Colony of British Columbia became a province of Canada, since which time it has been under the law of the Dominion of Canada.

GEORGE BRYCE,

Fellow of Royal Society of Canada.

British East Africa, a name defining a vast district lying between German East Africa and the Italian protectorate of Somaliland. Its area is vaguely estimated to be over 1,000,000 square miles. The territory contains the valley of the Upper Nile and the mountainous region of equatorial Africa. The inhabitants comprise Bantu tribes, among which are the Waganda and Wangoro, Musai, and Galla tribes, Swahili on the coast, and negroes on the Nile. Ivory, gum, India rubber, sesame seeds, cocoanuts, copra, coir maize, rice, and hides are exported. The government is principally vested in the British East African Protectorate, but in 1894, Uganda (q.v.), north of Victoria Nyanza, was made a separate British protectorate, and received a separate administration. The government is rapidly opening up the country, constructing roads and telegraphs, and taking steps to suppress slavery and the slave trade. The coast is unhealthy for Europeans, but most of the interior plateaus are salubrious.

British Economic Association, a society established in London in 1890 with the design of advancing economic investigations through the medium of a quarterly styled The Economic Journal. This periodical is the most valuable one of its class and is open to the expression of very diverse views upon economic questions. Viscount Goschen has been the president of the association from its founding. It gives an annual dinner in London, but holds no regular scientific meetings.

British Empire, the aggregation of states, dependencies, and controls which is subject in the last resort to the British Parliament. Officially it was not entitled to the name till 1876, when Queen Victoria assumed the title Empress of India; but the term was in current use long before. It is the largest body of land and of people under any one jurisdiction on the globe, comprising about one fourth of the earth's surface, and of its inhabitants: over 11,500,000 square miles, exclusive of Egypt, and Egyptian Sudan, or 12,500,000 with them, and 400,000,000 population. Extensive portions of it lie in each of the five grand divisions of the globe: about 121,000 square miles in Europe, 3,700,000 in America, 1,865,000 in Asia, 2,700,000 in Africa, 3,175,000 in Australasia. Its organization is entirely different from that of any other "empire" in history. The control of the central government over the outlying sections varies from its autocracy to their virtual independence; the most valuable parts are the least controlled, and have become the most valuable largely by that freedom. None of them pay any taxes into the imperial treasury, and the mother country derives her profit from them solely through trade relations, and as furnishing employment for the overflow of British youth. Indeed, movements for independence are forestalled by the concession of whatever privileges are claimed by the self-governing dependencies, even to the imposition of discriminating duties on British goods; and it is a postulate of British politics that no

forcible resistance shall be offered if any of these wishes to withdraw altogether.

The nucleus of the empire is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, ruled nominally by a hereditary sovereign; actually by a parliament with one chamber popularly elected and the other composed of hereditary peers. Even the latter in practice always yields to the popular house when that body is firmly set on a given policy.

The subordinate portions fall under six classes: (1) Wholly self-governing communities: their sole ties to the mother country being an ornamental governor whose real functions are social and argumentative, the right of appeal from their supreme courts to the English Privy Council (even that curtailed in Australia), and the home government's nominal right of vetoing their laws, which, in fact, is never exercised. Canada, Australia, and Cape Colony are the chief exemplars. (2) Those where the home government appoints part of the legislative body as well as the governor. This is entirely composed of the Channel Islands, Malta, Cyprus, Ceylon, Mauritius, Jamaica, the Leeward Islands, British Guiana, and Rhodesia. (3) "Crown colonies," where the ruling body, an executive and council (sometimes two councils, executive and legislative), are wholly appointed by the home government, without local representation, and are directly responsible to the colonial secretary, except with India, the greatest of this type, which is under a special secretary of state and home council. Of the others, the chief are the new conquests of the Boer states (this form of government being avowedly provisional for them); the British settlements on the west coast of Africa — Sierra Leone, Nigeria, the Gold Coast, Gambia, and Lagos; the Straits Settlements, and Hong Kong; in America, British Honduras, Trinidad, the Windward and Falkland islands; in Australasia, Fiji. The titles of these imperial rulers and of the group following are various: governor, commissioner, high commissioner, resident, etc. (4) Those administered by a single official under the colonial secretary, without a council. Such are Gibraltar and Aden, Ascension (under the control of the admiralty); in Africa, Basutoland, Bechuanaland, and the protectorates of British Central and Eastern Africa, and British Somaliland-administered respectively by the consul-general at Zanzibar, a resident commissioner, and a consul-general at Berbera. (5) Government by a trading corporation, licensed and supervised by the home government, formerly the chief colonial system in Europe, and the only intelligible object of colonization. Great Britain has now but one dependency of this type: British North Borneo, where the company's governor must be confirmed by the colonial secretary. (6) Mere control of a native government by a resident commissioner, or power to interfere if judged advisable, or sometimes scarcely more than the marking out of a "sphere of influence" within which other nations are debarred from meddling. The chief types of this class are 50 or 60 native states of India, Zanzibar, Uganda, and the native states of the Malay peninsula. A seventh type is so peculiar that its locus is not usually classed as part of the British empire at all, although in fact one of the most firmly held and decisively administered:

