10. Under the government of Burma.

Shan states.

Karen states.

In addition to these there are British tracts known as the Upper Burma

frontier and the Burma frontier. There is also a sphere of British

influence in the border of Afghanistan. The state of Nepal, though

independent as regards its internal administration, has been since the

campaign of 1814-15 in close relations with Great Britain. It is bound to

receive a British resident, and its political relations with other states

are controlled by the government of India. All these native states have

come into relative dependency upon Great Britain as a result of conquest or

of treaty consequent upon the annexation of the neighbouring provinces. The

settlement of Aden, with its dependencies of Perim and Sokotra Island,

forms part of the government of Bombay.

This vast congeries of states, widely different in character, and acquired

by many different methods, holds together under [Sidenote: Administration.]

the supreme headship of the crown on a generally acknowledged triple

principle of self-government, self-support and self-defence. The principle

is more fully applied in some parts of the empire than in others; there are

some parts which have not yet completed their political evolution; some

others in which the principle is temporarily or for special reasons in

abeyance; others, again--chiefly those of very small extent, which are held

for purposes of the defence or advantage of the whole--to which it is not

applicable; but the principle is generally acknowledged as the structural

basis upon which the constitution of the empire exists.

In its relation to the empire the home section of the British Isles is

distinguished from the others as the place of origin of the British race

and the residence of the crown. The history and constitutional development

of this portion of the empire will be found fully treated under separate

headings. (See ENGLAND; WALES; IRELAND; SCOTLAND; UNITED KINGDOM; ENGLISH

HISTORY; INDIA; AFRICA; AUSTRALIA; CANADA; &c.)

It is enough to say that for purposes of administration the Indian empire

is divided into nine great provinces and four minor commissionerships. The

nine great provinces are presided over by two governors (Bombay and

Madras), five lieut.-governors (Bengal, Eastern Bengal and Assam, United

Provinces [Agra and Oudh], the Punjab and Burma), a chief commissioner (the

Central Provinces) and an agent to the governor-general (the N.-W. Frontier

Province). The four minor commissionerships are presided over each by a

chief commissioner. Above these the supreme executive authority in India is

vested in the viceroy in council. The council consists of six ordinary

members besides the existing commander-in-chief. For legislative purposes

the governor-general's council is increased by the addition of fifteen

members nominated by the crown, and has power under certain restrictions to

make laws for British India, for British subjects in the native states, and

for native Indian subjects of the crown in any part of the world. The

administration of the Indian empire in England is carried on by a secretary

of state for India assisted by a council of not less than ten members. The

expenditure of the revenues is under the control of the secretary in

council.

The colonial empire comprises over fifty distinct governments. It is

divided into colonies of three classes and dependencies; these, again, are

in some instances associated for administrative purposes in federated

groups. The three classes of colonies are crown colonies, colonies

possessing representative institutions but not responsible government, and

colonies possessing representative institutions and responsible government.

In crown colonies the crown has entire control of legislation, and the

public officers are under the control of the home government. In

representative colonies the crown has only a veto on legislation, but the

home government retains control of the public officers. In responsible

colonies the crown retains a veto upon legislation, but the home government

has no control of any public officer except the governor.

In crown colonies--with the exception of Gibraltar and St Helena, where

laws may be made by the governor alone--laws are made by the governor with

the concurrence of a council nominated by the crown. In some crown

colonies, chiefly those acquired by conquest or cession, the authority of

this council rests wholly on the crown; in others, chiefly those acquired

by settlement, the council is created by the crown under the authority of

local or imperial laws. The crown council of Ceylon may be cited as an

example of the first kind, and the crown council of Jamaica of the second.

In colonies possessing representative institutions without responsible

government, the crown cannot (generally) legislate by order in council, and

laws are made by the governor with the concurrence of the legislative body

or bodies, one at least of these bodies in cases where a second chamber

exists possessing a preponderance of elected representatives. The Bahamas,

Barbados, and Bermuda have two legislative bodies--one elected and one

nominated by the crown; Malta and the Leeward Islands have but one, which

is partly elected and partly nominated.

Under responsible government legislation is carried on by parliamentary

means exactly as at home, with a cabinet responsible to parliament, the

crown reserving only a right of veto, which is exercised at the discretion

of the governor in the case of certain bills. The executive councils in

those colonies, designated as at home by parliamentary choice, are

appointed by the governor alone, and the other public officers only

nominally by the governor on the advice of his executive council.

Colonial governors are classed as governors-general; governors;

lieut.-governors; administrators; high commissioners; and commissioners,

according to the status of the colony and dependency, or group of colonies

and dependencies, over which they preside. Their powers vary according to

the position which they occupy. In all cases they represent the crown.

As a consequence of this organization the finance of crown colonies is

under the direct control of the imperial government; the finance of

representative colonies, though not directly controlled, is usually

influenced in important departures by the opinion of the imperial

government. In responsible colonies the finance is entirely under local

control, and the imperial government is dissociated from either moral or

material responsibility for colonial debts.

In federated groups of colonies and dependencies matters which are of

common interest to a given number of separate governments are by mutual

consent of the federating communities adjudged to the authority of a common

government, which, in the case of self-governing colonies, is voluntarily

created for the purpose. The associated states form under the federal

government one federal body, but the parts retain control of local matters,

and exercise all their original rights of government in regard to these.

The two great self-governing groups of federated colonies within the empire

are the Dominion of Canada and the Commonwealth of Australia. In South

Africa unification was preferred to federation, the then self-governing

colonies being united in 1910 into one state--the Union of South Africa.

India, of which the associated provinces are under the control of the

central government, may be given as an example of the practical federation

of dependencies. Examples [v.04 p.0611] of federated crown colonies and

lesser dependencies are to be found in the Leeward Island group of the West

Indies and the federated Malay States.

This rough system of self-government for the empire has been evolved not

without some strain and friction, by the recognition through the

vicissitudes of three hundred years of the value of independent initiative

in the development of young countries. Queen Elizabeth's first patent to

Sir Walter Raleigh permitted British subjects to accompany him to America,

"with guarantee of a continuance of the enjoyment of all the rights which

her subjects enjoyed at home."

This guarantee may presumably have been intended at the time only to assure

the intending settlers that they should lose no rights of British

citizenship at home by taking up their residence in America. Its mutual

interpretation in a wider sense, serving at once to establish in the colony

rights of citizenship equivalent to those enjoyed in England, and to

preserve for the colonist the status of British subject at home and abroad,

has formed in application to all succeeding systems of British colonization

the unconscious charter of union of the empire.

The first American colonies were settled under royal grants, each with its

own constitution. The immense distance in time which in those days

separated America from Great Britain secured them from interference by the

home authorities. They paid their own most moderate governing expenses, and

they contributed largely to their own defence. From the middle of the 17th

century their trade was not free, but this was the only restriction from

which they suffered. The great war with France in the middle of the 18th

century temporarily destroyed this system. That war, which resulted in the

conquest of Canada and the delivery of the North American colonies from

French antagonism, cost the imperial exchequer £90,000,000. The attempt to

avert the repetition of such expenditure by the assertion of a right to tax

the colonies through the British parliament led to the one great rupture

which has marked the history of the empire. It has to be noted that at home

during the latter half of the 17th century and the earlier part of the 18th

century parliamentary power had to a great extent taken the place of the

divine right of kings. But parliamentary power meant the power of the

English people and taxpayers. The struggle which developed itself between

the American colonies and the British parliament was in fact a struggle on

the part of the people and taxpayers of one portion of the empire to resist

the domination of the people and taxpayers of another portion. In this

light it may be accepted as having historically established the fundamental

axiom of the constitution of the empire, that the crown is the supreme head

from which the parts take equal dependence.

The crown requiring advice in the ordinary and constitutional manner

receives it in matters of colonial administration from the secretaries of

state for the colonies and for India. After the great rupture separate

provision in the home government for the administration of colonial affairs

was at first judged to be unnecessary, and the "Council[3] of Trade and

Plantations," which up to that date had supplied the place now taken by the

two offices of the colonies and India, was suppressed in 1782. There was a

reaction from the liberal system of colonial self-government, and an

attempt was made to govern the colonies simply as dependencies.

In 1791, not long after the extension of the range of parliamentary

authority in another portion of the empire, by the creation in 1784 of the

Board of Control for India, Pitt made the step forward of granting to

Canada representative institutions, of which the home government kept the

responsible control. Similar institutions were also given at a later period

to Australia and South Africa. But the long peace of the early part of the

19th century was marked by great colonial developments; Australia, Canada

and South Africa became important communities. Representative institutions

controlled by the home government were insufficient, and they reasserted

the claim for liberty to manage their own affairs.

Fully responsible government was granted to Canada in 1840, and gradually

extended to the other colonies. In 1854 a separate secretary of state for

the colonies was appointed at home, and the colonial office was established

on its present footing. In India, as in the colonies, there came with the

growing needs of empire a recognition of the true relations of the parts to

each other and of the whole to the crown. In 1858, on the complete

transference of the territories of the East India Company to the crown, the

board of control was abolished, and the India Council, under the presidency

of a secretary of state for India, was created. It was especially provided

that the members of the council may not sit in parliament.

