in the attempt to maintain peace by providing for the speedy suffocation of the victim, the powers consented to try the other tack by putting restraint upon the assailant. Here it is believed Lord Salisbury took the initiative, and it was announced with a pardonable flourish of trumpets that the powers had agreed, that the Sultan had given way, that Crete is henceforth to be a semi-autonomous province under a Governor virtually appointed by the powers. we are all very glad to hear it. But we rejoice with reservations, if not with trembling, and wait to see whether the Sultan has actually submitted to permit Crete to be wrenched from his fangs.

The Storm

Band of

The East Coast of Africa, from Cairo to the Cape, has been in unrest this sumEast Africa. mer. In the Soudan the rise of the Nile has at last rendered an immediate advance on Dongoia possible. The river steamers have arrived safely, and the short railway would have been in working order but for a deluge of rain that sponged out twelve miles of the permanent way, as a schoolboy effaces the figures on his slate. With the beginning of this month we may expect to hear that the frontier of civilization has advanced on powder carts to the southern boundary of Dongola, where it is hoped it will be ready for a further lift southward as far as Khartoum. On the Red Sea littoral a settlement is reported to have been arrived at between the Abyssinians and the Italians on the basis of some indemnity to be paid to Menelek for the maintenance and subsequent safe delivery of the Italian prisoners. It is only hoped that the establishment of better relations between Rome and St. Petersburg-of which the betrothal of the Prince of Naples and the Princess of Montenegro is the outward and visible sign-may ere long put a full and final period to the troubles of Erythræa. The sudden death of the late Sultan Halim of Zanzibar, which occurred on August 26, gave the signal for one of those outbreaks of personal ambition which it is necessary to curb by the stern persuasion of shot and shell. A nephew of the deceased Prince, Khalid by name, seized the palace and proclaimed himself Sultan of Zanzibar without so much as saying by your leave to the power which is Lord Paramount of Zanzibar. Indeed, he went further, and declared by the forcible eloquence of military and naval preparations that he meant to assert his pretensions despite English protests. Now, as England is responsible for Zanibzar, and all its Sultans reign by virtue of British permission, it was deemed necessary to reduce this rebellious upstart to submission. Due notice was given him; ample time of grace was afforded him for surrender, and then the gunboats opened fire on the palace. The Sultan replied both from his one man-of-war, the converted merchant steamer Glasgow, and from the mainland. Whereupon, as with a tap of his finger, the British commander sent the Glasgow to the bottom, and continued to shell the

Police Duty at Zanzibar.

palace. At last the Pretender could stand it no longer. His palace was in flaming ruins. Five hundred of his followers were killed or wounded. He took refuge in the German consulate. English bluejackets were landed to establish as the rightful heir on the vacant throne, Hamoud, the brother of the late Sultan. This sudden and violent eruption of willfulness cost the English one man wounded. Civilization in executing her mission of maintaining order among the semi-civilized is at last becoming invulnerable, at least within range of deep water.

The Anarchy in Madagascar.

Further south in this storm belt the French are discovering that in Madagacar their work is but begun. The island, say the most recent visitors, is in a condition of anarchy from one end to the other. The French rule in the capital and in a few large towns. But outside the range of their batteries their authority does not exist. The aboriginal elements of Malagasy savagery, the haters of foreigners, the haters of missionaries, and the disbanded troops of the Queen's army, have united in a sort of patriotic heathen brigandage, and are levying a war of massacre and pillage all over the island. They have already burned some three hundred or four hundred churches, and slain many church officials. Free thinking Frenchmen will not feel many pangs over this Malagasy variant upon the anti-clerical campaign which commends itself to the Third Republic; but the success of this heathen Jacquerie in France's new possession will sooner or later compel them to undertake in serious earnest the subjugation of the country. At present the robber bands have it all their own way Suddenly emerging from a forest, they surround a Christian village and summon the inhabitants to choose between submission and death. In either case its worldly goods are put at the disposition of the marauders The old native administration has been destroyed, and the French have so far put nothing in its place.

