Chapter 2

See F. Masson,Les Diplomates de la Révolution(Paris, 1882); Silvagni,La Carte e la Società romana nei secoli XVIII. e XIX. (Florence, 1881).

BASTAR,a feudatory state of British India, in the Chattisgarh division of the Central Provinces; area, 13,062 sq. m. In 1901 the population was 306,501, showing a decrease of 1% compared with an apparent increase of 58% in the preceding decade. Estimated revenue £22,000; tribute £1100. The eastern part of Bastar is a flat elevated plateau, from 1800 to 2000 ft. above the level of the sea, the centre and N.W. portions are very mountainous, and the southern parts consist of hills and plains. On the plateau there are but few hills; the streams run slowly and the country is a mixture of plain and undulating ground covered by densesálforests. Principal mountains of the district: (1) a lofty range which separates it from the Sironcha district; (2) a range of equal height called the Bela Dila lying in the centre of the district; (3) a range running N. and S. near Narayanpur; (4) Tangri Dongri range, running E. and W.; (5) Tulsi Dongri, bordering on the Sabari river and the Jaipur state. There is also a small range running from the river Indravati to the Godavari. The Indravati, the Sabari and the Tal or Talper, are the chief rivers of the district; all of them affluents of the Godavari. The soil throughout the greater portion of Bastar consists of light clay, with an admixture of sand, suitedfor raising rice and wet crops. In the jungles the Marias, who are among the aboriginal tribes of Gond origin, raise kosra (Panicum italicum) and other inferior grains. Aboriginal races generally follow the migratory system of tillage, clearing the jungle on selected patches, and after taking crops for two or three years abandoning them for new ground. They do not use the plough; nor do they possess buffaloes, bullocks or cows; their only agricultural implement is a long-handled iron hoe. They are a timid, quiet, docile race, and although addicted to drinking not quarrelsome. They inhabit the densest jungles and are very shy, avoiding contact with strangers, and flying to the hills on the least alarm; but they bear a good character for honesty and truthfulness. They are very scantily dressed, wear a variety of trinkets, with a knife, hatchet, spear, bow and arrows, the only weapons they use. Their hair is generally shaved, excepting a topknot; and when not shaved it gets into a matted, tangled mass, gathered into a knot behind or on the crown. The Marias and the Jhurias are supposed to be a subdivision of the true Gond family. All the aboriginal tribes of Bastar worship the deities of the Hindu pantheon along with their own national goddess Danteswari.

Bastar is divided into two portions—that held by the Raja or chief himself, and that possessed by feudatory chiefs under him. The climate is unhealthy—fever, smallpox, dysentery and rheumatism being the prevailing diseases. Jagdalpur, Bijapur, Madder and Bhupalpatnam are the only places of any note in the dependency, the first (on the Indravati river) being the residence of the raja and the chief people of the state. The principal products are rice, oil-seeds, lac, tussur silk, horns, hides, wax and a little iron. Teak timber is floated down the rivers to the Madras coast. A good road has brought Jagdalpur into connexion with the railway at Raipur.

BASTARD(O. Fr.bastard, mod.bâtard = fils de bast, “pack-saddle child,” frombast, saddle), a person born out of legal wedlock. Amongst the Romans, bastards were classified asnothi, children born in concubinage, andspurii, those not so born. Both classes had a right of succession to their mother, and thenothi, were entitled to support from their father, but had no rights of inheritance from him. Both, however, had in other respects most of the rights of citizenship. The Germanic law was based upon an entirely different principle. It recognized as legitimate only those whose parents were of the same social rank. All others were regarded as bastards, and took the status of the parent of inferior rank. The aim of all the Germanic codes was to preserve purity of race, not to improve morals, for incestuous unions are not censured. The influence of the Germanic law lasted throughout the early feudal period, and bastards were debarred rights of inheritance. In the 13th century the influence of Roman law tended again to modify this severity. An exception was probably made in the case of those whose fathers were of royal blood, in which case it even seems that no stigma was attached to the accident of their birth, nor did they suffer from the usual disabilities as to inheritance which attended those of illegitimate birth (Gregory of Tours, v. 25). Among the Franks we find Theodoric I., a natural son of Clovis, sharing the kingdom with the legitimate sons; Zwentibold, natural son of Arnulf, was created king of Lorraine by his father in 895; and even William the Conqueror actually assumed the appellation of bastard.

In English law a bastard still retains certain disabilities. His rights are only such as he can acquire; for civilly he can inherit nothing, being looked upon as the son of nobody, and sometimes calledfilius nullius, sometimesfilius populi. This, however, does not hold as to moral purposes,e.g.he cannot marry his mother or bastard sister. Yet he may gain a surname by reputation though he has none by inheritance, and may even be made legitimate and capable of inheriting by the transcendent power of an act of parliament.

For poor-law purposes, all legitimate children take the settlement of their father, but a bastard takes the settlement of its mother. The mother of an illegitimate child is entitled to its custody in preference to the father, and consequently the responsibility of its support falls primarily on her. But the English law has always recognized the principle that to a certain extent the father must share in that responsibility. This, however, was imposed not with the idea of furnishing the woman with a civil remedy, nor to have a penal effect against the man, but solely to prevent the cost of maintenance of the bastard child from falling upon the parish. Indeed, the legislation upon the subject, which dates back to 1576, was until 1845 an intimate part of the poor law. The act of 1576, the basis of English bastardy law, empowered justices to take order for the punishment of the mother and reputed father of every bastard child left to the care of the parish, and to charge the mother and reputed father with the payment of a weekly sum or other needful sustenance. Other acts were passed in 1609 and 1733, enabling the mother of any child chargeable or likely to become chargeable to the parish to secure the apprehension, and even the imprisonment, of the father until he should indemnify the parish, provisions which were made somewhat more stringent by acts passed in 1809 and 1810. In 1832 a commission was appointed to inquire into the operation of the poor laws, and the commissioners in their report gave great attention to the subject of bastardy. They reviewed the various acts from 1576 downwards and gave examples of their operation. The conclusion to which the commissioners came was that the laws “which respect bastardy appear to be pre-eminently unwise,” and that they gave rise to many abuses. For example, the weekly payment recovered by the parish was usually transferred to the mother; even in many cases guaranteed. The commissioners recommended that the mother alone should be responsible for the maintenance of the child. “This,” they said, “is now the position of a widow, and there can be no reason for giving to vice privileges which we deny to misfortune.” Acting on the recommendation of the commissioners the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 endeavoured to discourage the principle of making the putative father contribute by introducing a somewhat cumbersome method of procedure. The trend of public opinion proved against the discouragement of affiliation, and an act of 1839 transferred jurisdiction in affiliation cases from quarter-sessions to petty-sessions. A commission of inquiry on the working of the bastardy acts in 1844 recommended “that affiliation should be facilitated,” and, accordingly, by the Bastardy Act of 1845 effect was given to this recommendation by giving the mother an independent civil remedy against the putative father and dissociating the parish altogether from the proceedings. Subsequently, legislation gave the parish the right of attaching, and in some cases suing for, money due from the putative father for the maintenance of the child. The existing law is set out underAffiliation.

