1841-1874 COLONIAL EXPANSION 967 time the West India Islands have decreased in importance in consequence of the abolition of slavery, the throwing open of the British market to foreign sugar, and to defects in a system of cultivation which had been adopted in the time of slavery. On the other hand there have grown up great and powerful communities mainly composed of emigrants from Great Britain, self-governing like Great Britain herself, and held to the mother-country by the loosest possible ties. These communities are to be found in three parts of the globe-the Dominion of Canada, Australasia, and South Africa. 26. The North-American Colonies. 1841-1874.-It had been supposed in England that the troubles which had resulted in Canada from the dissensions between the British and French settlers had been brought to an end in 1841 by the legislative union of the two provinces (see p. 916). The British inhabitants of Upper Canada, however, complained of the influence exercised by the French of Lower Canada. To provide a remedy an Act of the British Parliament created, in 1867, a federation known as the Dominion of Canada into which any existing colonies on the North American continent were to be allowed to enter. There was to be a governor-general appointed by the Crown, and a Dominion Parliament seated at Ottawa and legislating for matters of common concern, which was to consist of a Senate, the members of which are nominated for life by the governor-general on the advice of responsible ministers, and a House of Commons, the members of which are elected by constituencies in the provinces in proportion to the population of each province. The parliaments of the separate provinces retained in their own hands the management of their own local affairs. The provincial parliaments of Upper and Lower Canada were separated from one another, bearing respectively the names of the province of Ontario and the province of Quebec. To them were added as component parts of the Dominion Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Between 1870 and 1872 Manitoba, British Columbia, and Prince Edward Island joined the Dominion. Newfoundland continues to hold aloof. The unoccupied lands of the north-west are placed under the control of the authorities of the Dominion, which thus combines under one government the whole of America north of the territory of the United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific with the exception of Newfoundland and its subject territory of Labrador. 27. Australasia. 1788-1901.-The Australasian colonies are divided into two groups, those of Australia and those of New Zealand. The first British settlers in Australia were convicts, who arrived at Port Jackson in 1788. For many years the colony thus founded under the name of New South Wales remained a penal settlement. The convicts themselves, after serving their time in servitude, became free, their children were free, and there was a certain amount of free emigration from Great Britain. In 1821 New South Wales had a population of 30,000, of which threefourths were convicts. It had already been discovered that the country was peculiarly adapted to the production of wool, and the number of sheep in the colony rose from 25,000 in 1810 to 290,000 in 1821. From this time success was assured. Other colonies were founded in due course. Van Diemen's Land, afterwards known as Tasmania, was established as a separate colony in 1825. In the same year a small convict settlement was founded under the name of West Australia. South Australia received a separate government in 1836 under a British Act of Parliament passed in 1834. Victoria was separated from New South Wales in 1850. By this time the free population, indignant at the constant influx of British criminals, resisted the importation of convicts so strenuously that in 1851 an end was put to the system of transportation to Australia except in the small and thinly populated colony of West Australia. In that year the population flocked to the newly discovered gold fields, and the attraction of gold brought an enormous number of immigrants from Great Britain. Queensland became a separate colony in 1859. In 1901 the white population of the whole of Australia numbered about 3,700,000. After a long delay, Tasmania and the five Australian colonies followed the example of the North American colonies, and set up a federal government. The Commonwealth of Australia came into being on January 1, 1901, in accordance with an Act passed by the Parliament of Great Britain in the previous year. New Zealand, in which the white population reached 772,000 in 1901, has, since 1876, been governed by a single parliament, the seat of which is at Wellington. 28. South Africa. The Cape Colony finally passed under British authority in 1806. In 1820 a stream of British immigration began to set in. The colony was under the disadvantage of having fierce and warlike Kaffir tribes on its north-eastern frontier, and from 1834 onwards a series of wars with the Kaffirs broke out from time to time, which taxed to the uttermost the resources of the colonists and of the British regiments sent for their defence. Many of the Dutch, who were usually known as Boers or farmers, were dissatisfied with British rule, and in 1835 they began to migrate further north. Some settled in Natal, 1874-1878 LAST YEARS OF NINETEENTH CENTURY 969 which, in 1843, became a British colony. Others founded the Orange River Free State and the Transvaal Republic, both of which the British Government finally recognised as independent states. In spite of emigration and Kaffir wars, the British colonists continually pressed further north, and in 1871 the discovery of diamonds at Kimberley attracted immigrants and capital to the colony. That which distinguishes the South African settlements of Great Britain from those in North America and Australia, is the enormous preponderance of a native population. Out of every six inhabitants five are natives. The total white population in 1891, excluding the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, amounted to about 430,000 persons. CHAPTER LXI THE LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 1874-1901 1. The Disraeli (Beaconsfield) Ministry. 1874-1880.