work, but who, nevertheless, being generally large stockholders, drew large salaries as president, vice-president, and so on.

Instead of restricting the opportunities for the mass of men, as the political agitators and others tell us is the case, the era of combination has very materially enlarged these opportunities. Under the old individual business scheme the skilled worker had only limited opportunity for increased pay, and practically no opportunity for a partnership participation. Business enterprises, with a few notable exceptions, were held as close family corporations. Outsiders were rarely admitted. No matter how expert these outsiders were, they were held all their lives on a salary. Now the door is open to ability.

If the issue should come before the voters to-day, even though it were stated flatly as a "trust issue," it is my belief that the verdict would be, "Hands off." The country has never been so prosperous, and in a large measure this prosperity is undoubtedly due to the fact that we are managing our business affairs on an advanced basis. The most prosperous industries are those in which the consolidation idea has been carried to the greatest extent under wise management. In those industries work is the steadiest, and wages the highest. In the face of such a showing, no body of intelligent people, such as our voters are, would deliberately fly against their own interest.

MR. C. R. FLINT AND ALSO MORE DIVIDENDS.

Mr. C. R. Flint examines the figures of forty-seven of the most prominent industrial companies quoted in Wall Street. The result proves that—

instead of inflated values and boom quotations we are trading on a very sound basis. The industrials, almost without exception, are worth a great deal more, judged by their earning capacity, than they are selling for in the open market. Some of these industrials are earning over 25 per cent. a year on their market values, and the average for the entire forty-seven is 13.6 per cent. Taking thirty-seven railways, including the best properties in the market, they show an average rate of earnings on their market value of 4 85 per cent., and on their par of total capitalisation of 4.85 per cent. On the face of it, this would show a very substantial situation so far as the railroads are concerned, placing them, as a whole, almost on a level with Government bonds. Instead of concentrating the wealth of the country in the hands of a few people, the consolidations have had exactly the reverse effect. Where, under the old conditions, there were a hundred stockholders, there are to-day a thousand or two thousand. Never before was there such a wide distribution of manufacturing interests. The great bulk of the stocks is held, not by the very rich, but by the moderately well-to-do. The control under the new system is not vested, as it was under the old, in the hands of a few abnormally rich men, but it rests with the majority of stockholders, whose numerical strength is growing every day. PRESIDENT THURBER: HOW THE CONSUMER PROFITS. "The Influence of Trusts on Prices" is elaborately discussed by President F. B. Thurber, of the United States Export Association. Taking up in succession the Standard Oil Company, the American Sugar Refining Company, the International Paper Company, and the United States Steel Corporation, Mr. Thurber shows that the prices of commodities produced by these several trusts, so far from being raised as a result of consolidation of interests have, on the contrary, been frequently lowered through improvements in manufacture, in transportation, or in buying raw material more cheaply. Mr. Thurber shows also that railway rates have steadily declined as a result of economies of operation and improvement in service, from combinations and consolidations, until in the United States to-day they are less than one-half those of other principal countries. Our railways carry our chief products one thousand miles to our seaboard for less than the railroads of other countries charge for carrying these products two hundred miles inland from the seacoast after they have crossed the ocean, although passenger rates, it is admitted, have not declined as rapidly as freight rates. Mr. Thurber concludes that if any 66 legislation is necessary, it is in the direction of publicity and reports, for the protection of investors, and not in the direction of price-regulation.

trust

MR. C. J. BULLOCK IN REPLY.

In the Atlantic Monthly for June Mr. Charles J. Bullock examines into most of the theories advanced by the advocates of "trusts" and rejects them. He does not think that trusts will adjust production to consumption in a rational and scientific manner, as is claimed. Mr. Bullock denies that a monopoly can supply the market more cheaply than a number of independent concerns. He admits that a trust might manufacture more cheaply than the small enterprises; but that a single consolidated company can produce cheaper than the large constituent properties combined in it, he does not admit.

