footing of equality the intercourse of this country with
foreign states was the basis of the great liberal policy
adopted at the time of the restoration, and that such a course
conduces to enhance the prestige of the Empire and to promote
the prosperity of the people is a proposition not requiring
demonstration. But if there should be anything defective in
the methods adopted for giving effect to the treaties, not
merely will the object of revision be sacrificed, but also the
country's relations with friendly powers will be impaired and its
prestige may be lowered. It is, of course, beyond question
that any rights and privileges accruing to us as a result of
treaty revision should be duly asserted. But there devolves
upon the Government of this Empire the responsibility, and
upon the people of this Realm the duty, of protecting the
rights and privileges of foreigners, and of sparing no effort
that they may one and all be enabled to reside in the country
confidently and contentedly. It behooves all officials to
clearly apprehend the august intentions and to pay profound
attention to these points."
With still finer care for the honor and good name of Japan,
the following instruction to schools was published on the same
day by Count Kabayma, the Minister of State for Education:
"The schools under the direct control of the Government serve
as models to all the public and private educational
institutions throughout the country. It is therefore my
earnest desire that the behavior of the students at such
schools should be regulated with notably strict regard to the
canons of propriety, so that they may show themselves worthy
of the station they occupy. The date of the operation of the
revised treaties is now imminent, and His Imperial Majesty has
issued a gracious rescript. It may be expected that the coming
and going of foreigners in the interior of the country will
henceforth grow more frequent, and if at such a time students
be left without proper control, and suffered to neglect the
dictates of propriety by cherishing sentiments of petty
arrogance and behaving in a violent, outrageous, or vulgar
manner, not only will the educational systems be brought into
discredit, but also the prestige of the country will be
impaired and its reputation may even be destroyed. For that
reason I have addressed an instruction to the local governors
urging them to guard against any defects in educational
methods, and I am now constrained to appeal to the Government
schools which serve for models. I trust that those upon whom
the functions of direction and teaching devolve, paying
respectful attention to the august intention, will discharge
their duties carefully towards the students, and, by securing
the latter's strict adherence to rules, will contrive that
they shall serve as a worthy example to the schools throughout
the country."
_United States Consular Reports,
October, 1899, page 285._
JAPAN: A. D. 1899 (August).
Prohibition of religious instruction in the government schools.
Some important regulations for the national schools were
promulgated in August by the Minister of Education, having the
effect, probably intended, of discouraging attendance at the
Christian mission schools, and stimulating a preference for
the schools of the national system. They forbade religious
exercises or instruction in any schools that adopt the
curriculum of the national schools, while, at the same time,
they allow admission from no others to the higher schools of
the national system without examination. Students in the
middle schools of the national system are exempted from
conscription, while others are not. That the aim in this
policy is to strengthen the national schools, rather than to
interfere with religious freedom, seems probable.
{282}
JAPAN: A. D. 1899 (December).
Adhesion to the arrangement of an "open door" commercial
policy in China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1899-1000 (SEPTEMBER-FEBRUARY).
JAPAN: A. D. 1900.
Naval strength.
See (in this volume)
NAVIES OF THE SEA POWERS.
JAPAN: A. D. 1900 (June-December).
Co-operation with the Powers in China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA.
JAPAN: A. D. 1900 (July)
Failure of attempts to entrust the Japanese government
with the rescue of the foreign Legations at Peking.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JUNE-JULY).
JAPAN: A. D. 1900 (August-October).
The new party of Marquis Ito.
The letters of the Tokio correspondent of the London "Times"
describe interestingly the genesis of a new party of which
Marquis Ito has taken the lead, and which took control of the
government in October, 1900. Various parties, the career of
which the writer reviews, had been formed in opposition to the
veteran statesmen who continued to hold the reins of government
after constitutional forms were introduced in 1880. But very
few of the party politicians who constructed these parties,
says the writer, had held high office. "They were without the
prestige of experience. To put such men on the administrative
stage while the gallery was occupied by the greybeards—the
'Meiji statesmen,' as they are called—who had managed the
country's affairs since the Restoration, would have seemed a
strange spectacle in the eyes of the nation. The Meiji
statesmen, however, persistently declined to be drawn into the
ranks of the political parties. They gave the latter plenty of
rope; they even allowed them to administer the State, which
essay ended in a fiasco; and they took them into alliances
which served chiefly to demonstrate the eagerness of these
politicians for office and emoluments. But there was no
amalgamation. The line of demarcation remained indelible. …
"The political parties, discovering the impossibility of
becoming a real power in the State without the coöperation of
the Meiji statesmen, asked Marquis Ito to assume their
leadership. Marquis Ito may be said to possess everything that
his country can give him. He has the unbounded confidence of
his Sovereign and his countrymen; he is loaded with titles and
honours, and a word from him can make or mar a Ministry. It
seems strange that such a man should step down from his
pedestal to become a party leader; to occupy a position which
can bring no honour and must at once create enemies. Yet
Marquis Ito has consented. He issued his manifesto. It is in
two respects a very remarkable document. First, it tells the
politicians that their great fault has been self-seeking; that
they have set party higher than country; office and emolument
above public duty and political responsibility. Secondly, it
informs them in emphatic terms that Parliamentary Cabinets are
unconstitutional in Japan; that "Ministers and officials must
be appointed by the Sovereign without any reference to their
party connexions. The politicians who place themselves under
Marquis Ito's leadership must eschew the former failing and
abandon the latter heresy. It would be impossible to imagine a
more complete reversal of the tables. The men who, ten years
ago, asked the nation to condemn the Meiji statesmen on a
charge of political self-seeking are now publicly censured by
the chief of these statesmen for committing the very same sin
in their own persons; and the men who for ten years have made
Parliamentary Cabinets the text of their agitation now enrol
themselves in a party which openly declares such Cabinets to
be unconstitutional."
The new party calls itself the "Association of Friends of the
Constitution" (Rikken Seiyukai). "In its ranks are found the
whole of the Liberals, and many members of the Diet who had
hitherto maintained an independent attitude, so that it can
count on 152 supporters among the 300 members of the Lower
House. … The Opposition, the Progressists, command only 90
votes, and the remainder of the House is composed mainly of
men upon whose support the Cabinet can always reckon. In fact,
now for the first time since the Diet opened, does the
direction of State affairs come into the hands of Ministers
who may rest assured of Parliamentary cooperation."
Marquis Yamagata, who had conducted the administration for
nearly two years, resigned in October, and Marquis Ito brought
his new party into power. His Cabinet "does not include one of
the elder statesmen—the 'clan statesmen'—except the marquis
himself. Among the seven portfolios that have changed
hands—those of War and of the Navy are still held as before—
three have been given to unequivocal party politicians,
leaders of the Liberals, and four to men who may be regarded
as Marquis Ito's disciples. … The Yamagata Cabinet consisted
entirely of clan statesmen and their followers. The Ito
Cabinet has a clan statesman for leader and his nominees for
members. It may be called essentially a one man Ministry, so
far does the Premier tower above the heads of his colleagues."
JAPAN: A. D. 1900-1901.
Strategic importance of Korea.
Interest in the designs of Russia.
See (in this volume)
KOREA: A. D. 1900.
JAPAN: A. D. 1901.
Movement to erect a monument to commemorate the
visit of Commodore Perry.
A movement in Japan to erect a monument at Kurihama, the
landing place of the American expedition, commanded by
Commodore Matthew C. Perry, which visited Japan in 1853 and
brought about the opening of that country to intercourse with
the western world (see, in volume 3, JAPAN: A. D. 1852-1888),
was announced to the State Department at Washington by the U.
S. Consul-General at Yokohama, in March, 1901. The undertaking
is directed by the "American Association of Japan," of which
the Japanese Minister of Justice is President, and its purpose
is to commemorate an event which the Association, in a
published circular, declares to be "the most memorable" in the
annals of Japan. The language of the circular, in part, is as
follows: "This visit of Commodore Perry was in a word the
turning of the key which opened the doors of the Japanese
Empire to friendly intercourse with the United States, and
subsequently to the rest of the nations of Europe on similar
terms, and may in truth be regarded as the most memorable
event in our annals—an event which paved the way for and
accelerated the introduction of a new order of things, an
event that enabled the country to enter upon the unprecedented
era of National ascendancy in which we are now living.
{283}
Japan has not forgotten—nor will she ever forget—that next to
her reigning and most beloved sovereign, whose high virtues
and great wisdom are above all praise, she owes, in no small
degree, her present prosperity to the United States of
America, in that the latter rendered her a great and lasting
service already referred to. After the lapse of these
forty-eight years, her people, however, have come to entertain
but an uncertain memory of Kurihama, and yet it was there that
Commodore Perry first trod on the soil of Japan and for the
first time awoke the country from a slumberous seclusion of
three centuries—there it was where first gleamed the light
that has ever since illumined Japan's way in her new career of
progress."
----------JAPAN: End--------
JESUS, Discovery of a fragment of the Logia or Sayings of.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: EGYPT: DISCOVERY OF A FRAGMENT.
----------JEWS: Start--------
JEWS:
Discovery of the sole mention of the people of Israel in
Egyptian inscriptions.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: EGYPT: RESULTS.
JEWS:
General results of recent archæological research as affecting
our knowledge of the ancient Hebrews.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: IN BIBLE LANDS.
JEWS: A. D. 1897:
Freedom of residence in Russia given
to the university educated.
See (in this volume)
RUSSIA: A. D. 1897.
JEWS: A. D. 1897-1901.
The Zionist movement.
"The three closing days of August [1897] saw a congress at
Basle concerning the significance of which friends and foes
alike seem already pretty well agreed. It was the Congress of
Zionists. Zionists! Until then that word was almost unknown to
the public at large. Zionism virtually made its bow to the
Gentile world at Basle, and disclosed for the first time what
its aims and its needs were. … It was in my work, 'The Jewish
State,' which appeared a year and a half ago, that I first
formulated what the Congress at Basle virtually adopted as an
axiom. In the terms of that definition: 'Zionism has for its
object the creation of a home, secured by public rights, for
those Jews who either cannot or will not be assimilated in the
country of their adoption.'
"Nothing was more instructive at the Basle Congress than the
vigour—I might almost say violence—with which the
representatives of the great Jewish strata of population
resisted any attempt to limit the guarantees for a State based
on public rights. The executive appointed to draw up a
programme had proposed 'a legally secured home.' The
delegates, however, were not satisfied, and clamoured for an
alteration to 'secured on the basis of international rights.'
It was only by adopting the intermediary expression 'public
rights' that an agreement was arrived at. The significance of
this logomachy is, that what the Jews desire is not to acquire
more tracts of land, but a country for the Jewish people, and
to emphasise that desire in terms as plain as possible without
wounding certain legitimate and sovereign susceptibilities. We
can acquire land any day in our private right everywhere. But
that is not the point with Zionists. In our case we have
nothing to do with private rights. That will come later—as
well as the land speculators—once our movement has achieved
success. What the Zionists are alone directing their attention
to is the 'public rights' idea. In that they hope to find a
remedy for the old evil. Were I to express myself
paradoxically, I should say that a country belonging to the
Jews on the basis of public rights, even though down to the
very last parcel it was the legally secured property of
non-Jews, would mean the final solution of the Jewish
question. … We have held a gathering at Basle before the whole
world, and there we saw the national consciousness and the
popular will break forth, at times like a convulsive upheaval.
To Basle came Jews of all countries, of all tongues, of all
parties, and of all forms of religious confession. There were
more than 200 representatives of the Jewish people—most of
them delegates for hundreds and thousands. Men from Roumania
alone brought over 50,000 signatures of those who had sent
them there. There surely was never such a motley assembly of
opinions in such a narrow space before. On the other hand,
there would certainly have been more conflict of opinion in
any other deliberative assembly than there was in this. …
"It would … appear to be to the interest of Turkey to come to
an arrangement with the Jews. But, what are the interests
which other Governments would have in assisting the
realisation of a legally guaranteed Jewish home? The interest
would vary with each country, but it is present in some form
or other everywhere. It would mean the drawing off of an
unhappy and detested element of population which is reduced
more and more to a condition of despair, and which, scattered
over the face of the earth, and in a state of unrest, must
perforce identify itself with the most extreme parties
everywhere. Governments and all friends of the existing order
of things cannot bring themselves to believe that, by helping
us in the solution we propose, they could give peace to an
element which has been driven to revolution and rendered
dangerous through its dispersion. That a highly conservative
people, like the Jews, have always been driven into the ranks
of revolutionists is the most lamentable feature in the
tragedy of our race. Zionism would mean an end to all that. We
should see results accrue for the general condition of
mankind, the full benefits of which we cannot even guess.
There are, of course, a great number of existing political
difficulties to be overcome, but these, given the necessary
good will, might be surmounted."
_Theodor Herzl,
The Zionist Congress
(Contemporary Review, October, 1897)._
{284}
"The programme of the Philo-Zionists as defined in their
printed constitution is as follows:
(a) To foster the national idea in Israel.
(b) To promote the colonization of Palestine and neighbouring
territories by Jews, by establishing new colonies and
assisting those already established.
(c) To diffuse the knowledge of Hebrew as a living language.
(d) To further the moral, intellectual, and material status of
Israel.
The English Association, known as the Chovevi Zion, is
presided over by Colonel Albert Edward Goldsmid, Assistant
Adjutant-General of Her Majesty's Forces; it has 35
established 'Tents' spread through the length and breadth of
the United Kingdom. … Similar associations have been
established in America, Germany, France, Russia, Austria,
Denmark, Switzerland, and other countries; and there is a
central committee meeting at Paris, where the organisation of
new colonies and development of existing ones in the Holy Land
is systematically carried out. Even before these associations
had been called into existence Baron Edmond de Rothschild of
Paris, encouraged by the success of the agricultural schools
at Jaffa, founded by the late Charles Netter, had devoted his
vast influence and his open purse to the work; and there is a
separate administration in Palestine charged with the control
and management of what are known as 'the Baron's colonies.'
