the whole country beyond the Indus is in a state of commotion and that even as far south as Quetta trouble is feared, make it certain that the British army of over 40,000 men, now concentrating in the Punjab and moving north, has serious work before it.

As we have said before, absolute peace is hardly ever known in this wild borderland, but the tribes are now acting in unity of time, and the presumption is strong that they have also a unity of purpose. What is the inspiring cause of this attack upon British control of the Khyber Pass? There is no evidence, but a reasonable suspicionreasonable because no other theory propounded fits the facts that the Ameer of Afghanistan is at the bottom of the mischief. He stoutly denies this, but he could hardly do anything else, unless he wished to declare war. There is good reason to believe also that he has had much to do with the fanatical agitation among the Mohammedans which has been urging a holy war, and which has created even in southern India wide though repressed disaffection toward the English. Back of the Ameer in promoting fanatical agitation stands, it is believed, the Sultan of Turkey. The Sultan, the Ameer, and possibly Russia, want Great Britain to see the possibilities of hostility at a vital point in her empire, that she may not insist too strongly on a definite policy of her own in Eastern affairs. The London "Spectator" expresses a very common conviction when it says: "What we are paying for, and deserve to pay for, is our unwillingness to grasp the Turkish nettle boldly. Had it been known in India that we alone had dared to coerce the Sultan, and that he trembled at our words, we should have had no outbreak on the frontier."

The visit of President Faure, of France, to the Czar Nicholas at St. Petersburg has become an event of more than ordinary importance. In the first place, it has given the Russian people a chance to display their real sympathy with a free government rather than with an autocratic monarchy. In the second place, it was the reception by the Czar of all the Russias of a non-royal person with all the ceremony due to any king. Lastly, the Emperor has at last spoken that magic word for which the French have long been eagerly waiting. Up to the present time the Czar

has contented himself with references to the "friendship" between Russia and France, but in bidding good-by to the President he made use of these remarkable words: "Your stay among us creates a fresh bond between our two friendly and allied nations, which are equally resolved to contribute with all their power to the maintenance of the peace of the world." Of course M. Faure took good care to reply in the same spirit, and above all to make use of the word "allied." Referring to the prominent part taken by Russian and French sailors in founding the friendship between the two countries, he said: "They have brought outstretched hands closer together, and have enabled two united and allied nations, inspired by the same ideal of civilization, law, and justice, to come together in a loyal and most sincere embrace." ing the visit of the French President the Paris newspapers had been full of disappointment at the use of no stronger word between the two rulers than "friendship," but when the reports of the last speeches reached the French capital they instantly changed their tone to one of extreme adulation and congratulation. It is undoubtedly true that the persistent wooing of Russia by France has brought about a certain reinstatement of the latter country in the family of nations, but it is also true that the material advantage has been almost entirely with the Czar's country, as recent diplomatic action in both the near and far Orient well shows.

Dur

The diplomatic problem under consideration at Constantinople, although it may be no nearer solution than ever, has at least become more intelligible to the world at large the past week. Turkey has some show of precedent and reason in declining to abandon conquered territory before she is assured of the payment of a war indemnity from Greece. Her argument derives its greatest force from the fact that Greece's finances are in such a wretched condition. The Powers have been unwilling either to agree that Turkey should hold part of Thessaly as a pledge, or to compel Turkey to abandon Thessaly outright. It now appears that Great Britain has made a distinct proposition for the solution of the question. This is that the Powers should guarantee the interest on bonds to be sold by Greece to pay the indemnity, and that the Powers themselves should be in turn secured by a partial control of some part of the Greek revenues—presum

ably the control of import dues. It is stated that the Imperial Ottoman Bank at Constantinople has expressed its willingness to provide the cash, if such an arrangement can be made.

So far as is known, the other Powers have not signified their assent to Lord Salisbury's proposition. It is reported, however, that the matter has for the present been taken out of the hands of the Ambassadors of the Powers at Constantinople, and is being discussed directly by diplomatic correspondence between the several State Departments of the great nations.