Mr. Bullock thinks that no delay should be allowed in dealing with the trust situation. "When the Standard Oil Company can earn annual dividends that exceed 30 per cent., it is evident that a few years of further debate are almost as much as the monopolist could desire. It seems dangerous, therefore, to adopt an opportunist or a temporising attitude." Following are some of the chief remedies Mr. Bullock thinks should be undertaken immediately in restricting the dangers of industrial combinations. He would agitate the question of the control of the national highways-the manipulation of railroad rates in favour of trusts. He would not hesitate to throw open to general use, in return for reasonable compensation, every patent that is employed for monopolistic ends. The corporation laws, too, should be changed. Why should we longer delay concerted efforts to secure a national corporation law? :

The simple fact is that existing laws relating to tariff duties, railroads, patents, and business corporations have offered every conceivable inducement to consolidation, and have complicated the existing situation to such an extent that we are often unable to distinguish the results of permanent economic principles or forces from the effects of our own unwise legislation.

WILL THEY HARMONISE CAPITAL AND LABOUR? In the June Cosmopolitan, Mr. E. C. Machen gives a striking view of J. Pierpont Morgan and his work. Mr. Morgan is not only essentially an American, he is of democratic instincts and is a man of extraordinary accessibility, when the importance of his time is considered. Mr. Machen goes on to show that these facts, taken with Mr. Morgan's extraordinary insight into human motives, his magnetism and natural command of men, fit him peculiarly to deal with organised labour in its relations with capital :

I think Mr. Morgan will yet be the largest personal factor, the chief agent of harmony, between capital and labour. I think so because he is the statesman in business circles. I have an idea that Mr. Morgan would like, above all things, to lead in harmonising possession and struggle-Capital and Labour. This is why I write of him as a Utopian. For it is doubtful as yet if he comprehends that Labour has an equal right to equal legal protection with its products. This is now denied. Labour must be met and dealt with on lines of righteousness. And men of the mould of Mr. Morgan must swing the pendulous weight upon the arc of fair dealing. They can do this only by cooperation-the next and the nobler step toward which financial consolidation may wisely lead, or it leads only to a wilderness more tangled and a desert more arid than the one that mere competition has moulded so maladroitly.

THE Girl's Realm for June contains a pretty article on "Birds in Their Nests," illustrated by excellent_photographs. Miss Earl contributes an account of Miss Charlotte Yonge, and Mrs. Tooley a paper on "Queen Alexandra's Hobby "-spinning. There is also a very graphic account, in letter form, of life on a South African farm in time of peace.

CHEER UP, JOHN BULL.

MR. CARNEGIE AS A JOB'S COMFORTER. MR. ANDREW CARNEGIE contributes to the Nineteenth Century an article on "British Pessimism." It is no doubt well meant, but John Bull is not likely to derive much comfort from Mr. Carnegie's consolations. He is a Job's comforter, indeed, for the foundation of all his discourse is that Great Britain has been beaten in the race by the United States, and that nothing in the world can restore John Bull to the position which he formerly occupied. He tells us that comfort is near, but before we can secure it one step is indispensable. The Briton must adjust himself to present conditions, and realise that there is no use in these days dwelling upon the past, and especially must he cease measuring his own country with the fortified countries of the American Union. It is out of the question even to compare 41 millions of people upon two islands, 127,000 square miles in area, with 77 millions upon 3 million square miles.

THE LAST RELIC OF OUR OLD PRIMACY.

Only in one particular are we still ahead of the United States. The American citizen, man for man, is not as wealthy as the Briton, for with nearly double the population he has only one-fifth more wealth in the aggregate. In every other respect we are beaten, and all the consolation that Mr. Carnegie can give us is that if we make up our minds to give up the attempt to compete with the United States, we may, if we reverse our policy, still keep ahead of the other nations of the world. Our trade is not expanding. Sir Michael HicksBeach tells the world that the limit of present taxation is about reached, and the only consolation Mr. Carnegie can give to the man in the street, who still doggedly refuses to stop the war in Africa, is "that the British people will soon be compelled to change the policy of seeking increased responsibilities throughout the world, of provoking wars and antagonising . . . . the peoples of other countries, a policy which inevitably demands the increased expenditures which have already lost for Britain her proud boast of supremacy in credit-a loss of genuine prestige." Consols have fallen from 113 to 95, and Mr. Carnegie's only wonder is that they have not fallen much further. Formerly Great Britain was the greatest of all the countries, and in finance, commerce, manufactures, and shipping contended successfully with all the other nations combined. Britain in the one scale, and all the rest of the world in the other.

