than 800,000 stations connected with the exchanges of our
licensee companies, which exceeds the aggregate number of
subscribers in all the countries of Continental Europe. In
addition to this, there were over 40,000 private line stations
equipped with our telephones. The number of exchange and toll
line connections in the United States now reaches almost two
thousand millions yearly."
More detailed and precise statistics of the telephone service
in the United States are given in the report as follows:
January 1, January 1,
1892. 1901.
Exchanges. 788 1,348
Branch offices. 509 1,427
Miles of wire on poles. 180,139 627,897
Miles of wire on buildings. 14,954 16,833
Miles of wire underground. 70,334 705,269
Miles of wire submarine. 1,029 4,203
Total miles of wire. 266,456 1,354,202
Total circuits. 186,462 508,262
Total employees. 8,376 32,837
Total stations. 216,017 800,880
The estimated number of exchange connections daily in the
United States, made up from actual count in most of the
exchanges, is 5,668,986. Or a total per year of about
1,825,000,000. The number of daily calls per station varies in
different exchanges from 1 to 15.9, the average throughout the
United States being 7.1. The average cost to the subscriber
varies according to the size of the exchange and character of
the service, from less than 1 to 9 cents per connection.
ELECTRICAL SCIENCE:
Dr. Pupin's revolutionary improvement
in long-distance Telephony.
The most important advance in telephonic science that has been
made since the invention of the Bell instrument was announced
at about the beginning of the new century, as the result of
studies pursued by Dr. Michael I. Pupin, of Columbia
University, New York. Mathematical and experimental
investigations which Dr. Pupin had been carrying on, for
several years, led him to a determination of the precise
intervals at which, if inductance coils are inserted in a long
conductor, an electric current in traversing it may be made to
travel far without much loss of force. He is said to have
taken a hint from seeing how waves of vibration in a cord are
strengthened by lightly "loading" it at certain exact points,
determined by the wave lengths. It is probably correct to
describe his invention as being a scientific ascertainment of
the points in a long telephonic circuit at which to load the
electric current in it, and the precise loading to be applied.
In a paper published in the "Western Electrician," describing
his investigations mathematically, Dr. Pupin wrote: "If an
increase in efficiency of wave transmission over a cord thus
loaded is to be obtained, it is evident that the load must be
properly subdivided and the fractional parts of the total load
must be placed at proper distances apart along the cord,
otherwise the detrimental effects due to reflections resulting
from the discontinuities thus introduced will more than
neutralize the beneficial effects derived from the increased
mass. … The insertion of inductance coils at periodically
recurring points along the wave conductor produces the same
effect upon electrical wave transmission as the distribution
of the small loads along the stretched cord … produces upon
mechanical wave transmission along the cord."
The result is said to be that conversation by telephone over a
distance of 3,000 miles is made not only practicable but easy,
and that it is believed to be as practicable through submarine
cables as through overland wires. If it does not make the
telephone a common instrument of communication from continent
to continent, it will, at least, improve oceanic telegraphy
beyond measure. According to newspaper report, Dr. Pupin's
invention has been sold to the Bell Telephone Company for a
very large sum.
ELECTRICAL SCIENCE:
Wireless Telegraphy.
"In 1864 Maxwell observed that electricity and light have the
same velocity, 186,400 miles a second, and he formulated the
theory that electricity propagates itself in waves which
differ from those of light only in being longer. This was
proved to be true by Hertz, in 1888, who showed that where
alternating currents of very high frequency were set up in an
open circuit, the energy might be conveyed entirely away from
the circuit into the surrounding space as electric waves. … He
demonstrated that electric waves move with the speed of light,
and that they can be reflected and refracted precisely as if
they formed a visible beam. At a certain intensity of strain
the air insulation broke down, and the air became a conductor.
This phenomenon of passing quite suddenly from a
non-conductive to a conductive state is … also to be noted
when air or other gases are exposed to the X ray.
{442}
"Now for the effect of electric waves such as Hertz produced,
when they impinge upon substances reduced to powder or
filings. Conductors, such as the metals, are of inestimable
service to the electrician; of equal value are non-conductors,
such as glass and gutta-percha, as they strictly
fence in an electric stream. A third and remarkable vista
opens to experiment when it deals with substances which, in
their normal state, are non-conductive, but which, agitated by
an electric wave, instantly become conductive in a high
degree. As long ago as 1866 Mr. S. A. Varley noticed that
black lead, reduced to a loose dust, effectually intercepted a
current from fifty Daniell cells, although the battery poles
were very near each other. When he increased the electric
tension fourfold to sixfold, the black-lead particles at once
compacted themselves so as to form a bridge of excellent
conductivity. On this principle he invented a
lightning-protector for electrical instruments, the incoming
flash causing a tiny heap of carbon dust to provide it with a
path through which it could safely pass to the earth.
Professor Temistocle Calzecchi Onesti of Fermo, in 1885, in an
independent series of researches, discovered that a mass of
powdered copper is a non-conductor until an electric wave
beats upon it; then, in an instant, the mass resolves itself
into a conductor almost as efficient as if it were a stout,
unbroken wire. Professor Edouard Branly of Paris, in 1891, on
this principle devised a coherer, which passed from resistance
to invitation when subjected to an electric impulse from afar.
He enhanced the value of his device by the vital discovery
that the conductivity bestowed upon filings by electric
discharges could be destroyed by simply shaking or tapping
them apart. …
"The coherer, as improved by Marconi, is a glass tube about 1½
inches long and about 1/12 of an inch in internal diameter.
The electrodes are inserted in this tube so as almost to
touch; between them is about 1/30 of an inch filled with a
pinch of the responsive mixture which forms the pivot of the
whole contrivance. This mixture is 90 per cent. nickel
filings, 10 per cent. hard silver filings, and a mere trace of
mercury; the tube is exhausted of air to within 1/10000 part.
… The coherer, when unexcited, forms a link which obstructs
the flow of a current eager to leap across. The instant that
an electric wave from the sending-station impinges upon the
coherer it becomes conductive; the current instantly glides
through it, and at the same time a current, by means of a
relay, is sent through [a] powerful voltaic battery, so as to
announce the signal through an ordinary telegraphic receiver.
"An electric impulse, almost too attenuated for computation,
is here able to effect such a change in a pinch of dust that
it becomes a free avenue instead of a barricade. Through that
avenue a powerful blow from a local store of energy makes
itself heard and felt. No device of the trigger class is
comparable with this in delicacy. An instant after a signal
has taken its way through the coherer a small hammer strikes
the tiny tube, jarring Hs particles asunder, so that they
resume their normal state of high resistance. We may well be
astonished at the sensitiveness of the metallic filings to an
electric wave originating many miles away, but let us remember
how clearly the eye can see a bright lamp at the same distance
as it sheds a sister beam. Thus far no substance has been
discovered with a mechanical responsiveness to so feeble a ray
of light; in the world of nature and art the coherer stands
alone. …
"An essential feature of this method of etheric telegraphy,
due to Marconi himself, is the suspension of a perpendicular
wire at each terminus, its length twenty feet for stations a
mile apart, forty feet for four miles, and so on, the
telegraphic distance increasing as the square of the length of
suspended wire. In the Kingstown regatta, July, 1898, Marconi
sent from a yacht under full steam a report to the shore
without the loss of a moment from start to finish. This feat
was repeated during the protracted contest between the
'Columbia' and the 'Shamrock' yachts in New York Bay, October,
1899. On March 28, 1899, Marconi signals put Wimereux, two
miles north of Boulogne, in communication with the South
Foreland Lighthouse, thirty-two miles off. In August, 1899,
during the manœuvres of the British navy, similar messages
were sent as far as eighty miles. …
"A weak point in the first Marconi apparatus was that anybody
within the working radius of the sending instrument could read
its message. To modify this objection secret codes were at
times employed, as in commerce and diplomacy. A complete
deliverance from this difficulty is promised in attuning a
transmitter and a receiver to the same note, so that one
receiver, and no other, shall respond to a particular
frequency of impulses. The experiments which indicate success
in this vital particular have been conducted by Professor
Lodge."
_G. Iles,
Flame, Electricity and the Camera,
chapter 16 (New York: Doubleday, Page & Co.)._
"Shall we not," said Professor John Trowbridge, in an article
published in the "New York Tribune," January 6, 1901, "in the
next hundred years dispense with the limitations of wires and
speak boldly through space, reaching some expectant human ear
hundreds of miles away with the same ease that we now converse
in a room? It is already possible to send messages by dots and
dashes sixty to seventy miles without the use of wires. In the
early days of the telephone this was the practical limit of
that instrument, and we are all familiar with the immense
extension which has taken place. Shall we not see a similar
extension in the field of wireless telegraphy? Some late
experiments which I have made lead me to be optimistic in
regard to a possible great extension of the methods of
wireless telegraphy.
"In the first place, I believe that these experiments prove
that wireless telegraphy is not necessarily or merely
accomplished through the air, but, on the contrary, that the
earth plays the controlling part, and that the message flows,
so to speak, through the earth or over its surface rather than
through the air. The most striking experiment was as follows:
The poles of a storage battery of twenty thousand cells were
connected with the ground at the Jefferson Laboratory, and I
was enabled to receive the message in a room three quarters of
a mile from the laboratory without the use of masts or wires
of any sort. The earth was the medium of communication, and it
seems possible, by arranging the sending and receiving apparatus
suitably in connection with the electrical capacity of the
earth, that we may dispense with lofty masts and overcome in
this way the curvature of the earth."
{443}
Extensive experiments in wireless telegraphy are being
conducted by the United States Weather Bureau, of which the
following is a recent report: "Recognizing the advantage that
would result to commerce and navigation by the establishment
of wireless electrical communication between vessels at sea
and exposed points on our lake and sea coasts, and also
between islands along said coasts and the mainland, the
Weather Bureau was directed to systematically investigate the
various methods of electrical communication without wires. The
progress made is eminently satisfactory. New appliances have
been devised for the transmission of signals, and receivers
have been constructed that probably are more delicate than any
heretofore made. Messages already have been successfully
transmitted and received over 50 miles of land, which
presented a rough and irregular surface, conditions most
unfavorable for the transmission of electro-magnetic waves. It
is believed that the efficiency indicated by such transmission
overland is sufficient to operate successfully over several
hundred miles of water. The apparatus used is capable of
further improvement. I hope the time is near at hand when the
great number of craft employed in the coastwise commerce of
the United States and over its great inland seas will be
placed in instantaneous communication with the numerous
stations of our Weather Bureau, which are located at all
important ports. The matter is one of such great importance to
our commerce that I have authorized extensive experimentation,
which, from the success so far attending our efforts, will be
vigorously prosecuted."
_United States, Annual Report of the
Secretary of Agriculture,
November 24, 1900, page 12._
On the 12th of March, 1901, the chief of the Weather Bureau,
Professor Moore, gave to the Press the following statement as
to experiments in progress along the Virginia and North
Carolina coast: "The most efficient method of long distance
transmission has been found to be from wire cylinders. The new
coast stations are being equipped with cylinders of sixteen
wires each and 140 feet in length. From these cylinders it is
expected to cover a magnetic field of not less than five
hundred miles. The stations now in operation are at Hatteras
and at Roanoke Island, in Pamlico Sound, North Carolina.
Workmen are beginning the construction of a station at Cape
Henry, which will be the third station. When this is finished
the two remote stations will be 127 miles apart."
MECHANICS:
Steam turbines.
"The latest form of steam-engine recalls the first. The
steam-turbines of De Laval and of Parsons turn on the same
principle as the æolipile of Hero. That simple contrivance was
a metallic globe mounted on axes, and furnished through one of
its trunnions with steam from a boiler near by. As steam rushed
out from two nozzles diametrically opposite to each other, and
at tangents to the globe, there resulted from the relieved
pressure a swift rotation which might have done useful work. …
Before the steam-turbine could be invented, metallurgists and
mechanics had to become skilful enough to provide machinery
which may with safety rotate 10,000 times in a minute; Watt
had to invent the separate condenser; means had to be devised
for the thorough expansion of high-pressure steam; and the
crude device of Hero had to be supplanted by wheels suggested
by the water-turbine.
"The feature which gives the Parsons steam-turbine its
distinction is the ingenious method by which its steam is used
expansively. In a piston-engine the cylinder is filled to
one-twelfth or one-fifteenth of its capacity with
high-pressure steam, when communication with the boiler is cut
off; during the remainder of its stroke the piston is urged
solely by the steam's elasticity. In the Parsons turbine, by
arranging what is practically a series of wheels on the same
shaft, the steam passes from one wheel to the next, and at
each wheel parts with only a fraction of its pressure and
velocity. …
"The 'Turbinia,' a torpedo-boat of 44½ tons displacement, 100
feet in length, and 9 feet in beam, driven by this turbine,
has consumed but 14½ pounds of steam an hour per indicated
horse-power. The 'Viper,' a torpedo-boat destroyer of 325
tons, and provided with a turbine capable of developing as
much as 12,000 horse-power, ran at the rate of 37 knots in a
rough sea during her trial trip in November, 1899."
_G. Iles,
Flame, Electricity and the Camera,
chapter 5
(New York: Doubleday, Page & Co.)._
MEDICAL AND SURGICAL:
The determination of germ diseases.
"Since 1880 it has been proved that anthrax, Asiatic cholera,
cerebro-spinal meningitis, diphtheria, one form of dysentery,
erysipelas, glanders, gonorrhœa, influenza, certain epidemics
of meat poisoning, pyæmia and suppuration in general,
pneumonia, tetanus, relapsing fever, tuberculosis, bubonic
plague, and typhoid fever are due to minute vegetable
organisms known as bacteria; that malarial fevers, Texas
cattle fever, and certain forms of dysentery are due to forms
of microscopic animal organisms known as microzoa; and for
most of these diseases the mode of development and means of
introduction of the micro-organism into the body are fairly
well understood. To the information thus obtained we owe the
triumphs of antiseptic and aseptic surgery, a great increase
of precision in diagnosis, the use of specific anti-toxins as
remedies and as preventives, and some of the best practical
work in public hygiene."
_Dr. John S. Billings,
Progress of Medicine in the Nineteenth Century
(New York Evening Post, January 12, 1901)._
MEDICAL AND SURGICAL:
Antitoxine.
Treatment of diphtheria.
"In the early study of germs and their relation to disease it
was supposed that the symptoms of the disease depended
directly upon the germs themselves. This, however, has been
proven to be false with reference to most of the infectious
diseases studied. Thus, in diphtheria, the bacilli were found,
as a rule, only in the throat or upper air passages, while the
effects of the disease were far-reaching, involving the heart,
the nerves, and other distant parts of the body. This, and
other like observations, led to the careful study of the
products produced by the growth of bacteria. As the result of
the work of Roux in Paris, and Brieger in Berlin, the exact
nature of the toxic products of the diphtheria bacillus was
discovered. It was found that this bacillus produces in its
growth a poison which is known as the diphtheria 'toxine.'
This was isolated and injected into animals with the
reproduction of all the symptoms of diphtheria excepting the
membrane in the throat. …
{444}
"In his early work upon splenic fever and chicken-cholera
Pasteur, having established the causes of these diseases, set
himself the task of discovering means of preventing them.
After very many experiments he found that animals inoculated
with the germs of splenic fever, when these germs had been
cultivated at a relatively high temperature, were protected
against the disease itself, while these inoculations
themselves were harmless. … These methods of producing
immunity have been extensively used in Europe for the past
twenty years and have been of immense practical value.
