Tonnage of all the vessels entered and cleared in foreign trade at the West African Colonies, and of British vessels entered and cleared, for five years:

968,828 1,070,523 975,446 1,144,457 1.131,027 1,250,410 1,414,764 1,416,855 1,696,451 2,013,377 1,181,748 1,290,933 1,249,808 1,467.988 1,688,357 284,635 261,269 285,071 286,878 387,717 3,685,621 4,037,489 3,927,180 4,595,774 5,220,478

❘ 696,412 830,132 771,548 720,651 774,088 824,485 976,658 954,109 1,001,847 1,163,756 919,771 994,328 1,028,941 1.165,832 1,354,590 210,690 198,099 220,098 188,546 249,376

2,651,358 2,999, 217 2,974,696 3,076,876 3,541,810

The steamships of 2 British navigation companies visit Gambia regularly ; the Elder, Dempster and Company's boats visit Sierra Leone.

The Cape of Good Hope and West Coast of Africa squadron usually con sists of about sixteen vessels under a rear-admiral.

The currency, weights, and measures are the same as those used in Great Britain.

BOOKS OF REFERENCE.

The Annual Blue Books of the various Colonies, and Reports thereon.

The Colonial Office List. Annual.
Statistical Abstract for the Colonies.

Annual.

Alldridge (T. J.), The Sherbro and its Hinterland. London, 1901.

Armitage (C. H.) and Montaro (A. F.), The Ashanti Campaign of 1900. London, 1901
Banbury (G. A. L.), Sierre Leone; or, The White Man's Grave. 8. London, 1888.

Blyden (E. W.), Christianity, Islam, and the Negro Race. 8. London, 1889.
Barrow (A. H.), Fifty Years in Western Africa. London, 1900.
Boyle (F.), Through Fanteeland and Coomassie. S. London, 1874.
Crooks (J. J), A Short History of Sierra Leone.

Dublin, 1901.

Eilis (A. B.), West African Sketches. 8. London, 1881. History of the Gold Coast of West Africa. S. London, 1893. The Yoruba-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast. 8. London, 1894. The Ewe-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast. 8. London, 1890. The Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast. 8. London, 1887. West African Islands. 8. London, 1885. Ferryman (A. F. Mockler), Imperial Africa. Vol. I. London, 1898.

Freeman (H. A), Travel and Life in Ashanti and Jaman. London, 1898.

George (C.), The Rise of British West Africa. London, 1902.

Hayford (C.), Gold Coast Native Institutions. London, 1903.

Hodgson (Lady), The Siege of Kumasi. London, 1901.

Ingham (Bishop E. G.), Sierre Leone after a Hundred Years. 8. London, 1894.

Johnston (Sir Harry), The Colonisation of Africa. Cambridge, 1899.

Kemp (D.), Nine Years on the Gold Coast. London, 1898.

Kingsley (Mary H.), Travels in West Africa. London, 1897.-West African Studies.

2nd ed. London, 1901 -The Story of West Africa London, 1899.

Knutsford (Viscountess), Life and Letters of Zachary Macaulay. London, 1900.

Lucas (C. P.), Historical Geography of the British Colonies. Vol. III. S. London, 1896. MacDonald (G.), The Gold Coast Past and Present. London, 1898.

Morel (E. D.), Affairs of West Africa. London, 1902.

Ortroz (F. Van), Conventions Internationales concernant l'Afrique. Brussels, 1898. Pierson (A. T.), Seven Years in Sierra Leone, London, 1897.

Poole (T. E.), Life, Scenery and Customs in Sierra Leone and the Gambia. 2 vols. 12. London, 1850.

Powell (R. S. Baden), The Downfall of Prempeh. New ed. London, 1900.
Reindorf (C. C.), History of the Gold Coast and Ashante. Basel, 1895.

Roth (H. Ling), Great Benin: Its Customs, &c. London, 1903.

Sibthorpe (A. B. C.), History of Sierra Leone. 12. London, 1881.-Geography of Sierre Leone. 12. London, 1881.

