elected for five years. The franchise is possessed by all adult males able to register their names, addresses, and occupations, and further qualified by the occupation of house property of the value of £75 or the receipt of a salary of £50 or more per annum.

The Governor is Sir Alfred Milner, appointed in 1898. The Cabinet at the beginning of 1900 was composed of the following members: Prime Minister and Colonial Secretary, W. P. Schreiner; Treasurer, J. X. Merriam; Attorney-General, R. Solomon; Commissioner of Public Works, J. W. Sauer; Secretary for Agriculture, A. J. Herholdt; without portfolio, Dr. Te Water.

Area and Population. The area of the colony, including Griqualand West, East Griqualand, Tembuland, Transkei, and Walfisch Bay, is 221,311 square miles, with a population at the census of 1891 of 1,527,224. The white population was 376,987; colored, 1,150,237. Pondoland, with an area of 4,040 square miles, had in 1894 a population of 188,000; British Bechuanaland, with an area of 51,424 square miles, had in 1891 a population of 72,736, of whom 5,211 were whites. Cape Town had 51,251 inhabitants; including suburbs, 83,718. The number of marriages in Cape Colony in 1898 was 8,709; of births, 15,340 Europeans and 37,864 colored; of deaths, 6,936 Europeans and 34,031 others; excess of births, 8,404 Europeans and 3,833 others. The number of arrivals from over sea in 1898 was 28,513; departures, 20,638. Finances. The revenue of the colony for the year ending June 30, 1898, was £7,212,225 from all sources. Of the total £2,318,190 came from taxation, £3,695,199 from services, £336,953 from the colonial estate, £186,133 from fines, stores is sued, etc., and £675,750 from loans. The total expenditure was £8,431,398, of which £1,248,700 went for interest and sinking fund of the public debt, £2,058,587 for railroads, £435,338 for defense, £534,896 for police and jails, £176,210 for the civil establishment, and £1,349,143 under loan acts. The expenditure for the year ending June 30, 1900, was estimated at £6,664,044.

The budget statement of Sir Gordon Sprigg showed a deficit of only £69,000 in the accounts for the year ending June 30, 1900, the late Government having reduced expenditure on having its proposed income tax rejected. For the next year the revenue was estimated at £7,252,000, and expenditure at £7,225,000, not including £2,582,000 of permanent expenditure on harbor works, rolling stock, irrigation, and local loans to be raised by borrowing.

The public debt on Jan. 1, 1899, amounted to £28,383,922, including £3,106,477 of guaranteed loans for harbor boards and other corporate bodies. Commerce and Production. The crop of wheat in 1898 was 1,950,831 bushels; of oats, 1,447,353 bushels; of tobacco, 3,934,277 pounds; of mealies, 2.060,742 bushels; the production of wine, 4,861,056 gallons; of brandy, 1,387,392 gal lons; of raisins, 2,577,909 pounds. The number of fruit trees in the colony, including peach, apricot, apple, pear, plum, fig, lemon, orange, and naartje, was 4,195,624. The number of cattle was 1,201,522; of horses, 382,610; of mules and donkeys, 85,060; of sheep, 12,616,883; of goats, 5,316, 767; of hogs, 239.451; of ostriches, 267,693. The wool product was 8,115,370 pounds; the product of mohair, 8,115,370 pounds; of ostrich feathers, 294,733 pounds; of butter, 2,623,329 pounds; of cheese, 36,729 pounds. The total value of imports in 1898 was £16,682,438, of which £15,261,949 represent merchandise and £1,420,489 specie. The exports of colonial produce were £24,112,483; the total exports £25,318,701 in value. The chief

exports of colonial produce were gold of the value of £15,394,442; diamonds, £4,566,897; wool, £1,766,740; ostrich feathers, £748,565; mohair, £647,548; hides and skins, £548,478; copper ore, £262,830; cereals, £18,602; wine, £15,043. The largest classes of imports were textiles and apparel for £4,367,027 and food and drinks for £3,791,849. Of the total imports £11,443,178 came from Great Britain, £1,048,126 from British possessions, and £4,130,050 from foreign countries. Of the total exports £23,969,425 went to Great Britain, £113,080 to British possessions, and £340,908 to foreign countries.