"With the discovery that it was not the bacteria themselves
which produced most of the symptoms, but their poisonous
products or toxines, new experiments in immunity were made by
injecting these toxines into animals. It was found that if the
quantity of the diphtheria toxine introduced was at first so
small as not to kill the animal, the dose could gradually be
increased until finally such a tolerance was established that
the animal could resist enormous doses of it. Many theories
were advanced as to the manner in which this tolerance was
established. The conclusion was finally reached that it was
due to the gradual production in the blood of larger and
larger quantities of some substance which neutralized the
toxine, i. e., an 'antitoxine.' … Later experiments showed
that if some of the blood of an animal, which in this way had
been made insusceptible to diphtheria, was injected into
another animal, the latter likewise became to a certain degree
and for a certain time insusceptible; that is to say, became
'immunized. …
"The present plan of producing antitoxine is somewhat as
follows. Large animals, such as the horse or cow, are usually
employed for purposes of injection. In the beginning as large
a quantity of the toxine of diphtheria is injected as the
animal will bear without danger to life. … It is found that
the dose of the toxine can gradually be increased with each
injection until enormous quantities can be tolerated. When
this point is reached at which the injection of large amounts
of the toxine produces no reaction, the animal is said to
possess a high degree of immunity. At this time the
blood-serum contains a very large amount of the antitoxine. A
long time is required for the production of this condition,
the period being from three to twelve months, according to the
size of the animal, its susceptibility, and many other
conditions. … The antitoxine is obtained from the blood of the
animal, generally by bleeding from the jugular vein. … After
standing for a few hours this blood separates into a clot and
a clear portion above which is known as the serum. The
anti-toxine is contained in the blood-serum."
_L. E. Holt,
The Antitoxine Treatment of Diphtheria
(Forum, March, 1895)._
See, also (in this volume),
PLAGUE.
MEDICAL AND SURGICAL:
Discovery of the secret of malaria.
Detection of the mosquito as a carrier of disease.
"Twenty-five years ago the best-informed physicians
entertained erroneous ideas with reference to the nature of
malaria and the etiology of the malarial fevers. Observation
had taught them that there was something in the air in the
vicinity of marshes in tropical regions, and during the summer
and autumn in semi-tropical and temperate regions, which gave
rise to periodic fevers in those exposed in such localities,
and the usual inference was that this something was of gaseous
form—that it was a special kind of bad air generated in
swampy localities under favorable meteorological conditions.
It was recognized at the same time that there are other kinds
of bad air, such as the offensive emanations from sewers and
the products of respiration of man and animals, but the term
malaria was reserved especially for the kind of bad air which
was supposed to give rise to the so-called malarial fevers. In
the light of our present knowledge it is evident that this
term is a misnomer. There is no good reason for believing that
the air of swamps is any more deleterious to those who breathe
it than the air of the sea coast or that in the vicinity of
inland lakes and ponds. Moreover, the stagnant pools, which
are covered with a 'green scum' and from which bubbles of gas
are given off, have lost all terrors for the well-informed
man, except in so far as they serve as breeding places for
mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles. The green scum is made up
of harmless algæ such as Spirogyra, Zygnema Protococcus,
Euglena, etc.; and the gas which is given off from the mud at
the bottom of such stagnant pools is for the most part a
well-known and comparatively harmless compound of hydrogen and
carbon-methane or 'marsh-gas.'
"In short, we now know that the air in the vicinity of marshes
is not deleterious because of any special kind of bad air
present in such localities, but because it contains mosquitoes
infected with a parasite known to be the specific cause of the
so-called malarial fevers. This parasite was discovered in the
blood of patients suffering from intermittent fevers by
Laveran, a surgeon in the French army, whose investigations
were conducted in Algiers. This famous discovery was made
toward the end of the year 1880; but it was several years
later before the profession generally began to attach much
importance to the alleged discovery."
_G. M. Sternberg,
Malaria
(Popular Science Monthly, February, 1901)._
"It was the French doctor Laveran who, after a stay in a
deadly malarial region of Algeria, discovered the malaria
parasite in 1880. True, that pigment-cells, which we should
now describe as malaria-parasites, were observed in human
blood as early as 1835, among others by Virchow; but their
relation to the disease was not known. In 1881, Laveran
embodied his researches in a book, but its importance was
overlooked. Bacteria attracted then general attention, and
Laveran's parasite, not being a bacterium, was little thought
of. He stuck, nevertheless, to his discovery, and was soon
joined in his researches by Golgi (the Italian professor to
whom we owe the method that led to the discovery of the
neurons), as also by Marchiafava, Celli, Councilman,
Sternberg, and the Viennese doctor Mannaberg who published in
1893 a full compendium of these researches. Dr. Mannaberg
proved in this book that the real cause of malaria is
Laveran's parasite, and he told its most interesting
life-history so far as it was then known.
"The parasite of malaria is not a bacterium. It is one of the
protozoa—namely, as it appeared later on, a coccidium, which,
like all other members of that family, undergoes in its
development a series of transformations. … Laveran saw that
some parasites ('corps à flagelles') would send out thin and
long flagella which soon parted company with the mother body,
and, owing to a proper helicoidal movement, disappeared in the
plasm of the blood. This never happened, however, in the body of
man, but only when a drop of his infected blood was drawn and
placed on the glass plate under the microscope.
{445}
Laveran noticed, moreover, minute 'crescent-shaped bodies'
which adhered to the red corpuscles and looked very much like
cysts, protected by a harder envelope. From fifteen to twenty
minutes after these bodies had been placed under the
microscope, they also gave origin to a great number of
'flagella'; and this evolution, too, he remarked, seemed to be
accomplished only when the cysts were taken out of the human
body.
"It was only natural to conclude from these observations that
the further development of the flagella may take place in the
body of some other animal than man, and this consideration
brought Laveran, in a book which he published in 1884, to the
idea that, taking into consideration the quantities of
mosquitoes in malarial countries, they may be the agents of
transition of malaria. This remark passed, however,
unperceived. Many had the suspicion that gnats may play some
part in the inoculation of malaria: the Italian peasants
always thought so, and in the medical literature an American
doctor, Mr. King, had advocated the same idea. But the
complete life-history of the malaria parasite being not yet
known fifteen years ago, the necessity of the mosquito or of
some other living being serving as a host for the completion
of the reproduction-cycle was not understood."
_P. Kropotkin,
Recent Science
(Nineteenth Century Review, December, 1900)._
Dr. Patrick Manson, of London, is credited with the final
formulation of the mosquito-malarial theory; but the proofs by
which it has been established have come from a number of
investigators, who have patiently traced the singular
life-history of the parasite, throughout its passage from man
to the mosquito and from the mosquito back to man, as a
vehicle of disease. Among the latter, prominence is given to
Major Ronald Ross, who lectured on the subject in London in
September, 1900, and was reported in "The Times" as follows:
"They first carried on their life in man—the intermediary
host—and later in the mosquito, the definitive host. These
Hæmamœbidæ began as spores which entered a blood corpuscle,
grew and became amœbæ. The nuclear matter divided, the
corpuscle containing it burst, the spores scattered, and each
spore then attached itself to a fresh corpuscle. The access of
the typical fever began with this scattering of the spores,
and thus the periodicity of the fever was accounted for.
Besides this neutral proliferation there was proliferation by
gametes. The blood of a fever patient exhibited the first
forms of the gametocytes. The spore grew inside the blood
corpuscle, and in that species which caused malignant fever it
grew until it had almost eaten the whole of the host. It was
then technically called a crescent. If this crescent were
examined under the microscope a wonderful development might be
observed to take place in a few moments. The crescent swelled
and became first oval, then spherical, and in about 15 minutes
after the drawing of the blood the microgametes made their escape
and were to be seen wriggling about in the 'liquor sanguinis.'
Ultimately they entered the macrogametocytes and produced
zygotes, which was nothing but a perfect example of the sperm
and the ovum process. "The whole process could be watched
under the microscope. The mosquito, having bitten a person in
whose blood these gametocytes were present, would take perhaps
100 of them into its own system, where the zygotes acquired a
power of movement, edging towards the wall of the mosquito's
stomach. About 12 hours afterwards they would be found
adhering to the walls of the stomach, through which they
passed and to which they finally attached themselves on the
outside. This process was accomplished in about 36 hours. The
zygotes then grew until they had increased to about eight
times their original diameter and were almost visible to the
naked eye. As the zygote increased it divided into meres
containing nuclear matter, which went to the surface. The
process here seemed to be closely similar to spermato-genesis,
and Professor Ray Lankester declared that the process was the
first known example of audrocratic parthenogenesis. When the
final development was reached the cells burst and the blasts
escaped and were immediately carried into all parts of the
insect. They made their way to the salivary gland, with the
evident purpose of seeking the blood of a fresh human host;
and the injection of the secretion of the mosquito's salivary
gland caused the bump which marked the mosquito's bite. A very
large series of experiments had shown conclusively that
malarial infection was caused by the bite of the mosquito.
"The parasites which infested human blood were carried only by
one genus of mosquito—'Anopheles'; the genus 'Culex' was
harmless. The two genera could be readily distinguished. For
example, 'Anopheles' rested on walls with their tails stuck
out perpendicular to the wall; 'Culex' attached themselves
with tails hanging downwards. 'Culex' bred in the water in
pots and tubs; 'Anopheles' in pools. The larvæ of 'Culex,' if
disturbed, sank to the bottom; the larvæ of 'Anopheles'
skimmed along the surface. It was doubtful whether the eggs of
'Anopheles' would live for more than a few days after
desiccation. The eggs were laid in an equilateral triangular
pattern; they were soon hatched, and the larvæ then began to
feed on the green scum in the water. A still evening, just
before or after rain, was the time most favourable for the
hatching out from the pupæ. As to the adults, he believed that
they could live for a year; at any rate, they had been kept
alive in tubes for more than a month; and it was certain that
in England and Italy they hibernated. The female of
'Anopheles' alone was the biter, and though the favourite
feeding time was at night, in West Africa the insects had been
found to bite all day. While 'Culex' could be detected by its
humming, 'Anopheles' was silent, and it was possible to be
bitten without knowing of it at the moment. He had found that
a blood diet was always necessary to the maturing of the eggs.
He had kept many thousands of mosquitoes under observation and
had never known one to lay eggs except after a meal of blood.
Malarial infection was derived chiefly from the native
children, who swarmed everywhere, and whose blood was full of
the infecting parasites."
An expedition sent out to West Africa by the Liverpool School
of Tropical Medicine, to pursue investigations there, reported
in December, 1900, that its observations confirm the
conclusion "that the blood parasite which gives rise to
malarial fever in man is carried by the mosquito from the
native to the European—and more especially from the native
children.
{446}
The examination of the blood of hundreds of native children
revealed the interesting fact that between 50 and 80 per cent.
of those under five years, between 20 and 30 per cent. of ages
between five and ten years, and a small percentage over ten
years contained malarial parasites, often in very large
numbers. The breeding places of the 'Anopheles' were found to
be chiefly the dug-out native canoes in the regions of the
mangrove swamps, claypits and puddles in the forested
district, and at Lokoja puddles and ditches on and alongside
the roads and footpaths. It was particularly noticed
everywhere how carelessness in the construction of roads and
footpaths, and more especially in the laying out of the areas
surrounding the factories of the European traders, was
accountable for the production of a large number of breeding
places for mosquitoes, which could easily have been avoided.
In fact, it is certain that in West Africa such conditions are
far more dangerous and more common than the proximity of a
marsh or swamp, which is often noted as a cause of fever. …
The two methods upon which alone any reliance can be placed as
measures for prevention are—(l) segregation of Europeans from
natives of all sorts, at a distance of about half a mile; and
(2) complete and efficient surface drainage of the whole
district in the immediate neighbourhood of European quarters."
The detection of the mosquito as a carrier of one disease drew
suspicion on the pestilent insect of other kindred crimes, and
strong evidence of its agency in propagating yellow fever has
been gathered already. A board of medical officers, which went
from the United States to Cuba in the summer of 1900 to study
the matter, reported in October that their investigations
tended quite positively to that conclusion. The board was
composed of Dr. Walter Reed, surgeon, United States Army, and
Dr. James Carroll, Dr. A. Agramonte, and Dr. Jesse W. Lazear,
all acting assistant surgeons of the United States Army. Two
months later, so much confirmation had been obtained that
Major-General Wood, Military-Governor of Cuba (himself a
medical man) was reported, on the 29th of December, to have
issued a general order directed to his post commanders,
"reciting that the chief surgeon of the Department of Cuba has
reported that it is now well-established that malaria, yellow
fever and filarial infection are transmitted by the bites of
mosquitoes. Therefore the troops are enjoined to observe
carefully two precautions: First—they are to use mosquito bars
in all barracks, hospitals and field service whenever
practicable. Second—They are to destroy the 'wigglers,' or
young mosquitoes, by the use of petroleum on the water where
they breed. Permanent pools or puddles are to be filled up. To
the others is to be applied one ounce of kerosene to each
fifteen square feet of water twice a month, which will destroy
not only the young but the old mosquitoes. This does not
injure drinking water if drawn from below and not dipped out.
Protection is thus secured, according to the order, because
the mosquito does not fly far, but seeks shelter when the wind
blows, and thus each community breeds its own mosquitoes."
This was followed in April, 1901, by an order from the chief
surgeon at Havana, approved by Surgeon-General Sternberg, U.
S. A., which says: "The recent experiments made in Havana by
the Medical Department of the Army having proved that yellow
fever, like malarial fever, is conveyed chiefly, and probably
exclusively, by the bite of infected mosquitoes, important
changes in the measures used for the prevention and treatment
of this disease have become necessary. So far as yellow fever
is concerned, infection of a room or building simply means
that it contains infected mosquitoes, that is mosquitoes which
have fed on yellow fever patients. Disinfection, therefore,
means the employment of measures aimed at the destruction of
these mosquitoes. The most effective of these measures is
fumigation, either with sulphur, formaldehydes or insect
powder. The fumes of sulphur are the quickest and the most
effective insecticide, but are otherwise objectionable.
Formaldehyde gas is quite effective if the infected rooms are
kept closed and sealed for two or three hours. The smoke of
insect powder has also been proved useful; it readily
stupefies mosquitoes, which drop to the floor and can then be
easily destroyed. The washing of walls, floors, ceilings and
furniture with disinfectants is unnecessary."
MEDICAL AND SURGICAL:
Recent advances in surgery.
"In no department of surgery has greater progress been made
than in the treatment of diseases of the abdominal organs. …
At the present time no abdominal organ is sacred from the
surgeon's knife. Bowels riddled with bullet-holes are
stitched up successfully; large pieces of gangrenous or
cancerous intestine are cut out, the ends of the severed tube
being brought into continuity by means of ingenious
appliances; the stomach is opened for the removal of a foreign
body, for the excision of a cancer, or for the administration
of nourishment to a patient unable to swallow; stones are
extracted from the substance of the kidneys, and these organs
when hopelessly diseased are extirpated; the spleen, when
enlarged or otherwise diseased, is removed bodily; gall-stones
are cutout, and even tumours of the liver are excised. The
kidney, the spleen, and the liver, when they cause trouble by
unnatural mobility, are anchored by stitches to the abdominal
wall; and the stomach has been dealt with successfully in the
same way for the cure of indigestion. Besides all this, many
cases of obstruction of the bowels, which in days not very
long gone by would have been doomed to inevitable death, are
now cured by a touch of the surgeon's knife. The perforation
of the intestine, which is one of the most formidable
complications of typhoid fever, has in a few cases been
successfully closed by operation; and inflammation of the
peritoneum, caused by the growth of tuberculous masses upon
it, has been apparently cured by opening the abdominal cavity.
Among the most useful advances of this department of surgery
must be accounted the treatment of the condition known as
'appendicitis,' which has been to a large extent rescued from
the physician, with his policy of 'laissez faire,' and placed
under the more resolute and more efficient government of the
surgeon. A New York surgeon not long ago reported a series of
100 cases of operation for appendicitis, with only two deaths.