Thus, although it has not been found practicable in the working of the

British constitution to carry out the full theory of the direct and

exclusive dependence of colonial possessions on the crown, the theory is

recognized as far as possible. It is understood that the principal sections

of the empire enjoy equal rights under the crown, and that none is

subordinate to another. The intervention of the imperial parliament in

colonial affairs is only admitted theoretically in so far as the support of

parliament is required by the constitutional advisers of the crown. To

bring the practice of the empire into complete harmony with the theory it

would be necessary to constitute, for the purpose of advising the crown on

imperial affairs, a council in which all important parts of the empire

should be represented.

The gradual recognition of the constitutional theory of the British empire,

and the assumption by the principal [Sidenote: Imperialism.] colonies of

full self-governing responsibilities, has cleared the way for a movement in

favour of a further development which should bring the supreme headship of

the empire more into accord with modern ideas.

It was during the period of domination of the "Manchester school," of which

the most effective influence in public affairs was exerted for about thirty

years, extending from 1845 to 1875, that the fullest development of

colonial self-government was attained, the view being generally accepted at

that time that self-governing institutions were to be regarded as the

preliminary to inevitable separation. A general inclination to withdraw

from the acceptance of imperial responsibilities throughout the world gave

to foreign nations at the same time an opportunity by which they were not

slow to profit, and contributed to the force of a reaction of which the

part played by Great Britain in the scramble for Africa marked the

culmination. Under the increasing pressure of foreign enterprise, the value

of a federation of the empire for purposes of common interest began to be

discussed. Imperial federation was openly spoken of in New Zealand as early

as 1852. A similar suggestion was officially put forward by the general

association of the Australian colonies in London in 1857. The Royal

Colonial Institution, of which the motto "United Empire" illustrates its

aims, was founded in 1868. First among leading British statesmen to

repudiate the old interpretation of colonial self-government as a

preliminary to separation, Lord Beaconsfield, in 1872, spoke of the

constitutions accorded to the colonies as "part of a great policy of

imperial consolidation." In 1875 W. E. Forster, afterwards a member of the

Liberal government, made a speech in which he advocated imperial federation

as a means by which it might become practicable to "replace dependence by

association." The foundation of the Imperial Federation League--in 1884,

with Forster for its first president, shortly to be succeeded by Lord

Rosebery--marked a distinct step forward. The Colonial Conferences of 1887

and subsequent years (the title being changed to Imperial Conference in

1907), in which colonial opinion was sought and accepted in respect of

important questions of imperial organization and defence, and the

enthusiastic loyalty displayed by the colonies towards the crown on the

occasion of the jubilee manifestations of Queen Victoria's reign, were

further indications of progress in the same direction. Coincidently with

this development, the achievements of Sir George Goldie and Cecil Rhodes,

who, the one in West Africa and the other in South Africa, added between

them to the empire in a space of less than twenty years a dominion of

greater extent than the whole of British [v.04 p.0612] India, followed by

the action of a host of distinguished disciples in other parts of the

world, effectually stemmed the movement initiated by Cobden and Bright. A

tendency which had seemed temporarily to point towards a complacent

dissolution of the empire was arrested, and the closing years of the 19th

century were marked by a growing disposition to appreciate the value and

importance of the unique position which the British empire has created for

itself in the world. No stronger demonstration of the reality of imperial

union could be needed than that which was afforded by the support given to

the imperial forces by the colonies and India in the South African War. It

remained only to be seen by what process of evolution the further

consolidation of the empire would find expression in the machinery of

government. A step in this direction was taken in 1907, when at the

Colonial Conference held in London that year it was decided to form a

permanent secretariat to deal with the common interests of the

self-governing colonies and the mother-country. It was further decided that

conferences, to be called in future Imperial Conferences, between the home

government and the governments of the self-governing dominions, should be

held every four years, and that the prime minister of Great Britain should

be _ex officio_ president of the conference. No executive power was,

however, conferred upon the conference.

The movement in favour of tariff reform initiated by Mr Chamberlain

(_q.v._) in 1903 with the double object of giving a preference to colonial

goods and of protecting imperial trade by the imposition in certain cases

of retaliative duties on foreign goods, was a natural evolution of the

imperialist idea, and of the fact that by this time the trade-statistics of

the United Kingdom had proved that trade with the colonies was forming an

increasingly large proportion of the whole. In spite of the defeat of the

Unionist party in England in 1906, and the accession to power of a Liberal

government opposed to anything which appeared to be inconsistent with free

trade, the movement for colonial preference, based on tariff reform,

continued to make headway in the United Kingdom, and was definitely adopted

by the Unionist party. And at the Imperial Conference of 1907 it was

advocated by all the colonial premiers, who could point to the progress

made in their own states towards giving a tariff preference to British

goods and to those of one another.

The question of self-government is closely associated with the question of

self-support. Plenty of good land and the liberty to manage their own

affairs were the causes assigned by Adam Smith for the marked prosperity of

the British colonies towards the end of the 18th century. The same causes

are still observed to produce the same effects, and it may be pointed out

that, since the date of the latest of Adam Smith's writings, upwards of

6,000,000 sq. m. of virgin soil, rich with possibilities of agricultural,

pastoral and mineral wealth, have been added to the empire. In the same

period the white population has grown from about 12,000,000 to 53,000,000,

and the developments of agricultural and industrial machinery have

multiplied, almost beyond computation, the powers of productive labour.

It is scarcely possible within this article to deal with so widely varied a

subject as that of the productions and industry of the [Sidenote: The

imperial factor in industry and trade.] empire. For the purposes of a

general statement, it is interesting to observe that concurrently with the

acquisition of the vast continental areas during the 19th century, the

progress of industrial science in application to means of transport and

communication brought about a revolution of the most radical character in

the accepted laws of economic development. Railways did away with the old

law that the spread of civilization is necessarily governed by facilities

for water carriage and is consequently confined to river valleys and

sea-shores. Steam and electricity opened to industry the interior of

continents previously regarded as unapproachable. The resources of these

vast inland spaces which have lain untouched since history began became

available to individual enterprise, and over a great portion of the earth's

surface were brought within the possessions of the British empire. The

production of raw material within the empire increased at a rate which can

only be appreciated by a careful study of figures, and by a comparison of

the total of these figures with the total figures of the world. The

tropical and temperate possessions of the empire include every field of

production which can be required for the use of man. There is no main

staple of human food which is not grown; there is no material of textile

industry which is not produced. The British empire gives occupation to more

than one-third of the persons employed in mining and quarrying in the

world. It may be interesting, as an indication of the relative position in

this respect of the British empire to the world, to state that at present

it produces one-third of the coal supply of the world, one-sixth of the

wheat supply, and very nearly two-thirds of the gold supply. But while

these figures may be taken as in themselves satisfactory, it is far more

important to remember that as yet the potential resources of the new lands

opened to enterprise have been barely conceived, and their wealth has been

little more than scratched. Population as yet has been only very sparsely

sprinkled over the surface of many of the areas most suitable for white

settlement. In the wheat lands of Canada, the pastoral country of

Australasia, and the mineral fields of South Africa and western Canada

alone, the undeveloped resources are such as to ensure employment to the

labour and satisfaction to the needs of at least as many millions as they

now contain thousands of the British race. In respect of this promise of

the future the position of the British empire is unique.

It is not too much to say that trade has been at once the most active cause

of expansion and the most potent bond of union in the development of the

empire. Trade with the tropical and settlement in the temperate regions of

the world formed the basis upon which the foundations of the empire were

laid. Trading companies founded most of the American and West Indian

colonies; a trading company won India; a trading company colonized the

north-western districts of Canada; commercial wars during the greater part

of the 18th century established the British command of the sea, which

rendered the settlement of Australasia possible. The same wars gave Great

Britain South Africa, and chartered companies in the 19th century carried

the British flag into the interior of the African continent from south and

east and west. Trading companies developed Borneo and Fiji. The bonds of

prosperous trade have kept the Australasian colonies within the empire. The

protection of colonial commerce by the imperial navy is one of the

strongest of material links which connect the crown with the outlying

possessions of the empire.

The trade of the empire, like the other developments of imperial public

life, has been profoundly influenced by the variety of [Sidenote: Imperial

trade policy.] local conditions under which it has flourished. In the early

settlement of the North American colonies their trade was left practically

free; but by the famous Navigation Act of 1660 the importation and

exportation of goods from British colonies were restricted to British

ships, of which the master and three-fourths of the mariners were English.

