would, in the majority of cases, be the great difficulty. But when established the clubs must practically be self-supporting, otherwise there would be the evil of having a patron either in the shape of an individual or of the State, as has actually been proposed, and the working man would not feel that he was leaning on himself. Another question involving some difficulty is the management of such clubs. The essence of a club is that the members make rules and regulations for themselves, or depute this office to a committee which after all reflects the opinions and wishes of the majority of the members; and, moreover, the members of the committee are all of equal social standing. Now though working men in towns may be able fairly to manage their own club affairs, it can hardly be supposed that a village club could be well managed by a committee composed entirely of ordinary agricultural labourers. They would require some aid, and this must be supplied by the clergy, the tenant farmers, the local tradesmen, and others of a grade above the labourers. This element, however, in the committee need not be viewed as necessarily interfering with the practical independence of the members of the club. Penny banks and other provident institutions would probably flourish in connection with these clubs, as most members would each week find that they had saved a considerable number of pence, which otherwise would probably have been expended in paying for more drink at the public-house than they really wanted. It might be advisable that these clubs should not be opened till an hour or so after the closing of the day's work in the country, by which time the village public-house would have done what may be considered its most legitimate business.

We have ventured to make these suggestions as to the institution and management of village clubs, and to enter somewhat into details, with a view to increase public interest in the subject; but what is immediately required is something in the way of general organisation for the development of the movement. The chief difficulty in the majority of cases, as has been intimated, would be in providing capital for the building or purchasing suitable premises and other outlays in starting such institutions. The formation, therefore, of a central society, say in London, for promoting village clubs of a kindred character to the Coffee PublicHouse Association, and working like several other philanthropic societies, would seem the first step to be taken, or the multiplication of such distinct associations as that which has its head

quarters at Ipswich, and operates throughout Suffolk. The time seems to have come for taking action, and the project is so excellent that it may be taken for granted that it would meet with a very large amount of support if fairly placed before the public. The assistance of the Legislature might, we think, be depended on if any such assistance were needed in removing legal difficulties which may be obstructive of the movement. Parliament also would probably be willing to consider any difficulties under which the general movement may labour in respect to the licensing laws, and facilitate in any reasonable way the establishment of temperance refreshment houses.

By way of postscript we think we shall be doing well to call public attention, and especially the attention of those interested in the Temperance Refreshment House Movement, to the fact that on November 1st, 1878, was issued, under the auspices of the Coffee Public-House Association, an illustrated monthly newspaper, called The Coffee Public-House News. The publication has shown a rapid growth of success as the movement itself has progressed. Among its contents will be found each month leading articles on the movement; descriptions of remarkable coffee public-houses; articles on the details of management and on the supply and preparations of food and drinks; descriptions of improved fittings and apparatus; correspondence and discussion; and a monthly review of the markets. It is published by S. W. Partridge and Co., 9, Paternoster Row; and may be considered the press organ of the Temperance Refreshment House Movement.

59

SOUTH AFRICA.

IN one sense the most ancient, Africa is in another sense the most modern, of the quarters of the globe. The seat, in its northern portions, of the earliest civilisation known to authentic history, it presents at the present day, in its central and southern portions, the most interesting and important regions left for reclamation from barbarism. The history of the continent has indeed travelled continuously southwards, from the time of Carthage to that of the Zulu War; and while its early chronicle will be found in the classics, and its modern in the newspapers, it has also a period of interest lying both geographically and chronologically between the two-the period of the discovery and settlement of its west, or west central coasts.

Of the glories of the first period of African history it is not necessary here to say much. What the world owes to ancient Egypt, though we may never define, we are at no loss to appreciate; it is in every sense immense. But neither middle Africa in later times, nor modern and southern Africa in the present day, looks back to ancient and northern Africa, except through Europe. The ultimate triumph, after long struggles, of Rome over Carthage, fixed the centre of historical progress in Europe; and to Rome was gathered the fruits of whatever there had been in northern Africa of human civilisation. From Rome the watershed line of civilisation trended gradually northwards and westwards, so that Africa was next reached by way of Portugal, England, and Holland, who discovered its middle coast, and established with it those trading relations which exist to the present day.

These West Coast Settlements, however, and the middle period of the continent's history, have a more immediate bearing upon its modern existence, and the southern tracts to which attention in the present day is chiefly directed; for it was the Dutch who, after doing something for the West Coast, went south and became the parents of the modern African colonies.

