SOME NAPOLEONIC IDEAS. AN INTERVIEW AT ELBA. Macmillan has got hold of a plum in the shape of a forgotten pamphlet published in 1823 by Lord Ebrington, who interviewed Napoleon at Elba. The interviews are reported half in English, half in French. There were two conversations, which took place in December, 1814. FRENCH VANITY. The following are some of the more remarkable passages embodying the opinions expressed by the great captive:Napoleon condemned the terms of peace. Belgium_he thought should never have been taken from France unless the allies were prepared to dismember the country altogether. "The loss of Belgium mortified the French character, and," said Napoleon, "I know the French character well. It is not proud like the English. Vanity for France is the principle of everything, and her vanity renders her capable of attempting everything." Speaking of his own reign, he said what France wanted was an aristocracy, but aristocracies are the growth of time. He had made princes and dukes, and given them great possessions, but he could not make them true nobles. ENGLISH SOLIDITY. He made a rather curious remark about the English legislature. He said he thought the House of Peers was the great bulwark of the English constitution; and when Lord Ebrington said he thought this was laying rather too much stress upon the usefulness of the Peerage, Napoleon replied that in mentioning the Peerage he meant to include the whole of Parliament, for the aristocracy of the country were the heads of the commercial, as well as of the landed interest, whether their representation was by descent or by election. It is also curious to note that Napoleon gave it as his opinion that the scandal of the Prince Regent and Mrs. Clarke would have shaken, if it had not overturned, the throne in France, whereas in England the affair had produced no disturbance, "for John Bull is steady and solid, and attached to ancient institutions." THE BURNING OF MOSCOW. Napoleon discussed freely his imperial and royal contemporaries. He admitted frankly his amazement at the ending of the Russian campaign. He said that when he reached Moscow he considered that the business was ended. He had been received with open arms by the people on his march, and the town was fully supplied with everything, and he could have maintained his army there comfortably through the winter. Suddenly, in twenty-four hours, the city was fired in fifteen places, and the country laid waste for twelve miles round about. "It was an event," he said, " for which I could not have calculated, for it is without a precedent, I believe, in the history of the world." He criticised his generals freely, and spoke of Talleyrand as the greatest of rascals, who had often urged him to have the Bourbons assassinated. NAPOLEON'S MOHAMMEDANISM. He defended the execution of the Duc d'Enghien, and recalled with apparent pleasure his own admission and that of his army to Islam when he was in Egypt. He received from the men of law, after many meetings and grave discourse at Cairo, a dispensation from being circumcised, and permission to drink wine on condition of doing a good action after every draught. Questioned as to the alleged poisoning of his sick at Joppa, he said the story was not true. Three or four of the men had taken the plague, and it was necessary to leave them behind. He suggested that it was better to give them The a dose of opium than to leave them to the Turks. doctor refused, and the men were left to their fate. "Perhaps he was right," said Napoleon, "but I asked for them what I should under similar circumstances wish my best friends to do for me." He admitted and defendea his massacre of two thousand Turks at the same place. ENGLISH POLICY AND ENGLISH STATESMEN. He discussed English affairs and English statesmen with keen interest and considerable knowledge. He praised English consistency, and contrasted it with the readiness with which Frenchmen embrace, first one party and then another, as it suited their convenience. He expressed amazement at the impolicy of the Englis Government in relation to the Catholics. Lord Sidmout: he believed was a bigot; but in spite of him he believe! that Parliament would not be long in passing Catholie emancipation. Nearly fifteen years passed before Napoleon's anticipations were fulfilled. He compared Fox to Demosthenes, and Pitt to Cicero, and praised Lord Cornwallis very highly. He wished, he said, that he ha some of that beautiful race, the English nobility, in France. Discussing the economic conditions of the two countries, he said he should think ill of the prosperity of England when the interests of the land came to be sacrificed to those of commerce. CHURCH ESTABLISHMENT. Conservatives will be delighted to hear that Napoleon declared a Church establishment to be essential to every state to prevent disorders that might arise from the general indulgence in wild speculative opinions. Most of the people needed some fixed point of faith where they could rest their thoughts. The French, he said, loved to have their curé and their mass, provided always they had not to pay for him. In all the innumerable petitions he had received for parish priests from French villages, he had never found them ready