Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[graphic][merged small][ocr errors]

United States. By taking the trade in cheap goods of population for the whole United Kingdom, 51 for England and Wales, 39 for Scotland, and 25 for

:ག་གར་

ited

872,

'cels,

10,

hich

The

gross post £11,a net ts of

,773,

1 re

alua

were

: paid inter

ere is ar of uring Engmpore free

far as

ite ex

r each

livered in England and Wales, 163,000,000 in Scot

[ocr errors]

; rate; iction,

of forle free

ubilee, en VicQueen, Buck

a serv

to her 3. Beolonial ry part atched i thank

[ocr errors]

The

nstrate

ity and CelebraBritish est Ter1 Malta

те оссаwo Uitpardon. tate the a reign advance Lord ting the "ous, and a period 'rontiers ere forts influboundafor the 1 and its

he great y, which inds, has changes

f responbly with

ogress of n. Mr. olled the

land, and 112,500,000 in Ireland, being 47 per head virtue of the Queen, an example to every citizen in

[graphic][ocr errors][ocr errors]

United States. By taking the trade in cheap goods which British makers refuse to furnish, the foreign competitors obtain a chance to cut into the better class of trade also.

of population for the whole United Kingdom, 51 for England and Wales, 39 for Scotland, and 25 for Ireland. The number of postal cards for the United Kingdom was 314,500,000; of book packets, 672,Navigation. The number of vessels engaged in 300,000; of newspapers, 149,000,000; of parcels, foreign commerce entered at the ports of the United 60,500,000. The number of money orders was 10,Kingdom during 1895 was 60,714, of 40,001,000 tons, 900.963, for the total sum of £29,726,817, of which of which 37,534, of 29,175,000 tons, were British and 9,334,296, for £25,582,236, were inland orders. The 23,180, of 10,826,000 tons, were foreign; the num- number of postal orders was 64,076,377, for the gross ber cleared was 60.696, of 40,537.000 tons, of which amount of £23,896,594. The receipts of the post 37,283, of 29,516,000 tons, were British and 23,413, office, exclusive of the telegraph service, were £11,of 11,021,000 tons, were foreign. The tonnage of 465,370, and the expenses £8,080,873, leaving a net vessels entered with cargoes was 31,358,000, of which revenue of £3,384,497. The telegraph receipts of 22,992,000 tons were British and 8,366,000 tons were the post office were £2,835,749, and expenses £2,773,foreign; the tonnage of vessels cleared with cargoes 536, leaving a surplus of £62,213. The total rewas 36,272,000, of which 26,933,000 tons were Brit- ceipts of the telegraph service, including the valuaish and 9,339,000 tons were foreign. Of a total for- tion placed on work done for the Government, were eign tonnage of 21,847,248 tons entered and cleared, £2,879,794; the total expenses, including those paid Norway had 4,653,008; Germany, 3,652,788; the by other departments, were £2,914,581. The interNetherlands, 2,293,796; Sweden, 1,960,571; Den- est on the capital invested is £298,888. There is mark, 1,940,097; France, 1,832,149; Spain, 1,304,- thus a deficit on the operations for the year of 660; Belgium, 1,082,445; the United States, 650,164; £333,675. The number of messages sent during Russia, 615,153; Italy, 297,466; and Austria, 196,- 1896 was 78,839,610, of which 66,436,549 were Eng701. The tonnage entered and cleared at the port lish, 8,095,581 Scotch, and 4,307,480 Irish. Imporof London was 14,546,311; at Liverpool, 10,481,540; tant postal reforms adopted in 1897 are the free at Cardiff, 10,201,127; at Newcastle, 4,601,408; at delivery of letters to every hamlet, and, as far as Hull, 3,763,339; at North and South Shields, 3.513,- possible, to every house; the penny letter rate ex864; at Glasgow, 3,096,276; at Newport, 2,246,123; tended to 4 ounces, with a halfpenny rate for each at Southampton, 2,748,924; at Middlesbro, 1,829,- additional 2 ounces, books to go at the same rate; 044; at Sunderland, 1,732,948; at Leith, Grimsby, the abolition of the sample post; the reduction, Swansea, Grangemouth, and Kirkcaldy, more than subject to the consent of the Postal Union, of for1,000,000 tons each. eign letter postage from 24d. to 2d.; and the free delivery of telegrams within 3 miles,