The

Inland, the Germans in their sphere of inBicycle in fluence are having no little trouble as the Uganda. result of Major Lothaire's unpunished murder of Stokes in the Congo State. The news of that abominable outrage upon the rudimentary laws of white civilization in Central Africa led at once to an organized attack upon the German and French settlements on the Lake. After some inevitable massacre, three German expeditions were dispatched against the lawless chiefs. The ringleader was killed, his ally was banished, and peace reigns once more in the German possessions. From Uganda the news is all of peace and progress under the British flag. Civilization, in fact, is invading Uganda, not in its powder cart, but in a brougham for King M'Wanga, dog carts for his officials, and the ubiquitous bicycle for the British residents. The natives are even said to be building two storied houses with glass windows for their chiefs in place

of their old grass huts, while the Prime Minister has furnished his office with table, chairs, stationery cases, and the like. All this veneer may peel off suddenly some day; but for the present it testifies eloquently to the surface tranquillity which has followed the British advent.

Mr. Rhodes

66

Further south, in Matabeleland, the risIn the ing is officially reputed to be suppressed. Matoppos. The closing scene of their rebellion was the most picturesque incident recently recorded in South Africa. Mr. Rhodes, who was unarmed, with but three attendants, entered the stronghold of the Matabele Indunas in the Matoppo hills, and asked them whether they were for peace or war. They had been debating in secret what should be done. They were afraid to come into the open for fear of the white troops, but they had sent word they would like to see Mr. Colenbrander and Mr. Rhodes. When Mr. Rhodes arrived, they raised a white flag and ushered him and his companions into the semi circle, where for four hours they discussed the questions at issue. At last the Chief Secombo arose and laid a gun and assegai at the feet of Mr. Rhodes. All the other chiefs did the same. "We submit," they said. We trust you, Mr. Rhodes, for you have trusted us. You have come into our stronghold unarmed. If you had known our troubles we should never have been forced to rise. If Mr. Rhodes will stay and care for us we will not fight. So ended the palaver and with it the war. A promi. enent government official, who Secombo declared was only fit to keep a canteen in the Transvaal, was complained of, and the whole Matabele council prayed for his banishment. They also complained of their ill treatment at the hands of the native police. Mr. Rhodes replied that the official had gone south and was no longer in government employ. As for the native police, its appointment had been a mistake and it was now disbanded. But the Matabele, whatever their grievances, ought not to have massacred women and children. Ultimately, the terms of the surrender were arrived at, and Mr. Rhodes riding back, brought news of peace to Bulawayo. Note that Mr. Rhodes has no official status. He is not even a managing director of the company.

But to the Matabele he counts for more than all the officials put together. For Mr. Rhodes, when face to face with the aboriginal forces of the situation, is more than High Commissioners and great functionaries in all the bravery of cocked hats and letters patent.

Mr. Chamberlain himself has been taking a mournful holiday in the United States, pursued across the Atlantic by the menacing shadow of the coming inquiry. In South Africa the Rev. John Mackenzie, from his retreat at Hankey, has addressed President Kruger a letter such as an old prophet of Israei might have written to one of the kings of Samaria. Mr. Mackenzie appeals to President Kruger in his own theological dialect to do justice to the Uitlanders and so lay the foundation of a united community. Note in this connection a curious prophecy made in Natal last month to the effect that the President's career will come to a violent end in the month of December-his murderer, it is predicted, being a Dutchman. Threatened men live long; and the publication of this prophecy, which was at once communicated to President Kruger, will probably be the best means of preventing its realization. Fifteen men were appointed seven

The Royal Commission on Vaccination.

years ago to inquire into the working of the British Vaccination acts. Of the fifteen, at least ten were confirmed advocates of vaccination. The doctors predicted that the antivaccinationists would find that they were hoist with their own petard; and that a report strongly recommending compulsory vaccination and revaccination might confidently be expected. The Royal Commission reported last month, but not in that sense. While strongly affirming the advantages of vaccination, they unanimously condemn the present practice of sending to jail parents who have conscientious objections to the vaccination of their children, or even of subjecting them to fines for non compliance with the act. And they do this in the interest of vaccination itself. "When the law imposes a duty on parents, the performance of which they honestly, however erroneously, regard as seriously prejudicial to their children, the very attempt to compel obedience may defeat the object of the legislation." Therefore they recommend that no one should be punished for not vaccinating his children if he has satisfied a local authority that he honestly objects to vaccination, or if he has made a statutory declaration to that effect. This recommendation will probably arrest all prosecutions now pending, even before the law has been altered. It is a notable utterance, which will have influence, doubtless, in other countries.