to accept a priest if they had to pay for him. He therefore, whenever he thought it reasonable, gave them their priest free, for he liked to encourage devotion among his people, but not, he said. in the army. He would not suffer priests there, for he did not love a devout soldier. He expressed surprise that Henry VIII. had not confiscated the tithes when he reformed the Church. A PLEA FOR BIGAMY. The conversation often took a wide field, as for instance when discussing the settlement of San Domingo, he declared that the best way of civilising the colonies was to allow every man to have two wives, provided they were of different colour. He strongly recommended England to make peace with America. He said, "You had better make peace; you will gain more by trading with them than by burning their towns." He spoke with more enthusiasm concerning the cavalry charges of the King of Naples than on any other subject. The article is full of interesting information. 66 NAPOLEON AS A YOUTH. In connection with this account of the views of Napoleon immediately before the close of his career. there may be read the first part of what promises to be a very interesting series of papers in the Century, entitled The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte," by William M. Sloane. The paper is carefully written, copiously illustrated, and deals with the life of Napoleon when he was a youth in Corsica. The editor of the Century says of this sketch :At no time did his amiable and commendable traits-his devotion to his family, his industry and studiousness-show in a clearer light. It is a new Napoleon, this devourer of books. this unsuccessful literary aspirant, this ineffectual Corsican political agitator,-but the new Napoleon certainly makes the old Napoleon much more easily comprehended. ÆTAT 20. The article is too long to summarise, but the following description of Napoleon before he attained his majority will be read with interest: The appearance of Buonaparte in his twentieth year was not in general noteworthy. His head was shapely, but not uncommon in size, although disproportionate to the frame which bore it. His forehead was wide and of medium height; on each side long chestnut hair-lanky as we may suppose from his own account of his personal habits-fell in stiff, flat locks over his lean cheeks. His eyes were large, and in their steel-blue pupils, lurking under deep-arched and projecting brows, was a penetrating quality which veiled the mind within. The nose was straight and shapely, the mouth large, the lips full and sensuous, although the powerful projecting chin diminished somewhat the true effect of the lower one. His complexion was sallow. The frame of his body was in general small and fine, particularly his hands and feet; but his deep chest and short neck were gigantic. This lack of proportion did not, however, interfere with his gait, which was firm and steady. The student of character would have declared the stripling to be self-reliant and secretive; ambitious and calculating; masterful; but kindly. A MURDER PLOT AGAINST PRESIDENT LINCOLN. THERE is a very interesting paper in McClure's Magazine for November which forms the first of a series of "True Detective Stories." It tells how Allan Pinkerton saved President Lincoln's life in 1861. The story of the plot to assassinate the President is not familiar to English readers. It is told as follows: On February 9 Mr. Pinkerton learned on reliable authority that a distinguished citizen of Maryland had joined with others in taking a solemn oath to assassinate Mr. Lincoln before he should reach Washington. On the evening of February 8, twenty conspirators in Baltimore had met in a dark room to decide by ballot which one of them should kill the President as he passed through the city. It was agreed that the task should be entrusted to that one of their number who should draw a red ballot. Whoever was thus chosen was pledged not to disclose the fact, even to his fellow-conspirators. To make it absolutely sure that the plot would not be defeated at the last moment by accident or cowardice, eight red ballots instead of one were placed in the box from which they drew, unknown to the conspirators themselves, and eight determined men regarded themselves as thus chosen, by high destiny, to rid the country of an infamous tyrant. So they professed to believe, and their plans for the assassination were perfected to the smallest detail. The hour of the President's arrival in Baltimore was well known, and the line of march to be followed by his carriage across the city had been announced. In case there should be any change in the programme, agents of the conspirators in the various Northern cities passed through by the Presidential party were ready to apprise them of the fact. There would be an immense crowd in Baltimore at the Calvert Street station when Mr. Lincoln arrived, and it was a matter of common knowledge that the Baltimore chief of police, George P. Kane, was in sympathy with the conspirators and had promised to send only a small force of policemen to the station, and to furnish no police escort whatever through the city. As soon as the President should leave the train, a gang of roughs were to start a fight a