Wallach (H.), West African Manual (chiefly mining). 2nd ed. London, 1900.
Wallis (C. B.), The Advance of our West African Empire. London, 1903.

Zululand. See NATAL.

AMERICA.

Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados. See WEST INDIES.

BERMUDAS.

Governor.-Major-General Sir R. MacGregor Stewart, R. A., K.C.B., (2,9467.), assisted by an Executive Council of 6 members appointed by the Crown, a Legislative Council of 9 members, also appointed by the Crown, and a representative House of Assembly of 36 members; 1,318 electors.

A Colony, with representative government, consisting of a group of 360 small islands (18 to 20 inhabited), 580 miles east of North Carolina, and 677 miles from New York, noted for their climate and scenery; favourite winter resort for Americans.

Area, 20 square miles (12,000 acres, 4,000 under cultivation). Population in 1901, 17,535 (including 6,383 whites); 11,636 belong to Church of England (census 1901). In 1903 with 789 births, the birth-rate was 34.8, and, with 513 deaths, the death-rate was 23.2 per 1000; 119 illegitimate births formed 15 08 per cent. of the total births; there were 186 marriages. Education : 26 primary schools, with 1,491 pupils, receive Government grants, 6767. annually; 1 secondary school with 34 pupils receive government grants, 257. There are 3 garrison schools and a dockyard school, about 20 other primary schools, and 4 secondary schools receiving no government grant. In 1903 521 persons summarily convicted, and 27 sentenced by superior court. Chief town Hamilton, 2,246 population. Average strength of regular military forces, 2,779; naval, 1,803. Bermuda is an important naval base on the North America and West India Station, with dockyard, victualling establishment, &c.

Chief source of revenue: customs, 45,9957. in 1903. Chief items of expenditure: salaries, public works, ecclesiastical, education. Contribution by Home Government, 2,2007. Public debt (1903), 46,5007.

Savings bank deposits on December 31, 1903, 40,9167. to the credit of 1,892 depositors.

Imports from Great Britain, according to the Colonial Blue Book, in 1903, 172,3477., and exports to the same, 3,806. The imports given are exclusive of Government stores (224,7047. in 1903).

Food supplies are mostly imported from the United States and Canada, and nearly all the export produce of Bermuda goes to those two countries. In 1903 onions exported, 55, 3407.; lily bulbs, 8,5927.; potatoes, 34,5797.

Most imports are subject to a 5 per cent. ad valorem duty. The list of dutiable articles includes food substances of all sorts, textiles of all sorts, agricultural machinery, and metal work (with few exemptions). On wines there is a 20 per cent. ad valorem duty; on spirits, tobacco, and some other articles there are specific duties.

The registered shipping consisted (1904) of 3 steam vessels of 70 tons net, and 24 sailing vessels of 6,930 tons net; total net tonnage, 7,000.

In 1903 the total tonnage of vessels entered and cleared was 550,6297., of which 481,085 were British. There are 167 miles of telegraph wire under the control of the military, and 15 of cable. There is also a private telephone company, which has about 400 subscribers and upwards of 1,200 miles of wire in line. A telegraph cable connects the islands with Halifax, Nova Scotia, and another connects with Turks Island and Jamaica. There are 20 post offices in the colony; the number of letters dealt with in the year 1902 was 1,213,868; post-cards 43,780; newspapers 473,408; book packets and circulars, 112,216; parcels, 11,631. The post office revenue was 6,515l., and expenditure, 5,3367.

There are two banks in the Island. Bills of exchange issued by the Treasury Chest Office in the Colony form the basis of exchange with the outside world.

The currency, weights, and measures are British, but silver coin is legal tender to any amount. There is no paper money in circulation, except some Bank of England notes.

REFERENCES: Bermuda in Colonial Reports. Annual. London.
Heilprin (A.), Bermuda Islands. 8. Philadelphia, 1889.

Newton (Margaret), Glimpses of Life in Bermuda and the Tropics. London, 1897.

CANADA.

(DOMINION OF CANADA.)

Constitution and Government.

