fine-spun schemes of political union or elaborately formulated

covenants.

Having thus taken a cursory view of the four European states in South Africa as separate communities, let us take a survey of South Africa as a whole. Comparing the conditions of to-day with those that prevailed ten years ago, we recognise these cardinal changes :1. Race feeling is fast subsiding.

2. The native power as a cohesive force has disappeared.

3. The railway has shown that, when its several systems are linked together, it will be the true factor of union.

4. Independent native territories have practically ceased to exist.

5. The two colonial Governments have conceded to the inland republic a remission of duty upon goods bonded in transit.

6. The adoption of a very low tariff at Delagoa Bay and the prosecution of railway works there, have controlled the fiscal policy of the British Colonies.

7. Gold discoveries promise to revolutionise the financial and commercial conditions of the Transvaal.

8. The coal fields having been brought by railway construction within access of the coast, the imperial and merchant navies of England can at all times command on the South African seaboard an ample supply of fuel.

Such are the leading changes wrought by the many incidents of the last ten years. Socially speaking, the subsidence of racial difference is perhaps the most important and far-reaching; how much so, only those who have lived in South Africa during this period can understand. On two occasions since 1877 it has seemed as though the two branches of the white race in South Africa were about to be rent asunder by an irreparable breach, but both times the calamity was averted. If the present temper of all sections of the population continues to prevail-as I believe it will-no such menace will again arise. If tension exists now it springs from fiscal inter-rivalry, not from race jealousies. It is quite true that in their resolve to compete with the low tariff at Delagoa Bay the Cape and Natal have entered upon a policy which must sooner or later terminate itself. Each colony has saddled itself with debt on account of railway works, whose financial prospects depend upon a large traffic with the interior. It is really to feed these railways, no less than to expand their trade, that the two colonies are contending. To some, and especially to outsiders, this strife may appear suicidal. Why, it may be asked, should two Governments deliberately resolve to cast aside good chances of earning revenue in order that one may prevent the other from increasing its trade? That may be one way of putting the case, but it is neither the fair nor the correct one. The real reasons are: (1) that each colony needs to secure an inland

traffic for its railway; (2) that the time has arrived when the claim of the republics to be considered in regard to fiscal questions could no longer be ignored. In 1884 the Cape Parliament and Government met the action of the Natal Legislature in reducing its tariff by authorising a rebate of duty upon goods passing in bond to the republics down to the Natal level. In 1887 the Cape Government met the action of the Natal Legislature in remitting duties upon certain leading articles passing beyond the borders by a corresponding reduction of rebate. Remember that the one colony has spent over thirteen millions, and the other has spent nearly three millions, upon its railways; remember, too, that for years past the republics have been pressing for some share of customs duties. Remember, further, that the whole seaboard and all the ports of ingress to these states belong to the two colonies. Under such circumstances it was inevitable, either that an agreement would be come to between the four Governments concerned, or that a fiscal struggle would be entered upon. The last alternative has occurred, but I am greatly mistaken if the outcome of the struggle, at no distant date, will not be the establishment upon a stable basis of common and reciprocal good-will of improved fiscal relations throughout South Africa.

And the chief factor in bringing about this improved order of things will be the completion of our several railway systems. It is impossible that the present spectacle of four separate lines running from four different ports up to four distinct points in the interior, without any common point of junction, can be maintained. Imagine all the lines of Great Britain stopping short just outside Yorkshire, while passing northward and southward through Lancashire. That is very much the position of railway enterprise in South Africa. We-and on this question the Cape Colony is divided in itself, as well as at issue with Natal are all looking at and fighting with each other instead of clasping hands and joining forces in a common effort to place the railway communications and the fiscal relations of the several countries upon a basis that shall conduce to the common interests of each and all.

So far as railways are concerned, there is but one really effective method of bringing about a consummation so devoutly to be desired. The Cape Colony has three lines of railway approaching close or near to the borders of the Free State. One runs through the Karroo, direct from Capetown to Kimberley; one proceeds from Port Elizabeth to Colesberg; one passes from East London-which is the most easterly port of the Cape Colony-to Aliwal North. It is proposed in certain quarters to extend the line from Kimberley to Pretoria, and steps are already in progress to secure the construction of the first section of such a line as far as the northern frontier of the colony (the Vaal River), about thirty miles distant. This line, however, would leave the Free State altogether on one side, and

would aim at carrying the traffic of the Transvaal along 700 miles of line to the western capital of the senior colony. This project would undoubtedly meet with strenuous opposition from all the eastern districts of the Cape Colony, and it is likely to meet with scant favour from the Transvaal Government and Volksraad, who look to Delagoa Bay as their proper seaport. The scheme most likely to be supported by the eastern and border districts is the proposal to extend the line from Colesberg up to and through the Free State, where at some point in the north of that republic it could be joined by a line from Natal, proceeding towards Pretoria and into the Transvaal from that point of junction.