few hundred yards away, and this would serve as a pretext for the police force to absent themselves for a few minutes. During this time the crowd would close around the hated Northeners, pushing and jostling them, and in the confusion some one of the conspirators would strike the deadly blow or fire the fatal shot. Each man was left free to accomplish the murder either with dagger, or pistol, as he saw fit. The story of the way in which the designs of the assassin were circumvented by the vigilance and foresight of Allan Pinkerton is interesting. The story gives a vivid glimpse of the peril in the midst of which Lincoln commenced his famous presidency. HOW TO KEEP WARM IN WINTER. DR. ANDREW WILSON in the Young Woman prescribes more fat inside and more wool outside. He is strong foran increase of fat all round in the food, and especially in the food of the young, and of those who present themselves before us as shivering mortals in the winter season. If people tell me they dislike fat, I may sympathise with them, but I would point out that they do take and enjoy fat, as I have shown, in many common articles of diet. If I make the suggestion that those who suffer much from cold in winter should increase the fat in their food, I may be told they cannot do so without making themselves ill. As often as not, they have never tried to increase it. They may take more butter, more milk, and more fat in the shape of butcher's meat, increasing it little by little, with perfect safety and with great advantage. A very excellent plan is to take after meals a little cod-liver oil: if this disagrees, try one of the good emulsions of the oil now sold in plenty; or, better still, try the Kepler cod oil and malt extract, which "children of a larger growth" may take as well as young children with great advantage. Generous living, then, is the first rule for those who would keep warm in winter, and a necessary part of that generous dietary is fat. Chilliness in bed is to be counteracted, for example, by warm nightgarments, even by stockings, which are not to be despised by any means; and a moderate degree of exercise through the day (and every day) is a measure to be neglected by none, whether robust or only fairly so. Any one who in a variable climate, such as that which reigns supreme in the British Isles, clothes in winter in any other garments than wool-in so far as underclothing is concerned-is really tempting Providence, to use the familiar expression, in the way of laying himself or herself open to the attack of cold. An English Dialect Dictionary. FROM Dr. Joseph Wright, the Deputy Professor of Comparative Philology in the University of Oxford, comes the welcome announcement that under his general editorship a dictionary is contemplated which will include, as far as is possible, the complete vocabulary of all dialect words which are still in use, or are known to have been in use, at any time during the last two hundred years. All words occurring in the literary language, and the dialects, but with some local peculiarity of meaning in the latter, will also be included. On the other hand, all words which merely differ from the literary language in pronunciation, but not in meaning, will be rigidly excluded, as belonging entirely to the province of grammar and not to that of lexicography. But, not unnaturally, a work of this sort cannot adequately be carried out without the assistance of the ordinary public, who are alone, in many cases, in the knowledge of the peculiar and obscure dialects of particular districts. Dr. Wright will be glad, therefore, of any offers of help addressed to him at 6, Norham Road, Oxford. It should be added, perhaps, that the Rev. Walter W. Skeat is to be the treasurer of the dictionary. MRS. JOSEPHINE BUTLER'S BIBLE. A PLEA FOR WOMEN AS COMMENTATORS. MRS. BUTLER has been interviewed in the Humanitarian upon a subject which is very close to her heart. Too often many of the advanced advocates of women's enfranchisement have fallen foul of Christian teaching, on account of certain texts in the epistles of St. Paul. Mrs. Butler, as is natural to a devout woman reared within the pale of the Christian Church, does not take that road. Not for one moment does she admit that the Bible is against woman's rights; but she is free to confess that it is not as much in favour of them as it might be, and so with characteristic energy she proceeds to explain how it might be improved in that direction. First of all, she begins by expressing her entire approval of the poet Whittier, who said: Would that the heart of woman warmed our creeds! Not from the conclave where the holy men Even the most hardened male will probably admit that there is a great deal of room for improvement in the direction indicated by the Quaker poet. But how is it to be done? WANTED LADIES AS BIBLICAL CRITICS! Mrs. Butler answers in two ways-first, by training a school of women commentators who will strive to undo the mischief done by those schools which have so long monopolised the translating and commenting upon Holy Writ. It is full time that women should become profound students of Scripture, accomplished Hebrew and Greek scholars, and versed in the principles of true criticism. I do not wish