ICHABOD, ICHABOD !

Now everything is changed, and Mr. Carnegie in his consolatory article thus summarises some of the causes which lead the average Briton to feel discouraged :

No longer Britain versus the world in anything, no longer even first among nations in wealth or credit, in manufacturing, mining, weaving, commerce. Primacy lost in all. In seagoing ships still foremost, but even there our percentage of the world's shipping growing less every year. It only increased 46,000 tons in five years, from 1894 to 1899, and was 9,000 tons less in 1898 than in 1896. Worse than all, supremacy lost upon the sea in fast monster steamships-those unequalled cruisers in war, which now fly the German flag, all built in Germany; not one corresponding ship built or building in Britain, the field entirely surrendered to her rival. In ironmaking, Germany has risen from 1,500,000 to 7,000,000 tons per year, while Britain has stood still, her highest product being 9,500,000 tons. The United States made 13,500,000 tons last year, to be exceeded this year, while we are making less than last.

In steel, the United States made 10,638,000 tons last year, and have made this year, so far, more than last, while we are falling back from our maximum of 5,000,000 tons of last year.

In textiles, Lord Masham tells us in the Times that we are exporting less and importing more. In 1891 we exported 106 millions, in 1899, 102 millions sterling; in 1891 imported of textiles 28 millions, and in 1899, 33 millions sterling. His Lordship avers that Great Britain has not increased her export trade one shilling for thirty years.

Financially we are also rapidly losing primacy. The daily operations of the New York Exchange exceed those of London. Our loans at a discount find investors in the United States, which, so long our greatest debtor, is becoming our chief creditor

nation.

THE ONE RAY OF HOPE.

He then proceeds to administer fine crumbs of consolation, the object of which is to prove that although our industrial supremacy is out of date, as our army is, and our men cannot or do not work as they do in America, neither do our captains of industry compare with those of America, and we are becoming more and more dependent upon foreign nations for food, importing every year more and more machinery from America, yet there is a certain degree of hope left for us. Not only so, but he tells us that we must lessen our fondness for conquering new territory for markets abroad. We make our conquests, our trade does not increase. But still we go on in the same insensate fashion, and are risking a terrible war now in China for the sake of Chinese trade, the profit upon which he maintains is not worth more than £600,000 or £700,000 a year. We are indeed in a parlous state, and the only consolation which Mr. Carnegie can give beyond the pitiful attempt to minimise our misfortunes, is that if we turn right face, repudiate Jingoism and all its works, abandon the vain dream of conquering markets by the sword, and address ourselves diligently to the cultivation of the home market, we may escape perdition, otherwise we are lost.

REPENT, OR BE LOST!

I

The British Government's expenditure is now close upon £3 a head, as against the United States £1, and £1 7s. 6d. of the Germans. England has a deficit of II millions at a time when the American Government is taking off II millions of taxation. "Even after British employers and employed reach the American standard of economical production, Britain will still remain heavily handicapped in the industrial race by the enormous load of taxation under which her producers labour as compared with America." Our soldiers, he tells us, have been playing at work. Our industrial army will, he thinks, improve, but "it is the financial situation which is alarming, for it needs no prophet to foretell that a continuance of the aggressive temper which alienates other Governments and peoples, and which has mistaken territorial acquisition for genuine empire-making, must soon strain the nation's power and lay upon its productive capacity such burdens as will render it incapable of retaining the present volume of trade. . . .” If ever a nation had clear and unmistakable warnings, England has had them at the present time. Therefore Mr. Carnegie hopes the dear old motherland will reassert its saving common-sense, and deliver itself from the doom which is inevitable if it persists in its present course.

