Newfoundland to Cochin China

But it should be a great colony. The Governor-General's palace is magnificent—a Versailles, with its long flights of steps and spacious balconies. But his Excellency is always at Hanoi, vainly endeavouring to get things straight in Tonquin. The Cathedral, with its dim aisles and stained glass; the Grecian colonnades of the Palais de Justice; the post-offices; the theatre, with its bi-weekly performances; the Officers' Club, where the punkahs are lyslow waving to and fro in the balconies,—all betoken the great intentions of its founders.

And there are statues of Francis Garnier, the intrepid and disavowed explorer of the way to south-western China, and in the centre of the great boulevard, leading to the Governor's palace, we distinguish a very large stout man on a great pedestal, his stomach far protruding. When we come near, we see whom it represents: Gambetta in the fur coat worn in the balloon whence he escaped from Paris during the siege, to instil life into France, with his outstretched finger pointing in the direction of Tonquin, as in the memorable day when he came to the Chamber, and said, 'Messieurs, au Tonkin!' A dying soldier, in the act of falling, is on one side, and a sailor, with a bayonet peeping round as if in search of the enemy, on the other. The reverse side of this fine monument bears the legend: "À Gambetta, le patriote, défenseur de la politique coloniale."

In the evening some went to the opera, Traviata, played by the subsidized company, to distract the garrison. The sight, however, of the house with its myriad waving fans, was enough for us. We could not face the heat.

What an awful night we passed on board! Four steam winches in charge of seventy shouting French, with ports shut, tropical heat, and mosquitoes by the million. It was over at sunrise like a bad dream. But a sorry sight, the languid heavy-eyed passengers, with not a face but was severely wounded, presented next morning; for none had slept, and all had come off worsted in the conflict with those venomous brutes. Glad we were of daylight to go on shore, and set off in a gharry at seven o'clock to the open arcades where the curio shops are. The black woodwork inlaid with mother-of-pearl that comes from Tonquin is very pretty, but otherwise we only see curiosities common to other countries. We drive past gardens, which, as in France, are unrailed and open to the public, to the market square, with its deep red-roofed market hall, where a busy scene of buying and selling is progressing. We notice many French cafés, the familiar little marble-topped tables, looking strange among the palm trees of the gardens. There are many French officers, in solar topees and cotton umbrellas, strolling in the streets, but though the French element predominates, there is a wonderful mixture of races—of Chinese, Annamites with their heads bound in red cloths, Cinghalese with high tortoiseshell comb, and Indians in sarong; and the languages are as varied, for here the Chinese and natives have learnt French, instead of pigeon English.

By nine o'clock the sun on the top of the gharry is overpowering. We are quite overcome by the heat, and abandoning all idea of going by the steam tramway to Cholons, the neighbouring emporium of the Rice of Annam, return on board. But at eleven o'clock the thermometer in the shade registered 95° Fahrenheit, and in the sun about 130°, and we lay on the deck ready to succumb to the awful breathless heat, just existing through the long midday hours of the worst part of the day.

The tropical vegetation of Saigon had entranced us, but its charms faded before the experience of this equatorial temperature by which alone it can be produced. We were grateful when at five o'clock the twenty-four hours' sojourn required by the Government contract were over, and we left Cochin China on our homeward voyage.

It is a long, long journey home to England, this one of 10,000 miles from Shanghai to London—lasting for five weeks.

Day after day goes by with the same routine, until we feel that we are automatons. Passengers come and go at the various ports, but "we go on for ever." Night and day there is heard the ceaseless throbbing of the engines, like the beating heart of some great monster. It lulls you to sleep, keeps you company in the silence of the night, and greets you in the morning, and when we are in port, we unconsciously feel that something is wanting. It is a cheering noise, for every revolution of the screw brings us nearer home; 4368 times does it revolve in one hour, and it takes 3,600,000 revolutions to bring us to Marseilles. We consume 52 tons of coal a day, or 1800 tons for the whole voyage, whilst 8000 kilos of oil are used for the machinery.

