Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

"I, Alfred Athulfing, king, o'er this people kept watch and ward

In the days when the wild sea-wolves swooped thither on foray and raid."

From his unknown grave King Alfred greets King Edward VII., and communicates to him kind messages of sympathy from all those who have served the state in camp or on council board:

"And they who have toiled with the pen, and they who have toiled with the sword,

And broadened the bounds of Empire by arms, or by arts adorned."

It reminds him that guests unbidden throng chapel and chancel and nave.

And the aisles of the Abbey, the unseen hosts who silently watch from the grave."

[blocks in formation]

be a variable one, a changing percentage, rising and falling with the requirements of the government. He quotes figures to prove that there is little or no foundation for the cry that the 10 per cent. tax would bear hardly on the mines, provided, of course, that 5s. a ton can be saved upon the working costs. This, he thinks, is probable. In five years' time he calculates that, even after the 15 per cent. tax is paid, it is probable that the mines will be making two millions a year more than under the old system.

IN

THE KAISER'S ONLY DAUGHTER.

[ocr errors]

N the Girl's Realm for May there is an amusing article by Minka von Drachenfels on the most important little girl in Germany, a little girl, it seems, fully alive to her own importance,— Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia, born September 13, 1890. The Kaiser, speaking of his only daughter, has said more than once : My daughter never forgets that she is the daughter of an emperor, but she often forgets that her father is the Emperor." The little princess is, however, devoted to her father, and her pride knew no bounds the first time she was allowed to drive out with him in the Tiergarten of Berlin.

[ocr errors]

Very gravely, and with the utmost dignity, she returned the greeting of the people in the street. When, however, she looked up at her father, she almost smiled, and then again, as though conscious of what was expected of her, composed her features into the expression she thought proper for so great an occasion."

The Kaiser's two youngest children, Princess Luischen and Prince Joachim, generally play together, and almost always accompany their majesties when traveling. Two years ago, on arriving at Wiesbaden, the Kaiser and Kaiserin greatly delighted the crowd by driving to their Schloss with their children on their knees in the same carriage, although there were some complaints from those who had come long distances to see their sovereign, that they could not see the Kaiser because of the Princess Luischen's

big hat. A story goes that once, when the two children were left alone together, they were driven through the village of Weimar, just then ravaged by a disastrous fire. It struck them that the best way to help the homeless people would be to write to their father; and by return of post came the imperial order to have the matter looked into, and help given.

Το

The Kaiser's daughter is not, perhaps, quite so strictly brought up as her brothers; yet her lessons are never allowed to be interrupted. her father's delight, she shows signs of becoming a good pianist, and is an excellent horsewoman.

THE PAN-GERMANIC MOVEMENT.

eration of 1950. The empire so formed is to

LOVERS of national unity will read with great comprise all Austria and Hungary except Galicia

pleasure the main facts presented by Sir Rowland Blennerhassett in the National Review under the heading "The Pan-Germanic." The anti-British feeling which the writer reports, and the anti-German feeling which he is at no pains to conceal, may be dismissed as the small dust of the balance. The great point disclosed is that the movement for the unification of the German Fatherland and of all who speak the German tongue still goes marching along; the glorious drama, of which Sedan and Versailles were only preliminary acts, still further unfolds itself.

In 1892 appeared a little book called "Ein Deutsches Weltreich" (a German world-empire), calling on all branches of the German race to work for political union. In 1894 was formed in consequence the Pan-Germanic League. 1895 it had 7,700 adherents. Now it has 200 centers of propaganda. The map which is published in the National shows the nature of its aims. It is a map of the great German confed

and the Bukowina, Trieste, Austrian Tyrol, German-Switzerland, Holland, and Belgium, and a piece of northern France. The eastern frontier shows only slight changes. The absorption of Holland is openly discussed in German newspapers generally. The Swiss-Germans have obscured their local patriotism with the larger patriotism" of race and language. The movement Los von Rom is described by the writer as but another phase of the Pan-Germanic enthusiasm.

