and Bremen owe much of their present prosperity to the potato-spirit which can be turned out in unlimited quantities within easy reach of these central marts. In like manner Rotterdam profits greatly by the coarse gin it obtains from Eastern Holland and other sources. A kindred industry is rapidly growing up in northern parts of France, and from the United States a good deal of inferior rum is still sent to Africa; but by far the larger part of the cheap stuff is shipped from the North German and Dutch ports, though much of it in vessels owned by Liverpool and other British shipping companies. Of the German cargoes, only a small portion goes to German colonies. Holland has no African colonies to which the Dutch cargoes can go. Thus, in the one case there is small inducement, and in the other there is none, for any attempt on the part of the Government to restrain, for the benefit of African savages, a traffic by which distillers and merchants at home make money. Hence, primarily, the inadequacy of the restrictive measures which were all that Lord Vivian could persuade the Conference of 1889-90 to agree to. For the same reason we dare not hope for much as a result of the negotiations resumed last month.

Trade and Liquor Traffic.-Just before the new conference entered on its work Mr. Chamberlain announced that, whatever the other Powers might do, Her Majesty's Government was resolved as soon as possible to raise to four shillings a gallon the duty on spirits imported into any of our West African possessions in which lower duty is charged at present, and to do everything in its power to exclude spirits altogether from the interior districts that are now, by railroads and other improved means of communication, being opened up to British trade. We are constantly assured by the Liverpool shipowners and their associates that African natives will not buy Manchester cottons or Sheffield tools or Birmingham gew-gaws unless each transaction is floated in cheap gin or rum; and that unless the buyer gets as much as he wants of this fiery liquid, at the price he is accustomed to, both for his own immediate consumption and for use in procuring palm-oil, rubber, or what not with which to continue his business, trade will be shifted from British markets in Lagos, the Gold Coast, or Sierra Leone, to the markets in German, French, or other territory, which will thus be enriched at our own colonies' expense. But the balance of experience is against the alarmists. As a set-off to any temporary shrinkage of trade, moreover, should it here and there occur, must be reckoned the unquestionable advantage that would ensue, in the long run if not at once, from the raising of our African trade from its present low level of morality. Encourage a man to be a drunkard, and he may be for a time a good customer to the gin-seller, but he will have little or nothing to spare on useful articles, and will soon be too poor and too sodden to buy even drink. If he is kept sober and raised in the standard of civilisation, he and his children after him will be an ever-increasing source of profit to the honest caterer.

Whatever may be the minimum duty resolved upon by the conference

lately assembled at Brussels, Mr. Chamberlain will have opportunity for carrying out his bold policy and expanding it indefinitely. Any example he may set to France, Germany, and other commercial and political rivals, in the way of purging the old markets of their vitiating conditions and of ensuring that the new markets to be opened up shall be as serviceable as possible, will have few, if any, risks, whether it is followed by them or not.

Mischiefs of the Traffic.-Exaggerated statements are often made as to the mischief already caused by the drink traffic in Africa. As yet it is, with some exceptions, only along the narrow fringe of coast line, not more than fifty or sixty miles broad, that there is much trade in European liquor or in any other sort of European commodities; and within this limit the proportion of excessive drinkers may not be much greater than it is in many European ports and trading centres. There can be no doubt, however, that Africans who acquire a taste for strong drink imported from Europe are apt to be more demoralised by it than is the European drunkard, and on economic no less than on ethical grounds the taste ought not to be encouraged. Short of complete prohibition, which is hardly to be thought of, it can only be restrained by increasing the cost of the objectionable article, and thus rendering it more difficult to procure. For this there would appear to be no other expedient than the imposition of customs duties sufficiently high to serve as a successful deterrent.

Exclusion from Free Districts.-Much more important, however, than any practicable interference with the liquor traffic in districts already contaminated by it-also, it may be assumed, less difficult, as here there are no "vested interests" to be assailed-is its exclusion as far as possible from the districts, ten or fifty times as great and populous, in which at present, "either on account of religious belief or from other motives, the use of distilled liquors does not exist or has not been developed." That is what all the Powers having possessions in Africa pledged themselves to do at the Brussels Conference of 1889-90. There has been more or less pretence of doing it by some, especially in the regions hitherto or still under Mohammedan rule, where bargains entered into with the native chiefs have provided for observance of the law of the Koran prohibiting the use of alcohol. But the pledge has been to a large extent ignored wherever, with or without Government consent, traders have contrived to push their way. Within the next few years, by help of the railroads now being constructed, they will be able to go much further into the interior, and in all directions, than hitherto. Stringent measures ought therefore to be taken without delay for stopping their progress as far as the conveyance of liquor is concerned. Mr. Chamberlain has promised that this shall be done within British possessions, and it is understood that at the new Brussels Conference the British plenipotentiaries had instructions to do all in their power to secure the co-operation of their foreign colleagues in establishing a comprehensive rule on the subject. Such a rule is of

course easier to make than to enforce; but its enforcement should be simplified by the fact that all or nearly all the railways now in process of construction are to be Government property, and that only four Powers at present are responsible for their control. These Powers are Great Britain, France, Germany, and the Congo State (which has up to now done more railroad-making than any of the others, and which professes itself loyal to the British policy).