"To-day we have in Palestine between twenty and thirty
distinct colonies or communities spreading along the coast
from Askalon in the south to Carmel in the north, and along
the Jordan from the Waters of Meron to the Sea of Galilee in
the east. The population of these colonies varies from 100 to
700 souls, and they may safely be estimated to number 10,000
souls in all, independently of the large number of Jewish day
labourers from neighbouring towns and villages, to whom they
give occasional employment. There are 50,000 more Jews—mostly
refugees—in the various Holy Cities, and the immediate problem
is to get these—or the better part of them—also on the land.
The current language of the colonists is the Hebrew of the
Bible, although many of them have acquired the native Arabic,
and also French, which is taught in their schools. They have
their places of worship, their houses of study, their modest
institutes, their public baths, and in fact the counterpart in
small of all the features of the model European village: and
they have, thanks to the Baron and the Philo-Zionists'
Associations, the most modern appliances and complete
installations for the prosecution of their agricultural
works."
_Herbert Bentwich,
Philo-Zionists and Anti-Semites
(Nineteenth Century, October, 1897)._
"At the beginning of March, 1898, an important Conference was
held in London, attended by delegates from nearly 50
societies, representing 10,000 English Zionists, and
resolutions were passed adopting the International programme,
and making provisions for a federation of all the English
Zionist bodies. Similar conferences were held in New York, in
Berlin, in Galatz (Roumania), and other great centres; and
local federations were everywhere formed to give greater
strength and solidity to the general organization. At the
second International Congress, which was held at Basle in
August, 1898, and was attended by an imposing body of more
than 500 delegates, the Executive Committee were able to
report that the 'Basle programme' had received the support of
913 Zionist organizations (out of which over 700 had sprung up
since the first Congress), it being calculated that these
represented at least a quarter of a million of active members.
The Congress had become the authorised representative and
exponent of the people's wishes, and the Zionists had become a
power to be reckoned with in any settlement of the Jewish
question. Prominent among the attendants at this world
gathering were the Rabbis—crown officials from orthodox Russia
and Poland, as well as the elect of reform congregations from
America—who took an active interest in the settlement of the
programme of work for the ensuing year, which was the main
business of the meeting."
_H. Bentwich,
The Progress of Zionism
(Fortnightly Review, December, 1898)._
At the International Zionist Congress which assembled in
London on the 13th of August, 1900, the report of the
executive committee on the progress which the movement has
made showed as follows: "In Russia there are at least 100,000
members of Zionist societies; in England the movement is
supported by 38 societies, as against 16 last year, and all
these societies have increased membership. Thanks to the work
of the English Zionist Federation Zionism has made great
headway in England. In the United States there are 135
societies, as against 102 last year. Notwithstanding the war
in South Africa, the contributions towards the expenses of the
movement have been well maintained. Having regard to the
returns received by the executive committee the reporter felt
no hesitation in saying that to-day the vast majority of the
Jewish nation were in favour of Zionism."
_London Times,
August 15, 1900._
Late in December, 1900, it was announced at Vienna that the
Sultan had issued or renewed a decree, according to which the
Jews are forbidden to remain in Palestine for longer than
three months. This measure, which applies both to traders and
pilgrims, further prohibits the acquisition by Jews of landed
property. It was suggested that the wholesale exodus of Jews
from Russia and their recent emigration from Rumania gave rise
to the apprehension that they might overcrowd Palestine. This
apprehension is said to have been strengthened by the
increasing activity of the Zionists, who are suspected in
certain circles in Constantinople of pursuing distinct
political ends. According to another suggestion, Russia had
grown jealous of the Jewish colonization of Palestine, fearing
it to be in the interest of German policy, and had used
influence to check it.
"Viewed merely on its prosaic side, Zionism is by no means a
visionary scheme. The aggregation of Jews in Palestine is only
a matter of time, and it is better that they should be
aggregated there under their own laws and religion, and the
mild suzerainty of the Sultan, than under the semi-barbarous
restrictions of Russia or Roumania, and exposed to recurrent
popular outbreaks. True, Palestine is a ruined country, and
the Jews are a broken people, but neither is beyond
recuperation. Palestine needs a people, Israel needs a
country. If, in regenerating the Holy Land, Israel could
regenerate itself, how should the world be other than the
gainer? In the solution of the problem of Asia, which has just
succeeded the problem of Africa, Israel might play no
insignificant part. Already the colony of Rishon le Zion has
obtained a gold medal for its wines from the Paris Exposition,
which is not prejudiced in the Jew's favor.
{285}
We may be sure the spiritual wine of Judæa would again pour
forth likewise that precious vintage which the world has drunk
for so many centuries. And as the unscientific activities of
the colonization societies would have paved the way for the
pastoral and commercial future of Israel in its own country,
so would the rabbinical sing-song in musty rooms prove to have
been but the unconscious preparation of the ages for the
Jerusalem University.
"But Palestine belongs to the Sultan, and the Sultan refuses
to grant the coveted Judæan Charter, even for dangled
millions. Is not this fatal? No, it matters as little as that
the Zionists could not pay the millions, if suddenly called
upon. They have barely collected a quarter of a million (in
English pounds). But there are millionaires enough to come to
the rescue, once the charter was dangled before the Zionists.
It is not likely that the Rothschilds would see themselves
ousted from their familiar headship in authority and
well-doing, nor would the millions left by Baron Hirsch be
altogether withheld. And the Sultan's present refusal is
equally unimportant, because a national policy is independent
of transient moods and transient rulers. The only aspect that
really matters is whether Israel's face be, or be not, set
steadily Zionwards,—for decades and even for centuries. Much
less turns on the Sultan's mind than on Dr. Herzl's. Will he
lose patience? for leaders like Herzl are not born in every
century."
_I. Zangwill,
The Wandering Jew and the New Century
(Sunday School Times, January 12, 1901)._
JEWS: A. D. 1899.
In Palestine.
"In view of the impetus given the Zionist movement by the
second Zionist congress, held at Basel in September, and also
by the Palestine journey of Emperor Wilhelm II, the present
status of Jews in Palestine becomes a matter of general
interest. Out of a total population in Palestine of some
200,000 souls, about 40,000 are Jews, as against 14,000 twenty
years ago. In Jerusalem, there are 22,000 Jews, half of whom
have immigrated from Europe and America and are called
Asehkenazim to distinguish them from the oriental Israelites,
the Sephardists. Nine hundred and sixty families, numbering
about 5,000 souls, inhabit the twenty-two Jewish colonies in
Palestine which have been founded and subsidized by Europeans
—ten by Baron Edmond de Rothschild, representing the Alliance
Israélite Universelle; the rest by the Jewish Colonization
Association and by the Odessa Company.
"The idea of gathering in Palestine homeless Jews scattered
all over the globe was championed in the forties by Moses
Montefiore, but with indifferent success. In the eighties,
however, the immigration of Jews to Palestine assumed
significant proportions. Of the twenty-two present colonies,
the 'Jacob Memorial' is the largest, supporting more than
1,000 souls. It boasts a graded school (five teachers), a
synagogue, etc., and 4,000 acres of land under cultivation, on
which are raised fruit (chiefly grapes), honey, and mulberry
leaves, the rearing of silkworms being a leading industry. The
'First to Zion' is another quite important colony, owning
2,000 acres of land. Some forty two-storied stone dwelling
houses greet the eye of the approaching stranger; also a
school house with a Hebrew library, a synagogue, and a
hospital. One million five hundred thousand vines and 25,000
olive, almond, orange, and mulberry trees belong to this
colony, which also possesses famous wine cellars. The 'Hope of
Israel,' a mile beyond Yafa, in the plains of Sharon, is
perhaps best known for its agricultural school, in which one
hundred or more pupils are taught gardening. Recently, a high
school for Jewish girls was established in Yafa. The 'Head
Corner Stone,' amid the hills beyond Tiberias, with
snow-capped Hermon in the background, is another quite
prosperous Jewish colony in Palestine. Being near the source
of the Jordan, water is plentiful; and its situation, high up
above the level of Lake Gennesareth, insures fair climatic
conditions. In the 'Door of Hope,' dairy farming is profitably
followed and experiments made in tea planting. This colony is
said to have 1,000,000 vines.
"Entirely irrespective of whether or not the Zionists will
succeed in awakening in the Jewish people a national spirit
and forming a Judean monarchy or republic, with its parliament
in Jerusalem and its representation in foreign capitals, the
present agitation makes for the development of a country which
is but a shadow of its former self, and which will generously
respond to modern influences. The Sultan seems quite disposed
to grant railway, harbor, and other franchises, and it is
possible that the new Jewish Colonial Bank, the organization
of which was decided upon in Basel, will be permitted, under
certain guaranties, to play an important part in the
industrial advancement and growth of Palestine. The movement
is furthermore bringing out new qualities in the Jews residing
in Palestine. They are no longer content with studying the
Talmud and living on charity, but are waking to the fact, as
the Hebrew would put it, that to till the ground is worship of
God.
"It should not be inferred from statements here made that
peace and prosperity have suddenly become the lot of the Jews
in Palestine. Only a few days ago, Rev. William King Eddy, of
Sidon, returned from beyond the Jordan, and he informs me that
a Jewish colony situated not far from El Mzerib (on the
caravan route from Damascus to Mekka) was recently attacked by
predatory Bedouin tribes. The settlers were all driven away,
their gardens and crops destroyed. Even a road built by the
Jews to connect their frontier colony with older ones in
Galilee, west of the river, was at least partially
obliterated. Taxes are more oppressive than ever, officials
are corrupt, and prohibitive measures regarding immigration
are still in force, although inadequate. I think, however, I
am justified in saying that the prospects are brighter than
ever for the Jews in Palestine and for Palestine itself.
European influence has obtained a foothold in the country, and
the tide of modern ideas can not be long debarred. Only four
or five weeks ago, an English company announced its
determination to build a broad-gauge railway from the sea at
Haifa through the very heart of Samaria and Galilee to
Damascus and on to Bagdad, and active operations have already
commenced."
_G. B. Ravndal,
United States Consul at Beirut
(United States Consular Reports, April, 1899, page 691)._
{286}
JEWS: A. D. 1901.
Turkish order regulating visits to Palestine.
A Press telegram from Washington, February 16, 1901, states
that "Consul Merrill, at Jerusalem, has reported to the State
Department that the Turkish Minister of the Interior at
Constantinople has issued an order relative to Jews who visit
Palestine, which went into effect on January 29. The order
applies to an Jews who come to Palestine from other countries
as pilgrims or visitors. The conditions of the order are as
follows: On arriving at Joppa the visitor must deliver his
passport to the Turkish authorities and receive therefor a
Turkish document. The visitor is allowed to stay in the
country three months, when he must leave, surrendering the
Turkish permit and receiving his own. Foreign consuls are to
compel the Jews who overstay the three months' period to leave
Turkey."
----------JEWS: End--------
JOAN OF ARC, The Beatification of.
The beatification of Joan of Are, recommended by the
Congregation of Rites, at Rome, was pronounced by the Pope,
January 28, 1894.
JOHANNESBURG: Origin.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1885-1890.
JOHANNESBURG: A. D. 1895-1896.
Revolutionary conspiracy of Uitlanders.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1895-1896.
JOHANNESBURG: A. D. 1900.
Taken by the British forces.
See (in this volume))
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR): A. D. 1900 MAY-JUNE).
JOINT HIGH COMMISSION, Anglo-American.
See (in this volume)
CANADA: A. D. 1898-1899.
JOLO, The Sultan of.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (MAY-AUGUST).
JONES, Samuel M., Mayor of Toledo.
See (in this volume)
TOLEDO, OHIO: A. D. 1899-1901.
JOUBERT, General Pietrus Jacobus:
In the South African War.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).
JOUBERT, General Pietrus Jacobus:
Death.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR): A. D. 1900 (MARCH).
JUBILEE, The Diamond, of Queen Victoria.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (JUNE).
JUBILEE OF THE HOLY YEAR 1900, Proclamation of the Universal.
See (in this volume)
PAPACY: A. D. 1900-1901.
JU JU SACRIFICE.
See (in this volume)
NIGERIA: A. D. 1807.
K.
KAFIRISTAN: Its conquest by the Afghans.
See (in this volume)
AFGHANISTAN: A. D. 1896.
KAGAYAN, or CAGAYAN, The American acquisition of.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-DECEMBER).
KAIRWAN: Opened to tourists.
See (in this volume)
TUNIS: A. D. 1881-1898.
KAISER WILHELM II.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY.
KAISER WILHELM SHIP CANAL, The.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1895 (JUNE).
KAMERUNS, The: Cost of maintenance.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1809 (JUNE).
KANG YEU-WEI, Chinese reformer.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE-SEPTEMBER), and after.
KAPILAVASTU, Discovery of the ruins of.
See (in this volume)
BUDDHA.
KARNAK, Fall of eleven columns of the temple of.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: EGYPT: FALL OF KARNAK COLUMNS.
KASSALA, Italian evacuation of.
See (in this volume)
ITALY: A. D. 1897.
KATIPUNAN, The.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1896-1898.
KEARSARGE, Loss of the.
The United States cruiser Kearsarge, destroyer of the
Alabama, was totally wrecked, February 2. 1894, on
Roncadore Reef, off the Mosquito coast, her crew being
saved.
KENGI.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA: AMERICAN EXPLORATION.
KENTUCKY: A. D. 1895-1900.
Political conflicts.
Assassination of Governor Goebel.