As originally constituted the Dominion of Canada was composed of the Provinces of Canada-Upper and Lower-Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. They were united under the provisions of an Act of the Imperial Parliament passed in March 1867, known as 'The British North America Act 1867,' which came into operation on the 1st July, 1867, by royal proclamation. The Act provides that the Constitution of the Dominion shall be 'similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom;' that the executive authority shall be vested in the Sovereign of Great Britain and Ireland, and carried on in her name by a GovernorGeneral and Privy Council; and that the legislative power shall be exercised by a Parliament of two Houses, called the Senate and the House of Commons.' Provision was made in the Act for the admission of British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, the North-West Territories, and Newfoundland into the Dominion; Newfoundland alone has not availed itself of such provision. In 1869 the extensive region known as the NorthWest Territories was added to the Dominion by purchase from the Hudson's Bay Company; the province of Manitoba was set apart out of a portion of it, and admitted into the confederation on 15th July, 1870. On 20th July, 1871, the province of British Columbia, and on the 1st July, 1873, the province of Prince Edward Island, respectively entered the confederation.

The members of the Senate of the Parliament of the Dominion are nominated for life, by summons of the GovernorGeneral under the Great Seal of Canada. By the terms of the Constitution, there are now 81 senators-namely, 24 from the Province of Ontario, 24 from Quebec, 10 from Nova Scotia, 10 from New Brunswick, 4 from Manitoba, 3 from British Columbia, 4 from Prince Edward Island, and 2 from the Territories. Each senator must be 30 years of age, a born or naturalised subject, and must reside in, and be possessed of property, real or personal, of the value of 4,000 dollars, within the province for which he is appointed. The

House of Commons of the Dominion is elected by the people, for five years, unless sooner dissolved, at the rate at present of one representative for every 22,688, the arrangement being that the province of Quebec shall always have 65 members, and the other provinces proportionally, according to their populations at each decennial census. On the basis of the census of the Dominion taken in April 1901, and in accordance with a redistribution bill passed in 1903, the House of Commons consists of 214 members-86 for Ontario, 65 for Quebec, 18 for Nova Scotia, 13 for New Brunswick, 10 for Manitoba, 7 for British Columbia, 4 for Prince Edward Island, 10 for the North-West Territories, and 1 for the Yukon Territory.

The members of the House of Commons are elected by constituencies, the electors of which are supplied by franchises under the control of the several provincial assemblies, an Act having been passed to that effect in the session of 1898. The qualifications for voting at provincial elections vary in the several provinces. Voting is by ballot.

The Speaker of the House of Commons has a salary of 4,000 dollars per annum, and each member an allowance of 10 dollars per diem, up to the end of 30 days, and for a session lasting longer than this period the sum of 1,500 dollars, with, in every case, 10 cents per mile for travelling expenses. The sum of 8 dollars per diem is deducted for every day's absence of a member, unless the same is caused by illness. There is the same

allowance for the members of the Senate of the Dominion.

Earl Grey,

Governor-General.-The Right Honourable G.C.M.G., born November 28, 1851; M.P. for South Northumberland, 1880-85, and for the Tyneside division 1885-86; succeeded to the Peerage in 1894; Administrator of the British South Africa Company's Territories, 1896–97; became a Director of the Company in 1898. Present appointment, September, 1904.

The Governor-General has a salary of 10,000l. per annum. He is assisted in his functions, under the provisions of the Act of 1867, by a Council, composed of 14 heads of departments.

King's Privy Council.—The present Council consists of the following members:

1. Premier and President of the Council.-Rt. Hon. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, G. C. M.G., K. C., born at St. Lin, in L'Assomption County, Province of Quebec, 1841; entered Parliament 1874; Minister of Inland Revenue 1877; Premier July 13, 1896.

2. Secretary of State.-Hon. R. W. Scott, Senator.

3. Minister of Trade and Commerce.-Rt. Hon. Sir R. J. Cartwright, G. C. M. G., Senator.

4. Minister of Justice and Attorney-General.-Hon. Charles Fitzpatrick, K.C.