of India is to put an end to the present, and prevent any future unlawful aggression on Chitral territory, and as soon as this object has been obtained, the forces will be withdrawn." Notwithstanding this declaration, which was issued in the name of the Crown, and which was largely instrumental in securing the support of the tribes through whose territory our expedition had to pass. it is now proclaimed that troops are to be permanently stationed in Chitral, and, in short, our forces will not be withdrawn. This is bad. But unfortunately it is now too much of a piece with the methods by which the forward school succeed in forcing our outposts ever deeper and deeper into the morass of mountains which border our northwestern frontier. These gentlemen cost us twenty millions with their Afghan craze, over and above the nine millions sterling which has been spent in the last ten years along the north-western frontier in various punitive expeditions. It is impossible to avoid such expeditions, for an empire has to keep the police on its frontier just as much as a municipality has to keep the police in its streets; but the immense cost of maintaining our present frontier is a very solid argument against the wanton extension of the position which we have to defend. Neither is it made any better by the assurance that no increase of the army is to be asked for. This is Jingoism Instead of facing the music and paying

all over. for the policy it advocates, we have always the same old story. We undertake new obligations without increasing the means at our disposal for carrying them out. Then sooner or later comes a war which swallows up in six months all the savings of our misplaced economy. If it is necessary to maintain Chitral, we ought to make adequate provision for it, instead of as at present making believe that it can be done on the cheap.

The Massacre

The extent of our Imperial responsiof bilities is so vast that their adequate Missionaries realisation is the best safeguard against

in China. any indulgence in a policy of reckless aggression. This responsibility lies not merely within the Empire, but often far beyond its confines. Of Of this we had a painful illustration in the outbreaks of fanaticism which led to the massacre of nine missionaries at Hwa-sang. Mr. and Mrs. Stewart, of the Church Missionary Society, had been for some time past stationed Kow-chang, a walled city two days' journey from Foochow. Their reported considerable effervescence

last letters

among the native population with manifestation of hostility, but no serious danger was anticipated. The agitation among the so-called Vegetarians had been on the increase for some time past, and additional Chinese troops were despatched from Foochow to keep the mob in check. Resenting this increase of the garrison, the mob displayed their vexation by attacking the mission house, burning it, and massacring Mr. Stewart, his family, and some young women who were engaged in mission work. This outbreak, unfortunately, did not stand alone. The British and American Missions at Tatshin, near Canton, were demolished, and the missionaries fled for their lives. The Catholic Missions in the province of Szechuan have also been rabbled by the mob, and there seems to be but too much reason for believing that the anti-foreign element generally feels that the time has come for gratifying its long cherished grudge against the "foreign devils." Considering the number of British subjects that are scattered all over the Chinese Empire, the outlook is alarming indeed. At present the Chinese Government is making the most satisfactory declarations, and promising condign punishment on all evil-doers. But it is an open question how far the Chinese Government can hold its own, at least in its south-western provinces. At any rate, there seems to be no possibility of any reduction of the British forces, naval or military, on the Chinese littoral.

The

The great question which contains within Armenian its womb the potentiality of any number Question. of wars is, as it always has been, the Eastern Question so called. The Turkish Empire lies like a bomb between Europe and Asia. At any moment it may burst, and just at this time there are two slow matches visibly burning before the eyes of all men. One is in Armenia and the other in Macedonia. The Macedonian is ignored by common consent, and attention concentrated upon the Armenian fuse. There the situation is very serious, and no one can tell how soon the difficulty may lead to war. Lord Salisbury has fortunately not justified the misgivings of those who feared that he would weaken the pressure on the Porte. He has, on the contrary, taken an even stronger line than Lord Rosebery. This, of course, is no more than his duty, for he is responsible for the Armenian atrocities and the Macedonian horrors in a special manner that Lord Rosebery is not. But so many of us feared that he would ignore his responsibility that his speech on the Address to the Throne came as a pleasant surprise.

