of Africa, is large and prosperous and has about one million and a quarter of inhabitants, the Gold Coast four hundred thousand, Natal four hundred and twenty-five thousand, and Mauritius about four hundred thousand.

In Bechuanaland one man is both governor and legislator; in him are centered and combined all the legislative and executive powers and duties over an area already containing several millions of people and capable of supporting not less than forty millions. He makes the laws, he executes the laws, and does the former by proclamation merely. But the native population is ignorant, and not barbarous only, but savage and know-nothing, and cares for nothing beyond the daily wants.

Half a century ago the great and fertile region now called by the general term of Australasia was almost unknown and entirely unexplored. Such parts of it as were reduced at all from the native. condition of the country, were used for the exportation of criminals. Now they are great and prospering provinces, all owned by the British. They are the Fiji Islands, Rotumah, New South Wales, Norfolk Island, New Zealand, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia and New Guinea.

Port Jackson, in New South Wales, was first established as a penal colony in 1788. Then it was a wilderness, inhabited by a race of blacks probably the same, originally, as the negro, but modified somewhat by climate and surroundings. Now it is a highly civilized country, where all the arts, enjoyments and refinements of life can be found.

Settlements were made from time to time in other parts of Australasia, and governments placed over them whenever any considerable number of British subjects got together. How rapid this progress has been a reference to the census will show.

We are accustomed to speak and think of the growth of the United States as unequalled anywhere else, yet it took three centuries to bring its population up to three millions, which it was at the time of the Revolution. But in about half a century Australasia has attained the same strength and numbers that the American colonies had when they took the perilous step of declaring them

selves independent. And this estimate only embraces Australasia proper, not taking in New Zealand, which is practically a part of it. Great as has been the rate of progress in Australasia, that of New Zealand has exceeded it largely. It has not been very long since the natives of that island were cannibals. In 1851 its whole population was estimated at about twenty-six thousand; on the 30th of June, 1885, it was, by accurate account, 616,229, nearly all of them British born subjects, since the Maoris, or aborigines, were only forty thousand.

Only a little more than a year ago the British Parliament passed what is called the Federal Council Act of Australasia, forming a union somewhat similar to the Union of States in the United States and in the Dominion of Canada. The Act defines very fully the mode of choosing this Council and its powers and duties. And while, in the event of that country ever wanting to separate from the mother country, this would enable it to act with much greater concert and effectiveness, its present tendency is, undoubtedly, to attach it more strongly to the British Crown.

We have made this necessarily brief reference to and account of the British colonies, provinces and dependencies in Asia, Africa and the semi-continent of Australasia, and come now to the other great continent, America, and the seas and oceans surrounding it.

The Dominion of Canada stretches from ocean to ocean across North America where it is broader than any part of the United States. It has a thrifty population of four millions and a half. To hold the provinces together and give them an identity of interest, the Canada Pacific railroad has been constructed at very great cost, striking the Pacific Ocean at Puget Sound, and giving Great Britain a short route to her Australasian and Asiatic possessions, over her own territory, in one direction, while the Suez Canal does it in another. This will greatly facilitate her intercourse with the East, and be a route that no European nation can interfere with. That a great city will be built on Puget Sound, and that it will become a mart for Asiatic trade, the present situation clearly indicates.

Canada, or rather British America, will share so largely in the benefits of this trade and development that a motive for cutting loose from Great Britain will be wanting. She now has self-government, and is content to come in, in addition, for a good share of the glories and wealth of the Empire.

This great space of the world's surface occupies nearly the whole of the northern part of the continent. And Great Britain has been just as careful and thoughtful in planting herself on the southern part of the American continent as the northern; and her possessions there, though not so extensive, are, nevertheless, well located. They

are Honduras and Guiana; and a look at the map will show that they are within easier reach of and more accessible to the United States, Mexico, Central America and the West Indies than any part of South America.

Guiana constitutes, as respects variety of people, a very fair epitome of the British Empire. Its population consists of:

The places named so far are on the mainland; but islands seem to have an especial attraction for the English. In American waters and adjacent to both continents they have the Bahamas, Bermudas, Falkland Islands, Jamaica, Turks and Caicos Islands, Leeward Islands, Newfoundland, Trinidad, and the Windward Islands. So far as the West Indies are concerned, they belong naturally to the United States, yet Great Britain holds several of the most important and valuable. How much they keep her in her commercial rivalry with this country, we the people of the United States know.

