Saxon. The Australians have also the ing to be leaders of thought, who have fate of the Southern States of the Union by their speech and action rendered it before them, and have noted the warn- impossible that the experiment of the ing given by the negro problem. With-employment of white labor in tropical out attempting to defend slavery, it agriculture should be fairly tried." seems but fair to acknowledge now that So, without losing faith (as he assures the motive of the South in striving to us) in his conviction, though it contrabind the negroes to the servile state dicts all experience, that white labor was no more than the instinct of self- can cope with the cultivation of the preservation. How many Americans sugarcane in the tropics, Sir Samuel were there that thought the Civil War | Griffith has carried a measure for the would produce as its principal results readmission of Polynesians. the negro problem, and the danger of a war of races ? But if the white man chooses to engross a vast territory wherein the climate is unfavorable to him, he must take the consequences. While Sir Samuel Griffith was preparing his manifesto of recantation, Sir Thomas Playford, the premier of South Australia, visited India to negotiate with the Indian government for the imSome years ago Queensland boldly portation of East Indian coolies into faced the realities of her position and that province. Now, as both these imported colored labor for the sugar- premiers went enthusiastically with Sir plantations an industry from which Henry Parkes in 1888 in his impasshe expected, and still expects, great sioned protestations that Australia results. The laborers thus imported should be reserved for the "British were Polynesians, as to whose merits for this particular work there seems to be some conflict of opinion. Two main causes, however, conspired to put an end to this system: first, the abuses and scandals of the Pacific labor traffic; and, secondly, the jealousy of the white working man. Accordingly in 1885 the premier, Sir Samuel Griffith, fixed a term when this importation of Polynesians should cease. He summarized his objections against colored immigration as follows: 1. That it tended to encourage the creation of large landed estates owned by absentees, to the prejudice of settlements by working farmers. type," their conversion is a little remarkable. But it is easily accounted for. "The interests of the working population have been kept too exclusively in view" in all the Australian provinces, and one principal result (not mentioned by Sir Samuel Griffith) is the Australian public debt.. “Great is bankruptcy," says Carlyle; "no falsehood, did it rise heaven-high and cover the world, but bankruptcy will one day sweep it down and make us free of it." Great also, we may add, is impecuniosity, which threatens to become bankruptcy; for this, too, peels the scales from men's eyes and forces them to face truths which they have deliberately blinked and avoided. It is all very well for Sir Samuel Griffith to attribute the impossibility of obtaining white labor for the North Queensland 3. "The permanent existence of a sugar-plantations to the speech and aclarge servile population amongst Aus- tion of this man or that; but the true tralians, not admitted to the franchise, cause lies much deeper, and is summed is not compatible with the continu- up in the word "climate." The delibance of Australian free political institu-erate policy of closing the continent to tions." colored races, at the cost of allowing the tropical territory to lie fallow, been early defeated by impecuniosity. Somebody must be found to do work in this territory; white men will not, cannot do it, so colored men must. 2. "It led to field labor in tropical agriculture being looked down upon as degrading and unworthy of the white race." And now, last year, Sir Samuel Griffith has discovered that "among the working population, whose interests he had perhaps too exclusively in view, there has arisen a body of men, claim has According to present indications the longer it is continued, the firmer its future of tropical Australia seems likely basis and the more inevitable its perto be committed to East Indian immi-manence. Everything now points to grants. The supply of Polynesians is the importation of East Indians into far from inexhaustible; African negroes northern Australia. are not to be obtained; Chinese are not Then arises the question, How far only an abomination but a terror to the would such a race spread down over Australians. East Indian coolies are the continent? And this is extremely abundant; and their exportation from difficult to answer. On the one hand India is not only permitted but organ- we have the metropolitan populations, ized. The government of India is ex- fully a third of the whole, disinclined tremely jealous for the welfare and for hard work, bent upon the enjoygood treatment of these emigrants; and ment of an easy and comfortable life, the most elaborate enactments exist for and seeking to crush competition by their protection in their new homes; restraint both upon immigration and so that they very soon gain ideas of natural increase. The metropolitan self-respect and independence which towns are situated in, so to speak, the were quite unknown to them in India. rainy fringe of the continent, where the There is no more ludicrous contrast heat, become damp, tells more against - witness any one who has seen it – the white man's energy than in the than that between the Madrassi coolie parched interior. On the other hand, just disembarked in a strange land, the we have the country population, agriincarnation of abject pliancy, and the cultural and pastoral, extending inland same individual two years later. They from the coast, sparser and sparser as it bring with them, of course, their habits leaves the rainfall behind it. A recent and traditions, notably the practice of writer on Australia does not hesitate to hoarding and lending to their fellows at say that the types of man bred on the extravagant interest; and so many of more or less