The incapacities attaching to a bastard consist principally in this, that he cannot be heir to any one; for beingnullius filius, he is therefore of kin to nobody, and has no ancestor from whom an inheritable blood can be derived. Therefore, if there be no other claimant upon an inheritance than such illegitimate child, it escheats to the lord. And as bastards cannot be heirs themselves, so neither can they have any heirs but those of their own bodies; for as all collateral kindred consists in being derived from the same common ancestor, and as a bastard has no legal ancestor, he can have no collateral kindred, and consequently no legal heirs, except such as claim by a lineal descent from himself. And hence, if a bastard purchase land, and die seised therefor without issue and intestate, the land escheats to the lord of the fee. Originally a bastard was deemed incapable of holy orders, and disqualified by the fact of his birth from holding any dignity in the church; but this doctrine is now obsolete, and in all other respects there is no distinction between a bastard and another man. By the law of Scotland a bastard is not only excluded from his father’s succession, because the law knows no father who is not marked out by marriage; and from all heritable succession, whether by the father or mother, because he cannot be pronounced lawful heir by the inquest in terms of the brief; but also from the movable succession of his mother, because he is not her lawful child, and legitimacy is implied in all succession deferred by the law. But a bastard, although he cannot succeedjure sanguinis, may succeed by destination, where he is specially called to the succession by entail or testament. In Scotland, as in England, a bastard can have no legal heirs except those of his own body; and hence, failing his lawful issue, the king succeeds to him as last heir. Formerly bastards in Scotland without issue of their own could not make a will, but this disability was removed by a statute of 1835. If bastards or other persons without kindred die intestate without wife or child, their effects go to the king asultimus haeres; but a grant is usually made of them by letters patent, and the grantee becomes entitled to the administration.

According to the common law, which is the law of England, a bastard cannot be divested of his state of illegitimacy, unless by the supreme power of an act of parliament. But in those countries which have followed the Roman or civil law, a bastard’s status may be provisional, and he can be made legitimate by the subsequent marriage of his parents. (SeeLegitimacy and Legitimation; and, for statistics,Illegitimacy.)

Authorities.—Bacquet,Traité de la bâtardise(1608); Du Cange,Gloss. Lat., infra “Bastardus”; L.G. Koenigswater,Histoire de l’organisation de la famille en France(1851), andEssai sur les enfants nés hors mariage(1842); E.D. Glasson,Histoire des droits et des institutions de l’Angleterre(6 vols., 1882-1883),Histoire du droit et des institutions de la France(1887); Pollock and Maitland,History of English Law(1898); Stephen’sCommentaries; Nicholls and Mackay,History of the English Poor Law(3 vols., 1898).

BASTARNAE,the easternmost people of the Germanic race, the first to come into contact with the ancient world and the Slavs. Originally settled in Galicia and the Bukovina, they appeared on the lower Danube about 200B.C., and were used by Philip V. of Macedon against his Thracian neighbours. Defeated by these the Bastarnae returned north, leaving some of their number (hence called Peucini) settled on Peuce, an island in the Danube. Their main body occupied the country between the eastern Carpathians and the Danube. As allies of Perseus and of Mithradates the Great, and lastly on their own account, they had hostile relations with the Romans who in the time of Augustus defeated them, and made a peace, which was disturbed by a series of incursions. In these the Bastarnae after a time gave place to the Goths, with whom they seem to have amalgamated, and we last hear of them as transferred by the emperor Probus to the right bank of the Danube. Polybius and the authors who copy him regard the Bastarnae as Galatae; Strabo, having learned of the Romans to distinguish Celts and Germans, first allows a German element; Tacitus expressly declares their German origin but says that the race was degraded by intermarriage with Sarmatians. The descriptions of their bodily appearance, tribal divisions, manner of life and methods of warfare are such as are applied to either race. No doubt they were an outpost of the Germans, and so had absorbed into themselves strong Getic, Celtic and Sarmatian elements.

(E. H. M.)

BASTI,a town and district of British India, in the Gorakhpur division of the United Provinces. The town, a collection of villages, is on the river Kuana, 40 m. from Gorakhpur by railway. The population in 1901 was 14,761. It has no municipality. The district has an area of 2792 sq. m. It stretches out in one vast marshy plain, draining towards the south-east, and traversed by the Rapti, Kuana, Banganga, Masdih, Jamwar, Ami and Katneihia rivers. The tract lying between these streams consists of a rich alluvial deposit, more or less subject to inundations, but producing good crops of rice, wheat and barley. In 1901 the population was 1,846,153, showing an increase of 3% in the decade. A railway from Gorakhpur to Gonda runs through the district, and the river Gogra is navigable. A large transit trade is conducted with Nepal. The export trade of the district itself is chiefly in rice, sugar and other agricultural produce.

BASTIA,a town and seaport on the eastern coast of the island of Corsica, 98 m. N.N.E. of Ajaccio by rail. Pop. (1906) 24,509. Bastia, the chief commercial town in Corsica, consists of the densely-populated quarter of the old port with its labyrinth of steep and narrow streets, and of a more modern quarter to the north, which has grown up round the new port. La Traverse, a fine boulevard, intersects the town from north to south. Rising from the sea-shore like an amphitheatre, Bastia presents an imposing appearance, which is enhanced by the loftiness of its houses; it has, however, little of architectural interest to offer. Its churches, of which the largest is San Giovanni Battista, are florid in decoration, as are the law-court, the theatre and the hôtel-de-ville. The citadel, which dominates the old port, has a keep of the 14th century. As capital of an arrondissement, Bastia is the seat of a tribunal of first instance and a sub-prefect, while it is also the seat of the military governor of Corsica, of a court of appeal for the whole island, of a court of assizes, and of a tribunal and a chamber of commerce, and has a lycée, a branch of the Bank of France, and a library with between 30,000 and 40,000 volumes. The town has active commerce, especially with Italy. The new port has 1100 ft. of quayage, served by a railway, and with a depth alongside of 25 ft. The total number of vessels entered in 1907 was 721 with a tonnage of 337,551, of which 203,950 were French. The chief exports are chestnut extract for tanning, cedrates, citrons, oranges, early vegetables, fish, copper ore and antimony ore. Imports include coal, grain, flour and wine. Industry consists chiefly in fishing (sardines, &c., and coral), the manufacture of tobacco, oil-distilling, tanning, and the preparation of preserved citrons and of macaroni and similar provisions.

Bastia dates from the building of the Genoese fortress or “bastille” by Lionello Lomellino in 1383. Under the Genoese it was long the principal stronghold in the north of the island, and the residence of the governor; and in 1553 it was the first town attacked by the French. On the division of the island in 1797 into the two departments of Golo and Liamone, Bastia remained the capital of the former; but when the two were again united Ajaccio obtained the superiority. The city was taken by the English in 1745 and again in 1794.