The President of the Republic of Uru guay, Señor Idiarte Borda, was shot and killed on Wednesday of last week by a young revolutionist named Arredondo. Señor Borda had just left the Cathedral in Montevideo (the capital of Uruguay), after attending a special service in memory of the establishment of the Republic, just seventy-two years ago that day. The condition of things in the Republic of Uruguay is significantly indicated by the fact that London dispatches announcing the assassination of President Borda express the opinion that, atrocious as was the act, the result to Uruguay is more likely to be beneficial than the reverse. Revolution and counter-revolution form almost the normal condition of affairs in that poor and weak country. The worst of it all is that the revolutions are usually based solely on personal motives the overthrowing of one dictator, called President, and the uplifting of another. It is even said that the party in power, of which President Borda has been the leader, was really not anxious to put down the present insurrection absolutely, because the war afforded a means for politicians to enrich themselves in various ways. More than this, it has actually been said by the correspondent of one English paper that President Borda himself was suspected of privately fomenting the revolution against his own rule in order that he might make money through a firm which was engaged in equipping the Government troops. This seems incredible, and would be absolutely incredible of almost any country. It is fair to add that other reports state that President Borda was a poor man, and one of simple habits personally. A recent proposition of an extraordinary kind was made by the leaders of the rebellion in Uruguay. It was to the effect that they would agree to lay down their arms upon the condi

tion that the President resign, that the Congress be dissolved, and that a board of three persons should be appointed by a popular assembly to administer the Government until the next Presidential election, which will be in March of next year. Naturally, this proposition was refused. The assassin was undoubtedly one of the more violent of the revolutionaries. President Borda had twice before escaped assassination.

By the death of Count Mutsu, Japan loses one of her most distinguished statesmen and the United States a faithful friend and admirer. The Count came from the old Samurai class, an aristocratic element of Japan. His first important political post was the Governorship of the province of Kobé, where he entered into close relations with Marquis Ito, the late Premier. Mutsu, Ito, and Inouye united their efforts in shaping the Empire's advancement. In 1878 Mutsu was appointed Minister to the United States, and remained here eleven years. During that period he negotiated the Mexico-Japan treaty, one of the first of the new treaties by which Japan will deal with the world after 1899. Returning to his country, he rose to the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs, in which capacity, with Marquis Ito, he directed the policy of Japan during the Chinese war. On the part of Japan these statesmen also conducted the peace negotiations at Shimonoseki, China representative being Li Hung Chang. Though the treaty secured great political and commercial advantages to Japan, the domestic strain which arose in consequence of Russia's opposition, an opposition backed by France and Germany, resulted in the downfall of Count Mutsu and Marquis Ito. Mutsu will be remembered not so much because of his policy during the Chinese war as because of the astuteness with which he took advantage for his country of every material good seen in other lands.

The long-continued strike at Lord Penrhyn's quarries in Wales has ended in a complete victory for the strikers. His lordship has conceded that in the future the men may be represented in all negotiations by committees or trades-union officials of their own choosing. The conflict lasted forty weeks, and is reported by conservative papers to have cost Lord Penrhyn in the neighborhood of

$1,000,000. The labor union, on the contrary, which began the struggle with an empty exchequer, was enabled by public contributions to pay more than $3,000 a week in relief. Lord Penrhyn seems to have kept up the struggle, not from a desire to benefit himself financially, but in order to maintain the principle that the capitalist should be absolutely free from the "dictation" of labor committees. A similar feeling led him to resent the intervention of the Board of Trade-his lordship declared that the presence of a national official at the conference proposed would constitute “a precedent for outside interference with the management of private affairs." The issue of the struggle showed that even the non-labor public did not sympathize with this attitude. There was practical unanimity of sentiment that laborers have the same rights as capitalists to be represented by their hired agents in all negotiations, and there was a strong feeling that the public had an undefined right to bring to an end disastrous private feuds between laborers and capitalists.

The report of the Royal Agricultural Commission, whose inquiries have been for some time concerned with the causes of English agricultural depression, has just been issued. It assigns three main causes: the fall in prices, foreign competition, and the cost of production. The report declares arable land to have declined more in value than grazing land, and deals exhaustively with the statistics showing the decline in prices of agricultural products. It finds (1) that during the last twenty years the price of the three staple cereals has declined more than 40 per cent.; (2) that the price of beef has fallen during the same period from 24 to 40 per cent., and that of mutton from 20 to 30 per cent. since 1882-84; (3) that wool prices have declined more than 50 per cent. since 1882-84; (4) that the chief articles of dairy produce— milk, butter, and cheese-have declined nearly 30 per cent.; (5) and that hop prices have come down to an unprofitable level.