The ship is like a floating city with a cosmopolitan population, for we have over twenty different nationalities on board: French, English, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Chinese, Dutch, Austrians, Arabians, Indians, etc., and yet all goes smoothly, save for the passing incident of a passionate Frenchman, who came to ask the captain's permission to fight a duel with an officer from Tonquin, for usurping his place at table.

It is a monotonous thirty-six days of life at sea, alternating with frantic rushes to land, when in port, and sometimes sleeping on shore, where, like at Singapore and Colombo, the ship is hermetically sealed for coaling. Then there is dire confusion on board, everyone loses his head, the stewards are beside themselves, and the organization becomes sadly out of gear. We are thankful to put out to sea once more, into the breeze and calm, to sail away into that great trackless space so well defined "as a circle whose centre is everywhere, and whose circumference nowhere."

We touch at Singapore, and spend the night at Government House, noting the growth of the town, and the great improvements since we were there six years ago. Through the Straits of Malacca, past Acheen Head, the extreme westerly point of Sumatra to Colombo—Colombo with its beautiful sea-shore, where amidst palm groves, the blue breakers of the Indian Ocean are ever rolling in, and casting their surf and foam on the golden sands. Through its tropical avenues we drive, past the barracks, where the pipe of the bagpipes is heard, wailing in their far exile, and the handsome Cingalese merchants, with their checked sarongs and tortoiseshell combs, tempt us with precious stones. Mount Adam, with his pillar-like peak, in the centre of Ceylon, does us honour by showing himself (a rare occurrence) as we put out once more to sea, through the magnificent breakwater of Colombo.

Six days' steaming, and we cast anchor under rocky Aden, whose peaks so barren and sterile, are yet picturesquely deformed, and glowing with warm tints of cobalt and carmine. Then we enter the Red Sea, through the Straits of Babelmandeb, by England's key to the Eastern hemisphere, the Island of Perim, and pass fragrant Mocha on the sandy shore.

One hundred hours through this inland sea, and we are at Suez waiting our turn to enter that great highway of nations, that sandy ditch cut through the desert, that connects the eastern with the western globe. In the daytime we have that strange fascination linked to the boundless plain of sand—the mirage flickering on the horizon, the clear pale blue and pink shades that steal over the desert at sundown, with the golden glory of the sunset sinking slowly into the waters of the Bitter Lake, whilst at night the banks of the canal are illuminated by the broad shafts of light, that sweep from the electric lamp in the bows of every ship.

We spend a dreary Sunday at Port Said, amid its dirty streets, rubbishy oriental shops, thievish donkey-boys, and a population which gathers in the scum of the earth.

The Harbour of Alexandria is entered at sunrise next day, and we look in the dull chill of early morning on its quays and forts, its mosqued domes and windmills, but ere the day is really begun we are on our way joyfully cleaving the waters of the Mediterranean, near, so near home now. The chill winds and the grey atmosphere would make us know we are in Europe once more. The hard even-coloured skies of the East, burning with brazen sun, have been left on the other side of the Canal, and now the skies are full of grey and purple clouds, silver-edged, soft and rounded. The Southern Cross has sunk below the horizon, the brilliant starlight nights, with the purple vault of heaven gemmed with diamond stars, have faded into the past.

Now the snow-clad mountains of Candia or Crete rise up from the ocean above low-lying clouds. Then, the danger of avoiding Charybdis to be wrecked on Scylla safely passed, we thread the green Straits of Messina between the toe of Italy and the Island of Sicily. The smoking cone of Etna is invisible, but the little island volcano of Stromboli shoots forth its black column of lava.

The beacon lighthouses of the Straits of Bonifacio mark out our course between the islands of Sardinia and Corsica. And by the next afternoon the vine-terraced mountains and sunny shores of the Corniche are near at hand, with the white villas of Toulon shining in the sunlight.

The last day on board, the last packing, the last dinner, the last evening. What a pleasant bustle of departure, what a feeling of bonne camaraderie prevails! With the contagious sympathy of joy, passengers speak to each other who have held aloof for the whole month's voyage. We are all restless and excited, and only able to discuss the hour of arrival—no, not the hour, it is the half-hours and quarters that we dispute and wager about.