BASTIAN, ADOLF(1826- ), German ethnologist, was born at Bremen on the 26th of June 1826. He was educated as a physician, but from his early years devoted himself to travel. Proceeding to Australia in 1851 as surgeon on a vessel, he had visited almost every part of the world before his return in 1859. In 1861 he made an expedition to the Far East which lasted five years. Upon his return he commenced the publication of his great work onThe Peoples of Eastern Asia, an immense storehouse of facts owing little to arrangement or style. He settled in Berlin, where he was made professor of ethnology at the university and keeper of the ethnological museum. He succeeded R. Virchow as president of the Berlin Anthropological Society, and to him was largely due the formation in 1878 of the German Africa Society of Berlin, which did much to encourage German colonization in Africa. Later he undertook further scientific travels in Africa, South America and India. The results of these explorations were made public in a long series of separate publications comprising several on Buddhism, and on the psychological problems presented by native superstitions. Bastian also edited theZeitschrift für Ethnologiefrom 1869, in conjunction with Virchow and Robert von Hartmann. On his seventieth birthday, 1896 (during which year he started on an expedition to Malaysia), he was presented with a volume of essays composed by the most distinguished ethnologists in celebration of the event and dedicated to him. Among his more important works may be mentioned:—Der Mensch in der Geschichte(Leipzig, 1860);Die Völker des östlichen Asien(Jena, 1866-1871);Ethnologische Forschungen(Leipzig, 1871-1873);Die Kulturländer des alten Amerika(Berlin, 1878);Der Buddhismus in seiner Psychologie(Berlin, 1881);Indonesien(Leipzig, 1884);Der Fetisch an der Küste Guineas(Berlin, 1885);Die mikronesischen Kolonien(1899-1900);Die wechselnden Phasen im geschichtlichen Sehkreis und ihre Rückwirkung auf die Völkerkunde(1900).

BASTIAT, FRÉDÉRIC(1801-1850), French economist, was the son of a merchant of Bayonne, and was born in that town on the 29th of June 1801. Educated at the colleges of Saint-Sever and of Sorèze, he entered in 1818 the counting-house of his uncle at Bayonne. The practical routine of mercantile life being distasteful to him, in 1825 he retired to a property at Mugron, of which he became the owner on the death of his grandfather.Here Bastiat occupied himself with farming, his leisure being devoted to study and meditation. He welcomed with enthusiasm the Revolution of 1830. In 1831 he became ajuge de paixof his canton, and in 1832 a member of theconseil généralof the Landes. In 1834 he published his first pamphlet, and between 1841 and 1844 three others, all on questions of taxation affecting local interests. During this period an accidental circumstance led him to become a subscriber to an English newspaper, theGlobe and Traveller, through which he was made acquainted with the nature and progress of the crusade of the Anti-Corn-Law League against protection. After studying the movement for two years, he resolved to inaugurate a similar movement in France. To prepare the way, he contributed in 1844 to theJournal des Économistesan article “Sur l’influence des tarifs anglais et français,” which attracted great attention, and was followed by others, including the first series of his brilliantSophismes Économiques.

In 1845 Bastiat came to Paris in order to superintend the publication of hisCobden et la Ligue, ou l’agitation anglaise pour la liberté des échanges, and was very cordially received by the economists of the capital. From Paris he went to London and Manchester, and made the personal acquaintance of Cobden, Bright and other leaders of the league. When he returned to France he found that his writings had been exerting a powerful influence; and in 1846 he assisted in organizing at Bordeaux the first French Free-Trade Association (Association pour la Liberté des Échanges). The rapid spread of the movement soon required him to abandon Mugron for Paris.

During the eighteen months which followed this change his labours were prodigious. He acted as secretary of the central committee of the association, organized and corresponded with branch societies, waited on ministers, procured subscriptions, edited a weekly paper, theLibre-Échange, contributed to theJournal des Économistesand to three other periodicals, addressed meetings in Paris and the provinces, and delivered a course of lectures on the principles of political economy to students of the schools of law and of medicine. The cause to which he thus devoted himself at the expense of his health and life appeared for a time as if it would be successful; but the forces in its favour were much weaker and those opposed to it were much stronger in France than in England, and this became more apparent as the struggle proceeded, until it was brought to an abrupt end by the Revolution of February 1848. This event made the socialistic and communistic principles, which had been gathering and spreading during the previous thirty years, temporarily supreme. (SeeNational Workshops.) In this grave crisis Bastiat nobly performed his duty. Although exhausted by the far too heavy labours in which he had been engaged, although robbed of his voice by the malady which was preying upon him, so that he could do but little to defend the truth from the tribune of the Constituent Assembly, he could still suggest wise counsels in the committee of finance of which he was vice-president, and he could still use his pen with a vigour and dexterity which made him capable of combating single-handed many opponents.

He wrote in rapid succession a series of brilliant and effective pamphlets and essays, showing how socialism was connected with protection, and exposing the delusions on which it rested. Thus within the space of two years there appearedPropriété et Loi, Justice et Fraternité, Propriété et Spoliation, L’État, Baccalauréat et Socialisme, Protectionisme et Communisme, Capital et Rente, Maudit Argent, Spoliation et Loi, Gratuité du Credit, andCe qu’on voit et ce qu’on ne voit pas. While thus occupied he was meditating the composition of a great constructive work, meant to renovate economical science by basing it on the principle that “interests, left to themselves, tend to harmonious combinations, and to the progressive preponderance of the general good.” The first volume of this workLes Harmonies économiqueswas published in the beginning of 1850. In the autumn of that year, when working on the second volume, the increase of his malady compelled him to go to Italy. After lingering at Pisa and Florence he reached Rome, but only to die there on the 24th of December 1850 in the fiftieth year of his age.

The life-work of Bastiat, in order to be fairly appreciated, requires to be considered in three aspects. (1) He was the advocate of free-trade, the opponent of protection. The general principles of free-trade had, of course, been clearly stated and solidly established before he was born, but he did more than merely restate them. He showed, as no one before him had done, how they were practically applicable to French agriculture, trade and commerce; and in theSophismes Économiqueswe have the completest and most effective, the wisest and the wittiest exposure of protectionism in its principles, reasonings and consequences which exists in any language. (2) He was the opponent of socialism. In this respect also he had no equal among the economists of France. He alone fought socialism hand to hand, body to body, as it were, not caricaturing it, not denouncing it, not criticizing under its name some merely abstract theory, but taking it as actually presented by its most popular representatives, considering patiently their proposals and arguments, and proving conclusively that they proceeded on false principles, reasoned badly and sought to realize generous aims by foolish and harmful means. Nowhere will reason find a richer armoury of weapons available against socialism than in the pamphlets published by Bastiat between 1848 and 1850. (3) He attempted to expound in an original and independent manner political economy as a science. In combating, first, the Protectionists, and, afterwards, the Socialists, there gradually rose on his mind a conception which seemed to him to shed a flood of light over the whole of economical doctrine, and, indeed, over the whole theory of society, viz. the harmony of the essential tendencies of human nature. The radical error, he became always more convinced, both of protectionism and socialism, was the assumption that human interests, if left to themselves would inevitably prove antagonistic and anti-social, capital robbing labour, manufactures ruining agriculture, the foreigner injuring the native, the consumer the producer, &c.; and the chief weakness of the various schools of political economy, he believed, he had discovered in their imperfect apprehension of the truth that human interests, when left to themselves, when not arbitrarily and forcibly interfered with, tend to harmonious combination, to the general good.

