WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN THE QUEEN'S

DAY-DREAM.

THE first place in the Quiver is given to "The Queen's Wish; from the Recollections of a former Maid-ofHonour." It has elicited an absolute official denial, but may be quoted as an exercise of imaginative journalism. The writer tells how Her Majesty some years ago sat watching for hours from her Osborne home the vessels coming and going in Spithead. At last she spoke to her attendant and said :

I have often been struck by the sight. . . I was dreamingday-dreaming. Seeing all those ships coming and going, my spirit seemed to be carried away, first by one and then by another. Now I was in Australia, now in India, Africa I saw, and Canada; then all the islands and their people; the rock of Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Aden, and the Seychelles passed before me. What is taking place in these islands is taking place wherever the English tongue is spoken. All these people ask is to be allowed to do their daily task in peace, to earn their daily bread, and to have a little fringe of play.

66 A NOBLE PEOPLE AT BOTTOM."

To me there is something heroic in it all. When I first came to the throne, everything was very different from what it is now. There was great distress and destitution, consequent upon the long wars. . . . I don't know that I had much influence: I certainly loved my people, and I prayed sincerely for their happiness and welfare. But I am afraid at first I did not know much; little by little, however, I learned more; little by little I saw what a noble people they are at bottom-what strength they have, what courage, what energy! They love many things, but I think they love work best of all. To be left in peace to work, that is their desire. And see what they have done since I came to the throne by their thought and toil: they have made this Empire what it is.

...

The work will continue after I am gone, but I sometimes wonder in what way. Sovereigns have their influence. . . King Alfred turned the national mind to learning. . . . William I. set a hammer going that in the end turned a nation of iron into a nation of steel. The last Henry made the country Protestant. Elizabeth-the great Elizabeth-transformed it into a nation of heroes. . . I can hardly hope to leave such an influence; and yet under my rule the people who were counted by hundreds have grown to thousands, the thousands to millions; and that has come about because, for the most part, my reign has been one of peace.

...

66 GREAT THINGS EXPECTED OF THEM BY THE ALMIGHTY." The English people have been exceptionally blessed by Providence, and great things, I believe, are expected of them by the Almighty; and in what way could they please Him more than by promoting the ends which, during my reign, have been the means of causing so much general happiness, such widespread content? I have the confidence to believe that such is their destiny; and nothing that I know of would give me sɔ much pleasure as to be assured that my spirit could in any way watch over and aid the accomplishment of that noble work.

My influence has ever been for peace. Only under a régime of peace can a people grow in those graces and virtues which it is the aim of our religion to inculcate. There is no reason why a nation devoted to peace should become weak and effeminate. The labours of men in their peaceful callings-in mines and quarries, on the sea, in furnaces and ironworks, building railways and laying submurine and other cables, exploring and planting new colonies-all these labours are as arduous as those of the soldier, and they call out stronger and more enduring qualities.

"THE WATCHWORD IS PEACE."

I would not have the English people study less and practise themselves less in the art of war; I would not have them show one with less of that high spirit that has carried them so far; but, if it were in my power, I would have all those ships, when they meet in the ocean, and when they touched at a port-I would have them say to each other, "Friends, the watchword is-Peace."

I do not mean that quite literally, perhaps, but I am convinced that peace conquers more than the sword; for men, working together in peace, exchanging, bartering, dependent upon one another, cannot but grow more and more thoughtful for one another, more and more just.

That is my belief. That, too, I believe is the destiny of the English-speaking people; and if, when I am dead, they honour me enough to think of what I would wish and what I would pray for on their behalf, I would have them always associate my name with peace and the amity that promotes the ends of justice and of right. There is something great in the people of these islands, and in those who have sprung from them, which makes them capable of great things-I think of the very greatest, humanly speaking. They are proud, suspicious, self-seeking, apt to fire at a straw; but at the same time they are capable of the highest sort of heroism, the loftiest kind of magnanimity, especially when under the impulse of a great inspiration-and what greater could there be than that of conquering the world by peace? That is what I meant when I said I would have them give "The watchword is - Peace."

