Dominions and Great Britain, and indirectly influenced the trade relations of all the Dominions, except Newfoundland, with Great Britain, and also the commercial diplomacy of the mother country.

All the influence in this direction that Laurier exercised-and it was undoubtedly a greater influence than has ever been exercised by a premier of Canada or by a premier of any other Dominion-developed out of the British preferential tariff of 1897. The Canadian tariff of 1897 was not the first preferential tariff enacted in a colony that is now of the Dominions. For two or three years after the Enabling Act of 1846 was on the statute book, the Legislature of Newfoundland passed Tariff Acts in which there were preferences for imports from the United Kingdom. But these Newfoundland Tariff Acts of 1848-1850 had been long forgotten when the Parliament at Ottawa, in April 1911, enacted the first preferential Tariff Act of the Dominion.

The Act came as a surprise to Canada. It was quite as much a surprise to the people of the United Kingdom, and to the Australasian and South African colonies. It can now be stated with authority that even the Colonial Office had had no intimation through the GovernorGeneral that in the first Tariff Act of the Laurier Government preferential terms were to be conceded to imports from the United Kingdom. It was apprehended by the Cabinet at Ottawa that the Colonial Office would object to the new departure because of its disturbing effect on the commercial treaty with Germany, and also on some twenty other commercial treaties which were in force in 1897. Hence, contrary to usage, no summary of the changes made by the new tariff was communicated by cable to the Colonial Office before Mr Fielding, the Minister of Finance, submitted it to the House of Commons.

The Fielding tariff had the effect that had been foreseen. It brought about the immediate denunciation of all the older commercial treaties; for, with these treaties in operation, all the countries which were parties to them could have claimed-as Germany did claim-the right to the same tariff concessions as were made to the United Kingdom. Laurier's name must consequently always have place in the history of the commercial

diplomacy of Great Britain; for it was by the stand he took in April 1911, that a clean sweep was made of a score or more treaties that had fettered the action of the self-governing colonies from the time fiscal freedom accrued to them as a result of the free-trade legislation at Westminster of 1846.

Laurier has still another claim to distinction in the history of the commercial diplomacy of the Empire. For sixty years-1847 to 1907-first, the old British NorthAmerican provinces, and afterwards the Dominion of Canada, were pressing for the right to make their own commercial treaties. There were many partial and qualified concessions to this demand, from the time of the negotiation of the first treaty of reciprocity between the British North-American provinces and the United States (1847-1854), to the negotiation in 1893, by Sir Charles Tupper, of the reciprocity treaty with France. Full and complete concession to it came in 1907, when Laurier, Fielding, and Brodeur negotiated the second commercial treaty with France. It was carried through without material aid from the British Ambassador at Paris, and without intervention, as regards the details of the treaty, from the Foreign Office in London.

Developments in Canada since 1911-the complete and costly breakdown of Laurier's railway policy; the disruption of the Liberal party over Conscription, which Laurier opposed; and the revolt of the agrarians against high protectionist tariffs, for which Laurier was responsible-make it difficult as yet to determine Laurier's right place in the political history of the Dominion. But his place as a Canadian statesman, who greatly and beneficently influenced the Empire as a whole, is assured. EDWARD PORRITT.

II. GENERAL LOUIS BOTHA.

GREAT men in all ages have been rare, and the achievements that justify the title vary in character. 'Events make men,' according to Herbert Spencer; but men undoubtedly influence events, though their share in proportion to that of circumstance may be indeterminable. The greatest of men are in no small degree children of fortune; and the effect of their actions, no matter how judiciously conceived, is in a large measure governed by the way in which surrounding factors tumble into the arena, not unlike pieces of glass in a revolving kaleidoscope. Neither results nor man's share in their accomplishment can be truly gauged at short range. These reflexions are inspired by the desire, in framing these brief notes upon the late General Louis Botha, to do justice to him and to his admirable qualities, on the one hand, without prejudicing the work of future historians by contemporary exaggeration, on the other.