Replying

to Lord Rosebery on the Armenian Question, he took occasion to administer such a plain-spoken admonition to the Sultan as to make that august personage very sick. It is understood that, instead of accepting the Sultan's refusal of the joint proposals of England, France and Russia, Lord Salisbury has taken a fresh step, and demanded that the proposed reforms should be put under the control of a mixed commission, three of whose members must be appointed by the Powers. Such a proposal is, of course, utterly inconsistent with the fabled independence of the Ottoman Empire, and the Sultan in his distress is said to have appealed first to France and Russia, and then to the German Emperor, to induce him to abate the monstrous demand of England. France and Russia informed the Porte that they endorsed Lord Salisbury's proposals and made them their own, while the German Emperor refused to do anything in the matter beyond advising the Sultan to agree with his enemies quickly, otherwise it would be the worse for him. The Sultan, however, has a natural genius for procrastination, and will do his best to raise difficulties and endeavour to embroil the Powers who are at present urging him to give guarantees for the good government of his Armenian subjects.

Threatened men of course live long, and Diplomatic Conference that is the great consolation about at Vienna. European peace. The Eastern Question has been going to bring about war any time for the last ten years, but the war has not come, therefore it may not come this side of Christmas, certainly will not come if the statesmen could fix the date of its outbreak to suit themselves. Unfortunately with these unsettled questions, the trigger is usually pulled by some person much less responsible than the Chancellors of Europe. That the Courts are feeling uneasy, goes without saying, and last month we had a significant indication of their desire to prepare against eventualities in the meeting of the German Chancellor and the Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs at Vienna. Their meeting coincided with the visit of the King of Roumania to the Austrian capital, and this coincidence probably gave rise to the story which is current as to the contemplated accession of Roumania to the Triple Alliance. That, in its strict sense, is probably untrue. The Triple Alliance remains the Triple Alliance still; but at the same time it would not be surprising in the least if it were supplemented by a secret agreement with Roumania to the effect that should war break out under certain well-understood eventualities, the troops of King Carl could be

counted upon as an available factor on the side of the Triple Alliance in the coming Armageddon. While international complications seem

Continental Quietude..

to be becoming more a cute, the domestic situation generally is somewhat placid. The Germans have been celebrating with rather more effusion than usual the anniversary of Sedan and the great victory which enabled them to prostrate France in the dust. The Belgians are proposing to substitute voting by proportional representation for the second ballot. The Dutch are engaged in considering in their lethargic fashion an extension of the franchise; but elsewhere organic changes seem to be for the moment put on one side. At the French Departmental elections only 26 Socialists were elected, and 181 Radicals. The moderate and rabid Republicans returned the numbers 894 and 74 respectively. There were, besides, 263 reactionaries. Practically in the Departmental elections, the centre party seems to have as much its own way in France as it had in England at the late elections. In Italy, the charges brought by Signor Cavalotti against the Prime Minister, Crispi, came to nothing when they were heard before the criminal court. Prince Ferdinand has got back to Bulgaria, and the unending controversy is continued as to when and under what conditions he can secure his recognition by Russia.

The Attempt on Baron Rothschild.

The only sensational incident that has broken the dead calm has been the despatch of explosive to Baron It was a very simple

an

Alphonse de Rothschild. affair enclosed in an envelope, some explosive fulminate being so arranged between two wires that when the envelope was opened and the wires exposed, the explosion ensued and injured the Baron's private secretary. Baron Alphonse is said to be one of the few Rothschilds who believe in the future of Socialism, and a saying of his is reported that a time is coming when no man will be allowed to have more than a maximum of £4,000 a year. Curiously enough a somewhat similar remark was attributed to a representative of an American millionaire who was recently in London. Speaking of the sentiment of the United States, he said that the educated class in America were Socialists in their sympathies, not, he added, Socialists in the European sense, but what they would like is to say to millionaires, "You can have £10,000 a year to live upon, and we will tax you 100 per cent. upon the rest of your income." It is characteristic of the wrongheaded way in which things happen, that it was this