In 1895 a Republican Governor, William O. Bradley, was elected
in Kentucky by a majority of nearly 9,000 votes. In 1896 the
conflict of political parties became fierce and dangerous, on
the occasion of the election of au United States Senator to
succeed the Democratic incumbent, J. C. S. Blackburn, whose
term would expire March 3d, 1897. On joint ballot in the
Legislature the Republicans and Democrats had 68 votes each,
and the Populists had 2,—the latter thus bolding a balance of
power: But the two Populist members were divided, and the
Democrats could not act together, owing to the division in
their party on the money question. The "sound-money" Democrats
refused support to Senator Blackburn, who obtained the caucus
nomination of his party for re-election, and their votes were
scattered. The Republicans were united on a candidate, and
secured one of the Populist votes, but needed one more to give
them a majority. They attempted to win the needed vote by
unseating a Democrat in the Lower House whose seat was
contested; but the Democrats promptly neutralized their move
by unseating two Republicans in the Upper House. The passions
excited by the factious contest had by this time become so
violent and threatening that in March, 1897, the Governor of
the State deemed it necessary to call out several companies of
militia to preserve peace at Frankfort. In the end, the
Legislature adjourned without electing an United States
Senator; but a special session was called and the election
accomplished, on the 28th of April, William J. Deboe,
Republican, winning the senatorial seat.
{287}
In the following year (1898) the Democrats secured strong
majorities in both branches of the Legislature, and, under the
lead of Senator William Goebel, passed an election bill which was
bitterly denounced as a contrivance for fraud. It created a
State election board, appointed by the existing Legislature
for four years, which board should name three commissioners in
each county, by whom all election and registration officers
should be chosen. Notwithstanding this provision of partisan
returning officers, the Democrats were so divided on the
silver question in the gubernatorial election of 1899, and
further weakened by personal hostilities which Goebel, who
became their candidate for governor, had stirred up, that the
official returns of the election gave William S. Taylor, the
Republican candidate, a plurality of more than 2,000 votes
over Goebel. There had been fear of riot in Louisville on
election day, and the Governor had called out State troops to
preserve order. The defeated party claimed that military
interference in that city had made the election illegal, and
demanded that the returns from Louisville should be thrown
out. On both sides there were accusations of fraud, and a
dangerous state of political excitement ensued again. But two
of the three members (all Democrats) of the State Board of
Election Commissioners decided that Taylor, the Republican
candidate, had been lawfully elected, and he was inaugurated
Governor on the 12th of December. Goebel and his partisans,
refusing to accept the decision, determined to unseat Governor
Taylor, by authority of the Legislature, in which they
controlled a considerable majority of votes.
The Legislature met and organized on the 1st of January, 1900.
The Governor prepared to defend his possession of the office
by summoning troops of the State Guard from the strong
Republican districts of the mountain region, and 1,000 or more
armed men arrived in Frankfort on the 25th. There had been
fighting between the two parties already, and the situation
now became desperately strained. Some kind of a bloody outcome
seemed inevitable, but no one could anticipate the barbarous
tragedy which ensued. As Senator Goebel was walking to the
state house, on the 30th of January, he was shot from one of
its windows, by a hidden assassin, receiving a wound from
which he died February 3d. The Legislature at once closed its
investigation of the election, and voted to recognize the
dying William E. Goebel as Governor, with J. C. W. Beckham as
his Lieutenant and the successor to the office in the event of
his death. Governor Taylor issued an address to the people of
the State, denouncing the murder and enjoining the
preservation of order. At the same time he proclaimed an
adjournment of the Legislature, closed the State House against
it, and summoned its members to reassemble on the 6th of
February, not at Frankfort, but at the distant small mountain
town of London. Goebel, on his death-bed, took the oath of
office, and issued orders dismissing Governor Taylor's
Adjutant-General, appointing another in his place, and
commanding the force at Frankfort to return to their homes.
The President of the United States was applied to by Governor
Taylor for recognition and support, but decided that he had no
authority to interfere. The supporters of Goebel applied with
more effect to the Circuit Court of Kentucky, which issued a
writ enjoining Governor Taylor from the use of armed force to
prevent the Legislature from meeting. A clerk who succeeded in
serving the writ by tacking it on the door of the Governor's
office was seized and held prisoner by the military, and a
writ of habeas corpus requiring his deliverance was disobeyed
for several days. All authority was breaking down, and a state
of political chaos being produced. To save the State from
actual anarchy and civil war, a conference of leaders in both
parties was held at Louisville, February 5, and an agreement
reached to withdraw troops from the capital, allow the
Legislature to meet there, and abide by its action, with
promise to repeal the obnoxious election law. Governor Taylor
refused acceptance of the agreement. He dismissed the troops,
however, on the 12th, and called the Legislature to meet at
the capital. The Democratic members of that body were holding
meetings at Louisville, the Republican members at London. The
latter obeyed the call to Frankfort, while the former
continued at Louisville, both fragments claiming to be the
Legislature of the State. A petition to the United States
Circuit Court, for injunctions against the Democratic
claimants for certain of the minor State offices, was denied
by Judge Taft on the 14th.
On the 21st, Republican and Democratic leaders came to another
agreement, that the gubernatorial question should be settled
in the courts,—first in those of the State, and then carried
by appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States. This
agreement prevailed, and the case, as between Governor Taylor
and Governor Beckham (declared to be Governor by a majority of
the members of the Legislature after Governor Goebel's death)
was peacefully adjudicated in favor of the latter. The Circuit
Court of the State recognized the Legislature's decision of
the election as final; the Court of Appeals, with only one of
three Republican judges dissenting, did the same, April 6. On
April 30 the case was argued, on appeal, before the Supreme
Court of the United States, and on the 21st of May that
tribunal decided that it had no jurisdiction. This ended
attempts to dispute the authority of Governor Beckham.
Strenuous efforts were being made to implicate his competitor,
Mr. Taylor, as accessory to the murder of Goebel. Several
persons had been arrested and put on trial for that crime,
including Caleb Powers, the Secretary of State in Governor
Taylor's fallen government, from the window of whose office it
was claimed that the cowardly shot had been fired. The trials
were scandalized by confessions of perjury and charges and
counter-charges of subornation on the part of witnesses. In
August, Powers was found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment
for life. Subsequently, Henry E. Youtsey received the same
sentence, while James Howard was condemned to death. Appeals
were taken in each case. Mr. Taylor, under indictment as an
accomplice, had left the State, and a requisition for his
rendition was refused by the Governor of Indiana, where he
sojourned. He indignantly denied all knowledge of the alleged
conspiracy to kill his competitor, but claimed that a fair
trial could not be secured to him if he was placed in the
power of his political enemies.
{288}
In October, a new election law was passed by the Legislature
and signed by the Governor. It provides that, of the three
State Election Commissioners, one is to be taken from each of
the dominant parties, upon the recommendation of the State
Central Committee, and the Clerk of the Court of Appeals, an
elective officer, is to act as umpire. The Commissioners are
to be appointed by the Governor. They are to appoint the
county boards, one from each party, with the Sheriff as
umpire. All the boards are to have only ministerial powers,
and the law gives the right of appeal in all cases of contests
to the courts except in the case of Governor and
Lieutenant-Governor, which must be tried by the Legislature,
as the constitution prescribes. The Goebel law made the boards
supreme. The new law also provides for an equitable division
of election officers.
KHAIBAR:
Inclusion in a new British Indian province.
See (in this volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).
KHALIFA, The.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1885-1896; 1897-1898; and 1899-1900.
KHARTUM, Destruction of.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1885-1896.
KHARTUM, Gordon Memorial College.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1898-1899.
KIANG-HUNG: Cession to France.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1894-1895 (MARCH-JULY).
KIAO-CHAU: A. D. 1897.
Seizure by Germany.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1897 (NOVEMBER).
KIAO-CHAU: A. D. 1899.
Cost of maintenance.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1899 (JUNE).
KIEL:
Opening of the Baltic Canal.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1895 (JUNE).
KIENNING, Anti-missionary riot at.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1899.
KIMBERLEY, Siege of.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-NOVEMBER); (OCTOBER-DECEMBER);
and 1900 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).
KINGSHIP BY DIVINE RIGHT:
German revival of the doctrine.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1894-1899.
KIS, The city of.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA: AMERICAN EXPLORATION.
KITCHENER, Major-General Sir Herbert (afterwards Lord):
Sirdar of the Egyptian army.
Expedition to Dongola.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1885-1896.
KITCHENER, Major-General Sir Herbert (afterwards Lord):
Final campaigns against the Dervishes.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1897-1898.
KITCHENER, Major-General Sir Herbert (afterwards Lord):
Dealing with the French expedition at Fashoda.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1898 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER).
KITCHENER, Major-General Sir Herbert (afterwards Lord):
In the South African War.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1900 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY), and after.
KLONDIKE GOLD FIELDS, The.
"Many years ago gold was known to exist on the Yukon. The
Hudson Bay Company's men tested the bars of the main river,
and found 'the color,' but not in sufficient quantity to
warrant working. The reason is, that, in the disintegration of
the rocks by the smaller streams and the action of frost and
melting snow, the metallic burden of the waters is dropped in
the causeway of the smaller tributaries; only the finest float
gold and the lighter sand and gravel being carried as far as the
Yukon itself. In 1880, after years of fruitless search on the
main stream, a body of prospectors under the protection of
Captain (now Admiral) Beardsley, United States Navy, landed at
the head of Lynn Canal, crossed the divide, and proceeded to
explore the head-waters. Not much being found at first in
Canadian territory, the prospectors descended the river to the
region near the lower end of the Upper Ramparts. In this
region lies the boundary, formed by the one hundred and
forty-first degree of west longitude from Greenwich. Here the
Yukon receives from the southwest a tributary called
Forty-Mile Creek. A few miles of the lower part of this creek,
including its mouth, are on the Canadian side of the line: the
head-waters—on which the gold is chiefly found—are, for the
most part, on the American side. In this vicinity the first
substantial deposits were discovered, many of which are still
worked. …
"The site of the new diggings—which have produced an
excitement recalling the 'Fraser River rush' of 1857—is on a
stream tributary to the Yukon from the northeast, wholly in
Canadian territory, and entering the main river about fifty
miles eastward from the boundary. Here a mining camp, called
Dawson City,—after the head of the Dominion Geological
Survey,—has been established. … The stream above referred to
has been named the Klondyke,—signifying 'reindeer': on some of
the older maps it is designated Reindeer River. It is said
however that the name should really be Throndak,—a Tinneh term
meaning 'plenty of fish.' The existence of gold on this stream
and its branches appears to have been first made known by
Indians. One of the first prospectors to locate upon it with
success was J. A. Carmich, who staked out his claim in August,
1896, and with two helpers, in a few weeks, washed out over
$14,000."
_W. H. Dall,
Alaska and the New Gold-Field
(Forum, September, 1897)._
KNIGHTHOOD: Victorian Order.
See (in this volume)
VICTORIAN ORDER.
KNOSSOS, Archæological excavations at.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: CRETE.
KOKANG: Cession to Great Britain.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1897 (MAY-JUNE).
KOREA: A. D. 1895-1898.
Nominal independence of Korea.
Japanese influence supplanted by Russian.
On the 7th of January, 1893, the independence of Korea (see,
in this volume, CHINA: A. D. 1894-1895) was formally
proclaimed at Seoul. For a time, Japanese influence
prevailed, and the party favorable to it controlled affairs.
But Russian jealousy gave encouragement to the opposing
faction, headed by the queen, and the latter succeeded at
length in thwarting most of the aims of the Japanese. The
result was a revolutionary conspiracy in October, carried out
by a murderous band which broke into the palace and killed
three women, one of whom was supposed to be the queen. The
assassins were dressed in Japanese costume, and were said to
belong to the "soshi," or hireling cutthroats, of that
country; but the Japanese government indignantly repudiated
the crime, recalled and arrested its Minister, who was
suspected of complicity, and forbade its subjects to enter
Korea without special permission. Russian influence,
nevertheless, became dominant soon after; the king yielded to
it completely, and obtained riddance of opposing ministers
with Russian support. In the end, Russia and Japan came to an
agreement, nominally establishing a joint protectorate over
Korea; but practically the Japanese seemed to be fairly
shouldered out.
{289}
In the later part of 1897, the Russian Minister to Korea
brought about the dismissal of an English official, Mr. Brown,
who had been the financial adviser of the Korean government
and its commissioner of customs, putting a Russian in his
place, and secured a written agreement that none but Russians
or Koreans should fill that important post in future. The
vigorous remonstrance of the British government, however,
caused this action to be reversed.
Russia and Japan came to a new understanding in 1898, more
favorable to the interests of the latter in Korea. This was
embodied in a protocol, signed at Tokyo on the 25th of April,
1898, in terms as follows:
"I. That the Governments of Japan and Russia, recognizing the
sovereignty and complete independence of Korea, shall in no
way directly interfere with the domestic government of that
country.
II. That in order to avoid misunderstandings in the future,
whenever either Japan or Russia is applied to by Korea for
advice or assistance, neither contracting party shall take any
steps toward the appointment of military instructors or
financial advisers without previous consultation with the
other.
III. That Russia, recognizing the great progress made in
commercial and industrial enterprises by Japan in Korea, and
the great number of Japanese subjects residing in the
settlements, will do nothing to injure the development of the
commercial and industrial relations between Japan and Korea."
_United States Consular Reports,
August, 1898, page 591._
A reform party had begun to manifest influence at this time,
even aspiring to representative institutions in the
government. Various progressive measures were undertaken in
1898; the gold monetary standard was adopted; American
engineers were engaged to plan roads, bridges, etc., and new
ports were opened.
KOREA: A. D. 1900.
Strategic importance of Korea to Russia and Japan.
Japanese jealousy of Russian encroachments in
Manchuria and its grounds.
"Considerable as are the material interests which Japan is
building up in Korea, it is still from the strategical point
of view that she is most deeply concerned with the future of
the Korean peninsula, which, in the hands of a great military
Power like Russia, would be a permanent threat to her safety.