The sun goes down. The great white cliffs—for they are very near to us now—loom up ghostly in the dim twilight; these are bathed in pink reflections from the rosy sky. We see the little chapel perched on high, where the sailors implore the protection of the sainted Mary ere commencing a voyage—the gloomy dungeon fortress of Château d'If on its island, and with the last gleams of daylight we sight the green Prado, the cathedral towers of Notre Dame, and the large seaport of Marseilles.

For two days we linger in the sunny south, under blue skies and warm sunshine, amid the palms, cacti, and hedges of roses.

We reach Paris in time to see the gorgeous obsequies at the Madeleine of Dom Pedro, the ex-Emperor of Brazil. Then ends our second journey round the world with a fearful gale in the English Channel, reaching Charing Cross in the raw cold and fog of a December night.

APPENDIX

BY C. E. HOWARD VINCENT, C.B., M.P

BRITISH AND AMERICAN TRADE IN CANADA

MEMORANDUM

Addressed to the Chamber of Commerce and Manufacture of Sheffield upon British and American Trade in the Dominion of Canada and the McKinley Tariff in the United States.

September, 1891.Internal Trade

1.—It is necessary in the first place to state that the internal trade of Canada has made vast progress during the past decade. Not only is this evident from the numerous factories at the principal centres, but it is corroborated by the rapid extension and development of Toronto, Hamilton, Winnipeg and other towns. Manufacture has taken such rapid strides that not only is a very large proportion of the articles in daily use of home make, but the whole of the iron bridges and much of the plant upon the gigantic railway system, and the greater part of the agricultural machinery are of Canadian construction, but there is a surplusage for export of certain manufactured goods, amounting in the fiscal year ending June, 1890, to 5¾ million dollars—upwards of two-fifths of which were purchased by the British flag.

Increase of External Trade

2.—The external trade (imports and exports) has also increased from 153 million dollars in 1879, when the "National Policy" was inaugurated by the late Right Honourable Sir John Macdonald, to 218 million dollars in the last statistical year.

Imports from the United Kingdom and the Empire.

3.—The imports from the United Kingdom of British and Irish produce have increased from 5,040,524l. in 1879, to 7,702,798l. in 1889.

In the twelve months, July 1st, 1889, to June 30th, 1890, the purchases by Canada from the British Empire amounted to 45¾ million dollars, or only 6½ million dollars less than from the United States with their 60,000,000 of people and conterminous frontier of over 3000 miles, running especially close to the more settled and affluent portions of the Dominion.

This is the more satisfactory when it is considered that less than one-fourth of the British imports were admitted free of a duty averaging 25 per cent. ad valorem, while two-fifths of the American imports were from their nature untaxed.

Competition Between British and American Flags

4.—The Union Jack upon the one hand, and the Stars and Stripes upon the other, are practically the only two competitors for the custom of Canada, and they absorb between them 98 million dollars worth of the import trade out of a total of 112 million dollars.

Superiority of England

5.—In most of the great lines of manufactured goods, such as in the manufactures of iron and steel: of cutlery; of cotton and silk; of wool and linen; of lead, paper and fur; of hemp, twine and earthenware, as also in hats, gloves, combs, umbrellas, embroideries, ribbons, crapes, oilcloth, iron furniture, fancy articles, and in bottled ale, beer and porter, England more than holds her own against the American Republic.

Foreign Intermixture

6.—At the same time it is right to observe that a considerable and increasing proportion of the imports officially attributed to British production were in reality of German, French, or other foreign origin, and this to an amount exceeding last year six million dollars.

They were obtained, however, through English distributing houses instead of direct, partly by reason of transit facilities, but mostly on account of the long credit readily accorded.

Lead of the United States

7.—The United States on the other hand take the lead with manufactures of brass and copper; of gutta-percha and India-rubber; of slate, stone, and wood; of cork and glass; of leather and tin ware, as also in edge tools, Britannia metal, bells, brushes, buttons, carriages, clocks and watches, jewellery, musical and surgical instruments, and in agricultural implements.

Sheffield Trade in Canada

8.—In the staple trades of Sheffield, with the exception of edge-tools, the ascendency of England is fairly well maintained.