HisŒuvres complètesare in 7 vols. The first contains an interestingMemoirby M. Paillottet.

BASTIDE, JULES(1800-1879), French publicist, was born at Paris on the 22nd of November 1800. He studied law for a time, and afterwards engaged in business as a timber merchant. In 1821 he became a member of the French Carbonari, and took a prominent part in the Revolution of 1830. After the “July Days” he received an artillery command in the national guard. For his share in theémeutein Paris (5th of June 1832) on the occasion of the funeral of General Maximilien Lamarque, Bastide was sentenced to death but escaped to London. On his return to Paris in 1834 he was acquitted, and occupied himself with journalism, contributing to theNational, a republican journal of which he became editor in 1836. In 1847 he founded theRevue nationalewith the collaboration of P.J. Buchez (q.v.), with whose ideas he had become infected. After the Revolution of February 1848 Bastide’s intimate knowledge of foreign affairs gained for him a secretarial post in the provisional government, and, after the creation of the executive commission, he was made minister of foreign affairs. At the close of 1848 he threw up his portfolio, and, after thecoup d’étatof December 1851, retired into private life. He died on the 2nd of March 1879. His writings compriseDe l’éducation publique en France(1847);Histoire de l’assemblée législative(1847);La République française et l’Italie en 1848(1858);Histoire des guerres religieuses en France(1859).

BASTIDE(Provençalbastida, building), a word applied to the fortified towns founded in south-western France in the middle ages, and corresponding to thevilles neuvesof northern France. They were established by the abbeys, the nobles and the crown, frequently by two of these authorities in co-operation, and were intended to serve as defensive posts and centres of population for sparsely-inhabited districts. In addition, they formed a source of revenue and power for their founders, who on their part conceded liberal charters to the new towns. They werebuilt on a rectangular plan, with a large central square and straight thoroughfares running at right angles or parallel to one another, this uniformity of construction being well exemplified in the existingbastideof Monpazier (Dordogne) founded by the English in 1284. Mont-de-Marsan, the oldest of the bastides, was founded in 1141, and the movement for founding them lasted during the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries, attaining its height between 1250 and 1350.

See E. Ménault,Les Villes Neuves, leur origine et leur influence dans le mouvement communal(Paris, 1868); Curie-Seimbres,Essai sur les villes fondées dans le sud-ouest de la France sous le nom de bastides(Toulouse, 1880).

BASTIEN-LEPAGE, JULES(1848-1884), French painter, was born in the village of Damvillers, Meuse, France, on the 1st of November 1848 and spent his childhood there. He first studied at Verdun, and prompted by a love of art went in 1867 to Paris, where he was admitted to the École des Beaux-arts, working under Cabanel. After exhibiting in the Salons of 1870 and 1872 works which attracted no attention, in 1874 he made his mark with his “Song of Spring,” a study of rural life, representing a peasant girl sitting on a knoll looking down on a village. His “Portrait of my Grandfather,” exhibited in the same year, was not less remarkable for its artless simplicity and received a third-class medal. This success was confirmed in 1875 by the “First Communion,” a picture of a little girl minutely worked up as to colour, and a “Portrait of M. Hayem.” In 1875 he took the second Prix de Rome with his “Angels appearing to the Shepherds,” exhibited again in 1878. His next endeavour to win the Grand Prix de Rome in 1876 with “Priam at the Feet of Achilles” was again unsuccessful (it is in the Lille gallery), and the painter determined to return to country life. To the Salon of 1877 he sent a full-length “Portrait of Lady L.” and “My Parents”; and in 1878 a “Portrait of M. Theuriet” and “The Hayfield.” The last picture, now in the Luxembourg, is regarded as a typical work from its stamp of realistic truth. Thenceforth Bastien-Lepage was recognized in France as the leader of a school, and his “Portrait of Mme Sarah Bernhardt” (1879), painted in a light key, won him the cross of the Legion of Honour. In 1880 he exhibited a small portrait of M. Andrieux and “Joan of Arc listening to the Voices”; and in the same year, at the Royal Academy, the little portrait of the “Prince of Wales.” In 1881 he painted “The Beggar” and the “Portrait of Albert Wolf”; in 1882 “Le Père Jacques”; in 1883 “Love in a Village,” in which we find some trace of Courbet’s influence. His last dated work is “The Forge” (1884). The artist, long ailing, had tried in vain to re-establish his health in Algiers. He died in Paris on the 10th of December 1884, when planning a new series of rural subjects. Among his more important works may also be mentioned the portrait of “Mme J. Drouet” (1883); “Gambetta on his death-bed,” and some landscapes; “The Vintage” (1880), and “The Thames at London” (1882). “The Little Chimney-Sweep” was never finished. An exhibition of his collected works was opened in March and April 1885.

See A. Theuriet,Bastien-Lepage(1885—English edition, 1892); L. de Fourcaud,Bastien-Lepage(1885).

(H. Fr.)

BASTILLE(from Fr.bastir, nowbâtir, to build), originally any fortified building forming part of a system of defence or attack; the name was especially applied to several of the principal points in the ancient fortifications of Paris. In the reign of King John, or even earlier, the gate of Saint Antoine was flanked by two towers; and about 1369 Hugues Aubriot, at the command of Charles V., changed it into a regular bastille or fort by the addition of six others of massive structure, the whole united by thick walls and surrounded by a ditch 25 ft. wide. Various extensions and alterations were afterwards effected; but the building remained substantially what it was made by the vigorous provost, a strong and gloomy structure, with eight stern towers. As the ancient fortifications of the city were superseded, the use of the word bastille as a general designation gradually died out, and it became restricted to the castle of Saint Antoine, the political importance of which made it practically, long before it was actually, the only bastille of Paris. The building had originally a military purpose, and it appears as a fortress on several occasions in French history. When Charles VII. retook Paris from the English in 1436, his opponents in the city took refuge in the Bastille, which they were prepared to defend with vigour, but the want of provisions obliged them to capitulate. In 1588 the duke of Guise took possession of the Bastille, gave the command of it to Bussy-Leclerc, and soon afterwards shut up the whole parlement within its walls, for having refused their adherence to the League. When Henry IV. became master of Paris he committed the command of the Bastille to Sully, and there he deposited his treasures, which at the time of his death amounted to the sum of 15,870,000 livres. On the 11th of January 1649 the Bastille was invested by the forces of the Fronde, and after a short cannonade capitulated on the 13th of that month. The garrison consisted of only twenty-two men. The Frondeurs concluded a peace with the court on the 11th of March; but it was stipulated by treaty that they should retain possession of the Bastille, which in fact was not restored to the king till the 21st of October 1651.