The Increase of Lunacy

in England.

The Jubilee report of the Commissioners of Lunacy records an unprecedented increase in the numbers of officially certified lunatics. Of those not so certified-including, it is to be feared, no small proportion of the officials themselves-no record exists. In England and Wales on January 1, 1896, the number of officially certified lunatics was 96,446, an increase of 2,365 in the twelve months. In the last twenty years the number of pauper lunatics has increased by 53 per cent. From these figures scme misleading conclusions have been drawn. It is extremely doubtful whether lunacy is

really increasing in England. What is increasing is the disposition on the part of poor people to send their insane relatives to an asylum. And as the asylums are year by year becoming more comfortable, he would be a lunatic indeed who would keep his demented relatives at home instead of sending them to be much better looked after in a public institution. Yet this growth of humanity on the part of the authorities, and decay of irrational prejudice on the part of the poor,-both indications of increasing sanity,-combine to produce what is a statistical demonstration of the increase of lunacy.

The Improvement of British Workhouses.

The Local Clovernment Board has issued a circular to the Boards of Guardians of the Poor throughout the country, intended to stimulate the present tendency to make the workhouse a desirable refuge for desirable inmates. The board are desirous that special attention should "be given to this matter by the Guardians and their officers in order that, as far as possible, those persons whose circumstances have compelled them to enter the workhouse, but who are known to be of good conduct and to have previously led moral and respectable lives, should be separated from those who from their habits of speech or for other reasons are likely to cause them discomfort." It is suggested that they should have a separate day-room for men and women, that they should be allowed more visits from their friends, that they should have special privileges in paying visits outside, and that they might be permitted to attend their own place of worship on Sunday. The board do not favor any difference in dietary or in dressand therein the board are a day behind the fair." The dietary should be adequate and suitable" for all, no doubt, but for the worthy it might be a little more varied. Also it might be most advantageous to make a distinction in dress.

New Legislation.

66

When members begin talking, there will be of course the customary exaggeration in eulogy and in depreciation of the legislative output of the session. It may therefore be as well to put on record the summary from the Queen's speech of the measures placed on the Statute Book this year:

I have given my consent, with much pleasure, to measures for completing the naval defenses of my Empire, for lightening the fiscal burdens which press upon the agricultural population, and for protecting the flocks and herds of these islands from the importation of disease. Important measures have also received my sanction for the settlement of trade disputes, for the prevention of explosions in mines, which have caused the loss of many valuable lives, for amending the Truck act, for the construction of light railways, for the amendment of the Irish Land laws, and for facilitating the creation, by purchase, of a larger class of occupying freeholders in Ireland.

Of these measures, the Irish Land act narrowly escaped involving the Government in a contest with

the House of Lords. It was, indeed, a curious spectacle, that which the early days of August presented to the world. The Unionist Administration-which, through Lord Lansdowne, had humbly recommended the Irish Land bill to the House of Lords as being very, very much less objectionable than Mr. Morley's Land bill-found itself confronted by a revolt of the landlords, who carried amendment after amendment in a fashion which seemed at first to threaten the measure with extinction. Even the Unionist press was scandalized at this display of class interest posing naked and unashamed in the Upper Chamber. Ministers could only command their own votes and the votes of the devoted Liberal remnant, fifteen strong, and about as many Independent Unionist peers. The Duke of Abercorn and Lord Londonderry did as they pleased, being masters of the big battalions, and for a time it seemed as if they would make hay of the bill. But when the amendments came to be considered in the House of Commons, it was discovered that they did not amount to much after all. Some were rejected, others were accepted, and ultimately an arrangement was arrived at, by virtue of which the bill as amended received the royal assent.