MR. RIDER HAGGARD ON "FREE TRADE." "A FARMER'S YEAR" in Longman's for January reveals the celebrated novelist's mind, as usual, on other than simply agricultural topics. He is emphatic on a much needed reform in village life :

I will say that, sɔ far as my observation goes, the system of water-supply in villages is on the whole abominable, and is a question which should be taken in hand by Parliament or the ↑ County Councils. So long as it is left to small communitis, and, for that matter, sometim s to large ones also, to choos between a good and a bad water-supply, in five cases out of six they will select whichever is cheapest. This, I maintain. they have no right to do; a person coming into a town or village ought to be able to take a glass of water with the absolute certainty that it is pure, and that he is not running th: risk of bringing about his own interment within three weeks.

But Mr. Haggard's chief digression is an anathema against "Free Trade." He thus puts the problem :

With becoming humility, I would venture to ask a question of those who understand these matters :-A., an English farmer, grows a quarter of barley which pays rent to the landlord (part of which the landlord hands over to the Government in the form of taxes), rates to the parish, tithe to the parson, and land-tax to the State. This quarter of barley he offers for sale on Bungay Market. B., an Argentine or other foreign farmer, grows a quarter of barley and also offers it for sale on Bungay Market, to compete against that offered by A. This quarter of barley has paid no rent to a British landlord, no rates to a British parish, no tithe to a British parson, no tax to the British Government. Also it has the benefit of preferential rates on British railways, and is carted to the market over roads towards the cost of which it has not subscribed, as A.'s quarter is called upon to do.

In what sense, then, is the trade which takes place in those two competing quarters of barley Free Trade? That it is free as air in the case of the Argentine quarter, I understand. I should go further, and call it bounty-fed, but surely in the case of the English quarter it is most unfree, and indeed much fettered by the burden of rent, rates, tithe, and taxes, which have been exacted upon it for the local and Imperial benefit. To make the trade equal, just, and free in fact as well as in name, before it appears on Bungay Market, ought not the Argentine quarter to pay to our local and Imperial exchequers an exact equivalent of the amount paid by the English quarter? Why should the Englishman bear all these burdens, and the foreigner who seeks the advantage of our markets be rid of them? In the case of whisky, I understan the principle to be that imported spirits should pay an approximately equal tax to that exacted upon thos: manufactured in this country. Why, then, should not this rule -if it is the rule--be applied to other things besides whisky; the barley from which it is distilled, for instance?

These inquiries start from the dismal reflection "the ancient industry of agriculture is nearly moribund.”

WHILE THE "MERRIMAC" WAS SINKING:

HOW LIEUTENANT HOBSON FELT.

THE distinction of the January Century is that it contains Lieutenant Hobson's own account of his "run in" on the Merrimac and of his experiences on the sinking vessel. The adventure itself is well known it electrifiel the world at once. But what the daring crew, and particularly their chief, felt like in the crisis of their enterprise, that is something which most of us have not been told and would like to know. Lieutenant Hobson lets us into the secret in this his second paper on "The Sinking of the Merrimac."

THE DOMINANT SENSATION.

The ruling sensation during the gauntlet of fire is described as almost wholly that of anxiety about getting the ship sunk at exactly the spot intended. The first great horror felt was when it was found that the ship would not answer to her helm-her steering gear had been shot away. She was drifting inwards, the tide assisting, and the one thought was how to check her. The anchors were to have been let down, but the anchorlashing had been cut by the enemy's projectiles. Nothing was left but to fire the torpedoes. No. I went off and blew up the collision bulkhead. But No. 2 and No. 3 failed. Then, says the lieutenant

I crossed the bridge and shouted: "Fire all torpedoes!" My voice was drowned. Again and again I yelled the order, with > hands over mouth, directing the sound forward, below, aft. It was useless. The rapid-fire and machine-gun batteries on Socapa slope had opened up at full blast, and projectiles were exploding and clanging. For noise, it was Niagara magnified.

