted revival of the undertaking was quickly harassed,

like everything else in Colombia, by an outbreak of revolt

against the clerical control of government under President

Caro. The revolutionary movement was begun late in 1894,

receiving aid from exiles and sympathizers in Venezuela,

Ecuador and Central America. It had no substantial success,

the revolutionists being generally defeated in the pitched

battles that were fought; but after a few months they were

broken into guerilla bands and continued warfare in that

method throughout most of the year 1895. They were still

threatening in 1896, but the activity and energy of President

Caro prevented any serious outbreak. A boundary dispute

between Colombia and Costa Rica, which became considerably

embittered in 1896, was finally referred to the President of

the French Republic, whose decision was announced in

September, 1900.

Colombia began a fresh experience of civil war in the autumn

of 1899, when an obstinate movement for the overthrow of

President Saclemente (elected in 1898) was begun. General

Herrera was said, at the outset, to be in the lead, but, as

the struggle proceeded, General Rafael Uribe-Uribe seems to

have become its real chief. It went on with fierce fighting,

especially in the isthmus, and with varying fortunes, until

near the close of 1900, when the insurgents met with a defeat

which drove General Uribe-Uribe to flight. He made his escape

to Venezuela, and thence to the United States, arriving at New

York early in February, 1901. In conversation with

representatives of the Press he insisted that there was no

thought in his party or in his own mind of abandoning the

revolutionary attempt. The cause of the revolution, he said,

was due to the oppression of the government, which was in the

hands of the Conservative party. "They have not governed

according to the constitution," he said, "and while taxing the

Liberals, will not allow them to be adequately represented in

the government. For fifteen years the Liberal party has been

deprived of all its rights. I have been the only

representative of the party in Congress. We tried every

peaceable method to obtain our rights before going to war, but

could not get anything from the government. The government did

not want to change anything, because it did not want to lose

any of its power. I, as the only representative of the Liberal

party, made up my mind to fight, and will fight to the end."

By what is said to have been a forced resignation, some time

in the later part of the year 1900, President Saclemente, a

very old man, retired from the active duties of the office,

which were taken in hand by the Vice-President, Dr. Manoquin.

During the year 1900, the government signed a further

extension of the concession to the Panama Canal Company,

prolonging the period within which the canal must be completed

six years from April, 1904.

{151}

COLORADO: A. D. 1897.

Abolition of the death penalty.

By an Act of the Legislature of Colorado which became law in

March, 1897, the death penalty was abolished in that state.

COLORADOS.

See (in this volume)

URUGUAY: A. D. 1896-1899.

COLUMBUS, Christopher:

Removal of remains from Havana to Seville.

See (in this volume)

CUBA: A. D. 1898 (DECEMBER).

COMBINATIONS, Industrial.

See (in this volume)

TRUSTS.

COMMANDO.

Commandeering.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1894.

COMMERCIAL CONGRESS, International.

See (in this volume)

INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL CONGRESS.

COMMERCIAL MUSEUM, Philadelphia.

See (in this volume)

PHILADELPHIA: A. D. 1897.

COMPULSORY INSURANCE:

The State System in Germany.

See (in this volume)

GERMANY: A. D. 1897-1900.

COMPULSORY VOTING.

See (in this volume)

BELGIUM: A. D. 1894-1895.

CONCERT OF EUROPE.

Concert of the Powers.

"We have heard of late so much about 'the Concert' that the

man in the street talks of it as if it were a fact of nature

like the Bosphorus or the Nile; and he assumes that he and all

his neighbours understand exactly what it means. Yet it may be

doubted whether even persons so omniscient as the politician

and the journalist could describe it with any approach to

truth or even to common sense. An energetic newspaper lately

described the Concert as 'Three Despots, two Vassals, and a

Coward.' This doubtless was a libel. An Olympian

Under-Secretary called it 'the Cabinet of Europe.' Lord

Salisbury himself, impatient of facile caricatures, insisted

that it was a 'Federation.' It has also, to Sir William

Harcourt's wrath, been spoken of as an 'Areopagus' having

'legislative' powers. All these phrases are mere nonsense; and

yet they have profoundly influenced the action of this country

and the course of recent history. The patent fact of the hour

is that six powerful States are pleased to interest themselves

in the Eastern Question—which is the question of the dissolution

of Turkey.

See, in this volume,

TURKEY: A. D. 1895, and after.

They base their claim to take exceptional steps in the matter

on the plea that there is imminent risk of a general European

war if they do not act. … What is the Concert of Europe? It is

not a treaty, still less a federation. If it is anything, it

is a tacit understanding between the 'six Powers' that they

will take common action, or abstain from 'isolated action,' in

the Eastern question. Whether it is even that, in any rational

sense of the word 'understanding,' is more than doubtful. For

there has been much and very grave 'isolated action,' even in

pending troubles."

See, in this volume,

TURKEY: A. D. 1897 (FEBRUARY-MARCH); and 1897-1899]

_The Concert of Europe

(Contemporary Review, May, 1897)._

The joint action of the leading European Powers in dealing

with Turkish affairs, between 1896 and 1899, which took the

name of "The Concert of Europe," was imitated in 1900, when

the more troublesome "Far Eastern Question" was suddenly

sprung upon the world by the "Boxer" rising in China. The

United States and Japan were then associated in action with

the European nations; and the "Concert of Europe" was

succeeded by a larger "Concert of the Powers."

See, in this volume,

CHINA: A. D. 1900, JANUARY-MARCH, and after.

CONCESSIONS, The battle of, in China.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY-DECEMBER).

CONDOMINIUM, Anglo-Egyptian, in the Sudan.

See (in this volume)

EGYPT: A. D. 1899 (JANUARY).

CONFEDERATE DISABILITIES, Removal of.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (MARCH).

CONGER, Edwin H.: United States Minister to China.

See (in this volume) CHINA.

CONGO FREE STATE: A. D. 1897.

Mutiny of troops of Baron Dhanis's expedition.

See (in this volume)

AFRICA: A. D. 1897 (CONGO FREE STATE).

CONGO FREE STATE: A. D. 1899.

Results of the King of Belgium's attempt to found

an African Empire.

Contradictory representations.

"The opening in the first few days of July [1898] of the

railway through the District of the Cataracts, from Matadi to

Stanley Pool, has turned public attention to Central Africa,

where the genius and courage of the King of the Belgians have

created a Black Empire within the short space of twelve years.

It is the special pride of its founder that the vast state of

the Congo has been formed without bloodshed, except at the

cost of the cruel Arab slave-hunters, and of the not less

cruel cannibals like Msiri or the Batetelas, that a thousand

treaties have been signed without a gunshot, and that from the

commencement the highest ideals of modern civilisation have

been aimed at, and, considering the stupendous difficulties of

the task, practically attained in the administration. The

standard of humanity and progress has been firmly planted in

the midst of a population of thirty millions, the decadence of

those millions has been arrested, peace exists where there was

only slaughter and savagery, and prosperity is coming in the

train of improved communications, and of the development of

the natural resources of a most promising region. In the

history of Empires that of the Congo State is unique. …

"The Berlin Conference did nothing for the Congo State beyond

giving it a being and a name.

See, in volume 1,

CONGO FREE STATE.

On the other hand it imposed upon it some onerous conditions.

There was to be freedom of trade—an excellent principle, but

not contributory to the State exchequer—it was to employ all

its strength in the suppression of the slave trade—'a

gigantic task, undertaken with the resources of pygmies,' as

some one has said—and the navigation of the Congo was to be

free to all the world without a single toll. The sufficiently

ample dimensions marked out for the State in the Conventional

limits attached to the Berlin General Act had to be defined

and regulated by subsequent negotiation with the neighbouring

Powers.

{152}

France attenuated the northern possessions of the State at

every possible opportunity, but at length, in February, 1895,

she was induced to waive in favour of Belgium the right of

pre-emption which the Congo Association had given her in

April, 1884, over its possessions, at the moment when the

Anglo-Portuguese Convention threatened that enterprise with

extinction. … Four years after the meeting at Berlin it was

found necessary to convene another conference of the Powers,

held on this occasion at Brussels, under the presidency of

Baron Lambermont, whose share in the success of the earlier

conference had been very marked and brilliant. The chief

object set before the new Conference was to devise means for

the abolition of the Slave Trade in Central Africa. … The

Conference lasted more than seven months, and it was not until

July, 1890, that the General Act bearing the signatures of the

Powers was agreed upon. It increased the obligations resting

on the State; its decisions, to which the Independent State

was itself a party, made the task more onerous, but at the

same time it sanctioned the necessary measures to give the

State the revenue needed for the execution of its new

programme. …

"Fresh from the Brussels Conference the Congo State threw

itself into the struggle with the Arabs. … Thanks to the skill

and energy with which the campaign was conducted the triumph

of the State was complete, and the downfall of the Arabs

sounded the knell of the slave trade, of which they were the

principal, and indeed the sole, promoters. The Arab campaign

did not conclude the military perils that beset the nascent

State. The Batetela contingent of the Public Force or native

army of the Congo mutinied in January, 1897, while on the

march to occupy the Lado district of the Upper Nile, and the

episode, ushered in in characters of blood by the

assassination of many Belgian officers, seemed to shake the

recently-constructed edifice to its base. But if the ordeal

was severe, the manner in which the authorities have triumphed

over their adversaries and surmounted their difficulties,

furnishes clear evidence of the stability of their power. The

Batetela mutineers have been overthrown in several signal

encounters, a mere handful of fugitives still survive, and

each mail brings news of their further dispersal. Even at the

moment of its occurrence the blow from the Batetela mutiny was

tempered by the success of the column under Commandant Chaltin in

overthrowing the Dervishes at Redjaf and in establishing the

State's authority on the part of the Nile assigned to it by

the Anglo-Congolese Convention of 1894. The triumphs of the

Congo State have, however, been those of peace and not of war.

With the exception of the operations named and the overthrow

of the despotism of the savage Msiri, the State's record is

one of unbroken tranquillity. These wars, little in magnitude

but great in their consequences, were necessary for the

suppression of the slave trade as well as for the legitimate

assertion of the authority of the Congo Government. But their

immediate consequence was the effective carrying out of the

clauses in the Penal Code making all participation in the

capture of slaves or in cannibalism a capital offence. That

was the primary task, the initial step, in the establishment

of civilisation in Central Africa, and of the credit for this

the Congo State cannot be deprived. When this was done there

remained the still more difficult task of saving the black

races from the evils which civilisation brings in its train

among an ignorant population incapable of self-control. The

import of firearms had to be checked in order to prevent an

untamed race indulging in internecine strife, or turning their

weapons upon the mere handful of Europeans engaged in the task

of regenerating the negroes. The necessary measures inspired

by the double motives of self-preservation and the welfare of

the blacks have been taken, and the State controls in the most

complete and effectual manner the importation of all weapons

and munitions of war. Nor has the success of the

administration been less clear or decisive in its control of

the liquor traffic."

_Demetrius C. Boulger,

Twelve Years' Work on the Congo

(Fortnightly Review, October, 1898)._

To a considerable extent this favorable view of the work of

the Belgians in the Congo State is sustained by the report

which a British Consul, Mr. Pickersgill, made to his

government in 1898. He wrote admiringly of the energy with

which the Belgians had overcome enormous difficulties in their

undertaking, and then asked: "Has this splendid invasion

justified itself by benefiting the aborigines? Equatorial

Africa is not a white man's country. He can never prove his

claim to sole possession of it by surviving as the fittest;

and without the black man's co-operation it can serve no

useful purpose to anybody. Has the welfare of the African,

then, whose prosperous existence is thus indispensable, been

duly cared for in the Congo State?" By way of answer to these

questions, his report sets forth, with apparently strict

fairness, the conditions produced in the country as he

carefully observed them. He found that much good had been done

to the natives by restrictions on the liquor trade, by an

extensive suppression of inter-tribal wars, and by a

diminution of cannibalism. Then comes a rehearsal of facts

which have a different look.

"The yoke of the notorious Arab slave-traders has been broken,

and traffic in human beings amongst the natives themselves has

been diminished to a considerable degree. Eulogy here begins

with a spurt and runs out thin at the end. But there is no

better way of recording the facts concisely. To hear, amidst

the story's wild surroundings, how Dhanis and Hinde, and their

intrepid comrades, threw themselves, time after time, upon the

strongholds of the banded men-stealers, until the Zone Arabe

was won in the name of freedom, is to thrill with admiration

of a gallant crusade. … But it is disappointing to see the

outcome of this lofty enterprise sink to a mere modification

of the evil that was so righteously attacked. Like the

Portuguese in Angola, the Belgians on the Congo have adopted

the system of requiring the slave to pay for his freedom by

serving a new master during a fixed term of years for wages

merely nominal. On this principle is based the 'serviçal'

system of the first-named possession, and the 'libéré' system

of the latter; the only difference between the two being that

the Portuguese Government permits limited re-enslavement for

the benefit of private individuals, but does not purchase on

its own account; while the Government of the Independent State

retains for itself an advantage which it taboos to everybody

else.

{153}

"The State supports this system because labour is more easily

obtainable thereby than by enforcing corvee amongst the free

people, and less expensively than by paying wages. The slave

so acquired, however, is supposed to have undergone a change

of status, and is baptized officially as a free man. After

seven years' service under the new name he is entitled to his

liberty complete. In Angola the limit is five years. The

natives are being drilled into the habit of regular work. …

The first Europeans who travelled inland of Matadi had to rely

entirely on porters from the coast, and it was not until the

missionaries had gained the confidence of the people, and

discovered individuals amongst them who could be trusted as

gangers, that the employment of local carriers became

feasible. The work was paid for, of course, and it is to the

credit of the State that the remuneration continued,

undiminished, after compulsion was applied. But how, it cannot

fail to be asked, did the necessity for compulsion arise? In

the same way that it has since arisen in connection with other

forms of labour: the State wished to get on faster than

circumstances would permit. Accordingly the Government

authorities prohibited the missionaries from recruiting where

porters were most easily obtained, and under the direction of

their military chief, the late Governor-General Wahis,

initiated a rigorous system of corvee. In spite of the

remuneration this was resisted, at first by the men liable to

serve absenting themselves from home, and afterwards, when the

State Officers began to seize their women and children as

hostages, by preparations for war. Deserting their villages,

the people of the caravan route took to the bush, and efforts

were made by the chiefs to bring about a general uprising of

the entire Cataract district. Things were in so critical a

condition that Colonel Wahis had to leave unpunished the

destruction of a Government station and the murder of the

officer in charge. Mainly through the influence of the

missionaries the general conflagration was prevented, but the

original outbreak continued to smoulder for months, and

transport work of all kinds had to be discontinued until means

were devised of equalising the burden of the corvee, and of

enlisting the co-operation of the chiefs in its management.

That was in 1894. Three years later the system appeared to be

working with remarkable smoothness. … Whatever views may be

held respecting the influence of the State at the present

stage of its schoolmaster task, there can be no doubt that the

condition, a year or two hence, of those sections of the

population about to be relieved from the transport service,

will afford conclusive evidence, one way or the other, of the

Government's civilising ability. … It needs no great knowledge

of coloured humanity to foresee that such pupils will quickly

relapse into good-for-nothingness more than aboriginal, unless

their education be continued. …

"One of the most obvious duties of an European Government

standing in 'loco parentis' to savage tribes, and exercising

'dominatio parentis' with an unspared rod, is to educate the

juvenile pagan. Since 1892 the Congo State has disbursed,

according to the published returns, taking one year with

another, about 6,000l. per annum, on this department of its

enterprise. It cannot be said, therefore, to have neglected

the duty entirely. A school for boys has been established at

Boma, and another at Nouvelle Anvers; while large numbers of

children of both sexes have been placed with the Roman

Catholic missionaries, in the same and other districts. Except

in one direction, however, the movement has not been very

successful. The young Africans thus blessed with a chance of

becoming loyal with intelligence are all waifs and strays, who

have been picked up by exploring parties and military

expeditions. Their homes are at the points of the compass, and

their speech is utter bewilderment. …

"A word must be said as to the employment of what are known as

'sentries.' A 'sentry' on the Congo is a dare-devil

aboriginal, chosen, from troops impressed outside the district

in which he serves, for his loyalty and force of character.

Armed with a rifle and a pouch of cartridges, he is located in

a native village to see that the labour for which its

inhabitants are responsible is duly attended to. If they are

India rubber collectors, his duty is to send the men into the

forest and take note of those who do not return with the

proper quantity. Where food is the tax demanded, his business

is to make sure that the women prepare and deliver it; and in

every other matter connected with the Government he is the

factotum, as far as that village is concerned, of the officer

of the district, his power being limited only by the amount of

zeal the latter may show in checking oppression. When

Governor-General Wahis returned from his tour of inspection he

seemed disposed to recommend the abolition of this system,

which is open to much abuse. But steps have not yet been taken

in that direction."

_Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications

(Papers by Command: No. 459,

Miscellaneous Series, 1898, pages 7-12)._

From this account of things it would seem that Mr. Boulger, in

the view quoted above from his article on the work of King

Leopold in the Congo country, had chosen to look only at what

is best in the results. On the other hand, the writer of the

following criticism in the "Spectator" of London may have

looked at nothing but the blacker side:

"King Leopold II., who, though he inherits some of the Coburg

kingcraft, is not a really able man, deceived by confidence in

his own great wealth and by the incurable Continental idea

that anybody can make money in the tropics if he is only hard

enough, undertook an enterprise wholly beyond his resources,

and by making revenue instead of good government his end,

spoiled the whole effect of his first successes. The Congo

Free State, covering a million square miles, that is, as large

as India, and containing a population supposed to exceed

forty-two millions, was committed by Europe to his charge in

absolute sovereignty, and at first there appeared to be no

resistance. Steamers and telegraphs and stations are trifles

to a millionaire, and there were any number of Belgian

engineers and young officers and clerks eager for employment.

The weak point of the undertaking, inadequate resources, soon,

however, became patent to the world. The King had the disposal

of a few white troops, but they were only Belgians, who suffer

greatly in tropical warfare, and his agents had to form an

acclimatised army 'on the cheap.' They engaged, therefore, the

fiercest blacks they could find, most of them cannibals, paid

them by tolerating license, and then endeavoured to maintain

their own authority by savage discipline.

{154}

The result was that the men, as events have proved, and as the

King seems in his apologia to admit, were always on the verge

of mutiny, and that the native tribes, with their advantages

of position, numbers, and knowledge of the forest and the

swamps, proved at least as good fighters as most of the forces

of the Congo State. So great, however, is the intellectual

superiority of white men, so immeasurable the advantage

involved in any tincture science, that the Belgians might

still have prevailed but for the absolute necessity of

obtaining money. They could not wait for the growth of

resources under scientific taxation such as will follow Mr.

Mitchell Innes's financial reforms in Siam, but attempted to

obtain them from direct taxation and monopolies, especially

that of rubber. Resistance was punished with a savage cruelty,

which we are quite ready to believe was not the original

intention of the Belgians, but which could not be avoided when

the only mode of punishing a village was to let loose black

cannibals on it to work their will, and which gradually

hardened even the Europeans, and the consequence was universal

disloyalty. The braver tribes fought with desperation, the

black troops were at once cowed and attracted by their

opponents, the black porters and agriculturists became secret

enemies, all were kept in order by terror alone, and we all

see the result. The Belgians are beaten; their chiefs, Baron

Dhanis and Major Lothaire, are believed to be prisoners; and

the vast territories of the far interior, whence alone rubber

can now be obtained, are already lost. … The administration on

the spot is tainted by the history of its cruelties and its

failures, and there are not the means in Brussels of replacing

it by competent officials, or of supplying them with the

considerable means required for what must now be a deliberate

reconquest."

_Spectator (London),

February 4, 1899._

CONGO FREE STATE: A. D. 1900.

Expiration of the Belgian Convention of 1890.

King Leopold's will.

Three days after the close of the year 1900, the Convention of

1890, which regulated for a period of ten years the relations

between Belgium and the Congo State, expired by lapse of time,

but was likely to be renewed. The chief provisions of the

Convention were

(1) that Belgium should advance to the Congo State a loan of

25,000,000f. (£1,000,000), free of interest, of which

one-fifth was payable at sight and the balance in ten yearly

instalments of 2,000,000f. each;

(2) Belgium acquired within six months of the final payment

the option of annexing the Congo State with all the rights and

appurtenances of sovereignty attaching thereto; or

(3) if Belgium did not avail herself of this right the loan

was only redeemable after a further period of ten years, but

became subject to interest at the rate of 3, per cent. per

annum.

The will of King Leopold, executed in 1889, runs as follows:

"We bequeath and transmit to Belgium, after our death, all our

Sovereign rights to the Congo Free State, such as they have been

recognized by the declarations, conventions, and treaties,

drawn up since 1884, on the one hand between the International

Association of the Congo, and on the other hand the Free State,

as well as all the property, rights, and advantages, accruing

from such sovereignty. Until such time as the Legislature of

Belgium shall have stated its intentions as to the acceptation

of these dispositions, the sovereignty shall be exercised

collectively by the Council of three administrators of the

Free State and by the Governor-General."

----------CONGO FREE STATE: End--------

CONGRESS: Of the United States.

Reapportionment of Representatives.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY).

CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 1896.

Attack of Armenian revolutionists on the Ottoman Bank,

and subsequent Turkish massacre of Armenians.

See (in this volume)

TURKEY: A. D. 1896 (AUGUST).

----------CONSTITUTION OF AUSTRALIA.: Start--------

The following is the "Act to constitute the Commonwealth of

Australia," as passed by the Imperial Parliament, July 9, 1900

(63 & 64 Vict. ch. 12)—see (in this volume) AUSTRALIA: A. D.

1900. The text is from the official publication of the Act:

Whereas the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South

Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, humbly relying on the

blessing of Almighty God, have agreed to unite in one

indissoluble Federal Commonwealth under the Crown of the

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and under the

Constitution hereby established: And whereas it is expedient

to provide for the admission into the Commonwealth of other

Australasian Colonies and possessions of the Queen: Be it

therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by

and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and

Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled,

and by the authority of the same, as follows:-

1. This Act may be cited as the Commonwealth of Australia

Constitution Act.

2. The provisions of this Act referring to the Queen shall

extend to Her Majesty's heirs and successors in the

sovereignty of the United Kingdom.

3. It shall be lawful for the Queen, with the advice of the

Privy Council, to declare by proclamation that, on and after a

day therein appointed, not being later than one year after the

passing of this Act, the people of New South Wales, Victoria,

South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, and also, if Her

Majesty is satisfied that the people of Western Australia have

agreed thereto, of Western Australia, shall be united in a

Federal Commonwealth under the name of the Commonwealth of

Australia. But the Queen may, at any time after the

proclamation, appoint a Governor-General for the Commonwealth.

4. The Commonwealth shall be established, and the Constitution

of the Commonwealth shall take effect, on and after the day so

appointed. But the Parliaments of the several colonies may at

any time after the passing of this Act make any such laws, to

come into operation on the day so appointed, as they might

have made if the Constitution had taken effect at the passing

of this Act.

{155}

5. This Act, and all laws made by the Parliament of the

Commonwealth under the Constitution, shall be binding on the

courts, judges, and people of every State and of every part of

the Commonwealth, notwithstanding anything in the laws of any

State; and the laws of the Commonwealth shall be in force on

all British ships, the Queen's ships of war excepted, whose

first port of clearance and whose port of destination are in

the Commonwealth.

6. "The Commonwealth" shall mean the Commonwealth of Australia

as established under this Act. "The States" shall mean such of

the colonies of New South Wales, New Zealand, Queensland,

Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, and South Australia,

including the northern territory of South Australia, as for

the time being are parts of the Commonwealth, and such

colonies or territories as may be admitted into or established

by the Commonwealth as States; and each of such parts of the

Commonwealth shall be called "a State." "Original States"

shall mean such States as are parts of the Commonwealth at its

establishment.

7. The Federal Council of Australasia Act, 1885, is hereby

repealed, but so as not to affect any laws passed by the

Federal Council of Australasia and in force at the

establishment of the Commonwealth. Any such law may be

repealed as to any State by the Parliament of the

Commonwealth, or as to any colony not being a State by the

Parliament thereof.

8. After the passing of this Act the Colonial Boundaries Act,

1895, shall not apply to any colony which becomes a State of

the Commonwealth; but the Commonwealth shall be taken to be a

self-governing colony for the purposes of that Act.

9. The Constitution of the Commonwealth shall be as follows:

THE CONSTITUTION.

This Constitution is divided as follows:-

Chapter I.—The Parliament:

Part I.—General:

Part II.—The Senate:

Part III.—The House of Representatives:

Part IV.—Both Houses of the Parliament:

Part V.—Powers of the Parliament:

Chapter II.—The Executive Government:

Chapter III.—The Judicature:

Chapter IV.—Finance and Trade:

Chapter V.—The States:

Chapter VI.—New States:

Chapter VII.—Miscellaneous:

Chapter VIII.—Alteration of the Constitution.

The Schedule.

CHAPTER I. THE PARLIAMENT:

PART I.—GENERAL.

1. The legislative power of the Commonwealth shall be vested

in a Federal Parliament, which shall consist of the Queen, a

Senate, and a House of Representatives, and which is

herein-after called "The Parliament," or "The Parliament of

the Commonwealth."

2. A Governor-General appointed by the Queen shall be Her

Majesty's representative in the Commonwealth, and shall have

and may exercise in the Commonwealth during the Queen's

pleasure, but subject to this Constitution, such powers and

functions of the Queen as Her Majesty may be pleased to assign

to him.

3. There shall be payable to the Queen out of the Consolidated

Revenue fund of the Commonwealth, for the salary of the

Governor-General, an annual sum which, until the Parliament

otherwise provides, shall be ten thousand pounds. The salary

of a Governor-General shall not be altered during his

continuance in office.

4. The provisions of this Constitution relating to the

Governor-General extend and apply to the Governor-General for

the time being, or such person as the Queen may appoint to

administer the Government of the Commonwealth; but no such

person shall be entitled to receive any salary from the

Commonwealth in respect of any other office during his

administration of the Government of the Commonwealth.

5. The Governor-General may appoint such times for holding the

sessions of the Parliament as he thinks fit, and may also from

time to time, by Proclamation or otherwise, prorogue the

Parliament, and may in like manner dissolve the House of

Representatives. After any general election the Parliament

shall be summoned to meet not later than thirty days after the

day appointed for the return of the writs. The Parliament

shall be summoned to meet not later than six months after the

establishment of the Commonwealth.

6. There shall be a session of the Parliament once at least in

every year, so that twelve months shall not intervene between

the last sitting of the Parliament in one session and its

first sitting in the next session.

PART II.—THE SENATE.

7. The Senate shall be composed of senators for each State,

directly chosen by the people of the State, voting, until the

Parliament otherwise provides, as one electorate. But until

the Parliament of the Commonwealth otherwise provides, the

Parliament of the State of Queensland, if that State be an

Original State, may make laws dividing the State into

divisions and determining the number of senators to be chosen

for each division, and in the absence of such provision the

State shall be one electorate. Until the Parliament otherwise

provides there shall be six senators for each Original State.

The Parliament may make laws increasing or diminishing the

number of senators for each State, but so that equal

representation of the several Original States shall be

maintained and that no Original State shall have less than six

senators. The senators shall be chosen for a term of six

years, and the names of the senators chosen for each State

shall be certified by the Governor to the Governor-General.

8. The qualification of electors of senators shall be in each

State that which is prescribed by this Constitution, or by the

Parliament, as the qualification for electors of members of

the House of Representatives; but in the choosing of senators

each elector shall vote only once.

9. The Parliament of the Commonwealth may make laws

prescribing the method of choosing senators, but so that the

method shall be uniform for all the States. Subject to any

such law, the Parliament of each State may make laws

prescribing the method of choosing the senators for that

State. The Parliament of a State may make laws for determining

the times and places of elections of senators for the State.

{156}

10. Until the Parliament otherwise provides, but subject to

this Constitution, the laws in force in each State, for the

time being, relating to elections for the more numerous House

of the Parliament of the State shall, as nearly as

practicable, apply to elections of senators for the State.

11. The Senate may proceed to the despatch of business,

notwithstanding the failure of any State to provide for its

representation in the Senate.

12. The Governor of any State may cause writs to be issued for

elections of senators for the State. In case of the

dissolution of the Senate the writs shall be issued within ten

days from the proclamation of such dissolution.

13. As soon as may be after the Senate first meets, and after

each first meeting of the Senate following a dissolution

thereof, the Senate shall divide the senators chosen for each

State into two classes, as nearly equal in number as

practicable; and the places of the senators of the first class

shall become vacant at the expiration of the third year, and the

places of those of the second class at the expiration of the

sixth year, from the beginning of their term of service; and

afterwards the places of senators shall become vacant at the

expiration of six years from the beginning of their term of

service. The election to fill vacant places shall be made in

the year at the expiration of which the places are to become

vacant. For the purposes of this section the term of service

of a senator shall be taken to begin on the first day of

January following the day of his election, except in the cases

of the first election and of the election next after any

dissolution of the Senate, when it shall be taken to begin on

the first day of January preceding the day of his election.

14. Whenever the number of senators for a State is increased

or diminished, the Parliament of the Commonwealth may make

such provision for the vacating of the places of senators for

the State as it deems necessary to maintain regularity in the

rotation.

15. If the place of a senator becomes vacant before the

expiration of his term of service, the Houses of Parliament of

the State for which he was chosen shall, sitting and voting

together, choose a person to hold the place until the

expiration of the term, or until the election of a successor

as hereinafter provided, whichever first happens. But if the

Houses of Parliament of the State are not in session at the

time when the vacancy is notified, the Governor of the State,

with the advice of the Executive Council thereof, may appoint

a person to hold the place until the expiration of fourteen

days after the beginning of the next session of the Parliament

of the State, or until the election of a successor, whichever

first happens. At the next general election of members of the

House of Representatives, or at the next election of senators

for the State, whichever first happens, a successor shall, if

the term has not then expired, be chosen to hold the place

from the date of his election until the expiration of the

term. The name of any senator so chosen or appointed shall be

certified by the Governor of the State to the

Governor-General.

16. The qualifications of a senator shall be the same as those

of a member of the House of Representatives.

17. The Senate shall, before proceeding to the despatch of any

other business, choose a senator to be the President of the

Senate; and as often as the office of President becomes vacant

the Senate shall again choose a senator to be the President.

The President shall cease to hold his office if he ceases to

be a senator. He may be removed from office by a vote of the

Senate, or he may resign his office or his seat by writing

addressed to the Governor-General.

18. Before or during any absence of the President, the Senate

may choose a senator to perform his duties in his absence.

19. A Senator may, by writing addressed to the President, or

to the Governor-General if there is no President or if the

President is absent from the Commonwealth, resign his place,

which thereupon shall become vacant.

20. The place of a senator shall become vacant if for two

consecutive months of any session of the Parliament he,

without the permission of the Senate, fails to attend the

Senate.

21. Whenever a vacancy happens in the Senate, the President,

or if there is no President or if the President is absent from

the Commonwealth the Governor-General, shall notify the same

to the Governor of the State in the representation of which

the vacancy has happened.

22. Until the Parliament otherwise provides, the presence of

at least one-third of the whole number of the senators shall

be necessary to constitute a meeting of the Senate for the

exercise of its powers.

23. Questions arising in the Senate shall be determined by a

majority of votes, and each senator shall have one vote. The

President shall in all cases be entitled to a vote; and when

the votes are equal the question shall pass in the negative.

PART III.—THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

24. The House of Representatives shall be composed of members

directly chosen by the people of the Commonwealth, and the

number of such members shall be, as nearly as practicable,

twice the number of the senators. The number of members chosen

in the several States shall be in proportion to the respective

numbers of their people, and shall, until the Parliament

otherwise provides, be determined, whenever necessary, in the

following manner:—

(i.) A quota shall be ascertained by dividing the number of

the people of the Commonwealth, as shown by the latest

statistics of the Commonwealth, by twice the number of the

senators.

(ii.) The number of members to be chosen in each State

shall be determined by dividing the number of the people of

the State, as shown by the latest statistics of the

Commonwealth, by the quota; and if on such division there

is a remainder greater than one-half of the quota, one more

member shall be chosen in the State. But notwithstanding

anything in this section, five members at least shall be

chosen in each Original State.

25. For the purposes of the last section, if by the law of any

State all persons of any race are disqualified from voting at

elections for the more numerous House of the Parliament of the

State, then, in reckoning the number of the people of the

State or of the Commonwealth, persons of that race resident in

that State shall not be counted.

{157}

26. Notwithstanding anything in section twenty-four, the

number of members to be chosen in each State at the first

election shall be as follows:—

New South Wales, twenty-three;

Victoria, twenty;

Queensland, eight;

South Australia, six;

Tasmania, five;

provided that if Western Australia is an Original State, the

numbers shall be as follows:—

New South Wales, twenty-six;

Victoria, twenty-three;

Queensland, nine;

South Australia, seven;

Western Australia, five;

Tasmania, five.

27. Subject to this Constitution, the Parliament may make laws

for increasing or diminishing the number of the members of the

House of Representatives.

28. Every House of Representatives shall continue for three

years from the first meeting of the House, and no longer, but

may be sooner dissolved by the Governor-General.

29. Until the Parliament of the Commonwealth otherwise

provides, the Parliament of any State may make laws for

determining the divisions in each State for which members of

the House of Representatives may be chosen, and the number of

members to be chosen for each division. A division shall not

be formed out of parts of different States. In the absence of

other provision, each State shall be one electorate.

30. Until the Parliament otherwise provides, the qualification

of electors of members of the House of Representatives shall

be in each State that which is prescribed by the law of the

State as the qualification of electors of the more numerous

House of Parliament of the State; but in the choosing of

members each elector shall vote only once.

31. Until the Parliament otherwise provides, but subject to

this Constitution, the laws in force in each State for the

time being relating to elections for the more numerous House

of the Parliament of the State shall, as nearly as

practicable, apply to elections in the State of members of the

House of Representatives.

32. The Governor-General in Council may cause writs to be

issued for general elections of members of the House of

Representatives. After the first general election, the writs

shall be issued within ten days from the expiry of a House of

Representatives or from the proclamation of a dissolution

thereof.

33. Whenever a vacancy happens in the House of

Representatives, the Speaker shall issue his writ for the

election of a new member, or if there is no Speaker or if he

is absent from the Commonwealth the Governor-General in

Council may issue the writ.

34. Until the Parliament otherwise provides, the

qualifications of a member of the House of Representatives

shall be as follows:—

(i.) He must be of the full age of twenty-one years, and

must be an elector entitled to vote at the election of

members of the House of Representatives, or a person

qualified to become such elector, and must have been for

three years at the least a resident within the limits of

the Commonwealth as existing at the time when he is chosen:

(ii.) He must be a subject of the Queen, either

natural-born or for at least five years naturalized under a

law of the United Kingdom, or of a Colony which has become

or becomes a State, or of the Commonwealth, or of a State.

35. The House of Representatives shall, before proceeding to

the despatch of any other business, choose a member to be the

Speaker of the House, and as often as the office of Speaker

becomes vacant the House shall again choose a member to be the

Speaker. The Speaker shall cease to hold his office if he

ceases to be a member. He may be removed from office by a vote

of the House, or he may resign his office or his seat by

writing addressed to the Governor-General.

36. Before or during any absence of the Speaker, the House of

Representatives may choose a member to perform his duties in

his absence.

37. A member may by writing addressed to the Speaker, or to

the Governor-General if there is no Speaker or if the Speaker

is absent from the Commonwealth, resign his place, which

thereupon shall become vacant.

38. The place of a member shall become vacant if for two

consecutive months of any session of the Parliament he,

without the permission of the House, fails to attend the

House.

39. Until the Parliament otherwise provides, the presence of

at least one-third of the whole number of the members of the

House of Representatives shall be necessary to constitute a

meeting of the House for the exercise of its powers.

40. Questions arising in the House of Representatives shall be

determined by a majority of votes other than that of the

Speaker. The Speaker shall not vote unless the numbers are

equal, and then he shall have a casting vote.

PART IV.—BOTH HOUSES OF THE PARLIAMENT.

41. No adult person who has or acquires a right to vote at

elections for the more numerous House of the Parliament of a

State shall, while the right continues, be prevented by any

law of the Commonwealth from voting at elections for either

House of the Parliament of the Commonwealth.

42. Every senator and every member of the House of

Representatives shall before taking his seat make and

subscribe before the Governor-General, or some person

authorised by him, an oath or affirmation of allegiance in the

form set forth in the schedule to this Constitution.

43. A member of either House of the Parliament shall be

incapable of being chosen or of sitting as a member of the

other House.

44. Any person who—

(i.) Is under any acknowledgment of allegiance, obedience, or

adherence to a foreign power, or is a subject or a citizen or

entitled to the rights or privileges of a subject or a citizen

of a foreign power: or

(ii.) Is attainted of treason, or has been convicted and is

under sentence, or subject to be sentenced, for any offence

punishable under the law of the Commonwealth or of a State by

imprisonment for one year or longer: or

(iii.) Is an undischarged bankrupt or insolvent: or

(iv.) Holds any office of profit under the Crown, or any

pension payable during the pleasure of the Crown out of any of

the revenues of the Commonwealth: or

(v.) Has any direct or indirect pecuniary interest in any

agreement with the Public Service of the Commonwealth

otherwise than as a member and in common with the other

members of an incorporated company consisting of more than

twenty-five persons: shall be incapable of being chosen or of

sitting as a senator or a member of the House of

Representatives. But sub-section iv. does not apply to the

office of any of the Queen's Ministers of State for the

Commonwealth, or of any of the Queen's Ministers for a State,

or to the receipt of pay, half pay, or a pension by any person

as an officer or member of the Queen's navy or army, or to the

receipt of pay as an officer or member of the naval or

military forces of the Commonwealth by any person whose

services are not wholly employed by the Commonwealth.

{158}

45. If a senator or member of the House of Representatives—

(i.) Becomes subject to any of the disabilities mentioned in

the last preceding section: or

(ii.) Takes the benefit, whether by assignment, composition,

or otherwise, of any law relating to bankrupt or insolvent

debtors: or

(iii.) Directly or indirectly takes or agrees to take any fee

or honorarium for services rendered to the Commonwealth, or

for services rendered in the Parliament to any person or

State: his place shall thereupon become vacant.

46. Until the Parliament otherwise provides, any person

declared by this Constitution to be incapable of sitting as a

senator or as a member of the House of Representatives shall,

for every day on which he so sits, be liable to pay the sum of

one hundred pounds to any person who sues for it in any court

of competent jurisdiction.

47. Until the Parliament otherwise provides, any question

respecting the qualification of a senator or of a member of

the House of Representatives, or respecting a vacancy in

either House of the Parliament, and any question of a disputed

election to either House, shall be determined by the House in

which the question arises.

48. Until the Parliament otherwise provides, each senator and

each member of the House of Representatives shall receive an

allowance of four hundred pounds a year, to be reckoned from

the day on which he takes his seat.

49. The powers, privileges, and immunities of the Senate and

of the House of Representatives, and of the members and the

committees of each House, shall be such as are declared by the

Parliament, and until declared shall be those of the Commons

House of Parliament of the United Kingdom, and of its members

and committees, at the establishment of the Commonwealth.

50. Each House of the Parliament may make rules and orders

with respect to—

(i.) The mode in which its powers, privileges, and immunities

may be exercised and upheld:

(ii.) The order and conduct of its business and proceedings

either separately or jointly with the other House.

PART V.—POWERS OF THE PARLIAMENT.

51. The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have

power to make laws for the peace, order, and good government

of the Commonwealth with respect to:—

(i.) Trade and commerce with other countries, and among the

States;

(ii.) Taxation; but so as not to discriminate between States

or parts of States:

(iii.) Bounties on the production or export of goods, but so

that such bounties shall be uniform throughout the

Commonwealth:

(iv.) Borrowing money on the public credit of the

Commonwealth:

(v.) Postal, telegraphic, telephonic, and other like services:

(vi.) The naval and military defence of the Commonwealth and

of the several States, and the control of the forces to

execute and maintain the laws of the Commonwealth:

(vii.) Lighthouses, lightships, beacons and buoys:

(viii.) Astronomical and meteorological observations:

(ix.) Quarantine:

(x.) Fisheries in Australian waters beyond territorial limits:

(xi.) Census and statistics:

(xii.) Currency, coinage, and legal tender:

(xiii.) Banking, other than State banking; also State banking

extending beyond the limits of the State concerned, the

incorporation of banks, and the issue of paper money:

(xiv.) Insurance, other than State insurance; also State

insurance extending beyond the limits of the State concerned:

(xv.) Weights and measures:

(xvi. ) Bills of exchange and promissory notes:

(xvii.) Bankruptcy and insolvency:

(xviii.) Copyrights, patents of inventions and designs, and

trade marks:

(xix.) Naturalization and aliens:

(xx.) Foreign corporations, and trading or financial

corporations formed within the limits of the Commonwealth:

(xxi.) Marriage:

(xxii.) Divorce and matrimonial causes; and in relation

thereto, parental rights, and the custody and guardianship of

infants:

(xxiii.) Invalid and old-age pensions:

(xxiv.) The service and execution throughout the Commonwealth

of the civil and criminal process and the judgments of the

courts of the States:

(xxv.) The recognition throughout the Commonwealth of the

laws, the public Acts and records, and the judicial

proceedings of the States:

(xxvi.) The people of any race, other than the aboriginal race

in any State, for whom it is deemed necessary to make special

laws:

(xxvii.) Immigration and emigration:

(xxviii.) The influx of criminals:

(xxix.) External affairs:

(xxx.) The relations of the Commonwealth with the islands of

the Pacific:

(xxxi.) The acquisition of property on just terms from any

State or person for any purpose in respect of which the

Parliament has power to make laws:

(xxxii.) The control of railways with respect to transport for

the naval and military purposes of the Commonwealth:

(xxxiii.) The acquisition, with the consent of a State, of any

railways of the State on terms arranged between the

Commonwealth and the State:

(xxxiv.) Railway construction and extension in any State with

the consent of that State:

(xxxv.) Conciliation and arbitration for the prevention and

settlement of industrial disputes extending beyond the limits

of any one State:

(xxxvi.) Matters in respect of which this Constitution makes

provision until the Parliament otherwise provides:

(xxxvii.) Matters referred to the Parliament of the

Commonwealth by the Parliament or Parliaments of any State or

States, but so that the law shall extend only to States by

whose Parliaments the matter is referred, or which afterwards

adopt the law:

(xxxviii.) The exercise within the Commonwealth, at the

request or with the concurrence of the Parliaments of all the

States directly concerned, of any power which can at the

establishment of this Constitution be exercised only by the

Parliament of the United Kingdom or by the Federal Council of

Australasia:

(xxxix.) Matters incidental to the execution of any power

vested by this Constitution in the Parliament or in either

House thereof, or in the Government of the Commonwealth, or in

the Federal Judicature, or in any department or officer of the

Commonwealth.

52. The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have

exclusive power to make laws for the peace, order, and good

government of the Commonwealth with respect to—

(i.) The seat of government of the Commonwealth, and all

places acquired by the Commonwealth for public purposes:

(ii.) Matters relating to any department of the public service

the control of which is by this Constitution transferred to the

Executive Government of the Commonwealth:

(iii.) Other matters declared by this Constitution to be

within the exclusive power of the Parliament.

{159}

53. Proposed laws appropriating revenue or moneys, or imposing

taxation, shall not originate in the Senate. But a proposed

law shall not be taken to appropriate revenue or moneys, or to

impose taxation, by reason only of its containing provisions for

the imposition or appropriation of fines or other pecuniary

penalties, or for the demand or payment or appropriation of

fees for licences, or fees for services under the proposed

law. The Senate may not amend proposed laws imposing taxation,

or proposed laws appropriating revenue or moneys for the

ordinary annual services of the Government. The Senate may not

amend any proposed law so as to increase any proposed charge

or burden on the people. The Senate may at any stage return to

the House of Representatives any proposed law which the Senate

may not amend, requesting, by message, the omission or

amendment of any items or provisions therein. And the House of

Representatives may, if it thinks fit, make any of such

omissions or amendments, with or without modifications. Except

as provided in this section, the Senate shall have equal power

with the House of Representatives in respect of all proposed

laws.

54. The proposed law which appropriates revenue or moneys for

the ordinary annual services of the Government shall deal only

with such appropriation.

55. Laws imposing taxation shall deal only with the imposition

of taxation, and any provision therein dealing with any other

matter shall be of no effect. Laws imposing taxation, except

laws imposing duties of customs or of excise, shall deal with

one subject of taxation only; but laws imposing duties of

customs shall deal with duties of customs only, and laws

imposing duties of excise shall deal with duties of excise

only.

56. A vote, resolution, or proposed law for the appropriation

of revenue or moneys shall not be passed unless the purpose of

the appropriation has in the same session been recommended by

message of the Governor-General to the House in which the

proposal originated.

57. If the House of Representatives passes any proposed law,

and the Senate rejects or fails to pass it, or passes it with

amendments to which the House of Representatives will not

agree, and if after an interval of three months the House of

Representatives, in the same or the next session, again passes

the proposed law with or without any amendments which have

been made, suggested, or agreed to by the Senate, and the

Senate rejects or fails to pass it, or passes it with

amendments to which the House of Representatives will not

agree, the Governor-General may dissolve the Senate and the

House of Representatives simultaneously. But such dissolution

shall not take place within six months before the date of the

expiry of the House of Representatives by effluxion of time.

If after such dissolution the House of Representatives again

passes the proposed law, with or without any amendments which

have been made, suggested, or agreed to by the Senate, and the

Senate rejects or fails to pass it, or passes it with

amendments to which the House of Representatives will not

agree, the Governor-General may convene a joint sitting of the

members of the Senate and of the House of Representatives. The

members present at the joint sitting may deliberate and shall

vote together upon the proposed law as last proposed by the

House of Representatives, and upon amendments, if any, which

have been made therein by one House and not agreed to by the

other, and any such amendments which are affirmed by an

absolute majority of the total number of the members of the

Senate and House of Representatives shall be taken to have

been carried, and if the proposed law, with the amendments, if

any, so carried is affirmed by an absolute majority of the

total number of the members of the Senate and House of

Representatives, it shall be taken to have been duly passed by

both Houses of the Parliament, and shall be presented to the

Governor-General for the Queen's assent.

58. When a proposed law passed by both Houses of the

Parliament is presented to the Governor-General for the

Queen's assent, he shall declare, according to his discretion,

but subject to this Constitution, that he assents in the

Queen's name, or that he withholds assent, or that he reserves

the law for the Queen's pleasure. The Governor-General may

return to the house in which it originated any proposed law so

presented to him, and may transmit therewith any amendments

which he may recommend, and the Houses may deal with the

recommendation.

59. The Queen may disallow any law within one year from the

Governor-General's assent, and such disallowance on being made

known by the Governor-General by speech or message to each of

the Houses of the Parliament, or by Proclamation, shall annul

the law from the day when the disallowance is so made known.

60. A proposed law reserved for the Queen's pleasure shall not

have any force unless and until within two years from the day

on which it was presented to the Governor-General for the

Queen's assent the Governor-General makes known, by speech or

message to each of the Houses of the Parliament, or by

Proclamation, that it has received the Queen's assent.

CHAPTER II. THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNMENT.

61. The executive power of the Commonwealth is vested in the

Queen and is exerciseable by the Governor-General as the

Queen's representative, and extends to the execution and

maintenance of this Constitution, and of the laws of the

Commonwealth.

62. There shall be a Federal Executive Council to advise the

Governor-General in the government of the Commonwealth, and

the members of the Council shall be chosen and summoned by the

Governor-General and sworn as Executive Councillors, and shall

hold office during his pleasure.

63. The provisions of this Constitution referring to the

Governor-General in Council shall be construed as referring to

the Governor-General acting with the advice of the Federal

Executive Council.

64. The Governor-General may appoint officers to administer

such departments of State of the Commonwealth as the

Governor-General in Council may establish. Such officers shall

hold office during the pleasure of the Governor-General. They

shall be members of the Federal Executive Council, and shall

be the Queen's Ministers of State for the Commonwealth. After

the first general election no Minister of State shall hold

office for a longer period than three months unless he is or

becomes a senator or a member of the House of Representatives.

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65. Until the Parliament otherwise provides, the Ministers of

State shall not exceed seven in number, and shall hold such

offices as the Parliament prescribes, or, in the absence of

provision, as the Governor-General directs.

66. There shall be payable to the Queen, out of the

Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Commonwealth, for the

salaries of the Ministers of State, an annual sum which, until

the Parliament otherwise provides, shall not exceed twelve

thousand pounds a year.

67. Until the Parliament otherwise provides, the appointment

and removal of all other officers of the Executive Government

of the Commonwealth shall be vested in the Governor-General in

Council, unless the appointment is delegated by the

Governor-General in Council or by a law of the Commonwealth to

some other authority.

68. The command in chief of the naval and military forces of

the Commonwealth is vested in the Governor-General as the

Queen's representative.

69. On a date or dates to be proclaimed by the

Governor-General after the establishment of the Commonwealth

the following departments of the public service in each State

shall become transferred to the Commonwealth:—Posts,

telegraphs, and telephones: Naval and military defence:

Lighthouses, lightships, beacons, and buoys: Quarantine. But

the departments of customs and of excise in each State shall

become transferred to the Commonwealth on its establishment.

70. In respect of matters which, under this Constitution, pass

to the Executive Government of the Commonwealth, all powers

and functions which at the establishment of the Commonwealth

are vested in the Governor of a Colony, or in the Governor of

a Colony with the advice of his Executive Council, or in any

authority of a Colony, shall vest in the Governor-General, or

in the Governor-General in Council, or in the authority

exercising similar powers under the Commonwealth, as the case

requires.

CHAPTER III. THE JUDICATURE.

71. The judicial power of the Commonwealth shall be vested in

a Federal Supreme Court, to be called the High Court of

Australia, and in such other federal courts as the Parliament

creates, and in such other courts as it invests with federal

jurisdiction. The High Court shall consist of a Chief Justice,

and so many other Justices, not less than two, as the

Parliament prescribes.

72. The Justices of the High Court and of the other courts

created by the Parliament—

(i.) Shall be appointed by the Governor-General in Council:

(ii.) Shall not be removed except by the Governor-General in

Council, on an address from both Houses of the Parliament in

the same session, praying for such removal on the ground of

proved misbehaviour or incapacity:

(iii.) Shall receive such remuneration as the Parliament may

fix; but the remuneration shall not be diminished during their

continuance in office.

73. The High Court shall have jurisdiction, with such

exceptions and subject to such regulations as the Parliament

prescribes, to hear and determine appeals from all judgments,

decrees, orders, and sentences—

(i.) Of any Justice or Justices exercising the original

jurisdiction of the High Court:

(ii.) Of any other federal court, or court exercising federal

jurisdiction; or of the Supreme Court of any State, or of any

other court of any State from which at the establishment of

the Commonwealth an appeal lies to the Queen in Council:

(iii.) Of the Inter-State Commission, but as to questions of

law only: and the judgment of the High Court in all such cases

shall be final and conclusive. But no exception or regulation

prescribed by the Parliament shall prevent the High Court from

hearing and determining any appeal from the Supreme Court of a

State in any matter in which at the establishment of the

Commonwealth an appeal lies from such Supreme Court to the

Queen in Council. Until the Parliament otherwise provides, the

conditions of and restrictions on appeals to the Queen in

Council from the Supreme Courts of the several States shall be

applicable to appeals from them to the High Court.

74. No appeal shall be permitted to the Queen in Council from

a decision of the High Court upon any question, howsoever

arising, as to the limits inter se of the Constitutional

powers of the Commonwealth and those of any State or States,

or as to the limits inter se of the Constitutional powers of

any two or more States, unless the High Court shall certify

that the question is one which ought to be determined by Her

Majesty in Council. The High Court may so certify if satisfied

that for any special reason the certificate should be granted,

and thereupon an appeal shall lie to Her Majesty in Council on

the question without further leave. Except as provided in this

section, this Constitution shall not impair any right which

the Queen may be pleased to exercise by virtue of Her Royal

prerogative to grant special leave of appeal from the High

Court to Her Majesty in Council. The Parliament may make laws

limiting the matters in which such leave may be asked, but

proposed laws containing any such limitation shall be reserved

by the Governor-General for Her Majesty's pleasure.

75. In all matters—

(i.) Arising under any treaty:

(ii.) Affecting consuls or other representatives of other

countries:

(iii.) In which the Commonwealth, or a person suing or being

sued on behalf of the Commonwealth, is a party:

(iv.) Between States, or between residents of different

States, or between a State and a resident of another State:

(v.) In which a writ of Mandamus or prohibition or an

injunction is sought against an officer of the Commonwealth:

the High Court shall have original jurisdiction.

76. The Parliament may make laws conferring original

jurisdiction on the High Court in any matter—

(i.) Arising under this Constitution, or involving its

interpretation:

(ii.) Arising under any laws made by the Parliament:

(iii.) Of Admiralty and maritime jurisdiction:

(iv.) Relating to the same subject-matter claimed under the

laws of different States.

77. With respect to any of the matters mentioned in the last

two sections the Parliament may make laws—

(i.) Defining the jurisdiction of any federal court other than

the High Court:

(ii.) Defining the extent to which the jurisdiction of any

federal court shall be exclusive of that which belongs to or

is invested in the courts of the States:

(iii.) Investing any court of a State with federal

jurisdiction.

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78. The Parliament may make laws conferring rights to proceed

against the Commonwealth or a State in respect of matters

within the limits of the judicial power.

79. The federal jurisdiction of any court may be exercised by

such number of judges as the Parliament prescribes.

80. The trial on indictment of any offence against any law of

the Commonwealth shall be by jury, and every such trial shall

be held in the State where the offence was committed, and if

the offence was not committed within any State the trial shall

be held at such place or places as the Parliament prescribes.

CHAPTER IV. FINANCE AND TRADE.

81. All revenues or moneys raised or received by the Executive

Government of the Commonwealth shall form one Consolidated

Revenue Fund, to be appropriated for the purposes of the

Commonwealth in the manner and subject to the charges and

liabilities imposed by this Constitution.

82. The costs, charges, and expenses incident to the

collection, management, and receipt of the Consolidated

Revenue Fund shall form the first charge thereon; and the

revenue of the Commonwealth shall in the first instance be

applied to the payment of the expenditure of the Commonwealth.

83. No money shall be drawn from the Treasury of the

Commonwealth except under appropriation made by law. But until

the expiration of one month after the first meeting of the

Parliament the Governor-General in Council may draw from the

Treasury and expend such moneys as may be necessary for the

maintenance of any department transferred to the Commonwealth

and for the holding of the first elections for the Parliament.

84. When any department of the public service of a State

becomes transferred to the Commonwealth, all officers of the

department shall become subject to the control of the

Executive Government of the Commonwealth. Any such officer who

is not retained in the service of the Commonwealth shall,

unless he is appointed to some other' office of equal

emolument in the public service of the State, be entitled to

receive from the State any pension, gratuity, or other

compensation, payable under the law of the State on the

abolition of his office. Any such officer who is retained in

the service of the Commonwealth shall preserve all his

existing and accruing rights, and shall be entitled to retire

from office at the time, and on the pension or retiring

allowance, which would be permitted by the law of the State if

his service with the Commonwealth were a continuation of his

service with the State. Such pension or retiring allowance

shall be paid to him by the Commonwealth: but the State shall

pay to the Commonwealth a part thereof, to be calculated on

the proportion which his term of service with the State bears

to his whole term of service, and for the purpose of the

calculation his salary shall be taken to be that paid to him

by the State at the time of the transfer. Any officer who is,

at the establishment of the Commonwealth, in the public

service of a State, and who is, by consent of the Governor of

the State with the advice of the Executive Council thereof,

transferred to the public service of the Commonwealth, shall

have the same rights as if he had been an officer of a

department transferred to the Commonwealth and were retained

in the service of the Commonwealth.

85. When any department of the public service of a State is

transferred to the Commonwealth—

(i.) All property of the State of any kind, used exclusively

in connexion with the department, shall become vested in the

Commonwealth; but, in the case of the departments controlling

customs and excise and bounties, for such time only as the

Governor-General in Council may declare to be necessary:

(ii.) The Commonwealth may acquire any property of the State,

of any kind used, but not exclusively used in connexion with

the department: the value thereof shall, if no agreement can

be made, be ascertained in, as nearly as may be, the manner in

which the value of land, or of an interest in land, taken by

the State for public purposes is ascertained under the law of

the State in force at the establishment of the Commonwealth:

(iii.) The Commonwealth shall compensate the State for the

value of any property passing to the Commonwealth under this

section; if no agreement can be made as to the mode of

compensation, it shall be determined under laws to be made by

the Parliament:

(iv.) The Commonwealth shall, at the date of the transfer,

assume the current obligations of the State in respect of the

department transferred.

86. On the establishment of the Commonwealth, the collection

and control of duties of customs and of excise, and the

control of the payment of bounties, shall pass to the

Executive Government of the Commonwealth.

87. During a period of ten years after the establishment of

the Commonwealth and thereafter until the Parliament otherwise

provides, of the net revenue of the Commonwealth from duties

of customs and of excise not more than one-fourth shall be

applied annually by the Commonwealth towards its expenditure.

The balance shall, in accordance with this Constitution, be

paid to the several States, or applied towards the payment of

interest on debts of the several States taken over by the

Commonwealth.

88. Uniform duties of customs shall be imposed within two

years after the establishment of the Commonwealth.

89. Until the imposition of uniform duties of customs—

(i.) The Commonwealth shall credit to each State the revenues

collected therein by the Commonwealth.

(ii.) The Commonwealth shall debit to each State—

(_a_) The expenditure therein of the Commonwealth

incurred solely for the maintenance or continuance, as at

the time of transfer, of any department transferred from

the State to the Commonwealth;

(_b_) The proportion of the State, according to the

number of its people, in the other expenditure of the

Commonwealth.

(iii.) The Commonwealth shall pay to each State month by month

the balance (if any) in favour of the State.

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90. On the imposition of uniform duties of customs the power

of the Parliament to impose duties of customs and of excise,

and to grant bounties on the production or export of goods,

shall become exclusive. On the imposition of uniform duties of

customs all laws of the several States imposing duties of customs

or of excise, or offering bounties on the production or export

of goods, shall cease to have effect, but any grant of or

agreement for any such bounty lawfully made by or under the

authority of the Government of any State shall be taken to be

good if made before the thirtieth day of June, one thousand

eight hundred and ninety-eight, and not otherwise.

91. Nothing in this Constitution prohibits a State from

granting any aid to or bounty on mining for gold, silver, or

other metals, nor from granting, with the consent of both

Houses of the Parliament of the Commonwealth expressed by

resolution, any aid to or bounty on the production or export

of goods.

92. On the imposition of uniform duties of customs, trade,

commerce, and intercourse among the States, whether by means

of internal carriage or ocean navigation, shall be absolutely

free. But notwithstanding anything in this Constitution, goods

imported before the imposition of uniform duties of customs

into any State, or into any Colony which, whilst the goods

remain therein, becomes a State, shall, on thence passing into

another State within two years after the imposition of such

duties, be liable to any duty chargeable on the importation of

such goods into the Commonwealth, less any duty paid in

respect of the goods on their importation.

93. During the first five years after the imposition of

uniform duties of customs, and thereafter until the Parliament

otherwise provides—

(i.) The duties of customs chargeable on goods imported into a

State and afterwards passing into another State for

consumption, and the duties of excise paid on goods produced

or manufactured in a State and afterwards passing into another

State for consumption, shall be taken to have been collected

not in the former but in the latter State:

(ii.) Subject to the last subsection, the Commonwealth shall

credit revenue, debit expenditure, and pay balances to the

several States as prescribed for the period preceding the

imposition of uniform duties of customs.

94. After five years from the imposition of uniform duties of

customs, the Parliament may provide, on such basis as it deems

fair, for the monthly payment to the several States of all

surplus revenue of the Commonwealth.

95. Notwithstanding anything in this Constitution, the

Parliament of the State of Western Australia, if that State be

an Original State, may, during the first five years after the

imposition of uniform duties of customs, impose duties of

customs on goods passing into that State and not originally

imported from beyond the limits of the Commonwealth; and such

duties shall be collected by the Commonwealth. But any duty so

imposed on any goods shall not exceed during the first of such

years the duty chargeable on the goods under the law of

Western Australia in force at the imposition of uniform

duties, and shall not exceed during the second, third, fourth,

and fifth of such years respectively, four-fifths, three-fifths,

two-fifths, and one-fifth of such latter duty, and all duties

imposed under this section shall cease at the expiration of

the fifth year after the imposition of uniform duties. If at

any time during the five years the duty on any goods under

this section is higher than the duty imposed by the

Commonwealth on the importation of the like goods, then such

higher duty shall be collected on the goods when imported into

Western Australia from beyond the limits of the Commonwealth.

96. During a period of ten years after the establishment of

the Commonwealth and thereafter until the Parliament otherwise

provides, the Parliament may grant financial assistance to any

State on such terms and conditions as the Parliament thinks

fit.

97. Until the Parliament otherwise provides, the laws in force

in any Colony which has become or becomes a State with respect

to the receipt of revenue and the expenditure of money on

account of the Government of the Colony, and the review and

audit of such receipt and expenditure, shall apply to the

receipt of revenue and the expenditure of money on account of

the Commonwealth in the State in the same manner as if the

Commonwealth, or the Government or an officer of the

Commonwealth, were mentioned whenever the Colony, or the

Government or an officer of the Colony, is mentioned.

98. The power of the Parliament to make laws with respect to

trade and commerce extends to navigation and shipping, and to

railways the property of any State.

99. The Commonwealth shall not, by any law or regulation of

trade, commerce, or revenue, give preference to one State or

any part thereof over another State or any part thereof.

100. The Commonwealth shall not, by any law or regulation of

trade or commerce, abridge the right of a State or of the

residents therein to the reasonable use of the waters of

rivers for conservation or irrigation.

101. There shall be an Inter-State Commission, with such

powers of adjudication and administration as the Parliament

deems necessary for the execution and maintenance, within the

Commonwealth, of the provisions of this Constitution relating

to trade and commerce, and of all laws made thereunder.

102. The Parliament may by any law with respect to trade or

commerce forbid, as to railways, any preference or

discrimination by any State, or by any authority constituted

under a State, if such preference or discrimination is undue

and unreasonable, or unjust to any State; due regard being had

to the financial responsibilities incurred by any State in

connexion with the construction and maintenance of its

railways. But no preference or discrimination shall, within

the meaning of this section, be taken to be undue and

unreasonable, or unjust to any State, unless so adjudged by

the Inter-State Commission.

103. The members of the Inter-State Commission—

(i.) Shall be appointed by the Governor-General in Council:

(ii.) Shall hold office for seven years, but may be removed

within that time by the Governor-General in Council, on an

address from both Houses of the Parliament in the same session

praying for such removal on the ground of proved misbehaviour

or incapacity:

(iii.) Shall receive such remuneration as the Parliament may

fix; but such remuneration shall not be diminished during

their continuance in office.

{163}

104. Nothing in this Constitution shall render unlawful any

rate for the carriage of goods upon a railway, the property of

a State, if the rate is deemed by the Inter-State Commission

to be necessary for the development of the territory of the

State, and if the rate applies equally to goods within the

State and to goods passing into the State from other States.

105. The Parliament may take over from the States their public

debts as existing at the establishment of the Commonwealth, or

a proportion thereof according to the respective numbers of

their people as shown by the latest statistics of the

Commonwealth, and may convert, renew, or consolidate such

debts, or any part thereof; and the States shall indemnify the

Commonwealth in respect of the debts taken over, and

thereafter the interest payable in respect of the debts shall

be deducted and retained from the portions of the surplus

revenue of the Commonwealth payable to the several States, or

if such surplus is insufficient, or if there is no surplus,

then the deficiency or the whole amount shall be paid by the

several States.

CHAPTER V. THE STATES.

106. The Constitution of each State of the Commonwealth shall,

subject to this Constitution, continue as at the establishment

of the Commonwealth, or as at the admission or establishment

of the State, as the case may be, until altered in accordance

with the Constitution of the State.

107. Every power of the Parliament of a Colony which has

become or becomes a State, shall, unless it is by this

Constitution exclusively vested in the Parliament of the

Commonwealth or withdrawn from the Parliament of the State,

continue as at the establishment of the Commonwealth, or as at

the admission or establishment of the State, as the case may

be.

108. Every law in force in a Colony which has become or

becomes a State, and relating to any matter within the powers

of the Parliament of the Commonwealth, shall, subject to this

Constitution, continue in force in the State; and, until

provision is made in that behalf by the Parliament of the

Commonwealth, the Parliament of the State shall have such

powers of alteration and of repeal in respect of any such law

as the Parliament of the Colony had until the Colony became a

State.

109. When a law of a State is inconsistent with a law of the

Commonwealth, the latter shall prevail, and the former shall,

to the extent of the inconsistency, be invalid.

110. The provisions of this Constitution relating to the

Governor of a State extend and apply to the Governor for the

time being of the State, or other chief executive officer or

administrator of the government of the State.

111. The Parliament of a State may surrender any part of the

State to the Commonwealth; and upon such surrender, and the

acceptance thereof by the Commonwealth, such part of the State

shall become subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the

Commonwealth.

112. After uniform duties of customs have been imposed, a

State may levy on imports or exports, or on goods passing into

or out of the State, such charges as may be necessary for

executing the inspection laws of the State; but the net

produce of all charges so levied shall be for the use of the

Commonwealth; and any such inspection laws may be annulled by

the Parliament of the Commonwealth.

113. All fermented, distilled, or other intoxicating liquids

passing into any State or remaining therein for use,

consumption, sale, or storage, shall be subject to the laws of

the State as if such liquids had been produced in the State.

114. A State shall not, without the consent of the Parliament

of the Commonwealth, raise or maintain any naval or military

force, or impose any tax on property of any kind belonging to

the Commonwealth, nor shall the Commonwealth impose any tax on

property of any kind belonging to a State.

115. A State shall not coin money, nor make anything but gold

and silver coin a legal tender in payment of debts.

116. The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing

any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for

prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no

religious test shall be required as a qualification for any

office or public trust under the Commonwealth.

117. A subject of the Queen, resident in any State, shall not

be subject in any other State to any disability or

discrimination which would not be equally applicable to him if

he were a subject of the Queen resident in such other State.

118. Full faith and credit shall be given, throughout the

Commonwealth to the laws, the public Acts and records, and the

judicial proceedings of every State.

119. The Commonwealth shall protect every State against

invasion and, on the application of the Executive Government

of the State, against domestic violence.

120. Every State shall make provision for the detention in its

prisons of persons accused or convicted of offences against

the laws of the Commonwealth, and for the punishment of

persons convicted of such offences, and the Parliament of the

Commonwealth may make laws to give effect to this provision.

CHAPTER VI. NEW STATES.

121. The Parliament may admit to the Commonwealth or establish

new States, and may upon such admission or establishment make

or impose such terms and conditions, including the extent of

representation in either House of the Parliament, as it thinks

fit.

122. The Parliament may make laws for the government of any

territory surrendered by any State to and accepted by the

Commonwealth, or of any territory placed by the Queen under

the authority of and accepted by the Commonwealth, or

otherwise acquired by the Commonwealth, and may allow the

representation of such territory in either House of the

Parliament to the extent and on the terms which it thinks fit.

123. The Parliament of the Commonwealth may, with the consent

of the Parliament of a State, and the approval of the majority

of the electors of the State voting upon the question,

increase, diminish, or otherwise alter the limits of the

State, upon such terms and conditions as may be agreed on, and

may, with the like consent, make provision respecting the

effect and operation of any increase or diminution or

alteration of territory in relation to any State affected.

124. A new State may be formed by separation of territory from

a State, but only with the consent of the Parliament thereof,

and a new State may be formed by the union of two or more

States or parts of States, but only with the consent of the

Parliaments of the States affected.

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CHAPTER VII. MISCELLANEOUS.

125. The seat of Government of the Commonwealth shall be

determined by the Parliament, and shall be within territory

which shall have been granted to or acquired by the

Commonwealth, and shall be vested in and belong to the

Commonwealth, and shall be in the State of New South Wales,

and be distant not less than one hundred miles from Sydney.

Such territory shall contain an area of not less than one

hundred square miles, and such portion thereof as shall

consist of Crown lands shall be granted to the Commonwealth

without any payment therefor. The Parliament shall sit at

Melbourne until it meet at the seat of Government.

126. The Queen may authorise the Governor-General to appoint

any person, or any persons jointly or severally, to be his

deputy or deputies within any part of the Commonwealth, and in

that capacity to exercise during the pleasure of the

Governor—General such powers and functions of the

Governor-General as he thinks fit to assign to such deputy or

deputies, subject to any limitations expressed or directions

given by the Queen; but the appointment of such deputy or

deputies shall not affect the exercise by the Governor-General

himself of any power or function.

127. In reckoning the numbers of the people of the

Commonwealth, or of a State or other part of the Commonwealth,

aboriginal natives shall not be counted.

CHAPTER VIII. ALTERATION OF THE CONSTITUTION.

128. This Constitution shall not be altered except in the

following manner:—The proposed law for the alteration thereof

must be passed by an absolute majority of each House of the

Parliament, and not less than two nor more than six months

after its passage through both Houses the proposed law shall

be submitted in each State to the electors qualified to vote

for the election of members of the House of Representatives.