This act, of which the intention was to encourage British shipping and to

keep the monopoly of British colonial trade for the benefit of British

merchants, was followed by many others of a similar nature up to the time

of the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 and the introduction of free trade

into Great Britain. The Navigation Acts were repealed in 1849. Thus for

very nearly two hundred years British trade was subject to restrictions, of

which the avowed intention was to curtail the commercial intercourse of the

empire with the world. During this period the commercial or mercantile

system, of which the fallacies were exposed by the economists of the latter

half of the 18th century, continued to govern the principles of British

trade. Under this system monopolies were common, and among them few were

more important than that of the East India Company. In 1813 the trade of

India was, however, thrown open to competition, and in 1846, after the

introduction of free trade at home, the principal British colonies which

had not yet at that date received the grant of responsible government were

specially empowered to abolish differential duties upon foreign trade. A

first result of the commercial emancipation of the [v.04 p.0613] colonies

was the not altogether unnatural rise in the manufacturing centres of the

political school known as the Manchester school, which was disposed to

question the value to Great Britain of the retention of colonies which were

no longer bound to give her the monopoly of their commercial markets. An

equally natural desire on the part of the larger colonies to profit by the

opportunity which was opened to them of establishing local manufactures of

their own, combined with the convenience in new countries of using the

customs as an instrument of taxation, led to something like a reciprocal

feeling of resentment, and there followed a period during which the policy

of Great Britain was to show no consideration for colonial trade, and the

policy of the principal colonies was to impose heavy duties upon British

trade. By a gradual process of better understanding, largely helped by the

development of means of communication, the antagonistic extreme was

abandoned, and a tendency towards a system of preferential duties within

the empire displayed itself.

At the Colonial Conference held in London in 1887 a proposal was formally

submitted by the South [Sidenote: Colonial preference.] African delegate

for the establishment within the empire of a preferential system, imposing

a duty of 2% upon all foreign goods, the proceeds to be directed to the

maintenance of the imperial navy. To this end it was requested that certain

treaties with foreign nations which imposed restrictions on the trade of

various parts of the empire with each other should be denounced. Some years

later, a strong feeling having been manifested in England against any

foreign engagement standing in the way of new domestic trade arrangements

between a colony and the mother-country, the German and Belgian treaties in

question were denounced (1897). Meanwhile, simultaneously with the movement

in favour of reciprocal fiscal advantages to be granted within the empire

by the many local governments to each other, there was a growth of the

perception that an increase of the foreign trade of Great Britain, carried

on chiefly in manufactured goods, was accompanied by a corresponding

enlargement of the home markets for colonial raw material, and consequently

that injury to the foreign trade of Great Britain, while as yet it so

largely outweighed the trade between the United Kingdom and the colonies,

must necessarily react upon the colonies. This view was definitely

expressed at the Colonial Conference at Ottawa in 1894, and was one of the

factors which led to the relinquishment of the demand that in return for

colonial concessions there should be an imposition on the part of Great

Britain of a differential duty upon foreign goods. Canada was the first

important British colony to give substantial expression to the new imperial

sentiment in commercial matters by the introduction in 1897 of an imperial

tariff, granting without any reciprocal advantage a deduction of 25% upon

customs duties imposed upon British goods. The same advantage was offered

to all British colonies trading with her upon equal terms. In later years

the South African states, Australia and New Zealand also granted

preferential treatment to British goods. Meanwhile in Great Britain the

system of free imports, regarded as "free trade" (though only one-sided

free trade), had become the established policy, customs duties being only

imposed for purposes of revenue on a few selected articles, and about half

the national income was derived from customs and excise. In most of the

colonies customs form of necessity one of the important sources of revenue.

It is, however, worthy of remark that in the self-governing colonies, even

those which are avowedly protectionist, a smaller proportion of the public

revenue was derived from customs and excise than was derived from these

sources in the United Kingdom. The proportion in Australasia before

federation was about one quarter. In Canada it is more difficult to

estimate it, as customs and excise form the principal provision made for

federal finance, and note must therefore be taken of the separate sources

of revenue in the provinces. With these reservations it will still be seen

that customs, or, in other words, a tax upon the movements of trade, forms

one of the chief sources of imperial revenue.

The development of steam shipping and electricity gave to the movements of

trade a stimulus no less remarkable than that given by the introduction of

railroads and industrial machinery to production and manufactures. Whereas

at the beginning of the 19th century the journey to Australia occupied

eight months, and business communications between Sydney and London could

not receive answers within the year, at the beginning of the 20th century

the journey could be accomplished in thirty-one days, and telegraphic

despatches enabled the most important business to be transacted within

twenty-four hours. For one cargo carried in the year at the beginning of

the 19th century at least six could now be carried by the same ship, and

from the point of view of trade the difference of a venture which realizes

its profits in two months, as compared with one which occupied a whole

year, does not need to be insisted on. The increased rapidity of the voyage

and the power of daily communication by telegraph with the most distant

markets have introduced a wholly new element into the national trade of the

empire, and commercial intercourse between the southern and the northern

hemispheres has received a development from the natural alternation of the

seasons, of which until quite recent years the value was not even

conceived. Fruit, eggs, butter, meat, poultry and other perishable

commodities pass in daily increasing quantities between the northern and

the southern hemispheres with an alternate flow which contributes to raise

in no inconsiderable degree the volume of profitable trade. Thus the butter

season of Australasia is from October to March, while the butter season of

Ireland and northern Europe is from March to October. In three years after

the introduction of ice-chambers into the steamers of the great shipping

lines, Victoria and New South Wales built up a yearly butter trade of

£1,000,000 with Great Britain without seriously affecting the Irish and

Danish markets whence the summer supply is drawn. These facilities,

combined with the enormous additions made to the public stock of land and

labour, contributed to raise the volume of trade of the empire from a total

of less than £100,000,000 in the year 1800 to a total of nearly

£1,500,000,000 in 1900. The declared volume of British exports to all parts

of the world in 1800 was £38,120,120, and the value of British imports from

all parts of the world was £30,570,605; total, £68,690,725. As in those

days the colonies were not allowed to trade with any other country this

must be taken as representing imperial trade. The exact figures of the

trade of India, the colonies, and the United Kingdom for 1900 were:

imports, £809,178,209; exports, £657,899,363; total, £1,467,077,572.

A question of sovereign importance to the continued existence of the empire

is the question of defence. A country of which [Sidenote: Imperial

defence.] the main thoroughfares are the oceans of the world demands in the

first instance a strong navy. It has of late years been accepted as a

fundamental axiom of defence that the British navy should exceed in

strength any reasonable combination of foreign navies which could be

brought against it, the accepted formula being the "two-power standard,"

_i.e._ a 10% margin over the joint strength of the two next powers. The

expense of maintaining such a floating armament must be colossal, and until

within the decade 1890-1900 it was borne exclusively by the taxpayers of

the United Kingdom. As the benefits of united empire have become more

consciously appreciated in the colonies, and the value of the fleet as an

insurance for British commerce has been recognized, a desire has manifested

itself on the part of the self-governing colonies to contribute towards the

formation of a truly imperial navy. In 1895 the Australasian colonies voted

a subsidy of £126,000 per annum for the maintenance of an Australasian

squadron, and in 1897 the Cape Colony also offered a contribution of

£30,000 a year to be used at the discretion of the imperial government for

naval purposes. The Australian contribution was in 1902 increased to

£240,000, and that of the Cape to £50,000, while Natal voted £35,000 a year

and Newfoundland £3000. But apart from these comparatively slight

contributions, and the local up-keep of colonial fortifications,--and the

beginning in 1908-1909 of an Australian torpedo-boat flotilla provided by

the Commonwealth,--the whole cost of the imperial navy, on which ultimately

the security of the empire rested, remained to be [v.04 p.0614] borne by

the taxpayers in the British islands. The extent of this burden was

emphasized in 1909 by the revelations as to the increase of the German (and

the allied Austrian) fleet. At this crisis in the history of the two-power

standard a wave of enthusiasm started in the colonies, resulting in the

offer of "Dreadnoughts" from New Zealand and elsewhere; and the British

government called an Imperial Conference to consider the whole question

afresh.

Land defence, though a secondary branch of the great question of imperial

defence, has been intimately connected with the development and internal

growth of the empire. In the case of the first settlement of the American

colonies they were expected to provide for their own land defence. To some

extent in the early part of their career they carried out this expectation,

and even on occasion, as in the taking of Louisburg, which was subsequently

given back at the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle as the price of the French

evacuation of Madras, rendered public service to the empire at large. In

India the principle of local self-defence was from the beginning carried

into practice by the East India Company. But in America the claim of the

French wars proved too heavy for local resources. In 1755 Great Britain

intervened with troops sent from home under General Braddock, and up to the

outbreak of the American War the cost of the defence of the North American

colonies was borne by the imperial exchequer. To meet this expense the

imperial parliament took upon itself the right to tax the American

colonies. In 1765 a Quartering Act was passed by which 10,000 imperial

troops were quartered in the colonies. As a result of the American War

which followed and led to the loss of the colonies affected, the imperial

authorities accepted the charge of the land defences of the empire, and

with the exception of India and the Hudson Bay territories, where the

trading companies determined to pay their own expenses, the whole cost of

imperial defence was borne, like the cost of the navy, by the taxpayers of

the United Kingdom. This condition of affairs lasted till the end of the

Napoleonic Wars. During the thirty years' peace which followed there came

time for consideration. The fiscal changes which towards the middle of the

19th century gave to the self-governing colonies the command of their own

resources very naturally carried with them the consequence that a call

should be made on colonial exchequers to provide for their own governing

expenses. Of these defence is obviously one of the most essential.