And the Japanese appear to be firmly convinced that, when
once Russia is firmly seated in Northern China, she must
inevitably seek to absorb Korea. In any other hands but her
own the Korean peninsula would always be a wedge
inconveniently driven in between her older acquisitions on
the Pacific seaboard and her more recent acquisitions in the
Gulf of Chi-li, nor could she regard her strategical position
in the Far East as thoroughly secured so long as she did not
command one shore of the straits through which lies the
natural waterway between her two naval bases at Vladivostok
and at Port Arthur. … Port Arthur is situated practically on
an inland sea to which the approaches can be dominated not
only by positions already in the hands of other European
Powers, such as Wei-hai-wei and Kiaochau, but by the Korean
peninsula and islands as well as by the Japanese archipelago,
from Tsushima down to Formosa. With Port Arthur as her main
base Russia's position as a naval Power in the Far East would
be subject to natural limitations not altogether unlike those
which hamper her in the Black Sea and the Baltic.
"Considered in this light the question of Russian
aggrandisement in Northern China is so closely interwoven with
that of the future of Korea that it must necessarily wear a
much more serious aspect for Japan than for any other Power
—so serious, indeed, that not a few Japanese deem the time to
be close at hand when Japan should retort upon Russia in
precisely the same terms which the latter used in 1895 and
demand the evacuation of territories where her presence must
be a permanent threat to the independence of the Chinese
Empire and the peace of the Far East."
_London Times,
Tokio Correspondence, December 27, 1900._
KOTZE, Chief-Justice:
Conflict with President Kruger of the Transvaal.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1897 (JANUARY-MARCH);
and 1898 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).
KROONSTAD:
Temporary seat of Orange Free State government.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR): A. D. 1900 (MARCH-MAY).
KRUGER: President Stephanus Johannes Paulus.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1885-1890, and after.
KUANG HSU, Emperor of China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE-SEPTEMBER), and after.
KUMASSI, or COOMASSIE:
Occupation by the British.
Siege and relief.
See (in this volume)
ASHANTI.
KURAM, The:
Inclusion in a new British Indian province.
See (in this volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).
KURRAM VALLEY, British-Indian war with tribes in the.
See (in this volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1897-1898.
KWANGCHOW WAN, Lease of, to France.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-AUGUST).
KWANG-SI, Rebellion in.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-JULY).
{290}
L.
LABOR COLONIES: In Australia.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRALIA; RECENT EXTENSIONS OF DEMOCRACY.
LABOR CONFLICTS.
See (in this volume)
INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES.
LABOR LEGISLATION:
Compulsory insurance in Germany.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1897-1900.
LABOR LEGISLATION:
Eight-hours day in Utah.
See (in this volume)
UTAH: A. D. 1895-1896.
LABOR LEGISLATION:
New Zealand Labor Laws.
See (in this volume))
NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1891-1900.
LABOR LEGISLATION:
Workmen's Compensation Act in Great Britain.
See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (MAY-JULY).
LABOR LEGISLATION:
The United States Industrial Commission.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE).
LABRADOR, Recent exploration of.
See (in this volume)
POLAR EXPLORATION, 1893-1900, 1896.
LABYRINTH, The Cretan:
Its supposed discovery.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: CRETE.
LADRONE ISLANDS:
Sale by Spain to Germany.
See (in this volume)
CAROLINE AND MARIANNE ISLANDS.
LADYSMITH, Siege of.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER);
and 1900 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).
LAGAS, The ancient city of.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH; BABYLONIA: AMERICAN EXPLORATION.
LAGOS.
See (in this volume)
NIGERIA: A. D. 1899.
LA GUASIMA, Battle at.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE-JULY).
LAKE SUPERIOR CONSOLIDATED IRON MINES:
In the United States Steel Corporation.
See (in this volume)
TRUSTS: UNITED STATES: THE CLIMAX.
LAND BILL, Irish (1896).
See (in this volume)
IRELAND: A. D. 1896.
LAND SYSTEM, The New Zealand.
See (in this volume)
NEW ZEALAND; A. D. 1891-1900.
LAND TAXATION:
In Australia and New Zealand.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRALIA: RECENT EXTENSIONS OF DEMOCRACY.
LANDLORDS, Irish, New League against.
See (in this volume)
IRELAND: A. D. 1900-1901.
LATTIMER,
Conflict of striking coal miners with sheriffs' deputies at.
See (in this volume)
INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES: A. D. 1897.
LAURIER, Sir Wilfrid:
Prime Minister of Canada.
See (in this volume)
CANADA: A. D. 1890-1896, and after.
LAWS OF WAR.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
LAWTON, General Henry W.:
Command at Santiago de Cuba.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-AUGUST: CUBA).
LAWTON, General Henry W.:
Military operations in the Philippine Islands.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (JANUARY-NOVEMBER).
LAWTON, General Henry W.:
Death.
See (in this volume) PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899-1900.
LECHER, Dr.:
Twelve-hours speech.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).
LEE, General Fitzhugh:
U. S. Consul-General at Havana.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1897-1898 (NOVEMBER-FEBRUARY);
and (DECEMBER-MARCH).
LEE, General Fitzhugh:
Command at Havana.
Report.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1898-1899 (DECEMBER-OCTOBER).
LEICHAU PENINSULA, Leases in, to France.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-AuGUST).
LEO XIII., Pope,
See PAPACY.
LÈSE MAJESTÉ.
A hurt to Majesty.
Any offense or crime against the sovereign.
For lèse majesté in Germany,
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1898; and 1900 (OCTOBER).
LEX FALKENHAYN, The.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).
LEX HEINZE, The.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (MAY).
LEXOW INVESTIGATION, The.
See (in this volume)
NEW YORK CITY; A. D. 1894-1895.
LIAOTUNG PORTS: A. D. 1895.
Russo-Chinese Treaty relating to.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1895.
See, also, references from PORT ARTHUR;
TALIENWAN; and FÊNG-TIEN PENINSULA.
LIBRARIES, The gifts of Mr. Andrew Carnegie to.
Of neither the manifold items nor the stupendous total of the
gifts made by Mr. Andrew Carnegie for the founding or for the
assistance of public libraries in America and Great Britain is
there any authentic account; but a tentative record of them,
compiled mainly from the news columns of the "Library
Journal," and published, on the 17th of March, 1901, in the
"Buffalo Illustrated Express," is probably not far from
correct. It begins in 1881, with the founding of a public
library at Dunfermline, Scotland, the birthplace of Mr.
Carnegie, who then gave for it $40,000. Two years later, he is
said to have given $50,000 to a library at Inverness. In 1885
the New York Free Circulating Libraries were helped by him to
the extent of $5,000. In the following year his benefactions
were raised to their larger scale by his gift of $250,000 to
the Free Public Library of Edinburgh; besides which he gave
$28,000 to the Workmen's Library of the Keystone Bridge Works,
and smaller donations elsewhere. In 1889 he founded the
Carnegie Library at Braddock, Pennsylvania, at a cost of
$300,000.
{291}
In 1890 he contributed $325,000 to the founding of the
Carnegie Free Public Library at Allegheny, Pennsylvania, which
the city undertook to support; he replaced the Cambria
Library, which the great flood at Johnstown had destroyed,
expending $65,000 in that kindly work; gave $40,000 to a
library at Fairfield, Iowa, and $9,000 to another at Augusta,
Maine. Five thousand dollars to a library in Airdrie, $50,000
to one in Ayr, and $2,500 to a third at Jedburgh, all three in
Scotland, are the gifts recorded in 1893 and 1894.
In 1895 Mr. Carnegie seemed to be crowning his munificence by
the creation, at Pittsburg, of the great institution,
combining library, art gallery, and museum, on which, between
that year and 1899 he is said to have expended no less than
$3,860,000. In the same year he founded a small library at
Wick, in Scotland. In 1897 the donations appear to have been
small. In 1898 Dumfries, in Scotland, received for a public
library $50,000 from his open purse, and $250,000 went from it
to the creation of the Carnegie Library at Homestead,
Pennsylvania, the seat of the Carnegie works.
Hitherto the stream of Mr. Carnegie's bounty to public
libraries had been a rivulet: it now, in 1899, began to pour
like the fertilizing flood of the Nile, and that first
twelvemonth of the amazing tide was celebrated by American
librarians, at the annual meeting of their Association, as
"the Carnegie year." In reality, it but opened a series of
"Carnegie years," which have filled the period since, and may
still go on. As compiled by the "Express," supplemented by a
later record in the "Library Journal" for April, 1901, the
list of the library gifts and offers of Mr. Carnegie, from the
beginning of 1899 until March, 1901, includes $5,200,000,
tendered to the city of New York for branches to its Public
Library (see below); $1,000,000 tendered to St. Louis;
$350,000 to the city of Washington; $260,000 to Syracuse;
$125,000 each to Atlanta and Louisville; $100,000, or $150,000
(there seems to be uncertainty as to the sum) to Seattle;
$100,000 each to Richmond, Conneaut, Grand Rapids, Ottawa,
Ont., and the State College in Pennsylvania; $75,000 each to
Lincoln, Nebraska, Springfield, Illinois, Davenport, Iowa,
Tacoma, Washington, and the Bellevue Medical College, New
York; $50,000 each to San Diego, Oakland, Duluth Sedalia, East
Liverpool, Ohio, Steubenville, Sandusky, Connellsville,
McKeesport, Beaver, Beaver Falls, Tyrone, Pennsylvania,
Clarion, Oil City, Fort Worth, Dallas, Cheyenne, Dubuque,
Ottumwa, Emporia College, East Orange, York, Coal Center and
Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, Chattanooga, Houston, San Antonio,
Vancouver, British Columbia., Aurora, Illinois, Lewiston,
Maine, Niagara Falls, Yonkers, Canton, Ohio, Montgomery,
Alabama, Marion, Indiana, Galesburg, Illinois, Schenectady,
New York, and Hawick, Scotland; besides a great number of
lesser sums, ranging from a few hundred dollars to $40,000.
The total of the library gifts and proffers of Mr. Carnegie,
from the beginning to March, 1900, is thought to exceed
$23,000,000.
To many other educational institutions Mr. Carnegie has been
munificently generous, giving, for example, $500,000 for the
Manual Training School of Cooper Institute, New York; $250,000
to Birmingham University; $50,000 to the engineering
laboratory of Stevens Institute, Hoboken; $50,000 to the
Edinburgh Technical School, and making other gifts of like
kind.
LIBRARY,
New York Public, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.
Andrew Carnegie's offered gift.
"The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden
Foundations, was formed by the consolidation, on the 23d of
May, 1895, of the three corporations, 'The Trustees of the
Astor Library,' originally incorporated January 18, 1849, 'The
Trustees of the Lenox Library,' originally incorporated
January 20, 1870, and 'The Tilden Trust,' originally
incorporated March 26, 1887. … In the agreement for
consolidation it was provided that the name of the new
corporation should be 'The New York Public Library, Astor,
Lenox and Tilden Foundations'; that the number of its trustees
should be twenty-one, to be selected from the thirty-three
members of the separate boards; and that 'the said new
corporation shall establish and maintain a free public library
and reading room in the city of New York, with such branches
as may be deemed advisable, and shall continue and promote the
several objects and purposes set forth in the respective acts
of incorporation of 'The Trustees of the Astor Library,' 'The
Trustees of the Lenox Library,' and the 'Tilden Trust.' … In
December, Dr. John Shaw Billings, United States Army
(retired), was chosen Director, but he did not enter fully
upon his duties until June, 1896. …
"At the time of the consolidation the Astor library owned its
site and buildings, had an endowment fund of about $941,000,
producing an annual income of about $47,000, and contained
267,147 volumes. The Lenox library owned its site and
building, had an endowment fund of $505,500, producing an
annual income of $20,500, and contained about 86,000 volumes.
The Tilden Trust possessed Mr. Tilden's private library,
containing about 20,000 volumes, and an endowment fund
estimated at $2,000,000, making the total number of volumes in
the New York Public Library 373,147, and the total endowment
fund about $3,446,500. … The joint libraries now contain about
500,000 volumes and 175,000 pamphlets."
Immediately upon the completion of the consolidation of the
three libraries, the city of New York was asked to provide a
suitable building for the great institution contemplated, and
the ground covered by the old reservoir, on Fifth Avenue,
between Fortieth and Forty-second Streets, was suggested as an
advantageous site. "The result of this appeal, which met with
cordial public support, was that an act was passed by the
legislature and approved May 19, 1897, giving the necessary
authority to the city to issue bonds for the construction of a
library building, the result of which was that on November 10,
1897, the plans prepared by Messrs. Carrère & Hastings, of New
York City, were selected and approved, and were laid before
the Board of Estimate and Apportionment of the City of New
York on December 1, 1897. These plans were approved by the
Board of Estimate and on December 8 a contract was entered
into between the City of New York and the New York Public
Library, by which the library building to be erected upon
Bryant Park was leased to the New York Public Library. … The
sketch plans provide for a building about 350 feet in length
and about 250 feet in width from east to west, giving shelving
for about 1,500,000 volumes and seating capacity for about 800
readers in the main reading room. …
{292}
"Plans and specifications for the removal of the Forty-second
Street reservoir and laying the foundations for the new
building having been approved the contract for this work was
awarded to Mr. Eugene Lentilhon, and the work of removing was
begun on June 6th, 1899."
_Handbook to the New York Public Library, 1900._
In October, 1900, it was stated in the newspapers of the city
that Mayor Van Wyck, Controller Coler, and the other members
of the Board of Estimate had come to an understanding
regarding the consolidation of all the libraries of the
Greater New York under the New York Public Library. "It was
announced officially that all the smaller libraries would be
allowed about the same amount of money for maintenance this
year as was allowed last year. A practical plan of
consolidation will be perfected, and when the matter comes up
before the Board of Estimate next year it was agreed that the
libraries would be put under one head. … It is proposed to
spend $5,000,000 on the New York Public Library now in course
of erection in Bryant Park on the site of the old reservoir.