But if either House passes any such proposed law by an

absolute majority, and the other House rejects or fails to

pass it or passes it with any amendment to which the first

mentioned House will not agree, and if after an interval of

three months the first-mentioned House in the same or the next

session again passes the proposed law by an absolute majority

with or without any amendment which has been made or agreed to

by the other House, and such other House rejects or fails to

pass it or passes it with any amendment to which the

first-mentioned House will not agree, the Governor-General may

submit the proposed law as last proposed by the

first-mentioned House, and either with or without any

amendments subsequently agreed to by both Houses, to the

electors in each State qualified to vote for the election of

the House of Representatives. When a proposed law is submitted

to the electors the vote shall be taken in such manner as the

Parliament prescribes. But until the qualification of electors

of members of the House of Representatives becomes uniform

throughout the Commonwealth, only one-half the electors voting

for and against the proposed law shall be counted in any State

in which adult suffrage prevails. And if in a majority of the

States a majority of the electors voting approve the proposed

law, and if a majority of all the electors voting also approve

the proposed law, it shall be presented to the

Governor-General for the Queen's assent. No alteration

diminishing the proportionate representation of any State in

either House of the Parliament, or the minimum number of

representatives of a State in the House of Representatives, or

increasing, diminishing, or otherwise altering the limits of

the State, or in any manner affecting the provisions of the

Constitution in relation thereto, shall become law unless the

majority of the electors voting in that State approve the

proposed law.

----------CONSTITUTION OF AUSTRALIA: End--------

CONSTITUTION OF AUSTRIA: Parliamentary reform of, 1896.

See (in this volume)

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1895-1896.

CONSTITUTION OF BELGIUM:

The working of its' electoral provisions.

See (in this volume)

BELGIUM: A. D. 1894-1895; and 1899-1900.

CONSTITUTION OF CUBA:

The grant of autonomous government by Spain in 1897.

See (in this volume)

CUBA: A. D. 1897 (NOVEMBER);

and 1897-1898 (NOVEMBER-FEBRUARY).

CONSTITUTION OF CUBA:

Outline of the draft reported to the Convention of 1900-1901.

See (in this volume)

CUBA: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY).

CONSTITUTION OF DELAWARE, New.

See (in this volume)

DELAWARE: A. D. 1897.

CONSTITUTION OF IDAHO:

Adoption of Woman Suffrage.

See (in this volume)

IDAHO: A. D. 1896.

CONSTITUTION OF LOUISIANA:

Its discriminating educational qualification.

See (in this volume)

LOUISIANA: A. D. 1898.

CONSTITUTION OF MEXICO: Amendments.

The text of the constitution of Mexico, as published in 1891,

will be found in volume 1 [page 558] of this work, under the

same heading as above. In 1896, the Constitution received two

amendments promulgated by decrees published in the "Diario

Official" on the 24th of April and the 1st of May in that

year. Translations of these decrees were transmitted to the

State Department at Washington by the United States Minister

to Mexico and published in U. S. Consular Reports, July, 1896,

from which source they are copied below. That of April 24 was

as follows:

The Congress of the United Mexican States, in the exercise of

the power which article 127 of the federal constitution

concedes to it, and with the previous approbation of the

majority of the legislatures of the States, declares articles

79, 80, 82, and 83 of the constitution to be amended and an

addition to article 72 of the same, in the following tenor:

ARTICLE. 72. Congress has power:

XXXI. To appoint, both houses of Congress being assembled for

such purpose, a President of the Republic, either with the

character of substitute or with that of ad interim, to act in

the absolute or temporary defaults of the constitutional

President. Likewise, to replace in the respective cases and in

equal form the substitute as well as the ad interim, if these

in their turn should default.

XXXII. To qualify and to decide upon the petition for leave of

absence that the President of the Republic may make. It is the

exclusive faculty of the House of Deputies—II. To qualify and

decide upon the resignations of the President of the Republic

and of the magistrates of the supreme court of justice.

{165}

ARTICLE 79.

I. In the absolute defaults of the President, excepting that

arising from resignation, and in the temporary defaults,

excepting that proceeding from permission, the Secretary of

Foreign Relations, and in case there be none or if there

exists an impediment, the Secretary of Government shall take

immediate charge of the Executive power.

II. The Congress of the union shall assemble in an

extraordinary session the following day, in the Chamber of

Deputies, more than half of the total number of members of

both houses being present, the officers of the House of

Deputies acting. If no session can be had on account of no

quorum or for other cause, those present shall compel, from

day unto day, the presence of the absentees, in accordance

with the law, so as to hold the session as soon as possible.

III. In this session, the substitute President shall be

elected by the absolute majority of those present, and in a

nominal and public vote, without any proposition being

discussed therein nor anything else done but to take in the

votes, publish them, and make a close examination and publish

the name of the one elected.

IV. If no one of the candidates should have received the

absolute majority of the votes, the election shall be repeated

as to the two who had the greater number of votes, and the one

receiving the majority will be elected. If the competitors

should have received an equal number of votes, and on a

repetition of the election an equal result shall be obtained,

then the drawing of lots shall decide the one who must be

elected.

V. If there be an equality of votes for more than two

candidates, the election as to which of these shall be made,

but if at tho same time there is another candidate who may

have obtained a majority of votes, he shall be considered as

first competitor, and the second shall be chosen by votes out

of the first mentioned.

VI. If Congress be not in session, it shall meet, without the

necessity of a convocation, on the fourteenth day following

that of the default, under the direction of the board of

permanent commission which may be in duty, and shall proceed

as already stated.

VII. In case of absolute default caused by the renouncement of

the President, Congress shall convene in the form set forth

for the appointment of the substitute, and the resignation

shall not take effect until the appointment of the substitute

and of the legal protest by him.

VIII. In relation to temporary defaults, from whatever cause,

Congress shall appoint an ad interim President, observing for

this purpose the same procedure as prescribed for the cases of

absolute default. Should the President ask for leave of absence,

he will, at the time of so doing, propose the citizen who must

take his place; the permission being granted, it will not take

effect until the ad interim (president) shall have protested,

it being within the President's faculty to make use or not of

said leave, or to lessen its duration. The ad interim shall

only exercise the functions during the time of temporary

default. The petition for permission shall be addressed to the

House of Deputies, who shall at once deliver it to the proper

commission for its perusal, at the same time summoning the

Senate for an extraordinary session of Congress, before which

the commission shall render its decision. The proposition with

which the decision may end, if favorable, shall comprise in a

decree of a sole article the granting of the permission and

the approval of the proposition, which shall be decided upon

only by one ballot.

IX. If, on the day appointed by the constitution, the people's

President-elect shall not enter into the discharge of his

office, Congress shall at once appoint an ad interim

President. If the cause of the impediment be transitory, the

ad interim shall cease in the Presidential functions when said

cause ceases and the President-elect enters into the discharge

of his functions. But, should the cause be of that kind that

produces absolute impossibility, so that the President-elect

cannot enter into the exercise of power during the four years,

Congress, after appointing the ad interim President, shall,

without delay, convoke the extraordinary elections. The ad

interim President shall cease in his functions as soon as the

new President-elect protests, and this shall complete the

constitutional period. Should the impediment arise from the

fact that the election be not made or published on the 1st of

December, a President ad interim shall also be appointed, who

will discharge the Presidential duties until those requisites

are complied with and the President-elect takes due protest.

X. The defaults of the substitute President and those of the

ad interim shall also be remedied in the manner prescribed,

except in regard to the second, in the case when the

constitutional President, who, having temporarily separated

himself, may again assume the exercise of his duties.

ARTICLE 80.

Should the default of the President be absolute, the

substitute appointed by Congress shall terminate the

constitutional period.

ARTICLE 82.

The President, upon taking possession of his office, shall

swear before Congress under the following formula:

"I protest to perform loyally and patriotically the functions

of President of the United Mexican States; to keep and cause

to be kept, without any reserve, the constitution of 1857,

with all its additions and reforms, the laws of reform, and

all those laws emanating therefrom, watching everything for

the good and prosperity of the union." The Secretary of

Department, who may take provisional charge of the Executive

power, in its case, is exempted from this requisite.

The decree of May 1, 1896, was as follows:

The Congress of the Union has decreed the following: The

General Congress of the United Mexican States, in conformity

with the provisions of article 127 of the federal

constitution, and with the previous approbation of the State

legislatures, declares articles 111 and 124 of said

constitution amended and an addition made to same in the

following terms:

First.

Section III. of article 111 of the federal constitution is

amended, and an addition made to the said article in the

following terms: The States shall not—

III. Coin money, issue paper money, stamps, or stamped paper.

IV. Obstruct the transit of persons or goods crossing its

territory.

V. Prohibit or molest, either directly or indirectly, the

entrance or exit, to or from its territory, of national or

foreign merchandise.

{166}

VI. Obstruct the circulation or consumption of national or

foreign goods by means of imposts or taxes that may be exacted

through local custom-houses, by requiring the inspection or

registration of packages, or by requiring the documentation to

accompany the merchandise.

VII. Decree or maintain in force laws or fiscal decrees which

may cause differences of taxes or requisites, by reason of the

source of national or foreign merchandise, whether these

differences be established in regard to a like production in

that locality or on account of like production from different

sources.

Second.

Article 124 of the federal constitution is amended in the

following terms:

ARTICLE 124.

It is the exclusive faculty of the federation to obstruct

merchandise, imported or exported, or which passes in transit

through the national territory, likewise to regulate at all

times, and even to prohibit for reasons of policy and

security, the circulation within the Republic of all

merchandise from whatever source; but the said federation

cannot establish or decree in the district or federal

territories the taxes and laws expressed in Sections VI. and

V. of Article 111.

Transitory article.

These amendments and additions shall take effect on the 1st of

July, 1896.

CONSTITUTION OF MINNESOTA: Amendments.

See (in this volume)

MINNESOTA: A. D. 1896.

CONSTITUTION OF MISSISSIPPI: Amendment.

See (in this volume)

MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1890-1892.

CONSTITUTION OF NEW JERSEY: Proposed Amendments.

See (in this volume)

NEW JERSEY: A. D. 1897.

CONSTITUTION OF NEW YORK.

The constitution of the State of New York, as revised by the

Convention of 1894 (see, in volume 4, NEW YORK: A. D. 1894)

[transcriber's note: volume 3, page 2350], was submitted to

the people at the election in November that year and adopted.

The important features of the revision were set forth in an

address by the Convention to the people, as follows:

"We seek to separate, in the larger cities, municipal

elections from State and national elections to the end that

the business affairs of our great municipal corporations may

be managed upon their own merits, uncontrolled by national and

State politics. … We have provided further safeguards against

abuses in legislative procedure, by requiring that all bills

shall be printed in their final form at least three days

before their passage, prohibiting riders on appropriation

bills, providing for notice to municipal authorities before

special acts relating to the larger cities can take effect,

prohibiting the issue of passes by railroad, telegraph and

telephone companies to public officers, enlarging the express

constitutional powers of the President of the Senate. … We

have extended the prohibition against lotteries so as to

include all pool-selling, book-making and other forms of

gambling. … We have sought to throw greater safeguards around

the elective franchise by prescribing a period of ninety

instead of ten days of citizenship before that right can be

exercised, so that naturalization may be taken out of the

hands of campaign committees and removed from the period

immediately before election. … We have modified the language

relating to election so that if any mechanical device for

recording and counting votes is so perfected as to be superior

to the present system, the Legislature may make trial of it. We

have established in the Constitution the well-tried and

satisfactory system of registration of votes, forbidding,

however, any requirement of personal attendance on the first

day of registration in the thinly-settled regions outside of

the cities and large villages, where voters would have long

distances to travel to the place of registration, and we have

provided for securing an honest and fair election by requiring

that on all election boards election officers shall equally

represent the two principal political parties of the State. We

have provided for a new appointment of Senate and Assembly

districts. … Attack has been made upon two rules laid down in

the proposed measure for the guidance of the Legislature in

future apportionments. One of these is the rule that no county

shall have more than three Senators unless it shall have a full

ratio for each Senator, although smaller counties may receive

a Senator or an additional Senator on a major fraction of a

ratio. … The other rule attacked is that no one county shall

have more than one-third of all the Senators, and that New

York and Kings county together shall not have more than

one-half of all the Senators. … We have declared in the

Constitution the principle of civil service reform, that

appointments and promotions are to be based upon merit and

ascertained so far as practicable by competitive examination.

We have sought by this to secure not merely the advantage

derived from declaring the principle, but the practical

benefit of its extension to the State prisons, canals and

other public works of the State, to which, under the existing

Constitution, the court of last resort has decided that civil

service rules cannot be applied. … We have prohibited the

contract system of convict labor. … We have authorized the

Legislature to provide for the improvement of the canals,

without, however, borrowing money for that purpose unless the

people expressly authorize it. … We have required the

Legislature to provide for free public schools, in which all

the children of the State may be educated, and we have

prohibited absolutely the use of public money in aid of

sectarian schools. … We have so amended the present

Constitution as to provide for a naval as well as a land force

of militia. … In order to allow every voter to exercise a

choice in voting on some of the important proposed amendments,

we have provided that the Revised Constitution shall be

submitted to the people in three parts, viz.:

1. That making an apportionment of Senators and members of the

Assembly.

2. That pertaining to the improvements of the canals.

3. All the remainder of the proposed amendments as a whole."

_Journal of the Constitutional Convention,

State of New York, 1894, pages 839-846._

CONSTITUTION OF NORTH CAROLINA:

Amendment qualifying the suffrage.

See (in this volume)

NORTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1900.

{167}

--CONSTITUTION (GRONDWET) OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC.: Start--

The following are the Articles of main importance in the

Grondwet or Constitution of the South African Republic:

ARTICLE 1.

This State shall bear the name of the South African Republic.

ARTICLE 2.

The form of government of this State shall be that of a

republic.

ARTICLE 3.

It desires to be recognized and respected by the civilized

world as an independent and free people.

ARTICLE 4.

The people seek for no extension of territory, and desire it

only in accordance with just principles, when the interest of

the Republic makes such extension desirable.

ARTICLE 5.

The people desire to retain and maintain their territory in

South Africa unimpaired. The boundaries thereof are fixed by

proclamation.

ARTICLE 6.

Its territory is open for every foreigner who obeys the laws

of this Republic. All who are within the territory of this

Republic have equal claims to protection of person and

property.

ARTICLE 7.

The land or farms situate in this territory which have not yet

been given out, are declared to be the property of the State.

ARTICLE 8.

The people claim the utmost social freedom, and expect the

result from the maintenance of their religious belief, from

the observance of their obligations, from submission to law,

order and right, and the maintenance of the same. The people

permit the spread of the Gospel among the heathen under fixed

precautions against deceit or misleading.

ARTICLE 9.

The people will not allow any equalization of the coloured

inhabitants with the white.

ARTICLE 10.

The people will not suffer any slave trade or slavery in this

Republic.

ARTICLE 11.

The people reserve to themselves the protection and defence of

the independence and inviolability of the State, subject to

the laws.

ARTICLE 12.

The people entrust the legislation to a Volksraad—the highest

authority in the land—consisting of representatives or

deputies of the people, chosen by the enfranchised burghers;

but with the reservation that a period of three months shall

be left to the people to enable them if they so wish to

communicate to the Volksraad their verdict on a proposed law;

except those laws which can suffer no delay.

ARTICLE 13.

The people charge the President with the task of proposing and

executing the laws; he also brings before the Volksraad the

appointments of all civil servants for ratification.

ARTICLE 14.

The people entrust the maintenance of order to the military

force, the police, and other persons appointed by the law for

that purpose.

ARTICLE 15.

The people place the judicial power in the hands of a Supreme

Court, Circuit Court, Landrosts, Juries, and such other

persons as shall be entrusted with judicial powers, and leave

all these free to discharge their function according to their

judgment and consciences, according to the laws of the land.

ARTICLE 16.

The people shall receive from the Volksraad an estimate of the

general income and expenses of the State, and learn therefrom

how much every man's taxes shall amount to.

ARTICLE 17.

Potchefstrom, situated on the Mooi River, shall be the capital

of the Republic, and Pretoria the seat of Government.

ARTICLE 18.

All services rendered on behalf of the public are remunerated

by the public.

ARTICLE 19.

Freedom of the press is granted provided the printer and

publisher remain responsible for all the documents which

contain defamation, insult, or attacks against anyone's

character.

ARTICLE 20.

The people shall only appoint as representatives in the

Volksraad those who are members of a Protestant Church.

ARTICLE 21.

The people desire the growth, prosperity, and welfare of the

State, and with this view provision for suitable school

teachers.

ARTICLE 22.

Providing also that in time of peace precautionary measures

are taken to enable the State to wage or withstand a war.

ARTICLE 23.

In case of a hostile attack from outside, everyone, without

distinction, shall be held bound to lend his assistance on the

promulgation of martial law. …

ARTICLE 26.

The Volksraad shall be the highest authority of the country,

and the legislative power.

ARTICLE 27.

No civil servants are to be representatives of the people.

ARTICLE 28.

The Volksraad shall consist of at least twelve members, who

must possess the following qualifications:-They must have

attained the age of thirty years, and be born in the Republic,

or have for fifteen consecutive years been burghers entitled

to vote, be members of a Protestant Church, reside, and

possess immovable property, in the Republic. No persons of

notoriously bad character, or who have had a dishonouring

sentence pronounced against them, and no uncertified or

unrehabilitated insolvents shall be eligible. They may not be

related to each other in the relationship of father and son or

stepson. No coloured persons or bastards shall be admitted

into our Assemblies. In like manner no military officer or

official of the State, who draws a fixed annual or monthly

salary, shall be eligible as member of the Volksraad.

ARTICLE 29.

The members of the Volksraad are elected by a majority of

votes from among the electors of each district. No one shall

be considered as elected who has not obtained at least sixty

votes. Everyone who is born in the country and has attained

the age of twenty-one years, or has become naturalized, shall

be a burgher qualified to vote. The members of the Volksraad

are elected for the period of four years. … [The above

provisions of the Constitution, relating to the Volksraad and

the representation of the people, were modified by the

following among other provisions of an Act of the Volksraad

passed in 1891:

ARTICLE 1.

The legislative power shall rest with a representation of the

people, which shall consist of a First Volksraad and a Second

Volksraad.

{168}

ARTICLE 2.

The First Volksraad shall be the highest authority in the

State, just as the Volksraad was before this law came into

operation. The First Volksraad shall be the body named the

Volksraad until this law came into operation. From the period

of this law coming into operation, the name of that body shall

be altered from the Volksraad to the First Volksraad. The

persons forming that body as members shall, however, remain

the same, only they shall, from the said period, be named

members of the First Volksraad instead of members of the

Volksraad. All laws and resolutions having reference to the

Volksraad and the members thereof shall remain in force and

apply to the First Volksraad and the members thereof, except

in so far as a change is or shall be made by this and later

laws. …

ARTICLE 4.

The number of the members of the Second Volksraad shall be the

same as of the First Volksraad. This number shall be fixed

later by the First Volksraad for both Volksraads. …

ARTICLE 9.

The members of the First Volksraad are chosen by those

enfranchised burghers who have obtained the burgher right,

either before this law came into operation, or thereafter by

birth, and have reached the age of sixteen years. The

franchise for the First Volksraad can besides also be obtained

by those who have during ten years been eligible for the

Second Volksraad, by resolution of the First Volksraad, and

according to rules to be fixed later by law.

ARTICLE 10.

The members of the Second Volksraad are chosen by all

enfranchised burghers who have reached the age of sixteen

years. …

ARTICLE 27.

The Second Volksraad shall have the power to pass further

regulations on the following subjects as is necessary, either

by law or resolution:

(1) The department of mines.

(2) The making and support of wagon and post roads.

(3) The postal department.

(4) The department of telegraphs and telephones.

(5) The protection of inventions, samples and trademarks.

(6) The protection of the right of the author.

(7) The exploitation and support of the woods and salt-pans.

(8) The prevention and coping with contagious diseases.

(9) The condition, the rights, and obligations of companies.

(10) Insolvency.

(11) Civil procedure.

(12) Criminal procedure.

(13) Such other subjects as the First Volksraad shall decide

later by law or resolution, or the First Volksraad shall

specially refer to the Second Volksraad.

ARTICLE 28.

All laws or resolutions accepted by the Second Volksraad are

as soon as possible, that is to say at the outside within

forty-eight hours, communicated both to the First Volksraad

and to the President.

ARTICLE 29.

The President has the right, when he has received notice from

the Second Volksraad of the adoption of a law or a resolution,

to bring that law or resolution before the First Volksraad for

consideration within fourteen days after the receipt of such

notice. The President is in any case bound, after the receipt

of such a notice, to communicate it to the First Volksraad

within the said time.

ARTICLE 30.

If the President has not brought the law or resolution as

communicated before the First Volksraad for consideration, and

the First Volksraad has not on its own part thought it

necessary to take said law or resolution into consideration,

the President shall, unless with the advice and consent of the

Executive Council he thinks it undesirable in the interests of

the State, be bound to have that law or resolution published

in the first succeeding Volksraad, unless within the said

fourteen days the First Volksraad may be adjourned, in which

case the publication in the "Stasts Courant" shall take place

after the lapse of eight days from the commencement of the

first succeeding session of the First Volksraad.

ARTICLE 31.

The law or resolution adopted by the Second Volksraad shall

have no force, unless published by the President in the

"Staats Courant."

ARTICLE 43.

The President shall bring forward for discussion the proposals

for laws which have come in before the Volksraad, whether the

latter have been made known to the public three months before

the commencement of the session, or whether the same have come

in during the session of the Volksraad.

ARTICLE 44.

When the notices of laws and Government notices to the public

have not been given in time, the President shall examine with

whom the blame of that delay lies. A Landrost found guilty

hereof shall have a fine of Rds. 50 inflicted and a

Field-Cornet or lesser official of Rds. 25. …

ARTICLE 56.

The executive power resides in the State President, who is

responsible to the Volksraad. He is chosen by a majority of

the burghers entitled to vote, and for the term of five years.

He is eligible for reelection. He must have attained the age of

thirty years, and need not be a burgher of the State at the

time of his nomination, and must be a member of a Protestant

Church, and have no dishonouring sentence pronounced against

him. [By a subsequent law the President must be chosen from

among the burghers.]

ARTICLE 57.

The President is the first or highest official of the State.

All civil servants are subordinate to him; such, however, as

are charged with exercise of the judicial power are left

altogether free and independent in its exercise.

ARTICLE 58.

As long as the President holds his position as such he shall

fill no other, nor shall he discharge any ecclesiastical

office, nor carry on any business. The President cannot go

outside the boundaries of the State without consent of the

Volksraad. However, the Executive Council shall have the power

to grant him leave to go outside the boundaries of the State

upon private affairs in cases of necessity. …

ARTICLE 60.

The President shall be discharged from his post by the

Volksraad after conviction of misconduct, embezzlement of

public property, treachery, or other serious crimes, and be

treated further according to the laws.

ARTICLE 61.

If in consequence of transgression of the Constitution or

other public misdemeanors the Volksraad resolve that the

President shall be brought to trial, he shall be tried before

a special court composed of the members of the High Court, the

President and another member of the Volksraad, while the State

Attorney acts as Public Prosecutor. The accused shall be

allowed to secure assistance of a lawyer at his choice.

ARTICLE 62.

The President is charged with the proposing of laws to the

Volksraad, whether his own proposals or others which have come

in to him from the people; he must make these proposals known

to the public by means of the "Staats Courant" three months

before presenting them to the Volksraad, together with all

such other documents as are judged useful and necessary by

him.

{169}

ARTICLE 63.

All proposals for a law sent in to the President shall, before

they are published, be judged by the President and Executive

Council as to whether publication is necessary or not.

ARTICLE 64.

The President submits the proposals for laws to the Volksraad,

and charges the official to whose department they belong first

and foremost, with their explanation and defence.

ARTICLE 65.

As soon as the President has received the notice of the

Volksraad that the proposed law is adopted, he shall have that

law published within two months, and after the lapse of a

month, to be reckoned from the publication, he shall take

measures for the execution of the same.

ARTICLE 66.

Proclamation of martial law, as intended in Article 23, shall

only be made by the President with the assent of the members

of the Executive Council. …

ARTICLE 67.

The President, with advice of the Executive Council, declares

war and peace, with reference to Article 66 of the

Constitution; the Government having first, if possible,

summoned the Volksraad before the declaration of war. Treaties

of peace require the ratification of the Volksraad, which is

summoned as soon as possible for that purpose. …

ARTICLE 70.

The President shall submit, yearly, at the opening of the

Volksraad, estimates of general outgoings and income, and

therein indicate how to cover the deficit or apply the

surplus.

ARTICLE 71.

He shall also give a report during that session of that

Volksraad, of his actions during the past year, of the

condition of the Republic and everything that concerns its

general interest. …

ARTICLE 75.

The President and one member of the Executive Council shall,

if possible, visit the towns and villages of the Republic

where Landrost's officers are, once in the year; he shall

examine the state of those offices, inquire into the conduct

of the officials, and on these circuits give the inhabitants

during their stay an opportunity to bring before him anything

they are interested in. …

ARTICLE 82.

The President exercises his power along with the Executive

Council. An Executive Council shall be joined to the

President, consisting of the Commandant-General, two

enfranchised burghers, a Secretary, and a Notekeeper

(notulenhouder), who shall have an equal vote, and bear the

title of members of the Executive Council. The Superintendent

of Native Affairs and the Notekeeper shall be ex-officio

members of the Executive Council. The President and members of

the Executive Council shall have the right to sit, but not to

vote, in the Volksraad. The President is allowed, when

important affairs arise, to invite the head official to be

present in the Executive Council whose department is more

directly concerned with the subject to be treated of. The said

head official shall then have a vote in the Executive Council,

be equally responsible for the resolution taken, and sign it

along with the others.

ARTICLE 83.

According to the intention of Article 82 the following shall

be considered "Head Officials": The State Attorney, Treasurer,

Auditor, Superintendent of Education, Orphan-Master, Registrar

of Deeds, Surveyor-General, Postmaster-General, Head of the

Mining Department, Chief Director of the Telegraph Service,

and Chief of Public Works.

ARTICLE 84.

The President shall be Chairman of the Executive Council, and

in case of an equal division of votes have a casting vote. For

the ratification of sentences of death, or declarations of

war, the unanimous vote of the Executive Council shall be

requisite for a decision. …

ARTICLE 87.

All resolutions of the Executive Council and official letters

of the President must, besides being signed by him, also be

signed by the Secretary of State. The latter is at the same

time responsible that the contents of the resolution, or the

letter, is not in conflict with the existing laws.

ARTICLE 88.

The two enfranchised burghers or members of the Executive

Council contemplated by Article 82 are chosen by the Volksraad

for the period of three years, the Commandant-General for ten

years; they must be members of a Protestant Church, have had

no sentence in a criminal court to their discredit, and have

reached the age of thirty years.

ARTICLE 89.

The Secretary of State is chosen also by the Volksraad, but is

appointed for the period of four years. On resignation or

expiration of his term he is re-eligible. He must be a member

of a Protestant Church, have had no sentence in a criminal

court to his discredit, possess fixed property in the

Republic, and have reached the age of thirty years. …

ARTICLE 93.

The military force consists of all the men of this Republic

capable of bearing arms, and if necessary of all those of the

natives within its boundaries whose chiefs are subject to it.

ARTICLE 94.

Besides the armed force of burghers to be called up in times

of disturbance or war, there exists a general police and corps

of artillery, for which each year a fixed sum is drawn upon

the estimates.

ARTICLE 95.

The men of the white people capable of bearing arms are all

men between the ages of sixteen and sixty years; and of the

natives, only those which are capable of being made

serviceable in the war.

ARTICLE 96.

For the subdivision of the military force the territory of

this Republic is divided into field-cornetcies and districts.

…

ARTICLE 97.

The men are under the orders of the following officers,

ascending in rank: Assistant Field-Cornets, Field-Cornets,

Commandants, and a Commandant-General.

_Selected Official Documents of the South African Republic

and Great Britain (Supplement to the Annals of the

American Academy of Political and Social Science,

July, 1900)._

--CONSTITUTION (GRONDWET) OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC.: End--

CONSTITUTION OF SOUTH CAROLINA: The revision of 1895-6.

Disfranchisement provision.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1896.

CONSTITUTION OF SOUTH DAKOTA:

Amendment introducing the Initiative and Referendum.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH DAKOTA: A. D. 1898.

CONSTITUTION OF SWITZERLAND:

Amendments.

See (in this volume)

SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1897.

{170}

CONSTITUTION OF UTAH.

See (in this volume)

UTAH: A. D. 1895-1896.

CONWAY, Sir W. Martin:

Explorations of Spitzbergen.

See (in this volume)

POLAR EXPLORATION, 1896, 1897.

COOK, or HERVEY ISLANDS:

Annexation to New Zealand.

See (in this volume)

NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1900 (OCTOBER).

COOMASSIE,

KUMASSI:

Occupation by the British.

Siege and relief.

See (in this volume)

ASHANTI.

COPTIC CHURCH:

Authority of the Pope re-established.

See (in this volume)

PAPACY: A. D. 1896 (MARCH).

COREA.

See (in this volume)

KOREA.

CORNWALL AND YORK, The Duke of.

See (in this volume)

WALES, THE PRINCE OF.

COSTA RICA.

See (in this volume)

CENTRAL AMERICA.

COTTON-MILL STRIKE, New England.

See (in this volume)

INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES: A. D. 1898.

COTTON STATES EXPOSITION, The.

See (in this volume)

ATLANTA: A. D. 1895.

COURT OF ARBITRATION, The Permanent.

See (in this volume)

PEACE CONFERENCE.

CREEKS, United States agreement with the.

See (in this volume)

INDIANS, AMERICAN: A. D. 1893-1899.

CRETE:

Recent archæological explorations.

Supposed discovery of the Palace of Minos and

the Cretan Labyrinth.

Fresh light on the origin of the Alphabet.

See (in this volume)

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: CRETE.

CRETE: A. D. 1896.

Conflict between Christians and Mussulmans,

and its preceding causes.

See (in this volume)

TURKEY: A. D. 1896.

CRETE: A. D. 1897.

Fresh conflicts.

Reports of the British Consul-General and others.

Greek interference and demands for annexation to Greece.

Action of the Great Powers.

Blockade of the island.

See (in this volume)

TURKEY: A. D. 1897 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).

CRETE: A. D. 1897.

Withdrawal of Greek troops.

Acceptance of autonomy by the Greek government.

See (in this volume)

TURKEY: A. D. 1897 (MARCH-SEPTEMBER).

CRETE: A. D. 1897-1898.

Prolonged anarchy, and blockade by the Powers.

Final departure of Turkish troops and officials.

Government established under Prince George of Greece.

See (in this volume)

TURKEY: A. D. 1897-1899.

CRETE: A. D. 1901.

Successful administration of Prince George of Greece.

See (in this volume)

TURKEY: A. D. 1901.

CRISPI, Signor:

Ministry.

See (in this volume)

ITALY: A. D. 1895-1896.

CRISPI, Signor:

Parliamentary investigation of charges against.

See (in this volume)

ITALY: A. D. 1898 (MARCH-JUNE).

CROKER, "Boss."

See (in this volume)

NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1894-1895; and 1897.

CROMER, Viscount:

Administration in Egypt.

See (in this volume)

EGYPT: A. D. 1898.

CROMWELL, Oliver, Proposed statue of.

A proposal in the English House of Commons, in 1895, to vote

£500 for a statue of Cromwell was so violently opposed by the

Irish members that the government was compelled to withdraw

the item from the estimates.

CRONJE, General Piet:

In the South African war.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):

A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER);

and 1900 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).

CROZIER, Captain William:

American Commissioner to the Peace Conference at The Hague.

See (in this volume)

PEACE CONFERENCE.

----------CUBA: Start--------

[Image: Map of Cuba and West Indies.

CUBA: A. D. 1868-1885.

Ten years of insurrection.

The United States and Spain.

The Affair of the Virginius.

End of Slavery.

"The abolition of slavery in the southern states left the

Spanish Antilles in the enjoyment of a monopoly of slave

labor, which, in the production of sugar, especially, gave

them advantages which overcame all competition. This led to

the formation of a strong Spanish party, for whom the cause of

slavery and that of Spanish dominion were identical. These

were known as Peninsulars or Spanish immigrants. They were the

official class, the wealthy planters and slave-owners, and the

real rulers of Cuba. Their central organization was the Casino

Espagñol of Havana, which was copied in all the towns of the

island, and through these clubs they controlled the

volunteers, who at times numbered 60,000 or 70,000. … These

volunteers never took the field, but held possession of all

the cities and towns, and thus were able to defy even the

captain-general. They were obedient to his orders only so long

as he was acting in close accord with the wishes of their

party. On the other hand, there was a party composed of

Creoles, or native Cubans, whose cry was 'Cuba for the

Cubans!' and who hoped to effect the complete separation of

the island from Spain, either through their own efforts or

through the assistance of the United States. …

"The Spanish revolution of September, 1868, was the signal for

an uprising of the native or Creole party in the eastern part

of the island under the leadership of Cespedes. This movement

was not at first ostensibly for independence, but for the

revolution in Spain, the cries being, 'Hurrah for Prim!'

'Hurrah for the Revolution!' Its real character was, however,

apparent from the first, and its supporters continued for a

period of ten years, without regard to the numerous

vicissitudes through which the Spanish Government passed—the

provisional government, the regency, the elective monarchy,

the republic, and the restored Bourbon dynasty—to wage a

dogged, though desultory warfare against the constituted

authorities of the island. This struggle was almost

conterminous with President Grant's Administration of eight

years."

{171}

President Grant made early offers of mediation between Spain

and the insurgents, but no agreement as to terms could be

reached. An increasing sympathy with the Cubans raised demands

in the United States for their recognition as belligerents,

with belligerent rights, and the President is said to have

been ready to yield to the demand, but was deterred by the

influence of his Secretary of State, Mr. Fish, who contended

that the insurgents had established no government that could

claim such rights. The Cuban sympathizers in Congress were

accordingly checked by an opposing message (June 13, 1870),

and no interference occurred.

"In February, 1873, when King Amadeus resigned his crown and a

republic was proclaimed in Spain, the United States made haste to

give the new government recognition and support, which led to

friendly relations between the two countries for a time, and

promised happy results. The Spanish republicans were being

urged to give the Cubans self-government and end slavery in

the whole Spanish domain, and they were lending, at least, a

considerate ear to the advice. But negotiation on that topic

was soon disturbed. On October 31, 1873, the steamer

'Virginius,' sailing under American colors and carrying a

United States registry, was captured on the high seas by the

'Tornado,' a Spanish war vessel, and on the afternoon of the

first of November taken into the port of Santiago de Cuba. The

men and supplies she bore were bound for the insurgents, but

the capture did not occur in Cuban waters. General Burriel,

the commandant of the city, summoned a court-martial, and, in

spite of the protests of the American consul, condemned to

death—at the first sitting—four of the passengers—General W.

A. C. Ryan, an Irish patriot, and three Cubans. They were shot

on the morning of November 4. On the 7th twelve other

passengers were executed, and on the 8th Captain Fry and his

entire crew, numbering 36, making the total number of

executions 53." This barbarous procedure caused hot excitement

in the United States, and demands for reparation were made so

sharply that the two countries came near to war. In the end it

was shown that the "Virginius" was sailing under the American

flag without right, being owned by Cubans and controlled by

them. The vessel was surrendered, however, but foundered off

Cape Fear, while being conveyed to the United States. Her

surviving passengers were released, and an indemnity was paid

for all who were put to death. The brutal officer who took

their lives was never brought to justice, though his

punishment was promised again and again. On the settlement of

the Virginius question, the government of the United States

resumed its efforts to wring concessions to the Cubans from

Spain, and sought to have its efforts supported by Great

Britain and other European powers. Cold replies came from all

the cabinets that were approached. At the same time, the

Spanish government met the demand from America with promises

so lavish (April, 1876), going so far in appearance towards

all that had been asked, that no ground for intervention

seemed left. The act of Secretary Fish, in proposing

intervention to foreign powers, was sharply criticised as a

breach of the Monroe doctrine; but he made no defense.

"The Cuban struggle continued for two years longer. In

October, 1877, several leaders surrendered to the Spanish

authorities and undertook the task of bringing over the few

remaining ones. Some of these paid for their efforts with

their lives, being taken and condemned by court-martial, by

order of the commander of the Cuban forces. Finally, in

February, 1878, the terms of pacification [under an agreement

called the Treaty of El Zanjon] were made known. They embraced

representation in the Spanish Cortes, oblivion of the past as

regarded political offences committed since the year 1868, and

the freedom of slaves in the insurgent ranks. In practice,

however, the Cuban deputies were never truly representative,

but were men of Spanish birth, designated usually by the

captain-general. By gradual emancipation, slavery ceased to

exist in the island in 1885. The powers of the

captain-general, the most objectionable feature of Spanish

rule, continued uncurtailed."

_J. H. Latané,

The Diplomatic Relations of the United States

and Spanish America,

chapter 3._

CUBA: A. D. 1895.

Insurrection renewed.

Early in 1895 a new uprising of the oppressed Cubans was

begun, and on the 7th of December, in that year, T. Estrada

Palma, writing as their authorized representative, presented

to the State Department at Washington a statement setting

forth the causes of the revolt and describing its state of

organization at that time. The causes, he wrote, "are

substantially the same as those of the former revolution,

lasting from 1868 to 1878, and terminating only on the

representation of the Spanish Government that Cuba would be

granted such reforms as would remove the grounds of complaint

on the part of the Cuban people. Unfortunately the hopes thus

held out have never been realized. The representation which

was to be given the Cubans has proved to be absolutely without

character; taxes have been levied anew on everything

conceivable; the offices in the island have increased, but the

officers are all Spaniards; the native Cubans have been left

with no public duties whatsoever to perform, except the

payment of taxes to the Government and blackmail to the

officials, without privilege even to move from place to place

in the island except on the permission of the governmental

authority. Spain has framed laws so that the natives have

substantially been deprived of the right of suffrage. The

taxes levied have been almost entirely devoted to support the

army and navy in Cuba, to pay interest on the debt that Spain

has saddled on the island, and to pay the salaries of the vast

number of Spanish officeholders, devoting only $746,000 for

internal improvements out of the $26,000,000 collected by tax.

No public schools are within reach of the masses for their

education. All the principal industries of the island are

hampered by excessive imposts. Her commerce with every country

but Spain has been crippled in every possible manner, as can

readily be seen by the frequent protests of shipowners and

merchants. The Cubans have no security of person or property.

The judiciary are instruments of the military authorities.

Trial by military tribunals can be ordered at any time at the

will of the Captain-General. There is, beside, no freedom of

speech, press, or religion. In point of fact, the causes of

the Revolution of 1775 in this country were not nearly as

grave as those that have driven the Cuban people to the

various insurrections which culminated in the present

revolution. …

{172}

"Years before the outbreak of the present hostilities the

people within and without the island began to organize, with a

view of preparing for the inevitable revolution, being

satisfied, after repeated and patient endeavors, that peaceful

petition was fruitless. In order that the movement should be

strong from the beginning, and organized both as to civil and

military administration, the Cuban Revolutionary party was

founded, with José Marti at its head. The principal objects

were by united efforts to obtain the absolute independence of

Cuba, to promote the sympathy of other countries, to collect

funds with these objects in view, and to invest them in

munitions of war. The military organization of this movement

was completed by the election of Maximo Gomez as commander in

chief. This election was made by the principal officers who

fought in the last revolution. The time for the uprising was

fixed at the solicitation of the people in Cuba, who protested

that there was no hope of autonomy, and that their deposits of

arms and ammunition were in danger of being discovered and

their leaders arrested. A large amount of war material was

then bought by Marti, and vessels chartered to transport it to

Cuba, where arrangements were made for its reception in the

provinces of Santiago, Puerto Principe, and Santa Clara; but

at Fernandina, Florida, it was seized by the United States

authorities. Efforts were successfully made for the

restitution of this material; nevertheless valuable time and

opportunity was thus lost. The people in Cuba clamored for the

revolution to proceed immediately, and in consequence the

uprising was not further postponed. The date fixed for the

uprising was the 24th of February. The people responded in

Santiago, Santa Clara, and Matanzas. The provinces of Puerto

Principe and Pinar del Rio did not respond, owing to lack of

arms. In Puerto Principe rigorous search had previous to the

24th been instituted, and all arms and ammunition confiscated

by the Government. The leaders in the provinces of Matanzas

and Santa Clara were imprisoned, and so the movement there was

checked for the time being. … In the province of Santiago the

revolution rapidly increased in strength under the leadership

of Bartolome Masso; one of the most influential and respected

citizens of Manzanillo; Guillermo Moncada, Jesus Rabi, Pedro

Perez, Jose Miro, and others. It was characterized by the

Spanish Government as a negro and bandit movement, but many of

the most distinguished and wealthy white citizens of the

district flocked to the insurgent camp. …

On the 1st of April, Generals Antonio and José Maceo, Flor

Crombet, and Augustin Cebreco, all veteran leaders in the

former revolt, landed at Duaba, in the province of Santiago,

and thousands rose to join them. Antonio Maceo then took

command of the troops in that province, and on the 11th of

April a detachment received Generals Maximo Gomez, José Marti,

Francisco Borrerro, and Angel Guerra. Captain-General Calleja

was, on the 16th of April, succeeded by General Arsenio

Martinez Campos, the present commander in chief of the Spanish

forces, who has the reputation of being Spain's greatest living

general. … The military organization of the Cubans is ample

and complete. Major General Maximo Gomez is the commander in

chief, as we have said, of all the forces, a veteran of the

last revolution, as indeed are all the generals almost without

exception. Major General Antonio Maceo is second in command of

the army of liberation, and was, until called upon to

cooperate with the commander in chief in the late march to the

western province, in command of Santiago. The army is at

present divided into five corps—two in Santiago, one in Puerto

Principe, and two in Santa Clara and Matanzas. …

"As above indicated, Jose Marti was the head of the

preliminary civil organization, and he, immediately upon

landing with Gomez in Cuba, issued a call for the selection of

representatives of the Cuban people to form a civil

government. His death [in an engagement at Boca de Dos Rios,

May 19] postponed for a time the selection of these men, but

in the beginning of September the call previously issued was

complied with. Representatives from each of the provinces of

Santiago, Puerto Principe, Santa Clara, and the western part

of the island, comprising the provinces of Matanzas and

Havana, making twenty in all, were elected to the constituent

assembly, which was to establish a civil government,

republican in form. … A constitution of the Republic of Cuba

was adopted on the 16th of September. … On the 18th of

September … officers of the Government were elected by the

constituent assembly in accordance with the terms of the

constitution. …

"The Spaniards charge, in order to belittle the insurrection,

that it is a movement of negroes. It should be remembered that

not more than one-third of the entire population are of the

colored race. As a matter of fact, less than one-third of the

army are of the colored race. Take, for instance, the generals

of corps, divisions, and brigades; there are but three of the

colored race, namely, Antonio and José Maceo and Augustin

Cebreco, and these are mulattoes whose deeds and victories

have placed them far above the generals of those who pretend

to despise them. None of the members of the constituent

assembly or of the government are of the colored race. The

Cubans and the colored race are as friendly in this war as

they were in times of peace. …

"The subject … which has caused probably the most discussion

is the order of General Gomez to prevent the grinding of sugar

cane and in case of the disobedience of said order the

destruction of the crop. … The reasons underlying this measure

are the same which caused this country to destroy the cotton

crop and the baled cotton in the South during the war of the

secession. The sugar crop is a source of large income to the

Spanish Government, directly by tax and export duty, as well

as indirectly. The action of the insurgents is perfect]y

justified, because it is simply a blockade, so to speak, on

land—a prevention of the gathering, and hence the export, of

the commodity with, naturally, a punishment for the violation

thereof. …

{173}

"In view of the history of this revolution as herein stated,

in view of the causes which led to it, its rapid growth, its

successes in arms, the establishment, operation, and resources

of the Government of the Cuban Republic, the organization,

number, and discipline of its army, the contrast in the

treatment of prisoners to that of the enemy, the territory in

its control and subject to the carrying out of its decrees, of

the futility of the attempts of the Spanish Government to crush

the revolution, in spite of the immense increase of its army

in Cuba and of its blockade and the many millions spent for

that purpose, the cruelties which on the part of the Spanish

have especially characterized this sanguinary and fiercely

conducted war, and the damage to the interests of the citizens

of this country under the present conditions, I, as the duly

accredited representative, in the name of the Cuban people in

arms who have fought singly and alone against the monarchy of

Spain for nearly a year, in the heart of a continent devoted

to republican institutions, in the name of justice, in the

name of humanity, in the name of liberty, petition you, and

through you the Government of the United States of America, to

accord the rights of belligerency to a people fighting for

their absolute independence."

_United States, 54th Congress, 1st Session,

Senate Document Number 166._

CUBA: A. D. 1896-1897.

Captain-General Campos succeeded by General Weyler.

Weyler's Concentration Order and other edicts.

Death of Antonio Maceo.

Weyler succeeded by Blanco.

In January, 1896, Governor and Captain-General Campos, whose

policy had been as humane and conciliatory as his Spanish

surroundings would permit it to be, was recalled, and Don

Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau, Marquis of Teneriffe, and lately

Captain-General of Catalonia, was sent to take his place.

General Weyler arrived at Havana on the 10th of February, and

six days later, before he could possibly have acquired any

personal knowledge of the conditions with which he had to

deal, he issued three military edicts, in which a policy of

merciless ruin to the island was broadly set forth. The first

of these edicts or proclamations commanded as follows:

"Article 1.

All inhabitants of the district of Sancti Spiritus and the

provinces of Puerto Principe and Santiago de Cuba will have to

concentrate in places which are the headquarters of a

division, a brigade, a column, or a troop, and will have to be

provided with documentary proof of identity, within eight days

of the publication of this proclamation in the municipalities.

"Article 2.

To travel in the country in the radius covered by the columns

in operation, it is absolutely indispensable to have a pass

from the mayor, military commandants, or chiefs of

detachments. Anyone lacking this will be detained and sent to

headquarters of divisions or brigades, and thence to Havana,

at my disposition, by the first possible means. Even if a pass

is exhibited, which is suspected to be not authentic or granted

by authority to person with known sympathy toward the

rebellion, or who show favor thereto, rigorous measures will

result to those responsible.

"Article 3.

All owners of commercial establishments in the country

districts will vacate them, and the chiefs of columns will

take such measures as the success of their operations dictates

regarding such places which, while useless for the country's

wealth, serve the enemy as hiding places in the woods and in

the interior.

"Article 4.

All passes hitherto issued hereby become null and void."

The order of "concentration" contained in the first article of

this decree was slowly executed, but ultimately it produced

horrors of suffering and death which words could hardly

describe. The second of Weyler's edicts delegated his own

unlimited "judicial attributes," for the enforcement of the

"military code of justice," to certain subordinate commanders,

and gave sharp directions for their exercise. The third

specified a large number of offenses as being "subject to

military law," including in the category every use of tongue

or pen that could be construed as "favorable to the

rebellion," or as injurious to the "prestige" of the Spanish

army, or "the volunteers, or firemen, or any other force that

co-operates with the army." It is said to have been nearly a

year before the Weyler policy of "concentration" was generally

carried out; but even before that occurred the misery of the

country had become very great. Both parties in the war were

recklessly laying waste the land. The insurgent leaders had

published orders for a total destruction of sugar factories

and plantations, because the product supplied revenues to

Spain; and now the Spanish governor struck all traffic and

industry down in the rural districts, by driving the

inhabitants from their homes and fields, to concentrate and

pen them up in certain prescribed places, with practically no

provision for employment, or shelter or food. At the close of

the year 1896 the state of suffering in the island was not yet

at its worst; but already it was riveting the attention of the

neighboring people of the United States, exciting a hot

feeling against Spain and a growing desire for measures on the

part of the American government to bring it to an end.

Repeated attempts had already been made by frothy politicians

in Congress to force the country into an attitude toward Spain

that would challenge war; but the Executive, supported by a

congressional majority, and by the better opinion of the

American public, adhered with firmness to a policy which aimed

at the exhausting of pacific influences in favor of the Cuban

cause. In his annual message to Congress at the opening of the

session in December, 1896, President Cleveland set forth the

situation in the following words:

"It is difficult to perceive that any progress has thus far

been made towards the pacification of the island. … If Spain

still holds Havana and the seaports and all the considerable

towns, the insurgents still roam at will over at least

two-thirds of the inland country. If the determination of

Spain to put down the insurrection seems but to strengthen

with the lapse of time, and is evinced by her unhesitating

devotion of largely increased military and naval forces to the

task, there is much reason to believe that the insurgents have

gained in point of numbers, and character, and resources, and

are none the less inflexible in their resolve not to succumb,

without practically securing the great objects for which they

took up arms. If Spain has not yet re-established her

authority, neither have the insurgents yet made good their

title to be regarded as an independent state. Indeed, as the

contest has gone on, the pretense that civil government exists

on the island, except so far as Spain is able to maintain it,

has been practically abandoned. Spain does keep on foot such a

government, more or less imperfectly, in the large towns and

their immediate suburbs. But, that exception being made, the

entire country is either given over to anarchy or is subject

to the military occupation of one or the other party. … In

pursuance of general orders, Spanish garrisons are now being

withdrawn from plantations and the rural population required

to concentrate itself in the towns. The sure result would seem

to be that the industrial value of the island is fast

diminishing, and that unless there is a speedy and radical

change in existing conditions, it will soon disappear

altogether. …

{174}

"The spectacle of the utter ruin of an adjoining country, by

nature one of the most fertile and charming on the globe,

would engage the serious attention of the Government and

people of the United States in any circumstances. In point of

fact, they have a concern with it which is by no means of a

wholly sentimental or philanthropic character. It lies so near

to us as to be hardly separated from our territory. Our actual

pecuniary interest in it is second only to that of the people

and Government of Spain. It is reasonably estimated that at

least from $30,000,000 to $50,000,000 of American capital are

invested in plantations and in railroad, mining, and other

business enterprises on the island. The volume of trade

between the United States and Cuba, which in 1889 amounted to

about $64,000,000, rose in 1893 to about $103,000,000, and in

1894, the year before the present insurrection broke out,

amounted to nearly $96,000,000. Besides this large pecuniary

stake in the fortunes of Cuba, the United States finds itself

inextricably involved in the present contest in other ways

both vexatious and costly. … These inevitable entanglements of

the United States with the rebellion in Cuba, the large

American property interests affected, and considerations of

philanthropy and humanity in general, have led to a vehement

demand in various quarters, for some sort of positive

intervention on the part of the United States. …

"It would seem that if Spain should offer to Cuba genuine

autonomy—a measure of home rule which, while preserving the

sovereignty of Spain, would satisfy all rational requirements

of her Spanish subjects—there should be no just reason why the

pacification of the island might not be effected on that

basis. Such a result would appear to be in the true interest

of all concerned. … It has been objected on the one side that

Spain should not promise autonomy until her insurgent subjects

lay down their arms; on the other side, that promised

autonomy, however liberal, is insufficient, because without

assurance of the promise being fulfilled. … Realizing that

suspicions and precautions on the part of the weaker of two

combatants are always natural and not always

unjustifiable—being sincerely desirous in the interest of both

as well as on its own account that the Cuban problem should be

solved with the least possible delay—it was intimated by this

Government to the Government of Spain some months ago that, if

a satisfactory measure of home rule were tendered the Cuban

insurgents, and would be accepted by them upon a guaranty of

its execution, the United States would endeavor to find a way

not objectionable to Spain of furnishing such guaranty. While

no definite response to this intimation has yet been received

from the Spanish Government, it is believed to be not

altogether unwelcome, while, as already suggested, no reason

is perceived why it should not be approved by the insurgents. …

"It should be added that it can not be reasonably assumed that

the hitherto expectant attitude of the United States will be

indefinitely maintained. While we are anxious to accord all

due respect to the sovereignty of Spain, we can not view the

pending conflict in all its features, and properly apprehend

our inevitably close relations to it, and its possible

results, without considering that by the course of events we

may be drawn into such an unusual and unprecedented condition,

as will fix a limit to our patient waiting for Spain to end

the contest, either alone and in her own way, or with our

friendly co-operation."

_President Cleveland's Message to Congress,

December 7, 1896._

Just at this time (December 7, 1896) the Cuban insurgents

suffered a serious calamity, in the death of Antonio Maceo,

the heroic mulatto, who seems to have been the most soldierly

and inspiring of their leaders. He had broken through the

"trocha," or fortified line across the island, by which the

Spaniards were endeavoring to hold its western part, and had

been troubling them in the province of Pinar del Rio for some

months. At length he was killed in an unimportant skirmish,

and much of the vigor of the insurrection appears to have gone

out of it when he died. The obstinacy of spirit remained,

nevertheless, and all the merciless energy of Weyler only

spread death and misery, without opening any prospect of an

end to the state of war. Spain was being utterly exhausted by

the immense cost of the struggle; Cuba was being ruined and

depopulated; yet neither would yield. The oppressors would not

set their victims free; the oppressed would not submit. But,

politically, the situation continued for another year as it

had been when described by President Cleveland at the close of

1896. The only visible authority was that which the Spaniards

maintained here and there. The revolutionists established no

government that could reasonably be given the name, and their

"Republic of Cuba," which foolish people in the United States

were clamoring to have recognized, existed on paper alone. To

concede "belligerent rights" to the scattered bands of

insurgents would only bring them under crippling rules of

international law, and do no good to their cause. President

McKinley, who succeeded President Cleveland in March, 1897,

made no change in the policy which the latter had pursued. He

continued the insistent pressure by which it was sought to

persuade the Spanish government to give a satisfying measure

of free government to its great dependency. After some months

there appeared to be a fair promise of success. The Liberal

party had come into power at Madrid, with Sagasta at its head.

In October, Weyler was recalled, General Blanco took his place,

and a new constitution for Cuba was announced, giving the

colony what seemed to be a fairly autonomous government, under

a parliament of its own. In his message to Congress the

following December, President McKinley was able to meet the

continued clamor for more violent measures of interference by

saying: "It is honestly due to Spain, and to our friendly

relations with Spain, that she should be given a reasonable

chance to realize her expectations, and to prove the asserted

efficacy of the new order of things to which she stands

irrevocably committed. She has recalled the commander whose

brutal orders inflamed the American mind and shocked the

civilized world. She has modified the horrible order of

concentration, and has undertaken to care for the helpless and

permit those who desire to resume the cultivation of their

fields to do so, and assures them the protection of the

Spanish Government in their lawful occupations."

{175}

But the awful tragedy of suffering among the

"reconcontrados" had excited lookers-on to such a pitch that

the conduct of Spain in any new line of policy could no longer

be fairly judged. There had been attempts on the part of the

Spanish authorities to give some relief to the starved and

perishing multitude, and help to that end had been accepted

from the United States. The American Red Cross Society, with

Miss Clara Barton at its head, entered the island in December,

with vast stores of food and hospital supplies, and a strong

force of generous workers; but the need was far beyond their

means. The tale of death and misery in the stricken country

seemed to grow more sickening every day.

CUBA: A. D. 1897 (November).

Constitution establishing self-government in the islands of

Cuba and Porto Rico, promulgated by Royal Decree.

The following is a translation of the text of the Constitution

establishing self-government in the islands of Cuba and Porto

Rico which was promulgated by royal decree at Madrid on the

25th of November, 1897:

Upon the proposition of my Prime Minister, and with the

concurrence of the Council of Ministers in the name of my

august son, King Alfonso XIII, and as Queen Regent of the

Kingdom, I hereby decree as follows:

[Footnote Start]

EXPLANATORY NOTE.

To facilitate the understanding of this decree and to avoid

confusion as to the legal value of the terms employed therein

the following definitions are to be observed:

Central Executive Power: The King with his Council of Ministers.

The Spanish Parliament: The Cortes with the King.

The Spanish Chambers: The Congress and the Senate.

The Central Government: The Council of Ministers of the Kingdom.

The Colonial Parliament: The two Chambers with

the Governor-General.

The Colonial Chambers: The Council of Administration

and the Chamber of Representatives.

Colonial Legislative Assemblies: The Council of Administration

and the Chamber of Representatives.

Governor-General in Council: The Governor-General

with the Secretaries of his Cabinet.

Instructions of the Governor-General: Those which he may have

received when named for his office.

Statute: Colonial measure of a legislative character.

Colonial Statutes: Colonial Legislation.

Legislation or General Laws: Legislation or laws of the Kingdom.

[Footnote End]

TITLE I.

GOVERNMENT AND CIVIL ADMINISTRATION IN THE ISLANDS

OF CUBA AND PORTO RICO.

ARTICLE 1.

The system of government and civil administration in the

islands of Cuba and Porto Rico shall hereafter be carried on

in conformity with the following provisions:

ARTICLE 2.

Each island shall be governed by an insular parliament,

consisting of two chambers, and by the Governor-General,

representing the mother country, who shall exercise supreme

authority.

TITLE II.

THE INSULAR CHAMBERS.

ARTICLE 3.

The legislative power as to colonial matters in the shape and

manner prescribed by law, shall be vested in the insular

chambers conjointly with the Governor-General.

ARTICLE 4.

Insular representation shall consist of two bodies of equal

powers, which shall be known as chamber of representatives and

council of administration.

TITLE III.

COUNCIL OF ADMINISTRATION.

ARTICLE 5.

The council shall be composed of thirty-five members, of whom

eighteen shall be elected in the manner directed by the

electoral law and seventeen shall be appointed by the

Governor-General acting for the Crown, from among such persons

as have the qualifications specified in the following

articles:

ARTICLE 6.

To be entitled to sit in the council of administration it is

necessary to be a Spanish subject; to have attained the age of

thirty-five years; to have been born in the island, or to have

had four years' constant residence therein; not to be subject

to any pending criminal prosecution; to be in the full

enjoyment of his political rights; to have his property free

from attachment; to have had for two or more years previous an

annual income of four thousand dollars; to have no interest in

any contract with either the insular or the home government.

The shareholders of a stock company shall not be considered as

government contractors, even if the company has a contract

with the government.

ARTICLE 7.

Persons are also qualified to serve as councilors who, besides

the above-stated requirements, have any of the following

qualifications:

1. To be or to have been a senator of the Kingdom, or to

possess the requirements for being a senator, in conformity

with Article III of the constitution.

2. To have held for a period of two years any of the following

offices: President, or prosecuting attorney of the pretorian

court of Havana; rector of the University of Havana; councilor

of administration in the council formerly thus designated;

president of the Havana Chamber of Commerce; president of the

Economic Society of Friends of the Country; president of the

Sugar Planters' Association; president of the Tobacco

Manufacturers' Union; president of the Merchants, Tradesmen's,

and Agriculturalists' League; dean of the bar of Havana; mayor

of Havana; president of the provincial assembly of Havana

during two terms or of any provincial assembly during three

terms; dean of either of the chapters of the two cathedrals.

3. Likewise may be elected or appointed as councilor any

property owner from among the fifty taxpayers paying the

highest taxes, either on real estate or on industries,

commerce, arts, and the professions.

ARTICLE 8.

The councilors appointed by the Crown shall be appointed by

special decrees, stating the qualification entitling the

appointee to serve as councilor. Councilors thus appointed

shall hold office for life. One-half the number of elective

councilors shall be elected every five years, and the whole

number shall be elected whenever the council of administration

shall be dissolved by the Governor-General.

ARTICLE 9.

The qualifications required in order to be appointed or

elected councilor of administration may be changed by a

national law, at the request or upon the proposition of the

insular chambers.

ARTICLE 10.

No councilor shall, during the session of the council, accept

any civil office, promotion (unless it be strictly by

seniority), title, or decoration; but any councilor may be

appointed by either the local or the home government to any

commission within his own profession or category, whenever the

public service shall require it. The secretaries of the

insular government shall be excepted from the foregoing rule.

{176}

TITLE IV.

THE CHAMBER OF REPRESENTATIVES.

ARTICLE 11.

The chamber of representatives shall be composed of members

named by the electoral boards in the manner prescribed by law

and in the proportion of one for every twenty-five thousand

inhabitants.

ARTICLE 12.

To be elected as representative the candidate must have the

following requirements: To be a Spanish citizen, to be a

layman, to have attained his majority, to be in full enjoyment

of civil rights, to have been born in the island or to have

had four years' constant residence therein, and not to be

subject to any pending criminal prosecution.

ARTICLE 13.

Representatives shall be elected every five years, and any

representative may be re-elected any number of times. The

insular chamber shall determine what classes of offices are

incompatible with the office of representative, as well as the

cases governing re-election.

ARTICLE 14.

Any representative upon whom either the local or home

government shall confer a pension, or any employment,

promotion (unless it be by strict seniority), paid commission,

title, or decoration, shall cease to be such without necessity

of any declaration to that effect, unless he shall within fifteen

days of his appointment notify the chamber of his having

declined the favor. The provisions of the preceding paragraph

shall not include the representatives who shall be appointed

members of the cabinet.

TITLE V.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE INSULAR CHAMBERS AND THEIR RELATIONS

TO EACH OTHER.

ARTICLE 15.

The chambers will meet every year. The King, the

Governor-General acting in his name, shall convene, suspend,

and adjourn the sessions and dissolve the chamber of

representatives and the council of administration, either

separately or simultaneously, under the obligation to call

them together again or renew them within three months.

ARTICLE 16.

Each of the two legislative bodies shall determine the rules

of their proceedings and shall be the judges of the

qualifications of their respective members and the legality of

their election. Until the chamber and the council shall pass

their own rules, they shall be governed by the rules of the

national house of representatives and of the senate,

respectively.

ARTICLE 17.

Each chamber shall choose its president, vice-president and

secretaries.

ARTICLE 18.

Neither chamber shall sit unless the other be sitting also,

except when the council exercises judicial functions.

ARTICLE 19.

The two insular chambers shall not deliberate together nor in

the presence of the Governor-General. The sessions shall be

public, but either chamber may hold secret sessions whenever

business of a private nature shall require it.

ARTICLE 20.

To the Governor-General, through his secretaries, as well as

to either of the two chambers, belongs the power to initiate

and propose colonial statutes.

ARTICLE 21.

All colonial statutes in regard to taxes and the public credit

shall originate in the chamber of representatives.

ARTICLE 22.

Resolutions may be passed by either chamber by a plurality of

votes; but in order to pass a measure of a legislative

character a majority of all the members constituting the body

must be present. Nevertheless, one-third of the members shall

constitute a quorum for deliberation.

ARTICLE 23.

No resolution or law shall be considered passed by the insular

parliament unless it has had the concurrence of the chamber of

representatives and the council of administration.

ARTICLE 24.

Every colonial statute, as soon as it has been approved in the

form prescribed in the preceding article, shall be presented

to the Governor-General by the officers of both chambers for

his sanction and proclamation of the same.

ARTICLE 25.

Members of the council and the chamber of representatives

shall have immunity for any speech or vote in either chamber.

ARTICLE 26.

No councilor of administration shall be indicted or arrested

without a previous resolution of the council, unless he shall

be found "in flagranti" or the council shall not be in

session, but in every case notice shall be given to that body

as soon as possible, that it may determine what should be

done. Nor shall the representatives be indicted or arrested

during the sessions without the permission of the chamber

unless they are found "in flagranti," but in this last case,

or in case of indictment or arrest when the chamber is not

sitting, notice shall be given as soon us possible to the

chamber of representatives for its information and action. All

proceedings against councilors and representatives shall be

brought before the pretorian court at Havana in the cases and

manner that shall be prescribed by colonial statutes.

ARTICLE 27.

The guarantees established in the foregoing section shall not

apply to a councilor or representative who shall himself admit

that he is the author of any article, book, pamphlet, or

printed matter wherein military sedition is incited or

invoked, or the Governor-General is insulted and maligned, or

national sovereignty is assailed.

ARTICLE 28.

The relations between the two chambers shall be governed,

until otherwise provided, by the act of July 19, 1837,

regulating the relations between the two legislative houses of

the Cortes.

ARTICLE 29.

Besides the power of enacting laws for the colony the insular

chambers shall have power:

1. To receive the oath of the Governor-General to preserve the

constitution and the laws which guarantee the autonomy of the

colony.

2. To enforce the responsibility of the secretaries of the

executive, who shall be tried by the council, whenever

impeached by the chamber of representatives.

3. To address the home government through the

Governor-General, proposing the abrogation or modification of

existing laws of the Kingdom; to invite the home government to

present bills as to particular matters, or to ask a decision

of an executive character on matters which interest the

colony.

ARTICLE 30.

The Governor-General shall communicate to the home government

before presenting to the insular parliament any bill

originating in the executive government of the island

whenever, in his judgment, said bill may affect national

interests. Should any such bill originate in the insular

parliament, the government of the island shall ask for a

postponement of the debate until the home government shall

have given its opinion. In either case the correspondence

passing between the two governments shall be laid before the

chambers and published in the official Gazette.

{177}

ARTICLE 31.

All differences of jurisdiction between the several municipal,

provincial, and insular assemblies, or between any of them and

the executive, which by their nature may not be referred to

the home government, shall be submitted to the courts of

justice in accordance with the rules herein prescribed.

TITLE VI.

POWERS VESTED IN THE INSULAR PARLIAMENT.

ARTICLE 32.

The insular chambers shall have power to pass upon all matters

not specially and expressly reserved to the Cortes of the

Kingdom or to the central government as herein provided, or as

may be provided hereafter, in accordance with the prescription

set forth in additional Article 2. In this manner, and without

implying that the following enumeration presupposes any

limitation of their power to legislate on other subjects, they

shall have power to legislate on all matters and subjects

concerning the departments of justice, interior, treasury,

public works, education, and agriculture.

They shall likewise have exclusive cognizance of all matters

of a purely local nature which may principally affect the

colonial territory; and to this end they shall have power to

legislate on civil administration; on provincial, municipal,

or judicial apportionment; on public health, by land or sea,

and on public credit, banks, and the monetary system. This

power, however, shall not impair the powers vested in the

colonial executive according to the laws in connection with

the matters above mentioned.

ARTICLE 33.

It shall be incumbent upon the colonial parliament to make

regulations under such national laws as may be passed by the

Cortes and expressly intrusted to it. Especially among such

measures parliament shall legislate, and may do so at the

first sitting, for the purpose of regulating the elections,

the taking of the electoral census, qualifying electors, and

exercising the right of suffrage; but in no event shall these

dispositions affect the rights of the citizens, as established

by the electoral laws.

ARTICLE 34.

Notwithstanding that the laws governing the judiciary and the

administration of justice are of a national character, and

therefore obligatory for the colony, the insular parliament

may, within the provisions of said laws, make rules or propose

to the home government such measures as shall render easier

the admission, continuance, or promotion in the local courts

of lawyers, natives of the island, or practicing therein.

The Governor-General in council shall have, as far as the

island of Cuba is concerned, the same power that has been

vested heretofore in the minister for the colonies for the

appointment of the functionaries and subordinate and auxiliary

officers of the judicial order and as to the other matters

connected with the administration of justice.

ARTICLE 35.

The insular parliament shall have exclusive power to frame the

local budget of expenditures and revenues, including the

revenue corresponding to the island as her quota of the

national budget. To this end the Governor-General shall

present to the chambers every year before the month of January

the budget for the next fiscal year, divided in two parts, as

follows: The first part shall state the revenues needed to

defray the expenses of sovereignty, and the second part shall

state the revenues and expenditures estimated for the

maintenance of the colonial administration. Neither chamber

shall take up the budget of the colonial government without

having finally voted the part for the maintenance of

sovereignty.

ARTICLE 36.

The Cortes of the Kingdom shall determine what expenditures

are to be considered by reason of their nature as obligatory

expenses inherent to sovereignty, and shall fix the amount

every three years and the revenue needed to defray the same,

the Cortes reserving the right to alter this rule.

ARTICLE 37.

All treaties of commerce affecting the island of Cuba, be they

suggested by the insular or by the home government, shall be

made by the latter with the co-operation of special delegates

duly authorized by the colonial government, whose concurrence

shall be acknowledged upon submitting the treaties to the

Cortes. Said treaties, when approved by the Cortes, shall be

proclaimed as laws of the Kingdom and as such shall obtain in

the colony.

ARTICLE 38.

Notice shall be given to the insular government of any

commercial treaties made without its participation as soon as

said treaties shall become laws, to the end that, within a

period of three months, it may declare its acceptance or

nonacceptance of their stipulations. In case of acceptance the

Governor-General shall cause the treaty to be published in the

Gazette as a colonial statute.

ARTICLE 39.

The insular parliament shall also have power to frame the

tariff and fix the duties to be paid on merchandise as well

for its importation into the territory of the island as for

the exportation thereof.

ARTICLE 40.

As a transition from the old regime to the new constitution,

and until the home and insular governments may otherwise

conjointly determine hereafter, the commercial relations

between the island and the metropolis shall be governed by the

following rules:

1. No differential duty, whether fiscal or otherwise, either

on imports or exports, shall be imposed to the detriment of

either insular or peninsular production.

2. The two governments shall make a schedule of articles of

direct national origin to which shall be allowed by common

consent preferential duty over similar foreign products. In

another schedule made in like manner shall be determined such

articles of direct insular production as shall be entitled to

privileged treatment on their importation into the peninsula

and the amount of preferential duties thereon. In neither case

shall the preferential duty exceed 35 per cent. Should the

home and the colonial government agree upon the schedules and

the preferential duties, they shall be considered final and

shall be enforced at once. In case of disagreement the point

in dispute shall be submitted to a committee of

representatives of the Cortes, consisting of an equal number

of Cubans and Peninsulars. The committee shall appoint its

chairman, and in case of disagreement the eldest member shall

preside. The chairman shall have the casting vote.