The British have been as fortunate or as far-seeing and wise in selecting and securing military posts everywhere as they have been in obtaining the richest and most valuable possessions. The little ocean of the Mediterranean has always been, and will of necessity continue to be, the great theatre of naval conflicts and naval operations. The East is, and has been, the volcanic war region. It was necessary, therefore, for a first-class power which had such diverse and general interests to place itself in a good attitude there. This England has done with the most consummate wisdom and farseeing sagacity. She has Gibraltar at the entrance to the sea, inside she has seized Malta, which, though only a small island, yet has harbors in which all her navy can safely ride at once. The purchase of a controlling interest in the Suez Canal, and the acquisition, the fortification and garrisoning of Cyprus, were almost simultaneous acts and parts of the same great purpose-to protect and secure her route to Asia and put her in good position for the war that she knows must come. And these places, it is to be observed, geographically and naturally belong to other nations. The Channel Islands are parts of France, Cyprus of Turkey, the West Indies of the United States, yet Great Britain owns them all.

Any account of the British Empire, in the pages of a periodical, must necessarily be brief; yet this has been long enough to enable

us to repeat pertinently the questions asked at the beginning: What is the British Empire? And what holds it together? It exists in every part of the world, civilized or savage. Among all the savage peoples of the earth its subjects are to be found. White, red and black take part alike in making it up. It is the most incongruous body, and at the same time the most wonderful, ever created. Among most other great nations and powers there has been, and is, some degree, at least, of homogeneity. But in the British Empire there is absolutely none, not even in Great Britain. There are found Celts, Saxons, Normans, and Welsh. The remainder of the Empire is made of materials that it would seem impossible ever to get together, or to hold together if once united. And it is not only difference of race, but of religion and customs also, that adds to the singularity of the condition of things and the apparent difficulty of governing all these people, keeping them content, or at least quiet, and procuring their acquiescence in and submission to one authority, and that authority located in a little island distant from most of them; for all these territories and people are ruled from London. Whatever home rule or domestic constitution they may have, in London resides the supreme authority over all. And in some cases the actual ruling power remains in London, as in the case of Borneo, which is on the other side of the world from England, yet is governed by a Board of Directors which has its office and holds its sessions in London.

To form an adequate idea of the extent of this Empire it is only necessary to know that it covers one-seventh of the surface of the earth and contains one-ninth of its population; and that its territories and dependencies have been so well selected and so judiciously located that its ships of war and peace can go nowhere, into no ocean or sea, that they will not find some of their own lands to shelter them.

If the question were asked, as an original proposition, could such an empire as this, composed of nations and peoples of different and divergent races, colors, religions, tastes, habits, customs, and physical characteristics, and the parts separated from each other by the whole circumference of the globe, be first constructed, and when constructed afterwards maintained, the universal answer would be, No. But, finding it in actual existence, the next inquiry would be: What holds it together, what is the cement that unites and the power that welds these discordant elements? Is it force or trade or mutual advantage, or all combined? All have contributed; but it has been mainly by reason of the fact that whenever a territory was acquired, either by conquest, purchase, or peaceful annexation, the first thing done was to study the people, find out how they had lived, what were their tastes and desires, what would

please and what displease them, and then adapt this rule to the situation. The religion, the customs, and the laws of the conquered or bought people were respected. They were granted home rule and permitted to govern themselves, as to their domestic affairs, which is all the bulk of mankind knows or cares anything for. Besides this, the English have traded with these people, bought whatever they had to sell, if not with money, at least with something the savage heart delighted in; and have gradually improved their physical condition.

Of course, all this has been of incalculable advantage to the people of Great Britain and has made the British Empire far the most powerful that exists or ever existed. We do not by this mean military power so much as social, commercial, financial, and political. It and its citizens have more to do with the business and trade of the world than all the rest combined; they transact more and influence more of it. They come all the distance across the Atlantic and almost monopolize the trade of Mexico, which lies at our very door. A man in the United States who wishes to send a letter to Brazil, has to send it by way of England. And this is one source of her strength. She has managed to make herself useful.

From the foregoing narration, it is very clear that the British Empire has no constitution in the sense understood by us in the United States; and that the one principle that runs through and pervades what is called the Constitution of the Empire is that each part of it may be and should be governed in the manner specially suited to it and best calculated to secure its advancement, prosperity, and fidelity; and that this process, so far from being a dissolution of the Empire, or a threat in that direction, is the real cause of its stability and power.

To this principle, enforced everywhere else, and ruling in all the dealings of the Imperial Parliament with all other parts of the Empire, there is one exception, one land and one people that has never been allowed to rule itself, whose religion has been persecuted, who has been denied the enjoyment of the privileges of citizenship on account of its faith, whose customs have been trampled upon, whose ancient laws and usages have been suppressed; this is Ireland, which though a conquered province, has been administered and governed in a different manner from any other part of the Empire. And all this has been done while Irish generals were leading the armies of the Empire to victory, and Irish soldiers fighting her battles wherever an enemy was to be

met.

To conciliate the Welsh, these people have been allowed to preserve their old traditions and customs.