When our government resumed possession, the ground was not cultivated, and the British were compelled to plough and plant potatoes, as in accordance with the terms of the treaty "everything was to be left as they found it."

Again the American Fur Company showed its strength, though without a chartered right to the monopoly of the Indian trade; yet the wealth and influence of this remarkable company enabled it virtually to control the same for years. The buildings and warehouses of this oldtime organization still stand in Mackinac, objects of interest and curiosity; the principal building is the well-known hotel, "The John Jacob Astor House." Mr. Ramsey Crooks and Mr. Robert Stuart, confidential employees of Mr. Astor, lived on the island many months of each year from 1815 to 1823. Both of these gentlemen, highly esteemed for good judgment and integrity, were identified with the fur trade for forty years, and led lives filled with perilous journeyings and startling adventures. A number of the account and letter books of those busy years are preserved in the Astor House, and a perusal of the letters furnishes an exhaustive record of the strict regard to detail with which the enormous business was conducted, and of life on the island at that time. Another honored citizen was Henry Schoolcraft, whose "Researches among the Red Men" gave him a national fame in literature. He was government agent in Indian affairs, and resided for many years in the house familiar to all readers of Miss Woolson's "Anne" as the "Old Agency.»

From the restoration a succession of army officers and troops have occupied barracks and quarters. During the civil war notable Confederates were confined within its walls, guarded by Michigan volunteers. At the close of the war it again became a regular garrison post, a company of soldiers with officers forming the force. These detachments from the regular army were changed frequently, that different companies might enjoy the delightful climate of the short summer and endure the rigors and isolation of the long, cold win

ters.

Though changes have been made since the first occupation of the fort in 1783, it is substantially the same. The stone foundations are as solid as ever, and the walls are still capped by the short cedar

beams placed crosswise to strengthen the masonry; but the palisade that surmounted the wall fell many years ago.

One of the block houses was utilized as a reservoir for a water supply, the others remain as when built. The walls of the lower story are of stone, two and a half feet in thickness. In one corner is an open fireplace; at the side is a huge gunrack; and overhead hangs an iron rammer for an old-style cannon, with a swab for cleaning the gun. Heavy beams sustain the upper floor, where the cannon was formerly mounted. The upper story overhangs the lower, and the timber projections are pierced for musketry, so that in case the Indians gathered near the building the soldiers might fire directly upon them. These block houses were well adapted for defence against the usual modes of Indian warfare, having rows of loopholes in various directions. Standing in one of the old block houses, surrounded by relics of a mode of warfare long past, one cannot fail to realize the historic value of this fort of bygone days, the only fortification in our land, in good condition, which has sheltered the troops of three ruling nations, -over which has floated successively the French, English, and American flags.

The old fort upon the heights is dear to the islanders, and great regret was experienced when in 1895 an authority not to be disputed closed the long record of military history in the Straits of Mackinac. By formal Act the United States government abandoned the fort and turned it over, with a reservation of one thousand acres for a national park, to the State of Michigan. The fort was dismantled, the old cannon were removed from the walls, and the troops were withdrawn. The citizens miss the stirring bugle-call, the morning and evening gun, the sight of the faithful sentry upon his beat, the daily guard-mount, the drill and inspection days.

Useless as a protection against modern artillery, yet on historic and patriotic grounds it is to be regretted that our government relinquished the control. Guarding one of the grandest waterways of the world, it must always have a strategic value, and for sentimental reasons it should have continued a military post with two centuries of history behind it. Michigan has offered to re-deed it to the War Department whenever it is ready to

beach far below. In the crescent harbor there often lie at anchor a score of steamboats and yachts. A mile away is Round Island, uninhabited and covered with an extensive forest, and beyond, Bois Blanc appears. Seven miles to the right is the south shore, and between the two points is a busy channel, where from May to December steamers and sailing-vessels constantly pass up and down; to the left the blue waters meet where the strait widens into Lake Huron. It is beautiful here, as daylight fades, to note the mingled rose and blue into which the golden glory of sunset melts. As twilight deepens, a half-dozen lighthouses, faithful sentinels, throw their broad, cheery beams across the water, which with Nature's illumination of moonlight and starlight form a scene indescribably lovely.

In the village and on the bluff are modern cottages and fine hotels, for although the permanent population numbers but a few hundreds, during the summer from 5,000 to 10,000 people congregate there. During two months the streets of the village are thronged, hotels and boarding

craft wrote: "There is neither a preacher, schoolmaster, attorney, nor physician." For eight months the isolation was complete; the only variety afforded was the arrival of the mail, which one writer said, came once a month, when it did not miss."

A few houses still stand that were transported across the straits; their foundations and outside chimneys are of heavy stone masonry, their walls of hewn logs, and the roofs of hewn shingles; the windows have numerous tiny panes of glass protected by heavy wooden shutters, while dormer windows add to the foreign appearance of these century-old houses. The streets are irregular, and along those going up the hill-side the old-time divisions of the land are readily recognized by fragments of the cedar palisades.