Egypt, where the province is nominally part of Turkey, the official position of Lord Cromer is consul-general and minister plenipotentiary, and the title of Great Britain to possession is that of surviving partner of an international financial control.

In detail, the components of the empire, the dates and method of acquirement, and the title by which they are held, are as follows:

Europe.-1. The United Kingdom. England in its modern sense, though much restricted toward the north, first owned a common overlord in 827; broken up by the Danes, it became a wholly Danish kingdom in 1013, again an English one in 1042, part of an Anglo-French system in 1066, and was practically restored to itself in 1214, with its northern limits as now. Wales was finally subjugated by Edward I., after a long war with Llewellyn ap Jorwerth, in 1284. Scotland, a kingdom owning overlordship to England, received a king by English arbitration in 1291, revolted and was conquered, revolted again and won its independence in 1314; with the accession of its king, James I., to the English throne in 1603 the two crowns were united, and in 1707 the Scotch parliament was abolished and Scotland incorporated with England. The Isle of Man, a Scandinavian lordship, was ceded to Scotland in 1266 and to England in 1290. The Orkneys and Shetlands were pledged by Denmark to James III. of Scotland in 1468, as security for his wife's dowry, and never redeemed. Ireland was invaded by Strongbow in 1169, and nominally annexed to England by right of conquest in 1172; but only a small cantle of it, "the Pale," was effectively occupied till the time of Elizabeth, and the island as a whole was first effectively subjugated by Cromwell. It was governed by its own parliament till 1800, when the Act of Union incorporated it with Great Britain. 2. The Channel Islands (Guernsey, Jersey, etc.), in the bay of Avranches off the French coast, are the sole remnants of the French possessions of the Angevin house. 3. The fortress rock of Gibraltar, and the small plain at its foot on which the town is built, were taken from Spain in 1704, during the war of the Spanish succession. 4. Malta, with Gozo, etc., islands south of Sicily, were taken from France in 1800, during the Napoleonic wars. Malta is the chief British naval station in the central Mediterranean.

Asia.— 1. India, with Burma. For the component parts of this mighty possession, three fifths the size of the United States without Alaska, and for its government, see its name. Its nuclei were three factories of the East India Company: Fort St. George, now Madras, built 1639; Bombay, received from Portugal in 1662 as part of the dowry of Catharine of Braganza, queen of Charles II.; and Fort William, now Calcutta, founded by Job Charnock in 1686. The attempt of the French to build a colonial dominion on the ruins of the Mogul empire, in the 18th century, forced the company's local officers to act in self-defense; with the result that northeastern India fell into their hands, the decisive event being the battle of Plassey (1757). Wars, cessions, annexations, protectorates, residencies, etc., have gradually brought all the rest of the peninsula under English control. The company ceded its rights to the English government in 1858. 2. Ceylon, the tip of the Indian peninsula, is independently governed. It was taken by England from the Dutch in 1796, during the

French wars, but not ceded to her till the Peace of Amiens in 1802. 3. Cyprus, an island south of Asia Minor: was ceded by Turkey in 1878, as a result of the Russo-Turkish war, in return for a treaty by which Great Britain agreed to defend Turkey against further territorial demands from Russia. 4. Aden, on the south coast of Arabia: was taken by the British in 1839 as a coaling station, in compensation for the maltreatment of shipwrecked British sailors by the natives. The island of Socotra to the east, off the mainland of Africa, was annexed in 1888; and the two-with Perim Island at the mouth of the Gulf of Aden, and the Kuria-Murias on the east coast of Arabia - form one administration, a dependency of the Bombay presidency. 5. The Straits Settlements: This group, comprising the end of the Malacca peninsula, was transferred in 1867 from the control of the Indian government to that of the colonial secretary. It consists of (1) Penang, formerly called Pulo Penang and later Prince of Wales Island, originally received by a British adventurer as dowry with a native chief's daughter, then turned over to the East India Company in 1786; (2) Malacca, occupied by the British in 1795, but not formally ceded to them by the sultan of Johore till 1824, along with (3) the island of Singapore, the capital of the whole. Some of the native Malaccan states are also under British protection. 6. Hong Kong, China, was occupied by the British in 1841, as a result of the opium war, and ceded to them in 1843. 7. Labuan, an island off Borneo, of which Great Britain obtained the cession in 1846, with great hopes of its coal mines and harbor not borne out by experience; it has also been a convict settlement. 8. British North Borneo, ceded to a commercial company by native sultans in 1877, but taken under British protectorate in 1888. 9. Brunei and Sarawak, southwest of the above, are governed by native rulers, but under British protection.

