13. A mixed force of 1,000 troops is sent from Cape Town to meet the Boers in Cape Colony. 20. The situation in the north of Cape Colony is more serious, as more Boers cross the Orange River into the Colony. Martial law is proclaimed in twelve additional districts of Cape Colony..

Lord Kitchener issues a proclamation offering terms to the fighting Boers.

24. Lord Kitchener arrives at De Aar. Regular railway service is restored between De Aar and Cape Town.

25. It is reported that a squadron of Yeomanry in following up the Boers near Britstown are captured.

25. Lord Kitchener reports that the British under General Knox are engaging De Wet's force in the neighbourhood of Leen Kop. 28. De Wet with a considerable commando holds the country between Ficksburg, Senakel and Winburg.

2). Helvetia, a strong position on the Lyndenburg railway, is captured by the Boers; 200 men and a naval 47 gun taken.

The Crisis in China.

Dec. 3. The Russians assume charge of the postal arrangements at Niu-Chwang.

5. An agreement is reported to be reached by the Ministers at Pekin, in accordance with the amendment proposed by the United States. 16. The British Government demand a modification of the Joint Note prepared by Ministers at Pekin.

PARLIAMENTARY RECORD. House of Lords.

Dec. 3. The fifteenth Parliament of the Queen's reign opens b; Royal Commission.

6. The Queen's Speech read Lord Lathom moves and Lord Monk Bretton seconds the Ad fress. Speeches by Lord Kimberley, Lord Salisbury, Lord Rosebery, and the Duke of Devonshire. The Address agreed to.

13. Lord Onslow explains the position of Sir Alfred Milner in South Africa. 14. On the reply to the Address, Lord Rosebery

criticises the appointment of Lord Hardwick: as member of the Government while he continues a member of the Stock Exchange. Speeches by Lord Hardwick: and Lord Salisbury.

15. The Supplementary War Loan (No. 2) Bill and the Consolidated Funds (Appropriation) Bill are brought up from the Commons and pass through all their stages. The Queen's Speech closing the Session is read, and Parliament prorogued until February 14,

1901.

House of Commons. Dec. 3. The New House of Commons me:ts and unanimously re-elects Mr. Gully as Sp aker.

13.

Second reading Appropriation Bill; speeches by Mr. Brodrick, Mr. Burns, Mr. KeirHardie, and Mr. Healy.

10

ment.

The Chinese Question; amendment to the Address proposed by Mr. Walton, speech by Lord Cranborne.

Debate on the Address resumed; Mr. J. Walton withdraws his amendment. Mr. Bartley moves an amendment expressing regret at the appointment of so many of the Prime Minister's relatives to offices in the Government; speech by Mr. Balfour; the amendment is lost on a division by 230 against 128.

Mr. Lloyd-George moves an amendment decl ring that Ministers of the Crown should have no interest direct or indi ect in any firm competing for publc contracts. Speeches by Mr. Chamberlain, Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman, Mr. Balfour, Mr. Burns and others. The House divides, when the amendment is lost by 269 votes to 127.

Michael G. Mulhall.

.1. In Committee of Supply, Mr. Brodrick submits the supplementary estimate of £16,000,000 for war in South Africa and the military operations in China; speeches by Sir W. Harcourt, Mr. Keir-Hardie, Mr. T. M. Healy. On a division the vote is carried. The Chancello of the Exchequer moves a resolution enabling him to raise £11,000,000 out of the £16,000,000 by means of a war loan; the resolution is agreed to and the discussion deferred.

12.

The debate on the vote for £16,000,000 for war expenses is resumed; speeches by Si R. Reid, Mr. Bryce, Mr. Brodrick, and others. The report on the vote is agreed to without a division. The new War Loan Bill is introduced and read a first time.

S.cond reading Supplemental War Lon Bill; speeches by Sir W. Harcourt, Mr. Makham, Mr. T. M. Healy, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

15.