Cutlery

9.—Especially is this the case with regard to cutlery. Out of 311,897 dollars (say 62,500l.) worth of table knives, jack knives, pocket knives, and other cutlery imported into the Dominion during the past year, about two-thirds came from the United Kingdom.

Of the remainder the United States supplied 27,900 dollars worth, and Germany 43,500 dollars worth.

Not a few importers of Sheffield cutlery speak anxiously, however, of the growing competition of Newark (New Jersey) and of Germany—especially in the production of attractively got up and elegantly carded knives at low prices.

In Canada itself only one attempt has, I believe, been made to establish a cutlery factory, and this recently at Halifax by a young Sheffield man, assisted by six or eight Sheffield trained artisans. They speak hopefully of their prospects and are meeting with much local encouragement.

Plated Cutlery

It is right to add that although throughout the Dominion the table cutlery bears the names of the leading Sheffield houses, the more easily cleaned plated cutlery is coming into some use. During the past year 919 dozen were imported, to which the United States contributed 774 dozen and Great Britain only 140.

Files

10.—In files and rasps the import from England amounted to 34,358 dollars (say 6800l.), and from the United States to 45,724 dollars.

Saws

11.—In saws the United States made even greater headway with a total consignment amounting to 14,000l., while Great Britain sent scarcely 600l. worth.

Edge Tools

12.—A like disproportion occurs with regard to edge tools, of which the United States supplied 15,000 dollars worth out of a total external purchase by the Dominion of 18,279 dollars.

This has been explained by the untiring efforts constantly made by American manufacturers and their employés to make all tools more and more adapted for the purpose in view, lighter and more facile to the hand, without the slightest regard to former use, old ideas or customs.

Axes

13.—It is frequently alleged that Sheffield lost the Canadian axe trade by adherence to the opinion that it was a better judge of the shape of the handle or the chopper than the backwoodsmen whose livelihood depended upon the skilful use of the axe.

This must, however, be legendary, for I am told we never had the Dominion axe trade.

In any case, at the present time nearly all the axes used in the vast lumber industry are of Canadian make, and out of a total import of 6751 dollars worth last year, the whole came from the United States, with the exception of a single axe contributed by France.

Spades and Shovels.

14.—Of spades and shovels 4000 dollars worth were imported from Great Britain against 6259 dollars worth from the United StatesScythes

In scythes the two countries each supplied one half of a total import of 6731 dollars worth.

Agricultural Implements

15.—But in other agricultural implements—ploughs, drills, harrows, forks, rakes, mowing machines, harvesters, etc., America supplied no less than 117,000 dollars worth, against only 4000 dollars worth, from Great Britain.

The explanation given is similar to that I have often heard in Australasia, that the high-priced, solid made, somewhat heavy and durable machines and implements which find favour in England, are unsuitable for Colonists with small capital, who want a cheap, handy and light implement which can be replaced as soon as a year or two brings easier means, and sees improvements perfected.

It is indeed stated in proof of the adoption of like ideas in the mother country that more Ontario-made self-binding reapers have been sold this year in Great Britain than any of English manufacture.

Bar Iron, Pigs, Rails, etc

16.—It is, however, in bar iron; in boiler or other plate iron; in hoop, band, or scroll iron; in iron, in slabs, blooms, etc.; in iron pigs; in railway bars, rails and fish plates; in rolled iron or steel angles, beams, girders, etc.; in sheet iron, and in wrought iron or steel tubing that the United Kingdom asserts the greatest predominance with an importation last year into Canada amounting to 2,356,523 dollars against 642,129 dollars worth from the United States—that is, nearly fourfold.

At Londonderry in Nova Scotia important rolling mills have been established, and at Toronto and elsewhere in Ontario there are prosperous foundries.

Machinery

17.—England though falls back again seriously in machinery, composed wholly or in part of iron, in locomotive, fire, or other engines, and in cast iron vessels, plates, etc., as also in builders', cabinet makers', carriage and harness makers' hardware, and in house furnishing hardware.

In these lines Great Britain supplied Canada with only about 100,000l. worth, compared to 500,000l. from the United States.