Africa.-I. Sierra Leone, on the west coast: was started as a settlement of freed negro slaves in 1787; transferred to the Crown in 1807. 2. The Gold Coast: settlement of 1672 by the Royal African Company, made a dependency of Sierra Leone on the dissolution of that company in 1822, formally ceded by the Dutch in exchange for trade privileges in 1872, and made a Crown colony in 1874. 3. Gambia: settlement united with Sierra Leone in 1822, like the Gold Coast; made a separate colony 1843, reunited to Sierra Leone 1868, then included in the British West African Settlements colony till 1888, when it was again made a separate colony. 4. Lagos, West Africa: the town was an old slave mart destroyed by the British in 1851; the colony was ceded to them by the native rulers in 1861. 5. Nigeria: the Niger coast protectorate was constituted in 1884, old trading rights having been previously exercised for generations; the present protectorate of Nigeria was set up 1 Jan. 1901. 6. Cape Colony: taken possession of as a derelict in 1796, the settlement having thrown off Dutch rule; administered for seven years, then returned to the Dutch; again captured in 1806, Holland having become part of Napoleon's empire; retained till the general peace of 1815, then bought from Holland for $30,000,000. 7. Natal and Zululand: taken from the Dutch settlers and annexed 1843. 8. Basutoland: annexed to Cape Colony 1871, as the result of an appeal by the Basutos from the claims

BRITISH GUIANA.

of the Orange Free State; separated as a special protectorate 1884. 9, 10. The Transvaal and the Orange River Colony: conquered 1900. II. Zanzibar and Pemba. Pemba was ceded to the British East African Company in 1888 by the sultan of Zanzibar. The latter island was given over to a German protectorate in 1886 by an Anglo-German convention; in 1890 transferred to England in exchange for the island of Heligoland off the German coast, possessed by England and a thorn in the German flesh. 12. East Africa protectorate: recognized by Germany and France in 1890, with that of Zanzibar, for considerations as above and trading rights, and the recognition of the French protectorate over Madagascar. 13. Central Africa protectorate: organized 1891 from the territories of the British South Africa Company. 14. Bechuanaland, constituted a protectorate over native South African tribes in 1895. 15. Rhodesia: the territories of the Royal South Africa Company, chartered in 1889, were brought under the colonial office in 1898, with Matabeleland and Mashonaland. 16. British Somaliland, completing the circle around Africa up to Socotra and Aden; protectorate under the East India Company 1884, constituted a Crown colony 1898.

North America.- 1. The Dominion of Canada is the chief. Its nucleus was the territory which fell under British sway by the French and Indian War 1755-60, definitely ceded in 1763; This was divided in 1791 into Upper Canada and Lower Canada, the latter as a real settlement founded by loyalist refugees from the United States, who also founded New Brunswick. England also held north of the United States: (1) Nova Scotia, conquered from the French in 1713, after a previous occupancy 1654-67; (2) Cape Breton, conquered 1748, and restored to France, conquered again in 1758 and ceded by France in 1763, when it was annexed to Nova Scotia; again separated 1784, again united 1820; (3) Prince Edward's Island, till 1799 called Isle St. Jean or St. John Island, then changed in honor of the Duke of Kent; captured from the French 1745, restored, again taken and held in 1758, ceded 1763 and annexed to Nova Scotia, in 1773 again separated. (4) Newfoundland, an old fishing station, ceded by France in 1713. In 1841 Upper and Lower Canada were united. In 1867 the united province was joined with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick into the Dominion of Canada. In 1871 this was joined by British Columbia, formed 1866 out of the older British Columbia and Vancouver Island, the former organized 1858 from the old Hudson Bay territory of New Caledonia; the latter a Hudson Bay territory made a Crown colony in 1849. In 1873 Prince Edward's Island also came into the dominion. Meantime, in 1869, it had acquired the Northwest Territories, and in 1870 set off Manitoba and at once admitted it into the dominion; Keewatin district was created in 1876; Assiniboia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Athabasca in 1882. 2. Newfoundland, which still refuses to join the dominion: its history is outlined above. Labrador forms a part of Newfoundland for administrative purposes. 3. The Bermuda Islands: settled 1609. 4. The Bahama Islands: ceded by Spain 1783, after alternate conquest and reconquest. 5, 6. The Windward Islands and the Leeward Islands: taken by the English in the general agreement with France for partitioning