…
{447}
"That surgery could ever deal with the abdominal organs in the
manner just described would have seemed to our predecessors in
the earlier part of the Queen's reign the baseless fabric of a
vision. But the modern surgeon, clad in antisepsis, as the Lady
in 'Comus' was 'clothed round with chastity,' defies the
'rabble rout' of microbes and dares things which only a short
time ago were looked upon as beyond the wildest dreams of
scientific enthusiasm. It is scarcely twenty years since the
late Sir John Erichsen declared in a public address that
operative surgery had nearly reached its furthest possible
limits of development. He pointed out that there were certain
regions of the body into which the surgeon's knife could never
penetrate, naming the brain, the heart, and the lung as the
most obvious examples of such inviolable sanctuaries of life.
Within the last fifteen years the surgeon has brought each of
these organs, which constitute what Bichat called the 'tripod
of life,' within his sphere of conquest. … It must, however,
be admitted that the results of brain surgery, though
brilliant from the operative point of view, have so far been
somewhat disappointing as regards the ultimate cure of the
disease. In certain forms of epilepsy, in particular, which at
first seemed to be curable by removal of the 'cortical
discharging centre' in the brain which is the source of the
mischief, the tendency to fits has been found to return after
a time, and the last state of the patient has been worse than
the first. Still, the mere fact that the brain has been proved
to be capable of being dealt with surgically with perfect safety
is in itself a very distinct progress. …
"Other parts of the nervous system have been brought within
the range of surgical art. The vertebral column has been
successfully trephined, and fragments of bone pressing on the
cord have been taken away in cases of fractured spine; tumours
have also been removed from the spinal cord by Mr. Horsley and
others. There is a steadily increasing record of cures of
intractable neuralgia, especially of the face, by division or
removal of the affected nerve trunks. … The ends of cut nerves
have also been re-united, and solutions of their continuity
have been filled up with portions of nerve taken from animals.
… The heart naturally cannot be made so free with, even by the
most enterprising surgeon, as the brain or the lung. Yet
within the past twelve months a Norwegian practitioner has
reported a case which encourages a hope that even wounds of
the heart may not be beyond surgical treatment. … Tuberculous
and inflammatory diseases of bones and joints, formerly
intractable except by the 'ultima ratio' of the amputating
knife, are now cured without mutilation. Deformities are
corrected by division of tendons, the excision of portions of
bone, and the physiological exercise of muscles, without
complicated apparatus. The healing of large wounds is assisted
by the grafting of healthy skin on the raw surface; wide gaps in
bones and tendons are filled up with portions of similar
structures obtained from animals." …
_Malcolm Morris,
The Progress of Medicine during the Queen's Reign
(Nineteenth Century, May, 1897)._
See, also, X RAYS, below.
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE:
International cataloguing.
On the 22d of March, 1894, the Secretaries of the Royal
Society of London addressed the following communication to
various institutions and societies: "The Royal Society of
London, as you are probably aware, has published nine quarto
volumes of 'The catalogue of scientific papers,' the first
volume of the decade 1874-1883 having been issued last year.
This catalogue is limited to periodical scientific literature,
i. e., to papers published in the transactions, etc., of
societies, and in journals; it takes no account whatever of
monographs and independent books, however important. The
titles, moreover, are arranged solely according to authors'
names; and though the Society has long had under consideration
the preparation of, and it is hoped may eventually issue, as a
key to the volumes already published, a list in which the
titles are arranged according to subject-matter, the catalogue
is still being prepared according to authors' names. Further,
though the Society has endeavored to include the titles of all
the scientific papers published in periodicals of acknowledged
standing, the catalogue is, even as regards periodical
literature, confessedly incomplete, owing to the omission of
the titles of papers published in periodicals of little
importance, or not easy of access.
"Owing to the great development of scientific literature, the
task of the Society in continuing the catalogue, even in its
present form, is rapidly increasing in difficulty. At the same
time it is clear that the progress of science would be greatly
helped by, indeed, almost demands, the compilation of a
catalogue which should aim at completeness, and should contain
the titles of scientific publications, whether appearing in
periodicals or independently. In such a catalogue the titles
should be arranged not only according to authors' names, but
also according to subject-matter, the text of each paper and
not the title only being consulted for the latter purpose. And
the value of the catalogue would be greatly enhanced by a
rapid periodical issue, and by publication in such a form that
the portion which pertains to any particular branch of science
might be obtained separately. It is needless to say that the
preparation and publication of such a complete catalogue is
far beyond the power and means of any single society.
"Led by the above considerations, the president and council of
the Royal Society have appointed a committee to inquire into
and report upon the feasibility of such a catalogue being
compiled through international co-operation."
_Library Journal,
March, 1895._
The movement thus initiated received cordial support and led
to the convening of an International Conference in London, in
1896. The Conference was opened on Tuesday, July 14, at
Burlington House. "The 42 delegates, representing nearly all
the governments of civilized countries and most of the leading
scientific societies of the world, were welcomed by Sir John
Gorst, as provisional president. … It was decided that
English, German and French should be the official languages of
the conference. … The conference closed on Friday, July 17,
the need of an international catalogue having been fully
recognized, and a plan for its preparation mapped out. It was
decided 'That it is desirable to compile and publish by means
of some international organization a complete catalogue of
scientific literature, arranged according both to
subject-matter and to authors' names. That in preparing such a
catalogue regard shall, in the first instance, be had to the
requirements of scientific investigators, to the end that
these may, by means of the catalogue, find out most easily
what has been published concerning any particular subject of
inquiry.'
{448}
"The preparation of the catalogue is to be in charge of an
international council, to be appointed, and the final editing
and publication shall be conducted by a central international
bureau, under the direction of the international council. Any
country that is willing to do so shall be entrusted with the
task of collecting, provisionally classifying, and
transmitting to the central bureau, in accordance with rules
laid down by the international council, all the entries
belonging to the scientific literature of that country. 'In
indexing according to subject-matter regard shall be had, not
only to the title (of a paper or book), but also to the nature
of the contents.' The catalogue shall comprise all published
original contributions—periodical articles, pamphlets,
memoirs, etc.—to the mathematical, physical, or natural
sciences, … 'to the exclusion of what are sometimes called the
applied sciences—the limits of the several sciences to be
determined hereafter.' …
"The central bureau shall issue the catalogue in the form of
'slips' or 'cards,' the details of the cards to be hereafter
determined, and the issue to take place as promptly as
possible. … It was also decided that the central bureau shall
be located in London, and that the Royal Society appoint a
committee to study all undecided questions relating to the
catalogue and to report later. … No system of classification
was adopted and the subject was turned over for consideration
to the committee of organization, which should also suggest
'such details as will render the catalogue of the greatest
possible use to those unfamiliar with English.' January 1,
1900, is fixed as the date for the beginning of the
catalogue."
_Library Journal,
August, 1896._
A second international conference, to consider further the
plans previously outlined, was held October 11-13, 1898, at
Burlington House, London. "The attendance was a representative
one, including delegates from Austria, Belgium, France,
Germany, Hungary, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden,
Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States
(represented by Dr. Cyrus Adler), Cape Colony, India, Natal,
New Zealand, and Queensland. Russia, Spain and Italy were the
only large continental countries unrepresented. …
"Professor Forster having formally presented the report of the
Committee of the Royal Society, copies of which were forwarded
in April last to the several governments represented at the
conference, the discussion of the recommendations was opened,
and it was resolved: 'That the conference confirms the
principle that the catalog be published in the double form of
cards and books. That schedules of classification shall be
authorized for the several branches of science which it is
decided to include in the catalog. That geography be defined
as limited to mathematical and physical geography, and that
political and general geography be excluded. That anatomy be
entered on the list as a separate subject. That a separate
schedule be provided for each of the following branches of
science: Mathematics, Astronomy, Meteorology, Physics,
Crystallography, Chemistry, Mineralogy, Geology (including
Petrology), Geography, mathematical and physical,
Paleontology, Anatomy, Zoology, Botany, Physiology (including
Pharmacology and Experimental Pathology), Bacteriology,
Psychology, Anthropology. That each of the sciences for which
a separate schedule is provided shall be indicated by a
symbol.'" Resolutions were then adopted providing for the
regulations to be observed in the preparation of cards or
slips, and for the organization of the work through Regional
Bureaus.
"The following recommendations of the Royal Society providing
for international conventions in connection with the catalog
were adopted: 'Each region in which a Regional Bureau is
established, charged with the duty of preparing and
transmitting slips to the Central Bureau for the compilation
of the catalog, shall be called a constituent region. In 1905,
in 1910, and every tenth year afterwards, an international
convention shall be held in London (in July) to reconsider,
and, if necessary, revise the regulations for carrying out the
work of the catalog authorized by the international convention
of 1898. Such an international convention shall consist of
delegates appointed by the respective governments to represent
the constituent regions, but no region shall be represented by
more than three delegates. The rules of procedure of each
international convention shall be the same as those of the
international convention of 1898. The decisions of an
international convention shall remain in force until the next
convention meets.'
"The following recommendations of the Royal Society relating
to the constitution of an International Council, which shall
be the governing body of the catalog, were adopted: 'Each
Regional Bureau shall appoint one person to serve as a member
of a body to be called The International Council. The
International Council shall, within the regulations laid down
by the international convention, be the governing body of the
catalog. The International Council shall appoint its own
chairman and secretary. It shall meet in London once in three
years at least, and at such other times as the chairman, with
the concurrence of five other members, may specially appoint.
It shall, subject to the regulations laid down by the
convention, be the supreme authority for the consideration of
and decision concerning all matters belonging to the Central
Bureau. It shall make a report of its doings, and submit a
balance sheet, copies of which shall be distributed to the
several Regional Bureaus, and published in some recognized
periodical or periodicals in each of the constituent
regions.'"
_Library Journal,
December, 1898._
The third international conference on a catalog of scientific
literature was held in London, June 12, 1900, under the
auspices of the Royal Society. "Unfortunately the United
States finds no place in the list [of delegates]. This was
owing to the failure to secure from Congress the necessary
appropriation enabling the United States to join in the
enterprise; and as the call to the conference required that
delegates be charged with full powers, it was impossible for
any representative of the United States to be in attendance. …
"The general results of the conference are reviewed by
Professor Henry E. Armstrong, in 'Nature,' as follows: 'There
can be little doubt that the ultimate execution of this
important enterprise is now assured. … Everyone was of opinion
that if a fair beginning can once be made, the importance of the
work is so great; it will be of such use to scientific workers
at large; that it will rapidly grow in favor and soon secure
that wide support which is not yet given to it simply because
its character and value are but imperfectly understood.
Therefore, all were anxious that a beginning should be made.
{449}
"'It has been estimated that if 300 sets or the equivalent are
sold the expenses of publication will be fully met. As the
purchase of more than half this number was guaranteed by
France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Switzerland, and the United
Kingdom, the conference came to the conclusion that the number
likely to be taken by other countries would be such that the
subscriptions necessary to cover the cost of the catalog would
be obtained. The resolution arrived at after this opinion had
been formed, That the catalog include both an author's and a
subject index, according to the schemes of the Provisional
International Committee, must, in fact, be read as a
resolution to establish the catalog.
"'Of the countries represented at the various conferences,
excepting Belgium, not one has expressed any unwillingness
eventually to co-operate in the work. Unfortunately, neither
the United States nor Russia was officially represented on the
present occasion. The attempts that have been made to induce
the government in the United States to directly subsidise the
catalog have not been successful: but that the United States
will contribute its fair share, both of material and pecuniary
support, cannot be doubted. There as here private or corporate
enterprise must undertake much that is done under government
auspices in Europe. As to Russia, the organization of
scientific workers there has been so little developed that it
is very difficult to secure their attention, and probably our
Russian colleagues are as yet but very imperfectly aware of
what is proposed. … A Provisional International Committee has
been appointed, which will take the steps now necessary to
secure the adhesion and co-operation of countries not yet
pledged to support the scheme.
"'Originally it was proposed to issue a card as well as a book
catalog, but on account of the great additional expense this
would involve, and as the Americans in particular have not
expressed themselves in favor of a card issue, it is resolved
to publish the catalog, for the present, only in the form of
annual volumes.
"'From the outset great stress has been laid on the
preparation of subject indexes which go behind the titles of
papers and give fairly full information as to the nature of
their contents. Both at the first and the second International
Conference this view met with the fullest approval. Meanwhile,
the action of the German government has made it necessary to
somewhat modify the original plan. In Germany, a regional
bureau will be established, supported by a government
subvention, and it is intended that the whole German
scientific literature shall be cataloged in this office; no
assistance will be asked from authors or editors or corporate
bodies. In such an office it will for the present be
impossible to go behind titles; consequently, only the titles
of German papers will be quoted in the catalog. In the first
instance, some other countries may prefer to adopt this course
on the ground of economy. But in this country, at least, the
attempt will be made to deal fully with the literature, and
the co-operation of authors and editors will be specially
invited. …
"'The catalog is to be published annually in seventeen
distinct volumes. The collection of material is to commence
from January 1, 1901. As it will be impossible to print and
issue so many volumes at once, it is proposed to publish them
in sets of four or five at quarterly intervals.'"
_Library Journal,
September, 1900._
The fourth Conference was held at London, December 12-13,
1900, when "all arrangements were completed for the definitive
commencement of the work on January 1. … The responsibility
for publication and for the initial expenditure is undertaken
by the Royal Society. … A comprehensive and elaborate system
of classification has been devised with the assent of all the
countries interested. This uniformity in a region where
diversity of a perplexing kind has hitherto ruled is in itself
a great boon to scientific workers everywhere. It may be
anticipated that the scheme will by degrees be adopted in all
collections of scientific works. As to the nothing aspects of
this important undertaking, larger more need be said at
present than that the scientific cataloguing of all scientific
work most appropriately celebrates the opening of the
twentieth century."
[Transcriber's note: In the previous sentence the words
"nothing" and "larger" appear interchanged.]
_London Times,
December 14, 1900._
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE:
In the Nineteenth Century.
See (in this volume)
NINETEENTH CENTURY: DOMINANT LINES.
----------Scientific Literature: End--------
----------SCOTLAND: Start--------
SCOTLAND: A. D. 1900.
Union of the Free and United Presbyterian Churches.
"In the ecclesiastical world only one event of the first
importance has happened [in Scotland, in 1900], the
consummation of the union between the Free and United
Presbyterian Churches, which has been the subject of
negotiation for six years past. The May meetings of the
leading representative courts of the two denominations were
occupied almost exclusively with the final arrangements for
the formal act of union, which was fixed to take place on
October 31. An attempt by a number of lay office-bearers of
the Free Church to postpone the final step, on the ground that
the congregations had not been directly and fairly consulted,
failed of its object. On October 30 the General Assembly of
the Free Church and the Synod of the United Presbyterian
Church held their last meetings in Edinburgh as independent
bodies. On the following day they formally constituted
themselves the United Free Church of Scotland in the Waverley
Market, the largest public hall in Scotland, in presence of an
audience computed to number 6,000 persons. The union has, as
is the rule in Scotland, been accompanied by a 'disruption.'
The minority of the Free Church, which on October 30 resolved
to remain outside the United Free Church, is very small in
number and is financially weak, but it claims to be the true
Free Church of Scotland, it is asserting itself vigorously in
the Highlands and islands, where Free Church
'constitutionalism' has always been strongest, and it has
taken the first step in a process of litigation for the
purpose of discovering whether it or the United Free Church is
legally entitled to the property of the original Free Church
founded in 1843. But for this secession, the strength of which
is not accurately estimable, the new denomination would,
according to the latest official returns, have opposed about
1,680 congregations and about 530,000 members to the 1,450
congregations and 650,000 members of the Church of Scotland."
_London Times,
December 27, 1900._
{450}
SEA POWER.
See (in this volume)
NAVIES OF THE SEA POWERS.
SEAL-KILLING DISPUTES.
See (in this volume)
BERING SEA QUESTIONS.
SEGAN FU,
SI-NGAN-FU,
The Chinese Imperial Court at.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (AUGUST-SEPTEMBER).
SEMINOLES,
United States Agreement with the.
See (in this volume)
INDIANS, AMERICAN: A. D. 1893-1899.
SENEGAL; A. D. 1895.