At a very early period, however, the Bastille was employed for the custody of state prisoners, and it was ultimately much more of a prison than a fortress. According to the usual account, which one is tempted to ascribe to the popular love of poetical justice, the first who was incarcerated within its walls was the builder himself, Hugues Aubriot. Be this as it may, the duke of Nemours spent thirteen years there in one of those iron cages which Louis XI. called hisfillettes; and Jacques d’Armagnac, Poyet and Chabot were successively prisoners. It was not till the reign of Louis XIII. that it became recognized as a regular place of confinement; but from that time till its destruction it was frequently filled to embarrassment with men and women of every age and condition. Prisoners were detained without trial onlettres de cachetfor different reasons, to avoid a scandal, either public or private, or to satisfy personal animosities. But the most frequent and most notorious use of the Bastille was to imprison those writers who attacked the government or persons in power. It was this which made it so hated as an emblem of despotism, and caused its capture and demolition in the Revolution.

Of the treatment of prisoners in the Bastille very various accounts have been given even by those who speak from personal experience, for the simple reason that it varied greatly in different cases. The prisoners were divided into two main classes, those who were detained on grounds of precaution or by way of admonitory correction, and those who lay under presumption or proof of guilt. The former were subject to no investigation or judgment, and the length of their imprisonment depended on the will of the king; the latter were brought to trial in the ordinary courts or before special tribunals, such as that of the Arsenal—though even in their case the interval between their arrest and their trial was determined solely by the royal decree, and it was quite possible for a man to grow old in the prison without having the opportunity of having his fate decided. Until guilt was established, the prisoner was registered in the king’s name, and—except in the case of state-prisoners of importance, who were kept with greater strictness and often in absolute isolation—he enjoyed a certain degree of comfort and freedom. Visitors were admitted under restrictions; games were allowed; and, for a long time at least, exercise was permitted in open parts of the interior. Food was both abundant and good, at least for the better class of prisoners; and instances were not unknown of people living below their allowance and, by arrangement with the governor, saving the surplus. When the criminality of the prisoner was established, his name was transferred to the register of the “commission,” and he became exposed to numerous hardships and even barbarities, which however belonged not so much to the special organization of the Bastille as to the general system of criminal justice then in force.

Among the more distinguished personages who were confined in this fortress during the reigns of Louis XIV., XV. and XVI., were the famousMan of the Iron Mask(seeIron Mask), Foucquet, the marshal Richelieu, Le Maistre de Sacy, De Renneville, Voltaire, Latude, Le Prévôt de Beaumont, Labourdonnais,Lally, Cardinal de Rohan, Linguet and La Chalotais. While no detestation is too great for that system of “royal pantheism” which led to the unjust and often protracted imprisonment of even men of great ability and stainless character, it is unnecessary to give implicit credence to all the tales of horror which found currency during the excitement of the Revolution, and which historical evidence, as well asa prioriconsiderations, tends to strip of their more dreadful features, and even in many cases to refute altogether. Much light of an unexpected kind has in modern times been shed on the history of the Bastille from the pages of its own records. These documents had been flung out into the courts of the building by the revolutionary captors, and after suffering grievous diminution and damage were finally stored up and forgotten in the vaults of the library of the (so-called) Arsenal. Here they were discovered in 1840 by François Ravaisson, who devoted himself to their arrangement, elucidation and publication.

At the breaking out of the Revolution the Bastille was attacked by the Parisians; and, after a vigorous resistance, it was taken and razed to the ground on the 14th of July 1789. At the time of its capture only seven prisoners were found in it. A very striking account of the siege will be found in Carlyle’sFrench Revolution, vol. i. The site of the building is now marked by a lofty column of bronze, dedicated to the memory of the patriots of July 1789 and 1830. It is crowned by a gilded figure of the genius of liberty.

See theMemoirsof Linguet (1783), and Latude (ed. by Thierry, tome iii. 18mo, 1791-1793); also François Ravaisson,Les Archives de la Bastille(16 vols. 8vo, 1866-1886); Delort,Histoire de la détention des philosophes à la Bastille(3 vols., 1829); F. Bournon,La Bastille(1893); Fr. Funck-Brentano,Les Lettres de cachet à Paris, étude suivie d’une liste des prisonniers de la Bastille(1904); G. Lecocq,La Prise de la Bastille(1881).

BASTINADO(Span.baston, Fr.bâton, a stick, cudgel), the European name for a form of punishment common in the east, especially in Turkey, Persia and China. It consists in blows with a light stick or lath of bamboo upon the soles of the feet or on the buttocks. The terror of the punishment lies not in the severity of the blows, which are on the contrary scarcely more than tapping, but in its long continuation. A skilful bastinadoist can kill his victim after hours of torture.

BASTION(through the Fr. from late Lat.bastire, to build), a work forming part of a line of fortifications. The general trace of a bastion is similar to an irregular pentagon formed by a triangle and a narrow rectangle, the base of the triangle coinciding with the long side of the rectangle. The two sides of the triangle form the “faces” of the bastion, which join at the “salient” angle, the short sides of the rectangle form the “flanks.” Bastions were arranged so that the fire from the flanks of each protected not only the front of the curtain but also the faces of the adjacent bastions. A “tower bastion” is a case-mated tower built in bastion form; a “demi-bastion” is a work formed by half a bastion (bisected through the salient angle) and by a parapet along the line of bisection; a “flat bastion” is a bastion built on a curtain and having a very obtuse salient angle.

BASTWICK, JOHN(1593-1654), English physician and religious zealot, was born at Writtle, in Essex, in 1593, and after a brief education at Cambridge, wandered on the continent and graduated in medicine at Padua. On his return he settled in Colchester. His celebrity rests on his strong opposition to the Roman Catholic ceremonial. About 1633 he printed in Holland two Latin treatises, entitledElenchus Religionis Papisticae, andFlagellum Pontificis et Episcoporum Latialium; and as Laud and other English prelates thought themselves aimed at, he was fined £1000 in the court of high commission, excommunicated and prohibited from practising physic, while his books were ordered to be burnt and the author himself consigned to prison. Instead of recanting, however, he wroteApologeticus ad Praesules Anglicanos, and another book calledThe Litany, in which he exclaimed vehemently against the proceedings of the court, and charged the bishops with being the enemies of God and “the tail of the beast.” William Prynne and Henry Burton coming under the lash of the star-chamber court at the same time, they were all censured as turbulent and seditious persons, and condemned to pay a fine of £5000 each, to be set in the pillory, to lose their ears, and to undergo imprisonment for life in remote parts of the kingdom, Bastwick being sent to Scilly. The parliament in 1640 reversed these proceedings, and ordered Bastwick a reparation of £5000 out of the estates of the commissioners and lords who had sentenced him. He joined the parliamentary army, but in later years showed bitter opposition to the Independents. He died in the latter part of 1654.