The number of British vessels engaged both in the home and foreign trade in 1895 was 16,105, employing 240,486 seamen, of whom 32,335 were foreigners. Their aggregate tonnage was 8,861.848 tons. There were 21,003 vessels registered as belonging, on Jan. 1, 1896, to the United Kingdom, including the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. The aggregate tonnage was 8,988,450, and they were divided into 12,617 sailing vessels, of 2,866,895 tons, and 8.386 steamers, of 6,121,555 tons. The number of vessels built and first registered during 1895 was 860, of 519,622 tons, divided into 319 sailing vessels, of 54,155 tons, and 541 steamers, of 465,467 tons. Of the total number of vessels belonging to the United Kingdom, 7,495 sailing vessels, of 479,764 tons, and 2,633 steamers, of 406,477 tons, were employed in the home trade and the adjacent seas; 222 sailing vessels, of 26,721 tons, and 329 steamers, of 238,633 tons, were engaged partly in the home and partly in the foreign trade; and 1,765 sailing vessels, of 2,230,285 tons, were engaged in the foreign trade exclusively. The total number of vessels entered coastwise during 1895 was 323,616, of 54,304.703 tons; the number cleared was 289,310, of 47.263,791 tons. The total number of vessels entered at British ports was for that year 384,330, of 94.306,394 tons; the total number cleared was 350,006, of 87,801,274 tons.

Communications.-The total length of railroads open to traffic in the United Kingdom at the beginning of 1896 was 21,174 miles, of which 14,651 miles were in England and Wales, 3,350 miles in Scotland, and 3,173 miles in Ireland. The paid-up share and loan capital amounted to £1.001,110,221. There were 929,770,909 passengers carried during 1895. exclusive of holders of season tickets. The receipts from all sources were £85,922,702; receipts from passengers, £37,361,162; from freight, £44,034,885. The working expenses were £47,876,637, equal to 56 per cent. of the gross receipts.

The number of letters that passed through the post office during the year ending March 31, 1896, was 1.834,000,000, of which 1,559.000.000 were delivered in England and Wales, 163,000,000 in Scotland, and 112,500,000 in Ireland, being 47 per head

The Queen's Jubilee. The diamond jubilee, marking the sixtieth year of the reign of Queen Victoria, was commemorated on June 22. The Queen, escorted by a gorgeous procession, went from Buckingham Palace to St. Paul's Cathedral, where a service of thanksgiving was held, and then back to her palace through a circuit of decorated streets. Besides 14,000 British regulars, Asiatic, and colonial contingents took part in the parade. To every part of the British Empire the Queen-Empress dispatched the telegraphic message: From my heart I thank my beloved people. May God bless them!" The celebration was planned above all to demonstrate the power of the British Empire and the unity and loyalty of all its constituent members. Celebrations were held simultaneously in all the British colonies and dependencies from the Northwest Territories of Canada to Cape Colony and from Malta to New Zealand. President Krüger chose the occasion as an appropriate one for releasing two Uitlander rebels who had refused to sue for pardon. President McKinley sent a message to felicitate the English Queen on "the prolongation of a reign which has been illustrious and marked for advance in science, arts, and popular well-being." Lord Salisbury, in moving an address congratulating the Queen on "the longest, the most prosperous, and the most illustrious reign," spoke of it as a period marked by "a continuous advance in the frontiers of this empire, so that many races that were formerly alien to it have been brought under its influence, many who were formerly within its boundaries have been made to feel in some degree for the first time the full benefits of its civilization and its educating influence." He dwelt also on the great political change: "The impulse of democracy, which began in another century and in other lands, has made itself felt fully in our time, and vast changes in the center of power and the incidence of responsibility have been made almost imperceptibly without any disturbance or hindrance in the progress of the prosperous development of the nation." Mr. Balfour, in the House of Commons, extolled the virtue of the Queen, an example to every citizen in

[ocr errors]

her private life, and in her public life an example to sovereigns. It is," he said, "because she has so well understood the difficult and delicate tasks which fall to a constitutional monarch to perform that the Constitution of this country has during her reign been able to adapt itself, without friction and without shock, to the varying needs of this great community." The Irish Nationalist members protested against the address and refused to take part in the jubilee, holding, as Mr. Dillon said, that in every item of the catalogue of the great advances made by the populations of Great Britain and the colonies since her Majesty came to the throne Ireland has gone back and not progressed," and, as explained by J. Redmond, "in almost every one of the sixty years of the reign there had been some coercion act for the suspension of trial by jury, the suppression of freedom of speech or the freedom of the press, or the abrogation of some part of the Constitution under which Ireland was supposed to live."

The jubilee celebrations lasted over the month. In the naval review of June 26 at Spithead 173 British war vessels were arranged in 4 lines, each about 5 miles in length. On July 1 there was a review of troops at Aldershot, in which 27,359 officers and men, 5,029 horses, and 57 guns paraded.

