War with the

and

The last day of October brought the unwelAshantees. come news that the King of Ashantee had rejected our ultimatum, and refused to accept the British protectorate, which will interfere, among other things, with the cherished traditional custom of massacreing hecatombs of slaves and captives on the occasion of a royal funeral or Ashantee festival. He prefers war, and war he is going to have. An expeditionary force of about 1,000 British troops, chiefly West Indian and Hossas, will probably hoist the Union Jack in Coomassie by Christmas Day. Twenty-one years ago, I remember writing a series of articles strongly protesting against a policy which was then adopted of fighting our way to Coomassie, and then scuttling from the country. My protest fell upon deaf ears, Lord Wolseley no sooner reached Coomassie, and burned it, than he marched back to the coast. That mistake is not likely to be repeated to-day. As France has established its authority in Dahomey, so will England in Coomassie. If Mr. Chamberlain could only manage to find some of the gold mines which, from time immemorial, have been worked in that kingdom of darkness, the result of the expedition would be profitable, but at present it seems more likely to result only in an increase of expenditure without opening any new markets. Additional evidence has been obtained as to the murder of Mr. Stokes which, if it be authentic, leaves no room for doubt that Captain Lothaire was guilty of a crime for which he ought to be tried and, possibly, executed. It seems that Stokes, so far from supplying ammunition to the native chiefs who were at war with the Belgians, had actually been operating against them on his own account, and had compelled them to pay a fine in ivory. Stokes then paid a visit to the

The Murder of Mr. Stokes."

Belgian camp, when, to his immense surprise, he was seized by Lothaire, accused, tried, sentenced, and hanged next morning, against the vehement protests of the only other white man on the station. There is always a danger that isolated European officers may act lawlessly when buried in the heart of a vast continent, where they have to fight for their lives in the midst of a multitudinous native population; but hitherto it was recognised they should at least refrain from murdering white men, judicially or otherwise. If the latest news be correct,

this tradition has been set at nought by Captain Lothaire. As all white governments have an interest in maintaining this unwritten law, it ought to go hard with Lothaire.

Slavery

Lord Salisbury has to face a difficult Under the problem in Zanzibar, where, according to British Flag evidence, which seems to be indisputable, the establishment of British authority has not been followed by any diminution of the horrors of domestic slavery. Scores of thousands of slaves, three-fourths of whom are the victims of slave raids in the interior, continue to occupy a position of absolute slavery, held in bondage by an authority which in the last resort is that of Great Britain. A meeting at the Mansion House has protested against the continuance of this state of things, obviously dishonouring to the British name; but there are grave practical difficulties connected with the problem. Lord Salisbury, however, will be allowed a free hand to do what he pleases, provided that he does not indulge in blazing indiscretion such as is natural to him in the shape of a cynical observation which would lead the public to feel that he was not in earnest about the question. One cynical remark would do more to tie his hands than all the indignation meetings that could be held at the Mansion House.

The Next

Secretary.

Rumour has it that Lord Dufferin, who Foreign has resigned the Wardenship of the Cinque Ports, which entails a heavy expenditure that almost ruined Lord Granville, will be asked to relieve Lord Salisbury of the burden of the Foreign Office. To be Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary is possible when the world is at peace, but with three continents seething with unrest, and a score of burning questions smouldering all along the horizon, it is practically impossible for the Prime Minister adequately to perform the duties of Foreign Secretary. Either Lord Dufferin or Sir Edward Malet would bring to the Foreign Office an intimate knowledge of the diplomatic situation, and the appointment of either would lead to the strengthening of the Cabinet in more directions than one. Nothing is said publicly of this, but the telegrams in the morning papers are enough to convince any one who knows what the Foreign Secretary has to do, that the present arrangement cannot last long. The affairs of the furthest East alone might well occupy the unremitting attention of a most hard-working Minister.

ment and

the Farmers.