Arbitration In Trade Disputes.

Among the measures of the session one of the most important, although the least noticed, is the Conciliation (Trades Disputes) act. It authorizes the registration of every Board of Conciliation and Arbitration under the Board of Trade Rules-a provision owing its importance solely to the security which such registration gives the state that it will always have a full record of the proceedings of such boards. But its most important clause is that which gives the Board of Trade a mandate to stimulate the establishment of Conciliation Boards in places where they do not exist, and to take such other steps as they deem fit to promote peace between employers and employed. It is hoped that the Board of Trade may be able to interfere to prevent the strike that threatens to paralyze the whole engineering tradeover a dispute as to the employment of one nonunion workman in the yard of one of the associated employers. In 1893 thirty million days' work were lost by strikes and lock-outs, to say nothing of the permanent loss of work entailed by diverting British trade to the foreigner. Another gigantic strike is threatening in the docks, one of the premonitory incidents of which has been the arrest of Mr. Tillett and Mr. Sexton by the Belgian government for taking part in a strike of the Belgian dockers.

Salisbury, it is said, promised to give the proposal a favorable consideration, and Li had to depart with that. During his stay in England he was taken about to see everybody and everything, and in his train traveled a swarm of newspaper correspondents whose chief function was to report Li Hung Chang's interviews with his hosts. The Chinese Grand Old Man paid a visit to the Grand Old Man of Hawarden; went as far north as Glasgow, where he bought a sewing machine; and journeyed as far south as Osborn, where he was received by the Queen, and inspected the fleet. On the whole he is said to have been much impressed (1) with the extent to which this small island of Britain had become the work shop of the world; (2) with the ease of traveling in a first-class railway carriage; and (3) with the man. ner in which the English artillery carry their bat teries at a gallop over hedge and ditch. He left an agreeable impression on the British public, which hopes much but expects little from his progressive tendencies on his return to Pekin. The visit of Li Hung Chang to the United States seems to have had no diplomatic significance, although it was an inter esting event on many accounts. Here as in Germany, France, and England, the eminent Chinaman was greeted with every mark of attention. He was received by President Cleveland and Secretary Olney and entertained to the fullest possible extent. The newspaper men besieged him for interviews, and some of his remarks gave evidence of great knowledge and sagacity. He bore himself with dignity, and upon the whole left behind him the impression of a statesman. He made a plea for the repeal of the Geary law which excludes Chinese laborers, and he paid an evidently sincere tribute to the value of the work of American missionaries in China. It was hoped that his presence here might result, sooner or later, in the placing of Chinese orders in American shipyards. Similar hopes were entertained in every European country that the astute Li visited;

CHINA IN THE BULL SHOF.

CHORUS OF RIVAL SHOPKEEPERS (outside): "Wonder if he is going to buy anything here? We havn't got any orders out of him."-From Punch (London).

CHINA'S CHIEF STATESMAN.

but he committed himself to nothing. Apropos of the desire of Europe and America to sell things to China through the influence of Li Hung Chang, we reproduce an amusing caricature from Punch.

The Month's Obituary Roll.

Each month unfailingly provides its fresh list for obituary comment. We have alluded, on an earlier page, to the death of Prince Lobanoff, the most eminent of all the names in this month's register of the dead. The death of the Sultan of Zanzibar occasioned a short decisive war, which we have mentioned in a preceding paragraph. In our own country, two distinguished professors of Harvard University have passed away, Professor Child and Professor Whitney; the emi nent Baltimore philanthropist, Enoch Pratt, who gave the free public library, has died at a ripe old age; ex-Senator Henry B. Payne of Ohio is gathered to his fathers at the age of 86; Dr. George Browne Goode of the Smithsonian Institution, an eminent scientist, passed away after a short illness from pneumonia, at the early age of 45; C. S. Rein hart, the American artist and illustrator, who was only 42, died in New York. By permission of the Messrs. Harper & Brothers we have in this number of the REVIEW reproduced from recent numbers of Harper's Weekly three of Mr. Reinhart's remarkably effective portrayals of scenes at political headquarters. These names are only a few of those recorded in our obituary list.