watered Pacific slope and them grow rich, at any rate for a time, the arid interior are totally distinct; and occasionally even important. and indeed it is no more than one These are the people with which, for should expect. Nor are we surprised good or for evil, Sir Thomas Playford to hear that the latter is the better seeks to develop the tropical territory type; more vigorous, more enduring, of South Australia. Whether he will be able to fulfil the conditions imposed by the Indian government is another question. "Free political institutions," especially as understood in Australia, are no good guarantee for the safety of a competing race. What ought to be done is clear enough. England ought to take over tropical Australia, and govern it as a part of our Asiatic empire, to which, indeed, it really be- There are also other complications to longs; this, however, unfortunately, be considered: first, the desperate seems to be out of the question. But struggle still in progress between capwhatever may be done, the establish- ital and labor; and, secondly, impecument of a colored race in that territory can hardly be avoided much longer. It is impossible to fix a term during which colored immigration may be permitted. and at the end whereof it shall cease; for, as has been discovered in Queensland, if once established it cannot be overthrown without ruin; and the stouter-hearted. From which the obvious conclusion is, that, broadly speaking, the district which offers the white man the best return for his work, is precisely that which is most enervating to him physically. On the Queensland sugarcane fields, which form an extreme case, the white man has abandoned the attempt to work in the damp heat. niosity. As if the uncertainty and tyranny of the climate were not of itself far too powerful an agent in driving the people down into the towns, the Australian governments, far from striving to stop the influx, have for the most part done all they can to encourage it. They have also demoralized the work they are less hampered by trades unions, factory acts, and other institutions, doubtless very excellent, but, unfortunately, extremely expensive. There is no reason why they should not go still further to the eastward and use cheaper labor still. Now what if Australia should anticipate the rest of the world in the employment of Asiatic labor ? She has a climate which would suit a colored race, and yet, in some parts at any rate, give the whites as good a chance. What if she were to work up all her wool and sugar with colored ing classes by leading them to look | cases shifted their ground to other always to the State for employment and European countries, where labor is employment at high wages, erecting an cheaper than in England, and where artificial standard of comfort, any relapse from which is regarded as "social degradation." The funds by which this standard was maintained are now stopped; and more than that, the piper to whose music the Australians have danced for so long remains to be paid. Who is to pay him? "Not I," says the working man, "if it is to be at the cost of social degradation;" and his point of view is perfectly intelligible. Whether he will alter his opinion or not remains to be seen; certainly he will not if he can help it. But more work must be done by some one if the present labor, for instance, and employ no difficulties are to be successfully surmounted. Queensland and, apparently, South Australia have faced the problem, and propose to solve it by the establishment of a "servile population." Will other provinces find it necessary to follow this example? More improbable things have happened. We know what the tendency of "modern civilization" is. M. Le Roy Beaulieu has summed it up in a terse sentence: "Tout le monde fait l'éloge du travail manuel, et personne n'en veut plus." If everybody is to enjoy a high standard of comfort, and not to do too much work for the same -and this, with its connoted independence, seems to be the bone of contention between labor and capital in Australia-the object can be obtained by the employment of "ser-will migrate to the provinces, where it vile" labor. This is one solution of the labor problem in Australia. I have no doubt that it will be scouted as ridiculous and impossible; but perhaps it may not be so utterly impossible after all. An eminent French economist has pointed out that the day may not be very far ahead when Eastern competition will wrest its industrial monopoly from the West, and that a series of unpleasant surprises may be in store for our sons and grandsons. Already we feed ourselves partly with Indian wheat; and Manchester cotton manufacturers have taken alarm at the rivalry of Bombay. Our capitalists have already in many other, so far as possible, on any indus- can get colored labor, cheap and trust- for long is another question. The and, besides these, two large, dumpy struggle between the two will be in- bottles of "ager mixter," so called. tense, and perhaps prolonged; but as After two days had elapsed a deputation to the ultimate issue there can be little went to see what he had succeeded in doubt. Australia will have to abandon producing. This was received by the her attempt to "keep abreast of the wife, who told them that the work was front rank of nations in modern civil- proceeding well, but they must not ization." But there will always be the "worrit him." On the fourth day she competition of the colored race in the let them know that they could now north, and the temptations to avoid it come up for the verses. With all the by employing colored labor. This com- gravity befitting the situation these plication will be incomparably more were handed over that evening; the formidable in Australia than in the poet also contributing a tune which he United States, because the Island Con- had composed to suit them. They betinent is virtually all sub-tropical, except gan as follows : where it is tropical · a great advantage to a colored race. Lastly, if any one should deny that the white man has his climatic limits let me point to the fate of