Under a French Governor-General.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1895 (FRENCH WEST AFRICA).
SENOUSSI, The Sect of the.
See (in this volume)
NIGERIA: A. D. 1882-1899.
SERAPEION, Discovery of the.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: EGYPT:
DISCOVERY OF THE SERAPEION.
SERVIA: A. D. 1894-1901.
Abolition of the constitution by royal proclamation.
Final exile and death of ex-King Milan.
See (in this volume)
BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES (SERVIA).
SERVIA: A. D. 1901 (April).
Promulgation of a new constitution.
A new constitution for Servia was promulgated by King
Alexander, at Belgrade, on the 19th of April, 1901. Of the
character of the instrument, the King had previously given
intimations in an interview conceded to the editor of the
"Revue d'Orient," the account of which, translated for the
"London Times," is partly as follows: "Our three Constitutions
of 1869, 1888, and 1901 differ from each other in important
matters of principle. That of 1869 practically amounted to
absolutism, if I may thus qualify any Constitution. It is true
that the executive power retained but few prerogatives, but
that was deceptive, as the rights of the Legislature were
surrounded by exceptions and restrictions which made it easy
to paralyse and annihilate them at any moment. The
Constitution of 1888 had the contrary defects. It subordinated
the executive power to that of the Legislature, only leaving to
the former an altogether insufficient sphere of action. It had
another great fault. It was excessively doctrinaire and
theoretical, affecting to foresee everything and to regulate
everything, so that the legislative power was bound hand and
foot and could not legislate freely. The Constitution which
will be promulgated on April 19, the anniversary of the day
when the fortress of Belgrade was finally evacuated by the
Turks in 1867, is a charter similar to those which organize
the public powers in several countries of Europe, as, for
instance, in England and in France. It settles the form of
government, the powers of the King and of the State, the
rights of subjects, the working of the national
representation, &c. But it leaves to the Legislature the
settlement of all details. What more particularly
distinguishes the Constitution of 1901 from that of 1869 is
that it prevents the use and abuse of ordinances by the
Executive, which will be obliged to frame special laws in
every case—that is to say, laws accepted and approved of by
the King, the Senate, and the Chamber of Deputies. Thus
legality will henceforth be the regulating wheel in the
machinery of government. The Chamber of Deputies will be much
better organized, as the enlightened classes will be much more
numerously represented. The Constitution of 1901 will also
present great advantages over that of 1888. The Legislature
will control the acts of the Government as far as can possibly
be desired. At the same time the constitutional regime as
established in the new Constitution will give the King all the
power that he ought to retain in a country that is still new,
like Servia, without diminishing any of the inviolable
liberties of the nation.
"I attach very great importance to the new political
institution with which I am going to endow Servia—namely, an
Upper Chamber. Considering that it already exists, not only in
monarchical countries, but also in most Republics, as, for
instance, in France and the United States, I cannot admit that
it should be regarded as involving the slightest aristocratic
tendency or idea. I know my country well enough to be sure
that I shall find a sufficient number of high-class
politicians to recruit the Senate, and that enough will remain
for the Chamber of Deputies. I am likewise fully persuaded
that the legislative task of the Parliament will be much
better performed when the Chamber of Deputies is conscious
that above it there exists a Senate whose business it is to
revise and improve the laws which it has elaborated, of course
for the greater benefit of the nation. Then, again, the Senate
will form a moderating element which was much wanting in our
Legislature. What Servia is suffering from is not any lack of
legislation, but from the circumstances that the existing laws
were hastily framed or were the outcome of party rancour. If
we had formerly had a Senate composed of men of experience and
good patriots, they would never have consented to the conclusion
of so many onerous loans, to the application of so many
iniquitous measures, nor to the convocation of the special
tribunal, 'le tribunal extraordinaire,' of 1899.
"At first the Radical party was not favourable to the
institution of an Upper Chamber, but it now recognizes the
great advantages it will offer, and has rallied to my project.
The Progressist party has always been favourable to it. The
majority of the Liberal party has also adhered to it. I
therefore believe that this new institution will be of the
greatest service to the country. All that is required, and
with a little good will it can be easily done, is that the
members of the two Chambers should endeavour honestly,
sincerely, and loyally to work for the good of the State and
of the nation. If I have not thought right to raise the
qualification for the suffrage, as desired by some people, it
is because I did not wish to disfranchise any of those who
have enjoyed the right of voting during the last 35 years. I
do not wish to restrict any of the rights of the nation.
{451}
"The application of the new Constitution will be the great
task of my Government, in which I have every confidence. The
Prime Minister, Dr. Vuitch, has the sympathy and support not
only of his own party but of all who would like to see the
country governed in a liberal spirit. His presence at the head
of the Ministry is a pledge for the active and sincere
co-operation of all elements of order and progress. … As soon
as the new Constitution has been promulgated, the Government
will invite the co-operation of all those which admit its
necessity and fitness. A large Conservative party will thus be
formed which will have the requisite power and authority for
all purposes of government, for the application of the
Constitution, and for the elaboration of financial and
economic laws necessary for the progress of the country.
"As regards the question of the succession to the Throne, I
wanted to settle it finally, as the members of the reigning
dynasty are not numerous unless the remote collateral lines be
included, which is not possible. Moreover, everybody wished me
to take in this matter such decisions as I might think proper
in view of securing the continuation of the Servian Monarchy.
The first thing to be done was to safeguard the rights of the
direct line without seeking to bind ourselves by the Salic
Law, which there is really no reason to apply in our country.
I should add here that there are no anti-dynastic elements in
Servia, with the exception, perhaps, of a few hare-brained
individuals who really do not enter into account. My people
are profoundly attached to the reigning dynasty, and never
lose an opportunity of showing me their loyalty. It is the
same with all the political parties.
"Before promulgating the Constitution I decided to consult the
most influential members of the parties in office. They agreed
with me, and promised me to assist harmoniously in the work. I
have also consulted the leading members of the Liberal party,
and with two or three exceptions they have given me the same
assurances. Such being the case, I may say that the
Constitution of 1901 is not a production of my will or of my
good pleasure, but that it is the result of an understanding
between the Sovereign and the leaders of the three political
parties. I consequently reckon upon their sincere and active
co-operation, and I trust they will not fail me. I am firmly
convinced that the new Constitution will act as a fresh and
vigorous stimulus to my country, and that it will bring it
that calm and stability which it sorely needs. I sincerely
regard it as a source of prosperity and welfare for Servia."
SEVERALTY ACT, The Indian.
See (in this volume)
INDIANS, AMERICAN: A. D. 1899-1900.
SEYMOUR, Vice-Admiral Sir Edward:
Expedition to relieve Peking.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JUNE 10-26).
SEYYIDIEH, The province of.
See (in this volume)
BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE: A. D. 1895-1897.
SHAFTER, General:
Commanding the expedition against Santiago de Cuba.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE-JULY).
SHAFTER, General:
Surrender of Spanish forces at Santiago and all eastern Cuba.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY 4-17).
SHAFTER, General:
Report of sickness in army.
Removal of troops to Montauk Point.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-AUGUST: CUBA).
SHANGHAI.
"Shanghai is the New York of China. It occupies a position on
the coast quite similar to that of New York on our own eastern
coast, and its percentage of importations into China is about
the same as that which New York enjoys in the United States.
The large share of the foreign trade of China which Shanghai
controls is due largely to its position at the mouth of the
great artery through which trade flows to and from China—the
Yangtze-Kiang. Transportation in bulk in China up to the
present time having been almost exclusively by water, and the
Yangtze being navigable by steamers and junks for more than
2,000 miles, thus reaching the most populous, productive, and
wealthy sections of the country, naturally a very large share
of the foreign commerce entering or leaving that country
passes through Shanghai, where foreign merchants, bankers,
trade representatives, trade facilities, and excellent docking
and steamship conveniences exist. The lines of no less than
eight great steamship companies center at Shanghai, where they
land freight and passengers from their fleets of vessels which
are counted by hundreds, while the smaller vessels, for river
and coastwise service, and the native junks are counted
literally by thousands. The Yangtze from Shanghai westward to
Hankow, a distance of 582 miles, is navigable for very large
steamships that are capable of coasting as well as river
service. Hankow, which with its suburbs has nearly a million
people, is the most important of the interior cities, being a
great distributing center for trade to all parts of central
and western China and thus the river trade between Shanghai
and Hankow is of itself enormous, while the coastwise trade
from Shanghai, both to the north and south, and that by the
Grand Canal to Tientsin, the most important city of northern
China, is also very large."
_United States, Bureau of Statistics,
Monthly Summary, March, 1899, page 2191._
"When the English chose this position, in 1842, for their
mercantile settlement, it seemed difficult to believe that
they would ever succeed in making the place a rival of Canton
or of Amoy. It is true that Shanghai possessed important
commercial relations already, and the great geographical
advantage of commanding the entrance to the navigable river
which traverses the whole empire from west to east; but the
builders of the city there had to struggle with enormous
difficulties of soil and climate. They had to solidify and
drain the land, dig canals, dry up marshes, cleanse the air of
its miasms, besides incessantly dredging and clearing the
channel, to keep it open for their ships. The first European
merchants established at Shanghai were favored in fortune by
the national disasters of China. The Taiping war drove
fugitives in multitudes to the territory conceded to
foreigners, and when the town of Soutcheou was destroyed, in
1860, Shanghai succeeded it as the great city of the country."
_É. Reclus,
Nouvelle géographie universelle,
volume 7, page 455._
SHANGHAI: A. D. 1898.
Rioting consequent on French desecration of a cemetery.
Extension of foreign settlements.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898-1899.
SHANTUNG, The "Boxer" outbreak in.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY-MARCH).
SHIMONOSEKI, Text of the Treaty of.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1894-1895.
{452}
SHIPPING OF THE WORLD: In 1900.
Statement of number and net and gross tonnage of steam and
sailing vessels of over 100 tons of the several countries of
the world, as recorded in Lloyd's Register for 1900-1901
[dated July 1, 1900].
_United States, Commissioner of Navigation,
Annual Report, 1900, page 125._
FLAG STEAM. SAIL. TOTAL.
------------------------- ------------------ -------------
Number. Net tons. Gross tons. Number. Net tons. Number. Tonnage.
British:
United Kingdom. 7,020 7,072,401 11,513,759 1,894 1,727,687 8,914 13,241,446
Colonies. 910 378,925 635,331 1,014 384,477 1,924 1,019,808
Total. 7,930 7,451,326 12,149,090 2,908 2,112,164 10,838 14,261,254
American
(United States):
Sea. 690 594,237 878,564 2,130 1,156,498 2,820 2,035,062
Lake. 242 436,979 576,402 73 138,807 315 715,209
Total. 932 1,031,216 1,454,966 2,203 1,295,305 3,135 2,750,271
Argentine. 95 36,938 57,239 106 30,407 201 87,646
Austro-Hungarian 214 240,808 387,471 56 28,613 270 416,084
Belgian. 115 111,624 162,493 2 420 117 162,913
Brazilian. 215 85,799 133,507 117 29,580 332 163,087
Chilean. 52 38,960 62,872 75 48,106 127 110,978
Chinese. 48 41,847 65,721 1 573 49 66,294
Colombian. 1 555 877 5 1,110 6 1,987
Danish. 369 240,599 412,273 433 106,738 802 519,011
Dutch. 289 307,574 467,209 117 63,068 406 530,277
French. 662 542,305 1,052,193 552 298,309 1,214 1,350,562
German. 1,209 1,344,605 2,159,919 501 490,114 1,710 2,650,033
Greek. 139 111,797 178,137 230 65,957 369 245,094
Haitian. 5 912 1,750 2 414 7 2,164
Italian. 312 343,020 540,349 864 443,306 1,176 983,655
Japanese. 484 303,303 488,187 582 86,370 1,006 574,557
Mexican. 25 6,562 11,460 13 3,081 38 14,541
Montenegrin. 1 1,064 1,857 14 3,513 15 5,370
Norwegian. 806 467,123 764,683 1,574 876,129 2,380 1,640,812
Peruvian. 3 3,204 4,869 33 9,607 36 14,476
Portuguese. 48 37,153 57,664 156 53,391 204 111,055
Roumanian. 17 9,686 17,361 3 659 20 18,020
Russian. 496 292,277 469,496 750 251,405 1,246 720,901
Sarawakian. 2 244 418 2 418
Siamese. 4 821 1,435 1 294 5 1,729
Spanish. 422 416,882 642,231 175 52,549 597 694,780
Swedish. 678 260,023 418,550 755 218,722 1,433 637,272
Turkish. 135 58,974 94,781 170 48,709 305 143,490
Uruguayan. 17 6,438 10,468 19 4,032 36 14,500
Venezuelan. 12 2,450 4,246 8 1,185 20 5,431
Zanzibarian. 3 1,871 2,808 3 2,808
Other countries:
Hawaii. 23 11,185 16,922 24 29,707 47 46,629
Cuba. 35 17,651 27,040 11 2,410 46 29,450
Philippine Islands 69 19,587 31,099 42 8,236 111 39,335
Various:
Arabia,
Salvador,
Ecuador,
Liberia,
Samos,
Nicaragua,
Bulgaria,
Costa Rica,
Egypt,
Persia,
Porto Rico,
etc. 31 10,130 17,717 22 9,127 53 26,844
Total. 15,898 13,800,513 22,309,358 12,524 6,674,370 28,422 29,043,728
SHIRE HIGHLANDS, The.
See (in this volume)
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA PROTECTORATE.
SHOA.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1885-1896.
SHUN-CH'ING, Anti-missionary insurrection at.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898-1899 (JUNE-JANUARY).
SIAH CHAI, or Vegetarians, The.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1895 (AUGUST).
SIAM: A. D. 1896-1899.
Declaration between Great Britain and France
with regard to Siam.
A declaration of agreement, in part as follows, between Great
Britain and France, was signed at London, January 15, 1896:
"I.
The Governments of Great Britain and France engage to one
another that neither of them will, without the consent of the
other, in any case, or under any pretext, advance their armed
forces into the region which is comprised in the basins of the
Petcha Bouri, Meiklong, Menam, and Bang Pa Kong (Petriou)
Rivers and their respective tributaries, together with the
extent of coast from Muong Bang Tapan to Muong Pase, the
basins of the rivers on which those two places are situated,
and the basins of the other rivers, the estuaries of which are
included in that coast; and including also the territory lying
to the north of the basin of the Menam, and situated between
the Anglo-Siamese frontier, the Mekong River, and the eastern
watershed of the Me Ing. They further engage not to acquire
within this region any special privilege or advantage which
shall not be enjoyed in common by, or equally open to, Great
Britain and France, and their nationals and dependents. These
stipulations, however, shall not be interpreted as derogating
from the special clauses which, in virtue of the Treaty
concluded on the 3rd October, 1893, between France and Siam,
apply to a zone of 25 kilometers on the right bank of the
Mekong and to the navigation of that river.
{453}
II.
Nothing in the foregoing clause shall hinder any action on
which the two Powers may agree, and which they shall think
necessary in order to uphold the independence of the Kingdom
of Siam. But they engage not to enter into any separate
Agreement permitting a third Power to take any action from
which they are bound by the present Declaration themselves to
abstain.
III.
From the mouth of the Nam Huok northwards as far as the
Chinese frontier the thalweg of the Mekong shall form the
limit of the possessions or spheres of influence of Great
Britain and France. It is agreed that the nationals and
dependents of each of the two countries shall not exercise any
jurisdiction or authority within the possessions or sphere of
influence of the other."