women to be shallow, emotional exponents of religion and theology, but to be really learned interpreters. Men have had it all their own way in that region for long enough. I hold that to get at the heart of any truth, moral, social or spiritual, or to deal with the problems touching human life and regeneration, it is necessary to bring to the solution the united intelligence and action of the hearts and the brains of men and of women. Neither a man nor a woman see a truth fully, alone. It requires the two. This is being largely realised in social questions, and it is also of equal importance in strictly spiritual matters. POOR ST. PAUL! can As an instance of the way in which women commentators will deal with the Scriptures, Mrs. Butler says: I have always felt astonished that respectable and reverent men should have so long allowed a hazy translation of certain expressions of St. Paul to pass as quite authoritative, and so influence in a very important direction the whole of human rules and conduct. The apostle says, "It is a shame for women to speak in the church," and this has been enforced in its literal sense by a large body of ecclesiastics. Judge the surprise of a modern intelligent woman when in looking up the word rendered “speak" in Liddell and Scott's Greek-English Lexicon-of which no one will dispute the authority-she finds it translated, "to chatter like monkeys, to twitter like birds"! These Greek women, it seems, were regular chatterers in church and out of it, and it was necessary for the apostle to put an extinguisher upon their habit of chattering like monkeys and twittering like birds in places of public worship. A WOMAN'S BIBLE? NO! But this is not the only way in which Mrs. Butler would redress the balance. She has another and unsuspected card in reserve. She would revise the canon,-not that she would draw up a woman's Bible, for on that point she is explicit. She says :— I was once consulted with regard to the bringing out of a woman's Bible. I did not favour the idea, because I felt that. it might be just as pharisaical and one-sided as are the views of the male commentators of whom I complain. The only sound result will be when we drop all sex prejudice and put our hearts and intellects together as men and women.' WHERE GOOD MEN WENT WRONG! But, while objecting to the publication of a woman's Bible, she would have women brought in to revise the judgment of those males who have in times past decided what books were canonical and what were not. She says: While I believe in a large sense in the inspiration of the Scriptures, I do not believe in the direct inspiration of the council of men who decided as to what should be canonical. A WORD FOR SUSANNAH. She does not at present go so far as to say that she would exclude any of the books in the canon on the ground that their presence there is due to the sex bias of the councils of men, but she certainly would include books at present excluded. For instance, she says:— "We find the prejudices of the early Fathers against woman manifested in many cases. Take, for example, the story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife, how graphically the man's resistance is described while the temptress is painted in odious colours. I do not object to this, but why was this story included in the canon while the history of Susannah was declared apocryphal? Because in the latter narrative it is a pure and noble woman withstanding the lust of men in the persons of the two Elders. One can scarcely find a more beautiful instance of womanly bravery and purity than Susannah. But what say the men? Oh, that cannot be true, it is apocryphal!' AND FOR JUDITH. "The exclusion of the book of Judith forms another instance of sex bias. It is a beautiful epic poem. Every time I read it I feel more in love with the beautiful heroine; where can we find a more splendid example of woman's patriotism and wisdom?" "Her methods were a little violent, don't you think?" "She cut off the head of that tyrant Holophernes, and I have the greatest satisfaction that she did so. Did he not represent tyranny and lust, those two great evils? In the present day we drag such a monster into the public gaze, pillory him in press, bring the law to act upon him-cut off his head socially. Judith adopted the only course open to her in those barbarous times-she cut off his head physically. "The passages in which the men of the city sing her praises as they receive her at the gates and the salutation of the high priest Thou art the exaltation of Jerusalem, thou art the great glory of Israel, thou art the great rejoicing of our nation,' are tributes in praise of a woman which have not been equalled in the canonized Scriptures. AND FOR ESTHER II. "Take yet another instance where sex bias is equally visible. -the exclusion of the Second Book of Esther from the canon. The First Book of Esther, in which the heroine seems in every way subservient to the King, living only to give him pleasure, abasing herself at his feet and trembling at approaching his presence, this is pronounced canonical. Doubtless, the learned council thought it an admirable example to set before women, but when they came to study the Second Book of Esther, in which the soul