Lord Rothschild, of all the family, who was selected as the mark for the envelope of fulminate. France and Brazil have agreed as to the Arbitration and the arbitrator to whom they will refer the Pope. frontier question in dispute in South America. Nothing has been done as yet towards securing a similar reference of the dispute between the British Government and Venezuela. A Peace and Arbitration Conference has been held at Brussels, which passed the usual resolutions, undismayed even by the eloquent declaration of Maurus Jokai, the Hungarian, who was one of the orators of the Congress, and who distinguished himself by assuring the delegates that war would never cease in the world even if the human race dwindled down to two individuals. Much the most interesting question in the Arbitration question has been the application-made by the two dusky Presidents of Hayti and San Domingo, who divide between them the island famous as the scene of the struggles of Toussaint l'Ouverture-to the Vatican. The two negro republics, it seems, cannot agree as to their frontiers, and instead of cutting each other's throats, they have decided to refer the question to the arbitration of the Pope. The Pope, of course, has graciously accepted their appeal, and Leo XIII. will have an opportunity of figuring in his favourite rôle of Chief Justice of Christendom. It is a far cry from Hayti to Alsace-Lorraine, but if the Pope is faithful in small things, who knows but there may be entrusted to him the duty of deciding in greater ones. In South Africa disquieting rumours are current as to the health of Mr. Rhodes, Africa. which every one sincerely hopes are exaggerated. There is no indispensable man, we are often told, but if one man more than another is indispensable at the present moment in the British Empire, it is Cecil Rhodes at Cape

The Crux in South

Town.

He has just carried through successfully the annexation of Bechuanaland to the Cape. The boom of things African is still on; when it stops there will be more need than ever for Mr. Rhodes' hand at the helm. Mr. Garrett has been interviewing President Krüger, from which it appears that Oompal is by no means satisfied with the annexation of Swaziland. "Swaziland," he says, "is nothing excepting as a road to the sea." And he maintains that he is shut in a kraal for ever, with no way out. President Krüger then declared that he had a right, not only to Swaziland, but Natal. The interview is interesting and important, and does credit to Mr. Garrett's journalistic capacity; but it does not

reassure us much as to the prospect of settling the Transvaal question for some time yet in the only way that will accord with the manifest destiny of South Africa.

The

Parliament.

At home, not much has been stirring. Opening of Parliament met on the 15th and listened to a Queen's speech which re ferred in half-a-dozen paragraphs to as many foreign and colonial questions, and then passed the estimates after a series of little discussions which brought out very clearly two facts. First, that the Liberal opposition is practically hors de combat. Mr. Campbell Bannerman is away ill, Mr. John Morley is no longer a member of the House, Sir Henry Fowler has not been well, and the other members of the front Opposition bench do not seem to think it worth while to attend, and as the result, we have had a series of sittings in which the Liberal party-which even at the last polls was shown to have numbered nearly half the electorate-was most conspicuously represented in the House by Mr. Healy and Sir Charles Dilke! The Liberal party suffered badly at the elections, and was left like a wounded soldier on the field of battle; but allowing such leadership as this is like abandoning the wounded to the tender mercies of those night prowlers of the civil wars, who with long skeans used to stab the unfortunates left on the field. defeat at the polls ever destroys a party unless that party loses its morale. Defeat can be converted into victory, but not by the road of abdication and desertion.

"Tim."

No

The most conspicuous figure in the House of Commons during this brief session has unquestionably been Mr. "Tim has seen his chance, and it will not be his fault if he does not succeed to the vacant

Healy.

place of Mr. Parnell. Mr. Healy has many great gifts. He is as quick as a weasel, as impudent as a puppy, using his tongue as a Red Indian wields his tomahawk. With a constitution of iron and lungs of leather, he is in many ways well equipped for the struggle. Compared with Mr. Dillon, it is as if you were pitting a mongrel lurcher against a thoroughbred greyhound. Night after night, no matter who was absent, Tim Healy was present pegging away, and pegging away hard, and always on one line of attack. A little more judgment, a trifle or so of ballast, and a capacity sometimes to forget the inborn instincts of a corner boy, and Tim Healy might distance all competitors. As it is, his evident ambition will only make confusion worse confounded.