In a despatch to the British Ambassador at Paris, written on
the same day, Lord Salisbury explained the intent and purpose
of the agreement as follows: "It might be thought that because
we have engaged ourselves, and have received the engagement of
France, not under any circumstances to invade this territory,
that therefore we are throwing doubt upon the complete title
and rights of the Siamese to the remainder of their kingdom,
or, at all events, treating those rights with disregard. Any
such interpretation would entirely misrepresent the intention
with which this arrangement has been signed. We have selected
a particular area for the application of the stipulations of
this Treaty, not because the title of the King of Siam to
other portions of his dominions is less valid, but because it
is the area which affects our interests as a commercial
nation. The valley of the Menam is eminently fitted to receive
a high industrial development. Possibly in course of time it
may be the site of lines of communication which will be of
considerable importance to neighbouring portions of the
British Empire. There seems every prospect that capital will
flow into this region if reasonable security is offered for
its investment, and great advantage would result to the
commerce and industry of the world, and especially of Great
Britain, if capitalists could be induced to make such an
application of the force which they command. But the history
of the region in which Siam is situated has not in recent
years been favourable to the extension of industrial
enterprise, or to the growth of that confidence which is the
first condition of material improvement. A large territory to
the north has passed from the hands of the Burmese Government
to those of Great Britain. A large territory to the east has
passed from the hands of its former possessors to those of
France. The events of this recent history certainly have a
tendency to encourage doubts of the stability of the Siamese
dominion; and without in any degree sharing in those doubts,
or admitting the possibility, within any future with which we
have to deal, of the Siamese independence being compromised,
Her Majesty's Government could not but feel that there would
be an advantage in giving some security to the commercial
world that, in regard to the region where the most active
development is likely to take place, no further disturbances
of territorial ownership are to be apprehended."
_Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command: France, Number 2, 1896, pages 1-3)._
Perhaps the above explanation can be better understood after
reading the following:
"In the early eighties France commenced the subjugation of
Tonquin. … It was not until 1893 that France openly attacked
Siam. The demand was subtly formulated—on behalf, not of the
Government of the French Republic, but of 'the Empire of
Annam.' But even so the French had been in Annam for perhaps a
quarter of a century, whereas Siam could show an undisturbed,
undisputed tenure of the Mekong River's 'rive gauche' for at
least ninety years. … The cession to France of territory
amounting to rather more than one-third of the entire kingdom
was insisted upon; and in March 1893 that Power sent the
ship-of-war Lutin to Bangkok, where she remained for months a
standing menace. A rigorous blockade of the Siamese seaboard
followed, resulting in a few short days in complete surrender
of the disputed territory to France and the payment of a heavy
war indemnity. … By the Anglo-French Convention of last year
[as given above] the King of Siam's position became, to say
the least, slightly anomalous. That agreement practically
amounted to the fair division, between France and England, of
the whole of Siam save that portion situate in the fertile
valley of the Meinam, whose autonomy they still guarantee to
preserve. … France holds, in addition to the long-coveted port
of Chantabûn, that part of the province of Luang Phrabang
which is situate upon the right bank of the Mekong. … The
Siamese king is 'nulli secundus' among Oriental monarchs as a
progressive ruler. And fate has been unkind to him indeed! He
has encouraged English customs and the English language by all
the means in his power—has taken the kindliest possible
interest in the introduction of electric light, electric
tramways, &c., into his capital—has endeavoured to model his
army and navy, his prison and other systems, upon the English
method—and has in person opened the first railway (that
connecting Bangkok with Pâknam) in Siam. It is, indeed, one of
the strangest and most interesting sights, as you stroll
through the streets of the capital, to witness the 'riksha and
gharry of comparative barbarism travelling in juxtaposition to
the electric tramcar and the bicycle! And for his broad and
enlightened views the King of Siam has been requited by the
wholesale and utterly unjustifiable plunder of his most
fertile lands."
_Percy Cross Standing,
The Significance of the Siamese Visit
(Nineteenth Century, June, 1897)._
Frequent collisions between French and Siamese in the
so-called "neutral zone" on the right bank of the Mekong
continued, until a new convention was agreed upon in May,
1890. This gave to France the province of Luang-Phrabang, in
return for which she agreed to withdraw entirely from the
neutral territory and from the port of Chantabûn.
SIAM: A. D. 1898.
Gift of relics of Buddha.
See (in this volume)
BUDDHA.
SIAM: A. D. 1899 (May-July).
Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.
SIAN FU,
SI-NGAN-FU,
The Chinese Imperial Court at.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (AUGUST-SEPTEMBER).
SIBERIA.
See (in this volume)
RUSSIA IN ASIA.
SIBERIAN ARCTIC EXPLORATION.
See (in this volume)
POLAR EXPLORATION, 1805, 1896, 1897, 1898, 1899, 1900.
{454}
SIERRA LEONE PROTECTORATE.
Extension of British authority over the Hinterland of the
Colony of Sierra Leone.
The hut tax.
Insurrection of natives.
"Immediately adjoining the Colony of Sierra Leone, lying to
the northward and eastward, is the Hinterland, the boundaries
of which were defined by the Agreement between Great Britain
and France which was concluded 21st January 1895. The extreme
depth from south to north is about 210 miles, lying between 7°
and 10° north latitude, and 180 miles from east to west, lying
between 10° 40' and 13° 20' of west longitude. The estimated area
is rather more than 30,000 square miles—about the size of
Ireland. … Unlike many regions on the west coast of Africa,
the country is, for the most part, well watered by rivers and
running streams. The population of the Hinterland has not been
ascertained. It has been variously estimated, before the
present troubles, at from about 750,000 up to about 2,000,000.
The trade and revenue of the Colony depend almost entirely on
the Hinterland. A very large proportion of the goods imported
into the Colony are carried into and consumed in the
Hinterland. These goods are paid for by means of the products
of the Hinterland, which are exported, and the profits derived
from the exchange enable the merchants to pay the Customs
duties, which constitute the bulk of the Colonial revenue. The
territories forming the Hinterland are, according to the
native organisation, ruled over by a large number of Chiefs
(or Kings, as they used to be, and still in native parlance
are, called). The portions of country under each Chief are
well ascertained, and recognised by the various Chiefs and
their subjects. …
"The relations between the English Government and the Chiefs
at the time of the conclusion of the Agreement between France
and England in 1895 was … that some of the Chiefs whose
territories lay most adjacent to the Colony of Sierra Leone
had contracted with the English Crown certain treaties of
cession, and treaties directed to definite objects of amity
and good offices. In addition there had sprung up by usage a
limited consensual and advisory jurisdiction, under which
Chiefs as well as persons not Chiefs would bring their
differences (mainly as to territorial boundaries) before the
Governor of Sierra Leone as a sort of arbitrator, and
implicitly follow his awards. This jurisdiction was exercised
over an area of no defined limits, so far as any rules were
concerned. As a fact, it was limited by conditions of distance
and facility of travel, so that whilst the usage was most
established in the countries nearest to Freetown, there was
none in the more distant regions, or if there was any it was
at most so rudimentary as to be jurally of no account. … I
have not been able to trace any instance in which, either
under treaty or any other form of consent, or without consent,
the English Government has imposed, or endeavoured to impose
any direct taxation upon the Chiefs or people of the
Hinterland prior to 1896.
"The agreement between France and Great Britain delimited the
respective spheres of interest of the two countries south and
west of the Middle or Upper Niger, and thus defined for
England in the Hinterland of Sierra Leone a territory within
which, so far as concerned any question between France and
England, England was at liberty to exercise whatever species
or extent of jurisdiction she might consider proper. It made,
of course, no alteration on the existing native organisation,
nor upon the existing relations between England and the native
Chiefs, who were not parties to the agreement in any sense. …
On 31st August 1896 a Proclamation was published setting forth
that Her Majesty had assumed a Protectorate over the
territories adjacent to the Colony of Sierra Leone in which
Her Majesty had acquired power and jurisdiction. For purposes
of administration the Hinterland was divided into five
districts, intended to be of about equal size, avoiding
severance as far as possible by the district boundary of the
territories of Paramount Chiefs. These districts have been
named as the Karene, Ronietta, Bandajuma, Pangmua, and
Koinadugu districts. In anticipation of the arrangements that
might become necessary for the government of the Protectorate,
an Order of the Queen in Council had been made on 24th August
1895, … whereby, … Her Majesty was pleased, by and with the
advice of her Privy Council, to order that it shall be lawful
for the Legislative Council, for the time being, of the Colony
of Sierra Leone, by Ordinance or Ordinances, to exercise and
provide for giving effect to all such jurisdiction as Her
Majesty may at any time, before or after the passing of the
Order in Council, have acquired in the said territories
adjacent to the Colony of Sierra Leone. … Following upon the
Order of the Queen in Council, an Ordinance, entitled 'An
Ordinance to Determine the mode of exercising Her Majesty's
Jurisdiction in the Territories adjacent to the Colony of
Sierra Leone,' was passed by the Legislative Council and
Governor of Sierra Leone for the Government of the
Protectorate, on 16th September 1896."
_Great Britain,
Report and Correspondence on Insurrection in
the Sierra Leone Protectorate
(Parliamentary Publications:
Papers by Command, 1899, C. 9388, pages 10-17)._
The Ordinance above mentioned, which was reenacted, with some
changes, in September, 1897, provided, among other things, for
the imposition of a house tax, or hut tax, upon the natives,
and this proved to be the main cause of a serious native
revolt in the Protectorate. "By way of asserting the Crown's
ownership of all lands, whether in use and occupation or
not—and also of attempting to make the people defray the cost
of governing them by methods they resent—the Protectorate
Ordinance imposes a 'house tax' of five shillings a year, and,
in the case of 'houses with four rooms or more,' of ten
shillings a year, on every 'householder'; the same to be paid
in 'sterling coin' on or after the 1st January in each year,
or, in default of payment on demand, to be distrained for with
so much addition as will defray the cost of removing the
property and disposing of it for 'the price current at the
nearest market.' The absurdity of thus importing the mechanism
of civilisation into 'house tax' levying among these ignorant
savages matches the injustice of the tax itself. The mud
hovels to be taxed are rarely worth more than the equivalent
of two or three shillings apiece, and shillings or other
'sterling coin' are rarely seen or handled by the natives,
such wages as they earn being generally paid in kind, and such
trade as they carry on being nearly always in the way of barter.
{455}
Few who are not chiefs or headmen own property worth as much
as five shillings, and property for which five shillings could
be obtained 'at the nearest market' might be worth the
equivalent of five pounds to them. There was no attempt to
raise the proposed house or hut tax before last January
[1898], and perhaps none of the natives have even yet any
understanding of the clauses of the Protectorate Ordinance
providing them with new-fangled 'courts of Justice,' and
taking from them all proprietary rights in their land. But as
soon as a proclamation was issued on 21st August, 1896,
notifying the contemplated changes, all who heard of them were
reasonably alarmed, and wherever the news spread seeds of fresh
discontent were sown. …
"There were burning of huts, buffeting of chiefs, and so
forth, in the south and east, as well as in the north, where,
owing to the alleged recalcitrancy of Bai Bureh and the zeal
of Captain Sharpe, the District Commissioner, the havoc was
greatest. Early in February several chiefs and headmen were
brought to Freetown from Port Lokko in manacles, to be tried,
or punished without trial, on a charge of 'refusing to comply
with the provisions of the Protectorate Ordinance, and
inciting their subjects to resist the law.' 'The most
affecting part of the matter,' says the newspaper report, 'is
that the natives all loudly affirm their unswerving loyalty to
the Government, and say that they do not refuse to pay the hut
tax because they do not wish to, but because they really
cannot pay.' Their apologies were not listened to. Instead, a
detachment of the West India Regiment was sent up to assist
Captain Sharpe in the little war on which he had already
embarked. A futile attempt to arrest Bai Bureh on 18th
February led to a general uprising, and the first battle was
fought on 3rd March, when the town of Karina was recovered
from the 'insurgents' who had occupied it, and over sixty of
them were killed. Another fight occurred at Port Lokko, on 5th
March, when the 'insurgents' lost about forty more. These
victories being insufficient, fresh troops were sent up in
batches, until the entire force of conquerors numbered 800 or
upwards. They found it easier to cow than to conquer the
people, and the unequal struggle went on for three months. At
the end of May operations had to be suspended during the rainy
season, and before they can be renewed it may be hoped that
peace will be patched up. Already, indeed, the 'rebellion'
appears to be practically crushed, and with it all the
civilisation and all the commerce that had been planted in the
Karina district. Hundreds of natives have been shot down, many
more hundreds have died of starvation. Nearly all the huts
that it was proposed to tax have been destroyed, either by the
owners themselves, or by the policemen and soldiers."
_H. R. Fox Bourne,
Sierra Leone Troubles
(Fortnightly Review, August, 1898)._
SILVER QUESTION, The: A. D. 1895 (January-February).
Attitude of Free Silver majority in the U. S. Senate
towards the Treasury gold reserve.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1895 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY);
and 1895-1896 (DECEMBER-FEBRUARY).
SILVER QUESTION, The: A. D. 1896.
In the American Presidential election.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER).
SILVER QUESTION, The: A. D. 1896-1898.
The Indianapolis Monetary Commission report and
Secretary Gage's plan in Congress.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896-1898.
SILVER QUESTION, The: A. D. 1897.
Negotiations by envoys from the United States for an
international bi-metallic agreement.
See (in this volume)
MONETARY QUESTIONS: A. D. 1897 (APRIL-OCTOBER).
SILVER QUESTION, The: A. D. 1900.
Practical settlement of the issue in the United States.
Attempted revival in the Presidential canvass.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1900 (MARCH-DECEMBER), and (MAY-NOVEMBER).
SILVER REPUBLICANS.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER); and 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
SI-NGAN-FU,
SINGAN FU, The Chinese Imperial Court at.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1900 (AUGUST-SEPTEMBER).
SIRDAR, Egyptian.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1885-1896; and 1897-1898.
SLAVERY: A. D. 1885.
Emancipation in Cuba.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1868-1885.
SLAVERY: A. D. 1895.
New anti-slavery law in Egypt.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1895.
SLAVERY: A. D. 1896.
Abolition in Madagascar.
See (in this volume)
MADAGASCAR: A. D. 1894-1896.
SLAVERY: SLAVERY: A. D. 1897.
Abolished in Zanzibar.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1897 (ZANZIBAR).
SLAVERY: A. D. 1897.
Compulsory labor in Rhodesia.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY):
A. D. 1897 (JANUARY).
SLAVERY: A. D. 1897.
Subjugation of Fulah slave raiders in Nupé and Ilorin.
See (in this volume)
AFRICA: A. D. 1897 (NIGERIA).
SLAVERY: A. D. 1899.
Forced labor in Congo State.
See (in this volume)
CONGO FREE STATE: A. D. 1899.
SLESWICK:
Complaints of German treatment.
See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1899.
SMOKELESS POWDERS, Invention of.
See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS.
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY, Encyclical Letter of Pope Leo XIII. on.
See (in this volume)
PAPACY: A. D. 1901.
SOCIALIST PARTIES.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897, and after;
BELGIUM: A. D. 1894-1895;
FRANCE: A. D. 1896 (APRIL-MAY), and 1900 (JANUARY);
GERMANY: A. D. 1894-1895, and 1897 (JULY);
ITALY: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-MAY);
SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1894-1898;
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER),
and 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
SOKOTO.
See (in this volume)
NIGERIA: A. D. 1882-1899.
SOLOMON ISLANDS, The:
Definite division between Great Britain and Germany.
See (in this volume)
SAMOAN ISLANDS.
SOMALIS, Rising of, in Jubaland.
See (in this volume)
BRITISH EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE: A. D. 1900.
SOUDAN.
See (in this volume)
SUDAN.
"SOUND MONEY" DEMOCRATS.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER).
{456}
----------SOUTH AFRICA: Start--------
SOUTH AFRICA: Cape Colony: A. D. 1881-1888.
Organization of the "Afrikander Bund."
The "Afrikander Bund" or National Party was formed in Cape
Colony in 1881, but held its first Congress, or convention, in
1888, at which meeting the following platform, or formal
statement of objects, was adopted:
"1. The Afrikander National party acknowledge the guidance of
Providence in the affairs both of lands and peoples.