This is, in my opinion, the system of railway extension-centering in the Free State-which would do more to unify South Africa and to consolidate British interests therein than any other project. It would link both the republics to the two sister colonies, to the eastern and western districts of the Cape Colony in one direction, and to Natal in the other. It would bring all the civilised governments and communities of South Africa into direct railway connection. It would secure to the inland states access to whatever port upon the seaboard they might elect to make use of. It would enable a passenger to travel overland from Capetown to Durban, or from Durban to Port Elizabeth, Kimberley, or Bloemfontein. It would be an iron bond of union, more effective in its practical daily operation than any political compact or diplomatic understanding. Its realisation depends, of course, in the first instance, upon the action of the Volksraad of the Free State, now in session. That body represents a community that is in the main pastoral in its pursuits, and, therefore, not largely concerned in considerations of commercial advantage. The Free State burgher has an instinctive dislike to taxation, and, as railways are regarded as the equivalent of taxation, it is possible that yet again the Raad may decide to assume no responsibility in the matter. It would be possible, however, for both the Cape and the Natal Governments to co-operate with the republic in such a manner as to silence this dread of added burdens. This is not the place in which to discuss matters of detail, but I am sanguine enough to believe that a policy might be jointly worked out which would enable the Free State to take part as a connecting and uniting link in the unification of South Africa.

Did space permit I should like to say something about the value of the British possessions in South Africa to the Empire as a whole. It is a large question, and I can only state the case in the form of these general conclusions, namely:

That the retention of the Cape is admitted to be absolutely necessary in the interests of the Empire.

That, were the Suez Canal blocked, all the trade of the East would have for the time being to go round the Cape.

That, were the Cape in the hands of a foreign hostile power, trade by that route would be in fatal jeopardy.

That Natal, as the eastern extremity of British possessions in South Africa, is not less necessary to imperial and commercial interests.

That the solidarity of interests in British South Africa cannot be too fully recognised.

That the time is not far distant when the two republics of the Free State and the Transvaal will find it to their interest to enter into terms of closer relationship with the seaboard colonies.

That the completion of existing railway systems will effectually contribute towards such a result.

That the existence of vast coal deposits in Natal is a factor in the· general question that ought not to be longer overlooked or ignored when the value of the Cape as a coaling station comes to be considered. That unity in feeling and in action on the part of the two English-speaking and Dutch-speaking races is the true key-note of all future policy.

That both in the mother country and in the colonies the necessity of such unity, and of the restraints in language, policy, and action, that may conduce thereto, cannot be too fully recognised.

Much more might fairly be said in pursuance of this theme, but I may well say, in conclusion, that it will be strange indeed should the united intelligence of patriotic politicians in South Africa not succeed in working out on a basis of mutual conciliation and compromise a permanent readjustment of fiscal relations and an abiding settlement of existing difficulties. For it may be acceptedas an incontrovertible axiom that the affairs of South Africa can only be set right by the efforts and action of its own people. Interference from outside, however carefully considered and well meant, will but result in a repetition of past failures, if it be anything more than the outcome of local solicitation. If the policy that has been so steadfastly and successfully applied as regards the Canadian and Austral- asian groups of colonies be extended to that other great group of colonies and states which lies midway between them, I cannot doubt that in course of time a South African Dominion of self-governing British subjects, compacted together in the southern world, will add new testimony to the colonising genius of the parent race.

JOHN ROBINSON.

STRANGE MEDICINES.

QUICKLY by far too quickly for the sake of the student and the archæologist is the wave of foreign influence oversweeping Japan, ruthlessly effacing all the most marked characteristics of native manners and customs, and substituting the commonplaces of everyday European life.

Already this tendency to exalt and to adopt foreign novelties meets the traveller at every turn, and only he who turns aside from the tracks most subject to foreign influence can hope now and then to find some staunch Conservative, who in that nation of ultraRadicals (albeit most loyal Imperialists) has the courage to adhere to his own old-fashioned ways.

I had the good fortune to meet with [such a one in the very interesting old city of Osaka-a compounder of just such strange medicines as were administered to our British ancestors in the Middle Ages. So rapidly has the scientific study of medicine been taken up by the Japanese medical practitioners, that the survival of such a chemist of the pure and unadulterated old school is quite remarkable, and I was greatly struck by the evident annoyance of a Japanese gentleman to whom I expressed my interest in this mediæval chemist, and who evidently felt it humiliating that a foreigner should have seen such a relic of the days of ignorance.

The quaint old man whose loyal adherence to the customs of his ancestors afforded me such an interesting illustration both of old Japan and old Britain was a seller of curoyakie, i.e. carbonised animals, in other words, animals reduced to charcoal, and potted in small covered jars of earthenware, to be sold as medicine for the sick and suffering. Formerly all these animals were kept alive in the back premises, and customers selected the creature for themselves, and stood by to see it killed and burnt on the spot, so that there could be no deception, and no doubt as to the freshness of their charred medicine. Doubtless some insensible foreign influence may account for the disappearance of the menagerie of waiting victims and their cremation-ground; now the zoological backyard has vanished, and only the strange chemist's shop remains, like a well-stored