It will be four years before the building can be completed.
Controller Coler's idea is to gradually merge the smaller
libraries so that when the new building is completed New York
will have the largest and best equipped library for sending
out books of any city in the world."
On the 12th of March, 1901, Mr. Andrew Carnegie addressed the
following letter to Dr. Billings, the Director of the New York
Public Library, making a proposal of unparalleled munificence:
"Dear Dr. Billings: Our conferences upon the needs of greater New
York for branch libraries to reach the masses of the people in
every district have convinced me of the wisdom of your plans.
Sixty-five branches strike one at first as a very large order,
but as other cities have found one necessary for every sixty
thousand or seventy thousand of population, the number is not
excessive. You estimate the average cost of these libraries
at, say, $80,000 each, being $5,200,000 for all. If New York
will furnish sites for these branches for the special benefit
of the masses of the people, as it has done for the central
library, and also agree in satisfactory form to provide for
their maintenance as built, I should esteem it a rare
privilege to be permitted to furnish the money as needed for
the buildings, say, $5,200,000. Sixty-five libraries at one
stroke probably breaks the record, but this is the day of big
operations, and New York is soon to be the biggest of cities.
Very truly yours, ANDREW CARNEGIE."
In communicating this extraordinary proposal to the New York
Public Library Board, Dr. Billings made the following
statement of the plan contemplated in the suggestions he had
made:
"In the conferences referred to by Mr. Carnegie the
suggestions which I have made have related mainly to a free
public library system for the boroughs of Manhattan and The
Bronx. I have stated that such a system should include the
great central reference library in Forty-second street and
Fifth avenue, about forty branch libraries for circulation,
small distributing centres in those public school buildings
which are adapted to such purpose, and a large travelling
library system operated from the central building. Each of the
branch libraries should contain reading rooms for from 50 to 100
adults and for from 75 to 125 children, and in these reading
rooms should be about 500 volumes of encyclopædias,
dictionaries, atlases and large and important reference books.
There should be ample telephone and delivery arrangements between
the branches and the central library.
"To establish this system would require at least five years.
The average cost of the branch libraries I estimated at from
$75,000 to $125,000, including sites and equipment. The cost
of maintaining the system when completed I estimated at
$500,000 a year. The circulation of books for home use alone
in these boroughs should amount to more than 5,000,000 of
volumes a year, and there should be at least 500,000 volumes
in the circulation department, with additions of new books and
to replace worn out books of at least 40,000 a year.
"With regard to the other boroughs of greater New York I have
made no special plans or estimates, but have said that about
twenty-five libraries would be required for them."
LIBRARY, The Temple, of ancient Nippur.
See (in this vol.)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA: AMERICAN EXPLORATION.
LIBRARY, The U. S. House of Representatives:
Its management under the spoils system.
See (in this volume)
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM: A. D. 1901.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, at Washington.
The new building.
"By the act of April 15, 1886, the present site, one-quarter
of a mile south of east from the Capitol, was selected, its
acquisition by the United States provided for, and the
construction of a building authorized. During this long period
of discussion many schemes for attaining the desired end,
including a variety of plans for enlarging and occupying the
Capitol and many different sites in the city of Washington,
were considered. Several times did the legislation reach an
advanced state and fail through the pressure of more absorbing
interests. Finally the law referred to adopted sketch plans that
had been prepared by Messrs. Smithmeyer and Pelz, a firm of
Washington architects, but it fixed no limit of cost, nor did
it specify the materials of construction or character of
execution of the design other than to stipulate that the
building should be fireproof. A commission, composed of the
Secretary of the Interior, the Librarian of Congress, and the
Architect of the Capitol, was designated to conduct the
construction of the building. The site, comprising two city
squares—nearly nine acres, within the city building lines and
with the included streets—was purchased of the private owners,
the ground cleared of some seventy buildings occupying it, and
by the summer of 1888 about one-half of the foundation
footings for the building were laid. During that year,
however, Congress became dissatisfied with the progress that
had been made and the uncertainties involved in the operation
of the inadequate original law, and accordingly, on October 2,
modified it and lodged the entire control of the work, including
the preparation of new plans at a limited cost, in the hands
of Brigadier General Thomas Lincoln Casey, Chief of Engineers
of the United States Army. He immediately placed the writer in
local charge.
{293}
On March 2, 1889, Congress enacted that the building should be
erected at a total cost of $6,500,000, including previous
expenditures, according to a plan that had been prepared and
submitted by General Casey, pursuant to the previous act of
October 2, 1888. This plan was based on that adopted by the
original act, and provided a building of similar form,
dimensions, and architecture. The project embodied the
principal materials of construction and a detailed estimate of
the cost. Under these auspices operations were begun in the
spring of 1889 where the operations had left off the year
before, and the construction thence proceeded without
interruption until the building was finally completed, in the
spring of 1897. It was 470 feet in length by 340 feet in
width, having three stories and a subbasement, and fronts
west—toward the Capitol. … The foundations of the building are
of hydraulic cement concrete, 6 feet deep in ground which is a
mixture of clay and sand of very uniform character. The cellar
walls are of hard red brick; the exterior face of the
superstructure of a fine grained light blue granite from
Concord, New Hampshire; the stone of the rotunda and the
trimmings of the court walls a light blue granite from near
Woodstock, Maryland; the facing of the court walls enameled
brick from Leeds, England; and the backing and interior walls
as well as all of the vaulting of the basement and first
stories are of hard red brick. Most of the floors that are
flat ceiled are of terra cotta, and this material also forms
the covering and filling of the roofs and main dome, of which
the supporting members are of rolled steel in beams, girders,
and trusses. All of the floors are leveled up with concrete
and surfaced with tiles, terrazzo, or mosaic in the public
spaces, while in the office and working rooms they are covered
with a carpet of southern pine boards. The most important of
the strictly useful features of the building are the book
stacks, of which the design is largely original. The problem
was new, not only through the capacity to be provided but the
numerous other conditions to be met, such as light,
ventilation, adjustability to several uses, communication,
immunity from fire, cleanliness, durability, and simplicity.
It was also necessary that rapid mechanical transmission of
books between the shelving and the reading room should be
provided, coupled with a quick and reliable means of
communication, both written and oral. … The book carrier is a
pair of parallel, endless chains, running in a vertical shaft
in the middle of the stack; thence in a horizontal duct in the
cellar to a point below the central desk of the reading room,
where it turns upward and ascends vertically to the delivery
outlet at the desk. A series of equidistant book trays,
eighteen in number, are suspended between the chains. The
machine runs continuously and automatically takes on and
delivers books of the size of a quarto or less at its reading
room terminal and at each of the stack stories. The speed of
the carrier is about 100 feet per minute. The pneumatic
message tube is also convenient as a speaking tube. The great
rotunda or public reading room of the building, the main
staircase hall or foyer, the private reading rooms for the
members of Congress, the Librarian's office, the corridors
communicating with these, and the exhibition halls as well as
many portions of the exterior walls, especially the west main
pavilion, have received a good degree of artistic treatment
and embellishment, but all within strict architectural
requirements. Some forty sculptors and mural painters, about
equally divided in numbers, furnished the principal works of
art under the architects' supervision and direction. Many
appropriate quotations and names are inscribed on the walls in
the architectural tablets, friezes and panels, adding to the
general impressiveness and interest of the building. In all
ways and from all points of view the library building is
eminently instructive as an example of good design, good
appointment for its great purpose, good building and good
administration in the execution, and therefore the more
appropriate to house the nation's library. The unusual success
of the undertaking under Government auspices is almost wholly due
to the selection of a known competent, sturdy, and faithful
individual such as General Casey was, and giving him the sole
charge directly under Congress without an executive superior
liable to interfere and cause delays. The work went on
quietly, but with energy; and was completed within the
originally estimated time and well within the legal limit of
cost. The total cost of the building was $6,344,585.34—that of
the site, $585,000."
_Bernard R. Green,
The Building for the Library of Congress
(Annual Report Smithsonian Institution, 1897, page 625)._
LI HUNG-CHANG:
Negotiation of peace with Japan.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1894-1895.
LI HUNG-CHANG:
Tour in Europe and America.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1896.
LI HUNG-CHANG:
Charged with being in Russian pay.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-JULY).
LI HUNG-CHANG:
Acting Viceroy at Canton.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1899 (DECEMBER).
LI HUNG-CHANG:
Attempt to open negotiations with allied Powers.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JULY).
LI HUNG-CHANG:
Chinese Plenipotentiary to negotiate with the allied Powers.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (AUGUST-DECEMBER).
LIKIN, The Chinese taxes called.
"Chinese tariff rates, where they exist, average about 5 per
cent ad valorem. Many articles are admitted free of duty, and
on some the rates are higher than 5 per cent, but in general
terms this is about the average rate. To this, however, there
is a material addition where the goods are intended for
interior points. The Chinese Government, while it collects a
part of its revenue from customs, relies largely upon the
provinces to supply revenue, and arbitrarily names each year
the sum which each province must supply, leaving to the
officers of that province the methods by which this is
obtained. The consequence is that each province is permitted
to collect a tax on goods entering it from the adjacent
provinces, and this custom has been extended to the
subdivision of the provinces, so that goods in transit are
frequently compelled to pay taxes every few miles. As a
consequence, the interior taxes, known as 'likin,' became not
only the terror of importers, but sometimes almost
prohibitory. So serious was this system in its effects upon
attempts to introduce foreign goods that, upon the insistence
of foreign ministers, the Chinese Government announced that an
addition of 50 per cent to the rates paid at the custom-houses
would insure passage of the goods to any point in the interior
without the exaction of likin taxes.
{294}
This was gladly accepted by foreigners desiring to do business
in the interior of China. The additional 50 per cent on duties
was paid and 'transit passes' issued for the goods in question,
purporting to authorize their free transit to any point in the
Empire. Actual experience, however, shows that these transit
passes do not always accomplish what was expected. … Every 8
or 10 miles along the principal waterways or caravan routes a
likin station is found, where a tax is levied upon some
article or articles carried through by boat, pack animal, or
wheelbarrow. At some points every article is taxed. This is
the usual rule at the gates of cities. In some cases the tax
is as little as 2 per cent ad valorem; in others, such as
silk, satin, and native opium, much more, amounting at times
to 6, 8, or even 10 per cent. Between Shanghai and Soochow, a
distance of 84 miles, there are 8 likin stations. At the first
and last stations all goods are dutiable; at the rest all
goods must be examined, and there is scarcely a single article
that does not in that distance pay at least three taxes. It is
easily seen that under such a system foreign goods cannot be
carried very far from the coast before their prices become
prohibitive for ordinary people."
_United States, Bureau of Statistics, Monthly Summary,
March, 1899, pages 2188, 2231._
LINCOLN PARTY, The.
See (in this volume).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER),
SILVER REPUBLICAN.
LIQUID AIR, The production of.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS.
LIQUOR SELLING, The regulation of.
Abolition of the Army Canteen.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).
LIQUOR SELLING:
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.
LIQUOR SELLING:
International convention respecting the
liquor traffic in Africa.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1899 (JUNE).
LIQUOR SELLING:
The question in American politics.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER);
and 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
LIQUOR SELLING:
The Raines Liquor Law.
See (in this volume)
NEW YORK STATE: A. D. 1896-1897.
LISCUM, Colonel Emerson H.:
Death.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JULY).
LITTLE ENGLAND PARTY.
A name given by its opponents to the section of the Liberal
party in Great Britain which condemns the boundless
enlargement of British annexations, protectorates and spheres
of influence in all parts of the world, and which is critical
of expansive and imperialistic wars.
LIU KUN-YI, Viceroy at Nanking:
Admirable conduct during the Chinese outbreak.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JUNE-DECEMBER).
LOCH, Sir H. B.:
British High Commissioner in South Africa.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1894.
LOCKOUTS.
See (in this volume)
INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES.
LOG OF THE MAYFLOWER, The so-called.
See (in this volume)
MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1897.
LOGIA, Discovery of a fragment of the.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: EGYPT; DISCOVERY OF A FRAGMENT.
LOMBOK.
See (in this volume)
DUTCH EAST INDIES.
LONDON: A. D. 1894.
The Tower Bridge.
The Tower Bridge was formally opened on the 30th of June,
eight years after the beginning of the work. Its cost was
£1,250,000.
LONDON: A. D. 1897.
Great fire.
On November 19, 1897, occurred one of the largest fires in
London since 1606. Beginning in Aldersgate, it spread over six
acres of a densely populated quarter, destroying over 100
warehouses and buildings. The loss was estimated at
£2,000,000.
LONDON: A. D. 1899.
The London Government Act.
"The London Government Act is the most important measure
passed by Lord Salisbury's Government during the year 1899;
indeed, in some respects it is the most valuable reform
carried by the Parliament which [expired in 1000]. There was
urgent need for such a measure. The machinery of London
Government was hopelessly out of gear. It was both cumbrous
and intricate; it was controlled by a network of small local
authorities whose duties were ill-defined and often clashed
with each other. There was no uniformity or harmony in the
system." The old Roman wall, "built somewhere between A. D.