2. They include, under the guidance of Providence, the
formation of a pure nationality and the preparation of our
people for the establishment of a 'United South Africa.'
3. To this they consider belong:
(a) The establishment of a firm union between all the
different European nationalities in South Africa, and
(b) The promotion of South Africa's independence.
4. They consider that the union mentioned in Article 3 (a)
depends upon the clear and plain understanding of each other's
general interest in politics, agriculture, stock-breeding,
trade, and industry, and the acknowledgment of everyone's
special rights in the matter of religion, education, and
language; so that all national jealousy between the different
elements of the people may be removed, and room be made for an
unmistakable South African national sentiment.
5. To the advancement of the independence mentioned in
Article 3 (b) belong:
(a) That the sentiment of national self-respect and of
patriotism toward South Africa should above all be
developed and exhibited in schools, and in families, and in
the public press.
(b) That a system of voting should be applied which not
only acknowledges the right of numbers, but also that of
ownership and the development of intelligence, and that is
opposed, as far as possible, to bribery and compulsion at
the poll.
(c) That our agriculture, stock-breeding, commerce, and
industries should be supported in every lawful manner, such
as by a conclusive law as regards masters and servants, and
also by the appointment of a prudent and advantageous
system of Protection.
(d) That the South African Colonies and States, either each
for itself or in conjunction with one another, shall
regulate their own native affairs, employing thereto the
forces of the land by means of a satisfactory burgher law;
and
(e) That outside interference with the domestic concerns of
South Africa shall be opposed.
6. While they acknowledge the existing Governments holding
rule in South Africa, and intend faithfully to fulfil their
obligations in regard to the same, they consider that the duty
rests upon those Governments to advance the interests of South
Africa in the spirit of the foregoing articles; and whilst, on
the one side, they watch against any unnecessary or frivolous
interference with the domestic or other private matters of the
burgher, against any direct meddling with the spiritual
development of the nation, and against laws which might hinder
the free influence of the Gospel upon the national life, on
the other hand they should accomplish all the positive duties
of a good Government, among which must be reckoned:
(a) In all their actions to take account of the Christian
character of the people.
(b) The maintenance of freedom of religion for everyone, so
long as the public order and honor are not injured thereby.
(c) The acknowledgment and expression of religious, social,
and bodily needs of the people, in the observance of the
present weekly day of rest.
(d) The application of an equal and judicious system of
taxation.
(e) The bringing into practice of an impartial and, as far
as possible, economical administration of justice.
(f) The watching over the public honor, and against the
adulteration of the necessaries of life, and the defiling
of ground, water, or air, as well as against the spreading
of infectious diseases.
7. In order to secure the influence of these principles, they
stand forward as an independent party, and accept the
cooperation of other parties only if the same can be obtained
with the uninjured maintenance of these principles.
SOUTH AFRICA: The Transvaal: A. D. 1884-1894.
The restored independence of the Boers and their
dissatisfaction with its terms.
Frustration of their desire for extended territory.
The London Convention of 1884.
After the British-Boer War of 1880-81
(see, in volume 4, SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1806-1881),
which had been caused by an arbitrary annexation of the
Transvaal State to the dominions of the British crown, the
sense of justice in Mr. Gladstone led him to restore to the
Transvaal Boers (by the Convention or Treaty of Pretoria,
1881) their right of internal self-government, with a
reservation of "the suzerainty of Her Majesty," supposably
relative to nothing but foreign affairs. The Boers were not
satisfied with that concession, and began at once to strive
for the complete independence they had previously possessed,
under a Convention agreed upon and signed at Sand River, 1852,
which guaranteed (quoting its precise terms) "in the fullest
manner, on the part of the British Government, to the emigrant
farmers (boers) beyond the Vaal River, the right to manage
their own affairs and to govern themselves, without any
interference on the part of Her Majesty the Queen's
Government." To regain that status of complete independence
became the first object of the Boers. They went far towards
success in this endeavor, as early as 1884, when the British
Colonial Secretary, Lord Derby, was induced to agree to a new
Convention with the South African Republic (as it was then
styled) which superseded the Convention of 1881. The terms of
the later instrument are given below. The second aim of the
Boers appears to have been the widening of their territory, by
advances, in the first instance, southward into Zululand and
westward into Bechuanaland. In the former movement they had
success; in the latter they were thwarted. English
missionaries complained of their treatment of the natives, and
stirred up the British government to take the Bechuana tribes
under its protection. Their eastern frontier they succeeded,
after long controversies with Great Britain, in stretching
beyond Swaziland, but they were not allowed to push it to the
sea. Northward, they would provably have gone far, had it not
been for the appearance, at this time, of Mr. Cecil Rhodes,
who came upon the scene of South African politics with
imperial ambitions, with great energies and capabilities, with
few apparent hesitations, and with a vast fortune acquired in the
Kimberley diamond mines. He organized the British South Africa
Company, under a royal charter, got some settlers into the
country north of the Limpopo and set up a government there, in
1890, just in time, it appears, to forestall the Boers
See, in volume 4,
SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1885-1893.
{457}
Of the effect of the two conventions, of 1881 and 1884, on the
relations of the British government to the South African
Republic, the following is an English view, by a well-known
publicist: "In the Treaty of Pretoria, bearing date the 5th of
April, 1881, it is stated that Great Britain guarantees
'complete self-government, subject to the Suzerainty of Her
Majesty, to the inhabitants of the Transvaal.' … Article 15
declares that 'the Resident will report to the High
Commissioner, as representative of the Suzerain, as to the
working and observance of the provisions of this Convention.'
… On the 31st of March, 1881, Lord Kimberley, who was then
Secretary of State for the Colonies, used these words in the
House of Lords with reference to the terms of the Convention,
upon which the Treaty of Pretoria was afterwards based: 'I
believe the word Suzerainty expresses very correctly the
relation which we intend to exist between this country and the
Transvaal. Our intention is that the Transvaal shall have
independent power as regards its internal government; and we
shall only reserve certain powers to be exercised by the
Queen. … With respect to our control over the relations of the
Transvaal with foreign Powers, … it is quite clear there ought
to be, as regards foreign relations, only one Government in
South Africa; that there ought to be no communication with
foreign Powers upon any subject except through the
representatives of the Queen.'
"On the 25th of June, 1881, Mr. Gladstone, while defending in
the House of Commons an assertion he had made during the
Midlothian Campaign about the blood-guiltiness of the war with
the Transvaal, referred to our Suzerainty in the following
words; 'I apprehend that the term which has been adopted, the
Suzerainty of the Queen, is intended to signify that certain
portions of Sovereignty are reserved. … What are these
portions of Sovereignty? The portions of Sovereignty we desire
to reserve are, first, the relations between the Transvaal
community and foreign governments, the whole care of the
foreign relations of the Boers. The whole of these relations
will remain in the hands of the Queen.'
"From these quotations it is obvious that when we agreed to
restore the independence of the Transvaal, the British public
were led to believe, both by the then Premier and the then
Colonial Minister, that this restoration left the control of
all relations between the Transvaal and foreign Powers
absolutely and entirely in the hands of Her Majesty's
Government. … It is possible, or even probable, that at the
time the Treaty of Pretoria was concluded, Mr. Gladstone, or
at any rate several of his colleagues, imagined that our
Suzerainty would really be made effective. But, when once the
treaty had been signed and sealed, and the South African
Republic had been granted absolute internal independence, it
became evident that our Suzerainty could only be rendered
efficacious, as against the sullen resistance of the Boers, by
the exercise of force—that is, by the threat of war in the
event of Boer non-compliance with the demands of the Suzerain
Power. …
"For the first two years which succeeded our surrender the
Boers were too much occupied in the reorganisation of the
Republic to trouble themselves greatly about their relations
to the Suzerain Power. … Disputes were mainly connected with
the treatment of the native chiefs, residing either within, or
on the borders of, the territory of the Republic, who
asserted, with or without reason, that they were the objects
of Boer hostility on account of the support they had given to
the British authorities during the period of British rule.
"In May 1883 Mr. Gladstone stated in Parliament, in answer to
certain protests about the proceedings of the Boers, that the
British Government had decided to send a Commissioner to the
Transvaal to investigate the working of the Convention
concluded at Pretoria in 1881. This intention, however, was
not carried out owing to the opposition of the South African
Republic. In lieu of the despatch of a British Commissioner to
the Transvaal, it was suggested at Pretoria that a Boer
deputation should be sent to London. The suggestion, as usual,
was accepted; and thereupon the Africander Bond in the Cape
Colony forwarded a petition to the Queen, praying Her Majesty
to entertain favourably the proposals of the Boer delegates
for the modification of the Treaty of Pretoria. The
deputation, consisting of President Kruger and Messieurs Du
Toit and Smit, arrived in London in October, and submitted to
the late Lord Derby, who had succeeded Lord Kimberley as
Minister for the Colonies, a statement of the modifications
they were instructed to demand. The memorandum in question
distinctly declared that the alleged impracticability of the
Treaty of Pretoria related, amongst other matters, 'to the
extent of the Suzerain rights reserved to Her Majesty by
Articles 2 and 18 of the Treaty of Pretoria, and to the vague
and indefinite terms in which the powers reserved to Her
Majesty's Government by the Convention are indicated.'
"To this memorandum Lord Derby replied, on the 20th of
November, 1883, admitting that 'expediency of substituting a
new agreement for that of 1881 might be matter for discussion,
but asking for information, in what sense it is wished that in
such new agreement some connection with England should be
maintained, and, if it is the desire of the Transvaal people
that their State should hereafter stand in any special
relation to this country, what is the form of connection which
is proposed?' In reply to this request the Boer delegates
answered as follows in the somewhat evasive fashion: 'In the
new agreement any connection by which we are now bound to
England should not be broken; but that the relation of a
dependency "publici juris" in which our country now stands to
the British Crown be replaced by that of two contractive
Powers.'
"The above documents were submitted to the Governor of Cape
Colony, the then Sir Hercules Robinson. Characteristically
enough, Sir Hercules recommended the surrender of our
Suzerainty on the ground that 'The Transvaal burghers
obviously do not intend to observe any condition in it (the
Convention of 1881) distasteful to themselves, which Her
Majesty's Government are not prepared to insist on, if
necessary, by the employment of force. Her Majesty's
Government, I understand, do not feel justified in proceeding
to this extremity; and no provision, therefore, of the
Convention which is not agreeable to the Transvaal will be
carried out.'
{458}
"A few days later the delegates submitted a draft treaty, in
which the following clause stands first: 'It is agreed that
Her Britannic Majesty recognises and guarantees by this treaty
the full independence of the South African Republic, with the
right to manage its own affairs according to its own laws,
without any interference on the part of the British
Government; it being understood that this system of
non-interference is binding on both parties.' To the letter
enclosing this draft treaty Lord Derby replied that the
proposed treaty was 'neither in form nor in substance such as
Her Majesty's Government could adopt.' Meanwhile the
discussion between the British Government and the Boer
delegates seems to have turned mainly upon the extension of
the territories of the Transvaal and the relations between the
Republic and the native chiefs, subjects which had only an
indirect bearing on the question of Suzerainty. It was only on
the 25th of January, 1884, that the Colonial Office wrote to
the delegates stating that if a certain compromise with regard
to the frontier line were accepted, the British Government
would be prepared 'to proceed at once with the consideration
of the other proposals for the modification of the Treaty of
Pretoria.' The delegates replied on the next day virtually
accepting the proposed frontier compromise, and requested the
British Government to proceed at once with the substitution of
a new Convention. … The draft treaty was signed on the 27th of
February, 1884. …
"The Convention of London did not repeat the preamble of the
original Convention in which the words 'subject to the
Suzerainty of Her Majesty' are to be found. Nor is the word
Suzerainty mentioned in the Convention of 1884, which declares
that the articles contained therein, if endorsed by the
Volksraad, 'shall be substituted for those of the Convention
of 1881.' No formal withdrawal, however, of the Queen's
Suzerainty is to be found in the Convention of 1884. On the
contrary, it is distinctly affirmed in Article 4 of the
modified Convention that 'the South African Republic will
conclude no treaty or engagement with any State or nation,
other than the Orange Free State, until the same has been
approved by Her Majesty the Queen.'"
_Edward Dicey,
British Suzerainty in the Transvaal
(Nineteenth Century, October, 1897)._
In its preamble, the Convention of 1884 recites that—"Whereas
the Government of the Transvaal State, through its Delegates,
consisting of [Kruger, Du Toit and Smit], have represented
that the Convention signed at Pretoria on the 3rd day of
August, 1881, and ratified by the Volksraad of the said State
on the 25th of October, 1881, contains certain provisions
which are inconvenient, and imposes burdens and obligations
from which the said State is desirous to be relieved, and that
the south-western boundaries fixed by the said Convention
should be amended with a view to promote the peace and good
order of the said State, … now, therefore, Her Majesty has
been pleased to direct," &c.—substituting the articles of a
new Convention for those signed and ratified in 1881.
Article I. of the new Convention describes the lines of
boundary as amended. Article II. binds the two governments,
respectively, to guard said boundaries against all
trespassing. Article III. provides for the reception and
protection, at Pretoria, of a resident British officer, "to
discharge functions analogous to those of a consular officer."
Article IV. reads as follows: "The South African Republic will
conclude no Treaty or engagement with any State or nation
other than the Orange Free State, nor with any native tribe to
the eastward or westward of the Republic, until the same has been
approved by Her Majesty the Queen. Such approval shall be
considered to have been granted if Her Majesty's Government
shall not, within six months after receiving a copy of such
Treaty (which shall be delivered to them immediately upon its
completion), have notified that the conclusion of such Treaty
is in conflict with the interests of Great Britain, or of any
of Her Majesty's possessions in South Africa."
Articles V. and VI. relate to public debts. Article VII.
guarantees the non-molestation of persons in the South African
Republic who "remained loyal to Her Majesty during the late
hostilities." Article VIII. is a declaration against slavery
in the Republic. Article IX. is in language as follows: "There
will continue to be complete freedom of religion and
protection from molestation for all denominations, provided
the same be not inconsistent with morality and good order; and
no disability shall attach to any person in regard to rights
of property by reason of the religious opinions which he
holds." Article X. relates to graves of British soldiers; XI.
to former grants of land which the present arrangement of
boundary places outside of the Republic; XII. to the
independence of the Swazis; XIII. to non-discrimination in
import duties on both sides.
Articles XIV. and XV. read thus: Article XIV. "All persons,
other than natives, conforming themselves to the laws of the
South African Republic, (a) will have full liberty, with their
families, to enter, travel or reside in any part of the South
African Republic; (b) they will be entitled to hire or possess
houses, manufactories, warehouses, shops and premises; (c)
they may carry on their commerce either in person or by any
agents whom they may think fit to employ; (d) they will not be
subject, in respect of their persons or property, or in
respect of their commerce or industry, to any taxes, whether
general or local, other than those which are or may be imposed
upon citizens of the said Republic." Article XV. "All persons,
other than natives, who establish their domicile in the
Transvaal between the 12th day of April, 1877, and the 8th day
of August, 1881, and who within twelve months after such last
mentioned date have had their names registered by the British
resident, shall be exempt from all compulsory military service
whatever." Article XVI. provides for a future extradition
treaty; XVII. for the payment of debts in the same currency in
which they were contracted; XVIII. establishes the validity of
certain land grants; XIX. secures certain rights to the
natives; XX. nullifies the Convention if not ratified by the
Volksraad within six months from the date of its
signature—February 27, 1884.
{459}
With considerable reluctance, the Convention was ratified by
the Volksraad of the South African Republic in the following
terms: "The Volksraad having considered the new Convention
concluded between its deputation and the British Government at
London on 27th February 1884, as likewise the negotiations
between the contracting parties, which resulted in the said
Convention, approves of the standpoint taken by its deputation
that a settlement based upon the principle of the Sand River
Convention can alone fully satisfy the burghers of the
Republic. It also shares the objections set forth by the
deputation against the Convention of Pretoria, as likewise
their objections against the Convention of London on the
following points:
1st.