The report notes the suggestive fact that increases in the imports of certain articles correspond pretty nearly to the decline in their price. It also finds that the burden of depression falls more heavily on the landowner than on the tenant. The members of the Commission, while practically unanimous as to the cause of decline, differed in regard to the remedy. Ten of them deny that foreign competition is as much to

blame as are great monetary changes which were made in certain European countries and in the United States in 1873 and 1874. The report recommends international bimetallism. One of the Commissioners, Mr. George Lambert, who was unable to agree with the conclusions of the majority, made a separate report in which he affirmed that a bias in favor of the landlords was shown, and that the questions of land tenure had not been treated im

partially. An American reader of this bulky document, which is printed in four volumes, cannot but notice the fact, the proper emphasis and consideration of which would do much to clear away the difficulties of the subject, that in Great Britain the land has to support three persons—the agricultural laborer, the tenant farmer, and the landlord.

We can only mention some of the papers read at the meeting of the British Association at Toronto. Special interest attaches to Lord Kelvin's paper on fuel supply. He presented the novel view that, just as all fuel is the result of vegetable life either directly or through the animal kingdom, so all the oxygen of the atmosphere is liberated by the action of growing vegetables. Hence it represents an equivalent amount of fuel, the substance of vegetables stored up somewhere; so that there is no more danger of exhausting the fuel supply than of exhausting the oxygen of the atmosphere. Incidentally, he remarked that the interior of the earth is probably molten metal, perhaps iron or gold. Lord Kelvin thus retains the belief in a molten core-an idea which some physicists have recently condemned, holding that the superincumbent pressure solidifies the core. The Vice-President of the Section of Physics at Detroit, in the American Association's meeting, asserted that such was now the accepted theory of physicists. The subject of metals has come very much to the front at the Toronto meeting. Dr. George M. Dawson, President of the Geological Section, had much to say about the metals of Canada. Dr. Dawson is head of the Canadian Geological Survey. Dawson City in the Klondike region was named after him; he explored that region ten years ago. He will again cross to Vancouver, escorting a party of members, after this meeting. The lecture by Professor Roberts-Austen, Director of the Mint of Great Britain, on Canada's metals, was a remarkable one, as he showed for the first time

the action of an electric furnace reflected by a mirror upon a screen, so that all the audience could see the wonderful action of melting silver, copper, and even chromium. He stated that the richest mining district of Canada would probably prove to be that just north of the great lakes. He advanced the theory that existing metals were evolutionary products from simpler original forms; comparing the condition of metals in the electric furnace with that in the incandescent sun.

Perhaps the most widely quoted lecture was that of the Rt. Hon. James Bryce, M.P., in the Department of Economics and Statistics, on "Protection." The distinguished speaker held that the results of protection should deter all countries that are trying to formulate a policy of their own from adopting it. He could not concur in the assumption that the prosperity which had been enjoyed by manufacturers had been due to protection, but was inclined rather to attribute no little of that development to the application of physical science in the processes of manufacture. Again, the application of scientific methods of manufacture, requiring increased skill, had caused an increase in the scale of wages. Protection's source is found in the fact that exports are supposed to give employment and imports to take it away. The true national policy, however, was to take as much advantage of the division of labor as possible. Where we have induced an expenditure of large sums of money, and towns have been built up by protected industries, we have created vested interests, organized in the faith that we are going to protect them. That seems to be the strongest argument offered against the abolition of protection, but this very experience is as strong an argument in discouraging a country from embarking on such a policy it will gain such mastery that it cannot be got rid of. Trusts may not be altogether due to protection, but at any rate they derive a great deal of their power from such a policy. Mr. Bryce delivered another address of equal significance; the subject was Jingoism.' Referring to the feeling of his countrymen towards the United States, he declared that only friendship exists in Great Britain towards us, and there is a hope that the friendship may always continue-not only between Britain and the United States, but also between the United States and Canada, as being communities

whose truest and best interests are indissolubly interwoven. Mr. Bryce defined Jingoism as but a travesty of patriotism, which has gone on fermenting until it has become sour. It bears the same relation to true patriotism that vinegar bears to wine.

Beyond all these querulous and quarrelsome voices there stands in Great Britain--there stands, I am no less sure, in the United States also the great solid, sensible mass of the nation, which desires peace and tranquillity, which desires to attend to its business, and desires not to have it disturbed or shaken by rumors of wars; the great mass, which desires to fear God and honor the sovereign, whether the sovereign be called a queen or a president.