66

The writer laments that England has not a single cabinet minister who can read German with ease, and that consequently England does not understand the bitter enmity which Germans feel toward England. He insists that Delenda est Britannia is the watchword of Pan-Germanism, and pleads that England prepare by suitable alliances, of which the Japanese is to him a welcome earnest, to worst Pan-German plans for the "annihilation" of England.

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed]

THE RUSSIAN AWAKENING.

MR. FELIX VOLKHOVSKY contributes to

says

the Contemporary Review an article under this heading. The greater part of his paper is taken up with the disturbances in the towns and villages, but he deals at length also with the alleged refusal of the soldiers to fire on the people, -a refusal which he regards as the chief factor in the Russian anti-governmental movement. He that as soon as the rumors of the coming demonstration of March 3 (16) spread in St. Petersburg, the officers of the Cossack Bodyguard Regiment, headed by their commander, made a declaration to the home secretary that in case their regiment should be ordered to put down the demonstrators, they would obey 'in conformity with the military law, but would afterward resign their positions in a body.

Mr. Volkhovsky also says that twenty-eight soldiers were arrested in Poltava for refusing to fire on the peasants, and that an officer is being court-martialed for having ordered every tenth rifle to be loaded. The troops in general regarded their employment on what was strictly police duty as a degradation. Mr. Volkhovsky declares that in the Russian army there is none of the haughty military bully of Prussian manufacture, and the military insubordination is therefore a new impetus to the awakening of the citizen and Christian within the soldier.

[blocks in formation]

THE LAST SOCIALIST CAMPAIGN IN FRANCE.

IT is too soon to discuss the effect of the last

French elections on any political party, since the influence of the new Deputies cannot yet be estimated, nor can one be sure that the reëlected members return to the Chamber with their convictions unmodified. M. Gustave Rouanet, in the Revue Socialiste, however, gives some noteworthy information as to the socialist campaign per se. This campaign, it will be remembered, resulted in the gain of six seats in the Chamber. "The socialist party," says M. Rouanet, "whose position, until recently, had seemed undecided and ili-defined, has at last found its equilibrium, and marked its definite place at the extreme left of democracy, from which it is separated as the special representative of the working elasses, and

with which it is identified as a factor in the work of civilization and general progress, which marks the future of democracy in the history of the human race. In vain some socialists, with views more confused than profound, have endeavored to discern a continuity in the social development and historical evolution of the classes; the isolation they desired to impose on socialism was an impossibility inherent to the very nature of things. To oppose socialism to democracy was an absurdity which recent events have just demonstrated. The socialist-democrats and the socialists proper have been struggling together, in the course of the electoral period just terminated, with the most formidable social reactionary movement that ever agitated a country. And, by one of those ironies abounding in the history of all epochs, it was those socialists styled 'uncompromising' who, in a way, smoothed the path for the reactionary and demagogical coalition which was preparing to attack the Republic. It was these socialists who had coined the epithet 'anti-ministerial' just in time for the reactionary forces to adopt it as their countersign. But the logic of events is stronger than the bad faith of polemics. In fact, in the battle waged against democracy, the ardor of the assailants was excited, above all, by the thought that they led their forces at the same time against both democracy and socialism. The most objectionable feature in the anathematized government was the part taken by socialists in the defense of the Republic, and the citizenship won from the Republic by the socialists. defeat of the cabinet meant preeminently the defeat of the socialist party; so that the dissenting socialists were led, naturally, to make common cause with democracy, and, with her, attempt to repulse the furious assaults of the enemy. Many accepted this situation frankly from the very first; others waited for the danger to become personal before they appealed to democratic unity. This second attitude, if not admirable, is only the more significant.

INTERNAL DISSENSIONS.