Coincidently, therefore, with the movements of free trade at home, the

renunciation of what was known as the mercantile system and the

accompanying grants of constitutional freedom to the colonies, a movement

for the reorganization of imperial defence was set on foot. In the decade

which elapsed between 1846 and 1856 the movement as regards the colonies

was confined chiefly to calls made upon them to contribute to their own

defence by providing barracks, fortifications, &c., for the accommodation

of imperial troops, and in some cases paying for the use of troops not

strictly required for imperial purposes. In 1857 the Australian colonies

agreed to pay the expenses of the imperial garrison quartered in Australia.

This was a very wide step from the imperial attempt to tax the American

colonies for a similar purpose in the preceding century. Nevertheless, in

evidence given before a departmental committee in 1859, it was shown that

at that time the colonies of Great Britain were free from almost every

obligation of contributing either by personal service or money payment

towards their own defence, and that the cost of military expenditure in the

colonies in the preceding year had amounted in round figures to £4,000,000.

A committee of the House of Commons sat in 1861 to consider the question,

and in 1862 it was resolved, without a division, that "colonies exercising

the right of self-government ought to undertake the main responsibility of

providing for their own internal order and security, and ought to assist in

their own external defence." The decision was accepted as the basis of

imperial policy. The first effect was the gradual withdrawing of imperial

troops from the self-governing colonies, together with the encouragement of

the development of local military systems by the loan, when desired, of

imperial military experts. A call was also made for larger military

contributions from some of the crown colonies. The committee of 1859 had

emphasized in its report the fact that the principal dependence of the

colonies for defence is necessarily upon the British navy, and in 1865,

exactly 100 years after the Quartering Act, which had been the cause of the

troubles that led to the independence of the United States, a Colonial

Naval Defence Act was passed which gave power to the colonies to provide

ships of war, steamers, and volunteers for their own defence, and in case

of necessity to place them at the disposal of the crown. In 1868 the

Canadian Militia Act gave the fully organized nucleus of a local army to

Canada. In the same year the imperial troops were withdrawn from New

Zealand, leaving the colonial militia to deal with the native war still in

progress. In 1870 the last imperial troops were withdrawn from Australia,

and in 1873 it was officially announced that military expenditure in the

colonies was almost "wholly for imperial purposes." In 1875 an imperial

officer went to Australia to report for the Australian government upon

Australian defence. The appointment in 1879 of a royal commission to

consider the question of imperial defence, which presented its report in

1882, led to a considerable development and reorganization of the system of

imperial fortifications. Coaling stations were also selected with reference

to the trade routes. In 1885 rumours of war roused a very strong feeling in

connexion with the still unfinished and in many cases unarmed condition of

the fortifications recommended by the commission of 1879. Military activity

was stimulated throughout the empire, and the Colonial Defence Committee

was created to supply a much-felt need for organized direction and advice

to colonial administrations acting necessarily in independence of each

other. The question of colonial defence was among the most important of the

subjects discussed at the colonial conference held in London in 1887, and

it was at this conference that the Australasian colonies first agreed to

contribute to the expense of their own naval defence. From this date the

principle of local responsibility for self-defence has been fully accepted.

India has its own native army, and pays for the maintenance within its

frontiers of an imperial garrison. Early in the summer of 1899, when

hostilities in South Africa appeared to be imminent, the governments of the

principal colonies took occasion to express their approval of the South

African policy pursued by the imperial government, and offers were made by

the governments of India, the Australasian colonies, Canada, Hong-Kong, the

Federal Malay states, some of the West African and other colonies, to send

contingents for active service in the event of war. On the outbreak of

hostilities these offers, on the part of the self-governing colonies, were

accepted, and colonial contingents upwards of 30,000 strong were among the

most efficient sections of the British fighting force. The manner in which

these colonial contingents were raised, their admirable fighting qualities,

and the service rendered by them in the field, disclosed altogether new

possibilities of military organization within the empire, and in subsequent

years the subject continued to engage the attention of the statesmen of the

empire. Progress in this field lay chiefly in the increased support given

in the colonial states to the separate local movements for self-defence;

but in 1909 a scheme was arranged by Mr Haldane, by which the British War

Office should co-operate with the colonial governments in providing for the

training of officers and an interchange of views on a common military

policy.

The important questions of justice, religion and instruction will be found

dealt with in detail under the headings of separate [Sidenote: Justice,

&c.] sections of the empire. Systems of justice throughout the empire have

a close resemblance to each other, and the judicial committee of the privy

council, on which the self-governing colonies and India are represented,

constitutes a supreme court of appeal (_q.v._) for the entire empire. In

the matter of religion, while no imperial organization in the strict sense

is possible, the progress made by the Lambeth Conferences and otherwise

(see ANGLICAN COMMUNION) has done much to bring the work of the Church of

England in different parts of the world into a co-operative system.

Religion, of which the forms are infinitely varied, is however everywhere

free, [v.04 p.0615] except in cases where the exercise of religious rites

leads to practices foreign to accepted laws of humanity. It is perhaps

interesting to state that the number of persons in the empire nominally

professing the Christian religion is 58,000,000, of Mahommedans 94,000,000,

of Buddhists 12,000,000, of Hindus 208,000,000, of pagans and others

25,000,000. Systems of instruction, of which the aim is generally similar

in the white portions of the empire and is directed towards giving to every

individual the basis of a liberal education, are governed wholly by local

requirements. Native schools are established in all settled communities

under British rule.

LITERATURE.--In recent years the subject of British imperialism has

inspired a growing literature, and it is only possible here to name a

selected number of the more important works which may usefully be consulted

on different topics: Sir C.P. Lucas, _Historical Geography of the British

Colonies_ (1888, et seq.); H.E. Egerton, _Short History of British Colonial

Policy_ (1897); H.J. Mackinder, _Britain and the British Seas_ (1902); Sir

J.R. Seeley, _Expansion of England_ (1883); _Growth of British Policy_

(1895); Sir Charles Dilke, _Greater Britain_ (1869), _Problems of Greater

Britain_ (1890), _The British Empire_ (1899); G.R. Parkin, _Imperial

Federation_ (1892); Sir John Colomb, _Imperial Federation, Naval and

Military_ (1886); Sir G.S. Clarke, _Imperial Defence_ (1897); Sidney

Goldmann and others, _The Empire and the Century_ (1905); J.L. Garvin,

_Imperial Reciprocity_ (1903); J.W. Welsford, _The Strength of a Nation_

(1907); _Compatriots Club Essays_ (1906); Sir H. Jenkyns, _British Rule and

Jurisdiction beyond the Seas_ (1902); Bernard Holland, _Imperium et

libertas_ (1901); (for an anti-imperialist view) J.A. Hobson, _Imperialism_

(1902). See also the Reports of the various colonial conferences,

especially that of the Imperial Conference of 1907; and for trade

statistics, J. Holt Schooling's _British Trade Book_. For the tariff reform

movement in England see the articles FREE TRADE and PROTECTION.

(F. L. L.)

[1] The census returns for 1901 from the various parts of the empire were

condensed for the first time in 1906 into a blue-book under the title of

_Census of the British Empire, Report with Summary_.

[2] The white population of British South Africa according to the census of

1904 was 1,132,226.

[3] Or "Board," as it became in 1605.

BRITISH HONDURAS, formerly called BALIZE, or BELIZE, a British crown colony

in Central America; bounded on the N. and N.W. by the Mexican province of

Yucatan, N.E. and E. by the Bay of Honduras, an inlet of the Caribbean Sea,

and S. and W. by Guatemala. (For map, see CENTRAL AMERICA.) Pop. (1905)

40,372; area, 7562 sq. m. The frontier of British Honduras, as defined by

the conventions of 1859 and 1893 between Great Britain and Guatemala,

begins at the mouth of the river Sarstoon or Sarstun, in the Bay of

Honduras; ascends that river as far as the rapids of Gracias à Dios; and

thence, turning to the right, runs in a straight line to Garbutt's Rapids,

on the Belize river. From this point it proceeds due north to the Mexican

frontier, where it follows the river Hondo to its mouth in Chetumal Bay.