Mr. W. H. Hale, of Brooklyn, read the first paper which has been presented to the Economic Section on the subject of municipal government. Probably the most interesting address from an American was that delivered by Professor Putnam, who, with some discoveries of stone implements as examples, urged that man is as old on this continent as in Europe. He was inclined to place the first traces of man on the continent at the fringe of the glacial period. The attendance at the anthropological and geographical sections was specially large. In the latter the great attraction seemed to be Sir George Robertson, the hero of Chitral, whose lecture had peculiar value in view of present disturbances on the Afghan frontier. Mr. F. C. Selous, the African hunter and explorer, was also listened to with interest. Mr. Selous has been in South Africa since 1872, and the information which he gave about Mashonaland and Matabeleland was of much interest. He declared that they would never form a "white man's country," as malarial fever was prevalent in all places up to an elevation of 4,000 feet. The months of December, January, and February, the warmest, are colder than the summer months in the north of Europe. Mr. Selous showed the danger of rinderpest, which sweeps down on the cattle and carries off a hundred thousand animals in a few months. He also mentioned a plague of locusts which once destroyed thirty acres of his maize in two hours. The chances of success for the farmers will depend almost entirely on the richness of the gold deposits, but Mr. Selous believes that the territory should be peopled by farmers rather than by miners, if the country is to acquire a permanent population and commerce. Notable also were the addresses of Sir William Turner, the great

Edinburgh scientist, and of Professor William Ramsay, who discovered that helium exists in various terrestrial substances.

The results of the Toronto meeting must be twofold: first, of course, the genuine scientific advance from the interplay of thought; but there must have been also gained by the members an impression of Canada which will be of the highest advantage to that country. Those who attended the meeting in Montreal thirteen years ago cannot have failed to remark upon the gratifying difference between Canada then and the Canada of to-day. As Lord Aberdeen said, in his address of welcome, “The Dominion hopes for much advertising as a result of your visit." That this will take place is already seen in the Association's recommendation to approach the Imperial Government with a view to the establishing in Great Britain of "experimental agricultural stations similar to those which are producing such satisfactory results in Canada." In his opening address the new President, Sir John Evans, had made the practical suggestion of establishing a Bureau of Ethnology for Greater Britain. In the event of this not meeting fruition, however, he suggested that an ethnological department might properly be added to the Imperial Institute (founded in London in 1887 as a memorial of the Queen's Jubilee of that year) for the purpose of examining and explaining the diverse customs and religions of the many primitive peoples who are now or who may be under the protectorate of Great Britain. Sir John well remarked that such a service would obviate many of the tactical blunders which have precipitated war in the past, and are not unlikely to occur in the future. As has been aptly said, science, which has armed man with terrible weapons of destruction, should also lift a restraining hand in the interests of peace. To specialists and lay folk alike, the Toronto meeting only emphasizes the conviction that we cannot bound the extent to which science may enlighten and benefit humanity. With each meeting there must be an increasingly proud sensation among the members of the British Association that, in the words of the Toronto, Sun," ," "the lamp which bigotry extinguished Sin the cell of Roger Bacon, rekindled by his illustrious namesake at a later day, shines in the hands of Kelvin, Lister, and Evans with full and unrestricted light."

The fact that England's total trade with Germany and Belgium equals half her trade with all the British possessions has called forth varying opinion from European journals regarding the denunciation of the German and Belgian treaties. This denunciation was made necessary by the preferential clause in the new Canadian tariff, applicable to imports from Great Britain. The British Government, therefore, denounced the favored-nation treaties-which would have extended the lower duties to imports from all countries having such treaties with Great Britain-in order to assure the Canadian preference. In Germany the Liberal organs see "a consequence of the benighted policy of the Agrarians," and Agrarian papers proclaim the act to be " a first step toward protection." In France the “ 'Journal des Débats " declares that the principle underlying the treaty-denunciation is capable of wide expansion, and is not unlikely to receive it. The "Temps" says that if imperial federation is ever to be realized, it will be by following a course which must inevitably tighten the bonds of moral unity by the harmony of material interests. In England the "St. James's Gazette" thinks that, instead of opening their gates to the British, as, it says, "the Cobdenites" fondly imagined they would, foreigners are daily engaged in building higher the wall of tariffs. If British industry is to have a future, it lies with kin beyond sea.

The

The "Westminster Gazette " declares that the treaty-denunciation is not the beginning of an excursion into protection. The evident alarm in Germany and Belgium lest England should do to them what they habitually do to her is by no means unsalutary, and is, at all events, a guarantee that they will not on their part endeavor to upset the status quo. "Graphic” says that protectionists join with free-traders in applauding the treaty-denunciation. Those treaties bound the colonies as subject to England, but at the same time treated them as separate countries, independent of the United Kingdom. The "Mail" says: "We have announced in plain words a peculiar return to the system of protection. Remaining, for the time being, free-traders ourselves, we forced our colonies to take German and Belgian goods at the same tariff as British goods. We have denounced the treaties, as the surest, most sensible, and noblest way out of an awkward predicament." The "Statist" declares that the colonies ought