The

"If the socialistic divisions were united by the exigencies of the situation, they none the less weakened the efficacy of our action by reason of the internal competitions to which they gave rise. By competitions I mean to say endeavors, made at different points to urge the voters to decide between the two methods and the two conceptions. Unfortunately, some intrigues took place so equivocal that this name could not be applied to them. In a certain number of districts, the socialist candidate 'proper' (to employ an expression much used by some cliques), was evidently the agent of the reaction,

[blocks in formation]

were

"The traditionary revolutionarism of some candidates of the labor party grew more savage, and their invectives against the ministerial socialist more bitter, as the latter's position became more difficult to defend on account of the nature of the campaign carried on against him. The electoral arguments directed by the nationalists against democracy and socialism. clothed in all colors and borrowed from all programmes. Generally, in the labor centers, the districts where the advanced element forms the bulk of the electoral body,-the nationalist candidate set up a decidedly revolutionary plan of action. His diatribes against the radical or socialist candidates leaving office were the same grievances laid at our door since the formation of the cabinet by the dissenting socialists. All the occurrences exploited to our detriment by the members of the Revolutionary Socialist Union were descanted upon afresh, and dwelt upon by the reactionary candidate.

SOCIALISTS BETWEEN TWO FIRES.

"Assured of the bulk of the votes controlled absolutely by the church and the aristocracy, the reactionary candidate brought all the resources of the demagogue to bear on those republicans and socialists who could be bewildered by his wordy oratory and the appearance of intransigence he affected. The candidate of the dissenting socialists seconded him admirably in this work of recruiting by authenticating by his testimony the accusations and calumnies formulated against the socialist candidate. . . . Despite these regrettable circumstances, socialism was enabled, by the double test of April 27 and May 11, to determine the increasing importance it has attained in this country.

"Although we suffered some crushing defeats, they were less so by the extent of the victory won by the enemy than by the value of our partisans left on the electoral battle ground. But a struggle like that we have just passed through Is never entered into without the risk of losing comrades, even the most valuable and illustrious."

THE NATURE OF VOLCANOES. IN N what has been written and published, since the Martinique catastrophe, regarding volcanoes, the contribution of personal experience has been comparatively slight. Very few students seem to have had actual contact with volcanic phenomena. An exceptional instance is the article written by Prof. N. S. Shaler, of Harvard, for the June North American Review, which includes a most interesting narrative of a visit to the crater of Vesuvius during a slight eruption in 1882.

LOOKING INTO A CRATER.

Professor Shaler took advantage of a strong northwest wind, which inclined the materials thrown out of the crater to one side of the cone, and he approached the crater from the windward side. Although the cone was violently shaken by the successive explosions, Professor Shaler managed to reach the margin of the crater, and, with his face protected by a paper mask, it was possible for him to look down into the pit, and to see, perhaps, nearer to the seat of an eruption than any other geologist had been able to do. He describes the heat as almost unendurable, and the air as at times so charged with steam and sulphurous flames as to be suffocating. At most of the explosions Professor Shaler was thrown backward down the slope before he had a chance to note just what happened in the crater; but notwithstanding these unfavorable conditions, he was able to discern certain features which help to explain the processes of an eruption. These features he outlines as follows:

"The pit of the crater was several hundred feet in diameter and one or two hundred feet deep; there being nothing in view that would. serve as a scale for measurement, its size could not be well determined. The inner slopes of the cavity led down, in the manner of a funnel, to a well-like shaft, about sixty feet in diameter, which descended nearly vertically. The upper part of the funnel was not hot enough to glow, but about the lower third it was of a dull red heat, and thence downward of a brighter hue, until, in the vertical shaft, it glowed like the eye of a furnace. About four or five times a minute, this shaft, usually empty, was partly filled with white, very fluid, hot lava, apparently as fluid as water, which rushed swiftly upward until it occupied the lower part of the crater to the depth of forty feet or more. Then the whirling pool swelled like a huge bubble, which burst open, so that the broken masses of lava were driven upward, as if shot from the mouth of a cannon. The action was very swift, so that from the time the lava came in sight in the shaft, perhaps fifty

MR.

THE RUSSIAN AWAKENING.