BRITISH MUSEUM

the West Indies in 1660. 7. Jamaica, with Turk's Island and Caicos Island: taken from the Spaniards in 1655. 8. Barbados: colonized 1625, made a Crown colony in 1663. 9. Trinidad, with Tobago: captured in 1797 during the French wars. 10. British Honduras: settled early in the 18th century, but not ceded to Great Britain by treaty from Spain till 1783, formerly known as Balize or Belize. II. British Guiana: partitioned off from the other Guianas in 1803, and formerly ceded by treaty in 1814.

South America.- The Falkland Islands, east of the southern tip of the continent: fought for by British, French, and Spanish for many years; then nominally controlled by Argentina till 1833, when the British took possession of them for a finality, and established a colony in 1851; it inIcludes also South Georgia to the eastward. The South Atlantic. In the No-Man's Land between South America and Africa, and unrelated to either, the British hold three islands. 1. St. Helena: definitively secured from the Dutch by the East India Company in 1673, transferred to the home government in 1834. 2. Ascension: 700 miles northwest of St. Helena, settled in 1815 after Napoleon's deportation. 3. Tristan d'Acunha: a triad of little islands about half-way from the Cape of Good Hope to South America, garrisoned by the British in 1816 while Napoleon was at St. Helena.

Australasia.-1. The Confederation of Australia, formed 1901. The first colony in Australia was the convict settlement of New South Wales, made a self-governing colony in 1841. Western Australia was founded in 1829, South Australia in 1836. Victoria, settled in 1835 as Port Philip, was set off from New South Wales in 1851. Queensland was settled from Moreton Bay in 1825. Tasmania was a convict settlement of the island of Van Diemen's Land from 1803 on, but in 1852 the convict deportation there was stopped, and the colony made self-governing as Tasmania. 2. New Zealand was colonized in 1845. 3. The Fiji Islands came under British sway in 1874 by voluntary cession from Thakombau, the leader of the native chiefs. 4. British New Guinea was delimited and formally annexed in 1884. 5. There are a considerable number of islands in the western Pacific which have come into British hands at various periods, by occupation. The largest are: the Tongas, part of the New Hebrides and the Solomons, Ellice, Gilbert, Union, Cook, and Monahiki.

British Guiana, gē-ăn'a. See GUIANA.
British Gum. See DEXTRINE.
British Honduras. See HONDURAS.
British India. See INDIA.

British Legion, The, a corps raised in Great Britain in 1835, numbering 10,000 men, under the command of Gen. De Lacy Evans, to assist Queen Isabella of Spain in the war with Don Carlos. They rendered much assistance to the queen, defeating her Carlist rivals in several battles, notably at Ayetta, during the two years of their campaign. Gen. Evans was himself defeated at Hernani in 1837, but subsequently captured that place and also several others. He acted in conjunction with a naval force under Lord John Hay.

British Museum, a national depository of science, literature, and art, which owes its origin to the will of Sir Hans Sloane, an eminent phy