Relations with the Colonies.-The Premiers of Canada, Newfoundland, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, Western Australia, Cape Colony, and Natal, representing all the self-governing colonies, went to England to take part in the jubilee celebrations and for an informal discussion of subjects of interest to the empire with the Minister of the Colonies in Downing Street. The Parliament of Cape Colony had in advance empowered Sir Gordon Sprigg to enter into tentative negotiations regarding a contribution of the colony toward the imperial navy. Sir Wilfrid Laurier had proposals to offer from Canada of preferential trade with the mother country. Australia had, in the first instance, offered a contribution in aid of the British navy, besides taking her full share of her military defenses.

The Prime Ministers assembled at the Colonial Office on June 24. Mr. Chamberlain broached the subject of a closer political and commercial union looking toward imperial federation. He suggested a great council of the empire, to which the colonies should send representative plenipotentiaries, which might slowly grow into a federal council. He was anxious to increase the authority of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. To this end the Government had secured the appointment as Privy Councilors of distinguished judges from the courts of Canada, Australia, and South Africa. He proposed that, instead of having in this place judges in active service in the colonies, the colonial governments should appoint and maintain permanently in England judges to assist in the trial of colonial cases brought before the Privy Council on appeal. He desired particularly to hear from the colonial Premiers their views as to what contributions the colonies would be willing to make in order to establish the principle of their participation in the naval defense of the empire, As regards the military defenses, the colonial defense committee of experts had accomplished a great improvement, with the assistance of the colonies; but the organization of the military resources of the colonies was very imperfect, and it was desirable to have a scheme of common defense against any probable enemy, such as already had been prepared in the case of some of the colonies. Uniformity of arms and equipment, some central provision for stores, and facilities for the military instruction of the local forces might be arranged to the advantage of the

colonies. The Colonial Secretary suggested the interchangeability of military forces between the colonies and the mother country and among the several colonies. If colonial regiments were to take up their quarters with the British army for at least a year at a time and British regiments in exchange were quartered in the colonies, the colonial troops would learn the drill, the discipline, and the mancuvres practiced by the regular British army. The future commercial relations between England and her colonies he hoped to see take the shape of a Zollverein. He wanted an expression of opinion as to the desirability of denouncing commercial treaties, especially those with Germany and Belgium, standing in the way of preferential trade arrangements with the colonies. Germany and Belgium had already protested against the proposed preferential treatment of British goods by Canada. He mentioned, further, the subjects of the Pacific cable, imperial penny postage, and a common commercial code, and protested against the alien immigration bills excluding all of the Indian subjects of the Queen on account of their color, and even all Asiatics.

The commercial relations of the United Kingdom and the self-governing colonies were first considered and the following resolutions were unanimously adopted:

"1. That the Premiers of the self-governing colonies unanimously and earnestly recommend the denunciation, at the earliest convenient time, of any treaties which now hamper the commercial relations between Great Britain and her colonies.

"2. That in the hope of improving the trade relations between the mother country and the colonies, the Premiers present undertake to confer with their colleagues with a view to seeing whether such a result can be properly secured by a preference given by the colonies to the products of the United Kingdom." The British Government had already decided to give effect to the first of these resolutions by notifying to the governments concerned its wish to terminate the commercial treaties with Germany and Belgium, which alone of the existing commercial treaties of the United Kingdom were a bar to the establishment of preferential tariff relations between the mother country and the colonies. From July 30, 1898, therefore, there would be nothing to preclude any action of any of the colonies in pursuance of the other resolution. Mr. Chamberlain warned the Premiers that if any colony should wish to extend the preferential treatment accorded to the United Kingdom to any foreign country then the most-favored-nation clause in all the commercial treaties, to which most of the colonies are parties, could be invoked, and the colony would be bound to give the same terms to nearly every important commercial country in the world. This is not applicable to the United States, which declined to include the British colonies in its most-favorednation clause with Great Britain.

On the question of the political relations between England and the colonies the following resolutions were adopted:

"1. The Prime Ministers here assembled are of opinion that the present political relations between the United Kingdom and the self-governing colonies are generally satisfactory under the existing condition of things.

2. They are also of opinion that it is desirable, whenever and wherever practicable, to group together under a federal union those colonies which are geographically united.

"3. Meanwhile, the Premiers are of opinion that it would be desirable to hold periodical conferences of representatives of the colonies and Great Britain for the discussion of matters of common interest.”

« AnteriorContinuar »