British Honduras differs little from the rest of the Yucatan peninsula. The

approach to the coast is through the islets known as cays, and through

coral reefs. It is both difficult and dangerous. For some miles inland the

ground is low and swampy, thickly covered with mangroves and tropical

jungle. Next succeeds a narrow belt of rich alluvial land, not exceeding a

mile in width, beyond which, and parallel to the rivers, are vast tracts of

sandy, arid land, called "pine ridges," from the red pines with which they

are covered. Farther inland these give place, first, to the less elevated

"broken ridges," and then to what are called "cahoon ridges," with a deep

rich soil covered with myriads of palm trees. Next come broad savannas,

studded with clumps of, trees, through which the streams descending from

the mountains wind in every direction. The mountains themselves rise in a

succession of ridges parallel to the coast. The first are the Manatee

Hills, from 800 to 1000 ft. high; and beyond these are the Cockscomb

Mountains, which are about 4000 ft. high. No less than sixteen streams,

large enough to be called rivers, descend from these mountains to the sea,

between the Hondo and Sarstoon. The uninhabited country between Garbutt's

Rapids and the coast south of Deep river was first explored in 1879, by

Henry Fowler, the colonial secretary of British Honduras; it was then found

to consist of open and undulating grasslands, affording fine pasturage in

the west and of forests full of valuable timber in the east. Its elevation

varies from 1200 to 3300 ft. Auriferous quartz and traces of other minerals

have been discovered, but not in sufficient quantity to repay the cost of

mining. The geology, fauna and flora of British Honduras do not materially

differ from those of the neighbouring regions (see CENTRAL AMERICA).

Although the colony is in the tropics, its climate is subtropical. The

highest shade temperature recorded is 98° F., the lowest 50°. Easterly

sea-winds prevail during the greater part of the year. The dry season lasts

from the middle of February to the middle of May; rain occurs at intervals

during the other months, and almost continuously in October, November and

December. The annual rainfall averages about 81½ in., but rises in some

districts to 150 in. or more. Cholera, yellow fever and other tropical

diseases occur sporadically, but, on the whole, the country is not

unhealthy by comparison with the West Indies or Central American states.

_Inhabitants._--British Honduras is a little larger than Wales, and has a

population smaller than that of Chester (England). In 1904 the inhabitants

of European descent numbered 1500, the Europeans 253, and the white

Americans 118. The majority belong to the hybrid race descended from negro

slaves, aboriginal Indians and white settlers. At least six distinct racial

groups can be traced. These consist of (1) native Indians, to be found

chiefly in forest villages in the west and north of the colony away from

the sea coast; (2) descendants of the English buccaneers, mixed with

Scottish and German traders; (3) the woodcutting class known as "Belize

Creoles," of more or less pure descent from African negroes imported, as

slaves or as labourers, from the West Indies; (4) the Caribs of the

southern districts, descendants of the population deported in 1796 from St

Vincent, who were of mixed African and Carib origin; (5) a mixed population

in the south, of Spanish-Indian origin, from Guatemala and Honduras; and

(6) in the north another Spanish-Indian group which came from Yucatan in

1848. The population tends slowly to increase; about 45% of the births are

illegitimate, and males are more numerous than females. Many tracts of

fallow land and forest were once thickly populated, for British Honduras

has its ruined cities, and other traces of a lost Indian civilization, in

common with the rest of Central America.

_Natural Products._---For more than two centuries British Honduras has been

supported by its trade in timber, especially in mahogany, logwood, cedar

and other dye-woods and cabinet-woods, such as lignum-vitae, fustic,

bullet-wood, santa-maria, ironwood, rosewood, &c. The coloured inhabitants

are unsurpassed as woodmen, and averse from agriculture; so that there are

only about 90 sq. m. of tilled land. Sugar-cane, bananas, cocoanut-palms,

plantains, and various other fruits are cultivated; vanilla, sarsaparilla,

sapodilla or chewing-gum, rubber, and the cahoon or coyol palm, valuable

for its oil, grow wild in large quantities. In September 1903 all the pine

trees on crown lands were sold to Mr B. Chipley, a citizen of the United

States, at one cent (½ d.) per tree; the object of the sale being to secure

the opening up of undeveloped territory. Unsuccessful attempts have been

made to establish sponge fisheries on a large scale.

_Chief Towns and Communications._--Belize (pop. in 1904, 9969), the capital

and principal seaport, is described in a separate article. Other towns are

Stann Creek (2459), Corosal (1696), Orange Walk (1244), Punta Gorda (706),

the Cayo (421), Monkey River (384) and Mullins River (243). All these are

administered by local boards, whose aggregate revenue amounts to some

£7000. Telegraph and telephone lines connect the capital with Corosal in

the north, and Punta Gorda in the south; but there are no railways, and few

good roads beyond municipal limits. Thus the principal means of

communication are the steamers which ply along the coast. Mail steamers

from New Orleans, Liverpool, Colon and Puerto Cortes in Honduras, regularly

visit Belize.

_Commerce and Finance._--Between 1901 and 1905 the tonnage of vessels

accommodated at the ports of British Honduras rose from 300,000 to 496,465;

the imports rose from £252,500 to £386,123; the exports from £285,500 to

£377,623. The exports consist of the timber, fruit and other vegetable

products already mentioned, besides rum, deerskins, tortoiseshell, turtles

and sponges, while the principal imports are cotton goods, hardware, beer,

wine, spirits, groceries and specie. The sea-borne trade is mainly shared

by Great Britain and the United States. On the 14th of October 1894, the

American gold dollar was adopted as the standard coin, in place of the

Guatemalan dollar; and the silver of North, South and Central America

ceased to be legal tender. Government notes are issued to the value of 1,

2, 5, 10, 50 and 100 dollars, and there is a local currency of one cent

bronze pieces, and of 5, 10, 25 and 50 cent silver pieces. The British

sovereign and half sovereign are legal tender. In 1846 the government

savings bank was founded in Belize; branches were afterwards opened in the

principal towns; and in 1903 the British Bank of Honduras was established

at Belize. The revenue, chiefly derived from customs, rose from £60,150 in

1901 to £68,335 in 1905. The expenditure, in which the cost of police [v.04

p.0616] and education are important items, rose, during the same period,

from £51,210 to £61,800. The public debt, amounting in 1905 to £34,736,

represents the balance due on three loans which were raised in 1885, 1887,

and 1891, for public works in Belize. The loans are repayable between 1916

and 1923.

_Constitution and Administration._--From 1638 to 1786 the colonists were

completely independent, and elected their own magistrates, who performed

all judicial and executive functions. The customs and precedents thus

established were codified and published under the name of "Burnaby's Laws,"

after the visit of Admiral Sir W. Burnaby, in 1756, and were recognized as

valid by the crown. In 1786 a superintendent was appointed by the home

government, and although this office was vacant from 1790 to 1797, it was

revived until 1862. An executive council was established in 1839, and a

legislative assembly, of three nominated and eighteen elected members, in

1853. British Honduras was declared a colony in 1862, with a lieutenant

governor, subject to the governor of Jamaica, as its chief magistrate. In

1870 the legislative assembly was abolished, and a legislative council

substituted--the constitution of this body being fixed, in 1892, at three

official and five unofficial members. In 1884 the lieutenant governor was

created governor and commander-in-chief, and rendered independent of

Jamaica. He is assisted by an executive council of three official and three

unofficial members. For administrative purposes the colony is divided into

six districts--Belize, Corosal, Orange Walk, the Cayo, Stann Creek and

Toledo. The capital of the last named is Punta Gorda; the other districts

take the names of their chief towns. English common law is valid throughout

British Honduras, subject to modification by local enactments, and to the

operation of the _Consolidated Laws of British Honduras_. This collection

of ordinances, customs, &c., was officially revised and published between

1884 and 1888. Appeals may be carried before the privy council or the

supreme court of Jamaica,

_Religion and Education._--The churches represented are Roman Catholic,

Anglican, Wesleyan, Baptist and Presbyterian; but none of them receives

assistance from public funds. The bishopric of British Honduras is part of

the West Indian province of the Church of England. Almost all the schools,

secondary as well as primary, are denominational. School fees are charged,

and grants-in-aid are made to elementary schools. Most of these, since

1894, have been under the control of a board, on which the religious bodies

managing the schools are represented.

_Defence._--The Belize volunteer light infantry corps, raised in 1897,

consists of about 200 officers and men; a mounted section, numbering about

40, was created in 1904. For the whole colony, the police Dumber about 120.

There is also a volunteer fire brigade of 335 officers and men.

_History._--"His Majesty's Settlement in the Bay of Honduras," as the

territory was formerly styled in official documents, owes, its origin, in

1638, to log-wood cutters who had formerly been buccaneers. These were

afterwards joined by agents of the Chartered Company which exploited the

pearl fisheries of the Mosquito coast. Although thus industriously

occupied, the settlers so far retained their old habits as to make frequent

descents on the logwood establishments of the Spaniards, whose attempts to

expel them were generally successfully resisted. The most formidable of

these was made by the Spaniards in April 1754, when, in consequence of the

difficulty of approaching the position from the sea, an expedition,

consisting of 1500 men, was organized inland at the town of Peten. As it

neared the coast, it was met by 250 British, and completely routed. The

log-wood cutters were not again disturbed for a number of years, and their

position had become so well established that, in the treaty of 1763 with

Spain, Great Britain, while agreeing to demolish "all fortifications which

English subjects had erected in the Bay of Honduras," insisted on a clause

in favour of the cutters of logwood, that "they or their Workmen were not

to be disturbed or molested, under any pretext whatever, in their said

places of cutting and loading logwood." Strengthened by the recognition of

the crown, the British settlers made fresh encroachments on Spanish

territory. The Spaniards, asserting that they were engaged in smuggling and

other illicit practices, organized a large force, and on the 15th of

September 1779, suddenly attacked and destroyed the establishment at

Belize, taking the inhabitants prisoners to Mérida in Yucatan, and

afterwards to Havana, where most of them died, The survivors were liberated

in 1782, and allowed to go to Jamaica. In 1783 they returned with many new

adventurers, and were soon engaged in cutting woods. On the 3rd of

September in that year a new treaty was signed between Great Britain and

Spain, in which it was expressly agreed that his Britannic Majesty's

subjects should have "the right of cutting, loading, and carrying away

logwood in the district lying between the river Wallis or Belize and Rio

Hondo, taking the course of these two rivers for unalterable boundaries."