of the woman rises in revolt against the drunken and licentious monarch, who owns her as his chattel, they shake their heads in doubt. That part of the story must be apocryphal. And so we have that prayer of Queen Esther, for herself and her people, one of the most beautiful out. pourings of a woman's heart ever penned, excluded from the Scriptures. This Second Book is Esther's private diary in which the real woman shows herself. In it is found the key to her attitude in the First Book. She is offering herself a sacrifice for her people, and prays for a speedy deliverance from the unholy bonds in which she is living-Thou knowest all things, O Lord; thou knowest that I hate the glory of the unrighteous, and abhor the bed of the uncircumcised, and of all the heathen."" It is not quite clear whether Mrs. Butler would bring in the Maccabees; but she certainly would discard Bel and the Dragon and the Book of Tobit. Of course she has no words strong enough with which to condemn the rascally revisers who print the story of the woman taken in adultery in brackets, and who cast doubts upon its authenticity, because it was left out of earlier manuscripts by men who could not bear to have the same standard of morality applied to both sexes. The whole article is very interesting, and the Woman's Signal had better take to printing the story of Susannah and the Elders, and the Second Book of Esther, for the information of its readers. The apocryphal books are rather difficult to get hold of nowadays, more's the pity. The Uses of Profanity. IT has long been an article of faith with Western teamsters that it is impossible to get an order into a mule's head unless it is weighted with a curse. From a very interesting article which appears in the Cosmopolitan for November, on the Mississippi Roustabouts, it would appear that the mule is not alone in needing the word of command to be emphasised with an oath. The Roustabouts, that is to say the negroes who do the heavy porterage on the Mississippi steamers, are unable to rouse themselves to energetic action until they are addressed in language which is, to put it mildly, somewhat profane. The writer of the article says: So accustomed to authority are the roustabouts, that they will do nothing without the word of command; and even when they set about obeying an order, it is with such a total disregard for the result, and with such snail-paced motion, that they must be stimulated from time to time by repetitions of the command, interspersed with choice profanity. This may be shocking to the stranger, but it seems to be taken as a matter of course. It is not the same as profanity in polite society; it means nothing on the part of the mate except a peculiar way in which he emphasises his commands; and the roustabout sees in it nothing but a measure of the importance of the command. A command may be given to haul in a line. Some of the men take hold of it and throw themselves back lazily, exercising not a hundredth part of their power. After two or three ineffectual attempts to accomplish the task, the mate flies into a passion and lets go a volley of profanity that tints the atmosphere, and the men surge back on the line as though they had just awakened to consciousness. A small ferry made of Choctaw logs, used for carrying teams across the bayou, was left stranded on the bank by the falling water. The planter asked the captain to have his men go out and carry it down to the water. About forty roustabouts shuffled out and gathered about the raft. As if obeying the order, they took hold of the raft and pretended to lift, no one of them expending enough strength to carry a watermelon. After two or three attempts to move the raft, they straightened up and looked inquiringly at the boat, to see what was the next thing on the programme. Meantime the mate, who had been bandying pleasantries with acquaintances on the bank, glanced up, took in the situation, and rushed ashore. Running up to the raft, he jumped upon it and, with a sharp, crisp oath, ordered the men to carry it to the water. The command hardly left his lips before the men seized the ferry and walked with it and the mate to the bank of the bayou. REMINISCENCES OF DICKENS. IN the Christmas number of the Young Man and Young Woman there is an interview with Charles Dickens's daughter, which contains many interesting items concerning the great novelist. The following passage gives an interesting account of the absorption of Dickens in his work: He was usually alone when at work, though there were, of course, some occasional exceptions, and I myself constituted such an exception. During our life at Tavistock House I had a long and serious illness, with an almost equally long convalescence. During the latter my father suggested that I should be carried every day into his study, to remain with him, and although I was fearful of disturbing him, he assured me that he desired to have me with him. On one of these mornings I was lying on the sofa endeavouring to keep perfectly quiet, while my father wrote busily and rapidly at his desk, when he suddenly jumped from his chair and rushed to a mirror which hung near, and in which I could see the reflection of some extraordinary facial contortions