There is no word to object to in this diagnosis of the situation, which is all too terribly true. But when Mr. Carnegie attempts to prescribe a remedy for British pessimism, it is to be hoped that he will have a little more consolation than is given in this article.

1

ANOTHER JOB's Comforter.

The author of " Drifting" contributes to the Contemporary Review for June a second article upon the "Economic Decay of Britain." He starts from the assumption, which he considers he has established in the preceding article, that we are rapidly drifting towards economic and political bankruptcy. The general decay of Great Britain is to be attributed either to irresistible natural causes, of which there are very few, or to resistible natural causes, or, thirdly, to artificial hindrances. In examining the first category, he reassures us on this subject by declaring that the Englishman can work better than anybody else in the world, if he has got a good chance, and that in America he holds his own with the American workman anywhere, and beats other workmen in any other country he goes to. He even goes so far as to maintain that Great Britain's natural resources are as great as ever they were, which, considering the state of our iron mines, is at least an arguable proposition; that Great Britain's strategical position for industry, commerce, and navigation, is as advantageous as ever it was, and that all the natural wealth-creating elements are still with us.

What, then, are the resistible causes? The author wastes some pages for the purpose of proving that England is not a Free Trade country because she taxes tobacco and wines and spirits, to say nothing of tea and cocoa. The amount paid of import duties by the United Kingdom is 10s. a head, as against 4s. in Russia, 8s. in the United States. Into the question of import duties we need not follow him. He admits himself that this is a comparatively small question, but it is more interesting to note what he says on the subject of the extent to which our railways are responsible for industrial decay. He maintains that nearly all productive and wealth-creating industries are decaying except ship-building and machinery construction. Only primitive industries, such as mining, fishing, and cattle-breeding, can now be carried on at a profit.

WHAT WE SUFFER FROM RAILWAYS.

This is largely due, he maintains, to the fact that railways throttle our industries, and enormously increase the cost of living. He asserts that the railways have watered their capital to such an extent that between 1873 and 1898 the amount of addition to their capital was equivalent to very nearly £100,000 per mile for each mile in the new railways constructed. The result of this is that, while the capital of German railways is only £20,000 per mile, that of French £25,000, and that of Belgium £28,500, every mile of English railways repreThe railway capital of sents a capital of £50,000. Great Britain has been inflated to the amount of £1,134,000,000, which is three times as much as is necessary. Hence, in order to earn a fair dividend, British railways must charge at least three times the But that is not their amount they need to charge.

only offence. The writer complains that the methods of management are so wasteful, and the result is that they really charge four times more than what would be a fair price. In the United States, the legal maximum of fare for first-class is id. a mile. In Germany and the United States the fare for clerks and working men is, all day long, something between ¡d. and id. per mile.

Not only are their charges four times heavier than they ought to be, with the result that the population is con

gested in the city slums, but they have differential rates for the purpose of favouring the foreigner at the expense of the British producer. Apples from America and Tasmania can be sold at a profit at Covent Garden when apples growing a few miles out of London are left to rot on the trees because the railway charges are so high that the farmer cannot afford to send them into the market. According to Sir Hiram Maxim the rate of transport on British railways per ton is 12 times higher than in American railways. He complains that we have all the disadvantages of a monopoly and none of the advantages of competition, for the railways have created a gigantic trust by their working agreement, which abolishes free competition. They have barred the most important canals or secured possession of them. They oppose secretly and indirectly the construction of light railways and electric trams, and they show the greatest enmity in Parliament and out of it to motor traffie. As a result of the crippling restrictions which they place upon electric trams, our trollies cannot go more than eight miles an hour to Kew, while in sleepy old Italy, Austria, and Spain and Portugal they go at fifteen. In England there are not only 300 miles of electric traction, in Germany there are 3,000, and in America 20,000.

The charges of the English dock companies are another cause which handicaps us badly, and the shipping ring fixes freights in such a way that it costs 25s. a ton to bring sewing machines from New York to London direct, and only 20s. a ton to bring them from New York to Hamburg or Hamburg to London, inclusive of the cost of loading and reloading.