These concessions "were not to be considered as derogating from the rights

of sovereignty of the king of Spain" over the district in question, where

all the English dispersed in the Spanish territories were to concentrate

themselves within eighteen months. This did not prove a satisfactory

arrangement; for in 1786 a new treaty was concluded, in which the king of

Spain made an additional grant of territory, embracing the area between the

rivers Sibun or Jabon and Belize. But these extended limits were coupled

with still more rigid restrictions. It is not to be supposed that a

population composed of so lawless a set of men was remarkably exact in its

observance of the treaty. They seem to have greatly annoyed their Spanish

neighbours, who eagerly availed themselves of the breaking out of war

between the two countries in 1796 to concert a formidable attack on Belize.

They concentrated a force of 2000 men at Campeachy, which, under the

command of General O'Neill, set sail in thirteen vessels for Belize, and

arrived on the 10th of July, 1798. The settlers, aided by the British sloop

of war "Merlin," had strongly fortified a small island in the harbour,

called St George's Cay. They maintained a determined resistance against the

Spanish forces, which were obliged to retire to Campeachy. This was the

last attempt to dislodge the British.

The defeat of the Spanish attempt of 1798 has been adduced as an act of

conquest, thereby permanently establishing British sovereignty. But those

who take this view overlook the important fact that, in 1814, by a new

treaty with Spain, the provisions of the earlier treaty were revived. They

forget also that for many years the British government never laid claim to

any rights acquired in virtue of the successful defence; for so late as

1817-1819 the acts of parliament relating to Belize always refer to it as

"a settlement, for certain purposes, under the protection of His Majesty."

After Central America had attained its independence (1819-1822) Great

Britain secured its position by incorporating the provisions of the treaty

of 1786 in a new treaty with Mexico (1826), and in the drafts of treaties

with New Granada (1825) and the United States of Central America (1831).

The territories between the Belize and Sarstoon rivers were claimed by the

British in 1836. The subsequent peaceful progress of the country under

British rule; the exception of Belize from that provision of the

Clayton-Bulwer Treaty (_q.v._) of 1850 which forbade Great Britain and the

United States to fortify or colonize any point on the Central American

mainland; and the settlement of the boundary disputes with Guatemala in

1859, finally confirmed the legal sovereignty of Great Britain over the

whole colony, including the territories claimed in 1836. The Bay Islands

were recognized as part of the republic of Honduras in 1859. Between 1849,

when the Indians beyond the Hondo rose against their Mexican rulers, and

1901, when they were finally subjugated, rebel bands occasionally attacked

the northern and north-western marches of the colony. The last serious raid

was foiled in 1872.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--For all statistical matter relating to the colony, see the

annual reports to the British Colonial Office (London). For the progress of

exploration, see _A Narrative of a Journey across the unexplored Portion of

British Honduras_, by H. Fowler (Belize, 1879); and "An Expedition to the

Cockscomb Mountains," by J. Bellamy, in _Proceedings of the Royal

Geographical Society_, vol. xi. (London, 1889). A good general description

is given in the _Handbook of British Honduras_, by L.W. Bristowe and P.B.

Wright (Edinburgh, 1892); and the local history is recounted in the

_History of British Honduras_, by A.R. Gibbs (London, 1883); in _Notes on

Central America_, by E.J. Squier (New York, 1855); and in _Belize or

British Honduras_, a paper read before the Society of Arts by Chief Justice

Temple (London, 1847).

(K. G. J.)

BRITOMARTIS ("sweet maiden"), an old Cretan goddess, later identified with

Artemis. According to Callimachus (_Hymn to Diana_, 190), she was a nymph,

the daughter of Zeus and Carme, and a favourite companion of Artemis. Being

pursued by Minos, king of Crete, who was enamoured of her, she sprang from

a rock into the sea, but was saved from drowning by falling into some

fishermen's nets. She was afterwards made a goddess by Artemis under the

name of Dictynna ([Greek: diktuon], "a [v.04 p.0617] net"). She was the

patroness of hunters, fishermen and sailors, and also a goddess of birth

and health. The centre of her worship was Cydonia, whence it extended to

Sparta and Aegina (where she was known as Aphaea) and the islands of the

Mediterranean. By some she is considered to have been a moon-goddess, her

flight from Minos and her leap into the sea signifying the revolution and

disappearance of the moon (Pausanias ii. 30, iii. 14; Antoninus Liberalis

40).

BRITON-FERRY, a seaport in the mid-parliamentary division of

Glamorganshire, Wales, on the eastern bank of the estuary of the Neath

river in Swansea Bay, with stations on the Great Western and the Rhondda &

Swansea Bay railways, being 174 m. by rail from London. Pop. of urban

district (1901) 6973. A tram-line connects it with Neath, 2 m. distant, and

the Vale of Neath Canal (made in 1797) has its terminus here. The district

was formerly celebrated for its scenery, but this has been considerably

marred by industrial development which received its chief impetus from the

construction in 1861 of a dock of 13 acres, the property of the Great

Western Railway Company, and the opening up about the same time of the

mining districts of Glyncorrwg and Maesteg by means of the South Wales

mineral railway, which connects them with the dock and supplies it with its

chief export, coal. Steel and tinplates are manufactured here on a large

scale. There are also iron-works and a foundry.

The name La Brittone was given by the Norman settlers of the 12th century

to its ferry across the estuary of the Neath (where Archbishop Baldwin and

Giraldus crossed in 1188, and which is still used), but the Welsh name of

the town from at least the 16th century has been Llansawel.

BRITTANY, or BRITANNY (Fr. _Bretagne_), known as Armorica (_q.v._) until

the influx of Celts from Britain, an ancient province and duchy of France,

consisting of the north-west peninsula, and nearly corresponding to the

departments of Finistère, Côtes-du-Nord, Morbihan, Ille-et-Vilaine and

Lower Loire. It is popularly divided into Upper or Western, and Lower or

Eastern Brittany. Its greatest length between the English Channel and the

Atlantic Ocean is 250 kilometres (about 155 English miles), and its

superficial extent is 30,000 sq. kilometres (about 18,630 English sq. m.).

It comprises two distinct zones, a maritime zone and an inland zone. In the

centre there are two plateaus, partly covered with _landes_, unproductive

moorland: the southern plateau is continued by the Montagnes Noires, and

the northern is dominated by the Monts d'Arrée. These ranges nowhere exceed

1150 ft. in height, but from their wild nature they recall the aspect of

high mountains. The waterways of Brittany are for the most part of little

value owing to their torrent-like character. The only river basin of any

importance is that of the Vilaine, which flows through Rennes. The coast is

very much indented, especially along the English Channel, and is rocky and

lined with reefs and islets. The mouths of the rivers form deep estuaries.

Thus nature itself condemned Brittany to remain for a long time shut out

from civilization. But in the 19th century the development of railways and

other means of communication drew Brittany from its isolation. In the 19th

century also agriculture developed in a remarkable manner. Many of the

_landes_ were cleared and converted into excellent pasturage, and on the

coast market-gardening made great progress. In the fertile districts

cereals too are cultivated. Industrial pursuits, except in a few seaport

towns, which are rather French than Breton, have hitherto received but

little attention.

The Bretons are by nature conservative. They cling with almost equal

attachment to their local customs and their religious superstitions. It was

not till the 17th century that paganism was even nominally abolished in

some parts, and there is probably no district in Europe where the popular

Christianity has assimilated more from earlier creeds. Witchcraft and the

influence of fairies are still often believed in. The costume of both sexes

is very peculiar both in cut and colour, but varies considerably in

different districts. Bright red, violet and blue are much used, not only by

the women, but in the coats and waistcoats of the men. The reader will find

full illustrations of the different styles in Bouet's _Breiz-izel, ou vie

des Breions de l'Armorique_ (1844). The Celtic language is still spoken in

lower Brittany. Four dialects are pretty clearly marked (see the article

CELT: _Language_, "_Breton_," p. 328). Nowhere has the taste for marvellous

legends been kept so green as in Brittany; and an entire folk-literature

still flourishes there, as is manifested by the large number of folk-tales

and folk-songs which have been collected of late years.

The whole duchy was formerly divided into nine bishoprics:--Rennes, Dol,

Nantes, St Malo and St Brieuc, in Upper Brittany and Tréguier, Vannes,

Quimper and St Pol de Léon in Lower.

