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force may cause even the least clear-sighted to reflect; that democracy, 'majeure et maîtresse d'elle-même,' may set itself to organize its victory, may itself open the door to some reforms: he thinks that the representation of interests may be regarded as a desideratum of the future.' * Herr Schäffle more boldly declares, A true popular Chamber (Volkskammer) is not to be found in a Chamber representing merely the majority told by heads.'† 'The four essentials to a good representation of the people are completeness and proportion, independence and capacity' (Tüchtigkeit). And this, he argues at length, can be obtained only through a combination of representation by universal suffrage with the representation of the communal and corporate articulation of the nation,' ‡ that is, of the local and social interests and capacities of the whole body politic: eine gliederungsmässige Territorial- und Berufs-Vertretung,' he elsewhere calls it. This idea is, of course, not new. Krause and Ahrens, Mohl and Bluntschli, among the Germans, have expounded it more or less fully; and M. Prins, one of the most eminent of Belgian publicists, has discussed it with much force in his remarkable work on 'Democracy and Representative Government.' Proudhon, again, who excelled in appropriating the ideas of others and in clearly enunciating them, qualifies the merely mechanical system of universal suffrage now existing as 'mystification' and tyranny,' and demands for every social and political element in the nation its proper influence. La représentation nationale,' he writes, là où elle existe comme condition politique, doit être une fonction qui embrasse la totalité de la nation dans toutes ses catégories de personnes, de territoire, de fortunes, de facultés, de capacités et même de misère.'§ We take these to be the words of truth and soberness, although they proceed from the pen of Proudhon. They indicate accurately the true remedy for that morbus democraticus of which the age is sick. How to give effect to it is a problem not of political philosophy, but of practical politics, which we seriously commend to those who bear the name of statesmen.

*P. 238. It is one of M. Desjardins' many pregnant observations, 'Ce qui fait le principal obstacle à l'établissement de la liberté politique dans les républiques modernes, c'est que la force du nombre y tend à tout remplacer' (p. 227). † P. 147. ‡ P. 123.

§ Théorie du Mouvement constitutionnel au dix-neuvième Siècle,' p. 101.

ART.

ART. XI.-1. Voyage au Soudan Français (Haut-Niger et Pays de Ségou). 1879-1881. Par Le Commandant Gallieni.

Paris, 1885.

2. Campagne dans le Haut-Niger. 1885-1886. Par Colonel Frey. Paris, 1888.

3. De Saint Louis au Port de Tombouktou. Voyage d'une Canonnière française. Par Lieut. E. Caron. Paris, 1891.

4. Les Explorations au Sénégal, et dans les Contrées voisines depuis l'Antiquité jusqu'à nos Jours. Par J. Ancelle, Capitaine du génie. Paris, 1887.

5. Soudan Français-Kahel, Carnet de Voyage. Par Olivier de Sanderval, Ingénieur. Paris, 1893.

6. La France et ses Colonies au XIXme Siècle. Par Ernest Lalanne. Paris, 1893.

7. Le Sahara. Thèse presentée à la Faculté des Lettres de Paris. Par Henri Schirmer. Paris, 1893.

THE

THE remarkable expansion of French territory and the consequent extension of French influence in Western and North-Western Africa have hitherto aroused little interest in Great Britain. The recent squabbles of the Niger Company, together with the regrettable incident of Waima, so closely followed by the naval operations at the mouth of the Gambia, drew attention, for a brief period, in that direction. But even the later occupation of Timbuctoo, accompanied as it was by the tragic fate of Colonel Bonnier and his staff, failed to excite more than a languid curiosity on this side of the Channel concerning the advance of French arms along the course of the Niger. It is, therefore, our object in the following pages to trace the sequence of recent military operations which have enabled France to establish herself throughout that wide extent of country now recognized as Le Soudan Français.'

The results of these operations within the last decade of years have been to give France actual possession of Le Soudan Français,' a territory which includes the whole extent of the valleys and basins drained by the upper affluents of the Senegal and of the Upper Niger. To the west the French Soudan is bounded by the old colony of Senegal, the narrow wedge of the Gambia (British), and the Portuguese Guinea coast; to the south-west it is limited by Fouta-Djallon, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. To the south it joins the French Ivory Coast, whilst the French sphere extends in this direction beyond Ashanti to Dahomey, likewise French. Timbuctoo marks the north-east corner; and from this advanced position to Bakel on the Senegal, the distance, as the crow flies, is over six hundred

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Walker & Boutall sc.