The men soon reported that Nos. 2, 3, 4, and again 6 and 7, would not go off. Their mechanism had been destroyed by the enemy's fire. No. 5 was the only other one that did explode. One of the men, Kelly by name, had come up from the engine-room, and was standing by his torpedo, when a Spanish shell exploded by him, and flung him wounded to the deck. On recovering consciousness, he felt for his torpedo, only to find it wrecked by the shell.

"MY HEART LEAPED WITH EXULTATION." Anchorless, rudderless, the vessel seemed doomed to drift beyond the place designed. Suddenly the disappointment of the crew was relieved :—

We were now moving bodily onward with the tide, Estrella Point being just ahead of the starboard quarter. A blasting shock, a lift, a pull, a series of vibrations, and amine exploded directly beneath us. My heart leaped with exultation. Lads, they are helping us!"

66

This is an example of the strange inversion of ordinary experience which marks the narrative. The one fear of the intrepid crew was that torpedoes would not go off in the ship; that mines would not explode beneath her; that she would not sink quickly. So the mine that really does go off beneath them fills them with ecstasy; the mines that miss them rack them with dismay.

STORMED AT BY SHOT AND SHELL.

The pictures accompanying the lieutenant's story show him and his comrades now lying flat with their faces on the deck, naked but for a loin cloth and a lifebelt, under the slight shelter of the bulwarks. Through a chock-hole, just large enough for his head, the lieutenant was able to view the scene :--

The patter of bullets had continued to increase, and now repeating-rifles were firing down on us from Estrella, just above. .. The deafening roar of artillery, however, came from the other side, just opposite our position. There were the rapid-fire gun of different calibres, the unmistakable Hotchkiss revolving cannon, the quick succession and pause of the Norden

feldt multibarrel, and the tireless automatic gun. A deadly fire came from ahead, apparently from shipboard. These larger projectiles would enter, explode, and rake us; those passing over the spar-deck would apparently pass through the deckhouse, far enough away to cause them to explode just in front of us. All firing was at point-blank range, at a target that could not be missed, the Socapa batteries with plunging fire, the ships' batteries with horizontal fire. The striking projectiles and flying fragments produced a grinding sound, with a fine ring in it of steel on steel.

A SEVERE TEST OF DISCIPLINE.

The deck vibrated heavily, and we felt the full effect, lying, as we were, full-length on our faces. At each instant it seemed that certainly the next would bring a projectile among us. The impulse surged strong to get away from a place where remaining seemed death, and the men suggested taking to the boat and jumping overboard; but I knew that any object leaving the ship would be scen, and to be sten was certain death, and, therefore, I directed all to remain motionless. The test of discipline was severe, but not a man moved, not cven when a projectile plunged into the boiler, and a rush of steam came up the deck not far from where we lay. The men expected a boiler explosion, but accepted my assurance that it would be only a steam-escape.

PARCHED LIPS-UNEXPLAINED.

It was hard to believe that Dr. Sven Hedin, all but dead with thirst in the Central Asian desert, could stop, before slaking his thirst when he at last found water, to count his pulse. But here, on the sinking deck, under a storm of fire, we find Lieutenant Hobson coolly doing the same thing to make sure that he was not excited! He says:

While lying thus, a singular physiological phenomenon occurred. After a few minutes, one of the men asked for the canteen, saying that his lips had begun to parch; then another asked, then another, and it was passed about to all. Only a few minutes had elapsed when they all asked again, and I felt my own lips begin to parch and my mouth to get dry. It seemed very singular, so I felt my pulse, and found it entirely normal, and took account of the state of the nervous system. It was, if anything, more phlegmatic than usual, observation and reason taking account of the conditions without the participation of the cmotions. Projectiles, indeed, were every moment expected among us, but they would have been taken in the same way. Reason took account of probabilities, and, according to the direction of the men's bodies with regard to the line of fire from the ships' guns, I waited to see one man's leg, another man's shoulder, the top of another man's head, taken off. I looked for my own body to be cut in two diagonally, from the left hip upward, and wondered for a moment what the sensation would be.