In the last few years Africa has afforded all round a revival of interest. The resuscitation of Egypt is at the present moment a problem hardly second in the minds of statesmen to the neverending "Eastern Question:" there are not wanting, indeed, signs that some of the more astute of our public men, while ostensibly occupied with Turkey, have modern Egypt really in

their thoughts, and believe it more important for England to keep hold on the shores of the Suez Canal than to nurse a traditional influence beside the waters of the Golden Horn. Further south, the central regions of Africa have afforded materials for much recent history. The journeys of Livingstone, Stanley, and Serpa Pinto, have cut lines of light through the "dark continent," and opened vistas through its dense forests, which reveal an almost unlimited scope for future progress. On the eastern coast Zanzibar is growing into importance, and is already an established centre of Christian missions into the interior, now penetrable from both sides. But it is to the south of Africa, the colonies of Cape Town, Natal, and the outlying connected regions, that attention has been chiefly directed of late years, and to the history of this section of the continent it is intended to devote a few pages in the "Companion to the British Almanac,” by way of descriptive review of what has formed a not inconsiderable branch of the recent progress of the world.

South Africa, at the present time, consists of Cape Colony at the extreme south, a dependency of England with a Parliament and a regular Colonial Government; Natal, a smaller tract to the north-east of the Cape Colony, also an English dependency, with a less developed form of government: the Orange River State, and the Transvaal, inland tracts lying north of the Cape Colony, and possessing no seaboard, complete the great divisions which are avowedly in European occupation. Still in native occupation, unless the results of war effect an alteration while these lines pass through the press, is Zululand, so prominently before our eyes during the past year, and almost the only organised native state; and the land to the north-west of the Cape Colony is inhabited, though it can hardly be said to be governed, by various tribes of Hottentots and Bechuanas.

The chief of the present political divisions of South Africa is the Cape Colony. Geographically, its known history dates from the discovery of the Cape itself by Bartholomew Diaz, a Portuguese navigator. The Portuguese have been in past times, as is well known, great explorers by sea. A half-religious, halfavaricious spirit prompted their first expeditions, in the middle ages, to Africa, where they expected to find the mythical "Prester John," a supposed Christian king, ruling somewhere in its eastern regions. This quest, however, was soon abandoned; and the Portuguese discovered and took possession of piece after piece of African coast for the purposes of commerce. The real

"Prester John," so far as he was a reality, was found in the King of Abyssinia; but the appetite for discovery and annexation was not satisfied by this, and the Portuguese navigators advanced bit by bit along the western coast till Bartholomew Diaz, in search of a route to India, sighted the Cape, and called it the Cape of Storms. Looking at its discovery in another light, as revealing a prospect of the realisation of the long-looked-for route to India, King John II changed the name to that of the Cape of Good Hope. In 1497, Vasco di Gama, another Portuguese navigator, rounded this "Cape of Good Hope," and first sketched out to the world a rough outline of South Africa, by sailing northwards along the eastern coast to Zanzibar.

Some attempts were made by the Portuguese to settle in the neighbourhood of the Cape, but as the principal reason for so doing would be the establishment of a place of call on the way to the seats of their commerce in India, and they had a more convenient calling place in Brazil, the attention paid to the Cape was not very great. The colony was virtually founded in 1652 by the Dutch, who were then losing their hold upon South America, and perceived the necessity for an alternative halting place on the road to their possessions in the Indies. The Dutch had then considerable colonial possessions, and they established themselves on the slopes of Table Mountain by way of affording their ships a depôt on the voyage to the East. The natives surrounding this small possession were Hottentots, a feeble and diminutive section of humanity, quite incapable of organisation, and consequently of effectual resistance to foreign intrusion. So the Dutch had no great difficulties, though their occupation of the country gave rise to constant small feuds ; and immigration from Holland took place to such an extent that the basis of the population of this part of Africa became Dutch, and is virtually so to the present day.

At the beginning of the present century the Dutch had extended their hold of the country as far as the Great Fish River, and westwards in an indefinite wavy line across the toe of the continent, so as to comprise an area equal to that of the British Isles.

In 1795, as an incident of the war then proceeding between England, France, Spain, and Holland, a British force seized the Cape Colony in the interests of the Prince of Orange; but it was restored to the Dutch in 1802 under the Treaty of Amiens, which aimed at settling the colonial possessions of the belligerent parties