The Govern- Foreign affairs, although important, and threatening at any moment to become predominantly important, do not command all the attention of Lord Salisbury. During the last month he has made one speech, from which it would appear that he is more preoccupied with administrative legislation than with questions of Imperial defence or Asiatic policy. He declared that the question before the Government was the question of social amelioration. "We have got as far as we can to make this country more pleasant to live in to the vast majority of those who live in it. There is, I am convinced, very much to be done in that respect. We have been a century mending the machine; for Heaven's sake, let us do some work with it, now we have mended it!" Lord Salisbury went on to explain, by this he meant two things: First, that the Government must abstain from all predatory legislation; and, secondly, that they must do all they can to mitigate the threatening and increasing ruin of the agricultural class. "This is the greatest evil with which we have to deal, and the terrible drawback to the prosperity of our country." He fully recognised, he said, that agriculture is the first interest that requires our attention, that the suffering under which agriculture is groaning is the first evil to which we must apply ourselves. Lord Cadogan, who had spoken earlier in the month, had given pledges not less emphatic.

Lord

The only notable speech on the Liberal Rosebery's side last month, with the exception of Watchword. Mr. Asquith's municipal speech at Morley in the West Riding, was delivered by Lord Rosebery at Scarborough. It was a moderate, reasonable speech, advocating the policy of what may be described as marking time, until the electorate is better educated as to the superiority of Liberal to Conservative methods of administration and legislation. The situation is not one which calls for dashing charges or a bold forward movement. Many Liberals, no doubt, would have liked to have heard Lord Rosebery address his indomitable legions in the strain of Henri IV. at the battle of Ivry, but the hour for the oriflamme of war is not yet struck. What we want is not so much the helmet of Navarre, as the devoted resolution and unsleeping patience with which Wellington held the lines of Torres Vedras.

tional schools. Rumour has it that the Government intends to get out of this difficulty by increasing the grant per scholar from 17s. 6d. to £1 2s. 6d. This increased rate will be paid equally to voluntary and denominational schools. Mr. George Dixon, Unionist and Birmingham Churchman, has taken the chair at the meeting of the Memorial Hall, summoned to protest against the granting of any increase of public money to the schools under private management. I doubt whether we can make any effective fight on this line. On the question of denominational schools, the Liberal Party is simply wiped out, owing to the fact that all the Irish Home Rulers will vote to a man in favour of denominational education. The forlorn rump of the Opposition can only emit its protest, which, even if pitched so high as to amount to a squeal, cannot be otherwise than feeble and ineffective. What we should do is to make the best of a bad job, and concentrate all our force on the attempt to obtain for the rural schoolmaster a tenure of office that will not be at the mercy of the parson. No workhouse master can be dismissed by the Board of Guardians without the consent of the Local Government Board. If Sir John Gorst would adopt that policy in relation to the teachers of every elementary school that receives the Government grant, he would secure the undying gratitude of the teaching class, perhaps the most influential in all England at this moment, excepting the publicans, and he would disarm the hostility of the Opposition.

Reform.

One of the best signs of the times is Temperance the fact that the Bishops are really beginning to realise somewhat of the somewhat of the responsibility which lies upon them in relation to moral reform. The Archbishops, of course, are doing nothing, but many of the Bishops-notably the Bishop of Durham and the Bishop of Chester-are taking a very spirited and encouraging lead. The professional leaders of the Temperance Party are hopelessly discredited, and there is great need for more intelligent guidance. The Bishops point the way to the Gothenburg system, and the acceptance of some practical, reasonable measure of temperance reform. One of them, greatly daring, has even gone so far as to suggest that temperance men might do well to take the better brewers and publicans into their councils. As if to show that some at least of the trade would meet them half-way, we have the suggestion from a country brewer that owners of more than four public-houses should be requested to close one public-house in five. By this means he thinks the

number of public-houses might be summarily reduced by twenty per cent. This brewer's proposal may be pooh-poohed, but if it were carried out it would do more to diminish the number of public-houses than has been done by the United Kingdom Alliance in the whole course of its existence.

The need for the energetic action of all The L.C.C. and the those who care for the moral and social Music Halls. welfare of the people has been strikingly illustrated by the failure of the London County Council to maintain the high standard which it took up twelve months ago, in relation to drink and prostitution at music-halls. The result of the reverse which was inflicted upon the Progressive Party at the last election-a reverse which would have been impossible if London Churchmen had not largely held a candle to the Devil-paralyses the party of reform, and, as a result, restrictions imposed upon the Empire last year have been rescinded, to the huge delight of the standing army of the World, Flesh, and the Devil.