AT LAST, BUT TOO LATE.

We must have remained thus for eight or ten minutes, while the guns fired ammunition as in a proving-ground test for speed. I was looking out of the chock, when it seemed that we were moving. A range was taken on the shore. Yes, the bow moved. Sunk deep, the tide was driving it on and straightening us out. My heart sank. . . . A great wave of disappointment set over me; it was anguish as intens: as the exultation a few minutes before. Socapa station fired two mines, but, alas! they missed us. . I saw with dismay that it was no longer possible to block completely.

...

Only when the great adventure had failed did the ship go down :

The firing suddenly ceased. The vessel lowered her head like a faithful animal, proudly aware of its sacrifice, bowed. below the surface, and plunged forward.

How the crew was swept into the vortex, how they kept together and clung to the floating catamaran during the hour of darkness between moon-setting and sun-rising, and how they finally surrendered to Admiral Cervera himself on his steam-launch, is swiftly and graphically told.

UNCLE SAM AND HIS INDIANS.
"A CENTURY OF DISHONOUR."

IT is a suggestive coincidence that at the very moment when the United States are assuming new responsibilities to subject races and are seeking to vindicate their humanitarian purpose in the eyes of the world, they should have developed a new sensitiveness in regard to their treatment of the subject races long resident among them. "Helen Jackson," says Dr. Lyman Abbott in the North American Review for December, "has written the history of a hundred years of our nation's dealing with the Indians under the title of 'A Century of Dishonour.'"

DR. LYMAN ABBOTT'S REMEDY.

Dr. Abbott does not repel the charge. He ascribes the bad treatment of the Indian to popular shortsightedness and ignorance, not to deliberate injustice; and pleads that it is, after all, not so bad as Turkey's treatment of the Armenians, Spain's treatment of the Moors, or England's treatment of Ireland. He is very severe on the reservation system. His one specific is

Abolish it. Cease to treat the Indian as a red man, and treat him as a man. Treat him as we have treated the Poles, Hungarians, Italians, Scandinavians. Many of them are no better able to take care of themselves than the Indians....In lieu of paternal protection, which does not protect, and free rations, which keep him in beggary, give him justice and liberty and let him take care of himself.

LET THE RACE VANISH: "THE SOONER THE BETTER." Dr. Abbott has a short and easy method with objectors. This is his frank reply to the cry :

Turn the Indian loose on the continent and the race will disappear! Certainly. The sooner the better. There is no more reason why we should endeavour to preserve intact the Indian race than the Hungarians, the Poles, or the Italians. Americans all, from ocean to ocean, should be the aim of all American statesmanship. Let us understand once for all that an inferior race must either adapt and conform itself to the higher civilisation, wherever the two come in conflict, or else die. This is the law of God, from which there is no appeal.

THE UNITED STATES NOT PATERNAL.

This robust faith in laissez faire will scarcely appeal to the peoples in the newly conquered islands. In the light of American extension in the West and East Indies, these words of Dr. Abbott read ominously :

An aristocratic government, composed of men who have inherited political ability from a long line of governing ancestry, and who have been especially trained for that work from boyhood, so that both by inheritance and training they are experts, may be supposed fitted to take care of people weaker, more ignorant, or less competent than themselves, though the history of oligarchic governments does not render that supposition free from doubt. But there is nothing in either philosophy or history to justify the surmise that seventy millions of average men and women, most of whom are busy in attending to their own affairs, can be expected to take care of a people scattered through a widely extended territory-a people of social habits and social characteristics entirely different from their caretakers; nor is it much more rational to expect that public servants, elected on different issues, for a different purpose, can render this service efficiently. Our Government is founded on the principle of local self-government; that is, on the principle that each locality is better able to take care of its own affairs than any central and paternal authority is to take care of them. The moment we depart from this principle we introduce a method wholly unworkable by a democratic nation.