The beginning of the war in South Africa was followed by a serious interruption to the normal movement of commerce in the British colonies as well as in the Boer republics, of which Cape Colony is the principal outlet. The Boers and their sons had to go on commando, leaving a great part of the abundant crops to perish in the ground. In Cape Colony the call for volunteers and the disorganization caused by invasion or by the fear of invasion led to the same results, although in a less degree. By the end of 1899 there was a heavy fall in the principal exports and general depression was felt in trade. Later the war began to create an immense trade of its own, and exports of most products were stimulated, including mohair, ostrich feathers, copper ore, and sheepskins, the amount of increase over 1898 being £834,000. The export of diamonds, however, was much diminished, showing a loss of £1,579,000, and there was a reduction in the wool export, so that the total value of exports for the year showed a decrease of £1,176,000. The provisioning of the British troops more than supplied the loss on the side of imports caused by the stoppage of the trade in timber and mining machinery from the United States and the other requirements of ordinary times, which is destined to grow in a rapid ratio after the return of normal conditions. Australia and New Zealand furnished a large proportion of the frozen meat and butter required to feed the British forces. Australia sent 3,000 tons of corn beef before January, 1900, and, the supply becoming exhausted, 1,000 tons were ordered in the United States. The supply of cattle on the hoof in South Africa proving insufficient, cargoes were brought from the Argentine Republic, which also sent cavalry horses. Horses were bought in the United States also and in Hungary, the English horses having been found too heavy and not sufficiently hardy. Mules for transport were bought in the United States. The oats of the British Islands were too tender and unfit to stand the climate, and preference was given to Russian oats, and after them to American oats and what could be got from New Zealand. Canada supplied compressed vegetables and 3,000 tons of hay, and thousands of tons of oat hay came from Australia and alfalfa from the Argentine Republic. Canned meats could not be supplied in sufficient quantities by American packers, but 2,000 tons that were shipped from England were American cans rebranded.

Navigation.-The number of vessels entered at all ports during 1898 was 1,045, of 2.812,966 tons, of which 726, of 2,445,572 tons, were British; the number cleared was 1,065, of 2,789,989 tons, of which 720, of 2.401.772 tons, were British. In the coasting trade 1,288, of 3,897,088 tons, were entered and 1.293, of 3,927,311 tons, were cleared. The shipping belonging to the colony on Jan. 1, 1899, comprised 28 steamers, of 4,023 tons, and 7 sailing vessels, of 4,513 tons.

Railroads, Posts, and Telegraphs.-The railroads belonging to the Government had on Jan. 1,

1899, a total length of 1,990 miles, not including 350 miles not yet completed. Of private railroads there were 358 miles. The cost of the Government lines was £20,222,263, an average of £10,162 a mile. The receipts for 1898 were £2,953,090; expenses, £2,012,390. The number of passengers carried was £19,013,432; tons of freight, 1,507,600. The postal traffic in 1898 was 23,339,379 letters, 9,862,080 newspapers, 750,568 postal cards, 2,303,400 books and samples, and 525,660 parcels.

The length of telegraph lines on Jan. 1, 1899, was 7,224 miles. The number of dispatches in 1898 was 2,321,082; receipts, £143,438; expenses, £132,867.

The Cape Rebels. The invasion of Cape Colony by Republican commandos was followed in the districts bordering on the Orange river and those north of that river by the adhesion of a large proportion of the inhabitants. Whenever a commando entered a town the Free State flag was hoisted, a meeting was held in the courthouse or the market place, and a proclamation was read annexing the district. The commandant then made a speech, in which he explained to the people that the people must thenceforward obey the Free State laws, though for the present they would be under martial law. A local landrost was appointed, and those who refused to accept Republican rule were given a few days in which to leave the district. Their property was often commandeered, and those who stayed were commandeered themselves besides giving up whatever of their possessions were required for military purposes, and were compelled to join the Boer commandos. Some thousands of Cape Colonists became burghers of the South African Republic, and joined the Transvaal army immediately be fore or just after the outbreak of hostilities. When the Free State commandos encamped on their own side of the Orange river preparatory to their invasion of Cape Colony other thousands from the northern and western districts joined them. And when they crossed the river and proclaimed the annexation of the northern part of the colony they were augmented by at least their own numbers of colonial Boers and sympathizers. In Vryburg, Barkly West, and other districts north of the Orange river as many colonists volunteered in the Transvaal and Orange Free State commandos as in the older parts of Cape Colony. Sir Alfred Milner calculated that in January, 1900, more than 10,000 Cape Colonists were fighting against the British, and the rebellion had not yet reached its height. It broke out spontaneously in places where no Boer commandos had appeared, and was spreading secretly when a vigilant military police, aided by loyal colonists, put a stop to the movement in the districts still in British occupation. the invasion of the Free State by Lord Roberts drew away most of the burghers for the defense of their own soil, and when the British occupa tion of Bloemfontein convinced the majority of the rebellious colonists of the hopelessness of the Boer cause and the gradual reconquest of the annexed districts by the British forces rendered them powerless to serve the cause further in Cape Colony, the bulk of them returned quietly to their homes or made their submission, and only a comparatively few ardent ones marched northward with the retreating Boer columns. The question of the treatment to be extended to those who had borne arms against the Queen or given active aid to the enemy seemed one of vital importance to the Cape ministers, and it was one that could not be solved without the concurrence of the imperial authorities. They submitted a minute, which Sir Alfred Milner forwarded on April 28,