which ho was making. He returned rapidly to his desk, wrote furiously for a few minutes, and then went again to the mirror. The facial pantomime was resumed, and then turning towards, but evidently not seeing me, he began talking rapidly in a low voice. Ceasing this soon. however, he returned once more to his desk, where he remained silently writing until luncheon time. It was a curious experience for me, and one of which I did not until later years fully appreciate the purport. Then I knew that with his natural intensity he had thrown himself completely into the character that he was creating, and that for the time being he had not only lost sight of his surroundings, but had actually become in action, as in imagination, the personality of his pen. After a morning's close work he was sometimes quite preoccupied when he came in to luncheon. Often when we were only our home party at Gad's Hill, he would come in, take something to eat in a mechanical way, and return to his study to finish the work he had left, scarcely having spoken a word. Our talking at these times did not seem to disturb him, though any sudden sound, as the dropping of a spoon or the clinking of a glass, would send a spasm of pain across his face. "One The railway accident which befell Dickens in June, 1865, has naturally impressed itself very clearly upon his daughter's memory. She speaks of the irresistible feeling of intense dread from which Dickens was afterwards apt to suffer whenever he found himself in any kind of conveyance. occasion," she says, "I specially recall; while we were on our way from London to our little country station Higham, where the carriage was to meet us, my father suddenly clutched the arms of the railway-carriage seat, while his face grew ashy pale, and great drops of perspiration stood upon his forehead, and though he tried hard to master the dread, it was so strong that he had to leave the train at the next station. The accident had left its impression upon the memory, and it was destined never to be effaced. The hours spent upon railroads were thereafter hours of pain to him. I realised this often when travelling with him, and no amount of assurance could dispel the feeling." IN Temple Bar there are several extremely readable articles. Of a nature that is not usually found in Temple Bar, is Mary Cholmondeley's account of the Rev. John Thom, the Unitarian minister, who died last September at the age of eighty-six. She declares he is a latter-day prophet. There are interesting literary articles on Theodore Hook, Guy de Maupassant, and the customary mass of interesting fiction. The most notable article, however, is that entitled "The Anarchists' Utopia," which describes Prince Kropotkine's scheme for bringing about the millennium by the road of revolution. THE REUNION OF ENGLAND AND AMERICA. THE PROS AND CONS OF A NAVAL ALLIANCE. THE desire to bring the Empire and the Republic together has led to the publication of a very interesting and suggestive discussion in the pages of the North American Review. It would, however, be a pity to confound the movement for the reunion of the two oceansundered branches of the English-speaking race with any specific scheme of Anglo-American naval alliance. The two papers on this subject in the November North American both seem to regard the naval alliance as if it were almost equivalent to the reunion of England and America, which is obviously not the case. CAPTAIN MAHAN'S CAUTION. Captain Mahan writes the first paper, and shakes his head over the whole business. He does so not merely because he does not think the time is ripe for the conclusion of a naval alliance, but because he distrusts the consequences of an assured peace. He is a man of war, is the captain, and there is nothing like leather to him. He fails to see that even if the English-speaking races formed alliances there would plenty of work still remain to be done in keeping the rest of the world in order. He says: Firmly though am convinced that it would be to the interest of Great Britain and the United States, and for the benefit of the world, that the two nations should cordially net together on the seas, I am equally sure that the result must not only be hoped but also quietly waited for, while the conditions upon which such cordiality depends are being realised by men. PROGRESS BY STRUGGLE. The following are the passages in which Captain Mahan indicates his belief in the necessity of conflict as a means of progress: I own that, though desirous as any one can be to see the fact accomplished, I shrink from contemplating it, under present conditions, in the form of an alliance, naval or other. Rather I should say: Let each nation be educated to realise the length and breadth of its own interest in the sea; when that is done the identity of these interests will become apparent. In the rivalries of nations, in the accentuation of differences, in the conflict of ambitions, lies the preservation of that martial spirit, that alone is capable of coping finally with the destructive forces which from outside and from within threaten to submerge all that the centuries have gained. In this same pregnant strife the United States will doubtless be led, by undeniable interest and