The lover of nature never tires of the scenic beauties of the island, revealed in rambles through narrow footpaths leading to spots near to Nature's heart. There are perfect roads leading in all directions through the forest, one charming drive being around the island. Les Cheneaux,

or Channel Islands, eighteen miles away, are the delight of fishermen. There are two daily excursions among the islands, where numerous hotels, club-houses, and cottages provide for the convenience of tourists. Trout, salmon, and whitefish abound, but the maskalonge, the gamiest of the lake fish, is the favorite. On every steamer amateur fishermen may be found proudly exhibiting their catches. In the season of 1898 a member of a prominent publishing-house in New York returned from his first day's outing with a maskalonge weighing 28 pounds; the previous season one was captured which weighed

T

HE entire edifice of international law is erected upon the fundamental principle of the solemn recognition of the sovereignty of states; and it matters not what the system or practice of a state government may be. It may be an enlightened system of democracy seeking the welfare and happiness of its subjects; it may be an absolute or limited monarchy; it may be imperial or despotic, or even brutal and cruel to its own subjects; but so long as it observes its duties and fulfils its responsibilities and obligations to neighboring states, it is fully entitled to the recognition of its sovereignty. Such has been the rule of conduct of states and governments for centuries past. And it must be so, for otherwise there would be no protection of the weak from the aggressions of the strong, and the world would be filled with violence, bloodshed, and universal war. The rule of conduct to be observed among the civilized nations, the power of law to restrain human rapacity and national wrong, have, throughout all human history, been of stupendous importance to the peace and welfare of every man, woman, and child. It is true that this rule of conduct of nations has been rudely set aside by warlike ambition; but Napoleon's attempts ended in ignominious surrender to the combined force and hate of every state of Christendom, and Frederick of Prussia came near to meeting the same terrible fate. The great law has been consecrated to humanity by the united action and universal opinion of mankind.

During the late Græco-Turkish war,

when the sympathies of the Christian world were with the Greeks, the five Christian Powers of Europe created a court of "European Concert," which Lord Salisbury more aptly termed the "European Cabinet." The ministers of this Cabinet, under the direct orders of their princes and rulers, moved forward into action with extraordinary caution, characterized by masterful prudence. They sat quietly in session at Constantinople watching events. They made no protest, uttered no warnings, but the declaration of war was made and accepted by the two nations, and the hostile troops moved forward. The armies met in Thessaly, and from the very beginnings of the war Greece showed her incompetency. It was not until defeat followed swift upon defeat, rout after rout of the Greek army until its forces were scattered in dismay, and not until the way was wide open for the triumphant forces of the Sultan to march in victory into the heart of Greece, and once more to occupy the classic city of Athens, that the ministers of the European Cabinet interposed their authority. As if to display the might of their delegated power to humiliate the victorious Sultan, the order came like a shaft from heaven to halt the armies,- to cease the war. The Greek army was ordered to retreat, and the triumphant Sultan was directed to evacuate, not only Thessaly, but Macedonia too. They went even farther than this; they presented the preliminary articles on which the treaty of peace should be based; and their orders were obeyed. And it must not be forgotten that at the same time, when the

Sultan threatened resistance, steps were promptly taken by Russia to mobilize her forces facing the Macedonian and Turkish frontiers.

Meanwhile the admirals of the combined fleet of the five Powers chose the Italian admiral to be their commander-inchief, he being senior in rank and commission, though perhaps representing the weakest of all the naval Powers. They took the direction of affairs in Crete as if they were a single Power under the flag of an Italian admiral. They suppressed the wanton massacres of the Bashi-Bazouks of the Turkish Sultan; they gave their own orders and refused entrance to a Greek or Turkish naval reënforcement; they opened fire upon the Turkish troops, and finally expelled them from the island and replaced the Christian governor of the Sultan by a Christian governor of the family of the king of Greece. Thus, at last, peace

and good government were once more established in that ancient, classic land.

Here, it must be acknowledged, there was the most stupendous breach in the law of nations, as of universal observance, that has ever been recorded in the history of civilized states. It has met the approval and eager sanction of universal public opinion. It was, moreover, pointed out by the writer at the time, that momentous precedents were established which could not fail to be of force and to be cited in events yet to come.

The partition of Africa among the great Christian Powers by no means called in question the rule of sovereignty, for that continent knew no sovereign or government. It was peopled by tribes and races of multitudinous character, and from prehistoric times has been a prey to savagery and barbarism, to cannibalism and slavehunting. Its vast central forests to this day contain races and tribes of men which are the marvels of science. But the time

had come when every Mohammedan Power was now reaching out in eager expectation to establish there a power of such tremendous possibilities that it had become a menace to Christendom. It is clearly manifest that the Sultan of Turkey, in concert with other Asiatic and Arabian influences, had vague hopes of such a consummation. These hopes were finally and forever extinguished by the downfall of the Congo Arabs, under the inspiration and guidance of the King of Belgium, and the crushing defeat of the Dervishes at

Omdurman under the command of the wise and gallant Kitchener.

