River to the Keiskamma; in 1835 it was further pushed forward to the Kei; and, though the intermediate territory was subsequently restored to the Kaffirs, it was permanently annexed to the colony after the fifth Kaffir war.1

The Boers.

These events increased to a very large extent the responsibilities which the British had assumed in Southern Africa. And another chain of circumstances, to which some reference must also be made, had even more largely augmented the British dominion. The Dutch settlers (or Boers, as they were called) whom the British had found at the Cape had, from the first, proved intractable. Admirable as are the qualities of the Dutch race, it has not proved suc cessful in the art of colonisation. The mother-country has attempted to interfere in the ordinary arrangements of the colony, and the Dutch settlers have become, in consequence, dissatisfied and averse from government. The policy of the Whig Ministry of 1830 increased this dissatisfaction. Slavery was abolished; and the Boers, irritated at the measure, and angry with the rulers who had promoted it, sold their estates, and settled in the fertile territories which are now known as Natal and the Orange River Free State. There they established a republic, and maintained a doubtful independence till 1843, when the government of Natal was assumed by the British. On the west of the great chain of mountains, however, which divides Natal from the Orange River Free State, the Boers more successfully maintained their position; and, though they were temporarily brought under British rule in 1848, their independence was again conceded to them some years afterwards.

Addition to

These great changes had enlarged to a considerable extent the British dominion in Africa. In 1814 the Cape Colony comprised about 120,000 square miles; by the middle of the century the British flag waved over a territory of nearly double that extent.

the Cape Colony.

In the

1 I have used popular language in the text, but strictly speaking the territory was not annexed, but taken possession of by the Crown. For the distinction and the reasons for it, see Lord Grey's Colonial Policy, vol. ii. p. 201

interval, provinces having an area as large as that of Italy had been added to the British dominion in South Africa. Except in the East Indies, no addition of anything like the same extent has been made to the British Empire during the present century. Like the acquisitions in the East Indies, those at the Cape were made by a reluctant Government; like the possessions in the West Indies, many persons were constantly objecting to them as useless and cumbersome. A general feeling existed in Britain that the Cape was not worth the sacrifices which it imposed, and that statesmen were making a grievous error in entangling their country in a situation which was constantly demanding fresh sacrifices.1

The policy of these additions.

Many people, possibly, still share the conviction which was thus formed, and consider that it would be far better for this country if British territory in South Africa were confined to Cape Town and to Simon's Bay.2 But few persons who have studied the history of colonising races would doubt that the opinion which was thus expressed was impracticable. Nations may pass laws, emperors may make engagements, to stop the advance of their servants and lieutenants. But, when the superior race come in contact with the inferior people, the former, in defiance of law and treaty, will advance. The same influences which have carried the English to the Indus and the Irrawaddy, and which have brought Russia to the Oxus and the Moorghab, drove the Cape colonists to the Keiskamma and the Kei, to the Orange River and the Drakenberg Hills.

Yet, if the colony were an encumbrance to the mothercountry, the order which, on the whole, the mother-country was able to maintain was advantageous to the colony. It prospered, and an increasing prosperity multiplied its people. In 1795, when it was first taken from the Dutch, it contained 60,000 inhabitants; in 1806, the date of its second capture, its population had increased to 73,000; in 1839 it had risen to

1 This view is stated almost in these words by Lord Grey, Colonial Policy, vol. ii. p. 248. 2 Lord Grey in ibid.

143,000, and in 1842 to 166,000;1 in 1856 it had increased to 267,000, and in 1865 to 582,000.2 In 1884 nearly 1,250,000 people were living in the colony, while 424,000 persons were sustained by the adjacent settlement, Natal.

The trade of the colony rose as rapidly as the population. In 1827 the colony consumed British manufactures worth £216,000. In the next seventeen years the imports about doubled and rose to £424,000. In 1865 the imports amounted to £2,125,000, and in 1879 to £7,664,000. Of this vast import trade £1,700,000 in the former, and £6,195,000 in the latter year represented goods the produce of the United Kingdom. The trade of the Cape had thus almost changed places with the trade of the West Indies; and the trade of the former colony became in 1879 as important to the mothercountry as the trade of the latter colonies had been in 1815.