When

proposing the appointment of a judicial commission, comprising two judges of the Supreme Court and a barrister acceptable to the Secretary of State, for the trial of persons implicated in the rebellion, the commission to be vested with the powers of both judge and jury and to decide on a verdict by a majority vote. A few days later they sent an appeal for clemency for all except the principal offenders, whose trials would mark the magnitude of their offense, and whose punishment would serve as a deterrent, pointing out that the insurrection was a consequence of invasion and generally subsided as soon as the invading force was withdrawn, and that it was accompanied with few, if any, cases of outrage or murder and no great destruction of private property. The interests of sound policy and public morality demanded, instead of a general proscription of the misguided men who joined the ranks of the rebels, that the Imperial Government should issue as an act of grace a proclamation of amnesty for all persons chargeable for high treason except the leaders selected for trial. The agitation and unrest prevailing in the colony was due to uncertainty regarding their fate, and the future well-being of the colony depended on a policy of well-considered clemency, which would have the best possible effect on the loyal majority of the Dutch population, which had shown commendable self-restraint, and would help to unite the white races, between which harmony was a necessity in view of the large and increasing barbarian population. The rebellion was of a milder type than the one in Lower Canada, where moderation was adopted with the happiest results in 1838. Mr. Chamberlain, in his reply, argued that amnesty would place rebels in a better position than those who have risked life and property in the determination to remain loyal, and while sympathizing with a policy of clemency to rebels he held justice to loyalists to be an obligation of duty and honor, and that it was necessary in the interests of future peace to show that rebellion can not be indulged in with impunity or prove profitable to the rebel even if unsuccessful. Even those who were tools of others who had deceived them should learn individually that rebellion is a punishable offense. He distinguished between different categories of rebels: ringleaders and promoters; those who have committed outrages or looted property; those who have committed acts contrary to the usages of civilized warfare, such as abuse of the white flag, firing on hospitals, etc.; those who have openly and willingly waged war against the imperial forces; those who have confined themselves to aiding the enemy by giving information or furnishing provisions; and those who can prove that they have acted under compulsion. Recognizing the difficulty of indicting for high treason all who had taken part in the rebellion, he suggested the expediency of investigating either the proposed judicial commission or a separate commission with powers to schedule the names of persons impli cated in the rebellion under these various heads: the first three categories to be tried for high treason before the judicial commission, the fourth and fifth to be fined and disfranchised on pleading guilty, and the last to be merely disfranchised. The Secretary of State would not consider the Canadian rebellion a precedent because it was a rising in time of peace for the remedy of grievances and was not a formidable affair, whereas the Cape Colonists had gone over to the Queen's enemies and entailed danger and heavy losses on the troops. As to the duration of disfranchisement, he proposed that it should be for life. Mr. Chamberlain did not wait for the full text of the proposals of