3. The valuation tables concerning the articles in the

schedules above mentioned shall be fixed by mutual agreement,

and shall be revised after discussion every two years. The

modifications which may thereupon become necessary in the

tariff duties shall be carried out at once by the respective

governments.

{178}

TITLE VII.

THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL.

ARTICLE 41.

The supreme authority of the colony shall be vested in a

Governor-General, appointed by the King on the nomination of

the council of ministers. In his capacity he shall have as

vice-royal patron the power inherent in the patronate of the

Indies; he shall have command of all military and naval forces

in the island; he shall act as delegate of the departments of

state, war, navy, and the colonies; all other authorities in

the island shall be subordinate to his, and he shall be

responsible for the preservation of order and the safety of

the colony. The Governor-General shall, before taking

possession of his office, take an oath in the presence of the

King to discharge his duties faithfully and loyally.

ARTICLE 42.

The Governor-General, representing the nation, will discharge

by himself and with the aid of his secretaries all the

functions indicated in the preceding articles and such others

as may devolve upon him as direct delegate of the King in

matters of a national character. It shall be incumbent upon

the Governor-General as representing the home government:

1. To appoint without restriction the secretaries of his

cabinet.

2. To proclaim, execute, and cause to be executed in the

island all laws, decrees, treaties, international covenants,

and all other acts emanating from the legislative branch of

the government, as well as all decrees, royal commands, and

other measures emanating from the executive which shall be

communicated to him by the departments of which he acts as

delegate. Whenever in his judgment and in that of his

secretaries he considers the resolutions of the home

government as liable to injure the general interests of the

nation or the special interests of the island, he shall have

power to suspend the publication and execution thereof, and

shall so notify the respective department, stating the reasons

for his action.

3. To grant pardons in the name of the King, within the

limitations specially prescribed to him in his instructions

from the government, and to stay the execution of a death

sentence whenever the gravity of the circumstances shall so

demand or the urgency of the case shall allow of no time to

solicit and obtain His Majesty's pardon; but in either case he

shall hear the counsel of his secretaries.

4. To suspend the guarantees set forth in articles 3, 5, 6,

and 9, and in the first, second, and third paragraphs of

article 13 of the constitution; to enforce legislation in

regard to public order, and to take all measures which he may

deem necessary to preserve the peace within and the safety

without for the territory entrusted to him after hearing the

counsel of his cabinet.

5. To take care that in the colony justice be promptly and

fully administered, and that it shall always be administered

in the name of the King.

6. To hold direct communication on foreign affairs with the

ministers, diplomatic agents, and counsels of Spain throughout

America. A full copy of such correspondence shall be

simultaneously forwarded to the home Department of State.

ARTICLE 43.

It behooves the Governor-General, as the superior authority in

the colony and head of its administration:

1. To take care that the rights, powers, and privileges now

vested or that may henceforth be vested in the colonial

administration be respected and protected.

2. To sanction and proclaim the acts of the insular

parliament, which shall be submitted to him by the president

and secretaries of the respective chambers. Whenever, in the

judgment of the Governor-General, an act of the insular

parliament goes beyond its powers or impairs the rights of the

citizens as set forth in Article I of the constitution, or

curtails the guarantees prescribed by law for the exercise of

said rights, or jeopards the interest of the colony or of the

nation, he shall forward the act to the council of ministers

of the Kingdom, which, within a period that shall not exceed

two months, shall either assent to it or return it to the

Governor-General with the objections to its sanction and

proclamation. The insular parliament may, in view of the

objections, reconsider or modify the act, if it deems fit,

without a special proposition. If two months shall elapse

without the central government giving any opinion as to a

measure agreed upon by the chambers which has been transmitted

to it by the Governor-General, the latter shall sanction and

proclaim the same.

3. To appoint, suspend, and discharge the employees of the

colonial administration, upon the suggestion of the

secretaries of the departments and in accordance with the

laws.

4. To appoint and remove, without restriction, the secretaries

of his cabinet.

ARTICLE 44.

No executive order of the Governor-General, acting as

representative and chief of the colony, shall take effect

unless countersigned by a secretary of the cabinet, who by

this act alone shall make himself responsible for the same.

ARTICLE 45.

There shall be five secretaries of department, to wit:

Grace and justice and interior;

finance;

public education, public works and posts and telegraphs;

agriculture, industry, and commerce.

The Governor-General shall appoint the president of the

cabinet from among the secretaries, and shall also have power

to appoint a president without a secretaryship. The power to

increase or diminish the number of secretaries composing the

colonial cabinet, and to determine the scope of each

department, is vested in the insular parliament.

ARTICLE 46.

The secretaries of the cabinet may be members of either the

chamber of representatives or the council of administration

and take part in the debates of either chamber, but a

secretary shall only vote in the chamber of which he is a

member.

ARTICLE 47.

The secretaries of the cabinet shall be responsible to the

insular parliament.

ARTICLE 48.

The Governor-General shall not modify or abrogate his own

orders after they are assented to by the home government, or

when they shall declare some rights, or when a sentence by a

judicial court or administrative tribunal shall have been

based upon said orders, or when they shall deal with his own

competency.

ARTICLE 49.

The Governor-General shall not turn over his office when

leaving the island except by special command from the home

government. In case of absence from the seat of government

which prevents his discharging the duties of his office or of

disability to perform such duties, he can appoint one or more

persons to take his place, provided the home government has

not previously done so or the method of substitution shall not

be stated in his instructions.

{179}

ARTICLE 50.

The supreme court shall have the sole power to try the

Governor-General when impeached for his responsibilities as

defined by the Penal Code. The council of ministers shall take

cognizance of his other responsibilities.

ARTICLE 51.

The Governor-General shall have the power, in spite of the

provisions of the different articles of this decree, to act

upon his own responsibility, without consulting his

secretaries, in the following cases:

1. When forwarding to the home government a bill passed by the

insular parliament, especially when, in his opinion, it shall

abridge the rights set forth in Article 1 of the constitution

of the monarchy or the guarantees for the exercise thereof

vouchsafed by the laws.

2. When it shall be necessary to enforce the law or public

order, especially if there be no time or possibility to

consult the home government.

3. When enforcing the national laws that shall have been

approved by the Crown and made applicable to all of the

Spanish or to the colony under his government. The proceedings

and means of action which the Governor-General shall employ in

the above cases shall be determined by a special law.

TITLE VIII.

MUNICIPAL AND PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT.

ARTICLE. 52.

Municipal organization shall be compulsory for every group of

population of more than one thousand inhabitants. Groups of

less number of inhabitants may organize the service of their

community by special covenants. Every legally constituted

municipality shall have power to frame its own laws regarding

public education; highways by land, river, and sea; public

health; municipal finances, as well as to freely appoint and

remove its own employees.

ARTICLE 53.

At the head of each province there shall be an assembly, which

shall be elected in the manner provided for by the colonial

statutes, and shall be composed of a number of members in

proportion to the population.

ARTICLE 54.

The provincial assembly shall be autonomous as regards the

creation and maintenance of public schools and colleges;

charitable institutions and provincial roads and ways by land,

river, or sea; also as regards their own budgets and the

appointment and removal of their respective employees.

ARTICLE 55.

The municipalities, as well as the provincial assemblies,

shall have power to freely raise the necessary revenue to

cover their expenditures, with no other limitation than to

make the means adopted compatible with the general system of

taxation which shall obtain in the island. The resources for

provincial appropriations shall be independent of municipal

resources.

ARTICLE 56.

The mayors and presidents of boards of aldermen shall be

chosen by their respective boards from among their members.

ARTICLE 57.

The mayors shall discharge without limitation the active

duties of the municipal administration, as executors of the

resolutions of the board of aldermen or their representatives.

ARTICLE 58.

The aldermen and the provincial assemblymen shall be civilly

responsible for the damages caused by their acts. Their

responsibility shall be exacted before the ordinary courts of

justice.

ARTICLE 59.

The provincial assemblies shall freely choose their respective

presidents.

ARTICLE 60.

The elections of aldermen and assemblymen shall be conducted

in such manner as to allow for a legitimate representation of

the minorities.

ARTICLE 61.

The provincial and municipal laws now obtaining in the island

shall continue in vogue, wherever not in conflict with the

provisions of this decree, until the insular parliament shall

legislate upon the matter.

ARTICLE 62.

No colonial statute shall abridge the powers vested by the

preceding articles in the municipalities and the provincial

assemblies.

TITLE IX.

AS TO THE GUARANTEES FOR THE FULFILLMENT OF

THE COLONIAL CONSTITUTION.

ARTICLE 63.

Whenever a citizen shall consider that his rights have been

violated or his interests injured by the action of a

municipality or a provincial assembly he shall have the right

to apply to the courts of justice for redress. The department

of justice shall, if so required by the agents of the

executive government of the colony, prosecute before the

courts the boards of aldermen or provincial assemblies charged

with breaking the laws or abusing their power.

ARTICLE 64.

In the cases referred to in the preceding article, the

following courts shall have jurisdiction: The territorial

audiencia shall try all claims against municipalities; and the

pretorian court of Havana shall try all claims against

provincial assemblies. Said courts, when the charges against

any of the above-mentioned corporations shall be for abuse of

power, shall render their decisions by a full bench. From the

decision of the Territorial audiencia an appeal shall be

allowed to the pretorian court of Havana, and from the

decisions of the latter an appeal shall be allowed to the

supreme court of the Kingdom.

ARTICLE 65.

The redress of grievances which Article 62 grants to any

citizen can also be had collectively by means of public

action, by appointing an attorney or representative claimant.

ARTICLE 66.

Without in any way impairing the powers vested in the

Governor-General by Title V of the present decree, he may,

whenever he deems fit, appear before the pretorian court of

Havana in his capacity as chief of the executive government of

the colony, to the end that said court shall finally decide

any conflict of jurisdiction between the executive power and

the legislative chambers of the colony.

ARTICLE 67.

Should any question of jurisdiction be raised between the

insular parliament and the Governor-General in his capacity as

representative of the home government, which shall not have

been submitted to the council of ministers of the Kingdom by

petition of the insular parliament, either party shall have

power to bring the matter before the supreme court of the

Kingdom, which shall render its decision by a full bench and

in the first instance.

ARTICLE 68.

The decisions rendered in all cases provided for in the

preceding articles shall be published in the collection of

colonial statutes and shall form part of the insular

legislation.

ARTICLE 69.

Every municipal measure for the purpose of contracting a loan

or a municipal debt shall be without effect, unless it be

assented to by a majority of the townspeople whenever

one-third of the number of aldermen shall so demand. The

amount of the loan or debt which, according to the number of

inhabitants of a township, shall make the referendum

proceeding necessary, shall be determined by special statute.

{180}

ARTICLE 70.

All legislative acts originating in the insular parliament or

the Cortes shall be compiled under the title of colonial

statutes in a legislative collection, the formation and

publication of which shall be entrusted to the

Governor-General as chief of the colonial executive.

ADDITIONAL ARTICLES.

ARTICLE 1.

Until the colonial statutes shall be published in due form,

the laws of the Kingdom shall be deemed applicable to all

matters reserved to the jurisdiction of the insular

government.

ARTICLE 2.

When the present constitution shall be once approved by the

Cortes of the Kingdom for the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico,

it shall not be amended except by virtue of a special law and

upon the petition of the insular parliament.

ARTICLE 3.

The provisions of the present decree shall obtain in their

entirety in the island of Porto Rico; they shall, however, be

ordained by special decree in order to conform them to the

population and nomenclature of said island.

ARTICLE 4.

Pending contracts for public services affecting in common the

Antilles and the Peninsula shall continue in their present

shape until termination, and shall be entirely governed by the

conditions and stipulations therein made. As regards other

contracts already entered into, but not yet in operation, the

Governor-General shall consult the home government, or the

colonial chambers, as the case may be, and the two governments

shall by mutual accord decide as between themselves the final

form of such contract.

TRANSITORY PROVISIONS.

ARTICLE 1.

With a view to carry out the transition from the present

regime to the system hereby established with the greatest

possible dispatch and the least interruption of the public

business, the Governor-General shall, whenever he deems it

timely and after consulting the home government, appoint the

secretaries of the executive office as per Article 45 of this

decree, and with their aid he shall conduct the local

government of the island until the insular chambers shall have

been constituted. The secretaries thus appointed shall vacate

their offices as soon as the Governor-General shall take his

oath of office before the insular chambers, and the

Governor-General shall immediately appoint as their successors

the members of parliament who, in his judgment, most fully

represent the majorities in the chamber of representatives and

the council of administration.

ARTICLE 2.

The manner of meeting the expenditures occasioned by the debt

now weighing upon the Spanish and Cuban treasuries, and the

debt that may be contracted until the termination of the war,

shall be determined by a law fixing the share that shall be

borne by each treasury, and the special ways and means for the

payment of the interest, and the sinking fund, and for

refunding the principal in due time. Until the Cortes of the

Kingdom shall decide this point no changes shall be made in

the conditions under which said debts were contracted, nor in

the payment of the interest, nor provisions for a sinking

fund, nor in the guarantees which they enjoy, nor in the

actual terms of payment. When the Cortes shall have

apportioned the shares, each of the two treasuries shall take

upon itself the payment of the share allotted. In no event

shall the obligations contracted towards the lenders on the

faith of the Spanish nation cease to be scrupulously

respected.

Issued in the Palace,

Madrid, November 25, 1897.

MARIA CHRISTINA.

The President of the Council of Ministers,

PRÁXEDES MATEO SAGASTA.

CUBA: A. D. 1897-1898 (November-February).

The experiment of autonomy or home rule.

It cannot be said that the Constitution of 1897 was given a

fair trial. In the circumstances, one may doubt whether a fair

trial of its working was possible. It came too late for

advantageous testing or unprejudiced judging of its

practicability. The autonomist party, which might once have

been able to make Cuba a constitutional dependency, like

Canada, had been discouraged and broken up. Weyler's policy

had excited a feeling in the United States which was too

impatient to wait for new experiments in Spanish dealing with

Cuba to be worked out, or to estimate reasonably the chances

of their success. The first showing of results from the scheme

of autonomy was unpromising, as it could hardly have failed to

be, and that was readily taken as conclusive in condemnation

of it. The judgment of General Fitzhugh Lee, Consul-General of

the United States at Havana, had great influence in America,

and he saw nothing to expect from the Constitution. In an

article contributed subsequently to the "Fortnightly Review,"

June, 1898, he wrote:

"It [the Constitution) was an elaborate system of 'Home Rule'

with a string to every sentence; so that I soon became

satisfied that, if the insurrection against the Spanish throne

on the island ceased, the condition of the Cubans would

speedily be the same as it was at the commencement of the war.

I gave the reasons therefor in a paper now on file in the

State Department which clearly proved that the Spaniards could

easily control one of the legislative chambers, and that

behind any joint action on the part of both was the veto of

the Governor-General, whose appointment was made from the

throne in Madrid.

"This system of autonomy, however, was gravely proceeded with.

An Autonomistic Cabinet was seriously formed, composed in part

of Cubans who, though at one time in favour of a government of

the island free from Spanish control, had given satisfactory

intimations that, if they were appointed to cabinet offices,

their former opinions could be modified to suit existing

circumstances. Blanco's Autonomistic Government was doomed to

failure from its inception. The Spanish soldiers and officers

scorned it, because they did not desire Cuban rule, which such

autonomy, if genuine, would insure. The Spanish merchants and

citizens were opposed to it, because they too were hostile to

the Cubans having control of the island, and if the question

could be narrowed down to Cuban control or annexation to the

United States, they were all annexationists, believing that

they could get a better government and one that would protect,

in a greater measure, life and property under the United States

flag than under the Cuban banner. On the other hand, the

Cubans in arms would not touch it, because they were fighting

for Free Cuba; and the Cuban citizens and sympathizers, or the

non-arm-bearing population, were distinctly opposed to it also;

while those in favour of it seemed to consist of the

Autonomistic Cabinet, General Blanco, his Secretary-General

and Staff, and a few followers elsewhere."

{181}

_Fitzhugh Lee,

Cuba and her Struggle for Freedom

(Fortnightly Review, June, 1898)._

CUBA: A. D. 1897-1898 (December-March).

Condition of the Reconcentrados.

On the 14th of December, 1897, General Fitzhugh Lee,

Consul-General of the United States at Havana, reported to the

Department of State as follows:

"I have the honor to report that I have received information

that in the Province of Havana reports show that there have

been 101,000 'Reconcentrados,' and that out of that 52,000

have died. Of the said 101,000, 32,000 were children. This

excludes the city of Havana and seven other towns from which

reports have not yet been made up. It is thought that the

total number of 'Reconcentrados' in Havana Province will

amount to 150,000, nearly all women and children, and that the

death rate among their whole number from starvation alone will be

over 50 per cent. For the above number of 'Reconcentrados'

$12,500, Spanish silver, was set aside out of the $100,000

appropriated for the purpose of relieving all the

'Reconcentrados' on the island. Seventy-five thousand of the

150,000 may be still living, so if every dollar appropriated

of the $12,500 reaches them the distribution will average

about 17 cents to a person, which, of course, will be rapidly

exhausted, and, as I can hear of no further succor being

afforded, it is easy to perceive what little practical relief

has taken place in the condition of these poor people."

On the 8th of January, 1898, General Lee made another report

on the same subject as follows:

"I have the honor to state, as a matter of public interest,

that the 'reconcentrado order' of General Weyler, formerly

Governor-General of this island, transformed about 400,000

self-supporting people, principally women and children, into a

multitude to be sustained by the contributions of others or die

of starvation or of fevers resulting from a low physical

condition and being massed in large bodies without change of

clothing and without food. Their houses were burned, their

fields and plant beds destroyed, and their live stock driven

away or killed. I estimate that probably 200,000 of the rural

population in the Provinces of Pinar del Rio, Havana,

Matanzas, and Santa Clara have died of starvation, or from

resultant causes, and the deaths of whole families almost

simultaneously, or within a few days of each other, and of

mothers praying for their children to be relieved of their

horrible sufferings by death, are not the least of the many

pitiable scenes which were ever present. In the Provinces of

Puerto Principe and Santiago de Cuba, where the 'reconcentrado

order' could not be enforced, the great mass of the people are

self-sustaining. A daily average of ten cents' worth of food

to 200,000 people would be an expenditure of $20,000 per day,

and of course the most humane efforts upon the part of our

citizens can not hope to accomplish such a gigantic relief,

and a great portion of these people will have to be abandoned

to their fate."

A little later, Senator Proctor, of Vermont, visited Cuba, for

personal observation of the condition of things in the island,

and, on his return, made a statement of what he had seen and

learned, in a speech to the Senate, which made an impression

on the country much deeper than any previous testimony on the

subject that had reached the public eye or ear. The following

is a part of the account that he gave:

"My observations were confined to the four western provinces,

which constitute about one-half of the island. The two eastern

ones are practically in the hands of the insurgents, except

the few fortified towns. These two large provinces are spoken

of to-day as 'Cuba Libre.' Outside Habana all is changed. It

is not peace nor is it war. It is desolation and distress,

misery and starvation. Every town and village is surrounded by

a 'trocha' (trench), a sort of rifle pit, but constructed on a

plan new to me, the dirt being thrown up on the inside and a

barbed-wire fence on the outer side of the trench. These

trochas have at every corner and at frequent intervals along

the sides what are there called forts, but which are really

small blockhouses, many of them more like large sentry boxes,

loopholed for musketry, and with a guard of from two to ten

soldiers in each.

"The purpose of these trochas is to keep the Reconcentrados in

as well as to keep the insurgents out. From all the

surrounding country the people have been driven in to these

fortified towns and held there to subsist as they can. They

are virtually prison yards, and not unlike one in general

appearance, except that the walls are not so high and strong;

but they suffice, where every point is in range of a soldier's

rifle, to keep in the poor reconcentrado women and children.

Every railroad station is within one of these trochas and has

an armed guard. Every train has an armored freight car,

loopholed for musketry and filled with soldiers, and with, as

I observed usually, and was informed is always the case, a

pilot engine a mile or so in advance. There are frequent

blockhouses inclosed by a trocha and with a guard along the

railroad track. With this exception there is no human life or

habitation between these fortified towns and villages, and

throughout the whole of the four western provinces, except to

a very limited extent among the hills where the Spaniards have

not been able to go and drive the people to the towns and burn

their dwellings. I saw no house or hut in the 400 miles of

railroad rides from Pinar del Rio Province in the west across

the full width of Habana and Matanzas provinces, and to Sagua

La Grande on the north shore, and to Cienfuegos on the south

shore of Santa Clara, except within the Spanish trochas.

"There are no domestic animals or crops on the rich fields and

pastures except such as are under guard in the immediate

vicinity of the towns. In other words, the Spaniards hold in

these four western provinces just what their army sits on.

Every man, woman, and child, and every domestic animal,

wherever their columns have reached, is under guard and within

their so-called fortifications. To describe one place is to

describe all. To repeat, it is neither peace nor war. It is

concentration and desolation. This is the 'pacified' condition

of the four western provinces. West of Habana is mainly the

rich tobacco country; east, so far as I went, a sugar region.

Nearly all the sugar mills are destroyed between Habana and

Sagua. Two or three were standing in the vicinity of Sagua,

and in part running, surrounded, as are the villages, by

trochas and 'forts' or palisades of the royal palm, and fully

guarded. Toward and near Cienfuegos there were more mills

running, but all with the same protection.

{182}

… All the country people in the four western provinces, about

400,000 in number, remaining outside the fortified towns when

Weyler's order was made were driven into these towns, and

these are the Reconcentrados. They were the peasantry, many of

them farmers, some landowners, others renting lands and owning

more or less stock, others working on estates and cultivating

small patches; and even a small patch in that fruitful clime

will support a family. It is but fair to say that the normal

condition of these people was very different from what

prevails in this country. Their standard of comfort and

prosperity was not high, measured by ours. But according to

their standards and requirements their conditions of life were

satisfactory. They lived mostly in cabins made of palms or in

wooden houses. Some of them had houses of stone, the blackened

walls of which are all that remain to show the country was

ever inhabited.

"The first clause of Weyler's order [renewing that of February

16, 1896] reads as follows: 'I Order and Command. First. All

the inhabitants of the country or outside of the line of

fortifications of the town shall, within the period of eight

days, concentrate themselves in the towns occupied by the

troops. Any individual who, after the expiration of this

period, is found in the uninhabited parts will be considered a

rebel and tried as such.' … Many, doubtless, did not learn of

this order. Others failed to grasp its terrible meaning. Its

execution was left largely to the guerrillas to drive in all

that had not obeyed, and I was informed that in many cases the

torch was applied to their homes with no notice, and the

inmates fled with such clothing as they might have on, their

stock and other belongings being appropriated by the

guerrillas. When they reached the towns, they were allowed to

build huts of palm leaves in the suburbs and vacant places

within the trochas, and left to live, if they could.

"Torn from their homes, with foul earth, foul air, foul water,

and foul food or none, what wonder that one-half have died and

that one-quarter of the living are so diseased that they

cannot be saved? … Deaths in the streets have not been

uncommon. I was told by one of our consuls that they have been

found dead about the markets in the morning, where they had

crawled, hoping to get some stray bits of food from the early

hucksters, and that there had been cases where they had

dropped dead inside the market surrounded by food. These

people were independent and self-supporting before Weyler's

order. … I went to Cuba with a strong conviction that the

picture had been overdrawn; that a few cases of starvation and

suffering had inspired and stimulated the press

correspondents, and that they had given free play to a strong,

natural, and highly cultivated imagination. … I could not

believe that, out of a population of 1,600,000, 200,000 had

died within these Spanish forts, practically prison walls,

within a few months past from actual starvation and diseases

caused by insufficient and improper food. My inquiries were

entirely outside of sensational sources. They were made of our

medical officers, of our consuls, of city alcaldes (mayors),

of relief committees, of leading merchants and bankers,

physicians, and lawyers. Several of my informants were Spanish

born, but every time the answer was that the case had not been

overstated. What I saw I cannot tell so that others can see it.

It must be seen with one's own eyes to be realized. …

"The dividing lines between parties are the most straight and

clear cut that have ever come to my knowledge. The division in

our war was by no means so clearly defined. It is Cuban

against Spaniard. It is practically the entire Cuban

population on one side and the Spanish army and Spanish

citizens on the other. I do not count the autonomists in this

division, as they are so far too inconsiderable in numbers to

be worth counting. General Blanco filled the civil offices

with men who had been autonomists and were still classed as

such. But the march of events had satisfied most of them that

the chance for autonomy came too late. … There is no doubt

that General Blanco is acting in entire good faith; that he

desires to give the Cubans a fair measure of autonomy, as

Campos did at the close of the ten-year war. He has, of

course, a few personal followers, but the army and the Spanish

citizens do not want genuine autonomy, for that means

government by the Cuban people. And it is not strange that the

Cubans say it comes too late."

_Congressional Record,

March 17, 1898._

CUBA: A. D. 1898 (February).

Destruction of the United States Battleship Maine in Havana harbor.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY-MARCH).

CUBA: A. D. 1898 (March-April).

Discussion of Cuban affairs between Spain and the United States.

Message of the President to Congress asking for authority

to intervene.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (MARCH-APRIL).

CUBA: A. D. 1898 (April).

Demand of the United States Government for the withdrawal of

Spain from the island, and its result in a state of war.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL).

CUBA: A. D. 1898 (April-December).

Operations of war between the United States and Spain.

Suspension of hostilities.

Negotiation of treaty of peace.

Relinquishment of sovereignty by Spain.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

A. D. 1898 (APRIL) to 1898 (JULY-DECEMBER).

CUBA: A. D. 1898 (December).

Removal of the remains of Columbus to Spain.

The remains of Columbus were taken from the Cathedral in

Havana, on the 12th of December, for transfer to the cathedral

at Seville, in Spain.

CUBA: A. D. 1898-1899 (December-October).

Organization of military government under

United States authority.

Report of the military governor, on conditions prevailing,

measures adopted, and results obtained.

On the 13th of December, 1898, the following General Order was

issued by the Secretary of War:

"By direction of the President, a division to be known as the

Division of Cuba, consisting of the geographical departments

and provinces of the island of Cuba, with headquarters in the

city of Habana, is hereby created, under command of Major

General John R. Brooke, U. S. A., who, in addition to command

of the troops in the division, will exercise the authority of

military governor of the island. Major General Fitzhugh Lee,

U. S. V., commanding the Seventh Army Corps, is assigned to

the immediate command of all the troops in the province of

Habana. Major General William Ludlow, U. S. V., is designated

as the military governor of the city of Habana, and will

report direct to the division commander. He is charged with

all that relates to collection and disbursement of revenues of

the port and city, and its police, sanitation, and general

government, under such regulations as may be prescribed by the

President."

{183}

General Brooke arrived at Havana on the 28th of December and

assumed the command of the troops and the military

governorship of the island. In his subsequent report (October

1, 1899) of conditions then existing, proceedings taken,

events occurring and results attained, he wrote: "It was found

that considerable confusion incident to the withdrawal of the

Spanish troops and replacing them with the United States

troops existed, but no untoward event occurred, however, as

every precaution was taken to maintain order. The gradual

withdrawal of the Spanish troops and the advance of the United

States troops continued, until the morning of the 1st of

January, 1899, found but few Spanish troops in the city, and

these went on board transports, which movement was completed

about 12.30 p. m. Outside of the principal towns the retiring

Spanish army was closely followed by the Cuban army, which

took charge of the towns and country, maintaining order, and,

generally, performing police duty. This state of affairs

continued, substantially, until the final disbandment of that

army. The disbandment of the Cuban army was commenced in

November, 1898, but only such as could procure work, or were

anxious to resume their former vocations, seem to have taken

advantage of the 'licencia' (furlough) which was given to

many. A large part of the army was held together on various

pretexts until the distribution of the $3,000,000 [allotted

for distribution to the Cuban army, to enable the soldiers to

return to their homes], and the giving up of their arms

effected a final disbandment. During the time the army was

held together as an organized body the police duties performed

seemed to be well done and order was preserved. The spectacle

of an army of, according to the rolls, 48,000 men being

peacefully dispersed among the people has for its prototype

the disappearance of the great volunteer army of the United

States in 1865. In neither case has there been any great

disturbance, as was feared in both cases, and particularly so

as regards the Cuban army. The small attempts at brigandage

were quickly suppressed, the lawbreakers placed in prison, and

the courts are now hearing their cases.

"On January 1, 1899, a division of the Seventh Army Corps,

under the command of General Fitzhugh Lee, General Keifer's

division, was brought to the city, and, with the regiments on

duty in Habana under the command of General William Ludlow,

were so placed as to insure good order during the ceremonies

of the relinquishment of sovereignty by Spain, which occurred

in the Governor-General's palace at 12 o'clock noon, where

were assembled the Captain-General and his staff, the United

States commission with its officers, the American military

governor with his staff, Major General Fitzhugh Lee, Major

General William Ludlow, Major General J. Warren Keifer, and

their staffs, and nine Cuban generals as his guests. This

ceremony was simple in its character, though very impressive,

consisting of a formal speech by the Spanish Governor-General,

which was replied to by General Wade, the chairman of the

United States evacuation commission, who, in concluding his

remarks, turned to the military governor and transferred the

island of Cuba to him, who, thereupon, entered upon the full

exercise of his duty as the military governor of Cuba. Of

course, the gathering into his hands of all the duties of his

office took time. The desire of a large body of the Cuban army

to take part on the 1st of January in the ceremonies of the

relinquishment of sovereignty by Spain was reported verbally,

by General Ludlow, and he was informed that the danger to life

and property was too great, and that the celebration must be

postponed to a time when the excitement had cooled off and the

passions of the people could be under control. This

celebration afterwards took place on the arrival in the city

of General Maximo Gomez, Commander in Chief of the Cuban

forces, on February 24. General Ludlow was directed to meet

General Gomez at the city limits and show him every courtesy

possible. The Quinta de los Molinos, the summer residence of

the Governor-General, was placed at his disposal, and for

several months he, with his staff and escort, occupied the

houses and grounds as the guests of this Government. The civil

bureaus of the Governor-Generalcy were taken over by officers

of the military governor's staff, and held by them until the

proper civil officials could be selected and appointed. …

"In reaching this stage on the highway of progress toward the

establishment of government through civil channels, many

obstacles have been overcome, the most serious being the very

natural distrust of the people, which was born and nurtured

under the system of the preceding government, and was

particularly the effect of the wars which these people waged

in their effort to improve their condition. It is believed

that this distrust has given way to confidence in the minds of

a majority of the people, and that they are generally

beginning to see that the government, as administered by the

United States, is for them and for their benefit. It is proper

at this time to speak of the condition of the people and the

country as it existed at the time of the relinquishment of

sovereignty by Spain. A large number of the people were found

to be actually starving. Efforts were immediately made to

supply food, which the War Department sent, all told,

5,493,500 Cuban rations, in addition to the 1,000,000 rations

distributed by Mr. Gould, and these were sent into the country

and distributed under the direction of the commanding generals

of departments, through such agencies as they established;

while in the cities the distribution was generally conducted

by an officer of the Army. The result of this action was the

immediate lowering of the death rate, the restoration to

health of the sick, and a general change for the better was

soon apparent. Medicines were also supplied for the sick with

most beneficial results. Employment was given to those who

could work, and they were paid weekly, so that they might have

money to buy food. In fact, no effort was spared to relieve the

terrible condition in which so many thousand people were

found. …

{184}

"Turning to the present conditions, we have in view such a

change that the progress seems incredible. A great part of the

improvement dates from the month of May, when the muster out

of the Cuban army removed a great source of distrust. The

extent to which have been carried the cultivation of the

fields, the reconstruction of homes, the re-establishment of

order and public service, especially in the matter of hygiene

in the towns, is something wonderful. … The question of

finance, as relates to the restoration of crippled and

destroyed agricultural industries, is one which has occupied a

great deal of attention on the part of this government. It is

evident that assistance in the way of repairing the roads and

bridges, as well as to municipalities in their present

impoverished conditions, is a necessity, and the most pressing

wants in this direction have been met by granting money from

the revenues of the island. There is every reason to hope that

the municipal revenues will meet all requirements as soon as

agriculture is again on its feet, and there will, doubtless,

be some changes in the present tax law made. In this

connection, it is well to know that planters and small farmers

in the tobacco growing districts are rapidly recovering from

their forlorn condition. The quick growing crop and the

remunerative prices have enabled them to restore, in a

measure, the lost cattle, mules, and implements necessary to

the farmers. There is, also, a desire to use labor-saving

devices, which are now being slowly introduced. …

"The quiet severance of church and state has been effected by

the fact of the Government of the United States being in

control. Certain changes have already been made in the laws,

and others will follow in due course; this without violating

the legal rights of the Roman Catholic Church, which was the

only religious denomination tolerated in the island, except a

small body of Baptists. The important subject of schools is

now approaching a solution. The present system will be

improved upon, but it will require time to develop fully a

good school system throughout the island. There are no

school-houses, and under present conditions there can be none

built for some time to come. It is hoped that a manual

training school will be opened as soon as certain repairs and

changes can be made in the Spanish barracks at Santiago de las

Vegas, a short distance south of Habana, in which about 600 of

both sexes can receive instruction at one time. This form of

instruction is more important, under the conditions found to

exist, than the ordinary instruction given in the other

schools. As conditions improve, an opportunity can be given to

increase the number of these schools, and by their means

introduce modern methods more rapidly than by other systems."

_General John R. Brooke,

Civil Report, October 1, 1899

(Message and Documents: Abridgment, 1899-1900,

volume 2, pages 1266-1276)._

General Fitzhugh Lee reported, September 19, 1899, on the

state of things in the province of Havana, as follows: "I

assumed command of the department of the province of Habana

January 1, 1899, and of the province of Pinar del Rio April

19, 1899. The deplorable condition of the island after it was

evacuated by the Spanish is well known. Business of all sorts

was suspended. Agricultural operations had ceased; large sugar

estates, with their enormous and expensive machinery, were

destroyed; houses burned: stock driven off for consumption by

the Spanish troops, or killed. There was scarcely an ox left

to pull a plow, had there been a plow left. Not a pig had been

left in the pen, nor a hen to lay an egg for the poor,

destitute people who still held on to life, most of them sick,

weary, and weak. Miles and miles of country uninhabited either

by the human race or domestic animals was visible to the eye

on every side. The great fertile island of Cuba in some places

resembled an ash pile; in others, the dreary desert. The

'reconcentrado' order of the former Captain-General Weyler, it

will be remembered, drove from their houses and lands all the

old men, women, and children who had remained at their homes

because they were not physically able to bear the burdens of

war. The wheels of the former government had ceased to

revolve. Chaos, confusion, doubt, and uncertainty filled with

apprehension the minds of the Cubans, who, for the first time,

had been relieved of the cruel care of those who for centuries

controlled their country and their destiny. … The railroads on

the island were in bad order, having been used to the extent

of their endurance conveying Spanish troops and Spanish

supplies over them, while the great calzadas or turnpikes were

filled with holes, for the war prevented repairs to either

railroads or roads. Municipalities were all greatly in debt.

None of the civil officers had been paid, and school-teachers

had large amounts of back salary due. Judicial officers were

discharging their duties as far as they could—for there was

really no law in the island except the mandate of the

Captain-General—without pay, and many months of back pay was

due to the professors in the colleges of the largest cities.

The whole framework of the government had to be rebuilt, and

its machinery carefully and gradually reconstructed. Important

government problems had to be promptly solved, which involved

social, economic, commercial, agricultural, public

instruction, support of eleemosynary institutions of all

kinds, means of communications, reorganization of

municipalities, with the necessary town and city police,

including a mounted force to patrol the adjoining rural

districts within the limits, and subject to the authorities of

the mayors and council of their respective municipalities; the

appointment of new alcaldes and other officers to replace

those left in authority by the Spanish Government, and who

would be more in accord with the inhabitants whose local

affairs they directed. Many trying and troublesome questions

arose, and many difficulties environed on either side of the

situation.

"Of the Cuban rural population, less than 20 per cent of them

were able to read and write, resembling children awaking the

first time to the realities of life. They were in the main

obedient, docile, quiet, and inoffensive, and anxious to adapt

themselves as soon as possible to the new conditions which

confronted them. The Cuban soldiers, black and white, who had

been in the fields and woods for four years defying the

Spanish banner, still kept their guns, and were massing around

the cities and towns, producing more or less unrest in the

public mind with the fear that many of them, unaccustomed to

work so long, would be transformed into brigands, and not

become peaceful, law-abiding citizens.

{185}

In eight months wonderful progress has been made. The arms of

the Cuban soldiers have been stacked, and they have quietly

resumed peaceful vocations. Brigandage, which partially

flourished for a time, has been stamped out, tillage

everywhere has greatly increased, many houses rebuilt, many

huts constructed, fences are being built, and more and more

farming lands are gradually being taken up, and municipalities

reorganized with new officers representing the wishes of the

majority of the inhabitants. Municipal police have been

appointed who are uniformed and under the charge of, in most

cases, efficient officers."

_General Fitzhugh Lee,

Report, September 19, 1899._

General Leonard Wood, commanding in the province of Santiago,

reported at the same time as follows: "On the assumption of

control by the American Government, July 17, 1899, of that

portion of the province of Santiago included in the

surrendered territory, industries were practically at a

standstill. In the rural districts all industries were at an

end. The estates, almost without exception, have been

destroyed, and no work is being done. … In the towns the

effect of reconcentration was shown by large crowds of women

and children and old men who were practically starving. They

were thin, pale, and barely able to drag themselves about. The

merchants and a few planters were the only prosperous people

in the province. … A feeling of bitter hostility existed

between the Cubans and Spaniards, and also a very ugly feeling

between the Cubans who had acted in harmony with the

autonomists in the latter days of the Spanish occupation and

those who had been in the Cuban army. At first there was a

good deal of talk of a threatening character in regard to what

the Cubans would do to the Spaniards, now that they were in a

position to avenge themselves for some of the many injuries

received in the past. This, however, soon passed over, and

much more friendly and sensible ideas prevailed. There were no

schools and no material for establishing them. All officers of

the civil government had resigned and left their posts, with

the exception of one judge of the first instance and several

municipal judges and certain police officers. The prisons were

full of prisoners, both Spanish and Cuban, many of them being

Spanish military and political prisoners. The administration

of justice was at a standstill. The towns all presented an

appearance of greatest neglect, and showed everywhere entire

disregard of every sanitary law. The amount of clothing in the

possession of the people was very limited, and in many of the

interior villages women were compelled to keep out of sight

when strangers appeared, as they had only skirts and waists

made of bagging and other coarse material. Many of the

children were absolutely without clothing. Evidences of great

suffering were found on every hand. A very large proportion of

the population was sick in the country districts from malaria

and in the seaboard towns from lack of food and water. …

"The first two and a half months after the surrender were

devoted almost entirely to the distribution of food and to

supplying hospitals and charities with such limited quantities

of necessary material as we were able to obtain. Commanding

officers in all parts of the island were busily engaged in

cleaning up towns and carrying out all possible sanitary and

administrative reforms. Schools were established, some 60 in

the city of Santiago and over 200 in the province as a whole.

Affairs have continued to improve slowly but surely, until at

the present time we find the towns, generally speaking, clean,

the death rate lower than the people have known before, some

public improvements under way in all the large towns, the

amount of work done being limited only by the amount of money

received. … Industries of all kinds are springing up. New

sugar plantations are being projected; hospitals and

charitable institutions are being regularly supplied, and all

are fairly well equipped with necessary articles. The death

rate among the native population is very much lower than in

former years. The people in the towns are quiet and orderly,

with the exception of a few editorial writers, who manage to

keep up a certain small amount of excitement, just enough to

give the papers in question a fair sale. The people are all

anxious to work. The present currency is American currency. A

condition of good order exists in the rural districts. The

small planters are all out on their farms and a condition of

security and good order prevails. The issue of rations has

been practically stopped and we have few or almost no

applications for food."

_General Leonard Wood;

Report, September 20, 1899._

CUBA: A. D. 1899 (October).

Census of the Island.

Statistics of population, nativity, illiteracy, etc.

"The total population of Cuba on October 16, 1899, determined

by the census taken [under the direction of the War Department

of the United States] as of that date, was 1,572,797. This was

distributed as follows among the six provinces:

Habana, 424,804;

Matanzas, 202,444;

Pinar del Rio, 173,064;

Puerto Principe, 88,234;

Santa Clara, 356,536;

Santiago, 327,715.

The latest census taken under Spanish authority was in 1887.

The total population as returned by that census was 1,631,687,

and the population by provinces was as follows:

Habana, 451,928;

Matanzas, 259,578;

Pinar del Rio, 225,891;

Puerto Principe, 67,789;

Santa Clara, 354,122;

Santiago, 272,379.

Whether that census was correct may be a matter of discussion,

but if incorrect, the number of inhabitants was certainly not

overstated. Comparing the total population at these two

censuses, it is seen, that the loss in the 12 years amounted

to 58,890, or 3.6 per cent of the population in 1887. This

loss is attributable to the recent civil war and the

reconcentration policy accompanying it, but the figures

express only a part of the loss from this cause. Judging from

the earlier history of the island and the excess of births

over deaths, as shown by the registration records, however

imperfect they may be, the population probably increased from

1887 up to the beginning of the war and at the latter epoch

reached a total of little less than 1,800,000. It is probable,

therefore, that the direct and indirect losses by the war and

the reconcentration policy, including a decrease of births and

of immigration and an increase of deaths and of emigration

reached a total of approximately 200,000. …

"The area of Cuba is approximately 44,000 square miles, and

the average number of inhabitants per square mile 35.7, about

the same as the State of Iowa. … Habana, with the densest

population, is as thickly populated as the State of

Connecticut, and Puerto Principe, the most sparsely populated,

is in this respect comparable with the State of Texas. …

{186}

"The total number of males of voting age in Cuba was 417,993,

or 26 per cent of the total population. This is a little less

than the proportion, in 1890, in the United States, where it

was 27 per cent. … Classifying the potential voters of Cuba by

birthplace and race, it is seen that 44.9 per cent were

whites, born in Cuba; that 30.5 per cent were colored, and as

nearly all the colored were born in the island it is seen that

fully seven-tenths of the potential voters of Cuba were native

born, 23 per cent were born in Spain, and 1.6 per cent in

other countries. Classifying the whole number of potential

voters by citizenship it is seen that 70 per cent were Cuban

citizens, 2 per cent were Spanish citizens, 18 per cent were

holding their citizenship in suspense, and 10 per cent were

citizens of other countries, or their citizenship was unknown.

…

"The Cuban citizens, numbering 290,905, were composed almost

entirely of persons born in Cuba, there being among them but

220 white persons, and probably not more colored, of alien

birth. The white Cuban citizens, who were natives of the

island, numbered 184,471, and of these 94,301, or 51 per cent,

were unable to read. The colored Cuban citizens numbered

106,214, of which not less than 78,279, or 74 per cent, were

unable to read. The people of Cuba who claimed Spanish

citizenship numbered 9,500, and of these nearly all were born

in Spain, there being but 159 born elsewhere. Those whose

citizenship was in suspense numbered 76,669. These also were

nearly all of Spanish birth, the number born elsewhere being

but 1,420. The number of persons of other or unknown

citizenship was 40,919. Of these fully one-half were colored,

most of them being Chinese, and much the larger proportion of

the remaining half were of Spanish birth.

"Summing up the situation, it appears that the total number of

males of voting age who could read was 200,631, a little less

than half the total number of males of voting age. Of these

22,629 were of Spanish or other foreign citizenship or unknown

citizenship. The number whose citizenship was in suspense was

59,724, and the number of Cuban citizens able to read was

118,278, or 59 per cent of all Cuban citizens of voting age."

_Census of Cuba,

Bulletins Numbers I and III._

CUBA: A. D. 1899 (December).

Appointment of General Leonard Wood to the

military command and Governorship.

On the 6th of December General Leonard Wood was commissioned

major-general of volunteers, and was assigned to command of

the Division of Cuba, relieving General Brooke as division

commander and military governor of Cuba. On the 30th, Governor

Wood announced the appointment of the following Cuban

ministers to form his cabinet:

Secretary of State and Government, Diego Tamayo;

Secretary of Justice, Luis Estevoz;

Secretary of Education, Juan Bautista Hernandez;

Secretary of Finance, Enrique Varona;

Secretary of Public Works, Jose Ramon Villalon;

Secretary of Agriculture, Industry, and Commerce, Rius Rivera.

CUBA: A. D. 1900.

Organization of a school system.

Teachers at Harvard Summer School.

"Especial attention has been given by the military government

to the development of primary education. The enrollment of the

public schools of Cuba immediately before the last war shows

36,306 scholars, but an examination of the reports containing

these figures indicates that probably less than half the names

enrolled represented actual attendance. There were practically

no separate school buildings, but the scholars were collected

in the residences of the teachers. There were few books, and

practically no maps, blackboards, desks or other school

apparatus. … Even these poor apologies for public schools

were, to a great extent, broken up by the war, and in

December, 1899, the entire public-school enrollment of the

island numbered 21,435. The following table shows the advance

in school facilities during the half year ending June 30 last:

School rooms. Enrollment.

January, 1900 635 37,995

February, 1900 1,338 69,476

March, 1900 3,126 127,881

April, 1900 3,126 127,426

May, 1900 3,313 139,616

June, 1900 3,500 143,120

"This great development was accomplished under the Cuban

secretary of public instruction and the Cuban commissioner of

public schools, with the able and experienced assistance of

Mr. Alexis E. Frye as superintendent. It is governed by a

school law modeled largely upon the law of Ohio. … The schools

are subject to constant and effective inspection and the

attendance is practically identical with the enrollment.

"The schools are separated from the residences of the

teachers, and each schoolroom has its separate teacher. The

courses and methods of instruction are those most approved in

this country. The text-books are translations into Spanish of

American text-books. For the supply of material $150,000 were,

in the first instance, appropriated from the insular treasury,

and afterwards, upon a single order, 100,000 full sets of

desks, text-books, scholars' supplies, etc., were purchased

upon public advertisement in this country at an expense of

about three-quarters of a million dollars. All over the island

the old Spanish barracks, and barracks occupied by the

American troops which have been withdrawn, are being turned

into schoolrooms after thorough renovation. The pressure for

education is earnest and universal. The appropriations of this

year from the insular treasury for that purpose will amount to

about four and a half million dollars; but great as the

development has been it will be impossible, with the resources

of the island for a long time yet to come, to fully meet the

demand for the learning so long withheld. The provincial

institutions and high schools and the University of Habana

have been reorganized.

"During the past summer, through the generosity of Harvard

University and its friends, who raised a fund of $70,000 for

that purpose, 1,281 Cuban teachers were enabled to attend a

summer school of instruction at Cambridge, designed to fit

them for their duties. They were drawn from every municipality

and almost every town in the island. They were collected from

the different ports of the island by five United States

transports, which carried them to Boston, and, at the

expiration of their visit, took them to New York and thence to

Habana and to their homes. They were lodged and boarded in and

about the University at Cambridge, and visited the libraries

and museums and the educational institutions and manufacturing

establishments in the neighborhood of Boston. Through the

energy of Mr. Frye money was raised to enable them to visit

New York and Washington. They were returned to their homes

without a single accident or loss, full of new ideas and of

zeal for the educational work in which they had found so much

sympathy and encouragement."

_United States, Secretary of War, Annual Report,

November 30, 1900, pages. 32-33._

{187}

CUBA: A. D. 1900 (June-November).

Municipal elections and election

of a Constitutional Convention.

Meeting of the Convention.

Statement of the Military Governor.

"The census having been completed and the period given for

Spanish residents to make their election as to citizenship

having expired on the 11th of April, 1900, steps were

immediately taken for the election of municipal governments by

the people. In view of the fact that 66 per cent of the people

could not read and write, it was not deemed advisable that

absolutely unrestricted suffrage should be established, and,

after very full conference with leading Cubans, including all

the heads of the great departments of state, a general

agreement was reached upon a basis of suffrage, which provided

that every native male Cuban or Spaniard who had elected to

take Cuban citizenship, of full age, might vote if he either

could read and write, or owned real estate or personal

property to the value of $250, or had served in and been

honorably discharged from the Cuban army; thus according a

voice in the government of the country to everyone who had the

intelligence to acquire the rudiments of learning, the thrift

to accumulate property, or the patriotism to fight for his

country. On the 18th of April an election law, which aims to

apply the best examples of our American election statutes to

the existing conditions of Cuba, was promulgated for the

guidance of the proposed election. On the 16th of June an

election was held throughout the island in which the people of

Cuba in all the municipalities, which include the entire

island, elected all their municipal officers. The boards of

registration and election were composed of Cubans selected by

the Cubans themselves. No United States soldier or officer was

present at or in the neighborhood of any polling place. There

was no disturbance. After the newly elected municipal officers

had been installed and commenced the performance of their

duties an order was made enlarging the powers of the municipal

governments and putting into their hands as much of the

government of the people as was practicable.

"As soon as the new municipal governments were fairly

established the following call for a constitutional convention

was issued:

'Habana, July 25, 1900.

The military governor of Cuba directs the publication of the

following instructions:

Whereas the Congress of the United States by its joint

resolution of April 20, 1898, declared That the people of the

island of Cuba are, and of right ought to be, free and

independent; That the United States hereby disclaims any

disposition or intention to exercise sovereignty,

jurisdiction, or control over said island except for the

pacification thereof, and asserts its determination, when that

is accomplished, to leave the government and control of the

island to its people; And whereas the people of Cuba have

established municipal governments, deriving their authority

from the suffrages of the people given under just and equal

laws, and are now ready, in like manner, to proceed to the

establishment of a general government which shall assume and

exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, and control over the

island: Therefore

"'It is ordered,

That a general election be held in the island of Cuba on the

third Saturday of September, in the year nineteen hundred, to

elect delegates to a convention to meet in the city of Habana,

at twelve o'clock noon on the first Monday of November, in the

year nineteen hundred, to frame and adopt a constitution for

the people of Cuba, and, as a part thereof, to provide for and

agree with the Government of the United States upon the

relations to exist between that Government and the Government

of Cuba, and to provide for the election by the people of

officers under such constitution and the transfer of

government to the officers so elected.

"'The election will be held in the several voting precincts of

the island under and pursuant to the provisions of the

electoral law of April 18, 1900, and the amendments thereof.

The people of the several provinces will elect delegates in

number proportionate to their populations as determined by the

census, viz: The people of the province of Pinar del Rio will

elect three (3) delegates. The people of the province of

Habana will elect eight (8) delegates. The people of the

province of Matanzas will elect four (4) delegates. The people

of the province of Santa Clara will elect seven (7) delegates.

The people of the province of Puerto Principe will elect two

(2) delegates. The people of the province of Santiago de Cuba

will elect seven (7) delegates.'

"Under this call a second election was held on the 15th of

September, under the same law, with some slight amendments,

and under the same conditions as the municipal elections. The

election was wholly under the charge of Cubans, and without

any participation or interference whatever by officers or

troops of the United States. The thirty-one members of the

constitutional convention were elected, and they convened at

Habana at the appointed time. The sessions of the convention

were opened in the city of Habana on the 5th of November by

the military governor, with the following statement: 'To the

delegates of the Constitutional Convention of Cuba. Gentlemen:

As military governor of the island, representing the President

of the United States, I call this convention to order. It will

be your duty, first, to frame and adopt a constitution for

Cuba, and, when that has been done, to formulate what, in your

opinion, ought to be the relations between Cuba and the United

States. The constitution must be adequate to secure a stable,

orderly, and free government.

"'When you have formulated the relations which, in your

opinion, ought to exist between Cuba and the United States,

the Government of the United States will doubtless take such

action on its part as shall lead to a final and authoritative

agreement between the people of the two countries for the

promotion of their common interests.

{188}

"'All friends of Cuba will follow your deliberations with the

deepest interest, earnestly desiring that you shall reach just

conclusions, and that, by the dignity, individual self-restraint,

and wise conservatism which shall characterize your

proceedings, the capacity of the Cuban people for

representative government may be signally illustrated. The

fundamental distinction between true representative government

and dictatorship is that in the former every representative of

the people, in whatever office, confines himself strictly

within the limits of his defined powers. Without such

restraint there can be no free constitutional government.

Under the order pursuant to which you have been elected and

convened you have no duty and no authority to take part in the

present government of the island. Your powers are strictly

limited by the terms of that order.'"

_United States, Secretary of War,

Annual Report, November 30, 1900, pages 24-32._

CUBA: A. D. 1900 (December).

Measures for the destruction of the mosquito,

as a carrier of yellow fever.

See (in this volume)

SCIENCE, RECENT: MEDICAL AND SURGICAL.

CUBA: A. D. 1900-1901.

Frauds by American officials in the Havana post office.

Question cf the extradition of C. F. W. Neely.

Decision of the Supreme Court of the United States as to the

independent status of Cuba in its relations

to the United States.

In the spring of 1900 a discovery was made of extensive frauds

committed by American officials who had been placed, by U. S.

military authority, in the post office at Havana. One of the

persons accused, named C. F. W. Neely, having returned to the

United States, his extradition, for trial in Cuba, was

demanded, and a question thereon arose as to the status of the

island of Cuba in its relations to the United States. The case

(Neely vs. Henkel) was taken on appeal to the Supreme Court of

the United States, and Neely was subjected to extradition by the

decision of that tribunal, rendered in January, 1901. The

status of Cuba, as an independent foreign territory, was thus

defined in the opinion of the Court:

"The legislative and executive branches of the Government, by

the joint resolution of April 20, 1898, expressly disclaimed

any purpose to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control

over Cuba, 'except for the pacification thereof,' and asserted

the determination of the United States, that object being

accomplished, to leave the government and control of Cuba to

its own people. All that has been done in relation to Cuba has

had that end in view, and so far as the court is informed by the

public history of the relations of this country with that

island, nothing has been done inconsistent with the declared

object of the war with Spain. Cuba is none the less foreign

territory, within the meaning of the act of Congress, because

it is under a military governor appointed by and representing

the President in the work of assisting the inhabitants of that

island to establish a government of their own, under which, as

a free and independent people, they may control their own

affairs without interference by other nations. The occupancy

of the island by troops of the United States was the necessary

result of the war. That result could not have been avoided by

the United States consistently with the principles of

international law or with its obligations to the people of

Cuba. It is true that as between Spain and the United

States—indeed, as between the United States and all foreign

nations—Cuba, upon the cessation of hostilities with Spain and

after the treaty of Paris, was to be treated as if it were

conquered territory. But—as between the United States and

Cuba, that island is territory held in trust for the

inhabitants of Cuba, to whom it rightfully belongs and to

whose exclusive control it will be surrendered when a stable

government shall have been established by their voluntary

action."

CUBA: A. D. 1901 (January).

Draft of Constitution reported to the Convention

by its Central Committee.

Public sessions of the Constitutional Convention were not

opened until the middle of January, 1901, when the draft of a

Constitution was reported by its Central Committee, and the

text given to the Press. By subsequent action of the

Convention, various amendments were made, and the instrument,

at this writing (early in April), still awaits finish and

adoption. The amendments have been reported imperfectly and

the text of the Constitution, even in its present state,

cannot be authentically given. It is probable, however, that

the structure of government provided for in the draft reported

to the Convention stands now and will remain substantially

unchanged. An outline of its features is the most that we will

venture to give in this place.

The preamble is in these words:

"We, the delegates of the Cuban people, having met in assembly

for the purpose of agreeing upon the adoption of a fundamental

law, which, at the same time that it provides for the

constitution into a sovereign and independent nation of the

people of Cuba, establishes a solid and permanent form of

government, capable of complying with its international

obligations, insuring domestic tranquillity, establishing

justice, promoting the general welfare, and securing the

blessings of liberty to the inhabitants, we do agree upon and

adopt the following constitution, in pursuance of the said

purpose, invoking the protection of the Almighty, and prompted

by the dictates of our conscience."

The form of government is declared to be republican. The

guarantees of the Constitution, defined with precision and at

length, include "equal rights under the law," protection from

arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, freedom of thought, speech,

writing and publication, freedom of worship, freedom of

association and meeting, freedom of teaching, freedom of

travel, inviolability of private dwellings and private papers,

"except by order of a competent authority and with the

formalities prescribed by the laws."

Legislative powers are to be exercised by two elective bodies,

to be named House of Representatives and Senate, and

conjointly known as Congress. The Senate to be composed of six

senators elected from each of the six departments of the

republic; the boundaries and names of the departments to be

those of the present provinces "as long as not modified by the

laws."

{189}

The terms of the senators to be six years, one third of their

number to be elected every two years. The House of

Representatives to be composed of "one representative for

every 25,000 inhabitants or fraction of more than 12,000,

elected for a period of four years, by direct vote, and in the

manner prescribed by law "; one half to be elected every two

years. Representatives and Senators not to be held responsible

for opinions expressed in the exercise of their duties, and not

to be arrested nor tried without the consent of the body to

which they belong, "except in case of being discovered in the

act of committing some crime." Congress to meet in regular

session every year on the first Monday in November, and to

remain in session for at least ninety consecutive days,

excepting holidays and Sundays. Its powers to be substantially

the same as those exercised by the Congress of the United

States.

The executive power to be exercised by the President of the

republic, who "shall be elected by direct votes, and an

absolute majority thereof, cast on one single day, in

accordance with the provisions of the law." The term of the

President to be four years, and none to be elected for three

consecutive terms. A Vice-President to be elected "in the same

manner as the President, conjointly with the latter and for a

like term."

The judicial power to be "exercised by the Supreme Court of

Justice and such other courts as may be established by law."

The Supreme Court, like that of the United States, "to decide

as to the constitutionality of legislative acts that may have

been objected to as unconstitutional," and to have an

appellant jurisdiction corresponding to that of the Supreme

Court of the United States.

Over each of the six departments or provinces it is provided

that there shall be a governor, "elected by a direct vote for

a period of three years," and a Departmental Assembly, "to

consist of not less than eight or more than twenty, elected by

direct vote for a like period of three years." The

Departmental Assemblies to "have the right of independent

action in all things not antagonistic to the constitution, to

the general laws nor to international treaties, nor to that

which pertains to the inherent rights of the municipalities,

which may concern the department, such as the establishment

and maintenance of institutions of public education, public

charities, public departmental roads, means of communication

by water or sea, the preparation of their budgets, and the

appointment and removal of their employés."

The "municipal terminos" are to be governed by

"Ayuntamientos," composed of Councilmen elected by a direct

vote in the manner prescribed by law, and by a Mayor, elected

in like manner. The Ayuntamientos to be self-governing, free

to "take action on all matters that solely and exclusively

concern their municipal termino, such as appointment and

removal of employés, preparation of their budgets, freely

establishing the means of income to meet them without any

other limitation than that of making them compatible with the

general system of taxation of the republic."

The provision for amendment of the Constitution is as follows:

"The constitution cannot be changed in whole or part except by

two-thirds vote of both legislative bodies. Six months after

deciding on the reform, a Constitutional Assembly shall be

elected, which shall confine itself to the approval or

disapproval of the reform voted by the legislative bodies.

These will continue in their functions independently of the

Constitutional Assembly. The members in this Assembly shall be

equal to the number of the members in the two legislative

bodies together."

CUBA: A. D. 1901 (February-March).

Conditions on which the government of the island will

be yielded to its people prescribed by the Congress

of the United States.

In the call for a Constitutional Convention issued by the

military governor on the 25th of July, 1900 (see above), it

was set forth that the duty of the Convention would be "to

frame and adopt a constitution for the people of Cuba, and, as

a part thereof, to provide for and agree with the government

of the United States upon the relations to exist between that

government and the government of Cuba." This intimated an

intention on the part of the government of the United States

to attach conditions to its recognition of the independent

government for which the Convention was expected to provide.

The intimation was conveyed still more plainly to the

Constitutional Convention by Military Governor Wood, at the

opening of its sessions, when he said: "When you have

formulated the relations which, in your opinion, ought to

exist between Cuba and the United States, the government of

the United States will doubtless take such action on its part

as shall lead to a final and authoritative agreement between

the two countries for the promotion of their common

interests." The Convention, however, gave no sign of a

disposition to act as desired by the government of the United

States, and seemed likely to finish its work, either without

touching the subject of relations between the Cuban and

American Republics, or else offering proposals that would not

meet the wishes of the latter. Those wishes were made known to

the Convention in flat terms, at length, by the military

governor, and its prompt action was urged, in order that the

judgment of the Congress of the United States might be

pronounced on what it did. But the day on which the session of

Congress would expire drew near, and still nothing came from

the Cubans, who seem to have understood that they were

exempted from such dictation by the resolution which Congress

adopted on the 18th of April, 1898, when it took up the Cuban

cause [see (in this volume)) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D.

1998 (APRIL)], declaring that "the United States hereby

disclaims any disposition or intention to exercise

sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said island [of

Cuba], except for the pacification thereof, and asserts its

determination when that is accomplished to leave the

government and control of the island to its people."

Unwilling to be left to deal, alone, with the question thus

arising between the Cubans and their liberators, President

McKinley caused it to be understood that he should call an

extra session of Congress, if no Congressional expression on

the subject of Cuban relations was found practicable before

the 4th of March. This stimulated action in the expiring

Congress, and the Army Appropriation Bill, then pending in the

Senate, was made the vehicle of legislation on the subject, by

the hasty insertion therein of the following amendment,

offered by Senator Platt, of Connecticut:

{190}

"In fulfillment of the declaration contained in the joint

resolution approved April 20, 1898, entitled 'For the

recognition of the independence of the people of Cuba,

demanding that the Government of Spain relinquish its

authority and government in the island of Cuba, and to

withdraw its land and naval forces from Cuba and Cuban waters,

and directing the President of the United States to use the land

and naval forces of the United States to carry these

resolutions into effect,' the President is hereby authorized

to 'leave the government and control of the island of Cuba to

its people,' so soon as a government shall have been

established in said island under a constitution which, either

as a part thereof or in an ordinance appended thereto, shall

define the future relations of the United States with Cuba,

substantially as follows;

"That the government of Cuba shall never enter into any treaty

or other compact with any foreign power or powers which will

impair or tend to impair the independence of Cuba, nor in any

manner authorize or permit any foreign power or powers to

obtain by colonization or for military or naval purposes or

otherwise, lodgment in or control over any portion of said

island.

II.

"That said government shall not assume or contract any public

debt, to pay the interest upon which, and to make reasonable

sinking fund provision for the ultimate discharge of which,

the ordinary revenues of the island, after defraying the

current expenses of government, shall be inadequate.

III.

"That the government of Cuba consents that the United States

may exercise the right to intervene for the preservation of

Cuban independence, the maintenance of a government adequate

for the protection of life, property, and individual liberty,

and for discharging the obligations with respect to Cuba

imposed by the treaty of Paris on the United States, now to be

assumed and undertaken by the government of Cuba.

IV.

"That all acts of the United States in Cuba during its

military occupancy thereof are ratified and validated, and all

lawful rights acquired thereunder shall be maintained and

protected.

"That the government of Cuba will execute, and as far as

necessary extend, the plans already devised or other plans to

be mutually agreed upon, for the sanitation of the cities of

the island, to the end that a recurrence of epidemic and

infectious diseases may be prevented, thereby assuring

protection to the people and commerce of Cuba, as well as to

the commerce of the Southern ports of the United States and

the people residing therein.

VI.

"That the Isle of Pines shall be omitted from the proposed

constitutional boundaries of Cuba, the title thereto being

left to future adjustment by treaty.

VII.

"That to enable the United States to maintain the independence

of Cuba, and to protect the people thereof, as well as for its

own defence, the government of Cuba will sell or lease to the

United States lands necessary for coaling or naval stations at

certain specified points, to be agreed upon with the President

of the United States.

VIII.

"That by way of further assurance the government of Cuba will

embody the foregoing provisions in a permanent treaty with the

United States."

The Platt Amendment, as it is known, was adopted by the Senate

on the 27th of February (yeas 43, nays 20, not, voting 25),

and concurred in by the House on the 1st of March (yeas 161,

nays 136, not voting 56). The opponents of the amendment were

weakened by their dread of an extra session of Congress, and

by their knowledge that the party of the administration would

be still stronger in the new Congress than in that which

expired on the 4th of March. Otherwise, no vote on the measure

could have been reached before that date.

At the time of this writing, the effect in Cuba of the

declarations of the Congress of the United States remains in

doubt. The Constitutional Convention has taken no action upon

them.

----------CUBA: End--------

CULEBRA.

See (in this volume)

PORTO RICO: AREA AND POPULATION.

CUMULATIVE VOTING.

See (in this volume)

BELGIUM: A. D. 1894-1895.

CURTIS ACT, The.

See (in this volume)

INDIANS, AMERICAN: A. D. 1893-1899.

CURZON, George N., Baron:

Appointed Viceroy of India.

See (in this volume)

INDIA: A. D. 1898 (SEPTEMBER).

CZECH PARTIES.

See (in this volume)

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897.

DAHOMEY: A. D. 1895.

Under a Governor-General of French West Africa.

See (in this volume)

AFRICA: A. D. 1895 (FRENCH WEST AFRICA).

DAHOMEY: A. D. 1897.

Settlement of Tongaland boundary.

See (in this volume)

AFRICA: A. D. 1897 (DAHOMEY AND TONGALAND).

DAMASCUS, Railway to.

See (in this volume)

JEWS: A. D. 1899.

DARGAI, Battle of.

See (in this volume)

INDIA: A. D. 1897-1898.

"DARKEST ENGLAND" SCHEME, Results from General Booth's.

See (in this volume)

SALVATION ARMY.

DAVIS, General George W.:

Military Governor of Porto Rico.

See (in this volume)

PORTO RICO: A. D. 1898-1899 (OCTOBER-OCTOBER).

DAVIS, General George W.:

Report on the Civil Government of Porto Rico.

See (in this volume)

PORTO RICO: A. D. 1898-1899 (AUGUST-JULY).

DAWES COMMISSION, The work of the.

See (in this volume)

INDIANS, AMERICAN: A. D. 1893-1899.

{191}

DE BEERS CONSOLIDATED MINING COMPANY:

Complicity in the Jameson Raid.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (CAPE COLONY): A. D. 1896 (JULY).

DECLARATION AGAINST TRANSUBSTANTIATION, The English King's.

See (in this volume)

ENGLAND: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).

DELAGOA BAY, and the railway to Pretoria.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL):

A. D. 1895 (JULY) and (SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER).

DELAGOA BAY ARBITRATION.

"On December 11th, 1875, Portugal concluded a treaty with the

Transvaal Government under which the latter Government bound

itself to continue the line of railway—which the Portuguese

Government proposed to build from Lourenço-Marques to the

Transvaal frontier—'up to a centre of production and

consumption which should insure the traffic of the line and

the development of international commerce.' The Portuguese

Government then began to look about for a concessionaire and

contractor for this line, and after some research, eventually

came to terms with one Colonel Edward McMurdo, a citizen of

the United States of America, who undertook to build the line

without any Government subvention,—a matter of some importance

to the Portuguese Government,—but upon certain conditions, of

which the most important was that the concessionaire should

have the right to fix the tariffs without any State

interference. A contract … was drawn up and executed in Lisbon

on December 14th, 1883." The government bound itself to grant

no concession for a rival railway from the coast to the

Transvaal boundary, and gave the contractor certain valuable

mining rights and grants of land. On his part he was to

complete the road within three years. He formed a Portuguese

company for the purpose, and seems to have been prepared for

success in his undertaking, when rumors began to circulate

that the Transvaal government had secured from that of

Portugal the right to build a steam tramway from the eastern

terminus of its own line to the coast. These rumors were

contradicted by the Portuguese government: but are said to

have been eventually confirmed. Five months after the signing

of the contract with Colonel McMurdo, the Portuguese

authorities, it seems, had actually violated it in the manner

described. Henceforth the contractor appears to have had every

possible embarrassment thrown in his way by combined action of

the Portuguese and Boer governments. His Portuguese company

was broken down, but he organized another in England, which

struggled on with the enterprise until 1880, when a decree

from Lisbon rescinded the concession, declared the railway

forfeited, and ordered military possession of it to be taken.

The sufferers in the matter, being British and American

citizens, appealed then to their respective governments, and

both intervened in their behalf. The result was a reference of

the matter to the arbitration of Switzerland. So much was

settled in June, 1891; but it was not until March, 1900, that

the judgment of the arbitrators was pronounced. They awarded

to the Delagoa Bay Company, as its due on the railway,

13,980,000 francs. "To this is added a sum of fr. 2,000,000 as

an indemnity for the land grant, which brings the total award

(less £28,000 paid by Portugal on account in 1890) to fr.

15,314,000 (or about £612,560), with interest at 5 per cent.

from June 25th, 1889, to the date of payment. The amount of

this award came as a considerable shock to the claimants, as

well it might. It was insufficient to pay even the bonds in

full (including interest at 7 per cent.), and left nothing

whatever for the shareholders, while even the expenses are to

be borne by each party equally."

_M. McIlwraith,

The Delagoa Bay Arbitration

(Fortnightly Review, September, 1900)._

DELAWARE: A. D. 1897.

A new Constitution.

A new constitution for the State of Delaware, which went into

effect June 10, 1897, provides that after January 1, 1900, no

citizen shall vote who cannot write his name and read the

constitution in the English language. It also provides a

registration fee of one dollar as a qualification to vote.