350 and A. D. 370 … played a most important part in the
history of London; and, indeed, it had a large share in
creating the problems with which Mr. Balfour had to deal in
1899. Little did its unknown builder dream that his wall, so
admirable in itself, would cause us trouble fifteen centuries
after his death. But such is the fact. He was a wise man, this
nameless benefactor of the infant municipality; he took care
that the wall should be thoroughly well built; and he allowed,
as he thought, ample room for later growth. The exact position of
this wall is well known to antiquaries. Many portions of it
still remain; it included in its ambit about a square mile of
territory, with wells and trees, gardens and pastures,
bordering on the great Roman roads. For a thousand years or
more this area was sufficient for all purposes. … So far as we
now can guess, it was not till the 16th century that any
Londoner felt cramped within the wall and craved more
elbow-room. Gradually the City expanded, and at first it
incorporated its extra-mural parishes, such as Bishopsgate and
Farringdon Without. The borough of Southwark was supposed for
some purposes to be annexed to the City; it was till last year
by a fiction regarded as a ward of the City—the ward of Bridge
Without. To this extent, then, the City spread outside its
wall. But here its natural expansion stopped. … The City
proper remained a compact town, well organized and well
governed, but the suburbs were treated as mere country
villages; their only local authority was the parish vestry,
and its only officers the churchwardens and the overseers.
{295}
"This state of things obviously could not last. It soon became
impossible for the parishioners to assemble in the vestry; no
room, indeed, would hold them. First one parish and then
another applied to Parliament for an Act creating what was
called a 'select vestry,' and many representative bodies were
thus formed with diverse and very miscellaneous powers. …
Where the parishes were small, instead of a select vestry a
district board was formed, under which several small parishes
were grouped. And so when the London Government Act was passed
there were 78 parishes and extra-parochial places within the
county, but outside the City of London. … These vestries and
boards were the sanitary authorities for their respective
areas: they superintended the removal of nuisances, and the
lighting, paving, watering, and cleansing of the streets; they
also attended to some minor works of drainage, ancillary to
the main system. … In 1855, the Metropolitan Board of Works
was created to control the main drainage, to carry out
improvements, to regulate the streets and bridges, and to
maintain and manage the Fire Brigade. But its members were
elected on a vicious system—by the various vestries and
boards, and not directly by the ratepayers. … Its place was
taken [in 1888] by the London County Council. But besides
these vestries, local boards, district boards, and the
Metropolitan Board, it was deemed necessary from time to time
to create many minor authorities to meet various pressing
needs; such were the Metropolitan Asylums Board, the Thames
Conservators, the Lee Conservators, the commissioners of baths
and washhouses, the commissioners of free libraries, the
burial boards, &c., in addition to 30 boards of guardians and
the London School Board. As the population of London outgrew
its existing institutions, the defects and shortcomings were
remedied by patchwork. …
"From this position of affairs we have been rescued by two
important measures, … the Local Government Act, 1888, and the
London Government Act, 1899. … The Local Government Act of
1888 abolished the Metropolitan Board of Works: it created the
administrative county of London; it called into existence the
London County Council. The London Government Act of 1899 has
done still more for London. It has abolished some 127 local
authorities, whose place will be taken by the 28 borough
councils which must be elected on November 1. The London
County Council, the City Corporation, the Metropolitan Asylums
Board, the boards of guardians, and the London School Board
remain practically untouched. But 73 vestries, 12 district
boards, the Woolwich Local Board of Health (the last of its
race), 12 burial boards, 19 boards of library commissioners,
and 10 boards of baths and washhouses commissioners, for all
purposes of civic government, cease to exist."
_London Times, October 16, 1900._
LONDON CONVENTION (British-Boer), of 1884.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1884-1894.
LONGEVITY, Human:
The Nineteenth Century increase of.
See (in this vol.)
NINETEENTH CENTURY: THE LENGTHENED AVERAGE.
LOOTING, in China.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (AUGUST 5-16, and 15-28).
"LOS VON ROM" MOVEMENT, The.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1899-1900.
LOUBET, Émile: Election to the Presidency of the French Republic.
See (in this volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1899 (FEBRUARY-JUNE).
LOUISIANA: A. D. 1898.
New State Constitution.
An educational qualification of the suffrage which applies
to all negroes and few whites.
The framing of a new constitution for the State was completed
in May. Its distinctive feature is an educational
qualification of the suffrage which does not apply to men who
were qualified in any State to vote at the beginning of the
year 1867, nor to the sons and grandsons of such men, nor to
foreigners naturalized before the 1st of January, 1898. The
amendment is as follows:
"SECTION 3.
He (the voter) shall be able to read and write, and shall
demonstrate his ability to do so when he applies for
registration, by making, under oath administered by the
registration officer or his deputy, written application
therefor, in the English language, or his mother tongue, which
application shall contain the essential facts necessary to
show that he is entitled to register and vote, and shall be
entirely written, dated, and signed by him, in the presence of
the registration officer or his deputy, without assistance or
suggestion from any person or memorandum whatever, except the
form of application hereinafter set forth: Provided, however,
That if the applicant be unable to write his application in
the English language, he shall have the right, if he so
demands, to write the same in his mother tongue from the
dictation of an interpreter; and if the applicant is unable to
write his application by reason of physical disability, the
same shall be written at his dictation by the registration
officer or his deputy, upon his oath of such disability. The
application for registration, above provided for, shall be a
copy of the following form, with the proper names, dates, and
numbers substituted for the blanks appearing therein, to wit:
"I am a citizen of the State of Louisiana. My name is --. I
was born in the State (or country) of --, parish (or county)
of --, on the -- day of --, in the year --. I am now -- years
-- months and -- days of age. I have resided in this State
since --, and am not disfranchised by any provision of the
constitution of this State.
"SECTION 4.
If he be not able to read and write, as provided by section 3
of this article, then he shall be entitled to register and
vote if he shall, at the time he offers to register, be the
bona fide owner of property assessed to him in this State at a
valuation of not less than $300 on the assessment roll of the
current year, if the roll of the current year shall then have
been completed and filed, and on which, if such property be
personal only, all taxes due shall have been paid.
"SECTION 5.
No male person who was on January 1, 1867, or at any date
prior thereto, entitled to vote under the constitution or
statute of any State of the United States, wherein he then
resided, and no son or grandson of any such person not less
than 21 years of age at the date of the adoption of this
constitution, and no male person of foreign birth, who was
naturalized prior to the first day of January, 1898, shall be
denied the right to register and vote in this State by reason
of his failure to possess the educational or property
qualifications prescribed by this constitution: Provided, He
shall have resided in this State for five years next preceding
the date at which he shall apply for registration, and shall
have registered in accordance with the terms of this article
prior to September 1, 1898; and no person shall be entitled to
register under this section after said date."
{296}
LOW, Seth:
Citizens' Union candidate for Mayor of Greater New York.
See (in this volume)
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1897 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER.)
LOW, Seth:
American commissioner to the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
LÜBECK: A. D. 1900.
The Elbe and Trave Canal.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (JUNE).
LUDLOW, General William:
Military Governor of Havana.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1898-1899 (DECEMBER-OCTOBER).
LUEGER, Dr.:
Anti-Semitic agitation in Vienna.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1895-1896.
LUXEMBOURG: A. D. 1899 (May-July).
Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
LUZON.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.
LYNCH LAW, in the United States.
Statistics, compiled by the "Chicago Tribune," of the cases of
mob-murder, called "lynchings," which were reported in the
newspapers as having occurred in the United States during the
year 1899, showed a total of 107, being 20 less than a similar
record for 1898 had shown. Of the reported cases, 3 were in
Kansas, 1 in Pennsylvania, and 103 in Southern States. Georgia
led in the latter list, being credited with 20 executions
under lynch law. Mississippi followed with 14, Louisiana with
13, Arkansas with 11, and other States of the South with
lesser numbers. Of the victims (mostly colored) 44 were
accused of murder; 11 of complicity in murder; 11 with rape or
attempted rape; 1 with rape and murder.
The "Political Science Quarterly," in its Record of Political
Events between November 11, 1897, and May 10, 1898, cites 31
incidents of lynching, exclusive of a mob-murder committed at
Lake City, South Carolina, where a negro postmaster and one of
his children were killed, his wife and three other children
wounded, and their house burned down. Of these incidents, 23
were reported from the South, the victims in every case being
black; 8 were from northwestern States, the victims being
white.
For 1897, the "Buffalo Express" compiled statistics of
reported lynchings from its news columns, which showed 38
between January 1 and June 8, and 77 during the remainder of
the year, making a total of 115.
M.
MACARTHUR, General:
Military operations in the Philippine Islands.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (JANUARY-NOVEMBER).
MACDONALD, Sir Claude:
British Minister at Peking.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY), and after.
MACEDONIA, Impending revolt in.
See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1899-1901; and
BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES.
MACEO, Antonio:
Death of the Cuban leader.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1896-1897.
MACHADADORP:
Temporary seat of Transvaal government.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR): A. D. 1900 (MAY-JUNE).
MACKENZIE, The district of.
See (in this volume)
CANADA: A. D. 1895.
MCKINLEY, William:
Election and reelection to the Presidency of the United States.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER);
and 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
MCKINLEY, William:
Administration.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1897 (MARCH), and after.
MCKINLEY, William:
Message on the condition of Cuba in 1897.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1896-1897.
MCKINLEY, William:
Message on the destruction of the battleship Maine.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY-MARCH).
MCKINLEY, William:
Message asking for power to intervene in Cuba.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (MARCH-APRIL).
MCKINLEY, William:
Message announcing state of war with Spain.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL).
MCKINLEY, William:
Civil Service order in 1899.
See (in this volume)
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM: A. D. 1899.
MCKINLEY, William:
Negotiation of peace with Spain.
Instructions to and correspondence with Commissioners at Paris.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-DECEMBER).
MCKINLEY, William:
Instructions to the military commander and
to the two commissions in the Philippines.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS:
A. D. 1898-1899 (DECEMBER-JANUARY);
1899 (JANUARY); and 1900 (APRIL).
MADAGASCAR.
The island of Madagascar, which stretches through more than
thirteen degrees of latitude, in close neighborhood to the
eastern African coast, opposite Mozambique, though often
called "the great African island," is more Malayan than
African in its population. The dominant tribe is the Hova. For
more than a century the French have been covetous of the
island, and since 1883, when they opened a war with its Hova
rulers, they have pursued a steady policy toward the end of
making it their own. The result of the war of 1886 was a
treaty under which the French claimed a certain protectorate
or control of Malagasy foreign relations,—a claim concerning
which there remained much dispute. In 1890 the British
government recognized the French protectorate, but the native
government continued steadily to refuse acknowledgment that
the treaty had given any such rights.
{297}
MADAGASCAR:
Subjugation of the island by the French.
Anti-foreign and anti-Christian risings.
Revival of idolatry.
Final possession of the island by France proclaimed.
Submissive Declaration of the Queen.
In 1894 the French government took decisive measures looking
toward the subjugation of the island, and, early in 1895, a
strong expedition under General Duchesne was landed on the
coast. The Malagasy were much divided among themselves, and
they were poorly prepared for war. They made feeble resistance
to the invaders; but the latter had a difficult and costly
campaign, notwithstanding, on account of the nature of the
country and the absence of roads, which they were obliged to
construct as they advanced. They are said to have lost only 20
men killed in action, but 6,000 by disease. They reached
Antananarivo, the Hova capital, at the end of September.
"Immediately on the arrival of General Duchesne a treaty was
signed by the Malagasy authorities, by which the whole power
of the country was ceded to the French. The queen remained in
her place, and the Hova Prime Minister was also allowed to be
nominally at the head of affairs. Part of this arrangement was
found impracticable after a short time; the Prime Minister had
enjoyed unlimited power for too long a period to accept a
subordinate position, and General Duchesne was forced to
remove him. According]y, he was taken to a house of his own at
a short distance from the capital, where he was kept under
surveillance for two or three months, but as he was still
supposed to be plotting he was deported to Algiers, in which
country he died after a very short exile.
"It seemed at first as if the change of masters in the island
was to be accomplished without any serious disturbance. … In
the early part of November (1895), however, this satisfactory
state of affairs was rudely interrupted. A paltry quarrel
between two clans about a piece of ground, which each claimed,
gradually developed into a serious rising. The two parties
came to an understanding by agreeing to make an attack upon
the Europeans. As soon as General Duchesne was informed of
what had been happening to the south-west of the capital, he
sent a column … with orders to punish the insurgents and to
pacify the district. … The resistance on the part of the
natives was vigorous, and for a time well sustained. …
Discipline and Lebel rifles, however, were more than a match
for all their efforts, and after a loss of about 150 men they
desisted. … One distressing feature in the insurrection was
the revival of idolatry, which was thought to be extinct in
Imerina, but which evidently has been scotched and not killed.
Almost the first move on the part of the rebels had been to
reinstate a local idol called Ravololona, and the performance
of certain acts of worship in the presence of the idol was
considered the mark of a good patriot. Naturally under these
circumstances the teachers and the more prominent Christians
in the various churches and chapels were objects of dislike
and hatred, and in the disaffected district these men with
their wives and families had to fly for their lives. It is
useless to shut one's eyes to facts; a considerable number of
those who were held in esteem by the missionaries failed to
stand the test of persecution, and if not guilty of actually
worshipping idols were actively in league with those who did
so. … After the suppression of this first outbreak matters
remained quiet in Imerina for some months. …
"The next serious event in the island was an outbreak of a
different character. With the exception of the Hova, few if
any of the tribes were thought to be opposed to French rule. …
The Hova were as much hated as they were feared, and, from
whatever quarter it might come, release from their rule would
be welcome. The arrival of the French was the long-wished-for
moment; but news spreads slow]y in Madagascar, and though the
Hova power came to an end at the beginning of October, it was
not realised on the coast until the new year [1896]. When,
however, it was known that the French were masters of the
country the explosion came. The two large tribes of the
Betsimisaraka and the Taimoro on the east rose against the
Hova, and ruthlessly killed them wherever they could catch
them. … The buildings used as churches and schools were also
burnt, for, as the greater part of the teachers came from
Imerina, religion and education were associated with the Hova.
In one or two instances Europeans were murdered, but only when
they were mixed up with the Hova."