the Cape ministers, but on receiving the telegraph summary made known at once the uncompromising policy of the Imperial Government. Not one of the ministers was willing to submit to the Cape Parliament a measure of the character demanded by the Secretary of State. Premier Schreiner and Attorney-General Solomon were willing to disfranchise the rebels for five years and compensate the loyalists for their losses, but they could not get any of their colleagues nor more than half a score of their followers even to agree to that measure of punishment for any except ringleaders. The Afrikander Bond was willing to accept a bill indemnifying the Government and the military authorities for acts committed under martial law and to grant compensation for property commandeered by the Boers, but only on condition of a full amnesty to the rebels who furnished a guarantee of good behavior. Ministers Merriman, Sauer, and Te Water vehemently opposed the Premier's proposed compromise, and saw no ground for punishing men for taking up arms in what they considered a righteous war. The deadlock in the Cabinet could not be broken. Mr. Schreiner, who before the war incurred the animosity of the English party through his efforts to bring about an understanding and preserve the peace of South Africa, had during the progress of the war given deep offense to the more earnest Afrikanders by countersigning the proclamations of the High Commissioner, in taking off the meat duties for the particular benefit of the refugee Uitlanders and to the detriment of the colonial producers, and for recruiting bodies of troops in the colony to fight on the British side, and especially for raising native levies in the native reserves. Mr. Solomon offended the majority of the supporters of the ministry when, instead of interfering to secure the constitutional rights of citizens who fell into the hands of the military, he gave full consent to the operations of martial law. Some of the acts of the military tribunals seemed monstrous to the Afrikanders, and the prospect of obtaining a bill of indemnity ratifying the acts done and sentences passed during the period of martial law was not promising. The courts-martial had sentenced men to do convict labor for five or ten years in districts where they had been held in honor and had sanctioned the looting of homesteads and farms on the ground that it was the property of rebels. Boer farmers were arrested wholesale, herded together for weeks in noisome cells, and finally released for want of evidence. The evidence of Kaffirs was taken against their masters. The secretary and other members of the South African League and some of the Johannesburg reformers went into the rebel districts as they were reoccupied and took the lead in the investigations, a volunteer committee for what the Dutch called smelling out rebels. No sentence or act of military courts or military officers, if justified only by martial law, is legal according to English law, and officers who carry out the decrees of military tribunals are liable to prosecution for wrongful assault or illegal detention unless the proceedings are ratified by a special act of the Legislature. The Dutch colonists regarded many of the sentences and acts of confiscation to which their kinsfolk were subjected as barbarous, and wished to preserve for them the right of appeal. The charges of treason brought against many members of the Cape Parliament reduced the Bond majority in the Assembly to only 4 votes. Mr. Schreiner attempted to form a coalition ministry, having the assistance of Mr. Rose-Inness, who urged the Progressives to support Mr. Schreiner in a policy of moderation and conciliation, giving the special

tribunal full discretion in punishing the ringleaders, but subjecting the others to only temporary disfranchisement. The South African League, which controlled the Progressive party, would not consent to a coalition with the moderate members of the Bond, and the Progressive leaders, expecting a speedy termination of the war, were willing to accept the responsibilities of office, since the support or even the abstention of Mr. Schreiner's handful of followers would give them a majority to start with. On June 13 Mr. Schreiner, seeing the attitude of the Progressives and the impossibility of his forming a coalition Cabinet and hoping that Mr. Rose-Inness could form one, instead of accepting the resignation of the dissentient ministers and endeavoring to reconstruct his Cabinet by the inclusion of moderate Progressives, placed the collective resignation of the ministry in the Governor's hands. Mr. Schreiner, although the parliamentary leader of the Bond party, never identified himself with the principles of the Bond. As the war progressed he co-operated more heartily with Sir Alfred Milner, his chief anxiety having been throughout to save the colony from civil war. A conciliation movement that was started by the Bond after the capture of Cronje at Paardeberg left little doubt of the ultimate defeat of the republics, which had for its objects the preservation of the independence of the republics and immunity for all who had taken part in the rebellion, received no countenance from Mr. Schreiner nor from Mr. Solomon, who proposed to appoint a judicial commission to visit the rebel districts and put the rebels on trial. At a conciliation congress at Graaff Reinet the Bond leaders demanded the unqualified independence of the republics, a permanent arbitration treaty, and the withdrawal of British troops from South Africa. This led to Mr. Schreiner's convoking a conference of the party, at which his policy was condemned by three fourths of the delegates. The resignation of the ministry followed necessarily this action of the caucus.