Dr. Abbott believes the United States are bound to assume political responsibility for Cuba and the Philippines, but holds they are bound only to "protect and guide," not to "control," the peoples while they try the experiment of self-government.

HOW UNCLE SAM PILLAGED THE PILLAGERS— In the December Forum Mr. Francis E. Leupp formerly of the United States Board of Indian Commis sioners, writes on "The Protest of the Pillager Indians." He lays bare the causes of the recent outbreak of this tribe which lives on the borders of Leech Lake in Minnesota. It is a story which no patriotic American can read without pain. The first serious grievance was that the Government bought from the tribe a tract of 700,000 acres, on the understanding that another and friendly Indian tribe was to be settled on it. This other tribe preferred to go elsewhere, and sold the land to white settlers and for a sum sixteen times greater than the Pillagers had received. Another gross injustice was the procuring of a cession of valuable pine forests by all manner of false promises. The timber was to be appraised by a special commission-appointed at a heavy cost to the tribal purse-and sold at that appraisal, the proceeds to go to the pillagers. The appraisal might have been got for nothing. It was not only very costly, but it was infamously below the truth. Measurements showed for example, 295,000 feet in one case where the appraisal estimated 11,000 feet. A third trouble is the shocking way in which the white deputy marshals fleece the Indians, piling up immense expenses for Indian prisoners and Indian witnesses who are increased ad lib., and taking care to pass on to or for the Indian only the smallest proportion of the payment due, or even none at all. The witness gets back home penniless, famished, resentful The next subpoena he refuses to comply with. Arrested, he is rescued by his indignant friends. Soldiers are sent A shot is fired. The Indians reply with a volley. The "outbreak" has occurred.

-AND REWARDS HIS STAUNCH ALLIES.

Such is the history of this rising. As it happens, these Pillagers are Chippewas :

The Chippewas, as a tribe, have been from the first the staunch friends of the white men; and they deserve only kindness at cur hands. The early history of white exploration and settlement in Northern Minnesota and Western Wisconsin teems with evidence of the goodwill of these people, more commonly known through the old chronicles as the Ojibways. When the Sioux went on the war-path in 1862, and the Government at Washington had to divide its attention between the conduct of a great war in the South and the peril of a general Indian uprising in the North, the Chippewa, resisting the allurements and defying the threats of the insurgent tribe, remained faithful to his pledges of friendship for the pale-face and of loyalty to the Great Father. And what have we done to show our appreciation of our red brother's good conduct? We have procured cessions of his land under promises never fulfilled; we have stripped him of his rich timber in order to provide jobs for a lot of irresponsible political heelers; we have heaped upon his tribal treasury a load of debt which bids fair to swamp it; and we have allowed our law officers to make merchandise of his ignorance and childishness under the guise of prosecuting the business of our courts. These are the main features of our scheme of compensation.

AMONG many interesting papers in Good Words may be mentioned Mr. Edmund Gosse's account of his visit to Whittier, on a winter's day, when the poet was "snowbound"; and Vice-Admiral Markham's humorous narrative of a 66 Diplomatic Scramble." The unexpected resumption of hostilities between Chilian and Peruvian troops in 1881 disturbed an ambassadorial dinner with showers of bullets punctuated with shells, and the diners fled for their lives, irrespective of dignity or decorum. The adventures of a particularly stout member of the Diplomatic Corps the writer recalls with great fun.

THE NORTH SCHLESWIG QUESTION.

PROSECUTION OF DR. DELBRÜCK.

ON the last page of the December number of the Preussische Jahrbücher, Professor Hans Delbrück, the editor, criticising what he believed to be the policy of the Prussian Government in expelling Danes from North Schleswig, wrote to the following effect :

The recent expulsions from Schleswig cry out to heaven. What the Danes did before the war of 1864, and what aroused at that time the moral indignation of the whole German nation, is child's play compared to the brutality with which we govern that country to-day. But worse than the brutality which makes us an object of detestation to the whole civilised world, is our blindness in believing that by such means we can achieve lasting success in the struggle of nationalities.