BASUTOLAND(officially “The Territory of Basutoland”), an inland state and British crown colony of S.E. Africa, situated between 28° 35′ and 30° 30′ S. and 27° and 29° 25′ E. It has an area of 10,293 sq. m., being somewhat smaller than Belgium, and is bounded S., S.E., and N.E. by the Drakensberg, N. and N.W. by the Caledon river, S.W. by a range of low hills extending from the Caledon above Wepener to the Orange river, and south of the Orange by the Telle or Tees river to its source in the Drakensberg. Its greatest length S.W. to N.E. is 145 m.; its greatest breadth N. to S. 120 m. On every side it is surrounded by British colonies, north by the Orange River Colony, south-west and south by Cape Colony, and east by Natal.

Basutoland, or Lesuto (Lesotho) as the natives call it, forms the south-eastern edge of the interior tableland of South Africa, and has a rugged and broken surface with a mean elevation of 6000 ft. The Drakensberg (q.v.) forming the buttress of the plateau seaward, attain their highest elevation on the Basuto-Natal border. The frontier line follows the crest of the mountains, three peaks some 10,000 or more ft. high—Giant’s Castle, Champagne Castle or Cathkin Peak and Mont aux Sources—towering high above the general level. Mount Hamilton, which lies north of the waterparting, is over 9000 ft. high. From Mont aux Sources, table-shaped, and called by the BasutosPotong(Antelope), a second range of mountains, the Maluti, runs S.W. through the entire length of Basutoland. The crest of the Maluti is in few places lower than 7000 ft. whilst Machacha, the culminating point, is about 10,500 ft. From the tableland north of the Maluti several isolated hills rise, the most noted being the almost inaccessible Thaba Bosigo—the rallying place of the Basuto in many of their wars. Shut off from the adjacent Indian Ocean by its mountain barrier, the drainage of the country is westward to the distant Atlantic. As its name implies, the chief rivers rise in Mont aux Sources. From the inner sides of that mountain descend the Caledon and the Senku, whilst from its seaward face the Tugela flows through Natal to the Indian Ocean. The Caledon runs north of the Maluti, the Senku south of that range. From the slopes of the Maluti descend many streams, the largest being the Kornet Spruit, which joins the Senku and other torrents from the Drakensberg to form the upper Orange (q.v.). The Caledon also, sweeping southward, unites with the Orange beyond the frontiers of Basutoland. Ordinarily shallow, the rivers after heavy rain fill with great rapidity, sweeping away everything in their path. In the richer soil they cut deep channels; the denudation thus caused threatens to diminish seriously the area of arable and pasture land. The river beds contain dangerous quicksands.

The aspect of the country is everywhere grand, and often beautiful, fully justifying the title, “The Switzerland of South Africa,” often applied to it. Viewed from a distance the mountains appear as dark perpendicular barriers, quite impenetrable; but narrow paths lead round the precipitous face of the hills, and when the inner side is gained a wonderful panorama opens out. In every direction can be seen luxuriant valleys through which rivers thread their silvery way, wild chasms, magnificent waterfalls—that of Maletsunyane has an unbroken leap of over 600 ft.—and, above all, hill crest after hill crest in seeming endless succession. In winter the effect is heightened by the snow which caps all the higher peaks.

Geology.—Basutoland is entirely occupied by the upper division (Stormberg series) of the Karroo formation. The highest strata (Volcanic group) form the rugged elevated spurs of the Drakensberg mountains which extend along the eastern territorial boundary. It has been suggested that these spurs representthe sites of vents or fissures of eruption. The upper part of the Maluti range consists of flows of melaphyres and diabases belonging to the volcanic beds. Among these lavas is the “pipe” amygdaloid of which many blocks have been transported great distances down the Vaal river. The amygdales are three or four inches long and about three-eighths of an inch in diameter. Heulandite, with thomsonite, stilbite, scolecite, calcite and chalcedony, occur as infilling minerals.

Climate.—The climate is excellent, invigorating alike for Europeans and natives. The mean annual temperature is about 60° F. The four seasons are distinctly marked, a rarity in South Africa, where the transition from summer to winter is generally very rapid. The heat of summer (December-March, which is the rainy season) is tempered by cool breezes; winter (May-September, inclusive) is dry, cold and bracing, and frost prevails for prolonged periods. The average annual rainfall is about 30 in. The general health conditions are good. Malaria is almost unknown and chest complaints are rare. Epidemics of smallpox and typhoid occur; and leprosy, imported from the Orange River and Cape Colonies, has taken firm hold on the Basuto, of whom about 91 per 1000 are sufferers from this disease.

Flora and Fauna.—A few kloofs are wooded, but of forest land there is none. Along the upper courses of the rivers are willows and wild olive trees; round the chief settlements the eucalyptus and the pine have been planted. Heaths, generally somewhat rare in South Africa outside the Cape peninsula, are abundant in Basutoland. The Alpine flora is very beautiful. There are few wild animals; but the eland, hartebeest and smaller antelopes are found, as well as the leopard and the jackal. Mountain hares, partridges and quails afford good sport; baboons and great hawks live in the mountains. The few fish include the barbel. Swarms of locusts occasionally visit the country; the locusts are eaten by the Basuto.

Population and Towns.—Considering the extensive area of uninhabitable mountain land it contains, the Territory supports a large population. The inhabitants increased from 128,206 in 1875 to 348,848 in 1904. The females outnumber the males by about 20,000, which is, however, about the number of adult males away from the country at any given period. The majority live in the district between the Maluti mountains and the Caledon river. The great bulk of the people are Basuto, but there are some thousands of Barolong and other Kaffirs. The Basuto proper are a branch of the Bechuana family of Bantu-Negroids. The white inhabitants in 1904 numbered 895, and there were 222 coloured persons other than natives. The seat of government is Maseru, on the left bank of the Caledon, with a population of about 1000 including some 100 Europeans. Mafeteng, in the N.W. near the Cape frontier, is a thriving agricultural centre, as is Butha Buthe in the N.E. Morija, some 16 m. S.E. of Maseru, is the oldest mission station in the Territory, having been founded by the Paris Society about 1833. Three miles from Morija is Matsieng, the kraal of the paramount chief Lerothodi (who died in August 1905). There are numerous mission stations throughout Basutoland, to several of which Biblical names have been given, such as Shiloh, Hermon, Cana, Bethesda, Berea.