DEMOCRACY: In the Nineteenth Century.

See (in this volume)

NINETEENTH CENTURY; THE TREND.

DEMOCRACY: In the Nineteenth Century.

Pope Leo's Encyclical concerning.

See (in this volume)

PAPACY: A. D. 1901.

DEMOCRATIC EXPERIMENTS, New Zealand.

See (in this volume)

NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1891-1900.

DEMOCRATIC PARTY, and the Silver Question in the United States.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER);

and 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).

DENMARK: A. D. 1899.

Complaints from Danish Sleswick of German treatment.

See (in this volume)

GERMANY: A. D. 1899.

DENMARK: A. D. 1899.

Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.

See (in this volume)

PEACE CONFERENCE.

DÉROULÈDE, Paul:

Trial and conviction for treasonable conspiracy.

See (in this volume)

FRANCE: A. D. 1890 (FEBRUARY-JUNE);

and 1899-1900 (AUGUST-JANUARY).

DERVISHES, of the Sudan, The.

See (in this volume)

EGYPT: A. D. 1885-1896; 1897-1898; and 1899-1900.

DEVIL'S ISLAND.

See (in this volume)

FRANCE: A. D. 1897-1899.

DEWEY, Admiral George:

Destruction of Spanish fleet in Manila Bay.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-JULY).

DIAMOND JUBILEE, Queen Victoria's.

See (in this volume)

ENGLAND; A. D. 1897 (JUNE).

DIAZ, Porfirio:

The results of twenty years of his Presidency in Mexico.

See (in this volume)

MEXICO: A. D. 1898-1900.

DINGLEY TARIFF, The.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

A. D. 1897 (MARCH-JULY); and 1899-1901.

DIPHTHERIA: Discovery of antitoxine treatment of.

See (in this volume)

SCIENCE, RECENT: MEDICAL AND SURGICAL.

DIR: Inclusion in a new British Indian province.

See (in this volume)

INDIA: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).

{192}

DISCOVERIES, Scientific:

Comparison of the Nineteenth Century with preceding ages.

See (in this volume)

NINETEENTH CENTURY; COMPARISON.

DISFRANCHISEMENT OF THE NEGRO.

See (in this volume)

MISSISSIPPI; LOUISIANA; NORTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1900;

SOUTH CAROLINA; A. D. 1896;

MARYLAND;

and UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY).

DISPENSARY LAWS.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1892-1899;

NORTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1897-1899;

SOUTH DAKOTA: A. D. 1899;

and ALABAMA: A. D. 1899.

DIVINE RIGHT, Kingship by:

German revival of the doctrine.

See (in this volume)

GERMANY: A. D. 1894-1899.

DOMINICA: Condition and relief measures.

See (in this volume))

WEST INDIES, THE BRITISH: A. D. 1897.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: A. D. 1899.

Assassination of President Heureaux.

Revolution.

Election of President Jiminez.

General D. Ulises Heureaux, President of the Republic, was

shot through the heart by an assassin and instantly killed, on

the 26th of July. "He was in his fourth consecutive term as

president, and had occupied that position for fifteen years,

although still a young man. San Domingo had been more free

from revolution, more prosperous, better inclined toward

outside capital and enterprise, and more disposed toward the

ways of modern civilization under Heureaux, than at any

previous time for many decades. Although nominally a republic,

San Domingo was ruled by this iron-willed and resolute negro

with a stern despotism hardly matched by any other

contemporary government on earth. He was superior to all law.

He constantly made use of the practice of executing officials,

generals, and well-known public men with his own hand whenever

dissatisfied with them. Still more frequently, when the

objects of his disapproval were not within easy traveling

distance, he gave orders to some officer or subordinate,

dependent upon his favor, to undertake an assassination.

Failure to comply promptly and successfully with such a

mandate meant death to the men who failed. These statements

convey no exaggerated impression of the way in which Heureaux

has ruled San Domingo, nipped insurrection in the bud, and

kept himself in power. … He always excused his ruthlessness on

the ground of public necessity. Of course, it was inevitable

that such a man should sooner or later be assassinated

himself."

_American Review of Reviews,

September, 1899._

According to the provisions of the constitution, the

Vice-President, General Figuereo, succeeded to the presidency;

but an insurrection against his government was so rapidly

successful that he resigned his office on the 31st of August,

and a provisional government was created, pending arrangements

for an election. The recognized leader of the revolutionary

movement was Juan Isidro Jiminez, who had been compelled, some

years before, to quit San Domingo, on account of his

opposition to Heureaux, leaving a large property behind. Since

that time he had been a successful and well-known merchant in

New York. Latterly, Jiminez had established himself in Cuba,

whence he attempted to assist as well as direct the revolution

in the neighboring island; but the United States authorities

objected to such use being made of neutral territory, and he

was placed for a time under arrest. When released, however, he

was permitted to proceed to San Domingo, without men or arms,

and there he was elected President, assuming the office on the

14th of November.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: A. D. 1900.

Commercial Convention with the United States.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899-1901.

DOMOKO, Battle of.

See (in this volume)

TURKEY: A. D. 1897 (MARCH-SEPTEMBER).

DONGOLA, Expedition to.

See (in this volume)

EGYPT: A. D. 1885-1896.

DREYFUS AFFAIR, The.

See (in this volume)

FRANCE: A. D. 1897-1899.

DREYFUS AFFAIR, The

Closed by the Amnesty Bill.

See (in this volume)

FRANCE: A. D. 1900 (DECEMBER).

DRIEFONTEIN, Battle of.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR): A. D. 1900 (MARCH-MAY).

DRIFTS, Closing of the Vaal River.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL):

A. D. 1895 (SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER).

DUM-DUM BULLET, The.

The dum-dum bullet, about which there was much discussion at

The Hague Peace Conference, is constructed to spread slightly

at the point. All modern rifle bullets have an outer jacket of

hard metal, to take the grooving of the gun-barrel.

"Originally the jacket was thickest at the point, and so

strong that, while penetration was enormous, stopping power

was wanting; in other words, one bullet might easily go

through half a dozen men, yet, unless it happened to hit a

vital spot or a bone, they need not be disabled, and might

therefore continue to fight. This was amply illustrated in the

Chitral campaign, during which our soldiers began to lose

confidence in their weapon, while the enemy, quick to

recognize the different effect of volleys, were inclined to

attack British infantry armed with the Lee-Metford rather than

native infantry armed with the Martini-Henry. The Indian

military authorities at once set about designing a bullet

which, while maintaining range, should have the required

stopping power. The result was the dum-dum bullet—so named

after the place near Calcutta where it is made—of which much

has been heard. The difference in appearance between it and

the original pattern is comparatively slight. The shape is

exactly the same, but the jacket is differently arranged;

instead of having its greatest strength at the point, it is

weakest there—indeed, at the apex a small part of the core is

uncovered, but does not project."

_Quarterly Review, July, 1899._

{193}

DUTCH EAST INDIES: A. D. 1894.

Revolt in Lombok.

A rising in the island of Lombok, one of the Lesser Sunda

group, which began in August, proved a troublesome affair.

"The cause of the rebellion was the concession made to the

Sassaks, to be henceforth governed by their own chiefs,

instead of by the Balinian chiefs, who had hitherto been

all-powerful. During the continuance of the hostilities, the

Sassaks remained constantly faithful to the Dutch, and fought

against the Balinians, who, although far inferior in numbers,

had, nevertheless, oppressed their fellow-islanders for many

years; but the courage, energy and audacity of the Balinians

were well known, and as early as 1868 the Dutch troops had

been in serious conflict with them. The news of this disaster

aroused in Holland great excitement, and public opinion was

unanimous in its demand for speedy and energetic reprisals.

Several severe and bloody encounters took place, but finally

the Dutch troops, under the orders of General Vetter,

succeeded in making the Rajah of Lombok prisoner, his immense

wealth falling at the same time into the hands of the

victors."

_Annual Register,

1894, page 308._

DYNAMITE MONOPOLY, The Boer.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1895 (NOVEMBER).

EAGAN, General Charles P.: The case of.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899 (JANUARY).

EAST AFRICA, German: Trade, etc.

See (in this volume)

GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (JUNE).

EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE, British.

See (in this volume)

BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE: A. D. 1895-1897.

EAST INDIES, Dutch.

See (in this volume)

DUTCH EAST INDIES.

ECCLESIASTICAL LAWS, The Hungarian.

See (in this volume)

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1894-1895.

ECUADOR: A. D. 1894-1899.

Successful Revolution.

Government measures against the Church.

In the fall of 1894 the government of Chile sold ostensibly to

that of Ecuador a war vessel, which the latter at once

transferred to Japan, then at war with China. The round about

transaction was regarded with suspicion, the Ecuadorian

government being accused of a corrupt agency in it, to cover

the Chilian breach of neutrality. Much feeling on the subject

was excited in the country, and this gave to the Radical party

an opportunity to stir up revolt. They improved it with

success. After an obstinate civil war of more than six months

the government of President Cordero was overthrown, and

General Aloy Alfaro, the revolutionist leader, was inaugurated

Executive Chief of the Republic on the 4th of November, 1895.

The defeated Conservatives, stimulated by the clergy, were

quickly in arms again, in the summer of 1896, but again they

were overcome, and the government of Alfaro began to deal

severely with the religious orders and the Church. Much of the

Church property was confiscated, and the inmates of religious

houses are said to have fled in considerable numbers to other

countries. In October, 1896, a National Convention was held

and the constitution revised. Among other changes, it imposed

limitations on the former power of the Church, and extended

religious freedom to other sects. In 1897 the Indians who had

supported Alfaro two years before were admitted to

citizenship. A renewed attempt at revolution, that year,

organized and armed in Colombia, was suppressed with the help

of the Colombian government. The same fate attended another

undertaking of rebellion in January, 1899; but it was overcome

only after a hard fought battle.

ECUADOR: A. D. 1900.

Commercial Convention with the United States.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899-1901.

ECUMENICAL CONFERENCE ON MISSIONS.

See (in this volume)

MISSIONS.

EDUCATION: Australia and New Zealand.

Progress of educational work.

See (in this volume)

AUSTRALIA: RECENT EXTENSIONS OF DEMOCRACY.

EDUCATION:

Birth of educational systems in the Nineteenth Century.

See (in this volume)

NINETEENTH CENTURY: THE TREND.

EDUCATION: Canada: A. D. 1890-1896.

The Manitoba School Question.

See (in this volume)

CANADA: A. D. 1890-1896.

EDUCATION: Canada: A. D. 1898.

Encyclical Letter of Pope Leo XIII. on the

Manitoba School Question.

See (in this volume)

CANADA: A. D. 1898 (JANUARY).

EDUCATION: Belgium: A. D. 1895.

Religious teaching restored.

A new school law was carried in Belgium, against fierce

opposition from the Liberals and Socialists, which restores

obligatory religious teaching in both public and private

schools. Parents are permitted, however, to withhold their

children from the instruction that is given during school

hours by Catholic priests, on attesting in writing that it is

their wish to do so.

EDUCATION: Congo State:

The Belgian provision of schools.

See (in this volume)

CONGO FREE STATE: A. D. 1899.

EDUCATION: Cuba: A. D. 1898.

As left by the Spaniards.

See (in this volume)

CUBA: A. D. 1898-1899 (DECEMBER-OCTOBER).

EDUCATION: Cuba: A. D. 1900.

Organization of public schools.

See (in this volume)

CUBA: A. D. 1900.

EDUCATION: Egypt:

Gordon Memorial College at Khartoum.

See (in this volume)

EGYPT: A. D. 1898-1899.

EDUCATION: England: A. D. 1896-1897.

"The Voluntary Schools Act" and "The Elementary Education Act."

See (in this volume)

ENGLAND: A. D. 1896-1897.

EDUCATION: England: A. D. 1899.

Creation of a Board of Education.

See (in this volume)

ENGLAND: A. D. 1899 (AUGUST).

EDUCATION: England: A. D. 1900.

Age at which children may leave school

raised from eleven to twelve years.

See (in this volume)

ENGLAND: A. D. 1900 (FEBRUARY).

EDUCATION: Hawaii:

Progress of educational work.

See (in this volume)

HAWAII: A. D. 1900.

EDUCATION: Japan: 1897.

Restriction of religious teaching.

See (in this volume)

JAPAN: A. D. 1899 (AUGUST).

EDUCATION: Japan: A. D. 1899.

A Japanese injunction to students concerning

behavior to foreigners.

See (in this volume)

JAPAN: A. D. 1899 (JULY).

EDUCATION: Mexico:

Progress of educational work.

See (in this volume)

MEXICO: A. D. 1898-1900.

{194}

EDUCATION: Philippine Islands: A. D. 1898.

Schools and colleges under the Spanish regime.

"The only educational advantages attainable by the common

people of the archipelago are those afforded by the primary

schools. The Spanish regulations provided that there should be

one male and one female primary school teacher for each 5,000

inhabitants, instruction being given separately to the two

sexes. This wretchedly inadequate provision was, as a matter

of fact, never carried out. … From [a table showing the

relation between number of primary school teachers and

population in the several provinces, etc.] it appears that the

number of teachers of each sex required by law for a

population of 6,709,810 is 1,342, making a total of 2,684

teachers, whereas there are in reality but 991 male teachers

and 923 female teachers, giving a total of 1,914. Disregarding

the question of sex, we see that while there should be one

teacher for each 2,500 inhabitants, there is in reality but

one to each 3,500, even if we include only that portion of the

population sufficiently civilized to be taken account of in

the above enumeration. Taking the entire population at

8,000,000, we find that there is but one teacher to each 4,179

individuals. Examination of the … table further shows that in

many instances the lack of teachers is greater in those

provinces which are most thickly populated and whose people

are most highly civilized. …

"While most of the small towns have one teacher of each sex,

in the larger towns and cities no adequate provision is made

for the increased teaching force necessary; so that places of

30,000 or 40,000 inhabitants are often no better off as

regards number of teachers than are other places in the same

province of but 1,500 or 2,000 souls. The hardship thus

involved for children desiring a primary education will be

better understood if one stops to consider the nature of the

Philippine 'pueblo,' which is really a township, often

containing within its limits a considerable number of distinct

and important villages or towns, from the most important of

which the township takes its name. The others, under distinct

names, are known as 'barrios,' or wards. It is often quite

impossible for small children to attend school at the

particular town which gives its name to the township on

account of their distance from it. …

"The character and amount of the instruction which has

heretofore been furnished is also worthy of careful

consideration. The regulations for primary schools were as

follows: 'Instruction in schools for natives shall for the

present be reduced to elementary primary instruction and shall

consist of—

1. Christian doctrine and principles of morality and sacred

history suitable for children.

2. Reading.

3. Writing.

4. Practical instruction in Spanish, including grammar

and orthography.

5. Principles of arithmetic, comprising the four rules for

figures, common fractions, decimal fractions, and instruction

in the metric system with its equivalents in ordinary weights

and measures.

6. Instruction in general geography and Spanish history.

7. Instruction in practical agriculture as applied to the

products of the country.

8. Rules of deportment.

9. Vocal music.'

"It will be noted that education in Christian doctrine is

placed before reading and writing, and, if the natives are to

be believed, in many of the more remote districts instruction

began and ended with this subject and was imparted in the

local native dialect at that. It is further and persistently

charged that the instruction in Spanish was in very many cases

purely imaginary, because the local friars, who were formerly

'ex officio' school inspectors, not only prohibited it, but

took active measures to enforce their dictum. … Ability to

read and write a little of the local native language was

comparatively common. Instruction in geography was extremely

superficial. As a rule no maps or charts were available, and

such information as was imparted orally was left to the memory

of the pupil, unaided by any graphic method of presentation.

The only history ever taught was that of Spain, and that under

conventional censorship. The history of other nations was a

closed volume to the average Filipino. … The course as above

outlined was that prescribed for boys. Girls were not given

instruction in geography, history, or agriculture, but in

place of these subjects were supposed to receive instruction

'in employments suitable to their sex.'

"It should be understood that the criticisms which have been

here made apply to the provincial schools. The primary

instruction given at the Ateneo Municipal at Manila, under the

direction of the Jesuits, fulfilled the requirements of the

law, and in some particulars exceeded them. … The only

official institution for secondary education in the

Philippines was the College of San Juan de Letran, which was

in charge of the Dominican Friars and was under the control of

the university authorities. Secondary education was also given in

the Ateneo Municipal of Manila, by the Jesuit Fathers, and

this institution was better and more modern in its methods

than any other in the archipelago. But although the Jesuits

provided the instruction, the Dominicans held the

examinations. … There are two normal schools in Manila, one

for the education of male and the other for the education of

female teachers. … The only institutions for higher education

in the Philippines have been the Royal and Pontifical

University of Santo Tomas, and the Royal College of San José,

which has for the past twenty-five years been under the

direction of the university authorities."

_Report of the Philippine Commission,

January 1, 1900, volume 1, part 3._

EDUCATION: Porto Rico: A. D. 1898.

Spanish schools and teachers.

See (in this volume)

PORTO RICO: A. D. 1898-1899 (AUGUST-JULY).

EDUCATION: Porto Rico: A. D. 1900.

First steps in the creation of a public school system.

See (in this volume)

PORTO RICO: A. D. 1900 (AUGUST-OCTOBER).

EDUCATION: Russia:

Student troubles in the universities.

See (in this volume)

RUSSIA: A. D. 1899 (FEBRUARY-JUNE); 1900; and 1901.

EDUCATION: Tunis:

Schools under the French Protectorate.

See (in this volume)

TUNIS: A. D. 1881-1898.

EDUCATION: United States:

Indian schools.

See (in this volume)

INDIANS, AMERICAN: A. D. 1899-1900.

EDUCATION: United States: A. D. 1896.

Princeton University.

The one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of

the institution at Princeton, New Jersey, which had borne the

name of "The College of New Jersey," was celebrated on the

20th, 21st, and 22d of October, 1896, with ceremonies in which

many representatives from famous seats of learning in Europe

and America took part. The proceedings included a formal

change of name, to Princeton University.

{195}

EDUCATION: United States: A. D. 1900.

Women as students and as teachers.

See (in this volume)

NINETEENTH CENTURY: THE WOMAN'S CENTURY.

EDWARD VII., King of England.

Accession.

English estimate of his character.

See (in this volume)

ENGLAND: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).

Opening of his first Parliament.

The Royal Test Oath.

EDWARD VII., King of England.

See (in this volume)

ENGLAND: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).

----------EGYPT: Start--------

EGYPT:

Recent Archæological Explorations and their result.

Discovery of prehistoric remains.

Light on the first dynasties.

See (in this volume)

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: EGYPT: RESULTS.

EGYPT: A. D. 1885-1896.

Abandonment of the Egyptian Sudan to the Dervishes.

Death of the Mahdi and reign of the Khalifa.

Beginning of a new Anglo-Egyptian movement for

the recovery of the Sudan.

The expedition to Dongola.

After the failure to rescue General Gordon from the Mahdists

at Khartoum (see, in volume 1, EGYPT: A. D. 1884-1885), the

British government, embarrassed in other quarters, felt

compelled to evacuate the Sudan. Before it did so the Mahdi

had finished his career, having died of smallpox in June,

1885, and one of his three chief commanders, styled khalifas,

had acquired authority over the Dervish army and reigned in

his place. This was the Khalifa Abdullah, a chieftain of the

Baggara tribe. Khartoum had been destroyed, and Omdurman, on

the opposite side of the river, became his capital. The rule

of the Khalifa was soon made so cruelly despotic, and so much

in the interest of his own tribe, that incessant rebellions in

many parts of his dominions restrained him from any vigorous

undertaking of the conquest of Egypt, which was the great

object of Dervish desire. But his able and energetic

lieutenant in the Eastern Sudan, Osman Digna, was a serious

menace to the Egyptian forces holding Suakin, where Major

Watson, at first, and afterwards Colonel Kitchener, were

holding command, under General Grenfell, who was then the

Egyptian Sirdar, or military chief. Osman Digna, however, was

defeated in all his attempts. At the same time the Khalifa was

desperately at war with the Negus. John, of Abyssinia, who

fell in a great battle at Galabat (March, 1889), and whose

death at the crisis of the battle threw his army into

confusion and caused its defeat. Menelek, king of the

feudatory state of Shoa, acquired the Abyssinian crown, and

war with the Dervishes was stopped. Then they began an advance

down the Nile, and suffered a great defeat from the British

and Egyptian troops, at Toski, on the 17th of August, 1889.

From that time, for several years, "there was no real menace

to Egypt," and little was heard of the Khalifa. "His

territories were threatened on all sides: on the north by the

British in Egypt; on the south by the British in Uganda: on

the west by the Belgians in the Congo Free State, and by the

French in the Western Soudan; whilst the Italians held Kassala

on the east; so that the Khalifa preferred to husband his

resources until the inevitable day should arrive when he would

have to fight for his position."

A crisis in the situation came in 1896. The Egyptian army,

organized and commanded by British officers, had become a

strong fighting force, on which its leaders could depend. Its

Sirdar was now Major-General Sir Herbert Kitchener, who

succeeded General Grenfell in 1892. Suddenly there came news,

early in March, 1896, of the serious reverse which the

Italians had suffered at Adowa, in their war with the

Abyssinians (see, (in this volume) ITALY: A. D. 1895-1896).

"The consternation felt in England and Egypt at this disaster

deepened when it became known that Kassala, which was held by

the Italian forces, was hemmed in, and seriously threatened by

10,000 Dervishes, and that Osman Digna was marching there with

reinforcements. If Kassala fell into the hands of the

Dervishes, the latter would be let loose to overrun the Nile

valley on the frontier of Egypt, and threaten that country

itself. As if in anticipation of these reinforcements, the

Dervishes suddenly assumed an offensive attitude, and it was

rumoured that a large body of Dervishes were contemplating an

immediate advance on Egypt. … A totally new situation was now

created, and immediate action was rendered imperative.

Everything was ripe for an expedition up the Nile. Whilst

creating a diversion in favour of the Italians besieged at

Kassala, it afforded an opportunity of creating a stronger

barrier than the Wady Halfa boundary between Egypt and the

Dervishes, and it would moreover be an important step towards

the long-wished-for recovery of the Soudan. The announcement

of the contemplated expedition was made in the House of

Commons on the 17th of March, 1896, by Mr. Curzon,

Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs. It came as a great

surprise to the whole country, which, having heard so little

of the Dervishes of late years, was not prepared for a

recrudescence of the Soudan question. [But a vote of censure

on the Egyptian policy of the government, moved by Mr. John

Morley in the House of Commons, was rejected by 288 to 145.] …

"An unexpected difficulty arose in connection with the

financing of the expedition. This is explained very plainly

and concisely in the 'Annual Register,' 1896, which we quote

at length:—

'In order to defray the cost of the undertaking, it being

obviously desirable to impose as little strain as possible on

the slowly recovering finances of Egypt, it was determined by

the Egyptian Government to apply for an advance of £500,000

from the General Reserve Fund of the Caisse de la Dette, and

the authorities of the Caisse obligingly handed over the

money. … However, the French and Russian members of the Caisse

de la Dette protested against the loan which the Caisse had

made. … In December (1896) the International Court of Appeal

required the Egyptian Government to refund to the Caisse the

£500,000 which they had secured. The very next day Lord Cromer

offered an English loan to make good the advance. The Egyptian

Government accepted his offer, and repaid immediately the

£500,000 to the Caisse, and the result of this somewhat absurd

transaction is that England has thus strengthened her hold in

another small point on the Government of Egypt.'"

_H. S. L. Alford, and W. D. Sword,

The Egyptian Soudan, its Loss and Recovery,

chapter 4 (London: Macmillan & Company)._

{196}

On the 21st of March, the Sirdar left Cairo for Assouan and

Wady Halfa, and various Egyptian battalions were hurried up

the river. Meantime, the forces already on the frontier had

moved forward and taken the advanced post of the Dervishes, at

Akasheh. From that point the Sirdar was ready to begin his

advance early in June, and did so with two columns, a River

Column and a Desert Column, the latter including a camel corps

and a squadron of infantry mounted on camels, besides cavalry,

horse artillery and Maxim guns. Ferket, on the east bank of

the Nile, 16 miles from Akasheh, was taken after hard fighting

on the 7th of June, many of the Dervishes refusing quarter and

resisting to the death. They lost, it was estimated, 1,000

killed and wounded, and 500 were taken prisoners. The Egyptian

loss was slight. The Dervishes fell back some fifty miles, and

the Sirdar halted at Suarda during three months, while the

railroad was pushed forward, steamers dragged up the cataracts

and stores concentrated, the army suffering greatly, meantime,

from an alarming epidemic of cholera and from exhausting

labors in a season of terrific heat. In the middle of

September the advance was resumed, and, on the 23d, Dongola

was reached. Seeing themselves outnumbered, the enemy there

retreated, and the town, or its ruins, was taken with only a

few shots from the steamers on the river. "As a consequence of

the fall of Dongola every Dervish fled for his life from the

province. The mounted men made off across the desert direct to

Omdurman, and the foot soldiers took the Nile route to Berber,

always being careful to keep out of range of the gunboats,

which were prevented by the Fourth Cataract from pursuing them

beyond Merawi."

_C. Hoyle,

The Egyptian Campaigns, new and revised edition,

to December, 1899, chapter 70-71._

The Emir who commanded at Dongola was a comparatively young

man, Mohammed Wad el Bishara, who seems to have been possessed

by a very genuinely religious spirit, as shown in the

following letter, which he had written to the Dervish

commander at Ferket, just before the battle there, and which

was found by the British officers when they entered that

place:

"You are, thank God, of good understanding, and are thoroughly

acquainted with those rules of religion which enjoin love and

unison. Thanks be to God that I hear but good reports of you.

But you are now close to the enemy of God, and have with you,

with the help of God, a sufficient number of men. I therefore

request you to unite together, to have the heart of a single

man founded on love and unity. Consult with one another, and

thus you will insure good results, which will strengthen the

religion and vex the heathen, the enemies of God. Do not move

without consulting one another, and such others, also, in the

army who are full of sense and wisdom. Employ their plans and

tricks of war, in the general fight more especially. Your

army, thank God, is large; if you unite and act as one hand,

your action will be regular: you will, with the help of God,

defeat the enemies of God and set at ease the mind of the

Khalifa, peace be on him! Follow this advice, and do not allow

any intrigues to come between you. Rely on God in all your

doings; be bold in all your dealings with the enemy; let them

find no flaw in your disposition for the fight. But be ever

most vigilant, for these enemies of God are cunning, may God

destroy them! Our brethren, Mohamed Koku, with two others,

bring you this letter; on their return they will inform me

whether you work in unison or not. Let them find you as

ordered in religion, in good spirits, doing your utmost to

insure the victory of religion. Remember, my brethren, that

what moves me to urge on you to love each other and to unite

is my love for you and my desire for your good. This is a

trial of war; so for us love and amity are of utmost

necessity. You were of the supporters of the Mahdi, peace be

on him! You were as one spirit occupying one body. When the

enemy know that you are quite united they will be much

provoked. Strive, therefore, to provoke these enemies of

religion. May God bless you and render you successful."

EGYPT: A. D. 1895.

New anti-slavery law.

A convention to establish a more effective anti-slavery law in

Egypt was signed on the 21st of November, 1895, "by the

Minister of Foreign Affairs, representing the Khedival

Government, and the British diplomatic agent and

consul-general. … This new convention will supplant that of

August 4, 1877, which … was found to be defective, inasmuch as

it provided no penalty for the purchaser of a slave, but for

the seller only. An Egyptian notable, Ali Pasha Cherif, at

that time president of the Legislative Council, was tried for

buying slaves for his household, but escaped punishment

through a technicality of the law hitherto escaping notice. …

Under the existing regulations, every slave in the Egyptian

dominions has the right to complete freedom, and may demand

his certificate of manumission whenever he chooses. Thus, all

domestic slaves, of whom there are thousands in Cairo,

Alexandria, and the large towns, may call upon their masters

to set them free. Many choose to remain in nominal bondage,

preferring the certainty of food and shelter to the hardships

and uncertainty of looking after themselves."

_United States, Consular Reports,

March, 1896, page 370._

EGYPT: A. D. 1897.

Italian evacuation of Kassala, in the eastern Sudan.

See (in this volume)

ITALY: A. D. 1897.

EGYPT: A. D. 1897 (June).

Census.

A census of Egypt, taken on the 1st of June, 1897, showed a

population of 9,700,000, the area being Egypt up to Wady

Haifa. In 1882 an imperfect census gave six and three-quarter

millions. Twelve per cent. of the males can write, the rest

are totally illiterate. There are, it is said, about 40,000

persons not really Egyptians, but who come from other parts of

the Ottoman Empire. The Bedouin number 570,000, but of these

only 89,000 are really nomads, the rest being semi-sedentary.

Of foreign residents there are 112,500, of whom the Greeks,

the most numerous, number 38,000. Then come the Italians, with

24,500. The British (including 6,500 Maltese and 5,000 of the

Army of Occupation) are 19,500; and the French (including

4,000 Algerians and Tunisians), 14,000. The Germans only

number 1,300.

{197}

The classification according to religion shows nearly

9,000,000 Moslems, 730,000 Christians, and 25,000 Jews, The

Christians include the Coptic race, numbering about 608,000.

Only a very small proportion profess the Roman Catholic and

Protestant faiths. Amongst the town populations Cairo contains

570,000, Alexandria 320,000.

EGYPT: A. D. 1897-1898.

The final campaigns of the Anglo-Egyptian conquest

of the Eastern Sudan.

Desperate battles of the Atbara and of Omdurman.

"The winter of 1896-1897 was passed, undisturbed by the enemy.

The extended and open front of the Egyptian army imperatively

called for fresh guarantees against a Dervish invasion. The

important strategic position of Abu Hamed was then held by the

enemy, to dislodge whom was the objective of the 1897 campaign.

The railway was boldly launched into the Nubian Desert; the

rail-head crept rapidly and surely towards the Dervish post,

until within striking distance of Abu Hamed: when the

river-column, by a forced march, through difficult country,

delivered an attack on 7th August. Abu Hamed was taken by the

Egyptian army under Major-General (now Sir Archibald) Hunter,

with trifling loss: and the effect of this victory caused the

precipitate evacuation of Berber. The Dervishes withdrew: the

Egyptians—not to lose so favourable an opening—advanced.

Berber, the key to the Sudan, was promptly re-occupied. The

railway was hastened forward; reinforcements were detrained,

before the close of the year, at a short distance from Berber:

and the Anglo-Egyptian authorities gathered force for the last

heat. British troops were called up. In this final struggle

[1898] nothing could be risked. An Egyptian reverse would have

redoubled the task on the accomplishment of which, having

deliberately accepted it, we had pledged our honour. Mahmud,

the Dervish emir, and that ubiquitous rascal Osman Digna, with

their united forces, were marching on Berber. They, however,

held up at the confluence of the Atbara, and comfortably

intrenched themselves in a 'zariba.' Here the Sirdar came out

to have a look at them. The Dervish force numbered about

19,000 men. The Anglo-Egyptian army was composed of 13,000

men. The odds were good enough for the Sirdar: and he went for

them. Under the demoralization created by some sharp artillery

practice, the Anglo-Egyptians stormed the 'zariba,' killed

three-fourths of the defenders, and chased the remainder away.

This victory [April 8, 1898], which cost over 500 men in

killed and wounded, broke the Dervish power for offence and

seriously damaged the Khalifa's prestige. With reinforcements,

bringing his army up to 22,000 men, including some picked

British regiments, the Sirdar then advanced slowly up the

river. It was a pilgrimage to the Mahdi's tomb, in sight of

which Cross and Crescent combined to overthrow the false

prophet. This sanguinary and decisive engagement [before

Omdurman] took place on 2nd September, 1898. The Khalifa was

put to flight; his forces were scattered and ridden down. On

the same evening, the Sirdar entered Omdurman, and released

the European captives. Subsequently, the British and Egyptian

flags were hoisted together at Khartum; and divine service was

celebrated at the spot where Gordon fell."

_A. S. White,

The Expansion of Egypt,

pages 383-384

(New York: New Amsterdam Book Company)._

"The honour of the fight [at Omdurman] must still go with the

men who died. Our men were perfect, but the dervishes were

superb—beyond perfection. It was their largest, best, and

bravest army that ever fought against us for Mahdism, and it

died worthily of the huge empire that Mahdism won and kept so

long. Their riflemen, mangled by every kind of death and

torment that man can devise, clung round the black flag and

the green, emptying their poor, rotten, homemade cartridges

dauntlessly. Their spearmen charged death at every minute

hopelessly. Their horsemen led each attack, riding into the

bullets till nothing was left but three horses trotting up to

our line, heads down, saying, 'For goodness' sake, let us in

out of this.' Not one rush, or two, or ten—but rush on rush,

company on company, never stopping, though all their view that

was not unshaken enemy was the bodies of the men who had

rushed before them. A dusky line got up and stormed forward:

it bent, broke up, fell apart, and disappeared. Before the

smoke had cleared, another line was bending and storming

forward in the same track.

"It was over. The avenging squadrons of the Egyptian cavalry

swept over the field. The Khalifa and the Sheikh-ed-Din had

galloped back to Omdurman. Ali Wad Helu was borne away on an

angareb with a bullet through his thigh-bone. Yakub lay dead

under his brother's banner. From the green army there now came

only death-enamoured desperadoes, strolling one by one towards

the rifles, pausing to shake a spear, turning aside to

recognise a corpse, then, caught by a sudden jet of fury,

bounding forward, checking, sinking limply to the ground. Now

under the black flag in a ring of bodies stood only three men,

facing the three thousand of the Third Brigade. They folded

their arms about the staff and gazed steadily forward. Two

fell. The last dervish stood up and filled his chest; he

shouted the name of his God and hurled his spear. Then he

stood quite still, waiting. It took him full; he quivered,

gave at the knees, and toppled with his head on his arms and

his face towards the legions of his conquerors. Over 11,000

killed, 16,000 wounded, 4,000 prisoners,—that was the

astounding bill of dervish casualties officially presented

after the battle of Omdurman. Some people had estimated the

whole dervish army at 1,000 less than this total: few had put

it above 50,000. The Anglo-Egyptian army on the day of battle

numbered, perhaps, 22,000 men: if the Allies had done the same

proportional execution at Waterloo, not one Frenchman would

have escaped. … The dervish army was killed out as hardly an

army has been killed out in the history of war. It will shock

you, but it was simply unavoidable. Not a man was killed

except resisting—very few except attacking. Many wounded were

killed, it is true, but that again was absolutely unavoidable.

… It was impossible not to kill the dervishes: they refused to

go back alive."

{198}

The same brilliant writer gives the following description of

Omdurman, as the British found it on entering the town after

the victory: "It began just like any other town or village of

the mean Sudan. Half the huts seemed left unfinished, the

other half to have been deserted and fallen to pieces. There

were no streets, no doors or windows except holes, usually no

roofs. As for a garden, a tree, a steading for a beast—any

evidence of thrift or intelligence, any attempt at comfort or

amenity or common cleanliness,—not a single trace of any of

it. Omdurman was just planless confusion of blind walls and

gaping holes, shiftless stupidity, contented filth and

beastliness. But that, we said, was only the outskirts: when

we come farther in we shall surely find this mass of

population manifesting some small symbols of a great dominion.

And presently we came indeed into a broader way than the

rest—something with the rude semblance of a street. Only it

was paved with dead donkeys, and here and there it disappeared

in a cullender of deep holes where green water festered. …

Omdurman was a rabbit-warren—a threadless labyrinth of tiny

huts or shelters, too flimsy for the name of sheds.

Oppression, stagnation, degradation, were stamped deep on

every yard of miserable Omdurman.

"But the people! We could hardly see the place for the people.

We could hardly hear our own voices for their shrieks of

welcome. We could hardly move for their importunate greetings.

They tumbled over each other like ants from every mud heap, from

behind every dung-hill, from under every mat. … They had been

trying to kill us three hours before. But they salaamed, none

the less, and volleyed, 'Peace be with you' in our track. All

the miscellaneous tribes of Arabs whom Abdullahi's fears or

suspicions had congregated in his capital, all the blacks his

captains had gathered together into franker

slavery—indiscriminate, half-naked, grinning the grin of the

sycophant, they held out their hands and asked for backsheesh.

Yet more wonderful were the women. The multitude of women whom

concupiscence had harried from every recess of Africa and

mewed up in Baggara harems came out to salute their new

masters. There were at least three of them to every man. Black

women from Equatoria and almost white women from Egypt,

plum-skinned Arabs and a strange yellow type with square, bony

faces and tightly-ringleted black hair, … the whole city was a

huge harem, a museum of African races, a monstrosity of

African lust."

_G. W. Steevens,

With Kitchener to Khartum,

chapter 32-34

(copyright, Dodd, Mead & Company, quoted with permission)._

"Anyone who has not served in the Sudan cannot conceive the

state of devastation and misery to which that unfortunate

country has been brought under Dervish rule. Miles and miles

of formerly richly cultivated country lies waste; villages are

deserted; the population has disappeared. Thousands of women

are without homes or families. Years must elapse before the

Sudan can recover from the results of its abandonment to

Dervish tyranny; but it is to be hoped and may be confidently

expected, that in course of time, under just and upright

government, the Sudan may be restored to prosperity; and the

great battle of September will be remembered as having

established peace, without which prosperity would have been

impossible; and from which thousands of misguided and wretched

people will reap the benefits of civilization."

_E. S. Wortley,

With the Sirdar

(Scribner's Magazine, January, 1899)._

EGYPT: A. D. 1898.

The country and its people after 15 years

of British occupation.

"The British occupation has now lasted for over fifteen years.

During the first five, comparatively little was accomplished,

owing to the uncertain and provisional character of our

tenure. The work done has been done in the main in the last

ten years, and was only commenced in earnest when the British

authorities began to realise that, whether we liked it or not,

we had got to stay; and the Egyptians themselves came to the

conclusion that we intended to stay. … Under our occupation

Egypt has been rendered solvent and prosperous; taxes have

been largely reduced; her population has increased by nearly

50 per cent.; the value and the productiveness of her soil has

been greatly improved; a regular and permanent system of

irrigation has been introduced into Lower Egypt, and is now in

the course of introduction into Upper Egypt; trade and

industry have made giant strides; the use of the Kurbash

[bastinado] has been forbidden; the Corvée has been

suppressed; regularity in the collection of taxes has been

made the rule, and not the exception; wholesale corruption has

been abolished; the Fellaheen can now keep the money they

earn, and are better off than they were before; the landowners

are all richer owing to the fresh supply of water, with the

consequent rapid increase in the saleable price of land;

justice is administered with an approach to impartiality;

barbarous punishments have been mitigated, if not abolished;

and the extraordinary conversion of Cairo into a fair

semblance of a civilised European capital has been repeated on

a smaller scale in all the chief centres of Egypt. To put the

matter briefly, if our occupation were to cease to-morrow, we

should leave Egypt and the Egyptians far better off than they

were when our occupation commenced.

"If, however, I am asked whether we have succeeded in the

alleged aim of our policy, that of rendering Egypt fit for

self-government, I should be obliged honestly to answer that

in my opinion we have made little or no progress towards the

achievement of this aim. The one certain result of our

interference in the internal administration of Egypt has been

to impair, if not to destroy, the authority of the Khedive; of

the Mudirs, who, as the nominees of the Effendina, rule over

the provinces; and of the Sheiks, who, in virtue of the favour

of the Mudirs, govern the villages. We have undoubtedly

trained a school of native officials who have learnt that it

is to their interest to administer the country more or less in

accordance with British ideas. Here and there we may have

converted an individual official to a genuine belief in these

ideas. But I am convinced that if our troops were withdrawn,

and our place in Egypt was not taken by any other civilised

European Power, the old state of things would revive at once,

and Egypt would be governed once more by the old system of

Baksheesh and Kurbash."

_E. Dicey,

Egypt, 1881 to 1897

(Fortnightly Review, May, 1898)._

{199}

Reviewing the report, for 1898, of Lord Cromer, the British

Agent and Consul-General, who is practically the director of

the government of Egypt, "The Spectator" (London) has noted

the principle of Lord Cromer's administration to be that of

"using English heads but Egyptian hands. In practice this

means the policy of never putting an Englishman into any post

which could be just as well filled by a native. In other

words, the Englishman is only used in the administration where

he is indispensable. Where he is not, the native, as is only just

and right, is employed. The outcome of this is that Lord

Cromer's work in Egypt has been carried out by 'a body of

officials who certainly do not exceed one hundred in number,

and might possibly, if the figures were vigorously examined,

be somewhat lower.' Lord Cromer adds, however, that 'these

hundred have been selected with the greatest care.' In fact,

the principle has been,—never employ an Englishman unless it

is necessary in the interests of good government to do so, but

then employ a first-class man. The result is that the

inspiring force in every Department of the Egyptian State is a

first-class English brain, and yet the natives are not

depressed by being deprived of their share of the

administration. The Egyptians, that is, do not feel the

legitimate grievance that is felt by the Tunisians and

Algerians when they see even little posts of a couple of

hundred a year filled by Frenchmen."

_Spectator,

April 15, 1899._

EGYPT: A. D. 1898 (September-November).

The French expedition of M. Marchand at Fashoda.

On the 10th of September, eight days after destroying the

power of the Khalifa at Omdurman, the Sirdar, Lord Kitchener,

left that fallen capital with five gunboats and a considerable

force of Highlanders, Sudanese and Egyptians, to take possession

of the Upper Nile. At Fashoda, in the Shilluk country, a

little north of the junction of the Sobat with the White Nile,

he found a party of eight French officers and about a hundred

Senegalese troops, commanded by M. Marchand, entrenched at the

old government buildings in that place and claiming occupation

of the country. It had been known for some time that M.

Marchand was leading an expedition from the French Congo

towards the Nile, and the British government had been seeking

an explanation of its objects from the government of France,

uttering warnings, at the same time, that England would

recognize no rights in any part of the Nile Valley except the

rights of Egypt, which the evacuation of the Egyptian Sudan,

consequent on the conquests of the Mahdi and the Dervishes,

had not extinguished. Even long before the movements of M.

Marchand were known, it had been suspected that France

entertained the design of extending her great possessions in

West Africa eastward, to connect with the Nile, and, as early

as the spring of 1895, Sir Edward Grey, speaking for the

British Foreign Office, in reply to a question then asked in

the House of Commons, concerning rumors that a French

expedition from West Africa was approaching the Nile, said

with unmistakable meaning: "After all I have explained about

the claims we consider we have under past Agreements, and the

claims which we consider Egypt may have in the Nile Valley,

and adding to that the fact that those claims and the view of

the Government with regard to them are fully and clearly known

to the French Government, I cannot think it is possible that

these rumors deserve credence, because the advance of a French

expedition under secret instructions right from the other side

of Africa into a territory over which our claims have been

known for so long would be not merely an inconsistent and

unexpected act, but it must be perfectly well known to the

French Government that it would be an unfriendly act, and

would be so viewed by England." In December, 1897, the British

Ambassador at Paris had called the attention of the French

government to Sir Edward Grey's declaration, adding that "Her

Majesty's present Government entirely adhere to the language

that was on this occasion employed by their predecessors."

As between the two governments, then, such was the critical

situation of affairs when the Sirdar, who had been already

instructed how to act if he found intruders in the Nile

Valley, came upon M. Marchand and his little party at Fashoda.

The circumstances and the results of the meeting were reported by

him promptly as follows: "On reaching the old Government

buildings, over which the French flag was flying, M. Marchand,

accompanied by Captain Germain, came on board. After

complimenting them on their long and arduous journey, I

proceeded at once to inform M. Marchand that I was authorized

to state that the presence of the French at Fashoda and in the

Valley of the Nile was regarded as a direct violation of the

rights of Egypt and Great Britain, and that, in accordance

with my instructions, I must protest in the strongest terms

against their occupation of Fashoda, and their hoisting of the

French flag in the dominions of His Highness the Khedive. In

reply, M. Marchand stated that as a soldier he had to obey

orders; the instructions of his Government to occupy the

Bahr-el-Ghazal and the Mudirieh of Fashoda were precise, and,

having carried them out, he must await the orders of his

Government as to his subsequent action and movements. I then

pointed out that I had the instructions of the Government to

re-establish Egyptian authority in the Fashoda Mudirieh, and I

asked M. Marchand whether he was prepared—on behalf of the

French Government—to resist the execution of these orders; he

must be fully aware, I said, that the Egyptian and British

forces were very much more powerful than those at his

disposal, but, at the same time, I was very averse to creating

a situation which might lead to hostilities. I therefore

begged M. Marchand to most carefully consider his final

decision on this matter. I further informed him that I should

be pleased to place one of the gun-boats at his disposal to

convey him and his expedition north. In answer to this, M.

Marchand did not hesitate to admit the preponderating forces

at my disposal, and his inability to offer effective armed

resistance; if, however, he said, I felt obliged to take any

such action, he could only submit, to the inevitable, which

would mean that he and his companions would die at their

posts. He begged, therefore, that I would consider his

position, and would allow the question of his remaining at

Fashoda to be referred to his Government, as, without their

orders, he could not retire from his position or haul down his

flag; at the same time, he said he felt sure that, under the

circumstances, the orders for his retirement would not be

delayed by his Government, and that then he hoped to avail

himself of the offer I had made him. I then said to him: 'Do I

understand that you are authorized by the French Government to

resist Egypt in putting up its flag and reasserting its

authority in its former possessions—such as the Mudirieh of

Fashoda?' M. Marchand hesitated, and then said that he could

not resist the Egyptian flag being hoisted. I replied that my

instructions were to hoist the flag, and that I intended to do

so. … The Egyptian flag was hoisted … at 1 P. M. with due

ceremony in the presence of the British and Egyptian troops,

and a salute of twenty-one guns was fired.

{200}

I should add that, in the course of the conversation, I

informed M. Marchand that, in addition to my verbal protest, I

intended to make a formal protest in writing, and this I duly

handed him before leaving Fashoda. During these somewhat

delicate proceedings nothing could have exceeded, the

politeness and courtesy of the French officers. Having

officially appointed Major Jackson Commandant of the Fashoda

district, and leaving with him a battalion of infantry, four

guns, and a gun-boat, I proceeded south with the remainder of

the troops and four gun-boats. …

"I had no opportunity for a further interview with M.

Marchand, who, I venture to think, holds at Fashoda a most

anomalous position—encamped with 120 men on a narrow strip of

land, surrounded by marshes, cut off from access to the

interior, possessing only three small boats without oars or

sails and an inefficient steam-launch which has lately been

dispatched on along journey south, short of ammunition and

supplies, his followers exhausted by years of continuous

hardship, yet still persisting in the prosecution of his

impracticable undertaking in the face of the effective

occupation and administration of the country I have been able

to establish. It is impossible not to entertain the highest

admiration for the courage, devotion, and indomitable spirit

displayed by M. Marchand's expedition, but our general

impression was one of astonishment that an attempt should have

been made to carry out a project of such magnitude and danger

by the dispatch of so small and ill-equipped a force which—as

their Commander remarked to me, was neither in a position to

resist a second Dervish attack nor to retire—indeed, had our

destruction of the Khalifa's power at Omdurman been delayed a

fortnight, in all probability he and his companions would have

been massacred. The claims of M. Marchand to have occupied the

Bahr-el-Ghazal and Fashoda Provinces with the force at his

disposal would be ludicrous did not the sufferings and

privations his expedition endured during their two years'

arduous journey render the futility of their efforts

pathetic."

_Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications

(Papers by Command: Egypt, Numbers 2 and 3, 1898)._

The "Fashoda incident," as it was described, caused great

excitement in both England and France, and threatened for some

weeks to involve the two countries in war. Both army feeling

and popular feeling in France very nearly forced the

government to persist in what was plainly an ill-considered

and inopportune movement, and to hold untenable ground. But

better sense prevailed, and, on the 2d of November, when the

Sirdar, Lord Kitchener, who had visited England, was being

feasted and given the freedom of London, at Guildhall, Lord

Salisbury was able to make a dramatic announcement of the

closing of the dispute. "I received," he said, speaking at the

banquet, "from the French ambassador this afternoon the

information that the French Government had come to the

conclusion that the occupation of Fashoda was of no sort of

value to the French Republic, and they thought that, under

those circumstances, to persist in an occupation which only

cost them money and did them harm, merely because some

people—some bad advisers—thought it might be disagreeable to

an unwelcome neighbor, would not show the wisdom with which, I

think, the French Republic has been uniformly guided, and they

have done what I believe many other governments would have

done in the same position—they have resolved that the

occupation must cease."

EGYPT: A. D. 1898-1899.

The Gordon Memorial College at Khartoum.

On an appeal from Lord Kitchener, funds were raised in Great

Britain for the founding of a Gordon Memorial College at

Khartoum, to be, in the first instance, a school for

elementary instruction to the sons of the heads of districts

and villages.

EGYPT: A. D. 1898-1901.

The Barrage and Reservoir works on the Nile.

In February, 1898, the Khedive in Council approved a contract

concluded with the British firm of John Aird & Company, for

the construction of a dam or "barrage" across the Nile at

Assouan, drowning the cataracts and turning the river above

into a vast storage reservoir; with another dam at Assiout,

for the irrigation of Middle Egypt and the Fayum. In the

report of Lord Cromer for 1898, Sir William Garstein, at the

head of the Egyptian Public Works Department, gave the

following description of the plan of the works, then fairly

under way: "The dam which is to form the reservoir will be

built at the first cataract, a few miles south of Assouan. It

is designed to hold up water to a level of 106 metres above

mean sea level, or rather more than 20 metres above the

low-water level of the Nile at site. Its total length will be

2,156 yards with a width at crest of 26.4 feet. The width of

base at the deepest portion will be 82.5 feet, and the height

of the work at the deepest spot will be 92.4 feet. The dam

will be pierced by 180 openings, or under-sluices (140 of

which are 23.1 feet by 6.6 feet and 40 are 18.2 feet by 6.6

feet) provided with gates. These sluices will pass the flood

and surplus water through the dam, and by them the reservoir

will be emptied when water is required for irrigation in

Middle and Lower Egypt. Three locks will be built, and a

navigation channel made on the west of the river to enable

boats to pass up and down.

"The dam at Assiout will be what is called an open Barrage,

and will be similar in construction to the existing Barrages

on the Rosetta and Damietta branches. The new work will

consist of 111 bays or openings, each 16.5 feet wide, and each

bay will be provided with regulating gates. The total length

of the work will be 903 yards. A lock 53 feet in width will be

constructed on the west bank, large enough to pass the largest

tourist boat plying on the river. By regulating on this

Barrage water will be supplied in spring and summer to the

Ibrahimieh Canal, which irrigates Middle Egypt. At present

this canal has to be dredged to a depth of some 2 metres below

the lowest summer level in the river, and even with these the

crops suffer in years of low summer supply. A regulation

bridge with a lock will be built at the head of the Ibrahimieh

Canal in order to allow of the supply being reduced, if

necessary, in flood."

_Great Britain, Papers by Command: Egypt,

Number 3, 1899._

By a singular happening, the Nile flood of 1899 was the lowest

recorded in the century, and gave an opportunity for the

barrage and irrigation works, barely begun as they were, to

give a convincing foretaste of their value. According to the

report of that year, "the distress was enormously less than on

all previous occasions of a failure of the flood. The area of

'sharaki,' or land unirrigated and therefore untaxed, which

had been 900,000 feddans in 1877 was only one-third of this in

1899.

{201}

Even in this area, which lay principally in Upper Egypt,

'distress,' says Sir William Garstein, 'was hardly felt at all

by the people. The immense amount of contract work in progress

in the country enabled them to obtain a good daily wage and

tided over the interval between the two crops.' In Lower Egypt

'the situation was saved by the Barrage, which, for the first

time in its history, was regulated upon throughout the flood.

Had it not been for the work done by this structure, there is

little doubt that large areas of crop would have been lost. As

it is, the cotton crop is very nearly the largest on record,

and the maize crop was up to the average.'" Of the progress of

the work at Assouan it is said: "After nearly a year had been

spent in accumulation of material and various preparations,

the foundation stone of the dam was laid by H. R. H. the Duke

of Connaught on February 12; and from that date the work was

carried on with less interruption than must have been

necessitated by a normal flood. Beginning on the east bank,

masonry was carried on throughout a length of 620 metres, and

of these, 360 metres were brought up to within two metres of

their full height. … Not less satisfactory progress was made

with the weir at Assiut, although the original design had to

be considerably altered."

On the 7th of February, 1901, a Press despatch from Cairo

reported: "Sir John Aird and Sir Benjamin Baker start for

England on Sunday next, having completed their visit of

inspection to the great engineering works at Assuan, where the

immense dam to hold up the waters of the Nile is being

constructed. The total extent of the dam is one mile and a

quarter, of which one mile and an eighth of the foundation is

finished. Temporary dams enabling the remaining section to be

put in are now carried across the channel. Pumps for getting

in the permanent dam foundations will be started next week.

The whole of the granite masonry required for the dam is cut

and ready to be laid in its place. The parapet alone remains

to be prepared. The portion of the dam remaining to be built

is that across the well-known deep western channel. The work

is of considerable difficulty, but the experience gained last

season in dealing with other channels has rendered the

engineers and contractors confident that equal success will be

obtained this year in the western channel. The dam is pierced

with 180 openings, about 23 feet high and 7 feet wide, which

openings are controlled by steel sluices. The work for the

latter is now well advanced. The discharge through these

sluices at high Nile may reach 15,000 tons of water per

second. The navigation channel and chain of locks are equally

advanced with the dam itself, and the lock gates will also be

in course of construction in about three months. Unless

anything unforeseen occurs the reservoirs will be in operation

for the Nile flood of 1903. This will be well within the

contract time, although owing to the increased depth of the

foundations the work done by the contractors has been largely

increased.

"At Assiut the great regulating dam across the Nile approaches

completion, the foundations being practically all in position,

leaving a portion of the superstructure to be completed. The

sluice openings here number 119, all 16 feet wide. This dam is

somewhat similar in principle to the well-known barrage near

Cairo, but the details of construction are entirely different,

as the foundations are guarded against undermining by a

complete line of cast iron and steel-piling above and below

the work. The barrage itself is constructed of high-class

masonry instead of brickwork as at the old barrage. Although

the Assiut barrage is overshadowed by the greater magnitude of

the Assuan dam, it will, doubtless, rank second as the

monumental work of Egypt."

EGYPT: A. D. 1899 (January).

The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium established in the Sudan.

The following agreement between the British government and

that of the Khedive of Egypt, relative to the future

administration of the Sudan, establishing a condominium or

joint dominion therein, was signed at Cairo on the 19th of

January, 1899, and made public the same day:

Whereas certain provinces in the Sudan which were in rebellion

against the authority of His Highness the Khedive have now

been reconquered by the joint military and financial efforts

of Her Britannic Majesty's Government and the Government of

His Highness the Khedive; and whereas it has become necessary

to decide upon a system for the administration of and for the

making of laws for the said reconquered provinces, under which

due allowance may be made for the backward and unsettled

condition of large portions thereof, and for the varying

requirements of different localities; and whereas it is

desired to give effect to the claims which have accrued to Her

Britannic Majesty's Government by right of conquest, to share

in the present settlement and future working and development

of the said system of administration and legislation; and

whereas it is conceived that for many purposes Wadi Haifa and

Suákin may be most effectively administered in conjunction

with the reconquered provinces to which they are respectively

adjacent; now, it is hereby agreed and declared by and between

the Undersigned, duly authorized for that purpose, as follows:

ARTICLE I.

The word "Sudan" in this Agreement means all the territories

South of the 22nd parallel of latitude, which:

1. Have never been evacuated by Egyptian troops since the year

1882; or

Which, having before the late rebellion in the Sudan been

administered by the Government of His Highness the Khedive,

were temporarily lost to Egypt, and have been reconquered by

Her Majesty's Government and the Egyptian Government acting in

concert; or

3. Which may hereafter be reconquered by the two Governments

acting in concert.

ARTICLE II.

The British and Egyptian flags shall be used together, both on

land and water, throughout the Sudan, except in the town of

Suákin, in which locality the Egyptian flag alone shall be

used.

ARTICLE III.

The supreme military and civil command in the Sudan shall be

vested in one officer, termed the "Governor-General of the

Sudan." He shall be appointed by Khedivial Decree on the

recommendation of Her Britannic Majesty's Government, and

shall be removed only by Khedivial Decree, with the consent of

Her Britannic Majesty's Government.

{202}

ARTICLE IV.

Laws, as also Orders and Regulations with the full force of

law, for the good government of the Sudan, and for regulating

the holding, disposal, and devolution of property of every

kind therein situate, may from time to time be made, altered,

or abrogated by Proclamation of the Governor-General. Such

Laws, Orders, and Regulations may apply to the whole of any

named part of the Sudan, and may, either explicitly or by

necessary implication, alter or abrogate any existing Law or

Regulation. All such Proclamations shall be forthwith notified

to Her Britannic Majesty's Agent and Consul-General in Cairo, and

to the President of the Council of Ministers of His Highness

the Khedive.

ARTICLE V.

No Egyptian Law, Decree, Ministerial Arrêté, or other

enactment hereafter to be made or promulgated shall apply to

the Sudan or any part thereof, save in so far as the same

shall be applied by Proclamation of the Governor-General in

manner hereinbefore provided.

ARTICLE VI.

In the definition by Proclamation of the conditions under

which Europeans, of whatever nationality, shall be at liberty

to trade with or reside in the Sudan, or to hold property

within its limits, no special privileges shall be accorded to

the subjects of anyone or more Power.

ARTICLE VII.

Import duties on entering the Sudan shall not be payable on

goods coming from Egyptian territory. Such duties may,

however, be levied on goods coming from elsewhere than

Egyptian territory, but in the case of goods entering the

Sudan at Suákin, or any other port on the Red Sea Littoral,

they shall not exceed the corresponding duties for the time

being leviable on goods entering Egypt from abroad. Duties may

be levied on goods leaving the Sudan at such rates as may from

time to time be prescribed by Proclamation.

ARTICLE VIII.

The jurisdiction of the Mixed Tribunals shall not extend, nor

be recognized for any purpose whatsoever, in any part of the

Sudan, except in the town of Suákin.

ARTICLE IX.

Until, and save so far as it shall be otherwise determined, by

Proclamation, the Sudan, with the exception of the town of

Suákin, shall be and remain under martial law.

ARTICLE X.

No Consuls, Vice-Consuls, or Consular Agents shall be

accredited in respect of nor allowed to reside in the Sudan,

without the previous consent of Her Britannic Majesty's

Government.

ARTICLE XI.

The importation of slaves into the Sudan, as also their

exportation, is absolutely prohibited. Provision shall be made

by Proclamation for the enforcement of this Regulation.

ARTICLE XII.

It is agreed between the two Governments that special

attention shall be paid to the enforcement of the Brussels Act

of the 2nd July 1890, in respect to the import, sale, and

manufacture of fire-arms and their munitions, and distilled or

spirituous liquors.

Done in Cairo, the 19th January, 1899.

(Signed) Boutros Ghali-Cromer.

_A. S. White, The Expansion of Egypt,

Appendix V. (New York: New Amsterdam Book Company)_

By a subsequent, agreement signed July 10, the exceptions in

the above relative to Suákin were abrogated.

EGYPT: A. D. 1899-1900.

Final defeat and death of the Khalifa.

Capture of Osman Digna.

Condition of the Sudan.

The Khalifa, who escaped from the scene of his overthrow at

Omdurman, in 1898, kept a following of his own tribe, the

Baggaras, sufficient to give trouble for more than another

year. At length, late in November, 1899, he was overtaken by

Sir Francis Wingate, who succeeded General Kitchener as

Governor-General of the Sudan, and was killed in a battle

fought near Gedil. Again Osman Digna, his able lieutenant,

escaped; but in January of the following year the latter was

captured and taken to Suez.

In a report to Lord Salisbury, made on the 20th of February,

1900, Lord Cromer, British Agent and Consul-General in Egypt,

gave the following account of the general state of affairs in

the Sudan:

"The territorial situation may be briefly described as

follows:—The frontier between the Soudan and the Italian

Colony of Erythræa has now been delimitated from Ras Kasar, on

the Red Sea, to Sabderat, a few miles east of Kassala.

Negotiations are proceeding which will, without doubt, result

before long in the delimitation of the small remaining portion

of the Italian frontier from Sabderat up to the point where it

strikes Abyssinian territory. The most friendly relations

exist between the British and Abyssinian Governments. The

general basis of a frontier arrangement in respect to the

country lying west of the Blue Nile has already been settled

with the Emperor Menelek. When the survey party, now being

employed, has finished its work, it may confidently be

expected that the detailed delimitation will be carried out

without much difficulty.

"An endeavour is being made to cut through the sudd which

obstructs the White Nile, and thus open up communication with

Uganda. To a certain extent this communication may be said to

be already established, for a mixed party, consisting of

British, French, and Belgian officers, with their followers,

arriving from the South, recently succeeded in getting through

and joining the Egyptian party, under Major Peake, which was

engaged in cutting the sudd. … From the moment of the

Khalifa's crushing defeat at Omdurman, the desert and Kordofan

tribes, with the exception of a certain number of Baggaras who

still adhered to the cause of their Chief, threw in their lot

with the Government. Most of these tribes, however, rendered

but little active assistance to the Government in the

subsequent operations against the Khalifa. Omdurman and the

Ghezireh [the tract of country lying south of Khartoum,

between the White and Blue Niles] were found to be full of

Arabs belonging to the Kordofan and far western tribes, who

had been brought from their homes by the Khalifa. They were

without any regular means of subsistence, but, in the existing

state of insecurity, it was for the time being impossible for

them to return to their own districts. … The inhabitants of

the districts which were raided by the Dervishes were obliged

to take refuge in the Ghezireh, with the result that the

situation remained practically unchanged until the Khalifa's

overthrow and death. Since then, the main objects of the

Government have been to send back to their homes the

inhabitants of the gum producing region, and to get rid of the

useless mouths from the Ghezireh. In respect to the first

point, some success has attended their efforts, but many

thousands of Arabs belonging to tribes whose homes are in

Kordofan and Darfour, still remain in the Ghezireh. … The

attitude of the Nubas and of other tribes in Central and

Southern Kordofan has, since the battle of Omdurman, been

perfectly satisfactory. … Some long time must certainly elapse

before prosperity returns to the tribes in the Soudan. The

population has wasted away under Dervish rule."

_Great Britain, Papers by Command:

Egypt, Number 1, 1900, pages 43-44._

----------EGYPT: End--------

{203}

ELAM.

See (in volume 1)

BABYLONIA, PRIMITIVE;

(in volume 4)

SEMITES;

and (in this volume)

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA, and PERSIA.

ELANDSLAAGTE, Battle of.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):

A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).

ELBE-RHINE CANAL PROJECT, The.

See (in this volume)

GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (AUGUST); and 1901 (JANUARY).

EL CANEY, Battle of.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE-JULY).

ELECTRICAL SCIENCE, Recent advances in.

See (in this volume)

SCIENCE, RECENT: ELECTRICAL.

ELIZABETH, Empress of Austria:

Assassination.

See (in this volume)

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1898 (SEPTEMBER).

EL ZANJON, Treaty of.

See (in this volume)

CUBA: A. D. 1868-1885.

EMPLOYERS' FEDERATION, British.

See (in this volume)

INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES; A. D. 1897.

EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY BILL, The English.

See (in this volume)

ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (MAY-JULY).

EMPRESS-DOWAGER, of China, The.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1898 (OCTOBER), and after.

ENGINEERS, Strike and lockout of British.

See (in this volume)

INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES: A. D. 1897.

----------ENGLAND (GREAT BRITAIN): Start--------

ENGLAND: A. D. 1894.

The commandeering question with the South African Republic.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1894.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1894-1895.

Retirement of Mr. Gladstone from public life.

Earl of Rosebery Prime Minister.

His speech on the "predominant member" and Home Rule.

Weakening and overthrow of the Liberal Government.

Dissolution of Parliament.

Conservative and Unionist triumph.

Third Ministry of Lord Salisbury.

Mr. Gladstone, who had passed his 84th year, whose health was

failing, and who might justly consider that his public work

was done, resigned his post as Prime Minister, on the 2d of

March, 1894, and the Earl of Rosebery, on his recommendation,

was called by the Queen to take his place. Slight changes,

otherwise, were made in the cabinet, but the spirit in the

Liberal government was no longer the same. The new Premier

soon signified that his disposition in the matter of Home Rule

for Ireland was not quite what Mr. Gladstone's had been, by

using the following language in a speech (March 13) in the

House of Lords:

"Before Irish Home Rule is conceded by the Imperial Parliament

England, as the predominant member of the partnership of the

three kingdoms, will have to be convinced of its justice. That

may seem to be a considerable admission to make, because your

lordships will know that the majority of English members of

Parliament, ejected from England proper, are hostile to Home

Rule. But I believe that the conviction of England in regard

to Home Rule depends on one point alone, and that is the

conduct of Ireland herself. I believe that if we can go on

showing this comparative absence of agrarian crime; if we can

point to the continued harmony of Ireland with the great

Liberal party of this country; if we can go on giving proofs

and pledges that Ireland is entitled to be granted that boon

which she has never ceased to demand since the Act of Union

was passed. I believe that the conversion of England will not

be of a slow or difficult character. My lords, the question of

Home Rule is one that I regard not from the point of view of

Ireland only. It has for me a triple aspect. It has, in the

first place, the aspect that I believe that Ireland will never

be contented until this measure of Home Rule be granted to

her; and that, though you may come in on other issues and

succeed us who sit here, your policy of palliatives is bound

to fail. In the second place, I believe that not merely have

we in our Irish policy to satisfy those who live in the island

of Ireland itself, encompassed, as Mr. Disraeli once said, by

that melancholy ocean, we have not merely to satisfy the Irish

themselves within Ireland, but, for the good of our Empire and

for the continuity and solidarity of our relations with our

brethren across the Atlantic, it is necessary that we should

produce an Irish policy which shall satisfy the Irish people.

And, lastly, I view it from the highest Imperial grounds,

because I believe that the maintenance of this Empire depends,

not on centralization, but on decentralization, and that if

you once commence to tread this path, you will have to give

satisfaction under the same conditions certainly to Scotland,

and possibly to Wales, not in the same degree or possibly in

the same way, but so as to relieve this groaning Imperial

Parliament from the burden of legislation under which it

labours. I will not detain you further on this subject

to-night. I did not mean to dilate so much on the question of

Home Rule."

His remarks seemed to show an intention to postpone the

pressing of the measure. Distrust arose among the Irish and

uncertainty was created in the mind of the Liberal party. It

became evident very quickly that the Liberals, with the loss

of their old leader, had lost heart and faith in the policy to

which he had committed them, and that a serious weakening of

the political energies of the party had been produced. No

measures which raised troublesome issues were undertaken in

Parliament during the year of Mr. Gladstone's retirement: but,

at the session which opened in the following February (1895), the

government brought forward a number of high]y important bills.

{204}

The first to be introduced was a bill "to terminate the

Establishment of the Church of England in Wales and Monmouth."

The bill made provision for the creation of a representative

Church body, giving power to the bishops, clergy and laity to

hold synods and to legislate on ecclesiastical matters. It

entrusted ecclesiastical revenues to a commission; provided

for the transfer of churches and parsonages to the

representative body of the Church, and of burial grounds and

glebes to parish, district, and town councils; other property

of the Church to be vested in the commission before mentioned,

which should also have the charge of cathedrals, to keep them in

repair. The bill had its first reading on the 28th of

February, and its second on the 1st of April, but went no

further. It shared the fate of the other measures of the

Government, including a bill to establish local control of the

liquor traffic, and others for the remedying of defects in the

Irish Land Law, and for the abolition of plural voting, all of

which were extinguished by the sudden and unexpected overthrow

of the Government on the 21st of June. It was defeated on a

motion to reduce the salary of the Secretary for War, which

was made for no purpose but to start a question as to the

adequacy of the provision of certain ammunition stored for

use. When the vote was found to be against the Government

there was great surprise in both parties. But the Ministry had

been steadily losing support and was quite willing to resign,

which it did the next day. Lord Salisbury was sent for by the

Queen and accepted the task of forming a new Government, with

the understanding that Parliament should be dissolved as soon

as practicable, and the will of the country ascertained. In

the new Government, Lord Salisbury filled the office of

Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, with that of Prime

Minister; Mr. A. J. Balfour became First Lord of the Treasury;

Sir Michael Hicks-Beach Chancellor of the Exchequer; Mr.

Joseph Chamberlain Secretary of State for the Colonies; Mr. G.

J. Goschen First Lord of the Admiralty. Before the dissolution

of Parliament, which occurred on the 6th of July, a bill for

the amendment of the Factories Act, on which both parties

agreed, was passed. The elections that followed, beginning

July 13, resulted in the return of a majority of 152 in favor

of the new Ministry, which represented the coalition of

Conservatives and Liberal Unionists. The majority of the

popular vote on the same side in the three kingdoms was a

little more than 30,000, in a total poll of 4,792,512; but in

Eng]and the new Government received a majority of some

300,000. In Ireland the vote went heavily against them, and in

Wales and Scotland to a lighter extent. Of the Irish members

elected, 12 were of the Parnell faction and 69 Anti-Parnell.

The new Parliament came together August 12, and, after a brief

session, at which little was done, was prorogued September 5.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1895.

Enforcement of claims against Nicaragua.