_F. A. Gregory,
The French in Madagascar
(Nineteenth Century, January, 1897)._
Formal possession of the island was now proclaimed, and, on
the 18th of January, 1896, the submissive queen signed the
following "Declaration": "Her Majesty the Queen of Madagascar,
having been made acquainted with the Proclamation taking
possession of the Island of Madagascar by the French
Government, declares her acceptance of the following
conditions:
"ARTICLE I.
The Government of the French Republic shall be represented at
the Court of Her Majesty the Queen of Madagascar by a
Resident-General.
"ARTICLE II.
The Government of the French Republic shall represent
Madagascar in all relations with foreign Powers. The
Resident-General shall be intrusted with the conduct of
relations with the Agents of foreign Powers; and all questions
affecting foreigners in Madagascar shall be dealt with through
him. The French Diplomatic and Consular Agents abroad shall be
charged with the protection of Malagasy subjects and
interests.
"ARTICLE III.
The Government of the French Republic reserve to themselves
the right of maintaining in Madagascar the armed forces
necessary for the exercise of their authority.
"ARTICLE. IV.
The Resident-General shall control the internal administration
of the island. Her Majesty the Queen of Madagascar undertakes
to introduce such reforms as the French Government shall deem
expedient for the economic development of the island, and for
the advancement of civilization.
"ARTICLE. V.
The Government of Her Majesty the Queen of Madagascar
undertake to contract no loan without the authorization of the
Government of the French Republic.
(Signed) RANAVALOMANJAKA, Mpanjakany Madagascar."
On the 11th of February the following "Notification" was
officially communicated to all the Powers: "In consequence of
difficulties which have arisen in Madagascar, the Government
of the Republic, in the exercise of their Protectorate, have
been obliged to intervene by force of arms in order to make
their rights respected, and to obtain guarantees for the
future. They have thus been obliged to occupy the island with
their troops, and to take final possession thereof."
_Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command: Africa, No.8, 1897)._
{298}
About this time, "M. Laroche, the first Resident-General,
arrived at the capital and began to organise the government of
the country. A new Prime Minister was appointed, in whose name
laws might be issued, for it had been settled that the
administration should be indirect, that is to say conducted
through the medium of the natives. A considerable number of
regulations were promulgated, affecting the development of the
industries of the country, the granting of concessions, and
the education of the natives. Most of these were much too
elaborate to be useful, and up to the present time nearly all
of them have remained a dead letter. Some may be useful when
the insurrection has been quelled, when the country is such as
to invite capitalists, and when schools have been
re-established. In March there were again signs of trouble,
though at first these were faint and perhaps too far off to
attract the serious attention of the authorities. …
"A petty disturbance in the beginning, fomented for private
purposes and fostered by an appeal to patriotic feeling, has
developed into a formidable insurrection. I say formidable,
but I do not mean to give the idea that the insurrection is
formidable from a military point of view. … But from
industrial, educational, and religious points of view, the
rebellion has been a complete success, and however soon it may
be suppressed, the progress of the country in some parts has
been thrown back for years, a large tract reduced to
desolation, and the inhabitants to little better than savages.
This destruction has been effected in five months, for,
beginning in May, it has spread over the whole of Avaradrano,
Vonizongo, part of Imarovatana, and Vakin Ankaratoa, four out
of the six divisions of Imerina. … To mark the, anti-European
character of the rising, the churches were burnt without
distinction, and in some places leper hospitals were
destroyed, and their unhappy inmates rendered houseless. The
English and Norwegian missions have suffered the most
severely. It is impossible to estimate correctly the number of
churches and chapels that have been burnt, but at the lowest
computation it must amount to 600. … As in the West,
idol-worship was practised, the idol in this case being
Ramahavaly, the war-god or goddess; the pillaging of houses
and property became almost universal, and soon it came to pass
that no one was safe unless he either joined the insurgents or
paid them to leave him unmolested. …
"The greatest move in the organisation of the country is the
abolition of slavery throughout the island. This was
proclaimed in the official gazette issued on the 27th of
September [1896] by decree of the Resident-General. It was
wholly unexpected at the time, though there had been rumours
two or three months previously to the effect that the step was
contemplated, but would be effected gradually. Naturally, it
fell upon the Hova like a clap of thunder, and, as the law was
published on a Sunday, some worthy folk found themselves, on
their return from service, without a slave to cook the dinner.
… It would have been better to have proceeded more slowly to
the desired end; to have made an children born after a fixed
day free; and to have made the redemption of the rest, either
by themselves or by others, cheap and easy. However, it has
been decided otherwise, and certainly the state of the country
is such as to justify any measure, for, when everything is in
a state of upheaval the exact amount of pressure is of small
importance. In addition to this it must be remembered that in
consequence of the outbreak Madagascar has been declared a
French colony, and that this carries with it the abolition of
the status of slavery. While, then, the greater number of
Europeans who know Madagascar would have preferred that
slavery should have been abolished by degrees, few would be
prepared to say that it was altogether a mistake."
_F. A. Gregory,
The French in Madagascar
(Nineteenth Century, January, 1897)._
An Act for the annexation of Madagascar was passed by the
French Chamber and Senate in the early summer of 1896, with a
declaration for the immediate abolition of slavery. In the
following year Queen Ranavalomanjaka was banished to the
French Island of Reunion, and in 1899 she was removed to a
more distant and more cruel exile in Algiers.
MAFEKING, Siege of.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-NOVEMBER); and 1900 (MARCH-MAY).
MAFIA, Exposure in Italy of the.
See (in this volume)
ITALY: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY).
MAHAN, Captain Alfred T.:
American Commissioner to the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
MAHDI, The death of the.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1885-1896.
MAINE, The battle-ship:
Destruction in Havana harbor.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY-MARCH).
MAJESFONTEIN, Battle of.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).
MALAGASY, The.
See (in this volume)
MADAGASCAR.
MALAKAND, Attack by Swat tribes on.
See (in this volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1897-1898.
MALARIA, Discovery of the secret of.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: MEDICAL AND SURGICAL.
MALAYAN RACE.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: THE NATIVE INHABITANTS.
MALOLOS:
The seat of Aguinaldo's government in the Philippines.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-SEPTEMBER).
MANCHESTER SHIP CANAL.
See (in this volume)
CANAL, MANCHESTER SHIP.
MANCHURIA: A. D. 1895-1900.
Trans-Siberian Railway.
Russo-Chinese Treaty.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1895; and
RUSSIA IN ASIA: A. D. 1891-1900.
{299}
MANCHURIA: A. D. 1900-1901.
Chinese Boxer attack on the Russians and
savage Russian retaliation.
Russian occupation of Niu-chwang.
Russo-Chinese negotiations concerning the province.
Distrust of Russian designs.
The Boxer outbreak in and around Peking, in the early summer
(see, in this volume, CHINA: A. D. 1900-MAY-JUNE, and after),
was followed, in July, by an attack on the Russians in
Manchuria, along the line of the Manchurian branch of their
Trans-Siberian Railway (see, in this volume, RUSSIA IN ASIA),
and on the Amur. The retaliation of the Russians appears to
have been simply ferocious. Professor G. Frederick Wright, who
was travelling in Manchuria at the time, gives a sickening
account of what he saw on the Amur, above Blagovestchensk, in
a letter written, August 6, from Stretensk, Siberia, to "The
Nation," of New York. The Chinese fort at Aygun, on the
Manchurian side of the Amur, began, without warning, on the
14th of July, he writes, "to fire upon passing steamboats,
and, on the 15th, fire was opened upon Blagovestchensk, and
some Russian villages were burned opposite the fort. The
actual injury inflicted by the Chinese was slight; but the
terror caused by it was indescribable, and it drove the
Cossacks into a frenzy of rage. The peaceable Chinese, to the
number of 3,000 or 4,000, in the city were expelled in great
haste, and, being forced upon rafts entirely inadequate, were
most of them drowned in attempting to cross the river. The
stream was fairly black with their bodies. Three days after,
we counted hundreds of them in the water. In our ride through
the country to reach the city on Thursday, the 19th, we saw as
many as thirty villages and hamlets of the Chinese in flames.
One of them was a city of 8,000 or 10,000 inhabitants. We
estimated that we saw the dwellings of 20,000 peaceable
Chinese in flames that awful day, while parties of Cossacks
were scouring the fields to find Chinese, and shooting them
down at sight. What became of the women and children no one
knew; but there was apparently no way for them to escape to a
place of safety. On our way up the river for 500 miles above
the city, every Chinese hamlet was a charred mass of ruins.
The large village of Motcha was still smoking, and we were
told that 4,000 Chinese had been killed. We do not mention
these facts to excite prejudice against the Russian
authorities or against the Cossacks. This work of devastation
has not been ordered by those high in authority. It is rather
the result of mob violence such as instigates the promoters of
lynch law in the Southern States, or, more nearly, such as has
from time immemorial animated the pioneers in America against the
Indians. The wholesale destruction, both of property and of
life, was thought to be a military necessity. The wives and
children of the Cossacks were in terror."
Russian troops were poured into Manchuria in vast numbers, and
however much or little there may have been of the Boxer
movement, it was crushed with merciless rigor. A letter from
the Manchurian treaty port of Niu-chwang, on the Liao-tung
Gulf, written August 13, to the "London Times," describes the
Russian occupation of that town and region, in the previous
week. After some 1,500 or 2,000 Chinese soldiers and
civilians, in flight from the town, had been intercepted and
killed, "the Russian general," says the writer, "was about to
order a general assault on the town when the foreign residents
interceded, as there were no longer any soldiers or 'Boxers'
left. He declared his intention was to kill all, as it was
impossible to distinguish between soldiers, 'Boxers' and
civilians. Some foreigners then went down into the city and
brought up the principal merchants, who were given until 10 a.
m. to deliver up all the guns in the town. This, of course,
they could not and did not do, so some foreign residents
offered to enter the city with the Russian soldiers, and
guaranteed peaceful occupation. This offer was accepted, and
the town was spared enormous loss of life, though there was a
certain amount of looting, and a few people were bayoneted in
the outlying houses. Outside the walls men, women, and
children were killed, and from all sides came reliable reports
of violation of women. There is no possible doubt about the
truth of these reports. The Russians are carrying out a policy
of destruction of property and extermination of the people.
Kai-chau, the district city, 24 miles south of this port, and
nearly all the villages have been burnt and the inhabitants
killed. The soldiers, both infantry and Cossacks, have been
allowed to do what they like for some days."
The same correspondent goes on to say: "The Russians hoisted
their naval flag over the Custom-house at 7.30 p. m. on August
4. Neither in the attack and bombardment of the town nor in
hoisting their flag did they consult any of the foreign
Consuls or the commanders of the two Japanese gunboats in
port. Admiral Alexeieff arrived on the 5th and issued a
circular announcing the occupation of the treaty port by
Russian military forces. … What the other Powers will say to
the seizure of a treaty port and hoisting of only one flag
remains to be seen." The "one flag" seems to have been still
waving over Niu-chwang as late as the 15th of February, 1901,
since a member in the British House of Commons, on that day,
arraigning his government for want of vigor in China, said
that "though British people traded with Niu-chwang to the
extent of three millions sterling a year, the port was now
under the civil and military administration of Russia alone.
He should like to know what undertaking his Majesty's
Government had obtained that Russia would speedily evacuate
Niu-chwang, and that the administration of the port would
revert to the hands of the Chinese Government.
A few days later, the Under Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs, Viscount Cranborne, said in reply to this statement:
"We made proper inquiry from our representative, and he
assured us that any agreement which exists between Russia and
China in respect to Manchuria is in the nature of a 'modus
vivendi,' consisting merely in the simultaneous presence of
the Russian and Chinese forces in Manchuria, and in order to
prevent disturbances on their frontier. He assured us that the
occupation of the railway is of a purely temporary character,
and that, although a guarantee is expected by the Russian
Government that upon their withdrawal the disturbances shall
not breakout again, yet that guarantee will not take the form
of an acquisition of territory or of a virtual or actual
protectorate in Manchuria. … In respect to Niu-chwang we have
received assurances at least equal to those which have been
given us in respect to the province of South Manchuria. We
understand the Russians are prepared to restore Niu-chwang at
the end of their occupation precisely to its former
condition."
{300}
For the time being, however, the Russians seem to have
established in practice a very real protectorate over the
province of Fêng-tien, in Southern Manchuria, by an agreement
between the Russian governor of the territory leased from
China in the Liao-tung peninsula and the Chinese Tartar
general of Fêng-tien, signed on the 11th of November, 1900.
The general terms of this agreement were reported late in
December, and excited much uneasiness as to Russian designs.
The full text was communicated to the "London Times," in the
February following, by its Peking correspondent, with the
information that the Tartar general who signed it, in
transmitting a copy to Li Hung-chang, "states that grief
pierces his very soul, but what alternative has he?" The
agreement required the Tartar general to disband his troops
and disarm them, on account of the rebellions which had
occurred among them; to deliver up all munitions of war and
dismantle all forts and defences, and to give full information
of all important measures taken by him to a Russian resident
who should be stationed at Mukden, with "general powers of
control."
Late in February, 1901, it was ascertained that the Russian
Minister at Peking, M. de Giers, was negotiating a more
definite and binding convention relative to Manchuria with the
Chinese imperial government, as represented by Li Hung-chang;
and, on the 7th of March, the Peking correspondent of the
"London Times" telegraphed to that journal what claimed to be
a translation of the full text of the treaty, as follows:
"I. The Emperor of Russia, being desirous to manifest his
friendly feelings, agrees to restore Manchuria completely to
China without keeping in mind the fact of the recent warfare
in that province. The Chinese administration shall be restored
in all respects to the 'status quo ante.'
"II. China granted to the railway company, as stipulated in
Article VI. of the Eastern China Railway Concession, the right
of guarding the line with troops, but the country being still
in disorder and the number of troops being insufficient, it
has been found necessary to station a body of troops in the
province, which will be withdrawn as soon as peace and order
are restored and the provisions of the last four articles of
the present convention are carried out.