Sir Alfred Milner accepted Mr. Schreiner's resignation and called on Sir Gordon Sprigg to form a ministry. The Progressive leader first proposed to Mr. Solomon that he should continue in the office of Attorney-General, but it was finally decided that he should form a purely Progressive ministry. In this he succeeded, and on June 18 the new Cabinet was announced as follows: Premier and Treasurer, Sir J. Gordon Sprigg; Colonial Secretary, T. L. Graham; Attorney-General, J. Rose-Inness; Commissioner of Public Works, Dr. Smartt; Secretary for Agriculture, Sir Pieter H. Faure; without portfolio, J. Frost. The chief task of the new ministry, that of framing the laws dealing with the rebels, was thus given to Mr. Rose-Inness, who enjoyed the confidence of the moderate Afrikanders. Even after deducting the members of the Bond party who were in prison on charges of treason or had escaped from South Africa the Progressives were in a minority of 5. Parliament was opened on July 20. The AttorneyGeneral brought in a comprehensive bill for the indemnification of acts done in good faith under martial law, and confirming the sentences of the military tribunals for the punishment of rebels, and for the compensation of loyalists who had sustained direct losses during the war through military operations or the acts of the enemy or of rebels. The new Cabinet had adopted Mr. Solomon's measures just as he had drafted them. The special tribunal with the powers of a judge and the functions of a jury was to try only ringleaders. The sentence of disfranchisement was to be pronounced by commissions with quasi-judicial

powers, and not against any who could prove that they had gone into the rebel ranks under compulsion. The procedure of the commissions was to cite all who had delivered up their arms or who were denounced as rebels and pronounce them disqualified from voting or holding office for five years unless they appeared in court and proved their innocence. The Attorney-General was empowered to indict before the special court after preliminary investigation by the military authorities, without requiring that preparatory examinations should be taken in the usual manner; but if satisfied that the investigation was insufficient he could direct a supplementary investigation. The court could impose any penalty that a judge of the Supreme Court was entitled to impose for high treason. Its object was the trial and punishment only of those rebels who had been ringleaders in instigating rebellion or who were sufficiently influential in their districts to have seriously encouraged rebellion by their example. Martial law had already been suspended in three districts when Mr. Merriman offered a resolution for its general repeal on the ground that its continuance after the termination of armed resistance and the reopening of the civil courts was contrary to the inherent rights of British subjects. He described the rule of martial law in Cape Colony as a reign of terror, and said that the districts which had been occupied by the enemy were now overrun by informers who from political motives were anxious to proscribe the entire Dutch population. When the resolution was toned down by an amendment into a form which Mr. Schreiner and his followers felt constrained to approve, calling for the repeal of martial law in districts where armed resistance had ceased or where it was not indispensable for the success of the imperial forces, Sir Gordon Sprigg, while declaring that the Government could not accept the amendment any more than the original resolution, said that it would not consider a defeat on the amendment as in any way implying that it had not got the confidence of the house. Its adoption, therefore, did not upset the ministry, which carried through the treason bill after a long debate. Dr. Jameson sat in the Assembly as a member for Kimberley, and Gen. Brabant, whose cavalry had done more than the British troops to turn back the tide of rebellion, was there to defend the actions of his partisan troopers. Cape Colony raised altogether 24,000 volunteers to fight on the British side, more than all the other colonies combined. The act to punish rebels, compensate loyalists, and ratify martial law was the only legislative measure of the session. Mr. Schreiner explained that his ministry had not demanded amnesty, as that was the prerogative of the Crown, and that the Imperial Government had modified its first proposals at the suggestion of the ministers. He offered an amendment, which was carried, enabling the Governor to proclaim an amnesty at any time within five years if it were sanctioned by the Crown and by the Cape Parliament. The rebels themselves were generally willing to accept disfranchisement when it saved them from going to prison, but the Bond politicians asserted that it would make of South Africa a second Ireland instead of a Canada; that the disfranchisement of 10,000 citizens would perpetuate racial feeling and the animosities of the war.

Basutoland.-The Basutos, whose country lies between Cape Colony, the eastern part of the Orange Free State, and Natal, are governed by a Resident Commissioner, Sir G. Y. Lagden, under the direction of the High Commissioner for South Africa. The area is 10,293 square miles, with an

estimated population of 250,000. The natives raise sheep, horses, and cattle and grow mealies, wheat, and Kaffir corn. The imports in 1898 were £100,280 in value, and exports £138,500. The revenue, raised by a hut tax of 108., the sale of licenses, and a contribution from the Cape Government of £18,000, amounted in 1899 to £46,847; expenditure, £46,417.