Agriculture and Trade.—Basutoland is one of the greatest grain-growing countries of South Africa. The richest tract of land is that between the Maluti mountains and the Caledon river. In summer the country appears as one waving field of wheat, millet and mealies; whilst on the mountain slopes and on their flat tops are large flocks of sheep, cattle and goats, and troops of ponies. The Basuto ponies, said to be descended from Shetland ponies which, imported to the Cape in 1840, strayed into the mountains, are short-legged, strong-bodied, sure-footed, and noted for their hardiness. Improvements in the breed have been effected by the introduction of Arab stallions. Nearly every Basuto is an agriculturist; there are no manufactories, and the minerals, in accordance with the desire of the people, are not worked. The land is wholly in the possession of the natives, who hold it on the communal system. Whites and Indians are allowed to establish trading stations on obtaining special permits from the government, and the Indians absorb much of the retail trade. The chief exports are wheat, mealies, Kaffir corn, wool, mohair, horses and cattle. The great bulk of the imports are textiles. The value of the trade depends on regular rains, so that in seasons of drought the exports seriously diminish. The average annual value of trade for the five years ending the 30th of June 1905 was:—Exports £215,668, imports £203,026. Trade is almost entirely with Orange River Colony and Cape Colony. The Territory is a member of the South African Customs Union. Some 60,000 Basuto (annual average) find employment outside the Territory, more than half of whom seek farm and domestic service. A small proportion go to the Johannesburg gold mines, and others obtain employment on the railways.

Communication over the greater part of the Territory is by road; none of the rivers is navigable. A state-owned railway, 16½ m. long, starting from Maseru crosses the Caledon river and joins the line connecting Bloemfontein and Ladysmith. This railway follows, N.E. of Maseru, the right bank of the Caledon, and affords a ready means of transport for the cereals raised on the left or Basuto side of the river. Highroads, maintained by the government, traverse every part of the country, and bridges have been built across the Caledon. The usual mode of conveyance is by ox-waggon or light cart. Several passes through the Drakensberg into Griqualand East and Natal exist, but are little used. There is a complete postal and telegraphic service and a telephone line connects all government stations.

Government and Finance.—Basutoland is a crown colony, of which the high commissioner for South Africa is governor. In him resides the legislative power, exercised by proclamation. The Territory is administered, under the direction of the governor, by a resident commissioner, who is also the chief judicial officer. He is aided by a government secretary and by assistant commissioners. Under the British officials the country is governed by hereditary native chiefs, over whom is a paramount chief. The chiefs have jurisdiction in cases affecting natives, but there is a right of appeal to the courts of the commissioners, who try all cases in which any of the parties are European. A national council (pitso), representative of all the native tribes, meets annually for the free discussion of public affairs. For administrative purposes the Territory is divided into the seven districts of Maseru, Leribe, Mohales Hoek, Berea, Mafeteng, Quthing and Qacha’s Nek, each of which is subdivided into wards presided over by Basuto chiefs.

Revenue is obtained from a hut tax of £1 per hut; the sale of licences to trade; customs and post office receipts. Seven-eighths of the revenue comes from the hut tax and customs. The average annual revenue for the five years 1901-1905 was £96,880; the average annual expenditure £69,559. Basutoland has no public debt.

Education and Social Condition.—Education is given in schools founded by missionary societies, of which the chief is the Société des Missions Évangéliques de Paris. A large proportion of the people can read and write Sesuto (as the Basuto language is called) and English, and speak Dutch, whilst a considerable number also receive higher education. Many Basuto at the public examinations take higher honours than competitors of European descent. There are over 200 schools, with an average attendance exceeding 10,000. Nine-tenths of the scholars are in the schools of the French Protestant Mission, which are conducted by English, or English-speaking, missionaries. A government grant is made towards the cost of upkeep. A government industrial school (opened in 1906) is maintained at Maseru, and the Paris Society has an industrial school at Leloaleng. The social condition of the people is higher than that of the majority of South African natives. Many Basuto profess Christianity and have adopted European clothing. Serious crime is rare among them and “deliberate murder is almost unknown.”1They are, like mountaineers generally, of a sturdy, independent spirit, and are given to the free expression of their views, generally stated with good sense and moderation. These views found a new medium of publicity in 1904 when an independent nativenewspaper was started, calledNaledi ea Lesotha(Star of Basutoland). The publication of this paper was followed in 1906 by the adoption of a uniform system of Sesuto orthography. A book on national customs, the first work in the vernacular by a South African native, was published in 1893. The brandy-drinking habit, which, when the imperial government assumed control of the administration in 1884, threatened the existence of the nation, has been very largely checked. A strong beer, brewed from Kaffir corn, is a favourite drink.

History.—Until the beginning of the 19th century Basutoland appears to have been uninhabited save by wandering Bushmen, whose rude rock pictures are to be found in several parts of the Drakensberg. About 1800 the country was occupied by various tribes of Bechuana, such as Batau, Basuto, Baputi, who then possessed the greater part of what is now Orange River Colony. They appear to have recognized the paramount authority of a family descended from a chief named Monaheng. By the wars of the Zulu chiefs Chaka, Matiwana and Mosilikatze, these tribes were largely broken up and their power destroyed. One tribe, living in the Maluti mountains, was reduced to cannibalism.Moshesh forms the Basuto nation.From their chief Machacha mountain takes its name. At this period a young man named Moshesh (born about 1790), who was of the family of Monaheng and already noted as hunter and warrior, gathered round him the remnants of several broken clans, out of which he welded the existing Basuto nation. He established himself in 1824 on the rock-fortress of Thaba Bosigo, where, in 1831, he successfully defended himself against Mosilikatze; and thereafter became second only to that chief among the natives north of the Orange River. In 1833 Moshesh invited the missionaries of the Société des Missions Evangéliques of Paris to settle in his country, and from that day until his death proved their firm friend. A few years later, in 1836-1837, large parties of emigrant Boers settled north of the Orange, and before long disputes arose between them and Moshesh, who claimed a great part of the land on which the white farmers had settled. The Basuto acquired an unenviable notoriety as a race of bold cattle lifters and raiders, and the emigrant Boers found them extremely troublesome neighbours. At the same time, if the Basuto were eager for cattle, the Boers were eager for land; and their encroachments on the territories of the Basuto led to a proclamation in 1842 from Sir George Napier, the then governor of Cape Colony, forbidding further encroachments on Basutoland. In 1843 a treaty was signed with Moshesh on the lines of that already arranged with Waterboer, the Griqua chief (seeGriqualand), creating Basutoland a native state under British protection.