After thus dealing faithfully with the railways, the author of "Drifting" attacks our laws, our system of patents, and of conveyancing, and of Company Law, finishing up with an onslaught on the Stock Exchange. In considering the human factor, he maintains that our leaders of industry are not up to the mark, and that our working men do, on the whole, less work than their competitors in the United States and Germany. They work fewer hours, work more leisurely, and their work is less efficient. Therefore, although the author of Drifting" maintains that all things can be mended if we would change everything, there is no hope for us if we go on as we are at present.

BUT ARE WE DECAYING?

66

Mr. H. Morgan-Browne follows the author of "Drifting" by an article in which he maintains that, so far from decaying, we are in a very comfortable and healthy condition. His article is chiefly devoted to a discussion of the first paper of the author of "Drifting." It is as crammed with figures as a statistical abstract, and is illustrated by elaborate diagrams. He convicts the author of "Drifting" of various more or less disingenuous methods of manipulating figures, and finishes him off by triumphantly demonstrating the absurdity of the popular notion of some protectionists that we are living upon capital, because there is an excess of imports over exports of £180,000,000 annually accruing to the United Kingdom. Anyone of the meanest capacity can see that if we receive £180,000,000 of goods every year more than we send out, we must be becoming richer to that extent, unless it can be shown that in some other way we have to return an equivalent for this £180,000,000.

A STRONG POINT.

our

of the uninstructed controversialist is to maintain that we pay for the balance in gold. The answer to this is that we import more gold than we export. A certain proportion of this may be accounted for by the fact that British travellers abroad take a certain amount with them in their own pockets, which does not appear in the customs returns, but this is a very trifle compared with the vast sums involved in this controversy. Driven from the contention that we pay in gold for the excess of imports over our exports, the Protectionist maintains that we have to pay for the excess by parting with our scrip and stocks. The foreigner, says the author of "Drifting," is buying from us foreign Government stock, American railway bonds, mining shares, &c., representing enormous value, and it is these securities which are part of the value given by us for the immense imports received. Mr. Morgan-Browne points out that in the last twenty-five years this excess of imports over exports amounts to about £3,000,000,000. During this time, if the author of "Drifting " be right, solid securities approximating to this amount had been transferred from the British investor to the foreigner.

at

OUR FOREIGN INVESTMENTS INCREASING. But what are the facts? Here Mr. Morgan-Browne has his opponent completely on the hip. For in the last eighteen years, between 1881 and 1899, the amount of assessments to the income tax on income derived from foreign and colonial securities, instead of falling off, has more than doubled. They stood £8,000,000 a year in 1881. They stand at £19,000,000 a year to-day. There is, indeed, not a particle of evidence to show that the British capitalist has parted with his foreign or home investments. All the evidence, including income-tax returns, shows that the amount of our income from these sources has steadily risen at the very time when, according to the author of 'Drifting," it ought to have been steadily diminishing. Although this is demonstrably true, it does not carry us very far. The author of "Drifting," and all the Protectionist school, spoil their case by over-stating it. But they have a quite sufficient body of unassailable facts to go upon without endangering their argument by such tophamper as this.

OUR ONE INTERNATIONAL MAN.

GENERAL BOOTH.

MR. W. T. STEAD supplies the Young Man with a character sketch of General Booth. He remarks at the outset that "the Salvation Army was very fortunate in its beginnings. The Devil has always been its best friend. As an advertising agent he has left nothing to be desired; but of late years he seems to have been somewhat neglecting his duty." This is the summary impression given of the man :—

Lord

General Booth is a picturesque personality, full of kindly humour, wide tolerance, and almost savage earnestness. Wolseley told me he always reminded him in appearance of General Napier, whose statue in Trafalgar Square does bear a certain resemblance to General Booth, especially in its nose.

Apart from his distinctively religious work, General Booth is chiefly interesting to me as almost the only Englishman of our time who has made any distinct impression upon any considerable number of foreigners. .