_History._--Of Brittany before the coming of the Romans we have no exact

knowledge. The only traces left by the primitive populations are the

megalithic monuments (dolmens, menhirs and cromlechs), which remain to this

day in great numbers (see STONE MONUMENTS). In 56 B.C. the Romans destroyed

the fleet of the Veneti, and in 52 the inhabitants of Armorica took part in

the great insurrection of the Gauls against Caesar, but were subdued

finally by him in 51. Roman civilization was then established for several

centuries in Brittany.

In the 5th century numbers of the Celtic inhabitants of Britain, flying

from the Angles and Saxons, emigrated to Armorica, and populated a great

part of the peninsula. Converted to Christianity, the new-comers founded

monasteries which helped to clear the land, the greater part of which was

barren and wild. The Celtic immigrants formed the counties of Vannes,

Cornouaille, Léon and Domnonée. A powerful aristocracy was constituted,

which owned estates and had them cultivated by serfs or villeins. The Celts

sustained a long struggle against the Frankish kings, who only nominally

occupied Brittany. Louis the Pious placed a native chief Nomenoë at the

head of Brittany. There was then a fairly long period of peace; but Nomenoë

rebelled against Charles the Bald, defeated him, and forced him, in 846, to

recognize the independence of Brittany. The end of the 9th century and the

beginning of the 10th were remarkable for the invasions of the Northmen. On

several occasions they were driven back--by Salomon (d. 874) and afterwards

by Alain, count of Vannes (d. 907)--but it was Alain Barbetorte (d. 952)

who gained the decisive victory over them.

In the second half of the 10th century and in the 11th century the counts

of Rennes were predominant in Brittany. Geoffrey, son of Conan, took the

title of duke of Brittany in 992. Conan II., Geoffrey's grandson,

threatened by the revolts of the nobles, was attacked also by the duke of

Normandy (afterwards William I. of England). Alain Fergent, one of his

successors, defeated William in 1085, and forced him to make peace. But in

the following century the Plantagenets succeeded in establishing themselves

in Brittany. Conan IV., defeated by the revolted Breton nobles, appealed to

Henry II. of England, who, in reward for his help, forced Conan to give his

daughter in marriage to his son Geoffrey. Thus Henry II. became master of

Brittany, and Geoffrey was recognized as duke of Brittany. But this new

dynasty was not destined to last long. Geoffrey's posthumous son, Arthur,

was assassinated by John of England in 1203, and Arthur's sister Alix, who

succeeded to his rights, was married in 1212 to Pierre de Dreux, who became

duke. This was the beginning of a ducal dynasty of French origin, which

lasted till the end of the 15th century.

From that moment the ducal power gained strength in Brittany and succeeded

in curbing the feudal nobles. Under French influence civilization made

notable progress. For more than a century peace reigned undisturbed in

Brittany. But in 1341 the death of John III., without direct heir, provoked

a war of succession between the houses of Blois and Montfort, which lasted

till 1364. This war of succession was, in reality, an incident of the

Hundred Years' War, the partisans of Blois and Montfort supporting

respectively the kings of France and England. In 1364 John of Montfort (d.

1399) was recognized as duke of Brittany under the style of John IV.[1],

but his reign [v.04 p.0618] was constantly troubled, notably by his

struggle with Olivier de Clisson (1336-1407). John V. (d. 1442), on the

other hand, distinguished himself by his able and pacific policy. During

his reign and the reigns of his successors, Francis I., Peter II. and

Arthur III., the ducal authority developed in a remarkable manner. The

dukes formed a standing army, and succeeded in levying hearth taxes

(_fouages_) throughout Brittany. Francis II. (1435-1488) fought against

Louis XI., notably during the War of the Public Weal, and afterwards

engaged in the struggle against Charles VIII., known as "The Mad War" (_La

Guerre Folle_). After the death of Francis II. the king of France invaded

Brittany, and forced Francis's daughter, Anne of Brittany, to marry him in

1491. Thus the reunion of Brittany and France was prepared. After the death

of Charles VIII. Anne married Louis XII. Francis I., who married Claude,

the daughter of Louis XII. and Anne, settled the definitive annexation of

the duchy by the contract of 1532, by which the maintenance of the

privileges and liberties of Brittany was guaranteed. Until the Revolution

Brittany retained its own estates. The royal power, however, was exerted to

reduce the privileges of the province as much as possible. It often met

with vigorous resistance, notably in the 18th century. The struggle was

particularly keen between 1760 and 1769, when E. A. de V. du Plessis

Richelieu, duc d'Aiguillon, had to fight simultaneously the estates and the

parliament, and had a formidable adversary in L. R. de C. de la Chalotais.

But under the monarchy the only civil war in Brittany in which blood was

shed was the revolt of the duc de Mercoeur (d. 1602) against the crown at

the time of the troubles of the League, a revolt which lasted from 1589 to

1598. Mention, however, must also be made of a serious popular revolt which

broke out in 1675--"the revolt of the stamped paper."

See Bertrand d'Argentré, _Histoire de Bretagne_ (Paris, 1586); Dom

Lobineau, _Histoire de Bretagne_ (Paris, 1702); Dom Morice, _Histoire de

Bretagne_ (1742-1756); T. A. Trollope, _A Summer in Brittany_ (1840); A. du

Chatellier, _L'Agriculture et les classes agricoles de la Bretagne_ (1862);

F. M. Luzel, _Légendes chrétiennes de la Basse-Bretagne_ (Paris, 1881), and

_Veillées bretonnes_ (Paris, 1879); A. Dupuy, _La Réunion de la Bretagne à

la France_ (Paris, 1880), and _Études sur l'administration municipale en

Bretagne au XVIII^e siècle_ (1891); J. Loth, _L'Émigration bretonne en

Armorique du V^e au VII^e siècle_ (Rennes, 1883); H. du Cleuziou, _Bretagne

artistique et pittoresque_ (Paris, 1886); Arthur de la Borderie, _Histoire

de Bretagne_ (Rennes, 1896 seq.); J. Lemoine, _La Révolte du papier timbré

ou des bonnets rouges en Bretagne en 1675_ (1898); M. Marion, _La Bretagne

et le duc d'Aiguillon_ (Paris, 1898); B. Pocquet, _Le Duc d'Aiguillon et la

Chalotais_ (Paris, 1900-1902); Anatole le Braz, _Vieilles Histoires du pays

breton_ (1897), and _La Légende de la mort_ (Paris, 1902); Ernest Lavisse,

_Histoire de France_, vol. i. (Paris, 1903); Henri Sée, _Étude sur les

classes rurales en Bretagne au moyen âge_ (1896), and _Les Classes rurales

en Bretagne du XVI^e siècle à la Revolution_ (1906).

[1] Certain authorities count the father of this duke, another John of

Montfort (d. 1345), among the dukes of Brittany, and according to this

enumeration the younger John becomes John V., not John IV., and his

successor John VI. and not John V.

BRITTON, JOHN (1771-1857), English antiquary, was born on the 7th of July

1771 at Kington-St-Michael, near Chippenham. His parents were in humble

circumstances, and he was left an orphan at an early age. At sixteen he

went to London and was apprenticed to a wine merchant. Prevented by

ill-health from serving his full term, he found himself adrift in the

world, without money or friends. In his fight with poverty he was put to

strange shifts, becoming cellarman at a tavern and clerk to a lawyer,

reciting and singing at a small theatre, and compiling a collection of

common songs. After some slight successes as a writer, a Salisbury

publisher commissioned him to compile an account of Wiltshire and, in

conjunction with his friend Edward Wedlake Brayley, Britton produced _The

Beauties of Wiltshire_ (1801; 2 vols., a third added in 1825), the first of

the series _The Beauties of England and Wales_, nine volumes of which

Britton and his friend wrote. Britton was the originator of a new class of

literary works. "Before his time," says Digby Wyatt, "popular topography

was unknown." In 1805 Britton published the first part of his

_Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain_ (9 vols., 1805-1814); and this

was followed by _Cathedral Antiquities of England_ (14 vols., 1814-1835).

In 1845 a Britton Club was formed, and a sum of £1000 was subscribed and

given to Britton, who was subsequently granted a civil list pension by

Disraeli, then chancellor of the exchequer. Britton was an earnest advocate

of the preservation of national monuments, proposing in 1837 the formation

of a society such as the modern Society for the Preservation of Ancient

Monuments. Britton himself supervised the reparation of Waltham Cross and

Stratford-on-Avon church. He died in London on the 1st of January 1857.

Among other works with which Britton was associated either as author or

editor are _Historical Account of Redcliffe Church, Bristol_ (1813);

_Illustrations of Fonthill Abbey_ (1823); _Architectural Antiquities of

Normandy_, with illustrations by Pugin (1825-1827); _Picturesque

Antiquities of English Cities_ (1830); and _History of the Palace and

Houses of Parliament at Westminster_ (1834-1836), the joint work of Britton

and Brayley. He contributed much to the _Gentleman's Magazine_ and other

periodicals.

His _Autobiography_ was published in 1850. A _Descriptive Account of his

Literary Works_ was published by his assistant T.E. Jones.