the Roman civilization in North Africa. Surely, in all our dreams of federation, we should be wise to remember that there are such factors as climate and Asiatic competition. J. W. FORTESCUE. From Macmillan's Magazine. BY A SON OF THE MARSHES. A WHALE had been seen several times, spouting as it passed up and down the open channel opposite my native village on the coast of north Kent, and efforts had been made to drive the great creature into shallow water, so that it might be stranded and killed, but all to no purpose. At last, under the direction of a notable old sea-dog, who went by the name of Dick the Whaler, the feat was accomplished, to the great mortification of those who had tried but failed to do the business. Some of Dick's partisans and admirers, in order to commemorate the event, requested one of his friends who enjoyed the reputation of being a regular "dabster" at verse-making, to compose something worthy of the occasion, in order still further to humble the pride of the other leader. The poet was supplied with a bundle of quill pens, plenty of ink and paper, There cummed unto our coast a whale, Hip, hip, hip, hooray! Our village was not critical, and the verses were sung and roared through the quiet streets to the inspiriting accompaniment of a drum and a keybugle. Whenever I hear of a stray visitant, some bird or other that is unusually uncommon, the first line of that absurd composition is apt to recur to my mind. The night-crow, white-topped hern, or night-heron, we are told by a recognized authority of the present day, was recorded first in May, 1872; but it had been to my own knowledge shot frequently without the fact being noticed. Like the bittern it only reaches us to be shot. Early impressions are very lasting, and having been "bird-struck" even as a youngster, I remember as though it had only taken place yesterday, how old Craft brought in from the marshes, where he had shot it, the finest night-heron that had been seen by us. That was long before the year 1872. As a rule old Craft was very communicative as to his luck, but on the particular afternoon to which I refer he stood before the bar of The Royal Anchor, with his gun and a bunch of birds, in a decidedly glum state of mind. The worthy landlord chaffed him about it, asking what ailed him? Had he seen a wreck? Had he run out of "ager" medicine? Had his pigs cut o' ducks with white feathers in their their throats, swimming down the creek again? This last allusion referred to what was usually a dangerous topic to touch on, but as the questions were followed up by a glass of his "most pertickler" offered free of cost, and as the landlord usually was ready to purchase any fowl that old Craft wanted to sell, the reference to a tussle he had had, in night-shirt and cap, with his cantankerous swine was allowed to pass. 66 beaks, cuttin' most owdacious capers on the water, tossin' their heads up, quackin' an' spinnin' about in most onairthly fashin. Josher watched 'em fur a time, then he shot 'em. That 'ere coyman, to keep t'others from cummin to shoot there, though it waunt nowhere near the landmarks fur the coy, had clipped their wings, put feathers in their beaks, an' turned 'em out there, to scare fowl away, the heathen! If he don't ha' done cutting them capers he'll find his coy raised, an' he wunt want it done more 'an once, we reckins. De Now, then, Craft, what ails ye?" he was asked again, as he put down his glass. "Well, I shot and missed him," was pend on it, Craft, 'twas a coot that the laconic, but vague reply. warmint had figgered up with apernstrings." These remarks only made Craft feel indignant. "Had any on 'em sin him in specks? Had any on 'em sin him "Sure-ly, ye ain't pulled on that 'ere new coyman, have ye ?" The coyman referred to was the man in charge of the great duck-decoy. "No, 'twas a bird; I never sin one fed with a spoon, or led about by his like it afore." This statement reaching the ears of the customers in, the bar-parlor (birds concerned every one in various ways), out they walked to hear about it. "Wet up, Craft, an' yarn it off to us." 66 "I was comin' over the last ma'sh afore you gits to Stangate creek, when up gits a bird somethin' bigger 'an a coot, with white feathers a-hangin' down his back. I got a bit flustered, seein' as 'twas most onusual like, an' missed him." "Twas a trick o' that ere furrin heathen o' a coyman, Craft," said the landlord, "you may depend on it. He'd catched one o' them 'ere cat-scratchin' coots, an' tied his missus's apernstrings roun' its neck." little gal?" No one replying to these Perhaps I might as well explain what raising the coy means. The ducks come into the decoy or decoys as the case may be from open waters early in the morning, leaving it to feed again as evening draws near. It is when resting in the decoy that they are coaxed up one of the decoy-pipes and get captured. Extreme quiet must be maintained if the capture is to be a fortunate one, for it is absolutely necessary that the fowl should never leave the decoypond except of their own accord. To be frightened off a few times would ruin the working of it all, and heavy penalties are incurred by wilful disturbance. "To raise the "" coy was the worst threat that any of the more daring spirits could venture on in the marshes, for the decoy was generally respected as sacred. Ay," added one of his chums, "them 'ere heathens frum the shires is most fit to do any outlandish work. Josher here reckins as he'll pull a stroke-oar in coyman's boat afore long." "Twas only last week he went down to the long splash for to git a couple o' ducks; 'tis a good place for 'em, you know. Well, there waunt a sign o' one. In from the marshes proudly walked about above or below. He couldn't Craft on the day after the conversation mak it out nohow, fur he'd niver missed I have related, with the strange bird, seeing on 'em, if he didn't git 'em. It its beautiful head-plumes lovingly ar reg'lar dumbfounded Josher; and pres-ranged on the dark neck and shoulders. ently out from the reeds cums a couple Craft was triumphant; he marched |