R. FELIX VOLKHOVSKY contributes to the Contemporary Review an article under this heading. The greater part of his paper is taken up with the disturbances in the towns and villages, but he deals at length also with the alleged refusal of the soldiers to fire on the people, —a refusal which he regards as the chief factor in the Russian anti-governmental movement. He says that as soon as the rumors of the coming demonstration of March 3 (16) spread in St. Petersburg, the officers of the Cossack Bodyguard Regiment, headed by their commander, made a declaration to the home secretary that in case their regiment should be ordered to put down the demonstrators, they would obey in conformity with the military law, but would afterward resign their positions in a body.

Mr. Volkhovsky also says that twenty-eight soldiers were arrested in Poltava for refusing to fire on the peasants, and that an officer is being court-martialed for having ordered every tenth rifle to be loaded. The troops in general regarded their employment on what was strictly police duty as a degradation. Mr. Volkhovsky declares that in the Russian army there is none of the haughty military bully of Prussian manufacture, and the military insubordination is therefore a new impetus to the awakening of the citizen and Christian within the soldier.

Mr. Volkhovsky maintains that the anti-governmental propaganda has at last made progress among the peasantry. Large quantities of revolutionary literature had been smuggled into Russia and circulated among the peasants. past liberalizing movements of Russia were ineffective only because the common people were indifferent. But all this is being changed, and the movement is now a popular one.

IT

The

THE LAST SOCIALIST CAMPAIGN IN FRANCE. T is too soon to discuss the effect of the last French elections on any political party, since the influence of the new Deputies cannot yet be estimated, nor can one be sure that the reëlected members return to the Chamber with their convictions unmodified. M. Gustave Rouanet, in the Revue Socialiste, however, gives some noteworthy information as to the socialist campaign per se. This campaign, it will be remembered, resulted in the gain of six seats in the Chamber. "The socialist party," says M. Rouanet, "whose position, until recently, had seemed undecided and ili-defined, has at last found its equilibrium, and marked its definite place at the extreme left of democracy, from which it is separated as the special representative of the working classes, and

with which it is identified as a factor in the work of civilization and general progress, which marks the future of democracy in the history of the human race. In vain some socialists, with views more confused than profound, have endeavored to discern a continuity in the social development and historical evolution of the classes; the isolation they desired to impose on socialism was an impossibility inherent to the very nature of things. To oppose socialism to democracy was an absurdity which recent events have just demonstrated. The socialist-democrats and the socialists proper have been struggling together, in the course of the electoral period just terminated, with the most formidable social reactionary movement that ever agitated a country. And, by one of those ironies abounding in the history of all epochs, it was those socialists styled 'uncompro mising' who, in a way, smoothed the path for the reactionary and demagogical coalition which was preparing to attack the Republic. It was these socialists who had coined the epithet anti-ministerial' just in time for the reactionary forces to adopt it as their countersign. But the logic of events is stronger than the bad faith of polemics. In fact, in the battle waged against democracy, the ardor of the assailants was excited, above all, by the thought that they led their forces at the same time against both democracy and socialism. most objectionable feature in the anathematized government was the part taken by socialists in the defense of the Republic, and the citizenship won from the Republic by the socialists. defeat of the cabinet meant preeminently the defeat of the socialist party; so that the dissenting socialists were led, naturally, to make common cause with democracy, and, with her, attempt to repulse the furious assaults of the enemy. Many accepted this situation frankly from the very first; others waited for the danger to become personal before they appealed to democratic unity. This second attitude, if not admirable, is only the more significant.

INTERNAL DISSENSIONS.

The

The

"If the socialistic divisions were united by the exigencies of the situation, they none the less weakened the efficacy of our action by reason of the internal competitions to which they gave rise. By competitions I mean to say endeavors, made at different points to urge the voters to decide between the two methods and the two conceptions. Unfortunately, some intrigues took place so equivocal that this name could not be applied to them. In a certain number of districts, the socialist candidate 'proper' (to employ an expression much used by some cliques), was evidently the agent of the reaction,

« AnteriorContinuar »