It is with national feelings as with religion. Behind the really religious people arise at once the abominable priesthood and the zealous hunters of heretics and inquisitors in order to commit their disgraceful acts in the name of the saints. Thus national feelings have created here and there among us a sort of fanaticism which in its wildness and stubbornness thinks itself at liberty to trample under foot the laws of humanity, and so does immense harm to that national idea which it intends to serve.

For this frank criticism, disciplinary proceedings are being instituted against Dr. Delbrück, and the affair promises to be quite a cause célèbre.

Dr. Delbrück is an interesting personality. Before he was twenty-one he was publicly promoted to the rank of officer on the field of Gravelotte, and a year or two after he became tutor to Prince Waldemar, brother of the German Emperor, and remained in this post till 1879, when the young Prince died. From 1884 to 1890 he sat in the Reichstag as a Free Conservative member. The Preussische Jahrbücher has been in existence over forty years. When Dr. Delbrück was first associated with it it was as joint editor with Professor Treitschke, but since the year 1882, or thereabouts, he has been sole editor of the review. He is further known to literature as the author of a number of historical and political works. In his review he has often criticised fearlessly both the Government and his own party, and just three years ago a prosecution was instituted against him for lèse-majesté (see REVIEW OF REVIEWS, December, 1895, p. 514), when, strange to tell, it was the same Herr von Köller (then Minister of the Interior, but now Governor of North Schleswig) with whom he came into collision.

It was in 1881 that Dr. Delbrück succeeded Professor Treitschke in the Chair of History at the University of Berlin, and it is in connection with this office, the Professor of History being in the pay of the State, that disciplinary proceedings are to be taken against him for the offending paragraph quoted above. The Disciplinary Court consists of a president and ten assessors, of whom seven form a quorum, and there may be an appeal to the Prussian Ministry-the body which has instituted the proceedings! The penalty which the Court can impose may be a warning, a censure, or a fine, or the Professor may be dismissed from his office.

In the January number of the Preussische Jahrbücher Professor Julius Kaftan contributes an interesting article to the discussion on the North Schleswig question. He is a native of North Schleswig_himself, and he admits that there is a great deal of anti-Prussian agitation in the province, but he could only justify the policy of expulsion if it should turn out to be expedient. But it would be well, he thinks, if the Prussian Government would make some such just and natural concessions to the Danes, as, for instance, some regular instruction in the Danish

language in the national schools. At present, with the exception of religious instruction, which is imparted in Danish, only German is used, and the children of Danish parents have first to struggle with the new language.

Professor Delbrück follows with a most reasonable article. Since he wrote his December criticism he has learnt that the policy of expulsion does not proceed from the Prussian Government, but from Herr von Köller, the President of the Province; but this surely should make it more difficult to justify the system of administering the province. Still, Professor Delbrück admits that, under exceptional circumstances, some force may be necessary, but he cannot bring his mind to call that a sound policy which expels a number of innocent persons for no other reason than that they happen to be in the employ of agitators. National fanaticism, as on previous occasions, is here responsible for a great deal, and one organ suggests the usual thing in such cases-Professor Delbrück may be in the service of the foreigner. It will

be interesting to see what comes of this case, which only the semi-official organs try to defend. The unanimous opinion of the independent press seems to be that the prosecution is politically inexpedient.

SUGGESTED BY DR. VON SCHÄFFLE.

THE second portion of his Excellency von Schäffle's paper on Germany and Great Britain which appears in the December Forum is less fantastic than the first. In the November number the writer had found in the Armenian atrocity agitation a hypocritical endeavour of Great Britain to force Germany into war with Russia for sinister British ends. He now strongly maintains the solidarity of British and German interests both in the Old World and the New, and suggests his policy for vindicating that solidarity against Russia, whom he persists in regarding as the common enemy. He says:

arms.