sician and naturalist, who, dying in 1753, bequeathed to the nation his collection of medals and coins, antiquities, seals, cameos, drawings, and pictures, and his library, consisting of 50,000 volumes and manuscripts, on the condition of the payment of $100,000 to his heirs. This offer was agreed to by Parliament, which authorized a lottery of $500,000 to implement the bargain, as well as to purchase other collections. Montague House, which was bought for the purpose, was appropriated for the museum, which was first opened on 15 Jan. 1759. The original edifice having become inadequate, a new building was resolved on in 1823, the architect being Sir R. Smirke, whose building was not completed till 1847. It forms a hollow square, facing the cardinal points. The south, or Russell Street front, is the principal one, having an imposing columnar façade of the Ionic order. This, as well as the other three, looks into the central square court, which measures about 320 feet by 240. There are two stories of galleries and rooms round the greater part of the building. Smirke's designs were no sooner completed than it was found that additional accommodation was needed in various departments, and several new rooms were provided; but the library accommodation being wholly inadequate for the accommodation of the readers, as well as for the reception of new books, a grant was obtained from Parliament for a new library building in 1854, and it was completed and opened in 1857, at a cost of $750,000. It was erected in the interior quadrangle, and contains a circular reading-room 140 feet in diameter, with a dome 106 feet high. The whole arrangements have been completed with the utmost economy in regard to space, and besides ample accommodation for books, the reading-room now contains accommodation for 300 readers comfortably seated at separate desks, which are provided with all necessary conveniences. More recently, the accommodation having become again inadequate, it was resolved to separate the objects belonging to the natural history department from the rest, and to lodge them in a building by themselves. Accordingly a large natural history museum has been erected at South Kensington, and the specimens pertaining to natural history (including geology and mineralogy) have been transferred thither, but they still form part of the British Museum. Externally this building is somewhat heavy in character, but the interior has been treated in a most artistic manner. The British Museum is under the management of 48 trustees, among the chief being the Archbishop of Canterbury, the lord-chancellor, and the speaker of the House of Commons. In all the staff of the institution numbers over 320 persons. The museum is open daily, free of charge. Admission to the reading-room as a regular reader is by ticket, procurable on application to the chief librarian, there being certain simple conditions attached. In 1900 there were 198,566 persons using the reading-room, and 689,249 visitors in addition. The institution contains something like 2,000,000 volumes in the department of printed books. A copy of every book, pamphlet, newspaper, piece of music, etc., published anywhere in British territory, must be conveyed free of charge to the British Museum. There are various catalogues and handbooks prepared by the officers of the museum, and containing classified descriptions of the con

Vol. 3-10

tents of the different departments. Of these there are eight, namely, the department of (1) printed books, maps, charts, plans, etc.; (2) of manuscripts; (3) of natural history; (4) of Oriental antiquities; (5) of Greek and Roman antiquities; (6) of coins and medals; (7) of British and mediæval antiquities and ethnography; (8) of prints and drawings.

British North America, the Dominion of Canada and the island of Newfoundland, with the portion of Labrador belonging to the latter. The Bermudas may also be included.

British Somaliland, a territory on the west coast of Africa under the protection of Great Britain, lying along the Gulf of Aden from about lon. 43° to 49° E., and extending from to 8° N. On the east and southabout lat. 11 east it is bounded by Italian Somaliland, on the south and west by Abyssinia, and on the northwest by French Somaliland. It has an area estimated at nearly 70,000 square miles, lacking in fertility largely on account of a lack of natural irrigation. The surface is in great part mountainous. The climate is more healthful in the interior than along the coast where there is more dampness. Among the chief products are sheep, cattle, skins, ostrich feathers, myrrh, and incense. The principal ports are Bulhor, Zeyla, and Berbera. The latter, which is the capital, has a good harbor and is in winter the scene of considerable commercial activity. The combined imports and exports are valued at about $2,500,000. The protectorate, created in 1884, is administered by a consul-general under control of the Crown. In 1894 the boundary between this protectorate and Italian Somaliland was defined. In the spring of 1903 an agitation in this region in favor of the Mad Mullah (q.v.), led to a considerable loss among the British troops and their withdrawal in April. The inhabitants are related to the Abyssinians and Gallas, and on account of their nomadic habits there are no accurate statistics of population. See Peel, Somaliland) (1899); Swayne, Seventeen Trips Through Somaliland' (1900); Hendebert, Au pays des Somalis et des Comoriens' (1901).

British South Africa Company, a corporation established in 1889, with a royal charter, by Cecil Rhodes and others, for the purpose of controlling, settling, administering and opening up by railways and telegraphs, etc., certain districts in Central South Africa. Mashonaland was first settled, and, in 1893, Matabeleland was annexed and settled after the defeat of King Lobengula. In 1895, North Zambesia, in British Central Africa, was added, as well as a strip of territory in the Bechuanaland Protectorate. This territory has been called Rhodesia, or British Zambesia; area, about 500,000 square miles. In consequence of the filibustering raid of Dr. Jameson, an officer of the company, near the close of 1895, Rhodes resigned his connection with the company in 1896, and a joint administrator of the territory was appointed by the British crown. See RHODESIA.

British West Indies. See WEST INDIES. Britomar'tis, a nymph of Cretan mythology, fabled to have been raised by Artemis into a deity, on the occasion of drowning herself to escape from the pursuit of Minos. She was presented as patroness of hunters and fishermen.