BOOKS.

THE WEB OF EMPIRE.*

SIR DONALD MACKENZIE WALLACE has acquitted himself creditably of a difficult task. It is no easy matter to Write an " authorised" diary of a Royal tour extending over fifty thousand miles of sea and land, and including the most diverse contrasts of peoples, scenery, and political conditions. The very fact that he was assistant private secretary to the Prince of Wales necessarily cramped his freedom. As Sir Donald confesses, "time circumstances and atmosphere of a Royal tour, in which . every hour is carefully mapped out beforehand and the people one chances to meet are en- grossed with functions and festivities, are not favourable to scientific research. Careful investigation is dithcult, and adequate verification impossible." Such a diary, more- over, must be dignified and discreet.: it does not• do to be funny, least of all flippant ; and to do him -justice, Sir Donald never forgets his position, nor permits himself for an instant to be amusing. He was bound, of course, to keep himself in the background, and except when once in Queensland he fancied himself claimed as an acquaintance by blackfellow who called out "Wallace," the personal elemen- t is carefully eliminated. It mat also have been discouraging to reflect that all he had to say had already been said,- and very well said, by the able correspondents of one or two news- papers, who were not tied down by official restraints, bitt were free to use all the esources of modern journalism and pour out vivid impressions, political criticisms, good stories, and personal anecdotes unchecked by any trammels of "authorisa- tion." Considering these drawbacks, it is remarkable that Sir Donald Wallace has succeeded in producing a work at once readable and informing, to say nothing of the attractions of the Chevalier de Martino's sea-pictures. The scrupulously • The Web of Empire: a Diary 011ie Imperial Tour of Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Corniced and York in 1501. By Sir Donald Mackenzie

Wallace. K.C.V.O. Illustrated by the Chevalier de Martino and Svdney P. Hall. London : Macmillan and Co. (21s. net.) impersonalcharacter 'of the writing and the scrappy form of a diary no doubt make for dulness; but the author has

never aimed at the reputation of a humourist, and his fame as a sound. and thoughtful publicist will not suffer by the present judicious if slightly monotonous chronicle. He

always says the proper things and says them in good English (though be does use the word " send-off "), and he gives us

less of the "Beautiful morning," "Lovely morning," "Pleasant breeze," "Decidedly warm," than might be expected in a diarist cabined in a liner for interminable days of desperate same- ness. He is 'also merciful in sparing us most of the five hundred addresses received by the Duke of Cornwall and York, and also of his Royal Highness's ninety speeches,

though we are glad to see the excellent address spoken at the Mansion House on his return printed in fulL

Most readers will probably be chiefly attracted by the pages which .treat of native races, such as the Maoris, Redskins, Sinhalese, and Malays. There is not much that is new in these descriptions, but they are vivid and picturesque,

especially as regards the Maoris. The history of the Buddha's Holy Tooth is not widely known, nor is everybody so fortunate as to see that sacred relic; and generally speaking, the account of Ceylon is particularly fresh and interesting.

Still more suggestive is the passage in which Sir Donald describes the wonderful progress that has been made in the settlement of the Malay Peninsula :—

"In the short lifetime of a single generation all this [anarchy and crime] has been completely changed by pacific Means. A roaAlless' jungle-covered country, comprising an area of 25,000 square miles, inhabited by over half a million of warlike barbarians, has been placed, without the employment of a Large military force, under what may be called a civilised, en- lightened, progressive administration. The natives, who were wont to carry at least three deadly weapons, now habitually go about unarmed ; and the kris, which used to be a Malay's most prized possession, has little value except for the collector of bric-A- brae. More than 2,000 miles of excellent roads, a network of railways already 200 miles in length and soon to be doubled, and over 1,000 miles of telegraphs, have been constructed out of current revenue. Five important schemes of waterworks have been com- pleted, and much has been done for irrigation. Lighthouses, wharves, prisons, hospitals, schools, barracks, and handsome public offices have been constructed, a trigonometrical survey is being pushed forward, public gardens have been laid out, museums have been instituted, and considerable stuns have been spent on experimental agriculture."