See (in this volume)

CENTRAL AMERICA (NICARAGUA): A. D. 1894-1895.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1895.

The question of Chitral.

See (in this volume)

INDIA: A. D. 1895 (MARCH-SEPTEMBER).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1895 (January).

Agreement with France defining the boundaries of the

Hinterland of Sierra Leone.

See (in this volume)

SIERRA LEONE PROTECTORATE.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1895 (March-July).

Agreement with Russia concerning the northern Afghan frontier

and spheres of influence in the Pamir region.

See (in this volume)

AFGHANISTAN: A. D. 1895.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1895 (July-November).

Correspondence with the Government of the United States

on the Venezuela boundary question.

See (in this volume)

VENEZUELA: A. D. 1895 (JULY) and (NOVEMBER).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1895 (November).

Action on the closing of the Vaal River Drifts by the South

African Republic.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL):

A. D. 1895 (SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1895 (December).

Message of the President of the United States to Congress

on the British Guiana-Venezuela boundary dispute.

See (in this volume)

VENEZUELA: A. D. 1895 (DECEMBER).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1895-1896 (November-January).

Discontent and revolutionary conspiracy of Uitlanders in

the Transvaal.

The Jameson Raid.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1895 (NOVEMBER);

and A. D. 1895-1896.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1895-1896 (December-January).

The feeling in England and America over the

Venezuela boundary dispute.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

A. D. 1895-1896 (DECEMBER-JANUARY).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1896.

Establishment of the Sierra Leone Protectorate.

See (in this volume)

SIERRA LEONE PROTECTORATE.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1896.

Report on Old-Age Pensions.

The question of the practicability and expediency of a

national system of pensions for old age, which had been

agitated in England for some years, and which a royal

commission, appointed in 1893, had already examined with great

thoroughness and no definite result, was referred in 1896 to a

committee of financial experts, with Lord Rothschild at their

head. This committee reported that it could recommend no

scheme as satisfactory, though it put forward that of Sir

Spencer Walpole as open to less objection than others. The

scheme in question was as follows:

"1. Any person at 65 having an assured income of not less than

2s. 6d. and not more than 5s. may apply for a pension.

2. If the pensioning authority is satisfied as to the income a

pension may be granted.

3. The applicant must not be physically or mentally infirm.

4. To an income of 2s. 6d. 2s. 6d. is to be added.

To an income of 3s. 0d. 2s. 0d. is to be added.

To an income of 4s. 0d. 1s. 0d. is to be added.

5. 'Assured income' includes real estate, leasehold property,

securities, or annuities (Government, friendly society, or

insurance office), but not out-relief.

6. The guardians are to be the pensioning authority.

7. Not more than half of the pension is to be paid out of

Imperial taxation, the remainder out of local rates.

8. The pension is not to involve disenfranchisement."

The committee, however, pointed out some very strong

objections to this scheme, which they roughly estimated as

likely to apply to 443,333 persons, and to cost £2,300,000 a

year. On the whole, while they regarded the Walpole scheme as

the best suggested, the Rothschild committee held that, like

the rest, its inherent disadvantages outweighed its merits. In

effect, they pronounced the establishment of old-age pensions

to be impracticable.

{205}

ENGLAND: A. D. 1896.

Report of Royal Commission on the financial relations

between Great Britain and Ireland.

See (in this volume)

IRELAND: A. D. 1896-1897.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1896 (January).

Agreement with France concerning Siam.

See (in this volume)

SIAM: A. D. 1896-1899.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1896 (January).

Excitement over the German Emperor's message to President

Kruger on the Jameson Raid.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1896 (JANUARY).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1896 (January-February).

Appointment of United States Commission to investigate

the Venezuela boundary.

Reopening of discussion with the government of the United

States on the arbitration of the dispute.

See (in this volume)

VENEZUELA: A. D. 1896-1899.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1896 (February).

New treaty with the United States for arbitration of

Bering Sea claims.

See (in this volume)

BERING SEA QUESTIONS.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1896 (March-September).

Expedition to Dongola.

Beginning of an Anglo-Egyptian movement for the

recovery of the Sudan.

See (in this volume)

EGYPT: A. D. 1885-1896.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1896 (May).

The New Radical party.

A New Radical party, under the leadership of Sir Charles Dilke

and Mr. Labouchere, issued a statement of its policy (May 19),

setting forth as its chief aim "the democritisation and

devolution of Parliament."

ENGLAND: A. D. 1896 (June).

The Agricultural Land Bill.

Among the measures brought forward in Parliament this year and

carried by the Conservative government was one which aroused

bitter feeling and was sharply denounced, as being legislation

in the interest of the landholding class, at the expense of

the community at large. A ground of justice for it was found

by its supporters, however, in the extreme agricultural

depression of the time. This Agricultural Land Bill, as it was

styled, provided that, in the case of every rate to which it

applied, agricultural land should be assessed in future on

half its ratable value, while houses and buildings would still

be assessed on the whole of their ratable value. The bill

passed the Commons near the end of June, and went speedily

through the House of Lords.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1896 (July).

Parliamentary movement to investigate the

British South Africa Company.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY);

A. D. 1896 (JULY).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1896 (August).

Suppression of an usurper in Zanzibar.

See (in this volume)

AFRICA: A. D. 1896 (ZANZIBAR).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1896 (September).

Papal Bull declaring Anglican orders invalid.

See (in this volume)

PAPACY: A. D. 1896 (SEPTEMBER).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1896 (November).

Agreement with the United States for the settlement of the

Venezuela dispute.

See (in this volume)

VENEZUELA: A. D. 1896-1899.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1896-1897.

"The Voluntary Schools Act" and

"The Elementary Education Act."

The Conservative Ministry of Lord Salisbury came to power, in

England, in 1895, under pledges to the Church that it would

revise the educational system in the interest of the

"Voluntary Schools" (mostly Church schools), as against the

secular or non-sectarian "Board Schools" which were steadily

gaining ground from the former, and proving superior

efficiency.

See, in volume 1,

EDUCATION, MODERN: ENGLAND: A. D. 1699-1870.

A bill to that end, for England and Wales, was introduced at

the end of March, 1896. In support of the bill it was stated

that, in the previous year, the voluntary schools educated

2,445,812 children, as against 1,879,218 educated in the board

schools, though the voluntary schools were, as a rule,

"understaffed," had less qualified teachers, and labored

generally under financial difficulties; but that a large

proportion of the members of the Church of England, as well as

Roman Catholics, made it a point of conscience that their

children should be educated by teachers of their own

denomination, and could not be forced to send them to board

schools without a gross exercise of religious intolerance;

that, finally, it would cost £25,345,635 to replace the

voluntary schools, and £2,250,000 yearly to maintain board

schools in their place, if they were not kept up. Therefore,

it was contended that they should receive a more liberal

allowance of state aid by parliamentary grant, to keep them

alive and improve their efficiency. Connected with provisions

to that effect were others which would completely reorganize

the system of school administration and control. They proposed

to take the administration to a great extent from the

Committee of Council on Education, where it had been

centralized, and to place it in the County Councils, to be

exercised by statutory educational committees appointed by

each Council. By what was called a "conscience clause," the

bill required separate religious instruction to be given to

children in schools (board or voluntary) wherever a

"reasonable number of parents" required it. The measure was

strenuously opposed on the ground that its aim was the

extinction of the board schools; that it would give them only

£17,000 out of £500,000, and give it, said Lord Rosebery,

"without any vestige of control, so that in 8,000 places where

only Church of England schools existed the Nonconformists

would have only the vague protection of the conscience

clause." So much debate was provoked by the bill, and so much

time was being consumed by it, that the Government was forced

to drop the measure in June, in order to save the other

business of the session from being spoiled,—promising,

however, to bring it forward again the next January. The

promise was redeemed, on the convening of Parliament in

January, 1897, in so far that a new Education Bill was brought

forward by the government; but the measure was very different

from that of the previous session. It was addressed solely to

the end of strengthening the voluntary or Church schools

against the board schools, firstly by increasing the aid to

them from public funds, and secondly by uniting them in

organized associations, under stronger governing bodies. The

main provisions of the bill were as follows:

"(1.) For aiding voluntary schools there shall be annually

paid out of moneys provided by Parliament an aid grant, not

exceeding in the aggregate five shillings per scholar for the

whole number of scholars in those schools.

{206}

"(2.) The aid grant shall be distributed by the Education

Department to such voluntary schools and in such manner and

amounts, as the Department think best for the purpose of

helping necessitous schools and increasing their efficiency,

due regard being had to the maintenance of voluntary

subscriptions.

"(3.) If associations of schools are constituted in such

manner in such areas and with such governing bodies

representative of the managers as are approved by the

Education Department, there shall be allotted to each

association while so approved, (_a_) a share of the aid

grant to be computed according to the number of scholars in

the schools of the association at the rate of five shillings

per scholar, or, if the Department fix different rates for

town and country schools respectively (which they are hereby

empowered to do) then at those rates; and (_b_) a

corresponding share of any sum which may be available out of

the aid grant after distribution has been made to unassociated

schools.

"(4.) The share so allotted to each such association shall be

distributed as aforesaid by the Education Department after

consulting the governing body of the association, and in

accordance with any scheme prepared by that body which the

Department for the time being approve.

"(5.) The Education Department may exclude a school from any

share of the aid grant which it might otherwise receive, if,

in the opinion of the Department, it unreasonably refuses or

fails to join such an association, but the refusal or failure

shall not be deemed unreasonable if the majority of the

schools in the association belong to a religious denomination

to which the school in question does not itself belong.

"(6.) The Education Department may require, as a condition of

a school receiving a share of the aid grant, that the accounts

of the receipts and expenditure of the school shall be

annually audited in accordance with the regulations of the

Department.

"(7.) The decision of the Education Department upon any

question relating to the distribution or allotment of the aid

grant, including the question whether an association is or is

not in conformity with this Act, and whether a school is a

town or a country school, shall be final."

The passage of the bill was resisted strenuously by the

Liberals in the House of Commons. "Whether they regarded the

bill from an educational, a constitutional, a parliamentary,

or a social aspect," said Mr. John Morley, in his concluding

speech in the debate, "he and his friends regarded it as a

mischievous and reactionary measure." But the opposition was

of no avail. The bill passed its third reading in the House of

Commons, on the 25th of March, with a majority of 200 in its

favor, the Irish Nationalists giving it their support. In the

House of Lords it was ruled to be a money bill, which their

lordships could not amend, and they passed it with little

debate. In April, the government brought forward a second

school bill, which increased the parliamentary grant to Board

schools by £110,000. The sum was so trivial that it excited

the scorn of the friends of the Board schools, and did nothing

towards conciliating them. It became a law on the 3d of June.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1896-1897 (May-April).

Continued controversies with the South African Republic.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1896-1897 (MAY-APRIL).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (January-May).

Arbitration Treaty with the United States defeated in

the United States Senate.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1897 (JANUARY-MAY).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (February).

Indemnity for Jameson Raid claimed

by the South African Republic.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL):

A. D. 1897 (FEBRUARY).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (February).

Loan for national defense.

Purchase of 60 square miles on Salisbury Plain.

A bill which authorized a loan of £5,458,000 for purposes of

national defense was passed rapidly through both Houses of

Parliament in February. It included an item of £450,000 for

the purchase of 40,000 acres (60 square miles) on Salisbury

Plain, for military manœuvres.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (February).

Punitive expedition against Benin.

See (in this volume)

NIGERIA: A. D. 1897.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (February-July).

Parliamentary investigation of the Jameson Raid.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1897 (FEBRUARY-JULY).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (April).

Increase of armament in South Africa.

The Government accused of a war policy.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1897 (APRIL).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (May).

Treaty with Menelek of Abyssinia.

See (in this volume)

ABYSSINIA: A. D. 1897.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (May-June).

New cessions and concessions from China.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1897 (MAY-JUNE).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (May-July).

The Workmen's Compensation Act.

A subject which had grown urgent, in England, for

parliamentary attention, was that of a better provision in law

for securing proper compensation to workmen for accidental

injuries suffered in the course of their employment. The

measure was not one that a Conservative government would be

likely, under ordinary circumstances, to take up; since the

class of large employers of labor, from which opposition to it

came, were mostly in the Conservative ranks. But the Liberal

Unionists, now in parliamentary coalition with the

Conservatives, were called upon to favor such a piece of

legislation by their creed, and rumor said that they bargained

for it with their political partners, in exchange for the

support they gave unwillingly to the Voluntary Schools Bill.

At all events, a bill which was first called the Employers'

Liability Bill, but finally named the Workmen's Compensation

Bill, was brought in to the House of Commons, by the

government, in May, and was carried, after much debate,

through both Houses in July. The essential provisions of the

Act as passed are the following:

"I.

(1.) If in any employment to which this Act applies personal

injury by accident arising out of and in the course of the

employment is caused to a workman, his employer shall, subject

as herein-after mentioned, be liable to pay compensation in

accordance with the First Schedule to this Act.

{207}

(2.) Provided that:

(a.) The employer shall not be liable under this Act in

respect of any injury which does not disable the workman

for a period of at least two weeks from earning full wages

at the work at which he was employed;

(b.) When the injury was caused by the personal negligence

or wilful act of the employer, or of some person for whose

act or default the employer is responsible, nothing in this

Act shall affect any civil liability of the employer, but in

that case the workman may, at his option, either claim

compensation under this Act, or take the same proceedings as

were open to him before the commencement of this Act; but

the employer shall not be liable to pay compensation for

injury to a workman by accident arising out of and in the

course of the employment both independently of and also

under this Act, and shall not be liable to any proceedings

independently of this Act, except in case of such personal

negligence or wilful act as aforesaid;

(c.) If it is proved that the injury to a workman is

attributable to the serious and wilful misconduct of that

workman, any compensation claimed in respect of that injury

shall be disallowed.

(3.) If any question arises in any proceedings under this Act

as to the liability to pay compensation under this Act

(including any question as to whether the employment is one to

which this Act applies), or as to the amount or duration of

compensation under this Act, the question, if not settled by

agreement, shall, subject to the provisions of the First

Schedule to this Act, be settled by arbitration, in accordance

with the Second Schedule to this Act. …

"2.

(1.)

Proceedings for the recovery under this Act of compensation

for an injury shall not be maintainable unless notice of the

accident has been given as soon as practicable after the

happening thereof and before the workman has voluntarily left

the employment in which he was injured, and unless the claim

for compensation with respect to such accident has been made

within six months from the occurrence of the accident causing

the injury, or, in case of death, within six months from the

time of death. …

"3.

(1.)

If the Registrar of Friendly Societies, after taking steps to

ascertain the views of the employer and workmen, certifies

that any scheme of compensation, benefit, or insurance for the

workmen of an employer in any employment, whether or not such

scheme includes other employers and their workmen, is on the

whole not less favourable to the general body of workmen and

their dependants than the provisions of this Act, the employer

may, until the certificate is revoked, contract with any of

those workmen that the provisions of the scheme shall be

substituted for the provisions of this Act, and thereupon the

employer shall be liable only in accordance with the scheme,

but, save as aforesaid, this Act shall apply notwithstanding

any contract to the contrary made after the commencement of

this Act. …

"7.

(1.)

This Act shall apply only to employment by the undertakers as

herein-after defined, on or in or about a railway, factory,

mine, quarry, or engineering work, and to employment by the

undertakers as herein-after defined on, in or about any

building which exceeds thirty feet in height, and is either

being constructed or repaired by means of a scaffolding, or

being demolished, or on which machinery driven by steam,

water, or other mechanical power, is being used for the

purpose of the construction, repair, or demolition thereof.

(2.)

In this Act— … 'Undertakers' in the case of a railway means

the railway company; in the case of a factory, quarry, or

laundry means the occupier thereof within the meaning of the

Factory and Workshop Acts, 1878 to 1895; in the case of a mine

means the owner thereof within the meaning of the Coal Mines

Regulation Act, 1887, or the Metalliferous Mines Regulation

Act, 1872, as the case may be, and in the case of an

engineering work means the person undertaking the

construction, alteration, or repair; and in the case of a

building means the persons undertaking the construction,

repair, or demolition. … 'Workman' includes every person who

is engaged in an employment to which this Act applies, whether

by way of manual labour or otherwise, and whether his

agreement is one of service or apprenticeship or otherwise,

and is expressed or implied, is oral or in writing."

The "First Schedule" referred to in the first section of the

Act prescribes rules for determining compensation, those

principally important being as follows; "The amount of

compensation under this Act shall be—(a) where death results

from the injury—(i) if the workman leaves any dependants

wholly dependent upon his earnings at the time of his death, a

sum equal to his earnings in the employment of the same

employer during the three years next preceding the injury, or

the sum of one hundred and fifty pounds, whichever of those

sums is the larger, but not exceeding in any case three

hundred pounds, provided that the amount of any weekly

payments made under this Act shall be deducted from such sum,

and if the period of the workman's employment by the said

employer has been less than the said three years, then the

amount of his earnings during the said three years shall be

deemed to be 156 times his average weekly earnings during the

period of his actual employment under the said employer;

(ii)

if the workman does not leave any such dependants, but leaves

any dependants in part dependent upon his earnings at the time

of his death, such sum, not exceeding in any case the amount

payable under the foregoing provisions, as may be agreed upon,

or, in default of agreement, may be determined, on arbitration

under this Act, to be reasonable and proportionate to the

injury to the said dependants; and

(iii)

if he leaves no dependants, the reasonable expenses of his

medical attendance and burial, not exceeding ten pounds; (b)

where total or partial incapacity for work results from the

injury, a weekly payment during the incapacity after the

second week not exceeding fifty per cent. of his average

weekly earnings during the previous twelve months, if he has

been so long employed, but if not, then for any less period

during which he has been in the employment of the same

employer, such weekly payment not to exceed one pound."

_60 & 61 Victoria, chapter 37._

ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (May-October).

Reassertion of suzerainty over the South African Republic.

Refusal of arbitration.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL):

A. D. 1897 (MAY-OCTOBER); and 1898-1899.

{208}

ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (June).

The "Diamond Jubilee" of Queen Victoria.

The sixtieth anniversary of the coronation of Queen Victoria

was celebrated in London on the 20th of June, by religious

services of great solemnity and impressiveness, and, two days

later, by pageants of extraordinary pomp and magnificence, in

which representatives of every people who acknowledge the

queen's supremacy bore a part. Numerous functions and

ceremonies followed, to many of which the aged sovereign was

able to lend her presence. At the end of all, on the 15th of

July, she addressed the following letter to the millions of

her subjects throughout the world: "I have frequently

expressed my personal feelings to my people, and though on

this memorable occasion there have been many official

expressions of my deep sense of the unbounded loyalty evinced

I cannot rest satisfied without personally giving utterance to

these sentiments. It is difficult for me on this occasion to

say how truly touched and grateful I am for the spontaneous

and universal outburst of loyal attachment and real affection

which I have experienced on the completion of the sixtieth

year of my reign. During my progress through London on the

22nd of June this great enthusiasm was shown in the most

striking manner, and can never be effaced from my heart. It is

indeed deeply gratifying, after so many years of labour and

anxiety for the good of my beloved country, to find that my

exertions have been appreciated throughout my vast empire. In

weal and woe I have ever had the true sympathy of all my

people, which has been warmly reciprocated by myself. It has

given me unbounded pleasure to see so many of my subjects from

all parts of the world assembled here, and to find them

joining in the acclamations of loyal devotion to myself, and I

would wish to thank them all from the depth of my grateful

heart. I shall ever pray God to bless them and to enable me

still to discharge my duties for their welfare as long as life

lasts.

VICTORIA, R. I."

ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (June-July).

Conference of colonial premiers with the Secretary of

State for the Colonies.

Discussion of important questions.

Denunciation of commercial treaties with Germany and Belgium.

"On Thursday, the 24th of June, the Prime Ministers of Canada,

New South Wales, Victoria, New Zealand, Queensland, Cape

Colony, South Australia, Newfoundland, Tasmania, Western

Australia, and Natal, assembled at the Colonial Office,

Downing Street, for the discussion of certain Imperial

questions with the Secretary of State for the Colonies. It was

decided that the proceedings should be informal and that the

general results only should be published. With the view of

giving a definite direction to the discussion, the Secretary

of State, in opening the proceedings, set forth the subjects

which he considered might usefully be discussed, so as to

secure an interchange of views upon them, and where they were

ripe for a statement of opinion, a definite resolution in

regard to them. [He did so in a speech of some length, after

which the several questions brought forward in his remarks

were discussed in succession at a series of meetings in the

Colonial Office.] The commercial relations of the United

Kingdom and the self-governing Colonies were first considered,

and the following resolutions were unanimously adopted:

1. That the Premiers of the self-governing Colonies

unanimously and earnestly recommend the denunciation, at the

earliest convenient time, of any treaties which now hamper the

commercial relations between Great Britain and her Colonies.

2. That in the hope of improving the trade relations between

the mother country and the Colonies, the Premiers present

undertake to confer with their colleagues with the view to

seeing whether such a result can be properly secured by a

preference given by the Colonies to the products of the United

Kingdom. Her Majesty's Government have already [July 31, 1897]

given effect to the first of these resolutions by formally

notifying to the Governments concerned their wish to terminate

the commercial treaties with Germany and Belgium, which alone

of the existing commercial treaties of the United Kingdom are

a bar to the establishment of preferential tariff relations

between the mother country and the Colonies. From and after

the 30th July 1898, therefore, there will be nothing in any of

Her Majesty's treaty obligations to preclude any action which any

of the Colonies may see fit to take in pursuance of the second

resolution. It is, however, right to point out that if any

Colony were to go farther and to grant preferential terms to

any Foreign Country, the provisions of the most favoured

nation clauses in many treaties between Her Majesty and other

powers, in which the Colonies are included, would necessitate

the concession of similar terms to those countries.

"On the question of the political relations between the mother

country and the self-governing Colonies, the resolutions

adopted were as follows:

1. The Prime Ministers here assembled are of opinion that the

present political relations between the United Kingdom and the

self-governing Colonies are generally satisfactory under the

existing condition of things. Mr. Seddon and Sir E. N. C.

Braddon dissented.

2. They are also of opinion that it is desirable, whenever and

wherever practicable, to group together under a federal union

those colonies which are geographically united. Carried

unanimously.

3. Meanwhile, the Premiers are of opinion that it would be

desirable to hold periodical conferences of representatives of

the Colonies and Great Britain for the discussion of matters

of common interest. Carried unanimously. Mr. Seddon and Sir E.

N. C. Braddon dissented from the first resolution because they

were of opinion that the time had already come when an effort

should be made to render more formal the political ties

between the United Kingdom and the Colonies. The majority of

the Premiers were not yet prepared to adopt this position, but

there was a strong feeling amongst some of them that with the

rapid growth of population in the Colonies, the present

relations could not continue indefinitely, and that some means

would have to be devised for giving the Colonies a voice in

the control and direction of those questions of Imperial

interest in which they are concerned equally with the mother

country. It was recognised at the same time that such a share

in the direction of Imperial policy would involve a

proportionate contribution in aid of Imperial expenditure, for

which at present, at any rate, the Colonies generally are not

prepared.

"On the question of Imperial defence, the various points

raised in the speech of the Secretary of State were fully

discussed;" but on this, and on some questions of minor

importance, no conclusions were definitely formulated.

_Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications

(Papers by Command, C.-8596, 1897)._

{209}

The following reference to the "denunciation" of the treaties

appeared in the "London Statist" of August 7, 1897: "Last week

the British Government gave notice to Germany and Belgium of

its intention to terminate the commercial treaties with those

countries at the end of July next year, at the same time

expressing its willingness to conclude fresh treaties. This

important step is a fitting sequel to the jubilee festivities.

It is a graceful recognition of the great loyalty displayed by

our colonies toward the mother country and prepares the way to

that closer union which this paper has strongly advocated. In

twelve months' time, therefore, we shall be free from our

embarrassing engagements not to permit our colonies to place

higher or other import duties on the produce of Germany and

Belgium than upon the produce of the United Kingdom. Our

colonies will thus have complete freedom to place what duties

they choose on any produce they care to purchase from the

United Kingdom or from any other country, and if they so

desire they may place discriminating duties on their own

exports. The action taken indicates no change in the policy of

this country, and foreign nations need have no fear that

British markets will be closed to their produce. It is quite

possible that at some future time, when the colonies have much

further developed their resources and the struggle for

existence becomes still keener, we may be disposed to give a

greater preference to colonial than to foreign produce, but

that period has not yet come. Of course, the time may be

greatly hastened by the attitude of foreign countries. The

unfriendliness of Germany last year caused a wave of feeling

in this country in favor of a duty upon German goods, and the

Canadian offer of preferential duties to the mother country

has created a responsive desire to assist Canadian trade.

Should our other colonies follow the lead of Canada, which,

from Mr. Chamberlain's statement, appears most likely, a

strong movement might arise for giving them preferential

treatment, especially if, at the same time, Germany, Belgium,

or anyone else were disposed to raise their duties on British

goods."

ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (July-October).

Discussion with American envoys of a bi-metallic agreement.

See (in this volume)

MONETARY QUESTIONS: A. D. 1897 (APRIL-OCTOBER).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (August).

Report on condition and prospects of West India colonies,

and Parliamentary action.

See (in this volume)

WEST INDIES, THE BRITISH: A. D. 1897.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1897-1898.

Campaigns on the Nile.

Anglo-Egyptian conquest of the Sudan.

See (in this volume)

EGYPT: A. D. 1897-1898.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1897-1898.

Insurrections and mutiny in Uganda.

See (in this volume)

UGANDA: A. D. 1897-1898.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1897-1898 (June-April).

Wars on the Afghan frontier of India.

See (in this volume)

INDIA: A. D. 1897-1898.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1897-1898 (July-January).

The great strike and lock-out in the engineering trades.

See (in this volume)

INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES:

A. D. 1897 (GREAT BRITAIN).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1898.

Alleged treaty with Portugal.

See (in this volume)

PORTUGAL: A. D. 1898.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1898.

Results of British occupation of Egypt.

See (in this volume)

EGYPT: A. D. 1898.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1898 (February).

British troops fighting in eight regions of the world.

"We are a people of peaceful traders—shopkeepers, our rivals

of the Continent affirm—and are consequently at war on only

eight points of the globe, with forces which in the aggregate

only just exceed sixty thousand men. There are thirty-five

thousand on the Indian Frontier fighting the clansmen of the

Northern Himalayas, who, according to the Afridi sub-officers

interrogated by Sir Henry Havelock-Allan, are all eager to

enter our service; twenty-five thousand about to defeat the

Khalifa at Omdurman; a thousand doing sentry duty in Crete;

four hundred putting down an outbreak in Mekran; three hundred

crushing a mutiny in Uganda; and some hundreds more restoring

order in Lagos, Borneo, and Basutoland. All these troops,

though of different nationalities—Englishmen, Sikhs, Ghoorkas,

Rajpoots, Malays, Egyptians, Soudanese, Haussas, and Wagandas—

are under British officers, are paid from funds under British

control, and are engaged in the self-same work, that of

solidifying the 'Pax Britannica,' so that a commercial

civilisation may have a fair chance to grow."

_The Spectator (London), February 5, 1898._

ENGLAND: A. D. 1898 (February).

Resentment shown to China for rejection of a loan,

through Russian influence.

Chinese agreement not to alienate the Yang-tsze region

and to open internal waters to steam navigation.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1898 (February-May).

Native revolt in the Sierra Leone Protectorate.

See (in this volume)

SIERRA LEONE PROTECTORATE.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1898 (March-April).

Unsuccessful opposition to Russian lease of Port Arthur

and Talienwan from China.

Compensatory British lease of Wei-hai Wei.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1898 (MARCH-JULY).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1898 (April-August).

Further exactions from China.

Lease of territory opposite Hong Kong, etc.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-AUGUST).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1898 (May).

Death of Mr. Gladstone.

After a long and painful illness, the great statesman and

leader of the Liberal party in England, William Ewart

Gladstone, died on the 19th of May. His death drew tributes in

Parliament from his political opponents which exalted him quite

to the height of great distinction that those who followed him

would claim. It was said by Lord Salisbury that "the most

distinguished political name of the century had been withdrawn

from the roll of Englishmen." Mr. Balfour described him as

"the greatest member of the greatest deliberative assembly

that the world had yet seen": and expressed the belief that

"they would never again have in that assembly any man who

could reproduce what Mr. Gladstone was to his contemporaries."

Lord Rosebery paid an eloquent tribute to the dead statesman.

"This country." he said, "this nation, loves brave men. Mr.

Gladstone was the bravest of the brave. There was no cause so

hopeless that he was afraid to undertake it; there was no

amount of opposition that would cowe him when once he had

undertaken it. My lords, Mr. Gladstone always expressed a hope

that there might be an interval left to him between the end of

his political and of his natural life. That period was given

to him, for it is more than four years since he quitted the

sphere of politics. Those four years have been with him a

special preparation for his death, but have they not also been

a preparation for his death with the nation at large?

{210}

Had he died in the plenitude of his power as Prime Minister,

would it have been possible for a vigorous and convinced

Opposition to allow to pass to him, without a word of dissent,

the honours which are now universally conceded? Hushed for the

moment are the voices of criticism, hushed are the controversies

in which he took part; hushed for the moment is the very sound

of party faction. I venture to think that this is a notable

fact in our history. It was not so with the elder Pitt. It was

not so with the younger Pitt. It was not so with the elder

Pitt, in spite of his tragic end, of his unrivalled services,

and of his enfeebled old age. It was not so with the younger

Pitt, in spite of his long control of the country and his

absolute and absorbed devotion to the State. I think that we

should remember this as creditable not merely to the man, but

to the nation." With the consent of Mrs. Gladstone and family,

a public funeral was voted by Parliament, and the remains of the

great leader were laid, with simple but impressive ceremonies,

in Westminster Abbey, on the 28th of May.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1898 (June).

The Sugar Conference at Brussels.

See (in this volume)

SUGAR BOUNTIES.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1898 (July).

The Local Government Act for Ireland.

See (in this volume)

IRELAND: A. D. 1898 (JULY).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1898 (July-December).

In the Chinese "Battle of Concessions."

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY-DECEMBER).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1898 (September-November).-

The Nile question with France.

Marchand's expedition at Fashoda.

See (in this volume)

EGYPT: A. D. 1898 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1898 (December).

Imperial Penny Postage.

On Christmas Day, 1898, the Imperial penny postage came into

operation,—i. e., it became possible to send for a penny a

letter not above half an ounce in weight to all places in the

British Empire, except the Australasian Colonies and the Cape.

"Thousands of small orders and business transactions and

millions of questions and answers will fly round the world at

a penny which were too heavily weighted at two-pence

halfpenny. The political effect of the fact that it will not

now be necessary to think whether an address is outside the

United Kingdom, but only whether it is inside the British

Empire, will be by no means insignificant. If people will only

let the Empire alone we shall ultimately weave out of many

varied strands—some thick, some thin—a rope to join the

Motherland and the Daughter States which none will be able to

break. Not an unimportant thread in the hawser will

be,—letters for a penny wherever the Union Jack is flown."

_The Spectator (London),

December 31, 1898._

ENGLAND: A. D. 1898-1899.

Joint High Commission for settlement of pending questions

between the United States and Canada.

See (in this volume)

CANADA: A. D. 1898-1899.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1898-1899 (June-June).

Convention with France defining West African and

Sudan possessions.

See (in this volume)

NIGERIA: A. D. 1882-1899.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1899.

Dealings with anti-missionary demonstrations in China.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1899.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1899 (January).

Agreement with Egypt, establishing the Anglo-Egyptian

Condominium in the Sudan.

See (in this volume)

EGYPT: A. D. 1899 (JANUARY).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1899 (March-April).

Agreement with Russia concerning railway interests in China.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1899 (MARCH-APRIL).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1899 (May-June).

The Bloemfontein Conference with President Kruger.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1899 (MAY-JUNE).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1899 (May-July).

Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.

See (in this volume)

PEACE CONFERENCE.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1899 (June-October).

Arbitration and settlement of the Venezuela boundary question.

See (in this volume)

VENEZUELA: A. D. 1896-1899.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1899 (July).

Passage of the London Government Act.

See (in this volume)

LONDON: A. D. 1899.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1899 (July-September).

Discussion of proposed amendments to the Franchise Law

of the South African Republic.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL):

A. D. 1899 (JULY-SEPTEMBER).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1899 (August).

The Board of Education Act.

An Act of Parliament which became law on the 9th of August,

1899, and operative on the 1st of April, 1900, created a

national Board of Education, "charged with the superintendence

of matters relating to education in England and Wales," and

taking the place of the Committee of the Privy Council on

Education, by which that function had previously been

performed. The Act provided that the Board "shall consist of a

President, and of the Lord President of the Council (unless he

is appointed President of the Board), Her Majesty's Principal

Secretaries of State, the First Commissioner of Her Majesty's

Treasury, and the Chancellor of Her Majesty's Exchequer. … The

President of the Board shall be appointed by Her Majesty, and

shall hold office during Her Majesty's pleasure." The Act

provided further for the creation by Her Majesty in Council of

"a Consultative Committee consisting, as to not less than

two-thirds, of persons qualified to represent the views of

Universities and other bodies interested in education, for the

purpose of—(a) framing, with the approval of the Board of

Education, regulations for a register of teachers, … with an

entry in respect to each teacher showing the date of his

registration, and giving a brief record of his qualifications

and experience; and (b) advising the Board of Education on any

matter referred to the committee by the Board."

_62 & 63 Victoria, chapter 33._

ENGLAND: A. D. 1899 (August).

Instructions to the Governor of Jamaica.

See (in this volume) JAMAICA: A. D. 1899.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1899 (September-October).

Preparations for war in South Africa.

The Boer Ultimatum.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL AND ORANGE FREE STATE):

A. D. 1899 (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1899 (October-November).

Opening circumstances of the war in South Africa.

Want of preparation.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):

A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-NOVEMBER).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1899 (November).

Adhesion to the arrangement of an "open door" commercial

policy in China.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1899-1900 (SEPTEMBER-FEBRUARY).

{211}

ENGLAND: A. D. 1899 (November).

Withdrawal from the Samoan Islands, with compensations in the

Tonga and Solomon Islands and in Africa.

See (in this volume)

SAMOAN ISLANDS.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1899-1900.

Renewed investigation of the Old-Age Pension question.

On the initiative of the government, a fresh investigation of

the question of old-age pensions was opened in 1899 by a

select committee of the House of Commons, under the

chairmanship of Mr. Chaplin. The report of the Committee, made

in the following year, suggested the following plan: Any

person, aged 65, whether man or woman, who satisfied the

pension authority that he or she"

(1) Is a British subject;

(2) Is 65 years of age;

(3) Has not within the last 20 years been convicted of an

offence and sentenced to penal servitude or imprisonment

without the option of a fine;

(4) Has not received poor relief, other than medical relief,

unless under circumstances of a wholly exceptional character,

during twenty years prior to the application for a pension;

(5) Is resident within the district of the pension authority;

(6) Has not an income from any source of more than 10s. a

week; and

(7) Has endeavoured to the best of his ability, by his

industry or by the exercise of reasonable providence, to make

provision for himself and those immediately dependent on

him—"should receive a certificate to that effect and be

entitled to a pension. The amount of pension to be from 5s. to

7s. a week.

As a means of ascertaining approximately the number of persons

in the United Kingdom who would be pensionable under this

scheme, a test census was taken in certain districts made as

representative as possible by the inclusion of various kinds

of population. In each of the selected areas in Great Britain

a house-to-house visitation was made with a view of

ascertaining how many of the aged would satisfy the conditions

of the scheme. In Ireland a similar census had to be abandoned

as impracticable because "the officials, although they

proceeded courteously, were received with abuse"; but the Poor

Law inspectors framed some rough estimates after consultation

with local authorities. Altogether the inquiry in Great

Britain extended to a population of rather over half a million

persons. From facts thus obtained the following estimate of

the cost of the proposed pensioning project was deduced:

Estimated number of persons

over 65 years of age in 1901 2,016,000

Deduct:

1. For those whose incomes exceed 10s. a week 741,000

2. For paupers 515,000

3. For aliens, criminals, and lunatics 32,000

4. For inability to comply with thrift test 72,700

Total deductions 1,360,700

Estimated number of pensionable persons 655,000

Estimated cost (the average pension being

taken at 6s. a week) £9,976,000

Add administrative expenses (3 per cent.) £299,000

Total estimated cost. £10,275,000

In round figures. £10,300,000

The Committee estimated, still further, that the cost would

rise to £15,650,000 by 1921. No legislative action was taken

on the report.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1899-1900 (October-January).

Troops from Canada for the South African War.

See (in this volume)

CANADA: A. D. 1899-1900.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1899-1901.

The Newfoundland French Shore question.

See (in this volume)

NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1899-1901.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1900.

Industrial combinations.

See (in this volume)

TRUSTS: IN ENGLAND.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1900.

Naval strength.

See (in this volume)

NAVIES OF THE SEA POWERS.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1900 (January-March).

The outbreak of the "Boxers" in northern China.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY-MARCH).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1900 (February).

Compulsory education.

A bill introduced in Parliament by a private member,

unsupported by the government, providing that the earliest

date at which a child should be permitted to leave school

should be raised from 11 to 12 years, was passed, only one

member of the Cabinet voting for it.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1900 (February).

Negotiation of a convention with the United States relative

to the projected Interoceanic Canal.

See (in this volume)

CANAL, INTEROCEANIC: A. D. 1900 (DECEMBER).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1900 (March).

Overtures of peace from the Boer Presidents.

Reply of Lord Salisbury.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):

A. D. 1900 (MARCH).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1900 (May).

Annexation of Orange Free State by right of conquest.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (ORANGE FREE STATE): A. D. 1900 (MAY).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1900 (June-December).

Co-operation with the Powers in China.

See (in this volume)

CHINA.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1900 (July).

Passage of the "Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act,"

federating the Australian Colonies.

See (in this volume)

AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1900;

and CONSTITUTION OF AUSTRALIA.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1900 (September).

Proclamation of the Commonwealth of Australia.

See (in this volume)

AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1900 (SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1900 (September-October).

Dissolution of Parliament.

Election of a new Parliament.

Victory for the Conservatives and Liberal Unionists.

By royal proclamation, September 17, the existing Parliament

was dissolved and order given for the issue of writs calling a

new Parliament, the elections for which were held in October,

concluding on the 24th of that month. The state of parties in

the House of Commons resulting from the election was as

follows: Conservatives, 334, Liberal Unionists, 68; total

supporters of the Unionist Ministry, 402. Liberals and Labor

members, 186, Nationalists (Irish), 82; total opposition, 268.

Unionist majority, 134, against 128 in the preceding

Parliament. The issues in the election were those growing out

of the South African War. Although most of the Liberals upheld

the war, and the annexation of the South African republics,

they sharply criticised the prior dealings of the Colonial

Secretary, Mr. Chamberlain, with the Transvaal Boers, and the

general conduct of the war. A number of the leading Liberals

were uncompromising in condemnation of the war, of the policy

which caused it, and of the proposed extinction of Boer

independence. The sentiment of the country was shown by the

election to be strongly against all questioning of the

righteousness of the war or of the use to be made of victory

in it.

{212}

ENGLAND: A. D. 1900 (October).

Anglo-German agreement concerning policy in China.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (AUGUST-DECEMBER).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1900 (October).

Annexation of the Transvaal.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL):

A. D. 1900 (OCTOBER).

ENGLAND: A. D. 1900 (November-December).

The Fourth Ministry of Lord Salisbury.

Brief session of Parliament.

For the fourth time, Lord Salisbury was called to the lead in

government, and formed his Ministry anew, making considerable

changes. He relieved himself of the conduct of Foreign Affairs

(which was transferred to the Marquis of Lansdowne), and took,

with the office of Prime Minister, that of Lord Privy Seal. Mr.

Brodrick, who had been an Under Secretary, succeeded Lord

Lansdowne as Secretary of State for War. Mr. Balfour continued

to be First Lord of the Treasury, and Leader of the House; Mr.

Chamberlain remained in the Colonial Office. Mr. Goschen

retired.

Parliament met on the 6th of December, for the purpose set

forth in a remarkably brief "Queen's Speech," as follows: "My

Lords, and Gentlemen, It has become necessary to make further

provision for the expenses incurred by the operations of my

armies in South Africa and China. I have summoned you to hold

a Special Session in order that you may give your sanction to

the enactments required for this purpose. I will not enter

upon other public matters requiring your attention until the

ordinary meeting of Parliament in the spring." The estimates

of the War Office called for £16,000,000, and it was voted

after a few days of debate, in which the causes and conduct of

the war were criticised and defended by the two parties, and,

on the 15th, Parliament was prorogued to the 14th of February,

1901, by the Queen's command.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1900 (December).

Fall of stones at Stonehenge.

See (in this volume)

STONEHENGE.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1900 (December).

Parliamentary statements of the number of men employed in the

South African War, and the number dead and disabled.

In the House of Commons, December 11, Mr. Brodrick, Secretary

of State for War, moved a vote of £16,000,000, required for

the current year, to meet additional expenditure in South

Africa and China. In the course of his remarks, explanatory of

the need for this supplementary supply, he made the following

statement: "When the war broke out we had in South Africa in

round figures 10,000 men, all Regular troops. We have in the

14 months' which have since elapsed sent from this country and

landed in South Africa 175,000 Regular soldiers, a number which

exceeds by far any number which any Minister from this bench

or any gentleman sitting behind these benches or in front of

them ever suggested that this country ought to be in a

position to ship to any part of the world, and a number far in

excess of that which during any period that I have sat in the

house any member of the House, except an official, would have

been willing to believe that the War Office could find to

dispose of. But they are not the only troops. We have called

on them, I will not say to the extreme limit of our power,

but, at all events, with an unsparing hand. But you have in

addition, as this return will show, some 40,000 Volunteers of

various descriptions from the United Kingdom—40,000 including

the Imperial Yeomanry, whose service is spoken of by every

officer under whom they have served with such satisfaction; 30

Militia regiments, who are also Volunteers, since their term

of service was only for the United Kingdom and who have gone

abroad at great personal sacrifice to themselves; and the

volunteer companies who have joined the Regular battalions.

You have also got 40,000 colonial troops, to a large extent,

no doubt, men raised in the colonies affected, and as

everybody knows to a still larger extent consisting of men who

have gone for a year from Australia, Canada, and other

places."

Sir William Harcourt replied to Mr. Brodrick, not in

opposition to the motion, but in criticism of the conduct of

the war. Referring to a return submitted by the War Office, he

analyzed its showing of facts, thus: "Now just let us look at

this table. By some accident it only gives the rank and file

and non-commissioned officers. It is a very terrible return,

and I think it is worthy of the attention of the men who

delight in war, of whom, I am afraid, there are unhappily not

a few. I have made a short analysis of the paper. It shows

that the garrison at the Cape before the war was 9,600.

Reinforcements of 6,300 men were sent out in October last year

and from India 5,600, which with the former garrison made up

21,000 in all when the war broke out. Up to August, that is,

after the last estimate for 1900, according to this table

267,000 men had been in arms in South Africa—that is without

the officers. Therefore I will call it 270,000 men in round

numbers. I think the right honourable gentleman made a mistake

when he said that the colonial troops were more numerous from

beyond the seas than they were in the Cape. This return shows

that the men raised in South Africa were 30,000, and, apart

from them, the colonials from beyond the seas were 11,000.

According to the last return there were 210,000 men in South

Africa. You will observe there is a balance of some 60,000 or

70,000 men. What has become of those men? You would find from

this return, one would suppose, that a good many of these have

returned safe and sound to England. No, Sir; the men who have

returned to England according to this paper, not invalids, are

7,500 and to the colonies 3,000 more. That makes 10,000 men,

or with the officers about 11,000 men. But since July you have

sent out 13,000 men to South Africa, more, in fact, than you

have been bringing home, and yet you have only 210,000 men

there. Now, Sir, how is this accounted for? First of all you

have the heading, 'killed or died of wounds,' 11,000 men. You

have 'wounded,' 13,000, you have 'in hospital in South

Africa,' 12,000, and you have 'returned to England, sick,

wounded, or died on passage,' 36,000 men. That is the balance.

Seventy thousand men have been killed, wounded, or disabled,

or have died in this war. And now what is the prospect that is

held before us with this force, once 270,000 men, and now

210,000, in South Africa? Lord Roberts has declared that the

war is over, yet you hold out to us no prospect of diminishing

the force you have in South Africa of 210,000 men."

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ENGLAND: A. D. 1901 (January).

Death of Queen Victoria.

The following notice, which appeared in the "Court Circular,"

on the 18th of January, dated from the winter residence of the

Queen at Osborne House, in the Isle of Wight, seems to have

been the first intimation to the country of its sovereign's

failing health: "The Queen has not lately been in her usual

health and is unable for the present to take her customary

drives. The Queen during the past year has had a great strain

upon her powers, which has rather told upon her Majesty's

nervous system. It has, therefore, been thought advisable by

her Majesty's physicians that the Queen should be kept

perfectly quiet in the house and should abstain for the

present from transacting business." It was subsequently found,

as stated in an "authoritative account" by the "British

Medical Journal," and the "Lancet," that "the Queen's health

for the past 12 months had been failing, with symptoms mainly

of a dyspeptic kind, accompanied by impaired general

nutrition, periods of insomnia, and later by occasional slight

and transitory attacks of aphasia, the latter suggesting that

the cerebral vessels had become damaged, although her

Majesty's general arterial system showed remarkably few signs

of age. … The dyspepsia which tended to lower her Majesty's

original robust constitution was especially marked during her

last visit to Balmoral. It was there that the Queen first

manifested distinct symptoms of brain fatigue and lost notably

in weight. These symptoms continued at Windsor, where in November

and December, 1900, slight aphasic symptoms were first

observed, always of an ephemeral kind, and unattended by any

motor paralysis. … A few days before the final illness

transient but recurring symptoms of apathy and somnolence,

with aphasic indications and increasing feebleness, gave great

uneasiness to her physician." Before the publication of the

cautious announcement quoted above, the symptoms had become

too grave to leave any doubt as to the near approach of death.

It came on Tuesday, the 22d of January, at half past six

o'clock in the evening, the dying Queen being then surrounded

by a large number of her many children, grandchildren and

great grandchildren, whom she recognized, it is said, within a

few moments of the end. The eldest of the Queen's children,

the Empress Frederick, was kept from her mother's side a this

last hour by serious illness of her own; but the Emperor

William, of Germany (son of the Empress Frederick and eldest

grandson of Queen Victoria) had hastened to the scene and

showed a filial affection which touched English hearts.

On Friday, the first day of February, the remains of the Queen

were borne from the island where she died to Portsmouth, between

long lines of battle-ships and cruisers—British, German,

French, Italian, Japanese, Belgian and Portuguese. The scene

of the funeral voyage was impressively described by a

correspondent of the New York "Sun," as follows: "Nature was

never kindlier. The smiling waters of the Solent were as calm

as on a summer's morning. It was 'Queen's weather' to the very

last. The cavalcade which wended slowly through the narrow

lane, green even in midwinter, down through the streets of the

little town of Cowes to the Trinity pier was a funeral

procession such as the world had never seen before. Kings and

princes, a Queen and princesses, walked humbly between black

lines of mourning islanders, escorting the coffin of the dead

sovereign. Then followed a sight far more notable and more

impressive, indeed, than the great tribute the great capital

of the empire will pay to-morrow. It was the transit of the

funeral yacht across the waters between lines of steel which

are England's bulwarks against the world. Battleship after

battleship thundered its grief, band after band wailed its

dirge and crew after crew bowed low their heads as the pigmy

yacht swept past, bearing no passengers save an admiral on the

bridge and four red-coated guards at the corners of the

simple, glowing white bier resting amidships. It was a picture

neither a painter's brush nor an orator's eloquence could

reproduce. … The boat slowly glided on in the mellow light of

the afternoon sun, herself almost golden in hue, sharply

contrasting with the black warships. The ears also were

assailed in strange contrast, the sad strains of Beethoven's

funeral march floating over the water being punctuated by the

roar of minute guns from each ship. Somehow it was not

incongruous and one felt that it was all a great and majestic

tribute to a reign which was an era and to a sovereign to whom

the world pays its highest honors."

On the following day the remains were conveyed by railway from

Portsmouth to London, carried in solemn procession through the

streets of the capital, and thence by railway to Windsor,

where the last rites were performed on Monday, the 4th. The

Queen was then laid to rest, by the side of her husband, in

the mausoleum which she had built at Frogmore.

Of the sincerity with which Queen Victoria had been loved by

her own people and respected and admired by the world at

large, and of the genuineness of sorrow that was manifested

everywhere at her death, there can be no doubt. To the

impressiveness of the ending of an unexampled period of

history there was added a true sense of loss, from the

disappearance of a greatly important personage, whose high

example had been pure and whose large influence had been good.

Among all the tributes to the Queen that were called out by

her death none seem so significant and so fully drawn from

knowledge of what she was in her regal character, as the words

that were spoken by Lord Salisbury in the House of Lords, at

the meeting of Parliament on the Friday following her death.

"My lords." he said, "the late Queen had so many titles to our

admiration that it would occupy an enormous time to glance at

them even perfunctorily; but that on which I think your

lordships should most reflect, and which will chiefly attach

to her character in history, is that, being a constitutional

monarch with restricted powers, she reigned by sheer force of

character, by the lovableness of her disposition, over the

hearts of her subjects, and exercised an influence in moulding

their character and destiny which she could not have done more

if she had bad the most despotic power. She has been a great

instance of government by example, by esteem, by love; and it

will never be forgotten how much she has done for the

elevation of her people, not by the exercise of any

prerogative, not by the giving of any commands, but by the

simple recognition and contemplation of the brilliant

qualities which she has exhibited in her exalted position. My

lords, it may be, perhaps, proper that those who, like noble

lords opposite and myself, have had the opportunity of seeing

the close workings of her character in the discharge of her

duties as Sovereign, should take this opportunity of

testifying to the great admiration she inspired and the great

force which her distinguishing characteristics exercised over

all who came near her.

{214}

The position of a Constitutional Sovereign is not an easy one.

Duties have to be reconciled which sometimes seem far apart.

Much has to be accepted which it may not be always pleasant to

accept; but she showed a wonderful power, on the one hand, of

observing with the most absolute strictness, the limits of her

action which the Constitution draws, and, on the other hand, of

maintaining a steady and persistent influence on the action of

her Ministers in the course of legislation and government

which no one could mistake. She was able to accept some things

of which, perhaps, she did not entirely approve, but which she

thought it her duty in her position to accept.

"She always maintained and practised a rigorous supervision

over public affairs, giving to her Ministers her frank advice

and warning them of danger if she saw there was danger ahead;

and she certainly impressed many of us with a profound sense

of the penetration, almost intuition, with which she saw the

perils with which we might be threatened in any course it was

thought expedient to adopt. She left upon my mind, she left

upon our minds, the conviction that it was always a dangerous

matter to press on her any course of the expediency of which

she was not thoroughly convinced; and I may say with

confidence that no Minister in her long reign ever disregarded

her advice, or pressed her to disregard it, without afterwards

feeling that he had incurred a dangerous responsibility. She

had an extraordinary knowledge of what her people would think.

I have said for years that I always thought that when I knew

what the Queen thought I knew certainly what view her subjects

would take, and especially the middle classes of her subjects.

Such was the extraordinary penetration of her mind. Yet she

never adhered to her own conceptions obstinately. On the

contrary, she was full of concession and consideration; and

she spared no effort—I might almost say she shrank from no

sacrifice—to make the task of conducting this difficult

Government more easy to her advisers than it would otherwise

have been. My lords, I feel sure that the testimony I have

borne will be abundantly sustained by all those who have been

called to serve her.

"We owe her gratitude in every direction—for her influence in

elevating the people, for her power with foreign Courts and

Sovereigns to remove difficulties and misapprehension which

sometimes might have been dangerous; but, above all things, I

think, we owe her gratitude for this, that by a happy

dispensation her reign has coincided with that great change

which has come over the political structure of this country

and the political instincts of its people. She has bridged

over that great interval which separates old England from new

England. Other nations may have had to pass through similar

trials, but have seldom passed through them so peaceably, so

easily, and with so much prosperity and success as we have. I

think that future historians will look to the Queen's reign as

the boundary which separates the two states of England—England

which has changed so much—and recognize that we have undergone

the change with constant increase of public prosperity,

without any friction to endanger the peace or stability of our

civil life, and at the same time with a constant expansion of

an Empire which every year grows more and more powerful. We

owe all these blessings to the tact, the wisdom, the

passionate patriotism, and the incomparable judgment of the

Sovereign whom we deplore." [sic]

In the House of Commons, on the same day, Mr. Balfour, the

leader of the House, spoke with fine feeling, partly as

follows: "The reign of Queen Victoria is no mere chronological

landmark. It is no mere convenient division of time, useful

for the historian or the chronicler. No, Sir, we feel as we do

feel for our great loss because we intimately associate the

personality of Queen Victoria with the great succession of

events which have filled her reign and with the development of

the Empire over which she ruled. And, associating her

personality with those events, surely we do well. In my

judgment, the importance of the Crown in our Constitution is

not a diminishing, but an increasing, factor. It is

increasing, and must increase, with the growth and development

of those free, self-governing communities, those new

commonwealths beyond the sea, who are bound to us by the

person of the Sovereign, who is the living symbol of the unity

of the Empire. But, Sir, it is not given, it cannot, in

ordinary course, be given, to a Constitutional Monarch to

signalize his reign by any great isolated action. The effect

of a Constitutional Sovereign, great as it is, is produced by

the slow, constant, and cumulative results of a great ideal

and a great example; and of that great ideal and that great

example Queen Victoria surely was the first of all

Constitutional Monarchs whom the world has yet seen. Where

shall we find that ideal so lofty in itself, so constantly and

consistently maintained, through two generations, through more

than two generations, of her subjects, through many

generations of her public men and members of this House?

[Image: Descendants of Queen Victoria.]

"Sir, it would be almost impertinent for me were I to attempt

to express to the House in words the effect which the

character of our late Sovereign produced upon all who were in

any degree, however remote, brought in contact with her. The

simple dignity, befitting a Monarch of this realm, in that she

could never fail, because it arose from her inherent sense of

the fitness of things. It was no trapping put on for office,

and therefore it was that this dignity, this Queenly dignity,

only served to throw into stronger relief and into a brighter

light those admirable virtues of the wife, the mother, and the

woman with which she was so richly endowed. Those kindly

graces, those admirable qualities, have endeared her to every

class in the community, and are known to all. Perhaps less

known was the life of continuous labour which her position as

Queen threw upon her. Short as was the interval between the

last trembling signature affixed to a public document and

final rest, it was yet long enough to clog and hamper the

wheels of administration; and I remember when I saw a vast

mass of untouched documents which awaited the hand of the

Sovereign of this country to deal with it was brought vividly

before my mind how admirable was the unostentatious patience

with which for 63 years, through sorrow, through suffering, in

moments of weariness, in moments of despondency, it may be,

she carried on without intermission her share in the

government of this great Empire.

{216}

For her there was no holiday, to her there was no intermission

of toil. Domestic sorrow, domestic sickness, made no difference

in her labours, and they were continued from the hour at which

she became our Sovereign to within a very few days of her

death. It is easy to chronicle the growth of Empire, the

progress of trade, the triumphs of war, all the events that

make history interesting or exciting; but who is there that

will dare to weigh in the balance the effect which such an

example continued over 63 years has produced on the highest

life of the people? It is a great life, and had a fortunate,

and, let me say, in my judgment, a happy ending."

The especial and peculiar importance which Queen Victoria had

acquired in the political world, and the weight in its

councils which England owed to her personality, were

impressively suggested by Lord Rosebery, in a speech which he

made at a special court of the Governors of the Corporation of

the Royal Scottish Hospital, when he said: "We hear much in

these days of the life of the Queen and of what we owe her.

But I sometimes wonder if we all realize how much we do owe

her, for you would have had to know much about the Queen to

realize adequately the debt which the nation was under to her.

Probably every subject in Great Britain realizes that he has

lost his greatest and his best friend. But they do not

understand of what enormous weight in the councils of the

world we are deprived by the death of our late Sovereign. She

gave to the councils of Great Britain an advantage which no

talents, no brilliancy, no genius, could supply. Think of what

her reign was! She had reigned for 63 years. For 63 years she

had known all that was to be known about the political

condition of her country. For 63 years she had been in

communication with every important Minister and with every

important public man. She had received reports, daily reports

almost, from her successive Ministers, or their deputies in

the House of Commons. She had, therefore, a fund of knowledge

which no constitutional historian has ever had at his command.

That by the stroke of death is lost to us to-day. All that was of

incalculable advantage to our Monarchy. But have you realized

what the personal weight of the late Queen was in the councils

of the world? She was by far the senior of all the European

Sovereigns. She was, it is no disparagement to other Kings to

say, the chief of all the European Sovereigns. The German

Emperor was her grandson by birth. The Emperor of Russia was

her grandson by marriage. She had reigned 11 years when the

Emperor of Austria came to his throne. She had seen two

dynasties pass from the throne of France. She had seen, as

Queen, three Monarchs of Spain, and four Sovereigns of the

House of Savoy in Italy. In all those kingdoms which have been

carved out of the Turkish Empire she had seen the foundation

of their reigning dynasties. Can we not realize, then, what a

force the personal influence of such a Sovereign was in the

troubled councils of Europe? And when, as we know, that

influence was always given for peace, for freedom, and for

good government, we feel that not merely ourselves but all the

world has lost one of its best friends."

A statement in the "London Times" of January 26 shows the

descendants of Queen Victoria to be in number as follows: "The

Queen has had

9 children of whom 6 survive

40 grandchildren of whom 31 survive

37 great-grandchildren of whom 37 survive

[A total of] 86 [of whom] 74 [survive].

"Of the great-grandchildren 22 are boys and 15 are girls; 6

are grandchildren of the Prince of Wales; 18 are grandchildren

of the Empress Frederick; 11 are grandchildren of the late

Princess Alice; 6 are grandchildren of the late Duke of

Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. This would appear to make a total of

41, but three of them are grandchildren of both the Empress

Frederick and Princess Alice, while one is grandchild of both

the Princess Alice and the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

"It will be seen that in the course of nature the future

rulers of Great Britain, Germany, Russia, Greece, and Rumania

will be descendants of her Majesty."

ENGLAND: A. D. 1901 (January-February).

Ceremonies of the accession of King Edward VII.

His speech in Council and his messages to the people

of the British Empire.

On Wednesday, the 23d of January—the day following the death

of the Queen—her eldest son, Albert Edward, long known as

Prince of Wales, went from Osborne to London to take up the

sceptre of sovereignty which his mother had laid down. The

proceedings in Council which took place thereupon were

officially reported in the "London Gazette" as follows:

"At the Court at Saint James's, the 23rd day of January, 1901.

Present,

"The King's Most Excellent Majesty in Council. His Majesty

being this day present in Council was pleased to make the

following Declaration:

"'Your Royal Highnesses, My Lords, and Gentlemen, This is the

most painful occasion on which I shall ever be called upon to

address you. My first and melancholy duty is to announce to

you the death of My beloved Mother the Queen, and I know how

deeply you, the whole Nation, and I think I may say the whole

world, sympathize with Me in the irreparable loss we have all

sustained. I need hardly say that My constant endeavour will

be always to walk in Her footsteps. In undertaking the heavy

load which now devolves upon life, I am fully determined to be

a Constitutional Sovereign in the strictest sense of the word,

and as long as there is breath in My body to work for the good

and amelioration of My people.

"'I have resolved to be known by the name of Edward, which has

been borne by six of My ancestors. In doing so I do not

undervalue the name of Albert, which I inherit from My ever to

be lamented, great and wise Father, who by universal consent is I

think deservedly known by the name of Albert the Good, and I

desire that his name should stand alone.

"'In conclusion, I trust to Parliament and the Nation to

support Me in the arduous duties which now devolve upon Me by

inheritance, and to which I am determined to devote My whole

strength during the remainder of My life.'

"Whereupon the Lords of the Council made it their humble

request to His Majesty that His Majesty's Most Gracious

Declaration to their Lordships' might be made public, which

His Majesty was pleased to Order accordingly."

{217}

The King then "caused all the Lords and others of the late

Queen's Privy Council, who were then present, to be sworn of

His Majesty's Privy Council." Orders had been previously given

for proclaiming "His present Majesty," in the following form:

"Whereas it has pleased Almighty God to call to His Mercy Our

late Sovereign Lady Queen Victoria, of Blessed and Glorious

Memory, by whose Decease the Imperial Crown of the United

Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland is solely and rightfully

come to the High and Mighty Prince Albert Edward: We,

therefore, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of this Realm,

being here assisted with these of Her late Majesty's Privy

Council, with Numbers of other Principal Gentlemen of Quality,

with the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Citizens of London, do now

hereby, with one Voice and Consent of Tongue and Heart,

publish and proclaim, That the High and Mighty Prince, Albert

Edward, is now, by the Death of our late Sovereign of Happy

Memory, become our only lawful and rightful Liege Lord Edward

the Seventh, by the Grace of God, King of the United Kingdom

of Great Britain and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, Emperor

of India: To whom we do acknowledge all Faith and constant

Obedience, with all hearty and humble Affection; beseeching

God, by whom Kings and Queens do reign, to bless the Royal

Prince Edward the Seventh, with long and happy Years to reign

over Us."

The proclamation was made in London, with antique and

picturesque ceremony on the succeeding day, January 24, and

the following official report of it, from "Earl Marshal's

Office," published in the "London Gazette":

"This day His Most Gracious Majesty King Edward VII. was, in

pursuance of an Order in Council of the 23rd instant,

proclaimed with the usual ceremonies. At 9 o'clock in the

forenoon, the Officers of Arms habited in their tabards, the

Serjeants-at-Arms, with their maces and collars; and

Deputy-Serjeant Trumpeter in his collar; the Trumpeters, Drum

Major, and Knight Marshalmen being assembled at St James's

Palace, the Proclamation was read in the Grand Court by

William H. Weldon, Esq., Norroy King of Arms, Deputy to Sir

Albert W. Woods, Garter Principal King of Arms, in the

presence of the Earl Marshal of England, the Lord Steward, the

Lord Chamberlain, the Master of the Horse, and many other Members

of Her late Majesty's Household, with Lords and others of the

Privy Council and several personages of distinction. Deputy

Garter read the Proclamation. Then the Officers of Arms having

entered Royal Carriages, a procession was formed in the

following order:

The High Bailiff of Westminster, in his carriage.

Horse Guards.

Trumpeters.

A Royal Carriage containing The four Serjeants-at-Arms,

bearing their maces.

A Royal Carriage containing Pursuivants.

Rouge Dragon: Everard Green.

Bluemantle: G. Ambrose Lee.

Rouge Croix: G. W. Marshall.

Heralds.

Windsor: W. A. Lindsay, Esq.

York: A. S. Scott-Gatty, Esq.

Somerset: H. Farnham Burke, Esq., in a Royal Carriage.

A Detachment of Horse Guards.

"The Procession, flanked by the Horse Guards, moved from St.

James's Palace to Temple Bar, and Rouge Dragon Pursuivant of

Arms, alighting from the carriage, advanced between two

trumpeters, preceded by two of the Horse Guards, to the

barrier, and after the trumpets had sounded thrice, demanded

in the usual form admission into the City to proclaim His

Royal Majesty King Edward VII.; and being admitted, and the

barrier again closed, Rouge Dragon was conducted by the City

Marshal and his Officers to the Lord Mayor, who was in

attendance in his State Carriage, when Rouge Dragon delivered

to his Lordship the Order in Council, which the Lord Mayor,

having read, returned, and directed the barrier to be opened;

and Rouge Dragon being reconducted to his place in the

Procession it then moved into the City; the High Bailiff of

Westminster filing off at Temple Bar.

"At the corner of Chancery-lane York Herald read the

Proclamation; then the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, Recorder,

Sheriffs, Chamberlain, Common Serjeant, Town Clerk, and City

Officers fell into the procession immediately after the

Officers of Arms, and the procession moved on to the Royal

Exchange, where it was lastly read by Somerset Herald, when

the guns in St. James's Park and at the Tower of London were

fired. A multitude of spectators filled the streets through

which the procession passed, the windows of which were

crowded; and the acclamations were loud and general."

As described more fully by the "London Times," the interesting

proceeding, according to ancient custom, at Temple Bar—the

site of the old city gate—was as follows: "Temple Bar has

passed away, but not so the privileges associated with it,

although they have ceased to have more than an historical,

ceremonial, and picturesque interest. In accordance,

therefore, with ancient custom, the Lord Mayor yesterday

proceeded in State to the site of Temple Bar to grant entrance

to the King's Officer of Arms, who was about to proclaim his

Majesty King within the City. The gates of Temple Bar were

formerly closed for a short time before this ceremony, to be

opened, upon demand of the Officer of Arms, by the direction

of the Lord Mayor. As there are now no gates, a barrier was

made for the occasion by the holding of a red silken rope

across the street on either side of the Griffin which

commemorates the spot upon which Temple Bar formerly stood. A

strong force of burly constables was entrusted with this duty,

and the barrier thus created answered every practical purpose,

although there must have been lingering in the minds of some

of the venerable City Fathers some little regret that stern

necessity had occasioned the removal of the historic landmark

which stood there when Queen Victoria was proclaimed and

remained for many a long year afterwards, one of the most

interesting features of the ancient City.

{218}

"The Pursuivant (Rouge Dragon), the heralds, the officials of

Westminster, and the cavalcade halted a short distance to the

west of the barrier, and the Pursuivant then advanced between

two trumpeters, and the trumpets sounded thrice. Upon this the

City Marshal, on horseback, in scarlet tunic and cocked hat

with plumes, advanced to the barrier to meet the Pursuivant,

and in a loud voice, which could be heard by those at a

considerable distance, asked, 'Who comes there?' The

Pursuivant replied, 'The Officer of Arms, who demands entrance

into the City to proclaim his Royal Majesty, Edward the

Seventh.' Thereupon the barrier was opened so as to admit the

Pursuivant without escort, and immediately closed again. The

Pursuivant was then conducted by the City Marshal to the Lord

Mayor, who, being made acquainted with the object of the

Pursuivant's visit, directed the opening of the barrier, and

the Pursuivant returned to his cavalcade. There was a fanfare

of trumpets, and York Herald, Mr. A. S. Scott-Gatty, between

two trumpeters, approached the Lord Mayor, and presented to

his lordship the Order in Council requiring him to proclaim

his Majesty. The Lord Mayor replied:

'I am aware of the contents of this paper, having been

apprised yesterday of the ceremony appointed to take place,

and I have attended to perform my duty in accordance with

ancient usages and customs of the City of London.'

"The Lord Mayor then read aloud the Order in Council requiring

the herald to proclaim his Majesty within the jurisdiction of

the City, and returned it to the herald. … The trumpets

sounded and, the officials of Westminster having filed off,

the cavalcade advanced into the City as far as the corner of

Chancery-lane. There was another fanfare of trumpets, and the

herald then made the proclamation, reading it with admirable

clearness. When it was over the spectators, who had listened

with bared heads, cried 'God Save the King.' The trumpets were

again sounded, and a military band stationed to the west of

Temple Bar played the National Anthem. This was followed by

cheering, which lasted while the Lord Mayor and his retinue

resumed their places in the carriages which had brought them,

and the procession made its way to the Royal Exchange, the

route being down Fleet-street, up Ludgate-hill, through St.

Paul's Churchyard, and along Cheapside.

"Thus ended a ceremony which impressed all who saw it by its

solemnity, its dignity, and its significance. It brought home

vividly to the mind of every spectator the continuity which

exists amid all the changes of our national life, and the very

strangeness of the quaint heraldic garb worn by the heralds

and pursuivants, which at another time might have provoked a

smile, was felt to be an object-lesson for all, telling of

unbroken tradition reaching far back into the glorious history

of our country. On turning away from the site of Temple Bar

after the Proclamation had been made and the procession had

disappeared, one felt that the seriousness of the occasion had

impressed itself on every mind and that from every heart there

rose a common prayer—God Save the King!"

With somewhat less ceremony, on the same day, the same

proclamation was read in many parts of the United Kingdom.

On Friday, the 25th, both Houses of Parliament met (the

members having, one by one, taken the oath of allegiance to

the new sovereign on the two preceding days) to receive a

message from the King and to adopt an address in reply. The

royal message was as follows: "The King is fully assured that

the House of Commons will share in the deep sorrow which has

befallen his Majesty and the nation by the lamented death of

his Majesty's mother, the late Queen. Her devotion to the

welfare of her country and her people and her wise and

beneficent rule during the sixty-four years of her glorious

reign will ever be held in affectionate remembrance by her

loyal and devoted subjects throughout the dominions of the

British Empire."

The Marquis of Salisbury, in the House of Lords, and Mr.

Balfour, in the House of Commons, moved the following

Address, in speeches from which some passages have been quoted

above:

"That an humble Address be presented to his Majesty to assure

his Majesty that this House deeply sympathizes in the great

sorrow which his Majesty has sustained by the death of our

beloved Sovereign, the late Queen, whose unfailing devotion to

the duties of her high estate and to the welfare of her people

will ever cause her reign to be remembered with reverence and

affection; to submit to his Majesty our respectful

congratulations on his accession to the Throne; to assure his

Majesty of our loyal attachment to his person; and, further,

to assure him of our earnest conviction that his reign will be

distinguished under the blessing of Providence by an anxious

desire to maintain the laws of the kingdom and to promote the

happiness, the welfare, and the liberty of his subjects."