"III. In case of emergency, the Russian troops stationed in
the province shall render all possible assistance to China to
suppress any disturbances.
"IV. The recent attacks against Russia having been conducted
principally by regular troops, China agrees not to organize
any army before the completion of the railway and the opening
thereof for traffic. When China subsequently organizes her
military forces, the number of troops shall be fixed in
consultation with Russia. The importation of arms and
ammunition into Manchuria is prohibited.
"V. In order to safeguard the province, China shall
immediately dismiss such Governors-General and high local
officials as have committed improper acts in connexion with
foreign relations against which Russia would protest. China
can organize infantry and cavalry in Manchuria for police
purposes, but the number shall be fixed in consultation with
Russia. Artillery should be excluded, and arms given to no
subjects of any other Power employed in connexion with the
exercise of functions.
"VI. China, as previously agreed, shall not employ the
subjects of any other Power for training her naval and
military forces in the northern provinces.
"VII. In order to maintain peace and order, the local
authorities, residing in the vicinity of the neutral zone
provided for by the fifth article of the convention relating
to the lease of the territory of Leao-tong, shall establish
special regulations suitable to the circumstances, and shall
relinquish the administrative autonomy of Kin-chau, which is
reserved to China by Article IV. of the special convention.
"VIII. China shall not grant, without the consent of Russia,
to any other Power or their subjects advantages relative to
mines, railways, or other matters in the Russo-Chinese
Frontier provinces—namely, Manchuria, Mongolia, Kashgar,
Yarkand, Khotan, and Turkestan; neither shall she construct
her own railways in those provinces without the consent of
Russia. Leases of land outside Niu-chwang shall not be granted
to the subjects of any other Power.
"IX. China being under obligations to pay the war expenses of
Russia and the claims of the various other Powers, the amount
of Russia's indemnity, and the terms of payment and the
security for it, shall be adjusted conjointly with the other
Powers.
"X. Indemnities shall be paid and compensation granted for the
destruction of railway property and to the employés of the
company. Losses accruing from delay in the work shall be
adjusted between China and the railway company.
"XI. When the indemnities for the various damages shall have
been agreed upon between China and the company the whole or
part of the amount of such indemnities should be met by
advantages other than pecuniary compensation—that is, either
by revision of the existing agreement relating to the railway
or by the grant of new advantages.
"XII. China shall, as previously agreed, grant to Russia a
concession for the construction of a railway from the main or
branch line of the Manchuria Railway towards Peking and to the
Great Wall."
Notwithstanding the very positive agreement contained in the
first article of this treaty, that the Emperor of Russia will
"restore Manchuria completely to China," the publication of
its terms excited new and greater distrust of the designs and
the action of the Muscovite Power. It was seen that Chinese
authority, for the time being, would be pushed out of
Manchuria so completely, and that of Russia would be
established so firmly, that any future restoration of the
former was improbable, to say the least. Moreover, the entire
exclusion of all people except Russians from any share in the
development of Manchurian resources was exceedingly offensive
to the money-making desires with which the whole western world
is looking toward the great decaying empire of the East. That
such an exclusion should extend beyond Manchuria, even to
Mongolia, Kashgar, Yarkand, Khotan and Turkestan, as set forth
in the above report of the pending treaty, was an idea at
which capitalistic circles in Europe and America stood aghast.
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Very soon there was denial that the exclusiveness asked for by
the modest Russian went farther than the bounds of Manchuria;
but, even as thus limited, it roused strenuous protest from
the Press of the western world, if not from the governments.
What diplomatic action was taken by the Powers in general is
not known at the time of this writing; but the United States
remonstrated to China (see CHINA: A. D. 1901, MARCH-APRIL,),
and, as stated by the British Foreign Minister, Lord
Lansdowne, in Parliament, on the 28th of March, the British
and German governments did the same. The Chinese government
was nerved accordingly to resist the Russian demands, though
Li Hung-chang appears to have urged submission to them. The
contemplated treaty was not signed.
Before and after this determination the Russian government
maintained that it had no ulterior designs in the arrangement
it sought with China. Lord Lansdowne, in the speech to
Parliament referred to above, spoke as follows of the
assurances he had received from Count Lamsdorff, the Russian
Foreign Minister: "He told us that it was the object of the
Russian Government 'to arrange with the local civil
authorities the terms of a "modus vivendi" between them for
the duration of the simultaneous presence of Russian and
Chinese authorities in Southern Manchuria, the object being to
prevent the recurrence of disturbances in the vicinity of the
Russian frontier and to protect the railway from the Russian
frontier to Port Arthur.' And he told us that his government
had 'no intention of seeking this guarantee in any acquisition
of territory or of an actual or virtual protectorate over
Manchuria.'"
Similar assurances are reported to have been given to the
American government, on the 4th of April; and, for the time
being at least, the Manchurian question has ceased to be
disturbing to the "Concert of the Powers."
MANCHURIA AND MONGOLIA.
The following information concerning Manchuria and Mongolia is
taken from notes made in 1897 by Colonel Browne, Military
Attache to the British Legation at Peking: "The area of
Manchuria is computed to contain no less than 362,310 square
miles, or just three times as large as that of Great Britain
and Ireland. It is divided into three provinces, of which the
most southerly, Feng-tien or Shên-king, with its capital at
Mukden, has for several hundred years formed an integral part
of the Chinese Empire, and is consequently more opened up and
more densely inhabited than the two northern provinces, which
were regarded until the beginning of this century as waste
lands, outside the pale of civilization, fit only for the
transportation of criminals. Though the old palisades have
long disappeared, their trace still marks the boundary between
Manchuria and Mongolia, and the gateways on the main roads are
still used as posts for the collection of transit dues. These
places may be recognized by the termination 'mên' (a gate),
such as Fa-k'u-mên, Fa-ta-ha-mên. The province of Kirin and
its capital bear the same name, while the huge northern
province of Hei-lung-chiang has its seat of government at
Tsi-tsi-har. It is generally said that the Governor of
Fêng-tien (Mukden) occupies somewhat the position, as regards
the two northern provinces, as a viceroy in China holds
towards the provinces comprised in his Viceroyalty, but this
does not appear to be so, except in his capacity as High
Commissioner for the defence of the three Manchurian
provinces. The Governors of the three provinces are styled in
the official Gazette by the same title of Military Governor of
the Provincial Capital and Tartar General of the Province, but
the Governor of Fêng-tien holds the more honourable post,
because Mukden is an Imperial city, within its walls is an
Imperial Palace, without its walls the tombs of the founders
of the Manchu dynasty. It has also, in miniature, Boards
similar to those at the capital for regulating ceremonies,
punishments, and civil appointments; in short, all the
theoretical paraphernalia to carry on the government of the
country, should the Emperor visit this quarter of his
dominions. … The great grain and bean producing area in the
three provinces is contained in a strip of country, extending
from the Treaty Port of Newchwang to 30 miles north of
Pei-tuan-lin-tzu. To the west of this belt of arable are the
Mongolian steppes, all in grass, but fading away into sand as
they merge in the great desert of Gobi; to the east is a hilly
or mountainous region, in which the only large cultivated area
is that watered by the River Hwei-fa, an affluent of the Upper
Sungari; elsewhere the cultivated areas are small, such as
those at Mergen, Tsi-tsi-har, the Valley of the Yen, and at
Sansing, Ninguta, Hun-chun, and Omoso. Exclusive of patches of
cultivation in remote districts and valleys, the great
cultivated area may be estimated to amount to 16,000 square
miles, or about one twenty-fourth of the total area of the
country. To what extent under improved communications,
drainage, and more favourable conditions generally, the
cultivated area is capable of expansion, it is difficult to
say. … The population of Manchuria has been variously
estimated from a few millions by the Chinese to as much as
25,000,000 by Europeans. A Russian engineer, who has travelled
all over the country, estimates it as between 10,000,000 and
15,000,000. … Before I received these figures I had arrived at
a somewhat similar result by taking the cultivated area at 700
per square mile which gives a population of 11,250,000, and
assuming 2,500,000 scattered throughout the more remote
districts, or a population in all of about 14,000,000. What
proportion of these are Manchus is also a vexed question to
which no definite answer can be given. Certainly the Manchus
are in the minority, for though there are several towns almost
wholly Chinese, I know of no town in which it is not
acknowledged that the Chinese form more than half the
population. The Manchus are nearly all concentrated in towns;
there are Manchu villages, but they are small, possibly their
numbers amount to between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000, or about 20
per cent. of the population. The chief appointments in
Manchuria are, without exception, held by Manchus, the
descendants of the conquerors of China. In four centuries of
ease and sloth they have lost the wild courage, the spirit of
adventure that inspired them to overrun China, and the
hardihood and skill at arms that brought success to their
venture. But if they have lost the warlike instincts of their
savage ancestors, they have retained all their pride, their
ignorance, their cruelty, and their superstition. All these
qualities a Manchu possesses far in excess of the liberal
share that nature has bestowed on the Chinese.
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It is true that skill at arms still nominally opens the door
to military preferment, but such arms and such skill! Shooting
arrows from a moderately strung bow when cantering on a pony
is a test which displays neither skill, strength, nor
endurance. Even according to Chinese ideas they are ignorant.
… As regards their privileges, the Manchus pay no land tax;
but in so far as I have been able to ascertain, the opinion
generally held, that they are all pensioned by Government, is
erroneous. … But though the mass of the Manchus receive no
pension, nearly all are in pay as hangers-on at Yamêns,
body-guard to officials, soldiers, care-takers at the Palace
or Imperial tombs, and similar posts. The emoluments are
small, just sufficient to enable the man to support his family
without working, or making his way in the world as an ordinary
Chinese must do. Formerly the Manchus did not intermarry with
Chinese women, but at the present time this custom is
frequently broken through, though of course no Chinese would
be permitted to marry a Manchu woman. The Manchus, especially
the dependents, hangers-on, and soldiers, are great opium
smokers, and a very worthless class; probably intermarriage
with the Chinese will prevent the extinction of the race,
which, were the present dynasty to fall, would be speedily
absorbed, for, without being propped up with State assistance,
it could not on its merits hold the position it does at
present. As regards the Chinese, few of the rich merchants
make Manchuria their home. They come to the country for a
definite number of years, and the same applies to their
agents, managers, and staff generally, who leave their
families in China. The settlers, on the contrary, have made
the country their home. They are a fine, healthy, and vigorous
race. Driven from China by poverty or famine, they regard
Manchuria as a land flowing with milk and honey. … Whether it
be the rigour of the climate which softens their manners, or
the absence of the Chinese Mandarin, or living under the sway
of an alien race which humbles their pride, or a combination
of all these elements, it is difficult to say, but the people
are far less hostile to the foreigner than those in China
proper. …
"Mongolia extends for 1,500 miles along the northern frontier
of China, and as its eastern border is coterminous with
Manchuria, a few words regarding the Mongols may not be out of
place in these notes. The race is said to come with the Manchus
from a common Tartar stock, but, except in colour and
features, there is little resemblance between the two races.
The Mongol is essentially a nomad, hating towns and houses. He
prefers to wander about the steppes, pitching his 'yourt,' or
felt tent, wherever water and pasture are for the time most
plentiful. As the nature of the country they inhabit prohibits
agriculture, the art is unknown among his people, who are
entirely engaged in tending their flocks and herds, ponies,
and camels. They are mere children in the hands of the
Chinese, who can outwit them as easily as a member of the
'confidence trick' fraternity outwits a rustic from the
shires. … A small portion of their territory is rented by the
Chinese on the west of the Provinces of Kirin and Fêng-tien,
of which it has now become an integral part. Kuan-cheng-tzu
was originally in Mongolia, and so are all the towns and
villages to the west of the palisade, of which the principal
are Mai-mai-kai (Fenghua), Ch'ang-tu, and Cheng-chia-tun.
Mongolia is the great breeding land for horses and cattle. At
first sight when travelling through the country one is
astonished at the enormous size of the troops of ponies; but
when one considers that this territory supplies Siberia,
China, and Manchuria with animals, it is easy to see that the
supply is not greater than the demand. … The Mongols are
governed by their hereditary Princes, Chinese authority being
maintained by Imperial Residents at Ching-hai, in Western
Mongolia (Ko-ko-nor), and at Urga, in the north."
_Great Britain,
Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command, China,
Number 1, 1899, pages 34-37)._
MANCHUS:
Increasing ascendancy in Chinese Government.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1899 (APRIL).
MANETHO, Vindication of the list of.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH; EGYPT: RESULTS.
MANHATTAN BOROUGH.
See (in this volume)
NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1896-1897.
MANILA:
The capital city of the Philippine Islands.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.
MANILA: A. D. 1898 (April-July).
Destruction of the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay.
Blockade and siege.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (APRIL-JULY).
MANILA: A. D. 1898 (July-September).
Capture by the Americans.
Relations of Americans with Filipino insurgents.
General Merritt's report.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-SEPTEMBER).
MANILA: A. D. 1900.
Regulation of the sale of liquors.
See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER).
MANITOBA SCHOOL QUESTION.
See (in this volume)
CANADA; A. D. 1890-1896; and 1898 (JANUARY).
MARCHAND'S EXPEDITION.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1898 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER).
MARCONI, Guglielmo:
Development of wireless telegraphy.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: ELECTRICAL.
MARIANNE ISLANDS:
Sale by Spain to Germany.
See (in this volume)
CAROLINE AND MARIANNE ISLANDS.
MARITIME CANAL COMPANY.
See (in this volume)
CANAL, INTEROCEANIC.
MARITIME POWERS.
See (in this volume)
NAVIES; and WAR BUDGETS.
MARITIME WARFARE, Convention relative to.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
MARRIAGE LAWS, Hungarian.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1894-1895.
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MARYLAND:
New election law, establishing a qualification of the suffrage.