-The Conservative ministry, formed under Disraeli in 1874, contented itself for some time with domestic legislation. In 1876 troubles broke out in the Balkan Peninsula, caused by the misdeeds of the Turkish officials. Servia and Montenegro made war upon the Turks, and in January 1877 a conference of European ministers was held at Constantinople to settle all questions at issue. Nothing, however, was done to coerce the Turkish Government into better behaviour, and as other European powers refused to act, Russia declared war against Turkey. After a long and doubtful struggle, the Turkish power of resistance collapsed early in 1878, and a treaty between Russia and the Sultan was signed at San Stefano, by which the latter abandoned a considerable amount of territory. Disraeli, who had recently been made Earl of Beaconsfield, insisted that no engagement between Russia and Turkey would be valid unless it were confirmed by a European congress, and a congress was accordingly held at Berlin. By the Treaty of Berlin, which was signed in the course of 1878, Roumania and Servia became independent kingdoms, with some addition to their territory; Montenegro was also enlarged, and Bulgaria erected into a principality paying tribute to the Sultan; whilst a district to which the name of Eastern Roumelia was given was to be ruled by a Christian governor nominated by the Sultan, who was to have the right of III 3 R garrisoning fortresses in the Balkan Mountains. Russia acquired the piece of land near the mouth of the Danube, which she had lost after the Crimean War, and also another piece of land round Kars, which she had just conquered. The Sultan was recommended to cede Thessaly and part of Epirus to Greece. The protectorate over Bosnia and Herzegovina was given to Austria, and, by a separate convention, Cyprus was given to England on condition of paying tribute to the Sultan and protecting Asia Minor, which the Sultan promised to govern on an improved system. These arrangements have remained to the present day (1901), except that the Sultan has never garrisoned the fortresses in the Balkans, and that Eastern Roumelia has been annexed by its own population to Bulgaria, whilst the Sultan has only given over Thessaly to Greece, refusing to abandon any part of Epirus. In 1879 Egypt, having become practically bankrupt, was brought under the dual control of England and France. In South Africa, the territory of the republic of the Transvaal was annexed in 1877, and in 1879 there was a war with the Zulus, which began with the slaughter of a British force, though it ended in a complete victory. In Asia a second Afghan War broke out in 1878, arising from the attempt to establish a British agent at Cabul in order to check Russian intrigues. An impression grew up in the country that the Government was too fond of war, and when Parliament was dissolved in 1880, a considerable Liberal majority was returned. 2. The Second Gladstone Ministry. 1880-1885.-Gladstone formed a ministry which was soon confronted by difficulties in Ireland. There were troubles arising from the relations between landlord and tenant, and a Land League had been formed to support the tenants in their contentions with their landlords. There had also for some little time been amongst the Irish members a parliamentary party which demanded Home Rule, or the concession of an Irish parliament for the management of Irish affairs. This party was led by Parnell. In 1880 the ministry, in which the leading authority on Irish questions was Forster, the Irish Secretary, brought in a Compensation for Disturbance Bill, giving an evicted tenant compensation for the loss falling on him by being thrust out of his holding. This Bill passed the Commons, but was rejected by the Lords. In 1881 the ministry carried another fresh Land Act, appointing a land court to fix rents which were not to be changed for fifteen years. At the same time it carried an Act for the protection of life and property, intended to suppress the murders and outrages which were rife in Ireland, by authorising 1874-1901 LAST YEARS OF NINETEENTH CENTURY 971 the imprisonment of suspected persons without legal trial. In 1881 Parnell and other leading Irishmen were arrested, but in 1882 the Government let them out of prison, with the intention of pursuing a more conciliatory course. On this Forster resigned. His successor, Lord Frederick Cavendish, was murdered, together with the Irish Under-Secretary, Burke, in the Phoenix Park, Dublin, by a band of ruffians who called themselves Invincibles. An Act for the prevention of crimes was then passed. The Irish members of parliament continued bitterly hostile to the ministry. On the other hand, some at least of the members of the Government and of their supporters were becoming convinced that another method for the suppression of violence than compulsion must be employed, if Ireland was ever to be tranquil. As had been the case with the last Government, foreign complications discredited the ministry. In 1880 the Dutch inhabitants of the Transvaal rose against the English government set up in their territory in 1877, and drove back with slaughter at Majuba Hill a British force sent against them. On this, the home government restored the independence of the republic, subject to its acknowledgment of the suzerainty of Great Britain. The greatest trouble, however, arose in Egypt. In 1882 an insurrection headed by Arabi Pacha with the object of getting rid of European influence, broke out against the Khedive, as the Pacha of Egypt had been called since his power had become hereditary (see p. 922). France, which had joined Great Britain in establishing the dual control, refused to act, and the British Government sent a fleet and army to overthrow Arabi. The forts of Alexandria were destroyed by the fleet, and a great part of the town burnt by the native populace. Sir Garnet Wolseley, at the head of a British army, defeated Arabi's troops at Tel-el-Kebir, and since that time the British Government has temporarily assumed the protectorate of Egypt, helping the Khedive to improve the condition of the Egyptian people. Farther south, in the Soudan, a Mahommedan fanatic calling himself the Mahdi roused his Mahommedan followers against the tyranny of the Egyptian officials, and almost the whole country broke loose from Egyptian control. An Egyptian army under an Englishman, Hicks, was massacred, and a few posts, of which the principal was Khartoum, alone held out. An enthusiastic and heroic Englishman, General Gordon, who had at one time put down a widespread rebellion in China, and had at another time been governor of the Soudan, here he had been renowned for his justice and kindliness as well |