Bechuanaland Protectorate.-The Bamangwato under Chief Khama, the Bakhatla under Lenchwe, the Bangwaketse under Bathoen, the Bakwena under Sebele, and the Bamaliti under Ikaneng have been governed since 1895 by a Resident Commissioner, Major H. J. Goold Adams. The area of the protectorate is 213,000 square miles, with a population estimated at 200,000.

Natal. The colony of Natal has had a modified form of responsible government since 1893. The Legislative Assembly contains 39 members, including 1 from Zululand, elected under a property qualification for four years. The Legislative Council contains 12 members, including 1 from Zululand, appointed by the Governor for ten years. The Governor at the beginning of 1900 was Sir Walter Francis Hely-Hutchinson. The ministry, constituted on June 9, 1899, contained the following members: Premier and Minister of Lands and Works, Lieut.-Col. A. H. Hime; Attorney-General and Minister of Education, H. Bale; Secretary for Native Affairs, F. R. Moor; Colonial Secretary, C. J. Smythe; Treasurer, W. Arbuckle; Minister of Agriculture, H. D. Winter. Money bills must be first introduced in the Assembly, and may be rejected but not amended by the Council; but, unless recommended by the Governor, no money bill can become law during the session in which it is passed. The assent of the Governor is required to all legislation, and under certain conditions this may be revoked within two years.

Area and Population.-The area of the colony, including that part of Zululand that has been annexed, is estimated to be 35,019 square miles. In a total population of 902,365 there are only 60,000 whites, in part the descendants of the early Boer settlers, but mainly of British origin or extraction. Labor is performed by natives and by imported Indian coolies.

were

Finances. The revenue for the year ending June 30, 1898, was £1,964,315; expenditure, £1,812,318. The chief items of revenue £1,000,323 from railroads, £383,813 from customs, £21,893 from excise duties, £39,094 from sales of land, £25,625 from telegraphs, £32,428 from stamps and licenses, and £129,596 from the native hut tax. The chief items of expenditure were £538,356 for railroads, £92,947 for public works, and £61,054 for defense, besides £607,464 from loans. The public debt on June 30, 1898, amounted to £8,019,143.

Commerce and Production.-The chief cultivated commercial crop is sugar, of which 581,533 hundredweight were produced in 1898. Tea is also grown for export, the crop in 1898 amounting to 1,037,500 pounds. Europeans had 157,370 acres under cultivation in 1898, natives 360,232 acres, and Indians 24,725 acres. Europeans owned 155,456 cattle, 98,510 goats, 543,619 sheep, and 32,771 horses; natives possessed 122,077 cattle, 351,528 goats, 56,403 sheep, and 24,611 horses. The coal raised in 1898 amounted to 387,811 tons.

Of

The total value of imports in 1898 was £5,323,216, about 70 per cent. coming from Great Britain. The value of exports was £1,246,000, of which 68 per cent. went to Great Britain. imports, clothing amounted to £368,072; haberdashery, £492,818; flour and grain, £368,101; iron manufactures, £539,046; leather manufac

tures, £246,054; cotton goods, £116,677; woolens, £85,673; machinery, £306,035; wines and liquors, £166,741. Of the exports the chief articles in value were wool for £565,479, hides and skins for £184,850, coal for £125,666, gold for £40,635, mohair for £36,545, and bark for £30,929. Navigation. The number of vessels entered during 1898 was 690, of 1,264,591 tons; cleared, 687 vessels, of 1,264,591 tons.

The shipping registered in the colony consisted in 1898 of 14 steamers, of 2,495 tons, and 14 sailing vessels, of 699 tons.

Railroads. The railroads within the colony have a total length of 505 miles, all belonging to the Government. One joins at Harrismith a railroad running through the Orange Free State, and one runs from Durban through Pietermaritzburg to the Transvaal border, whence it extends through Johannesburg to Pretoria, the total distance being 511 miles. The cost of the Natal railroads was £6,950,621. The receipts for 1898 were £986,417; expenses, £589,815.