3

The vast increase in the population of the Cape was not solely due to emigration. Emigration was, indeed, assuming new proportions, but the ministry did not repeat the Emigration experiment of 1819, or continue to convey settlers after 1819. to the Cape of Good Hope. The stream of emigration was left to follow its own course; and, for many years to come, it steadily flowed to the Far West. To a slight extent it was aided by the Government; and in the ten years ending 1829 rather more than 126,000 persons left the United Kingdom for Canada, while about 72,000 persons sailed from British ports for the United States. Vast as this emigration was, it was more than doubled in the succeeding decade, when 320,000 persons sailed for Canada and 170,000 for the United States; while, in the following seven years from 1840 to 1846, 246,000 persons went to Canada and 362,000 to the United States.5

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Cape

1 Porter's Progress of the Nation, pp. 778, 779. M'Culloch places the population in 1842 at 171,000. M'Culloch, Commercial Dict., sub verb. Town." 2 These numbers do not include the population of Natal. 3 Statistical Abstracts for the Colonies (1881), pp. 22 and 62. Ante, vol. iii. p. 325. See also, for the emigration of 1823 and 1825, the account in the Third Report of the Committee of Emigration for 1827. The more essential parts of the Report are reprinted, Ann. Reg., 1827, Chron. p. 387.

5 Encyclopædia Britannica, ad verb. "Emigration;" cf. Census, 1851, vol. i. p. cxxxii.

The nominal destination of the emigrant did not probably always indicate his settlement; an artificial line divided the British colony from the American Republic; and there was nothing to prevent the emigrant crossing from the States to the colony or from the colony to the States. The figures, however, to some extent indicate the individual preferences of the new settlers, and unmistakably display their inclination after 1840 to select the Republic and to reject the colony. This disposition became much more marked after 1846. In the three succeeding years, from 1847 to 1849, 182,000 persons emigrated to Canada and 550,000 to the United States, while from 1850 to 1859 258,000 persons sailed for Canada and 1,350,000 persons for the United States.

Increasing preference of emigrants for United States.

Suggestive figures of this character might furnish text for a long discourse. In this chapter it is only possible to indicate one or two conclusions to be drawn from them. And, in the first place, it should be always borne in mind that they prove that, in the truest sense, the United States are still the greatest colony, the favourite amonia of the British race; and that, whatever may be the fate of the colonial empire of Britain, the example of the United States may be cited to prove that the settlements, whether they retain or reject their old allegiance, will constantly increase the bonds of kinship which unite them to the mother-country. Such is the first and gratifying conclusion to be drawn from these figures. But the second deduction is less satisfactory. The colonists have evidently shown an increasing disposition to seek their fortunes in the United States, and this tendency will prove on examination to have been directly connected with the chronic difficulty of the United Kingdom. For, in the earlier period, the bulk of the emigrants sailed from Great Britain, and both Scotch and English preferred to seek their fortunes Due to Irish in an English colony. But, in the later period, the emigration. Irish famine drove shiploads of emigrants from the sister island; and the Irish, carrying with them to the new world their detestation of English rule, preferred to seek home

and shelter in the American Republic; and hence the gradually increasing preference which the emigrants displayed for the United States was directly associated with the increasing movement of the Irish people.1

Increase of

It does not fall within the design of this work to relate in any detail the internal history either of the great States or of the great colony which the Anglo-Saxon race is thus establishing in a new world. But it will give completeness to this chapter if the growth of these countries be very shortly mentioned. At the beginning of this century the United States contained about 5,300,000, and Canada less the English people. than 500,000 inhabitants.2 In 1880 the United States contained more than 50,000,000 and British North America 4,500,000 people. In the beginning of this century, to put the same thing in another way, the British in the British Islands numbered 16,000,000, the settlements which men in North America had acquired contained 6,000,000 of inhabitants. Eighty years afterwards, the British Islands contained 35,000,000 and America nearly 55,000,000 of Englishspeaking people. If the next eighty years should show an equal progress, it is not impossible that, in the last half of the twentieth century, the United States will contain 500,000,000, the United Kingdom 80,000,000, and Canada 100,000,000 inhabitants.

Australia.

But these astounding figures do not represent the whole truth. While the United States and Canada have been thus multiplying their numbers, men of English extraction have been founding another great empire in the Southern Hemisphere. British North America and the United States with Alaska may each be roughly computed to contain 3,500,000 square miles; while the third great empire, Austral

1 The nationality of the emigrants to Canada is not known. But in the ten years ending 1829, 20,294 English and Scotch and 51,617 Irish sailed to the United States; in the decade 1830 to 1839, 10,601 English and Scotch and 159,672 Irish sailed to the United States. The succeeding decades are affected by the Irish famine, but show, on the whole, the same extraordinary characteristic. Encyclopædia Britannica, ad verb. "Emigration."

2 Russell placed the population of British North America in 1816 at 462,250 persons. Hansard, cviii. p. 542.