Speeches in support of the motion were made by the leaders of

the Opposition party, the Earl of Kimberley, in the House of

Lords, and Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman, in the House of Commons,

and by the Archbishop of Canterbury, also, in the former

chamber. The Address was then adopted, and Parliament was

adjourned until February 14. On the 4th of February, the new

King addressed the following messages to his subjects in the

British Empire at large, to the Colonies, and to the princes

and people of India:

"To My People. Now that the last Scene has closed in the noble

and ever glorious life of My beloved Mother, The Queen, I am

anxious to endeavour to convey to the whole Empire the extent

of the deep gratitude I feel for the heart-stirring and

affectionate tributes which are everywhere borne to Her

Memory. I wish also to express My warm recognition of those

universal expressions of what I know to be genuine and loyal

sympathy with Me and with the Royal Family in our overwhelming

sorrow. Such expressions have reached Me from all parts of My

vast Empire, while at home the sorrowful, reverent and sincere

enthusiasm manifested in the magnificent display by sea and

land has deeply touched Me. The consciousness of this generous

spirit of devotion and loyalty among the millions of My Subjects

and of the feeling that we are all sharing a common sorrow,

has inspired Me with courage and hope during the past most

trying and momentous days. Encouraged by the confidence of

that love and trust which the nation ever reposed in its late

and fondly mourned Sovereign, I shall earnestly strive to walk

in Her Footsteps, devoting Myself to the utmost of My powers

to maintaining and promoting the highest interests of My

People, and to the diligent and zealous fulfilment of the

great and sacred responsibilities which, through the Will of

God, I am now called to undertake.

EDWARD, R. I."

{219}

"To My People Beyond the Seas. The countless messages of loyal

sympathy which I have received from every part of My Dominions

over the Seas testify to the universal grief in which the

whole Empire now mourns the loss of My Beloved Mother. In the

welfare and prosperity of Her subjects throughout Greater

Britain the Queen ever evinced a heartfelt, interest. She saw

with thankfulness the steady progress which, under a wide

extension of Self-Government, they had made during Her Reign.

She warmly appreciated their unfailing loyalty to Her Throne

and Person, and was proud to think of those who had so nobly

fought and died for the Empire's cause in South Africa. I have

already declared that it will be My constant endeavour to

follow the great example which has been bequeathed to Me. In

these endeavours I shall have a confident trust in the

devotion and sympathy of the People and of their several

Representative Assemblies throughout My vast Colonial

Dominions. With such loyal support I will, with God's

blessing, solemnly work for the promotion of the common

welfare and security of the great Empire over which I have now

been called to reign,

EDWARD, R. I."

"To the Princes and People of India. Through the lamented

death of My beloved and dearly mourned Mother, I have

inherited the Throne, which has descended to Me through a long

and ancient lineage, I now desire to send My greeting to the

Ruling Chiefs of the Native States, and to the Inhabitants of

My Indian Dominions, to assure them of My sincere good will

and affection, and of My heartfelt wishes for their welfare.

My illustrious and lamented Predecessor was the first

Sovereign of this Country who took upon Herself the direct

Administration of the Affairs of India, and assumed the title

of Empress in token of Her closer association with the

Government of that vast Country. In all matters connected with

India, the Queen Empress displayed an unvarying deep personal

interest, and I am well aware of the feeling of loyalty and

affection evinced by the millions of its peoples towards Her

Throne and Person. This feeling was conspicuously shown during

the last year of Her long and glorious reign by the noble and

patriotic assistance offered by the Ruling Princes in the

South African War, and by the gallant services rendered by the

Native Army beyond the limits of their own Country. It was by

Her wish and with Her sanction that I visited India and made

Myself personally acquainted with the Ruling Chiefs, the

people, and the cities of that ancient and famous Empire. I

shall never forget the deep impressions which I then received,

and I shall endeavour to follow the great example of the first

Queen Empress to work for the general well being of my Indian

subjects of all ranks, and to merit, as She did, their

unfailing loyalty and affection.

EDWARD, R. ET I."

English feeling toward the new sovereign of the British

Empire, and the English estimate of his character and promise,

are probably expressed quite truly, for the general mass of

intelligent people, by the following remarks of "The Times:"

"In the whole range of English social and political life there

is no position more difficult to fill satisfactorily and

without reproach than that of Heir Apparent to the Throne, and

it may be justly said that the way in which that position has

been filled for more than the ordinary lifetime of a

generation has contributed to the remarkable increase of

devotion to the Throne and the dynasty which is one of the

most striking characteristics of Queen Victoria's reign. In

the relations of private life, from his childhood upwards,

'the Prince' has been universally and deservedly popular.

Cheerful and amiable, kind and generous, ever ready to

sympathize with the joys and sorrows of those around him, a

true friend, and a loyal antagonist, possessing considerable

mental culture and wide intellectual sympathies without any

tinge of pedantry, he has represented worthily the type of the

genuine English gentleman. Though a lover of sport, like most

of his countrymen, he differed from some of them in never

regarding it as the chief interest and occupation in life. If

he had been born in a humbler station he might have become a

successful business man or an eminent administrator, for he

possesses many of the qualities which command success in such

spheres of action. He is a quick and methodical worker,

arranges his time so as never to be hurried, is scrupulously

conscientious in fulfilling engagements, great and small, with

a punctuality which has become proverbial, never forgets to do

anything he has undertaken, and never allows unanswered

letters to accumulate. Few men have a larger private

correspondence, and his letters have the clearness, the

directness, the exquisite tactfulness, and the absolute

freedom from all affectation which characterize his

conversation. … "In public life he has displayed the same

qualities and done a great deal of very useful work. The

numerous and often irksome ceremonial duties of his position

have been invariably fulfilled most conscientiously and with

fitting dignity. Of the remainder of his time a considerable

part has been devoted to what might be called semi-official

activity. In works of benevolence and public utility and in

efforts to promote the interests of science and art he was

ever ready and anxious to lend a helping hand. He never

forgot, however, that in his public appearances he had not the

liberty of speech and action enjoyed by the ordinary

Englishman. Whilst taking the keenest interest in public

affairs of every kind, he carefully abstained from

overstepping in the slightest degree the limits imposed on him

by constitutional tradition and usage. No party clique or

Court camarilla ever sheltered itself behind him, and no

political intrigue was ever associated with his name.

Throughout her dominions Queen Victoria had no more loyal,

devoted subject than her own eldest son. If this strictly

correct attitude had been confined to his relations with the

Head of the State we might have supposed that it proceeded

from a feeling of deep filial affection and reverence, but, as

it was displayed equally in his relations with Parliament and

politicians, we must assume that it proceeded also from a high

and discriminating sense of duty. Of the Prime Ministers,

leaders of her Majesty's Opposition, and politicians of minor

degree with whom he came in contact, he may have found some

more sympathetic than others, but such personal preferences

were carefully concealed in his manner, which was invariably

courteous and considerate, and were not allowed to influence

his conduct."

{220}

In another article, the same journal again remarked that

"there is no position more difficult to fill than that of Heir

Apparent to the Throne," and added: "It is beset by more than

all the temptations of actual Royalty, while the weight of

counteracting responsibility is much less directly felt. It

must be with a feeling akin to hopelessness that a man in that

position offers up the familiar prayer, 'Lead us not into

temptation.' Other men may avoid much temptation if they

honestly endeavour to keep out of its way, but the heir to a

Throne is followed, dogged, and importuned by temptation in

its most seductive forms. It is not only the obviously bad

that he has to guard against; he must also steel himself

against much that comes in the specious garb of goodness and

almost with the imperious command of necessity. The King has

passed through that tremendous ordeal, prolonged through youth

and manhood to middle age. We shall not pretend that there is

nothing in his long career which those who respect and admire

him could not wish otherwise. Which of us can say that with

even approximate temptations to meet he could face the fierce

light that beats upon an heir apparent no less than upon the

Throne?"

The King was in his sixtieth year when he succeeded to the

throne, having been born on the 9th of November, 1841. "By

inheritance under a patent of Edward III., he became at once

Duke of Cornwall, and a month later he was created, by patent,

Prince of 'Wales and Earl of Chester—titles which do not pass

by descent." He was married to the Princess Alexandra, of

Denmark, on the 10th of March, 1863. The children born of the

marriage have been six in all—three sons and three daughters.

Of the former only one survives, Prince George, Duke of York,

the second son, who will no doubt be created Prince of Wales.

The eldest son, Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and

Avondale, died in his 27th year, on the eve of his marriage.

The third son, Alexander, born in 1871, died an infant. The

Duke of York is married to Princess Victoria Mary, daughter of

the late Duke of Teck and of his wife, Princess Mary of

Cambridge. There are four children of the marriage, three sons

and a daughter, the eldest son, in direct succession to the

Throne, bearing the name of Prince Edward Albert. Of the

daughters of the new Sovereign the eldest, Princess Louise, is

the wife of the Duke of Fife and has two daughters. Of her two

sisters, the Princess Victoria is unmarried. The Princess Maud

became in 1896 the wife of Prince Charles of Denmark.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1901 (February).

The opening of Parliament by King Edward VII.

The royal declaration against transubstantiation and

the invocation of saints.

Protest of Roman Catholic peers.

Parliament, reassembling on the 14th of February, was formally

opened by the King in person, with a degree of pomp and

ceremony which had been made strange by half a century of

disuse. King and Queen were escorted in procession, with all

possible state, from Buckingham Palace to Westminster.

Received there, at the royal entrance, by the great officers

of state, they were conducted, by a still more imposing

procession of dignitaries, to the "robing room." "His Majesty

being robed and the Imperial Crown borne by the Duke of

Devonshire (Lord President of the Council), the Procession

advanced into the House of Peers in the same order, except

that the Cap of Maintenance [a mediæval symbol of dignity] was

borne immediately before His Majesty, on the right hand of the

Sword of State, by the Marquess of Winchester. The King being

seated on his Throne, the Lord bearing the Cap of Maintenance

stood on the Steps of the Throne, on the right, and the Peer

bearing the Sword of State, on the left, of His Majesty. The

Lord Chancellor, the Lord President and the Earl Marshal stood

on the right, and the Lord Privy Seal on the left, of His

Majesty; the Lord Great Chamberlain stood on the Steps of the

Throne on the left hand of His Majesty, to receive the Royal

Commands. The Lord Steward and the other officers of His

Majesty's Household arranged themselves on each side of the

Steps of the Throne, in the rear of the Great Officers of

State."

By hereditary right, the ceremonial arrangements of the

occasion were controlled by the Duke of Norfolk, as Earl

Marshal, and the Marquess of Cholmondeley, as Lord Great

Chamberlain, and they are said to have followed ancient

precedent with a strictness which became very offensive to

modern democratic feeling. The small chamber of the House of

Lords was so filled with peeresses as well as peers that next

to no room remained for the House of Commons when its members

were summoned to it, to meet the King. What should have been a

dignified procession behind the Speaker became, in

consequence, a mob-like crush and scramble, and only some

fifty out of five hundred Commoners are said to have succeeded

in squeezing themselves within range of his Majesty's eye. The

King, then, as required by laws of the seventeenth century

(the Bill of Rights and the Test Act—see, in volume 2,

ENGLAND: A. D. 1689, OCTOBER, and 1672-1673) signed and made

oath to the following Declaration against the doctrine of

transubstantiation, the invocation of the Virgin and the

invocation of saints: "I doe solemnely and sincerely in the

presence of God professe testifie and declare that I doe

believe that in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper there is

not any transubstantiation of the elements of bread and wine

into the body and blood of Christ at or after the consecration

thereof by any person whatsoever; and that the invocation or

adoration of the Virgin Mary or any other saint and the

sacrifice of the masse as they are now used in the Church of

Rome are superstitions and idolatrous, and I doe solemnely in

the presence of God professe testifie and declare that I doe

make this declaration and every part thereof in the plaine and

ordinary sence of the words read unto me as they are commonly

understood by English Protestants without any evasion,

equivocation or mentall reservation whatsoever and without any

dispensation already granted me for this purpose by the Pope

or any other authority or person whatsoever or without any

hope of any such dispensation from any person or authority

whatsoever or without thinking that I am or can be acquitted

before God or man or absolved of this declaration or any part

thereof although the Pope or any other person or persons or

power whatsoever should dispence with or annull the same, or

declare that it was null and void from the beginning."

{221}

Having thus submitted to the old test of a Protestant

qualification for the Throne, the King read his Speech to

Parliament, briefly stating the general posture of public

affairs and setting forth the business which the two Houses

were asked by government to consider. The war in South Africa

was dealt with by the royal speaker in a very few words, as

follows: "The war in South Africa has not yet entirely

terminated; but the capitals of the enemy and his principal

lines of communication are in my possession, and measures have

been taken which will, I trust, enable my troops to deal

effectually with the forces by which they are still opposed. I

greatly regret the loss of life and the expenditure of treasure

due to the fruitless guerrilla warfare maintained by Boer

partisans in the former territories of the two Republics.

Their early submission is much to be desired in their own

interests, as, until it takes place, it will be impossible for

me to establish in those colonies a government which will

secure equal rights to all the white inhabitants, and

protection and justice to the native population." In a later

paragraph of the Speech he said: "The prolongation of

hostilities in South Africa has led me to make a further call

upon the patriotism and devotion of Canada and Australasia. I

rejoice that my request has met with a prompt and loyal

response, and that large additional contingents from those

Colonies will embark for the seat of war at an early date."

The Speech concluded with the following announcement of

subjects and measures to be brought before Parliament:

"Gentlemen of the House of Commons, The Estimates for the year

will be laid before you. Every care has been taken to limit

their amount, but the naval and military requirements of the

country, and especially the outlay consequent on the South

African war, have involved an inevitable increase.

"The demise of the Crown renders it necessary that a renewed

provision shall be made for the Civil List. I place

unreservedly at your disposal those hereditary revenues which

were so placed by my predecessor; and I have commanded that

the papers necessary for a full consideration of the subject

shall be laid before you.

"My Lords and Gentlemen, Proposals will be submitted to your

judgment for increasing the efficiency of my military forces.

"Certain changes in the constitution of the Court of Final

Appeal are rendered necessary in consequence of the increased

resort to it, which has resulted from the expansion of the

Empire during the last two generations.

"Legislation will be proposed to you for the amendment of the

Law relating to Education.

"Legislation has been prepared, and, if the time at your

disposal shall prove to be adequate, will be laid before you,

for the purpose of regulating the voluntary sale by landlords

to occupying tenants in Ireland, for amending and

consolidating the Factory and Workshops Acts, for the better

administration of the Law respecting Lunatics, for amending

the Public Health Acts in regard to Water Supply, for the

prevention of drunkenness in Licensed Houses or Public Places,

and for amending the Law of Literary Copyright.

"I pray that Almighty God may continue to guide you in the

conduct of your deliberations, and may bless them with

success."

Dated from the House of Lords, on the day of the opening, the

following protest, signed by Roman Catholic peers (of whom

there are thirty), against the continued requirement from the

British sovereign of the Declaration quoted above, was laid

before the Lord Chancellor: "My Lord,—On the opening of his

first Parliament to-day his Majesty was called upon to make

and subscribe the so-called Declaration against

Transubstantiation, which was framed during the reign of

Charles II., at a moment when religious animosities were

unusually bitter.

"Some days ago we addressed ourselves to your lordship, as the

chief authority on English law, to ascertain whether it was

possible to bring about any modification of those parts of the

Declaration which are specially provocative to the religious

feelings of Catholics. We received from your lordship the

authoritative assurance that no modification whatever was

possible, except by an Act of Parliament, and that no action

of ours would therefore be of the slightest use to effect the

pacific purpose we had in view. The Sovereign himself has, it

appears, no option, and is obliged by statute to use the very

words prescribed, although we feel assured that his Gracious

Majesty would willingly have been relieved (as all his

subjects have for many years been relieved by Act of

Parliament) from the necessity of branding with contumelious

epithets the religious tenets of any of his subjects.

"While we submit to the law, we cannot be wholly silent on

this occasion, We desire to impress upon your lordship that

the expressions used in this Declaration made it difficult and

painful for Catholic peers to attend to-day in the House of Lords

in order to discharge their official or public duties, and

that those expressions cannot but cause the deepest pain to

millions of subjects of his Majesty in all parts of the

Empire, who are as loyal and devoted to his Crown and person

as any others in his dominions.

"We are, my lord, your lordship's most obedient and faithful

servants."

_London Times,

February 15, 1901._

In the House of Lords, on the 22d of February, the Marquis of

Salisbury made the following reply to Lord Braye, who asked if

the Prime Minister could hold out hope of an early measure to

abolish the oath so offensive to Catholic subjects of the

King: "Though I am very anxious to give an answer which would

be satisfactory to the noble lord and his co-religionists, I

do not wish to leave on his mind an impression that there are

any doubts in the matter. We all of us deplore the language in

which that declaration is couched, and very much wish it could

be otherwise expressed; but when it comes to altering an

enactment which has now lasted, as far as I know, without

serious question, 200 years, and which was originally included

in the Bill of Rights, it is a matter which cannot be done

without very considerable thought. We must remember that an

enactment of that kind represents the passions, feelings, and

sensibilities of the people by whom it was originally caused;

and that these have not died out. They are not strong within

these walls; but there are undoubtedly parts of the country

where the controversies which the declaration represents still

flourish, and where the emotions which it indicates have not

died out. Before an enactment is proposed, with all the

discussion which must precede such an enactment, we shall have

to consider how far it is desirable to light again passions

which sleep at this moment, for an occasion which is not now

urgent, and which we all earnestly hope may not be urgent in

our lives.

{222}

I do not wish to debar the noble lord from any action which he

may think it right to take; but I wish to point out to him the

extreme difficulties and anxieties which would accompany any

such attempt. With respect to the actual question of

legislation, I need hardly observe that it is rather a

question for the House of Commons than for us, because here I

do not imagine there would be any doubt whatever about the

result of such attempted legislation. But I could not be

certain that a very strong feeling might not be excited

elsewhere; and I notice that, possibly with a view to that

consideration, the leader of the other House, in answer to a

question, said that, at all events for the present year, he

did not see the possibility of having the requisite

opportunity of bringing the question before the House. I am

afraid, therefore, however deeply I sympathize with the

feelings of the noble lord and wish there had been no cause

for their being appealed to, that my answer would have to be

of a discouraging character."

Notwithstanding this discouraging reply to the question, Lord

Salisbury, on the 21st of March, moved the following

resolution in the House of Lords: "To resolve that it is

desirable that a Joint Committee of both Houses be appointed

to consider the declaration required of the Sovereign, on his

accession, by the Bill of Rights: and to report whether its

language can be modified advantageously, without diminishing

its efficacy as a security for the maintenance of the

Protestant succession." On introducing the resolution he said:

"The only thing that it is necessary I should mention is that

something has been said with respect to referring the

Coronation Oath to the same committee and making in it

alterations which undoubtedly will have to be made. But the

two subjects are not at all similar, and it would have been

impossible to put the Coronation Oath into this reference. If,

later, it should be thought wise to use the same committee for

the purpose of considering the matter of the Coronation Oath, I

probably shall see no difficulty in that."

ENGLAND: A. D. 1901 (February).

Attitude of the Liberal party towards the South African War.

At the annual meeting of the general committee of the National

Liberal Federation, held at Rugby, February 27, 1901, more

than 400 affiliated Liberal Associations in England and Wales

being represented by about 500 delegates, including many

eminent men, the following resolution was adopted: "That this

committee records its profound conviction that the long

continuance of the deplorable war in South Africa, declared

for electioneering purposes to be over last September, is due

to the policy of demanding unconditional surrender and to a

want of knowledge, foresight, and judgment on the part of the

Government, who have neither demonstrated effectively to the

Boers the military supremacy of Great Britain, nor so

conducted the war as to induce them to lay down their arms;

this committee bitterly laments the slaughter of thousands of

brave men on both sides, the terrible loss of life from

disease, owing in no small degree to the scandalous inadequacy

of sanitary and hospital arrangements provided for our forces,

and the enormous waste of resources in actual expenditure upon

the war, in the devastation of territory, and in the economic

embarrassments which must inevitably follow; the committee

calls upon the Government to announce forthwith, and to carry

out, on the cessation of hostilities, a policy for the

settlement of South African affairs which will secure equal

rights to the white races, just and humane treatment of

natives, and such a measure of self-government as can

honourably be accepted by a brave and high-spirited people."

ENGLAND: A. D. 1901 (February).

Emphatic declaration of the policy of the government in

dealing with the Boers.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR): A. D. 1901.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1901 (March).

Rejection of the Inter-oceanic Canal Treaty as amended

by the United States Senate.

See (in this volume)

CANAL, INTEROCEANIC: A. D. 1901 (MARCH).

----------ENGLAND: End--------

ENSLIN, Battle of.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):

A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).

EPWORTH LEAGUE, The.

The Epworth League, an organization of young people in the

Methodist Episcopal Church, on lines and with objects kindred

to those of the "Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor"

(see, in this volume, CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR), was instituted by a

convention of representatives from various societies of young

people in that church, held at Cleveland, Ohio, May 14-15,

1889. It was officially adopted by the General Conference of

the M. E. Church in 1892. The Year-book of the League for 1901

says:—"A dozen years ago the Epworth League had no regularly

organized Chapter. To-day it has almost twenty-one thousand.

Twelve years ago it had a total membership of twenty-seven.

To-day it has a million and a half. Twelve years ago the

Junior League had scarcely been dreamed of. To-day it is the

most promising division of the great Epworth army, having a

membership of tens of thousands. Twelve years ago a suggestion

to establish a newspaper organ was looked upon as a most

doubtful experiment, and predictions of failure were freely

made. To-day the organization has an official journal whose

circulation exceeds that of any Church weekly in the world."

ETRUSCANS, The:

Fresh light on their origin.

See (in this volume)

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: ITALY.

EUPHRATES, Valley of the:

Recent archæological exploration.

See (in this volume)

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA.

EUROPEAN RACES, The expansion of the.

See (in this volume)

NINETEENTH CENTURY: EXPANSION.

EVOLUTION, The doctrine of:

Its influence on the Nineteenth Century.

See (in this volume)

NINETEENTH CENTURY: DOMINANT LINES.

EXCAVATIONS, Recent archæological.

See (in this volume)

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH.

EXPLOSIVES FROM BALLOONS, Declaration against.

See (in this volume)

PEACE CONFERENCE.

{223}

EXPOSITION, The Cotton States and International.

See (in this volume)

ATLANTA: A. D. 1895.

EXPOSITION, National Export.

See (in this volume)

INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL CONGRESS.

EXPOSITION, Pan-American.

See (in this volume)

BUFFALO: A. D. 1901.

EXPOSITION, Paris.

See (in this volume)

FRANCE: A. D. 1900 (APRIL-NOVEMBER).

EXPOSITION, Scandinavian.

See (in this volume)

STOCKHOLM.

EXPOSITION, Tennessee Centennial, at Nashville.

See (in this volume)

TENNESSEE: A. D 1897.

EXPOSITION, Trans-Mississippi.

See (in this volume)

OMAHA: A. D. 1898.

EXTERRITORIAL RIGHTS.

See (in this volume)

JAPAN: A. D. 1899 (JULY).

FAMINE: In China.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).

FAMINE: In India.

See (in this volume)

INDIA: A. D. 1896-1897; and 1899-1900.

FAMINE: In Russia.

See (in this volume)

RUSSIA: A. D. 1899.

"FANATICS," The.

See (in this volume)

BRAZIL: A. D. 1897.

FAR EASTERN QUESTION, The.

See (in this volume)

CONCERT OF EUROPE.

FARM BURNING, In the South African War.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):

A. D. 1900 (AUGUST-DECEMBER).

FARMERS' ALLIANCE, and Industrial Union, The.

The Supreme Council of the Farmers' Alliance and Industrial

Union held its fourth annual session at Washington, February

6-8, 1900, and pledged support to whatever candidates should

be named by the national convention of the Democratic Party,

making, at the same time, a declaration of principles

analogous to those maintained by the People's Party.

FASHODA INCIDENT, The.

See (in this volume)

EGYPT: A. D. 1898 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER).

FAURE, Francois Felix, President of the French Republic.

Sudden death.

See (in this volume)

FRANCE: A. D. 1899 (FEBRUARY-JUNE).

FEDERAL STEEL COMPANY, The.

See (in this volume)

TRUSTS: UNITED STATES.

FÊNG-TIEN PENINSULA: A. D. 1894-1895.

Cession in part to Japan and subsequent relinquishment.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1894-1895.

FÊNG-TIEN PENINSULA: A. D. 1900.

Russian occupation and practical Protectorate.

See (in this volume)

MANCHURIA: A. D. 1900.

FILIPINOS.

See (in this volume)

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.

FINLAND: A. D. 1898-1901.

A blow at the constitutional rights of the country.

Attempt to Russianize the Finnish army.

Possible defeat of the measure.

"In July, 1898, just one month before the publication of the

Czar's Peace Manifesto, the Diet of Finland was summoned to

meet in extraordinary session during January, 1899, in order

to debate upon the new Army Bill submitted by the Russian

Government. Hitherto, the army of Finland has been strictly

national in character, and has served solely for the defence

of the province. The standing army has been limited to 5,600

men, 1,920 of whom are annually selected to bear arms during a

period of three years. This has now been changed; the main

features of the new Army Bill being as follows:

1. Finnish troops may be requisitioned for service beyond the

confines of the Grand Duchy.

2. Russians may serve in the Finnish, and Finlanders in the

Russian, Army.

3. A lightening of the duties of military service upon the

ground of superior education will be granted to those only who

can speak, read, and write Russian.

4. The period of active service under the flag is increased

from three years to five.

5. The annual contingent of soldiers in active service is

increased from 1,920 men to 7,200.

We at once perceive the fundamental nature of these changes,

which threaten to impose a far heavier burden upon Finland,

and to Russify her army. Naturally, the new law met with the

most determined opposition. But while the bill was still in

committee there appeared on February 15, 1899, an Imperial

ukase, whereby the entire situation was radically changed, and

the independence of Finland seriously threatened. This ukase

decrees that while the internal administration and legislation

of Finland are to remain unimpaired, matters affecting the

common interests of Finland and Russia are to be no longer

submitted solely to the jurisdiction of the Grand Duchy.

Furthermore, the Emperor reserves to himself the final

decision as to which matters are to be included in the above

category. …

"The document is couched in terms expressing good-will for

Finland. In effect, however, it signifies the complete

demolition of the constitutional rights of that country. For

in all matters involving the interests of both countries, or

affecting in any way those of Russia, Finland will hereafter

be confined to a mere expression of opinion: she will no

longer be able to exercise the privilege of formulating an

independent resolution. The definition of 'common interests'

as furnished by the ukase is so vague as to make the exercise

of any form of self-government on the part of the Finlanders a

matter of uncertainty, if not of serious difficulty. Not only

the interpretation of 'common interests,' but also the

designation of the law governing them, is primarily in the

hands of the Russian authorities. Finland, an independent,

constitutional state [see, in volume 4, SCANDINAVIAN STATES:

A. D. 1807-1810], has been, or, at all events, is to be,

converted into a province of Russia. …

"The conviction is general that the Czar, who had formerly

manifested such good-will toward the country, and who had

abrogated the enactments curtailing its constitutional rights,

could not possibly have so completely changed his views within

so short a time. Consequently, it was decided to address a

monster petition in behalf of the people directly to the ruler

himself. This plan met with the enthusiastic approval of the

entire nation, and the document was signed by no fewer than

523,931 men and women of Finland.

{224}

A deputation of five hundred was elected to present this

petition, which so eloquently voiced the conviction of the

whole nation. These five hundred representatives went to St.

Petersburg, and requested an audience with the Czar. But their

efforts were unavailing. They were not received; and it

appeared as if the united voice of a peaceful and loyal people

could not penetrate to the ear of the ruler.

"In the meantime the attention of all Europe was directed to

the matter; and everywhere the liveliest sympathy was

manifested for that little Nation in the Northeast. … There

now arose—entirely from private initiative, and without the

exercise of any influence on the part of Finland—a general

movement among European nations to select prominent scholars

and artists; i. e., men entirely removed from the political

arena, to act as representatives of the popular sentiment, and

to speak a good word with the Czar in behalf of Finland. …

Addresses of sympathy for Finland were formulated in England,

France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Italy, Switzerland,

Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway; and these

addresses were signed by over one thousand and fifty scholars

and artists. … All the addresses together were to be presented

to the Czar by a small deputation; and for this purpose the

Commission mentioned at the beginning of this article

proceeded to St. Petersburg. The gentlemen took great pains to

secure an audience; they went from one minister to another,

and avoided every appearance of unfriendliness. Nevertheless,

their request was politely declined; and the acceptance of the

document bearing the signatures of over one thousand

notabilitles firmly refused."

_R. Eucken,

The Finnish Question

(Forum, November, 1899)._

A correspondent of the "London Times," writing from

Helsingfors, December 28, 1900, reported: "The situation in

Finland at the end of the year is by no means improved,

notwithstanding a few gratifying events, such as the

permission granted by General Bobrikoff for a new daily paper

to be published in Helsingfors. … Two papers, one published in

a provincial town, and a weekly journal in Helsingfors, have

been suppressed for ever, and the preventive censorship is

applied with the utmost rigour. The Governor-General has

displayed great energy in enforcing the restrictions on the

right to hold meetings, and he has in circulars to the

provincial Governors issued instructions for the introduction

of Russian as the language of the Provincial Government

offices even earlier, and more fully, than is provided for in

the language ordinance promulgated last autumn. Denunciations

of private persons to General Bobrikoff by secret agents, as

well as public authorities, are events of well-nigh daily

occurrence, and one consequence of these secret reports is

that five University professors are threatened with summary

dismissal unless they 'bind themselves to mix themselves up no

longer in any sort of political agitation.' …

"The question of the new military law will in all probability

come before the Russian Imperial Council in January, all

authorities concerned having had an opportunity of expressing

their views on the report made on the question by the Finnish

Diet in 1899, including the Minister of War, General

Kuropatkin. In conformity with the manifesto of February 15,

1899, this report will be regarded merely as an 'opinion'

given by that body, in no way binding when the matter comes up

for further consideration. This scheme, it will be remembered,

not only imposes on Finland a military burden beyond the

powers of the country, but has the political aim of

denationalizing the Finnish army, and is thus intended to

serve as a potent lever in the Russification of the Grand

Duchy. The main features of the Bill were rejected by the

Finnish Diet, but, although several members of the Imperial

Council are opposed to the new scheme, it is believed that it

will gain the majority in the Council in all its more salient

points."

Three months later (February 26, 1901), an important change in

the situation was reported from St. Petersburg by the same

correspondent. The project of Russifying the Finnish army had

suffered defeat, he learned, in the Council of State, by a

large majority. "But," he added, "this does not by any means

imply that the military reform scheme in Finland, which has

been the chief cause of all the harm done to the Finnish

Constitution during the last three years, has been finally

upset. A similar procedure in any other European civilized

country would mean as much, but it is not so in Russia. It

simply means that the Russification of Finland is still being

prosecuted by a small powerful minority, who will probably

gain their point in spite of the vast majority of his

Majesty's councillors. The Council of State, the highest

institution in the sphere of supreme administration, is merely

a consultative body, whose opinion can be, and often has been,

set aside by the Sovereign without the least difficulty. A mere

stroke of the pen is necessary.

"In the present case the Finnish military project was

discussed by the four united departments of the Council. It is

stated that M. Pobiedonostzeff and the Minister of War said

nothing, being, perhaps, either too much impressed by the

speech of M. Witte against the project, or feeling sure of

their ground without the need of entering into useless

discussion. M. Witte, whose influence is gradually embracing

every branch of government, is also looming big in this

question. He is reported to have made a speech on the occasion

which carried over 40 members of the Council with him in

opposition to the project. He attacked it principally on

financial grounds, and declared that nobody could advise his

Majesty to adopt it. The rejection of the proposal by the four

departments is preliminary to its discussion by a plenary

assembly of the Council, and only after that has taken place

will the opinion of the majority be laid before the Emperor,"

FIST OF RIGHTEOUS HARMONY, Society of the.

See(in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY-MARCH).

FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES, The.

See (in this volume)

INDIANS, AMERICAN: A. D. 1893-1899.

FORBIDDEN CITY, March of allied forces through the.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (AUGUST 15-28).

FORMOSA: A. D. 1895.

Cession by China to Japan.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1894-1895.

FORMOSA: A. D. 1896.

Chinese risings against the Japanese.

See (in this volume)

JAPAN: A. D. 1896.

{225}

----------FRANCE: Start--------

FRANCE: A. D. 1894-1896.

Final subjugation and annexation of Madagascar.

See (in this volume)

MADAGASCAR.

FRANCE: A. D. 1895.

Cession of Kiang-Hung by China.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1894-1895 (MARCH-JULY).

FRANCE: A. D. 1895.

Ministerial changes.

The alliance with Russia.

On the resignation of the presidency of the Republic by M.

Casimir-Perier and the election of M. Felix Faure to succeed

him (January 15-17), a ministry was formed which represented

the moderate republican groups, with M. Ribot at its head, as

President of the Council and Minister of Finance, and with M.

Hanotaux as Minister of Foreign Affairs.

See, in volume 2,

FRANCE: A. D. 1894-1895).

The most important work of the new government was the

arrangement of an alliance with Russia, which was

conspicuously signified to the world by the union of the

French and Russian fleets when they entered the German harbor

of Kiel, on the 17th of June, to take part in the celebration

of the opening of the Kaiser Wilhelm Ship Canal, between the

Baltic and North Seas (see, in this volume, GERMANY: A. D.

1895, JUNE). This gave the greatest possible satisfaction to

the nation, and powerfully strengthened the ministers for a

time; but they were discredited a little later in the year by

disclosures of waste, extravagance and peculation in the

military department. Early in the autumn session of the

Chamber of Deputies a vote was carried against them, and they

resigned. A more radical cabinet was then formed, under M.

Leon Bourgeois, President of the Council and Minister of the

Interior; with M. Berthelot holding the portfolio of foreign

affairs, M. Cavaignac that of war, and M. Lockroy that of the

marine.

FRANCE: A. D. 1896 (January).

Agreement with Great Britain concerning Siam.

See (in this volume)

SIAM: A. D. 1896-1899.

FRANCE: A. D. 1896 (March).

Census of the Republic.

Returns of a national census taken in March showed a

population in France of 38,228,969, being an increase in five

years of only 133,919. The population of Paris was 2,511;955.

FRANCE: A. D. 1896 (April-May).

Change of Ministry.

Socialist gains.

After a long conflict with a hostile Senate, the Radical

Ministry of M. Bourgeois gave way and was succeeded, April 30,

by a Cabinet of Moderate Republicans, in which M. Méline

presided, holding the portfolio of Agriculture, and with M.

Hanotaux returned to the direction of Foreign Affairs. At

municipal elections in the following month the Socialists made

important gains. "The elections of May, 1896, revealed the

immense progress that socialism had made in all lands since

the year 1893. Towns as important as Lille, Roubaix, Calais,

Montluçon, Narbonne, re-elected socialist majorities to

administer their affairs; and even where there was only a

socialist minority, a socialist mayor was elected, as in the

case of Dr. Flaissières at Marseilles, and Cousteau at

Bordeaux. But in the small towns and the villages our

victories have been especially remarkable. The Parti Ouvrier

alone can reckon more than eighteen hundred m municipal

councillors elected upon its collectivist programme; and at

the Lille Congress, which was held a few days before the

International Congress in London, thirty-eight socialist

municipal councils and twenty-one socialist minorities of

municipal councils were represented by their mayors or by

delegates chosen by the party."

_P. Lafargue,

Socialism in France

(Fortnightly Review, September, 1897)._

FRANCE: A. D. 1897.

Industrial combinations.

See (in this volume)

TRUSTS: IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.

FRANCE: A. D. 1897 (May-June).

Cessions and concessions from China.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1897 (MAY-JUNE).

FRANCE: A. D. 1897 (June).

Renewal of the privileges of the Bank of France.

See (in this volume)

MONETARY QUESTIONS: A. D. 1897.

FRANCE: A. D. 1897 (July).

Co-operation with American envoys in negotiations for a

bi-metallic agreement with Great Britain.

See (in this volume)

MONETARY QUESTIONS:

A. D. 1897 (APRIL-OCTOBER).

FRANCE: A. D. 1897-1899.

The Dreyfus Affair.

Although Captain Alfred Dreyfus, of the French army, was

arrested, tried by court-martial, convicted of treasonable

practices, in the betrayal of military secrets to a foreign

power, and thereupon degraded and imprisoned, in 1894, it was

not until 1897 that his case became historically important, by

reason of the unparalleled agitations to which it gave rise,

threatening the very life of the French Republic, and exciting

the whole civilized world. Accordingly we date the whole

extraordinary story of Captain Dreyfus and his unscrupulous

enemies in the French Army Staff from that year, in order to

place it in proper chronological relations with other events.

As told here, the story is largely borrowed from a singularly

clear review of its complicated incidents by Sir Godfrey

Lushington, formerly Permanent Under Secretary in the British

Home Office, which appeared in the "London Times," while the

question of a revision of the Dreyfus trial was pending in the

Court of Cassation. We are indebted to the publisher of "The

Times" for permission to make use of it:

"In October, 1894, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, an artillery

officer on the staff, was arrested for treason. He belonged to

a respected and highly loyal Jewish family in Alsace, his

military character was unblemished, and he was in easy

circumstances. At this time General Mercier was Minister of

War, General de Boisdeffre Chief of the Staff (practically

Commander-in-Chief of the French army), General Gonse,

Assistant-Chief. Colonel Sandherr, well known as an

Anti-Semite, was head of the Intelligence Department, under

him were Commandants Picquart, Henry, and Lauth, also the

Archivist Griblin. Commandant Du Paty de Clam was an officer

attached to the general staff. Commandant Esterhazy was

serving with his regiment. On October 15, on the order of the

Minister of War, Captain Dreyfus was arrested by Commandant Du

Paty de Clam, and taken in the charge of Commandant Henry to

the Cherche-Midi Prison, of which Commandant Forzinetti was

governor. For a fortnight extraordinary precautions were taken

to keep his arrest an absolute secret from the public and even

from his own family. His wife alone knew of it, but dared not

speak. … So harsh was his treatment that Commandant Forzinetti

felt it his duty to take the strong step of making a formal

representation to the Minister of War and also to the Governor

of Paris, at the same time declaring his own conviction that

Captain Dreyfus was an innocent man.

{226}

On October 31 Commandant Du Paty de Clam made his report,

which has not seen the light, and on November 3 Commandant

d'Ormescheville was appointed 'rapporteur' to conduct a

further inquiry, and in due course to draw up a formal report,

which practically constitutes the case for the prosecution.

Not till then was Captain Dreyfus informed of the particulars

of the charge about to be laid against him. From this report

of Commandant d'Ormescheville's we learn that the basis of the

accusation against Captain Dreyfus was a document known by the

name of the 'bordereau' [memorandum]. Neither Commandant

d'Ormescheville's report nor the 'bordereau' has been

officially published by the Government, but both ultimately

found their way into the newspapers. The bordereau was a

communication not dated, nor addressed, nor signed. It

began:—'Sans nouvelles m'indiquant que vous désirez me voir,

je vous adresse cependant, Monsieur, quelques renseignemcnts

intéressants.' ['Without news indicating that you wish to see

me, I send you, nevertheless, monsieur, some important

information.'] (Then followed the titles of various military

documents, 1, 2, &c.) The report stated that the bordereau had

fallen into the hands of the Minister of War, but how the

Minister declined to say, beyond making a general statement

that the circumstances showed that it had been sent to an

agent of a foreign Power. It is now generally accepted that it

had been brought to the War Office by a spy—an Alsatian porter

who was in the service of Colonel von Schwarzkoppen, then the

military attache to the German Embassy in Paris. The report

contained nothing to show that Captain Dreyfus had been

following treasonable practices or to connect him in any

manner with the bordereau. The sole question for the

Court-martial was whether the bordereau was in his

handwriting. On this the experts were divided, three being of

opinion that it was, two that it was not, in his handwriting.

"The Court-martial was duly held, and Captain Dreyfus had the

aid of counsel, Maître Demange; but the first act of the Court

was, at the instance of the Government representative, to

declare the 'huis cols,' so that none but those concerned were

present. After the evidence had been taken the Court,

according to custom, adjourned to consider their verdict in

private. Ultimately they found Captain Dreyfus guilty, and he

was sentenced to be publicly expelled from the army and

imprisoned for life. Not till after his conviction was he

allowed to communicate with his wife and family. The sentence

has been carried out with the utmost rigour. Captain Dreyfus

was transported to the Isle du Diable [off the coast of French

Guiana], where he lives in solitary confinement. … The

Court-martial having been held within closed doors, the public

at large knew nothing … beyond the fact that Captain Dreyfus

had been convicted of betraying military secrets to a foreign

Power, and they had no suspicion that there had been any

irregularity at the Court-martial or that the verdict was a

mistaken one. … For two years the Dreyfus question may be said

to have slumbered. In the course of this time Colonel

Sandherr, who died in January, 1897, had been compelled to

retire from ill-health, and Commandant Picquart became head of

the Intelligence Department. … In May, 1896, there were

brought to the Intelligence Department of the War Office some

more sweepings from Colonel von Schwarzkoppen's waste-paper

basket by the same Alsatian porter who had brought the

bordereau. These were put by Commandant Henry into a packet,

and given by him (according to the usual custom) to Commandant

Picquart. Commandant Picquart swears that amongst these were

about 60 small pieces of paper. These (also according to

custom) he gave to Commandant Lauth to piece together. When

pieced together they were found to constitute the document

which is known by the name of 'Petit bleu, à carte télégramme'

for transmission through the Post-office, but which had never

been posted. It was addressed to Commandant Esterhazy, and ran

as follows:

"'J'attendsavant tout une explication plus détaillée que celle

que vous m'avez donnée, l'autre jour, sur la question en

suspens. En conséquence, je vous prie de me la donner par

écrit, pour pouvoir juger si je puis continuer mes relations

avec la maison R … ou non. [I await, before anything farther, a

more detailed explanation than you gave me the other day on

the question now in suspense. In consequence, I request you to

give this to me in writing, that I may judge whether I can

continue my relations with the house of R. or not.] M. le

Commandant Esterhazy, 27, Rue de la Bienfaisance, Paris.'

"At this time Commandant Esterhazy was a stranger to

Commandant Picquart, and the first step which Commandant

Picquart took was to make inquiry as to who and what he was.

His character proved most disreputable, and he was in money

difficulties. The next was to obtain a specimen of his

handwriting in order to compare it with other writings which

had been brought by spies to the office and were kept there.

In this way it came about that it was compared with the

facsimile of the bordereau, when, lo and behold, the writings

of the two appeared identical. It was Commandant Esterhazy,

then, who had written the bordereau, and if Commandant

Esterhazy, then not Captain Dreyfus. … Commandant Picquart

acquainted his chiefs with what had been done—namely, General

de Boisdeffre in July, and his own immediate superior, General

Gonse, in September. …

"On September 15 of the same year, 1896, took place the first

explosion. This solely concerned the Dreyfus trial. On that

day the 'Éclair,' an anti-Semite newspaper, published an

article headed 'Le Traitre,' in which they stated that at the

Court-martial the 'pièce d'accusation' on which Captain

Dreyfus was tried was the bordereau; but that after the Court

had retired to the 'chamber of deliberation,' there was

communicated to them from the War Office, in the absence of

the prisoner and his counsel, a document purporting to be

addressed by the German military attaché to his colleague at

the Italian Embassy in Paris, and ending with a postscript,

'Cet animal de Dreyfus devient trop exigcant'; further, that

this document was the only one in which appeared the name

Dreyfus. This at once had removed all doubts from the minds of

the Court-martial, who thereupon had unanimously brought the

prisoner in guilty; and the 'Eclair' called upon the

Government to produce this document and thus satisfy the

public conscience. This document has, for sufficient reasons

hereinafter appearing, come to be known as 'le document

libérateur,' and by this name we will distinguish it.

{227}

As to the article in the 'Eclair,' it must have proceeded

either from a member of the Court-martial or from some one in

the War Office; but whether its contents were true is a matter

which to this day has not been fully cleared up. This much,

however, is known. We have the authority of Maître Demange

(Captain Dreyfus's advocate) that no such document was brought

before the Court-martial during the proceedings at which he

was present. On the other hand, it has now been admitted that

at the date of Captain Dreyfus's trial there was, and that

there had been for some months previously, in the archives of

the War Office a similar document, not in the Dreyfus'

dossier' proper, but in a secret dossier, only that the words

therein are not 'Cet animal de Dreyfus,' but 'Ce (sic)

canaille de D—' (initial only) 'devient trop exigeant.' … The

Government have never yet either admitted or denied that

General Mercier went down to the Court-martial and made to

them a secret communication. …

"As might have been expected, the article in the 'Eclair'

occasioned a considerable stir; both parties welcomed it, the

one as showing Captain Dreyfus to have been really a traitor

and therefore justly deserving his sentence; the other as a

proof that whether guilty or not he had been condemned

illegally on a document used behind his back. The public

excitement was increased when on the 10th of November the

'Matin'—a War Office journal—published what purported to be a

fac-simile of the bordereau, and a host of experts and others

set to work to compare it with the accused's handwriting. The

reproduction was no doubt made, not from the original

bordereau, which was in the sealed-up Dreyfus dossier, but

from a photograph of it. And the photograph must have been

obtained surreptitiously from some one in the War Office or

from some one who had attended the secret Court-martial. … The

natural sequel to these revelations was an interpellation in

the Chamber—the 'interpellation Castelin' of November 18,

1896. On that day, M. Castelin, an anti-Semite deputy, by

asking some question as to the safe custody of Dreyfus, gave

the Government an opportunity. General Billot, then Minister

of War, replied in general terms—'L'instruction de l'affaire,

les débats, le jugement, ont eu lieu conformément aux règles

de la procédure militaire. Le Conseil de Guerre regulièrement

compose, a regulièrement déliberé,' &c. ['The instructions,

the debates, the verdict, have all taken place conformably to

the rules of military procedure. The Court-martial, regularly

composed, has deliberated regularly,' etc.] … On November 14,

1896, on the eve of the Interpellation Castelin, Commandant

Picquart was sent on a secret mission, which has not been

disclosed. He left his duties as head of the Intelligence

Department nominally in the hands of General Gonse, his

superior, but practically to be discharged by Commandant

Henry, who was Commandant Picquart's subordinate. He requested

his family to address their private letters for him to the War

Office, whence they would be forwarded. His secret mission, or

missions, took him first to Nancy, then to Besançon

(permission being refused to him to return to Paris even for a

night to renew his wardrobe), later on to Algeria and Tunisia,

with instructions to proceed to the frontier. … In March,

1897, Commandant Picquart was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of

the 4th Tirailleurs, the appointment being represented to him

as a favour. He was the youngest Colonel in the service. In

his stead Commandant Henry became Chief of the Intelligence

Department. … From the first Colonel Picquart had, of course,

felt some uneasiness at being sent on these missions away from

his ordinary duties, and various little circumstances occurred

to increase it, and in May, 1897, having occasion to write

unofficially to Commandant Henry, now Chief of the

Intelligence Department, he expressed himself strongly as to

the mystery and falsities with which his departure had been

surrounded; and he received a reply dated June 3, in which

Commandant Henry said that the mystery he could well enough

explain by what had come to his knowledge after some inquiry,

and he alluded in general to three circumstances—(1) Opening

letters in the post; (2) attempt to suborn two officers in the

service to speak to a certain writing as being that of a

certain person; and (3) the opening of a secret dossier. The

first Colonel Picquart knew to refer to his having intercepted

Commandant Esterhazy's letters; the other two allusions he did

not at the time (June, 1897) fully understand; but the letter,

couched in such terms and coming from one who had until lately

been his subordinate, and was now the head of the Department,

convinced him that he was the object of serious and secret

machinations in the War Office. He immediately applied for

leave and came to Paris. There he determined, with a view to

his self-defence, to obtain legal advice from an advocate, M.

Leblois; saw him, and showed him Colonel Henry's letter, and,

whilst abstaining (according to his own account and that of M.

Leblois) from touching on the third matter, the secret

dossier, spoke freely on the other two—on the 'affaires'

Dreyfus and Esterhazy generally; also, in order to explain how

far he had acted with the sanction or cognizance of his

superiors, he placed in his hands the correspondence—not

official but confidential—about Commandant Esterhazy which he

had had with General Gonse in 1896. He left it to M. Leblois

to take what course he might think necessary, and returned to

Sousse. In the course of the autumn he was summoned to Tunis

and asked by the military authority there whether he had been

robbed of a secret document by a woman. The question seemed a

strange one and was answered by him with a simple negative.

Later on he received at Sousse two telegrams from Paris, dated

November 10. One:—'Arretez Bondieu. Tout est découvert.

Affaire très grave. Speranza.' This was addressed to Tunis and

forwarded to Sousse. The other:—'On a des preuves que le bleu est

fabriqué par Georges. Blanche.' This was addressed to Sousse.

And two days after he received a letter, likewise of November

10, from Esterhazy, an abusive one, charging him with

conspiring against him, &c. He felt certain that the telegrams

were sent in order to compromise him. … Colonel Picquart

suspected Commandant Esterhazy to be the author of the

telegrams, the more so that in Commandant Esterhazy's letter

and in one of the telegrams his own name Picquart was spelt

without a c. He at once telegraphed to Tunis for leave to come

and see the General there.

{228}

He did see him and through him forwarded to the Minister of

War the three documents, with a covering letter in which he

demanded an inquiry. He then obtained leave to go to Paris,

but the condition was imposed on him that he should see no one

before presenting himself to General de Pellieux. When he saw

the General he learnt for the first time and to his surprise

that ever since he left Paris in November, 1896, his letters

had been intercepted and examined at the War Office and he was

called upon to explain various letters and documents. …

"Before June, 1897, Commandant Esterhazy's name had not been

breathed to the public; it is now to come out, and from two

independent sources. Some little time after seeing Colonel

Picquart, in June, 1897, M. Leblois had determined, in his

interest, to consult M. Scheurer-Kestner, who was well known

to have taken an interest in the 'affaire Dreyfus,' because of

the suspicion that Captain Dreyfus had been condemned on a

document which he had never seen and because of the

discrepancies between Captain Dreyfus's handwriting and that

of the bordereau. He was Vice-President of the Senate and a

personal friend of General Billot, the Minister of War. M.

Leblois communicated to him what he knew about Commandant

Esterhazy and showed him General Gonse's letters to Colonel

Picquart. In October M. Scheurer-Kestner communicated on the

subject both with General Billot and with the President of the

Council, M. Méline. He was now to learn the name of Commandant

Esterhazy from another quarter. One afternoon in the end of

October a M. de Castro, a stock-broker, was seated in a cafe

in Paris, and a boy from the street came up with copies of the

facsimile of the bordereau, which had then been on sale for

more than a year. M. de Castro bought a copy, and at once

recognized, as he thought, the handwriting of the bordereau to

be that of Commandant Esterhazy, who was a client of his. He

took the copy home, compared it with letters of Commandant

Esterhazy, and all doubts vanished. His friends told M.

Matthieu Dreyfus, who begged him to take the letters to M.

Scheurer-Kestner, and he did so on November 12, 1897, and M.

Scheurer-Kestner advised that M. Matthieu Dreyfus should go to

General Billot and denounce Commandant Esterhazy as the author

of the bordereau. And now to turn to Commandant Esterhazy. His

own statement is this. In the month of October, 1897, when in the

country, he received a letter from 'Speranza' giving minute

details of a plot against himself, the instigator of which

was, Speranza said, a colonel named Picquart (without the c).

He at once went to Paris, saw the Minister of War, and gave

him Speranza's letter. Shortly afterwards he received a

telegram asking him to be behind the palisades of the bridge

Alexander III. at 11.30 p.m. He would there meet a person who

would give him important information. He kept his appointment,

met a veiled woman, who, first binding him over under oath to

respect her incognito, gave him long details of the plot of

the 'band' against himself. Afterwards he had three similar

interviews, but not at the same place. At the second of these

four interviews the unknown woman gave him a letter,

saying:—'Prenez la pièce contenue dans cette enveloppe, elle

prouve votre innocence, et si le torchon brûle, n'hésitez pas

it vous en servir.' ['Take the piece contained in this

envelope, it proves your innocence, and if there is trouble do

not hesitate to use it.'] This document, henceforward called

'le document libérateur,' was no other than the letter

referred to in the 'Eclair' (ce canaille de D.), which, of

course, ought to have been safe in the archives of the

Intelligence Department. On November 14 Commandant Esterhazy

returned this document to the Minister of War under a covering

letter in which he called upon his chief to defend his honour

thus menaced. The Minister of War sent Commandant Esterhazy a

receipt. The next day the Minister received a letter from M.

Matthieu Dreyfus denouncing Commandant Esterhazy as the author

of the bordereau. The letter of Speranza to Commandant

Esterhazy has not yet been divulged to the public; and the War

Office, after diligent inquiries, have not been able to find

the veiled woman. Very different was the interpretation put on

this narrative by M. Trarieux, ex-Minister of Justice, and

others interested in revision. Their suggestion was that

Commandant Esterhazy was in the first instance apprised

beforehand by his friends in the War Office of the coming

danger and was for flying across the frontier, but that

subsequently these same friends, finding that the chiefs of

the army were fearful of being compromised by his flight from

justice and would make common cause with him, wished to recall

him, and with this view, took from the archives the 'document

libérateur,' and sent it to him as an assurance that he might

safely return and stand his trial, and also with a view to his

claiming the credit of having restored to the office a

document which it was now intended to charge Colonel Picquart

with abstracting. On November 16, 1897, on a question being

asked in the Chamber, General Billot, Minister of War, replied

that he had made inquiries, and the result 'n'ébranlait

nullement dans lion esprit l'autorité de la chose jugée,' but

that as a formal denunciation of an officer of the army had

been made by the 'famille Dreyfus,' there would be a military

investigation. A fortnight or so afterwards he 'repeated that

the Government considered the 'affaire Dreyfus comme

régulièrement et justement jugée.' Here, as elsewhere, the

reader will remember that the question at issue was who was

the author of the bordereau, and that if Captain Dreyfus was,

Commandant Esterhazy could not be. Consequently, a public

declaration by the Minister of War that Captain Dreyfus had

been justly condemned was as much as to say that Commandant

Esterhazy must be acquitted. … Commandant Esterhazy was

acquitted.

"On the morrow of Commandant Esterhazy's acquittal M Zola

launched his letter of January 13, 1898, which was addressed

to the President, of the Republic, and wound up with a series

of formal accusations attributing the gravest iniquities to

all concerned in either of the Courts-martial, each officer

being in turn pointedly mentioned by name. M. Zola's avowed

object was to get himself prosecuted for defamation and so

obtain an opportunity for bringing out 'la lumière' on the

whole situation. The Minister of War so far accepted the

challenge as to institute a prosecution at the Assizes; but

resolving to maintain the 'chose jugée' as to the 'affaire

Dreyfus,' he carefully chose his own ground so as to avoid

that subject, selecting from the whole letter only 15 lines as

constituting the defamation.

{229}

In particular as to one sentence, which ran:—['J'accuse enfin

le Premier Conseil de Guerre d'avoir violé le droit en

condamnant un accuse sur une pièce restée secrète, et]

j'accuse le Second Conseil de Guerre d'avoir couvert cette

illegalité par ordre, en commettant à son tour le crime

juridiquc d'acquitter sciemment un coupable'; ['I accuse,

finally, the first Court-martial of having violated the law in

its conviction of the accused on the strength of a document

kept secret; and I accuse the second Court-martial of having

covered this illegality, acting under orders and committing in

its turn the legal crime of knowingly acquitting a guilty

person.']

"The prosecution omitted the first half of the sentence, the

part within brackets. By French law it is for the defendants

to justify the defamatory words assigned, and to prove their

good faith. But this was a difficult task even for M. Labori,

the counsel for M. Zola. There were several notable obstacles

to be passed before light could reach the Court:

1. The 'chose jugée' as applicable to the 'affaire Dreyfus.'

2. The 'huis clos'; the whole proceedings at the Dreyfus

trial, and all the more important part of the proceedings at

the Esterhazy trial, having been conducted within closed

doors.

3. The 'secret d'Etat' excluding all reference to foreign

Governments.

4. The 'secret professionnel,' pleaded not only by officers

civil and military, but even by the experts employed by the

Court for the identification of handwriting.

5. To these may be added the unwillingness of a witness for

any reason whatever.

Thus Colonel Du Paty de Clam was allowed to refuse to answer

questions as to his conduct in family affairs; and, as for

Commandant Esterhazy, he turned his back on the defendants and

refused to answer any question whatever suggested by them,

although it was put to him by the mouth of the Judge. … Of the

above-mentioned obligations to silence, three were such as it

was within the competence of the Government to dispense from.

No dispensation was given, and hence it was that the Minister

of War was seen as prosecutor pressing his legal right to call

upon the defendants, under pain of conviction, to prove the

truth of the alleged libel, and at the same time, by the

exercise or non-exercise of his official authority, preventing

the witnesses for the defence from stating the facts which

were within their knowledge and most material to the truth.

But the 'chose jugée' was a legal entity by which was meant

not merely that the sentence could not be legally disputed,

but that it was to be accepted as 'la vérité légale'; no word

of evidence was to be admitted which in any way referred to

any part of the proceedings—the whole affair was to be

eliminated. The bar thus raised was very effectual in shutting

out of Court large classes of witnesses who could speak only

to the 'affaire Dreyfus' … whatever was the rule as to the

'chose jugée,' it should have been enforced equally on both

parties. This was not always the case. One single example of

the contrary shall be given, which, as will be shown

hereafter, events have proved to be of the utmost

significance. General de Pellieux had completed his long

evidence, but having received from 'a Juror' a private letter

to the effect that the jury would not convict M. Zola unless

they had some further proof of the guilt of Captain Dreyfus,

on a subsequent day he asked leave to make a supplementary

deposition and then said:—

"'Au moment de l'interpellation Castelin [i. e., in 1896] it

s'est produit un fait que je tiens à signaler. On a eu au

Ministère de la Guerre (et remarquez que je ne parle pas de

l'affaire Dreyfus) la preuve absolue de la culpabilité de

Dreyfus, et cette preuve je l'ai vile. Au moment de cette

interpellation, il est arrivé au Ministère de la Guerre un

papier dont l'origine ne peut être contestée, et qui dit—je

vous dirai ce qu'il y a dedans—"Il va se produire une

interpellation sur l'affaire Dreyfus. Ne dites jamais les

relations que nous avons eues avec ce juif."' ['At the time of

the Castelin interpellation (1896) there was a fact which I

want to point out. The Ministry of War held—remark that I am

not speaking of the Dreyfus case—absolute proof of the guilt

of Dreyfus; and this proof I have seen. At the moment of that

interpellation there arrived at the Ministry of War a paper

the origin of which is incontestable, and which says,—I will

tell you what it says,—"There is going to be an interpellation

about the Dreyfus affair. You must never disclose the

relations which we had with that Jew."'] And General de

Pellieux called upon General de Boisdeffre and General Gonse

to confirm what he said, and they did so. But when M. Labori

asked to see the document and proposed to cross-examine the

generals upon it, the Judge did not allow him, 'Nous n'avons

pas à parler de l'affaire Dreyfus.' It may be conceived what

effect such a revelation, made by the chiefs of the French

army in full uniform, had upon the jury. They pronounced M.

Zola guilty and found no extenuating circumstances; and he was

sentenced by the Judge to the maximum penalty, viz.,

imprisonment for a year and a fine of 3,000 francs.

"On April 2 the Zola case is brought up before the Court of

Cassation [the French Court of Appeals] and the Court quashes

the verdict of the Assizes, on the technical ground that the

prosecution had been instituted by the wrong person. The

Minister of War was incompetent to prosecute; the only persons

competent were those who could allege they had been defamed—

in this instance the persons constituting the Esterhazy

Court-martial. … The officers who had sat at the Esterhazy

Court-martial were then called together again in order to

decide whether M. Zola should be reprosecuted. To put a stop

to any unwillingness on their part, M. Zola published in the

'Siècle' of April 7 a declaration of Count Casella, which the

Count said he would have deposed to on oath at the former

trial if the Judge had allowed him to be a witness. This

declaration gave a detailed history of various interviews in

Paris with Count Panizzardi, the military attaché at the

Italian Embassy, and at Berlin with Colonel von Schwarzkoppen,

who had been the military attache at the German Embassy.

According to Count Casella, both these officers had declared

positively to him that they had had nothing to do with Captain

Dreyfus, but Colonel von Schwarzkoppen much with Commandant

Esterhazy. It will be said that this declaration of Count

Casella had not been sifted by cross-examination; but it is

understood that at the end of 1896, immediately after the

'Éclair' made the revelation of 'le document libérateur,' both

the German and Italian Governments made a diplomatic

representation to the French Government, denying that they had

had anything to do with Captain Dreyfus.

{230}

At all events, in January, 1898, official denials had been

publicly made by the German Minister of Foreign Affairs to the

Budget Commission of the Reichstag and by the Italian

Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs to the Parliament at Home.

The officers of the Court-martial resolve to reprosecute, and

the case is fixed for the May Assizes at Versailles. When the

case comes on, M. Zola demurs to its being tried outside

Paris; the demurrer is overruled by the Court of Cassation,

and ultimately, on July 18, the case comes on again at the

Versailles Assizes. The charge, however, is now cut down from

what it had been on the first trial in Paris. Of the whole

letter of M. Zola now only three lines are selected as

defamatory—viz.:—'Un conseil de guerre vient par ordre d'oser

acquitter un Esterhazy, soufflet suprême à toute vérité, à

toute justice.' ['The Court-martial has by order dared to

acquit an Esterhazy, supreme blow to all truth, to all

justice.'] This selection was manifestly designed to shut out

any possibility of reference to the 'affaire Dreyfus,' and M.

Labori, finding that any attempt to import it would be vain,

allowed the case to go by default, and M. Zola was condemned

and, as before, sentenced to a year's imprisonment and a fine

of 3,000f. He has appealed to the Com de Cassation, and the

appeal may be heard in the course of the autumn. To secure his

own liberty in the meantime, M. Zola has avoided personal

service of the order of the Assizes by removing beyond the

frontier.

"We will now go back to Colonel Picquart. During the year 1897

he had become aware that in the Intelligence Department

suspicions were expressed that the 'petit-bleu' was not a

genuine document and insinuations made that Colonel Picquart

had forged it. … The ground on which this imputation was

rested came out clearly in the evidence which was given

subsequently in the Zola trial, to which reference may now be

made. The sweepings of Colonel von Schwarzkoppen's basket had

been brought by a spy to the Intelligence Department, and were

given first into the hands of Commandant Henry, who put them into

a packet or 'cornet' and passed them on to Colonel Picquart to

examine. Colonel Picquart swore that on examination he had

found amongst the papers a large number of fragments, fifty or

sixty. These he gave to Commandant Lauth to piece together and

photograph. When pieced together they were found to constitute

the 'petit-bleu' addressed to Commandant Esterhazy, who at

that time was a perfect stranger to Colonel Picquart. At the

Zola trial Colonel Henry had sworn that the pieces were not in

the 'cornet' when he gave it, to Colonel Picquart, and the

insinuation was that Colonel Picquart had forged the document,

torn it in pieces, and put the pieces into the 'cornet.' …

Commandant Esterhazy was acquitted by the Court-martial, and

on the very next day Colonel Picquart was himself summoned to

submit to a military inquiry. The Court-martial sat with

closed doors, so that neither the charges nor the proceedings

nor the findings would be known to the public, but the

findings have found their way into the newspapers. [Picquart,

cleared himself on the main charges.] … But as to the charge

(which had never been disputed) that in 1897 Colonel Picquart

had communicated General Gonse's letters to M. Leblois, this

the Court found to be proved; and for this military offence

Colonel Picquart was removed from the army upon a pension of a

little more than 2,000f., or £80, per annum. Other

chastisements have followed. …

"We now come to the famous declaration of July 7 (1898), made

by M. Cavaignac, Minister of War. On an interpellation by M.

Castelin, the Minister of War replied that hitherto the

Government had respected the 'chose jugée,' but now

considerations superior to reasons of law made it necessary

for them to bring before the Chamber and the country all the

truth in their possession, the facts which had come to confirm

the conviction of Captain Dreyfus. He made this declaration

because of the absolute certainty he had of his guilt. He

based his declaration first on documents in the Intelligence

Department, and then on Captain Dreyfus's own confessions. The

latter will here be dealt with first. The Minister relied on

two witnesses. One was Captain d'Attel, who on the day of

Captain Dreyfus's resignation had told Captain Anthoine that

Captain Dreyfus had just said in his presence, 'As to what I

have handed over, it was worth nothing. If I had been let

alone I should have had more in exchange.' Captain Anthoine

had, according to the Minister, immediately repeated these

words to Major de Mitry. But Captain d'Attel is dead, and M.

Cavaignac did not state to the Chamber at what date or on

whose authority this information came to the War Office. The

other witness was a Captain Lebrun-Renault, still alive, who

had acted as captain of the escort on the day of degradation,

January 5, 1895. … The Minister omits to specify the date at

which Captain Lebrun-Renault first communicated to the War

Office. It is believed to be in November, 1897; and against

these allegations may be set the testimony of Commandant

Forzinetti, the governor of the prison in which Captain

Dreyfus was confined, to the effect that there is no record of

confession in the official report made at the time by Captain

Lebrun-Renault, as Captain of the escort, and that within the

last year the Captain had denied to him (Commandant

Forzinetti) that there had been any confession. Further we

know that throughout his imprisonment before trial, at the

trial, at the scene of his degradation, and in his letter

written immediately afterwards to his wife, and to the

Minister of War, Captain Dreyfus protested his innocence and

that he had never committed even the slightest imprudence.

"Then as to the documents confirmatory of the conviction of

Captain Dreyfus. M. Cavaignac did not say whether by this term

'guilt' be meant that Captain Dreyfus had been guilty of

writing the bordereau, or had been guilty otherwise as a

traitor. Indeed it was remarked that he never so much as

mentioned the bordereau. Was, then, the bordereau dropped, as

a document, no longer recognized to be in the handwriting of

Captain Dreyfus? But he informed the Chamber that the

Intelligence Department had during the last six years

accumulated 1,000 documents and letters relating to espionage,

of the authorship of which there was no reasonable doubt.

{231}

He would call the attention of the Chamber to only three, all

of which, he said, had passed between the persons who had been

mentioned (Colonel von Schwarzkoppen and M. Panizzardi). Here

again it was noticed that the 'document libérateur' (ce

canaille de D.) was not mentioned. Had this, too, been dropped

as no longer to be relied upon, because' D.' did not mean

Dreyfus, or was it now omitted because it had been produced at

the Court-martial by General Mercier and therefore could not

be said to be confirmatory of his conviction? Of the three

documents which M. Cavaignac specified, the first, dated in

March, 1894, made reference to a person indicated as D.; the

second, dated April 16, 1894, contained the expression 'cette

canaille de D.,' the same as that used in the 'document

libérateur.' The third was no other than 'la preuve absolue'

which General de Pellieux had imported into his evidence in

the Zola trial as having been in the hands of the Government

at the time of the Castelin interpellation in November, 1896.

M. Cavaignac read out its contents, of which the following is

an exact transcript:—'J'ai lu qu'un député va interpeller sur

Dreyfus. Si—je dirai que jamais j'avais des relations avec ce

Juif. C'est entendu. Si on vous demande, dites comme ça, car il

faut pas que on sache jamais personne ce qui est arrivé avec

lui.' ['I read that a deputy is going to question concerning

Dreyfus. I shall say that I never had relations with that Jew.

If they ask you, say the same, for it is necessary that we

know no one who approaches him.'] M. Cavaignac went on to say

that the material authenticity of this document depended not

merely on its origin, but also on its similarity with a

document written in 1894 on the same paper and with the same

blue pencil, and that its moral authenticity was established

by its being part of a correspondence exchanged between the

same persons in 1896. 'The first writes to the other, who

replies in terms which left no obscurity on the cause of their

common uneasiness.' The Chamber was transported with the

speech of the Minister of War, and, treating it as a 'coup de

grâce' to the 'affaire Dreyfus,' decreed by a majority of 572

to two that a print of it should be placarded in the 36,000

communes of France. On the next day Colonel Picquart wrote a

letter to the Minister of War undertaking to prove that the

first two documents had nothing to do with Captain Dreyfus,

and that the third, 'la preuve absolue,' was a forgery. Within

six weeks his words as to 'la preuve absolue' come true. On

August 31 the public are startled with the announcement that

Colonel Henry has confessed to having forged it himself, and

has committed suicide in the fortress Mont Valérien, being

found with his throat cut and a razor in his left hand. The

discovery of the forgery was stated to have arisen from a

clerk in the Intelligence Department having detected by the

help of a specially strong lamp that the blue paper of 'la

preuve absolue' was not identical with the blue paper of a

similar document of 1894 which M. Cavaignac had relied upon as

a proof of its material authenticity. … As a sequel to this

confession, General de Boisdeffre, chief of the staff, has

resigned, feeling he could not remain after having placed

before the Minister of War as genuine a document proved to be

a forgery. Commandant Esterhazy has been removed from the

active list of the army, having been brought by M. Cavaignac

before a Court-martial sitting with closed doors—his offence

not disclosed, but conceived to be his anti-patriotic

correspondence with a Mme. de Boulancy. A like fate has

befallen Colonel Du Paty de Clam from a similar Court-martial

instituted by M. Cavaignac's successor, his offence likewise

not disclosed, but presumed to be improper communication of

official secrets to Commandant Esterhazy. …

"However, notwithstanding the confession of Colonel Henry, M.