The partition of Africa among the European Powers opens the way for the redemption of the continent to civilization. Already great lines of railway are stretching across it from east to west and from north to south, and fierce tribes and races are coming under the law of civilized Europe, and the power of the Moslem and the Mahdi is ended. Verily the partition of Africa is one of the monumental and crowning achievements of our nineteenth century!

To most Europeans and Americans the Chinese empire is an unknown land, as its race itself is an unknown people. It is quite true that Chinamen are in our midst and are found wandering over nearly all the states of Christendom, but they tell us nothing of their immense empire, nor do they inform us of the history, the genius, the national traits, the nationality, or patriotism of the three or four hundred millions of people of that unique but most interesting race.

From the shores of the Pacific and the coasts of the Yellow Sea, the land of Central China stretches westward for upwards of a thousand miles, a vast, level, alluvial plain, through which the waters flow with scarcely a perceptible ripple. Through this great plain there is cleft a broad, expansive canal like a great river, built in the remote ages of the empire, measuring no less than eight hundred miles in length. It is intersected by lateral canals leading to the towns and cities, thus giving the only means of communication from province to province and from province to Peking, the seat of the imperial court. These communications by boat and by runners are the only physical means of linking the great population into a single empire and a united nation. Many cities and provinces are so remote from the emperor and his court that they seem to the people more of an ancient tradition than a historic reality. Rising over the great plain from distance to distance along the seacoast, porcelain towers, from one to two hundred feet high, glitter in the strong sunbeams like burnished silver. Their architecture is perfect; their symmetry beautiful and graceful, ments of a past wonderful civilization whose builders and purposes only the Literati can tell. The Great Wall of China starts from the sea in the gulf

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monu

of Pe-Chi-Li and runs no less than twelve hundred miles through the empire, spanning rivers and crossing mountains. It has a height of twenty feet, and five horsemen can ride abreast on its paved summit. Everything in this great empire speaks of a remote and hoary antiquity. Looking over the plain from the seacoast there is no sign of modern life; no furnaces sending up smoke and steam; no railway trains rumbling over the land; no long lines of telegraph-poles sweeping the sky; and no screams of steam whistles except along the big rivers. The plain lies in the dead silence of an immense solitude. And yet over the wide extent of this immense plain there are swarms of industrious, frugal, busy people,-over three hundred millions of human, intelligent beings, and innumerable villages, towns, and cities. It is truly as much a wonderland as the Egypt of the Pharaohs!

The Chinese are essentially a peaceful and laborious people. Twenty miles from the seacoast cities the people know as little of modern European civilization as they do of the Zulus or Kaffirs of Africa. They have no communications with the outside world, and have no need of them, and the race is verily a law unto itself. They are ignorant of the arts of war, for they hate war. They have no modern implements for armies, for they hate armies. They cannot understand why nations should kill, burn, and devastate when they profess to be under the dominion of reason and justice; nor can they conceive of nations existing not under the dominion of these fundamental principles of humanity; and hence it is that foreigners are all classed as barbarians. War, with them, is pure. barbarism. Down deep in the hearts and minds of this race are stamped indelibly the memories of the horrors, the massacres, the ruins and desolation they suffered under their conquest by Genghis Khan and his horde of savage Mongols. There is a good foundation for the national prejudice against all foreigners as "foreign devils" or as brutal barbarians.

It has been aptly said that this nation is the only one known to men that is destitute of a national religion. It is true that millions of these people are Buddhists; but Buddhism, as a religion in China, is a mere form and sits very loosely upon the conscience of its votaries. Only in so far as Buddhism correlates with the ethics

and moral teachings of Confucius is it regarded with any serious respect or obligation. But if the Chinese race has no national religion it possesses a precious code of morals and of philosophy which embraces tenets as lofty and ideals as noble as Christianity itself. Theologians have not been wanting, time out of mind, to declare that no nation and no race of men can preserve their vitality as a nation or a race outside of Christianity. Chinese history affords a marvellous refutation and proof to the contrary, and it would seem to appear that national morals is the heart and soul of national vitality rather than national theologies.

It is the pride if not the boast of this people that there is but one caste in the empire, and there never has been any other throughout its long history: it is the caste of the Literati. In no nation or country on the earth is the man of learning so much esteemed and honored as he is in China. No man can become a mandarin, occupy a position of any respectability, or hold the most trivial office under the government, until he has passed successfully through one or all of the three grades of examinations required. We talk of civil service examinations as a modern remedy against political abuses, and yet this secluded and much despised nation has held it as a law of national honor and safety for three thousand years. I have lived and served several years on the coast of China, and I have never met a coolie of the very lowest order who could not both read and write his almost unspeakable and difficult language.

Authentic history and biography in China embraces a period from the year 122 of our era back to the remote period of 2,697 years before Christ. The historians of China embrace a succession or uninterrupted series of more than 2,400 years. The full and continuous history of the empire was compiled in the second century of our era.

The great libraries of Peking contain volumes of books numbered by the hundreds of thousands. In the archives of the government are still to be found the ancient predictions of eclipses made with great accuracy, together with works on astronomy which show a fair knowledge of that interesting science. Biographies, very succinctly written, of the emperors of the most ancient dynasties, still exist, and written works of learned men are as