that there is no reason why Parliament should be dissolved until next year. Mr. Redmond and his handful of Parnellites would force a dissolution tomorrow if they were strong enough, but they are not. A majority of the representatives of Ireland do not believe with Mr. Redmond that the national cause would prosper better under coercion than under the sympathetic administration of Mr. Morley. The Irish Land bill has, so far, made no progress, but it will monopolize the time of the House as soon as the Welsh Disestablishment bill has been read a second time.

Veterans.

Mr. Gladstone returned recently from the European South of France apparently in the best of health and spirits and with the irrepressible juvenility of spirits which prompted one of his followers to suggest that it would be quite a holiday for Mr. Gladstone to relieve Lord Rosebery from the arduous duties of the Premiership until such time as the latter recovered from the after effects of influenza. Another Grand Old Man, Prince Bismarck, has been celebrating his eightieth birthday. The celebration led to a somewhat curious manifestation of the antagonism between the Emperor and the majority of the Reichstag. The latter refused to vote congratulations to the man who unified Germany, whereupon the Emperor in published telegrams slapped the Reichstag in the face and effusively assured the old veteran of the gratitude of the Empire. There is no doubt but that in this matter the Kaiser represented the German nation better than its elected representa

tives. If Mr. Gladstone and Prince Bismarck stands conspicuous as the two survivors of a vanished age among men, the Queen of England stands in solitary and conspicuous majesty as the sole survivor of the women of the same generation. The fact that she has deemed it prudent to leave England and enjoy the bright spring sunshine of the Riviera is one of the reassuring signs that point to European peace. It may also be added that it tends to allay the general feeling in England that a dissolution is in the air. It certainly has been there since the year opened, but with the Queen at Nice it seems as if it were likely to stay in the air and not to descend to the earth for some time to come.

The Shoe Strike.

In the industrial world all other questions have been overshadowed by the great dispute in the boot and shoe trade, which has paralyzed the industry by which more than 200,000 persons earn their daily bread. The employers and the employed are both strongly organized, with the Federation on the one side and the trades union on the other. The struggle began by the dissolution of a board of conciliation which had existed for some years, and which had preserved peace, and secured at any rate a tolerable modus vivendi between the two parties. The employers maintained that the workmen's union having been captured by the socialists were continually trying to control the industry, as if they not only provided the labor, but also owned the plant. They asserted that the union had done all it could to restrict the output of the machinery, and also complained that it had repudiated the awards of arbitrators. On the other hand, the workmen declare that their employers have determined to break up the union by forcing a lockout that will eat up its funds. The dispute is a very envenomed one, and Mr. Labouchere, Mr. Asquith and the Bishop of Peterborough have in vain endeavored to bring the disputants together.

The Crux in Arbitration.

Mr. Labouchere proposed that a board of arbitration composed of men of experience and independence should be constituted, with authority to arbitrate upon all questions submitted to it. The president of the National Federation of Employers refused Mr. Labouchere's proposal, raising several points as to the questions to be arbitrated upon, and asking whether he was prepared to offer an adequate guarantee on behalf of the workmen's union that any decision arrived at should be faithfully carried out. This is, of course, the crux of the whole dispute. If it be true that the workmen having agreed to arbitration afterward repudiated the award of the arbitrators, no one can blame the employers for looking twice cr even thrice at the proposal to go to arbitration with men who have proved themselves incapable of keeping faith. Their refusal to go to arbitration has placed them at a disadvantage, for the public is rightly against the side that is against arbitration.