making such a demonstration. At present there is an idea at Pretoria and in the Matoppo hills that John Bull is not so formidable a person as he thinks himself. A similar idea prevailed in more civilized and intelligent quarters some six months ago, but it precipitately vanished before the Flying Squadron.' We want a repetition in a suitable form of this disillusioning experiment in South Africa."

ABYSSINIA AND THE SOUDAN.

Abyssinian War Ended.-At Kassala (p. 73) Colonel Stevani on April 3 attacked the dervish intrenchments, and inflicted a severe defeat on the followers of the khalifa. The dervishes abandoned their camp at Tucruf and retired to Osobri on the Nubian side of the Atbara river, leaving behind their mules, their wounded, and their stores.

King Menelek, having learned of a speech of the Duke of Sermoneta, Italian foreign minister, in which it was stated that the peace negotiations were intended only to gain time, withdrew all the offers of peace that had previously been made, and ordered the Italian envoy, Major Salsa, to be made prisoner as a spy. The treaty of peace which the envoy was empowered to offer to Menelek, contained these provisions:

An offensive and defensive alliance;
Conclusion of a commercial treaty;

The annulment of the treaty of Üccialli (p. 74);

That Tigré be made a buffer state under Ras Makonnen;

The establishment of an Italian frontier at Marel; and

The support of Italy in putting the finances of Abyssinia on a sound basis.

A telegram of May 4 from Massowah reported the relief of Adigrat by General Baldissera. Having gained this advantage, the Italian government decided to abandon the place and reopen negotiations with the Abyssinian king. The troops who had occupied Adigrat were withdrawn. May 19 to a position behind the frontier of Erythrea. Menelek, on his part, gave up to General Baldissera all the Italian prisoners remaining in his hands.

Thus ends the war of Italy against King Menelek. Tigré was evacuated by the Italians; and, on May 24, thirty-five battalions of infantry, seven battalions of artillery, and four companies of cavalry took ship at Massowah to return home. The conclusion of the peace is variously attributed to the good offices of the emperor of Russia and

the

of the Pope. Throughout the whole course of the war, czar studiously favored the cause of King Menelek. At the same time Russia professed a sincere friendship for Italy. A curious demonstration of Russia's good-will toward both of the combatants was given when the czar's government, early in April, ordered the organizing of two parties of the Red Cross Society, one to operate with the Italian, and the other

feeling. * *The

government was exceedingly grateful to the occupant of the chair of St. Peter."

The radicals in the Italian parliament having, May 9, demanded the impeachment of ex-Prime Minister Crispi as chargeable with the disas

ters of the army in Abyssinia, Premier Rudini's government rejected the demand, which action was sustained by a vote of 278 to 133.

On June 11 the court-martial at Massowah, which tried General Baratieri, found that officer "not guilty." The charges against General Baratieri were: Incapacity, negligence, hasty abandonment of his troops at the battle of Adowa. In the absence of official reports of that disastrous engagement, the following statements, taken from an article by Lieutenant-Colonel Pallieri in an Italian military journal (Italia Militare e Marina), will serve to show how complete was the reverse to the Italian arms.

"Some regiments, battalions, and artillery batteries fought with

such heroism and under such disadvantages that they lost from 88 to 92 per cent of their effective force. In fact, it appears that the Italian troops at the Adowa battle numbered 11,430, that is, 553 officers and 10,887 soldiers. The survivors were 4,555, of whom 265 were officers and 4,290 soldiers. The losses, including the prisoners and exclusive of the native troops, amounted to 7,043, that is, 288 officers and 6,755 soldiers. The 4th battery had all its officers killed, and it was the same with the 11th battalion of infantry. This is a glorious record of the bravery of the Italian troops, who fought des

perately against an enemy ten times as numerous as they were, and most of whom were armed with the best weapons of modern warfare.

The Soudan Expedition. The Anglo-Egyptian expedition into the khalifa's country (p. 75) is defended by the London Times of April 8, on the ground of the lawful right of the khedive's government to reassert its sovereignty in the Soudan.

Were that government to suffer the rule of the khalifa to continue, the Belgians, or the French, or the English might be compelled by force of circumstances to seize the country. In Equatoria and the Bahr-el-Ghazel the inhabitants have to a considerable extent succeeded

in shaking off his sway; but in Darfur and Kordofan, so far as can be seen at present, he remains powerful and oppressive. The Belgians on the Welle, and the French on the Mbomu, both abut like the British in Uganda upon the Bahr-el-Ghazel; and possibly both have cast longing eyes upon a province valuable alike for its fertility and for its strategical position. But neither British, French, nor Belgians are at present in a position to take any effectual steps to bring that region under the influence of European civilization. It has to be observed that the province undoubtedly forms part of the Egyptian Soudan, or, as some prefer to phrase it, of the Ottoman empire. Though relinquished by Egypt under stress of circumstances, there is no lapse of the rights either of the khedive or of the sultan. That is a cardinal fact of the situation, which this country must not forget or allow others to ignore. But it is admittedly difficult to secure continuous recognition of rights which are not fully exercised; and it

would undoubtedly simplify the whole situation were Egypt enabled to assert de facto the right which de jure is assuredly hers. That right can only be strengthened in the eye of international law if Egypt takes the lead in destroying the power of the khalifa, which now terrorizes the Soudanese provinces in which it is not actually supreme.