Railway Control. There were over a dozen European States represented at the recent Brussels Conference. But apart from Portugal and Liberia, which have shown no railway enterprise, the four I have named have the future of the African interior in their own hands. An agreement among these four would save the African interior from the drink curse which has already done so much harm on the coast. If they will promptly settle the matter in a way as conducive to their own material interests as to the welfare of the natives of Central Africa, a great and statesmanlike and beneficent step will be taken.

SOME NOTES ON M. LYON-CAEN'S PRESI-
TO THE SOCIÉTÉ

DENTIAL

ADDRESS

DE LÉGISLATION COMPARÉE.

[Contributed by SIR COURTENAY ILBERT, K.C.S.I.]

THE address delivered by M. Lyon-Caen, as President of the French Society of Comparative Legislation, at its annual meeting on December 14th, 1898, presents many points of interest, both to students of comparative legislation in general and to the members of our English Society in particular. The following paragraphs summarise the most important portions of the address. It will be seen from the concluding remarks that parliamentary legislation has its critics in France also.

M. Lyon-Caen began by comparing the life of a learned society to the life of a man. During the periods of human infancy and youth there are profound and incessant transformations, important events, successes and Then comes a period failures, which are often decisive for the rest of life.

of uniformity. So with a learned society. It begins by starting new publications and making different experiments. Then it goes on gradually developing and improving its work, but making no material change in the character of the work.

The French Society of Comparative Legislation-now nearly thirty years old-began by publishing, in 1869, a monthly bulletin. It added, in 1872, an annual review of foreign legislation, and, in 1882, an annual These publications have been gradually review of French legislation. improved, but it is not likely that there will be any addition to their number.

But the year 1898 has been marked by two important publications: a second edition of the Catalogue of the Society's Library, and an index to the twenty volumes of the Annual Review of Foreign Legislation.

The first edition of the Catalogue, published in 1885, contained 1,200 entries, representing about 2,000 volumes. The new edition contains 5,469 entries, representing some 11,000 volumes.

The Index to the annual reviews of foreign legislation consists of two parts -one arranged chronologically with reference to each country, the other arranged alphabetically. It is to be published in the course of the present year, and will constitute a feature in the Exhibition of 1900.

293

This valuable index throws great light on the course of the world's legislation during the last twenty years. During this period, M. Lyon-Caen observes, the movement of codification, so brilliantly begun in France at the opening of the century, has been continued and accentuated in foreign countries. It has been favoured by the political unification of several States and by the tendency towards centralisation in others. Germany obtained in 1879 Codes of Civil and Criminal Procedure and of Judicial Organisation, and has since passed a civil code and a new commercial code, both of which are to come into force at the beginning of the year 1900. Italy recast, in 1882, its Commercial Code of 1869, and in 1889 passed a general penal code, which took the place of the several local codes previously in existence. In Switzerland the great Code of Obligations came into force in 1883, and was supplemented in 1889 by a law on Bankruptcy and Procedure for Debt. In Austria the Codes of Civil and Criminal Procedure have been recast. Commercial codes have been passed or revised in Hungary, Spain, Portugal, Roumania, and Belgium. Great Britain still remains "refractory" to codification. It still rests content with its common law and its scattered statutes. But its statutes are encroaching more and more on the province of unwritten law, and its Consolidation Acts are perhaps paving the way for future codes.

The laws of 1870 to 1890 touch on the greatest variety of subjects. But everywhere there are a certain number of identical questions which have pre-eminently occupied public opinion and pressed for legislative solution. Among these are questions of Criminal Law. Everywhere attempts have been made to improve Criminal Procedure, with the object of securing liberty of defence and discovery of truth, of making punishments less severe and more effective, of facilitating the reform of convicted criminals and fighting against "recidivism." Together with questions of Criminal Law, the so-called "social" questions have been the subject of numerous laws even in countries like Great Britain, where tradition has hitherto been unfavourable to the activity of the State and its intervention in private affairs. To the great honour of our age, legislators have attempted, by laws on industrial accidents and on service and labour contracts, to protect the weak and to improve the situation of those whom the chances of birth have placed in an inferior position.

Of course, the solutions arrived at have not been everywhere identical. But there is much to show that uniformity of law is not an unrealisable ideal in matters not intimately bound up with the habits and religions of particular countries, and particularly in matters of commerce. Thus the three Scandinavian States have passed an identical law on bills of exchange and a common code of Maritime Commerce. The Convention

of 1890, on the international transport of goods by railway, indicates another step in the same direction.

The Index does not extend to French legislation; but the annual