generally used in the discussion of those problems, a remark nevertheless which merits attention. Anyone reading the early history of the anti-slavery movement, or of the formation of the Aborigines' Protection Society, must be struck by the change in the public conscience towards slavery and the welfare of uncivilised racesa change so signal that it may well be doubted whether if the work of emancipation had still to be done there exists the enthusiasm to carry it through. The language of the Abolitionists seems to many in these days too high pitched, their confidence and obliviousness to difficulties too great, and this generation scarcely understands the spirit which prompted Garrison's words: 'I will not equivocate; I will not excuse; I will not retreat an inch; and I will be heard.' It is not only that after emancipation came disillusion-that with experience it dawned on many that to strike off the fetters of the slave might be to leave his lot miserable or precarious. The creed of the Eighteenth Century that all men are equal is discredited. Many are convinced of the contrary; and the teaching of Darwin as generally understood seems to have placed on a scientific basis the pretensions of civilised races to dominate the black races. And so one finds on all hands expressions such as these: 'The white man must always be regarded as dominant' (Sir David Tennant); 'we shall never have a healthy social state in South Africa until the white man replaces the dark in the fields and in the mines, and the Kaffir is pushed back under the Equator'; I believe that in no part of the world has the European invasion nipped in the bud any promise of nobler things';from an economic point of view the Matabele are a useless race.' The Dutch farmer, quoting Deuteronomy in justification of high-handed acts; the mine-owners, demanding measures to secure cheap labour; and the man of science, citing Darwin, are here in apparent accord. In the copious recent literature on this subject is rarely expressed profound regret for the break-up of tribal institutions, the extinction of possible nations, while words of overweening sense of superiority abound. 8 6 That for the time is the predominant idea in South Africa. Many persons outside the Transvaal hold with Article 10 of the Grondwet: The people shall not tolerate any equality of coloured people with white inhabitants, neither in the Church, nor in the State,' the Dutch equivalent of the Declaration of Independencethough it is usual to express the opinion less bluntly, and to say that the Kaffir is a child, and should be treated as a child. Many of those who say so desire to be true protectors and guardians of their wards. Some excellent measures have been passed in this spirit. It is conceivable that one day a code of morality altogether altruistic -it may be also that a new chapter in a code of international law• Karl Pearson's National Life from the Standpoint of Science. Headley's Problems of Evolution. 8 Three Years in Savage Africa. may be based on the duty of the white races to protect others less favoured than themselves, and that this duty may, on the whole, be honestly fulfilled. In India our Government have, in recent times, in the main, acted in this spirit. It seems to me that this is a dangerous doctrine in South Africa, where there are so many temptations to exploit the native, even while speaking him fair. I cling, perhaps superstitiously, to the view expressed lately by one of the best friends of the natives, that to make them men and citizens you must treat them as such. At present the phrase 'treating the Kaffirs as children' means too often treating them as children without the protection of the Factory Acts and other modern safeguards thrown round youth. The exponents of the doctrine of tutelage dilate on the duty of subordination; they say little of the obligations of the guardians of a race of tender years.' Attempts to improve the present meagre system of education, provided largely by the zeal of the missionaries, for the natives are rare, while sneers are plentiful at the outcome, necessarily imperfect, of such a system. We have spoilt a good man,' or words to that effect, are the comments on the outcome, marvellous in many ways, of the efforts to educate or civilise tribes whose occupations were only a few years ago the chase and war. It is rare to find a frank admission of the fact that, speaking generally, the natives are happiest when they have little intercourse with whites. For example, in Basutoland-naturally no doubt fertile-where, as has been said, the valleys stand so thick with corn that they laugh and sing-the natives are by themselves, and poverty in the absence of bad seasons is unknown. The facilities for drink are notoriously the curse of the native; but no excise duty is imposed in Cape Colony. As to this matter and others, the tutelage theory is apt to break down when any powerful interest intervenes. To point the application of these remarks, writing with becoming diffidence on matters as to which there is much obscurity, it seems at least clear that these things should be kept in view the levelling up of the laws affecting the natives to the standard of those of Cape Colony; retaining over the natives all the Imperial control not already parted with; and the discouraging of all measures which would tend to lower the wages of the natives, even as such measures would be discouraged if they were aimed against white labourers. These would be useful safeguards against the permanent economical temptations to drag down the natives to something like a state of serfage. JOHN MACDONELL. * If a South African Federation was formed, the subject of native affairs might with advantage be made a federal matter, in accordance with the precedent of the British North America Act. The Editor of THE NINETEENTH CENTURY cannot undertake to return unaccepted MSS. By a constitutional practice extending over two centuries, one of the very first Acts of Parliament in a new reign is that known as the Civil List Act. From the time of William the Third to the time of Queen Victoria these statutes have all had a common character, however much they have differed in details. They all make provision out of public funds for the maintenance of the household of the King for the time being. They are all grants from the House of Commons to the King. They all deal with certain revenues of the Crown. They all expire at or soon after a demise of the Crown. The Civil List Act of Queen Victoria was the second statute of that long reign. There has been no need, as there had been in the case of some of her predecessors, for any amending Act. It described itself as an Act for the support of Her Majesty's Household and of the VOL. XLIX.