Appropriation Bill; the Bills pass without amendment.

Third reading of the Supplementary War Loan Bill. Debate on the Appropriation Bill; speeches by Mr. Pirie, Mr. Lloyd-George. Mr. Bryn Roberts, and Mr. Brodrick. The Bill is then read a third time. Parliament is prorogued.

SPEECHES.

Dec. 1. Mr. T. W. Russell, at Cookstown, on the maladministration of the Irish Land Acts.

5. Mr. Balfour, at Westminster, on the work of the Primrose League.

7.

10.

12.

The King of Portugal, on the close friendship of Portugal and Great Britain in European history.

Mr. Cronwright Schreiner, in Cape Colony,
on the attitude of Great Britain to South
Africa.

Count von Bülow, at Berlin, on German
attitude towards the War in South Africa.
Mr. Bryce, in London, on the War in South
Africa.

13. Mr. Leonard Courtney, in London, on the War in South Afric 1.

3. Lord Salisbury, in London, on the state of political parties in this country at present, and the War in South Africa.

5. Professor Le bl, 56.

M. Schnaebele.

Miss Emily M. Harris, 56.

6. Mr. Henry Russell w.i.er of songs', 88,

Rev. Dr. Mome. i:, 52.

10. Madame Edgar Quinet (Par's).

12. M. Aimé Louis Hermmiard.

Mr. M. G. Mulhall, T.S.S.

Mr. T. Jennings, senior ("trainer" for the
Turf.

13. Lord O'Hagan at Springfontein), 21.

Major Norton Legge, D.S.O. (Af ica).

M. Edmond Tarbé journalist), 62.

15. Sir John Conroy, F.R.S. (Bedford Lecturer,

Launceston

HOBART (40.500)

B

JA

ANUARY IST was a high-day and a holiday in the city of Sydney, for on that day was celebrated the coming of age of the Commonwealth of Australia. Never in the history of any Australian Colony has there been such a demonstration as that by which the Australians celebrated the attainment of their majority. It is more than a hundred years since Captain Cook took possession of the Australian continent in the name of Great Britain; but in all the vicissitudes of the century no occasion had arisen for indulging in such widespread festivity. The newspapers have been so full of telegrams describing the five-mile processions, the banquets, the entertainments, the decorations, and all the forms and phases in which modern men and women express their delight, that there is no necessity for repeating them here. It is estimated that the ceremonial entailed an expenditure of £150,000, a sum which may seem comparatively small to those accustomed to Imperial pageants, but which represents a very consider. able expenditure in a single day's rejoicing in a colonial capital. The Australians are, however, in the first flush of reviving prosperity. The great financial catastrophe which overwhelmed them some years ago is now remembered only as a shadow casting into brighter relief the halcyon days which they are now all enjoying.

The occasion ministered to their pride of youth, and coincided with a great outburst of the consciousness of race. It is the fashion in some quarters to attribute this entirely to the South African war. There could be no greater mistake.. The work of preparing the mind of the English-speaking world for a consciousness of the unity of race and the dignity of its destinies, has been undertaken year after year with patient persistence by many to whom the South African war is abhorrent. No doubt the war and the self-sacrifice which it entailed upon those who volunteered in a cause of the justice of which they knew little or nothing, beyond the fact that the empire needed the services of her sons, tended to enlarge and quicken the sense of Imperial patriotism. This may be admitted all the more frankly by those of us to whom the cause in which the colonists shed their blood appeared as unworthy as any on behalf of which men have gone forth to the slaughter. It is deplorable, no doubt, that the first initiation of Australia in the perils and the sacrifices of empire should have been cemented by innocent blood unjustly shed, and that the lives of Australian colonists should have been worse than wasted in a hopeless struggle against the cause of justice and right. Such reflections, however, were absent from the minds of the immense majority of those who took part in the birthday festival at Sydney. The masses believed what the newspapers had told them, and regarded the volunteers as heroic crusaders, who had gone forth in defence of civilisation and of liberty. Mr. Brunton Stephens, the Australian poet, whose poem, Australia Federata, is infinitely superior in elevation of sentiment to the recent utterances either of Mr. Alfred Austin or Mr. Rudyard Kipling, expressed accurately enough the general sentiment of his countrymen when he wrote :