Par Ernest Lalanne.

miles, whilst from Nioro in the Kaarta to the source of the Niger on the frontier of Sierra Leone the distance is not less than four hundred and thirty miles in a straight line. Towards the east and north the delimitations of the French Soudan are indefinable, but the French sphere of influence is recognized as including the whole of the Western Sahara from Lake Tchad to Cape Juby.

An outline of the development of French progress from the banks of the Senegal to the Upper Niger may be briefly sketched, in order that our readers may follow the successive stages of the various expeditions by which whole provinces bordering on the arterial communications of these two rivers have been subjugated piecemeal and annexed wholesale by the personal energy of a few French commanders, almost in despite of the Mother State herself.

The Dieppois claim for their mariners the honour of having first opened trade with the African ports beyond Cape Verde as early as the fourteenth century (1364-65). But no French commercial settlements were actually established on the coast of Senegambia before the seventeenth century, when the little island of Saint Louis was, in 1626, first occupied under the patronage of Cardinal Richelieu. With the early vicissitudes of this small colony, which was sustained by the merchants of Bordeaux mainly for the purpose of traffic in slaves, we need not here concern ourselves. It is sufficient to recollect that, after falling into the hands of the British from 1758 to 1793, this small islet was again taken by the English in 1808, and held by them until it was restored to Louis XVIII. in 1815. For nearly forty years afterwards the indifference of France and frequent change of Governors paralysed all progress in the colony. Each succeeding Commandant arrived wholly ignorant of the conditions of his charge, and left as soon as he had commenced to understand the true requirements of the colonists. The position of the few resident Bordelais traders during this period was humiliating in the extreme. Annual tributes or 'customs' had to be paid to the several native chiefs at the few stations where trade was permitted on the banks of the river Senegal, whilst the Trarza Moors on the north side of that river plundered the passing vessels and carried their raids up to the very outskirts of the town of St. Louis. At last, about the time of the Crimean War, the merchants at Bordeaux persuaded the Minister of Marine, M. Ducos (himself a Bordelais), to nominate a competent governor to rule the colony for a longer term of years. Captain Faidherbe, an officer of Engineers, who had already distinguished himself in

Algeria,

Algeria, and who had seen colonial service both in Senegal and Guadeloupe, was selected for the appointment, which he held for something like ten years; and it is almost wholly due to this officer's perseverance and energy that the colony of Senegal has become as prosperous as it now is.

Commandant Faidherbe's first measures, after his arrival at St. Louis, early in 1855, were to establish fortified posts at intervals along the navigable waters of the Senegal, to protect the traffic, and to ensure the safety of St. Louis and its environs. At this period the tribes of the interior were excited against the Europeans on the coast by a Toucouleur chief, El Hadj Omar, who, at the head of several thousand talibés' and 'sofas,' horse and foot, had conquered Bambouk, and, after overrunning other provinces, flushed with success, was advancing to attack the French outposts. The station highest up the stream was Médine, then defended by a French officer (a halfcaste named Paul Holl) and seven Europeans, with fifty Sénégalais soldiers and 'laptots.'* For ninety-seven days did Holl and his small garrison gallantly hold out against the hordes of Toucouleurs, until Faidherbe himself was able to come to their relief, forcing Omar to retire, and thus turning the tide of the Toucouleur invasion, in August 1857.

When security had been restored to the neighbourhood of the colony, Commandant Faidherbe turned his attention to public works at head-quarters. Bridges, roads, telegraph lines, quays, piers, barracks, warehouses, schools, a museum, a bank, a post-office, and in fact public establishments of all kinds, were constructed. Fine buildings, boulevards, and gardens soon rendered Saint Louis by far the most attractive capital in all West Africa. These works having been completed, or set in progress, Governor Faidherbe next occupied himself with extending the frontiers of the colony and opening up new channels of traffic with the neighbouring countries. No bands of marauding nomads were permitted to remain on the left or southern bank of the Senegal, whilst block-houses efficiently guarded the various fords and passages across that river, whose upper waters were also patrolled by steamers. Treaties were made with the Trarza Moors, the Braknas and Bambouk tribes. In place of the humiliating customs,' payable at the 'escales,' or native fairs and periodical markets at the trading posts, regular factories and marts of exchange were established at Médine, Bakel, Matam, and elsewhere, under the protection of forts held by colonial levies. It must be remembered that

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* 'Laptot' is an old Sénégalais word which designates the black native boatmen employed on the river and coast.

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