First, with regard to his appearance and personality. He stood about six feet in height, broad-shouldered, heavy-boned, deep-chested and muscular, with large blue eyes that looked straight at one, and a delightful winning smile; a round face, small nose, black hair and tanned complexion. He was very intelligent and irresistibly attractive in lighter, happy moods; dark and taciturn in rare moments of anger. Keenly alive and virile, he centred his whole heart on the occupation of the moment, whether on State or other serious affairs or on diversions. In spare moments golf or bridge greatly amused him. I met him once under treatment at Kissingen; he followed the régime scrupulously. Bright-minded and companionable, genial and kindly in his outlook, he was a magnetic being, charming in everyday intercourse, and, in spite of not having had the advantages of public-school training or higher education, dignified in bearing and well-mannered, modest, unassuming, unspoiled by adulation. He had, moreover, a keen sense of humour, coupled with an ample fund of sound common-sense and a practical mind characteristic of his race, and particularly of the portion bred under the friendly African sun on the broad veld. Only those who

are familiar with the gorgeous colouring, the invigorating air, and the immense structural scale of the wide plains and rocky eminences of South Africa, can realise how the environment has dominated the outlook of those nurtured in its amenities.

In this short review we may pass rapidly over the early life of General Botha. His father was a well-to-do farmer; and Louis, one of six brothers, was born at Greytown, Natal, in 1862. At the age of twenty-two we first hear of him as accompanying Lucas Meyer upon an expedition to Zululand, in support of Dinizulu against Usibepu. The assistance of the Boer Commando turned the scale in favour of Dinizulu, who, as a recompense, granted them an area of land, which they called the New Republic, with Vryheid as its capital. Vryheid was incorporated in the Transvaal in 1888, Botha being then twenty-six years of age. Some seven years later he went to Pretoria as a member of the Second Volksraad.

I must not linger over the burning questions of that period, which covered the development of the Witwatersrand gold-mining industry, and the advent of the 'new' population. Botha, even in those early years, was out of sympathy with the narrow and repressive policy which was then the keynote of President Kruger's administration. The President realised that the patriarchal system was threatened, but he was not of the stuff to part meekly with a cherished ideal. Bitter discontent arose, partly from reactionary legislation and the disabilities placed upon new-comers, partly from the insecurity of life and property. Titles to individual mining property were in constant jeopardy-in the main, be it admitted, from assaults by the new-comers themselves. heterogeneous community of fortune seekers, drawn from all parts of the world, there were naturally specimens of every moral grade, from the highly cultured gentleman to the most unscrupulous adventurer. Men of the latter class did not find the business of merely attacking the rights of their neighbours sufficiently attractive and began to divert their attention to the Volksraad. Here indeed was a fine field for predatory activities. Playing here upon the ignorance and there upon the cupidity of some of the members-simple peasants be it noted-they created a real danger, and

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from time to time the legislature displayed signs of yielding to the allurements of concession-hunters. In one notorious case, that of the Dynamite Concession, President Kruger himself warned members that wrapped up with the granting of this concession was the independence of the State!

Dissatisfaction and grievances accumulated. The Volksraad was deaf to appeals and blind to consequences. Consciousness of the situation was, however, awakening. A section of the Volksraad, led by General Piet Joubert in the upper chamber, and Lucas Meyer in the second chamber, manifested its opposition to Kruger's repressive policy. Botha joined that section, but it failed to stem the reactionary tide. Anger on the part of the Uitlanders reached its breaking-point when Kruger endeavoured to force military service upon them, without, at the same time, granting them any rights of citizenship, and displayed the intention of fortifying the gaol which commanded the town. It was at this stage that steps were taken for the projected rising at Johannesburg; and any impartial student must confess that there was solid justification for the movement. The Jamėson Raid ensued, a disastrous incident, which should not, however, be confounded with the original plan or the basis of the intended internal revolt. Whatever view may be held respecting that turmoil, there is no doubt that it enlightened the world upon President Kruger's aims and methods in South Africa, and his intercourse with foreign powers, particularly with Germany. Botha was doubtedly in sympathy with the Uitlander cause, but the invasion impelled him to take up arms in defence of what he regarded (erroneously, it should be said) as an attempt to steal the country.

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During the next few years he did not come into special prominence, but his chance came with the Boer War. Serving at first under Lucas Meyer, he was speedily chosen as the leader of that commando, and, after the death of General Joubert, he became commander-in-chief of the Boer Forces. In spite of his having had no technical military training, he manifested great skill in the field. His exploits in that arena need not be dwelt upon here, as they are upon record. That he should have led his people through an unsuccessful