The settlement of the boundary, especially on the western
border of the Republic, in which the deputation eventually
acquiesced only under the express conditions with which the
Raad agree.
2nd.
The right of veto reserved to the British Crown upon treaties
to be concluded by the Republic with foreign powers; and
3rd.
The settlement of the debt.
Seeing, however, that in the said Convention of London
considerable advantages are secured to the Republic,
especially in the restoration of the country's independence,
Resolves, With acknowledgment of the generosity of Her
Britannic Majesty, to ratify, as it hereby does, the said
Convention of London."
_Selected Official Documents of the South African
Republic and Great Britain
(Supplement to the Annals of the American Academy
of Political and Social Science, July, 1900)._
Also in:
_State Papers, British and Foreign, volume 75._
SOUTH AFRICA: The Transvaal: A. D. 1885-1890.
The gold discoveries on the Rand and the influx
of Uitlanders (Outlanders or Foreigners).
"It was not until 1884 that England heard of the presence of
gold in South Africa. A man named Fred Stuben, who had spent
several years in the country, spread such marvellous reports
of the underground wealth of the Transvaal that only a short
time elapsed before hundreds of prospectors and miners left
England for South Africa. When the first prospectors
discovered auriferous veins of wonderful quality on a farm
called Sterkfontein, the gold boom had its birth. It required
the lapse of only a short time for the news to reach Europe,
America, and Australia, and immediately thereafter that vast
and widely scattered army of men and women which constantly
awaits the announcement of new discoveries of gold was set in
motion toward the Randt [the Witwatersrand or
Whitewatersridge]. … In December, 1885, the first stamp mill
was erected for the purpose of crushing the gneiss rock in
which the gold lay hidden. This enterprise marks the real
beginning of the gold fields of the Randt, which now yield one
third of the world's total product of the precious metal. The
advent of thousands of foreigners was a boon to the Boers, who
owned the large farms on which the auriferous veins were
located. Options on farms that were of little value a short
time before were sold at incredible figures, and the prices
paid for small claims would have purchased farms of thousands
of acres two years before. In July, 1886, the Government
opened nine farms to the miners, and all have since become the
best properties on the Randt. … On the Randt the California
scenes of '49 were being re-enacted. Tents and houses of sheet
iron were erected with picturesque lack of beauty and
uniformity, and during the latter part of 1886 the community
had reached such proportions that the Government marked off a
township and called it Johannesburg. The Government, which
owned the greater part of the land, held three sales of
building lots, or 'stands,' as they are called in the
Transvaal, and realized more than $300,000 from the sales. …
Millions were secured in England and Europe for the
development of the mines, and the individual miner sold his
claims to companies with unlimited capital. The incredibly
large dividends that were realized by some of the investors
led to too heavy investments in the Stock Exchange in 1889,
and a panic resulted. Investors lost thousands of pounds, and
for several months the future of the gold fields appeared to
be most gloomy. The opening of the railway to Johannesburg and
the re-establishment of stock values caused a renewal of
confidence, and the growth and development of the Randt was
imbued with renewed vigour. Owing to the Boers' lack of
training and consequent inability to share in the development
of the gold fields, the new industry remained almost entirely
in the hands of the newcomers, the Uitlanders [so called in
the language of the Boers], and two totally different
communities were created in the republic. The Uitlanders, who,
in 1890, numbered about 100,000, lived almost exclusively in
Johannesburg and the suburbs along the Randt. The Boers,
having disposed of their farms and lands on the Randt, were
obliged to occupy the other parts of the republic, where they
could follow their pastoral and agricultural pursuits. The
natural contempt which the Englishmen, who composed the
majority of the Uitlander population, always have for persons
and races not their intellectual or social equals, soon
created a gulf between the Boers and the newcomers."
_H. C. Hillegas,
Oom Paul's People,
chapter 3
(with permission of D. Appleton & Co., copyright, 1899)._
As the influx of newcomers increased and advanced, "the Boers
realized that the world and civilisation were once more upon
them. In spite of all the opposition that patriarchal
prejudice could muster, railways usurped the place of the slow
moving ox-waggon, and in the heart of their solitude a city
had arisen; while to the north and to the east between them
and the sea were drawn the thin red lines of British boundary.
… A primitive pastoral people, they found themselves isolated,
surrounded—'shut in a kraal for ever,' as Kruger is reported
to have said,—while the stranger was growing in wealth and
numbers within their gates. Expansion of territory, once the
dream of the Transvaal Boers, as their incursions into
Bechuanaland, into Zululand, and the attempted trek into
Rhodesia, all testify, was becoming daily less practicable.
One thing remained,—to accept their isolation and strengthen
it. Wealth, population, a position among the new States of the
world had been brought to them, almost in spite of themselves,
by the newcomer, the stranger, the Uitlander. What was to be
the attitude towards him politically? Materially he had made
the State—he developed its resources, paid nine-tenths of its
revenue. Would he be a strength or a weakness as a citizen—as
a member of the body politic? Let us consider this new element
in a new State—how was it constituted, what were its component
parts? Was it the right material for a new State to
assimilate?
{460}
Cosmopolitan to a degree—recruited from all the corners of the
earth—there was in it a strong South African element,
consisting of young colonists from the Cape Colony and
Natal—members of families well known in South Africa—and many
of them old schoolfellows or in some other way known to each
other. Then the British contingent, self-reliant, full of
enterprise and energy—Americans, for the most part skilled
engineers, miners and mechanics—French, Germans, and
Hollanders. A band of emigrants, of adventurers, and
constituted, as I think all emigrants are, of two great
classes—the one who, lacking neither ability nor courage, are
filled with an ambition, characteristic particularly of the
British race, to raise their status in the world, who find the
conditions of their native environment too arduous, the
competition too keen, to offer them much prospect, and who
seek a new and more rapidly developing country elsewhere; and
another, a smaller class who sometimes through misfortune,
sometimes through their own fault, or perhaps through both,
have failed elsewhere.
"Adventurers all, one must admit; but it is the adventurers of
the world who have founded States and Kingdoms. Such a class
as this has been assimilated by the United States and absorbed
into their huge fabric, of which to-day they form a huge and
substantial portion. What should the Transvaal Boers have done
with this new element so full of enterprise and vigour? This
had been for the last ten years the great question for them to
solve. … Enfranchisement, participation in the political life
of the State by the Uitlander,—this means, they said, a
transference of all political power from our hands to those of
men whom we do not trust. 'I have taken a man into my coach,'
said President Kruger, 'and as a passenger he is welcome; but
now he says, Give me the reins; and that I cannot do, for I
know not where he will drive me.' To the Boer it is all or
nothing; he knows no mean, no compromise. Yet in that very
mean lies the vital spirit of republicanism. What is the
position of the Boers in the Cape Colony? Are they without
their share, their influence, their Africander bond in the
political affairs of the country? And so it is throughout the
world today,—in the United States, in England, in France, in
the British Colonies, wherever the individual thrives and the
State is prosperous—the compromise of divided political power
among all classes, all factions, is the great guarantee of
their well being. … That the enfranchisement of the Uitlander
would mean a complete transference of political power into his
hands involves two assumptions: the first is that the
Uitlanders would form a united body in politics; the second is
that their representatives would dominate the Volksraad. The
most superficial acquaintance with the action of the
inhabitants of the Witwatersrand district on any public matter
will serve to refute the first of these. … The second of these
assumptions—though it is continually put forward—almost
answers itself. The number of representatives from the
Uitlander districts under any scheme of redistribution of
seats which the Boer could reasonably be expected to make
would fall considerably short of those returned from the Boer
constituencies. Such was the attitude of the Boers on this
vital question which led to the Reform Movement of 1895; and I
have stated what I believe to be the injustice of it as
regards the Uitlanders and the unwisdom of it in the true
interests of the Boers."
_A. P. Hillier,
Raid and Reform,
pages 24-29 (London: Macmillan & Co.)._
SOUTH AFRICA:
Portuguese Possessions: A. D. 1891.
Delagoa Bay Railway question.
See (in this volume)
DELAGOA BAY ARBITRATION.
SOUTH AFRICA:
The Transvaal: A. D. 1894.
Estimated population.
In October, 1894, the British agent at Pretoria, J. A. de Wet,
estimated the population of the Transvaal (on the basis of a
census taken in 1890) as follows:
"Transvaalers and Orange Free Staters, 70,861:
British subjects, 62,509:
other foreigners, 15,558;"
total, 148,928.
SOUTH AFRICA:
The Transvaal: A. D. 1894.
The "Commandeering" question.
Visit of the British High Commissioner to Pretoria.
Demonstration of British residents.
The first question which came to a sharp issue between the
government of the South African Republic and the British
subjects resident in the gold fields related to the claim
which the former made on the latter for military service in
the wars of the Republic with neighboring native tribes. The
demand for such service was made, in each case, by what was
called a "commando," the commando being defined in the
military law of the Boers as follows: "By commando is
understood a number of armed burghers and subjects of the
state called together to suppress rebellion amongst the
natives, or disturbances amongst the white population."
British residents protested against the requirement of this
service from them; and the British Government, in 1894, opened
negotiations with that of the Boer Republic to obtain their
exemption from it. It was acknowledged that there is "nothing
contrary to international comity in the application of such a
law as the commando law to a foreigner"; but, said the British
Colonial Secretary, in a despatch (June 8, 1894) giving
instructions to the British High Commissioner in South Africa,
"Her Majesty's Government consider that a special reason for
now claiming exemption for our people is afforded by the fact
that treaties have been concluded by the South African
Republic under which, as they understand, the subjects of no
less than seven Powers—Portugal, Holland, Belgium, Germany,
France, Italy, and Switzerland—are now exempt from this
liability; and they consider that they can hardly be expected
to acquiesce in a state of things under which Her Majesty's
subjects, whose interests in the South African Republic are
greater and more intimate than those of any other Power,
should remain in a position of such marked disadvantage. I
have therefore to instruct you to address, in moderate and
courteous terms, a friendly representation to the Government
of the South African Republic on the subject."
Negotiations on the subject were then opened, which led to a
visit to the Boer capital by the British High Commissioner,
Sir H. B. Loch, on invitation from President Kruger. His
arrival at Pretoria (June 25) gave occasion for a
demonstration on the part of British residents which showed
the state of feeling existing more plainly, no doubt, than it
had appeared before. The circumstances were reported a few
days later by the High Commissioner, as follows: "When I
entered the carriage with President Kruger, two men got on to
the box with a Union Jack, and the crowd, notwithstanding the
President's remonstrances, took the horses out and dragged the
carriage to the hotel, a distance of nearly a mile, singing all
the way 'God save the Queen,' and 'Rule Britannia.'
{461}
On arrival at the hotel, the address was presented, to which I
briefly replied, and then called for three cheers for the
President, which were heartily given. He was then dragged in
his carriage to the Government Office. I am satisfied that no
personal insult was intended, by this demonstration, to the
President, and any annoyance with which he viewed the
occurrence seemed to be caused from the fact of the
arrangements for keeping order having been so defective. The
political atmosphere, however, was charged with such an amount
of electricity that every moment an explosion was imminent.
The Legislative and Executive enactments which press heavily
on the great industry which contributes upwards of £1,000,000
annually out of a total revenue of little more than a million
and a quarter, without the population that produces this
wealth possessing any franchise rights, or voice in the
government of the country, has created a deep-seated feeling
of dissatisfaction, shared alike by the English, American,
German, and other foreign residents in the country. The
compulsory commandeering was the last straw that broke down
the patience they had hitherto exhibited. … The Transvaal
Government were, before my arrival, seriously alarmed at the
state of feeling at Johannesburg, but when they came to
consider the real meaning of the demonstration on my arrival
at Pretoria, which showed to them how general the
dissatisfaction was amongst all classes of British subjects,
who formed the majority of the whole population of the
Republic, they, for the first time, realised the imminent
danger of the situation, and told me of their dread of a
collision that at any moment might occur between the Boer
burghers, who were in considerable numbers in the town, and
the English and foreign residents."
To avoid any further excitement of feeling, the Commissioner
declined to visit Johannesburg, which he had intended to do.
During his stay at Pretoria, he submitted to President Kruger
the draft of a Convention stipulating that "the subjects of
Her Majesty the Queen whilst residing within the limits of the
South African Republic, and the citizens of the South African
Republic whilst residing within the dominions of Her Majesty
the Queen, shall enjoy the same rights and privileges as the
subjects of the most favoured nation with regard to military
service and all obligations of a like nature"; and he received
from President Kruger a counter proposition, for the
negotiation of a new agreement, to take the place of the
London Convention of 1884, embodying the desired provision
concerning military service, along with other amendments of
the old Convention. To this proposal, President Kruger added:
"In order, however, to meet the request of Her Majesty's
Government, the Government will, in the meantime,
provisionally, no more commandeer British subjects for
personal military service." Practically, this assurance
disposed of the commandeering grievance; but no Convention on
the subject was attained.
_Great Britain, Parliamentary Publication.
(Papers by Command, C. 8159)._
"A great mass meeting was held at Johannesburg (July 14) for
the purpose of demanding that the franchise should be extended
to all aliens, and insisting that the Constitution should be
amended and made more genuinely democratic. In consequence of
this meeting the Volksraad passed at one sitting two readings
of a bill restricting severely the right of public meeting. No
outdoor meetings or addresses were to be allowed, and an
assemblage of six persons would be considered a public
meeting. The police were given power by this bill to order
those present to disperse, and everyone attending was made
liable to imprisonment for two years, while the callers of any
meeting that the police might consider to be against the
public peace might be fined £500 or sentenced to two years
hard labour. … On the return of the 'commandeered' men from
the war [with the rebellious chief Malaboch] President Kruger
welcomed them, and said that no doubt the Volksraad would
bestow on them the rights of full citizenship. The effect of
the Franchise Act passed in June, however, was in general to
prevent any citizen from obtaining the franchise unless his
father was born in the State or had been naturalized. The
formation of committees by aliens for the support of political
candidates was rendered penal. … The Volksraad postponed for
one year the consideration of the Government proposal to grant
the franchise to the foreign residents who had recently served
in the various 'commandos' against the Kaffir rebels."
_Annual Register, 1894, page 369._
SOUTH AFRICA:
British South Africa Company: A. D. 1894-1895.
Extended charter and enlarged powers of the Company.
Its master spirit, Mr. Cecil J. Rhodes.
Attitude towards the South African Republic.
The British South Africa Company, royally chartered in 1889
for the promotion of "trade, commerce, civilization and good
government" in "the region of South Africa lying immediately
to the north of British Bechuanaland, and to the north and
west of the South African Republic, and to the west of the
Portuguese dominions," was now in full possession, both
politically and commercially, not only of the great domain of
the Matabeles and the Mashonas, stretching to the Zambesi
River, but likewise of a vast territory beyond that stream.
Its charter had been extended in 1891, to cover the whole
sphere of British influence north of the Zambesi, except the
strip of country called Nyassaland, which borders the western
shore of Nyassa Lake. It had subjugated the Matabeles,
extinguished their kingdom, driven its native sovereign, Lo
Bengula, to exile and death.
See in volume 4,
SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1885-1893.
By a new agreement with the British Government, signed on the
23d of May, 1894, it had received political authority over
this imperial domain, in addition to the powers and privileges
which its broad charter gave.
The administration of the government of the region was to be
conducted by the Company, under an Administrator and a Council
of four members composed of a Judge and three other members.
The Administrator to be appointed by the Company, with the
approval of the Colonial Secretary, and to be removed either
by the Secretary or by the Company, with the approval of the
Secretary. The Judge, appointed by the Company, with the
approval of the Colonial Secretary, and removable only by the
Secretary, was to be a member of the Council ex officio.