aroused national sympathies, to play a part, to cast aside the policy of isolation which befitted her infancy, and to recognise that, whereas once to avoid European entanglement was essential to the development of her individuality, now to take her share of the travail of Europe is but to assume an inevitable task, an appointed lot in the work of upholding the common interests of civilisation. THE NAVAL OBJECT OF A RACE UNION. He does, however, admit that the union of the Englishspeaking people, in order to obtain the control of the sea, is an object worth dreaming of and working for:— The preservation, advancement, and predominance of the race may well become a political ideal, to be furthered by political combination, which in turn shall rest, primarily, not upon cleverly constructed treaties, but upon natural affection and a clear recognition of mutual benefit arising from working together. If the spirit be there, the necessary machinery for its working will not pass the wit of the race to provide; and in the control of the sea, the beneficent instrument that separates us that we may be better friends, will be found the object that neither the one nor the other can master, but which may not be beyond the conjoined energies of the race. When, if ever, an Anglo-American alliance, naval or other, does come, may it be rather as a yielding to irresistible popular impulse, than as a scheme, however ingeniously wrought, imposed by the adroitness of statesmen. We may, however, I think, dismiss from our minds the belief, frequently advanced, and which is so ably advocated by Sir George Clarke, that such mutual support would tend in the future to exempt maritime commerce in general from the harassment which it has hitherto undergone in war. LORD CHARLES BERESFORD'S SCHEME. The writer of the other article is Lord Charles Beresford. He thinks that the naval alliance should be limited to the protection of those commercial interests in which both countries are equally interested. He discusses at some length Mr. Carnegie's paper, and says: Whether his views be accepted or not, his object is a glorious one, and he deserves the generous thanks of both great nations for starting the theory that reunion would be for the benefit of cach. Sir George Clarke, in his paper (March, 1894), after criticising Mr. Carnegie's paper in the most able way, comes to the conclusion that the best method for bringing about a reunion between Great Britain and the United States would be by means of a complete naval union. In this I agree, but before it is possible there must be extensive preliminaries. A COMMERCIAL INSURANCE ALLIANCE. Theoretically his idea is splendid, but practically I do not think either country is in any way ripe for such a detailed scheme, and the mere fact of forcing the details of such a scheme might break down the attempt to form a reunion. It would appear easier for the present to strengthen and promote the sentiment for reunion by endeavouring to lay fully before the public of each country the value and amount of commerce between them that might be disturbed or lost in the event of either of them being engaged in war. The total British trade with the United States for 1891 equals £168,000,000-that is, nearly one-half of the whole foreign trade of the United States is with Great Britain. Why should not the United States and Great Britain enter into a defensive alliance for the protection of those interests upon which the prosperity of each so much depends? I believe that the mere fact of the existence of an alliance such as I have indicated, combining the almost unlimited latent resources of two such great countries, would deter other nations from attacking that which for the moment appearel inadequately defended. It is much to be feared that in the time coming, when the United States may adopt the policy of free trade, and also build up, as she has apparently commenced to do, a navy sufficient for her needs, it might not be worth her while to undertake the responsibilities of an alliance with Great Britain. Now is the time to bring about the alliance, when its advantages are apparent to both countries. Another Woman's Right. WE have long had in England compartments in raiiway carriages for the exclusive use of the fair sex, and now in Chicago they are proposing to establish a separate police-station for women. Mr. H. H. Van Meter, in the November number of the Altruistic Review, says : A bill has been presented to the City Council of Chicago, providing for a Central Detention or Relief Station, where women, girls and children can find shelter in cases of need, instead of being crowded into cells or corraled into corridors with vicious criminals of the lowest classes, as has been the case too often, for lack of any other accommodation of any kind, save such as is found in ordinary police-stations. The very moderate amount of £2,000 is all that is asked for its maintenance for one year, and it is recommended that a committes of three men and two women have the management. This committee is to act without pay, being chosen from our philanthropic citizens according to plans proposed by friends of the movement, many of whom would prefer a majority of women in the management. |