To the quarrels between Basuto and Boers were added interminable disputes between the Basuto and other Bechuana tribes, which continued unabated after the proclamation of British sovereignty over the Orange river regions by Sir Harry Smith in 1848. In 1849, however, Moshesh was unwillingly induced by Sir Harry to surrender his claims to part of the territory recognized as his by the Napier treaty. The British continued to intervene in the inter-tribal disputes, and in 1851 Major H.D. Warden led against the Basuto a commando composed of British soldiers, farmers and a native contingent. This commando was defeated at Viervoet, near Thaba Nchu, by the Basuto, who thereafter raided and plundered the natives opposed to them and the farmers who had helped the British. Attempts were made to come to terms with Moshesh and the justice of many of his complaints was admitted. The efforts at accommodation failed, and in 1852 General Sir George Cathcart, who had succeeded Sir Harry Smith as governor of Cape Colony, decided to take strong measures with the tribe, and proceeded with three small divisions of troops against Moshesh. The expedition was by no means a success, but Moshesh, with that peculiar statecraft for which he was famous, saw that he could not hope permanently to hold out against the British troops, and followed up his successful skirmishes with General Cathcart by writing him a letter, in which he said: “As the object for which you have come is to have a compensation for Boers, I beg you will be satisfied with what you have taken. You have shown your power, you have chastised; I will try all I can to keep my people in order in the future.” General Cathcart accepted the offer of Moshesh and peace was proclaimed, the Basuto power being unbroken. Fourteen months later (February 1854) Great Britain renounced sovereignty over the farmers settled beyond the Orange, and Moshesh found himself face to face with the newly constituted Free State. Boundary disputes at once arose but were settled (1858) by the mediation of Sir George Grey, governor of Cape Colony. In 1865 a fresh feud occurred between the Orange Free State Boers and the Basuto. The latter applied to Sir Philip Wodehouse at the Cape for protection, but he declined to interfere. The Boers proved more successful than they had been in the past, and occupied several of the Basuto strongholds. They also annexed a certain fertile portion of Basuto territory, and finally terminated the strife by a treaty at Thaba Bosigo, by which Moshesh gave up the tract of territory taken by the Boers and professed himself a subject of the Free State. Seeing that the struggle against the Boers was hopeless, no fewer than 2000 Basuto warriors having been killed, Moshesh again appealed for protection to the British authorities, saying: “Let me and my people rest and live under the large folds of the flag of England before I am no more.” In response to this request, the British authorities decided to take over Basutoland, and a proclamation of annexation was issued on the 12th of March 1868. At the same time the Boer commandoes were requested to leave the country. The Free State stronglyAnnexation to Great Britain.resented the British annexation of Basutoland, but much negotiation the treaty of Aliwal North was concluded (1869) between the Free State and the high commissioner. This treaty defined the boundary between the Free State and Basutoland, whereby the fertile strip of country west of the Caledon river, known as the Conquered Territory, was finally transferred to the Free State, and the remainder of Basutoland was recognized as a portion of the British dominions.

Moshesh, who for nearly fifty years had led his people so skilfully and well, died in 1870. He was one of the rare instances among the Kaffirs of a leader endowed with intellectual gifts which placed him on a level with Europeans, and his life-work has left a permanent mark on South African history. In diplomacy he proved fully the equal of all—white or black—with whom he had to deal, while he ruled with a rare combination of vigour and moderation over the nation which he had created.

In 1871 Basutoland was annexed to Cape Colony, the area at that time being given as 10,300 sq. m. The turbulent Basuto warriors did not remain quiet for any length of time, and in 1879 Moirosi, a chief residing in the southern portion of Basutoland, openly repudiated colonial rule. An expedition was despatched from Cape Colony and severe fighting followed. Moirosi’s stronghold was captured and the chief himself was killed. Immediately after the war, strife occurred among the Basuto themselves over the question of the partition of Moirosi’s territory, which had been decided on as one of the results of the war. In 1880 the Cape government felt sufficiently strong to extend to Basutoland the Cape Peace Preservation Act of 1878. This actThe “gun” war.provided for the disarmament of natives, and had already been put in force successfully among some of the Kaffir tribes on the Cape eastern frontier. Its execution in Basutoland, however, proved an extremely difficult task, and was never entirely accomplished. Desultory warfare was carried on between the colonial troops and the Basuto until 1881, when the intervention of the high commissioner, Sir Hercules Robinson (afterward Lord Rosmead), was asked for. Peace in Basutoland was not announced until the end of 1882. In the following year a form of self-government was established, but was once more followed by internal strife among the petty chieftains.

The subjection of Basutoland to the control of the Cape government had by this time proved unsatisfactory, both to the Basuto and to Cape Colony. The Cape government therefore offered no opposition to the appeal made by the Basuto themselves to the imperial government to take them over, and, moreover, Cape Colony undertook to pay towards the cost of administration anannual contribution of £18,000. Consequently, in 1884, Basutoland ceased to be a portion of the Cape Colony and became a British crown colony. Native laws and customs were interfered with as little as possible and the authority of the chiefs—all members of the Moshesh family—was maintained. Moshesh had been succeeded as paramount chief by his son, Letsie, and he in turn was succeeded in 1891 by Lerothodi (c.1837-1905). These chieftains acted in concert with the British representative in the country, to whom was given the title of resident commissioner. The first commissioner was Sir Marshall Clarke, to whose tact and ability the country owed much. The period of warfare over, the Basuto turned their attention more and more to agricultural pursuits and also showed themselves very receptive of missionary influence. Trade increased, and in 1891 Basutoland was admitted to the customs union, which already existed between Orange Free State, Cape Colony and British Bechuanaland. When Lord (then Sir Alfred) Milner visited Basutoland in 1898, on his way to Bloemfontein, he was received by 15,000 mounted Basuto. The chiefs also attended a large meeting at Maseru, and gave expression to their gratitude for the beneficent character of Queen Victoria’s rule and protection. On the outbreak of the Boer War in 1899, these same chiefs, at a great meeting held in the presence of the resident commissioner, gave a further protestation of their loyalty to Her Majesty. They remained passive throughout the War and the neutrality of the country was respected by both armies. One chief alone sought to take advantage of the situation by disloyal action, and his offence was metA crown colony.by a year’s imprisonment. The conversion of Basutoland into a crown colony contributed alike to the prosperity of the Basuto, the security of the property of neighbouring colonists and a peaceful condition among the natives of South Africa generally. In pursuance of the policy of encouraging the self-governing powers of the Basuto, a national council was instituted and held its first sitting in July 1903. In August 1905 the paramount chief Lerothodi died. In early life he had distinguished himself in the wars with the Boers, and in 1880 he took an active part in the revolt against the Cape government. Since 1884 he had been a loyal supporter of the imperial authorities, being unwavering in his adherence in critical times. Fearless and masterful he also possessed high diplomatic gifts, and though on occasion arbitrary and passionate he was neither revengeful nor cruel. On the 19th of September following Lerothodi’s death, the national council, with the concurrence of the imperial government, elected his son Letsie as paramount chief. The completion in October 1905 of a railway putting Maseru in connexion with the South African railway system proved a great boon to the community. During the rebellion of the natives in Natal and Zululand in 1906 the Basuto remained perfectly quiet.

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