Cavaignac insisted that Captain Dreyfus was guilty, and

refused consent to revision. The Cabinet not acceding to this

view, M. Cavaignac resigns the Ministry of War, and is

succeeded by General Zurlinden, then military Governor of

Paris. General Zurlinden asks first to be allowed time to

study the dossier, and after a week's study and communication

with the War Office staff he also declares his opposition to

revision, retires from the Ministry of War, and resumes his

post of Governor of Paris. With him also retires one other

member of the Cabinet. Then the Minister of Justice takes the

first formal step in referring the matter to a legal

Commission, the technical question at issue appearing to be

whether the confession by Colonel Henry—a witness in the

case—of a forgery committed by him subsequently to the

conviction with a view to its confirmation might be considered

either as a new fact in the case or as equivalent to a

conviction for forgery, so as to justify an application to the

Cour de Cassation for revision. The Commission were divided in

opinion, and the matter would have fallen to the ground if the

Cabinet had not decided to take the matter into their own

hands and apply to the Court direct. This has now been done;

the Court is making preliminary inquiries, and will then

decide whether revision in some form may be allowed or a new

trial ordered.

"With regard to Colonel Picquart, his public challenge of the

documents put forward in the speech of the Minister of War was

followed three days afterwards by an order of the Cabinet

directing the Minister of War to set the Minister of Justice

in motion with a view that he should be criminally prosecuted

in a non-military Court for communication of secret

documents—the same offence as that for which he had been

punished by the Court-martial early in the year by removal

from the active list of the army—and M. Leblois was to be

prosecuted with him as an accomplice. On the 13th of July

Colonel Picquart is put into prison to await his trial, M.

Leblois being left at large. The prison was a civil prison,

where he was allowed to communicate with his legal advisor.

… On September 21 Colonel Picquart is taken from his prison to

the Court for his trial. The Government Prosecutor rises and

asks for an indefinite postponement on the ground that the

military authorities are about to bring him before a military

Court for forgery. … The military prosecution for forgery was

ordered, and on the strength of it the Correctional Court

acceded to the application for indefinite postponement of the

other case of which it was seised; the military authorities

claimed to take the prisoner out of the hands of the Civil

authorities, and the Correctional Court acquiesced. Then it

was that Colonel Picquart broke out—'This, perhaps, is the

last time my voice will be heard in public. It will be easy

for me to justify myself as to the petit-bleu. I shall perhaps

spend to-night in the Cherche-Midi (military) Prison, but I am

anxious to say if I find in my cell the noose of

Lemercier-Picard, or the razor of Henry, it will be an

assassination. I have no intention of committing suicide.' The

same or the next day Colonel Picquart was removed to the

Cherche-Midi Prison, there to await his Court-martial, which

is not expected yet for some weeks. He is not permitted to

communicate with his legal advisor or anyone else."

_G. Lushington,

The Dreyfus Case

(London Times, October 13, 1898)._

{232}

Late in October (1898) the Court of Cassation decided that it

found ground for proceeding to a supplementary investigation

in the case of Captain Dreyfus, but not for the suspension

meantime of the punishment be was undergoing. On the 15th of

November it decided that the prisoner should be informed by

telegraph of the pending revision proceedings, in order that

he might prepare his defense. The Court was now endeavoring to

secure possession of the secret documents (known as the

"Dreyfus dossier") on which the conviction of the accused was

said to have been really founded. For some time the war office

seemed determined to withhold them; but at length, late in

December, the dossier was turned over, under pledges of strict

secrecy as to the documents contained. Showing still further a

disposition to check the doings of the military authorities,

the Court of Cassation, in December, ordered a suspension of

proceedings in the military court against Colonel Picquart,

and demanded all documents in his case for examination by

itself.

Attacks were now made on the Court which had thus ventured to

interfere with the secret doings of the army chiefs. Suddenly,

on the 8th of January (1899), the president of the civil

section of the Court, M. Quesnay de Beaurepaire, resigned his

office and denounced his recent colleagues as being in a

conspiracy to acquit Dreyfus and dishonor the army. This, of

course, was calculated to stimulate anti-Dreyfus excitement

and furnish ground for challenging the final decision of the

Court, if it should be favorable to a new trial for the

imprisoned Captain. It also delayed proceedings in the case,

leading to the enactment of a law requiring all cases of

revision to be tried by the united sections of the Court of

Cassation. This act took the Dreyfus case from the 16 judges

of the criminal section and committed it to the whole 48

judges of the Court.

Major Esterhazy had taken refuge in England. On the 2d of June

he went to the office of the London "Chronicle" and made the

following confession for publication: "The chiefs of the army

have disgracefully abandoned me. My cup is full, and I shall

speak out. Yes, it was I who wrote the bordereau. I wrote it

upon orders received from Sandherr. They (the chiefs of the

general staff) will lie, as they know how to lie; but I have

them fast. I have proofs that they knew the whole thing and

share the responsibility with me, and I will produce the

proofs." Immediately it was said that he had been bribed by

the friends of Dreyfus to take the crime upon himself.

On the day following this confession, the decision of the

Court of Cassation was announced. Meantime, the newspaper

"Figaro" had, by some means, been able to obtain and publish

the testimony which the Court had taken with closed doors, and

had thus revealed the flimsiness and the contradictoriness of

the grounds on which the officers of the Army Staff based

their strenuous assertions that they had positive knowledge of

the guilt of Dreyfus. This had great influence in preparing

the public mind for the decision of the Court when announced.

On grounds relating to the bordereau, to the document which

contained the expression "ce canaille de D.," and to the

alleged confession of Dreyfus,—leaving aside all other

questions of evidence,—the judgment as delivered declared that

"the court quashes and annuls the judgment of condemnation

pronounced on December 22, 1894, against Alfred Dreyfus by the

first court-martial of the Military Government of Paris, and

remits the accused to the court-martial of Rennes, named by

special deliberation in council chamber, to be tried on the

following question:—Is Dreyfus guilty of having in 1894

instigated machinations or held dealings with a foreign power

or one of its agents in order to incite it to commit

hostilities or undertake war against France by furnishing it

with the notes and documents enumerated in the bordereau? and

orders the prescribed judgment to be printed and transcribed

on the registers of the first court-martial of the Military

Government of Paris in the margin of the decision annulled."

Captain Dreyfus was taken immediately from his prison on

Devil's Island and brought by a French cruiser to France,

landing at Quiberon on the 1st of July and being taken to

Rennes, where arrangements for the new military trial were

being made.

The new court-martial trial began at Rennes on the 7th of

August. When it had proceeded for a week, and had reached what

appeared to be a critical point—the opening of a

cross-examination of General Mercier by the counsel for

Dreyfus—M. Labori, the leading counsel for the defense, was

shot as he walked the street, by a would-be assassin who

escaped. Fortunately, the wound he received only disabled him

for some days, and deprived the accused of his presence and

his powerful service in the court at a highly important time.

The trial, which lasted beyond a month, was a keen

disappointment in every respect. It probed none of the

sinister secrets that are surely hidden somewhere in the black

depths of the extraordinary case. In the judgment of all

unimpassioned watchers of its proceeding, it disclosed no

proof of guilt in Dreyfus. On the other hand, it gave no

opportunity for his innocence to be distinctly shown.

Apparently, there was no way in which the negative of his

non-guiltiness could be proved except by testimony from the

foreign agents with whom he was accused of having treasonable

dealings: but that testimony was barred out by the court,

though the German and Italian governments gave permission to

the counsel for Dreyfus to have it taken by commission.

Outside of France, at least, the public verdict may be said to

have been unanimous, that the whole case against Captain

Dreyfus, as set forth by the heads of the French army, in

plain combination against him, was foul with forgeries, lies,

contradictions and puerilities, and that nothing to justify

his condemnation had been shown. But the military court, on

the 9th of September, by a vote of five judges against two,

brought in a verdict of Guilty, with "extenuating

circumstances" (as though any circumstances could extenuate

the guilt of an actual crime like that of which Dreyfus was

accused), and sentenced him to imprisonment in a fortress for

ten years, from which term the years of his past imprisonment

would be taken out.

{233}

Mr. G. W. Steevens, the English newspaper correspondent, who

attended the trial and has written the best account of it,

makes the following comment on the verdict, which sums up all

that needs to be said: "In a way, the most remarkable feature

about the verdict of Rennes was the proportion of the votes.

When it had been over a few hours, and numb brains had relaxed

to thought again, it struck somebody that on the very first

day the very first motion had been carried by five to two. The

next and next and all of them had been carried by five to two.

Now Dreyfus was condemned by five to two. The idea—the

staggering idea—dropped like a stone into the mind, and spread

in widening circles till it filled it with conviction.

Everyone of the judges had made up his mind before a single

word of evidence had been heard. The twenty-seven days, the

hundred-and-something witnesses, the baskets of documents, the

seas of sweat and tears—they were all utterly wasted. … The

verdict was, naturally, received with a howl of indignation,

and to endeavour to extenuate the stupid prejudice—that at

least, if not cowardly dishonesty—of the five who voted

against the evidence is not likely to be popular with

civilized readers. Yet it may be said of them in

extenuation—if it is any extenuation—that they only did as

almost any other five Frenchmen would have done in their

place. Frenchmen are hypnotized by the case of Dreyfus, as

some people are hypnotized by religion; in its presence they

lose all mental power and moral sense." The army chiefs had

had their way; the stain of their condemnation had been kept

upon Dreyfus; but the government of France was magnanimous

enough to punish him no more. His sentence was remitted by the

President, and he was set free, a broken man.

FRANCE: A. D. 1898.

State of the French Protectorate of Tunis.

See (in this volume)

TUNIS: A. D. 1881-1898.

FRANCE: A. D. 1898 (April).

Lease of Kwangchow Wan from China.

Railway and other concessions exacted.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-AUGUST).

FRANCE: A. D. 1898 (April-December).

In the Chinese "Battle of Concessions."

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY-DECEMBER).

FRANCE: A. D. 1898 (May).

Demands on China consequent on the murder of a missionary.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1898 (MAY).

FRANCE: A. D. 1898 (May-November).

General Elections.

Fall of the Ministry of M. Meline.

Brief Ministry of M. Brisson, struggling with

the Dreyfus question.

Coalition Cabinet of M. Dupuy.

General elections for a new Chamber of Deputies were held

throughout France on Sunday, May 8, with a second balloting on

Sunday, May 22, in constituencies where the first had resulted

in no choice. Of the 584 seats to be filled, the Progressive

Republicans secured only 225, so that the Ministry of M.

Méline could count with no certainty on the support of a

majority in the Chamber. It was brought to a downfall in the

following month by a motion made by M. Bourgeois, in the

following words: "The Chamber determines to support only a

Ministry relying exclusively on a Republican majority." This

was carried by a majority of about fifty votes, and on the

next day the Ministry resigned. It was succeeded by a Radical

cabinet, under M. Henri Brisson, after several unsuccessful

attempts to form a Conservative government. By announcing that

it would not attempt to carry out a Radical programme in some

important particulars, the Brisson Ministry secured enough

support to maintain its ground for a time; but there were

fatal differences in its ranks on the burning Dreyfus

question, as well as on other points. M. Cavaignac, Minister

of War, was bitterly opposed to a revision of the Dreyfus

ease, which the Premier and M. Bourgeois (now Minister of

Public Instruction) were understood to favor. M. Cavaignac

soon placed himself in an extremely embarrassing position by

reading to the Chamber certain documents which he put forward

as absolute proofs of the guilt of Dreyfus, but of which one

was shown presently to have been forged, while another had no

relation to the case. He accordingly resigned (September 4),

and General Zurlinden took his place. But Zurlinden, too,

resigned a few days later, when a determination to revise the

trial of Dreyfus was reached. The government was then exposed

to a new outburst of fury in the anti-Dreyfus factions, and

all the enemies of the Republic became active in new

intrigues. The Orleanists bestirred themselves with fresh

hopes, and the old Boulangist conspirators revived their

so-called Patriotic League, with M. Déroulède at its head. At

the same time dangerous labor disturbances occurred in Paris,

threatening a complete paralysis of railway communications as

well as of the industries of the capital. The Ministry faced

its many difficulties with much resolution; but it failed of

support in the Chamber, when that body met in October, and it

resigned. A coalition cabinet was then formed, with M. Charles

Dupuy in the presidency of the council, and M. de Freycinet as

Minister of War.

FRANCE: A. D. 1898 (June).

The Sugar Conference at Brussels.

See (in this volume)

SUGAR BOUNTIES.

FRANCE: A. D. 1898 (September-November).

The Nile question with England.

Marchand's expedition at Fashoda.

See (in this volume)

EGYPT: A. D. 1898 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER).

FRANCE: A. D. 1898-1899.

Demands upon China for attacks on Missions in Szechuan.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1898-1899 (JUNE-JANUARY).

FRANCE: A. D. 1898-1899.

Demand on China for extension of settlement at Shanghai.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1898-1899.

FRANCE: A. D. 1898-1899 (June-June).

Convention with England defining possessions in West

and North Africa.

The great Empire in the Sudan and Sahara.

See (in this volume)

NIGERIA: A. D. 1882-1899.

FRANCE: A. D. 1899 (February-June).

Death of President Faure.

Election of President Loubet.

Revolutionary attempts of "Nationalist" agitators.

The Ministry of M. Waldeck-Rousseau.

Felix Faure, President of the French Republic, died suddenly

on the 16th of February,—a victim, it is believed, of the

excitements and anxieties of the Dreyfus affair. The situation

thus produced was so sobering in its effect that the

Republican factions were generally drawn together for the

moment, and acted promptly in filling the vacant executive.

{234}

The Senate and the Chamber of Deputies were convened in joint

session, as a National Assembly, at Versailles, on the 18th,

and Emile Loubet, then President of the Senate, was chosen to

the presidency of the Republic on its first ballot, by 483

votes, against 279 for M. Meline, and 45 for M. Cavaignac. At

the funeral of the late President Faure, which occurred on the

23d, the pestilential Déroulède and his fellow

mischief-makers, with their so-called "League of Patriots,"

"League de Patrie Française," and party of "Nationalists,"

attempted to excite the troops to revolt, but without success.

Déroulède and others were arrested for this treasonable

attempt. During some months the enemies of the Republic were

active and violent in hostility to President Loubet, and the

cabinet which he inherited from his predecessor was believed

to lack loyalty to him. On the 4th of June, while attending

the steeple-chase races at Auteuil, he was grossly insulted,

and even struck with a cane, by a party of young royalists,

the leader of whom, Count Christiani, who struck the shameful

blow, was sentenced afterwards to imprisonment for four years.

The Ministry of the day was considered to be responsible for

these disorders, and, on the 12th of June, a resolution was

passed in the Chamber to the effect that it would support only

a government that was determined to defend republican

institutions with energy and preserve public order. Thereupon

the Ministry of M. Dupuy resigned, and a new cabinet was

formed with much difficulty by M. Waldeck-Rousseau. It

included a radical Socialist, M. Millerand, who became

Minister of Commerce, and a resolute and honest soldier, the

Marquis de Gallifet, as Minister of War. The latter promptly

cleared the way for more independent action in the government,

by removing several troublesome generals from important

commands. The new Ministry assumed the name of the "Government

of Republican Defense," and offered a front to the enemies of

the Republic which plainly checked their attacks. M. Déroulède

and some of his fellow conspirators were brought to trial

before the Court of Assizes, and acquitted.

FRANCE: A. D. 1899 (May).

New Convention with Siam.

See (in this volume)

SIAM: A. D. 1896-1899.

FRANCE: A. D. 1899 (May-July).

Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.

See (in this volume)

PEACE CONFERENCE.

FRANCE: A. D. 1899 (July).

Reciprocity Treaty with the United States.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899-1901.

FRANCE: A. D. 1899 (December).

Adhesion to the arrangement of an "open door" commercial

policy in China.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1899-1900 (SEPTEMBER-FEBRUARY).

FRANCE: A. D. 1899-1900 (August-January).

Arrest and trial of revolutionary conspirators.

In August, 1899, the government, having obtained good evidence

that treasonable plans for the overthrow of the Republic had

been under organization for several months, in the various

royalist, anti-Semitic, and so-called "Patriotic" leagues,

caused the arrest of a number of the leaders implicated, the

irrepressible Paul Déroulède being conspicuous among them. The

president of the Anti-Semitic League, M. Guérin, with a number

of his associates, barricaded themselves at the headquarters of

the League and defied arrest, evidently expecting a mob rising

in Paris if they were attacked. Serious rioting did occur on

the 20th of August; but the government prudently allowed

Guérin and his party to hold their citadel until the ending of

the excitements of the Dreyfus trial; then, on the showing of

a serious determination to take it by force, they gave

themselves up. The trial of the conspirators was begun in

September, before the Senate, sitting as a high court of

Justice, and continued at intervals until the following

January. Déroulède conducted himself with characteristic

insolence, and received two sentences of imprisonment, one for

three months and the other for two years, on account of

outrageous attacks on the Senate and on the President of the

Republic. These were additional to a final sentence to ten

years of banishment for his treasonable plotting, which he

shared with one fellow conspirator. Guérin was condemned to

ten years imprisonment in a fortified place. The remainder of

the accused were discharged with the exception of one who had

escaped arrest, and who was convicted in his absence. The

trial, wrote the Paris correspondent of the "London Times,"

"showed how strange a thing was this motley conspiracy between

men who had but one common bond of sympathy, namely, the

desire to upset the Republic,—men from whom the Bonapartist,

another variety of anti-Republican conspirators, had held

aloof. The latter fancied themselves sufficiently represented

in the conspiracy by the plebiscitary party [of Déroulède]

whose accession to office would have been tantamount to the

success of Imperialism. … The condemnation of these

conspirators of varied aspirations proved that the Nationalist

party was a mere conglomeration of ambitions which would end

in every form of violence if ever the conspirators were called

upon to share the booty. The harm that they have already done,

even before they have made themselves masters of France, shows

that the danger which they constitute to their country is

infinitely greater than the danger with which it was menaced

by Boulangism, for then at least at the moment of victory all

the ambitions would have been concentrated round a single

will, however mediocre that will, and General Boulanger would

at all events have been a rallying flag for the conspirators

visible all over France. The Nationalism condemned by the

Court in its various personifications has not even a head

around which at the moment of action the accomplices could be

grouped. It is confusion worse confounded. If it succeeded in

its aims it could only avoid at home the consequences of its

incoherent policy by some desperate enterprise abroad. The

judgment of the High Court, by restoring tranquillity in the

streets, preserved France from the dangers towards which she

was hastening, and which were increased, consciously or

unconsciously, by auxiliaries at the head of the executive

office. But owing to the verdict of the High Court France had

time to pull herself together, to breathe more easily, and to

take the necessary resolutions to secure tranquillity. The

approach of the Exhibition imposed upon everyone a kind of

truce, and M. Déroulède himself, with an imprudence of which

he is still feeling the consequences, declared that he would

return to France when once the Exhibition was over."

{235}

In a speech which he made subsequently, at San Sebastian, his

place of exile, Déroulède declared that the "coup d'état"

prepared by his party of revolutionists for the 23d of

February, 1899, on the occasion of the funeral of President

Faure (see above), was frustrated because he refused, at the

last moment, to permit it to be used in the interest of the

Duke of Orleans. "The following day," he said, "between midday

and 4 o'clock in the afternoon, a mysterious hand had upset all

the preparations made, the position of the troops, their

dislocation, their order and the officers commanding them, and

the same evening Marcel Habert and myself were arrested." The

intimation of his speech seemed to be that the hand in the

government which changed the position of the troops and upset

the revolutionary plot would not have done so if the royalists

had been taken into it.

Soon after the conclusion of the conspiracy trials, the

superior and eleven monks of the Order of the Assumptionist

Fathers, who had appeared to be mixed up in the plot, were

brought to account as an illegal association, and their

society was dissolved.

FRANCE: A. D. 1899-1901.

The Newfoundland French Shore question.

See (in this volume)

NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1899-1901.

FRANCE: A. D. 1900.

Military and naval expenditure.

See (in this volume)

WAR BUDGETS.

FRANCE: A. D. 1900.

Naval strength.

See (in this volume)

NAVIES OF THE SEA POWERS.

FRANCE: A. D. 1900 (January).

Elections to the Senate.

Elections to the French Senate, on the 28th of January,

returned 61 Republicans, 6 Liberal Republicans, 18 Radicals, 7

Socialists, 4 Monarchists, and 3 Nationalists. "The Radicals

are as they were. The Socialists have just gained an entrance

to the Senate, and to this they were entitled by the large and

solid Socialist vote throughout France. The great mass of

solid and sensible Republicans have not only held their

ground, but have increased and solidified their position. The

reactionaries, whether avowed Monarchists, or supporters of

the Déroulède movement, have made one or two merely formal

gains, but have really fallen back, from the point of view of

their pretensions, and the long list of candidates they put

forward. On the whole, we may fairly say that the solid, sober

Republican vote of France has proved that it is in the ascendant.

Once more, in a deeper sense than he meant, the verdict of M.

Thiers has, for the moment at any rate, been verified,—that

France is really at bottom Left Centre. That is to say, the

nation is for progress, but for progress divested of vague

revolutionary pretensions, of mere a priori dogmas as to what

Republican progress involves. In the main the nation seems to

have supported the Government in repelling the aggressive

attacks of unbridled Clericalism, and in rejecting the

pretensions of the Army to dictate French politics. On the

other hand, the mass of the French electors do not desire a

crusade against the Roman Catholic Church, and they do not

care for an indiscriminate attack on the French Army."

_The Spectator (London),

February 3, 1900._

FRANCE: A. D. 1900 (January-March).

The outbreak of the "Boxers" in northern China.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY-MARCH).

FRANCE: A. D. 1900 (April-November).

The Paris Exposition.

The Paris Exposition of 1900, which exceeded all previous

"world's fairs" in extent and in the multitude of its

visitors, was formally opened on the 14th of April, but with

unfinished preparations, and closed on the 12th of November.

The reported attendance during the whole period of the

Exposition was 48,130,301, being very nearly double the

attendance at the Exposition of 1889. The total receipts of

money were 114,456,213 francs, and total expenditures

116,500,000 francs, leaving a deficit of 2,044,787 francs. But

France and Paris are thought to have profited greatly,

notwithstanding. Forty countries besides France took part in

the preparations and were officially represented. The number

of exhibitors was 75,531; the awards distributed were 42,790

in number. The buildings erected for the Exposition numbered

more than 200, including 36 official pavilions erected by

foreign governments. The ground occupied extended on each side

of the Seine for a distance of nearly two miles, comprising,

besides the quays on each side of the river, the Champ de

Mars, the Esplanade des Invalides, the Trocadero Gardens, and

part of the Champs Elysées.

FRANCE: A. D. 1900 (June-December).

Co-operation with the Powers in China.

See (in this volume)

CHINA.

FRANCE: A. D. 1900 (August).

Annexation of the Austral Islands.

See (in this volume)

AUSTRAL ISLANDS.

FRANCE: A. D. 1900 (September).

The centenary of the Proclamation of the French Republic.

A gigantic banquet.

On the 22d of September, the centenary of the proclamation of

the French Republic was celebrated in Paris by a gigantic

banquet given by President Loubet, accompanied by his

Ministers, to the assembled Mayors of France, gathered from

near and far. Some 23,000 guests sat down to the déjeuner, for

which a temporary structure had been prepared in the Tuileries

Gardens. It was a triumphant demonstration of the culinary

resources of Paris; but it had more important objects. It was

a political demonstration, organized by the President of the

Republic, in concert with the Cabinet of M. Waldeck-Rousseau,

as a check to certain schemes of the Paris Nationalists,

against the government. It brought the municipal

representatives of the provinces to the capital to show the

array of their feeling for the Republic against that of the

noisy demagogues of the capital. It was a striking success.

FRANCE: A. D. 1900 (October).

Proposal of terms for negotiation

with the Chinese government.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (AUGUST-DECEMBER).

FRANCE: A. D. 1900 (December).

The Amnesty Bill.

With the object of making it impossible for the enemies of the

Republic to find such opportunity for a revival of the

dangerous Dreyfus controversy as any new trial of its issues

would give them, the French government, in December,

accomplished the passage of an amnesty bill, which purges

everybody connected with the affair, so far as legal

proceedings are concerned. The measure was strenuously opposed

by the friends of Dreyfus, Picquart and Zola, none of whom are

willing to be left unvindicated by law, nor willing to be

barred from future proceedings against some of the army staff.

It was also fought by the mischievous factions which wish to

keep the Dreyfus quarrel alive for purposes of disorderly

excitement.

{236}

The policy of the measure, from the governmental standpoint,

was thus described at the time it was pending: The Cabinet

"felt that this affair had done great injury to France, that

it was a dangerous weapon in the hands of all the conspirators

against the Republic, that no Court-martial would agree to

acquit Dreyfus, even though convinced of his innocence, and

that, in view of the futility of any attempt to secure an

acquittal, it was necessary to avoid danger to the Republic by

reopening the affair. France had already suffered irreparable

mischief from it. … The affair has falsified the judgment and

opinion of the army, so that it has no longer a clear notion

of its duty at home. In external affairs it is still always

ready to march to the defence of the country, but as to its

duties at home it is in a state of deplorable confusion. …

Considering that the Dreyfus affair has so armed the

adversaries of the Government that it cannot be sure of the

army in internal matters, the Cabinet, it is evident, could

not allow that affair to remain open and produce anarchy. On

the other hand, there was a prosecution pending against M.

Zola, who, it was clearly proved to all, was right in his

famous letter 'J'accuse.' There was a prosecution against

Colonel Picquart, who had sacrificed a brilliant future in the

defence of truth against falsehood. There was likewise a

prosecution against M. Joseph Reinach, who had accused Henry

of having been a traitor or the accomplice of a traitor. I do

not know how far Dr. Reinach had proofs of his allegations,

but these three prosecutions were so closely connected with

the Dreyfus case that, if they had been allowed to go on, that

affair, which was so dangerous to tranquillity, security, and

order, would be reopened. Now the Government will not at any

cost allow the affair to be reopened. The whole Amnesty Bill

hinges on this question. The Government agrees to amnesty

everybody except the persons condemned by the High Court, and

who continue to defy it. … It insists on these three

prosecutions being struck off the rolls of the Tribunals. This

is the whole question. Nothing else in the eyes of the

Government is essential, but it will not allow the further

serious mischief which would result from the reopening of the

affair. The Bill will not stop the civil proceedings against

MM. Zola, Picquart, and Reinach, but such proceedings do not

cause the same excitement as criminal prosecutions. If the

latter are stopped, the dangers occasioned by the confusion in

the spirit of the army will disappear, and it may then be

hoped that the excitement will calm down."

M. Zola protested vigorously against the Amnesty Bill, and, on

its passage, wrote an open letter to the President in which he

said: "I shall not cease repeating that the affair cannot

cease as long as France does not know and repair the

injustice. I said that the fourth act was played at Rennes and

that there would have to be a fifth act. Anxiety remains in my

heart. The people of France always forget that the Kaiser is

in possession of the truth, which he may throw in our face

when the hour strikes. Perhaps he has already chosen his time.

This would be the horrible fifth act which I have always

dreaded. The French Government should not for one hour accept

such a terrible contingency."

FRANCE: A. D. 1900 (December).

Award in the arbitration of French Guiana boundary

dispute with Brazil.

See (in this volume)

BRAZIL: A. D. 1900.

FRANCE: A. D. 1901.

The Bill on Associations.

A measure to place the Religious Orders under strict

regulations of law, and to limit their possession of property.

In a speech delivered at Toulouse on the 28th of October,

1900, the French Prime Minister, M. Waldeck-Rousseau,

announced the intention of the government to bring forward, at

the next session of the Chambers, a measure of critical

importance and remarkable boldness, being no less than the

project of a law (called in general terms a "Bill on

Associations ) for the stringent regulation and restriction of

the religious orders in France,—especially for the restriction

of their acquisition and ownership of property. Forecasting

the measure in that speech, he said: "The question is the

rendering free, and subject only to the common law, all the

associations which are in themselves lawful as regards the

safety of the State. Another object of the same Bill is to

cope with the peril which arises from the continuous

development in a Democratic society of an organism which,

according to a famous definition, the merit of which is due to

our old Parliaments, 'tends to introduce into the State under

the specious veil of a religions institution a political

corporation the object of which is to arrive first at complete

independence and then at the usurpation of all authority.' I

am filled with no sectarian spirit, but merely with the spirit

which dominated as well the policy of the Revolution as the

entire historical policy of France. The fundamental statute

determining the relations between the churches and the State

should be exactly applied so long as it has not been altered,

and we have always interpreted its spirit with the broadest

tolerance. But as things are now going, what will remain of

this pact of reciprocal guarantees? It had been exclusively

confined to the secular clergy owing hierarchic obedience to

their superiors and to the State and to questions of worship,

the preparation for ecclesiastical functions and preaching in

the churches. And, now, lo and behold, we find religious

orders teaching in the seminaries, the pulpit usurped by the

missions, and the Church more and more menaced by the chapel.

The dispersed but not suppressed religious communities cover

the territory with a close network, which has been evidenced

in a recent trial, and have been so bold as to defy the Church

dignitaries not accepting their vassalage. In pointing to the

peril of increasing mortmain threatening the principle of the

free circulation of property, it is sufficient to say that we

are influenced by no vain alarms, that the value of the real

property occupied or owned by the communities was in 1880 as

much as 700,000,000f., and that it now exceeds a milliard.

Starting from this figure, what may be the value of mortmain

personalty? Yet the real peril does not arise from the

extension of mortmain. In this country, whose moral unity has

for centuries constituted its strength and greatness, two

youths are growing up ignorant of each other until the day

when they meet, so unlike as to risk not comprehending one

another. Such a fact is explained only by the existence of a

power which is no longer even occult and by the constitution

in the State of a rival power. All efforts will be fruitless

as long as a rational, effective legislation has not

superseded a legislation at once illogical, arbitrary, and

inoperative. If we attach so much importance to a Law on

Association it is also because it involves the solution of at

least a portion of the education question. This Bill is the

indispensable guarantee of the most necessary prerogatives of

modern society."

{237}

This pre-announcement of the intentions of the government gave

rise, as it must have been intended to do, to a warm

discussion of the project in advance, and showed something of

the strength of the antagonists with whom its supporters must

make their fight. At length, late in December—a few days

before the opening of debate on the bill in the Chambers—the

attitude of the Church upon it was fully declared by the Pope,

in a lengthy interview which M. Henri des Houx, one of the

members of the staff of the "Matin," was permitted to publish

in that Paris journal. "After M. Waldeck-Rousseau's Toulouse

speech, and in presence of the Associations Bill," said the

Pope, "I can no longer keep silent. It is my Apostolic duty to

speak out. French Catholics will know that their father does

not abandon them, that he suffers with them in their trials,

and that he encourages their generous efforts for right and

liberty. They are well aware that the Pope has unceasingly

laboured in their behalf and for the Church, adapting the

means to the utility of the ends. The pilot is the judge of

the manœuvre at the bar. At one moment he seems to be tacking

before the tempest; at another he is bound to sail full

against it. But his one aim ever is to make the port. Now, the

Pope cannot consent to allow the French Government to twist

the Concordat from its real intent and transform an instrument

of peace and justice into one of war and oppression. The

Concordat [see, in volume 2, FRANCE: A. D. 1801-1804]

established and regulated in France the exercise of Catholic

worship and defined, between the Church and the French State,

mutual rights and duties. The religious communities form an

integral part of the Apostolic Church as much as the secular

clergy. They exercise a special and a different mission, but

one not less sacred than that of the pastors recognized by the

State. To try to destroy them is to deal a blow at the Church,

to mutilate it, and to restrain its benefits. Such was not the

intent of the Concordat. It would be a misconstruction of this

treaty to declare illegal and to interdict whatever it was not

able to settle or foresee. The Concordat is silent as to

religious communities. This means that the regular clergy has

no share in the special rights and relative privileges granted

by the Concordat to the members of the secular ecclesiastical

hierarchy. It does not mean that religious orders are to be

excluded from the common law and put outside the pale of the

State. … There was no need of mentioning the religious

communities in the Concordat because these pious bodies were

permitted to live under the shelter of the equal rights

accorded to men and citizens by the fundamental clauses of

your Constitution. But if an exception is to be made to these

solemn declarations in the case of certain citizens it is an

iniquity towards the Church, an infraction of the intentions

of the negotiators of 1801. Look at the countries with which

the Holy See has signed no Concordat, and even at Protestant

countries like England, the United States, and many another.

Are religious communities there excluded from the liberties

recognized as belonging to other citizens? Do they not live

there without being harassed? And thither, perhaps, these

communities would take refuge, as in the evil days of the

Terror, from the iniquity of Catholic France! But since then

France has become bound by the Concordat, and she seems to

forget it. …

"Why does France figure to-day by the side of the great

nations in the concert of the Powers settling the Chinese

question? Whence have your Ministry for Foreign Affairs and

your representative in Peking the authority which gives weight

to their opinion in the assembly of plenipotentiaries? What

interest have you in the north of China? Are you at the head

there in trade and industry? Have you many traders there to

protect? No. But you are there the noblest champions of

Christian civilization, the protectors of the Catholic

missions. Your foreign rivals are envious of this privileged

situation. They are seeking to dispute your rights laid down

in treaties that assign to you the rôle of defenders of native

missions and Christian settlements. … Hitherto your

Governments had had a better notion of the importance of their

rights. It is in the name of treaties guaranteeing them that

they protested to me when the Chinese Emperor asked me to

arrange diplomatic relations directly with the Holy See. Upon

the insistence of M. de Freycinet, the then Minister, I

refused, so fearful was I that France might believe, even

wrongfully, that I wished in any way to diminish her prestige,

her influence, and her power. In the Levant, at

Constantinople, in Syria, in the Lebanon, what will remain of

the eminent position held by your Ambassador and Consuls if

France intends to renounce representing there the rights of

Christianity? …

"M. Waldeck-Rousseau, in his Toulouse speech, spoke of the

moral unity of France. Who has laboured more than I for it?

Have I not energetically counselled Catholics to cease all

conflict against the institutions which your country has

freely chosen and to which it remains attached? Have I not

urged Catholics to serve the Republic instead of combating it?

I have encountered warm resistance among them, but I believe

that their present weakness arises from their very lack of

union and their imperfect deference to my advice. The

Republican Government at least knows in what degree my

authority has been effective towards bringing about that

public peace and moral unity which is proclaimed at the very

moment when it is seriously menaced. It has more than once

thanked me. If the Pontifical authority has not been able

entirely to accomplish the union so much desired I at least

have spared no effort for it. Is there now a desire to

reconstitute the union of Catholics against the Republic? How

could I prevent this if, instead of the Republic liberal,

equitable, open to all, to which I have invited Catholics to

rally, there was substituted a narrow, sectarian Republic,

governed by an inflamed faction governed by laws of exception

and spoliation, repugnant to all honest and upright

consciences, and to the traditional generosity of France? Is

it thought that such a Republic can obtain the respect of a

single Catholic and the benediction of the Supreme Pontiff? I

still hope that France will spare herself such crises, and

that her Government will not renounce the services which I

have been able to render and can still render it.

{238}

On several occasions, for instance, and quite recently, I have

been asked by the head of a powerful State to allow disregard

of the rights of France in the East and Far East. Although

compensations were offered to the Church and the Holy See, I

resolved that the right of France should remain intact,

because it is an unquestionable right, which France has not

allowed to become obsolete. But if in your country the

religious orders, without which no Catholic expansion is

possible, are ruined and suppressed, what shall I answer

whenever such requests are renewed to me? Will the Pope be

alone in defending privileges the possessors of which prize

them so little?"

Of the seriousness of the conflict thus opening between the

French Republicans and the Roman Catholic Church there could

be no doubt.

The threatened bill was brought forward by the government and

debate upon it opened on the 15th of January, 1901. The most

stringent clauses of the measure were translated and

communicated to the "London Times" by its Paris correspondent,

as follows:

"II. Any association founded on a cause, or for an illicit

end, contrary to the laws, to public order, to good manners,

to the national unity, and to the form of the Government of

the Republic, is null and void.

"III. Any member of an association which has not been formed

for a determined time may withdraw at any term after payment

of all dues belonging to the current year, in spite of any

clauses to the contrary.

"IV. The founders of any association are bound to publish the

covenants of the association. This declaration must be made at

the prefecture of the Department or at the sub-prefecture of

the district which is the seat of the association. This

declaration must reveal the title and object of the

association, the place of meeting and the names, professions,

and domiciles of the members or of those who are in any way

connected with its administration. … The founders, directors,

or administrators of an association maintained or

reconstituted illegally after the verdict of dissolution will

be punished with a fine of from 500f. to 5,000f. and

imprisonment ranging from six days to a year. And the same

penalty will apply to all persons who shall have favoured the

assemblage of the members of the dissolved association by the

offer of a meeting place. …

"X. Associations recognized as of public utility may exercise

all the rights of civil life not forbidden in their statutes,

but they cannot possess or acquire other real estate than that

necessary for the object which they have in view. All personal

property belonging to an association should be invested in

bonds bearing the name of the owner. Such associations can

receive gifts and bequests on the conditions defined by Clause

910 of the Civil Code. Real estate included in an act of donation

or in testamentary dispositions, which is not necessary for

the working of the association, is alienated within the period

and after the forms prescribed by the decree authorizing

acceptance of the gift, the amount thereby represented

becoming a part of the association's funds. Such associations

cannot accept a donation of real estate or personal property

under the reserve of usufruct for the benefit of the donor.

"XI. Associations between Frenchmen and foreigners cannot be

formed without previous authorization by a decree of the

Conseil d'Etta. A special law authorizing their formation and

determining the conditions of their working is necessary in

the case, first of associations between Frenchmen, the seat or

management of which is fixed or emanates from beyond the

frontiers or is in the hands of foreigners; secondly, in the

case of associations whose members live in common. …

"XIV. Associations existing at the moment of the promulgation

of the present law and not having previously been authorized

or recognized must, within six months, be able to show that

they have done all in their power to conform to these

regulations."

Discussion of the Bill in the Chamber of Deputies was carried

on at intervals during ten weeks, the government defeating

nearly every amendment proposed by its opponents, and carrying

the measure to its final passage on the 29th of March, by a

vote of 303 to 220. Of the passage of the bill by the Senate

there seems to be no doubt. After disposing of the Bill on

Associations, on the 27th of March, the Chamber adjourned to

May 14.

----------FRANCE: End--------

FRANCHISE LAW, The Boer.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL):

A. D. 1899 (MAY-JUNE); and (JULY-SEPTEMBER).

FRANCHISES, Taxation of public,

See (in this volume)

NEW YORK STATE: A. D. 1899 (MAY).

FRANKLIN, The Canadian district of.

See (in this volume)

CANADA: A. D. 1895.

FRANZ JOSEF LAND: Exploration of.

See (in this volume)

POLAR EXPLORATION, 1896;

1897; 1898-1899; 1900-; and 1901.

FREE SILVER QUESTION, The.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER);

and 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).

FREE SPEECH:

Restrictions on, in Germany.

See (in this volume)

GERMANY: A. D. 1898; and 1900 (OCTOBER 9).

FREE TRADE.

See (in this volume)

TARIFF LEGISLATION.

FREE ZONE, The Mexican.

See (in this volume)

MEXICAN FREE ZONE.

FRENCH SHORE QUESTION, The

Newfoundland.

See (in this volume)

NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1899-1901.

FRENCH WEST AFRICA.

See (in this volume)

AFRICA: A. D. 1895;

and NIGERIA: A. D. 1882-1899.

FRIARS, Spanish, in the Philippines.

See (in this volume)

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (NOVEMBER).

{239}

GALABAT, Battle of.

See (in this volume)

EGYPT: A. D. 1885-1896.

GALVESTON: A. D. 1900.

The city overwhelmed by wind and waves.

"The southern coast of the United States was visited by a

tropical hurricane on September 6-9, the fury of which reached

its climax at and near Galveston, Texas, 1:45 A. M., on

Sunday, the 9th. Galveston is built upon the east end of a

beautiful but low-lying island some thirty miles long and six

or seven miles wide at the point of greatest extent, though

only a mile or two wide where the city is built. The pressure

of the wind upon the waters of the Gulf was so powerful and so

continuous that it lifted the waves on the north coast many

feet above the ordinary high-tide level, and for a short time

the entire city was submerged. … The combined attack of

hurricane and tidal-wave produced indescribable horrors—the

destruction of property sinking into insignificance when

compared with the appalling loss of life. The new census taken

in June accredited Galveston with a population of 37,789. The

calamity of a few hours seems to have reduced that number by

20 per cent. The loss of life in villages and at isolated

points along the coast-line will probably bring the sum total

of deaths caused by this fatal storm up to 10,000. The

condition of the survivors for two or three days beggars

description. The water had quickly receded, and all means of

communication had been destroyed, including steamships,

railroads, telephone and telegraph lines, and public highways.

Practically all food supplies had been destroyed, and the

drinking-water supply had been cut off by the breaking of the

aqueduct pipes. The tropical climate required the most summary

measures for the disposition of the bodies of the dead. Military

administration was made necessary, and many ghoulish looters

and plunderers were summarily shot, either in the act of

robbing the dead or upon evidence of guilt. …

"Relief agencies everywhere set to work promptly to forward

food, clothing, and money to the impoverished survivors. Great

corporations like the Southern Pacific Railroad made haste to

restore their Galveston facilities, and ingenious engineers

brought forward suggestions for protection of the city against

future inundations. These suggestions embraced such

improvements as additional break-waters, jetties, dikes, and

the filling in of a portion of the bay, between Galveston and

the mainland. The United States Government in recent years has

spent $8,000,000 or $10,000,000 in engineering works to deepen

the approach to Galveston harbor. The channel, which was

formerly only 20 or 21 feet deep across the bar, is now 27

feet deep, and the action of wind and tide between the jetties

cuts the passage a little deeper every year. The foreign trade

of Galveston, particularly in cotton, has been growing by

leaps and bounds."

_American Review of Reviews,

October, 1900, page 398._

GARCIA, General:

Commanding Cuban forces at Santiago.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

A. D. 1898 (JUNE-JULY).

GENEVA CONVENTION:

Adaptation to maritime warfare.

See (in this volume)

PEACE CONFERENCE.

GEORGE, Henry:

Candidacy for Mayor of Greater New York, and death.

See (in this volume)

NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1897 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER).

GERMAN ORIENT SOCIETY:

Exploration of the ruins of Babylon.

See (in this volume)

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA:

GERMAN EXPLORATION.

GERMAN PARTIES, in Austria.

See (in this volume)

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.

----------GERMANY: Start--------

GERMANY: A. D. 1891-1899.

Recent commercial treaties.

Preparations for forthcoming treaties.

"The new customs tariff of July 15, 1879 [see, in volume 4,

TARIFF LEGISLATION (GERMANY): A. D. 1853-1892] exhibited the

following characteristics: An increase of the existing duties

and the introduction of new protective duties in the interests

of industrial and agricultural products. The grain and wood

duties, abolished in 1864, were reintroduced, and a new

petroleum duty was adopted. Those on coffee, wine, rice, tea,

tobacco, cattle, and textiles were raised. Those on iron were

restored; and others were placed on many new articles formerly

admitted free. In 1885 the tariff was again revised,

especially in the direction of trebling the grain and of

doubling the wood duties. Those on cattle, brandy, etc., were

raised at the same time. The year 1887 saw another general

rise of duties. But, on the other hand, some reductions in the

tariff for most-favored nations came about in 1883 and in 1889 in

consequence of the tariff treaties made with Switzerland and

Spain. Other reductions were made by the four tariff treaties

of 1891 with Belgium, Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Switzerland,

and again in 1892 and 1893, when like treaties were

respectively made with Servia and Roumania. Increases in some

duties took place in 1894 and 1895, such as those on cotton

seeds, perfumes, ether, and honey. … In consequence of the

higher price, rendered possible at home from the protective

duty, the German manufacturer can afford to sell abroad the

surplus of his output at a lower price than he could otherwise

do. His average profit on his whole output is made up of two

parts: Firstly, of a rather high profit on the sales in

Germany; and, secondly, of a rather low profit on the sales

abroad. The net average profit is, however, only an ordinary

one; but the larger total quantity sold (which he could not

dispose of without the foreign market, combined with the extra

low price of sale abroad) enables him to produce the commodity

in the larger quantities at a lower cost of production than he

otherwise could if he had only the German market to

manufacture for. He thereby obtains abroad, when selling

against an Englishman, an indirect advantage from his home

protection, which stands him in good stead and is equivalent

to a small indirect benefit (which the Englishman has not) on

his foreign sales, which is, however, paid for by the German

consumer through the higher sale price at home.

{240}

"The customs tariff now in force provides one general or

'autonomous' rate of duty for all countries, from which

deviations only exist for such nations as have tariff treaties

or treaties containing the most-favored-nation clause. Such

deviations are 'treaty' or 'conventional' duties. At the

present moment treaties of one kind or another exist with most

European powers (excepting Great Britain, Spain, and Portugal)

and with the majority of extra-European countries. So that,

with few exceptions, the German Empire may now be said to

trade with the world on the basis of the lower 'conventional'

or 'treaty' tariff. Most of the tariff treaties existing in

Europe expired early in 1892, whereupon many countries

prepared higher customs tariffs in order to be prepared to

grant certain concessions reciprocally when negotiating for

the new treaties. Germany, therefore, under the auspices of

General Caprivi, set to work to make a series of special

tariff treaties with Belgium, Italy, Austria-Hungary, and

Switzerland, which were all dated December 6, 1891. Later

additions of the same class were those with Servia in 1892,

with Roumania in 1893, and with Russia in 1894.

"Perhaps almost the greatest benefit conferred upon the

country by these seven tariff treaties was the fact of their

all being made for a long period of years and not terminable

in any event before December 31, 1903. This secured for the

mercantile classes the inestimable benefit of a fixed tariff

for most of the important commodities of commerce over a long

period of time—a very valuable factor in trade, which has in

this case greatly assisted the development of commerce. The

reductions in Germany granted by these treaties were not great

except on imported grains, and those in the various foreign

countries were not very considerable either. … The

preparations for the negotiation of the new commercial

treaties which are to replace those which expire on January 1,

1904, were begun in Germany as early as 1897. Immense trouble

has been and is being taken by the Government to obtain

thoroughly reliable data on which to work, as they were by no

means content merely to elaborate a new tariff on the wide

experience already gained from the working of the seven

commercial treaties of 1891 to 1893."

_Diplomatic and Consular Reports of the British Government,

January, 1899

(quoted in Monthly Summary of Commerce and Finance

of the United States, January, 1899)._

GERMANY: A. D. 1894-1895.

The Emperor and the Social Democrats.

His violent and autocratic speeches.

Failure of the Anti-Revolutionary Bill.

Socialist message to France.

At the opening of the winter session of the Reichstag, in

December, 1894, the Emperor, speaking in person, declared it

to be "necessary to oppose more effectually than hitherto the

pernicious conduct of those who attempt to disturb the

executive power in the fulfilment of its duty," and announced

that a bill to that end, enlarging the penal provisions of

law, would be introduced without delay. This was well

understood to be aimed at the Social Democrats, against whom

the Emperor had been making savagely violent speeches of late.

At Potsdam, in addressing some recruits of the Foot Guards, he

had gone so far as to say: "You have, my children, sworn

allegiance to me. That means that you have given yourselves to

me body and soul. You have only one enemy, and that is my

enemy. With the present Socialist agitation I may order

you,—which God forbid!—to shoot down your brothers, and even

your parents, and then you must obey me without a murmur." In

view of these fierce threatenings of the Emperor, and the

intended legislative attack upon their freedom of political

expression and action, six members of the Social Democratic

party, instead of quitting the House, as others did, before

the customary cheers for his Imperial Majesty were called for,

remained silently sitting in their seats. For that behaviour

they were not only rebuked by the president of the Reichstag,

but a demand for proceedings against them was made by the

public prosecutor, at the request of the Imperial Chancellor.

The Reichstag valued its own rights too highly to thus gratify

the Emperor, and the demand was refused, by a vote of three to

one. His Imperial Majesty failed likewise to carry the

bill—the Anti-Revolutionary Bill, as it was called—on which

he had set his heart, for silencing critical tongues and pens.

The measure was opposed so stoutly, in the Reichstag and

throughout the Empire, that defeat appeared certain, and in

May (1895) it was dropped. The Emperor did not take his defeat

quietly. Celebrating the anniversary of the battle of Sedan by

a state dinner at the palace, he found the opportunity for a

speech in which the Socialists were denounced in the following

terms: "A rabble unworthy to bear the name of Germans has

dared to revile the German people, has dared to drag into the

dust the person of the universally honoured Emperor, which is

to us sacred. May the whole people find in themselves the

strength to repel these monstrous attacks; if not, I call upon

you to resist the treasonable band, to wage a war which will

free us from such elements." The Social Democrats replied by

despatching the following telegram to the Socialists in Paris:

"On the anniversary of the battle of Sedan we send, as a

protest against war and chauvinism, our greeting and a clasp

of the hand to our French comrades. Hurrah for international

solidarity!" Prosecutions followed. The editor of "Vorwärts"

got a month's imprisonment for saying the police provoked

brawls to make a pretext for interference; Liebknecht, four,

for a caustic allusion to the Emperor's declarations against

Socialism, and for predicting the collapse of the Empire; and

Dr. Forster, three, for lèse-majesté.

GERMANY: A. D. 1894-1899.

The Emperor's claim to "Kingship by Divine Right,"

A great sensation was produced in Germany by a speech

addressed on September 6, 1894, by the German Emperor to the

chief dignitaries and nobles of East Prussia in the Royal

Palace at Königsberg. The following are the principal

passages of this speech:

"Agriculture has been in a seriously depressed state during

the last four years, and it appears to me as though, under

this influence, doubts have arisen with regard to the

fulfilment of my promises. Nay, it has even been brought home

to me, to my profound regret, that my best intentions have

been misunderstood and in part disputed by members of the

nobility with whom I am in close personal relation. Even the

word 'opposition' has reached my ears.

{241}

Gentlemen, an Opposition of Prussian noblemen, directed

against their king, is a monstrosity. Such an Opposition would

be justifiable only when the king was known to be at its head.

The history of our House teaches us that lesson. How often

have my predecessors had to oppose misguided members of a

single class on behalf of the whole community! The successor

of him who became Sovereign Duke in Prussia in his own right

will follow the same path as his great ancestor. The first

King of Prussia once said, 'Ex me mea nata corona,' and his

great son 'set up his authority as a rocher de bronze.' I, in

my turn, like my imperial grandfather, hold my kingship as by

the grace of God. … We witnessed an inspiring ceremony the day

before yesterday. Before us stands the statue of the Emperor

William, the imperial sword uplifted in his right hand, the

symbol of law and order. It exhorts us all to other duties, to

the serious combating of designs directed against the very

basis of our political and social fabric. To you, gentlemen, I

address my summons to the fight for religion, morality, and order

against the parties of revolution. Even as the ivy winds round

the gnarled oak, and, while adorning it with its leaves,

protects it when storms are raging through its topmost

branches, so does the nobility of Prussia close round my

house. May it, and with it the whole nobility of the German

nation, become a brilliant example to those sections of the

people who still hesitate. Let us enter into this struggle

together. Forward with God, and dishonor to him who deserts

his king."

Time has wrought no change in these extraordinary ideas of the

German Emperor. Speaking at Hamburg, October 19, 1899, on the

necessity of strengthening the naval forces of the Empire, in

order to afford protection to trade over the sea, he said:

"The feeling for these things is only slowly gaining ground in

the German fatherland, which, unfortunately, has spent its

strength only too much in fruitless factional strife. Germans

are only slowly beginning to understand the questions which

are important to the whole world. The face of the world has

changed greatly during the last few years. What formerly

required centuries is now accomplished in a few months. The

task of Kaiser and government has consequently grown beyond

measure, and a solution will only be possible when the German

people renounce party divisions. Standing in serried ranks

behind the Kaiser, proud of their great fatherland, and

conscious of their real worth, the Germans must watch the

development of foreign states. They must make sacrifices for

their position as a world power, and, abandoning party spirit,

they must stand united behind their prince and emperor."

Commenting on this utterance, a recent writer has said: "This

ideal of a docile nation led by a triumphant emperor whose

intelligence embraces everything throws considerable light on

the relations of imperialism to party government and

parliamentary institutions. … There are many other expressions

of the emperor which indicate an almost medieval conception of

his office, a revival of the theory of divine right. The

emperor believes that his grandfather, had he lived in the

Middle Ages, would have been canonized, and that his tomb

would have become a cynosure of pilgrimages from all parts of

the world. … In a speech delivered at Coblenz on August 31,

1897, he speaks of the 'kingship by the grace of God, with its

grave duties, its tremendous responsibility to the Creator

alone, from which no man, no minister, no parliament can

release the monarch.'"

GERMANY: A. D. 1895 (June).

Opening of the Kaiser Wilhelm Ship Canal.

The opening of the new ship canal (named the Kaiser Wilhelm

Canal) between the Baltic and the North Sea was made the

occasion of a great celebration, on the 21st of June, in which

the navies of Great Britain, Russia, France, Austria and Italy

took part, steaming in procession with the German squadron

through the canal. It was also made the occasion for an

exhibition of the newly-formed alliance between Russia and

France, the Russian and French fleets entering the harbor of

Kiel together.

See (in this volume),

FRANCE: A. D. 1895.

The canal had been eight years in building, the first spadeful

of earth in the excavation having been turned by Emperor

William I. at Holtenau, near Kiel, on the 3d of June, 1887.

The canal is thus described: It is "98.6 kilometers (61.27

miles) in length. It begins at Holtenau, on the Bay of Kiel,

and terminates near Brunsbüttel, at the mouth of the River

Elbe, thus running clear through the province of

Schleswig-Holstein from northeast to southwest. Both openings

are provided with huge locks. Near Rendsburg, there is a third

lock connecting the canal with the old Eider Canal. The medium

water level of the canal will be about equal to the medium

water level of Kiel harbor. At the lowest tide the profile of

the canal has, in a depth of 6.17 meters (20 feet 6 inches)

below the surface of the water, a navigable width of 36 meters

(118.11 feet), so as to allow the largest Baltic steamers to

pass each other. For the navy, 22 meters (72.18 feet) of canal

bottom are provided, at least 58 meters (190.29 feet) of water

surface, and 8½ meters (27 feet 9 inches) depth of water. The

greatest depth for merchant vessels was calculated at 6.5

meters (21 feet 3 inches). The estimated cost was $37,128,000.

Two-thirds of the cost is defrayed by Germany; the remaining

one-third by Russia. The time saved by a steam-ship sailing

from Kiel to Hamburg via the canal, instead of through the

Skaugh (the strait between Jutland and Sweden), is estimated

at 2, days. The time of passage through the canal, including

stoppages and delays, will be about thirteen hours. In time of

peace, the canal is to be open to men-of-war, as well as

merchant vessels of every nation, but in time of war, its use

will be restricted to vessels of the German navy. Many vessels

have been wrecked and many lives lost on the Danish and

Swedish coasts, in waters which need not be navigated after

the canal is opened to traffic. Its strategic importance to

Germany will also be great, as it will place that country's

two naval ports, Kiel on the Baltic, and Wilhelmshafen on the

North Sea, within easy access of each other."

_United States Consular Report,

Number 175, page 603._

{242}

GERMANY: A. D. 1895 (June-December).

Census of the Empire and census of Prussia.

"The results of the last census of the German Empire (the

census being taken every five years in December) … have

produced some surprise in that, notwithstanding the alleged

depression of agriculture and manufactures, the tables show an

increase greater than any census since the formation of the

Empire. The population, according to the official figures, is

52,244,503, an increase since December, 1890, of 2,816,027, or

1.14 per cent increase per year. The percentages of the previous

censuses was: In 1871-1875. 1 per cent; 1875-1880, 1.14 per

cent; 1880-1895, 0.7 per cent; 1885-1890, 1.06 per cent. A

striking illustration is given by a comparison with the

figures of the French census. The increase in France for the

same period (1890-1895) was but 124,000, an annual average of

0.07 per cent of its population, and Germans see in this

proportionally smaller increase a reason for certain classes

in France entertaining a less warlike feeling toward Germany,

and thereby assuring general European peace.

"In 1871, at the foundation of the German Empire, its

population was 40,997,000. [In 1890, it was 49,428,470.] The

percentage of increase differs vastly in northern and southern

Germany. In the former, the annual increase was 1.29 per cent;

in the latter, only 0.71 per cent. This must be attributed in

a great measure to the highly developed mining industries of

the Rhineland and Westphalia, where the soil, besides its

hidden mineral wealth, is devoted to agriculture. The southern

states—Bavaria, Baden, and Würtemberg—being more mountainous,

offer less opportunities for agricultural pursuits and are

favored with less natural riches. It is again noticeable that

those provinces which are ultra-agrarian show a very favorable

increase. It would seem that it is not the peasant, but the

great landowner, whose condition is undesirable and that this

condition is due less to the present low prices of cereals and

the customs-revenue policy of the Government than to the

heavily mortgaged estates and lavish style of living which is

not in keeping with their revenues. … "The number of

marriages, which showed a decrease from the middle of the

eighties, has increased since 1892. An unlooked-for increase

is shown in the country population."

_United States, Consular Reports,

June, 1896,

pages. 245-246. _

"Some of the results of the last census of Prussia, taken on

the 14th of June, 1895, with special regard to trades and

professions, have appeared in an official journal devoted to

statistics. … The entire population of Prussia, which includes

the provinces wrested from Poland, Denmark, and Saxony, as

well as the seized Kingdom of Hanover, counts up for both

sexes on the 14th of June, 1895, 31,491,209; by the last

census (December 1, 1890), it was 29,955,281, an increase of

1,335,928, or 5.13 per cent. Of males, June 14, 1895, there

were 15,475,202; December 1, 1890, 14,702,151, an increase of

773,051; females, June 14, 1895, 16,016,007; December 1, 1890,

15,253,130, an increase of 762,877. The relatively small

surplus in Prussia of females over males, viz, 540,805, may …

be ascribed in part to the stoppage of emigration to the

United States since 1892. This affects more men than women,

since men emigrate more readily than women.

"The population of Rhineland is the largest unit in Prussia.

This year it is 5,043,979, against 4,710,391 in 1890, an

increase of 333,588; that of Silesia is 4,357,555, against

4,224,458 in 1890, an increase of only 133,097,

notwithstanding the temporary harvest hands in summer. Posen,

its neighbor province, has the lowest increase of all—about

20,000 souls. All parts of Prussia, however, show some

increase. The largest increase of population—that of Rhineland

or the Rhenish provinces (333,588)—may be safely ascribed to

the flourishing manufactures of that district, while the low

figures in Posen, Silesia, and East Prussia are due to the

depression in agriculture produced by the rivalry of the

United States, Argentina, and Australia, as well as by the

unprotected state of the laborer in his relations with the

landed proprietors.

"One of the surprises of the new census is the small increase

of Berlin's population, all the more remarkable owing to the

unprecedented increase of Berlin for the years between 1870

and 1890. It is on]y 36,288, or 2.2 per cent for the past four

years and a half. By the census of 1895, it was 1,615,082;

1890, 1,578,794; increase, 36,288."

_United States, Consular Reports,

January, 1896, pages 75-76._

GERMANY: A. D. 1895-1898.

The Agrarian Protectionists and their demands.

"The depression of agriculture in Germany was the subject

which most occupied German politicians throughout the year

[1895]. The policy favoured by the Agrarian League was that

advocated by Count Kanitz, of which the following were the

chief points: (1) That the State should buy and sell the

foreign grain, flour, and meal destined for consumption in

Germany; (2) that the average selling price in Germany from

1850 to 1890 should be fixed as the selling price of grain,

and that the price of flour and meal should be determined by

the proportion they bear to the unground grain and the said

selling price, provided that the buying price is covered

thereby; while in the case of higher buying prices, the

selling prices must be proportionally raised; (3) that the

profit obtained be spent, so that a part at least equal to the

amount of the present grain duty flows into the Imperial

Treasury; (4) that steps should be taken for the accumulation

of stocks to be used in extraordinary time of need, as, for

instance, in the event of war; and (5) that a reserve should

be formed when prices are higher at home and abroad, to secure

the payment of the above-mentioned annual amount to the

Treasury. The Emperor, however, repeatedly expressed his

disapproval of this policy, and Prince Bismarck is said to

have remarked that if he were a deputy he would vote for it,

but as Chancellor he would reject it. … The Agrarians now

started an agitation all over the country in favour of Count

Kanitz's proposal, and even threatened to refuse the supplies

required for the navy if the Government should not accept it.

In March, the Emperor referred the question to the committee

of the Federal State Council, which passed a resolution

declaring the proposals of Count Kanitz for establishing a

State monopoly in cereals to be incompatible with the correct

interpretation of the present position of the State in regard

to industry and international trade, and irreconcilable with

Germany's commercial treaties."

_Annual Register, 1895,

pages 256-257._

{243}

"The agrarian protectionists control the Conservative party in

Parliament completely; they are strongly represented in the

Center, or Catholic, party, and are not without a considerable

following among the National Liberals. The Antisemitic party, the

Poles, and other small parties are all infected with the

agrarian protectionist ideas. The only decided opponents, as

well as the only decided free-traders, are to be found among

the three Liberal sections and the Social Democrats. The

agrarian protectionists not only wish to annul the commercial

treaties, because these hinder them from raising the

protective duties on agricultural imports (these duties are by

no means low—for instance, 35 marks per ton on rye or wheat),

but the extreme members of the party advocate the abolition of

the gold standard and the adoption of a so-called bimetallic—in

reality a silver-standard. The most rabid among them oppose

the cutting of canals, because foreign produce would thus

enter Germany on cheaper terms. In short, the agrarian

protectionists oppose the natural evolution of all economic

progress. …

"The old Prussian feudal aristocracy (Junkerthum), forming the

pith and marrow of the agrarian movement, has never been well

off; but for the last twenty years they have suffered from the

competition with the whole world, which is felt so keenly in

all old countries, in the reduction of the rent of land. They

have sunk deeper and deeper into debt, while the standard of

material comfort has risen throughout all classes in Germany.

The 'Junker' has long since given up the hope of making both

ends meet by his own industry, and while endeavoring to raise

the rent of land by various kinds of protective measures, he

is really at the same time struggling for bread-and-butter and

upholding a tradition of political supremacy.

"No government can really satisfy these claims, and hence each

in turn is compelled, sooner or later, to oppose the agrarian

movement. However, considering the strong influence the

Prussian 'Junker' exerts in the army, in the ranks of

government officials, and at court, practical statesmen deem

it advisable to avoid any open rupture with the pack of

famished wolves."

_T. Barth,

Political Germany

(American Review of Reviews, April. 1898)._

GERMANY: A. D. 1896 (January).

Emperor William's congratulations to the President of the

South African Republic on the defeat of the Jameson Raid.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL):

A. D. 1896 (JANUARY).

GERMANY: A. D. 1896 (May).

The Berlin Industrial Exposition.

See (in this volume)

BERLIN INDUSTRIAL EXPOSITION.

GERMANY: A. D. 1896 (May).

Sugar bounty and sugar tax legislation.

"The sugar-tax amendment law, over which has been waged in the

German Parliament one of the longest and most determined

battles of recent years, was finally enacted as a concession

to the agrarian interest, and went into effect [May, 1896].

Its influence will be to increase the sugar production of

Germany, and, to that extent, exert a depressing effect upon

the general market and the interests of producers in other

beet-growing countries. The circumstances which have led to

the present situation are, briefly, these: From the time when

the Prussian Government began the systematic encouragement of

the beet-sugar industry down to 1887, the tax on sugar for

home consumption was calculated upon the quantity of beets

worked up by each separate factory, it being assumed that the

quantity of roots required to produce a given weight of sugar

would be uniform and invariable. The proportion adopted was 20

units of raw beet root to 1 unit of sugar, which, at the time

when the law was enacted: was approximately correct.

"But, under the stimulus of the export bounties provided by

the same law, the German beet growers and sugar makers worked

hard and intelligently to improve and increase their product.

By careful selection and cultivation, the beets were so

improved that from 12 to 14 tons of roots would yield a ton of

sugar. Great advance was also made in the machinery and

processes employed in the sugar factories, so that, as a final

result, the German Government, which paid nearly 12 cents per

cwt. bounty on all sugar exported, and charged 11 tax of the

same amount on all sugar for home consumption that could be

made from 20 cwts. of beets, found that the export bounties

completely absorbed the revenue derived from the sugar tax.

This tendency of the system had become apparent as early as

1869, and an attempt was made at that time to revise the law,

but the sugar-producing interest was powerful enough to resist

this effort. … Sugar growing still continued to be the most

profitable form of culture for German farmers, the area of

cultivation and number of sugar factories continued to

increase, loud complaints were heard against a system that

favored one class of farmers at the expense of the entire

population, and, in 1891, the Imperial Diet reduced the sugar

export bounty by half, that is, to 29.7 cents per 100

kilograms, and decreed that such bounty should entirely cease

on the 31st of July, 1897, provided that, in the meantime,

Austria, France, and other bounty-paying countries should

likewise reduce their bounties on exported sugar. Several

attempts have been made to reach such an international

agreement, but without successful result, and under cover of

this failure to secure a general reduction or abolition of

bounties, the German Agrarians have rallied and secured the

adoption of the present law, which restores the export bounty

of 1887 (59.5 cents per 220.46 pounds) and raises the tax on

sugar for home consumption from 18 marks ($4.28) to 21 marks

($4.99) per 100 kilograms, or about 2.2 cents per pound. This

increased tax will, of course, be added to the retail price of

sugar, already very high, and tend to still further retard the

increase of sugar consumption in Germany, which is now only

28.8 pounds per capita, against. 73.68 pounds per capita in

England and 77 pounds in the United States. …

"From the statistics that were brought out in the recent

debate, it appears that the whole system of beet culture and

sugar manufacture in Germany has reached a higher standard of

scientific perfection than has been attained in any other

European country. Every step, from the preparation and

fertilization of the land to the smallest detail in the

factory process, has been reduced as nearly as possible to

exact scientific methods. … Statistics were cited to prove

that the German sugar producers are safe from all European

competition and do not need the protection of an increased

export bounty; but nothing could withstand the demand of the

Agrarians, and their victory is one of the most significant

events in recent German legislation."

_United States Consular Reports,

July, 1896, page 512._

See, also, (in this volume)

SUGAR BOUNTIES.

GERMANY: A. D. 1897.

Industrial combinations.

Trusts.

See (in this volume)

TRUSTS: IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.

{244}

GERMANY: A. D. 1897 (July).

Defeat in Prussia of a bill to restrict the right of

political association and meeting.

In July, the government in Prussia suffered a significant

defeat in the Prussian Landtag on an attempt to give the

police new powers for interference with political meetings and

associations. The bill was especially aimed at the Social

Democrats, enacting in its first clause that "agents of the

police authorities have power to dissolve meetings in which

anarchist or Social Democratic movements are manifest, having

for their object the overthrow of the existing order of state

or of society, and finding an expression in a manner which

endangers public security, and in particular the security of

the state." It passed the upper house overwhelmingly, but was

rejected in the lower by 209 votes to 205.

GERMANY: A. D. 1897 (July).

British notice to terminate existing commercial treaties.

See (in this volume)

ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (JUNE-JULY).

GERMANY: A. D. 1897 (September-December).

Demand for indemnity enforced against Hayti.

See (in this volume)

HAYTI: A. D. 1897.

GERMANY: A. D. 1897 (November-December).

Seizure and acquisition of Kiao-chau Bay.

Naval expedition to China.

Speeches of the Emperor and Prince Henry.

The murder of two German missionaries in Shantung province,

China, gave the German government a pretext, in November,

1897, for the seizure of the port of Kiao-chau, on demands for

indemnity which were not satisfied until the Chinese

government had consented to lease that port, with adjacent

territory, to Germany, for 99 years, with extensive rights and

privileges in the whole rich province of Shantung.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1897 (NOVEMBER).

To support this opening of an "imperial policy" in the East, a

German naval expedition was despatched to China, in December,

under the command of the Emperor's brother, Prince Henry, and

its departure was made the occasion for speeches by the

Emperor and Prince Henry, at a royal banquet, at Kiel, which

caused much remark, and some smiling, in Europe and America.

Said the Emperor, addressing his brother, at the end of some

remarks in a similar strain: "As a sign of imperial and of

naval power, the squadron, strengthened by your division, will

now have to act in close intercourse and good friendship with

all the comrades of the foreign fleets out there, for the

protection of our home interests against everybody who tries

to injure Germany. That is your vocation and your task. May it

be clear to every European out there, to the German merchant,

and above all, to the foreigner whose soil we may be on, and

with whom we shall have to deal, that the German Michael has

planted his shield, adorned with the eagle of the empire,

firmly on that soil, in order, once for all, to afford

protection to those who apply to him for it. May our

countrymen abroad, whether priests or merchants, or of any

other calling, be firmly convinced that the protection of the

German Empire, as represented by the imperial ships, will be

constantly afforded them. Should, however, anyone attempt to

affront us, or to infringe our good rights, then strike out

with mailed fist, and if God will, weave round your young brow

the laurel which nobody in the whole German Empire will

begrudge you."