In connection with machinery it may not be amiss to mention the almost invariable practice, throughout the American continent, for all machinery under the control either of the State or public bodies being kept spotlessly clean and as attractive as possible, and, in the case of all stationary engines, allowing the public to see them in operation, from a gallery or other suitable place, so that humble mechanical genius may feast its eyes, and think out problems or improvements, which may advance their authors to wealth, and place further names upon the roll of the world's inventors.

Electro-Plate and Britannia Metal

18.—In electro-plated ware and gilt ware of all kinds the import from Great Britain amounted last year to 51,041 dollars, and to 98,669 dollars from the United States, while in manufactures of Britannia metal (not plated) the importation from America amounted to 40,000 dollars, or eight times that from Great Britain.

Predominance of British Manufactures of Cotton and Wool

19.—It is not necessary to examine in like detail the relative trade in the Dominion of Great Britain and the United States in the manufactures which are not located in Sheffield. But it may be mentioned that the purchases by Canada of British cotton goods exceeded three million dollars last year against one-fifth that amount from the United States, in velveteens exceeded 82,000 dollars from Britain against only 356 dollars from America: while the sale to Canadians of British manufactures of wool were over ten million dollars, or too times that of the States.

The Empire, Canada's best Customer

20.—While, as has been shown, Canada bought last year of Great Britain and Ireland, and British possessions, to an amount exceeding forty-five millions of dollars, the Empire was in return the best customer of the Dominion, purchasing no less than 44,479,992 dollars worth of Canadian products, or 11,156,785 dollars worth more than the United States, and admitting nearly the whole free of all duty.

Preferential Trade within the Empire

21.—It is hardly to be expected that Canada, with her scanty and hard-working population could, with the example of every nation or colony (save one) before her, attempt to raise by direct taxation the twenty-four million dollars of public revenue she now derives from customs duties.

But there can be little doubt that if a preference was obtained for British over foreign goods in the tariff, it would give just that pecuniary advantage calculated to stimulate the undoubted partiality of most British colonists for British made goods, if they themselves are unable to produce them in adequate quantity.

Such preferential trade, large public meetings I have recently addressed in all the principal commercial centres, on behalf of the United Empire Trade League, have declared with practical unanimity and much support from both political parties, that Canada is willing to exchange with the mother country and the Empire, so soon as foreign treaty hindrances (treaties with Belgium and Germany of 1862 and 1865) are removed—it being calculated that no policy would more certainly advance the prosperity, peopling and capitalization of the whole country and the consequent augmentation of customers.

Means of Commercial Negotiation

22.—No more effective means either could probably be found to bring about that reduction of the United States tariff wall, so much desired both by the Dominion of Canada and the mother country, for it would furnish her Majesty's representatives with a weapon of commercial persuasion they now wholly lack in negotiating with foreign countries.

Effect of the McKinley Tariff

23.—It may be too early perhaps to judge definitely as to the effect of the McKinley tariff upon British trade in the United States, There can, however, be no doubt that in many industries, and especially among the receivers of wages in the United Kingdom, it will be very serious, and tend still further to extend the disproportion between the sales of America to Great Britain and the purchases by America of British goods, which have stood for some time in the adverse ratio of three to one.

Much Change not to be expected

24.—It is necessary, therefore, to say that while the organs of the democratic party in the United States and the sanguine views of American importers who are in personal or correspondence relations with England, encourage a hope that the McKinley tariff will be repealed or considerably modified in the near future, I am convinced that, as matters stand, such belief is to a great extent delusive.

In the first place the democratic majority in the House of Representatives, as at present constituted, is practically powerless in the face of a strong and hostile Senate, with an equal mandate from the people, and in the face too of an antagonistic President, to a great extent independent of either, with all his Ministers and machinery of government.

In the second place democratic leaders and advocates in every locality are eager to protest that they do not now desire free trade, do not dream of admitting duty free the productions of competing foreign workmen, and that they aim only at a reduction of the tariff.

Again, it is now well understood that the alleged rise in prices at the time of the election last year for Congress was artificial and impressed upon voters by skilful wire-pulling—such as the hiring of itinerant pedlars to perambulate the agricultural districts with household wares marked up at double cost; by urging democratic retail dealers to serve their party (and their tills) by demanding greatly increased sums for all goods during the campaign "in consequence of the new tariff."