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The members of the Council, other than the Judge, to be
appointed by the Company, with the approval of the Secretary,
and to be removable by the Company. … The Administrator
should, as representative of the Company, administer the
government, but must take the advice of his Council on all
questions of importance. In cases of emergency, when he found
it impracticable to assemble a quorum, the Administrator might
take action alone, but must report such action to the Council
at its next meeting. Moreover, he might overrule the Council,
but must, in that case, report the matter forthwith to the
Company, with the reasons for his action; and the Company
might rescind the decision of the Administrator, whether made
with, or without, or against, the advice of the Council. With
the concurrence of at least two members of the Council, and
with the approval of the British High Commissioner for South
Africa, the Administrator was empowered to frame and issue
regulations, which should have the force of law; but the
Colonial Secretary or the Company could veto any such
regulation at any time within twelve months of the date of
approval by the High Commissioner. This power of making
ordinances included the power to impose such taxes as might be
necessary, and the right to impose and to collect customs
duties. The armed forces of the Company were expressly
forbidden to act outside the defined limits of its territory
without the permission of Her Majesty's Government.
The master spirit of the Company which exercised these
imperial powers of government over so great a dominion in
Africa was Mr. Cecil J. Rhodes, Premier of Cape Colony,
organizer and chief of the De Beers Consolidated Mining Co. in
the diamond fields,—millionaire projector and manager of
everything stupendous in the enterprises of the African world.
He seemed, in fact, to be more than a master spirit in the
Company. Apparently he had created it as an instrument of his
ambitions, and it moved in his shadow throughout. Its
Administrator, Dr. Leander S. Jameson, was his closely
confidential friend. Presently it stamped his name on the
broad empire which bore already the stamp of his personality
and will, by proclaiming (May 1, 1895): "The territories now
or hereafter placed under the control of the British South
Africa Company shall be named collectively Rhodesia. The
provinces at the present time included in the territory of
Rhodesia are Mashonaland, Matabeleland, and Northern
Zambesia." Great ambitions—imperial ambitions—had thus come
to be powerfully embodied in a corporation which practically
served the will of one remarkably able man. They were
ambitions which had been in conflict from the beginning with
the interests as well as the ambitions of the Boers of the
South African Republic, and the conflict was not to be ended
by the triumph which the Rhodesians had won. Naturally the
Boer was jealous and distrustful of the energetic men who had
seized lands which he desired and hemmed his republic in.
Naturally, too, the bold adventurers of Rhodesia, arrogant in
their success and as little scrupulous as "empire-builders"
are apt to be, looked with contempt and impatience at the
plodding Boer, as an obstacle to their booming development in
Africa of a civilization "up to date." Between the two
incongruous neighbors rose the cry of the angry Uitlanders at
Johannesburg, threatening the one and appealing to the
sympathy of the other. The consequences soon appeared.
SOUTH AFRICA:
The Transvaal: A. D. 1895 (July).
Opening of Delagoa Bay Railway.-
The opening of the railway to Delagoa Bay was celebrated with
much ceremony at Pretoria on the 8th of July.
SOUTH AFRICA:
The Transvaal: A. D. 1895 (September-December).
Closing of Vaal River "drifts" (fords) as ports of entry.
Anger in Cape Colony.
A threatening situation.
In September, the government of the South African Republic
adopted a measure, for the benefit of its new railway,
connecting Delagoa Bay with Pretoria, and for the development
of foreign trade via Delagoa Bay rather than through Cape
Colony, which raised a storm of indignation at the Cape,
giving birth to a grievance there which became for a time more
threatening than the grievances of the Uitlanders of the Rand.
The measure in question was one that closed the "drifts" or
fords of the Vaal River, between Cape Colony and the
Transvaal, as ports of entry for the importation of over-sea
goods. As stated by the British High Commissioner, in a
despatch (October 7) to Mr. Chamberlain, the British Colonial
Secretary, the history of the case is as follows:
"In the year 1891 the Cape Government came to an agreement
with the Transvaal Government and the Netherlands Railway
Company to advance the latter £600,000 towards the
construction of the railway from the Vaal river to
Johannesburg, receiving in exchange for such advance
Netherlands Railway Company 4 per cent. bonds at £93,
guaranteed by the Transvaal Government. It was stipulated in
the agreement that the Cape Government might fix the traffic
rates on the Transvaal extension until the close of 1894, or
until the completion of the railway from Delagoa Bay to
Pretoria, if such completion should take place before that
date. The railway extension from the Vaal river so provided
for was opened in September, 1892, and the Cape Government
secured thereby, during the continuance of the agreement,
practically the monopoly of the Johannesburg traffic. The
agreement terminated on the 31st December, 1894, the Delagoa
Bay to Pretoria Railway having shortly before been completed
and commenced working. Up to the close of the agreement the
through-traffic rates from the coast to Johannesburg had been
fixed by the Cape at the average rate of about 2.4d. per ton
per mile. After the close of the agreement the Netherlands
Railway Company raised the rates on its 52 miles of railway,
from the Vaal river to Johannesburg, to an average of nearly
8d. per ton per mile. Upon this importers began to remove a
portion of their goods from the railway at the Vaal river, and
to send them on by road and bullock-waggon to their
destination in the Transvaal, instead of by the Netherlands
Railway to Johannesburg and elsewhere as before. This move has
recently been met by the Transvaal Government issuing a
Proclamation closing the drifts on the Vaal river alongside
the railway as ports of entry for over-sea goods, leaving them
open for other goods, the produce of South Africa. Importers of
over-sea goods have thus only the choice between making use of
the Netherlands line from the Vaal to Johannesburg at the
enhanced traffic rates imposed on that line, or of importing
via Delagoa Bay or Durban."
{463}
Vigorous remonstrances against this measure were made
instantly by the government of Cape Colony, not only on the
ground of its unfriendliness to the Colony, but also as being
an infraction of the 13th article of the London Convention of
1884 (see above: A. D. 1884-1894), and the British government
was appealed to for its interference. To this appeal the
British Colonial Secretary replied with much caution, on the
1st of November, in a communication cabled to the High
Commissioner, as follows: "Subject to the conditions stated
further on, I am prepared to authorize you to send to the
Government of the South African Republic a message to the
following effect.:—'I am advised by the Law Officers of the
Crown (who, it is hardly necessary to state, have examined the
question from a purely legal standpoint) that the recent
action of the South African Republic is a breach of Article
XIII. of the London Convention. I am further advised that the
Government of the South African Republic cannot now set itself
right by making general the prohibition of entry by the
drifts, so as to include Colonial goods, if and when they
reissue their Proclamation, which, I am surprised to observe,
they appear to have some intention of doing. Her Majesty's
Government accept the legal advice which they have received;
but independently of their Conventional rights they are of
opinion that the closing of the drifts, and especially the
extension of that measure to Colonial goods, is so unfriendly
an action as to call for the gravest remonstrance on their
part. While anxious for an amicable settlement of the
question, they must therefore protest against what they regard
as an attempt to force the hand of the Cape Government in
Conference by a proceeding which almost partakes of the nature
of an act of hostility.' You will communicate this message
confidentially to your Ministers in writing, pointing out that
when once it is sent Her Majesty's Government cannot allow the
matter to drop until they have obtained a compliance with
their demands, even if it should be necessary to undertake an
expedition for that purpose. Her Majesty's Government do not
intend that such au expedition should, like most previous
Colonial wars, be conducted at the entire cost of this
country; and you should explain to your Ministers that you are
therefore instructed to require from them a most explicit
undertaking in writing that, if it becomes necessary to send
an expedition, the Cape Parliament will bear half the gross
expense, and that the Local Government will furnish a fair
contingent of the fighting force, so far as its resources in
men may suffice, besides giving the full and free use of its
railways and rolling stock for military purposes. If your
Ministers cannot give you such assurances you will report
fully by telegraph, and defer action pending further
instructions from me; but if you obtain these assurances in
writing, explicitly and without qualification, you may send
the above message to the Government of the South African
Republic."
This was followed by a further cautionary message, November 3,
in these words: "Referring to my telegrams of the 1st
November, although willing to support your Ministers on the
conditions already stated, I should think it would be well, in
their own interests, and those of South African commerce
generally, if they will be as moderate as they can find it
consistent with their duty to be in their demands as to their
share of railway business. I have no doubt that you have
availed yourself of any chances you may have had of impressing
such a view on them and if you think it expedient you may tell
them, confidentially, that such is my view." On the 4th, Sir
Hercules Robinson replied: "My Ministers, including Schreiner
and Faure, the two Dutch Members, were unanimous in their
decision to accept your conditions. I am assured by Mr. Rhodes
that he can count on the support of the majority in the Cape
Parliament, and there are no facts before me which would lead
me to a different view; but I do not think that the question
will arise, as the Government of the South African Republic
will not hold out against the united action of the Cape and
Her Majesty's Government." On the same day he transmitted to
President Kruger the message contained (as above) in Secretary
Chamberlain's despatch of November 1. On the 21st of November
the reply of the Transvaal Government was given, as follows:
"This Government most deeply regrets that the Cape Colony has
by its own acts created a condition of things, in consequence
of which it afterwards found itself compelled to invoke the
intervention of the British Government, and it still more
deeply regrets that Her Majesty's Government, on the 'ex
parte' representations of the Cape Colony, felt itself
constrained to telegraph to this Government in the terms of
the communication of the 3rd instant. From the reply of this
Government, it will be evident to your Excellency that it
wishes to contribute in every possible way to preserve the
good understanding in South Africa, and it therefore considers
a passage such as occurs in your Excellency's telegram of the 3rd
instant, 'An attempt to force the hand of the Cape Government
at the Conference by a measure which almost resembles the
nature of a hostile act,' not justified as regards this
Republic. This Government adheres to its opinion and view that
it has an undoubted right to regulate the ports of entrance on
the borders of the Republic, and if Her Majesty's Government
calls this an unfriendly act, this Government can only say
that it was the consequence of an unfriendly act of the Cape
Colony. In order not to be the cause of disturbance in South
Africa, this Government is prepared to submit the regulating
of the ports of entrance on the borders to arbitration, it
being convinced of the justice of its assertion that the
regulating of the ports of entrance on its borders by it is no
infringement of Article 13 of the Convention of London."
_Great Britain,
Papers by Command: 1897, C. 8474, pages 11-21. _
SOUTH AFRICA: The Transvaal: A. D. 1895 (November).
The state of discontent among the Uitlanders, and its causes.
The franchise question.
Growth of British Imperialistic designs.
The suspension of commandeering went a very little way towards
removing the grievances of the British residents in the
Transvaal. Underlying that and all other causes of discontent
was the evident determination of the Boer inhabitants of the
Republic to keep in their own hands the whole power of
government, both state and municipal, and to deal with the
increasing multitude of incomers from the outside world (whom
they called Uitlanders, or Outlanders) permanently as aliens,
excluded from citizenship by as many bars as a jealous
legislature could raise.
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Until 1882, a foreigner, settling in the Transvaal, could
become a citizen and a voter after a residence of two years.
The required residence was then raised to five years, and in
1887 it was carried up to fifteen. By this time the immigrant
population was growing numerous, and its complaints of
disfranchisement and non representation in the Volksraad, or
Legislature, soon took on angry tones. In 1890 a nominal
concession was made to the discontented Uitlanders, by the
creation of a Second Volksraad (see, in this volume,
CONSTITUTION OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC—the bracketed
amendments or added articles following Article 29), to which
they could elect representatives. The suffrage in elections to
this new chamber was given after two years residence, on the
taking of an oath of allegiance to the Republic, and
qualification for sitting in it was acquired after a residence
of four years. But the Second Volksraad had no independent
power. It could act only on certain specified subjects,
taxation not included, and all that it did was subject to
overruling by the First Volksraad, while the enactments of the
latter were entirely valid without its consent. The Second
Volksraad, in fact, was no actual branch of the national
legislature, but a powerless appendage to it, where an
appearance of representation in the government could be given
to the Uitlander population without the reality.
Naturally, this aggravated rather than pacified the discontent
of the new comers. They were a rapidly increasing multitude,
congregated, for the most part, in one district, where it was
easy for them to feel and act in combination. By 1895 there
was said to be 100,000 of them in the 'Witwatersrand, and some
60,000 natives were working in their mines. They were being
heavily taxed, and they complained that they could get nothing
adequate in return for the taxation,—neither an efficient
police, nor decent sanitary regulations, nor a proper water
supply, nor a safe restraint upon the sale of liquors to their
native work people. At the same time it was charged that
corruption prevailed in the omnipotent First Volksraad, and
among public officials, and that, on the whole, the Republic
was in bad as well as in ignorant hands. This was not alone
the view of the complaining foreign residents, but was shared
more or less by unprejudiced visitors to the country,
including Mr. James Bryce, who travelled in the Transvaal in
1895, and who wrote of the grievances of the Uitlanders in
quite a sympathetic vein.
Until the gold-seekers came into it, the Republic had been
poor and its revenues small. Their coming gave it a full
treasury. They were the principal consumers of the imported
goods on which its tariff was laid. Their large use of
dynamite and other explosives in mining gave the government an
opportunity to make a highly profitable monopoly of the
manufacture, afterwards exchanged for an equally profitable
concession to a monopolistic company. Their mines were the
proper subject of a tax which yielded large returns. In fact,
the Republic was taking much to itself from the Uitlanders,—no
more, perhaps, than it had a fair right to take,—but,
according to what seems to be trustworthy testimony, it was
giving them far less in return for it than they had a just
right to demand, and it was offering them no prospect of
anything better in time to come.
It seems to be certain that responsibility for whatever was
hostile and unjust in the treatment of the foreign population
rested largely upon the President of the Republic, Mr. Paul
Kruger, who had been at the head of the government for many
years. He exercised an influence and authority that had
scarcely any limit. The Volksraad was obedient to his will,
and most of its legislation was understood to emanate from him
and from those whose council he took. There can be little
doubt that he practically shaped the whole policy of the Boer
Republic in its dealing with the Uitlanders, and that it
expressed the attitude of his mind toward foreigners in
general and Englishmen in particular. He distrusted even the
Dutch of Cape Colony, and sought Hollanders for the public
service when he needed qualifications which his own people did
not possess.
"While within the Transvaal there was growing discontent,
matters were so shaping themselves without as to still further
complicate the situation. The idea of a Confederation of
British South Africa and the extension of the British sphere
to the Zambesi, had long been the dream of imperialists, and
the ruling classes at the Cape had persistently urged this
upon the home government. … After the consolidation of the
diamond companies. Mr. Cecil Rhodes became the imperialist
leader in South Africa and marshaled behind him all the
corporate interests and combined influence of his many
associates. The Boer Republics stood in the way of the success
of imperialistic enterprise. Then too the 'scramble for
Africa,' which began with the efforts of the King of Belgium
to consolidate the native tribes of central Africa under
Belgian rule and which resulted in the carving out of the
Congo Free State, the assertion of German protection over
Damaraland and Namaqueland, and the joint effort of European
powers to check the British sphere, all lent zest to ambition
and brought the English popular mind into temper for concerted
action. Under such circumstances the 'little England' party
lost its standing and an imperial policy gained fullest
support. With such an atmosphere surrounding the Transvaal the
grievances of the 'aliens' within could not long be
disregarded without serious trouble."
_F. A. Cleveland,
The South African Conflict
(The American Academy of Political and Social Science,
Number 265), pages 19-22._
SOUTH AFRICA: The Transvaal: A. D. 1895-1896.
Revolutionary conspiracy of disaffected Uitlanders
at Johannesburg with Rhodesians.
The Jameson Raid and its results.
In the fall of 1895, certain of the disaffected Uitlanders at
Johannesburg, leaders of an organization called the Transvaal
National Union, abandoned attempts to obtain what they sought
from the President and the Volksraad by petition and
agitation, and either invited or accepted proposals of
assistance from the armed forces of the British South Africa
Company, with a view to some kind of a revolutionary
undertaking. The story of the plot has been told with great
frankness by one of the actors in it, Mr. Alfred P. Hillier,
who writes:
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