As the facilities for travel have multiplied and increased, the insularity of our people seems to have developed in the same ratio. Mrs. Josephine Butler and General Booth stand alone as the one woman and one man who address public meetings

abroad and are in active living contact with at least some departments of the national life of foreigners. . .

If all mankind are brothers, as we are supposed to believe, General Booth deserves credit for being probably one who knows more members of the family to speak to than any other living man.

...

MORE OF A RUSSIAN THAN AN ENGLISHMAN."

He is absolutely free from "side".. that hauteur which does so much to make us detested by our Continental neighbours. General Booth is hail-fellow-well-met wherever he goes. To him all human beings are children of one Father, and he is singularly free from the prejudices of race or of colour.

In this respect, and also in some others, General Booth is much more of a Russian than an Englishman. When the Russian painter, Verestchagin, was in London, he attended one of the services of the Army, and was immensely delighted with the free and easy spirit and fraternal jollity which prevailed at the meeting. "It is just the kind of thing that would spread like wildfire in Russia," he said. "It is so fraternal, and hearty, and simple, with any amount of enthusiasm." Whether from that reason or not I do not know, but the Army has never been allowed to enter Russia, and I well remember the kind of holy horror that was excited in certain orthodox quarters in St. Petersburg by an entirely baseless report that my first visit to Russia was undertaken with a view to securing an open door for the Salvationists in the Russian Empire. General Booth has visited Finland, where the Salvation Army is strong. He is extremely popular in Stockholm, and in the northern countries generally. In the Latin countries the Salvation Army has not taken much root.

THE GENERAL AND THE AMALGAMATOR.

The General is declared to be best known at home and abroad for his "Darkest England" scheme. His relations with the South African Colossus are thus described::

He met Cecil Rhodes both in Africa and London and liked him well. Cecil Rhodes was very much taken with the General. He visited the Labour Colony at Hadleigh, and spent a day with the heads of the Army. The visit of inspection ended with the inevitable prayer-meeting, in which the General prayed earnestly, as is his wont, for the salvation of his distinguished visitor. Cecil Rhodes' demeanour was noted at the time as being singularly reverent and sympathetic, in marked contradistinction to that of others of the party. He told me afterwards, "The General's all right. I quite agree with him, only with the difference of one word. Where he says salvation, I say empire. Otherwise we are quite in accord." Possibly General Booth might be of a different opinion.

Mr. Stead regrets that General Booth has not used the Salvation Army to support the Progressive cause in the London County Council elections.

BREAKING JOHN BULL'S BACK.

BY SIR ROBERT GIFFEN.

IN the Nineteenth Century Sir Robert Giffen, the ablest of living economists, contributes an article upon "The Standard of Strength for our Army," which might be reprinted with advantage as a tract by the Peace Society and circulated as a reductio ad absurdum of the crazy Imperialism which is driving the empire to destruction. Sir Robert Giffen, being clothed and in his right mind, calmly sets forth, seriously and in good faith, the conclusions at which he has arrived as to the irreducible minimum required to carry on the fighting departments of the British Empire. It is with a gasp that we read his demonstration that it is quite certain practically that with all the economy possible we shall have Army Estimates of forty millions and upwards in peace times before very long. Further, there must be Navy Estimates of equal amount. Eighty millions a year, therefore, is the burden which John Bull must shoulder, if he is to continue on his present tack. Sir Robert Giffen maintains that the country can well afford to meet such an outlay, and the sacrifices should be willingly made. Could there be a more conclusive demonstration of the justice of the memorable warning of the Russian Emperor in the Peace Rescript which led to the meeting of the Hague Conference?

THE PENALTY FOR JINGOISM.