Oh for a Sound

Next to the prominence of Mr. Healy, of the Voice the most conspicuous thing in English that is Still! politics has been the absolute effacement of John Morley. Since the day when Mr. Morley left the Central Railway Station of Newcastle, after the declaration of the poll, he has been heard of as little as if he had been absolutely snatched to the stars, after the fashion of ancient heroes whose mysterious disappearances were only thus satisfactorily explained. Mr. Morley, of course, has a right to efface himself if he pleases, but the Liberal public which has followed him and trusted him and relied upon him for many years to supply what may be regarded as the moral backing of the party, must be forgiven if it feels a little sore at his silence. Mr. Morley is not exactly the man to eat his heart out in sulks, but I confess to feeling some measure of sympathy with those who wish that in the midst of this period of bewilderment and dismay, there had been heard from the far north one strong clear note of encouragement and hope.

The Home

Lord Salisbury, in the debate on the Policy of the Queen's Speech at the opening of Government. Parliament, defined the functions of government in terms which are significant of much. He declared that the great lesson of the election was to proclaim to both parties that in "the main from henceforth they must fight within bounds of the Constitution; and that it is not the re-arrangement of political machinery, but it is the improvement of the daily life of the struggling millions, and the diminution of their sorrows, which is the blessed task that Parliaments are called into existence to perform." This is the proclamation by the Prime Minister of what Mr. Carlyle used to call "The condition of England question," as the chief problem which will engage the attention of his Administration.

The most pressing form of this question is always that of the Unemployed. Lord Salisbury, in reply to the memorial of the London Settlements, has promised the subject his consideration, and Mr. Chaplin, of the Local Government Board, has expressed his sympathy with the attempt to form colonies, although asserting that his legal advisers deem these colonies to lie outside of the province of the Board of Guardians. It would be well if, in the course of the recess, a general conference could be held representing all those who are intimately concerned with the Unemployed question, The societies which have been formed for promoting allotments, for creating rural colonies as well as emigration societies and the like, might all be brought together to consider, say under the presidency of

Mr. Chaplin himself, what could be done. This is a work which cannot fail to commend itself to the political and social instincts of Mr. Jesse Collings.

The Speakership.

At

Ministers finding that they were threatened with the formation of a cave and the revolt of a considerable section of their followers if they opposed the re-election of Mr. Gully as Speaker, acquiesced with a somewhat bad grace, and they have therefore the great advantage of having a Liberal in the chair whose name and authority will cover all the coercive measures they will be compelled to adopt in the way of stifling debate and checkmating obstruction. one time it seemed more than probable that the Tory rank-and-file would insist upon replacing Mr. Gully with a man of their own, but wiser counsels prevailed. The same rank-and-file, however, are much exercised in spirit by the appointment of a Liberal Unionist to the Solicitor-Generalship of both England and Ireland. But, as Sir Edward Clarke refused the post, finding it more profitable to continue his private practice than to accept the Solicitor-Generalship, it is difficult to see why the Tories should complain; but there is no doubt of a deeper feeling on the part of the Tadpoles and Tapers of the charlatans that Mr. Chamberlain's gang, as it has been called, has obtained an undue share of the loaves and fishes.

Mr.

Mr. Chamberlain himself continues to be Chamberlain. the hero of the situation. The only important speeches which have been made this last month have been made by him, and that they were important speeches, no one can deny. He has received deputations on Swaziland and on West Africa, and he has made speeches on the Colonial estimates dealing with the general question of Colonial policy, and also the particular question of Newfoundland and Cyprus. Everything that he has said has confirmed the accuracy of the estimate which I put last month in his "Character Sketch." Mr. Chamberlain has got hold of a great idea. He is going to do for the Colonies what he did for Birmingham, viz., use the credit of the whole for the purpose of developing the resources of each. As he told the West African merchants, and as he had previously told the House of Commons, the new Government had decided upon a new policy and a great policy. Our Colonies, especially our Crown Colonies, he regards as being in the condition of undeveloped estates, estates which can never be developed without Imperial assistance. The British investor, therefore, is to be invited, under the ægis of the Imperial Government, to

invest some of his superfluous wealth in the developing of this estate, and if the British investor refuses this, in Mr. Chamberlain's opinion he had better have never gone to these Colonies at all.