The

the

Citizen Sunday was observed in London Municipal last month by the delivery of some three Elections. hundred sermons in churches and chapels throughout the city, insisting upon the religious significance of municipal work, and summoning the electors to do their duty. The municipal elections, which will be held throughout the country before these pages see the light, will show how far these appeals have fallen upon deaf ears. The most interesting contest is expected to take place at Liverpool. Here the enlargement of the city boundary has brought in a large suburban element, which, being mainly Conservative, will, it is feared, swamp the Liberal majority, which, for three years past, has been doing

MR. W. H. WATTS,

Outgoing Lord Mayor of Liverpool. (Photograph by Brown, Barnes and Bell, Liverpool, London, and Manchester.)

BOARD SCHOOL

TRIC

?LENT CO

RUSSELL ST

DRURY LANE

THEATRE 75

KEMBLE

YORK

CATHERINE

ARE ST

STRAND

EMBANKMENT

V E R

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Scale of Feet.

500

TEMPLEST

CAR

BANKRUPTCY COURT

THE PROPOSED THOROUGHFARE-THE STRAND TO HOLBORN. OF BUILDINGS BETWEEN HOLYWELL STREET AND

admirable work in moral and social improvement. It will be an evil day for the Conservative Party if to regard sober and serious Englishmen come Conservatism as synonymous with debauchery and

TURNST

LAW COURTS

CLEMENT DANES

October 1895.

FLEET S'

Holborn to the

Strand. The narrow and tortuous street which winds the slums of Clare through Market, and which would be a disgrace to a third-rate provincial city, is at present the most direct route between the northern and southern railway stations. But the Council of the Influenza, as it was named at the time of its election, has

not got the nerve to deal with this, or indeed with almost any other great question.

A very interesting took place

A Friend of ceremony

Woman

last month in the

shape of a presentation of a testimonial to Sir James Stansfeld, from women who subscribed of £800 for the expresspurpose ing their gratitude to a statesman who has constantly striven for the equality of men and women in all respects before the law, and has not felt any personal sacrifice too great in his devotion to freedom, justice and morality. Never was a testimonial better deserved. Sir James would only consent to accept £100, with which a silver bowl was purchased, with a suitable inscription; the other £700 is to be set apart for the benefit of equal rights for

women.

In acknowledging the presentation, Sir James made a speech, full of that fervent faith in the triumph of Right, and that patient but dogged determination to lay siege to the citadel of Wrong, which have characterised the whole of his career. The presentation and speech which it evoked are in curious contrast to another utterance in the opposite sense at Vienna. In Austria, for the first time, a woman has received a Government medical appointment. Court Councillor Albert, a distinguished surgeon of the University, has just issued a pamphlet entitled "Women and the Study of Medicine." Dr. Albert roundly declares that women are not fit for the medical profession. All the work of the world is done by men. Women are inferior to men. Man alone is a being of method, an animal of culture. If any girl should, after all this demonstration of incapacity, still attempt to study medicine, "let her be examined," he exclaimed, "with all the severity possible on the part of the examiner." For one who is so supremely confident in the innate superiority of his own sex, this animal of culture seems to be somewhat lacking in chivalry.

Death of

Signor

Bonghi.

Signor Bonghi, whose death occurred suddenly towards the close of the month, was, after Sig

nor Crispi, one of the few strong men of whom Italy could boast. His strength lay both in his many

sidedness-he was at once statesman and historian, professor and journalist— and in his capacity for judging friends and adversaries with equal impartiality. He was a loyal subject of the House of Savoy, and of late a thorough supporter of the Crispi régime; but he was never blind to the many grievances under which the Italian people are groaning, and his extreme outspokenness more than once gave offence in high quarters. On the other hand, though Bonghi had renounced formal allegiance to Rome, he always

wrote of Leo XIII. in words of profound respect and admiration. He was a man of enormous information and vast industry, a zealous educationalist, a great student of English life and politics, and an enthusiastic admirer of Mr. Gladstone. In these columns we have frequently summarised his numerous articles in the Nuova Antologia and the Rassegna Nazionale, for his utterances on Italian questions were always lucid, statesmanlike and full of information. Signor Bonghi only held office once, in the Minghetti Ministry, as Minister of Education, when he did much good work; he preferred, on the whole, the liberty of a free lance to the responsibilities of office; his most formidable weapon was his pen, and he will be missed on the Italian press even more than in the Italian parliament.