The Prince in reply said: "Most Serene Emperor, most powerful

King and Lord, illustrious brother,—As children we grew up

together. Later on it was granted to us as men to look into

each other's eyes and stand faithfully at each other's side.

To your Majesty the imperial crown has come with thorns. I

have striven in my restricted sphere and with my scanty

strength, as man, soldier, and citizen, to help your Majesty.

We have reached a great epoch, an important epoch for the

nation—an important epoch for your Majesty and the Navy. Your

Majesty has made a great sacrifice, and has shown great favour

to myself in entrusting this command to me. I thank your

Majesty from the bottom of a loyal, brotherly and humble

heart. I well understand your Majesty's feelings. I know what

a heavy sacrifice you made in giving me so fine a command. It

is for this reason, your Majesty, that I am so much moved, and

that I so sincerely thank you. I am further deeply indebted

for the confidence which your Majesty reposes in my weak

person, and I can assure your Majesty of this—I am not allured

by hopes of winning glory or laurels, I am only animated by one

desire—to proclaim and preach abroad to all who will hear, as

well as to those who will not, the gospel of your Majesty's

anointed person. This I will have inscribed on my banner, and

will bear it wherever I go. These sentiments with which I set

out are shared by my comrades. I raise my glass and call upon

those who with me enjoy the happy privilege of being permitted

to go forth, to remember this day, to impress the person of

the Emperor on their minds, and to let the cry resound far out

into the world—Our most Serene, Mighty, Beloved Emperor, King and

Master, for ever and ever. Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah!"

GERMANY: A. D. 1897-1900.

Practical operation of the state system of

workingwoman's insurance.

Enlargement of its provisions.

By a series of laws enacted in 1883, 1884, and 1889, a system

of compulsory state insurance of workingmen was established in

Germany, applying in the first instance to sickness, then to

accidents, and finally becoming a pensioning insurance for old

age and permanent invalidity. These laws establish a

compulsion to be insured, but leave freedom of choice as to

the associations in which the insurance shall be maintained,

all such associations being under the surveillance of the

state. In a report from United States Consul J. C. Monaghan,

Chemnitz, made July, 1898. the practical working of the system

to that time is thus described: "Time is proving the practical

value of the German workingmen's insurance system. … The

social and economic influence of so gigantic a system must be

very great.

"The object of the system is to alleviate the sufferings of

workmen and their families: (1) In cases of sickness (sick

insurance); (2) in cases of accidents incurred at work

(accident insurance); (3) in cases of feebleness, wasting

diseases, decreased capacity to work, and old age (invalid and

old-age insurance). In cases coming under Number 1 there is

given free medical treatment; sick money—that is, money during

period of sickness with which to obtain medicine, nourishment,

etc.—or, if desired, free treatment in a hospital and support for

the family; and money, in case of death, is supplied the

family. The fund is furnished by employers and employed—the

former paying one-third, the latter two-thirds. In cases of

accident insurance the parties receive support during

convalescence, from the fourteenth week after the accident

happens.

{245}

Money is given the wounded person from the fifth week. Rents

are paid from the first day of the fourteenth week after the

accident. The rents amount to two-thirds, and in some cases to

three-fifths, of the workman's yearly salary. The fund for burial

expenses is furnished by the employers. In cases coming under

invalid and old-age insurance, the parties receive rents from

the time they are unable to work, without regard to age;

old-age rents, from the seventieth year, even if they can work

and do not draw invalid rent; and assistance against disease

so as to prevent incapacity. In case of his death or marriage,

the full sum paid by the party is returned.

"The following amounts were paid out in the years given:

Sick Accident Invalid and Old Age

insurance insurance insurance

Year.

1885-86. $23,905,005 $460,625 —

1887. 13,138,099 1,412,030 —

1888. 14,651,637 2,304,173 —

1889. 16,892,097 3,442,503 —

1890. 20,013,420 4,835,041 —

1891. 21,243,594 6,289,483 $3,643,089

1892. 22,433,499 7,696,967 5,344,742

1893. 24,269,264 9,082,984 6,700,509

1894. 23,702,063 10,539,044 8,312,475

1895. 24,947,731 11,929,940 10,221,647

1896. 26,114,026 13,602,747 12,293,533

1897. 26,207,417 15,252,301 14,161,000

Total. 257,517,856 86,847,842 60,696,997

"During the years from 1885 to 1897 employers had paid in

1,337,741,176 marks ($318,382,399), and workmen 1,173,449,805

marks ($279,281,053), a total of 2,511,190,981 marks

($597,663,452). Of this amount 1,702,184,100 marks

($405,121,816) have been paid out. Thus the workmen have

already received 528,700,000 marks ($125,830,600) more than

they have paid in. The annual amount paid out is increasing at

the rate of 15,000.000 marks ($3,570,000) per annum. The

reserve fund at the end of 1897 was, in round numbers,

850,000,000 marks ($202,500,000). For every twentieth person

of the Empire's population, one has been paid insurance.

"Besides this system, there are others by which workingmen are

aided. There are State and private insurance and pension

systems. One alone, the Miners' and Smelters' Union, paid out

in the years 1895-1897, inclusive, 320,000,000 marks

($76,160,000). From 1900 on, the annual amount to be paid out

will be upwards of 300,000,000 marks ($71,400,000), or 100

marks ($23.80) for every working-day in the year. Whether a

system which makes so much for paternalism is one to commend,

I can not say. Its effects here have been anything but bad.

Poverty, in spite of poor wages, is practically unknown."

_United States Consular Reports,

September, 1898, page 51._

A revision of the accident insurance law in 1900 extended the

compulsory insurance to laborers in breweries and in the shops

of blacksmiths, locksmiths and butchers, and to window

cleaners. It raised the amount of assistance provided for the

injured in many cases, making it in some instances of

permanent, disability equal to the wages previously earned. It

also fixed more sharply the responsibility for carelessness on

the part of an employer.

GERMANY: A. D. 1898.

Lèse-majesté.

"In 1898 there were 246 convictions for 'lèse-majesté,' and

the punishments inflicted amounted to a total of 83 years

imprisonment, in addition to various terms of confinement in a

fortress."

_Annual Register,

1899, page 273._

GERMANY: A. D. 1898 (March-December).

In the Chinese "Battle of Concessions."

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY-DECEMBER).

GERMANY: A. D. 1898 (April).

The new naval policy.

"One of the most important economic movements taking place in

Germany is the development of her maritime interests. The

mercantile marine and 'over-sea' interests had developed to

such an extent that recently the Government obtained the

consent of the nation to add largely to its navy. During the

year 1897 continuous efforts had been made to bring this

question prominently before the public, and to point out the

absolute necessity of a large increase of the navy in order to

adequately protect Germany's growing maritime interests. The

introductory statement of the bill presented to the Reichstag

in November gave great prominence to the following

considerations of general interest in connection with the new

programme, namely, that during the last twenty years the

increase of imports and exports, the rapid investment of

capital abroad, the acquisition of colonies, the flourishing

fisheries, and the rapidly increasing population had greatly

added to German 'over-sea' interests, but that at the same

time this expansion had brought with it the danger of a

conflict with the interests of foreign nations, which must be

provided against by an increase of the navy, for any injury to

these maritime interests would entail serious consequences on

the whole country.

"The bill, as eventually passed on April 10, 1898, provided

that the nonrecurring expenditure should not exceed

£20,445,000, of which £17,835,000 was to be devoted to the

construction of ships and their armaments. The German fleet

will then be brought up to a total strength of 17 battle ships

of the line, 8 coast-defense vessels, 9 large and 26 small

cruisers, besides a variety of torpedo and other small craft.

It is thought and hoped that, in consequence of the favorable

state of the revenues of the Empire, a total sum of £5,876,274

a year can easily be devoted exclusively to the annual naval

budget of the next six years, by which time the additions to

the fleet are to be completed."

_United States Bureau of Statistics,

Monthly Summary of Commerce and Finance,

January, 1899._

See, also, (in this volume)

GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (JUNE).

GERMANY: A. D. 1898 (April).

Withdrawal from the blockade of Crete and

the "Concert of Europe."

See (in this volume)

TURKEY: A. D. 1897-1899.

GERMANY: A. D. 1898 (June).

Elections to the Imperial Parliament, and their significance.

Elections to the Parliament of the Empire (the Reichstag) took

place in June, and resulted in the following distribution of

seats:

Conservatives, 52;

Imperialists, 22;

National Liberals, 48;

Liberal Unionists, 12;

Liberal Democrats, 29;

German Democrats, 8;

Social Democrats, 56;

Centre (Catholic), 106;

Poles, 14;

Anti-Semites, 10;

Independents, 40;

Total, 397.

{246}

"The elections as a whole show the growing power of German

manufactures and the decline of German agriculture. Germany

has become already, in far less time than it took England, a

great urban community. That appears to us the most prominent

fact in German life, and it was therefore bound to make itself

manifest in German politics. In spite of Imperial patronage,

the rural parties have lost. Both the Conservative sections

have indeed lost rather heavily; the Conservatives proper

standing in the new Reichstag at sixty-two instead of at

seventy-two, as in the Reichstag of 1893, and the Free

Conservatives at twenty instead of twenty-seven. The losses of

the National Liberals, who usually vote solidly with the

Conservatives, are smaller, but still they have lost. Though

they represent 'Particularism,' yet the Poles are a peasant

party, and they have lost, standing as they do at fourteen as

compared with nineteen in 1893. The Anti-Semites, who under

clerical guidance draw their strength largely from country

districts, have also lost. On the other hand, those parties

which have gained are the parties which hold the German

cities,—the Centre, the Radicals, and the Social Democrats.

The Centre, as we have said, represents the nascent Rhenish

and Bavarian industrialism, the Radicals have made significant

gains in Berlin, and the Social Democrats have gained in nearly

all the towns except Berlin, where they have lost seats to the

Radicals,—on what ground does not seem clear, unless it is

that the more Anarchical section, which has all along been

strong in Berlin Socialism, has rebelled against the

centralised dictatorship of the party. We imagine that the

urban professional and trading classes, dependent for their

position on the growth of industry, have mainly voted Radical,

and that the working classes have, on the whole, voted

Socialist, except in those cases where they have, as devout

Catholics, supported the Centre party. It will be seen,

therefore, that what we may call Toryism (of an extreme and

fanatical type, practically unknown in England), representing

rural proprietorial interests, has lost: and that the forces

of democracy, whether Liberal of the 'Manchester' type,

Socialist, or Catholic, but all representing the growth of

industrialism and urban life, have gained. In short, what

strikes us as the most obvious moral of the elections is that

the old forces and forms of German life are weakening, that

the ancient Conservative entrenchments are being destroyed,

and that we now have to deal with a modernised Germany.

"It may perhaps be asked why we place the Centre party in the

same category with the Radicals and Social Democrats, since

the last-named party is avowedly anti-religious, and the

Radicals are largely indifferent on the religious question. We

reply that the Centre party is essentially a democratic party,

and a party, moreover, committed to reforms only less

far-reaching than those of the Social Democrats, for whose

candidates the Catholic democratic electors have often voted

on the second ballots. The Centre party embodies to a large

extent the spirit of Bishop Ketteler of Mainz, the chief

founder of German Catholic 'Christian Socialism': its organs

in the Press are democratic in tone: and so far as the present

Pope has advanced in the direction of wide Catholic social

reform, he has had no stronger supporters than the members of

the German Centre party, with the possible exception of the

democratic American Catholic prelates, with whom the Centre

party has much in common. This being the case, it is clear

that democracy, in some or other of its varied forms, controls

a majority of votes in the Reichstag: a small majority, it is

true."

_The Spectator (London),

July 2, 1898._

GERMANY: A. D. 1898 (June).

The Sugar Conference at Brussels.

See (in this volume)

SUGAR BOUNTIES.

GERMANY: A. D. 1898 (July).

Death of Prince Bismarck.

Prince Otto van Bismarck, whose importance in German history

is comparable only with that of Charlemagne, Luther, and

Frederick the Great, died on the 31st of July, at the age of

83. Immediately upon his death his confidential secretary. Dr.

Moritz Busch, made public the full text of the letter of

resignation which Bismarck addressed to the Emperor, William

II., when he withdrew—practically dismissed—from the public

service, in 1890. It showed that the immediate cause of his

resignation was an order from the new sovereign which repealed

an arrangement established by the latter's grandfather, in 1852,

whereby a responsible ministry was created in Prussia, through

the giving of responsible authority to a prime minister at its

head. For nearly half a century that constitutional usage had

been maintained. William II. appears to have made his first

grasp at absolutism by setting it aside, and thereupon

Bismarck resigned, as he was undoubtedly expected to do.

GERMANY: A. D. 1898 (October-November).

The Emperor's visit to Palestine.

A journey made by the Emperor and Empress, with a large

retinue and considerable state, first to Constantinople, and

then to Palestine, in October and November, was suspected of

having some other motive than a love of travel and an interest

in seeing the Holy Land. Looked at in connection with some

other movements, it was supposed to indicate a policy aiming

at the establishment of German influence in the realm of the

Turk.

GERMANY: A. D. 1899.

Complaints from Danish Sleswick.

"It can never be anything but an encroachment and a cruelty to

insist, as is now being done in Danish North Sleswick, that

all teaching in the schools, with the exception of two

miserable hours a week of religious lessons, shall be carried

on in German, and to forbid even private instruction in the

Danish language. It can never be called anything but brutality

and meanness to punish young men who go into Danish territory

for the purpose of study by depriving their parents of their

parental rights, or by expelling innocent persons from the

country. These methods, too, are beside the purpose. The

Germans complain that Danes who have become Prussian subjects

against their will do not feel like Prussians. They are

tortured and annoyed, subjected to the most minute espionage

and the most contemptible police reports, with the persecution

connected therewith, and then it is considered amazing that

they are not changed into enthusiastic admirers of Prussia. …

The Danish language, in spite of its small area, is a language

of culture. And only the same undue self-admiration which the

Germans are in the habit of criticising in the French can look

upon the forcible extermination of Danish culture, for the

sake of spreading German, as a worthy act, an end that

justifies the means. …

{247}

"Some years ago the actors of the Royal Theatre were forbidden

to produce some innocent old vaudevilles in Sleswick towns

(although permission had already been given to the owner of a

theatre in Haderslev; indeed, they were not even allowed to

remain over night at an hotel. Intense indignation was roused

in Denmark by this narrow-minded police rule, which used as a

pretext the danger to the peace and quietness of Germany of a

scenic representation in Danish. This, however, was nothing

compared with recent events, which, however, will in South

Jutland only have a stimulating effect on the self-respect and

patriotism of the people; while in Denmark those who have

hitherto tried to bring about a better understanding between

Danes and Germans will throw up the game, and without

superfluous words take their stand on the side of the

oppressed. The Danes can and must submit to humiliations,

which the stronger nation again and again puts upon the

weaker, humiliations which itself would never stand from any

other Power. But one thing they cannot do. They cannot give up

exerting all their power to preserve their language and

culture within the Sleswick territory, which for a thousand

years has been Danish, and is so still. They would be

miserable creatures if they could. From the Danish side no

attempt has been made, nor can be made, to regain politically

what has been lost. No political agitation has been

undertaken, nor can it be undertaken, to excite the South

Jutlanders against the conditions which by ill-fate have once

been legally imposed upon them. But the alliance of hearts and

minds cannot be broken even by a great Power like Germany.

"How insecure this Prussian rule feels in North Sleswick in

spite of its mailed fist! Everything alarms it. It dares not

allow Danish actors to play an old vaudeville dating from

1830. It fears the storm of applause which would break loose

as soon as the first unimportant, but Danish, words were heard

from the stage. It feels obliged to forbid a Danish orator

from holding any discourse whatsoever on South Jutland

territory. He is not even allowed to speak on literature—not

on German literature, not even on Goethe. For one can really

never know!—One cannot be sure that the audience, in spite of

the subject being of no political significance whatever,

though even it be a German national topic, might not seize the

opportunity to applaud a speaker from Denmark. And in Heaven's

name that must not happen! On such fragile feet of clay does

the Prussian Colossus stand in Sleswick that it cannot bear a

hand-clap after a Danish lecture on Goethe. Still less can it

endure Danish reading-books and Danish song-books in the hands

of little children, or Danish colours in a lady's gown or upon

a house; Danish songs it fears even behind closed doors. What

is the use of gendarmes if not to wage war against colours and

songs? Such is the measure of the anxiety of Prussia, equipped

with all the instruments of power, as to whether German might,

German wealth, German military glory, German science and art,

and half a hundred million of German people will exercise so

great an attraction on the inhabitants of North Sleswick as

the important miniature State which bears the name of

Denmark."

_G. Brandes,

Denmark and Germany

(Contemporary Review, July, 1899)._

GERMANY: A. D. 1899.

Foreign interests of the German people.

United States Consul J. C. Monaghan wrote from Chemnitz in

1899:

"German economists are not exaggerating when they say this

Empire's people and capital are operating in every part of the

world. Not only Hamburg, Bremen, Stettin, Lübeck, and Kiel—i.

e., the seaport cities—but towns far inland, have invested

millions in foreign enterprises. In the Americas, North and

South, in Australia, in Asia, in a large part of Africa,

German settlements, German factories, German merchants, and

German industrial leaders are at work. Nor is it always in

settlements under the Empire's control that this influence is

strongest. In Senegambia, on the Gold Coast, the Slave Coast,

in Zanzibar and Mozambique, in Australia, Samoa, the Marshall

Islands, Tahiti, Sumatra, and South and Central America, there

are powerful commercial organizations aiding the Empire. From

Vladivostock to Singapore, on the mainland of Asia, and in

many of the world's most productive islands, the influence of

German money and thrift is felt. In Central America and the

West Indies, millions of German money are in the plantations;

so, too, in the plantations along the Gold Coast. In

Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba,

Puerto Rico, Trinidad, Venezuela, Brazil, etc., German capital

plays a very important part in helping to develop the

agricultural and in some cases the manufacturing and

commercial interests. A consequence of this development is

seen in the numerous banking institutions whose fields of

operation show that German commerce is working more and more

in foreign parts. These banks look after and aid foreign

investment as well as the Empire's other commercial relations.

They help the millions of Germans in all parts of the world to

carry on trade relations, not only with the Fatherland, but

with other countries.

"These are the links in a long and very strong chain of gold

uniting the colonies with the Mother Country. Quite recently,

large quantities of German capital have been invested in

various industries. The Empire's capital in United States

railroads is put down at $180,000,000. In America, Germans

have undertaken manufacturing. They have used German money to

put up breweries, hat factories, spinning, weaving, and paper

mills, tanneries, soap-boiling establishments, candle mills,

dye houses, mineral-water works, iron foundries, machine

shops, dynamite mills, etc. Many of these mills use German

machinery, and not a few German help. The Liebig Company, the

Chilean saltpeter mines, the Chilean and Peruvian metal mines,

many of the mines of South Africa, etc., are in large part

controlled by German money and German forces. Two hundred

different kinds of foreign bonds or papers are on the Berlin,

Hamburg, and Frankfort exchanges. Germany has rapidly risen to

a very important place in the financial, industrial, and

mercantile world. Will she keep it? Much will depend on her

power to push herself on the sea."

_United States Consular Reports,

September, 1899, page 127._

{248}

GERMANY: A. D. 1899.

Military statistics.

A report presented to the Reichstag showed the total number of

men liable for service in 1899, including the surplus from

previous years, was 1,696,760. Of these 716,998 were 20 years

of age, 486,978 of 21 years, 362,568 of 22 years, and 130,216

of more than 22 years. The whereabouts of 94,224 was unknown,

and 97,800 others failed to appear and sent no excuse; 427,586

had already undertaken military duties, 579,429 cases were

either adjourned or the men rejected (for physical reasons),

1,245 were excluded from the service, 43,196 were exempt,

112,839 were incorporated in the naval reserve, 226,957 were

called upon to join the colors, leaving a surplus of 5,187;

there were 23,266 volunteers for the army and 1,222 for the

navy. Of the 226,957 who joined the colors 216,880 joined the

army as combatants and 4,591 as non-combatants, and 5,486

joined the navy. Of the 5,486 the maritime population

furnished 3,132 and the inland 2,354. There were 21,189 men

who entered the army before attaining the regulation age, and

1,480 under age who entered the navy; 33,652 of the inland

population and only 189 of the maritime were condemned for

emigrating without leave; while 14,150 inland and 150 maritime

cases were still under consideration at the end of the year.

GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (February).

Chinese anti-missionary demonstrations in Shantung.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1899.

GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (February).

Purchase of Caroline, Pelew and Marianne Islands from Spain.

See (in this volume)

CAROLINE AND MARIANNE ISLANDS.

GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (May-July).

Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.

See (in this volume)

PEACE CONFERENCE.

GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (May-August).

Advice to the South African Republic.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL):

A. D. 1899 (MAY-AUGUST).

GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (June).

State of German colonies.

The following report on German colonies for the year ending

June 30, 1899, was made to the British Foreign Office by one

of the secretaries of the Embassy at Berlin:

"The number of Europeans resident in the German African

Protectorates, viz., Togoland, Cameroons, South-West Africa,

and East Africa, at the time of the issue of the latest

colonial reports in the course of 1899 is given as 4,522 men,

women, and children, of whom 3,228 were Germans. The expense

to the home government of the African colonies, together with

Kiao-chao in the Far East, the Caroline and Samoa Islands in

the South Seas, and German New Guinea and its dependencies, is

estimated at close upon £1,500,000 for 1900, the Imperial

Treasury being asked to grant in subsidies a sum nearly double

that required last year. Kiao-chao is included for the first

time in the Colonial Estimates, and Samoa is a new item. The

Imperial subsidy has been increased for each separate

Protectorate, with the single exception of the Caroline

Islands, which are to be granted £5,000 less than last year.

East Africa receives about £33,000 more; the Cameroons,

£10,000; South-West Africa, £14,000; Togoland, £800; New

Guinea, £10,000; and the new items are: £489,000 for Kiao-chao

(formerly included in the Naval Estimates), and £2,500 for

Samoa. A Supplementary Vote of £43,265 for the Protectorate

troops in the Cameroons is also now before the Budget

Committee. …

"Great efforts have been made to encourage German trade with

the African colonies, and it is shown that considerable

success has been attained in South-West Africa, where the

total value of goods imported from Germany amounted to

£244,187, as against £181,961 in the previous year, with an

appreciable falling-off in the value of imports from other

countries. In East Africa the greater part of the import trade

still comes from India and Zanzibar—about £450,000 worth of

goods out of the gross total of £592,630, having been imported

thence. The export trade is also largely carried on through

Zanzibar."

_Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications

(Papers by Command: Miscellaneous Series,

Number 528, 1900, pages 3-5)._

GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (August).

Defeat of the Rhine-Elbe Canal Bill.

Resentment of the Emperor.

An extraordinary edict.

Among several new canal projects in Germany, those of "the

Dortmund-Rhine Canal and the Great Midland Canal (joining from

the east to west the rivers Elbe, Weser, and Rhine) are the

most important. The first involves an expenditure of over

£8,000,000 altogether, and the second is variously estimated

at from £10,000,000 to £20,000,000, according to its eventual

scope. The latter is intended to amalgamate the eastern and

western waterways of the nation and to join the Dortmund-Ems

Canal to the Rhine system, in order to give the latter river

an outlet to the sea via a German port, instead of only

through ports in the Netherlands. It will also place the

Rhine-Main-Danube connection in direct communication with all

the streams of North Germany."

_United States Bureau of Statistics,

Monthly Summary of Commerce and Finance,

January, 1899._

The Rhine-Elbe canal project is one which the Emperor has

greatly at heart, and when, in August, 1899, a bill to promote

it was defeated in the Prussian Landtag by the Agrarians, who

feared that canal improvements would promote agricultural

competition, his resentment was expressed in an extraordinary

edict, which said: "The royal government, to its keen regret,

has been compelled to notice that a number of officials, whose

duty it is to support the policy of His Majesty the King, and to

execute and advance the measures of His Majesty's government,

are not sufficiently conscious of this obligation. … Such

conduct is opposed to all the traditions of the Prussian

administration, and cannot be tolerated." This was followed by

an extensive dismissal of officials, and excited strong

feeling against the government in a class which is nothing if

not loyal to the monarchy.

GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (November).

Railway concession in Asia Minor, to the Persian Gulf.

See (in this volume)

TURKEY: A. D. 1899 (NOVEMBER).

GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (November).

Re-arrangement of affairs in the Samoan Islands.

Partition of the islands with the United States.

Withdrawal of England, with compensations in the Tonga

and Solomon Islands and in Africa.

See (in this volume)

SAMOAN ISLANDS.

GERMANY: A. D. 1900.

Military and naval expenditure.

See (in this volume)

WAR BUDGETS.

GERMANY: A. D. 1900.

Naval strength.

See (in this volume)

NAVIES OF THE SEA POWERS.

GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (January).

Introduction of the Civil Code.

On the first day of the year 1900 a great revolution was

effected in the laws of Germany, by putting into operation the

new German Civil Code. "Since the close of the fifteenth

century Germany has been the land of documentary right. The

Roman judicial code was recognized as common law; while all

legal procedure distinctly native in its origin was confined

to certain districts and municipalities, and was, therefore,

entirely devoid of Imperial signification in the wider sense.

The Civil Code of the land was represented by the Corpus Juris

Civilis, a Latin work entirely incomprehensible to the layman.

{249}

This very remarkable circumstance can be accounted for only by

the weakness of mediæval German Imperialism. In England and

France royalty itself had, since the fourteenth century,

assumed control of the laws in order that a homogeneous

national code might be developed. German Imperialism of the

fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, however, was incapable of

such a task. …

"An incessant conflict has been waging in Germany between the

Roman Law of the Empire and the native law as perpetuated in

the special enactments of the separate provinces and

municipalities. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

the preponderance of power lay with the Roman system, which

was further supported by the German science of jurisprudence—

a science identified exclusively with the common law of Rome.

Science looked upon the native systems of legal procedure as

irrational and barbarous; and as Roman judicature exercised

complete dominion over all legislation, the consequence was

that it steadily advanced, while native and local law was

gradually destroyed. Only within the eighteenth and nineteenth

centuries has the native law of Germany been aroused to the

defence of its interests, … the signal for the attack upon

Roman Law being given by King Frederick William I, of Prussia.

As early as 1713 this monarch decreed that Roman law was to be

abrogated in his dominions, and replaced by the native law of

Prussia. The movement became general; and the era of modern

legal codes was ushered in. The legal code of Bavaria was

established in 1756; Prussia followed in 1794; France, in 1804

(Code Civil); Baden, in 1809; Austria, in 1811 (Das

Oesterreichische Buergerliche Gesetzbuch); and finally Saxony,

in 1863 (the designation here being similar to that adopted by

Austria). Everywhere the motto was the same; viz.,

'Emancipation from the Latin Code of Rome.' The native code

was to supplant the foreign, obscure, and obsolete Corpus

Juris. But the success of these newly established codes was

limited; each being applicable to its own particular province

only. Moreover, many of the German states had retained the

Roman law; confining their reforms to a few modifications. …

"The reestablishment of the German Empire was, therefore,

essential also to the reestablishment of German law. As early

as 1874 the initial steps for the incorporation of a new

German Civil Code had already been taken; and this work has

now at last been completed. On August 18, 1896, the new

system, together with a 'Law of Introduction,' was promulgated

by Emperor William II. It will become effective on January 1,

1900, a day which will ever be memorable as marking the climax

of a development of four centuries. At the close of the

fifteenth century Roman law was accepted in Germany; and now,

at the end of the nineteenth, this entire system is to be

completely abolished throughout the Empire. As a means of

education, and solely for this purpose, the Roman Code will be

retained in the universities. As a work of art it is immortal;

as a system of laws, perishable. The last relic of that grand

fabric of laws, which once dominated the whole world, crumbles

to-day. The national idea is victorious; and German law for

the German Empire is at last secured."

_R. Sohm,

The Civil Code of Germany

(Forum, October, 1800)._

GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (January-March).

The outbreak of the "Boxers" in northern China.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY-MARCH).

GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (February).

Adhesion to the arrangement of an "open door" commercial

policy in China.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1890-1900 (SEPTEMBER-FEBRUARY).

GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (February-June).

Increased naval programme.

With much difficulty, and as the result of strenuous pressure,

the Emperor succeeded in carrying through the Reichstag, in

June, a bill which doubles the programme of naval increase

adopted in 1898.

See (in this volume)

GERMANY: A. D. 1898 (April).

"After the way had been prepared by a speech of the Emperor to

the officers of the Berlin garrison on January 7, 1900, and by

a vigorous Press agitation, this project was brought before

the Reichstag on February 8. In form it was an amendment of

the Sexennate, or Navy Law of 1898, which had laid down a six

years' programme of naval construction. By the new measure

this programme was revised and extended over a period of 20

years. Instead of the double squadron of 10 battleships, with

its complement of cruisers and other craft, it was demanded

that the Government should be authorized to build two double

squadrons, or 38 battleships and the corresponding number of

cruisers. The Bill also provided for a large increase in the

number of ships to be employed in the protection of German

interests in foreign waters. The Centre party, both through

its speakers in the Reichstag and through its organs in the

Press, at first took up a very critical attitude towards the

Bill. Its spokesmen dwelt especially upon the breach of faith

involved in the extension of the programme of naval

construction so soon after the compromise of 1898 had been

accepted, and upon the difficulty of finding the money to pay

for a fleet of such magnitude. The Clerical leaders, however,

did not persist in their opposition, and finally agreed to

accept the main provisions of the Bill, with the exception of

the proposed increase in the number of ships employed in

foreign waters. They made it a condition that the Government

should incorporate with the Bill two financial projects

designed to provide the money required without burdening the

working classes. Both the Stamp Duties Bill and the Customs

Bill were adopted by the Government, and the Navy Bill was

carried with the aid of the Centre."

_Berlin Correspondent, London Times._

GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (May).

The Lex Heinze.

The Socialists won a notable triumph in May, when they forced

the Reichstag to adopt their views in the shaping of a measure

known as the Lex Heinze. This Bill, as introduced by the

Government, gave the police increased powers in dealing with

immorality. The Clericals and the Conservatives sought to

extend its scope by amendments which were denounced by the

Radicals and Socialists as placing restrictions upon the

"liberty of art and literature." After a prolonged struggle,

in which the Socialists resorted to the use of obstruction,

the most obnoxious amendments were withdrawn.

{250}

GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (May).

Passage of the Meat Inspection Bill.

A much discussed and sharply contested bill, providing for a

stringent inspection of imported meats, and aimed especially

at the obstructing of the American meat trade, was passed by

the Reichstag on the 23d of May. It prohibits the importation

of canned or sausage meat entirely, and imposes conditions on

the introduction of other meats which are thought to be, in

some cases, prohibitory. The measure was originally claimed to

be purely one of sanitary precaution. It "had been introduced

in the Reichstag early in 1899, but the sharp conflict of

interests about it kept it for more than a year in committee,

When the bill finally emerged for discussion in the Reichstag,

it was found that the Agrarian majority had distorted it from

a sanitary to a protective measure. Both in the new form they

gave the bill and in their discussions of it in the Reichstag,

the Agrarians showed that it was chiefly the exclusion of

foreign meats, rather than a system of sanitary inspection,

that they wanted. As finally passed in May the bill had lost

some of the harsh prohibitory features given it by the

Agrarians, the latter contenting themselves with the exclusion

of canned meats and sausages. To the foreign student of German

politics, the Meat Inspection Law is chiefly interesting as

illustrating the tendency of the general government to seize

upon functions which have hitherto been in the hands of the

individual states and municipalities, as well as of bringing

the private affairs of the people under the control of

governmental authority. It is another long step of the German

government away from the principle of 'laissez-faire.' The

task undertaken by the government here is itself a stupendous

one. There is certainly no other great government in the world

that would endeavor to organize the administrative machinery

for inspecting every pound of meat that comes upon the markets

of the country."

_W. C. Dreher,

A Letter from Germany

(Atlantic Monthly, March, 1901)._

GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (June).

Opening of the Elbe and Trave Canal.

"The new Elbe and Trave Canal, which has been building five

years and has been completed at a cost of 24,500,000 marks

($5,831,000)—of which Prussia contributed 7,500,000 marks

($1,785,000) and the old Hansa town of Lübeck, which is now

reviving, 17,000,000 marks ($4,046,000)—was formally opened by

the German Emperor on the 16th [of June]. The length of the

new canal-which is the second to join the North Sea and the

Baltic, following the Kaiser Wilhelm Ship Canal, or Kiel

Canal, which was finished five years ago at a cost of

156,000,000 marks ($37,128,000)-is about 41 miles. The

available breadth of the new canal is 72 feet; breadth of the

lock gates, 46 feet; length of the locks, 87 yards; depth of

the locks, 8 feet 2 inches. The canal is crossed by

twenty-nine bridges, erected at a cost of $1,000,000. The span

of the bridges is in all cases not less than 30 yards and

their height above water level about 15 feet. There are seven

locks, five being between Lübeck and the Möllner See—the

highest point of the canal—and two between Möllner See and

Lauenburg-on-the-Elbe."

_United States, Consular Reports,

September, 1900, page 8._

A memorandum by the British Charge d'Affaires in Berlin on the

Elbe-Trave Canal says that the opening of the Kaiser Wilhelm

Canal injuriously affected the trade of Lübeck. This was

foreseen, and in 1894 a plan was sanctioned for the widening

of the existing canal, which only allowed of the passage of

vessels of about thirty tons. The direction of the old canal

was followed only to some extent, as it had immense curves,

while the new bed was fairly straight from Lübeck to

Lauenburg, on the Elbe above Hamburg. The memorandum states

that the undertaking is of great importance to the States

along the Elbe, as well as to Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and

Russia. It will to some extent divert traffic from Hamburg,

and possibly reduce somewhat the revenue of the Kaiser Wilhelm

Canal.

GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (June-December).

Co-operation with the Powers in China.

See (in this volume)

CHINA.

GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (September).

Government loan placed in America.

Great excitement and indignation was caused in September by

the action of the imperial government in placing a loan of

80,000,000 marks (about $20,000,000) in the American money

market. On the meeting of the Reichstag, the finance minister,

Dr. von Miquel, replying to attacks upon this measure,

explained that in September the state of the German market was

such that if they had raised the 80,000,000 marks at home the

bank discount rate would have risen above the present rate of

5 per cent. before the end of the year. In the previous winter

the bank rate had been at 6 per cent, for a period of 90 days,

and during three weeks it had stood at 7 per cent. The

government had been strongly urged to do everything in its

power to prevent the recurrence of such high rates of

discount. The London rate was rapidly approaching the German,

and there was reason to fear that there would be a serious

flow of gold from Germany. It was therefore urgently desirable

to attract gold from abroad, and there was no country where money

was so easy at the time as in the United States. This was due

to the extraordinarily favorable balance of American trade and

the remarkable increase in exports out of all proportion to

the development of imports. Another reason was the American

Currency Law, which enabled the national banks to issue as

much as 100 per cent. of their capital in loans, whereas they

formerly issued only 90 per cent. There was no doubt that the

80,000,000 marks could have been obtained in Germany, but the

public must have been aware that other loans of much greater

extent were impending. There was going to be a loan of about

150,000,000 marks for the expedition to China, and it was

certain that before the end of the year 1901 considerable

demands would be made upon the public.

GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (September).

Proposal to require leaders of the Chinese attack

on foreigners to be given up.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (AUGUST-DECEMBER).

GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (October).

Anglo-German agreement concerning policy in China.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (AUGUST-DECEMBER).

{251}

GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (October 9).

Lèse-majesté in criticism of the Emperor's speech to soldiers

departing for China, enjoining no quarter and commending the

Huns as a military example.

Increasing prosecutions for Lèse-majesté.

On the 9th of October, a newspaper correspondent wrote from

Berlin: "The Berlin newspapers of yesterday and to-day

chronicle no fewer than five trials for 'lèse-majesté.' The

most important case was that of Herr Maximilian Harden, the

editor of the weekly magazine 'Zukunft.' Herr Harden, who

enjoyed the confidence of the late Prince Bismarck, wields a

very satirical pen, and has been designated 'The Junius of

modern Germany.' In 1898 Herr Harden was convicted of

lèse-majesté and was sentenced to six months' incarceration in

a fortress. In the present instance he was accused of having

committed lèse-majesté in an article, 'The Fight with the

Dragon,' published in the 'Zukunft' of August 11. The article

dealt with the speech delivered by the Emperor at Bremerhaven

on July 27, 'the telegraphic transmission of which, as was

asserted at the time, had been forbidden by Count von Bülow.'

The article noted as a fact that the Emperor had commanded the

troops who were leaving for China to give no quarter and to

make no prisoners, but, imitating the example of Attila and

the Huns, to excite a terror in East Asia which would last for

a thousand years. The Emperor had added, 'May the blessing of

God attend your flags and may this war have the blessed

result that Christianity shall make its way into China.' Herr

Harden in his comments on this speech had critically examined

the deeds of the historic Attila and had contrasted him with

the Attila of popular story in order to demonstrate that he

was not a proper model to set up for the imitation of German

soldiers. The article in the 'Zukunft' had also maintained

that it was not the mission of the German Empire to spread

Christianity in China, and, finally, had described a war of

revenge as a mistake." No publicity was allowed to be given to

the proceedings of the trial. "Herr Harden was found guilty

not only of having been wanting in the respect due to the

Emperor but of having actually attacked his Majesty in a way

that constituted lèse-majesté. The Court sentenced him to six

months' incarceration in a fortress and at the same time

directed that the incriminated number of the 'Zukunft' should

be destroyed.

"The 'Vossische Zeitung' remarks:—'We read in the newspapers

to-day that a street porter in Marburg has been sentenced to

six months' imprisonment for insulting the Empress, that in

Hamburg a workman has been sentenced to five months'

imprisonment for lèse-majesté, that in Beuthen a workman has

been sentenced to a year's imprisonment for lèse-majesté, and

that in Dusseldorf a man who is deaf and dumb has been

sentenced to four months' imprisonment for the same offence.

The prosecutions for lèse-majesté are multiplying at an

alarming rate. We must emphatically repeat that such

proceedings appear to us to be in the last degree unsuited to

promote the principles of Monarchy. … The greater the number

of political prosecutions that are instituted the more

accustomed, under force of circumstances, does the Press

become to the practice of writing so that the reader may read

between the lines. And this attitude is to the advantage

neither of public morals nor of the Throne. … We regret in

particular that the case of yesterday (that of Herr Harden)

was tried 'in camera.' … It has justly been said that

publicity is more indispensable in political trials than in

prosecutions against thieves and murderers. … If there is no

prospect of an improvement in this respect the Reichstag will

have to devote its serious attention to the question how the

present administration of justice is to be dealt with, not

only in the interest of freedom of speech and of the Press,

but also for the good of the Crown and the well-being of the

State.'"

GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (October 18).

Change in the Imperial Chancellorship.

On the 18th of October it was announced in the "Imperial

Gazette" that" His Majesty the Emperor and King has been

graciously pleased to accede to the request of the Imperial

Chancellor, the President of the Ministry and Minister for

Foreign Affairs, Prince Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, Prince of

Ratibor and Corvey, to be relieved of his offices, and has at

the same time conferred upon him the high Order of the Black

Eagle with brilliants. His Majesty has further been graciously

pleased to appoint Count von Bülow, Minister of State and

Secretary of State to the Foreign Office, to be Imperial

Chancellor and Minister for Foreign Affairs." Count von Bülow

is the third of the successors of Prince Bismarck in the high

office of the Imperial Chancellor. The latter was followed by

Count von Caprivi, who gave way to Prince Hohenlohe in 1894.

Prince Hohenlohe had nearly reached the age of 82 when he is

said to have asked leave to retire from public life.

GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (November).

Withdrawal of legal tender silver coins.

"Germany has lately taken a step to clear off the haze from

her financial horizon by calling in the outstanding thalers

which are full legal tender, and turning them into subsidiary

coins of limited legal tender—a process which will extend

over ten years. At the end of that time, if no misfortune

intervenes, she will be on the gold standard as surely and

safely as England is. Her banks can now tender silver to their

customers when they ask for gold, as the Bank of France can

and does occasionally. When this last measure is carried into

effect the only full legal-tender money in Germany will be

gold, or Government notes redeemable in gold."

_New York Nation,

November 29, 1900._

GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (November-December).

The Reichstag and the Kaiser.

His speeches and his system of personal government.

In the Reichstag, which reassembled on the 14th of November,

"the speeches of the Kaiser were discussed by men of all

parties, with a freedom that was new and refreshing in German

political debates. Apart from the Kaiser's speeches in

connection with the Chinese troubles, the debates brought out

some frank complaints from the more 'loyal' sections of German

politics, that the Kaiser is surrounded by advisers who

systematically misinform him as to the actual state of public

opinion. It has long been felt, and particularly during the

past few years, that the present system of two cabinets—one of

which is nominally responsible to the Reichstag and public

opinion, while the other is merely a personal cabinet,

responsible to neither, and yet exercising an enormous

influence in shaping the monarch's policies—has been growing

more and more intolerable. This system of personal government

is becoming the subject of chronic disquietude in Germany, and

even the more loyal section of the press is growing restive

under it. Bismarck's wise maxim, 'A monarch should appear in

public only when attired in the clothing of a responsible

ministry,' is finding more and more supporters among

intelligent Germans."

_W. C. Dreher,

A Letter from Germany

(Atlantic Monthly, March, 1901)._

{252}

GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (December).

Census of the Empire.

Growth of Berlin and other cities.

Urban population compared with that in the United States.

A despatch from Berlin, February 26, announced the results of

the census of December, 1900, made public that day. The

population of the German Empire is shown to have increased

from 52,279,901 in 1895 to 56,345,014. Of this population

27,731,067 are males and 28,613,947 females. Over 83 per cent.

of the whole population is contained in the four kingdoms; of

these Prussia comes first with (in round figures) 34,500,000

inhabitants, and Bavaria second with 6,200,000. The figures

for Saxony and Würtemberg are 4,200,000 and 2,300,000

respectively. More than 16 per cent. of the population is

resident in the 33 towns of over 100,000 inhabitants. Of these

33 towns the largest is Berlin, while the smallest is Cassel,

of which the inhabitants number 106,001.

The Prussian Statistical Office had already published the

results of the census, so far as they concern Berlin and its

suburbs. It appears that the population of the German capital

now amounts to 1,884,151 souls, as against 1,677,304 in 1895

and 826,3!1 in 1871. The population of the suburbs has

increased from 57,735 in 1871 and 435,236 in 1895, to 639,310

in 1900. The total population of the capital, including the

suburbs, is given as 2,523,461 souls, as against 2,112,540 in

1895, an increase of over 19 per cent. Some figures relating

to other cities had previously appeared, going to show "an

acceleration of the movement of population from the country

toward the great cities. The growth of the urban population in

five years has been astonishing. The population of Berlin, for

example, increased more than twice as much in the last five

years as in the preceding five. The fourteen German cities now

having a population of above 200,000 have increased more than

17 per cent since 1895. … No other European capital is growing

so fast in wealth and numbers as Berlin; and the city is rapidly

assuming a dominant position in all spheres of German life."

_W. C. Dreher,

A Letter from Germany

(Atlantic Monthly, March, 1901)._

The percentage of growth in Berlin "has been far outstripped

by many other cities, especially by Nuremberg; and so far as

our own census shows, no American city of over 50,000

inhabitants can match its increase. In five years it has grown

from 162,000 to 261,000—60 per cent increase. That would mean

120 per cent in a decade.

"But though Germany has only one city of more than one

million, and one more of more than half a million, and the

United States has three of each class, Germany has, in

proportion to its population rather more cities of from 50,000

to 100,000 inhabitants, and decidedly more of from 100,000 to

500,000, than the United States. In the United States

8,000,000 people live in cities of over 500,000 inhabitants,

against some 3,000,000 in Germany; yet in the United States a

larger percentage of the population lives in places which have

under 50,000 inhabitants."

_The World's Work,

March, 1901._

GERMANY: A. D. 1901 (January).

Celebration of the Prussian Bicentenary.

_See (in this volume)

PRUSSIA: A. D. 1901._

GERMANY: A. D. 1901 (January).

Promised increase of protective duties.

In the Reichstag—the Parliament of the Empire—on the 26th of

January, the Agrarians brought in a resolution demanding that

the Prussian Government should "in the most resolute manner"

use its influence to secure a "considerable increase" in the

protective duties on agricultural produce at the approaching

revision of German commercial policy, and should take steps to

get the new Tariff Bill laid before the Reichstag as promptly

as possible. In response, the Imperial Chancellor, Count von

Bülow, made the following declaration of the policy of the

government, for which all parties had been anxiously waiting:

"Fully recognizing the difficult situation in which

agriculture is placed, and inspired by the desire effectively

to improve that situation, the Prussian Government is resolved

to exert its influence in order to obtain adequate protection

for agricultural produce by means of the Customs duties, which

must be raised to an extent calculated to attain that object."

GERMANY: A. D. 1901 (January).

The Prussian Canal scheme enlarged.

The canal scheme which suffered defeat in the Prussian diet in

1899 (see above), and the rejection of which by his dutiful

agrarian subjects roused the wrath of the emperor-king, was

again brought forward, at the opening of the session of the

Diet, or Landtag, in January, 1901, with a great enlargement

of its scope and cost, and with an emphatic expression of the

expectation of his Majesty that the bill providing for it

should be passed. The bill covered no less than seven

different projects, of which the total cost to the State was

estimated at about 389,010,700 marks, or nearly $100,000,000.

These include the Rhine-Elbe Canal, which is calculated to

cost 260,784,700 marks; a ship canal between Berlin and

Stettin, to cost 41,500,000 marks; a waterway connecting the

Oder and the Vistula, of which the cost, together with that of

a channel rendering the Warthe navigable for ships from Posen to

the junction of the Netze, is estimated at 22,631,000 marks,

and a canal connecting the province of Silesia with the canal

joining the Oder to the Spree. The bill further proposed that

the State should participate in the work of improving the flow

of water in the Lower Oder and the Upper Havel to the extent

of 40,989,000 marks and 9,670,000 marks respectively, and

should contribute the sum of 9,336,000 marks towards the

canalization of the Spree.

GERMANY: A. D. 1901 (February).

Annual meeting of the Husbandists.

The annual meeting of the Husbandists, one of the

organizations of German agrarian interests, held at Berlin on

the 11th of February, is reported to have been attended by

some 8,000 delegates. The official report of the organization

showed a membership of 232,000, or an increase of 26,000 over

that of the previous year. Large gains were made during the

year in the southern section of the Empire. It also appeared

that no fewer than 202,000 members represented small farmers.

A resolution was adopted demanding that the Government grant

such protection to agriculture as would enable it to form

prices independent of the Bourse, fixing the duties high

enough to make it possible for tillers of the soil to reap as

large profits for their products as from 1870 to 1800. "Above

all," said the resolution, "Germany must not grant the same

tariffs to countries discriminating in their tariffs, as in

the case of the United States."

----------GERMANY: End--------

{253}

GERRYMANDERING:

Legislation against by the Congress of the United States.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1901 (JANUARY).

GLADSTONE, William Ewart:

Retirement from public life.

See (in this volume)

ENGLAND: A. D. 1894-1895.

Death and burial.

See (in this volume)

ENGLAND: A. D. 1898 (MAY).

GOEBEL, Governor William E.:

Assassination.

See (in this volume)

KENTUCKY; A. D. 1895-1900.

GOLD COAST COLONY.

See (in this volume)

ASHANTI; and AFRICA: A. D. 1900.

GOLD DEMOCRATS.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

A. D. 1893 (JUNE-NOVEMBER).

GOLD FIELDS, The Witwatersrand.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1885-1890.

GOLD MINING: Cape Nome discovery.

See (in this volume)

ALASKA: A. D. 1898-1899

GOLD STANDARD.

See (in this volume)

MONETARY QUESTIONS AND MEASURES.

GOLDEN STOOL, King Prempeh's.

See (in this volume)

ASHANTI.

GORDON MEMORIAL COLLEGE, at Khartoum.

See (in this volume)

EGYPT: A. D. 1898-1899.

GOSCHEN, George J.:

First Lord of the Admiralty in the British Cabinet.

See (in this volume)

ENGLAND: A. D. 1894-1895.

GOSPODAR.

See (in this volume)

BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES (MONTENEGRO).

GOTHENBURG SYSTEM, The.

Dispensary Laws.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1892-1899;

NORTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1897-1899;

SOUTH DAKOTA: A. D. 1899; and

ALABAMA: A. D. 1899.

GRASPAN, Battle of.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):

A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).

GREAT BRITAIN.

See ENGLAND.

GREATER NEW YORK.

See (in this volume)

NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1896-1897.

----------GREECE: Start--------

GREECE:

Light on prehistoric times.

Recent explorations in Crete and Egypt.

See (in this volume)

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: CRETE; and same: EGYPT.

GREECE: A. D. 1896 (April).

Revival of Olympic Games.

See (in this volume)

ATHENS: A. D. 1896.

GREECE: A. D. 1897 (February-March).

Interference in Crete.

Expedition of Colonel Vassos.

Appeal for the annexation of the island.

Action of the Great Powers.

See (in this volume)

TURKEY: A. D. 1897 (FEBRUARY-MARCH).

GREECE: A. D. 1897 (March-June).

Disastrous war with Turkey.

Appeal for peace.

Submission to the Powers on the Cretan question.

See (in this volume)

TURKEY: A. D. 1897 (MARCH-SEPTEMBER).

GREECE: A. D. 1899 (May-July).

Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.

See (in this volume)

PEACE CONFERENCE.

GREECE: A. D. 1899-1900.

Attitude towards impending revolt in Macedonia.

See (in this volume)

TURKEY: A. D. 1899-1901; and

BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES.

----------GREECE: End--------

GREENBACKS.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1895 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY);

1895-1896 (DECEMBER-FEBRUARY); 1896-1898; and

1900 (MARCH-DECEMBER)

GREENLAND, Recent exploration of.

See (in this volume)

POLAR EXPLORATION, 1895-1896, 1896, 1897, 1898-1899,

1898-, 1899, 1899-1900.

GREYTOWN:

Possession given to Nicaragua.

See (in this volume)

CENTRAL AMERICA (NICARAGUA-COSTA RICA): A. D. 1897.

GRONDWET (CONSTITUTION), of the South African Republic.

See (in this volume)

CONSTITUTION (GRONDWET) OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC.

GUAM, The island of: A. D. 1898 (June).

Seizure by the U. S. S. Charleston.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

A. D. 1898 (JUNE), THE WAR WITH SPAIN.

GUAM: A. D. 1898 (December).

Cession to the United States.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-DECEMBER).

GUAM: A. D. 1900.

Naval station.

Work planned for the creation of an U. S. naval station at

Guam is expected to cost, it is said, about $1,000,000.

GUANTANAMO:

Capture of harbor by American navy.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE-JULY).

GUATEMALA.

See (in this volume)

CENTRAL AMERICA.

GUAYAMA, Engagement at.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

A. D.1898 (JULY-AUGUST: PORTO RICO).

GUÉRIN, M.:

The barricade of.

See (in this volume)

FRANCE: A. D. 1899-1900 (AUGUST-JANUARY).

GUIANA, British: A. D. 1895-1899.

Venezuela boundary question.

See (in this volume)

VENEZUELA.

GUIANA, French:

Boundary dispute with Brazil.

Award of Swiss arbitrators.

See (in this volume)

BRAZIL: A. D. 1900.

GUINEA, French.

See (in this volume)

AFRICA: A. D. 1895 (FRENCH WEST AFRICA).

GUNGUNHANA, Portuguese war with.

See (in this volume)

AFRICA: A. D. 1895-1896 (PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA).

{254}

HABANA, or HAVANA.

See (in this volume)

CUBA.

HAFFKINE'S PROPHYLACTIC.

See (in this volume)

PLAGUE.

HAGUE, The, Peace Conference at.

See (in this volume)

PEACE CONFERENCE.

HALEPA, The Pact of.

See (in this volume)

TURKEY: A. D. 1896.

HALL OF FAME, for Great Americans, The.

In the designing of new buildings for the New York University

College of Arts and Science, at University Heights, certain

exigencies of art led to the construction of a stately

colonnade, surrounding a high terrace which overlooks Harlem

River, and the happy idea was conceived by Chancellor

MacCracken of evolving therefrom a "Hall of Fame for Great

Americans." The idea has been carried out, by providing for

the inscription of carefully chosen names on panels of stone,

with a further provision of space for statues, busts,

portraits, tablets, autographs, and other memorials of those

whose names are found worthy of the place. For the selection

of names thus honored, a body of one hundred electors,

representing all parts of the country, was appointed by the

Senate of the University. These electors were apportioned to

four classes of citizens, in as nearly equal numbers as

possible, namely:

(A) University or college presidents and educators.

(B) Professors of history and scientists.

(D) Judges of the Supreme Court, State or National.

It was required of the electors that they should consider the

claims of eminent citizens in many classes, not less than

fifteen, and that a majority of these classes should be

represented among the first fifty names to be chosen. They

were, furthermore, restricted in their choice to native-born

Americans, a rule which had some reasons in its favor, though

it excluded from the Hall such shining names in American

history as those of John Winthrop, Roger Williams, and

Alexander Hamilton.

As the result of the votes given by 97 electors, in the year

1900, 29 names were found to have received the approval of 51

or more of the electors, and these were ordered to be

inscribed in the Hall of Fame. The 29 names are as follows, in

the order of preference shown them by the 97 electors, as

indicated by the number of votes given to each:

GEORGE WASHINGTON. 97

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 96

DANIEL WEBSTER. 96

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 94

ULYSSES S. GRANT. 92

JOHN MARSHALL. 91

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 90

RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 87

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 85

ROBERT FULTON. 85

WASHINGTON IRVING. 83

JONATHAN EDWARDS. 81

SAMUEL F. B. MORSE. 80

DAVID GLASGOW FARRAGUT. 79

HENRY CLAY. 74

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE. 73

GEORGE PEABODY. 72

ROBERT E. LEE. 69

PETER COOPER. 69

ELI WHITNEY. 67

JOHN JAMES AUDUBON. 67

HORACE MANN. 67

HENRY WARD BEECHER 66

JAMES KENT. 65

JOSEPH STORY. 64

JOHN ADAMS. 61

WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING 58

GILBERT STUART. 52

ASA GRAY. 51

Resolutions by the Senate of the University have determined

the action to be taken for the selection of further names, as

follows: "The Senate will take action in the year 1902, under

the rules of the Hall of Fame, toward filling at that time the

vacant panels belonging to the present year, being 21 in

number." "Each nomination of the present year to the Hall of

Fame that has received the approval of ten or more electors,

yet has failed to receive a majority, will be considered a

nomination for the year 1902. To these shall be added any name

nominated in writing by five of the Board of Electors. Also

other names may be nominated by the New York University Senate

in such way as it may find expedient. Any nomination by any

citizen of the United States that shall be addressed to the

New York University Senate shall be received and considered by

that body." Furthermore: "Every five years throughout the

twentieth century five additional names will be inscribed,

provided the electors under the rules can agree by a majority

upon so many."

The Senate further took note of the many requests that

foreign-born Americans should be considered, by adopting a

memorial to the University Corporation, to the effect that it

will welcome a similar memorial to foreign-born Americans, for

which a new edifice may be joined to the north porch of the

present hall, containing one fifth of the space of the latter,

providing thirty panels for names.

_Chancellor H. M. MacCracken,

The Hall of Fame

(American Review of Reviews, November 1900, page 563)._

_archive.org/details/sim_review-of-reviews-

us_july-december-1900_22_index/mode/

2up?view=theater&q=MacCracken_

HANKOW.

See (in this volume)

SHANGHAI.

HART, Sir Robert:

Testimony as to the causes and character of the "Boxer"

movement in China.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY-MARCH).

HARVARD UNIVERSITY:

Summer School for Cuban Teachers.

See (in this volume)

CUBA: A. D. 1900.

HAVANA.

See (in this volume)

CUBA.

[Image: Map of Hawaii and Honolulu.]

HAWAII.

Names and areas of the islands.

"For practical purposes, there are eight islands in the

Hawaiian group. The others are mere rocks, of no value at

present. These eight islands, beginning from the northwest,

are named Niihau, Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, Kahoolawe,

Maui, and Hawaii. The areas of the islands [in square miles]

are:

Niihau, 97;

Kauai, 590;

Oahu, 600;

Molokai, 270;

Maui, 760;

Lanai, 150;

Kahoolawe, 63;

Hawaii, 4,210.

Total, 6,740.

{255}

As compared with States of the Union, the total area of the

group approximates most nearly to that of the State of New

Jersey—7,185 square miles. It is more than three times that of

Delaware—2,050 square miles."

_Bulletin of the Bureau of American Republics,

August, 1898._

HAWAII:

Annexation to the United States.

On the 16th of June, 1897, the President of the United States

transmitted to Congress a new treaty for the annexation of the

Republic of Hawaii to the United States, signed that day by

representatives of the governments of the two countries,

appointed to draft the same. With the treaty he submitted a

report from his Secretary of State, Mr. Sherman, in which the

latter said: "The negotiation which has culminated in the

treaty now submitted has not been a mere resumption of the

negotiation of 1893 (see HAWAIIAN ISLANDS, in volume 3), but

was initiated and has been conducted upon independent lines.

Then an abrupt revolutionary movement had brought about the

dethronement of the late queen and set up instead of the

theretofore titular monarchy a provisional government for the

control and management of public affairs and the protection of

the public peace, such government to exist only until terms of

union with the United States should have been negotiated and

agreed upon. Thus self-constituted, its promoters claimed for

it only a de facto existence until the purpose of annexation

in which it took rise should be accomplished. As time passed

and the plan of union with the United States became an

uncertain contingency, the organization of the Hawaiian

commonwealth underwent necessary changes, the temporary

character of its first Government gave place to a permanent

scheme under a constitution framed by the representatives of

the electors of the Islands, administration by an executive

council not chosen by suffrage, but self-appointed, was

succeeded by an elective and parliamentary regime, and the

ability of the new Government to hold—as the Republic of

Hawaii—an independent place in the family of sovereign States,

preserving order at home and fulfilling international

obligations abroad, has been put to the proof. Recognized by

the powers of the earth, sending and receiving envoys,

enforcing respect for the law, and maintaining peace within

its island borders, Hawaii sends to the United States, not a

commission representing a successful revolution, but the

accredited plenipotentiary of a constituted and firmly

established sovereign State. However sufficient may have been

the authority of the commissioners with whom the United States

Government treated in 1893, and however satisfied the

President may then have been of their power to offer the

domain of the Hawaiian Islands to the United States, the fact

remains that what they then tendered was a territory rather

than an established Government, a country whose administration

had been cast down by a bloodless but complete revolution and

a community in a state of political transition. Now, however,

the Republic of Hawaii approaches the United States as an

equal, and points for its authority to that provision of

article 82 of the constitution, promulgated July 24, 1894,

whereby—'The President, with the approval of the cabinet, is

hereby expressly authorized and empowered to make a treaty of

political or commercial union between the Republic of Hawaii

and the United States of America, subject to the ratification

of the Senate.'" The essential articles of the treaty thus

submitted were the following:

ARTICLE I.

The Republic of Hawaii hereby cedes absolutely and without

reserve to the United States of America all rights of

sovereignty of whatsoever kind in and over the Hawaiian

Islands and their dependencies; and it is agreed that all the

territory of and appertaining to the Republic of Hawaii is

hereby annexed to the United States of America under the name

of the Territory of Hawaii.

ARTICLE II.

The Republic of Hawaii also cedes and hereby transfers to the

United States the absolute fee and ownership of all public,

government or crown lands, public buildings or edifices,

ports, harbors, military equipments and all other public

property of every kind and description belonging to the

Government of the Hawaiian Islands, together with every right

and appurtenance thereunto appertaining. The existing laws of

the United States relative to public lands shall not apply to

such lands in the Hawaiian Islands; but the Congress of the

United States shall enact special laws for their management

and disposition, Provided: that all revenue from or proceeds

of the same, except as regards such part thereof as may be

used or occupied for the civil, military or naval purposes of

the United States, or may be assigned for the use of the local

government, shall be used solely for the benefit of the

inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands for educational and other

public purposes.

ARTICLE III.

Until Congress shall provide for the government of such

Islands all the civil, judicial and military powers exercised

by the officers of the existing government in said Islands,

shall be vested in such person or persons and shall be

exercised in such manner as the President of the United States

shall direct; and the President shall have power to remove

said officers and fill the vacancies so occasioned. The

existing treaties of the Hawaiian Islands with foreign nations

shall forthwith cease and determine, being replaced by such

treaties as may exist, or as may be hereafter concluded

between the United States and such foreign nations. The

municipal legislation of the Hawaiian Islands, not enacted for

the fulfilment of the treaties so extinguished, and not

inconsistent with this treaty nor contrary to the Constitution

of the United States, nor to any existing treaty of the United

States, shall remain in force until the Congress of the United

States shall otherwise determine. Until legislation shall be

enacted extending the United States customs laws and

regulations to the Hawaiian Islands, the existing customs

relations of the Hawaiian Islands with the United States and

other countries shall remain unchanged.

ARTICLE IV.

The public debt of the Republic of Hawaii, lawfully existing

at the date of the exchange of the ratifications of this

Treaty, including the amounts due to depositors in the

Hawaiian Postal Savings Bank, is hereby assumed by the

Government of the United States; but the liability of the

United States in this regard shall in no case exceed

$4,000,000. So long, however, as the existing Government and

the present commercial relations of the Hawaiian Islands are

continued, as hereinbefore provided, said Government shall

continue to pay the interest on said debt.

ARTICLE V.

There shall be no further immigration of Chinese into the

Hawaiian Islands, except upon such conditions as are now or

may hereafter be allowed by the laws of the United States, and

no Chinese by reason of anything herein contained shall be

allowed to enter the United States from the Hawaiian Islands.

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ARTICLE VI.

The President shall appoint five commissioners, at least two

of whom shall be residents of the Hawaiian Islands, who shall

as soon as reasonably practicable, recommend to Congress such

legislation concerning the Territory of Hawaii as they shall

deem necessary or proper."

_United States, 55th Congress, 1st Session,

Senate Executive Document E._

A determined opposition to the renewed proposal of Hawaiian

annexation was manifested at once, in Congress and by many

expressions of public opinion at large. It condemned the

measure on grounds of principle and policy alike. It denied

the right of the existing government at Honolulu to represent

the Hawaiian people in such disposal of their country. It

denied the constitutional right of the government of the

United States to annex territory in the circumstances and the

manner proposed. It denied, too, the expected advantages,

whether naval or commercial, that the annexation of the

islands would give to the United States. A protest against the

annexation came also from the deposed Hawaiian queen,

Liliuokalani, and another from a party in the island which

attempted to rally round the presumptive heiress to the

overturned Hawaiian throne, the Princess Kaiulani. The

government of Japan also entered a protest, apprehending some

disturbance of rights which it had acquired for its emigrating

subjects, by treaty with the Republic of Hawaii; but this

protest was ultimately withdrawn. The army of opposition

sufficed, however, to hold the question of annexation in

abeyance for more than a year. No action was taken on the

treaty during the special session of the Senate. When Congress

assembled in December, 1897, President McKinley repeated his

expressions in its favor, and the treaty was reported to the

Senate, from the committee on foreign relations, early in the

following year; but the two-thirds majority needed for its

ratification could not be obtained.

Attempts to accomplish the annexation by that method were

given up in March, 1898, and the advocates of the acquisition

determined to gain their end by the passage of a joint

resolution of Congress, which required no more than a majority

of each House. Over the question in this form the battle was

fiercely fought, until the 15th of June in the House of

Representatives and the 6th of July in the Senate, on which

dates the following "joint resolution to provide for annexing

the Hawaiian Islands to the United States" was passed. It was

signed by the President the following day:

"Whereas the Government of the Republic of Hawaii having, in

due form, signified its consent, in the manner provided by its

constitution, to cede absolutely and without reserve to the

United States of America all rights of sovereignty of

whatsoever kind in and over the Hawaiian Islands and their

dependencies, and also to cede and transfer to the United

States absolute fee and ownership of all public, Government,

or Crown lands, public buildings or edifices, ports, harbors,

military equipment, and all other public property of every

kind and description belonging to the Government of the

Hawaiian Islands, together with every right and appurtenance

thereunto appertaining: Therefore,

"Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the

United States of America in Congress assembled, That said

cession is accepted, ratified, and confirmed, and that the

said Hawaiian Islands and their dependencies be, and they are

hereby, annexed as a part of the territory of the United

States and are subject to the sovereign dominion thereof, and

that all and singular the property and rights hereinbefore

mentioned are vested in the United States of America. The

existing laws of the United States relative to public lands

shall not apply to such lands in the Hawaiian Islands; but the

Congress of the United States shall enact special laws for

their management and disposition: Provided, That all revenue

from or proceeds of the same, except as regards such part

thereof as may be used or occupied for the civil, military, or

naval purposes of the United States, or may be assigned for

the use of the local government, shall be used solely for the

benefit of the inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands for

educational and other public purposes.

"Until Congress shall provide for the government of such

islands all the civil, judicial, and military powers exercised

by the officers of the existing government in said islands

shall be vested in such person or persons and shall be

exercised in such manner as the President of the United States

shall direct; and the President shall have power to remove

said officers and fill the vacancies so occasioned. The

existing treaties of the Hawaiian Islands with foreign nations

shall forthwith cease and determine, being replaced by such

treaties as may exist, or as may be hereafter concluded,

between the United States and such foreign nations. The

municipal legislation of the Hawaiian Islands, not enacted for

the fulfillment of the treaties so extinguished, and not

inconsistent with this joint resolution nor contrary to the

Constitution of the United States nor to any existing treaty

of the United States, shall remain in force until the Congress

of the United States shall otherwise determine. Until

legislation shall be enacted extending the United States

customs laws and regulations to the Hawaiian Islands the

existing customs relations of the Hawaiian Islands with the

United States and other countries shall remain unchanged. The

public debt of the Republic of Hawaii, lawfully existing at

the date of the passage of this joint resolution, including

the amounts due to depositors in the Hawaiian Postal Savings

Bank, is hereby assumed by the Government of the United

States; but the liability of the United States in this regard

shall in no case exceed four million dollars. So long,

however, as the existing Government and the present commercial

relations of the Hawaiian Islands are continued as

hereinbefore provided said Government shall continue to pay

the interest on said debt.

"There shall be no further immigration of Chinese into the

Hawaiian Islands, except upon such conditions as are now or

may hereafter be allowed by the laws of the United States; and

no Chinese, by reason of anything herein contained, shall be

allowed to enter the United States from the Hawaiian Islands.

"The President shall appoint five commissioners, at least two

of whom shall be residents of the Hawaiian Islands, who shall,

as soon as reasonably practicable, recommend to Congress such

legislation concerning the Hawaiian Islands as they shall deem

necessary or proper.

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"SECTION 2.

That the commissioners hereinbefore provided for shall be

appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent

of the Senate.

"SECTION 3.

That the sum of one hundred thousand dollars, or so much

thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated, out of

any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, and to

be immediately available, to be expended at the discretion of

the President of the United States of America, for the purpose

of carrying this joint resolution into effect."

There was no strict division of parties on the passage of the

resolution; but only three Republicans in the House voted

against it. Speaker Reed, who had strenuously opposed the

measure, was absent. Two Republican senators voted against the

resolution and three who opposed it were paired. A large

majority of the Democrats in both Houses were in opposition.

The policy advocated by the opponents of annexation was set

forth in the following resolution, which they brought to a

vote in the House, and which was defeated by 205 to 94:

"1. That the United States will view as an act of hostility

any attempt upon the part of any government of Europe or Asia

to take or hold possession of the Hawaiian islands or to

account upon any pretext or under any conditions sovereign

authority therein.

2. That the United States hereby announces to the people of

those islands and to the world the guarantee of the

independence of the people of the Hawaiian islands and their

firm determination to maintain the same."

Immediately upon the passage of the resolution of annexation,

preparations were begun at Honolulu for the transfer of

sovereignty to the United States, which was performed

ceremoniously August 12. Meantime, the President had

appointed, as commissioners to recommend legislation for the

government of the Islands, Messrs. Shelby M. Cullom, John T.

Morgan, Robert R. Hitt, Sanford B. Dole, and Walter F. Frear.

In the following November the Commission presented its report,

with a draft of several bills embodying the recommended

legislation. When the subject came into Congress, wide

differences of opinion appeared on questions concerning the

relations of the new possession to the United States and the

form of government to be provided for it. As the consequence,

more than a year passed before Congress reached action on the

subject, and Hawaii was kept in suspense for that period,

provisionally governed under the terms of the resolution of

annexation. The Act which, at last, determined the status and

the government of Hawaii, under the flag of the United States,

became law by the President's signature on the 30th of April,

1900, and Sanford B. Dole, formerly President of the Republic

of Hawaii, was appointed its governor.

The fundamental provisions of the "Act to provide a government

for the Territory of Hawaii" are the following:

SECTION 2.

That the islands acquired by the United States of America

under an Act of Congress entitled "Joint resolution to provide

for annexing the Hawaiian Islands to the United States,"

approved July seventh, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight,

shall be known as the Territory of Hawaii.