In the middle of April the advance beyond Assouan was hampered by defective river service and the want of forage. At the same time Lord Cromer, British diplomatic agent at Cairo, announced that it would soon be necessary to draw upon the Egyptian treasury for £1,000,000 in addition to the £500,000 already drawn.

The camp at Akasheh occupying a bad strategic position -on low ground surrounded by hills-it was found necessary to strengthen it with a chain of forts. The extreme

heat impedes the work even of fellaheen laborers, and the construction of the defenses is necessarily slow. The government was purchasing a number of light-draft, sternwheel steamers for transporting the troops up the Nile, the commander-in-chief, Sir II. H. Kitchener, having decided against a march across the wide stretch of desert between Suakin and Berber.

The religious scruple of the sultan of Turkey against giving his approval even to an expedition designed to reconquer for his vassal the khedive territories that by right belonged to the Egyptian crown, was quieted when he was reminded that the khalifa and his dervishes are heretics, against whom the faithful may lawfully make war: the dervishes were fighting for the cause of the false prophet. Thus the war is a sort of "Crescentade," a "holy war.' A correspondent of the London Times expresses surprise at the indifference with which the people of England regard the "worse than Turkish cruelty" of the khalifa, while they are full of indignation against the perpetrators of outrages in Armenia. Says the Times:

"One-half of the inhabitants have been destroyed by wholesale slaughter and by famine, numbers having been despoiled of all their possessions and put to death with torture because they threw in their lot with Egypt under British administration. Though the Soudanese have no active committee in London to urge their claims, the sufferings they have undergone, and our own close connection with the events to which these sufferings are due, might at least win the sympathy of humanitarians for a tardy effort to save them from their tyrant."

The campaign was not to open before Dongola was reached; but before the end of June there occurred a few skirmishes, in which the dervishes suffered loss. On April 15 a force of 1,000 natives, under the command of Colonel

Lloyd, left Suakin for the Horasab hills, to support the friendly Arabs. They halted at noon at the Teroi wells, and a cavalry squad was sent out to reconnoitre. Three miles out the squad was attacked in the bush by 200 dervish horsemen supported by infantry. The Egyptian cavalry took up a position on a small hill, and kept the dervishes at bay all night, repulsing four attacks. In the morning the dervishes retired, their loss having been thirty killed and many wounded. The reconnoitring party lost twelve killed, three wounded. At about the same date 250 men of the Soudanese battalion, under command of Major Sidney, while moving from Tokar to co-operate with Colonel Lloyd, were attacked in the Khor Wintri by a dervish force of 200 horsemen and 1,000 foot soldiers. The dervishes were beaten off with considerable loss. Then the two bodies of Egyptian troops united in the Khor Wintri. In view of the military enterprise shown by the dervishes, it became apparent to the Anglo-Egyptian commander than at least 5,000 British troops would be needed in the Soudan in the fall. The need of a commander skilled in the strategy of war in the desert was also recognized; and at Cairo it was expected that Sir Redvers Buller would be appointed to the command in chief when the campaign should begin in earnest. The Aldershot military balloon establishment was in the middle of April directed to furnish two sections of the aeronautic corps for operations against the dervishes, one for the Nile column. and one for Suakin. This is the first serious attempt to employ balloons in active service with British troops.

Toward the end of May a brigade of Indian troops consisting of the 1st Bombay lancers, 5th Bombay mountain. battery, 26th Punjab infantry, 35th Sikhs, and a company of Madras sappers, under command of Colonel Egerton, sailed for Suakin, and were to constitute the garrison there, setting free the Egyptian garrisons of Suakin and Tokar for service at the front.

On June 1 there was fighting near Akasheh, and the dervish loss was eighteen killed, eighty wounded. On June 6 there was another sharp engagement. The force at Akasheh was looking forward to a season of inaction till the fall, but the Arabs were not inclined to allow the enemy any rest. They gathered their hosts from Dongola, Abu Hamed, and Berber, and came down to meet the Egyptians. The battle occurred at Firkeh, about twenty miles south of Akasheh, whither an advance guard of the Egyptians had gone. The Egyptians, under British officers and with