BRITTON, the title of the earliest summary of the law of England in the

French tongue, which purports to have been written by command of King

Edward I. The origin and authorship of the work have been much disputed. It

has been attributed to John le Breton, bishop of Hereford, on the authority

of a passage found in some MSS. of the history of Matthew of Westminster;

there are difficulties, however, involved in this theory, inasmuch as the

bishop of Hereford died in 1275, whereas allusions are made in _Britton_ to

several statutes passed after that time, and more particularly to the

well-known statute _Quia emptores terrarum_, which was passed in 1290. It

was the opinion of Selden that the book derived its title from Henry de

Bracton, the last of the chief justiciaries, whose name is sometimes

spelled in the fine Rolls "Bratton" and "Bretton", and that it was a royal

abridgment of Bracton's great work on the customs and laws of England, with

the addition of certain subsequent statutes. The arrangement, however, of

the two works is different, and but a small proportion of Bracton's work is

incorporated in _Britton_. The work is entitled in an early MS. of the 14th

century, which was once in the possession of Selden, and is now in the

Cambridge university library, _Summa de legibus Anglie que vocatur

Bretone_; and it is described as "a book called Bretoun" in the will of

Andrew Horn, the learned chamberlain of the city of London, who bequeathed

it to the chamber of the Guildhall in 1329, together with another book

called _Mirroir des Justices_.

_Britton_ was first printed in London by Robert Redman, without a date,

probably about the year 1530. Another edition of it was printed in 1640,

corrected by E. Wingate. A third edition of it, with an English

translation, was published at the University Press, Oxford, 1865, by F. M.

Nichol. An English translation of the work without the Latin text had been

previously published by R. Kelham in 1762.

BRITZSKA, or BRITSKA (from the Polish _bryczka_; a diminutive of _bryka_, a

goods-wagon), a form of carriage, copied in England from Austria early in

the 19th century; as used in Poland and Russia it had four wheels, with a

long wicker-work body constructed for reclining and a calash (hooded) top.

BRIVE, or BRIVES-LA-GAILLARDE, a town of south-central France, capital of

an arrondissement in the department of Corrèze, 62 m. S.S.E. of Limoges on

the main line of the Orléans railway from Paris to Montauban. Pop. (1906)

town 14,954; commune 20,636. It lies on the left bank of the Corrèze in an

ample and fertile plain, which is the meeting-place of important roads and

railways. The _enceinte_ which formerly surrounded the town has been

replaced by shady boulevards, and a few wide thoroughfares have been made,

but many narrow winding streets and ancient houses still remain. Outside

the boulevards lie the modern quarters, also the fine promenade planted

with plane trees which stretches to the Corrèze and contains the chief

restaurants and the theatre. Here also is the statue of Marshal Guillaume

Marie Anne Brune, who was a native of Brive. A fine bridge leads over the

river to suburbs on its right bank. The public buildings are of little

interest apart from the church of St Martin, which stands in the heart of

the old town. It is a building of the 12th century in the Romanesque style

of Limousin, with three narrow naves of almost equal height. The

ecclesiastical seminary occupies a graceful mansion of the 16th century,

with a façade, a staircase and fireplaces of fine Renaissance workmanship.

Brive is the seat of a sub-prefect [v.04 p.0619] and has a tribunal of

first instance, a tribunal of commerce, a communal college and a school of

industry. Its position makes it a market of importance, and it has a very

large trade in the early vegetables and fruit of the valley of the Corrèze,

and in grain, live-stock and truffles. Table-delicacies, paper, wooden

shoes, hats, wax and earthenware are manufactured, and there are slate and

millstone workings and dye-works.

In the vicinity are numerous rock caves, many of them having been used as

dwellings in prehistoric times. The best known are those of Lamouroux,

excavated in stages in a vertical wall of rock, and four grotto-chapels

resorted to by pilgrims in memory of St Anthony of Padua, who founded a

Franciscan monastery at Brive in 1226. Under the Romans Brive was known as

_Briva Curretiae_ (bridge of the Corrèze). In the middle ages it was the

capital of lower Limousin.

BRIXEN (Ital. _Bressanone_), a small city in the Austrian province of

Tirol, and the chief town of the administrative district of Brixen. Pop.

(1900) 5767. It is situated in the valley of the Eisack, at the confluence

of that stream with the Rienz, and is a station on the Brenner railway,

being 34 m. south-east of that pass, and 24 m. north-east of Botzen. The

aspect of the city is very ecclesiastical; it is still the see of a bishop,

and contains an 18th-century cathedral church, an episcopal palace and

seminary, twelve churches and five monasteries. The see was founded at the

end of the 8th century (possibly of the 6th century) at Säben on the rocky

heights above the town of Klausen (some way to the south of Brixen), but in

992 was transferred to Brixen, which, perhaps a Roman station, became later

a royal estate, under the name of _Prichsna_, and in 901 was given by Louis

the Child to the bishop. In 1027 the bishop received from the emperor

Conrad II. very extensive temporal powers, which he only lost to Austria in

1803. The town was surrounded in 1030 by walls. In 1525 it was the scene of

the first outbreak of the great peasants' revolt. About 5½ m. north of

Brixen is the great fortress of Franzensfeste, built 1833-1838, to guard

the route over the Brenner and the way to the east up the Pusterthal.

(W. A. B. C.)

BRIXHAM, a seaport and market town in the Torquay parliamentary division of

Devonshire, England, 33 m. S. of Exeter, on a branch of the Great Western

railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 8092. The town is irregularly built

on the cliffs to the south of Torbay, and its harbour is sheltered by a

breakwater. Early in the 19th century it was an important military post,

with fortified barracks on Berry Head. It is the headquarters of the

Devonshire sea-fisheries, having also a large coasting trade. Shipbuilding

and the manufacture of ropes, paint and sails are industries. There is

excellent bathing, and Brixham is in favour as a seaside resort. St Mary's,

the ancient parish church, has an elaborate 14th-century font and some

monuments of interest. At the British Seamen's Orphans' home boys are fed,

clothed and trained as apprentices for the merchant service. A statue

commemorates the landing, in 1688, of William of Orange.

_Brixham Cave_, called also Windmill Hill Cavern, is a well-known

ossiferous cave situated near Brixham, on the brow of a hill composed of

Devonian limestone. It was discovered by chance in 1858, having been until

then hermetically sealed by a mass of limestone breccia. Dr Hugh Falconer

with the assistance of a committee of geologists excavated it. The

succession of beds in descending order is as follows:--(1) Shingle

consisting of pebbles of limestone, slate and other local rocks, with

fragments of stalagmite and containing a few bones and worked flints. The

thickness varies from five to sixteen feet. (2) Red cave earth with angular

fragments of limestone, bones and worked flints, and having a thickness of

3 to 4 ft. (3) Remnants (_in situ_) of an old stalagmitic floor about nine

inches thick. (4) Black peaty soil varying in thickness, the maximum being

about a foot. (5) Angular debris fallen from above varying in thickness

from one to ten feet. (6) Stalagmite with a few bones and antlers of

reindeer, the thickness varying from one to fifteen inches. Of particular

interest is the presence of patches or ledges of an old stalagmitic floor,

three to four feet above the present floor. On the under-side, there are

found attached fragments of limestone and quartz, showing that the shingle

bed once extended up to it, and that it then formed the original floor. The

shingle therefore stood some feet higher than it does now, and it is

supposed that a shock or jar, such as that of an earthquake, broke up the

stalagmite, and the pebbles and sand composing the shingle sunk deeper into

the fissures in the limestone. This addition to the size of the cave was

partially filled up by the cave earth. At a later period the fall of

angular fragments at the entrance finally closed the cave, and it ceased to

be accessible except to a few burrowing animals, whose remains are found

above the second and newer stalagmite floor.

The fauna of Brixham cavern closely resembles that of Kent's Hole. The

bones of the bear, horse, rhinoceros, lion, elephant, hyena and of many

birds and small rodents were unearthed. Altogether 1621 bones, nearly all

broken and gnawed, were found; of these 691 belonged to birds and small

rodents of more recent times. The implements are of a roughly-chipped type

resembling those of the Mousterian period. From these structural and

palaeontological evidences, geologists suppose that the formation of the

cave was carried on simultaneously with the excavation of the valley; that

the small streams, flowing down the upper ramifications of the valley,

entered the western opening of the cave, and traversing the fissures in the

limestone, escaped by the lower openings in the chief valley; and that the

rounded pebbles found in the shingle bed were carried in by these streams.

It would be only at times of drought that the cave was frequented by

animals, a theory which explains the small quantity of animal remains in

the shingle. The implements of man are relatively more common, seventeen

chipped flints having been found. As the excavation of the valley

proceeded, the level of the stream was lowered and its course diverted; the

cave consequently became drier and was far more frequently inhabited by

predatory animals. It was now essentially an animal den, the occasional

visits of man being indicated by the rare occurrence of flint-implements.

Finally, the cave became a resort of bears; the remains of 334 specimens,

in all stages of growth, including even sucking cubs, being discovered.