When Sir Donald Wallace asked one of the officers who had assisted in this miracle of transformation in the lusty bantling of Sir Stamford Raffies's genius how it was done, the answer came :—" It was all very simple. Into the midst of a war- hardened, desperate population a few British officers were thrown, as one might cast a dog into the sea, leaving it to the dog to find its way out again or drown. We swam patiently and obstinately for a long time, and we ultimately found our way out. That is all." It was very like the no less splendid story of the Pacification of Upper Burma by another hand- ful of obstinate Britons.

It was difficult to find 'anything specially original to say about the series of loyal and enthusiastic receptions and festivities in Australia. These things are very like corre- sponding things at home, though the Australians do them even more thoroughly. The Duke shook hands with four thousand people at Melbourne in one morning, with two short rests, and so cordial are these grasps that it used to be said of a popular. Governor's wife in Victoria that she was obliged to take a glove for her right hand a size larger than the left on account of the muscular development resulting from these hearty receptions. It is the same with festivities : we can recall a welcome to a Governor On board a big liner at Port Phillip, when three hundred Colonists accounted for twelve hundred bottles of Heidsieck Monopole—to mention nothing

else=--between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Everything is done on the same grand scale. Sir Donald prudently divides his admira-

tion between Sydney Harbour and Flemington Race-course, but he was unlucky in not being there at the time of the Melbourne Cup. Every one knows it is the finest race on the best course in the world. Some curious statistics of popu- lation are. given, from which it appears that Melbourne is losing- ground, whilst Sydney is gaining in numbers, and this has been made an argument in the Protection v. Free-trade discussion. Sir Donald has something to say - on_ this subject, . but a good deal has happened in the Federal Parliament. and a great deal more has b.nn

written, since the Royal visit. Sir Donald's views on Colonial policy are given- in a cautious chapter at • the end of. the volume; in which he attempts to analyse the unquestioned -

feeling of loyalty which inspired every Colony visited in the memorable tour, and rightly lays stress on the special senti- ment of devotion to the reigning house :— "Again and again during the tour we were reminded by the local press that of all the ties which bind the Empire together dynastic loyalty is the most important, and that without it the great fabric would be in imminent danger of falling to pieces ; for it is not in the Colonial Office, nor oven in the Government as a As-hole, that the sons of Greater Britain place their trust and affection, but in the Sovereign and the Dynasty, who are free from the trammels of red tape and party politics, and. have always shown themselves true to the national honour and the national interests."

Besides staunchness to the Crown, which this well-conceived and extremely hard-working tour did much to strengthen, the Australians (like ourselves) are now much more awake to the value of the Imperial conneetion than they were ten years ago, when the present writer was in Melbourne. The old. policy, which sought to disembarrass England of her children beyond the seas, was then still bearing its natural fruit, and nothing is more striking than the rapidity with which a wiser Colonial policy has kindled. the never extinguished. fires of loyalty not only • to the Crown but to the Empire. Whilst the Colonial Premiers are in London discussing the problems that lie before them, it is perhaps needless to follow Sir Donald Wallace in his remarks on Imperial Federation. His experience, guardedly expressed, that the Colonies "aspire to some kind of closer union with the Mother Country and with each other, and that they are ready to make any sacrifices that may be necessary in defence of the great Empire of which they are proud to form a part," is confirmed by everything one hears from their representatives ; but, as he also pertinently observes, " there . is a great practical difference between the harmonising and the fusing of interests," and even if the former be the more moderate aim of to-day, there are many difficulties to be met before a solution can be reached. That the Colonies object to "the pooling system" we readily believe. The important thing, as Sir Donald Wallace wisely urges, is not to hurry public opinion, to avoid paper Constitutions, and to wait till the Colonies see precisely what it is they want and need. His book should be of some value in bringing home to English people the broad facts of the Empire which the Prince and Princess traversed with so much public spirit and such well. earned success.