The New Colonial

Mr. Chamberlain lets us see plainly enough the working of his mind upon Policy. this matter. The old Empire of the Romans, which constructed admirable public works in all the barbarous countries that they conquered, fills him with admiration, and it is to him a source of lamentation that the British Empire cannot compare with Rome in this respect. But his primary reason for desiring to use the surplus wealth of the Empire in developing its Colonial estates, is not so much for the sake of the Colonists, as because it is only in such a policy of development that he can see any solution of the question of the Unemployed There is no means, he says, of securing plenty of employment to the United Kingdom excepting by developing old countries and creating new ones. He is, therefore, going to shoulder this responsibility and appeal to public opinion, which he thinks is ripening upon the question, to support him in the measures necessary to give effect to his general idea. This is all very well; but reducing it to plain English, the question comes to this: Will Mr. Chamberlain give an Imperial guarantee to the British investor whose funds he desires to utilise in this policy of Colonial dévelopment? If he will, then he can get as much money as he likes; if he will not, well, it is, to say the least, doubtful.

1 The In

Ministers on the whole have manifested evitable Dis- a prudent reticence as to what they illusioning. would do, or what they would not do, but they have already been compelled to crush in the bud some of the hopes which they fostered so assiduously during the electoral period. Mr. Balfour, for instance, has dealt a cruel blow to the hopes of the bimetallists. In replying to a question, he stated that he had no reason to think that an international agreement would at the present moment be the result of an international conference upon the subject. Therefore there is to be no international congress, and thereby at one fell swoop go the hopes of all the silver men all over the world. As to the Indian Cotton Duties, Lord George Hamilton had to be even more ruthless. After carrying Lancashire by making the electors believe that the Indian Cotton Duties would disappear if the Liberals were defeated, he can do nothing more than say that he will forward the memorial of Lancashire to the Indian Government for their observation, and meantime the duties continue to be

levied as before. It seems likely that the agitation for restricting the immigration of pauper aliens and the import of prison-made goods from abroad will share the fate of the dreams of the bimetallists and of the Lancashire cotton spinners.

Business prospects in the States are Business improving so rapidly, that it is no longer and Sport. possible to deny the existence of a great trade revival which in time will affect this country, and will probably do more to solve the Unemployed question, at least temporarily, than all the projects of Mr. Chamberlain. Against this, however, we have to put the fact that the harvest at home has been much injured, first by the long drought, and then by the rain which fell out of due season. The chief interest both in England and America these last few weeks has been neither political nor industrial so much as social and sporting. The visit of the German Emperor to Cowes Regatta and to the North of England, and the great international race between Lord Dunraven's Valkyrie III. and Defender have excited and are exciting much more interest in the majority of people than the debates in Parliament. The rage The Cycle for cycling continues to spread and increase, and the lady cyclist, instead Revolutionist. of being a rare bird, is now becoming so common a phenomenon as hardly to attract remark. Among all the agencies which have been influential in humanising women,--that is to say, giving them a share of the common life with its common humanities, with its weariness, its weariness, thirst, hunger and adventures and

as a

general commingling with the common life of our common world, the cycle stands easily first. It is also possible, although not probable, that it will leave a permanent trace upon the dress of one half of the race. When women cycle, whatever dress they wear, whether it be rational or skirted, they break once for all with the tradition that it is indelicate for any one to show a stockinged calf, and when once that ancient tradition is broken down the scope for variation in female costume will be indefinitely increased. Note one odd thing. This month a Parisian journalist has been collecting the views of several eminent actresses as to the cycling dress. Madame Sarah Bernhardt of all people in the world condemns strongly any departure from the ancient conventions, for, said this eminent priestess of austere morality: "The moral consideration must be The outdoor life encouraged by the bicyclette is dangerous, and carries with it very grave consequences." Comment upon this would be quite superfluous.

supreme.