Both nations are equally concerned in guarding against the universal dominion of Russia in the Old World; and both should pursue such a policy as would avoid a general clash of This will be possible if England and the Powers of superiority by throwing into the balance the greatest army and Central Europe stand prepared to assert their tremendous the greatest navy in the world, to the end that the peace of the world may be preserved.

The great Land-Power of those Continental States whos future is also menaced by the supremacy of Russia must stand by the side of England to guard against usurpations on the part of Russia. Moreover, the fleets of the Triple Alliance would be a very valuable aid to England in that naval battle with Russia which may possibly have to be fought before Alexandria in order that the neutrality of the Suez Canal may be maintained.

IN THE EAST: "OPEN DOORS." Proceeding to the terms on which such an agreement could be based, the writer sketches first his Oriental and then his Occidental policy :

In my

The Oriental interests of both nations are identical. opinion a positive Anglo-German Oriental policy may be formulated as follows: The equal right of all nations to conduct intercourse with all Asiatic countries now under European guardianship excepting such only as have already become colonies of individual States, or, to use the words of Lord Salisbury, "the policy of open doors." It only remains for all parties concerned to accept one and the same definition of the term. England would have to advocate such a policy not only in Western Asia, but in Eastern Asia as well. The privilege of "open doors" would have to be extended to all nations, including Russia, France, and North America .... All the great sea-passages of the world, not only the Suez Canal, but

also the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, according to the international proceedings of the Suez Convention, would have to remain neutral avenues, affording free passage to all naval and merchant fleets in times of peace as well as of war. Safe harbours, serving as points d'appui of trade and as stations for fleets, not only in the Eastern Mediterranean, but in Eastern Asia as well, should be conceded to every nation,-harbours in the Mediterranean to Russia, and also to Germany, should the latter demand them.

The policy of annexation in particular cases, as in Tunis, Madagascar, and Ton-King, would have to be discontinued in China, Korea, Mesopotamia, and Asia Minor; while the principles of the Congo Act should be extended to these territories. All the Powers should be placed in a position to fell to the ground the first who violates the policy of international parity, whether it be upon the Bosphorus, the Suez Canal, or in China.

This would give England the opportunity she seeks in the Far East, and Germany her chance in the Near East. Both Powers are opposed to allowing Asia, East or West, to become the exclusive markets of France and Russia.

IN THE WEST A GIGANTIC FAIR TRADE UNION.

As counterpart to this Oriental policy, the writer propounds a rather bold proposal for the Occident :—

There are no two groups of States in the Occident whose common interests are more closely identified with a mutual commercial policy than England, on the one hand, and, on the other, the following politically and economically closely related States; viz., Germany, Austria, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Switzerland, and, perhaps, also the Balkan States and Roumania . . . . If it be possible, in à political and commercial sense, to draw a belt around England and the Central European group from London and Glasgow to Constantinople and Salonica, such a belt should be drawn . . . A harmonious policy of Fair Trade, founded upon treaties not seriously interfering with the autonomy of the separate States constituting the parties to the contract, would create a powerful and effectual weapon against the brutal Prohibition of any third State or group of States.

ANGLO-GERMAN VERSUS PAN-BRITANNIC.

The writer acknowledges that to this policy Agrarianism runs counter in Germany and the "Greater Britain" movement in England: "the question at issue is whether Fair Trade is to be instituted in union with Central Europe or in the form of an exclusive InterBritish Customs Union in every part of the world." He admits too that the German has a deeper interest in his Fair Trade policy than Great Britain. Pending the inevitable as he regards it-independent development of the British Colonies, he grants that "an exclusive commercial policy on the part of the entire British Empire would possibly give the English a considerable advantage for half a century; but Germany's export trade would be greatly injured in consequence." But he ends with the

contention :