Effects of the War.-The colonists of Natal, being mainly of English extraction, were most eager for the war with the Boers, anticipating a brilliant political and commercial future for their colony in the event of victory by British arms, because Natal is the natural outlet for both the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. The Boers on their part made the conquest of this land, which was once theirs, and would give them access to the sea, their first object, as in all their history they have sought a seaport of their own and railroad communications under their sole control as the best guarantee for the political and economic independence which they wanted. Thus political rather than strategic considerations made Natal the theater of the Transvaal war in its early stages, and political hopes as well as patriotic and racial feeling moved the colonists of British descent to take an active part in the contest, while those of Boer descent, the sons and grandsons of the Dutch emigrants who first won the country from the Zulus after a heroic campaign and then had it wrested from them by a British armed expedition, gave aid and comfort to the Boer invaders. Refugees from Johannesburg flocked into Maritzburg and Durban, and had to be fed by charity except those who, with many young men of Natal, were accepted as volunteers in the South African corps, which the British commanders were in the beginning reluctant to employ, but came to depend upon more and more. Before the tide of war turned Boer commandos marched through Natal at will, threatening even Maritzburg; and when British re-enforcements were poured in for the relief of Ladysmith, the corner of Natal of which the besieged town was the center became the seat of military operations, and from there down to the sea were stretched the British camps. Bodies of Boers rode through the parts of the colony that were unguarded and through Zululand. They commandeered what they wanted more harshly as the war became more bitter and their necessities and perils grew greater. Still Natal was not so great a sufferer from the vindictive reprisals and barbarities of the war as other parts of South Africa, where later phases of the struggle were enacted. When the armies faced each other on the Tugela not only were the ferocious passions of warfare not yet aroused, but the commanders on both sides were anxious to spare the Natalians as much as possible, the British because they were generally loyal colonists who suffered for their loyalty, the Boers because they hoped to gain the country for their own, and British and Boers alike because they were vying

with each other in affording to the world an example of humane warfare. Nevertheless Natal, being for the longest period the field of operations and the camping ground for the main armies, suffered as great loss and disturbance as the scenes of the later and more desperate conflicts. Loyal colonists were compelled to leave their homes and abandon their property. Many of the volunteers and police lost their lives in repelling Boer raids. When the British generals began to select colonial troops for the most difficult and dangerous duties the casualties among them increased more rapidly than the recognition that they won by their bravery and intelligence. The Government suspended all public works, and yet the revenue was far from sufficient to defray the expenditure, which necessarily increased in consequence of the war. The ministers were compelled to apply to the Imperial Government for temporary financial support, which was promptly rendered. An inquiry into the financial condition of the colony is in prospect, and after the conclusion of the war Natal, which, owing to its peculiar labor conditions and the great preponderance of the native population and paucity of whites, has never received the attention that is given to larger British communities, expects an extension of boundaries or an improvement in its political and financial position to result from the determined and unswerving support the colony has afforded the Im perial Government during the war and the sacrifices suffered by the colonists. The parliamentary session was opened on May 3. A bill for more effectually dealing with persons accused of treason was directed against the Boer colonists, who are only numerous in the higher northwestern part of the colony. Another bill was passed in order to indemnify the Governor, the ministers, and the military in respect of acts not protected by the existing laws, but which were rendered necessary through the enforcement of martial law and the invasion of the colony. The Zulus were kept quiet during the war by the admonitions they received from both the British and the Republican authorities. The Swazis, who are by race and customs a branch of the Zulu nation, were handed over to the administration of the South African Republic in 1894, having previously been recognized as independent in 1884 and in 1890 as under a joint British and Boer tutelage, a committee of Boers and British traders looking after the interests of the whites, who numbered from 900 to 1,200, while of the natives there are from 40,000 to 50,000, occupying a country about 8,500 miles in extent. Under Boer sovereignty the Swazis still were governed by their native rulers according to their own customs. When the Anglo-Boer war broke out the burghers, who use their farms in Swaziland for winter pasturage and generally have their homes elsewhere, left the country to go to the war. In October, 1899, Gen. Schalk Burger went to the king's kraal and told him that the Transvaal Government handed back the country to the natives to administer as the king thought fit. A few days later the British consul brought a message from the High Commissioner admonishing the natives not to interfere in the war nor to kill off one another, as they sometimes do in intestine feuds when the restraint of white rule is not upon them. There was a standing feud between the king and the old queen, she having always been a partisan of British predominance and having lost power and prestige by the relinquishment of the country to the Transvaal, while the king was a friend of the Boers. The queen had her devoted followers in the nation, but they were not strong enough to dispute the