Ah, now we know the long delay
But served to assure a prouder day,
For while we waited, came the call
To prove and make our title good—
To face the fiery ordeal

That tries the claim to Nationhood

And now, in pride of challenge, we unroll,
For all the world to read, the record-scroll
Whose bloody script attests a Nation's soul.

O ye, our Dead, who at the call
Fared forth to fall as heroes fall,
Whose consecrated souls we failed

To note beneath the common guise
Till all-revealing Death unveiled

The splendour of your sacrifice,
Now, crowned with more than perishable bays,
Immortal in your country's love and praise,
Ye too have portion in this day of days!

The verse will live and probably be remembered with pride for many years to come; nor will the sense of proud exultation be materially affected by the discovery which they will make before long, that the whole thing was one of the ghastly mistakes into which an arrogant temper occasionally betrays the most circumspect of empires. We all admit that the Crimean War was a hideous blunder, but none the less for that, successive generations of schoolboys delight in reading and reciting the "Charge of the Light Brigade.”

Everything seems to have gone off admirably at Sydney. They did not commit the mistake which was made at our own Jubuee, of converting a great popular celebration into a mere display of soldiers and artillery. It is true that they had nearly 10,000 men under arms, including contingents from every branch of the Imperial army, but, although the soldiers were in the place, they did not monopolise the show. Every department of Australian life appears to have been adequately represented, and the enthusiasm of the populace was sustained during the passing of the whole procession. Mr. Barton appears to have carried off the honours of the day, although nothing could have exceeded the enthusiasm with which the multitude welcomed Lord Hopetoun. The oddest incident in the whole celebration was the selection of a layman, Lord Tennyson, to write the prayer which was uttered by the Archbishop. Australia has therein certainly established a record. Our colonists at the Antipodes have never held parsons in great esteem, but we were hardly prepared for the meekness with which the ecclesiastics consented to accept the petition written by the pen of a layman. The prayer itself, as telegraphed, runs as follows:

We beseech Thee, grant unto this union Thy grace and heavenly benediction, that a strong people may arise to hallow Thy name, to do justly, and to love mercy.

We pray Thee to make our Empire always a faithful and fearless leader among the nations in all that is good, and to bless our beloved Queen and those who are put in authority under her, more especially in this land.

Let Thy wisdom be their guide, strengthen them in uprightness, and vouchsafe that all things may be so ordered and settled upon the best and surest foundations, that peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety, may be deepened and increased among us."

It is estimated that a million persons took part in the celebration, the largest crowd ever collected together in the Australian colonies. The whole affair has been tolerably reported in the newspapers throughout the empire, and the ceremony of New Year's Day may be added to those elements which tend to increase the selfconsciousness of the race, and remind the citizens of the

Empire, wherever they may be scattered, of the essential unity of their world-circling domain. Australia must also be congratulated upon having found in Mr. Brunton Stephens a poet capable of adequately voicing the aspirations of her most exalted moods. Nor is Mr. Stephens a mere convert of the latter-day. A poem of his published many years ago showed that he was then one of the few who entertained aspirations that are now the common property of all. The concluding verses of his noble poem upon Australia Federated reach as high a standard as any similar poetry has reached in these latter years.

way was the modern conception of Australia created in the popular mind? We all read books about Australia, but the popular conception of a country is very seldom gained from books. The millions do not read books. This suggested inquiry is more interesting and may lead us further afield than might at first appear. Some might think that the occasion calls for heroics, but when every one has been heroicing (if I may coin a word)