Adapting the words of Von Bülow, I should say: Unless Germany and Great Britain during the approaching century realise the necessity of standing side by side in the sunshine, in union with all civilised nations, they will, in the twenty-first century, find themselves placed in the shadow.

con

THE attention now focussed on China lends special interest to Mrs. Arnold Foster's vivacious account of Chinese Festivals in the January Sunday at Home. She mentions a curious custom of inviting guests at the autumn full moon to "reward the moon," or to " gratulate the moon." "The Chinese have very strange ideas about the moon; they say there is a white rabbit in the moon pounding rice. The dark and bright spots on the moon's face suggest the idea of a rabbit on its hind legs pounding rice in a mortar."

THE NEXT LINK IN CAPE-TO-CAIRO CHAIN. ROSY PROSPECTS OF THE TANGANYIKA RAILWAY. MR. LIONEL DECLE draws an inviting picture in the Fortnightly of the prospects before the Tanganyik. Railway. He is quite willing to let Germany have Zanzibar, provided that this railway is built withon delay. So far the Germans have done little or nothing with their 400,000 square miles in East Africa. The land, except by sea and lake-side, is poor and withou minerals. Then he asks :--

If such is the case, what will be the use of a line from Beh wayo to Lake Tanganyika? Here the conditions are vasy different. To begin with, the proposed line will cross regiz rich in coals, rich in minerals, admirably adapted to agriculture suitable to the cultivation of coffee, sugar, and tobacco; it wa cross the Zambesi, that magnificent waterway which will bring to the railway goods and produce from the West, which carni now be forwarded to the coast on account of the heavy cost o porterage over the one hundred and fifty miles which separate the upper from the lower Zambesi, whose navigation is inte rupted by the Kebra Becca rapids. The Tanganyika Railway will, as I will show, open new markets and carry to the Sou scores of thousands of those magnificent Wanyamwezi labour I described just now-men who will be delighted to come and work for wages they never dreamt of; men whose labour s urgently needed in the South, and who will return to the country loaded with British goods purchased with their earning and whose advent will solve that great problem of finding reliab native labour for South Africa.

Mr. Rhodes proposes to extend, first, the Bulawayo line in a north-eastern direction, as far as Gwelo (100 miles from Balawayo and 160 miles from Fort Salisbury). Thence it would take a bend and run almost due north along the valley of the Sanyati river as far as the Kariba gorge of the Zambesi (abou 250 miles). Crossing the Zambesi over the gorge the railway would then run as far as Lake Tanganyika (about 500 miles through the country lying between Lake Bangweolo and Lak Nyasa. The total length of the proposed extension would therefore be about 900 miles.

Mr. Decle confidently anticipates that "Northern Rhodesia and British Central Africa will, with cheap transport, soon be able to compete with Sumatra, Manilla, and India as tobacco-producing centres." Moreover, "almost every square mile of land, north and south of the Zambesi, contains iron ore, and in some places regular mountains of solid iron are to be found."

CHEAP AT TWO MILLIONS.

That the line will pay, the writer argues by comparing the present and prospective cost of transportation. Now goods going from Chindi by Nyasa cost for overland transit £45 per ton. Then by rail from Cape Town £15 per ton. Now third-class passengers from London by the Chindi-Nyasa route must pay £70 per head and spend sixty days on the entire journey. From London, and by the new railway from Cape Town, the cost would be little over £20 and the time twenty-four days :

The success which has crowned the Bechuanaland Railway will follow the Tanganyika extension. It is calculated that £2,000,000 will be required to build the line, and if, as suggested by Mr. Rhodes, the British Government gives its guarantee, which will be secured in such a way that the taxpayer can never possibly be called upon to pay a single penny towards it, the money will easily be found at 3 per cent., which will only mean £75,000 per annum. As I have already shown, the building of this line is still more necessary to consolidate Great Britain's African Empire than ever was the Uganda Railway. Last, but not least, the Tanganyika line will put a stop to the traffic in slaves.