-No. 289 DD honour and dignity of the Crown. Its main provisions are well known. It granted to the Queen the following annuities, classified, after the manner of votes in Supply, under six heads : Class 1. Her Majesty's Privy Purse Class 2. Salaries of Her Majesty's Household and retired allowances These payments were all charged by the Act on the Consolidated Fund, and could not be altered except by another Act of Parliament. Cumbrous and complicated as the Act now appears to be, it really is the simplest of the series, and the new Civil List Act of the new reign will probably be simpler still. This List of authorised payments is what is generally meant by the phrase 'the Civil List.' All except one-the item of pensions -relate to the personal or Court expenditure of the Sovereign, although some of the household offices are used for political purposes. But with these exceptions the provision made is for the purposes of the Court alone, and Civil List' is now an inappropriate name. Macaulay derides the continued use in this country of a title which has ceased to have its original meaning, and still more the use of the title by foreign countries, in imitation of our practice but without our justification. The phrase carries us far back into the history of the British Constitution. It had a real meaning until quite recent times. The Civil List Acts of William the Third, of the Four Georges, and even of William the Fourth, provided for much more than the expenditure of the Court. The first Civil List Act (English) was the one passed in the ninth year of William the Third, and it provided to a large extent for the whole Civil Government of the country. The salaries of public officials and the pensions of those who were fortunate enough to get them accounted for a large portion of the expenditure. The evolution of the Civil List has resulted in nearly all of these public charges being withdrawn. They have either been charged on other public funds or abolished altogether. All that remained in the late Queen's Civil List of the charges which gave it its title were the pensions and those household salaries which had been diverted to political uses. It would be strictly in the line of historical development if these too were withdrawn from the Civil List of Edward the Seventh. The Pensions are administered by the Government of the day under regulations as precise in many respects as those which govern the salaries of ordinary Civil servants. The Vice-Chamberlain and the Comptroller of the Household are Parliamentary Whips coming in and going out with the party to which they belong. Payments apportioned in this fashion cannot fairly be said to be part of the public expenditure borne for the purpose of maintaining the household of the King, and if they are to be continued they should be charged to the account to which they properly belong. The Civil List with these exceptions provides only for the personal and household expenditure of the reigning Sovereign. It has been the custom to make provision for other members of the Royal Family by direct grants. In the early years of Queen Victoria's reign these annuities, payable out of the Consolidated Fund, including the annuity of 30,000l. to the Prince Consort, amounted to more than 300,000l. In 1837 the total was 341,788. In 1870 When the Select Committee of the House it had sunk to 110,000l. of Commons reported in 1889 it had risen to 152,000l. In that year application was made to the House of Commons for some provision for two of the children of the Prince of Wales, with the result that on the recommendation of the Select Committee a 'special fund' of 36,000l. per annum was created payable from the Consolidated Fund, out of which His Royal Highness was to be empowered to make such assignments and in such manner to his children as he should in his discretion think fit.' This annuity was to be limited in terms to the 'present reign.' The others of course were for the most part made payable for the lives of the recipients. The total amount of such payments to members of the Royal Family in the last year of the Queen's reign may be taken to have been 153,000l.1 The total cash provision for all members of the Royal Family may thus be taken to have been at the last about 540,000l. per annum. By far the greater part of these annuities will lapse in consequence of the demise of the Crown. The whole of the Civil List arrangements, the annuities to the Prince and Princess of Wales, and the special fund for their children, come to an end. Besides these 'cash provisions' the revenues of two Duchies have been paid to the Queen and the Prince of Wales. The Duchy of Lancaster yielded in 1899 a net revenue of 60,000l. to the Queen, and the Duchy of Cornwall rather more to the Prince of Wales. The expenditure sanctioned by Annual Estimates for purposes connected with the Royal Family is more difficult to calculate, but I should suppose it cannot be less on the average than 80,000l. or 90,000l., which would bring the entire public provision (including the revenues of the Duchies) up to about three-quarters of a million per annum. Such are the constituents of the great national subsidy which has now once again to be considered by the House of Commons and 'Allowing for the lapse of the annuities to the Duke of Edinburgh (25,0007.), and the Princess Mary of Cambridge (5,000l.). |