Such is the penalty which we have to pay for deliberately choosing to appeal to the sword instead of accepting the repeated and plaintive appeal of President Kruger to allow the South African question to be settled by arbitration. Sir Robert Giffen is very precise and methodical in this business estimate of the indispensable standard of strength required. He thinks that it is absolutely necessary that when the war is ended in South Africa we must maintain a permanent garrison in the country of 50,000 men; further, that we ought to add 15,000 men to the permanent garrison of Egypt. His estimate is that we ought to have 30,000 trained soldiers in a garrison of forts at home with a field army of 80,000 men. The Indian garrison he puts down at 20,000, and the other garrisons abroad at 40,000, their present figure. The additional troops required for South Africa and Egypt will raise the army to 270,000 men. To these we must add another 90,000 for recruits, who are sufficiently trained to take their place in the line of battle. THREE-QUARTERS OF A MILLION IN ARMS. Therefore the total numbers of our peace establishment must be 360,000 or 90,000 more than the Government considered sufficient. In addition to this he would have a regular army reserve of 160,000, and 350,000 auxiliary forces, giving us a total force under arms amounting to 780,000, without recruits. In order to get this additional strength, he would double the pay, and give a private 2s. a day and all found. This would add a trifle of four millions a year to the Army Estimates. But the pay of the militia and volunteers must also be increased. This, with the cost of the increased number of regular troops, would add another five millions to the Estimates.

not

Even this does not content him. He thinks that it might be useful that qualification for military service should be required from all young men reaching a certain age, failing which they must be enrolled in the militia. He concludes his paper by declaring that his estimate is the minimum of what is now required on the assumption that our Navy is really preponderant. No comment is necessary in order to emphasise the significance of such an exposition of the consequences of Jingoism.

CHINESE FINANCE.

To the first May number of the Revue des Deux Mondes M. Levy contributes an article on Chinese finance, which is naturally of considerable interest at this moment. The financial position of China is, as is well known, greatly complicated by the numerous loans which she has borrowed from various European countries. There is, to begin with, no fixed monetary system in China, for the tael, which is the common unit, has no fixed value, but varies in different places. Silver money is only found on the fringe of China in the parts influenced by the commerce of the ports; and when the traveller penetrates into the interior he finds the currency becoming more and more one of copper and even zinc. At the same time it is a curious fact that all kinds of currencies have been tried in China. Thus, one Emperor coined large pieces of gold three centuries before Christ, and another Emperor, 240 B.C., issued banknotes engrossed upon deerskin.

BANKING.

M. Levy goes on to describe the banking system of China, which has, he says, attained a remarkable development. The bank enjoys an absolute liberty in each province. There is one to which is entrusted the treasure of the local Government, and which collects all the taxes, on which it gets a commission of 2 per cent. For the rest the banks conduct ordinary banking business, they negotiate bills of exchange and make advances on security, as well as deal in precious metals. Many of them are in correspondence with European banks, among which they have a high reputation for honesty and ability. By the side of these native banks there are a large number of money-lenders, who obtain what would be considered in Europe extortionate interest—sometimes as much as 3 per cent. per month-though at the same time borrowers are allowed sometimes as long as three years to pay back. M. Levy says that certain European banks, such as the Chartered Bank of India, Australia, and China, the Deutsch-Asiatische Bank, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, the RussoChinese Bank, and some others have themselves gone into the business of money-lending with very profitable results.

BUDGET.

In the

We pass on to consider the Budget of China. modern sense of the word China has no Budget, and the accounts which are officially published certainly do not represent the true state of affairs. There must therefore always be a certain element of doubt in discussing the financial position of China, and one can only do so under the distinct understanding that the figures mentioned are not necessarily accurate. Without following M. Levy through the elaborate statistics which he adduces, it will perhaps be sufficient to say that he is deeply convinced of the enormous wealth of China, not only in tea and silk and cotton, but also in various minerals. It is by means of railways, he says, that this wealth can be opened up. With regard to the indemnity to be paid by China to the Powers, M. Levy makes the illuminating remark that the Powers must, in order to recoup themselves for the cost of restoring order in Peking, furnish their debtor with the means of augmenting her revenues.

"The Art of Entertaining" in the June Cosmopolitan is beautifully illustrated by Thomas M. Peirce, but is described by Lady Jeune in a way that may make the poor content not to be burdened with the cares of hospitality which press so heavily upon the rich.